After dinner, everyone returned to their respective common rooms.
On the way, Cedric was still pondering the earlier events.
"Why do you think Professor Snape was so angry?" He mused, rubbing his chin, "Could someone have stolen from his storage room during the Christmas holidays?"
Snape's private storage room wasn't exactly a secret at Hogwarts — most students knew about it.
Rumors claimed it contained extremely rare potion ingredients, with even the carpet made of dragon hide. Supposedly, any random item from there could fetch a handful of Galleons in Diagon Alley.
Given Snape's reaction earlier, if the storage room was involved, something valuable must have gone missing.
"Don't overthink it. He probably just received a Christmas gift he didn't like." Kyle said, taking out his wand and tapping the barrel in front of the common room entrance, "That petty man, complaining about gifts people give him."
Cedric gave him a sidelong glance, his eyebrows slightly raised.
The passage opened, and they both entered the common room.
Though they were only slightly late, the common room was already packed with students sprawled across wooden tables, frantically catching up on their holiday homework.
Students covered not just the tables but even the floor, their numbers still growing. In the vast common room, there wasn't even space to put your feet.
Kyle was somewhat shocked.
Was this some kind of Hufflepuff group activity? Would he seem antisocial if he didn't participate...
But he had already finished his homework — surely he didn't need to do it again?
"Don't be surprised, it was the same last year." Cedric said, patting his arm, "Our prefect always says holiday time is precious and shouldn't be wasted on homework."
The prefect he mentioned, who was also the Quidditch team captain Harris, was among the homework-catching-up army, bent over in a corner writing furiously. Though he had access to a table, he'd given it to some first-years.
No wonder he was made prefect.
With the common room like this, the library must be completely full too.
Kyle carefully navigated around all the parchment and ink on the floor, making his way to the dormitory entrance.
Just as he was about to push the door open, Cedric suddenly called out to him.
"Kyle..." He stood at the second-year dormitory entrance, looking over at him, "I really liked the Christmas gift you sent."
"Your gift was great too!" Kyle replied.
They looked at each other and simultaneously broke into practiced smiles.
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The first class after the break was Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration.
Within five minutes, Hufflepuff had lost twenty points. Their desperate "one pen, one lamp, one night, one miracle" operation from the previous night had clearly failed.
Even Kyle lost two points — he had lent his homework to Michael and Ryan, who had copied it word for word without even changing the names.
"If you lend them your homework again... I'll take twenty points!"
Minerva glared at him before returning to the podium.
"The holiday is over, time to focus. Today we'll learn how to transform rats into snuffboxes — one of this year's most important topics. I'll tell you now: it will definitely be on the final exam. Don't blame me if you fail because you weren't paying attention..."
At the mention of final exams, the students snapped to attention, carefully watching her and taking detailed notes.
Final grades at Hogwarts carried significant weight. Take Fred and George, for example — all they needed were two 'O's on their report cards to enjoy a peaceful summer vacation.
This was especially crucial for wizards from Muggle families, whose parents, understanding nothing of magic, focused solely on grades. Poor final marks couldn't be explained away.
After class, Minerva kept behind those who hadn't completed their homework, while the others quickly left. They still had assignments from other subjects to finish, and time was running short.
There was only one morning class, and Kyle had planned to read in the library before lunch, but when he arrived, it was already packed.
The common room was in the same state.
With no other choice, he went to the Great Hall to read for a while, treating it as an early lunch wait. Lunch consisted of scones and fried pork cutlets — one of his favorite combinations — but he had barely taken two bites when Michael and Ryan found him.
"Kyle, your Charms homework..."
"No, I won't lend it!" Kyle took a bite of his scone and glanced at them, "I don't want to be called out by Professor Flitwick again."
"Don't worry, it won't happen this time!" Michael raised his hand earnestly, "We were just too tired last night. We'll definitely modify it before turning it in today."
Kyle was deeply skeptical.
Last night, he had lent them all his homework, yet they had only managed to copy the Transfiguration assignment.
And when they'd returned to the dormitory, they were full of energy, showing no signs of tiredness — even enthusiastically playing wizard's chess before Kyle fell asleep.
With this precedent, how could he trust them again? He wouldn't fall into the same trap twice.
Besides, with less than two hours until Charms class, even simply copying would be rushed. He suspected Michael's idea of "modifying it" meant merely changing the names.
After lunch, his two persistent friends still wouldn't give up, following closely behind Kyle.
Finally, he found an opportunity to cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and gave them the slip.
Watching his roommates walk right past him, he felt incredibly grateful for learning the charm. This spell was invaluable — forget Avada Kedavra or Expelliarmus, invisibility was truly divine.
Praise be to the Disillusionment Charm.
Soon, Michael and Ryan disappeared around the corner.
The dormitory was definitely off-limits, so after some thought, Kyle decided to go straight to the Charms classroom. After all, he just needed a place to read, and anywhere would do.
Besides, compared to other places, the Charms classroom was much safer... because when there wasn't class, Michael and Ryan would absolutely never go near there.
✭✭✭
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