Chapter 212: Ruining Halloween (Edited)

Night fell quickly, and after flushing Snape and Lockhart's candy down the toilet, Harry grabbed his best friend Ron and, instead of going to Halloween dinner, went to Nick's death party.

Hermione, after much agitation, didn't go with them....

Although she was interested in the mysterious and spooky anniversary party, it was more important to spend time with the cat.

"I don't even know why I'm going to Nick's anniversary party with you." muttered Ron as he walked past the Great Dining Hall and saw the lights and decorations inside. "A party to celebrate the day of death, sounds weird to me... I heard that Dumbledore had hired a skeleton dance troupe!".

Harry really regretted it, because the temperature around them was dropping rapidly as they descended. The corridors leading to the party were lit with black candles with blue flames, which looked eerily uncomfortable.

"Ahem... At least we're avoiding Lockhart, right?"

Harry tried to reassure Ron, who had come with him, but after saying a few words of comfort, he was unable to continue.

In the subway classroom where the party was being held, there was a sound like a thousand fingernails scraping a giant blackboard, and he could hear an eerie rhythm in the creepy sound....

The two looked at each other and continued walking forward.

There was no point in turning around and leaving now that they had come so far, so they could wait and find an excuse to leave early.

Just as Harry and Ron were attending the death anniversary party, the Halloween party began in the Great Dining Hall.

Thousands of bats were decorated on the ceiling of the Great Dining Hall, flying in the sky with Halloween decorations, and the huge pumpkins Hagrid had planted were carved in the shape of jack-o-lanterns, big enough to seat three people.

A dancing group of skeletons invited by Dumbledore also appeared in the center of the Great Dining Hall and began a strange but fun dance that brought the Great Dining Hall to life.

The dancing skeletons were not really skeletons with a consciousness of their own like ghosts, but a sort of puppet show in which the dancing skeletons were manipulated by wizards with spells.

Of course, this was not important to the students attending the party, who merely applauded the dancing skeletons and enjoyed their dancing.

It was not uncommon for Fish, a kitten, to let out a whoop of joy and wander into the dancing skeletons in his cat form.

"Nya!"

?(=｀? ′=)?

The little tabby cat waddled among the piles of bones, giving them a gentle paw every now and then.

Professor McGonagall, who had wanted to stop Fish, was stopped by Dumbledore.

"It's a rare party, so let Fish have his fun, Minerva."

Dumbledore said cheerfully, "Besides, Sandro and the others aren't in any trouble, are they?"

Sandro was one of the wizards in charge of the skeletons, and as Dumbledore had said, they didn't stop the show when Fish suddenly joined them, but controlled the skeletons to change their dance and start dancing around Fish.

The Great Dining Hall was now more animated, with everyone cheering and clapping loudly for the troupe and Fish.

With all this attention, it was impossible for Lockhart to stand by and watch, so he joined the dancing skeletons in his vampire costume.

His dancing was much more structured than Fish's, and he wasn't a bad dancer either, so with Fish's aimless dancing, it wasn't long before Lockhart took Fish's place in the center of the group.

Sandro and the others, oblivious to the Hogwarts situation, thought it would be more fun to dance with the cute kitten, but when Lockhart, a more "professional" dancer, joined in, they controlled the skeletons to dance in a graceful style.

They soon realized that the enthusiasm of the staff and students around them had waned and that, aside from their dislike of Lockhart, a group of skeletons and fancy dancing did not go well together.

But Lockhart, being the man that he is, obviously didn't care about others, he just wanted to get all the attention in the Great Dining Hall.

So, as he continued dancing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of colored beads, which he tossed into the air.

The beads exploded in the air, sending bats scurrying across the ceiling.

A multitude of glowing ghosts flew out of the exploding beads, their bodies crackling with sparks as they ran through the Great Hall.

These were portable magical Halloween fireworks that Lockhart had ordered from Gambol and Japes' Magical Pranks store.

He was going to use fairies and other magical creatures to gain fame, but when he thought of Fish's creepy affinity, Lockhart opted for these magical fireworks because....

They were uncontrollable, just like Lockhart.

So after Lockhart launched the fireworks, the sparkling ghosts scared the bats off the ceiling, set fire to the ribbons and flags placed around the Great Dining Hall, and blew up the plates in front of the audience, instantly ruining the banquet.

"Ah...!"

Several little witches with singed hair screamed and pulled out their wands to cast spells at the spooky fireworks flying around, which instead of destroying them, made them more active in the Great Dining Hall.

"Put down your wands! Keep calm!"

Fortunately, the other teachers were quick on their feet. Professor McGonagall waved her wand to destroy these firework ghosts flying everywhere and shouted with a grimace, calming the confused young wizards.

Soon, with the combined efforts of several teachers, all of Lockhart's fireworks were removed and order was restored to the Great Dining Hall.

"Ahem... I hadn't realized that the fireworks sold at Gambol's and Japes' Magical Jokes store were of poor quality, I must write them a letter to complain!"

When he discovered that the fireworks were out of his control, Lockhart immediately went into hiding. After all the dust settled, he jumped up and blamed the merchants, ignoring that he hadn't even read the instructions that came with the fireworks.

"Nya?"

Fish, the only one who had been enjoying himself, looked around and turned back into a cat-man and ran to Professor McGonagall.

"Minerva, Minerva, where are the pumpkin lights and the ghosts with the sparklers? Fish still wants to play with them."

?(●?ω?●)?

"There aren't any left!"

Professor McGonagall gave Lockhart a sullen look and then used the food to divert Fish's attention.

"Show's over, it's time to eat."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes! I've been dancing for so long I'm starving."

With the displeased eyes of a group of professors, Lockhart sat down at the long faculty table and ate alone.

Not only the teachers and students, but also Sandro, of the Skeleton Dance Company, were now looking at Lockhart in a different way: it was the first time they had seen such a strange character in all his performances.

But it was the cat-eared boy who caught their attention more than the other, so after a few glances at Lockhart, Sandro and the others began to ask Dumbledore about Fish.

The group planned to recruit Fish into their dance troupe when he graduated....

Then, of course, he was turned down by Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.

Although there was a minor mishap due to Lockhart, the Halloween party soon resumed and everyone enjoyed the various delicacies prepared by the house elves.

But on the other hand, Harry and Ron, who attended Nick's death anniversary, were not so lucky.

Who would have thought that ghosts would be eating rotten meat, green cheese and maggot-infested tripe that no living person could eat?

No...if you think about it, they should have guessed, after all, the ghosts were dead, how could they prepare normal food for an anniversary of death?...

Harry now regretted it, if he had known it was going to happen, he would have gone to the Great Dining Hall to confront Lockhart, at least he would have eaten there to his heart's content.

After the arrival of the Headless Hunters, Harry, as he had promised Nick, told Sir Patrick that "Nick was particularly scary" and then impatiently joined Ron in trying to get out of the subway classroom and head for the Great Dining Hall.

"Oh ha, are you leaving already, Harry?"

Peeves suddenly appeared from the side, shouting loudly as he rounded on the two of them, causing the ghosts around them to glare at them.

"You must be unhappy about Nick's anniversary party, eh? Well, nothing interesting here either."

There was a sly grin on Peeves' ugly face, he had done it on purpose, as he had no choice but to take it out on Harry and Ron, who knew Fish well.

Nick floated over, "Is that so, Harry? you didn't like my death party?"

Nick was already depressed about not joining the Headless Hunters and being robbed of the limelight, and now that Harry and Ron were leaving, he seemed even more distraught.

Along with the characteristics of the ghost himself, Nick was filled with a miserable atmosphere right now, so Harry couldn't leave at all.

"No, that's not true!" Harry said stiffly, "I just... had to pee! Yeah, I just need to go to the bathroom."

"There's a bathroom by the side door of this classroom!"

Peeves shouted again, pointing in exactly the opposite direction from where he had gone, dismissing Harry and Ron's thoughts of peeing.

"...Thank you!"

After gritting their teeth and thanking Peeves, Harry and Ron had to hang back, cold and hungry, waiting for their next opportunity to sneak out.