The new student named Hermione quickly left with her dad.
As soon as she was gone, Fred pulled a strange face.
"She memorized all the textbooks..."
"Yep, Fred, you heard right." George tried hard not to laugh. "We really have another Percy on our hands."
Before starting school, Percy had also memorized all his textbooks, and Mrs. Weasley rewarded him with a brand-new set of robes.
"Which house do you think she'll be sorted into?" George asked.
Fred raised his eyebrows. "Isn't it obvious? Ravenclaw for sure."
"I think so too."
"No, I'm betting on Gryffindor." Kael, who hadn't spoken till now, suddenly chimed in. "Don't forget, Percy is in Gryffindor."
"That's different, Kael." Fred shook his head. "Our whole family is in Gryffindor."
George added, "Honestly, we think Percy actually wanted to be in Ravenclaw, but the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor."
Kael stroked his chin. "How about we make a bet, then?"
The moment he mentioned a bet, Fred and George perked up instantly.
"What's the wager?"
"How about a Galleon?"
Kael pulled out a gold coin and twirled it on his fingertips. "If she gets sorted into Ravenclaw, I'll give each of you a Galleon."
"..."
Fred and George exchanged glances, having a quick silent conversation.
Soon enough, they were on the same page.
Fred looked at Kael with a mischievous grin. "That's boring. How about we crank it up a notch?"
"How?"
"We'll bet this!" George fished out a Ton-Tongue Toffee from his pocket. "If that girl gets sorted into Ravenclaw, you have to eat this at the welcome feast."
"Are you sure?" Kael gave them a funny look. "What if she gets into Gryffindor?"
"Then we'll eat it," they said in unison.
Kael's expression got even funnier, and he took the toffee from George, barely holding back his laughter.
"Tsk, fine, you're on."
Fred and George stuck out their hands. "It's a deal!"
"Deal." Kael reached out, too, and shook hands with them.
Originally, he just wanted to earn some pocket money, but since Fred and George were so enthusiastic, he didn't mind watching the show instead.
The three of them let go and looked at each other, smiling, none of them mentioning the bet again.
Kael glanced at the station entrance and asked, a little puzzled, "It's been ages. How come Ron and Mrs. Weasley aren't in yet?"
"No idea. Maybe they bumped into another lost first year," Fred said.
"That sort of thing happens a lot at King's Cross Station."
George looked at the train. "Forget them for now, let's get onboard. Lee Jordan wrote me he got a massive tarantula as a pet—did anyone see him come in?"
Speaking of pets...
Kael unconsciously glanced at his own unimpressive-looking box.
Newt's reply had arrived that very afternoon; in it, he said yes to Kael adopting the Niffler.
Right now, the Niffler was in the box, and Kael had even come up with a lovely name for it.
Jerry.
After boarding the train, Fred and George quickly went off to find Lee Jordan, while Kael carried his luggage toward the rear of the train.
But before he'd taken two steps, a compartment door nearby suddenly opened, and a little head popped out.
Conna waved, "Kael, over here!"
Kael hurried over.
The only one inside was Conna, and when she saw Kael, she couldn't wait to slide the compartment door shut again.
Kael eyed her warily and subconsciously backed up two steps. "What do you want?"
"I have something to tell you."
Conna hadn't noticed Kael's reaction. Once the door was shut, she blurted out excitedly, "You know what? Professor Snape is actually my relative!"
"Yeah, I know."
"I couldn't believe it at first either, but...Eh?" Conna froze, stunned. "You, you knew?!"
"Of course." Kael grinned. "I also know Professor Snape's mother's maiden name is Prince."
Conna was left totally dumbfounded, just like that.
Wait, this wasn't how she imagined this scene at all.
Wasn't Kael supposed to be shocked—stunned? But...
Conna opened her mouth, awkward and dry, "How, how did you know?"
"My dad told me." Kael put his box on the luggage rack. "He was at school with Professor Snape, just happened to know a bit."
It really was Chris who'd told him, back when he came to school before the holidays.
Kael had just dropped a tentative question, not expecting Chris to really know the answer.
Conna frowned. "Then why didn't you tell me before?"
"Would you have believed me?" Kael shot back.
Conna hesitated, then shook her head dejectedly. Before this summer break, with all that had happened, she really wouldn't have bought such a wild story.
"Oh, right..." All of a sudden, Conna seemed to remember something, and asked suspiciously, "Did you have anything to do with Professor Snape coming to find me?"
Kael didn't deny it.
"Well, you pay, I deal with the trouble for you. So—did all those annoying things get sorted out?"
The letter Kael wrote on the very first day of vacation had gone to Snape. It was simple: just a rundown of how Conna was doing.
Admittedly, he might've exaggerated here and there, just by a teensy bit, but overall it was pretty accurate.
"Yeah, it's settled." Conna shot Kael a deep look.
"On the second day of vacation, Professor Snape came to my house, told me who he was, and took me to Gringotts."
Kael, halfway to pulling snacks out of his bag, paused. "Why'd he take you to Gringotts?"
Conna said, "He had the goblins reclaim my family's old vault and moved everything inside to his own vault."
"Wait... You mean Snape moved all your family's stuff into his vault?"
The more Kael heard, the weirder it sounded. What kind of maneuver was this from Snape?
Scared of someone stealing it, so he just stole it first?
Seriously, how is this any different from anyone else?!
Maybe sensing Kael's drift, Conna hurried to explain, "He doesn't want to keep it for himself, he's just looking after it for me."
"Yeah, I've heard that a million times..." Kael muttered gloomily, "Whoever believes that is an idiot."
"It's true." Conna said seriously. "Actually, there was barely any money left in my family's old vault. The only thing worth anything was probably the deed to our house.
But Professor Snape's vault is full of Galleons. He really has no reason to cheat me."
"Let's hope so..." Kael sighed. "Besides that, did he do anything else?"
"He bought my neighbor's house and stayed there the whole summer."
Saying this, Conna just couldn't help but smile. "Over the last two months, everyone who came to my house was chased away by him."
"Snape bought a house next to yours?" Kael's mouth twitched.
Okay, maybe his previous suspicions were a bit unfair.