How to Properly Feed Mrs. Norris (Seeking Collection, Seeking Recommendation)

Kyle did not know what Cedric and Qiu had talked about in the Great Hall, but Cedric returned to the Hufflepuff common room with a beaming smile.

Kyle was reading a book when a bulging bag descended from the sky, landing right on the open pages in his hands.

"What the..."

Startled, Kyle looked up at Cedric, who was grinning from ear to ear, and said with disgust, "What's wrong with you? Did you find gold? Why are you smiling so creepily?"

"This is much faster than finding gold."

Cedric squeezed onto the sofa next to Kyle and said excitedly, "Guess how much money we made from the maps we sold in Ravenclaw...

52 Sickles, 52 Sickles each!"

Although Cedric used a questioning tone, he had no intention of waiting for Kyle to answer, continuing on his own:

"A few pieces of parchment worth five Knuts, plus casting a few spells, and we actually earned this much..."

"Wait."

The more Kyle heard, the more confused he became, forcing him to interrupt Cedric, who seemed to be acting like he'd drunk fake booze. "52 Sickles? Shouldn't it only be 40? And what's this about parchment?"

"It's like this..."

Cedric explained, "I went to Ravenclaw Tower at noon and revised the routes according to their needs. Qiu thought we could appropriately raise the price after seeing them, so that's how it ended up being this much.

As for why we used parchment... that's actually a little trick for the Gemino Curse.

For things like notes and maps, if you remove the most complex parts of the parchment and only duplicate the content, it makes casting the spell much easier, and the duration of the copies lasts significantly longer."

After hearing this, Kyle understood why there were 12 extra Sickles; the quality of the maps had improved, so the price naturally rose.

However, the parchment part seemed a bit redundant. In Kyle's view, those maps would be useless in a month at most, so Cedric's effort was a bit unnecessary.

Fortunately, parchment wasn't very expensive, totaling less than two Sickles, which was negligible compared to the final profit.

Not to mention that Cedric had paid for it out of his own pocket, which was the most important thing.

Kyle put away his Sickles and asked casually, "By the way, what's your impression of Qiu?"

"Qiu?" Cedric thought for a moment and said, "I think she's a very smart little witch, very upright, and has a great personality. She should be a good friend."

"That's it??" Kyle frowned.

"Um... generous?" Cedric ventured.

"Forget it, don't say another word."

Kyle rubbed his forehead. Although it was still early, he never expected that Cedric's first impression of Qiu would be that she was "upright"...

Who the hell describes a girl as upright!

Whatever, I'm tired.

Kyle closed his book, stood up, and walked toward the common room entrance.

"Are you going out?" Cedric asked.

"I'm going to feed a cat," Kyle replied.

"Okay."

Cedric responded without much thought and lowered his head to count his Sickles, muttering to himself, "Haha, I never thought I could earn pocket money. This feeling is amazing. I must write to Dad and tell him the news."

Just as he stepped into the wooden corridor, Kyle felt a moment of silent sympathy for the employees at the Ministry of Magic.

It seemed Mr. Diggory had new material to brag about; one could only hope they would get used to it soon.

Leaving the Hufflepuff common room, Kyle deliberately made a lot of noise in the corridor.

He was a man of his word; since he had promised to bring dried fish for Mrs. Norris, he couldn't go back on it.

There was also the matter of the failed "Professor Meow-gonagall Feeding Plan."

Although Kyle had tried hard to convince himself and knew full well that the task was impossible to complete, he still felt a lingering sense of dissatisfaction after looking forward to it for so long.

Regardless, he was determined to feed a cat today, even if Dumbledore himself showed up.

Even though Mrs. Norris wasn't a tabby, they were both cats, and they looked similar enough that she could barely pass as a substitute.

Amidst Kyle's continuous noise, Mrs. Norris arrived in less than three minutes, accompanied by Filch.

"Aha, I've caught you, the little wizard making noise in the corridor." Filch tilted his head, looking at Kyle with malice: "I'm going to put you in detention!"

"Sorry, Mr. Filch, I think you might be mistaken." Kyle said calmly: "Article 22 of the school rules clearly states that making loud noises in the corridor outside of curfew hours is punishable by a verbal warning, and detention is only issued after three such offenses."

"I know that, I don't need you to remind me!"

Filch looked furious, his face dark: "You're very good at reciting school rules, aren't you? What's the use of knowing them so well if you're going to break them anyway!

I'll be watching you. You'd better never make a mistake, or I will definitely catch you."

"That day will never come." Kyle said with a smile: "Besides, Mr. Filch, the only reason I did this was to find Mrs. Norris.

You know, Hogwarts is so big, it's not easy to find a cat, and this was the fastest way."

"What are you trying to do!" Filch's eyes turned instantly vigilant: "I'm warning you, you'd better not have any crooked ideas about my cat, or I'll make you pay even if it costs me my life!"

"You're overthinking it, I just wanted to thank her," Kyle explained. "My roommate had an accident this morning, and she was the one who led me to the hospital wing. This is my token of gratitude."

As he spoke, Kyle pulled out the bag of dried fish and took one out, attempting to feed it to Mrs. Norris.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Norris didn't even spare it a glance.

Filch sneered from the side, "Don't waste your breath. She only eats the food I give her."

"Then you feed it to her," Kyle said, handing the bag to Filch. "Don't worry, it's just plain dried fish. You're welcome to ask a professor to check it if you like."

"No need, we don't want this!" Filch said with a cold face.

"Don't be so quick to refuse; this is a gift from a young wizard," Kyle said, seemingly offhandedly. "Besides, dried Long-whiskered Barracuda is a premium product. It costs ten Galleons a bag and is practically priceless—the absolute top-tier cat food in the wizarding world. It took me quite some effort to get my hands on it."

Filch hesitated.

If it were ordinary dried fish, he certainly wouldn't risk feeding it to Mrs. Norris, but if it were truly Long-whiskered Barracuda...

Kyle was right; this kind of dried fish was indeed the finest cat food available. Filch had once considered getting a gift like this for Mrs. Norris for Christmas.

But he couldn't buy it.

It wasn't a matter of money. While a caretaker's salary wasn't high, Filch lived at Hogwarts with all expenses covered and very few personal costs, so he had managed to save up a fair amount over the years.

The problem was that whether in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, this dried fish was always out of stock. You couldn't buy it even if you had the money.

Filch carefully sniffed the dried fish in his hand, and after confirming there was no strange odor, he looked up at Kyle. "You'd better not be lying to me."

"Poisoning the caretaker's cat is no small matter," Kyle said calmly. "I'm only in my first year; I don't want to be expelled this early."

Filch thought about it, and it did seem to be the case. If anything happened to Mrs. Norris, Kyle certainly wouldn't be able to escape the consequences.

"Go on then. I'll pretend I didn't see you this time."

"Thank you."

Kyle walked straight ahead, and as he passed Mrs. Norris, he tossed the piece of dried fish he had been holding toward her.

"Oh, and keep the rest for yourselves."

This time, Mrs. Norris didn't refuse. Seeing Filch give a slight nod, she stood up, caught the fish, and devoured it in a few quick bites.