This must be a crystal mine cave, right? From light green to deep blue to crimson red, the dormitory walls were entirely adorned with various colored ores, arranged in sequence.
The overhead lights and the shimmering waves of the lake outside cast their glow upon the walls, creating a mesmerizing effect.
The reflected, flickering light danced in a kaleidoscope of colors, dazzling the eyes.
Stunned, Lys stood at the door, wide open, staring at the sight for a full two minutes.
She racked her brain. She hadn't had any arguments with anyone recently, nor had she stolen anything. So where on earth had all these come from?
Staring at the glimmering objects, Lys tried hard to recall, but it was futile. She simply couldn't remember.
With a wave of her wand, she packed all the gemstones into the chest at the foot of her bed. During the process, Lys identified some of the materials: unpolished labradorite, crystalized secretions from magical roses, and even fragments of some unknown eggshells.
The common trait among them? They all sparkled.
In the corner of the wall, directly across from her bed, there was even a silhouette of Gobble made entirely of the shiniest ores, stuck so firmly that she couldn't pry it off.
In a daze, Lys attended classes for two more days. Finally, by the last class on Friday, she managed to resolve all the trouble she had caused earlier, including dealing with Sirius Black.
She had added a failed potion experiment into the water bottle of that dumb dog. It didn't have any real effects, except for giving whoever drank it an absurdly strong case of bad breath.
Serves that dumb dog right for always mocking her, saying she dressed like a goblin's mine!
At least for the next half a week, he wouldn't dare open his mouth to speak.
Occasionally running into the dumb dog's brother in the common room, Lys ignored his attempts to hint at having a chat.
She pretended to be blind and deaf, refusing to respond.
Lys was still mad about the dream she had that night, where her mother had somehow turned a monkey into Sirius Black.
That evening, while experimenting with a water-related spell she had modified by the Black Lake, Lys was called over by Hagrid.
Seeing someone as big as Hagrid nervously fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, Lys quickly asked, "What's wrong, Hagrid? Is there something you need?"
Hagrid, standing a few steps away, glanced several times at Lys's shirt before saying, "Well, the Nifflers in the forest are quite upset. I came to ask if... um... you could return those stones to them? I can trade something with you for them."
"Who?" Lys felt something was off. Was her hearing acting up?
"The Nifflers. To be honest, Lys, you've spent half your time in the Forbidden Forest these past two days. I had to..."
"Wait, um... I mean, I'll go get the stuff and bring it to them right now—no, bring it to you. No need to trade. Um... just wait here for me." Lys practically fled back to her dormitory, stuffed the items into a cloth bag, and handed them to Hagrid.
She had actually robbed a bunch of black rats of their treasures!
Nifflers are magical creatures about the size of an adult wizard's forearm. They resemble moles, with a magical pouch on their belly. They are obsessed with collecting anything shiny within their sight, stuffing it into their pouch, and then sleeping contentedly on their hoard in their nest.
Often used in treasure hunting or mining, Nifflers are so obsessed with shiny things that they would risk their lives for them.
Wizards only need to use spells to track these creatures, and wealth would soon follow.
But Lys had unknowingly stolen from these little creatures.
However, her thoughts quickly wandered. Tracking spells?
Since her second year, Lys had wanted to create a suitable spell for tracking Gobble. Otherwise, every time she entered the forest, she could never find him and would worry endlessly.
Lys thought maybe she could ask Hagrid about the possibility of casting such a spell on Gobble.
On Saturday, Lys brought a box of butter toffees to Hagrid's hut. After politely greeting him, she calmed Gobble, who was eager to play on the floor and in the trough, making him stay obediently on her shoulder.
Sitting upright on the sofa, she began asking about the tracking spell. Hagrid's answer left Lys stunned.
"Oh, the wizards' tracking spells you mentioned? Those aren't cast on the Nifflers themselves. You see, Nifflers never take treasures out of their magical pouches outside their nests. So, the wizards simply cast a tracking spell on a single Galleon, let the Nifflers take it, and then track the Galleon. Because most of the time, where the Galleon is, the Niffler is."
Lys patted Gobble's head thoughtfully, then stood up, tidied her impeccably neat wizard's robe, and bid farewell to Hagrid, leaving his hut. She skillfully ignored Hagrid's unspoken words with her top-notch "pretend not to see" skills.
Robbing black rats—how embarrassing.
Back in her dormitory, Lys took out the collar she had previously removed from Gobble's neck and attempted to cast a powerful tracking spell on it. The results were immediate. Although the collar's appearance remained unchanged, with its fine, sparkling decorations as dazzling as ever, in Lys's perception, it now shone like a second sun in the world.
After dispelling the spell and carefully controlling her power to cast it again, the collar finally became noticeable at a reasonable intensity. Even when Lys moved away, she could still track its location.
When Madam Pomfrey saw Lys again in the hospital wing, tending to the singing lilies, she almost insisted on re-examining her.
The dazzling collar still around Gobble's neck made the matron think her previous treatment hadn't been thorough.
After Lys repeatedly explained herself, Madam Pomfrey finally believed her.
"Madam, I just realized in the past two days that I do like shiny things. Besides, Gobble needs to wear something so I can cast a tracking spell on it."
Half-convinced, Madam Pomfrey packed a dozen magical stabilizers for Lys and reminded her to take care of her health, eat well, and get enough rest. She was far too skinny.
Finding her robe pockets too full to carry all the potions, Lys stuffed some magical nourishing elixirs into Gobble's yarn pouch.
Lys only wanted to leave the hospital wing as quickly as possible because she could tell Madam Pomfrey was considering giving her some sleeping potions as well.
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