Ladon

The next morning, Kyle was forced to crawl out of his bed bright and early.

Because he hadn't drawn the curtains the night before, the sunlight streamed through the circular dormitory window like a spotlight, landing squarely on his face.

Who could possibly sleep through that?

Kyle reluctantly got dressed and, while stretching, walked over to the window.

Since the Hogwarts castle was built on uneven terrain, even though this part of the dormitory was technically underground, it was actually quite bright. Through the circular window, one could see the swaying grass and dandelions outside.

Kyle glanced at his two roommates, who were still fast asleep, and expressionlessly pushed the window open as wide as it would go.

They were only five years away from their O.W.L.s; how could they be sleeping at their age?

Besides, it was already seven-thirty. If you rounded that up, it was basically eight-fifty, and there were only a few minutes left until the nine o'clock classes started.

This was their very first class since entering Hogwarts, after all. They had to make a good impression on the professors; it would be terrible if they were late.

And that morning breeze, carrying a hint of mist, was undoubtedly the best alarm clock.

"I really am so thoughtful," Kyle nodded with satisfaction.

He was doing this for his roommates' own good, certainly not because he wanted them to keep him company while he woke up early. As a Hufflepuff, he would never do such a thing.

After a quick wash, Kyle left the dormitory through the common room passage.

It was common knowledge that the staircases at Hogwarts had quite the personality. They seemed to have a consciousness of their own, always choosing the moment when young wizards were in the most hurry to suddenly change their direction or extend to a higher floor, silently savoring the desperate wails of those unlucky souls.

Kyle had been prepared to take a few detours, but whether it was because he had plenty of time or because the staircases weren't "on the clock" yet, he didn't know.

He walked all the way from the common room to the Great Hall without the stairs shifting even once; the entire journey was remarkably quiet.

This left Kyle somewhat disappointed; in truth, he had actually wanted to experience it.

Although it wasn't even eight o'clock yet, there were already quite a few people in the Great Hall. The Ravenclaw table, in particular, was nearly full, and there were scattered upperclassmen from the other houses as well.

Only Hufflepuff... was just Kyle.

As soon as he sat down, a steaming breakfast appeared on the plate in front of him.

A glass of milk, two sausages, and a piece of bread.

It wasn't a feast, but it was decent enough, and he could always ask for more if he was still hungry.

Kyle ate his breakfast at a leisurely pace. Before long, two familiar figures walked into the Great Hall one after the other.

"Hi, Kyle, why are you up so early?" Mikel and Ryan hurried over.

"I didn't want to be, either. I intended to go back to sleep, but the dormitory window was open, and the wind blowing in was too cold to sleep through," Kyle said, slicing a piece of sausage and popping it into his mouth without changing his expression. "What about you two? Why are you up so early?"

"Same here," Mikel said with a bitter face. "I actually thought you were the one who opened the window?"

"The window was already open when I left."

Kyle emphasized the words "when I left" quite heavily.

"I see, then it must have been blown open by the wind," Mikel picked up his bread and took a large bite. "But that's fine, I didn't fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. If the window hadn't been open, I definitely wouldn't have been able to wake up before nine.

If I were late for my first class... I don't even want to think about the consequences. I'd surely be expelled."

Beside him, Ryan nodded in deep agreement.

Although he usually got up after eight o'clock back home, that was only because his mother would forcibly drag him out of bed.

If he had been left to wake up naturally, he probably wouldn't have made it to his first class either.

Kyle smiled and said, "Then you two really should thank the kind soul who helped open that window."

"Yeah."

The two sleepy-eyed boys were too busy eating breakfast to notice anything amiss in Kyle's words.

Mikel even chimed in, "It really was a huge help."

At that moment, Kyle finished the last of his milk, stood up, and said, "You two keep eating, I'm going to go wander around elsewhere."

"Alright," the two said in unison.

After bidding farewell to his food-obsessed roommates, Kyle headed straight for the castle entrance.

It was just past eight, and there was plenty of time before class. Taking advantage of the spare time, Kyle decided to resolve the pet issue first.

There was already a cat and a toad in the dormitory; he couldn't exactly be the odd one out, could he?

Stepping out of the castle gates, Kyle skillfully raised his arm.

In an instant, seven or eight owls swarmed in from all directions, landing neatly on the stone steps in front of him.

"This isn't for delivering mail," Kyle said, looking at them. "I'll be staying at Hogwarts for a long time, and during this period, I hope to hire one of you to be my personal messenger.

As for the reward... all meals provided, at least one bag of owl nuts per day, at least three bags of dried Murtlap meat per week, and one bottle of owl tonic per month... that's all for now, and if there's anything else you need, we can add it.

Furthermore, these terms will remain valid even after I graduate, until it can no longer lift its wings.

How about it? If any of you are willing, just fly onto my shoulder."

It had nothing to do with Kyle's family talent.

As the designated messengers of the wizarding world, owls possess an innate affinity for magic; with just a little training, they can understand the words of a wizard.

And those at Hogwarts are the industry leaders in this regard.

Although what Kyle had just said was a bit complex for them, with the help of some body language, they could still understand about seventy or eighty percent of it.

In less than a second, these owls scrambled and vied to fly toward Kyle's shoulders.

Some of the slower ones even launched direct attacks on the owls in front of them.

For a moment, the surroundings were in complete chaos, with scattered feathers everywhere.

Kyle scratched his head, caught between laughter and tears, wanting to intervene, but it was too late; the situation had already escalated beyond what a few words from him could resolve.

Fortunately, this situation did not last long.

A Brown Fish Owl, relying on the advantage of its massive size, easily defeated the other competitors and stood firmly on Kyle's shoulder with the posture of a victor.

Kyle recognized this owl.

It was about three years ago, when Chris found it, that it was covered in wounds and lying unconscious at the entrance of the Ministry of Magic's mailroom, its talons still tightly clutching an undelivered letter.

Because it was discovered in time, Chris immediately treated it and brought it home to care for it carefully for over half a month, finally bringing it back to life.

Even so, it was left with a long, narrow scar on its face.

This type of scar was caused by Dark Magic and was difficult to remove; neither Chris nor Newt had a way to fix it, and not even its feathers could cover it up.

Compared to other owls, this made it look exceptionally... ugly.

But Kyle didn't care about that; he scratched the feathers on the Brown Fish Owl's neck and smiled, "Hello there, Ladon."

The owl tilted its head and gently rubbed its beak against Kyle's finger.

Ladon was the nickname Kyle had given it back then.

Since he didn't know its name at the start, Kyle had only called it that to make feeding time more convenient.

He hadn't expected that it would actually accept the name.

When Hagrid received the news and came to take it back, he spent over half an hour shouting "Saiban, Saiban" in the nearby woods, but it didn't react at all.

It wasn't until Kyle whispered "Ladon" from the side that it finally flew out, unhurried and calm.

Hagrid had been stunned, unable to recover for a long time. That feeling was as if the girl he had raised with such hard work had been snatched away by Kyle.

He couldn't have been more dejected.