"I regret it. You were right."
After entering, the four of them sat cautiously on a bench. Hermione pressed herself tightly against Su Er's arm, as though that could make her a little warmer.
The dungeon classroom was large, but it was still very crowded, because several hundred pearly-white, translucent figures were already there. The desks and chairs that had originally stood in the middle of the classroom had been moved to either side and covered with black velvet tablecloths. Ghosts drifted back and forth across the packed dance floor.
Thirty musical saws made a dreadful, quavering sound.
"What an eye-opener."
The sight of several hundred ghosts waltzing together to eerie music was truly staggering. Su Er sighed in wonder, his breath forming a conspicuous cloud of white mist before him.
The temperature here was extremely low. Even a troll knew that ghosts came with their own cold air.
Harry shivered and rubbed his hands together, then made a suggestion.
"Shall we have a look around?" He was freezing and wanted to walk about to warm his feet.
"Careful, don't walk through anyone," Ron said with a shudder. "You won't want to experience that feeling."
They walked slowly around the dance floor, passing a group of gloomy nuns and a ragged man wearing chains.
Su Er also spotted his house's resident ghost-the Fat Friar, who was smiling and chatting cheerfully with a knight who had half an arrow sticking out of his forehead.
Most of the ghosts retained the appearance they had had before dying, and the many bizarre ways they had died amazed Su Er even more.
The one who was black all over looked as though he had been burned to death. The bare-chested man must have been strangled, because his body was covered in densely packed scars.