A Feast After the Calamity
"What did your mother say to you?" Helena asked curiously as she went up to Xiwen as he emerged from behind the smooth door.
"It's nothing." Xiwen chuckled softly and took Helena's right hand. "Hogwarts is especially lively tonight, how about we go for a stroll?"
Helena glanced at him, a light smile playing on her lips.
November 1, 1937, Halloween.
That night, a few stars were scattered across the sky, hiding faintly behind the clouds. In the darkness, the deep blue clouds appeared very heavy, as if they had not yet shaken off the atmosphere of welcoming and sending off ghosts on Halloween.
Occasionally, a gust of wind would blow away the clouds, revealing a slender crescent moon, just like Helena's smiling eyebrows.
Xiwen and Helena strolled hand in hand above the castle, enjoying the enchanting night view.
"It's really rare to see so many lights on at Hogwarts so late at night," Helena remarked, floating atop the Astronomy Tower.
The Astronomy Tower is the tallest tower in the complex. From its top, one can look down upon the main castle Main Tower, its dazzling lights reflecting in the lake below, shimmering and sparkling.
It was curfew time, but few lights were out in the castle. The young wizards celebrated the resumption of Hogwarts' operations freely, with many boasting about their bravery during the events or exaggerating their contributions to the castle's restoration.
Seeing this, Headmaster Dippet, unusually soft-hearted, extended the curfew for the night, allowing the young wizards a little more time to indulge themselves. The cheers from inside the castle carried far and wide, even reaching Xiwen and Helena atop the Astronomy Tower.
Hearing the cheerful voices of the young wizards, Xiwen and Helena exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly.
However, happy times are always short-lived, and their time alone together was soon interrupted by a chubby little ghost.
"Doctor Strange, we've finally found you!" Edmund Grub, the chubby boy, appeared out of nowhere, looking at the Ghost Xiwen with a fawning expression. "We ghosts got together and decided that such an important day deserves a banquet to celebrate the restoration of this castle!"
"Well, everything else is ready, except for some food. So I've taken on this arduous task to ask you to cast a small spell in the Ghost Hall..."
"It's just that you're greedy..." Xiwen saw through Grub's trick at a glance and ruthlessly exposed him.
"Haha, ha... that's part of the reason, but overall I'm inviting you over based on the principle of serving the Ghost Crowd!" Grub smiled shyly, then spoke the second half of his sentence in a righteous manner.
"Pfft!" Seeing Grub's comical behavior, Helena couldn't help but laugh, and didn't hold it against him for interrupting their time alone.
She smiled sweetly at Xiwen and said, "Let's go over there, don't keep everyone waiting too long. I'm feeling a bit hungry too!"
"Let's go then!" Xiwen said with a light laugh.
The journey from the top of the Astronomy Tower, the highest point of the entire castle, to the Ghost Hall located underground was undoubtedly quite long. However, the ghosts' special physical abilities made it all too easy for them; the three ghosts passed through walls and into the ground, making a straight line and quickly arriving at the Ghost Hall.
Nearly Headless Nick, was the first to spot them and greeted them warmly.
"Ah, Doctor Strange, welcome!" Nicholas said. "I've heard from the vice-principal that you were wronged, and I must first congratulate you on being exonerated!"
Xiwen smiled and replied politely, "Thank you, Sir Nicholas."
"Actually, there's something else I want to congratulate you on," Nicholas continued. "Headmaster Dippet and Vice Principal Melesi jointly vouched for your membership in the Ghost Council, and after an internal vote, we unanimously agree to make you one of us!"
"Thank you so much." Xiwen didn't care much about the position of councilor, but he was curious about something else.
"What about Bloody Baron? Does he also agree to me joining you?" Xiwen asked suspiciously. He felt that the two of them were completely at odds, especially since he had even taken Baron's knife. This Bloody Baron didn't seem like someone who would compromise so easily, did he?
"Oh, Baron. He resigned from his position as a member of the Ghost Council after making a mistake yesterday, and he's reflecting on his actions in an abandoned classroom now!" Nicholas said with some emotion.
Xiwen nodded, looked at Helena, and asked, "Where's Helena? Aren't you a member of the council?"
"I usually can't be bothered to attend their boring meetings," Helena said, pursing her lips. "Maybe they've already excluded me!"
Upon hearing her words, Nicholas panicked instantly and quickly said, "Ahem... Lady Grey, you can't just say things like that. How could we exclude you? It's just that given your relationship with Doctor Strange, you're bound to vote in favor! So we'll automatically count it as a unanimous vote."
"That's more like it." Helena nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, I'll activate the Mirror Dimension first. I think Grub is already impatient!" Xiwen chuckled.
Ripples, seemingly composed of countless transparent mirrors, swept across the Ghost Hall, pulling all the ghosts into the Mirror Dimension.
Even though the ghosts present had all experienced regaining their senses before, an undisguised look of surprise instantly appeared on their faces. The only difference from last time was that few of them were so excited that they cried tears of joy.
Silently recalling the dishes from yesterday's Halloween Feast, Xiwen manipulated the spatial rules, and countless exquisite dishes appeared out of thin air on the long table in the Ghost Hall, making Grub's mouth water.
The Fat Friar stood smugly in the center of the hall, raised a glass of wine from the table, and loudly proclaimed, "To Doctor Strange!"
Perhaps it was because he hadn't drunk wine in a long time, or perhaps social etiquette had changed with the times, but his demeanor was somewhat awkward. However, the ghosts were very polite, raising their wine glasses in even stranger poses and saying in unison, "To Doctor Strange!"
With a smile, Xiwen conjured two crystal-clear glasses of wine for himself and Helena, and, using the Wizarding World aristocratic etiquette that Sandrine had once taught him, picked up the goblets and toasted the ghosts.
All the ghosts tilted their heads back and drank the beverages, which only had flavor but could not intoxicate them, down in one gulp.
"So, are young wizards allowed to drink alcohol at the Halloween Feast?" Helena asked with a smile as she leaned close to Xiwen's ear after finishing her drink.
Xiwen chuckled, realizing that Helena had already guessed his little trick of creating dishes out of thin air.
"These wines are definitely for professors!"