From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 227 Preparations for the Amazing Banquet

"So, this is Hufflepuff's gold cup?" Dumbledore pushed up his half-moon glasses on his crooked nose and looked carefully at the pure gold cup in front of him.

"That's right." Ivy curled the corners of his mouth and revealed a smug smile.

"The Hufflepuff badger... is exactly the same as the golden cup we saw in Hokey's memory..." Dumbledore raised his head and asked excitedly, "Is this a Horcrux of Voldemort?"

"Our speculation is correct. This is indeed a Horcrux of Voldemort." Ivy took the golden cup back from Dumbledore. "But now, the soul fragment inside has disappeared without a trace. It belongs to me."

"Great!" Dumbledore jumped up from behind his desk and strode back and forth in the headmaster's office. The sound of wind brought by the corners of his gorgeous clothes even woke up several sleeping portraits of the old headmaster.

"That only leaves Slytherin's locket. Even better, I've found some clues. Maybe we'll be able to destroy all of his Horcruxes soon!" Dumbledore stopped in front of Fawkes's perch, and the phoenix responded to the old headmaster's high spirits with a pleasant chirp.

After a while, Dumbledore pulled out a bottle of wine from the cupboard with many drawers and shook it at Ivy.

"This is truly a moment worth celebrating! How about a drink, Ivy?" Dumbledore pointed to the golden cup in Ivy's hand. "How about that?"

Ivy looked at the golden cup in his hand, somewhat hesitantly: "Well, I haven't thought about using it to drink... In fact, I plan to turn it into a magical item again."

"Like the Ravenclaw Diadem?" Dumbledore asked curiously, "Except for the Sword of Gryffindor, I have not come into contact with other magical items belonging to the Big Four... What is the function of the golden cup?"

"To be precise, I don't know yet." Ivy spread his hands and said frankly, "I have to perform a magical ritual that can be approved by Hufflepuff himself to know what magic this cup has."

"Ah... was it the same principle that you used to catch the stars on the lawn?" Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "Ravenclaw placed her residence in the place closest to the sky. She is indeed a wizard who is used to observing the night sky."

"May I know what Hufflepuff's magic ritual is like?" The curiosity on Dumbledore's face became more and more intense. With the only Horcruxes left by Voldemort being the locket and Harry himself, the weight that had been weighing on the old wizard's heart had been lifted for the most part, and he began to show more and more of his old mischievous character.

"This is why I came to the headmaster's office, Professor Dumbledore." Ivy handed over an invitation. "Hufflepuff wants me to cook a big meal to entertain friends. Here is the invitation."

"What a surprise!" Dumbledore took the invitation and looked around, "'Invite Albus Dumbledore to attend Ivy Doom's Gold Cup Party at 12 o'clock tonight'? What about your friends who are still in school? Don't tell me you didn't invite them."

Dumbledore smiled and blinked, "Or do you intend for me to turn a blind eye to their nighttime wanderings?"

Ivy made a flipping motion to him.

Dumbledore turned the invitation over and said, "Oh! There's more on this side... 'Before midnight, stick this invitation on any wall in Hogwarts Castle, and you will see a door that leads directly to the banquet venue'... No wonder this invitation looks like a page torn from a book. It turns out there is such a use for it."

It was called an invitation, but it was actually a page that Ivy had torn from the Grimoire of Destruction. Due to the close connection between the Room of Requirement and Hogwarts, Ivy used these pages to create a temporary entrance. After a pre-set time, the invited people could move directly into the Room of Requirement through the door on the page.

However, this method is only effective inside Hogwarts. Hagrid, who lives next to the Forbidden Forest, needs other ways to enter the Room of Requirement.

"Since the invitation has been delivered, I'll leave. There are others who haven't received it yet."

Ivy was about to retreat when Dumbledore asked, "What gift should I bring? What do you think of the cockroach pile?"

Ivy quickly waved his hand: "That's not necessary. Although it's a banquet, it's actually just a simple meal. Just bring your stomach!"

----

"The party starts at 12 o'clock at night!" Ron exclaimed in a low voice.

"We can all wear my Invisibility Cloak together!" Harry was also excited. "It's big enough for all three of us... You'll go too, right, Hermione?"

"This is a party hosted by Ivy. You don't want to be the one who spoils the fun, do you?" Ron predicted Hermione's reaction and tried to blackmail her morally.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "We don't need the invisibility cloak because it's not against school rules as long as we're not discovered. Besides, Ivy's invitation allows us to go directly from the dormitory to the banquet venue."

"Hermione is right. The instructions are on the back of the invitation." Ivy curled his lips. "You can study it slowly. I'm going to send invitations to others."

"You said... Ivy didn't invite Malfoy as well, did he?" Looking at Ivy's receding back, Ron suddenly noticed this.

"We will see Malfoy, no doubt about it."

----

"... Potter was also invited?" Malfoy curled his lips. "Don't worry, I won't fight with him at the banquet. That would be too unfair to Ivy."

"Lord Doom, do you need my help with the decoration?" Cassandra ignored Malfoy and stared at Ivy's face and asked, "Maybe I should wear a dress?"

"Relax, it's just a meal..."

……

Afterwards, Ivy invited Snape, who looked sleepy, Lupin, who was laughing with Sirius in the office (and Sirius, of course), and Hagrid, who was thinking about which textbook to use next semester. I don't know what those little wizards who regarded this party as a student night activity would think after seeing these professors, anyway, Hermione must be horrified.

Although the ancient ritual of the Hufflepuff Gold Cup requires Ivy to personally prepare a perfect feast for his friends, it does not prohibit him from using magic to process food, because Hufflepuff himself is very good at this.

Not to mention that the golden cup was originally a tool she used to help the house-elves cook in the kitchen. Even the recipes used by the elves working in Hogwarts today come from her own recipes.

This witch was known for her broad mind. After the other three founders selected students according to their own standards, she took all the remaining students under her wing and treated them equally.

Therefore, Ivy guessed that the second ancient ritual of the Golden Cup might be to teach students something.

Unlike the riddle of the Ravenclaw crown, the ancient ritual of the gold cup was very clear. As if afraid that Ivy didn't understand, it not only stipulated the minimum number of people for the banquet, but also listed all the precautions and even attached a recipe.

Hufflepuff required Ivy to personally inform each of her friends of the time and place of the party, so Ivy chose to send an invitation to everyone.

As for the banquet dishes, Hufflepuff requires at least twelve courses, including two cold dishes, two soups and two hot dishes, and at least three kinds of drinks and main dishes must be provided, and there must be no less than three desserts after the meal.

Although Hufflepuffs have very strict requirements for the food, they are not so demanding about the banquet venue, as long as everyone can have a seat.

To this end, Ivy rearranged the layout of the Room of Requirement and redecorated the banquet hall, mainly using Hufflepuff's warm colors, trying to make everyone who attends the banquet feel comfortable and warm.

By the way, it was a great help that Ivy had gathered the Bobbies in the Room of Requirement in advance.

Not only did they help set the tableware and decorative vases, they even thoughtfully helped with the preparation of the ingredients, allowing Ivy to complete the rest of the steps with just a wave of his wand.

The two cold dishes were a cold meat platter and a forest vegetable salad.

The cold meat platter consisted of smoked meats and sausages, including smoked pork and smoked beef, and the sausages included white sausage, red sausage and black sausage. They were all cut into small slices of uniform thickness and served with appropriate sauces on the side.

Forest vegetable salad is a wood elf dish that Ivy learned from the Grimoire of Destruction.

Many colorful vegetables and fruits are used. Grate the orange and lemon peels into pieces and mix them with apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a bowl. After the seasoning is fully mixed, add the appropriate amount of olive oil and stir vigorously again until the sauce is emulsified.

Next comes the lettuce and kale. Blanch them, dry them, cut them into thin strips and mix them with the salad dressing. Finally, add orange slices as garnish.

The two soups were seafood soup and scallion potato soup.

For seafood soup, you need to fry onions in a pot over high heat until soft, then add green onions, minced garlic, cumin, chili powder and saffron to bring out the aroma, followed by tomato paste, white wine and fish broth. After slowly simmering to fully blend the flavors of the ingredients, add clams, mussels and fresh fish.

Cook until all the shellfish are open and the fish meat becomes firm and opaque, then turn off the heat and serve. Of course, you will need to add olive oil, garlic and parsley when serving.

This seafood soup is spicy and delicious with a strong aftertaste. It not only makes the overall flavor of banquet dishes more special, but also serves as an excellent dipping sauce for staple dishes.

As for the scallion and potato soup, the method is relatively simple. First, fry the bacon in a pan until it turns golden and releases oil.

Then remove the bacon and use the remaining fat in the pan to fry the spices, including scallions, celery, and thyme.

When all the spices are fried and change color, you can add salt, black pepper, potatoes and broth and continue to stew. When the potatoes are completely soft, add some fresh cream.

At this point the soup can be served on a plate and topped with the bacon that was fried and ground at the beginning, and you can enjoy it.

Hot dishes include pan-fried trout, honey-roasted steak, roast pheasant, roast lamb and classic stewed beans with gravy. These dishes are all from Hufflepuff recipes, but they differ in the choice of ingredients, so I won’t go into details about the preparation steps, as everyone who has studied at Hogwarts knows them anyway.

Desserts include candied apples, honey cream puffs and caramel pudding, all of which are common desserts in England.

The staple foods are walnut bread, beef pie and cheese bread, and the main feature is that they are large in quantity and filling.

As for beverages to go with the meal, Ivy chose mulled apple cider, mulled wine, and hot cocoa.

Among them, the hot apple cider is a heated wine that is boiled together with orange, cloves, passion fruit, laurel, cranberry juice, a little sugar and salt, and then sieved. It has a very special flavor.

Spiced wine is a mixture of brandy and various spices that is heated (not boiled, otherwise it will have an oxidized taste) and then left to cool. It has a higher alcohol content, so Hagrid might particularly like it.

Hot cocoa is even simpler. It is just a calorie bomb. These growing little wizards can definitely absorb all of its calories.

After finishing the entire menu, Ivy looked at his watch and it was exactly a quarter to twelve.

We just need to wait for everyone to arrive before the banquet can officially begin.

(End of this chapter)