Ron: Quirrell is Innocent!

Professor Cat was beautiful and should be curious about her past.

But the moment the food appeared, Basil cast all of that aside.

After eating bacon for days, Basil, whose entire month's food had been eggs, mushrooms, and pies, had eyes that had turned green.

On the train, the corned beef sandwiches made by Mrs. Weasley were delicacies that Basil still savored.

Not to mention the meat dishes in front of him: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, sausages, steaks, gravy, and more.

He forgot all decorum and began to gobble, just like Harry across from him, eating with both hands like Ron, and with a greasy mouth like Goyle at the Slytherin table.

Hermione, like a kind mother, picked out some vegetables: pea shoots, carrots, and put them onto Basil's plate.

She softly urged him to eat them.

However, the other new students were pretty much the same as Basil.

They were at an age where they were growing, and they hadn't eaten from 11 AM until the evening, not even including afternoon tea.

Then they had traveled by boat in the cold wind, climbed tunnels and stone stairs, and stood waiting for the Sorting.

They were all famished and could have eaten a cow.

So, the ghost immediately realized that no one was willing to listen to him talk about Professor McGonagall's hidden past anymore.

What made him even sadder was that, as a ghost, he couldn't eat anything at all.

Having not eaten in 400 years, he floated beside Basil, who was eating the most messily but also the most ravenously, swallowing non-existent saliva.

"This looks really good, this lamb chop is so tender! And this pork chop..."

Basil ignored him; at this moment, Basil didn't even have the energy to refuse Hermione's feeding.

He just swallowed the vegetables that filled his plate, along with the meat and gravy.

Only Harry, who had developed a bird's appetite at the Dursleys' and wasn't used to eating so much, responded to the ghost.

The ghost also started talking to Harry.

He introduced his name and identity: Sir Nicholas of Mimsy-Porpington, the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower.

When Ron spoke to him, his nickname was revealed: Nearly Headless Nick.

At Seamus's prompting, he showed the broken surface of his neck, where only a bit of skin was still attached, to the surrounding new students.

At this point, except for Ron, almost no one wanted to eat meat anymore.

No, there was still Basil, who, in the midst of his fervent eating, ignored everything around him.

Just as the little badgers from Hufflepuff at the next table didn't notice this scene.

When Basil let out a satisfied burp, which harmonized with the burps of the little badgers, the remaining food vanished from the plates. The plates and forks became as clean as new.

It was time for dessert. Pudding, ice cream of various flavors, apple pie, treacle tart, chocolate muffins, doughnuts, jam roly-poly, strawberries, jelly...

appeared on the plates again.

The other new students, Neville and Seamus, started eating dessert while talking about their families.

Neville dominated the conversation, vividly recounting how he had escaped harm and awakened his magical power under the persecution of his uncle.

Basil listened with great interest.

Suddenly, he noticed Ron across the table giving him an admiring look: "You're eating more than me! Your family must have been Hufflepuffs for generations, and your name suits you perfectly!"

Basil hadn't yet emphasized the suffering of not touching meat for a month.

Eggs didn't count as meat.

Just then, three red-haired boys walked over, two of them twins.

The twins were the first to introduce themselves.

"Hello, my name is Fred."

"I'm George."

Basil's eyes lit up, the twins' [Echo]!

But they dimmed slightly.

Merlin's beard! Why weren't they a pair of sisters!

And why were they both short and stocky.

Completely out of sync with the beanpole builds of Ron and Percy.

"You're Ron's brothers, right? I'm his friend."

"If you round up, I'm your friend too."

"Don't be so formal."

The twins nodded (Basil: New friends acquired!), and put their arms around Ron, one on each side.

"Well, well, our little brother!"

"How did you brats introduce us to Percy?"

Another tall redhead, Percy, had a long face. "You two, why are you giving people nicknames without permission?"

He ignored the struggling Ron and looked at Basil. "Be careful to stay away from them. Students like us—"

He adjusted the shiny silver 'P' badge pinned to his chest. "Should set an example for other students!"

"Hey!" the twins said in unison.

"Basil isn't as good as you think!"

"He's the one who killed Fenrir the werewolf!"

"Yeah, George, he's also good at making money!"

"Even Percy—"

"Percy willingly paid!"

Percy trembled with anger. "Shut up! All you two can see is money!"

"Basil, like me, is after something greater than money."

He lowered his voice. "Power!"

"I'm telling you this directly because we're brothers."

The twins made a face and let go of Ron, who was struggling to breathe.

Percy smiled at Basil and returned to his seat with the twins.

Ron ate his ice cream, looking dejected. "Am I some kind of non-existent thing? I'm their brother!"

Harry, feeling sleepy after eating, patted Ron's right hand comfortingly.

Then, "Ouch!"

He covered his forehead with one hand.

Ron got a little angry. "Am I a hedgehog? If you touch me—"

The next second, his attitude changed to concern. "Harry, are you alright?"

Hermione noticed where Harry was hurting. "Is it that scar? Could it be a side effect of that magic? I remember the school has a nurse."

With Hermione's concern for Harry, and Basil's earlier setup on the train, Ron mentioned the name again.

"Voldemort?"

At the high table, Quirrell, who was wearing a ridiculous scarf and had been trying to bother Snape, glanced over as he adjusted his scarf.

"Ouch!"

With that one glance, the pain that had just subsided in Harry reappeared for a second.

"What's wrong?" Basil asked with rare concern. He didn't remember Harry being in pain twice.

"It's Quirrell!" Harry was very sure. "I thought it was Snape just now because his eyes held hatred and indignation when he looked at me."

"But I didn't notice. The pain appeared after Quirrell's scarf blocked Snape's view."

"Snape wasn't looking at me the second time I felt pain. Only Quirrell glanced at me."

"The plot has changed!" Basil mused.

He checked the Gems: 13552.571 (+0.001/s)

"Gems that increase with time. Malfoy falling into the water was about 1400, talking to Professor Cat was about 2000."

"Subtracting those—"

"It didn't increase! This doesn't count as mine?"

"Is there no law? No order?"

Harry couldn't hear Basil's thoughts.

He mistook Basil's suddenly grim expression for concern.

"This problem shouldn't be a big deal. Perhaps it's a resonance between dark magics?"

"Hagrid said Quirrell used to be a good student, smart, and brave. He went traveling for firsthand practical experience."

"The reason he's like this a year later seems to be due to an attack by a vampire in the Forbidden Forest, a curse from an old witch, and so on."

"Then he became timid like this, afraid of students, even afraid of the subjects he teaches."

Basil, having composed himself, prompted, "Have you met Quirrell before? Your scar didn't hurt then, did it?"

"It didn't hurt?" Harry frowned. "Did I guess wrong?"

"Heh heh!" Ron took a bite of pie. "You're not wrong!"

(Basil's dark face: Wrong, my foot!)

"They say the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was cursed by Voldemort! That's also why the professor for this position changes every year."

"Harry, you met Quirrell before school started, right?"

Harry nodded.

Ron: "Isn't the answer obvious? It didn't react before because he wasn't the professor for this class yet."

"It's reacting now because your scar, and this class's curse, were both left by Voldemort!"