When Kael returned to Ottery St Catchpole again, it was already evening.
As he finished his journey with the Portkey and jumped down from mid-air, he was greeted by a large group of people standing there.
Chris seemed to have known in advance that he would be returning and was early, waiting at the door.
"Dumbledore wrote saying you'd be back today," Chris said with a smile. "But I didn't expect it would be so late."
"The plan was for the afternoon, but something delayed it."
"No worries, just in time for dinner."
Chris opened the door.
Kael had just walked in, and before he could even take a sip of water, he eagerly asked, "Quick, tell me, what kind of person is Mr. Nicolas Flamel? I think… he must be a meticulous and disciplined scholar."
"Uh… sort of." Kael's expression turned a little odd.
Meticulous is hard to say...
But during this period, every time he met Nicolas, the latter was always wearing a pair of frog glasses, dressed in a floral shirt and shorts, lying on a chair listening to opera.
In a way, that could be considered a form of discipline.
"Dad, you haven't met Nicolas before?" Kael asked.
"No." Chris shook his head, jokingly saying, "After all, I'm not like you, who got a Merlin Order Medal at twelve."
Then he asked about some other matters.
To maintain Nicolas's image, Kael vaguely said a few words and quickly ended the topic with the excuse of putting away his luggage, then dashed upstairs.
His room was already filled with various exquisitely wrapped gifts, all sent for his birthday a few days ago.
But at the time, Kael was still with Nicolas Flamel, and the owls simply couldn't find him, so they had to send them here first.
But now was not the time to open gifts…
As Ladon flapped its wings and flew in through the open window, Fred and George's voices could also be heard outside.
"Kael, are you back?"
"Come out, look who we brought over!"
Kael poked his head out of the window and immediately saw the small figure behind them.
"Potter?"
"That's right!" Fred laughed heartily. "We rescued him from that cage."
"In Dad's flying car."
"The feeling was great, too bad you weren't back then."
Behind the two, Harry also waved happily at Kael.
Ron was right when he said their family lived indeed very close to Kael.
But compared to the Shabby Residence, Kael's house seemed much more normal, at least from the outside.
Afterwards, at Kael's invitation, Harry followed Fred and George into the house.
Inside was a large living room, even bigger than the Dursleys', but Harry didn't get a chance to look closely before Fred and George hurried upstairs.
He had no choice but to follow them up.
As soon as they reached upstairs, the twins forcefully pushed open Kael's room door and started questioning him.
"Kael, you said you'd only be gone a few days…"
"But it's been a month now…"
"Do you know how we spent this month!"
"Playing Quidditch on the clearing, bothering Percy, teasing Ron…" Kael said calmly. "Or maybe in your room studying the Skiving Snackbox?"
"I suppose Mrs. Weasley doesn't know yet that you've stashed them under the bed."
Fred and George exchanged a glance and immediately put on smiles.
"Haha, Kael, you guessed wrong…"
"Actually, we put them under Ron's bed."
Beside Harry, who had come along, Ron first stared at them dumbfounded, then blushed, saying:
"You never told me!"
No wonder Fred and George had been frequenting his room lately and even lent him a broom to play with.
Ron thought they'd turned good.
As it turns out, it was all a sham!
"Don't be angry, Little Ron, we just temporarily borrowed your bed." Fred said with a smile.
Ron frowned and said angrily, "No way, what if Mom finds out, take them away now!"
"Since you said so… alright then."
George sighed, "You're our brother, and you're not willing to help with even such a little thing, it's truly heartbreaking."
Fred also shook his head, "We were even thinking of giving you a gift when school starts, but now it seems we should just forget about it."
"Don't worry, we'll go get them right away, and Mom definitely won't find out."
Ron's face turned even redder.
He mumbled as if wanting to take back his words, but Fred and George didn't give him the chance.
They finished speaking and ran out of the room, back to pack their things.
While they were talking, Harry was curiously looking at that large pile of gifts in the room.
And he noticed that many of the gifts were wrapped with "Happy Birthday" on them.
Harry froze for a moment, turned his head, and whispered, "Ron, you should've told me earlier today was Kael's birthday. I didn't even get to prepare a gift."
"What… oh, it's not."
Ron finally came to his senses and shook his head, "Actually, Kael's birthday is on July 31st, many days have already passed."
"July 31st, isn't that…"
"Yes, Harry, Kael's birthday is on the same day as yours." Ron furrowed his brows, puzzled, "Didn't I mention it before?"
"Never…" Harry muttered.
But even as he said this, Harry felt like he had heard this piece of news somewhere.
"Oh, I remember, it was Hagrid who…"
After a moment's thought, he suddenly clapped his hands and exclaimed, "He mentioned it the first time he took me to Diagon Alley last year, saying Kael and I share the same birthday."
"What are you talking about?" At this point, Kael also noticed the two whispering.
"Nothing…" Harry quickly shook his head, "But Kael, you weren't home, so why are your gifts here, were they intercepted by house-elves too?"
"House-elves? Of course not." Kael shook his head, "It's just that the place I went to was a bit special, so the owls couldn't find it."
"But speaking of gifts… here, this is for you all, I made them myself."
Kael took two small boxes out of his pocket and tossed them to them.
The two hurriedly caught them.
In Harry's box was a badge.
"That's a waterproof and moisture-proof badge." Kael explained, "With it, playing Quidditch in the rain won't be a problem at all."
Initially, this was meant for Fred and George, but giving it to Harry was fine too, it wasn't much trouble, he could make another later.
"Thanks, this is awesome!" Harry put the badge on immediately, secretly deciding to get Kael a birthday gift next time he went to Diagon Alley.
Ron's gift was a custom-made… an automatic ink quill pen.
It would greatly improve the efficiency of doing homework, leaving more time for fun.
But for some reason, Ron didn't seem as thrilled.