Kyle didn't even know when he had fuzzily drifted off to sleep; in any case, it had been very late.
Sunlight streamed through the window and into the room. Finding the light a bit too piercing, Kyle rolled over, intending to sleep a little longer.
Just then, a small, wet tongue licked his cheek.
Although Kyle's consciousness was highly muddled, he could still perceive that there was no third person in the Hospital Wing besides himself and Hermione.
So… it was Hermione?
Without even opening his eyes, Kyle leaned right in for a bite, only to end up with a mouth full of scratchy fur.
"Ptooey! Ptooey!"
A burst of silver-bell-like laughter rang out from beside him.
Seeing Kyle end up with a mouth full of Crookshanks' cat fur, Hermione's laughter was filled with absolute schadenfreude.
Disdainfully tossing away the mini Two-Tails in his hands, Kyle waved his hand to summon a stream of water, rinsing for quite a while before finally clearing all the cat fur out of his mouth.
Seeing that Hermione still wore a look of pure schadenfreude, Kyle narrowed his eyes slightly. In an instant, he executed his secret technique—"Relasho!"
Something snapped undone.
Kyle reached out and hooked his hand again, casting a Summoning Charm, and a piece of the girl's undergarment landed right into his hand.
It took a full two seconds for Hermione to react.
"Ah!" The next moment, the girl's shriek echoed through the room.
Snatching her camisole back, Hermione—whose blush had already spread from her neck all the way to the roots of her ears—brandished her pillow and began pummeling Kyle over the head with it. "Kyle, you total pervert!"
Right at that moment, the doors to the Hospital Wing suddenly swung open.
Looking at Dumbledore and Grindelwald, who had shown up at a highly inopportune moment, the flirting pair instantly froze right where they were.
The thin-skinned little Otaria was so deeply embarrassed that she wrapped herself entirely within her blanket.
Kyle was thick-skinned, without a single trace of awkwardness on his face.
"It seems we have arrived at an ill time," Dumbledore said, closing the doors to the Hospital Wing once more.
Even though the doors had closed again, after such an interruption, how could the two possibly have the heart to continue flirting?
Kyle muttered an expletive under his breath.
He refused to believe that those two old men couldn't sense what was happening inside the room; those two old geezers had absolutely done it on purpose.
Walking out of the Hospital Wing huffily, Kyle stared speechlessly at his two unscrupulous fathers.
Yet, before he could open his mouth to denounce the two old geezers, Dumbledore and Grindelwald raised their fists in perfect tandem, and duang, each landed a punch right onto Kyle's noggin.
When the two old men struck him, they had infused a bit of magic into their fists. Otherwise, with the strength of two centenarian old men, how could they possibly hurt Kyle, a taijutsu expert?
Thus, two visibly large bumps swelled up on Kyle's head.
Clutching the large bumps on his head, Kyle went completely ballistic.
"What did you hit me for?!"
"We liked the gifts you gave us very much," Dumbledore said.
"But that doesn't stop us from beating you up," Grindelwald added, crossing his arms over his chest.
Kyle swore under his breath again. Getting beaten up for giving a gift—what kind of bloody logic was that?
Rewinding time back to last night.
Dumbledore and Grindelwald had used Floating Charms to carry the gift boxes Kyle gave them, returning through the magical elevator on the third floor of the castle to the bedroom above the Headmaster's office.
Although both men had acted as though they couldn't care less about Kyle's gifts, the moment they returned to the bedroom, the two old men proved highly honest, eagerly tearing open the gift boxes.
Then, they saw the body pillows inside, along with the moving portrait of each other printed upon them, as well as those affectionate gazes…
For a moment, both Dumbledore and Grindelwald flushed a little.
Exchanging a glance, their expressions rapidly turned from red to black.
"This little rascal! To think he would give such a gift!" Grindelwald clenched his fists.
Dumbledore placed his hand directly onto the Elder Wand. "Gellert, I think we may have been somewhat remiss in Kyle's discipline."
Hearing his old lover's words, Grindelwald let out a series of dangerous, cold chuckles. "Indeed. We must certainly discipline him strictly tomorrow."
The two Dark Lords—one white, one black—attained a rare unified front at this moment.
That being said, neither of them let go of the body pillows in their hands.
When they went to sleep that night, the two Dark Lords, who shared a bed, found themselves accompanied by two additional body pillows.
Despite Madam Pomfrey's repeated objections to them being discharged so quickly, Kyle still snuck out of the hospital with Hermione.
His medical magic couldn't compare to Hannah, who specialized in the field, but it wasn't too poorly learned either.
He was very clear on his and Hermione's physical conditions; they had both fully recovered, and there was absolutely no need to remain hospitalized for observation for a few more days just to be safe.
However, Kyle didn't dare talk back to Madam Pomfrey.
After all, she was a fierce person who, when truly angered, could lecture even his father into meek compliance.
That was something even Grindelwald couldn't pull off!
For instance, if Dumbledore, that old mother hen, was the head of the household and could make the Grindelwald father-and-son duo kneel on durians together when he threw a fit, in front of a healer, no matter how powerful Dumbledore was, he could only listen to the healer's words.
So, taking advantage of a moment when Madam Pomfrey wasn't paying attention, Kyle activated the Disillusionment Charm and fled with Hermione.
The moment they stepped into the Great Hall, the two of them were surrounded by a large crowd.
"Kyle, we heard you were attacked outside the school? Are you okay?"
Their few close friends who had likewise stayed behind at school all wore expressions of deep concern, asking about their situation in a flurry of voices.
After all, when Kyle had been brought into the Hospital Wing covered in blood a few days ago, that appearance had truly been too terrifying.
Although the vast majority of it was the enemy's blood, Cedric and the others didn't know that.
Only after answering all their friends' questions were Kyle and Hermione finally able to sit down beside the dining table.
"Even though we've already missed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," Kyle said as he pulled gift boxes out of his ninja tool pouch one by one, "I still have to give you your gifts."
Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Percy, Penelope, Cho Chang…
Kyle had prepared a gift for every single one of them.
Originally, he had intended to give them out in person during breakfast in the Great Hall on Christmas Eve, which was the morning of the 24th.
As it turned out, on the afternoon of the 23rd, Kyle had been ambushed by that group of wizards who clearly lacked martial arts ethics.
Fortunately, making up for it now wasn't too late.
"George and Fred…" When handing the two their gifts, Kyle faltered for a moment. "Forget it, claim them yourselves."
Kyle pushed two identical boxes in front of them.
In the end, only Cedric's hands remained empty.
When it came time to give Cedric his gift, Kyle pondered for a moment. Instead of pulling out the gift he had previously prepared for Cedric, he drew his own greatsword.
"This is for you."
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