Kasen had no choice but to take out the enchanting table, applying a buoyancy enhancement to the owl's box. Only then could the poor creature wobble away with the gift securely in its talons.
The last gift was for Dumbledore. Kasenhis had previously purchased two brand-new pairs of wool socks in the Muggle world. He enchanted them with warmth spells using the table before carefully packaging them and sending them off with another owl to be delivered.
The next day, Kasenhis woke up and eagerly began unwrapping his own presents. McGonagall had gifted him a Gryffindor lion brooch, noting his fondness for wearing brooches.
Snape's gift, however, was a small vial of Felix Felicis.
The moment Kasenhis held it, he regretted his choice of Snape's gift. Compared to the luxury of liquid luck, the dry hair-cleaning machine he'd sent felt embarrassingly inadequate.
Other gifts were mostly accessories Kasenhis frequently wore or items he found practical. But the gifts from Neville and Dumbledore stood out as particularly unique.
Dumbledore had sent a book—an advanced and incredibly complex treatise on alchemy.
Neville, on the other hand, had given Kasenhis a set of dark red robes. They were so soft they felt like flowing water, with molten lava-like patterns that shimmered and emitted a comfortable warmth perfect for winter.
However, the highlight of Kasenhis' Christmas was finally convincing Hagrid, after much cajoling, to let him renovate Hagrid's hut.
That same day, Kasenhis bolted out of the Hogwarts castle, transporting Hagrid, his belongings, essentials, and sentimental items out of the hut in the blink of an eye.
"Hagrid, are you sure there's nothing important left inside?" Kasenhis asked, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he turned to Hagrid.
The half-giant scratched his head, glancing at the pile of items surrounding him. "Er, nope, that's everything."
"And the dragon egg?"
In the next moment, Kasenhis moved like lightning. An End Crystal shot toward Hagrid's hut, and with a resounding boom, the hut vanished, leaving nothing but a large crater in the ground.
"Wow, I remember you said it was just a little decoration?" Hagrid said with some embarrassment.
"Don't worry about the details, tell me what kind of new house you want?"
Kasenhis waved his hand dismissively.
"Er… not too big. But, you know, maybe a bit bigger than what I had. It should have a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen—gotta have a kitchen. If you can add a bathroom, that'd be grand. And, uh, make it… cute?"
"No problem." Kasenhis pulled out his wand and got to work. Every flick of his wand caused the ground beneath them to disappear under the force of powerful magic.
He began with the foundation. Several sturdy oak beams were sunk into the earth, each precisely cut and notched to fit snugly into one another. After stabilizing the support pillars, Kasenhis switched tactics, using his classic lava-and-water method to create a firm and durable base. Once the framework was in place, he began laying down spruce wood planks for the flooring.
With the groundwork completed, Kasenhis motioned for Hagrid to step forward. "Come over here, Hagrid. Tell me what kind of spaces you need so I can design them properly."
"Oh ho, really? Well, first, I'd like a fireplace. Could it, uh… could it be pink?" Hagrid asked hopefully.
"Technically, yes. But no, I'm not making you a pink fireplace."
"Oh… okay. Well, where's the door going to be?"
"There," Kasenhis pointed to the north-facing part of the foundation, near the right support pillar.
"I'll put in a three-meter-high door so you'll never have to duck again when coming inside."
"Oh! What comes after the door?" Hagrid was now behaving like a very curious child with stars in his eyes.
"Uh... a foyer, where you'd have a shoe rack, umbrella stand, coat hooks, that sort of thing."
"Oh, but no one visits me that much, can I skip the foyer?" Hagrid asked earnestly.
"You can, but I wouldn't recommend it. It'd feel really odd," Kasenhis explained.
"Oh, ah, alright, fine! And what comes after the foyer?"
Kasenhis was so distrustful of himself by Hagrid's series of questions that he answered in a strange tone: "Maybe it's the living room...don't you know this common sense?"
Hagrid's puppy eyes dimmed slightly after hearing that.
"Well, castles don't really bother with all those details, Professor Kasen. And I.. haven't been to many other places."
Ah! Does no one invite him to their house?
"..Fair enough. So, the foyer leads into the living room, standard and straightforward. Do you want a fireplace in the living room?"
"Of course! Even if it's not pink!" Hagrid beamed once more.
Kasenhis nodded and moved to the back of the foundation. Using polished stone, he built a sturdy fireplace. Beneath it, he placed magma blocks, lighting a flame on top and securing the front with iron bars.
"But how will I add logs to the fire now?"
"This fire won't go out, and if it ever does, there's this," Kasenhis explained as he pulled out a stone button and placed it beside the fireplace.
"Look here, press this once, and the fire goes out. Press it again, and it lights back up."
"Absolutely amazing!" Hagrid marveled.
Kasenhis added a coffee table in front of the fireplace, surrounding it with a row of sofas. He even included an extra-large, oversized sofa near the fireplace, custom-made for Hagrid's comfort.
The kitchen and bathroom followed standard layouts—clean, organized, and functional—until Kasenhis reached the staircase leading to Hagrid's first-floor bedroom.
Even though the logic of Minecraft blocks defied real-world physics—where theoretically, a thin wooden plank could support ten Hagrids stacked on top without a problem—it still didn't sit well with Kasenhis.
As a proud graduate of the University of Manchester's civil engineering program, Kasenhis found himself grappling with his professional instincts.
While he understood the absurdity of physics in this world, his inner perfectionist and latent OCD couldn't accept it. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝘯𝘦𝘵
So, he abandoned traditional flooring techniques using slabs and frames. Instead, he opted to stack solid blocks for structural support.
This approach led to a "tiny" issue: Hagrid's first-floor flooring ended up a meter thick.
To balance out the proportions, Kasenhis had to raise the ceiling height on the ground floor. Similarly, the first-floor ceiling was raised to maintain consistency. As for an attic?
Nope. Kasenhis sealed off the roof completely. No attics. No unnecessary voids. Just clean, functional living space.
Kasenhis stood in Hagrid's new bedroom, considering the space thoughtfully. After a moment, he broke through the window and constructed a protruding balcony, which doubled as a sunshade for the front door below.
To ensure structural integrity, he added support pillars to the sunshade.
"Perfect, absolutely perfect," Kasenhis said, stepping back to admire his work.
"Elegant, so elegant," he continued, retreating further as he admired the entirely revamped Hagrid's hut.
And then, he saw Hagrid carrying his dusty old belongings back into the pristine space.
"...Suddenly, not quite so elegant anymore, is it?" Dumbledore appeared behind Kasen at some point and said with a smile.
Kasenhis merely shrugged. "What matters most is that he's happy living in it."