Faced with the threats from two second-year students, the weak Kael had no choice but to verbally agree to a series of unfair agreements to avoid being bullied at school.
"Remember your words, Kael."
Fred reminded, "You need to provide technical support for our Weasley joke products."
"And a location," George added, "You have to provide us with a safe place to store them during holidays and make sure Mom doesn't find them."
"Of course, I'd be happy to," Kael smiled and said, "I'll help you study those products together. Also, don't worry about the location… How about my room? If it's there, there's no way Mrs. Weasley will find it."
"Great."
Fred and George nodded in satisfaction and let Kael off the hook.
"If you dare to cheat us..." Fred warned menacingly before leaving, "The consequences will be severe!"
After finishing, both of them made a gesture across their necks with their thumbs.
Once they had left, Kael calmly strolled over to the Hufflepuff table as if nothing had happened.
"How was your holiday?"
"Not bad," Kael glanced at Cedric and said, "No early mornings, no homework, just reading books, planting some herbs, playing with small animals, that's the life I've always dreamed of."
Cedric looked somewhat envious,
"Had I known, I wouldn't have gone back either." He sighed, "My dad was supposed to take me to France this holiday, but he was too busy, almost always working overtime, spending less than five hours at home each day, so there wasn't any time."
Cedric's words surprised Kael a bit.
It shouldn't be, the Fantastic Beasts that were smuggled over hadn't Chris and Newt already sent them back? Why is Mr. Digory still so busy?
Besides, he hadn't heard of anything special happening recently, everything seemed calm and peaceful.
Even a quarrel between Mr. Weasley and Lucius at the Ministry of Magic made it to the front page of the Daily Prophet.
Normally, such trivial matters would barely make it to a corner of any page.
It shows that there really isn't much for the Magic Realm to report recently, it indeed has that sense of peaceful times.
Under such circumstances, unless it's an urgent special event, like a Fantastic Beast injuring someone, otherwise Mr. Digory would have at least five days of vacation.
But if something like that really happened, the Daily Prophet wouldn't be silent about it.
Cedric seemed to notice Kael's confusion as well, and after looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, he whispered, "It's because of the Swooping Evil… my dad has been tracking its whereabouts."
"Swooping Evil..." Kael frowned and whispered, "I thought it had already left here?"
"Not at all, the Ministry of Magic is lying."
Cedric said, "My dad, on Christmas Day when he had some drinks, seemed to take me as a colleague, so I took the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions.
He said the Ministry of Magic hadn't found any trace of that Swooping Evil."
Kael shook his head, saying, "But that's not what Newt said."
If it were anyone else, he might not believe it, but Newt never lies, especially not about matters involving Fantastic Beasts.
Unless it's a matter of the Magic Realm's safety, regardless of Minister Fudge, even Dumbledore would be unlikely to... well, maybe not in this case.
But knowing Dumbledore's character, he most likely wouldn't ask Newt to handle a Swooping Evil.
Unless Fudge was his own son.
"I asked about that too," Cedric said, "My dad mentioned Mr. Scamander said, "We haven't found the Swooping Evil, it's probably hiding."
But the Ministry provided the Daily Prophet with a photo that only had the first part, they removed the latter part."
"Huh?" Kael raised an eyebrow, "To avoid causing panic?"
"Yes, to avoid causing panic," Cedric shrugged, "They even found a reason to send away Mr. Chris and Mr. Scamander who were opposing this."
Kael rubbed his chin, this solved the earlier confusion.
No wonder he felt Chris's business trip seemed a bit odd. The issue was here.
Just transporting some Fantastic Beasts, how could it need both Chris and Newt together?
The Nundu and the Antipodean Opaleye aside, these two are too dangerous, ordinary people can't handle them.
But what about the other Fantastic Beasts?
A simple task that could be completed by finding a remote, isolated mountain or sending two Beaters ended up with Chris and Newt on it.
Think about it, an English Deputy Minister of Magic, a Master of Fantastic Beasts renowned in the Magic Realm. The two traveled over a thousand miles just to send an ordinary Bowtruckle back to its original place?
It's ridiculous.
Under normal circumstances, let alone an ordinary Bowtruckle, even if it was a Bowtruckle raised by Grindelwald, it wouldn't have such treatment.
Kael pondered, then asked, "Did your dad find that Swooping Evil?"
"No." Cedric shook his head, "My dad and the others have been searching for over a month without a trace.
But Minister Fudge has been pressing them, even got angry a few days ago, that ***"
Cedric kept his composure, only mouthing the key words silently, demonstrating the quality of a good young wizard.
However, the lip movement was clear, and Kael could see that he used sweet language to compliment the other's lineage.
After his small outburst, Cedric seemed to feel much better, glancing towards the teacher's table, "Let's not talk about this, did you notice Professor Snape seems particularly angry today?"
"Did he?"
Kael, picking up a drumstick, said without lifting his head, "It's probably your imagination. He's angry every day."
"I suppose you're right, but…" Cedric glanced again toward the teacher's table, "I still feel he seems different today."
Onstage, Snape looked as if he'd drunk a bad magic potion, his face as dark as a cauldron bottom. His keen eyes swept back and forth across the four tables.
As if sensing someone was watching him, Snape suddenly turned toward the Hufflepuff side, startling Cedric into quickly lowering his head.
Next to him, Kael continued to leisurely eat the drumstick in his hand, occasionally chatting with Mikel sitting on his other side.