Watching Fudge leave in such a miserable state, Dawn simply withdrew his gaze.
He didn't think much about the matter.
It had merely occurred to him on a whim, so he had decided to give it a try. If something came of it, all the better. If not, he could accept that as well.
Dawn shook his head, clearing away his stray thoughts, and continued studying the magical circuits throughout the castle.
But today, it seemed he was unusually popular.
He hadn't gone very far when two more people came looking for him!
With identical faces, fiery red hair, and mischievous grins, who else could they be but the Weasley twins?
"Richter! I want treatment too! Hurry up and make my hair grow back. Being bald like this is hideous!"
George shouted before he had even reached Dawn.
Dawn instinctively looked over.
The bald patch on George's head was still glaringly obvious. After all this time, not a single strand of hair had grown back!
What kind of potion had Snape used?
The effect was surprisingly good.
Could he have specifically researched it to torment the Potter family's shampoo?
The thought suddenly flashed through Dawn's mind.
Up ahead, George came running closer, his head bobbing with every step. The bald patch reflected the sunlight, creating a peculiar kind of ugliness.
The longer Dawn looked, the more amusing he found it.
Suddenly, he laughed.
"Forget it. I'm not treating you!"
"Don't! Think about it again!"
George immediately pounced forward and wrapped his arms around Dawn, who had been about to leave.
Seeing the mischievous look in Dawn's eyes, George secretly ground his teeth before lowering his voice and pleading.
"How about this, little junior? As long as you help me fix my hair, I'll tell you a secret about the kitchen! I guarantee you'll get a bargain!"
Dawn paused.
"The kitchen?"
"That's right!"
George nodded.
He then put an arm around the silent Fred and wore an unbearably smug expression.
"We've noticed you've been going over there all the time lately. So naturally, we got curious and went exploring at night too. And guess what? We actually found something!"
Wait.
Seriously?!
The corners of Dawn's eyes lifted.
He suspiciously examined the twins in front of him.
He could see magical circuits.
He had been exploring the castle for so long without finding anything. What made these two think they could discover something before him?
"What secret?"
There was obvious disbelief in Dawn's voice, but he still asked.
"No, no, no!"
George shook his head like a rattle and glared at him.
"You're too mean. You have to treat me first!"
He remembered the miserable state he'd been reduced to after being pranked.
Dawn curled his lips.
He looked at George again.
Considering that the boy probably didn't have the courage to lie to him, Dawn reached out and placed a hand on him.
His magic seeped inside.
The pattern changed.
In an instant, the missing hair grew back.
"All right. Tell me the secret."
Dawn spoke irritably.
"Let me make this clear beforehand. If your secret turns out to be useless to me, I'll turn you permanently bald!"
George ignored the threat.
He seemed extremely confident in his information.
He rubbed the top of his head excitedly, and when he confirmed that the bald patch really was gone for good, tears of emotion almost filled his eyes.
A moment later—
After finally calming down, he kept an arm around Fred's shoulders and waved Dawn over familiarly.
"Hey, come with me!"
Dawn narrowed his eyes and followed.
The three of them went down the stairs, heading straight beneath the Great Hall on the first floor.
George scratched a pear on a painting.
The door opened, and they stepped into the kitchen.
Then—
George headed straight for the cooking area.
Under Dawn's astonished gaze, he picked up a wooden spoon.
It had no magical circuits whatsoever. It was simply an ordinary wooden utensil.
"This is the secret you were talking about?"
Dawn's face twitched.
He thought perhaps he'd seen incorrectly.
But after examining it carefully for quite some time, he confirmed that the thing really was nothing more than ordinary wood.
"Hey! Don't rush me!"
George shook his hair and asked a nervous, respectful house-elf nearby for some ingredients.
He lit a fire and actually began cooking right there on the spot.
Dawn frowned.
But he didn't say anything else.
He quietly leaned against the side and waited to see what exactly the twins were up to.
George proceeded to demonstrate his culinary skills.
His cooking method could only be described as...
Bold?
Once the water began boiling, he threw in diced mushrooms, diced carrots, and diced meat.
He sprinkled in some salt, put the lid on, and began boiling everything together.
After that, he lit another burner, placed a frying pan over it, poured in some oil, and dropped in a steak to fry slowly.
Dawn's brows gradually furrowed.
He began taking the matter seriously.
He thought that if Helga Hufflepuff had hidden a secret within cooking, it would make sense.
However—
He had already considered this possibility before.
Yet when he had watched the house-elves cooking, he hadn't seen any changes in the magical circuits.
He had therefore dismissed the theory.
Could it be—
That the Weasley twins had discovered something he hadn't noticed?
Dawn watched even more carefully.
But—
Twenty minutes passed.
Apart from a growing smell of burnt food, absolutely nothing happened in the kitchen.
George was sweating profusely.
It was obvious he didn't have much experience cooking.
At this moment, he was frantically flipping the slightly charred steak over.
Dawn was beginning to lose his patience.
"Damn it! George, if you dare tell me that eating your cooking is payment for the treatment, I'll shove your head into a toilet!"
"Don't rush me—don't rush me!"
George's face was flushed, his ears red.
He kept muttering to himself, but there was absolutely no conviction behind his words.
He hurriedly called Fred over to help.
The two of them scrambled around for another ten minutes before finally stirring the soup with the wooden spoon, clattering it against the pot several times before extinguishing the fire.
"Done!"
George shouted as though he had accomplished some incredible feat.
He wiped the sweat from his face, divided the food into three portions, and carried them over to the dining table.
Dawn stared at the blackened, sticky mess in front of him.
He was extremely reluctant to put any of it into his mouth.
He spoke through clenched teeth.
"George, if you don't want to die in an ugly way, you'd better tell me something useful!"
"Oh? You didn't notice?"
George wasn't afraid in the slightest.
Instead, he began waggling his eyebrows and deliberately provoking Dawn.
"Merlin's beard! Fred, our genius wizard didn't notice a thing!"
He burst into laughter, apparently finally getting some revenge.
Only when Dawn's gaze became increasingly dangerous did George cough awkwardly and stop.
He no longer bothered with the theatrics.
Instead, he picked up the wooden spoon and tapped the empty pot and dishes one after another.
Dong.
Clink.
Bang.
Three different sounds rang out.
Then George and Fred knocked their bowls together.
Crack.
George immediately said:
"Little junior, remember the wooden barrels outside the Hufflepuff common room?"
Dawn froze.
After thinking for a moment, he instantly understood.
"You mean—"
"That's right!"
George proudly snapped his fingers.
"There are a bunch of wooden barrels outside the Hufflepuff common room.
If you knock on the right one, it sprays sour vinegar at you.
We collected quite a lot of it for our pranks, so we're absolutely certain that these sounds match one of those barrels."
The Hufflepuff students were extremely united. They would never tell outsiders how to enter their common room.
The Weasley twins obviously didn't know the entrance method either.
Dawn said nothing.
He merely raised an eyebrow.
He took the wooden spoon from George and knocked against several other cooking utensils.
But all of them produced unusually dull sounds, nothing like the clear tones from before.
"No need to test them."
George explained.
"All the cooking utensils are the same. Once you've cooked with them and heated them up, the sounds they make when you knock them are similar to the wooden barrels."
He then pointed toward the dishes on the table.
"As for these, they only make the barrel sound after they've been filled."
"There's something else, too."
He paused.
He exchanged a glance with Fred. Then the two of them picked up a cloth and began wiping down the stove.
Swish!
Another loud sound rang out.
I see.
Dawn exhaled slowly.
Seeing this scene, he finally understood where his previous mistake had been.
The objects left behind by the Four Founders did not necessarily have anything to do with magic!
Take Hufflepuff, for example.
She was warm, practical, hardworking, respectful of food, and accepting by nature.
She would never divide young wizards into different ranks based on their birth.
Therefore, the things she left behind would likewise only reveal themselves to those who genuinely possessed these virtues.
They rewarded character, not talent or bloodline.
Only true little badgers would be able to discover Hufflepuff's guidance in their everyday lives and hear those beautiful notes.
"Well, this really is..."
Dawn wanted to say something profound, but for a moment, he couldn't think of what.
All he could do was click his tongue in amazement.
Then he immediately thought of something else.
After reproducing these notes by knocking on the wooden barrels—
What would happen?
___________
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