When Kael came out of the Headmaster's Office, he had not only the Demon Suppression Potion but also a feather in his hand.
A warm Phoenix Tail Feather.
Fawkes had pulled it out and given it to him as a farewell gift when he was about to leave.
Trading a bellflower for a fresh Phoenix Tail Feather, Kael gained more than he lost.
Such a generous Phoenix.
After leaving the eighth floor, Kael quickly headed towards the Quidditch Pitch.
However, when he arrived, he saw a group of badgers carrying Cedric, rushing anxiously towards the Hospital Wing.
At the same time, they were cursing nonstop:
"Those shameless Slytherin scums."
"Rude behavior, dirty tactics, they're not worthy of playing Quidditch!"
"Slytherin's team should be disqualified!"
Cedric, being carried by the badgers, was holding his head with one hand and clutching his right leg with the other, looking in great pain.
Seeing this, Kael hurriedly followed them.
From the badgers' conversation, it wasn't hard to deduce that Cedric was injured, and it was the Slytherin players' doing.
Kael found Ryan and Mikel in the crowd and quickly walked over, patting one of them on the shoulder, "What happened on the pitch?"
Ryan jumped in surprise, turning around in astonishment, "Kael... where were you just now, why are you only getting here now?"
"The headmaster wanted to see me, I was in the Headmaster's Office." Kael explained briefly and asked again, "Never mind me, how's Cedric?"
At this, Ryan's face turned red with anger, "It's those shameless Slytherin guys; you wouldn't believe it, Cedric was just about to catch the Snitch, we were so close to winning...
But then the Slytherin captain punched him in the head while Cedric was focused on the Snitch, knocking him off his broom."
"Exactly." Mikel said angrily as well, "Do you know what his excuse was? That shameless guy actually told Madam Hooch he mistook Cedric's head for the Quaffle!
That rude idiot, underdeveloped gorilla, he's not fit to participate in this event, he should be sent off!"
"This isn't football, Mikel." Ryan reminded him, "In Quidditch, you can't send someone off..."
Mikel insisted, "Even so, just giving Hufflepuff a free shot isn't fair!"
With Ryan and Mikel's back-and-forth explanation, Kael quickly understood what happened.
Just as he had suspected.
Unable to win through normal means, they resorted to underhanded tactics. Typical Slytherin.
Soon, the group arrived at the Hospital Wing.
"By Merlin's beard, what on earth happened!"
Madam Pomfrey looked extremely angry, "Fractured nose bone, and the right leg completely broken, I don't understand why Hogwarts hosts such dangerous matches."
"Every year someone ends up here, every single year..."
Madam Pomfrey swiftly mended Cedric's broken leg in a second, then ushered everyone out.
But she left Kael behind.
With freshly healed bones, Cedric couldn't move yet, so he needed someone to take care of him. There were other patients in the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey couldn't handle all of them by herself.
Among the group, Madam Pomfrey only had any impression of Kael, so the task naturally fell to him.
While closing the door, she continued to tut and complain about how dangerous the sport was and how incompetent the teachers were.
Kael sat next to the bed and poured Cedric a glass of water, "How are you feeling?"
"My leg still hurts a bit." Cedric said as he moved his shoulder, "But it's much better."
Madam Pomfrey's skills were undeniable. If Cedric's broken limb were an arm instead of a leg, he'd probably be discharged by now.
"It's just a pity about the match; we were thirty points ahead."
Cedric leaned back on the pillow and sighed dejectedly, "If only I had paid more attention to my surroundings back then."
"It's okay, it's just one match, winning or losing isn't important." Kael comforted him, "Besides, fouling in the match is Slytherin's tradition. Even if you avoided it this time, they'd still trouble you later. If you kept avoiding them, you wouldn't be able to catch the Golden Snitch."
"You're right." Cedric said, scratching his head in frustration, "But what about the future matches?"
There was more than one match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin; under normal circumstances, they'd meet at least three more times.
Cedric certainly didn't want to be hospitalized three more times.
"No worries." Kael thought for a moment and said, "You just focus on recovering, leave the rest to me."
"You're planning to join the Quidditch team?" Cedric asked excitedly, "What position do you want to play? Beater perhaps?"
"You wish." Kael scoffed, "The matches have already started. Unless a player quits voluntarily, there's no way I can join the team even if I wanted to."
Hogwarts' Quidditch rules clearly state that each house has only one recruitment opportunity, which is limited to the second week after school starts.
But usually, the captains of each house select their players by the weekend of the first week and report the names to Madam Hooch during the permitted time in the second week.
This way, the new players get three more opportunities for group training, and the professors don't worry about such trivial matters.
But after the second week, Madam Hooch won't allow adding new players unless someone quits, leaving the team shorthanded, and an exception needs to be made.
However, such situations rarely occur because quitting isn't that simple either.
Only under unavoidable circumstances, like transferring schools, expulsion, or due to physical reasons making it impossible to continue playing Quidditch, will Madam Hooch allow mid-season replacements.
Otherwise, forget it.
Madam Hooch is extremely firm on this point.
"Then why did you say leave it to you... wait, you're not planning to go causing trouble for Slytherin, are you?"
Cedric seemed to realize something, speaking with a serious expression, "Don't do anything against school rules. I just broke a leg, it's not that serious.
Besides, you're only a first-year, and those Slytherin players are mostly over third-year. They're just waiting for you to cause trouble for them.
And Professor Snape wouldn't..."
"Hold on a sec."
Seeing Cedric's thoughts getting more absurd, Kael quickly interrupted him, raising an eyebrow, "What first-year, third-year talk, you didn't think I was going to duel them, did you?"
"Uh, no?" Cedric's expression froze.
"You wish." Kael gave him an unimpressed look, "I think Madam Pomfrey should come back and check on your brain."