The Two Cat Traffickers Upgrade Their Tactics

The Two Cat Traffickers Upgrade Their Tactics

Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry and Ron sat at a table, looking deeply troubled.

"What do we do?" Ron asked gloomily.

They had originally planned to win Abei over first. As long as they gained its goodwill and then got Aaron's permission, everything would go twice as smoothly with half the effort.

But several days had passed. Abei had eaten nearly twenty chicken legs, yet it still showed no interest in them. That made the two, who already felt guilty, feel even more guilty.

Even Aaron had started to find it hard to watch. The two of them had been so excessively nice to Abei that they had fattened it up by half a pound.

When Aaron carried the slightly plumper White Cat over and asked them to stop feeding it, the two were completely dumbfounded. The embarrassment was enough to make them claw out an entire Hogwarts with their toes.

"How would I know?" Harry said helplessly. "The original plan is temporarily invalidated. That cat is cute, but it's also a bottomless pit.

By the time we've tamed it with food, Snape will probably have already run off with the Philosopher's Stone."

"Ugh!" Ron leaned back against the sofa and thought it over. "Taking a roundabout way to borrow it definitely won't work. Abei isn't that easy to trick, and Aaron might not lend it to us anyway."

Harry froze slightly. He looked around, then lowered his voice once he was sure no one was nearby. "So you mean... we steal it?

Isn't that inappropriate? Aaron may be a Slytherin, but he's still our friend."

"Harry, I know it's a bit unfair, but do you have a better idea?

Think about Snape. You don't want him to get the Philosopher's Stone, do you?

Besides, we're not really going to hurt Abei. We'll just borrow it for an hour. Consider it repayment for the three days' worth of chicken legs we fed it."

Harry was tempted, but still worried. "But what if we get caught?"

"There's no 'what if.'" Ron said confidently. "Don't forget, you have the Invisibility Cloak.

Aaron can't possibly keep Abei with him every second of every day. When he goes to the toilet, for example, they'll definitely be apart.

As long as we're careful then, stealing a cat will be easy."

Harry's mouth twitched at that. The plan sounded rather low-down.

And if they were discovered, their friendship with Aaron would be sunk. The risk was enormous—too enormous to bear.

"No, we can't do that. It's too much.

We'd practically be people traffickers. No, cat traffickers."

"Er... well..." Ron caught on, an awkward yet polite smile appearing on his face. "Don't say that. I was only suggesting an idea.

If you have a better way, then say it."

Harry opened his mouth, wanting to speak but stopping himself. In the end, he did not say a word.

Because he also felt that this rotten idea was currently their only idea.

"What if Aaron notices the cat is gone?"

"Hahaha!" Ron laughed. "Harry, Abei is a cat, all right? It's perfectly normal for a cat to wander around while its owner isn't there, as long as it doesn't disappear for too long.

After we show it to Hagrid, we'll just let it go. It'll run back to Aaron on its own.

Cats can't talk. Everything will seem perfectly natural. There won't be any loopholes."

"Wait!" Harry suddenly sat upright. "I have an idea."

"What idea?" Ron asked curiously.

"Didn't you just say it's a cat?

What do cats do? Catch mice!

If, while Aaron is in the toilet, we let Scabbers show himself in front of it and lure it to Hagrid's hut, won't that solve everything?"

"No!" Ron slammed his hand on the table in anger. "I absolutely refuse. There's no worse idea than that.

Harry, you know cats catch mice, but cats also eat mice. What if Scabbers can't get away?

He's been with me for a long time. I can't bear to make him do something so dangerous."

"Sorry!" Harry lowered his head guiltily. "So that means we can only steal it?"

"That's right, but we need a rigorous plan." Ron folded his arms, his expression solemn. "Abei is alive. If we suddenly grab it, it'll definitely struggle violently. It won't be good if it makes a commotion."

"Mm." Harry nodded. "I think Hagrid will have a good idea."

The next day, they went to the Gamekeeper's hut.

After they explained why they had come, the honest giant wore a troubled expression. "Isn't this idea of yours a bit unreliable? How about we forget it?"

"Then tell us who helped design the Philosopher's Stone's defenses," Harry said at once.

"That... of course I can't." Hagrid looked even more conflicted, his thick beard bunching together.

He definitely could not tell them directly. Deep down, he did not want Harry and the others getting involved any further. If he could delay them for one more day, he would.

But he was also reluctant to give up studying a novel species. His instincts told him that Aaron's pet was anything but ordinary, perhaps even comparable to some magical creatures.

"Then there you have it." Harry said helplessly.

"But why come to me? I can't help you with anything!"

"No, Hagrid. You're the only one in all of Hogwarts who can help us.

No one understands animals better than you. You must have something that can put Abei to sleep."

"Shh!" Hagrid looked around guiltily. "Who told you that?"

Harry and Ron exchanged smiles. "So you really do have something."

Hagrid rolled his eyes at them and rummaged through a box in the corner. About half a minute later, he took out a small purple bottle.

"Special sleeping draught. This stuff only works on pets, not people.

But if it's a magical creature, it might not work as well. The stronger the magical creature, the weaker the effect.

For magical creatures like dragons and Phoenixes, as long as they're not hatchlings, this sleeping draught is no different from plain water."

"That's enough. We're knocking out a cat, not a dragon." Ron said cheerfully, completely unaware that the thing they intended to knock out was a dragon.

"All right. I can give it to you, but watch the dosage." Hagrid reminded them. "For Abei's size, one drop is enough to make it sleep for two hours.

And you have to return this bottle after you're done with it."

"Got it!" Harry took the bottle and pulled Ron out of Hagrid's hut.

The two hurried back to the Common Room and began discussing their battle plan. Looking at the little purple bottle on the table, they became more excited with every word.

Though they knew it was somewhat unfair, they were eleven-year-old children, after all. Something so interesting and thrilling held an inexplicable appeal for them.

"What are you two doing? Why are you so happy?" Hermione walked over with a stack of revision materials in her arms.

Ron swiftly put away the sleeping draught on the table. "Nothing. We were just discussing the Quidditch match."

"Really?" Hermione looked suspicious.

"Of course it's true. What else do you think could make us happy?" Harry said. "Unless Malfoy fell into a toilet, or Snape got expelled."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I won't comment on Snape, but Draco hasn't offended you lately, has he?"

"But he offended us at the start of term," Ron said irritably. "That bossy attitude of his is exactly like his father, Lucius Malfoy."

Harry nodded in full agreement. He really disliked Malfoy's attitude of acting as though he were superior to everyone else.

"Suit yourselves!" Hermione slapped the materials in her hands onto the table. "These are for you. As long as you memorize all of this, there definitely won't be any problem with the Final Exam."

"Hermione!" Ron's eye twitched. "Are you sure this is for dealing with the Final Exam?

Even if we stacked all our textbooks together, they probably wouldn't be this tall!"

"What kind of attitude is that? These are my study notes. Plenty of people asked me for them, and I didn't give them any!"

"No, it's just... isn't this way too much?" Harry said with a bitter smile. Neither of them had much talent for studying, and they would have been satisfied just to pass. But Hermione had given them something with hellish difficulty. Was she aiming for perfect marks in every subject?

Hermione also knew it was unrealistic to make them study everything. "You don't have to memorize all of it, but at least read it several times so you won't have no idea what to write during the exam."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, speechless. No matter how dissatisfied poor students were, they still had to bow their heads before top students.

"By the way, has Hagrid softened up?"

"No." Harry shook his head. "He still has the same conditions as before."

"And Abei?"

At that moment, the two poor students showed remarkable mutual understanding. They shook their heads at the same time, faint bitterness appearing on both their faces.

Their acting was not exactly convincing, but it was thoroughly misleading.

Harry sighed dejectedly.

Ron followed up, "That cat isn't giving us even the slightest chance."