The photo of the Old Bat in drag only circulated around Hogwarts for the duration of a single dinner before it was ruthlessly suppressed.
But even so, the incident still caused a massive uproar throughout the castle.
Since the gossip didn't involve them, the other professors at Hogwarts were naturally more than happy to sit back and enjoy the show.
Dumbledore was no exception.
However, Dumbledore soon found himself unable to laugh.
One evening a week later, Kyle, having completed his initial research, brought the two heads of Weasley Industries to the Headmaster's office and laid an agreement across Dumbledore's desk.
The general outline of the agreement stipulated that Hogwarts would invest 20,000 Galleons to procure a series of weapons and equipment from Weasley Industries to upgrade the castle's defenses.
Dumbledore, who was mid-bite into a pudding, nearly choked to death on it the moment he saw the 20,000-Galleon arms-deal agreement.
After a frantic struggle to swallow down the pudding, Dumbledore caught his breath slightly and managed to speak, "Are you boys planning to lead Hogwarts in an armed rebellion?"
Having just choked on his dessert, Dumbledore's voice was still a bit raspy, making him sound incredibly comical.
Kyle pushed the arms agreement a little closer to Dumbledore. "No, Professor. This is merely a defensive force."
To Kyle's words, Dumbledore offered a look that clearly said, Like I'd ever believe that.
How could he, as a father, not know exactly what kind of troublemaker his own son was?
An amount of 20,000 Galleons spread over a three-year installment plan wasn't completely out of the question for Hogwarts.
But if he actually dared to accept Kyle's proposed upgrade plan in its entirety, Dumbledore could guarantee that in three years' time, Britain would no longer hold a seat in the International Confederation of Wizards. Instead, it would be replaced by an organization called the Alliance.
Actually, scratch that—the International Confederation of Wizards might not even exist anymore.
At Kyle's repeated insistence, Dumbledore finally relented, reluctantly taking the agreement to look it over.
To ensure Dumbledore wouldn't be completely baffled by the heavy machinery listed in the agreement, Kyle had the twins sketch out the larger items—such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs)—complete with accompanying annotations to provide the Headmaster with a brief introduction.
The spacious Headmaster's office grew quiet, save for the rustling of parchment as Dumbledore turned the pages and the soft rustle of Fawkes preening his feathers.
As he flipped through the parchment, the metaphorical dark lines of exasperation on Dumbledore's forehead began to fade.
He had to admit that the concepts his son had cooked up with his band of scoundrels actually possessed some merit.
According to the plan devised by these three "Father-Plaguers," they would scavenge a large number of agricultural vehicles from the Muggle world.
Then, utilizing tractor chassis as a foundation, they would modify them into unmanned tanks, unmanned missile launchers, and unmanned self-propelled artillery...
Procuring these agricultural vehicles wouldn't consume much of the budget.
After all, these had to be purchased in the Muggle world. If they exchanged Galleons into British Pounds for the procurement, the conversion rates would make it an absolute rip-off.
Thus, Kyle would generously dig into his own pockets, contributing the money he had earned from his past "child labor" days in New York to cover this portion of the budget.
Given the deep pockets of a tycoon like Kyle, his savings alone could easily secure thousands of secondhand tractors.
Kyle didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache over this expenditure; the cash was practically growing mold inside his vault anyway.
Money left unspent wasn't money at all—it was just scrap paper.
More importantly, this army was essentially being built by Kyle for himself; he was merely lending it to Hogwarts for the time being.
Securing total control over them would be as simple as leaving a backdoor in the alchemical arrays.
In Kyle's grand scheme, this mechanized force would serve as a crucial asset against Voldemort's Death Eaters.
Granted, combining Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix with Grindelwald's Alliance would completely obliterate the Death Eaters in terms of both top-tier and mid-tier combat power.
But firepower was one of those things—you could never have too much of it, right?
It was the subsequent alchemical modifications to the agricultural vehicles that would require Hogwarts funding to purchase the necessary alchemical materials.
In addition to this unmanned mechanized legion, there were also plans regarding the modification of Hogwarts' stone guardians.
According to the proposal, after being armed with various alchemical firearms, these stone guardians would each be assigned an infantry fighting vehicle bristling with heavy weaponry.
Considering the sheer size of the stone statues, the IFVs couldn't be modified from farm tractors; they would have to use heavy dump trucks instead.
Following the army, there was the air force, which would be composed of Explosive Clay.
Further down in the appendices of the agreement lay a chaotic hodgepodge of unsystematic concepts.
For instance, a Europe-wide long-range rapid-strike system built upon guided "Fat Lightning" broomsticks.
Or a border wall encircling Hogwarts Castle that would enclose the entire Forbidden Forest—otherwise known as the Hogwarts Line construction plan.
There was also "Project Insight," which aimed to nip any danger in the bud by constructing three massive Helicarriers and deploying a hyper-large detection array spanning a hundred-mile radius around Hogwarts.
Of course, these were just things Kyle had thrown in on a whim; they hadn't actually been factored into the military procurement budget.
Otherwise, taking just Project Insight as an example, the cost of three Helicarriers alone would easily exceed 100,000 Galleons.
Dumbledore scrutinized every single letter and picture on the agreement with meticulous care.
He then lifted his quill and began slashing across the parchment continuously.
Standing right beside Dumbledore, Kyle could see perfectly well that the Headmaster was crossing out some of the more ostentatious and overly flashy gear.
The border wall and Project Insight were the first two to be axed.
As for the remaining rapid-strike system, after a brief period of deep deliberation, Dumbledore chose not to cross it off entirely. Instead, he merely drew a circle around it.
He jotted down an annotation in the margin. Kyle leaned in to steal a glance and found that Dumbledore had written: Reduce operational range to within twenty kilometers.
With that single stroke, the long-range missiles were downgraded to purely defensive rocket artillery.
Kyle shot a surprised look at Dumbledore. So his old man was this kind of person?
As expected, anyone who could end up with Gellert Grindelwald could never be a truly innocent soul. Even if his exterior had been completely bleached white, his heart remained thoroughly black.
Dumbledore continued to scribble and make adjustments across the parchment.
From the looks of it, this arms deal might actually go through?
Though the procured arsenal would be heavily scaled back.
Even so, it was more than enough to satisfy the Father-Plaguers.
Some twenty minutes later, Dumbledore, having finally finished reviewing the military procurement proposal, handed the parchment back to Kyle.
Compared to the original brigade-sized legion, the troop numbers in the proposal returned to Kyle's hands had been slashed by well over half.
A whole brigade had shriveled into a single regiment.
And an understrength regiment at that.
The initial 20,000-Galleon budget had also been hacked down to a mere 8,000 Galleons by Dumbledore.
Yet, there wasn't a trace of dissatisfaction on Kyle's face; on the contrary, he was grinning from ear to ear.
He had intentionally blown the army's scale and budget completely out of proportion in the proposal. It was the classic strategy: ask for the moon, and let Dumbledore bargain down to earth.
Kyle had originally estimated that if Dumbledore approved even 5,000 Galleons, they'd be incredibly lucky.
After all, this old codger had his own secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix to fund.
Following Voldemort's downfall, the Order of the Phoenix had been disbanded on paper, but in reality, that old schemer Dumbledore had never truly dissolved it.
Dumbledore knew that Voldemort wouldn't die so easily. As the Leader of the Light, he absolutely had to keep an ace up his sleeve.
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