As expected, once the werewolf was out of danger, the Ministry of Magic took him away.
Professor Cecily didn't try to stop them—after the ministry left, she took Healer Hippocrates with her and left as well.
In the headmistress's office at St Mungo's Hospital, Professor Cecily asked calmly, "How did it go?"
"Quite smoothly," said Hippocrates. "During the treatment, I found a way to make them leave for about five minutes."
"How much Veritaserum did you use…"
"Three drops. With a werewolf's recovery ability, the Ministry's people will never notice," Hippocrates said. "Also, I asked everything you wanted. That werewolf had always been following Greyback, but a month ago, someone took him to Knockturn Alley…"
While Professor Cecily and Healer Hippocrates were talking, Kael happened to be brought home by Dumbledore.
"This is your stop, Kael."
In Ottery St Catchpole, Dumbledore said, "I still have to go to France to visit a friend. I do hope he'll forgive my absence."
By the time Kael had recovered from the queasiness of Side-Along Apparition, Dumbledore was already gone.
He also noticed Dumbledore had dropped him off near the Shabby Residence.
"Is the headmaster bad with directions too? I've never heard that before."
Kael scratched his head but didn't think too much of it.
Not long after he returned home, Chris and Diana came rushing in.
"We got a letter from Dumbledore."
Chris anxiously pulled Kael in front of him, looked him over carefully, and then asked, "You ran into a werewolf at St Mungo's?!"
"Yeah."
Kael had already prepared his excuse, replying with a straight face, "But Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn were right next to me at the time. They handled the werewolf pretty quickly."
"But Dumbledore said in his letter that you were the one who dealt with the werewolf," Diana drawled. "Was he lying?"
"Um… I just thought it would look bad to do nothing. So I helped out a little."
Kael held up his pinky finger for emphasis. "Really, just a little."
Diana raised her eyebrows, "If you were just helping, then why did Professor Cecily nominate you for the Order of Merlin, Second Class?"
"Maybe Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn don't need that sort of thing… so they gave it to me."
Diana clearly didn't buy Kael's explanation. She narrowed her eyes and said, "First you went into the Forbidden Forest with Oren pretending to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and now you ran into a werewolf at St Mungo's—maybe Hogwarts just isn't right for you.
How about transferring to Beauxbatons? I happen to know Madam Maxime. She'd take very good care of you for me."
"Ilvermorny works, too," Chris piped in. "Theseus Scamander and his wife both teach there, and if I recall, they were quite fond of you when you were little."
"Um… I think transferring isn't necessary," Kael said nervously. "It'd be so much hassle."
"It's not a hassle," said Diana. "And at least you wouldn't run into this sort of danger there."
"These were all just accidents. It's the same anywhere," Kael mumbled. "Besides, what happened at St Mungo's has nothing to do with Hogwarts."
Diana said coolly, "Of course it does. Hagrid is Hogwarts's Gamekeeper, and Kettleburn is the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures."
"That counts?"
Kael was at a loss for words, but then a thought popped into his head and his eyes lit up, "I think it's because of Hagrid… Both times, it was something to do with him. He must be too unlucky, and I just got caught up in it.
I promise I'll stay far away from him when term starts, and nothing will happen."
Anyway, he'd shift the blame first and figure the rest out later.
As it turned out, the tactic worked a bit. Afterwards, Chris and Diana didn't bring up transferring schools again.
But they didn't allow Kael to wander around on his own anymore. Even a trip to Diagon Alley had to be accompanied by an adult.
Luckily, Kael hadn't planned on going out much anyway, so he agreed without complaint.
For the next while, just to ease their minds, Kael stayed in his room working on homework and didn't go out at all.
Maybe it was because they'd just finished exams, but the Hogwarts professors hadn't assigned much holiday homework—probably about the same as at Easter break.
Kael finished it all in just a week, and that was even with the Weasley twins constantly distracting him.
Those two seemed to have turned his attic into their secret base, coming by almost every day. While Kael worked on his homework, they were always there, researching some peculiar candies.
All the sweets they'd bought in Hogsmeade before the holiday had practically been used up already.
When Kael finished his last Magic History essay and went up to the attic, he overheard voices from inside.
"Fred, the diluted Swelling Potion only makes your tongue a bit thicker—nowhere near what we're after."
"Mmmph… mmph mmph mmph…"
"Yeah, this is as close as we've gotten to success. If we don't dilute it, even the tiniest bit makes your whole mouth swell up."
"…"
Kael pushed open the door and, when he saw the two of them, couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud.
"Pft…"
George was fine—not much changed about him.
But Fred was another story. His whole face was swollen up like a pineapple stuffed in his mouth—you'd think he'd been stung by a whole hive of bees.
Kael tried hard not to look at Fred's face, fighting back laughter as he asked, "What exactly are you two up to?"
"Something that'll help young wizards escape all their troubles," George said, winking and grinning. "We call it the Skiving Snackbox."
Fred: "Mmmph… ah blah blah…"
Kael tried, but he had no idea what Fred was saying and could only look at George, waiting for him to translate.
"Fred says this series will definitely be a hit."
After the translation, George continued, "We're planning to make a candy that makes your tongue swell up, but the problem is, we can't get the Swelling Potion dosage right. We can't make it work on the tongue alone."
Even though making your whole mouth or head swell up would also get you out of class, it just wasn't as funny anymore.
That wasn't what the Weasley Brothers were after.
"Have you tried using Shrunken Fig?"
Kael thought for a moment, then said, "I remember Shrunken Fig can neutralize the effects of Swelling Potion—using that should work better than just diluting the potion."
"Oh! How did I forget that…"
George slapped his thigh—hard enough that Fred immediately started grimacing in pain.
"Sorry, Fred. Didn't recognize that was your leg."
With that, George jumped to his feet and dashed for the door. "I'm off to Diagon Alley—back in a flash!"