Bring a fairy tale to Hogwarts!

Chapter 74 Christmas Dinner and Gifts

What is the answer to the riddle?

The ability to create something from nothing... is the cornerstone of all magic.

In the tidy kitchen, Harry frowned and thought for a moment, then looked up hesitantly and asked, "Wisdom?"

"It's neither right nor wrong," Victor said. "As I said before, the riddle is actually a trial. It tests not only whether you can guess the answer, but also your own understanding of magic."

"Go back and think about it again, Harry. Don't rush to give an answer."

"...But how am I supposed to think about it?" Harry said, bewildered.

He was clearly confused, because solving puzzles wasn't his forte—that was for the Ravenclaw puzzle-solving freaks.

After all, they had to solve puzzles every day when they returned to the lounge.

Harry had absolutely no interest in these things, and no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't come up with any more ideas.

Without a word, Victor stuffed a plate of mushy food into Harry's hands and a plate of cake into his left and right hands respectively, and then pushed him out.

As he led him toward the living room, Victor added:

"Think about something that has happened to you recently."

Harry turned abruptly to look at Victor. Victor was still wearing a top hat, the shadow of which obscured most of his face. But in the shadow, his two empty eyes seemed to represent a deeper darkness.

But he merely glanced at Harry indifferently, as if nothing had happened, and pushed Harry out of the kitchen.

Then say:

"Go ahead. The food is ready, and dinner can begin soon."

Harry quickly realized that bringing out the plates was completely unnecessary. After he shakily placed the plates on the table, Victor strolled out leisurely, empty-handed, with five or six plates of food floating behind him, bobbing up and down in the air like they were swimming.

The dishes then floated onto the table on their own, arranging themselves into a round plate, and even pushing the two plates that Harry had just placed there into their proper places.

Then, the dinner, which none of the students particularly wanted to participate in, began.

Although they showed resistance, Victor still forced the food from each plate to be poured into their bowls without saying a word.

This included the Flobber caterpillar soup that Doufred and George had personally cut up.

Several students—including Harry—were forced to stare at the lifeless caterpillar floating on top of their soup bowls.

The caterpillar's body was also chopped very unevenly—

"Glug."

The sound of someone swallowing echoed in the room.

Then, amidst the gazes of others who were watching the Warriors, Fred, with a death-defying resolve, was the first to swallow a mouthful of Flobber caterpillar stew:

"Hmm, it doesn't taste bad?"

A few seconds later, Fred actually said something.

Harry was somewhat incredulous at his words, so he closed his eyes and forced himself to take a sip of the soup—it actually seemed alright.

In that instant, he only tasted the rich umami flavor and the perfect amount of saltiness. The caterpillar's corpse blended naturally into the soup, and he didn't even notice it when he drank it.

After taking a bite, he felt a warm sensation throughout his body.

It's really not bad to drink!

That's what he thought.

But the very next second after he thought that, a sour and spicy taste suddenly surged up from his stomach, giving his tongue a strong tingling sensation. Harry felt like his tongue was about to breathe fire!

The next second, Ron next to him actually spat out a long string of blue flames.

"Ptooey—ptooey!" He shook his head hard, trying to shake off the intense spiciness, but flames just kept coming out of his mouth.

Harry and George, standing nearby, also opened their mouths. For a moment, blue flames burned on the table—luckily, Victor's table appeared to be fireproof.

Fred then gave a wicked smile.

"--It's like eating a sour orange. If you tell me beforehand that it's sour, who will suffer with you?"

The dinner continued in this tense atmosphere.

However, Harry found the meal gradually becoming more interesting. The dishes weren't particularly bad, but they all had various strange effects. Harry saw Hagrid become translucent after eating a bat wing, while George developed a mature and cheerful face after eating the stewed mutton.

The only minor incident was when the mutton stew with red wine was served to him, it seemed to have gone bad—two blurry images appeared on Harry's face, constantly alternating and changing indistinctly.

Seeing this, Victor raised his eyebrows.

"Alright, let's pack our things."

Late at night, Victor clapped his hands over the nearly finished leftovers, signaling the students to get ready to return to school together.

As the banquet progressed, several students became somewhat reluctant to leave and departed the small house one by one. Who would let them eat food that could breathe fire?

But they still had to go back to school.

Before leaving, Hagrid, clearly a little drunk, chuckled and grabbed Victor's arm, saying, "I—...wait—"

I think your house would be perfect for animals—my little Aragog would love it here.

"Yeah?"

Victor didn't seem to care much about Hagrid's words, but Harry was secretly relieved for Victor's idea—Hagrid's little darling was definitely not a normal thing, because that three-headed dog was also his little darling!

With this in mind, Harry returned to school.

The next morning, he encountered another unexpected good thing.

That night, as Harry went to bed, he was only hoping for another big meal or a fun-filled day the next day; he never imagined he would receive a gift. However, when he woke up the next morning, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

"Merry Christmas," said his roommate Ron, still half-asleep.

"Happiness to you too," Harry said. "Come and see, I received some presents!"

"What did you expect to receive? Cabbage?" Ron said. There were far more packages beside his bed than Harry's.

But Harry didn't feel jealous. To be honest, he hadn't received a gift in the past ten years, and he was already happy just to see this little pile at his feet.

However, among the pile of gifts, three stood out.

He picked up the first one—a square red gift bag with a bow on top. It didn't look like it could hold much; it was long and thin.

When Harry opened it, a strange thing rolled out.

It was a thin, long wooden stick, about the length of an arm, with a thin, overly feminine-looking white ribbon wrapped around it.

There's even a small white star at the top of the stick.

"What is this?"

Harry studied the package in bewilderment for a long time before finally finding a small note that had slipped out of the gift bag in the corner.

The signature above is: Victor and Baba Yaga.

"Grandma Yaga wants me to give you this magic wand. Use it secretly, and you will experience some different kind of magic."

"Perhaps it will be useful for solving the puzzle."