At noon, Douglas had lunch in his office with Sirius and Dobby.
He gave Dobby half of the five hundred Galleons Dobby had brought back.
At his insistence, Dobby tearfully accepted Douglas's gift.
But before those 250 gold coins had even warmed in Dobby's hands, Wangcai carried off every last one.
Dobby actually stood by, smiling as he watched Wangcai. Perhaps, in Dobby's heart now, Wangcai was a friend even more important than his boss or Harry.
Sirius was rather disdainful of Douglas's behavior, but still said hesitantly,
"Douglas, could you lend me some gold first? I want to send Remus some presents."
Still eating, Douglas said in surprise,
"I thought you'd give Harry presents first."
Sirius shook his head, his expression somewhat downcast.
"Harry still has you, his maternal cousin, but Remus has nothing left. I've already hurt him twice...
"Once you clear my name, I'll repay you twice the gold I borrow..."
Douglas nodded, then looked at Sirius seriously.
"I don't need you to repay the gold, but if you can return to the old Black family home, I'd like to pick out a few things there."
Sirius waved a hand expansively.
"You can take whatever you like then!"
The afternoon classes were still theory exams, but Douglas noticed those resentful expressions among both the Gryffindor fourth-years and the Ravenclaw third-years.
The Hufflepuff first-years did not take the exam.
But they got a thorough taste of what Holmes-style inspirational talk meant.
They had heard plenty of stories about this Hufflepuff alumnus the previous night.
Then they had witnessed what it meant to stay up all night catching up on homework, and today they had spent another whole day listening to older students discuss the start-of-term exams.
Finally, when their turn came, they were told to memorize the textbook.