The Kind Professor

Everyone's study time at the Room of Requirement is one hour, because they must return to their respective common rooms before the Hogwarts curfew at nine o'clock.

Fortunately, the Leg-Locker Curse is not a very complicated spell; in fact, it's quite simple. Everyone was able to use it skillfully in just half an hour.

Well... except for Neville.

However, in order not to take up everyone's time, Hermione decided to teach him in private.

"Hopefully she won't go crazy from anger," Ron whispered.

Hearing his words, Harry couldn't help but chuckle.

Neville is indeed a bit slow at learning spells; sometimes even Professor McGonagall is speechless with frustration at his appalling progress.

But Harry knew that Neville had really tried, it's just that his memory was so bad that sometimes he would forget all the spells he had just learned in the morning by the time he ate lunch... or maybe it wouldn't take that long.

Of course, these are not things they need to consider.

After everyone had put down their wands, Hermione cleared her throat and said:

"There's still some time before the curfew starts, I think we should elect a leader."

She had wanted to bring up this suggestion earlier, but Anthony interrupted her before she could even speak.

Furthermore, since everyone's enthusiasm was later stirred up by Galleon and they were eager to start practicing spells, she didn't mention it again.

But it's not too late now.

A buzzing sound filled the room.

Upon hearing Hermione's suggestion, someone immediately thought of Kyle, the biggest sponsor of the event, who had contributed fifty Galleon as a reward.

"I suggested Kyle come... wait, where's Kyle?"

At that moment, they suddenly realized that Kyle was not in the room.

Everyone instinctively looked around, but the room was only so big, and after searching everywhere, they couldn't find any trace of Kyle.

"He's already gone back..." Luna said from the crowd. "I dare say he must have discovered Paobat hiding in the darkness, which is why he went back to chase after him."

"What is Paobat?" Neville couldn't help but ask, looking bewildered, and he wasn't the only one like that.

"A winged elf," Luna said, her bulging eyes wide open, "That can guide people."

"Those things don't exist." Hermione frowned. "At least I'm sure there's not a single book that mentions them."

"If you'd seen the Quibbler, you wouldn't be so sure," Luna said angrily.

Hermione remained silent this time. With nine o'clock drawing ever closer, she didn't want to waste time on this pointless argument.

Where were we?

"Elect a leader"

"Ah, yes," Hermione said. "I think leaders should be able to come every time, Kyle isn't suitable."

"Then I'll choose Cedric ..." said a Hufflepuff student. "He's the Head Boy."

"It's no big deal," Ron said. "I think Harry could too."

"Since there are disagreements," Hermione glanced at them, "Then let's vote..."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became even more lively than when they were practicing spells.

Besides choosing a leader, there's also the matter of naming the group and scheduling the next gathering...

By the time everything had settled down, it was already 9:10 PM.

It took more than ten minutes longer than the original end time, but there was nothing that could be done about it. There were many of them, and it was difficult to come up with a suggestion that would satisfy everyone.

When Cedric carefully made his way back to the common room, he saw Kyle sitting at the innermost table, writing something.

"Why did you suddenly come back?" Cedric walked over.

"I suddenly remembered that I haven't done my Potions Class yet, and I don't want to stay up all night to finish it, so I had to come back first," Kyle said, pushing the <Potions and Cauldrons> book on the table forward.

"How are things there? Is everything going smoothly?"

"How dare you bring this up?" Cedric snapped, instantly becoming angry. "Why did you suddenly offer fifty Galleon as a reward...?"

"Is there a problem?" Kyle put down his quill. "I think this is the only way to motivate them enough to study."

"Voldemort, Death Eaters... they're all just illusions until I see them with my own eyes. Only the golden Galleon are the best source of motivation."

"You probably noticed it too, right? They suddenly became very enthusiastic."

"Of course I noticed," Cedric said, "But that's fifty Galleon, not fifty Sickle. Even as a reward, there's no need to take out that much."

For most students, their allowance for the entire school year is less than ten Galleon, so fifty Galleon is undoubtedly a huge sum of money.

Besides, this is just a self-taught Defense Against the Dark Arts class; there's no need to spend such a large sum of money as a reward. Five Galleon would be enough.

Furthermore, Cedric wouldn't have reacted so strongly if Kyle had used the fifty Galleon reward on himself, because he knew that no student at Hogwarts could defeat Kyle, so the fifty Galleon would naturally not be given away.

But Kyle made him the one being challenged, which gave Cedric some trouble.

Admittedly, doing so would allow him to quickly increase his prestige, and indeed, he was elected leader of the DA with an overwhelming number of votes.

Oh, DA is their newly chosen name, "Defense Association," which is also an abbreviation for "Dumbledore's Army."

The name was Qiu's idea. According to her, Umbridge was afraid of Professor Dumbledore's secret forces, so they decided to form such a team. This idea was unanimously agreed upon by everyone.

But the problem now is that he really can't guarantee he won't fail. If someone can actually defeat him... Kyle might lose those fifty Galleon.

At least when he left the Room of Requirement, Cedric noticed that some people were looking at him with intense eyes, clearly seeing him as a walking treasure chest... the kind that would burst with gold coins.

"Don't worry, I believe in you," Kyle said sincerely.

"But I don't believe in myself," Cedric muttered. "Angelina isn't much worse than me, and there are those two sixth-year students from Ravenclaw. I'm not confident I can beat them either."

"You underestimate yourself," Kyle waved his hand and said, "They're no match for you, I guarantee it."

"And what about Fred and George ..." Cedric continued, "While I'm confident I can beat either of them, based on past experience, they're not exactly known for following the dueling rules, are they?"

"Um..."

Kyle remained silent for a moment.

"Okay, it's fine even if we lose," he continued. "It's only fifty Galleon ...we can just ask someone to reimburse us."

"Find someone to reimburse you?" Cedric paused, taken aback. "Who? Don't tell me it's Headmaster Dumbledore."

"Oh, no, Dumbledore isn't that generous," Kyle said. "It's another kind professor."

"Okay." Cedric glanced at Kyle suspiciously, but didn't ask anything more, only muttering a few more words under his breath.

In any case, he'll probably be quite busy when he attends the next DA gathering.

Putting everyone else aside, he just hoped that Fred and George wouldn't use any unethical methods when dealing with him.