Chapter 45: Halloween Eve Incident
In the last few days of October, Hogwarts seemed as usual, but every young wizard felt a restless stirring in their hearts.
In History of Magic class, the first-year students began frequently asking Professor Binns about the history of goblins and ghosts, which completely disrupted the professor’s teaching plan—though no one knew if such a plan even existed.
The ghost professor became furious and roared at Seamus Finnigan, whose hand was held high, “Stop asking about those stupid goblins, I won’t answer anymore, put down your hand, Sean Panick, Hufflepuff loses five points!”
Seamus felt wronged: “Professor, my name isn’t Sean Panick, and I’m not in Huf…”
Harry and Ron quickly grabbed him and covered his mouth.
But apart from History of Magic and Potions class, where no one dared to question Snape, the other professors were happy to let the young wizards, who had been studying for two months, relax a bit.
Professor McGonagall, usually serious, conjured a pile of dancing skeletons for everyone with their desks.
Professor Flitwick excitedly recounted his wonderful experience of spending Halloween with vampires and werewolves in his youth.
Amidst such excitement and anticipation, October came to an end, and the day before Halloween, Hogwarts was already immersed in a festive atmosphere.
Even though the weather had become quite severe by this time.
At some point, snow began to cover the mountain peaks around the school, the sky was gray all day, and the frost on the ground grew thicker each morning.
This forced Hagrid to wear his mole skin coat and rabbit fur gloves and hat, looking like some kind of furry monster, diligently sweeping frost from the campus with his broom.
October 31st was no different.
Vaughn, carrying books, greeted Hagrid as he passed through the courtyard, and upon reaching the Great Hall, he found that the braziers and torches that were usually there had been replaced by pumpkin lanterns.
Numerous decorative ribbons hung from the ceiling, and every young wizard was enthusiastically discussing the changes in decorations and what events there would be for Halloween this year.
Fred and George said that last year Dumbledore had invited a ghost band to perform, and their eerie music had put half the hall to sleep.
Percy said that as a prefect, he hadn’t received any notification from the school, so there likely wouldn’t be any events this year—speaking of Percy, ever since Vaughn was sorted into Slytherin, he hadn’t seen him for a long time.
It wasn’t until he realized his younger brother was well-liked in several houses that Percy found Vaughn one day: “My dear brother, I was too busy recently, no one in Slytherin has been bullying you, have they?”
Vaughn responded with a scoff…
Harry quietly told a few of his friends, “There definitely won’t be any events; Dumbledore still has his little secrets, there’s no way he’d let outsiders into the school.”
Hermione looked at him with admiration, “I thought you’d be disappointed it wasn’t lively enough.”
“My life is lively enough every day right now,”
Harry said dejectedly.
As the Quidditch season approached, Wood became even more frantic; if everyone hadn’t threatened to disown him, he probably would have organized Quidditch training on Halloween.
But the afternoon training today was unavoidable!
“Ron, this afternoon can you accompany me… uh…”
Harry decided to drag his good friend along for the enjoyment.
But when he turned around, he saw that Ron hadn’t spoken at all, his entire being frozen, tears welling in his eyes, looking as if he were about to die and take one last look at the world.
“Ron, you, what’s wrong?”
Ron emotionally gripped Harry’s hand: “Harry, take care of yourself from now on, make a lot of money when you grow up, and if there’s anything good to eat, drink, or play with, remember to bring me along…”
Then, he was turned into a mute by a silencing spell from across the long table.
When Harry looked over, Vaughn, who was reading a book and eating stew, casually put away his wand.
Harry looked around; everyone else continued their conversations as if they hadn’t seen anything—
Isn’t it normal for Ron to be bullied by his brother?
Harry quietly turned away, pretending not to see Ron’s wide eyes and flailing limbs.
…
In the evening, after a tiring afternoon of Quidditch training that had messed up his hair into a mohawk, Harry, exhausted, returned to the Great Hall to find it completely transformed.
The pumpkin lanterns had been further enchanted by the professors, casting colorful lights.
Countless bats flapped among the glittering walls and ribbons, against the backdrop of stars and moonlight hanging from the ceiling, and the long tables below were piled high with delicious food.
Harry walked to his usual seat but only saw Hermione.
“Hermione, have you seen Ron?”
Hermione nodded, saying with a bit of disdain, “He was here earlier, with his face covered in grease from eating roast meat, and Vaughn just called him away.”
Harry didn’t ask any more questions; he had been hearing Ron talk for days about how he had made a deal with the devil and how much he regretted it.
Perhaps the brothers were off to “communicate their feelings” again!
Feeling extremely hungry, Harry quickly forgot about Ron in front of the feast.
But he had barely started eating, and was gnawing on a potato, when the doors of the Great Hall were suddenly pushed open.
Professor Quirrell rushed in, his face filled with terror. He ran past the suddenly quiet student tables, gasping, to the teachers’ table and cried out to Dumbledore, who was looking at him:
“A troll! A troll! In the dungeons…”
After saying this, he collapsed onto the floor and fainted.
No one noticed the look Dumbledore cast at Professor Quirrell; all the students panicked. The older students, aware of a troll’s destructive power, turned pale and murmured, while the younger students, unaware of the specifics, screamed and shouted.
Some troublemakers even took the opportunity to cause mischief.
The entire hall became a cacophony of noise.
It wasn’t until Dumbledore regained his composure, arranged for the Heads of House to keep their students in order, and cast a Sonorus charm: “Quiet, ladies and gentlemen. I regret that tonight’s Halloween banquet must be temporarily suspended. All prefects, please lead the students back to their Common Rooms.”
“Professors, please accompany me to the dungeons.”
Although Dumbledore had left in a hurry, order was somewhat restored. The Heads of the four houses, as instructed by him, briefed the prefects and then hurried to the dungeons.
Like the other young wizards, Harry and Hermione, bewildered, followed Percy, listening to classmates from wizarding families discuss the troll with either fear or excitement.
As they walked up the stairs, Harry suddenly remembered something and, filled with dread, grabbed Hermione’s sleeve:
“Ron and Vaughn!”
Hermione’s face also turned pale: “They, they don’t know about the troll… I’ll go find Percy!”
Harry quickly stopped her: “Percy is stubborn; he’ll only go to the professors, and they’re all in the dungeons now. I think Vaughn and Ron might not have gone far, let’s try looking for them upstairs first.”
