Chapter 39: How to Properly Feed Mrs. Norris

Cedric and Cho chatted in the Great Hall, but Kyle didn't know what about. But when he returned to the Hufflepuff common room, he was smiling.

Kyle was reading when a bulging bag fell from the sky, landing on the open pages of his book.

"W... what the hell."

Kyle was startled. He turned his head to look at Cedric, who was showing his teeth and grinning, and said disdainfully, "What's wrong with you? Found some money? Why are you grinning so creepily?"

"This is way faster than finding money."

Cedric squeezed onto Kyle's sofa. He said excitedly, "Guess how much we made selling the map in Ravenclaw…

Fifty-two Sickles! Fifty-two Sickles each!"

Although Cedric used a question, he didn't wait for Kyle to answer. He continued to talk to himself,

"A few sheets of five-Knut parchment, plus casting a spell a few times, and you can make so much money…"

"Wait."

Kyle was getting more and more confused. He had to interrupt Cedric, who seemed to be drunk, "Fifty-two Sickles? Shouldn't it be forty? And what's with the parchment?"

"It's like this…"

Cedric explained, "I went to Ravenclaw Tower at lunchtime. I redrew the routes according to their needs. Cho saw it and thought we could raise the price a bit, so that's how it ended up like this.

As for why we used parchment… that's a little trick for the Copying Charm.

For things like notes and maps, if you leave out the most complicated parchment part and only copy the content, it makes casting easier, and the copy will last much longer."

After hearing this, Kyle understood why there were twelve extra Sickles. The map's quality had improved, so the price naturally went up.

But the parchment part was a bit unnecessary. In Kyle's opinion, the maps would be useless in a month at most. Cedric's action was overkill.

Fortunately, parchment wasn't that expensive either. It was less than two Sickles in total. Compared to the final income, it was negligible.

Not to mention that it was Cedric's own expense, which was the most important part.

Kyle put away his Sickles and casually asked, "By the way, what do you think of Cho?"

"Cho?" Cedric thought for a moment, "I think she's a very intelligent witch. She's honest, and her personality is good. She should be a good friend."

"That's it?" Kyle frowned.

"Uh… g, generous?" Cedric asked tentatively.

"Forget it, don't say anymore."

Kyle rubbed his forehead. Although it was indeed a bit early, he couldn't believe that Cedric's first impression of Cho was that she was honest…

Who describes girls as honest?

Alright, this is getting tiring.

Kyle closed his book, got up, and walked toward the common room passage.

"Are you going out?" Cedric asked.

Kyle replied, "I'm going to feed the cat."

"Okay."

Cedric replied without paying attention. He began to count his Sickles, muttering under his breath, "Haha, I can't believe I'm making pocket money. It's such a great feeling. I have to write a letter to Dad and tell him."

Kyle, who had just stepped into the wooden passage, heard this and silently felt sorry for the Ministry employees for a second.

It seemed like Mr. Diggory had a new topic to show off. He hoped they could get used to it as soon as possible.

…

Leaving the Hufflepuff common room, Kyle deliberately made a lot of noise in the hallway.

He was a man of his word. Since he said he would bring Mrs. Norris some fish, he couldn't go back on it.

Besides, there was the failure of the "Mrs. Norris feeding plan."

Although Kyle had tried his best to convince himself, and he knew that this was never going to happen, he still felt unsatisfied after waiting so long.

No matter what, he was going to feed the cat today. Even Dumbledore wouldn't stop him.

Although Mrs. Norris wasn't tabby, they were both cats, at least. And they looked similar. It could be considered a substitute.

Under Kyle's persistent noise, Mrs. Norris showed up in less than three minutes. Filch was with her.

"Aha, I've caught you, the young wizard who's making noise in the hallway." Filch tilted his head and looked at Kyle with a malicious grin, "I'm putting you in detention!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Filch, I think you might be mistaken." Kyle said calmly, "Rule number twenty-two clearly states that making a loud noise in the hallway outside curfew will be met with a verbal warning. You have to accumulate three warnings before being put in detention."

"I know, you don't have to remind me!"

Filch looked furious. He said with a sullen face, "You're good at memorizing rules, are you? What's the use of memorizing them so well if you still break them knowingly?

I'll be watching you. You better never make a mistake, or I will catch you."

"That won't happen." Kyle laughed, "Besides, Mr. Filch, the reason I'm doing this is just to find Mrs. Norris.

You know, Hogwarts is so big. Finding a cat isn't easy. This is the fastest way."

"What are you trying to do!" Filch's eyes instantly became wary, "I warn you, don't have any bad intentions toward my cat, or I'll make you pay the price, no matter what!"

"You're thinking too much. I just want to thank her." Kyle explained, "My roommate had an accident this morning, and she took me to the hospital wing. This is a thank you gift."

As he spoke, Kyle took out the bag of fish and took out one, trying to feed it to Mrs. Norris.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Norris didn't even look at it.

Filch sneered from the side, "Don't bother. She only eats what I feed her."

"Then you feed her." Kyle handed the bag to Filch, "Don't worry, it's just plain fish. You can ask a professor to check it if you want."

"No need, we don't need this!" Filch said with a sullen face.

"Don't be so quick to refuse. It's a thank-you gift from a young wizard." Kyle said casually, "Besides, Longbottom Fish is a high-quality product. It costs ten Galleons a bag and is highly sought after. It's the top cat food in the wizarding world. I got it with great difficulty."

Filch hesitated.

If it had been ordinary fish, he wouldn't dare to risk feeding it to Mrs. Norris. But Longbottom Fish…

Kyle was right. This kind of fish was indeed the top cat food. Filch had thought about giving Mrs. Norris a gift like this for Christmas.

But he couldn't buy it.

It wasn't that he didn't have money. The salary of a caretaker wasn't high, but Filch lived at Hogwarts. He had free room and board, and he didn't need to spend much. He had saved a bit of money over the years.

The problem was that, whether in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, this kind of fish was always out of stock. Even if he had money, he couldn't buy it.

Filch carefully sniffed the fish in his hand. After confirming that there was no unusual smell, he looked at Kyle and said, "You better not be lying to me."

"Poisoning a caretaker's cat is no small matter." Kyle said calmly, "I'm only a first year. I don't want to be expelled so early."

Filch thought about it. It seemed like that was the case. If something happened to Mrs. Norris, Kyle couldn't escape.

"Go on. I'll pretend I didn't see you this time."

"Thank you."

Kyle walked straight ahead. As he passed Mrs. Norris, he threw the fish he had been holding in his hand towards her.

"By the way, take this too."

This time, Mrs. Norris didn't refuse. When she saw Filch nodding slightly, she stood up and caught the fish, gulping it down in a few bites.