Half a month had passed since the last public demonstration.
Thanks to his wide circle of friends in Slytherin House, Kyle easily found a manufacturer and distributor for his toy puppets.
It had to be said that Slytherin was truly a harmonious, happy family where upperclassmen never picked on lowerclassmen.
When one person was in trouble, help poured in from all sides.
Upon learning that Kyle was struggling to find production and sales partners, young witches and wizards from various families eagerly recommended their own families to take on the business.
In their zeal to help Kyle, brawls even broke out among some of the students.
Such a heartwarming sight truly touched Kyle’s heart!
In the end, Quidditch captain Marcus Flint secured the manufacturing rights through the power of his rock-hard fists, while Draco Malfoy won the distribution rights thanks to his family’s superior commercial channels.
The final agreement stipulated that Kyle would only be responsible for technical guidance and would take twenty percent of the net profits.
This arrangement was the best method Kyle could devise after careful consideration, as it would not consume too much of his time while still allowing him to rapidly capture the market.
After all, the most valuable part of Kyle’s toy puppets was the creative concept.
As for the technical aspect, others could replicate it quickly enough.
If Kyle had handled manufacturing and sales himself, knock-off toy puppets would likely have flooded the rest of the market before he could even finish fulfilling Hogwarts’ own orders.
After all, there were no intellectual property protection laws in the wizarding world.
By choosing this model, he only needed to explain the design concept and key considerations during the initial production phase, leaving the rest for the Flint and Malfoy families to handle with ease.
As for the final profits, Kyle calculated that his pocket was guaranteed at least 100,000 Gold Galleons.
Although he had settled all these affairs and his gold-making plan was progressing smoothly, Kyle had not been in high spirits for the past couple of days.
Christmas was just around the corner.
Having lived two lives, Kyle had been an orphan in both.
The closer it got to holidays meant for family reunions, the lower his spirits sank.
In his previous life it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in this life it was Christmas; the reunions of those around him only made Kyle feel all the more isolated.
A stranger in a strange land, missing loved ones on holidays—yet Kyle didn’t even have any family left to miss.
As the young witches and wizards boarded the train home, the castle grew increasingly bleak and gloomy.
Wandering through its halls, one could hardly see a single soul, save for the occasional ghost floating past.
With nothing better to do after wrapping up the research and development of his puppet toys, Kyle did not immediately jump into researching his portable energy storage chamber, opting instead to give himself a two-day break.
In the mornings, he would go to the library to read interesting essays and travelogues; in the afternoons, he would return to his dormitory to rest, or sometimes head down to the basement kitchen to ask the house-elves for a cup of black tea and a pastry, curling up by the fireplace to sleep through the afternoon.
After dinner, he would find an empty classroom to practice spells, spending his days in leisure.
On Christmas Day, Kyle spent the entire day with nothing to do until evening, when he went down to the Great Hall to attend the school’s Christmas feast.
Speaking of which, being single was practically becoming a Hogwarts tradition.
From Dumbledore down to the heads of houses and every subject professor, all of them were single, and very few students stayed behind at school for Christmas.
In the end, the Christmas feast looked more like a staff party for the Hogwarts faculty.
After grabbing a quick bite at the feast, Kyle left the Great Hall and casually found an abandoned spell practice room to begin his daily magic practice.
Being in a foul mood, Kyle unleashed a flurry of powerful, difficult-to-control spells, venting the empty ache in his heart to his heart’s content.
When his magic was depleted, he sat to the side and rested, resuming once he had recovered enough.
Perhaps because his mood today was darker and more negative, his practice with Dark Magic proved remarkably effective.
Unknowingly, curfew had already passed.
Ignoring the fact that he had broken school rules, Kyle continued to cast spells recklessly.
Just then, the door creaked open, but no one was there.
Noticing the anomaly, Kyle instantly froze, looked around, backed toward a corner, and watched his surroundings with caution.
For a long moment, there was only the open classroom door swinging slightly in the draft, with nothing else out of the ordinary.
Yet Kyle did not drop his guard, for he clearly remembered locking the door before starting his spell practice.
Standing motionless for a long time, he suddenly flicked his wand.
The dust on the floor and the gravel shattered from his spellcasting lifted into the air all at once, swirling rapidly through the classroom under his wand’s command.
These tiny fragments possessed no offensive power, but they left no blind spots untouched.
Soon enough, the flying dust sent back a reaction, bumping into an invisible obstruction.
Kyle instinctively lashed out with a spell.
His remaining shreds of reason kept him from choosing a Severing Charm or Dark Magic, leading him to select Petrificus Totalus instead.
Next, Kyle manipulated the swirling dust and gravel to cluster around the transparent figure, until a human outline materialized amidst the cloud of dust.
Judging by the silhouette, it was merely a kid.
However, Kyle did not lower his guard and cast *Aparecium*, but the figure showed no sign of revealing itself.
This sparked Kyle’s interest.
To be subdued so easily by Kyle meant the intruder’s skills were clearly limited, yet *Aparecium* had proved useless.
It seemed the stranger possessed a rather intriguing magical item.
Kyle proceeded to try several other revealing spells he knew, but none succeeded—even dark magic tracking spells yielded no results.
Suddenly, a thought struck Kyle.
“Accio Invisibility Cloak!” Sure enough, as the spell took effect, a magical cloak flew over from across the room.
The person beneath it was revealed right before Kyle’s eyes—Harry Potter.
Kyle toyed with the Invisibility Cloak with a playful look on his face.
Held in his hands, this powerful piece of magical equipment radiated no magical aura whatsoever.
No matter how closely Kyle examined it, the cloak appeared identical to an ordinary linen cloak, yet the arm he held beneath it—now completely invisible—reminded him of its extraordinary nature.
*Pity it isn’t mine,* Kyle thought regretfully.
Waving his wand once more to lift the Petrificus Totalus, Kyle tossed Potter his Invisibility Cloak before Potter could say a word.
Catching the Invisibility Cloak, Potter—whose expression had been anxious moments ago—calmed down.
Because Kyle had saved his life previously, Potter refrained from speaking harshly, even though Kyle remained an evil Slytherin in his eyes.