Chapter 49: Finding Bubba a Mate
Chapter 49: Finding Bubba a Mate
"What nonsense about a Three-Headed Dog? I've never raised a Luewei!"
Hagrid seemed to have stepped on an electric wire, so excited that even his beard was trembling. He pointed at Kyle and exclaimed, "How dare you slander me out of the blue!"
"Ohhh..." Kyle suddenly realized, "So its name is Luewei, that's a pretty good name."
Hagrid's expression froze, quickly denying, "I didn't... I didn't say anything, you must have misheard."
He couldn't bring himself to admit it.
In all of Hogwarts, what he feared most was Kyle discovering the existence of Luewei. Even Dumbledore would have to take a back seat.
Kyle's father, Chris, was the Deputy Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, which was in charge of creatures like Luewei with mysterious origins.
If Kyle wrote home about this, Luewei would definitely be taken away, and Hagrid wouldn't know if it would live or die.
He might even be sent to Azkaban himself.
Thinking of the possibility of Luewei being killed and that cursed place, Azkaban, Hagrid broke into a cold sweat.
"No way, I can't admit it."
Hagrid put on a stern face, trying to scare Kyle off with what he thought was a menacing expression.
With his towering height of over three meters and a fierce look, he did seem quite intimidating.
If one ignored Hagrid's wandering eyes and the cold sweat on his forehead, Kyle might have believed him.
"Okay, I must have misheard. You don't have a Three-Headed Dog," Kyle waved his hand, "Consider it a random fact you heard, goodbye."
"Oh, and one more thing," Kyle walked a few steps and suddenly turned back, "If your little dog shows signs of loss of appetite, restlessness, or depression, don't worry. Just release it into the Forbidden Forest."
Since Hagrid didn't want him to see Luewei, he could just look away. After all, there would be plenty of opportunities next year.
Besides, what's the point of a small dog? A bigger one would be better. Once Luewei was locked up in that room on the fourth floor, he could look at it all he wanted. He could even pluck some fur and knit a pair of socks without any issues.
Leaving the Forbidden Forest, Kyle strolled casually across the lawn. As he approached the castle gate, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure darting past.
Intrigued, Kyle walked over and found a tiny figure crouching in the bushes by the castle gate, poking their head out as if searching for something.
"Conna, what are you doing here?" Kyle asked curiously.
"Who's there!"
The sudden voice startled Conna, and it took her a while to recover.
"I... I'm looking for something," Conna glanced at Kyle and continued searching through the bushes.
Seeing this, Kyle took out his wand, "At this rate, you'll never find it. Let me help."
Conna seemed to have guessed his thoughts and shook her head, "It won't work. I dropped a Galleon, and the Summoning Charm is useless."
Every magical currency in the Wizarding World, whether it's a Galleon, Sickle, or Knut, has an anti-Summoning Charm, much like a watermark, as a basic anti-theft measure.
Hearing this, Kyle had no choice but to put away his wand and help search on the other side.
Conna didn't want to trouble Kyle, which was why she hadn't told anyone and had come here to search on her own.
But thinking of her situation, she hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Thank you... thank you."
"It's no big deal, we're friends, right?"
Kyle casually waved his hand and said, "By the way, how many Galleons did you lose?"
"Twenty."
Kyle thought he had misheard and blurted out, "What?!"
"Twenty," Conna whispered, "Maybe more. I've been losing Galleons since I started school, and these are the last ones."
"Oh..."
Kyle smacked his lips and bent down without a word to start searching through the bushes.
Damn, losing twenty Galleons at once, Kyle thought, if it were him, he'd probably even consider killing someone.
...
The bushes by the castle gate were not small, and it took the two of them over an hour to search through them.
But the results were disappointing.
Not only did they not find any Galleons, but they didn't even find a single Knut.
Kyle stood up and, rubbing his eyes, asked, "Are you sure you dropped them here?"
"I... I don't know."
Conna fell silent for a moment, then said, "They were still there before Herbology class yesterday, but this morning they suddenly disappeared."
"Could it have been during Flying Class?" Kyle thought for a moment and asked, "Have you checked the Quidditch Pitch?"
Read the error-free version at 69 Book Bar! 6=9+Book_Bar.
"I searched there this morning," Conna replied. "It's not at the Quidditch Pitch or the castle, and if it's not here, then the only place left is the Greenhouse."
"The Greenhouse. It's not there," Kyle said firmly.
He couldn't say for sure about other places, but he was one hundred percent certain that no one had lost anything in the Greenhouse. The ground there was spotless.
He had looked very carefully.
"Why don't we search again?" Kyle suggested, "What if we missed it earlier?"
"No need," Conna shook her head.
She had never found the Galleons she had lost before, and it would likely be the same this time. It was hard to imagine that someone could lose Galleons and then find them again.
"Alright," Kyle didn't insist. In his opinion, someone like Conna, from a pure-blood family wearing a Muggle-born robe, wouldn't be short on Galleons.
Twenty or thirty Galleons, he estimated, wouldn't be something she'd be too concerned about.
He patted the dirt off his robe and casually said, "Before your owl arrives, do you need me to lend you some?"
Conna's eyes went blank for a moment, and after a brief silence, she said, "It's fine. You don't need Galleons at Hogwarts, I can just go to Gringotts after Christmas to get some."
"But what about rat medicine during this time..." Conna hesitated, "Can I pay you after Christmas?"
Kyle paused as he patted his robe, then looked at Conna and said, "Don't worry about that. Even if you pay next year, it's no problem."
After Kyle finished cleaning his robe, the two of them walked towards the castle together.
On their way, Kyle curiously asked, "By the way, where's your rat? I haven't seen you with it."
"Poochie?" Conna rarely showed a smile when talking about her pet, "It's playing with Daphne's hamster in the dormitory."
"How can a vole and a hamster play together?" Kyle pouted, "I have a friend, Percy Weasley from Gryffindor, who has a vole. I'll introduce them later.
By the way, is your Poochie male or female?"
Conna's face turned a bit red, but she whispered, "Female, female."
"Then that's perfect," Kyle's eyes lit up, "Percy's Bubba is male. Why don't we just pair them up and have a litter of baby rats next year?"
...
(End of Chapter)
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