Harry: ...
Oh, so that's what's been going on.
And then it was always like this. During Christmas, he would get 10 Galleons so Gareth would hurry home, and during summer vacation, he would get twenty Galleons to keep his mouth shut.
How did Gareth manage to... save over twenty thousand Galleons with that little money?
Harry was a bit puzzled.
Until he saw the fifth year.
Admittedly, the fifth year was indeed a year of financial boom for Gareth, because that year, there was not only Cassandra, but also Vivi...
This is how it developed.
"It's hard to imagine, besides Miss Malfoy, there's another generous miss—she's unbelievably generous, always able to come up with twice as much as Miss Malfoy to spy on Harry's information from me."
"Heavens, a hundred Golden Galleons, just to give her a detailed account of Harry's preferences, I'm really... uh, hmm, Harry? Who's Harry? Oh, he'll be fine."
"But I think I shouldn't continue this way, I should tell Miss Malfoy about this—tell her there's a Miss Grindelwald, who's set her sights on Harry."
"As for Harry? He'll be fine."
"While practicing the Soul-snatching Curse, Miss Malfoy gave me ten Golden Galleons to stay away from Harry—ha, Harry thought I was unwaveringly defending him, but in reality, he didn't know I had already become a slave to the Golden Galleons…"
"But honestly, more than Golden Galleons, I prefer to see Harry caught between the two of them, unable to choose—aha, that wooden man."
"However, I certainly won't be satisfied with ten Golden Galleons, and I went out to tell Miss Grindelwald about Harry and Malfoy being alone together, naturally—I also received fifty Golden Galleons as a reward."
"In the hall, seeing Miss Malfoy and Miss Grindelwald sparking over Harry, I really felt so accomplished! Heavens!"
"Heavens, I think I might be a pervert—but I'm so excited!"
"Just like that, I became the eyes and ears of both Miss Malfoy and Miss Grindelwald, helping them compete for Harry's time. Especially during the fifth-year Christmas, after Miss Malfoy got mad at Harry, Miss Grindelwald even gave me an opportunity to be alone with Miss Wendy from Ravenclaw, as a reward for me cajoling... persuading Harry to spend Christmas with her in Austria-Hungary."
Harry saw this and clenched his fists.
Goodness, turns out there was such a treacherous traitor beside him!
I said, why could Cassandra precisely grasp my whereabouts, and why Vivi always appeared so appropriately when I was alone with Cassandra...
Turns out it was you, kid!
But upon seeing the following, Harry was stunned.
"But I refused. Harry clearly made Miss Malfoy mad, I thought I should do something to prevent Harry from completely turning to the other side—so I decided to serve Miss Malfoy for free."
"But unfortunately, Miss Malfoy was too disappointing, to the extent that she was completely defeated by the sudden Miss Grindelwald... so I thought, at this time, I should stand up to injustice and become part of the childhood friend camp."
"But shortly after the start of the sixth year, Harry disappeared, making it hard for my plan to carry on—heavens, I think if Harry hadn't disappeared, I could have been happy forever, just balancing among the three of them..."
"But speaking of which, I also feel for Harry—after all, both Miss Grindelwald and Miss Malfoy are equally excellent, it's really hard to choose..."
Here is where the notes ended.
Harry felt both infuriated and amused, angry that he had been set up by a good buddy for so long, amused that even Cassandra and Vivi hadn't noticed the invisible big hand of his good brother.
How great, Gareth.
I never would have thought, Gareth with those thick eyebrows and big eyes, turned out to be such a joker.
Harry sighed and helplessly closed the notebook.
What else can I say?
But he wasn't stupid enough to take the notebook to the Map Secret Room to confront Vivi, of course, there wasn't much to confront either.
If you blame Gareth… it's not really justified.
He just has a bit of a wicked sense of humor. To be honest, in a place deep down he doesn't want to admit, Harry is quite thankful to him.
Of course, as to where he doesn't want to admit it, Harry surely doesn't want to think deeply.
Putting away the notebook, Harry planned to go out for some fresh air.
Actually, getting some fresh air isn't a bad idea, right? Banban?
Harry reached out to pick up the passing rat Banban, holding it in front of him to make eye contact.
But for some reason, when Banban was picked up, it let out a screech like a chicken being slaughtered.
"What's wrong with you?" Harry hurriedly put it down, fearing something might go wrong and he might accidentally wring the old rat's neck.
But the rat couldn't speak human words, at least not apparently, after being placed on the ground by Harry, it made a hasty escape without giving Harry any chance to stop it.
"Harry?"
Ron's voice sounded from behind, sounding completely unrested.
The night before, they had played Wizard Chess in the common room until very late.
After all, they were only second-year students, so being a bit playful was perfectly normal.
"Have you seen my Banban?" Ron asked, rubbing his eyes.
"It just passed by me," Harry truthfully said, "I picked it up, and it was squealing in fear, after I put it down, I didn't see where it went."