Professor Cat was beautiful. One ought to be curious about her past.
But the moment the food appeared, Basil threw all that to the back of his mind.
The bacon had run out after just a few days. For the past month, Basil had eaten nothing but eggs, mushrooms, and bread, and his eyes had practically gone green.
Even now, Basil still remembered Mrs. Weasley's corned beef sandwiches on the train as a delicacy beyond compare.
Not to mention the roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, sausages, steaks, gravy, and all the other meat dishes laid out before him.
He immediately forgot all restraint and began wolfing it down like Harry across from him, eating with both hands like Ron, and getting grease all over his mouth like Goyle at the Slytherin table.
Like a kind mother, Hermione picked out some vegetables—pea shoots and carrots—and placed them on Basil's plate.
She gently urged him to eat them.
Still, the other new students were not much different from Basil.
They were at the age when they were still growing, and they had gone from eleven in the morning until night without even afternoon tea.
Then they had ridden boats in the cold wind, climbed through tunnels and up stone stairs, and stood waiting to be sorted.
They were all ravenous enough to eat a cow.
So the ghost quickly realized that no one was interested in hearing about Professor McGonagall's secret past anymore.
What made him even sadder was that, as a ghost, he could not eat at all.
Having gone four hundred years without a meal, he floated beside Basil, whose table manners were the worst but whose eating was also the most appetizing,
swallowing nonexistent saliva.
"That looks delicious! These lamb chops are so tender! And these pork chops—"
Basil ignored him. At the moment, he did not even have the energy to refuse Hermione's offerings.
He simply swallowed the vegetables taking up space on his plate along with the meat and gravy.
Only Harry, who had developed a birdlike appetite at the Dursley family's home and was not yet used to eating so much, paid the ghost some attention.
The ghost began chatting with Harry as well.
He introduced his name and identity: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower.
While talking with Ron, he also revealed his nickname: Nearly Headless Nick.
At Seamus's urging, he displayed the severed cross-section of his neck to the surrounding new students—the neck that had been cut through, with only a thin strip of skin still holding it together.
This time, apart from Ron, almost no one wanted to eat meat anymore.
No, Basil still did. Focused entirely on eating, he ignored everything around him.
Just like the little badgers from Hufflepuff at the neighboring table, who had not noticed the scene either.
Once Basil let out a satisfied burp, joining the little badgers' burps in a grand chorus, all the remaining food vanished from the platters at once. The plates and forks became spotless again.
It was time for dessert: pudding, ice cream in every flavor, apple pie, treacle tart, chocolate cake, jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, and jelly.
They appeared on the platters once more.
The other new students, Neville and Seamus, began talking about their families while eating dessert.
Neville took center stage, vividly recounting how he had repeatedly escaped his uncle's persecution and awakened his magic.
Basil listened with great interest.
Then he suddenly noticed Ron looking at him with admiration. "You ate even more than I did! Your family really has been Hufflepuff for generations. Your name suits you perfectly!"
Before Basil could emphasize the suffering of going a month without meat,
eggs did not count as meat,
he saw three red-haired boys walk over, two of whom were twins.
The twins introduced themselves first.
"Hello, I'm Fred."
"I'm George."
Basil's eyes lit up. Twin resonance!
But then they dimmed slightly.
Merlin's Beard! Why weren't they a pair of sisters?!
And why were they both short and stocky?
They did not match Ron and Percy's beanpole builds at all.
"You're Ron's brothers, right? I'm his friend."
"By that logic, I'm your friend too."
"So don't stand on ceremony."
The twins nodded. New friends acquired! Then they hooked their arms around Ron's shoulders from either side.
"Well, well, our little brother!"
"How did this little rascal introduce us to Percy's nemesis?"
The other tall redhead, Percy, pulled a long face. "You two, why are you giving people nicknames without permission?"
Ignoring Ron's struggles, he looked at Basil. "Be careful to keep your distance from them. Students like us—"
He adjusted the gleaming silver P badge pinned to his chest. "Should set an example for the other students!"
"Hey!" the twins said in unison.
"Basil isn't the good kid you think he is!"
"He's the one who killed the werewolf Fenrir!"
"That's right, George. He's also great at making money!"
"Even Percy—"
"Percy paid up obediently!"
Percy trembled with anger. "Shut up! Is money all you two can see?"
"Basil is like me. He's after something greater than money."
He lowered his voice. "Power!"
"I'm only being this blunt because we're brothers."
The twins pulled faces and let go of Ron, who was nearly out of breath.
Percy smiled at Basil, then returned to his seat with the twins.
Ron ate his ice cream with a gloomy expression. "Am I some nonexistent thing? I'm their brother!"
Harry, feeling sleepy after eating his fill, comfortingly took Ron's right hand.
Then, "Ow!"
He covered his forehead with one hand.
Ron was a little annoyed. "Am I a hedgehog? You touch me and then—"
The next second, his attitude turned concerned. "Harry, are you all right?"
Hermione noticed where Harry was hurting. "Is it that scar? Could it be an aftereffect of that magic? I remember the school has a nurse."
Worried about Harry, and prompted by Basil's earlier lead-in on the train, Ron said that name again.
"Voldemort?"
At the staff table, Quirrell, wrapped in that ridiculous scarf and constantly trying to bother Snape, adjusted his scarf and glanced over in their direction.
"Ah!"
At that glance, the pain that had just faded from Harry's scar returned for a second.
"What is it?" Basil asked with rare concern. He did not remember Harry hurting twice.
"It's Quirrell!" Harry was absolutely certain. "At first, I thought it was Snape, because the way he looks at me is full of hatred and resentment."
"But I didn't notice that the pain appeared after Quirrell's scarf blocked Snape's line of sight."
"The second time it hurt, Snape wasn't looking at me at all. Only Quirrell glanced at me."
"The plot has changed!" Basil pondered.
He checked his gems:
13552.571 (+0.001/s)
"Gems that increase over time. Malfoy falling into the water gave about fourteen hundred, and talking to Professor Cat gave about two thousand."
"Take those away—"
"It hasn't increased! That doesn't count as mine?"
"Is there no justice? No law at all?"
Harry could not hear Basil's thoughts.
He mistook Basil's suddenly sour expression for concern.
"This probably isn't a big problem. Maybe it's a resonance between Dark Magic spells?"
"Hagrid said Quirrell used to be a very good student—smart and fairly brave. He went traveling to gain firsthand practical experience."
"The reason he was like this a year later seemed to be something like an attack by vampires in the Black Forest, or a curse from an old witch."
"Then he became timid like he is now, afraid of students, even afraid of the subject he teaches."
Having sorted out his feelings, Basil prompted him, "You saw Quirrell before, right? Your scar didn't hurt then, did it?"
"It didn't hurt?" Harry frowned. "Did I guess wrong?"
"Hmph!" Ron took a bite of pie. "You didn't guess wrong!"
Basil's face darkened: Wrong, my ass!
"It's said that Defense Against the Dark Arts is under Voldemort's curse! That's why the professor in that position changes every year."
"Harry, when you met Quirrell before, school hadn't started yet, right?"
Harry nodded.
Ron said, "Isn't the answer obvious? There was no reaction before because he wasn't yet the professor for that subject."
"Now there is a reaction because your scar and that subject's curse were both left behind by Voldemort!"
Before you continue