A Little Halloween

Aya and the library were sworn enemies.

She had originally wanted to ask Dumbledore or Snape directly what a Basilisk was, but the two professors seemed to want to teach her a lesson. They refused to tell her and sent her to look it up in the library herself. Dumbledore, as if he had noticed something, had even told every professor Aya could ask not to reveal it to her.

Now Aya had experienced the agony of having the answer right in front of her face but only being able to see the back of its head.

Aya was furious!

As someone who got extremely dizzy from reading, whenever she entered the library, unless she was doing homework, looking up information was like casting a Sleeping Charm on herself every single time. She had slept soundly in the library for days, even waking up with a crick in her neck, and still had no information about the Basilisk.

Not only was her progress painfully slow, but Madam Pince also glared at her every day.

Who would have thought that the most important part of a task was already done, only for her to get stuck on a minor detail like this?

Aya felt wronged!

Aya sought Hermione's help. Hermione thought long and hard, but could only vaguely remember seeing the name in a book about magical creatures. She couldn't quite remember the details about the animal.

Aya was forced to sleep in the library's Fantastic Beasts section.

Once October arrived, damp, cold air swept over Hogwarts again, seeping into the castle through every crack between the bricks. The fireplaces in the castle were lit once more. Aya began wearing a scarf and bundled herself up tightly every day, even covering herself with a small blanket when she slept peacefully in the library.

"Wood ought to be an ambassador for the Hospital Wing's Pepperup Potion," Aya said, licking the candy in her hand. Today it was a lollipop half the size of her face. "You show everyone how well it works after practice every day."

"You think we want to?" Fred and George were sitting and chatting with them for once. Like Harry, both had steam coming out of their ears.

"If Oliver didn't force it down our throats, we wouldn't need it at all, with how fit we are." George pursed his lips. They were in their fourth year now and had spent a long time training in terrible weather, so they had long since built up a resistance.

"But Harry needs it," Hermione said.

Although there had been training days like this last term too, Harry was naturally skinny. He had been mistreated and underfed as a child, and had only been eating his fill for a year now, at a time when he was still growing. Though he looked a little healthier, it was still hard to hide the fact that he was a stick.

"I'm fine-" Harry leaned back against the sofa with his head tilted up and his eyes closed. They had come back from practice covered in mud and only had time to sit here and drink their potions after bathing.

Because the entire Slytherin team had been given new Nimbus 2001 brooms, Wood drilled his players relentlessly every day. The Weasley Brothers often sneaked off to spy on Slytherin's tactics, and the news they brought back was that the brooms really did perform very well.

That news had succeeded in making Wood anxious. It was normal for him to wake Harry and the others at six on weekend mornings to go to the training pitch, and on school days he wanted to keep practicing until curfew before coming back.

"So energetic~" Aya licked and licked her lollipop. "You're Wood's most loyal player."

"...Is it just me, or are you being sarcastic?" Harry abruptly raised his head and stared at her. Seeing her usual expression, he leaned back again. "I don't want to lose to Slytherin, and I especially don't want to lose to Malfoy."

"Fair enough." Aya nodded. "Do you need me to borrow his broom temporarily before the match?"

"If you could, there couldn't be a better idea!" Fred drawled.

"...Slytherin would put a price on your head," Hermione said calmly.

"So what!" Ron had his unfinished homework beside him, but he was eager to get involved when he heard this.

"As long as we win, Oliver will help you out of trouble," George said earnestly.

"I think..." Harry sounded rather helpless. "Could we do this a bit more honorably? I don't want to grow up and remember that the first time I played against Malfoy, my friend stole his broom."

Hearing that, Fred and George left with sighs.

Watching the others leave, Harry turned and brought something up. "Nearly Headless Nick invited me last Saturday to his five hundredth deathday, in an underground classroom. He said there'd be lots of ghosts coming from all over the country, but it's on the day of the Halloween Feast. He said you're welcome to come too. Do you want to go?"

"A Deathday Party?" Hermione's interest was piqued. More than a month into the school year, she still had a rather rosy view of Lockhart, and today she was reading his books yet again, for who knew how many times. "That's fascinating! I'll bet not many living people have ever been to a party like that!"

"Why would anyone celebrate the day they died? That's so strange..." Ron couldn't understand it.

"I'm not going," Aya refused without hesitation. "What can ghosts eat? Apart from incense offerings, probably nothing. I'm going to eat Hagrid's giant pumpkins! Duoduo said they've been working on new pumpkin desserts lately, and they'll be served at the Halloween Feast."

"Ghosts—the ones at school are ghosts," Hermione corrected her.

"They're all spirits, close enough," Aya said with a wave. "Do you ever wonder what Professor Binns has eaten each day?"

"How are you so sharp when it comes to food..." Harry said weakly.

"...That's true," Ron murmured. "Professor Binns has never appeared in the Great Hall, and we've never seen him eat anything."

"But even if there's no food, it couldn't be worse than this, could it?" Hermione was still very interested. "Besides, Aya, you could bring some food back for us, and we could have something hot to eat too."

"Sure. When you get back from the party, you can tell me whether people burn incense at deathdays here," Aya said. "And, if you can, please ask about the Basilisk for me."

"You still haven't found out?" Ron picked up his quill again. "Why do you have to find this thing, anyway?"

"The library has a sleeping spell on it, and my magic resistance is low. It gets me every time I go in," Aya said gravely.

"She just goes to the library to sleep," Hermione said, shaking her head. "I really don't know how you can sleep so long every day." The curtain on the side of Aya's bed facing the others was rarely drawn back, so for most of the time after curfew, Hermione didn't know whether Aya was behaving herself in bed.

"That's why I'm a night owl," Aya said.

Harry's eyes flickered guiltily for a moment. Aya had been borrowing his Invisibility Cloak often lately. Although he didn't know why she had become so cautious when she used to stroll around openly at night, he did know from this how often she went wandering.

In her hands, the Invisibility Cloak was being put to its fullest use.

And so Aya went to the library to sleep every day, often borrowed the Invisibility Cloak to wander at night, occasionally got called over by Snape to sell materials, and swept through the castle once a week. Before long, it was time for Hagrid's pumpkins to ripen.

Aya went to help too. Hagrid wanted to turn his biggest pumpkins into enormous jack-o'-lanterns, so Aya helped scoop out the pulp and collected some pumpkin seeds while she was at it. She took some of them to Duoduo to roast for her.

Of course, she also met the rooster she had been through life and death with. He had only been away from home for a few hours, and was still the leader of the flock when he returned. When he saw Aya come to Hagrid's Hut, he came over to peck her, but Hagrid grabbed him by the neck and tossed him away.

"Don't mind him," Hagrid said with a chuckle, fetching a saw. "After you brought him back that day, he became especially aggressive, and I had to separate him from the others. If his crowing every morning weren't so loud, I'd really want to send him to the kitchen."

"It's all right, we're solid buddies." Aya solemnly patted Hagrid's hip. "Never mind him. Let's get on with the next pumpkin!"

"All right. This time we need a bigger hole for the mouth, so it'll be frightening." Hagrid gestured, but he really had no artistic talent. In the end, he casually plunged a pointed knife into the pumpkin again, and Aya pushed the saw into the opening he had made.

"I really wonder what a pumpkin this hard will taste like." Aya smacked her lips, looking forward to it.

"It's not as sweet as an ordinary pumpkin, but it still has plenty of pumpkin flavor. I expect the house-elves will add lots of sugar or honey," Hagrid guessed, drawing on his cooking experience.

"That makes sense." Aya nodded, thinking of Hagrid's usual cooking as she agreed.

It was no wonder Harry and Ron often said there was something wrong with Aya's sense of taste. In her original world, Aya had never even had a clear understanding of the concept of eating, much less taste. As far as she was concerned, as long as a flavor wasn't particularly extreme, she generally liked it. She truly wasn't picky.

She could accept all sorts of strangely flavored sweets, so they no longer used Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans as a forfeit when they made bets. Aya could even praise the bogey-flavored ones as unusual, so what need was there to insist on using them as a forfeit?

Even Fred and George admitted defeat. The two of them would still grimace in pain when they got a strange flavor, but Aya wouldn't. When it came to taste, her expressionless mask was practically welded to her face most of the time.

"I heard Dumbledore even booked a skeleton dance troupe. Why did Harry and the others have to say yes to those ghosts?" Hagrid said regretfully.

"Why did you only hear about it?" Aya was puzzled. "Aren't you one of the people Dumbledore trusts most?" He had even involved Hagrid in something like the Philosopher's Stone, so how could Hagrid not be one of the people Dumbledore trusted most?

"Oh—I've been focused on these pumpkins lately." Hagrid laughed for quite a while at that before explaining. "I was really afraid something might happen to them just before the harvest, so I've even been sleeping in the vegetable patch with Fang at night."

"You're really healthy." Aya pulled her scarf closer as she remarked on it.

Although she was quite strong, she really did have a slender build. She had a bit of a weight advantage over young masters like Draco, but students a few years above her could easily pick her up.

"Of course, I'm-oh, I mean, I've been strong as an ox since I was little!" Hagrid said proudly.

Aya nodded. She could tell; Hagrid's height was truly one of a kind, after all.

Halloween soon arrived, and the Great Hall was decorated with bats and pumpkins just as it had been last year. On a holiday like this, everyone would put their schoolwork aside for a while and gather in the Great Hall for a sumptuous feast.

Aya parted ways with Harry and the others in the Entrance Hall. Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed together for the underground classroom, while Aya happily made her way to the festively decorated Great Hall.

"Make sure you bring us dinner!" Ron couldn't help reminding her. He was really afraid he'd go hungry.

Without turning around, Aya gave him an OK sign.

Quite a few people were already seated when she entered the Great Hall. The golden dishes on the long tables were still empty. Aya was about to pick a seat when Alicia, who often asked her to sit together, pulled her over. "Come sit here!"

Aya looked at the dishes laid out in front of Alicia and made sure that at least five main courses would appear on this side later before sitting down. "Hi, everyone."

"Hi, hi, hi." Angelina sat on her other side, with Katie and several other girls beside her. The rest of the Quidditch team sat opposite them. "Where are Harry and the others? Oliver was just looking for him."

"They've gone to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party. They're not coming to the Great Hall," Aya answered.

"A Deathday Party?" The Weasley Brothers' eyes lit up across the table. "Do you know where it is? That's so cool, we've never been to one! How come nobody told us?"

"I only know it's in an underground classroom. I don't know exactly where," Aya said. "I just came down with them. If you go after them now, you should still be able to catch them."

No sooner had she spoken than Fred and George jumped up and dashed out. Aya shook her head. "I think they're going to go hungry tonight."

"It really doesn't sound like much of a feast," Katie said thoughtfully. "But we did run into Nearly Headless Nick looking rather down recently. So he was worried about his Deathday Party."

"Hmm... If I pack up some extra food to take back, could I sell it to Fred and George for a good price?" Aya pondered.

"No, they'll just sneak into the kitchen and fill their stomachs themselves," Angelina said.

Aya lost a chance to make money without spending a penny.

Still, she packed up plenty of food, especially the new pumpkin dessert Duoduo had mentioned. It tasted really good, and Aya could taste milk in it too. She liked it so much that after eating, she wandered the entire length of the Gryffindor table and packed up everything left.

When she returned to the common room laden with food, she found five people with numb expressions.

"Hermione, you look a lot paler today," Aya observed. Hermione's skin wasn't especially pale, and she had gotten quite a tan over the summer that hadn't faded yet.

"Don't remind me..." Hermione pulled her clothes tighter around herself. "Living people really shouldn't go to Deathday Parties. You have no idea what we went through. I feel like my nose is full of the smell of rotten food."

"Huh?"

"It was pitch-black everywhere, and the candles even gave off blue light," Ron said.

"Ghost lights?"

"Hundreds of ghosts were floating around everywhere. They'd pass through us every so often, and we'd shiver." Harry's voice was numb. "It was so cold there it felt like it was going to freeze."

"So much yin energy!"

"Rotten meat, cakes burned to charcoal, cheese covered in green mold, and maggots crawling everywhere-" Fred tilted his head back, his voice hollow.

"Compared to that, our disgusting pranks are child's play," George said, closing his eyes.

"We paid a terrible price for our curiosity." Fred's expression was grave.

"An epic Waterloo..." George let out a long sigh.