Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking at Fred and George, who were fooling around, Mrs. Weasley gave them a light pinch on the ear.
"If you two can get the Special Contribution Award for the School, you can go to Diagon Alley with the trophy on your head."
Then she looked at Percy and said, "Alright, dear, good luck with the semester. Owl me when you get to school."
She kissed Percy's cheek, and Percy walked away.
"Now it's your turn." Mrs. Weasley looked at the twins and warned, "You two need to behave yourselves this year, don't corrupt Kyle."
"Corrupt Kyle?" Fred's voice suddenly rose.
"Maum, are you kidding me?!"
"Of course not," Mrs. Weasley said.
A whistle sounded, and the train began to move slowly forward.
"Hurry up and get on, remember to take good care of Ron."
"Don't worry, Mum, Ron will be fine with us." After Fred finished speaking, he, George, and Ron hurriedly climbed onto the train.
Kyle leaned out the window and waved to Mrs. Weasley.
"Goodbye, Mrs. Weasley!"
"Goodbye, dear," Mrs. Weasley called out. "If they cause any more trouble, write to me."
The train started moving, and Ginny ran alongside it until it accelerated and she was left behind, still waving.
Houses flashed past the window, and as the train rounded a bend, she disappeared from sight.
Kyle looked away and began playing wizard chess with Cedric beside him.
Kanna and Cho huddled together, engrossed in a magazine.
After a game, Cedric curiously peered over, but Cho shoved him away.
Left with no other option, he could only continue focusing on the chessboard.
After two more games, the twins returned.
They opened the sliding door, excitedly saying, "Hey guys, guess who I ran into on the train?"
"Who could you run into on a train?" Cedric said casually. "It couldn't be Harry Potter, could it?"
"How do you know!" Fred exclaimed, eyes wide. "Yes, it was Harry Potter."
Cedric's hand holding the chess piece paused slightly, surprised. "Are you sure?"
"I asked him, and I saw the scar. It really is right there, like a lightning bolt."
"Now that you mention it… I remember." Cedric slapped his forehead. "Judging by his age, he would indeed be enrolling this year.
Remember? The Man Who Lost his power ten years ago. The timing matches up perfectly."
"Never mind that for now," George asked curiously. "Do you think he'll remember what the Man Who Lost looked like?"
"Probably not," Cedric said. "He was just born then, how could he remember?"
"That's true," Kyle laughed. "What, you're curious about what the Man Who Lost looked like?"
"Some," Fred said, leaning against the carriage. "That's the Dark Lord, aren't you curious about what he looks like?"
"No!" Kyle shook his head. "Just a powerful wizard, what's there to be curious about? Maybe he doesn't even have a nose."
"Ha, how could that be?" Fred let out a strange laugh.
Typical Kyle… the Dark Lord without a nose; that was the funniest joke he'd heard all year.
The others reacted similarly; none of them believed such an absurd thing.
After a burst of laughter, Cedric rubbed his eyes and asked, "We'll be at Hogwarts soon. Are we still selling maps this year?"
"Of course,"
Fred nodded immediately. "That's a huge business opportunity, worth over ten Galleons, and it only comes once a year. We can't miss it."
"That's right." George glanced at Kyle and said with a grin, "As seniors, how could we bear to see those lovely freshmen get lost?"
Kyle raised an eyebrow.
That was clearly his line, but George had intercepted it.
"Are you guys busy later?" Cedric suggested, "If not, why don't we just make the maps here?"
The train had only just departed, and there were still several hours until they arrived at Hogwarts, enough time for them to make a batch of maps.
Cho and Kanna immediately agreed; they really didn't have anything to do, and they didn't like playing wizard chess, so having something productive to do was good.
Fred and George thought about it and agreed as well.
Although they had just agreed with Lee Jordan to go to the Slytherin box to walk the spiders, compared to earning Galleons, these small things were completely negligible.
So, the group turned their attention to Kyle.
"Of course I have no objection,"
Kyle shrugged. "Since you've decided, hurry up and tidy up the table. There's no room for the parchment with all these snacks."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone busily cleared away all the snacks from the table.
Seeing this, Kyle turned and took out two stacks of parchment from the box.
The thicker stack was the most common parchment in the scholar's quarters, ten sheets per stack, with discounts for bulk purchases.
Kyle took out about seventy or eighty sheets.
The other stack was much smaller, only a dozen or so sheets.
However, this was high-quality parchment, soft and clean, with special patterns drawn with gold thread at the top and bottom.
It was real gold, not the gold paint they used last year.
Of course, this kind of parchment was very expensive, one gallon per sheet.
Kyle placed both stacks of parchment, along with the original map, on the table.
"What are we waiting for? Let's begin."
Everyone instinctively reached for the ordinary parchment, each taking a dozen or so sheets.
Watching their actions, Kyle said irritably, "You guys certainly know how to make things easy for yourselves."
While the copying spell process is the same, the one Kyle had required some special embellishments and decorations.
These things were more troublesome to make.
He had only been polite, but this person was so impolite; he should have chosen first.
Kyle sighed.
He hadn't expected that under the influence of the Weasley brothers, even Cedric and Kanna had learned to cheat.
Those two brothers were truly a menace.
Kyle sighed again, silently taking out his wand and touching it to the parchment.
"Geminio."
The map's patterns began to appear little by little on the blank parchment.
This time, Kyle estimated the copying spell's duration could be extended to a whole semester.
Soon, the box was bustling with activity.
The blank parchment was dwindling, and the number of completed maps was increasing.
"Bang!"
But just as everyone was focused on using the copying spell, a sudden banging came from outside.
And it was their box door that was being knocked on.
[End of the chapter]
