Cedric and Qiu had chatted in the Great Hall, but Kyle had no idea what they'd talked about. He returned to the Hufflepuff Common Room with a smile on his face.
Kyle had been reading when a bulging bag suddenly dropped from the sky and landed on the open pages of his book.
"Wha... What the heck?"
Startled, Kyle turned to look at Cedric, who was grinning from ear to ear, and said disdainfully, "What's gotten into you? Did you find a pile of money? Why are you grinning like such a creep?"
"This was way faster than finding money."
Cedric squeezed onto the sofa beside Kyle and said excitedly, "Guess how much we made selling maps in Ravenclaw...
"Fifty-two Sickles each!"
Although Cedric had phrased it as a question, he had no intention of waiting for Kyle to answer. He went on by himself:
"A few sheets of parchment that cost five Knuts each, plus a couple of spells, and we made this much..."
"Wait."
The more Kyle listened, the more confused he got. He had to interrupt Cedric, who sounded like he'd been drinking, and ask, "Shouldn't it have been only forty Sickles? And what's this about parchment?"
"Well, you see..."
Cedric explained, "I went up to Ravenclaw Tower at lunchtime and adjusted the route to suit their needs. Qiu thought we could raise the price a little, so that's how we ended up with this much.
"As for why we used parchment... It's actually a little trick for the Gemino Curse.
"When you're copying things like notes or maps, leaving out the complicated parchment and copying only the contents makes the spell much easier to cast. It also makes the copies last a lot longer."
After hearing that, Kyle understood why they'd made an extra twelve Sickles. The maps were better quality, so naturally the price had gone up.
But the parchment seemed a little unnecessary. As Kyle saw it, the maps would be useless in a month at most, so Cedric had gone to all that trouble for nothing.
Fortunately, parchment wasn't expensive. It had cost less than two Sickles altogether, which was nothing compared with their profits.
Besides, Cedric had paid for it himself, and that was what mattered most.
Kyle pocketed his share of the Sickles and asked casually, "By the way, what do you think of Qiu?"
"Qiu?" Cedric thought for a moment. "I think she's a clever little witch. She's very upright and has a good personality. She'd probably make a great friend."
"That's it?" Kyle frowned.
"Um... generous?" Cedric ventured.
"Never mind. Don't say anything else."
Kyle rubbed his forehead. He knew it was a little early for this, but he never would've guessed that Cedric's first impression of Qiu would be that she was very upright...
Who the hell described a girl as upright?
Whatever. He was done.
Kyle closed his book, stood up, and headed for the common room passageway.
"Are you going out?" Cedric asked.
"I'm going to feed a cat," Kyle replied.
"Okay."
Cedric answered and then went back to counting his Sickles, muttering excitedly as he went, "Ha ha! I can't believe I've earned pocket money too. This feels amazing. I have to write home and tell Dad."
As Kyle stepped into the wooden passageway, he heard that and silently pitied the Ministry of Magic employees for a second.
It looked like Mr. Diggory had something new to brag about. Kyle only hoped they'd get used to it soon.
After leaving the Hufflepuff Common Room, Kyle deliberately made a lot of noise in the corridor.
He was a man of his word. He'd promised to bring Mrs. Norris some dried fish, so he couldn't go back on it.
There was another reason, too: his "Professor Meow-gonagall Feeding Plan" had failed.
Kyle had tried hard to convince himself otherwise, and he knew perfectly well that it had never been possible in the first place. But he'd been looking forward to it for so long that he still felt frustrated.
Whatever happened, he was going to feed a cat today. Not even Dumbledore could stop him.
Mrs. Norris wasn't a tabby, but at least she was a cat. They even looked pretty similar, so she could pass as a substitute.
With Kyle's racket going on, it took less than three minutes for Mrs. Norris to show up, with Filch alongside her.
"Aha! I caught you, little wizard making all that noise in the corridor." Filch tilted his head and gave Kyle a spiteful look. "I'm putting you in detention!"
"Sorry, Mr. Filch, but I think you've got it wrong," Kyle said calmly. "Rule twenty-two clearly states that students who speak loudly in the corridors outside of curfew receive a verbal warning. It takes three warnings before they're given detention."
"I know that! You don't need to remind me!"
Filch looked furious. His face darkened as he said, "So you know the rules, do you? What good is that if you knowingly break them?
"I'll be watching you. You'd better never make a mistake, or I'll catch you."
"That day will never come," Kyle said with a smile. "Besides, Mr. Filch, I only did this because I wanted to find Mrs. Norris.
"You know how big Hogwarts is. It's not easy to find one cat, and this was the quickest way."
"What are you planning?" Filch's eyes immediately grew wary. "I'm warning you, don't even think about doing anything to my cat. I'll make you pay, even if it costs me my life!"
"You've got it wrong. I just want to thank her," Kyle explained. "My roommate had an accident this morning, and she led me to the Hospital Wing. This is my way of showing my gratitude."
As he spoke, Kyle took out the bag of dried fish and pulled one out, trying to feed it to Mrs. Norris.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Norris didn't even look at it.
Filch sneered from the side. "Don't waste your time. She only eats food I give her."
"Then you can feed her." Kyle handed Filch the bag. "Don't worry, it's just dried fish. You can ask a professor to check it if you like."
"No need. We don't want it," Filch said coldly.
"Don't be so quick to refuse. It's a little wizard's way of saying thanks," Kyle said as if it were no big deal. "And Long-whiskered Barracuda jerky is top-quality stuff. A bag costs ten Galleons, and it's almost impossible to find. It's the finest cat food in the Wizarding World. It took me ages to get my hands on it."
Filch hesitated.
If it had been ordinary dried fish, he wouldn't have dared risk feeding it to Mrs. Norris. But if it was Long-whiskered Barracuda...
Kyle was right. It was the finest cat food around. Filch had once thought about giving Mrs. Norris some for Christmas.
But he couldn't get any.
It wasn't because he couldn't afford it. A caretaker's wages weren't high, but Filch lived at Hogwarts and had all his meals and lodging covered. He didn't have many other expenses, either, so he'd managed to save a little over the years.
The problem was that the stuff was always sold out, whether in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. No matter how much money you had, you couldn't buy it.
Filch gave the dried fish in his hand a careful sniff. After confirming that it had no strange smell, he looked up at Kyle. "You'd better not be lying to me."
"Poisoning the caretaker's cat isn't a small matter," Kyle said frankly. "I'm only a first-year. I don't want to get expelled this soon."
Filch thought it over. That did make sense. If anything happened to Mrs. Norris, Kyle would be in trouble for sure.
"Get going. I'll pretend I didn't see you this time."
"Thanks."
Kyle walked straight on. As he passed Mrs. Norris, he tossed her the piece of dried fish he'd been holding.
"Here, you can have this one too."
This time, Mrs. Norris didn't refuse. When Filch gave a slight nod, she stood up, caught the fish, and gobbled it down in a few bites.
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