After some bargaining, Kael eventually bought that bunch of Gillyweed for fifteen Galleons.
Originally, Madam Prewett insisted on charging seventeen Galleons.
But after Kael effortlessly cast the Bubble-Head Charm, she immediately knocked off two Galleons and even offered to gift a bag of Dittany and Ruta Graveolens seeds.
Kael could see this was her final offer, so he wisely accepted it and happily completed the deal.
Madam Prewett packed the Gillyweed into a transparent box, sighing as she said, "I'm only giving you this deal because you like magical plants. Anyone else wouldn't have gotten such a big discount.
...With those seeds, I'm losing ten Galleons."
Kael smiled and said nothing.
The shopkeepers in Diagon Alley are quite savvy. Madam Prewett certainly wouldn't take too much of a loss... at least the cost she paid for the Gillyweed wasn't twenty Galleons.
Of course, it's one of those unspoken things—you just know. Besides, he actually made a small profit this time.
Elsewhere, you couldn't get Gillyweed for fifteen Galleons.
After leaving Madam Prewett's magical plant garden, Kael carefully put the little box into his Transfiguration Lizard Skin Bag.
His trunk was still with Dumbledore, so he had to make do for now.
"Hey, Kael!"
Hearing someone call his name, Kael looked up to see Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing by the entrance of Scrivenshaft's.
Each of them held a large strawberry peanut ice cream.
"Magical plant garden?" Harry said, surprised. "I thought you'd be reading somewhere like Percy."
"I've been reading for over a month; I need to do other things too," Kael said.
"I heard from Ron that you spent a month in Mr. Nicolas Flamel's private library," Hermione said enviously. "Six hundred years of collected books... it must be amazing there."
"Though I don't want to brag..." Kael said with a smile, "the month-long experience was quite rewarding."
"That's awesome..." Hermione said, even more envious, "I want to see it too, even if just for a glance..."
"You'll have a chance," Kael said.
"Hermione, isn't the school's library enough for you?" Ron grumbled, "There are hundreds of bookshelves there; even Headmaster Dumbledore couldn't finish all those books."
Hermione glared at him.
Though he wasn't wrong, a private library and a public one are totally different... Besides, the more books she could read, the better.
Seeing the atmosphere getting awkward, Harry quickly changed the topic: "Kael, we're about to buy parchment and ink; want to join us?"
"Sure, I need those too."
Then the four of them walked into Scrivenshaft's together.
Upon entering, Kael went straight to the shelves with parchment and ink, pointed to the two shelves at the bottom, and asked, "These should be enough for you, right?"
"They are, they are." Harry nodded repeatedly. "Mainly Hermione needs them. Ron and I just need a bit."
"Alright then..."
Kael looked at the store clerk and then said grandly, "Apart from these two... wrap up all the rest for me!"
"Splat..." Harry's ice cream fell to the ground.
He stared at Kael in disbelief, thinking he must have misheard.
"Kael, did you just say... you're buying all the parchment and ink here?"
"Yes, is there a problem?" Kael asked, "Oh, if you don't have enough, I can buy a bit less."
"Splat!"
Ron's ice cream also fell.
"There are at least three thousand sheets of parchment here, right... buying them all?"
In his view, even if you were eating parchment and drinking ink, you wouldn't use that much in a year.
But Kael just shrugged.
Three thousand sheets of parchment could only copy about a hundred books, even if he used them sparingly... and he found it not enough.
Compared to Harry and Ron, the store clerk was much calmer. After a brief surprise, they quickly helped Kael pack all the parchment.
"By the way," Kael suddenly said, "your gilded parchment, I'd like twenty sheets of those too."
"No, no problem!"
The clerk hurried over to the delicate shelf behind the counter and carefully opened a transparent cabinet door...
While the clerk fetched the items, Hermione walked over and said quietly:
"Kael, are you buying so much parchment to make maps?"
She hesitated, then continued, "If that's the case, I don't think you need to buy so much... In fact, I noticed someone making those kinds of maps before the holidays, and you might not sell many this year."
"Thanks for the heads-up, but don't worry about that," Kael waved it off. "Our products aren't static; this year's map is a completely new version you haven't seen.
Besides, I didn't buy all this just for map-making; there are other uses."
Though Hermione was very curious, she didn't say anything in the end.
She thought for a moment, then took out a few Galleons from her wallet and bought the remaining parchment.
Harry looked at the empty shelves, "Hermione, what do we do!"
Without looking up, Hermione said, "There should be other parchment here."
"There is."
The clerk packed the gilded parchment, then tapped the counter with a wand.
The shelves immediately refilled with new parchment and ink, but much less than before.
...
Because of having Kael as a big customer, Harry, Hermione, and Ron also got a decent discount.
After they left the store, Hermione glanced at Kael and asked, "The box you took out just now, it's enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm, isn't it?"
"Obviously, isn't it?" Kael nodded, "A normal box couldn't fit over three thousand sheets of parchment."
"So, on Halloween..." Hermione started but then realized something and quickly shut her mouth.
"What's with Halloween?" Harry turned back.
"It's nothing," Hermione said vaguely. "I just remembered Kael decorated a pumpkin with magic on Halloween and wanted to know what charm he used."
"Oh..." Harry replied absent-mindedly and didn't pay much attention to it.
Hermione finally breathed a sigh of relief; while Harry and Ron discussed where to go next, she lowered her voice and said, "The box you used to store the troll on Halloween was also enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm, right?"
"You guessed right..."
Kael didn't deny it, "It's just that it was another one."