After arranging with Harry to shop for their new semester's textbooks, Jane Yu returned to her room.
She pulled out her suitcase, intending to retrieve the pouch of money Dumbledore had given her.
But the sight of a hole in the suitcase immediately set off alarm bells.
She quickly opened the first compartment and retrieved the pouch—
Sure enough, it also had a hole, and it was completely empty!
She had been robbed!
Jane began inspecting the contents of her suitcase, opening each compartment. To her dismay, several of her precious magical tools were missing as well!
Do Aurors handle theft cases? she thought angrily.
But when she opened the last compartment, her hand suddenly brushed against something prickly. A black creature was wriggling inside.
Peering closer, she realized that the thief was a Niffler!
This made her both furious and amused. She grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and started tickling its belly with her fingers.
With a series of crisp clinking sounds, the Niffler began to "explode" coins.
Far more Galleons and Sickles than her pouch originally held spilled onto the floor, along with her silver mirror, a gem-encrusted magical necklace, the shiny dragon scale gifted to her by the Ukrainian Ironbelly, and more... The Niffler's belly seemed like a bottomless pit!
At some point, it must have snuck into her suitcase and traveled with her to Diagon Alley.
Still, Jane couldn't figure out how it managed to get in. She distinctly remembered checking her suitcase before leaving, so how could a Niffler have gotten in?
On its perch, Alfira flapped its wings proudly, puffing out its chest with a "mission accomplished" air—
It had personally caught this big, black, furry "rat"!
What a plump reserve snack!
Look, the human child it raised loves it so much!
She's even nibbling on the rat's belly!
...
Jane finally understood why books advised against keeping Nifflers as pets—
Though they were gentle and affectionate toward humans, they had an uncanny ability to escape from suitcases in all sorts of ways.
This included using their tiny paws to unhook suitcase latches, flattening themselves to slip through cracks, or even biting through the leather exterior. They could even bypass some magical protections.
And once they escaped, they would start digging around, stealing treasures.
In just a few days, The Leaky Cauldron was filled with complaints.
Some patrons claimed there were rats running amok in the bar, while others accused a thief of stealing their valuables.
Jane had to take Alfira with her every day to catch the Niffler and secretly return the stolen treasures to the bar's lost-and-found late at night.
These rumors infuriated Old Tom, who threatened to send the culprit to Azkaban for a hundred years.
Jane felt increasingly guilty.
She had written to Newt to inform him of the Niffler's escape, but her letter went unanswered. Only then did she dejectedly remember that the Scamander couple had gone abroad and were likely in some remote wilderness, releasing the Ukrainian Ironbelly.
As a result, she had to teach herself the Undetectable Extension Charm to create a small space in her suitcase for the Niffler to nest. She also cast over twenty different spells on the suitcase to prevent its escape.
Among the victims of theft, her neighbor Harry Potter was particularly aggrieved.
Being so close, his money pouch was a prime target for the Niffler.
"There really is a thief here!" Harry complained to Jane, clearly upset. "My pouch has been torn, and I've lost money twice in three days! If I hadn't kept it under me, even my Invisibility Cloak would have been stolen!"
Jane took a deep breath and sincerely suggested he check the lost-and-found.
When Harry recovered his Galleons, he was overjoyed but still reminded her:
"We should sleep with our money pouches! Be extra careful at night!"
Jane nodded solemnly and said to him, with a heavy tone:
"Yes, you're right, Harry. I think we need to be cautious... of rats."
...
Jane spent the last part of the summer vacation writing and receiving letters.
Dumbledore sent her almost daily letters, either urging her to finish her homework, asking if she had been wandering around, or sending her thick books... He even wrote a separate letter introducing Dementors.
Even in her past life, no one had ever been such a "tiger mom"!
Jane rolled her eyes.
One day, she and Harry went to buy textbooks for the new semester, only to find Flourish and Blotts in utter chaos.
Inside was a large iron cage containing about a hundred copies of The Monster Book of Monsters. They were all tangled together, their sharp teeth viciously tearing at each other, shredding their peers into pieces, with torn pages flying everywhere.
The store manager was poking the cage with a cane, trying to separate the books.
He impatiently attended to the two of them, sweating profusely and panting heavily:
"Hogwarts students? Here for your new textbooks?"
After they explained their needs, the manager led them to a small corner of the shop, where many books on Divination were piled up.
Jane noticed Harry staring intently at a book titled Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst is Coming. The cover featured a black dog as large as a bear, glaring with glowing eyes.
The manager handed them two copies of Unfogging the Future and then fetched the required textbooks for their third-year courses:
"Thank goodness you don't need that blasted Monster Book of Monsters!"
"I've been bitten five times just this morning! Out of the three hundred copies we stocked, only a hundred are left now!"
Jane couldn't help but gasp.
A loss rate of two-thirds? They must be losing money!
But why not remove the teeth? Was it because the books were alive?
"Do they have life?" she asked curiously.
The manager gave her a strange look and then used his cane to knock on the books again:
"Are you crazy, little girl? They're just books. No matter how much they bite, they're soulless and lifeless!"
Jane retorted, "Then why don't you modify them? I think removing the teeth wouldn't affect reading at all."
The manager was stunned.
Suddenly, her words seemed so reasonable!
What a correct, insightful, and to-the-point suggestion!
"Yes, yes..." he muttered. "No one likes biting books unless they're out of their mind."
"I could modify them and charge a processing fee—or let customers choose the type they want—"
Without hesitation, he waved his wand and began acting as a dentist, pulling the teeth of the monster books.
In an instant, the books quieted down, obediently stacking themselves into a pile, not daring to move.
"What's your name?" he asked while casting spells.
After Jane answered, he insisted on giving her a docile, toothless monster book:
"I apologize for my rudeness today... Thank you for your suggestion. This book is a gift for you."
With a grand gesture, the manager announced that their purchases for the day were free and promised Jane:
"When you graduate, you can come work here."
Harry was dumbfounded by this unexpected windfall, looking at Jane as if she were Merlin himself.
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Sorry, everyone! I accidentally uploaded the wrong Chapter 92 earlier. It has now been corrected. Hope you all enjoy the reading!
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