Lunchtime only gave them enough time to hash out a rough idea.
As for the specific quantities of each type of weapon and equipment, how to handle logistical maintenance, how much budget would be consumed... all of this would have to wait until they conducted proper investigations and calculations to produce a comprehensive project proposal before submitting it to Dumbledore.
Kyle had another class in the afternoon—Professor Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Given Kyle's current mastery of the Dark Arts, even some veteran Dark Wizards couldn't match him, but he still wanted to attend Professor Lupin's lecture.
After all, this was the first relatively competent Defense Against the Dark Arts professor he had encountered in over three years.
Because he had been busy discussing the Hogwarts military procurement scheme with the twins, Kyle was a little late.
By the time he rushed to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he happened to see Professor Lupin leading the students out.
"Where are we going?" Kyle caught hold of Hannah, asking curiously.
Hannah shook her head, her blonde pigtails swinging behind her. "I don't know either. Professor Lupin just told us to follow him."
Kyle gave a casual "Oh," blended into the crowd, and followed Lupin down another corridor.
After turning a corner, the students spotted a short ghost with a wide mouth and round, bright eyes, screaming as it zipped through the corridor at high speed.
That was a rather unique entity in Hogwarts Castle—Peeves.
Peeves looked a lot like a ghost, but a more accurate description would be a poltergeist, because he could manifest a physical form to affect objects in the real world, whereas ghosts could not.
No one knew how Peeves came to be; ever since Hogwarts was founded, Peeves had lived in the castle.
One of the more reliable theories was that he was a collective manifestation of the thoughts and emotions of Hogwarts students.
This theory was supported by the fact that poltergeists are recorded in many cultures and have a strong connection to places where young people, especially adolescents, live.
Aside from this, another matter served as crucial evidence for some sort of link between the poltergeist and the students—
When Kyle officially enrolled in Hogwarts, this trouble-making Little Dark Lord, whose head was packed with all sorts of bizarre and eccentric ideas, instantly caused Peeves' disruptive power to skyrocket to a whole new level.
Before Kyle's enrollment, the most Peeves did was write insults on blackboards or throw water-filled balloons at crowds.
But after Kyle entered the school, Peeves was no longer satisfied with such low-level antics. He unlocked a series of novel ways to cause chaos.
For instance, surreptitiously slipping Amortentia to two boys to make them fall for each other.
Or launching a night raid on the girls' dormitories to sneakily replace their liquid foundation with indelible black ink.
Or even stealing Colin's camera in the dead of night and taking it to certain remote towers in the castle.
As for why it was the towers and not the reed beds by the Black Lake?
First, the reed beds at night were not a pleasant place. The cold night air of the Scottish Highlands, combined with the swarms of mosquitoes breeding in the reeds... the environment of the towers was far superior. This made young couples with nowhere to release their raging hormones prefer trysting in the towers rather than the reed beds.
Second, as a poltergeist, Peeves couldn't wander too far from Hogwarts Castle. That was the most important point.
When Colin, completely oblivious to his camera being stolen, developed the film, he would find it entirely filled with unspeakable, scandalous images.
How could Colin, still in the naive innocence of adolescence, have ever witnessed such sights?
After chugging down two whole crates of nutritional shakes and staring at his increasingly gaunt reflection in the mirror, he finally mustered up the resolve to destroy those highly corrupting photographs.
As for how Kyle knew about this?
On a previous occasion, he had borrowed Colin's camera to take photos of Halley and urged Colin to hurry up and develop them.
This was so he could use them to strike an under-the-table deal with Snape. Shady under-the-table deals between the Little Dark Lord and the Old Bat were a regular occurrence, after all.
As a result, when the photos were developed, both Kyle and Colin were utterly dumbfounded.
Faced with this brand-new, thoroughly upgraded version of Peeves, it took Lupin a full five minutes to drive him away.
He led the students around another corridor and arrived at the door of the staff room.
The students crowded in behind Lupin, only to cross paths with someone entirely unexpected.
Upon seeing Lupin, a sneering smile played on Snape's lips.
He originally wanted to utter a few caustic remarks, but his gaze caught a certain Little Dark Lord blending into the crowd.
When it came to sharp-tongued sarcasm, Snape's skills fell far short of Kyle's. To avoid making a fool of himself, Snape merely gave Lupin a cold glare and departed, slamming the door shut.
"Right then, please come over here."
Lupin walked over to an old wardrobe at the end of the staff room and beckoned to the students.
The wardrobe suddenly shook violently, as if someone's secret lover were hiding inside, causing a few timid girls to shrink back in fright.
"Don't be nervous, it's only a Boggart inside."
Hearing Lupin's words, Kyle's eyes suddenly lit up like a dung beetle spotting a fresh pile of manure.
He had always wanted to find a Boggart to mess around with.
A Boggart is a shapeshifter with no fixed form, possessing an innate magic similar to Legilimency.
This is why it can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten a person most.
In the hands of a wizard who has mastered Occlumency, a Boggart is like a piece of living playdough. As long as one uses Occlumency to forge a fake object of fear, they can manipulate the Boggart at will like modeling clay.
Kyle hadn't mastered Occlumency completely, but his basic, entry-level proficiency was enough to deceive a Boggart.
He had always wanted to see what a cross-dressing Professor Snape would look like. Although Human Transfiguration could make this idea a reality, looking at a mirror reflection was never as direct and satisfying as seeing a Boggart right in front of him.
He used to have a Boggart, which Dumbledore had captured for them when teaching him and Hermione the Patronus Charm.
However, Kyle had accidentally blown it up after just two days of playing with it, before he even got the chance to witness what cross-dressing Snape looked like.
After that, he wanted to catch another one, but because Boggarts prefer dark, enclosed spaces, and New Nurmengard Castle was kept far too clean by the house-elves... Kyle had never been able to fulfill his wish.
However, if nothing went wrong, he should finally be able to see the true glory of cross-dressing Snape during this class—and in front of the entire classroom, no less.
Now that cross-dressing Snape was guaranteed, what about swimsuit Snape?
Just as Kyle's mind was wandering into wild tangents, Lupin finished explaining the method to deal with a Boggart to the students and called Neville's name, telling him to step forward and face it.
"Neville, tell me, what is it you fear most in this world?"
Neville's lips moved, but no sound came out.
"Didn't catch that, sorry, Neville," Professor Lupin said cheerfully.
Neville's voice was barely a whisper as he said, "Professor Snape."
Kyle grinned. It looked like someone was going to help realize his idea ahead of time, so he surreptitiously pulled out a camera. It wasn't great to constantly borrow Colin's camera anyway, so Kyle had prepared one of his own.
Lupin couldn't help but smile too. After exchanging a mischievous glance with Kyle, the devious wolf cub walked over to Neville's side and whispered something to the chubby boy.
"Ready, Neville?"
Without waiting for the chubby boy to reply, Professor Lupin flung open the wardrobe door.
That evening, Snape looked at the photograph in his hand, trembling with sheer rage.
In the photo, he wore a hat topped with a stuffed vulture, a terribly tacky green women's outfit, and held a large red handbag. Compounded by waist-length hair, he looked no different from an old auntie buying groceries at a local market.
Snape looked up and discovered that every single student in the Great Hall held an identical photograph in their hands.
He could no longer endure it.
The Old Bat spread his black cloak, gliding down from the staff table like a giant bat all the way to... the edge of the Gryffindor table.
He viciously grabbed Colin Creevey by the collar, hoisting him violently out of his seat.
Everyone in Hogwarts knew that this fellow was an absolute photo-snapping maniac.
Especially last school year, a photo book titled Icha Icha Hogwarts had been leaked from Colin. If someone were to say that Colin wasn't behind this cross-dressing photo incident, Snape wouldn't believe it for a second.
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