"The reason, then? And why are you telling me about this instead of discussing it with Professor McGonagall or your parents?" Kasenhis asked, puzzled.
"The reason is… since the Dark Lord has returned, property prices in Diagon Alley have dropped pretty significantly. A lot of shops are selling at a loss," the Weasley twins said in perfect unison.
"And we need to leave school as soon as possible to build up some initial capital, seize this opportunity, buy a shop at rock-bottom prices, and open our joke shop," they continued, still completely in sync.
"And what exactly does that have to do with telling me?" Kasenhis said, half-lidded eyes full of doubt and disbelief.
"Professor, we know that if we talk to our parents directly, there's no way they'll agree. So… we came to ask you," the Weasley twins said with identical smiles.
"...Let me ask you something," Kasen said. "What's my surname?"
"Uh… His. Hiss?"
Kasen nodded. "Exactly. My surname is His. Not Weasley. You telling me this is useless. Wait—haven't I already said this before?" He frowned.
"We just want you to help persuade our parents. You know our parents can't really give us any financial support, so in this regard we can only rely on ourselves and struggle forward."
"But this is the kind of thing that's hard for us to say to Mum and Dad ourselves. I mean, putting it bluntly—because they don't have money, if we want to achieve our dreams, the only option is for us to endure hardships ordinary people can't…"
"It would hurt their pride."
"Exactly. We don't want to end up like Percy."
The Weasley twins spoke in perfect tandem.
"Mm…" Kasenhis rubbed his chin.
"I've met your mother more than once. Honestly, if it came to persuading them, your father would probably be easier to talk to. But your mother—I get the sense she's more ..ugh, for lack of a better term... traditional. Emotionally, I can't say much, but rationally speaking, I think she prefers a child like Percy. Follow the proper path, graduate, go straight into the Ministry of Magic. Safe, respectable, worry-free."
"Oh… Mum really never learns, does she? What if we ended up becoming white-eyed ingrates like Percy?"
"And the facts have already proven that people like Percy are completely unreliable."
The Weasley twins pressed the attack without mercy.
"...So you can't complete your capital accumulation while staying at Hogwarts?" Kasenhis asked.
"It's really difficult. Even though shop prices in Diagon Alley have dropped, if we rely only on squeezing the few Sickles, Knuts, and the occasional Galleon out of Hogwarts students…"
"We've calculated it. Conservatively speaking… it would take six years."
The twins let out a synchronized sigh.
Seeing this, Kasenhis also sighed. He casually pointed to a spot nearby. "George, bring me that coat rack over there."
George scratched his head and said, "But Professor, I'm Fred," but he still walked toward the coat rack.
"Bullshit. You're George. Don't think I can't tell. Hurry up," Kasenhis urged.
"Oh… honestly, Professor, you're even better at telling us apart than our mum," George said as he carried the coat rack over.
Kasenhis leaned forward slightly and reached out to grip the rack. In the next instant, the mahogany coat rack turned golden—inside and out, top to bottom—transformed from red wood into a solid gold coat rack.
"Take it. Consider this a gift from me, as your shop's startup capital," Kasenhis said, then picked up his alchemy journal and went back to reading.
George and the other Weasley exchanged a glance, then shook their heads in perfect sync.
"Professor, we really are poor."
"And we did come to you to ask for help."
"But help doesn't mean charity, so we really can't take something like this."
The Weasley twins both said this with clear resistance.
"Oh… back when I assigned you alchemy homework, you never showed the slightest hesitation skimming off gold. What's with today…" Kasenhis frowned.
"Mm…" The Weasley twins exchanged another look, then spoke slowly.
"Because back then, that gold was something everyone in our class had."
"If we intercepted it, we intercepted it. That was our own ability."
"But right now, if you give us gold, that's your kindness. It has nothing to do with our own capabilities."
Sitting in his office chair, Kasenhis listened to them and felt a bit helpless. The twins were good in every way—good hearts, good sense of boundaries, good personalities, even top-tier talent—but…
"Seriously, you're being a bit rigid now. The sky knows, the air knows, you know, I know—there's no need to let something like this weigh on your minds. On the surface I'm your professor, but from my point of view, you're no different from my younger siblings, or even my nieces and nephews," Kasenhis explained.
But the Weasley twins clearly weren't listening to that. They exchanged a look, pursed their lips, and said, "Professor, if you don't put that coat rack away, then we'll have no choice but to make a run for it."
As they spoke, they took a synchronized step back, clearly preparing to retreat.
"…Mm… Fine. You two head back first. Put the coat rack back where it was. I'll look for an opportunity to talk to Professor McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley for you," Kasenhis said, leaning back in his chair with a helpless sigh.
The Weasley twins looked at each other again and both broke into matching, rather mischievous grins.
"Then thank you, Professor!"
Kasenhis nodded helplessly. "Now scram… honestly, today's been one thing after another. And I've got another group coming to see me next. Guess who?"
"Harley?"
"No—he's already Harry again!"
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