After Halloween, November arrived, and the cold weather made the young wizards even more reluctant to get out of bed.

At eight in the morning, Kyle, wearing a thick robe, yawned as he walked into the Great Hall to have breakfast.

As the owls flocked into the Great Hall, as usual, the broom Cedric had been looking forward to finally arrived. And just as he had expected, it was a Firebolt 1700.

"Awesome, Cedric, awesome." An upperclassman Hufflepuff Quidditch player excitedly patted Cedric on the shoulder. "You're the Seeker. With this Firebolt 1700, the gap between us and Slytherin will be much smaller.

I've seen their Seeker. Honestly, he's not much better than a troll riding a broomstick."

By the way, Hufflepuff's first Quidditch match was against Slytherin.

They had been worried about the equipment gap, but then this good news came out of nowhere.

One Firebolt 1700 wouldn't be enough to boost their morale, but with Cedric, their Seeker, it was different.

During practice matches, the fastest Cedric had ever caught the Snitch was in five minutes. He was only a few seconds away from breaking Hogwarts' fastest Seeker record.

A top-of-the-line broomstick combined with a genius Seeker. The Hufflepuff players didn't know how they could lose.

Could Slytherin possibly be ahead of them by one hundred and fifty points in five minutes?

Don't be ridiculous.

Kyle was also happy. Even though he wasn't participating, it would be great if their house could win the Quidditch Cup.

He turned to look at Cedric's brand-new Firebolt until a prickling sensation in his finger made him realize that there was an owl in front of him as well.

"Sorry, little guy, I didn't notice."

Kyle quickly took out a Wrackspurt jerky and fed it to the owl. Then, he took the letter from its claw and began to read.

"Dear Kyle:

I'm sorry it took me so long to write back. I've been so busy lately. I thought I had already replied to you. This morning, I found the unfinished letter in my office. I hope you'll forgive me.

We received the Galleons you sent. I'm proud of you, kid. I wasn't as good as you when I was in my first year.

Also, your mother asked me to tell you that she received your Galleons, but you can forget about the broomstick.

But she did prepare something else for you. It'll be delivered to you in two days. I hope you'll like it.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

That's all. I hope you have a good time at Hogwarts.

—Your father, Chris."

After reading the letter, the light in Kyle's eyes visibly disappeared.

Although he had already guessed that Diana wasn't as easy to fool as Mr. Diggory, Kyle was still disappointed to see the result.

Besides, it took so long.

He had sent the letter in early September. It was already November, and Chris hadn't been back to the office for two months. What was he so busy with?

Did Newt go on a trip?

Just as Kyle was wondering, Cedric suddenly slapped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of him.

"Kyle, take a look. Something big happened. No wonder my dad took so long to mail me the broomstick."

On the front page of the Daily Prophet was a photo with many magical creatures, except that they were all caged.

Next to the photo was a bold headline:

Magical Creature Catastrophe

"According to sources, on September 3rd of this year, when the Ministry of Magic's Hit Wizards were apprehending a group of magical creature smugglers, they accidentally lost control, causing a large number of smuggled creatures to escape. This included three creatures classified as XXXX, extremely dangerous.

We still don't understand why the Hit Wizards made such a basic mistake, and we also don't understand why the Ministry is covering it up.

"This was to avoid causing panic in the wizarding world." Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge said this morning. "We have captured most of the magical creatures. And nobody died because of this incident."

We don't yet know the truth of this outcome.

But Chris Chopper, the spokesperson for the Department of Magical Creatures and Control at the Ministry of Magic, said in an interview that, with the help of Mr. Newt Scamander, almost all the escaped creatures, including the Blue-Eyed Slug and the Niffler, have been successfully captured.

But there is still one Crumple-Horned Snorkack missing.

He urged everyone to be careful. Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are extremely dangerous. If you see it, run away immediately and fire a red warning spell into the air. The Beast Office and Aurors will arrive as quickly as possible to help."

After reading it, Kyle finally understood what Chris was busy with.

From the photos, it seemed like there were fifty or sixty magical creatures captured. This was the largest magical creature smuggling case in the British wizarding world in nearly thirty years.

But that wasn't the point. The point was the Niffler.

Kyle was curious how they managed to get their hands on a Niffler.

Not only was it agile, but its breath was poisonous as well. It could easily destroy a village.

To put it simply, the Ministry of Magic's description clearly stated that, under normal circumstances, it would take over a hundred skilled wizards to subdue a Niffler.

Although there was a certain amount of exaggeration, it was enough to demonstrate how dangerous it was. Keep in mind that it only takes ten wizards to subdue a dragon.

"Luckily, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack escaped," Kyle exclaimed sincerely.

He wasn't looking down on the Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Although the Crumple-Horned Snorkack was also classified as XXX, it was only because its danger level reached the standard.

The Niffler was classified as XXXX because the Ministry of Magic's rating only went up to XXXX.

They were not in the same league at all.

The other upperclassmen, or those who had a certain understanding of magical creatures, such as Cedric, nodded in agreement when they heard Kyle's words.

As for the other young wizards, they didn't know much about magical creatures, so they were more concerned about the escaped Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

The words "extremely dangerous" in the newspaper didn't seem like they were exaggerating.

"It's good that we're at Hogwarts." Someone said thankfully, "With Dumbledore here, we won't be hurt at all."

His statement quickly gained the unanimous agreement of everyone.

Yeah, with Dumbledore here, what did they have to worry about?

The atmosphere at the table instantly became livelier.

But this didn't last long. It quickly quieted down again.

Then, a student suddenly stood up, not even bothering to finish his breakfast, and ran towards the owlery.

After he reminded them, the others reacted. They all stood up, some ran to the owlery, and others ran back to their dorms.

The previously bustling Great Hall quickly emptied.