Christmas Banquet

Christmas Banquet

Christmas arrived before long.

To celebrate Bell gaining his freedom, his Dad, William, decided to hold a grand Christmas Banquet in the castle. The heads of major Pure-blood Families, high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Magic, famous wizards, and others were all invited.

From morning onward, the House-elves had been busy preparing for the banquet.

The already spotless hall was thoroughly cleaned once more. Brand-new tables and dinnerware were brought out, and all sorts of luxurious-looking decorations were arranged throughout the hall.

Bell and Shanna were also forced to change into formal little dress outfits. Honestly, Bell did not want to wear this sort of clothing at all. It felt restrictive and inconvenient to move in.

Amid the busy preparations—though Bell felt everyone was just fussing around uselessly—the afternoon arrived quickly, and the invited guests gradually began arriving at the Bell Family home.

Seeing that the time was about right, William brought Bell to the raised platform at the front of the hall, gave a brief speech, introduced Bell to everyone, and then announced the official start of the banquet.

At the banquet, Bell was first dragged around by his Dad, William, to greet all sorts of so-called important people.

After a round of mutual flattery and a whole circle of praise, Bell finally escaped those troublesome adults and ran off to find his sister, Shanna.

Shanna was with their Mom, Elena. Then Bell escaped the tiger's den only to enter the wolf's lair, as Elena dragged him around to greet the wives and daughters of all those so-called important people...

(╯#-皿-)╯~~╧═╧

Is this ever going to end?!

Bell smiled pleasantly on the outside while cursing inwardly.

Finally, finally, Bell was free. Carrying his sister, he ran over to the group of Little Wizards.

Since the banquet was nominally a belated fifth birthday party for Bell—outsiders did not know the details of Bell's situation—many families with children around the same age had brought their own children along.

"Shanna, are you having fun at the banquet?" Bell asked, holding his little sister.

The little girl's cheeks were rosy, and she looked very excited.

(/ω＼)

Shanna covered her little face and said nothing.

"?" Bell scratched his head. "Why aren't you saying anything, Shanna?"

Shanna turned around and threw herself into Bell's arms, still saying nothing.

All right, it's probably her first time seeing so many people. She must be shy. No wonder she's been so quiet since earlier.

Bell shrugged and sat to one side, quietly listening to the group of Little Wizards in front of him bragging.

One Little Wizard was showing off the Christmas gifts he had received that morning.

"When I woke up this morning, I couldn't even find my clothes. They'd been buried under presents. It took me forever to get out of my room. I didn't finish opening all my gifts until lunchtime. Guess what I found inside? A complete set of Chocolate Frog Cards!"

(ˉ▽￣~) Hmph~~

One Little Wizard expressed his disdain.

"I collected the whole set ages ago."

"Hmph! Don't think I don't know what you did. You made your Dad buy you loads of Chocolate Frogs, took out the cards, then threw the chocolate to the House-elves to eat. Cards collected that way have no soul!" said the Little Wizard who had been showing off his gifts.

"Y-you, how did you know that!?"

"I heard it from my Dad. He said your Dad mentioned it while complaining to him."

Looking at the Little Wizard whose face had turned bright red, Bell could not help observing a moment of silence for the boy's Dad. Hopefully, his Dad would get a good night's sleep tonight.

Another Little Wizard said that he had been skiing in the Alps for the past few days and had even encountered two Yetis on the Snow Mountain.

"They were ten feet tall, covered in white fur, and their fangs were thiiis long."

The Little Wizard spoke while gesturing wildly.

"Luckily, I'd secretly taken my Dad's Wand. I roared and pulled out my Wand..."

Since the description was too long, to put it simply, after a battle straight out of a United States blockbuster, the Little Wizard successfully drove off the Yetis.

"Next summer, I'm going to make my Mom take me to Venice for a seaside vacation. I heard Kelpie often appear there. I've never beaten up a Kelpie before. Once I defeat one and prove myself, I'll write to Professor Dumbledore and demand that he let me enter Hogwarts early."

Another Little Wizard declared, Fighting is what barbarians do. Real men play Quidditch!

"Let me tell you, I'm insanely good at flying. I've never taken more than five minutes to catch the Golden Snitch. A few days ago, I suddenly felt that catching the Golden Snitch was too easy, so I decided to fly up and catch an eagle instead."

"Did you catch it?"

"Almost." The boy said regretfully, "My hand had already touched the eagle's tail feathers, but then a Muggle airplane suddenly flew over. To avoid knocking it out of the sky, I had no choice but to let the eagle go."

"But guess who was on that airplane?" the boy whispered mysteriously. "It was the coach of the Scottish National Quidditch Team! After seeing my amazing flying skills, he got so excited that he jumped out of the plane and wanted to invite me to join the Scotland National Team!"

"How could the coach of the Scottish National Quidditch Team possibly be on an airplane?" Another Little Wizard looked unconvinced. "He definitely rides a broom whenever he goes out."

The boy was not having it. Fury written all over his face, he looked ready to beat the other boy until he believed him. Hadn't he just said fighting was something barbarians did?

Fight! Fight!

Bell watched eagerly, hoping for trouble.

However, things did not go as Bell had hoped. After sizing up their builds, the other Little Wizard weakly asked, "So did you join the Scotland National Team?"

"No." The boy said regretfully, "I told him I was an Englishman, so I couldn't join the Scotland National Team."

"..."

Bell listened from the side with great interest. As expected of wizards—even at such a young age, their bragging skills and variety were far beyond those of Muggle children.

After quite a while, someone finally noticed Bell, who was sitting to the side happily holding a little girl.

"Hey, what's your name? What are you good at?"

Bell thought carefully about it. The only thing he was probably good at was reading... The group of Little Wizards gave a disdainful "Hmph" and went back to bragging.

Bell was happy to have some peace and quiet. After fetching a pile of food for himself and Shanna, he began eating and drinking while playing with her. Occasionally, he shared some of his food with the other Little Wizards or chimed in with one of the Little Wizards who was bragging.

Although he barely remembered any of their names, he had at least become familiar with the Little Wizards.

Bell also met several Little Wizards who had appeared in the books, such as Draco Malfoy, Hannah Abbott, and Pansy Parkinson. He would not judge the people before him based on his impressions from his past life. At least for now, these little boys and girls were all rather cute. Of course, compared to his sister, they were billions of times worse.

By a little after nine in the evening, the banquet finally came to an end.

As the crowd dispersed, the Menethil Family castle returned to its usual peace. After the final guest left, William found Bell.

"Bell, are you sleepy? If not, I'd like to talk to you about something. Can you come to the Small Dining Room?"

After saying that, could I really tell you I'm already sleepy? Bell thought helplessly, though he already wanted to sleep.

"Okay, Dad. I'll come find you after I take Shanna back to her room."

Shanna had already fallen asleep in Bell's arms with a smile on her face. The little girl had been very excited tonight, having experienced such a grand occasion for the first time, so she had tired quickly as well. Besides, it was getting late. Even the noisy sounds of the banquet had not disturbed her sweet dreams.