Chapter 767: Deal with the Fairy
“Perfect energizing tonic, at least I can’t fault it.
In the underground classroom of Hogwarts, when Professor Marchban said these words, it also meant that the seventh-grade students had completed all N.E.W.T. exams.
With a crisp ringing of the bell, Kyle and others left the classroom and returned down the stairs to the foyer.
The exam is over, everyone's performance is different, some people are very happy and looking forward to the upcoming graduation life.
But more people are reluctant to give up. They always look forward to the holiday. For the first time, they hope that the holiday can be slower, and slower again.
After watching it for seven years, the castle that had long been boring suddenly became fresh again. Every corridor, every painting, and even the faded handrails on both sides of the stairs seemed to be particularly attractive.
They seemed to be back to how they were when they first came to Hogwarts seven years ago, full of curiosity and interest in everything here.
This feeling is difficult for students in other grades to understand.
Several ghosts gathered together and looked at the students who were crying and laughing, with expressions that they had already guessed would be like this.
This happens every year, and they are used to it.
"He's starting again. He's crying. I really don't understand what's so memorable about this ruined castle." The almost headless Nick glanced at the fat monk next to him and asked, "By the way, when will he arrive? He should be here soon." Come on."
"Calculating the time, it's almost time." The fat monk said, "Oh...he's here."
As soon as he finished speaking, a balloon filled with water flew down from upstairs and landed accurately among a group of seventh graders.
The water balloon landed on a boy's head and exploded suddenly, pouring a large amount of vinegar-laced water directly on his head.
A faint sour smell began to fill the hall.
But it wasn't over yet. Peeves suddenly laughed and flew down from the stairs, throwing more water balloons at the seventh graders in the hall.
In addition to teasing the freshmen who have just entered the school, he also likes to leave a deep impression on the students who are about to graduate.
Every year at this time, he would take advantage of this time to wreak havoc. The year before last, it was fireworks, and last year, it was dung eggs... It is worth mentioning that the Weasley brothers who provided him with supplies had used up all the stocks and had to destroy them. Needless to say, it was a disaster, at least for Filch.
This year Peeves chose vinegar balloons mixed with a small amount of water.
"Stop, Peeves!" someone shouted, and then took out his wand and prepared to fight back.
If they are first-year students, they will definitely have no ability to resist when faced with Peeves' pranks, but they are now in seventh grade. If they can still fall into the trap, wouldn't their studies in the past few years have been in vain?
Thinking of the destruction that Peeves had inflicted on them in the past few years, several Gryffindors confidently raised their wands, preparing to avenge their shame and make Peeves suffer a little before graduation.
But what they didn't expect was that the balloon Peeves used this time was a high-end product and a prank balloon carefully developed by the Weasley brothers. It exploded the moment it came into contact with the curse.
As a result, vinegar rained down in the entire hall, and the students were caught off guard and were drenched from head to toe.
"Ho ho ho... Stupid little devil... Stupid little devil... Come and see, someone here has fallen into a jealous bucket!"
Peeves held his stomach and let out a shrill laugh.
More and more people heard the noise and came over. In shame and anger, a group of seventh-grade students immediately covered their faces and ran away.
Among the crowd, there were only a few people who were not affected, and Kyle was one of them.
When the first water balloon was thrown over, he used a waterproof and moisture-proof spell to protect himself and Kangna next to him. So when the balloon exploded just now, the unknown liquid mixed with vinegar did not fall on him at all.
"Ah, little Kyle..."
He fell in front of Kyle, "So you are graduating too, right?"
"That's right." Kyle nodded, "Do you have anything to tell me? Mr. Peeves."
"How about repeating a year, just one year." Peeves said with a smile. "After the Weasleys graduate, you are the only one who is more interesting. The rest of the little ones are too boring and not fun at all."
"As long as you can convince Dumbledore, I have no problem."
"Oh... your rejection is so callous." Peeves made a face at Kyle.
Obviously he also knew that Dumbledore would not agree to such a request.
If Kyle could still repeat a grade with his grades, then Hogwarts would really be a joke.
"Then what should we do?" Peeves crossed his legs and sat down in the air with some confusion. "I haven't had enough of the shit you gave me last time. Really, why did you catch all the intruders so quickly? Woolen cloth."
What Peeves was talking about was the Death Eaters' attack on the castle a month ago.
Peeves, who received the news at that time, immediately realized that this was the opportunity Kyle had mentioned at the beginning. He excitedly took out the special dung egg, held it in his arms and ran over.
It's just that the professors acted too fast at that time, and Peeves hadn't had enough time to throw away the cannon fodder Death Eaters.
What made him even more excited was that the professors clearly saw his behavior but did not reprimand him.
It was a specially made dung egg. He was not scolded. Peeves felt as if he was dreaming.
Although he didn't care about the professor's reprimand, the feeling was different and had never happened before. It made him very excited and novel, and at the same time he couldn't stop.
As a result, Kyle, who was giving him advice, was about to graduate.
"Don't worry, there may be another chance." Kyle said with a smile, "Remember to put away the remaining inventory and don't throw it away, otherwise it won't be there when you really need it."
"Ho ho, I believe you." Peeves said. He stood up straight, bent slightly under the incredulous eyes of the people around him, and saluted Kyle with an unprecedented grace.
Kyle bowed and returned the favor.
"Look, is that Peeves?" Ron asked in disbelief on the stairs, not even realizing that his voice was broken.
He had never seen Peeves like this...so polite?
But Ron's doubts were not answered, because Hermione and Harry were also confused. As the students who have been persecuted the most by Peeves, they know better than anyone how annoying the ghost is.
In the first grade, it was because of Peeves' yelling that they accidentally broke into the place guarding the Sorcerer's Stone and met the three-headed dog Luwei.
To be honest, if they hadn't run so fast, they might have become the three-headed dog's midnight snack.
"What did Kyle do?" Ron asked again.
"I don't know." Harry shook his head, "But as you can imagine, it's definitely not a simple matter."
He carefully thought about the things that had happened in school recently, but found that none of them matched.
"Could it be earlier?" Harry whispered, but he couldn't think of any intersection between Kyle and Peeves.
"Forget it, don't worry about it for now." Hermione smelled the strong sour smell coming from below, covered her mouth and nose with her sleeves and dragged the two of them to another place.
"Harry, you were talking about your plans for the holidays."
"I want to find other Horcruxes." Harry said in a low voice, "We know through Slughorn's memory that Voldemort must have divided his soul into seven parts. In addition to himself, there are six Horcruxes. .
We have found three pieces in total now, the crown, the gold cup was found by Kyle, plus the diary from the second grade, we are already halfway done.
"I want to take advantage of this vacation to find the remaining three Horcruxes."
"Oh, that's a good idea." Hermione said, "What do you have in mind? Or how can we find it?"
"You should know that there are no clues related to Horcruxes in the library."
"Of course, I know." Harry said mysteriously, "But if this library doesn't have it, it doesn't mean that other libraries don't have it either."
"Other libraries..." Ron frowned, "Is it Flourish and Blotts Bookstore? Don't be kidding, I don't want to stay in Diagon Alley throughout the holidays."
"No, it's not." Harry shook his head, "Remember? Sirius's house has a private library."
"You mean the one in the basement?" Hermione immediately thought of something.
"Yes." Harry said, "I just remembered not long ago that Kyle has been staying in there for a while. I suspect that he found clues about Horcruxes from a certain book."
"Are you sure?" Hermione was a little skeptical.
"Not sure, but you can give it a try." Harry said, "This is the only clue we have to find the Horcrux. If Kyle really saw it from there, the three of us can definitely find it."
"Okay!" Hermione agreed without much hesitation. Maybe she just wanted to read a book.
In short, this is how they planned their vacation.
…
I don't know if it's because of the Death Eaters or because Dumbledore left school again, but this year's vacation started earlier than before.
As usual, everyone thought they would leave school on the seventh day after the exam, but on the third day, the Hogwarts Express stopped at the Hogsmeade platform.
"The transcripts will be sent to you via owl in mid-July."
There was a faint cheer from the crowd, and they seemed happy to get their transcripts in this way instead of taking them back directly.
But more people remained silent. If they could, they would like to stay in school until the holidays are over.
Unfortunately, neither Dumbledore nor the other professors seem to have other things to do, and they cannot be here to watch everyone all the time.
Then at this time, no one noticed that a carriage behind them quietly left the team and came to an open space in front of the Quidditch pitch.
Kyle and Connor got off the carriage and looked around.
Someone was already waiting here in advance, and the other person's golden hair was shining in the sun.
"Seriously Kyle, you should have contacted me earlier."
Fleur Delacour walked up to Kyle and looked at him with a very dissatisfied look.
"If you had told me a week ago that Kangna was going to France, I would have had enough time to arrange everything to the best of my ability.
"But you actually only told me about such a big thing yesterday afternoon."
"Morning, morning..." Kyle's eyes wandered, "It will take time for the owl to deliver the letter."
"Is there any difference?" Fleur looked even more dissatisfied.
"The main reason is that I didn't know that school would let out early." Kyle shrugged and quickly changed the subject, "But why did you come to Hogwarts?"
"Oh, I'm here with Madam Maxime. She's here to see your Headmaster Dumbledore."
As he was talking, another person came over.
"Kyle, I've already contacted Gringotts in France." Bill ran over from not far away. "Luckily, there's a goblin there who used to work with me. He agreed to exchange the gold coins you provided for potion materials, and the price is favorable."
"Wait." Connor suddenly frowned, looked at Kyle and asked, "Are you going to Gringotts to buy potion materials? Didn't I say no? Professor Snape has prepared a lot, enough for me, and it's not cost-effective to buy materials now."
Gringotts has potion materials, or anything that can make money, they have it, but the price is expensive, and they don't bargain.
In addition, Voldemort and his Death Eaters are becoming more and more rampant, and now the price of potions in the wizarding world has soared, and the price of materials has also become much more expensive.
"It doesn't matter, France won't be affected much." Kyle said.
"Are you sure?" Connor glanced at him suspiciously. "Given the character of goblins, will they miss such a good opportunity?"
"Of course not." Bill said, "Those greedy goblins would like to take away all the Galleons from wizards."
He walked to Kyle, and Fleur beside him naturally put her arm around his arm, and the two acted very intimate.
"Yes, it's what you think." Fleur did not refute, and admitted it openly.
"Or, I'd better find someone else." Kyle said thoughtfully.
This time he wanted to find someone to send Kanna to France. The journey was long and the place was unfamiliar. He was not very confident if Kanna was alone.
As a native French, Fleur was naturally the first choice, and more importantly, she and Kanna had a good relationship during the Triwizard Tournament.
But now...looking at the two people in front of him, Kyle was really embarrassed to separate them.
"It's okay." Fleur waved her hand and said, "I just happened to have something to do and had to go back to France to help Ms. Maxime contact some of her friends. Besides, I can't help much if I'm here."
"Yeah, that's right." Bill nodded repeatedly beside him, as if he was afraid that Kyle would change his mind.
"Let Fleur go and take Connor. Paris is very big. We need someone familiar with the place to lead the way."
"Wait a minute, you two." Connor interrupted them. "Kyle, you haven't told me why you bought potion materials from Gringotts. I know you have Galleons, but you can't waste them like this. You'd better return them quickly."
"I can't return them." Kyle spread his hands. "The things have been bought. Do you think the goblins will return the Galleons they got?"
"You..." Connor blushed with anger at Kyle's wasteful behavior.
"Don't worry, it really didn't cost much." Kyle said with a smile.
But Connor obviously didn't believe it. The other party was a greedy goblin, not a philanthropist. How could he not spend much money?
"I'll testify." At this time, Bill said, and he couldn't help laughing.
"In fact, the goblin made a request before agreeing to sell the potion materials to me at a normal price."
"What request?" Connor frowned.
Needless to say, the conditions proposed by the greedy goblin are definitely the kind of lion's mouth. The hidden value will definitely not be less than the overflowing Galleons, and may even be more.
According to what Bill said, they agreed. Are these people fools?
"Ahem..." Bill cleared his throat and said with a forced smile: "He asked to pick something from Kyle's vault."
"What?"
Connor blinked, as if she didn't hear clearly.
"The goblin is willing to sell us the potion materials at normal prices, but the price is that for every discount of more than 500 Galleons, he has to go to Kyle's vault and pick one item to take away."
Now, Kanna was silent.
Only Fleur seemed very angry, "Greedy, shameless..."
"It's okay, don't get excited." Kyle said with a smile, "In fact, there is nothing in my vault."
"What?" Fleur was stunned for a moment. In her opinion, a young wizard like Kyle who has become famous at a young age must have a full vault.
Not to mention, the prize money of the Triwizard Tournament alone is 1,000 Galleons. In addition, Kyle himself is also an alchemist. Although not many people know this, it is not rare. After all, he invented many interesting magic props when he was in school.
As we all know, alchemists are very rich now.
"In fact, my things are all stored elsewhere." Kyle pursed his lips to prevent himself from laughing. "I haven't used the vault in Gringotts since the second grade. If I'm not mistaken, there should be only three or five Galleons and some Sickles in it."
"Please don't use 'only' to describe it." Bill joked: "Our vault even has only a pile of Sickles."
"That was in the past." Kyle said with a smile.
"So, the goblin miscalculated?" Fleur raised her eyebrows.
"Obviously, that's right." Kyle said, "I don't know where he got the news that there are good things in my collection, but unfortunately, not everyone likes to put valuable things in the Gringotts vault."
"How much did you trade?" Connor asked.
"Five thousand Galleons, and the discount is also five thousand Galleons... This is the best deal I've ever made. Even when there were no Death Eaters, it was difficult to buy dragon blood and mandrake grass for fifteen Galleons."
Kyle smiled even more happily, "By the way, Bill, remember to remind the goblin that he can't take more than one of the ten items."
"What if it's not enough?" Bill asked, "From what you said just now, it seems that there really isn't much in your vault."
"Then there's nothing we can do." Kyle shrugged, "We can only let him do the hard work and knock a few stones off the wall or the platform to take them away. Anyway, I can't give him any more, not even a single Knut."