Halloween Farce

Halloween was fast approaching. Hogwarts did not grant holidays for the occasion, but it did host a Halloween Eve feast. A ghost orchestra would perform in the Great Hall, and the Headless Hunt was scheduled to make an appearance as well. Halloween was a lively day for both the living and the dead.

The castle was filled with the alluring, sweet scent of roasted pumpkins. The largest of these, grown by Hagrid, were big enough to serve as the chassis for a pumpkin carriage. They were gargantuan, and under the influence of magic, these floating pumpkins would occasionally "boo" to startle passersby, then don ghost cloaks and fly off with cackling laughter to surprise someone else elsewhere.

By dinnertime, the Great Hall had been completely transformed with Halloween-themed decorations. Thousands of bats flapped their wings against the ceiling, looking as if Snape had mastered the Shadow Clone Technique; the scene was quite spectacular. They formed a dark cloud circling above the dining tables, but these bats were not alive. They had been crafted by the students in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class earlier that day—a pop quiz, so to speak.

Under the glow of jack-o'-lanterns, cheerful chatter echoed through the Great Hall. The specialty drink of the day was a custom pumpkin juice, alongside blood-red pudding cakes that vampires might fancy. The house-elves' craftsmanship remained as excellent as ever; although the food looked a bit unconventional today, it tasted quite wonderful.

Just as the feast reached its halfway point, the dining hall doors were suddenly flung open by a stumbling figure. Quirrell, wrapped in a large turban, burst into the hall. Two months into the term, Quirrell's reputation at Hogwarts had hit rock bottom.

The self-study group organized by Ezio had successfully weeded out most applicants last month, leaving fewer than ten members. Hermione, who had initially been reluctant, chose to follow Harry's advice and join after experiencing a few abysmal Defense Against the Dark Arts classes; at least here, there was practical magic, and she could learn far more than she ever could from Quirrell.

Even the older students had spontaneously organized self-study groups similar to Ezio's. As veterans, they had encountered several terrible teachers before, but compared to a waste of space like Quirrell—who taught nothing and spent every class stuttering through a textbook—those previous teachers at least had some level of competence. Even if they were just bragging in class, it was better than reading dry text. Did he really think they couldn't read?

Just as everyone wondered why Quirrell had entered in such a disheveled state, the man looked up in terror, panting heavily as he staggered toward Dumbledore's chair. He slumped against the table, gasping, "Troll—in the dungeon—thought you ought to know."

Having said that, Quirrell collapsed onto the floor and fainted.

Watching Quirrell's eye-straining performance, Dumbledore remained calm, but the dining hall erupted into chaos.

The young wizards screamed and chattered, the cacophony nearly blowing the roof off.

Relatively speaking, the reaction on the Slytherin side was much more muted. Ezio continued to eat his dinner at a leisurely pace. Upon noticing this, the little snakes of Slytherin seemed to find their backbone; one by one, they sat down. There hadn't been many who were panicked to begin with, mostly first-to-third-years, and they were the ones who feared Ezio the most.

After finishing the last bite of his steak, Ezio drew his wand and pointed it at the ceiling. The flock of bats that had been flying above suddenly dove toward the dining tables, transforming into countless hideous ghosts. In that instant, the young wizards, terrified by the change, let out piercing screams, but the chaos in the hall stopped immediately.

"Scaring your classmates is not good behavior, Ezio." Dumbledore spoke up at the right moment. With the hall in such an uproar, it hadn't been easy for him to get a word in, but he seized the brief moment of silence to make his voice heard.

Ezio put down his knife and fork and stood up, scanning the room with a cold, indifferent gaze that was both infuriating and silencing. He looked at the students of the other three houses as if they were trolls.

"They were hurting my ears. A single troll has these idiots so terrified? Shouldn't they feel ashamed?"

"I believe this is all because they have failed to master the most basic knowledge and skills required of a wizard."

"The professors are too lenient. I hope you will assign more homework to fill the heads of these fools, lest they shake their empty skulls and make such noisy, irritating sounds again. My suggestion is: double it."

"So what if it's a troll? Even if a troll broke into the dining hall, so what?"

"Hundreds of wizards can't handle one stinking oaf? Or do you all think the professors are on the same level as Quirrell?"

The students turned pale, and the professors didn't look much better, especially Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and the Head of Hufflepuff, Professor Sprout. The three of them felt a loss of face; their students were indeed lacking in common sense.

Only Snape sat there with a calm expression, though it wasn't hard to see that he was in a very good mood.

"You have successfully ruined my mood for enjoying the Halloween feast." Ezio turned his gaze toward Snape, who was watching the show. "I think, Professor Snape, you would agree to add a bit of troll anatomy to next week's curriculum, wouldn't you?"

Some students gagged; they had already imagined the sheer horror of that scenario.

In his current good mood, Snape's dark sense of humor surfaced.

"Trolls may be filthy and stupid, but they do have value as potion ingredients."

He nodded slightly, delivering a verdict no less severe than a death sentence to the students present. Low wails echoed through the hall as they realized their desperate fate for next week's added coursework.

Ezio walked away with a steady gait. The Great Hall behind him remained quiet, missing the laughter and joy that the holiday had previously brought.

"Ezio, where are you going?"

Harry, who had also slipped away, wiped his mouth. He had finished eating and followed to see what was happening.

"Preparing the teaching materials for Professor Snape for next week, of course."

Ezio replied calmly, though the main reason was that he knew how to complete the second Hogwarts-exclusive milestone.

[Phantom Assassin (In a situation where you are observed but not detected, complete a frontal assassination; target limited to humanoids or humanoid-like creatures)]

This milestone was a bit troublesome to unlock, but not impossible. If he were in the Trial Space, Ezio could solve it easily; he would just pick a target on the street, pass by as a random passerby, and finish it with a single strike. But at Hogwarts, it was slightly more complicated; after all, he couldn't attack students, and professors were off-limits too.

This milestone required a frontal assassination while being observed but not detected—meaning Ezio could be seen, but he had to be in the target's field of vision before acting, without the target sensing his killing intent or threat beforehand.

And a stupid creature like a troll, while being a humanoid-like creature, was very easy to satisfy the prerequisites for an assassination.

A troll's shriveled brain couldn't think too much; fooling one was much simpler than fooling any other prey.

"You intend to take down the troll by yourself?"

"Is that difficult?" Ezio countered.

"Seems... a bit difficult..." Harry scratched his head. "Troll skin can resist many spells. Although they aren't as tough as giants, it's not easy for an ordinary wizard to deal with them."

"Then don't use magic. A troll's head is a weak point. It's not just a weakness in intelligence; their skulls are also fragile. A heavy blow will knock them unconscious. Compared to their strong bodies, hitting their heads is highly effective."

As they spoke, they had already reached the underground area of Hogwarts. Ezio held his wand flat in his palm, the tip twitching slightly, pointing in a certain direction.

Point Me. This was a rather idealistic spell, often used for exploring mazes or complex environments. It could, to a certain extent, help a wizard find their desired target, even if the wizard didn't have a clear idea of the target themselves. It belonged to the mysterious side of magic that currently defied explanation.

"Do you smell that stench?"

Ezio stopped and glanced at Harry.

"Yeah, it's more disgusting than socks that haven't been washed in three months and have been soaking in a cesspool."

Harry fanned the air in front of his nose, frowning.

"That's why when dealing with a troll, you need to hold your breath, or use the Bubble-Head Charm to protect your nose."

Ezio pulled up his hood and tapped the tip of his wand against his head. A chill spread rapidly from top to bottom, and his body became transparent. The Disillusionment Charm had taken effect.

"The troll is around the corner, it's coming this way."

"It's the Disillusionment Charm, right? Though it doesn't seem as effective as the Invisibility Cloak." Harry looked at the semi-transparent Ezio and compared it to his own Invisibility Cloak.

"That goes without saying. Even the cheapest, low-quality Invisibility Cloak costs thousands of Galleons, while the Disillusionment Charm is free. Yours is worth at least hundreds of thousands of Galleons; it's the only one of its kind in the world."

"Hiss~" Harry was slightly surprised. "It's worth that much?" However, because the vault he inherited already contained mountains of gold, his surprise was only fleeting.

"But the Disillusionment Charm is enough for me; it's sufficient."

Ezio stopped speaking and crouched down to enter a stealth state. The previously unlocked milestone, Phantom Stealth, allowed him to enter an unscientific, somewhat magical state of optical invisibility. He didn't need the Disillusionment Charm to significantly lower his presence and blend his body into the surrounding environment. With the secondary boost from the Disillusionment Charm, his stealth posture was almost impossible to detect with the naked eye, even without the cover of grass or bushes.

It was as if he had vanished. Harry rubbed his eyes, unable to see where Ezio was.

As heavy footsteps drew closer, the Troll appeared around the corner ahead. It dragged a rough club made from a log, walking with a confused gait. Its intuition told it that food could be found in this direction, but the empty corridor showed nothing. Ezio was right under its gaze, yet it could not see a trace of him.

Ezio moved forward silently, his right hand gripping the handle of the Broken Spear. When he was only three meters away from the Troll, he suddenly erupted into action, leaping from its front. The cold, glinting edge of the Broken Spear flashed by, and the Troll suddenly froze in place. A potato-sized head slid off silently and rolled onto the ground with a clatter.

The robust heart had not yet reacted, and the blood it pumped gushed out from the smooth cut on the neck, forming a small fountain of blood.

Only then did Ezio's figure reappear.

[Milestone: Phantom Assassin (Completed)]

[Phantom Assassin: You can perform a forced concealment while in combat, completely breaking away from the target's perception and line of sight for one second. The available uses for forced concealment will recover after exiting combat.]

"Tergeo."

Ezio waved his wand, then turned and walked toward Harry. "It's over. Let's go back."