The other party didn't pay attention to Ron's minor tantrum and continued on their own: "I remember you, Ronald Weasley, your mom helped me find the platform."
"Yes, but everyone usually calls me Ron," Ron muttered.
"Alright then, Ron. I'm Hermione Granger."
Hermione nodded casually, then looked at the other person.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"Harry Potter," Harry hurriedly said.
Upon hearing the name, Hermione was visibly surprised and listed several reference books again, indicating she knew about Harry.
This made Harry feel dizzy because he wasn't aware of these things himself, and he hadn't read any of the books Hermione mentioned.
"Oh my, how could you not know? If I were you, I would find a way to get all the books that mention me."
Hermione looked at Ron again and said: "By the way, you said that boy named Kael is the top student in his grade?"
"Oh... yes," Ron nodded.
"No wonder he could receive the Merlin Order Medal," Hermione remarked, a tad enviously. "I hope I'm not too far off. I've memorized all the textbooks, hoping it's enough."
Ron's face grew more unsightly, feeling like he'd met a second Percy, and he didn't like the tone of her voice.
However, Hermione didn't even look at him and continued to speak rapidly: "By the way, do you know which house Kael is in? Is it Gryffindor? I've asked around, and everyone says that's the best. Though, since he's so smart, he might be a Ravenclaw."
"He's neither."
Ron seemed eager to see her reaction and said a bit smugly, "Kael is a Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff..." Hermione was indeed stunned and muttered, "But I've heard that Hufflepuffs are... um, not very bright in their studies."
"That's wrong."
Ron enjoyed her expression and with some pride said, "In fact, besides Kael, the top student in the third year, Cedric Diggory, is also a Hufflepuff."
Hermione appeared somewhat upset, feeling deceived. A house that produced two top students couldn't possibly be the place full of 'fools', 'idiots', as people said.
If they were fools, then what does that make everyone else... mindless worms?
Harry, next to them, hung his head down, a bit dejected.
When discussing houses with Ron, he thought of putting Hufflepuff as the fallback house.
But it seems now that Hufflepuff isn't so easy to get into either.
Top student...
Harry would rather believe Dudley could become as skinny as him than believe he could become the top student.
That's impossible.
Even Hermione remained silent for a moment, Ron tightened his face and asked, "So, do you still need anything? If not, we'd like to get back to the compartment."
"I want to ask if any of you have seen a toad?" Hermione, snapping out of it, said, "Neville lost a toad."
"A toad?"
Ron said somewhat impatiently: "We've already told him, we haven't seen it."
The boy named Neville had come by earlier and cried in their compartment for a while, so Ron remembered it quite clearly.
"Perhaps you could ask that Kael," Harry suddenly suggested, "maybe he can find the toad."
"That's right, I really shouldn't linger here."
Hermione gave them one last look and said: "But you two should hurry up and change clothes, you know, we'll probably be there soon."
Having said that, she left.
"I really hope I'm not in the same house as her."
After closing the compartment door, Ron pursed his lips and said, "One Percy in Gryffindor is enough."
Harry didn't say anything, just nodded perfunctorily, because he had taken in too much information at once and hadn't fully come to his senses.
Meanwhile, Hermione had left and made her way to the compartment where Kael was.
Through the glass on the door, she saw Kael holding his wand, seemingly drawing on a piece of parchment.
Hermione immediately withdrew her hand that was about to knock.
It was that boy named Malfoy who had caused the disruption for Kael by knocking suddenly, leading to the previous incident; she didn't want to repeat that mistake.
She also couldn't afford to compensate for those maps.
Not to mention two hundred Galleons, she didn't even have twenty.
After hesitating for a moment, Hermione decided to search other compartments first.
However, what Hermione didn't know was that just as she left, Kael in the compartment put down his wand.
"The Malfoy family crest is such a hassle,"
Kael rubbed his eyes, seemingly speechless: "With snakes and dragons everywhere, why couldn't they just use an 'M' instead."
"Hey, Kael, you should be more patient with our esteemed guest,"
Fred laughed and said: "Just changing a pattern can earn an extra Galleon, is there any job easier than this?"
"True enough."
Kael nudged the half-finished parchment towards Cedric, who would be in charge of completing the map.
Since it was permanent, using a Doubling Charm was out of the question.
Afterward, Kael took out the wallet given by Malfoy.
"A hundred and fifty Galleons, are we splitting now, or waiting for the rest of the payment first."
The others exchanged glances and shook their heads.
"Listen, Kael,"
George said earnestly: "These Galleons were earned through... uhh, exceptional ingenuity of yours, they have nothing to do with us, there's no need to split them."
"What exceptional ingenuity, I'm no Ravenclaw," Kael said nonchalantly: "Besides, this was money made from selling maps, it's definitely to be split evenly."
"This was an unforeseen circumstance, it's different," Cedric shook his head: "And from the moment they knocked until everything that happened afterward, you handled it all by yourself, we didn't help at all."
Cedric's words seemed to reflect the others' thoughts; they all seemed to have agreed and no one reached for the pouch.
In the end, it was only because of Kael's insistence that they each took ten Galleons.
Only George took fifteen Galleons, the extra five serving as compensation for his robe.
George accepted this readily, without any hesitation.
"Oh, right."
After Kael put away the wallet, Cedric pointed to the broken maps on the table and said: "Do you want to use a Repairing Charm to restore them?"
"Hmm? Why bother," Kael asked, puzzled.
Cedric blinked and matter-of-factly said, "We can't just throw them away, they're Galleon-worth parchment."
"Wait... are you planning to restore them and sell them again?"
Kael's brow gradually furrowed, and he gave Cedric a disdainful look, saying: "A merchant as unscrupulous as you will be locked up in Azkaban sooner or later."
...