The Extraordinary Apothecary at Hogwarts

October 10 is probably a day favored by bad luck.

On the same day in different years, Nick was beheaded, a cursed riot broke out in the alchemy room, the Potters were killed, Quirrell unleashed the troll, and this year it was the basilisk's turn.

Eugenie held Dudu's hand and placed white roses in front of the tombstone.

But this misfortune only belongs to a few people. At this time, other students, other teachers, and ghosts are happily enjoying their own feast.

The auditorium was lit by candlelight, and giant pumpkins that sprayed ketchup when touched were placed in the four corners.

Thousands of bats shuttle among the suspended candles. They are of different sizes and fly at different speeds. The smallest ones nimbly avoid the various spells that try to shoot them down. Once they are hit, they turn into colorful strips in the air with a bang. At the same time, a colorful candy automatically flies to the hand of the spell caster, and the numbers on the candy paper represent activity points.

Point prizes were piled up in a small pile by the gate, including the laborious fireworks that Fred and George had recently become interested in.

Professor Dumbledore also invited a skeleton dance troupe this time, and the loud and cheerful music heated up the atmosphere.

The teachers organize more interesting activities in dance and music, especially the new teachers. The age difference between them and the senior students is only a few years, so it is easy to find a common language.

The banquet went so smoothly that no one paid attention to whether there were a few missing faculty seats or whether the principal was still in the auditorium.

However, Harry and the others looked inside as they passed the auditorium and could not hear any sound. They could only see the jubilant crowd inside when the door was opened. There was an invisible spell barrier between the outside and inside of the door.

"Why do they need to be separated?" Harry wondered. This had never been done at previous banquets.

"The ghosts don't like this atmosphere," Hermione reminded Harry. "If the spell is not set, Nick's [-]th anniversary party will be ruined - just by looking at it, you can tell how noisy it is, and the noise will definitely spread to the underground classroom. of."

Ron nodded supportively, rubbing his arms as he walked along the stairs to the underground classroom. The colder he got as he went down, "I think the top is where we should go." He suggested.

Hermione glared at him dissatisfied, and Ron shut his mouth obediently, "We have made a promise and we cannot break it."

The black candles in the underground passage emit a faint blue light. They are not like candlelight, but more like malnourished maggots caught in will-o'-the-wisps, suspended in mid-air by invisible spider threads, twisting and turning. Struggling.

It's quiet and eerie, as if you're in a cemetery.

It wasn't until they stepped through the door of the underground classroom that they realized that it was also lively, and it was not lively for living people.

The temperature is like an icehouse, the music is blaring like a blackboard with thousands of fingernails scratching at the same time, and maggots are jumping on the food with green hairs.

The limbs of the cut open spider twitched, and body fluids flowed out from the abdomen, dripping on the tombstone-shaped cake in the center...

Nearly headless Nick floated over, "Did you have fun?" He looked at Harry sadly.

"Oh, I'm happy," Harry said stiffly.

Hermione hastily added, "It's an honor for us to be invited."

Indeed, few living people can have the wonderful experience of attending a death anniversary party.

"Well, Hermione's right," Ron replied, as he noticed that nearly headless Nick had turned his head towards him and one of his feet had already retreated to escape.

Nick nodded and smiled, "Dear children, I'm so happy. I'm sorry that the food is not to your liking, but this kind of band is quite new to you. Oh, look at the time. I should go on stage to give a speech. I wish you a good day."

With that he took off his hat politely and floated away.

The squeaking music finally paused, and Nick stood on the podium to give a welcome speech to the guests who came from all over the country.

Harry's clothes couldn't be wrapped any tighter. He moved towards Ron in small steps, only to find that Ron and Hermione were very close to each other. Hugging each other for warmth seemed to have no effect. Both of them were so cold that their teeth chattered.

"We'll leave as soon as Nick finishes speaking," Hermione said.

So they huddled together and waited for a long time. Nick's tirade never ended. In order to steal the limelight from Sir Patrick, he prolonged the speech that should have ended early. The latter's head kept flying around the banquet table. To attract attention.

When it finally came to an end, the ghost band picked up a translucent bone music saw and played on an unknown animal bone.

Ron held his growling stomach and pushed Hermione with his elbow, "Okay, let's go quickly, otherwise we will really freeze to death here."

Hermione made no objection.

They quietly moved towards the door bit by bit, feeling relieved the moment they left the underground classroom.

Ron was the first to recover from the cold and quickly climbed the stairs leading to the auditorium. If he was lucky, he could find some whole fried chicken legs on the table to fill his stomach.

Ron was running ahead and felt the footsteps behind him getting farther away. When he looked back, he found that Harry was walking in the wrong direction, "The auditorium is in this direction. What's wrong with you Harry?"

"Shhh—did you hear that?"

"What did you hear?" Ron heard his stomach growling, and Hermione showed a rare expression of confusion.

"...I'm so hungry...I've been hungry for a long time..." A cold voice came from within the stone wall.

Harry patted the wall tentatively, "A voice said he was starving."

"You're starving." Ron said with certainty.

"The sound came from the other side. Someone is next door." Harry then heard the hungry voice seeming to float upwards. "No, no, he might be a ghost. The sound went straight up through the wall. .”

Ron reminded him, "If the ghost is hungry, he should definitely go down there. Harry, Nick's death anniversary party is down there, and we just came out of there."

"Then it could be something else, or a lonely ghost who was ostracized and not invited."

Harry walked softly, raised his ears, and walked up the escalator.

Ron looked at Hermione for help, and Hermione shrugged blankly.

Well, if even Hermione didn't know what was going on, then he wouldn't know either.

After Harry heard those words clearly, he suddenly shouted, "It said it smelled blood! It is a bloodthirsty monster. After smelling blood, its tone immediately changed. It was very excited!"

"Harry, how did you hear the noise?"

"Just - use your ears?" He didn't know how to explain.

"Perhaps your hearing is more sensitive, Harry. If it is a monster that can speak human language, it must be very dangerous. We must go back and tell others not to leave the dinner hall."

Harry took two or three steps at a time to catch up. He turned back to them and said, "Okay, then Hermione -"

boom!

The deafening explosion drowned out the conversation and the stair railings trembled in their shock.