What is it that has clouded my eyes?
"I actually think…" Pabi thought for a bit, then suddenly put on a galaxy-brain expression. "They want you to sing to the Golden Egg… ow!"
Before she could finish, Cassandra chopped her on the head with a hand‑knife.
Pabi stuck out her tongue and stopped talking.
"Maybe it has something to do with some kind of Magical Creatures?" Cassandra propped up her chin. "Think about it, such a strange sound, it might be the cry of some Magical Creatures or something—"
"What kind of normal Magical Creatures would make a sound like that…" Neville muttered under his breath.
"Then what kind of sound would abnormal Magical Creatures make?" Fred and George said, snickering. "Think about it, what kind of sound?"
No one paid attention to the two jokers. Luna's airy voice suddenly rang out.
"Maybe we can try opening it in a different way." She sounded almost like she was chanting. "I think maybe we're just not opening it the right way."
"Not opening it the right way?" Harry asked, baffled. "There are other ways to open it? Or am I supposed to change my pose or something…"
Pabi looked up. She kept feeling like she'd thought of something, but couldn't remember what exactly it was.
"No rush." Ron said around a mouthful of pie. "It's still early, it's only the beginning of November. The second task isn't till next year, February twenty‑fourth. We don't have to be so desperate to figure out the correct way to open that Golden Egg yet, do we?"
"You're right." Harry took Ron's advice, stuffed the Golden Egg back into his money pouch, and cheerfully raised his Butter Beer. "Keep the music going, keep the party flowing!"
Right at that moment, Neville suddenly turned into a big canary, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"Yo—sorry, Neville!" Fred shouted over everyone's laughter. "I forgot—these are the custard cookies we've enchanted—"
Thankfully, in under a minute Neville shed his feathers, and once they'd all fallen off, he looked completely normal again.
He even started laughing along with everyone else.
"Canary Cookies!" Fred yelled to the excited crowd. "Invented by me and George—seven Silver Sickle a piece, dirt cheap!"
"I want ten!" Pabi raised her hand high. "What a delightful invention, I feel like I absolutely need ten…"
"You want to turn into a big fat bird?"
When she said that, Cassandra even shot a jealous glance at Pabi's magnificent curves.
"Oh, not that, I just find it funny, that's all." Pabi giggled. "Just imagine, if Vivi ate one of these cookies, what would she look like?"
Hearing Pabi's words, Cassandra couldn't help but start imagining the scene in her head…
Vivi eats the Canary Cookies she prepared, and with a pop turns into an oversized canary…
"I'll buy them all." Cassandra said, eyes firm.
"Oh, esteemed Miss Malfoy." The twins looked at her like they were gazing upon God. "You are so generous, so generous… your generosity is enough to light up the entire Hogwarts Castle!"
As they spoke, the two of them fished out a pile of Canary Cookies from their money pouch. "We made two hundred in total, used four today, Miss Swedding reserved ten, so there are a hundred and eighty‑six left… let me figure out how much that comes to…"
He pulled out parchment and quill and started doing the math, scratching his cheek as he calculated.
You have to understand, the currency in the Magic World is kind of ridiculous—one Golden Galleons equals seventeen Silver Sickle, which makes the math stupidly annoying…
"You don't have to." Hermione said. "It's seventy‑six Golden Galleons plus ten Sickle in total."
"Got it." The twins stood up, snickering, and said to Cassandra, "In that case, esteemed Miss Malfoy… we'll waive the extra ten Sickle. A flat seventy‑six Golden Galleons—special friends' discount."
Cassandra didn't say anything. She simply whipped out her purse, paid crisply, and swept all the cookies into her bag.
She was planning to properly "take care of" Vivi—with these cookies…
At that thought, flames of vengeance blazed up in her eyes.
She absolutely had to turn that woman into a canary!