If it had been just one more class, Professor McGonagall would probably have said yes. But another one…? Honestly, Kyle didn’t think it was likely. Still, seeing Fred and George’s hopeful faces, he just shrugged and stayed silent.
It wouldn’t hurt to let them try. Maybe if Professor McGonagall was in a good mood, she'd agree.
The first class of the year was Charms, and after leaving the lecture hall, Kyle said goodbye to the Weasley twins and Cedric, heading alone to the castle's fourth floor.
While passing the second floor, Kyle suddenly spotted two first-year students spinning helplessly on the stairs—Harry and Ron. They were stuck, circling around two trick steps, hovering on the second floor, looking increasingly anxious.
Kyle watched for a mont before he couldn’t resist comnting, "What are you doing… getting in so exercise?"
Ron’s head whipped around, and seeing Kyle, he looked as if he'd spotted a savior. He grabbed Harry’s arm and pulled him over.
“We were trying to get to the Transfiguration Classroom, but we got lost,” Ron said breathlessly. "Could you tell us how to get there?"
“Just follow ,” Kyle replied. “I’m headed to the fourth floor too.”
“Thank goodness!” Ron sighed in relief.
“Thanks,” Harry added, looking a bit embarrassed.
“It’s no trouble. It’s on my way.”
Leading them toward the correct staircase, Kyle asked, sowhat puzzled, “Didn’t you two buy a map of Hogwarts?”
At this, Ron’s face flushed, and he dropped his gaze, silent.
Harry, also embarrassed, admitted, “Twenty Galleons is way too expensive. I… we couldn’t afford it.”
Although he had a good amount of gold in his vault, he hadn’t brought much to school. After paying for his wand and books, he only had twenty Galleons left. With the whole school year ahead, he wasn’t keen on spending all his money on a map.
“That’s not what I ant,” Kyle explained as they rounded a corner. “There are two kinds of maps. Besides the twenty-Galleon one, there’s a cheaper version for ten Sickles… What? Fred and George didn’t tell you?”
Harry and Ron froze.
At Kyle’s words, Harry suddenly rembered that there had indeed been a map flyer pinned to the common room door. He and Ron had both assud it was like the pricey ones they’d seen on the train and hadn’t looked closely at it. Now, thinking back, Harry’s face crumpled with regret. If only he’d taken a closer look, he could still have managed ten Sickles.
“Here we are. The Transfiguration classroom is that way,” Kyle said, pointing, before slipping sothing from his pocket into Harry’s hand. “Consider this a little sothing for our first eting.”
Harry looked down and saw that he was holding two maps and… a bag of dried fish?
“What’s this?” Ron asked.
“It looks like cat food,” Harry replied, puzzled. “Does Kyle have a cat?”
Ron thought for a mont. “Yeah, I think he does.”
Harry quickly looked up and called after him, “Kyle, you gave us a bag of cat food by mistake!”
“You can have it too!” Kyle replied, already halfway down the hall and not looking back. “I’ve got loads. You can feed it to the owls if you like.”
And with that, he disappeared around the corner at the end of the corridor.
Harry stood there, stock still, holding the bag of dried fish.
"Co on, Harry, class is about to start."
Ron suddenly tugged at him, his voice hurried. "And it’s Professor McGonagall's class—we really shouldn’t be late."
"Okay, okay."
Snapping out of his daze, Harry stuffed the dried fish into his pocket and rushed after Ron toward the Transfiguration classroom.
anwhile, Kyle had already entered the Charms classroom. For the first lesson of the new school year, Professor Flitwick didn’t jump into new material but instead reviewed the Charms they'd learned last year. He spent the first half of the lesson checking everyone’s Levitation Charm and Softening Charm. Once he was satisfied that most students could cast these Charms confidently, he returned to the platform where their textbooks were stacked.
"Today, we will be learning the General Counter-Spell, which can cancel the effects of ordinary Charms. Watch my movents closely. When you wave your wand, do it firmly, and enunciate clearly... Finite Incantatem!"
After Charms, Kyle headed to his History of Magic class. The afternoon was dedicated to two consecutive Potions lessons with Professor Snape. As before, Snape didn’t have a positive impression on Kyle.
“You were talking while brewing your potion,” Snape said, his tone sharp and his expression grim as he lood over Kyle. “If you don’t care to learn, at least don’t disrupt others. One point from Hufflepuff.”
Then he turned to Kyle’s partner, Kanna.
“Excellent job preparing the lionfish spines, Kanna—one point to Hufflepuff.”
Kyle regarded Snape with a calm expression, already accustod to his blatant double standards. Compared to last year, when Snape had deducted five points on the first day, this was almost an improvent.
...
The first day of the new school year passed like that. So classes were less enjoyable than others, but overall, it felt fulfilling.
That night, the library on the second floor of the castle was silent, not a single sound breaking the stillness. Tall shelves lined the room, casting long shadows that blocked out the faint moonlight slipping through the windows. It was much darker here than in the rest of the castle.
Creak…
The door suddenly cracked open, just enough for soone to slip through.
Thud, thud…
As the door closed, a series of clear, quiet footsteps sounded within the library.
“Filch is way too dedicated, isn’t he?” muttered Kyle, lifting his Disillusionnt Charm and patting his chest in relief.
On the stairs earlier, Filch had appeared out of nowhere, passing close by Kyle. He had also noticed that Mrs. Norris, Filch’s cat, had paused as she passed him, her gaze fixed on his spot with a suspicious expression.
Kyle guessed she’d sensed sothing was off but couldn’t quite place it. Fortunately, Filch seed preoccupied with chasing soone else and urged Mrs. Norris to keep moving.
"It seems relying solely on the Disillusionnt Charm for night-walking isn’t foolproof. I’ll need to look into a spell that can mask scents," Kyle thought, steadying himself before heading toward the Restricted Section of the library.
He rembered that the book he was looking for, the one detailing Horcruxes, was titled Secrets of the Darkest Art. But the thought of finding it gave him a headache.
Though the Restricted Section only occupied a small part of the library, it still contained thousands of books. Without magic to assist him, locating Secrets of the Darkest Art would be no easy task.
“Hopefully, I can find it tonight,” Kyle sighed, lighting his wand and stepping into the rows of shadowy bookshelves.
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