Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another month had passed.
During this period, Kyle finally received The Phoenix's Vow, which he had been longing for, sent by Alfred from France.
Throughout this time, Kyle basically ran to Snape's office every night.
Although the old bat had a sharp tongue, a bad temper, greasy hair, and tacky taste...
Okay, fine, aside from his high attainment in Potions and being sufficiently devoted in love, he had no good points.
Because Snape's talent in Potions was obtained by sacrificing his abilities in other areas, such as his emotional intelligence.
So, having studied Potions for decades, Snape's skills in this field were not to be underestimated.
As a Potions Master, guiding a beginner like Kyle was more than easy for him.
Under Snape's "meticulous" guidance, Kyle's grades in Potions improved rapidly.
Of course, aside from studying Potions, the devilish training for the Hufflepuff Quidditch players was not neglected either.
Kyle handed the custody of the suitcase over to Cedric.
As the little badgers' Quidditch skills improved, the frequency of their injuries became lower and lower.
At least they didn't need Kyle and Hannah standing by the training field at all times, ready to heal them like in the beginning.
Serious injuries were sent to the Hospital Wing; for minor injuries, they would wait until training ended for either Hannah or Kyle to treat them.
Cedric already had rich experience and a perfect process for handling the various situations that occurred in the Quidditch training ground, so Kyle didn't need to worry about it much.
At lunch that day in the Great Hall, George and Fred sought out Kyle.
"Kyle! I've got something good here!"
Like he was offering a treasure, Fred fished a large lump of white...
...sticky...
...mud out of his trousers.
Kyle felt a sudden burst of excitement. Could this be the thing he was thinking of?
"I call it Explosive Clay!" Fred's words confirmed Kyle's guess.
"You made it?" Kyle raised an eyebrow. "Can it be mass-produced? What's the cost?"
Compared to the power of the Explosive Clay, Kyle was more focused on its cost-efficiency.
"No problem at all. For a few Galleons, I can manufacture several tons. It mostly consumes the user's magic power," Fred answered with a face full of pride.
George ruthlessly tore him down. "Where are you getting Galleons? You can't even take out ten Sickles."
Fred's face instantly turned black, and he shoved his face right into George's, glaring at him angrily.
"Alright, alright, stop fighting. Let's go test its power by the Black Lake after we eat."
"No need for all that trouble," Fred waved his hand. "We can test it right here in the Great Hall."
He tore off a small piece of clay and kneaded it casually in his hand. Soon, he rubbed out three fingernail-sized...
Okay, well, they were ugly. If not for the eight legs, you really couldn't tell they were spiders.
A spider jumped onto his unlucky brother's shoulder.
Sitting across from Ron, Hermione noticed the spider on his shoulder and proactively warned him, "Ron, on your shoulder."
Ron turned his head and was so scared he instantly bounced up from his chair.
"Ahhhhh! Harry! Harry! Get it off me, quick!"
Spiders were what he feared the most.
Fred gave a loud shout: "Art is an explosion! Katsu!"
The spider on Ron's shoulder suddenly burst into a small flash of fire. The rising black soot covered the faces of both Ron and Harry, who had come forward to help grab the spider.
The twin brothers, having succeeded in their prank, laughed loudly. Kyle, standing to the side, helplessly rubbed his forehead.
If the power of the C1·Clay Spider was only this much, they might as well wash up and go to sleep.
Seeing his brothers' reaction, how could Ron not realize he had been played by them? He wanted to rush up and fight Fred to the death.
Fortunately, Harry was still relatively clear-headed. He hurriedly held Ron back. "Ron, you can't beat him."
The commotion just now attracted Percy's attention. He stood up and reprimanded Fred angrily, then turned to look at Kyle.
"Kyle, I hope you can associate with the two of them less. Don't learn bad habits from them and disappoint Professor Dumbledore."
The model student, "Little Beaver," also nodded in agreement.
Kyle: ???
I'm just over here eating melons and watching the show; how did the firepower get directed at me?
After perfunctorily brushing off Percy and the Little Beaver, Kyle went back to doing things his own way, talking to the brothers about the Explosive Clay.
"The power of the Explosive Clay is determined by the amount of magic power injected."
Fred once again rubbed out a few spiders that looked nothing like spiders except for having eight legs.
"For those three just now, I only injected a very tiny amount of magic. If filled to the brim, the power is about equivalent to a hand grenade."
Kyle nodded; that power was acceptable. "What about magic consumption?"
Fred scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "About ten kilograms would drain my magic dry."
If it's ten kilograms... that's not enough to mold a life-sized doll bomb, let alone molding a "Patrick Star."
And judging by those three spiders just now, they added up to a weight of twenty or thirty grams at most.
If calculated by scaling up the equivalent yield, the efficiency was actually lower than directly using the Blasting Curse.
The burden is heavy and the road is long.
"Go away, go away, don't bring out semi-finished products to embarrass yourself." George directly squeezed Fred aside and leaned in front of Kyle.
"Kyle, my puppet is almost ready for its second generation."
Kyle raised an eyebrow and didn't speak. If he guessed correctly, George probably wanted to...
"That... hehehe..." George touched the back of his head with some embarrassment. "Can you lend me another five Galleons?"
Sure enough, it was borrowing money.
Kyle casually grabbed a handful of Galleons from his ninja tool pouch and slapped them into George's hand.
"No need to pay it back. But when you make the finished product, make one for me too."
Kyle had previously participated in part of the design work for the second-generation alchemical puppet.
At his suggestion, George designed it to be a wearable structure, like Sasori of the Red Sand's Hiruko.
Of course, Kyle, who personally directed the aesthetic design, could not tolerate Hiruko's weird look—both the hunchback and the non-mainstream hairstyle.
So, under his design, George's second-generation alchemical puppet looked less like Hiruko and more like the War Machine·Hammer Industries Modified Version that a certain foul-mouthed Air Force colonel snatched from Stark's hands.
It's just that product aesthetics are generally directly proportional to the manufacturing cost. This was already the third time George had borrowed money from Kyle.
In addition to the support in Galleons, Kyle had also sold a large batch of firearms and ammunition from his collection to George at a cabbage-cheap price.
Kyle, the wealthy tycoon, didn't expect him to pay it back anyway.
Given the Weasley family's economic situation, George, who owed a buttload of debt, had no other way to repay it aside from paying with his butt or clinging to a sugar momma's thigh.
However, Kyle's orientation was not inherited from his two old dads, and the sugar mommas in Hogwarts wouldn't look twice at George.
Because the sugar mommas were mostly concentrated in Slytherin. George, hailing from Gryffindor, should just wash up and go to sleep early; anything is possible in dreams.
However, even if Kyle didn't expect George to pay it back, George couldn't possibly feel at ease just not repaying it.
If he did that, their friendship would turn sour.
Therefore, asking George to build a suit for him as well after completing the second-generation alchemical puppet was the best method of repayment.
Besides, what guy wouldn't be moved by Iron Man's suit?
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