**Chapter 204: Crookshanks and the Uncooperative Scabbers**

Dylan looked at Luna with a hint of surprise.

Luna glanced back at him. "So, are you gonna take that oven or what?"

Dylan's mouth twitched.

This girl was more of a bandit than he was…

He let out a dry chuckle and shook his head. "It's Hufflepuff's oven, after all. Maybe we should ask around first, see what the other Hufflepuffs know about it before doing anything."

Taking it now would be a bit much.

That'd be straight-up stealing, wouldn't it?

And so blatantly too…

Dylan's opinion of Luna shifted yet again.

"Yeah, makes sense," Luna nodded.

Dylan thought she'd realized that stealing like that wasn't exactly right.

But then she added, "Once we figure out where this oven came from, we can check if Hufflepuff's got any other secret kitchen gadgets. Then we can grab them all in one go."

Dylan: 😳

"…Yeah, let's talk about that later. It's getting late, so I'm heading back to read a bit more."

"No problem. I'm off to dig through some old books too, see if I can find what I'm looking for," Luna said with a slight nod.

After tidying up the kitchen, Dylan left the Hufflepuff common room with Luna. They said their goodbyes, and he bolted back to his dormitory.

"That girl's downright terrifying!" Dylan muttered as he made his way to the Gryffindor Tower. "If I hang out with her too long, I'm gonna end up corrupted!"

Back in the Gryffindor common room, it wasn't as empty as he'd expected. A crowd was gathered around the noticeboard, buzzing with chatter.

Dylan raised an eyebrow. "What's going on now?"

He stepped closer and glanced at the board.

"A permission notice for Hogsmeade?"

The notice listed the dates for their upcoming Hogsmeade visits—weekends, of course, not school days. The first trip was set for late October, the day before Halloween.

Dylan already knew about Hogsmeade trips from the summer. To go, you needed a signed permission slip, which had arrived with his booklist. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hawkwood, had no objections. They'd only wanted to spend a few days with their long-absent son before practically shoving him back to Hogwarts so they could jet off on their own adventures. The permission slip was signed without a second thought.

"Hogsmeade, huh," Dylan mused, rubbing his chin.

Hogsmeade posed no danger to him. In fact, he owned a property there—not one he'd bought, but one he'd… acquired. During a Legilimency session with Gilderoy Lockhart, Dylan had sifted through the man's shattered memories and found mention of a house in Hogsmeade. Naturally, it became his.

This trip would be the perfect chance to turn that house into another safehouse—his closest one to Hogwarts yet. "Even with Hogwarts' anti-Apparition wards, this place will let me come and go quickly," he thought. Whether he needed to return or make a quick escape.

At his dormitory door, Dylan spotted Crookshanks crouched in a nearby corner. The ginger cat was batting at a glass marble, its flat face and squinting eyes giving it an oddly endearing look. Its bushy tail, puffed up like a bottlebrush, curled slightly at the tip.

That was Hermione's cat. Strange, but cute in its own way.

Smiling, Dylan said, "Hey, little guy, what're you doing by my dorm? Got some business here?"

"Meow meow meow~" Crookshanks looked up, tail swishing.

Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Looking for Sooty to play with?"

Crookshanks nodded, then froze. "Meow?"

Dylan chuckled. "Your owner leaves you in the dorm all the time, so we're not exactly buddies. But don't be shocked—I can understand what you're saying. It's not that hard."

To be clear, Dylan hadn't killed any cats, nor had he harmed anyone's pets. Over the summer, he'd stumbled across a creep abusing a cat in an alley. A quick Legilimency scan revealed the guy was a wanted murderer. Dylan turned him into an Inferius on the spot.

As for the poor cat, barely clinging to life, Dylan didn't let it go to waste. Rather than heal it and leave it to suffer in a cruel world, he gave it a swift end—absorbing its essence into his soul-stealing spell. A generous act, really, sparing it further pain.

"Meow?!" Crookshanks' flat face froze, eyes wide.

"Alright, alright, you want to play with Sooty, don't you?" Dylan said. Sooty, his pet, had met Crookshanks before, but with Norbert around, Sooty rarely left the pet space. It either guarded the house or roamed with the dragon, leaving little time even for Dylan.

Lately, though, Sooty had been clingy, sticking to him and popping out of the pet space. Dylan had spent 5,000 Galleons to give Sooty the ability to come and go freely—a pricey feature, but worth it. Norbert, however, didn't get that privilege. A dragon that size wandering free? That'd be chaos.

Opening the dorm door, Dylan was surprised to find Sooty lounging on Ron's bed, pinning Ron's rat, Scabbers, under its paw.

"Dylan, finally!" Ron spun around, eyes lighting up. "You gotta do something about this little black menace. I swear it's trying to eat Scabbers!"

Ron was alone in the dorm. Dylan blinked and stepped inside, with Crookshanks slinking in behind him.

"Meow meow?" Crookshanks, despite never being in Dylan's dorm, hopped onto the nearest bed with ease. Spotting Sooty, it scampered over excitedly.

"Hey! Why's that cat here?" Ron's eyes widened. "My rat's not enough for two cats to snack on!"

"Sooty's not a cat," Dylan corrected.

"But it's still after Scabbers!" Ron sat on his bed, nervously eyeing Scabbers, who was squirming under Sooty's paw but too scared to flee.

Dylan smirked. "Relax, Sooty won't eat it. They're just playing."

No sooner had he spoken than Crookshanks leapt, its fluffy tail shooting up as it landed on Ron's bed with a thud. "Purrrr." Its tail swept over Scabbers' nose before it lowered its head, jaws open, and lunged.

"Wait!" Ron yelped.

"Mow!" Before Crookshanks could chomp Scabbers, Sooty's other paw shot out, blocking the cat's head.

"Meow?" Crookshanks looked up, confused.

Part-Kneazle, Crookshanks was smart and proud, traits inherited from its magical lineage. It was friendly with creatures it liked—and it liked Sooty. So, despite being stopped, it wasn't mad, just puzzled. Why wasn't Sooty letting it bite this smelly rat? Something about Scabbers felt *off* to Crookshanks, and it didn't like it one bit.

"Mow~" Sooty pressed a paw against Crookshanks' forehead with lazy grace. "Old Ginger, this rat's under my master's protection. Why're you trying to eat it? It's useful to him."

Sooty had seen Dylan feed Scabbers to Dementors before, so it knew this wasn't an ordinary rat. It was one that could "feed" Dementors—or at least keep them busy.

Crookshanks turned to Dylan, who smiled and nodded. "Yeah, this little rat's got its uses."

Grumbling, Crookshanks backed off. "Fine, but next time you're not around, I'm eating it. Not even Merlin's knickers will stop me!"

Dylan burst out laughing. "Who'd you learn *that* from?"

"Obviously…" Crookshanks meowed, tilting its head toward Ron, who looked utterly baffled.

Ron's gaze darted between Sooty, Crookshanks, and Dylan. "Hold on, Dylan… don't tell me you're *talking* to them?"

"Yup, we're chatting," Dylan said casually.

Ron's eyes widened. "How do you talk to cats? Are you a cat or something?"

Dylan grinned mischievously, leaning closer, his face half-hidden in shadow. "Wanna know a secret?"

Ron shot up from his bed. "Haha, you know what? I think it's great for them to play together! Harry's waiting for me at the Quidditch pitch, so I'm outta here!" He bolted for the door, pausing just long enough to add, "Keep an eye on Scabbers, alright? Don't let him get too bullied—especially by Hermione's cat! Merlin's knickers, why's it even in our dorm?"

With that, Ron dashed out, the door clicking shut behind him.

Dylan shook his head, amused. "You two gonna play? I've got some reading to do."

"Mow!" Sooty flicked its chin, signaling Dylan to do his thing.

Crookshanks, meanwhile, stared curiously at Sooty. "What're you looking at?"

"You kinda look like me," Crookshanks said.

"???" Sooty gaped, incredulous, and lifted its paw off Scabbers. The poor rat, finally free, didn't dare move, curling up to make itself as small as possible.

Dylan ignored the chatting duo and settled at his desk, flipping open a book on Hogwarts history. He was searching for details—maybe something about Hufflepuff or the school's secrets. But no luck. Nothing about magical kitchen tools like that mysterious oven in the Hufflepuff kitchen.

"Strange," he muttered. If the oven was there, surely someone else had noticed it. So why wasn't it mentioned in any books?

Then again, the Room of Requirement wasn't in standard texts either, yet it existed.