Dinner Together

Perhaps because his identity had already been exposed, Kyle no longer felt like continuing to wander around after Luna left.

He walked on for a while longer, then turned and headed back up the stairs when he was only a few steps from the Great Hall.

Professor McGonagall had told him to take a turn around the Great Hall, but thinking about it carefully, Dumbledore did not seem to have gone there outside of feasts in recent years either. This counted as staying in character.

Besides, a few students had seen him on the way here. That was enough; being too deliberate would only look suspicious.

After returning to the eighth floor, Kyle took off his robes and changed back into his own clothes. He also took the things he had hastily stuffed into a drawer earlier and returned them to their original places... the little storage room in the corner.

In the portraits, the headmasters were still happily enjoying their latest pastime: a fair one-on-one duel with Phineas.

It truly was fair.

They generously declared that Phineas was allowed to use a wand, while they would only use Kyle's custom-made "Spiked Eggplant."

For a wizard, a wand was the most powerful weapon. Looking at it that way, Phineas had the advantage.

There was only one problem: portraits were not really wizards, and they could not use magic.

So the wand in Phineas's hand was no different from a wooden stick.

A wooden stick against an iron lump over a meter long and covered in sharp spikes... the outcome had been decided the moment the duel began.

Phineas was chased all over the portrait, running so hard the soles of his shoes were nearly throwing sparks.

After watching for a while, Kyle's frustration at having Luna see through his disguise