A week later…
Kasenhis sat in the Great Hall, eating breakfast while reading the Daily Prophet.
Then his eyes landed on one particular section:
"The Persistence of a One-Armed Writer: Just How Hard Is It?"
In that instant, he thought of many things. Really, many things.
He had once heard a saying: when something becomes absurd to the extreme, people laugh out loud.
And at this very moment, Kasenhis let out a helpless laugh.
He no longer felt angry at Rita Skeeter. On the contrary, deep down, he felt a kind of admiration for her.
"This person… when you're this damn impressive, you'll succeed at anything," Kasenhis said sincerely.
After finishing breakfast, Kasenhis, who had no classes for the entire day, and Hagrid were conscripted as free labor. They followed planners from the Ministry of Magic to the Quidditch pitch to design the maze needed for the third task.
Originally, Hagrid wanted to bring Professor Sprout along as well, since she likely had access to some fast-growing magical plants that could be used to quickly construct the maze.
Then Kasenhis placed a leaf block on the ground.
"Wow… is this alchemy too?" Hagrid asked in surprise.
"Obviously, yes," Kasenhis nodded.
Together with the Ministry of Magic planners, the two of them hand-built a massive maze, thicker and taller than before.
In the end, Hagrid hauled over an enormous trophy, representing the Triwizard Tournament champion.
Kasenhis adjusted his monocle and glanced at the trophy. "Uh… gold-plated iron? That's a bit shabby."
"To be honest, the Ministry scraping together this much gold was already a stretch. Most of this year's discretionary funds went to compensating Romania. Even if four fire dragons aren't exactly priceless, maintaining relations between the two countries is still necessary," the Ministry planner explained.
"I didn't mean it as a complaint," Kasenhis said as he walked over to the trophy and placed a hand on it.
With a shift of his thoughts, a surging wave of magic wrapped around the trophy from the inside out. Gold born from nothing devoured and erased the iron core within, until a completely solid gold trophy sat there in its place.
"Wow. Now this is something most people probably won't even be able to lift," Hagrid said. He knew exactly what Kasenhis had just done and walked over to try lifting it himself.
Heavy—so heavy that even for someone like Hagrid, it could still be called heavy.
The Ministry planner, meanwhile, looked utterly confused. "What do you mean?"
"It means that trophy is now pure gold," Kasenhis explained.
"Just now? That fast? I thought it would take some special alchemical ritual, or some kind of special alchemical potion…" The planner's eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the hand Kasenhis had just used to touch the trophy.
At that moment, he desperately wished Kasenhis would use that same hand to touch him too—anywhere would do.
"Alright, let's go." Kasenhis, completely oblivious to that unsettling gaze, casually wrapped Hagrid and the planner in an Ender field and teleported them out of the maze.
After all, it was still a maze. If he just left them there, even with a god's-eye planning map, it would take quite a while to find the exit.
Next came the part everyone loved to see: waiting.
There was only one month between the end of the second task and the start of the third.
And now, one week had already passed.
Which meant…
Four weeks left.
4 × 7 = 28…
Three weeks left.
I'm so sorry, I drank way too much last night. My head's a bit foggy right now, please bear with me.
Which means there are still three weeks…
Mm.
These three weeks were destined to be extremely boring.
Well, not entirely boring.
Of course, saying that is a bit impolite, because this happens to be Hagrid's sore spot.
Originally, Hagrid's date with Madame Maxime should have gone very smoothly.
But because of that emergency article from Rita Skeeter, Hagrid directly stood Madame Maxime up—unilaterally.
And after standing her up, Hagrid stayed in his hut, quietly drinking away his gloom with Sirius and Lupin—without bringing Kasenhis along.
After a round of drinking, who knew what kind of nonsense Hagrid ended up understanding, but he suddenly felt that Madame Maxime might not actually like him that much. Instead, it seemed more like she'd been stringing him along the whole time.
Only during their first meeting might Madame Maxime have genuinely thought Hagrid was a bit cute. But after Hagrid said the wrong thing back then, all that goodwill instantly dropped to zero.
After that, every time Madame Maxime agreed to meet him, it felt like it came with some kind of ulterior motive.
In truth, there was nothing wrong with that. You could even say it was perfectly reasonable.
After all, when two people fall in love, they have to want something, right? If you have no value, why would she love you?
For blast-ended skrewts? Or mole-skin coats?
But Hagrid wasn't like that. Hagrid's heart was too kind, too sincere.
So much so that the love he believed in was purely two resonating souls being drawn to each other, unable to accept even the slightest trace of self-interest.
But even soul resonance is a kind of value. For example, a princess falling in love with the knight who silently guards her—that's soul resonance, sure, but protection itself is still value.
But what if there's no value at all? Twisted people don't need patient ones; they need masochists.
This kind of twisted person doesn't want to give anything at all. No money? Fair enough. But in the end, they don't even provide emotional value.
So… what exactly are people supposed to want from you?
A strong, well-built body? Uh, that counts as value too.
But Hagrid just believed that loving someone meant giving them gifts, not loving someone only because they gave you gifts first.
An extremely straightforward view of love, one that made Hagrid's path to romance unbearably winding.
In truth, it wouldn't have been this winding to begin with. But thanks to Rita Skeeter's insanely over-the-top article, and whatever kind of brainwashing potion Lupin and Sirius poured down Hagrid's throat,
Hagrid ended up actively sealing off his heart and locking away love…
Those two were so eloquent. Why didn't they pour a bit of positive, uplifting chicken soup for the soul into Hagrid instead?
If Hagrid really had ended up with Madame Maxime, wouldn't the percentage of happily settled Hogwarts staff families have skyrocketed?
Wait a second…
Hagrid is a professor, and Madame Maxime is a headmistress. Position-wise, a professor is obviously easier to let go of than a headmistress, so there's a very high chance Hagrid would end up marrying into Beauxbatons…
Gulllp~ Damn~~!
Kasenhis abruptly poured a mouthful of liquor down his throat. He suddenly understood why Sirius and Lupin, those two old bastards, had been feeding Hagrid all that nonsense.
Understanding. Respect. Applause!
________
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