Chapter 731: Halloween, Slughorn's Ball

After the first Quidditch match, Halloween came quietly.

The pumpkins that Hagrid planted in the field outside the door were moved into Hogwarts, and God knows what he did. Those pumpkins looked to be at least six feet tall, and they could be used as carriages if they were given four wheels.

When these pumpkins were delivered to the auditorium, Professor McGonagall was responsible for turning them into various shapes, such as eagles, lions, snakes, badgers, or some more famous ghosts, and then Professor Flitwick delivered them to the auditorium. Half empty.

Nearly headless Nick posed wildly next to his pumpkin statue for the little wizards to take photos with.

The fat monk of Hufflepuff also smiled happily and looked very satisfied.

However, in the remaining two academies, you can no longer see the main ghost and the statue in the same frame.

Bloody Barro was not interested in these and never appeared in the auditorium. As for the Gray Lady, Helena Ravenclaw, she has long since disappeared.

Kyle looked for her many times, as well as Dumbledore and the portraits in the headmaster's office. They almost turned the castle upside down and couldn't find where she was.

Later, Kyle slowly gave up. There was no other way. Even the castle was created by Rowena Ravenclaw. If they didn't want others to find it, it wouldn't be difficult.

"Hey, that's pretty cool."

Mikel, who came to the auditorium from the common room for the dinner, looked at the surrounding decorations and said: "It's a pity that there are no performances by the Weird Sisters or the Skeleton Dance Troupe this year, otherwise it would be even more perfect."

"There's nothing we can do about it." Ryan sighed, "Now everyone is busy avoiding Death Eaters, and no one wants to come all the way to Hogwarts to attend some Halloween dinner."

"But the dance team is all a bunch of skeletons." Mikel didn't understand. "Can the Death Curse kill them again?"

"Um..." Ryan was really stopped by the question, but he didn't know the question, so he could only say vaguely: "Maybe the Death Eaters have other methods."

This is the only way to explain it now.

…

Several people came to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Just at this time, the professors also walked in from the small door on the other side.

"Oh, crap..." Connor said suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Kyle looked at her.

"Professor Slughorn..." Connor said, "I just remembered that he organized another dance just after the dinner, and Floda just gave me the invitation an hour ago.

"Oh, there's also a copy for you, but you were in the library, so Floda gave it all to me."

"What? How many parties does he have in a month?"

"This is the fifth time this month," said Connor.

"Okay." Kyle was speechless, "Let's just use the previous reasons to reject him this time. After the dinner, I just want to go back to the warm common room to kill time. Even just sitting in a daze is better than going to a dance party. Be good!”

"I'm afraid it won't work this time." Connor sighed: "Professor Snape left the school for something. Professor Slughorn must have received the news in advance. He also asked Floda to send a message, telling me to go."

"Professor Snape left school?"

"Well, just an hour ago," said Connor, "and within five minutes I got the invitation."

"His timing is really good," Kyle said.

"So..." Kangna blinked, "Can I invite you to the dance?"

"It has nothing to do with me that Professor Snape left school. My excuse can still be used." Kyle raised his eyebrows. "After all, the Ministry of Magic will not have a holiday on Halloween."

"But Professor Slughorn requires everyone to find their dance partner in advance." Connor said, "If you refuse, I will have to find Mikel as my dance partner.

I heard that Slughorn had invited a ghost dance troupe as a private person, so I thought he would be happy to attend this Halloween dance. "

"Actually, I'm also quite interested in the Ghost Dance Troupe." Kyle said immediately: "And Mikel can even stumble his legs when walking. How can he dance?"

Kangna clicked her tongue slightly.

Fortunately, the dinner started at this time, sumptuous food appeared on golden plates, and the whole auditorium was instantly filled with the smell of pumpkin.

The scent also attracted Kangna. Without looking at Kyle, she reached for a piece of golden pumpkin pie.

"I've been waiting for this... outside of Halloween, school kitchens only seem to make pumpkins into drinks."

Kyle also got himself a piece of pumpkin pie, which he also liked for its less greasy taste.

But as Kangna said, this kind of thing is only available on Halloween. The only thing related to pumpkins on the table is pumpkin juice.

"By the way." In the middle of the dinner, Kangna suddenly remembered something, "You remember to write a letter to Fred and George and ask them to stop putting love potions in bottles of pick-me-up potions and send them to school. , This simply adds to our workload.”

"What happened to them?" Kyle asked confused.

"You don't know?" Connor glanced at him, "I have confiscated several bottles of love potions recently, all of which are products from Weasley's Wise House.

"They would replace the outer packaging with the bottle and label of a pick-me-up potion to avoid Filch's inspection.

"You should know that detectors only work on black magic, while love potions are just magic potions and not dangerous... so they took advantage of it."

"Well, actually you don't need to pay too much attention..." Kyle explained in a low voice: "Fred and George made some improvements to the love potion, which reduced some of the ability to confuse the mind and amplified the desire for expression.

Of course, the effect is definitely there, but after being improved, it becomes something closer to teasing people, and the effect is only ten minutes, so there won't be any big problem even if you leave it alone. "

"Since you said so, I don't care anyway." Kangna said softly: "But Romidavani and Antelia who bought it seem to want to pour this thing into the pumpkin juice you want to drink. , please remember to pay more attention in the future.”

Kyle's hand holding the sandwich stopped in mid-air, and the corners of his eyes twitched slightly.

"You must be joking, right? Who would give me a love potion?"

"There are quite a few..." Kangna stretched out her hand and counted: "In addition to the two I just mentioned, there are also Paia, Darlene, and Kvar...and these are all discovered, and there may be more that have not been discovered. .

"Anyway, good luck to you. I don't want to see you tap dancing on the dinner table one day."

What Connor was talking about was that two days ago, a Gryffindor student suddenly jumped on the table during breakfast and performed a lame tap dance for everyone.

After investigation, it was discovered that the other person became suddenly excited after drinking Harry's pumpkin juice by mistake.

It was only after that incident that Kangna noticed the love potion disguised as a refreshing potion.

When he thought of the scene at that time, Kyle's expression suddenly changed.

"That's too much." He said angrily: "Fred and George have gone too far. How can they sell things like love potions to students? It's so shameless.

"Don't worry, I will write a letter right away to severely condemn their opportunistic behavior and warn them not to do it again in the future."

Kyle didn't even wait until the dinner was over and started writing the letter directly on the table in the auditorium.

This abnormal behavior also attracted the attention of many people. They all looked over and guessed what Kyle was doing.

But Kyle didn't care about all this. After writing the letter to the Weasley brothers, Kyle still felt uneasy, and then wrote another letter to Mr. Weasley.

The general content is to report Weasley's Joke Shop for illegally selling love potions to Hogwarts.

Kyle clicked with his wand, and the two letters immediately folded into paper airplanes and flew out of the auditorium, then turned around and arrived outside the castle.

After waiting outside, a huge owl suddenly flew over from the direction of the Forbidden Forest, grabbed two paper airplanes floating in the air, and flew towards the distance.

In the auditorium, Kyle breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that the letter had been sent away.

But after that, he didn't take another sip of pumpkin juice, especially if it was handed to him.

Until the end of the dinner.

The students all got up and went back to the common room, some of them ran very fast, and some even went back before the dinner was over.

Because it was a prom, they needed to change into their formal robes in advance.

This is also Slughorn's request. Although he can dance in school uniforms and robes, he wants to make the dance more formal, just like the dance during the Triwizard Tournament.

"If possible, I would rather go to the previous dinner party than go to any dance." Connor looked at the two seventh-grade Slytherin girls who had already changed into formal robes in advance and were standing in the middle of the hall like peacocks. .

"That kind of dress is so uncomfortable to wear, and there are no pockets. I don't know where to put my cauldron..."

"You still have the crucible with you?" Kyle turned his head and asked with a look of disbelief.

He could understand carrying two potions with him, but the cauldron was a bit much.

"Yes." Kangna nodded and took out a small crucible as big as a fist from his pocket.

"As long as you use the recovery spell, it can become normal size." Kangna continued: "This is a habit I developed last year when I was trying to perfect the recovery potion, in order to be able to verify the combination of certain materials at any time.

"Then I thought it was pretty good, so I kept wearing it."

"Okay." Kyle asked, "But why don't you put it in the shapeshifting lizard skin bag."

"Because the leather bag is already full." Kangna said matter-of-factly: "There isn't enough for all the finished potions and herbs. Where is there room to put the crucible."

Hmm...that makes sense.

At this time, Kangna was still thinking about where to put her cauldron after she changed into a dress robe.

Kyle thought for a while, and when no one was paying attention, he took out his wand and clicked on her.

The original school uniform robe immediately turned into a bright blue-purple color, and the hem became longer and longer, turning into a formal robe in the blink of an eye.

"Transfiguration..." Kang Na was a little surprised.

"Well, I saw a similar style at Madam Malkin's Robe Shop during my vacation, but the details are definitely not that exquisite, and it's just a look-alike."

"It doesn't matter, this is good." Kangna looked at the robe up and down, and then asked in a low voice: "Can't others see it?"

In the wizarding world, most people will not wear the formal robes of the Transfiguration Spell to attend a ball, because if they are seen, they will definitely become a joke to others.

For example, Ron two years ago only trimmed the edge of his second-hand dress robes and never thought of using Transfiguration.

Of course, it may be that he didn't think of it.

"Don't worry." Kyle waved his hand, "As long as Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore don't go, no one can see it."

Then he also changed his clothes.

"That's good." Connor said happily, without any doubt about Kyle's words. She turned around and found that this dress robe was more convenient and had another advantage.

Because it was Transfiguration, it was essentially a school uniform. Whether it was the feeling of wearing or the weight, there was no change. It was much more comfortable than the heavy and tight dress robes.

Because it happened to be Halloween and a dance, Slughorn invited many people this time, and with their respective dance partners, the number of people was even greater.

As soon as Kyle and Connor walked into Slughorn's office, they heard a noisy movement, laughter, music and loud voices gradually increased with their footsteps.

Slughorn cast a spell on his office, making it look much larger than an ordinary professor's.

The ceiling and walls were hung with curtains of various colors, and there was a golden pumpkin lantern on the top, but there were no candles inside, but many elves holding lanterns, flying around inside, as if countless points of light were constantly flashing.

The waiters were the house elves in the kitchen, and they shuttled back and forth among the crowd with trays, and the trays were filled with various drinks.

"Oh... Kyle, Connor, my child!" Before the two entered the door, they heard Slughorn's loud voice, "It's really not easy to invite you once... But like I said before, you can't keep hiding from me."

"Professor, it's so sad that you said that." Kyle said, "We really want to come to the party, but there is no way. Professor Snape has been interfering and not letting Connor come.

"In addition, I believe you must know how boring it is to work in the Ministry of Magic."

"Oh, yes, I know everything. "Slughorn blinked and said with a smile, "I was just joking. You finally got what you wanted today, didn't you?

"Well, come in quickly. There are so many people for you to meet." He walked into the office happily.

Kyle and Connor looked at each other and could only follow him helplessly.

"That's Walpole, my former student." Slughorn pointed to a short man who was talking to Harry not far away, "He is the author of "Blood Brothers: My Life Among Vampires"... Of course. And his brother Bloody."

The name of this book sounds a bit like Lockhart's style, but it is the real deal. Walpole really lives among a group of vampires.

The Bloody next to him is a serious vampire, tall and handsome, with dark circles around his eyes, and a tired look that is always sleepy.

Only when a girl passes by, he will be more energetic, licking his lips, with a hungry light in his eyes.

Seemingly noticing Kyle's gaze, Bloody turned his head and looked over.

He saw Kanna at a glance, and the light in his eyes suddenly became brighter. He noticed that Kanna was different from other girls, and she exuded a very unique fragrance.

That feeling was like the rosemary garnished next to the steak, which made him salivate.

Xue Ni suddenly felt that the pie in his hand was not fragrant, and he couldn't help but take two steps forward.

"Vampires like talented wizards, especially witches." Kyle looked at Kanna who frowned and explained.

"I know, Lockhart mentioned it in his book." Kanna said, "I just think this feeling is very strange."

"That's easy." Kyle took out his box and opened a crack.

The students who attended the dance in the room did not notice anything different and continued to do their own things, but the vampire stood stiffly in place.

Just now, for a moment, he instinctively felt several extremely dangerous smells, and each of them could easily tear him apart.

Xue Ni suddenly woke up. He turned around stiffly as if nothing had happened, and tried to hide himself behind Walpole, who was a head shorter than him.

“See, it’s easily solved,” Kyle said with a smile, skillfully catching the Niffler that had jumped out of the box and stuffing it back in.