Robbery

"Can you believe he didn't do it on purpose?" Ron held a house-elf in his hand and threw it hard into the cage.

"He said he only wanted to give us some practical experience." Hermione picked up the last house-elf hit by the Freezing Charm.

"Practical experience?" Harry locked the cage. His hair had been mussed by the house-elves, and his scalp still hurt a little. He spoke with particular bluntness. "They even threw his own wand out the window. I bet if you stuck your head out that broken pane right now, you'd see him searching for it with his backside in the air."

Aya sat on the table, her tail swishing from side to side. She wouldn't take that bet.

"Nonsense," Hermione said, sounding a little uncertain, but still choosing to defend him. "You've all read his books. Those amazing adventures-everyone knows..."

"Only because he said so himself," Ron muttered. "If it weren't for Xiaohua, my ears would have been pulled right off!"

The four of them tidied up. Hermione intended to take the cage back to the professor, but Aya volunteered.

Though a little puzzled, Hermione thought Aya had always been a helpful friend-even if most of the time her help missed the mark—so she gave her the cage. There were no more classes today, and she wanted to get to the library early to claim a seat.

What would Aya do with the cage once she had it?

She would sell it.

A knock sounded at the dungeon door. Snape had just finished teaching an upper-year class and was putting away his potions. Thinking it was a student handing in homework, he opened the door without a second thought.

"Professor Snape, do you buy live ones?" Aya walked right in, carrying the cage casually. It bumped against the floor with a piercing scrape.

Snape rolled his eyes impatiently before he had even turned around. "Your purple material."

"OK, OK." Aya readily agreed. She could sell him the thunderbird feather she had meant to give him last Christmas. Besides, she had a prettier phoenix feather.

By the time Aya left the dungeon again, she was a house-elf dealer. She had sold more than a dozen house-elves for ten Galleons. From what Snape said, he had paid a high price for them. Aya didn't care-as long as she was the one benefiting, she was content.

The first week of school was fairly pleasant, except that Harry had entered spy-warfare mode. He had a superfan among the first-years, and Aya thought it had reached stalker-fan levels. Harry was good-tempered, though, and even when he "ran into" the first-year seven or eight times a day, he could still politely return his greetings.

"What do you mean, 'ran into'?" Ron was at a loss for words. "That guy memorized our timetable and waits for us after every class."

"Wow!" Aya exclaimed. "Sue him for infringement, Harry!"

"Wizards don't have rights like that." Hermione sighed. The Wizarding World placed considerable importance on intellectual property, but it didn't pay as much attention to personal rights as the Muggle World did.

"But Harry and he both live in the Muggle World, don't they?" Aya tilted her head. "I remember seeing news stories about people suing others for violating their image rights. If only someone would give me a sum of money like that."

"It's not like you're short of money. Why do you act like a money grubber every day?" Ron asked, puzzled and a little sour.

"Who would complain about having too much money? Harry, if you win the case, you might have money in the Muggle World too," Aya said seriously.

"...Forget it." Harry had been quite annoyed with the younger student named Colin lately, but not to that extent. He had heard that Colin's family sold milk and wasn't particularly well-off.

"You're so softhearted," Aya sighed. Someone like Harry wouldn't survive the first three episodes where they came from. But perhaps it was also because Harry was still young?

"Don't act like you know so much!" Harry was a little embarrassed and annoyed.

"All right, all right. So, when we visit Hagrid on Saturday, can we go at mealtime?" Aya changed the subject. "I still haven't had a proper meal at his place."

"...I've never seen anyone ask for trouble like that," Ron said. "Shall we go in the morning?"

"In the morning," Harry confirmed. "We might catch Hagrid making lunch."

Aya was satisfied.

Aya was dissatisfied-Harry had been dragged off by Wood for Quidditch practice early in the morning, early in the morning! The kind of early when it was barely light out!

By the time Aya saw Ron in the common room, it was already getting late. She had thought Harry was sleeping in and had wanted to charge into the boys' dormitory to fetch him, only to be told the terrible news.

"We'll have to wait until Harry finishes practice," Hermione said, patting Aya on the shoulder. "In any case, let's have breakfast first. We'll bring him some too."

Aya was unhappy. Holding a slightly restless Xiaohua, she finished breakfast and sat down in the stands at the Quidditch Pitch.

To her surprise, Harry and the others had only just started practicing.

"Wood explained the new tactics to us." Harry's eyes were vacant, and he seemed to be muttering to himself. "Maybe I shouldn't have recovered so quickly at the end of last term. One Quidditch House Cup was enough to make Wood ignore our normal physical needs."

"Have some bread and jam? Maybe you need a sandwich too?" As Hermione spoke, she had Aya take out the food.

Harry hastily ate a couple of bites, then mounted his broom and rose into the air.

Harry's fanboy was in the stands not far from Aya and the others, frantically photographing him as he raced through the air.

But they hadn't been practicing long—and Aya hadn't even had time to get sleepy, since Hermione had brought this week's homework and made Aya bring hers too-when the Slytherin Quidditch Team arrived at the pitch with their brooms.

Aya perked up at once.

Everyone knew what sparks flew when Gryffindor and Slytherin got together-sparks of war. Aya immediately rushed down, taking Xiaohua with her.

When Aya reached them, with Ron and Hermione following behind her, the Slytherins were showing off their new brooms: seven brand-new Nimbus 2001s, generously sponsored by Draco's father.

Aya's eyes lit up.

"Let me play with it!" she said loudly.

The Slytherins weren't the only ones stunned. Even the Gryffindors stared as Aya reached straight out and grabbed at the broom in Draco's hands. They were even wondering whether she had been sorted into the wrong house-how could one of their Gryffindors just reach out and snatch it!

Even if it was from a Slytherin.

Harry, meanwhile, was no longer sleepy. He suddenly felt reassured: perhaps his Nimbus 2000 would never again be in danger of being played with until it broke.

"Why should I give it to you?" Draco clung tightly to the other end of the broom. Clearly, he wasn't someone who would take pity on a broom.

"You have to give it to me!" Aya shouted even louder. "Choose: Xiaohua sits on you, or you let me play with it!"

"Dream on!!" At the mention of Xiaohua sitting on him, Draco remembered the harm his father had suffered. He bristled at once and shrieked without giving an inch, "Buy one yourself if you're so capable! What are you daydreaming for, you pauper!"

"As long as I make it happen, it's not a daydream!" Aya shouted even louder, using both hands and feet and letting Xiaohua out.

"What a vicious scheme! You had someone steal the Seeker's broom so we couldn't practice!" Slytherin's Flint said in shock.

"We did not!" Wood, being misunderstood for the first time, widened his eyes as he protested. "We'd never be that sly!" At most, he guarded against spies from the other houses. He had never thought of sneaking a look at another house's tactics!

In the end, Aya succeeded in getting the broom.

Draco sat obediently beside the enlarged Xiaohua while the teams from both houses watched Aya spiral into the sky above the pitch from the stands.

"Honestly, Oliver, why don't you let Aya join the team?" George asked. Fred had already fallen asleep against his shoulder. "Maybe she could even intimidate the Slytherin Quidditch Team."

"Interesting question, but she's never come to try out," Wood replied. "Besides, I think putting her on the pitch would only give us another Bludger—not for you. I think she wouldn't distinguish friend from foe. She'd be a real Bludger."

"We can still hear you!" the nearest Slytherin player roared.

By the time Aya had had her fill and came down, the Slytherin Quidditch Team, separated from the Gryffindor Quidditch Team by the whole of Xiaohua, had tacitly ignored the other side, so there had been no argument. When they saw Aya come down, the Slytherin students even breathed an odd sigh of relief-at least this Gryffindor, famous throughout the school, hadn't actually intended to ruin their Seeker's broom.

Aya sincerely praised the latest-model broom, her eyes lingering reluctantly on it as a Slytherin player hid it behind his back.

Under the enormous Xiaohua, the two teams trained together in an oddly harmonious fashion-though both teams' Bludgers and Quaffles flew unceremoniously at the other side. In the end, Wood feared that Slytherin would discover his latest game plan and ended practice early.

"Great! Let's go visit Hagrid now!" When Harry came off the pitch, his hair was windblown and messy, and there were traces of sweat on his forehead. After so long in the cold wind up in the air, he was wide awake no matter how tired he had been.

"Go, go, go!" Aya raised her hand.

It was nearly lunchtime when they reached Hagrid's Hut and happened to see Lockhart coming out. Because of the strange things Lockhart had said to Harry alone last time, Harry didn't really want to run into him alone-though, given Lockhart's personality, there was no avoiding an entanglement even in a crowd. So the moment Harry saw the show-off, he hooked an arm around Ron, pulled Hermione along, and hid in the bushes.

Aya?

Aya would follow on her own.

"What are we doing? Getting ready to ambush Lockhart?" Harry listened to Aya, who was crouching behind him, with an expressionless face.

"How could you!" Hermione shrieked, and Harry clapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm not! I just don't want to run into him!"

Hermione looked a little reluctant. "I'd really like to talk to Professor Lockhart about his adventures, but I usually have too many classes."

"He wanders around all day. It doesn't look like he has many classes," Ron said with some disdain.

"...I meant me."

Lockhart, dressed in pale lilac robes, bade Hagrid farewell with a broad smile. He even declared shamelessly that since Hagrid didn't have his book, he would generously give him a signed copy.

Hermione watched Hagrid enviously. Only after Lockhart had gone far away did the youngsters come over and knock on the door.

"What else do you have to say!" Hagrid opened the door angrily, then broke into a broad smile when he saw them. "Oh, I've been wondering when you'd come to see me. Come in! I thought Professor Lockhart had come back again."

Hagrid's boarhound, Fang, bounded over excitedly and kept circling Harry. Aya nimbly slipped around them and entered the hut. "Have you eaten? What are you eating? Can I have some?"

"Of course, of course!" Hagrid chuckled. "I'm making stew, and I've made some bread too. It's getting late now, so this is lunch."

Aya plopped down on Hagrid's sofa. No matter what, she wasn't going to let Hermione drag her away this time.

Ron and Hermione sat down too. Harry was still being held in place by Fang. Hagrid set a plate of homemade fudge on the table and brewed a pot of tea.

The tea at Hagrid's was particularly bitter. Perhaps because he was so large, he needed stronger tea. Aya's face scrunched up every time she drank it, but seeing the fudge today, she unwrapped several pieces and stirred them into her tea while listening to Harry and the others talk with Hagrid.

"Lockhart even came to give me a signed photo. Honestly, watching the photo in his hand smile along with him gave me the creeps," Hagrid said, stirring the stew with some displeasure. "He really ought to wear darker clothes. When he came over just now, he complained that my vegetable patch got mud all over the hem of his robes."

"And then? What about the signed photo?" Hermione asked.

Aya stirred and stirred. The dark tea gradually took on an opaque white color, then turned a deeper flesh color.

"What would I want that thing for? Starting a fire? I'm-oh, I mean, I have a way to start fires." Hagrid curled his lip. His great beard hid his expression, but everyone could see him roll his eyes.

"Ah..." Hermione sighed in disappointment. Ron and Harry exchanged a look.

Aya took a sip. "Delicious!" The fudge that had settled at the bottom of the cup was just even stickier on her teeth.

"You think everything tastes good." Ron unwrapped a piece of fudge and tossed it into his mouth. "You can even eat lemons raw. Aren't cats supposed to dislike the smell of citrus?"

"I'm a feline Spirit Clan member," Aya said.

"Do your Spirit Clan habits have anything to do with your type or not?" Whenever Hermione encountered a gap in her knowledge, she was especially eager to learn. "I've noticed that apart from some-er, body language, you usually don't seem to have much in common with cats?"

"How should I put it?" Aya held her large teacup. "Where we come from, class matters most, not race. If I had a different class, I might be taller than all of you now."

Of the four races, only the Spirit Clan were short. With the same class, a character's race could be changed in character customization, but some race-exclusive classes prevented a race change.

"No, wait." Aya immediately straightened up and raised her cat ears. "I'm taller than you already!" She reached out, measuring from the tips of her ear fur to the tops of the three of their heads.

"...What classes?" Hermione chose to skip over that topic. Ron still wanted to argue, but Harry was also quite curious about Aya. Since coming to the Wizarding World, no matter how many books he had read-under compulsion—he had never come across a race called the Spirit Clan.

"Take me." Aya pointed at herself. "I'm a summoner, so I have Xiaohua." She pointed at the cat crouching on the coffee table, licking her fur. "There are other classes, but only summoners have cats. We're very strong! And things like my cat ears are entirely a matter of taste. If I hadn't come over to the wizards' side, tomorrow I might have dog ears, squirrel ears, or fox ears. Dragon horns are possible too."

"Do you believe her?" Ron asked Harry.

Harry looked at the proud Aya and didn't know whether to believe her. It was a little beyond his understanding.