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Chapter 254: Shopping Spree
Chapter 254: Shopping Spree
After some haggling, Kyle managed to bargain the price of the Gillyweed down to fifteen Galleons.
Mrs. Prue had initially insisted on seventeen, but after witnessing Kyle effortlessly cast a Bubble-Head Charm, she immediately reduced the price by two Galleons and even offered a bag of Borage and Rue seeds as a gift.
Kyle could tell that this was her final offer, so he wisely took the deal and concluded the transaction amicably.
Mrs. Prue sighed as she placed the Gillyweed into a transparent box, saying, "I'm only giving you such a large discount because I can see how much you appreciate magical plants. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't budge on the price... Including those seeds, I'm taking a loss of ten Galleons on this deal."
Kyle smiled but remained silent.
The shopkeepers in Diagon Alley were notoriously shrewd, and Mrs. Prue certainly knew how to drive a hard bargain... At the very least, she probably didn't pay twenty Galleons for the Gillyweed herself.
Of course, such matters were best left unsaid. It was enough to know that he had made a small profit on this deal.
Elsewhere, fifteen Galleons wouldn't even buy you Gillyweed.
After leaving Mrs. Prue's Magical Plant Garden, Kyle carefully placed the small box into his Chameleonic Lizard Skin Bag.
His trunk was still with Dumbledore, so he had to make do with the bag for now.
"Hey, Kyle!"
Hearing someone call his name, Kyle looked up and saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing at the entrance of Scribbulus, each holding a large strawberry peanut ice cream.
"Magical Plant Garden?" Harry said, sounding surprised. "I thought you'd be like Percy, buried in a book somewhere."
"I've been reading for over a month now," Kyle replied. "It's time to mix things up a bit."
"I heard from Ron that you spent a month in Mr. Nicoll's private library," Hermione said, a hint of envy in her voice. "Six hundred years' worth of books... It must have been amazing."
"Well, I don't want to brag..." Kyle said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth, "but the experience was definitely enlightening."
"That's so cool..." Hermione's envy deepened. "I'd love to just take a peek inside, even if just for a moment..."
"There'll be an opportunity someday," Kyle assured her.
"Hermione, aren't the school libraries enough for you?" Ron rolled his eyes and muttered, "There are hundreds of shelves there, and I bet even Headmaster Dumbledore hasn't read all those books."
Hermione shot him a disdainful glance.
While what he said was true, there was a world of difference between a private library and a public one... And surely, the more books one could read, the better.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Harry quickly changed the subject. "Kyle, we're just about to buy some parchment and ink. Want to come with us?"
"Sure, I need to get some myself."
The four of them stepped into Scribbulus together.
As soon as he entered, Kyle made a beeline for the counter displaying parchment and ink, pointing to the bottom two shelves. "These should be enough for you guys."
"More than enough," Harry nodded vigorously. "Hermione's the one who really needs it. Ron and I only need to buy a small amount."
"In that case..."
Kyle turned to the shop assistant and, with a grand gesture, said, "Bag those up, along with everything else on these two shelves!"
"Splat..." Harry's ice cream hit the floor.
He stared at Kyle, mouth agape, wondering if he had heard correctly.
"Splat!"
Ron's ice cream also dropped to the floor.
"There must be at least three thousand sheets of parchment here... you're buying it all?"
In his opinion, even if one ate parchment and drank ink, they wouldn't go through this much in an entire school year.
But Kyle merely spread his hands.
Three thousand sheets of parchment, even if he used them sparingly, would only be enough to copy a hundred books... and he still thought it wouldn't be enough.
Compared to Harry and Ron, the shop assistant's mental fortitude was far superior. After a brief moment of surprise, they quickly helped Kyle move all the parchment off the shelves.
"Right." Kyle suddenly said, "Where's your gilded parchment? I'll take twenty sheets of that as well."
"No, no problem at all!"
The assistant quickly scurried behind the counter to a delicate shelf, carefully opening a transparent cabinet door...
Taking advantage of the assistant's absence, Hermione walked over and spoke in a low voice, "Kyle, you're not buying all this parchment to make maps, are you?"
She hesitated, then continued, "If that's the case, I don't think you need to buy so much... In fact, before the holidays, I noticed someone else making those maps. You probably won't sell many this year."
"Thanks for the heads-up, but don't worry about it," Kyle waved his hand dismissively, "Our product isn't stagnant. This year's map will be a completely new version that you've never seen before.
And I'm not just buying this for maps, I have other uses for it too."
Hermione was extremely curious, but in the end, she didn't press the matter further.
She thought for a moment, then took out a few more Galleons from her wallet and bought the remaining parchment.
Harry looked at the now-empty shelves, "Hermione, what do we do now?"
Without looking up, Hermione replied, "There should be other parchment here, right?"
"Yes, there is."
The assistant packaged the gilded parchment and then tapped the counter with their wand.
New parchment and ink immediately appeared on the shelves, but in much smaller quantities than before.
...
Thanks to Kyle's large purchase, Harry, Hermione, and Ron also received a nice discount.
After leaving the store, Hermione glanced at Kyle and asked, "That box you took out earlier, is it an Undetectable Extension Charm?"
"That's obvious, isn't it?" Kyle nodded, "A normal box couldn't hold over three thousand sheets of parchment."
"So, on Halloween..." Hermione trailed off as she suddenly realized something and quickly shut her mouth.
"What about Halloween?" Harry turned around.
"Nothing." Hermione mumbled, "I just remembered that Kyle used magic to decorate a pumpkin on Halloween, and I wanted to ask him what spell he used."
"Oh..." Harry replied absentmindedly, not giving it much thought.
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, and as Harry and Ron discussed where to go next, she lowered her voice and asked, "The box you used to contain the troll on Halloween, was that also an Undetectable Extension Charm?"
"You guessed it..."
Kyle didn't deny it either, "But that was a different one."
(End of Chapter)
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