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Seeing that the cowardly quintet were still hiding behind Sirius, I clicked my tongue in irritation.
'Traitorous students,' I muttered to myself.
Deciding I would deal with them another time, I pushed that dissatisfaction to the back of my mind.
Then, crossing my arms, I looked at Sirius.
"Okay, Sirius. What did you come to tell us?" I asked, impatient.
"Huh? How did you know I wanted to talk to you?" he asked back, raising an eyebrow.
Snorting, I rolled my eyes. "It's practically written all over that idiot face of yours."
"???"
Stunned, Sirius began to wonder if he had somehow annoyed me today.
'No, seriously… did I really miss something?'
'And why does Ethan look like he's about to draw his wand and jinx me?' he thought, grimacing.
But then, shaking his head, he brushed those doubts aside, convincing himself he was just imagining things.
"Ahem," Sirius cleared his throat. "Ethan's right, I really did come here to talk to you."
With that, he drew everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.
He then continued, "First of all, I should say that before coming here, I was in a meeting with Fudge, in Dumbledore's office."
"But since the subject of that meeting wasn't particularly important, I won't go into details."
"What really matters is that, before Fudge left, he asked me to deliver something to you three." He looked at Harry, Fleur, and me.
Sirius then slipped his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a pouch.
The pouch was simple, dark blue in color. Embroidered in silver upon it was the crest of the British Ministry of Magic.
With a casual motion, he tossed the pouch to Harry, who caught it by reflex.
Looking down at the item in his hands, Harry tilted his head curiously. Before the green-eyed boy could ask what it was, Sirius continued.
"There you go. The incredibly impressive prize promised to the champion — now champions — of the Triwizard Tournament… one thousand genuine, precious Galleons."
"A thousand Galleons…" Harry repeated, slightly surprised.
Everyone's gaze — especially that of the group's only redhead — fell upon the small blue pouch. At first glance, it seemed modest and small, yet with a few Expansion Charms, it would be effortless to fit more than a thousand coins inside.
"So then? Happy you won this money?" Sirius asked us, smiling.
However, instead of the cheerful, affirmative response he expected, he received only silence.
"Uh." The dog-man's smile faltered.
Realizing we had all gone quiet, he sensed something was wrong.
"What is it? You didn't like it?" he asked, concerned.
"Oh, no… it's not that," Harry replied quickly, shaking his head.
His gaze toward the pouch was peculiar.
"The truth is I kind of… forgot there was a prize of a thousand Galleons."
"You… forgot?" Ron finally tore his intense stare away from the pouch and looked at his friend. The expression on his face was pure disbelief.
"Yes…" Harry nodded, scratching the back of his neck, somewhat embarrassed.
Seeing that, I let out a soft, amused huff.
"Honestly? I'd forgotten about it too."
Fleur nodded naturally. "That makes three."
"You… how can you…" Ron could only point at us, stunned.
After hearing our answers, Sirius merely shook his head wryly.
"Well, you went through a lot that night. It's normal you forgot."
"And, to be honest, I think most people also forgot there was prize money for winning the tournament."
"But don't say that to Fudge… He might get sad if he finds out no one cared about the prize he prepared with such dedication," he joked.
"Gasp… What are you saying!?" I placed a hand over my chest, wearing a falsely offended look. "We would never dare wound the feelings of our wonderful and competent Minister!"
"Of course you wouldn't. My mistake," Sirius apologized, adopting a solemn expression.
For a few seconds, the two of us stared at each other in absolute silence, perfectly serious.
Then, the next instant, we both burst into laughter.
When we finally stopped laughing, I paused to catch my breath.
"You know, I've noticed our dear Minister has been very stressed lately," I began, "So, thinking about that, I had an idea: what if we did something to brighten his day?"
"Oh? And what sort of thing would that be?" Sirius asked, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye.
"Well, I was thinking of sending him a… present." I smiled mischievously.
"A present?" The Animagus paused… and then a smile similar to mine appeared on his face. "Heh… I think I know exactly what kind of 'present' you're talking about."
And at that moment, without Fudge knowing it, he had just become the primary target of a particularly troublesome and playful duo.
"Okay, enough joking around. You're getting off topic," Hermione interrupted our conversation, rolling her eyes at us exasperatedly.
"We're just lightening the mood a bit," Sirius waved it off. "And besides, there's not much else to say."
"I only came to deliver this prize to you three. And now that you have it in your hands, just take it and enjoy it."
Saying that, Sirius stepped back, gesturing toward Fleur, Harry, and me.
Realizing the decision was now up to us, Harry turned to Fleur and me.
"Well… then I suppose now we just need to divide the Galleons equally among the three of us," he said, slightly lifting the pouch.
"You two can split the money between yourselves. I don't need it," I waved a hand dismissively, ignoring the offered gold coins.
Some might consider my indifference arrogance or snobbery. However, I had hundreds of thousands of those coins in my Gringotts vault. This small amount did not attract me in the slightest.
And that had already been true even before I became the heir of Nick and Penny, who possessed the only known alchemical artifact capable of creating gold from nothing.
In practice, one could say there was no one richer than me in the wizarding world.
After my refusal, Harry simply nodded, as if he had already expected such an answer from me.
He then turned to Fleur, looking at her with a questioning raised eyebrow.
Seeing that, the beautiful Veela shook her head.
"You can keep those coins. I don't want them either," she said, lips pursed.
Unlike me, she wasn't refusing the thousand Galleons out of wealth — though, truthfully, she was quite rich
The true reason was that she did not believe she deserved anything for winning the tournament.
She felt unworthy of receiving the prize and, in her mind, believed her victory had been false.
Furthermore, she still harbored a certain resentment toward the Ministry and Fudge, which made her unwilling to accept anything that came from them.
Realizing neither of us wanted the money, Harry made an awkward face. The idea of being the only one to accept the prize clearly made him uncomfortable.
He looked between the pouch in his hand and Fleur and me for a few seconds, uncertain.
But then, as if he had reached a decision, a determined glint flashed in his eyes.
"Well… in that case, I don't want it either," he declared firmly, handing the pouch back to Sirius.
"Err… are you sure about that?" Sirius asked, hesitant.
"Yes," the three of us nodded.
"Okay…" he said slowly.
His gaze dropped to the pouch in his hands, his face twisting into a puzzled grimace.
"Sooo… what do I do with these Galleons now?"
At that question, we all fell silent, thoughtful.
The only one who clearly wasn't thinking about what to do with the money was Ron, who had a stunned look on his face as he stared at us.
"I think we should return this money to the Minister," Harry suggested, breaking the silence.
"Hmm, perhaps that really is the best option," Hermione nodded in agreement.
Sirius, Luna, Fleur, and I began to consider the suggestion.
Realizing we were about to get rid of the gold coins, Ron shook his head frantically, forcing himself out of his stunned state.
"Hey, wait a second!" he exclaimed, drawing our attention to him.
Stepping forward, he stopped in front of us.
"Guys, you're not seriously thinking of giving all that money back, are you?" he asked, a strange expression on his face.
"Actually, we are," I replied, shrugging.
Hearing that, his eyes widened comically.
"You… are you insane?!" he shouted, incredulous and desperate. "That's a thousand Galleons! Do you have any idea how much money that is!? Do you know what you can buy with that!?"
"Well… I once read in a newspaper article that a thousand Galleons is the annual income of some pureblood families," Luna commented, tapping a finger against her chin.
Tilting her head, she added, "And I read in that same article that this amount could also support some ordinary wizarding families for a decade — or even more, if well managed."
"Exactly!" Ron nodded vehemently. "With that money you could live for years, maybe decades, without needing to work!"
"And now you're seriously thinking of throwing that opportunity away?!"
End.
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