Kyle didn't know what Cedric and Zhang discussed in the hall, but he returned to the Hufflepuff common room with a smile. Kyle was absorbed in his book when, suddenly, a bulging bag dropped onto the pages in his hands.
"What in the world?" Kyle muttered, startled. He turned his head to find Cedric standing there, grinning widely. "What's up with you? Did you find a bag of gold or something? Why are you smiling like that?"
Cedric chuckled and plopped down beside Kyle. "This is better than finding gold!" he exclaimed. "Guess how much we sold the Ravenclaw map for... 52 Sickles! That's 52 for each of us!"
Though Cedric framed it as a question, he was too excited to wait for Kyle's response and continued. "A few knuts' worth of parchment and a couple of spells turned into such a nice profit..."
"Wait," Kyle interrupted, his brow furrowing. "52 Sickles? Shouldn't it have been 40? And what's all this about parchment?"
Cedric explained, "At noon, I went to Ravenclaw Tower to make a few adjustments to the map based on their preferences. Zhang saw it and thought we could raise the price a bit. That's how we ended up with 52 Sickles. As for the parchment, it's a little trick with the copying spell. If you strip away the complicated parts of the parchment and just focus on copying the content, it makes the spell easier, and the copy lasts longer."
Kyle nodded, beginning to understand the extra 12 Sickles. The improvement in quality justified the higher price. As for the parchment, Kyle thought it was unnecessary. The maps would be outdated in a month anyway, so he figured Cedric's efforts were a bit over the top. However, Cedric had paid for the parchment himself, so Kyle didn't object too much.
Putting away his share of the earnings, Kyle asked offhandedly, "By the way, what do you think of Zhang?"
Cedric thought for a moment before answering, "She's smart, honest, and has a good personality. She'd make a good friend."
Kyle frowned. "That's it?"
"Well... She's also generous," Cedric added, unsure.
Kyle shook his head in exasperation. "Never mind," he muttered. Who describes a girl as "honest" and "generous"? Kyle sighed and stood up, ready to change the subject. "I'm going to feed the cat," he said.
"Alright," Cedric replied, barely looking up as he counted his Sickles. "This is amazing, earning some pocket money. I can't wait to tell my dad!"
Hearing that, Kyle smiled sympathetically for Cedric's father. Mr. Diggory would probably brag about this to everyone at the Ministry of Magic.
Kyle left the common room and began making a deliberate racket as he walked down the corridor. True to his word, he was on his way to give Mrs. Norris, Filch's infamous cat, the dried fish he had promised her earlier. While his original plan of feeding "Professor Meowg" had failed, he was still determined to keep his promise. Mrs. Norris wasn't a tabby like Professor McGonagall's animagus form, but a cat was a cat.
Within three minutes of Kyle's noisy journey, Mrs. Norris appeared, with Filch right behind her.
"Aha! Caught you, making all that noise in the corridor!" Filch sneered, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. "I'll have you in detention for this!"
"Sorry, Mr. Filch, but you've got it wrong," Kyle replied calmly. "According to school rule number 22, making noise in the corridor outside of curfew only warrants a verbal warning. Detention only happens after three offenses."
Filch glared, clearly displeased by Kyle's knowledge of the rules. "Just because you know the rules doesn't mean you're not breaking them!" he snarled. "I'll be watching you, and you better not slip up."
"I'll keep that in mind," Kyle said with a grin. "By the way, I wasn't just causing a commotion for no reason. I was trying to find Mrs. Norris. Hogwarts is a big place, and this was the quickest way."
"What are you planning to do to my cat?" Filch asked suspiciously. "If you harm her in any way, I'll make sure you pay for it!"
"You're misunderstanding me," Kyle assured him. "I actually wanted to thank her. She helped me earlier today when my roommate had an accident. Mrs. Norris led me straight to the hospital wing. This is my way of showing gratitude."
Kyle pulled out a bag of dried fish and took one out, holding it toward Mrs. Norris. But to his disappointment, the cat paid no attention to the offering.
Filch sneered. "Don't bother. She only eats what I give her."
"Then you feed her," Kyle suggested, handing the bag to Filch. "It's just dried fish. You can ask a professor to check it if you're worried."
Filch refused at first. "We don't need your charity!" he snapped.
"Don't be so quick to turn it down," Kyle said, smiling. "This isn't just any dried fish. It's longbeard barracuda—premium cat food. A bag of this stuff costs ten Galleons, and it's always in short supply. It's the top choice in the wizarding world, and I had to go through a lot of trouble to get it."
Filch hesitated, clearly tempted. Longbeard barracuda dried fish was indeed the best cat food available, and Filch had wanted to get some for Mrs. Norris during Christmas but had never been able to find any. After sniffing the fish and determining it had no strange odors, Filch grudgingly took the bag.
"You better not be lying to me," he warned.
Kyle smiled. "I'm just a first-year student. I don't want to get expelled for poisoning the janitor's cat."
Filch mulled this over, and it seemed to make sense. If anything happened to Mrs. Norris, Kyle wouldn't escape punishment.
"Fine, I'll let you off this time. Now go on."
"Thanks," Kyle said, walking past Mrs. Norris. As he passed, he tossed the piece of fish to her.
Mrs. Norris hesitated only for a moment before looking up at Filch. When he gave a slight nod, she pounced on the dried fish, devouring it in no time.
(End of the chapter)
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