Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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Kyle didn't know what Cedric and Cho talked about in the hall, but he returned to the Hufflepuff common room with a smile on his face.
Kyle was reading a book when a bulging bag fell from the sky and landed on the pages of the book in his hands.
"Fuck... what the hell."
Kyle was startled. He turned his head and glanced at Cedric who was baring his teeth. He said with disgust: "What's wrong with you? Did you pick up money? Why are you smiling so obscenely?"
"This is much faster than picking up money."
Cedric squeezed onto Kyle's sofa and said excitedly: "Guess how much the maps we sold in Ravenclaw cost in total...
52 Sickles, 52 per person!"
Although Cedric used a question sentence, he had no intention of waiting for Kyle's answer. He said to himself:
"A few five-knut parchments, plus a few spells, can make so much money..."
"Wait."
Kyle became more and more confused as he listened. He could only interrupt Cedric who seemed to have drunk fake wine, and asked puzzledly: "52 Sickles, shouldn't there be only 40? And what's the matter with the parchment."
"Well,"
Cedric explained, "I went to Ravenclaw Tower at noon and reworked the route to suit their needs. Cho saw it and thought the price could be raised, so it ended up being this much.
As for the parchment... it's actually a trick used in the Copying Spell.
For things like notes and maps, removing the most complex part of the parchment and copying only the contents makes the spell much easier to cast, and the copy lasts much longer."
Kyle understood the reason for the extra twelve Sickles. With the improved quality of the maps, the price naturally increased.
However, the parchment was a bit redundant. In Kyle's opinion, the maps would be useless in a month at most, so Cedric's actions were unnecessary.
Fortunately, the parchment wasn't that expensive, totaling less than two Sickles, a negligible amount compared to the final profit.
Not to mention, Cedric paid for it himself, which was the most important thing.
Kyle put away his nashiko and casually asked, "By the way, what's your impression of Cho?"
"Cho?" Cedric thought for a moment and said, "I think she's a very smart little witch, very honest, and has a good personality. She should be a good friend."
"That's all?" Kyle frowned.
"Hmm... generous?" Cedric asked tentatively.
"Forget it, don't say it."
Kyle rubbed his forehead. Although it was a little early, he never expected Cedric's first impression of Cho to be honest...
Who the hell uses the word honest to describe a girl!
That's it, I'm tired.
Kyle closed his book, stood up, and walked towards the common room corridor.
"Are you going out?" Cedric asked.
Kyle replied, "I'll go feed the cat."
"Okay,"
Cedric replied, then ignored him and began counting his Sickles. As he did so, he muttered, "Haha, I never thought I'd earn some pocket money! This feels great! I must write to Dad about this."
Kyle, who had just entered the wooden passageway, felt a moment of silent sympathy for the Ministry staff. It seemed Mr. Diggory had something new to boast about. I just hoped they'd get used to it quickly.
Leaving the Hufflepuff common room, Kyle deliberately made a lot of noise in the corridor.
He was a man of his word. Since he'd promised to bring dried fish for Mrs. Norris, he couldn't go back on his word.
Another point was the failure of the "Professor McGonagall Feeding Plan."
Although Kyle had tried hard to convince himself, and was well aware that this was impossible to accomplish, he still felt that the idea was not making sense after all, having been looking forward to it for so long.
No matter what, he was determined to feed the cat today, even if Dumbledore came.
Although Mrs. Norris was not a tabby, at least they were both cats, and they looked similar, so they could barely be considered a substitute.
Amid Kyle's continued noise, Mrs. Norris came over in less than three minutes, and with her was Filch.
"Aha, I caught you, the little wizard making noise in the corridor." Filch tilted his head and looked at Kyle with ill intention: "I'm going to put you in detention!"
"Sorry, Mr. Filch, I think you may have remembered it wrongly." Kyle said calmly: "School Rule 22 clearly states that making loud noises in the corridor outside of curfew hours will be punished with a verbal warning, and detention will be imposed after three cumulative violations."
"I know, you don't need to remind me!"
Filch looked furious, and said with a gloomy face: "Are you good at memorizing school rules? What's the use of memorizing them well? You still break them knowingly!
I'll watch you, you'd better never make mistakes, otherwise I will catch you."
"There won't be such a day." Kyle smiled and said: "Also, Mr. Filch, the reason I did this is just to find Mrs. Norris.
You know, Hogwarts is so big, it's not easy to find a cat, and this is the fastest way."
"What do you want to do!" Filch's eyes instantly became alert: "I warn you, you'd better not have any bad ideas about my cat, otherwise I will make you pay the price at the risk of my life!"
"You're overthinking it. I just wanted to thank it," Kyle explained. "My roommate had an accident this morning, and it took me to the hospital ward. This is my thank you gift."
He pulled out the bag of dried fish and tried to feed one to Mrs. Norris.
Sadly, Mrs. Norris didn't even glance at it.
Filch sneered, "Don't waste your energy. It only eats what I feed it."
"Then you can feed it," Kyle handed the bag to Filch. "Don't worry, it's just dried fish. You can ask the professor to check it out."
"No need, we don't need it!" Filch said coldly.
"Don't be so quick to refuse. This is a thank you gift from a little wizard," Kyle said casually. "Besides, dried barracuda is a high-end product. It costs ten Galleons a bag, and it's in short supply. It's the most premium cat food in the wizarding world. I worked hard to get it."
Filch hesitated.
If it were just any dried fish, he wouldn't have dared risk feeding it to Mrs. Norris. But if it was barbel barracuda...
Kyle was right. This dried fish was indeed the finest cat food. Filch had once thought of giving Mrs. Norris a gift like this for Christmas.
But he couldn't buy it.
It wasn't that he didn't have the money. While the janitor's salary wasn't high, Filch lived at Hogwarts, with free food and lodging, and no daily expenses, so he had some savings over the years.
The problem was, this dried fish was always out of stock, whether in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, and it was impossible to buy even if he had the money.
Filch sniffed the dried fish in his hand carefully, making sure there was no odor. Then he looked up at Kyle and said, "You'd better not lie to me."
"Poisoning the janitor's cat is no small matter," Kyle said calmly. "I'm only in my first year, and I don't want to be expelled so early."
Filch thought about it and it seemed to be true. If anything happened to Mrs. Norris, Kyle would definitely be in trouble.
"Go ahead. 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 dried fish he had been holding to her.
"By the way, I'll leave this for you too."
This time, Mrs. Norris didn't refuse. After seeing Filch nod slightly, she stood up and caught the dried fish, eating it all in a few bites.
[End of the chapter]