Because crafting a uniquely shaped wand wasn't something that could be accomplished in a short time, Kyle ultimately failed to obtain his heart's desire, the "Phoenix's Vow," during the Christmas holidays.
At the same time, he also failed to develop a method to craft Explosive Tags with his bare hands.
After returning to Hogwarts from France, the first thing Kyle did was find Cedric and Jack.
"After dinner, when we go back to the common room, have the Quidditch team gather in my room."
Jack, who was currently double-fisting chicken legs, suddenly paused in his tracks. "Kyle, do you have something to say?"
"I feel it's necessary to improve the overall level of our Quidditch team," Kyle shrugged. "After all, you can't expect Cedric and me to carry the team until graduation."
Hearing this, Jack let out two awkward chuckles, his expression looking a bit unwell.
As the team captain, his Quidditch skills could honestly be described as atrocious.
He and Gryffindor's Oliver Wood were both Keepers. The latter could defend Gryffindor's goalposts until they were watertight, while the goalposts he guarded were like a sieve—full of holes.
If not for Cedric's insistence, he would have applied to Professor Sprout long ago to hand over the position of Quidditch Captain to Cedric.
"Actually, I don't think that's a bad idea."
Jack muttered in a low voice, but immediately attracted death glares from the other two. He instantly swallowed the second half of his sentence.
What he wanted to say was that Kyle was only a first-year and could still play for seven years.
Kyle waved his hand, signaling them to lean in closer. "I specifically built a Quidditch training ground for our Hufflepuff team."
Jack exclaimed, "Quid—"
His words were barely out before the quick-eyed and quick-handed Cedric covered his mouth.
Cedric took out his wand with a look of disdain and cast a Cleaning Charm on his oil-stained palm.
"I think our team's insufficient skill level is due to a lack of daily training," Cedric said.
The Quidditch players of the Eagle and Badger houses knew full well their teams were lackluster, so they were much more lax about training compared to the Lion and Snake houses, who were constantly at each other's throats.
Cedric had long noticed the problems within the team, but he never had the ability to change things—until now, with Kyle joining.
Kyle narrowed his eyes. "The simplest and crudest way to improve their overall level is to increase the training intensity. As long as they don't die, train them to death."
Over this Christmas holiday, he had sought out Old Man Alfred to learn quite a lot more, and his proficiency with the Mystical Palm Technique had reached a new level.
As long as it wasn't instant death, Kyle could keep them breathing long enough to get the wounded to Madam Pomfrey.
"What if they refuse to obey the arrangement?" Jack raised his hand weakly.
Kyle clenched his fist, cracking his knuckles loudly.
"Then they'll have to ask my fist. By the way, this 'they' you're talking about refers to you, doesn't it?"
"No way," Jack shook his head like a rattle, feeling the threat, and straightened his back. "As the captain, I absolutely must set a leading example!"
"Then your training volume will be half as much again as theirs." Cedric's words instantly made Jack's vision go dark.
Kyle shook his head. "Big-eyed Ced, you look like a thick-browed, big-eyed honest guy, but I didn't expect you to be full of bad water."
He poked Cedric in the chest. "How could you do that? Doesn't your conscience hurt?"
Hearing Kyle's words, Jack's face immediately filled with joy and an ingratiating smile.
Before the roasted Cedric could speak, Kyle popped out another sentence: "Double seems about right."
Crack, crack, crack...
The smile on Jack's face vanished instantly. He turned his head with a stiff neck, his cervical vertebrae seemingly making cracking sounds.
Cedric burst out laughing. He knew it—you can't get ivory out of a dog's mouth when it comes to Kyle.
After dinner, in the Hufflepuff common room, inside Kyle's room.
Kyle placed a suitcase that Cedric was not unfamiliar with on the floor.
"You aren't planning to make us practice Quidditch inside the shooting range, are you?" Cedric asked.
"This isn't Bag End," Kyle pointed to another identical suitcase on his bedside table. "That one is."
Then, he stepped one foot into the suitcase.
Walking down the stairs, what finally appeared before everyone was a standard-sized Quidditch pitch. It was almost a one-to-one replica of the Quidditch pitch outside Hogwarts Castle.
However, compared to the Hogwarts pitch, there were many long, circular pipes surrounding this one. No one knew what they were for.
Amazingly, the inside of the suitcase had a sky just like the outside world, and the weather was sunny and mild.
Seeing this Quidditch pitch, Jack let out a strange, excited yelp.
"This uses the same magic as the ceiling in the Great Hall," Kyle explained.
"There's a knob here. Just turning it can simulate any kind of weather."
This way, they could simulate matches under any extreme weather conditions.
Cedric pointed to the long pipes around the pitch. "What are those things?"
Kyle looked in the direction of Cedric's finger. "Oh, those. Those are launchers for Bludgers and Quaffles."
"Launchers? To train us on how to evade Bludgers and intercept Quaffles?"
Cedric guessed their function as soon as he heard Kyle's description.
"Correct. Let me demonstrate for you," Kyle walked over to one of the giant cannons. "Just like this."
Kyle slid the slider on the Bludger launcher to the maximum setting, then slapped the launch button.
Accompanied by a massive boom, a black meteor flashed past everyone's eyes in an instant.
Everyone else: ???
Did a giant black rat just whiz by?
The corner of Cedric's eye twitched violently.
He had just made a rough calculation: the speed of that Bludger definitely exceeded two hundred meters per second.
If one were hit by a Bludger at that speed, there would be no need to go to the Hospital Wing. Just start the funeral feast.
The corners of Kyle's mouth were also twitching incessantly. Was his old man trying to murder his own son?
This launcher training system had been created by Grindelwald at his request.
It wasn't just the launchers; the entire Quidditch training ground had been created by Grindelwald.
Only a wizard of Grindelwald's level could carve out such a massive space inside a small suitcase using a permanent Undetectable Extension Charm in just a few days.
Aside from the insane launchers, there were also many alchemy puppets in the stadium set with fixed programs.
These were meant to simulate opposing team members, increasing the difficulty for the players during training simulations.
However, because the programs were fixed, once the Hufflepuff players got used to the patterns of these alchemy puppets, they would have to consider swapping in a new batch.
As for Golden Snitch capture training, that wasn't so easy to practice.
But Kyle believed in Cedric's talent. Even without a specialized training program, he could do it.
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