Driven by curiosity, Tom pushed open the red door beside him.
"Yo, Tom! I knew this random door had something to do with you! Remember me? I'm George~"
"I'm George, he's Fred!"
The next second, the Weasley twins slipped through the crack in the door. After greeting Tom, the two immediately started looking around.
"Whoa, this place is huge! Is this where little Ron is going to be working? Looks bloody brilliant!" one of the twins said.
"Where Ronnie is going to be working! I'm with Tom on this one—our little sister is definitely much cuter!" The other twin grinned and flashed Tom a thumbs-up. "Seriously, this is a prime spot. But there's no way you can use all this space by yourself, right? How about we make a deal? You carve out a little corner for us, and we'll give you a cut of our merchandise sales~"
He had immediately spotted the four differently colored doors lining the wall: blue, green, yellow, and a multi-colored one. Coupled with the red door they had just walked through, the clever twins had already guessed exactly where those doors led.
Seeing the twins, Tom realized it too. He still couldn't quite believe it. Dumbledore hadn't been kidding—this really was a massive surprise.
Five doors. Four of them led directly to the four House common rooms. As for the multi-colored one, while he didn't know exactly where it went, it definitely led somewhere else in the castle.
Given the premise of his little business, that door most likely led straight to the Owlery.
[We'll talk about that later. Besides, if I'm subletting space to you, we need to have a serious discussion about the price.]
Tom didn't agree right away. Instead, he pushed open the multi-colored door and stepped through. Sure enough, he found himself standing right inside the Owlery tower.
Because of the time of day, there weren't many students around, but even so, quite a few young wizards had gathered around this sudden, mysterious door.
Ignoring the staring students, Tom turned around and tried to close the door behind him. To his surprise, the wooden door clicked shut effortlessly.
(It actually works? Does this mean that on top of translating, I could run a premium fast-travel service?!) Tom thought to himself, staring at the closed door.
Hufflepuffs and Slytherins might not need it, but Gryffindors and Ravenclaws would absolutely pay a few Knuts to skip the stairs and teleport straight back to their dorms. Both of those Houses were located at the very top of the castle's highest towers, after all.
(But wait. If I do that, wouldn't that completely bypass the dormitory security? There's no way Dumbledore would leave a loophole that massive, right?)
With that in mind, Tom reopened the door and stepped back inside.
"Welcome back, Tom~"
[? You two are still here?]
Seeing the twins standing obediently exactly where he'd left them, Tom was genuinely surprised. Knowing these two, shouldn't they have been sprinting all over the place, or trying to sneak through the other doors?
"Heh, well, this is your turf! It'd be rude of us to go snooping around!" George chuckled, stepping forward to pat Tom on the shoulder. "So, seeing as how well-behaved we are, how about a discount on the rent?"
[It's not that you thought it was rude. You just couldn't snoop even if you tried, right?] Tom rolled his eyes. [You definitely tried the other doors and couldn't open them. And you couldn't leave through the Hufflepuff door either. That's the only reason you're being so 'well-behaved'.]
"Spot on!" Fred gave him a thumbs-up. "So, about that deal?"
Ignoring their antics, Tom shook his head in disappointment. His premium fast-travel business had gone bankrupt before it even launched. What a shame.
Still, it had only been a spur-of-the-moment idea, so Tom didn't dwell on it.
[We'll talk about it next time. At the end of the day, Ron is my employee now. Whether or not I can spare you some space depends on what he thinks.]
If this had been back when he was broke and desperate, he would have agreed without hesitation. But he didn't need to do that anymore.
He knew exactly what the twins sold—mostly contraband that blatantly violated school rules. And this place had been painstakingly arranged by the old... by Dumbledore. If possible, Tom preferred not to run an illegal black market out of it.
"Seventy-thirty split. You get thirty." The twins exchanged a glance and smiled warmly at Tom.
[I just told you—]
"Fifty-fifty!"
[Look—]
"Sixty-forty. You get sixty, we take forty. And the profits from the Dungbombs are calculated separately."
[Deal!]
Every cat has his price. Sure, he didn't want to cause trouble here, and sure, he wanted to spare Ron's feelings, but he couldn't help it! They were simply offering too much!
The profit margins on their joke products were astronomical. Their only bottleneck had always been distribution. Without a fixed storefront in the school, they had to rely on word-of-mouth and sheer luck to make sales. But now? With a permanent retail location, Tom could practically see the Galleons flooding in like a tidal wave.
[If you can afford the overhead, I can even section off an area in the back for you to research and develop new products. How does that sound?] Seeing their beaming faces, Tom struck while the iron was hot.
"Well..." Now it was the twins' turn to hesitate. Giving Tom sixty percent already slashed their margins. It was still profitable, but compared to the sheer effort they put in, their cut was getting a bit slim. If they had to pay more for R&D space...
But a private lab where they could conduct experiments freely? They wanted that so badly!
[Plus, I can act as your consultant. Whether it's Alchemy, Charms, or anything else, I can help you solve your bottlenecks.] Seeing them waver, Tom added the final nail.
He was a cat whose skills in Charms, Alchemy, and Potions had been acknowledged by the professors themselves. Giving these two teenage wizards a few pointers would be like using a cannon to kill a mosquito~
Sure, his patented "Blue Cat Tech" relied on cartoon logic that was practically impossible for normal wizards to replicate exactly. But "difficult" didn't mean "impossible." They just couldn't copy his methods one-to-one.
And for the twins, that wasn't a problem at all. They rarely lacked the craftsmanship; what they usually lacked was that one crucial spark of inspiration.
Tom's finished gadgets were the perfect catalyst to provide that spark. The twins had invited him to collaborate countless times before, but a certain lazy cat had always blown them off because it sounded like too much work.
But now that he was actually offering?
The twins exchanged one final look, then firmly grabbed Tom's paw. "Deal!"