17 Someone said Luna?

A/N: I decided not to include the classes that Dan attended and how exactly he was taught in this chapter. Most likely they will appear in flashbacks where they will be needed later. I doubt people have come here to read about how I explain the workings of Magic in this world, so I'll give the basic facts, but I won't go into too much.

Also, I have a question for everyone, who is still reading this? I haven't updated the fanfic in about… Two months? What made you stay? Maybe someone just left this story in their library out of laziness, I definitely do exactly that with most of my fics and novels. Well, and in the hope that the authors I read will continue their stories, but this happens much less often.

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Dan was a fast learner, that could be said with certainty the moment he takes on something new.

Take, for example, magic. From day one, Dan immersed himself in learning new spells, taking a break only when it was necessary or when his head was already boiling with new information.

This helped him learn a handful of spells, but did nothing to help him understand the finer parts of the magical arts. What he did was similar to how new drivers were taught how to drive. Of course, he knew how to drive the car – use magic, in his case – but he didn't understand exactly how it worked. So Dan could be called a novice driver with natural talent, but he wasn't a mechanic, at least for now.

This is what Professor Flitwick decided to fix in the first lesson with Dan. The teenager was sitting in the corner of the classroom under an invisibility spell and listening to lectures for the first courses who had Charms that day. As it turned out, the kids were studying exactly how to perform wand gestures, which ones are used most often and for what.

It was a useless lesson for Dan, for obvious reasons, and he had already seen how many adult wizards and witches used magic simply by pointing a wand somewhere. But then what was the point of teaching children to say spells out loud if in the end they would still learn silent casting?

It looks like he has even more questions for professors later.

Watching Remus teach DADA was a strange experience, and Dan wasn't sure why. His sister often said that the werewolf was one of the best teachers in Potter's time and it was obvious why. Remus kept the students' attention on himself even during lengthy lectures, mixing them with small parts of practice.

Explanations and in-depth lectures on the structure of magic helped Dan understand it a little better... Oh, who was he kidding, magic still didn't make any sense to him, at least the sense he was used to.

Magic operated on its own level of laws, obeying only certain laws of physics and reality. Although, maybe it obeyed the laws of physics, but not in the way that was expected. Well, it could be said that magic had clearly written rules and regulations, as well as unwritten rules.

By the time he was learning Astronomy and Herbology, Dan began to notice... patterns. How some Magical disciplines were related to others, how this or that spell could be found in the books of Transfiguration and Charms. Astronomy, for example, was closely related to the nature of Rituals and Potions. Herbology was useful for Potion Masters and Mediwizards. There were hundreds and thousands of such examples.

And yes, Dan found a toad that day. He wished it a good Wednesday and continued his day.

The lesson with Snape was good, but creepy. The man received an almost endless supply of new ingredients for experimental potions in the person of Dan: claws, dead skin... blood, teeth. Of course, Dan took a Magical Oath from the bastard – with Flitwick as a witness – that the greasy one would not use some bad juju on his blood and would honestly pay for the ingredients. Dan wasn't going to give away parts of himself for free, especially to a man like Snape.

It was safe to say that he didn't like the man, but he would be the first to admit that Snape was a master of his craft. Dan could learn a lot just by looking at how the man worked. Snape had neither the desire nor the patience to explain the subtle art of Potions to a class full of children, but he was calmer in one-on-one sessions. So, Dan started reading more and more books after each class.

Oddly enough, this led to an unusual friendship with Madame Pince, the Hogwarts Bible Librarian. The woman just wanted peace and quiet for herself and her books, to which Dan could relate, so she sometimes helped the boy with his endless search for knowledge.

The Transfiguration lesson went pretty much as expected. Tons of heavy and dry information that every wizard needed was hammered into his head almost by spells. Minerva was especially strict with him, knowing that if he wanted to succeed in wandless Transfiguration – which in principle should be impossible – then he would need all the knowledge he could get. Excluding any related to wands, of course.

He couldn't– and probably wouldn't be able to use one ever. So very reluctantly, she decided to exclude the material related to the wands from the series "need to know immediately."

The first week of the new training passed quickly for Dan. He wouldn't say that his knowledge was improving with huge leaps and bounds, but he was slowly getting better. During this time, he did not meet a single Weasley, nor Luna, nor the girls who attacked her. He also didn't notice any members of the "Golden Trio."

To be honest, he didn't expect anything else. Hogwarts was a big castle; you won't meet the most famous characters every day. But the fact that Dan didn't see any of his acquaintances or people of interest was strange.

In any case, he didn't have time to think long about the chances that such a thing would happen, he had too much on his plate for that. He even had a list of projects somewhere in his room.

Find a way to get or create a foci for himself.

Shake information about his new race out of Dumbledore.

Find out in which niches of magic his new race was best.

Get financial independence and get the fuck out of England before Voldemort's resurrection. Well, or kill the ugly, if there is an opportunity. Katya said something about the soul anchors in his past life...

Finally, find a way to turn back into a human.

For now, he had enough projects. Yes, they were all long-term, especially his return to the original race, but short-term business was rarely his priority. When you have to think about the future from an early age, you quickly learn the benefits of the long game.

So here he was, sitting in a corner of the library under heavy wards in the company of Mantis, who was looking with interest at a book with moving pictures. Honestly, Mantis behaved more like a child than an animal.

Dan collected all the books about magic focusing that were only in the library and books about various methods of using magic. The most prominent in this regard were Native Americans, Africans, Indians and Norwegians for some reason.

Each race had its own way of using magic and just reading one volume took Dan more than twelve hours. Although it was useful, he didn't want to repeat such a feat anytime soon.

But returning to the facts about foci: the most effective for ordinary people and many humanoid magical creatures were wands. Simply because they offered a good balance, both in everyday life and in combat.

The second most popular tools were rings, they had more flexibility, but less accuracy and range compared to wands. Some used magic tattoos for casting, but the ink quickly heated up when using magic and poisoned the wearer over time. Amulets, bracelets, clothes, various accessories, even furniture, people used everything in search of the best method of using magic.

And, of course, there were staffs on that list. Few people could use the staffs these days – Alastor Moody being one of them – and even then, these people simply inserted their wands into hidden slots inside the staffs. The last person to use a real Staff was some skinny Italian Wizard who lived two hundred years ago, whose name was erased from all records.

Anyway, right now Dan was confused. How could he find so many books about the theory of using different foci, but not a single book about creating one? One more question to the professors later.

"Oh, hello there, Umgubular Slashkilter, what are you doing in the library?"

Dan blinked and looked up from the book to look at the speaker. Luna Lovegood was standing in front of him, holding a book with a strange creature painted on the cover. Dan hadn't gotten around to reading books about magical creatures yet, but he knew that he couldn't even imagine... whatever the thing on the cover was.

And that came from a man who was drawing commissions for furries.

The second thing that registered in his brain was that Luna was talking to him. The girl was standing next to his desk and definitely crossed the wards line to go inside.

"... I'm looking for information about a magic focus suitable for me, the last wand I tried just exploded in my hands, you see." Dan replied.

Luna opened her book and immediately started writing in it, so Dan quickly realized that it was her personal journal, not a library book.

"It's interesting, I didn't think I'd ever heard of exploding wands. Could this have anything to do with Pigattius Explosius? I'll have to ask Daddy."

"And what are you doing here, Luna Lovegood?" Dan asked back, making Luna blink.

"Oh, I came because something didn't want me to find this place. I don't know why, to be honest," she looked Dan up and down, and then her gaze fell on Mantis, who was looking at the girl with interest in return. Luna let out a soft, delighted gasp and immediately sat down at a chair closer to the little guy.

But she didn't touch him and turned to Dan, putting the book and pen on the table.

"You haven't answered my letter. I thought you decided to ignore me." Luna said in such a tone that Dan immediately felt like the most terrible creature in the universe. And she didn't even try to make him feel bad! She really thought that he just straight up decided to ignore her! Dan could see it on her face plain as day.

"I'm sorry, I've been terribly busy this week, the new class schedule takes up almost all of my time." Dan shook his head. "Oh, I completely forgot, my name is Danil Khromov, and he-" Dan pointed to his friend, who was gently tugging at the sleeves of Luna's sweater, looking at the material with interest. "-is Mantis."

Luna hummed in response, still not moving her hand, she was letting Mantis get used to her presence.

"I didn't know that your race had Ukrainian names. Is it true that you were locked in Minister Fudge's dungeons until recently?" The girl suddenly asked.

"... No? I've never even seen the man in my life."

"Hmm. Maybe it was another Umgubular Slashkilter..."

"Are we talking about the same race? I just have no idea what Umgubular Slashkilter is." Dan confessed.

Luna just stared at Dan for a couple of minutes without saying anything. It seemed to him that she wasn't even blinking, but maybe she was just blinking at the same moment that he was blinking.

"It's possible that we just have different names for the same race." Luna considered. "Umgubular Slashkilters are a relatively new race of magical creatures that live to steal the kilts of unsuspecting people in the night. They feed on the irritation and shame of their victims. Of course, when kilts didn't exist yet, they stole robes, skirts and other wardrobe items directly from people, but kilts have always been their main goal since their appearance. Hence their name."

Her short description of the race was completely delusional and unreal, but it was a magical world, everything was possible here.

"Erm... Yes, I'm definitely not Umgubular Slashkilter, I've never done these things. Moreover, I eat ordinary food, just like any human or creature, for that matter."

Something flashed in Luna's eyes. "Never? Maybe you just don't know that you can get energy from people's feelings? You should try that at least once in your life."

"I'm not going to steal skirts from random girls, but thanks for the idea anyway. If I find someone who deserves me to slash their kilt, I will." Dan nodded to himself.

Luna looked disappointed, like a hamster who didn't get the evening treats, but a sharp glint quickly appeared in her eyes, which Dan had seen only once or twice in the past. He couldn't exactly tell where he saw it before.

"You still haven't answered my question about the interview. Daddy says that not responding to letters is very rude. Unless you are dead, of course, then it's understandable."

Dan nodded in agreement and thought for a moment.

"Do you want to write a reply letter to you together?"

Luna frowned at first, but then she smiled broadly, not showing her teeth in a smile. "I've never written a letter to myself! Is it a thing that friends do with each other often?"

"I don't think so, but I don't have many friends. I can't call myself an expert on such matters." He noticed how Luna's gaze softened in understanding. She didn't have any friends either, not that there were other people she could write letters to anyway. Well, except for her father. "But you didn't even write a letter to yourself in the future to read it in ten years? Their expectations and desires, such things."

"Oh, I'm a pretty sociable girl in the future. She loves letters, but they have long gone out of fashion, especially with the advent of more convenient means of communication. I wanted to wait a bit before I started writing something."

Dan might not understand how magic or the mind of the girl sitting in front of him worked, but he knew one thing for sure. A letter to Luna Lovegood from Danil Khromov and Luna Lovegood will be phenomenal. After all, she was his first real human friend in this life. And Dan was willing to do a lot for his friends.