Neville, You Need to Be More Confident

Meanwhile, Kyle and his group, having just returned to the castle after leaving the Quidditch Pitch, were stopped by Harris.

"Wait a minute, Oliver Wood interrupted me just now, and there's something I almost forgot to mention."

Harris slapped his forehead, a hint of seriousness in his voice, and said, "There's something we need to be careful about. The referee for the next game is Professor Snape..."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone turned to look at Kyle.

Thanks to the megaphones Mikel and Ryan, almost every Hufflepuff student now knows that Professor Snape is relentlessly targeting Kyle.

So upon hearing this news, their first reaction was that Snape wasn't satisfied with just deducting points and wanted to cause trouble for Kyle in other ways.

Quidditch is undoubtedly the best choice.

"Captain, are you sure?" someone frowned and said, "Professor Snape has never been a referee. You haven't been tricked, have you?"

"Madam Hooch told us," Harris said. "All four captains know."

"Why don't you just skip the competition this time?" Cedric blurted out.

But he quickly realized what was happening and looked awkwardly at Harris beside him.

To persuade one of the team's key players, Kyle, to withdraw from the game in front of the captain... this kind of action is quite shocking in the entire Quidditch world.

It's only because Harris has a good temper; if it were someone else, he'd probably be beaten up and ending up in the Hospital Wing in the next second.

Cedric chuckled dryly, then stammered, "What I mean is... if Kyle gets targeted by Snape during the game, we'll be down a player, which will actually make things more complicated."

Surprisingly, Harris didn't say anything. Instead, he said to Kyle with a serious expression, "Cedric is right. If you don't want to participate in this competition, I can handle that."

Harris had thought it over carefully. They were currently far ahead in points, more than a hundred points ahead of Slytherin in second place. Even if they lost a game, it wouldn't matter.

Seeing Harris speak, the others didn't hesitate any longer and chimed in:

"Then we need to come up with a reason to get Madam Hooch to agree to the replacement."

"How about pretending to break your leg?"

"Or you might actually break your leg!"

Everyone started offering suggestions and ideas.

Kyle felt increasingly uneasy as he listened; if they kept talking, he'd probably end up paying for a yearly subscription to the Hospital Wing.

"Wait a minute..." Kyle quickly interrupted their wild ideas, asking in confusion, "When did I say I was going to quit!"

"But..."

Someone wanted to say something, but Kyle shook his head and said directly, "There are no 'buts'. Besides, if I quit this time, what if Snape is still the referee for the next game? And the time after that... am I just supposed to never play?"

Harris frowned.

"So there's no need for that," Kyle laughed. "Besides, Snape might not even target me. Don't forget Gryffindor has Harry Potter, who's even less popular than me."

"Is it Harry Potter?" Harris was taken aback; he had never heard of him before.

"That's right." Kyle nodded. "You can ask around; all the junior wizards in his year should know."

Harris seemed relieved.

"If you think it's okay... then fine."

After entering the castle, Kyle did not return to the common room with the others, but headed towards the library, intending to finish his morning Transfiguration Class before curfew.

On the second-floor hallway, Kyle ran into Neville, though he wasn't in much of a good state.

Someone must have cast Leg-Locker Curse on him, which made his two legs stick together tightly, so he could only hop forward like a rabbit.

"What happened?" Kyle frowned and casually broke the spell for him.

"Malfoy ..." Neville said, his voice trembling, "I ran into him outside the library. He said he'd always wanted to try the spell on other people too."

"You didn't resist?" Kyle asked.

Neville shook his head.

"No... there are too many of them."

"That won't do, Neville," Kyle said. "You have to try to be braver."

"Yes, you're right... Malfoy also said I'm a coward and don't deserve to be in Gryffindor."

Neville said, his voice trembling with emotion, "But I can't do it. I can't even use the most basic spells properly. They're right, I'm not worthy of learning magic."

"Neville, you have to believe in yourself." Kyle patted him on the shoulder and said, "Since you received your Hogwarts acceptance letter, it proves you have the potential to become a wizard."

"Thank you for comforting me, Kyle," Neville said, wiping his nose. "But I'm just so stupid, I just can't seem to learn."

"Perhaps you just haven't found the right direction."

Kyle smiled and said, "Can you do me a favor?"

"Of course," Neville said quickly, "But... I don't know if I'll mess it up. I always manage to mess everything up, even the really simple things."

"It's okay, I believe in you." Kyle took out a few seeds and handed them to Neville.

"What's this."

"Cloak Grass seeds," Kyle said. "I've been wanting a few of these potted plants, but I've been too busy with Quidditch lately to take care of them."

Can you do me this favor?

"I don't know if I can do it..." Neville carefully took the seed and said, "I've never grown any plants before, and even with Trevor, I often forget to feed it."

"It's alright, just do your best." Kyle shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Anyway, the seeds of Cloak Grass aren't expensive, only ten Galleon each."

Neville flinched, nearly dropping the seed in his hand.

"How... how much?" he asked in a trembling voice.

"Ten Galleon."

Neville trembled even more violently.

He glanced at his hand and saw that he had five seeds in total, which was fifty Galleon.

Fifty Galleon... He couldn't afford to lose that even if he sold himself!

"Oh, right," Kyle continued, "These seeds have been on me for a long time, and they were soaked in water during training, so they're in very poor condition. You'd better put them in the soil quickly."

Hearing this, Neville almost burst into tears.

He regretted it and wanted to return the seed as if nothing had happened, but when he looked up, he saw Kyle standing on a moving staircase, being led to the other side of the corridor.

Neville quickly gave chase.

Because he was holding the seeds, he didn't dare to run too fast. By the time he got there, Kyle was already gone.

Just as Neville was at a loss, a faint sound suddenly came from the next room.

Without a second thought, he pushed the door open... Unfortunately, Kyle wasn't in the room; only two older students were whispering inside.