"What Three-headed Dog? I've never had a dog named Fluffy!"
Hagrid looked as if he'd stepped on a live wire. He was so agitated that even the roots of his beard trembled. Pointing at Kyle, he stammered, "How can you just make things up and slander me!"
"Oh~~" Kyle said, suddenly enlightened. "So its name is Fluffy. That's not a bad name."
Hagrid froze, then hurriedly denied it. "I didn't... I didn't say anything. You heard wrong."
He didn't dare admit it.
Of all the people at Hogwarts, the one he was most worried about discovering Fluffy was Kyle. Even Dumbledore came second.
Kyle's father, Chris, was the deputy head of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. His department dealt with mysterious Fantastic Beasts like Fluffy.
If Kyle wrote home about it, Fluffy would definitely be taken away. Hagrid had no idea whether it would live or die after that.
He might even be sent to Azkaban himself.
At the thought of Fluffy being killed, and of that hellish place called Azkaban, Hagrid broke out in a cold sweat.
No. I absolutely can't admit it.
Hagrid put on a stern face, wearing what he thought was a frightening expression in an attempt to scare Kyle away.
With that fierce look and his hulking frame, more than three meters tall, he really did look the part.
If Kyle had ignored Hagrid's shifty eyes and the cold sweat on his forehead, he might have believed him.
"Fine, fine. I heard wrong, and you don't have a Three-headed Dog," Kyle said, waving a hand. "Just think of it as an interesting bit of trivia. See you."
"Oh, right." Kyle had taken a couple of steps when he suddenly turned around. "If your puppy starts showing symptoms like loss of appetite, irritability, or depression, don't worry. Just let it loose in the Forbidden Forest."
If Hagrid didn't want him to see Fluffy, then he wouldn't. There'd be plenty of opportunities next year, anyway.
Besides, what was the point of a small one? Bigger was better, wasn't it?
Once Fluffy was locked up in that room on the fourth floor, Kyle could look at it as much as he wanted. He could even pull out some fur and knit a pair of socks.
After leaving the Forbidden Forest, Kyle strolled across the grass. As he reached the castle entrance, he caught sight of a familiar figure darting past.
Curious, he walked over and spotted a small figure crouching in the bushes by the entrance, peering around as if searching for something.
"Kanna? What are you doing here?" Kyle asked curiously.
"Who's there!"
The sudden voice startled Kanna. It took her a while to recover.
"I-I'm looking for something." Kanna glanced up at Kyle, then went back to searching through the bushes.
Seeing this, Kyle pulled out his wand. "At this rate, you'll be searching forever. Let me help."
Kanna seemed to guess what he was thinking and immediately shook her head. "You can't. I lost Galleons. The Summoning Charm won't work."
Every coin in the Wizarding World, whether a Galleon, Sickle, or Knut, had an anti-Summoning Charm on it, like a watermark. It was a basic anti-theft measure.
Kyle could only put his wand away, then walk over to the other side and help her search.
Kanna hadn't really wanted to trouble Kyle. Otherwise, she wouldn't have kept quiet and sneaked over here to look by herself.
But thinking about her situation, she hesitated before murmuring, "Th-thank you."
"It's nothing. We're friends," Kyle said, waving it off. "By the way, how many Galleons did you lose?"
"Twenty."
Kyle thought he'd misheard and blurted out, "How many?!"
"Twenty," Kanna said softly. "Maybe more. I've been losing Galleons since I started school. These are the last ones I have."
"Uh..."
Kyle clicked his tongue and silently bent down to rummage through the bushes.
Good grief. Losing more than twenty Galleons at once—if that had happened to him, he'd probably have felt like killing someone.
The bushes by the castle entrance weren't small. It took them more than an hour to search through them.
But the result was disappointing.
They didn't find a single Galleon. They didn't even find a Knut.
Kyle stood up and rubbed his back. "Are you sure you lost them here?"
"I-I don't know."
Kanna fell silent for a moment, then said, "I still had them before Herbology Class yesterday, but they were suddenly gone this morning."
"Could you have lost them during Flying Class?" Kyle thought for a moment. "Have you checked around the Quidditch Pitch?"
"I looked there this morning," Kanna said. "There's nothing at the Quidditch Pitch or in the castle. If they're not here, that only leaves the greenhouses."
"The greenhouses? They're not there," Kyle said firmly.
He couldn't speak for anywhere else, but he could guarantee that no one had lost anything in the greenhouses. The floors were spotless.
He'd looked very carefully.
"How about we search again?" Kyle suggested. "Maybe we missed something just now."
"No need." Kanna shook her head.
She hadn't found any of the Galleons she'd lost before, and this time would probably be the same. It was only natural. How could anyone lose Galleons and then find them again?
"All right." Kyle didn't insist. As he saw it, anyone from a Pure-blood family who could afford Tuofan robes wasn't short of Galleons.
Twenty or thirty Galleons probably wasn't a big deal to her.
He brushed the dirt off his clothes and asked casually, "Do you need me to lend you some until your family owl arrives?"
Kanna's eyes went distant. After a moment's silence, she said, "It's fine. I don't need Galleons at Hogwarts. I can get some from Gringotts after the holidays. It's just... the rat tonic I owe you. Could I pay you after Christmas?"
Kyle's hand paused as he brushed off his robes. Then he glanced at Kanna. "You don't have to worry about that. You can pay me next year if you want."
Once Kyle had brushed his robes clean, the two of them headed toward the castle together.
On the way, Kyle asked curiously, "By the way, where's your rat? I haven't seen you with it."
"Pochi?" At the mention of her pet, Kanna finally smiled. "It's playing with Darena's hamster in the dormitory."
"Why would a field mouse and a hamster play together?" Kyle said, pursing his lips. "I have a friend in Gryffindor, Percy Weasley. He has a rat too. I'll introduce them sometime.
"By the way, is your Pochi male or female?"
Kanna's face reddened, but she answered softly, "F-female."
"Perfect." Kyle's eyes lit up. "Percy's Scabbers is male. Why not pair them up? Then they could have a litter of baby rats next year."
Before you continue