Cedric and Cho had been chatting in the Great Hall, and though Kyle didn't know the topic, Cedric returned to the Hufflepuff common room wearing a smile.
Kyle was reading when a bulging pouch dropped from above, landing on his open book.
"Whoa... what's this?" Startled, he looked up at Cedric, who was grinning broadly, "What's gotten into you? Found some money? Why are you smirking like that?"
"This is better than finding money!" Cedric squeezed onto the sofa, "Guess how much we made selling maps to Ravenclaw... 52 Sickles each, 52 Sickles!"
Though framed as a question, he didn't wait for Kyle's response before continuing.
"Just a few pieces of parchment at 5 Knuts each, plus some spellwork, and we made this much..."
"Wait." Kyle had to interrupt his friend, who seemed almost giddy with excitement, "52 Sickles? Shouldn't it be 40? And what about the parchment?"
"Well, you see..." Cedric explained, "I went to Ravenclaw Tower at noon and revised the routes for their needs. When Cho saw it, she suggested raising the price a bit — that's how we got this amount. As for the parchment... it's a trick with the Duplication Charm. For maps and notes, if you just copy the content without the complicated parchment part, the spell's easier and the copies last longer."
Kyle now understood the extra 12 Sickles — improved map quality justified the higher price.
Still, the parchment detail seemed unnecessary to him. The maps would be useless within a month anyway, making Cedric's effort pointless.
Fortunately, parchment was cheap — less than two Sickles total, negligible compared to their profit. Besides, the good guy had paid for it himself, which was what counted.
Kyle pocketed his Sickles and asked casually, "By the way, what do you think of Cho?"
"Cho?" Cedric paused thoughtfully, "I think she's a very clever young witch, very upright, has a good personality, and would make a nice friend."
"That's it??" Kyle frowned.
"Um... graceful?" Cedric ventured.
"Never mind, just stop." Kyle rubbed his forehead.
Although it might be a bit early, he never expected Cedric's first impression of Cho would be that she was 'upright'...
Who the hell describes a girl as 'upright'!
Whatever, he was tired. He closed his book and stood up, heading toward the common room passage.
"Are you going out?" Cedric asked.
Kyle replied, "I'm going to feed the cat."
"Okay." Cedric acknowledged and turned his attention back to counting his Sickles, muttering, "Haha, I can't believe I actually earned some pocket money. This feels great! I must write to father about this."
Kyle, who had just entered the wooden passage, heard this and silently felt sorry for the Ministry employees for a second.
It seemed Mr. Diggory would have something new to boast about — hopefully they'd get used to it soon.
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After leaving the Hufflepuff common room, Kyle deliberately made a lot of noise in the corridor.
He was a man of his word — having said he'd bring Mrs. Norris dried fish, he naturally couldn't go back on his promise.
There was another reason: the failure of "Operation Feed Professor McGonagall".
Though he had known it was impossible from the start, he had looked forward to it for so long that he still felt unsettled.
Whatever the case, he was determined to feed this cat today, even if Dumbledore himself showed up.
Though Mrs. Norris wasn't a tabby, at least they were both cats, and they looked similar enough — she could serve as a substitute.
With Kyle's continued noise-making, it took less than three minutes for Mrs. Norris to appear, accompanied by Filch.
"Aha, caught you, making noise in the corridors, you little wizard!" Filch tilted his head, looking at him with malicious intent, "I'm giving you detention!"
"Sorry, Mr. Filch, but I think you're mistaken." Kyle calmly said, "School Rule Twenty-Two clearly states that making loud noises in corridors outside of curfew hours results in a verbal warning, with detention only after three accumulated incidents."
"I know that, don't need you telling me!" Filch's face darkened with fury, "Think you're clever knowing the rules? What good does it do when you're still breaking them deliberately! I'll be watching you — you'd better never make a mistake, or I'll catch you for sure."
"That day will never come." Kyle said with a smile, "Besides, Mr. Filch, I only did this because I wanted to find Mrs. Norris. You know how big Hogwarts is — finding a cat isn't easy, and this was the quickest way."
"What are you planning?" Filch's eyes suddenly grew vigilant, "I'm warning you — if you have any ill intentions toward my cat, I'll make you pay dearly, even if it costs me my life!"
"You're overthinking it. I just want to thank her." Kyle explained, "This morning when my roommate had an accident, she led me to the hospital wing. This is my thank-you gift."
As he spoke, he took out the bag of dried fish and pulled out one piece, attempting to feed it to Mrs. Norris.
Unfortunately, the stubborn cat didn't even look at it.
Filch sneered, "Don't waste your effort — she only eats food I give her."
"Then you feed her." Kyle said, handing the bag to Filch, "Don't worry, it's just simple dried fish. You can have a professor check it if you want."
"No need, we don't want this!" Filch said coldly.
"Don't be so quick to refuse — this is a young wizard's gesture of gratitude." Kyle said casually, "Besides, these Long-whisker Salmon treats are premium goods, costing ten Galleons a bag, and they're hard to get. They're the finest cat food in the wizarding world, and I had quite a time getting them."
Filch hesitated.
If it were ordinary dried fish, he definitely wouldn't risk feeding it to Mrs. Norris, but Long-whisker Salmon... Kyle was right — these treats were indeed the finest cat food.
Filch had thought about giving her such a gift for Christmas, but he couldn't get any.
It wasn't about money — although a caretaker's salary wasn't high, Filch lived at Hogwarts with free room and board and hardly any expenses, so he had some savings after all these years.
The problem was that whether in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, these treats were always out of stock — even money couldn't buy them.
Filch carefully sniffed the dried fish in his hand and, after confirming there was no strange smell, looked up at Kyle, "You'd better not be lying to me."
"Poisoning the caretaker's cat isn't a small matter." Kyle said frankly, "I'm only in first year — I don't want to get expelled so soon."
Filch thought about it and realized Kyle was right. If anything happened to Mrs. Norris, this kid wouldn't be able to escape the consequences.
"Go on then. I'll pretend I didn't see you this time."
"Thank you."
Kyle walked straight ahead, and as he passed Mrs. Norris, he tossed the piece of dried fish he'd been holding.
"Oh, and keep this too."
This time, Mrs. Norris didn't refuse. Seeing Filch's slight nod, she immediately caught the treat and devoured it in a few bites.
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