Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts Castle, took pleasure in catching students who broke the rules and was widely disliked by most students.
For the first time, his typically grim and stern face squeezed out a smile, lifting his hollow cheeks and crisscrossing the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, making his smile look rather peculiar.
The skinny Mrs. Loris crouched at his feet, hooking her slender tail to Filch's trouser leg, staring motionlessly like a bulb at Vid.
Vid showed no sign of surprise and nodded, saying:
"You're talking about Cleaning Crabs? They can indeed help with cleaning, but they're not as thorough as House-Elves. They might not get everything very clean and sometimes overlook some hidden dirt spots."
"No worries, no worries." Filch said happily. "As long as they can work... how much do they cost?"
He asked, holding a heavy money pouch.
Hogwarts takes care of food and lodging year-round, and Filch spends all day at the school, rarely going out except occasionally to buy wine, so he doesn't have much to spend on.
Therefore, although the salary the school pays is not high, Filch still has a considerable nest egg, and he asked confidently.
"The Cleaning Crabs aren't finished products yet; if you want them, I could give you a cost price... fifteen Silver Sickles each." Vid said.
This was a very fair price, much better than Filch had expected. He immediately said lavishly, "Then I want to buy ten... no, twenty!"
Vid couldn't help but laugh, "There aren't that many. These crabs haven't been mass-produced; I've only made seven myself. Hmm... I'll keep one, and the remaining six can all be sold to you."
"Uh... fine."
Filch said slightly disappointedly, but thinking about how most of the troublesome cleaning tasks could be handed over to these crabs in the future, he felt happy again.
"Follow me." Vid said, "I keep the Cleaning Crabs in the activity room."
The two of them walked upstairs along the stairs. Filch was in high spirits, and his words followed suit.
"I'm really fed up with it... frog brains, rat intestines, and the mucus of slugs... those little devils always have these things all over the place..."
Filch couldn't help but complain and then said to Vid:
"Of course, you're an exception, kid. I know you've never got dirt all over the place... and those practicing Quidditch, they track mud everywhere..."
Students passing in the corridor saw someone actually walking with Filch and assumed he was caught by the caretaker, quickly dodging to the side and then looking at Vid with sympathetic eyes.
A few well-meaning junior students hurried off to give the other SSC members a heads up.
"Oh no, oh no!"
A little girl grabbed Padma's hand, panic-stricken, saying: "Filch caught Vid Gray, and he's coming after you too!"
"What!"
Padma was shocked, hurried back to the Umbrella House, and seeing most of the people there, quickly told them the news.
Everyone was shocked, saying: "How can he catch people?!"
"Did the last fighting incident get exposed?" Theo asked worriedly.
"Certainly, Malfoy and those guys have complained behind our backs!" Harry said confidently.
"He can't just catch people!" Padma stomped her foot, "I'll go find Professor Flitwick!"
She pulled open the door and dashed out, while Hermione grabbed her face and said sharply: "Forming our club doesn't violate school rules! I've memorized all the school rules!"
"Come on, Hermione, we've violated more school rules than we can remember ourselves!"
Fred slapped his palm loudly, saying: "What are you standing around for?! Pack your things and run!"
Awakened as if from a dream, everyone jumped up, hurriedly gathered stuff that might be violating rules, grabbed their backpacks, and dashed out of the Umbrella House.
The corridor was quiet, with no sign of an ambush.
They gasped for breath as they hid the stuff in a nearby empty classroom, yet couldn't resist turning around and sneaking back as if they were normal students.
"—Have you heard? Vid Gray has been caught."
"By whom?"
"Filch."
"I don't know what school rule he violated..."
The rumor spread swiftly among the students, faster than the flu.
Weasley Twins getting caught was no surprise, Gryffindors like Harry Hermione being caught was also quite commonplace, but seeing a top student, and a Ravenclaw at that, Vid Gray being caught, seemingly acting as the "guide", was certainly strange.
Thus, Vid noticed that there seemed to be more students than usual in the corridor today, all secretly observing him. But as soon as he looked over, they would all avert their gaze.
Some familiar classmates looked at him with complicated expressions.
Someone winked at him—'What's going on? Need help?'
Others stealthily took out various prank gadgets, seemingly preparing to give Filch a jolt to create an escape opportunity for him.
Realizing the reason quickly, Vid found it amusing. He shook his head at some people, signaling them not to make trouble.
But Filch didn't understand why the number of students in his sight was increasing, as if the entire school had come to the corridor. He glared fiercely at some people, ready to catch them by their tails.
Soon, the two arrived at the Umbrella House, with students watching from a distance at the corridor's end, seeing Vid successfully open the door while Filch stood at the entrance, not entering.
Even Mrs. Loris obediently crouched nearby, without displaying her usual arrogance.
A series of question marks burst from the heads of the students.
Until they saw Vid handing over a few Cleaning Crabs to Filch, with the caretaker counting several Golden Galleons and Silver Sickles to give to Vid, leaving happily with the crabs.
The students came to a sudden realization, followed by an unclear sense of resentment or disappointment.
The sound of footsteps echoed, Professor Flitwick almost pulled into a run by Padma, who kept yelling:
"Slow down, slow down... Oh, Merlin, don't run so fast... What happened, anyway?"
The girl who first spread the rumor shrank her head and quietly sneaked away.