Over the next two days, Wizard Auto Chess became the undisputed number-one trending topic at Hogwarts.
Roy was completely out of options. One of his two sets had been carried off by the twins, while the other had originally been in Connor's hands before Tonks forcibly claimed it. They used Roy's stuff to bask in the limelight around the school, while students wanting to play Auto Chess lined up to butter them up.
If Professor McGonagall discovered something that had the entire student body collectively "wasting their lives on toys," she would definitely go after him, the actual inventor, first. Roy was panicking inside, but Penelope's thirty Galleons were simply too tempting. He could only grit his teeth and keep making Auto Chess sets.
In fact, Roy had finished another set as early as Monday night. Auto Chess was essentially a combination of alchemy and Transfiguration. None of the techniques involved were especially complicated; Roy had simply integrated the two in an exceptionally ingenious way.
With the blueprints already prepared, making it took no effort at all. Still, he had taken thirty Galleons from her. If he delivered it too quickly, Penelope might think it was not worth the money. Expensive things had to seem rare, and he did not want money to cause any unpleasantness between them.
On Wednesday night, Roy packed the entire Auto Chess set into an opaque paper bag and quietly slipped away to their agreed meeting place to make the delivery.
Penelope had chosen the location: the third floor of Ravenclaw Tower. Usually, only Ravenclaw students passed through here, so it counted as her territory.
Penelope had been waiting in the corridor for quite some time. When she spotted Roy, she smiled and waved him over.
"So? Did you bring what I ordered?"
"I did.