Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 778 It's Halloween!

April 31th, evening.

Another Halloween has arrived.

It happened to be Friday, and with the weekend holiday coinciding with the festival, tonight's dinner was especially lively.

Halloween is said to have originated from an ancient Celtic myth. Every year on this day, people believed that the souls of the deceased would return to their homeland, seeking a substitute to be reborn. The living, fearing ghosts, devised various ways to deal with them. Some extinguished fires and candles, trying every possible way to hide; others dressed up as monsters or ghosts to conceal their identities or scare them away; still others left delicious food at their doors to appease the spirits and prevent them from becoming angry and harming the living—this is the origin of the "trick or treat" tradition…

These measures were gradually passed down and eventually became customs over the long course of history.

In the library.

Hermione sat upright in a chair in the corner, several large, open books in front of her, her head bowed as she read them intently.

The girl was reading a book, and Loren was watching the girl next to him, equally focused and attentive.

Hermione's eyelashes are so long...

I wonder if her eyes are dry after not blinking for so long.

"call……"

Loren blew on the storybook in front of him, then quickly lowered his head to pretend to be engrossed in reading, while secretly glancing at Hermione beside him out of the corner of his eye.

The parchment blocked the airflow to the side, creating a few wisps of breeze that fluttered the long, slender eyelashes, making them blink like tiny brushes—it was incredibly beautiful.

"..."

Hermione blinked a few times, suppressing the dry, sore feeling in her eyes, glanced at him, and asked rather speechlessly, "What time is it?"

It's 5:30.

Loren glanced out the window: "The banquet starts at seven o'clock. You continue reading, and I'll call you when it's time."

Hermione followed his gaze—

In autumn and winter, the days grow shorter. At this time, the sky outside has darkened, the clouds are thick, and you can't see the sun. You only know that it is not yet completely dark.

"Let's not read anymore, let's go to the auditorium to see the pumpkin lanterns."

"You actually know about jack-o'-lanterns!" Loren exclaimed incredulously, feigning surprise with clumsy and affected acting. "I thought you were just a bookworm who only thought about reading!"

"..."

Hermione didn't want to respond, but Mrs. Pince, who was not far away, had already noticed them and was watching them with a lingering gaze. So she tidied up the books on their table, put them back on the shelf, and turned to leave the library.

Loren followed closely behind.

As I left the library, the cold wind in the corridor seeped into my clothes.

"hiss……"

Loren quickly turned up his collar, shrank his neck, grabbed Hermione's hand and put it in his pocket, and walked towards the Great Hall together.

Hermione glanced at him indifferently.

Actually, the corridor wasn't that cold, and doing this wouldn't warm him up. It was just a little trick he used to make holding hands seem more natural.

Little tricks are certainly useful.

Gently rubbing her soft palm, Loren led her slowly toward the hall, recounting the story he had just read in the book. He had only skimmed through it, so his retelling was somewhat incomplete, rambling on and on, with disjointed and fragmented language that failed to express his meaning clearly.

Hermione listened very attentively and was able to understand what he was saying.

Halloween originated from a story in Celtic mythology, where the living extinguished all fires and candles to avoid ghosts...

Instead of extinguishing the fireplaces and candles, thousands of pumpkin lanterns were lit up at the ends of corridors and corners of staircases. The lanterns floated in mid-air, with huge pumpkins carved into skulls and devil faces, and eerie green phosphorescent flames burning quietly within them.

The pumpkins in the school castle were mostly purchased from elsewhere. I don't know when the elves brought the pumpkins into the kitchen, selected the best ones, roasted them to create an enticing sweet aroma that filled the entire castle, and carved the rest into jack-o'-lanterns, which Professor Flitwick then used to cast spells to float them in the corridors.

The sky outside wasn't completely dark yet, but the magical dome of the auditorium already presented a scene of a stormy night with dark clouds and thunder.

Thousands of bats fluttered their wings beneath the dome, gathering together like low, dark clouds drifting across the dining table, causing the candlelight and the flames in the pumpkin lanterns to flicker.

The pumpkins in the auditorium were provided by Rubeus Hagrid, the professor of the Conservation of Magical Creatures class, who stood in the corner of the room, slapping the thick pumpkin shells with his palms. Some of the pumpkins were even bigger than the sheds.

Professor Sprout, a herbalist, gazed at the giant pumpkins with admiration and humbly asked Hagrid for tips and secrets on how to grow them.

Before the banquet even started, little wizards were crawling in and out of the giant pumpkin lantern, cheering and screaming noisily. Nick, who had almost lost his head, somehow managed to sneak in, scaring a group of freshmen who scrambled out, only to burst into grinning foolishly afterward.

A young witch, a new student, approached Professor Hagrid, tugged at the sleeve of his mole-skin coat, and her eyes, no longer showing the fear she had felt at the start of the semester, asked, "Professor Hagrid, could you please keep the biggest pumpkin for next year and carve it into a pumpkin house or a pumpkin carriage?"

Hagrid nodded and agreed with a smile.

What should we do with these pumpkin lanterns after the festival?

Hagrid glanced at Loren, who had somehow appeared beside him, resting his chin on his hand as he examined the pumpkin lantern, a sinister glint in his eyes.

"..."

After nearly seven years of getting along, Hagrid had come to understand Loren's personality to some extent. He could tell from this look that Loren was planning some kind of wicked scheme. Looking at his thoughtful expression, Hagrid suddenly didn't know how to answer.

"Well……"

Hagrid carefully replied, "The well-preserved jack-o'-lanterns can be stored in the warehouse and used again next year. The damaged ones can be given to the animals in the Forbidden Forest. If they really can't be given away, they can be composted."

"That sounds a bit wasteful."

"What do you want to do?"

"If you have any extra jack-o'-lanterns this year, remember to save a few for me. They don't need to be this big, medium-sized ones are fine, or even smaller ones are okay." Loren gestured to indicate the size of the famous jack-o'-lantern.

"Keep it as a souvenir..."

Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief: "It's true that you should keep some things from school as souvenirs after graduation. Don't worry, I'll definitely pick out a few nice ones for you."

"No, I want something scary."

"no problem!"

Hagrid patted his chest, beaming.

Satisfied with the assurance, Loren held Hermione's hand and looked around at the jack-o'-lanterns. Some of the jack-o'-lanterns hissed with phosphorescence, which meant that there were gift boxes hidden inside. Halloween gift boxes are half surprise and half fright. Inside, there might be good things like wizard chess or chocolate frogs, or there might be mice or dung bombs. The harvest depends entirely on luck.

A freshman from Gryffindor struggled to open a firework, which exploded as soon as he opened the lid, leaving his face blackened and his hair standing on end. This amused his friends so much that they couldn't stop laughing.

There's a faint resemblance to Simon back in the day.

Many Gryffindor seventh-year students who witnessed this scene smiled slightly.

Hermione tilted her head to look at Loren's expression, squeezed his hand, and asked softly, "Why did you ask Hagrid for the pumpkin lantern?"

"Keep it as a souvenir."

"?"

"But it wasn't the school that left it to me; it was me who left it to the school."

Loren tried to purse his lips, but couldn't help chuckling twice: "Professor Babling's design for the runes has made progress! Such a meaningful thing should definitely be commemorated at Hogwarts!"

What do you want to keep as a souvenir?

"I plan to carve a simple teleportation circle inside the jack-o'-lantern, leaving a few strands of spatial magic. Normally, the jack-o'-lanterns will remain in the Room of Requirement. Around Halloween, these jack-o'-lanterns will appear in the washroom, the common room after lights out, the corridors at night, and the dormitory beds..."

Loren said mysteriously, "And it's the kind that appears in a flash, suddenly appears, stays for a few seconds, and then suddenly disappears. It's guaranteed to be scary enough."

Hermione blinked, imagining the scene:

Around Halloween, the castle lights dimly, and an eerie atmosphere pervades the air. Some young wizards, unable to sleep at night, would go to the toilet or wander around in a daze, their minds relaxed, when suddenly a ghostly green phosphorescent light flashed, barely revealing a pumpkin lantern carved into a hideous smile...

"..."

Hermione fell silent.

A new chapter has been added to the horror stories of Hogwarts.

……

By December, the first semester of the school year was drawing to a close.

Two more Quidditch matches were held during this period: Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff advanced to the winners' bracket and will face Gryffindor in the spring. Ravenclaw entered the losers' bracket and will have to play against Slytherin after returning to school for the Christmas holidays.

The new students' flight lessons have ended, and they no longer need to brave the biting cold winds. Mrs. Hooch has begun her vacation early, which is truly enviable.

The seventh-grade curriculum enters a delicate phase.

The professors have finished teaching all the material and are now guiding students to review what they have learned in the previous seven years. The homework is becoming increasingly heavy, but it is not the kind of profound or complicated homework. It is all very basic stuff, with a large number of questions and a high rate of repetition. However, it is not mandatory for all students to complete it, and homework is no longer being collected.

The students were in different states. Some were laughing and joking all day, seemingly not caring about the upcoming ultimate wizarding level exam. Others had dark circles under their eyes and were so nervous that they couldn't eat when dining in the Great Hall.

Professors McGonagall and Snape repeatedly brought up the issue of stress in class, neither praising their optimism nor reassuring them about their tension. They simply emphasized that they should not affect other students and that if they really couldn't handle it, they should go to the school clinic to see Mrs. Pomfrey.

Hermione would also select valuable topics to memorize, and she would spend most of her weekends in the library, even reducing the frequency of her conversations with Professor Bubbaje.

Loren, on the other hand, gave up on the basics-building assignments and didn't have any mental problems for the time being. He spent his free time in the Room of Requirement, sitting in the transformed underground potions classroom, holding a manuscript paper and studying the new spatial teleportation device array carefully.

Several intricately carved pumpkin lanterns were placed nearby.

They received these jack-o'-lanterns from Hagrid last month. He had already inscribed a simple magic circle, infused a few strands of spatial magic into its core, and completed a short-distance teleportation test. The entire process took a full month, but Flamel and Professor Babling thought it was already quite fast.

Loren plans to complete all the design work for the new device before graduation, and after graduation, he will gather his team to start production, promote the new device to the world, and complete this big business as soon as possible.

The estimated completion time for the entire plan is still uncertain, as the future is always full of unknowns and no one can predict it.

For example, I've been working too hard these past few months, mortgaging my future. I might have to lie down for two years after graduation before I can implement my plans again. In the meantime, I'll just be Hermione's stay-at-home husband. What's that saying again? Behind every successful woman is a…

The clock in the corner began to shake slightly, and a crow emerged from it, cawing loudly.

Loren pushed aside the floating pumpkin lanterns, scattering them throughout the room, got up, and walked out, leaving the House of Requirement and going downstairs to the foyer.

December is already deep winter, and snowflakes are falling heavily.

The torches on the walls of the foyer cast a warm orange glow, which reflected the snowflakes, making them appear crystal clear. Occasionally, a few snowflakes would drift into the room, melting and leaving a watery stain at the doorway.

A graceful figure stood between the firelight and the snow, seemingly having been waiting there for a while. She wore a school-style long robe, her loose curly hair cascading over her shoulders, and a cashmere scarf around her neck. Snowflakes clung to her hair and shoulders, but instead of looking cold, they added a touch of softness.

Hearing footsteps approaching, the girl looked up, a smile appearing on her face, her eyes gentle.

"Why are you waiting here?"

Loren walked over and stood in front of Hermione, naturally taking her hand and shaking it. It was neither cold nor warm: "It's so warm inside the Great Hall. Your hands are freezing in this cold wind. You'll catch a cold and behave yourself."

"It's not cold," Hermione explained softly, her voice carried on the wind, exceptionally gentle. "You probably wouldn't find it in the Great Hall, and I wanted to come here to see the snow."

"I wonder how many bellflower flames they'll set off."

"It's not cold."

"Where are Harry and the others?"

"I've already taken the cake to Hagrid's cabin."

"Did you carry it there?"

"Um."

"A bunch of idiots, they got here frozen solid, harder than rock cakes. How are they going to eat them later?"

"..."

"You're an idiot too, standing in the doorway in the cold wind, you've gone crazy."

"It's not cold."

Hermione explained in a low voice.

It wasn't cold at all; my hands were warm and cozy in his palms.

The two wrapped their scarves tighter, stepped out of the hall, and left two neat rows of footprints in the snow, stretching all the way to the cabin at the edge of the forbidden forest, where smoke was rising from the chimney.

The grounds were frozen solid; the once lush green grass was buried under a thick blanket of snow. The bare vines of the willow were adorned with clumps of snow, white and glistening, like blooming pear blossoms. There were hardly any students to be seen on the streets. Today was Hogsmeade Week; those who wanted to go out were now sitting in their three brooms, butterbeers in hand, while those who didn't want to brave the wind were sheltered by the castle fireplace.

They were heading towards Hagrid's cabin.

December 6, 1997, is Hagrid's 69th birthday.

(End of this chapter)