"Malfoy, save me!"
At Pol Anrela's tearful cry, Malfoy, who'd been watching from the sidelines, suddenly jolted to attention.
He knew nothing good would come from sticking around here. On one side was Kane, whom his father had told him to befriend. On the other was his status as Slytherin's top dog.
As this year's Slytherin with the best family background, the finest talent, and the most charisma, he'd naturally become the house's big shot.
Now his underling had been beat down, and if he, as the boss, didn't step up, he probably couldn't keep the position.
But if he chose Kane's friendship and chewed out Pol Anrela instead, the consequences would be even worse.
It'd be like your little brother ate a spoon for you, and you decided he didn't eat it enthusiastically enough, so you handed him a bowl too.
If that happened, forget about being the boss; whether he could even keep his footing in Slytherin would be questionable.
"Man, I really don't want this responsibility," Draco Malfoy muttered under his breath, barely audible to himself, as he stepped in front of Pol Anrela.
"Kane, Pole is my friend. I hope you can do me this favor." Draco Malfoy played the favor card, speaking with what passed for resolve.
"Just have him promise he'll avoid any contact with me from now on and stay out of my way.
That'll do," Kane said. He wasn't making unreasonable demands. After all, what he really wanted was just a peaceful, stable life at Hogwarts.
Draco turned to look at Pole. "Can you do that?"
Pol Anrela immediately nodded like a pecking chicken. "Of course! Of course!"
"One more thing." Kane suddenly remembered something. "Mr. Andrela, how many Galleons do you have in your pocket right now?"
Pole's wallet instantly felt tight. "What are you planning? Malfoy, help me out here! If my money gets taken, don't expect me to call you boss anymore!"
Draco fell silent. Another no-win situation. If he let Pol Anrela hand over the money, his position was toast. But if he paid it himself, that wasn't right either.
He could treat Kane to meals and snacks for friendship's sake, but in this situation, giving Kane money would be completely backing down.
"Kane, didn't I say to do me a favor?" Malfoy's voice grew serious.
"Why else do you think I'm negotiating with him here? We're friends from the train, after all. I've got no reason to target you. Just step aside," Kane said calmly.
Before starting school, he'd built his science machine, but that machine could only craft items from The Constant.
If he wanted to use The Constant's magic, he'd need to keep climbing the tech tree and build an alchemy engine. And the raw materials for an alchemy engine still required gold...
What a coincidence. The moment he had this need, Mr. Anrela appeared right in front of him. Talk about a walking god of wealth.
After a moment's thought, Draco decided which side he should take.
Compared to Kane's friendship, which had barely any real connection, the Andrela family (who'd been the Malfoys' close allies since the seventeenth century) was far more important.
"Of course not." Draco Malfoy whipped out his wand. He wasn't a useless fool like Pole. There was no way Kane could just slam him against a wall in one move.
Kane raised an eyebrow. Without the slightest hesitation, he slashed his wand. Blue light shot out and smacked Draco Malfoy hard against the wall.
Magic was just that miraculous, always turning the impossible into the possible.
The instant Kane made his move, Harry and Ron joined the fray, their wands already in hand.
Meanwhile, Malfoy's two lackeys, Goyle and Crabbe, clearly didn't have that kind of reaction time.
So in plain view of everyone, Kane relieved Pol Anrela of nearly fifty gold Galleons.
As for Draco... in consideration of him treating them to Willy Wonka chocolate on the train, Kane spared his Galleons.
After Kane and his group pocketed the Galleons and swaggered off, Snape finally emerged from the classroom. He took in the mess in the corridor.
"So? You got into a fight with Gryffindor and lost?" Snape naturally deduced what had happened, his face dark.
"Yes, Professor," Malfoy said, standing up from the wall with his head bowed.
"Copy the potion textbook from class three times when you get back. And I need the names of the Gryffindors who beat you this badly," Snape said.
"Kane Heath," Draco answered.
"And?"
"Only Kane Heath."
Hearing that infuriating name, Snape couldn't stop himself from pinching the bridge of his nose.
So many Slytherins got into a conflict with one person, two of them ended up plastered to the wall and could barely be peeled off, and the rest of the Slytherins just stood there watching.
Meanwhile, the instigator went in and out like the Kool-Aid Man.
"Copy it six times... no, nine times. Nine times." After speaking, Snape left the corridor in a foul mood, leaving behind a mountain of assignments targeting Slytherin.
Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common room.
"My dad says there's goblin magic in Galleons. They're not that easy to melt," Ron said, watching the neatly stacked Galleons in the small cauldron.
"Don't worry. I'm not using ordinary flames," Kane said, directly igniting his shadow and tossing that ball of shadow flame into the cauldron.
Ron's mouth instantly formed an O. Nearly fifty Galleons melted like ice cream in summer, turning into liquid gold in an instant.
Harry quickly grabbed the cauldron and poured the molten gold into molds in two batches.
Ron used tongs to clamp the molds and dunked them straight into a nearby water basin.
Just like that, after wasting two or three days at Hogwarts, they'd finally gathered enough for two gold bars.
Kane quickly fished the two gold bars out of the water with his Ruthless Iron Hand and ran over to the science machine nearby.
Sitting on the floor with his hands flying, like cat's cradle, he hand-crafted two electronic components that looked like motors in an instant.
The most important parts were done. He still had leftover planks from before. Now the only materials left for building the alchemy engine were stone bricks.
Unfortunately, it was getting late. Going out to dig up stones probably wouldn't work.
But fortunately...
Kane's eyes turned toward the stone brick floor in the corner of the dormitory.
"Hogwarts, I love you."
Like someone with a particular fetish, Kane said he loved it while doing things that would hurt poor Hogwarts, then casually pried up a stone brick.
Harry and Ron had been playing wizard's chess when they suddenly heard sounds like construction. They looked up.
"What's that round, clunky machine made of beat-up scrap metal for?" Harry asked quietly.
"This?" Kane patted the big contraption's metal shell. "I call it the alchemy engine."