My Home Is Quite Big

Kyle easily found a door with a nameplate bearing his name.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. The first things he saw were a floor carpeted in gold and red, and a large bed with four posts draped in dark red flannel curtains.

A small wooden table stood in the middle of the room, with a golden birdcage on top. Idataqi stood quietly inside, quietly preening its feathers.

Three plush armchairs surrounded the wooden table, apparently the same style as those in the common room outside.

A broad desk stood against the wall to the right, with parchment, quills, and ink bottles all neatly arranged on its clean solid-wood surface.

All the textbooks he had bought in Diagon Alley that morning were neatly arranged on a shelf above the desk.

On the opposite wall, flames danced constantly in the fireplace, bringing a steady stream of warmth into the room.

"This is... a single room!"

"Professor Dumbledore treats you way too well! We're all in five-person rooms!"

"You have no idea how unbearable George's snoring is at night."

"Bullshit! Like you don't snore too!"

The two prankster twins started bickering again.

Kyle noticed a brown suitcase on the bedside table. A piece of parchment was attached to it, bearing a line of elegant cursive writing.

"I think you'll like what's inside the suitcase."

If nothing unexpected had happened, it was Professor Dumbledore's handwriting.

Kyle opened the suitcase. A long flight of stairs appeared before him, and a suspicion formed in his mind.

He set the suitcase on the floor and stepped inside.

Watching Kyle disappear into the suitcase, the two exclaimed in amazement, "Cool!"

At the end of the stairs sat a brand-new 1987 Buick GNX, along with that all-too-familiar iron gate, confirming Kyle's suspicion.

This was his base—his Bag End!

Wait!

Dumbledore had moved his base here, so how was he supposed to drive the car out?

"Cool, Kyle! Is that a car?"

Before Kyle could answer, Fred continued, "My dad's been secretly saving up money lately, hiding it from Mum so he can secretly buy a second-hand Muggle car. I didn't expect to see a car here too!"

"I think he said he wanted to modify it using a broomstick's flight system," George said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

Buying a second-hand car to modify?

Why buy a second-hand car? What a waste!

Kyle thought for a moment before offering a suggestion. "I remember there's a Tank Graveyard in Northumberland National Park, in the Cheviot Hills of North England."

A Tank Graveyard? What was that?

George and Fred exchanged a glance, each seeing a huge question mark in the other's eyes.

"A tank is a type of vehicle used by Muggle armies... uh, you can think of it as a military version of a car. At the Tank Graveyard, you can pick up lots of tank hulls.

Your father would only need to buy an engine and install it for it to run. Oh, an engine is to a car what a flight system is to a broomstick. It'd be much cheaper than buying an entire second-hand Muggle car."

Seeing their eyes still circling around his car, Kyle beckoned to them. "Enough about that. Come in and sit down. My place is pretty big. We can play video games, and when we get tired, we can just sleep."

He then pulled open the iron gate and walked inside.

When Fred and George followed him into the living room and saw the huge pile of Muggle household appliances there, they immediately lost their composure.

"If my dad saw so many Muggle things here, he'd go crazy with joy!"

"He loves Muggle items the most."

Seeing how awestruck they looked, Kyle's vanity received a small measure of satisfaction.

He fished two cans of beer from the refrigerator in the nearby kitchen and tossed them over. "Welcome to the Muggle world."

Half an hour later.

"What a blast! What a blast!" The drunken George lay half-sprawled across the sofa, waving his arms around.

A pile of empty cans lay scattered at his feet. It looked like he had drunk quite a lot.

Pointing at the drunken George, Kyle laughed. "Look at George. He's drunk after just a few cans. What a lightweight."

"That George is such a lightweight!" Fred chimed in.

"Oh? So you think you're tough?"

"Just kidding, I'm super tough, okay? I can drink like crazy!"

Hearing that, Kyle slapped Fred's thigh. "So you can really drink, huh? Pretty tough!"

Kyle suddenly remembered something. He stood up and said to Fred, "I've got some good stuff in my room. Want to give it a try?"

"Something fun? What is it, Kyle? A game like Wizard chess?"

"More exciting than Wizard chess. You'll see when you get there."

Fred struggled to his feet and followed Kyle into his room at Bag End.

On the table beside the bed, he saw a red-and-white Muggle machine connected to a strange, square box.

On the other side of the room stood two enormous upright machines, though he had no idea what they were for.

Kyle sat down beside the bed, picked up a cartridge and inserted it into the console, then called Fred over to play with him.

"This is a Muggle game console." Kyle stuffed the other controller into Fred's hands. "I'll teach you how to play."

He had bought all these things when he was in New York. But at the time, he had been all alone, with no one to play games with, so he had only used the console once after buying it.

Before this, the last time he had played games on such an old-fashioned machine had been in his previous life, when he used a Little Tyrant Learning Machine to play with several of his older cousins as a child.

It had to be said that Fred had quite a talent for gaming.

Kyle only needed to teach him the basic controls, and before long, the two of them were playing the fairly difficult Contra quite skillfully.

After clearing Contra, they started working their way through games like Super Mario.

There were also the two arcade machines on the other side of the room.

One had the fighting game Street Fighter installed, while the other had Hang-On, the world's first motorcycle racing simulation game.

The two of them had a great time with those as well.

Time passed without them noticing. After two hours of gaming, Kyle was starting to get bored.

After all, these were products from the eighties and nineties. They did not have the same replay value as later games like GTA V.

Fred, however, was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Kyle set down his controller and tilted his head toward Fred. "Want to see my collection?"

Was there something even more fun than games?

Fred's eyes lit up.

Seeing Fred turn into what looked like a severely internet-addicted teenager in just two hours, Kyle was genuinely worried that gaming would ruin him.

He had no idea whether Hogwarts had a Professor Yang, but if Fred got addicted to the internet, there would be no cure for him.

In truth, Kyle's worries were completely unnecessary. Electronic devices could not be used at Hogwarts.

The magnetic fields generated by wizards' bodies—or rather, the force fields formed by their leaking magic—would interfere with electronic devices and cause them to fail.

A single wizard might not affect electronics, but in a place like Hogwarts, where so many wizards gathered, electronic devices would definitely stop working.

As for why Bag End was unaffected, perhaps it was because it was located too deep underground.