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Chapter 99: Banquet Preparations
Chapter 99: Banquet Preparations
Time flew by, and it was already a week before Halloween. That noon, after delivering a large package of Muggle novels to Mr. Wolf and retrieving the books he had borrowed last time, Liam met Colin Creevey in the castle corridor. Colin brought a message from Nick: to gather at the designated location at seven in the evening.
It seemed that the preparations for Nick's Halloween banquet were about to begin. Liam thought about this as he made his way back to the Common Room, where he encountered Hermione waiting for him.
During their last meeting with Mr. Wolf, Wolf had mentioned that life in the Forbidden Forest was too boring and asked if they had any entertainment suggestions. Hermione, who loved reading, suggested that reading could be a great pastime.
So, Liam and Hermione had lent some of the leisure books they had brought to school to Wolf. They even discussed which types of books Wolf preferred. Now, Hermione was eager to find out what Wolf's reading tastes were.
"Mr. Wolf said he likes all the books, as he was so bored before that he now reads any piece of paper with words on it at least five times."
"It seems he's a very studious wolf. Next time, I can ask my father to send over my encyclopedia", Hermione said, always willing to support any creature with a thirst for knowledge, even if it was a wolf.
The day's classes passed quickly, except for Lockhart's dramatic performance, which was as usual. Liam couldn't understand why Dumbledore had hired such a person as a teacher. Was it to show everyone what a failure looked like?
After dinner, Liam hurried to the Room of Requirement to start preparing the ghost banquet. When he entered, he found Nick already waiting with about six dishes. Each dish was steaming and looked better than anything served in the Great Hall. It made sense; even with the House-Elves' magical abilities, they couldn't make cafeteria food as exquisite as individually prepared dishes.
Liam began casting spells, and after more than half an hour, he successfully transformed the six dishes into their soul states.
Then, Liam placed charm paper on each plate and instructed Nick to have the Pixies move the plates to the designated location, warning him not to remove the charm paper. The charm paper allowed the physical plates to hold soul food, and removing it would make the plates impossible to move.
After completing the food preparations, Liam tried a bit of the leftover food. It looked the same but had lost all its flavor, tasting like chewing plastic.
Feeling a bit tired, Liam sat on the sofa and chatted with Nick. Suddenly, he remembered that Nick knew ghosts scattered throughout Britain, some of whom were witnesses to important historical events. He might learn something interesting.
Liam asked Nick, "By the way, can I, a living person, attend your banquet?"
Nick looked surprised and said, "Of course, I would be delighted to have you. However, I thought you might prefer the school's banquet over our rather gloomy one, so I didn't dare to invite you. You can even bring your friends; the more, the merrier."
Back in the Common Room, Liam shared this information with the study group, but most of his classmates were not interested in attending the banquet. For example, Ron, who was working on his Potions homework, thought it was strange to celebrate the day of one's death and believed the ghost banquet would be very dull. Most of the other students shared this view.
However, Hermione told Liam that she would go. After all, she had never found many living people who had attended such a banquet in her books. Not to mention, Liam told her that many eyewitnesses of important events from the books would also be attending the banquet.
The next day, when Liam went to the Room of Requirement, Hermione followed. She was very curious about how Liam could turn human food into ghost food.
Nick expressed his sincere gratitude for Hermione's participation. While Liam was casting the spell, Hermione watched him closely, trying to learn the trick. Unfortunately, the language barrier was insurmountable, and she couldn't understand what Liam was saying in Chinese.
In the end, Hermione had to give up her plan to learn this unfamiliar magic, but she was still amazed by the wonders of Eastern Magic. She complained that there were only a few records about the Oriental world in Hogwarts, which couldn't satisfy her curiosity.
Two days before Halloween, Liam and Hermione just walked into the Room of Requirement and saw Nick anxiously circling in mid-air.
Liam quickly asked, "What's wrong? You look a bit upset."
"I made a big mistake", Nick said, somewhat reproachfully. "I wanted everyone to taste all kinds of delicious dishes, so I prepared every dish differently. But today I realized that we don't have any utensils. How are we supposed to eat these steaks? We can't just take turns biting them. And if I cut them up and then transform them, there won't be enough time. What should I do!"
Liam responded, "Don't ghosts carry things from their lives with them?"
"Yes, but no one carries utensils with them when they die. In my time, people used to cut the food with a knife and eat it with their hands. Forks weren't even common then. And in even earlier times, like in Slytherin's era, there were no knives or forks at all."
"Don't worry, I have a solution." Liam pulled out a grass sword from his Spatial Bag, bit his fingertip, and smeared blood on the blade.
Hermione saw the sword faintly glow when the blood was applied, but when she looked closely, it seemed unchanged.
Then, Liam held the sword and sliced through the soul-state steak on the table, cleanly dividing it into two pieces.
"How did you do that?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
"I was just trying it out, and I didn't expect it to work. The book only says that the Calamus Sword can cut evil spirits, a weapon used in the Orient to drive away evil spirits, but it doesn't say it can do this."
After hearing Liam's words, Nick suddenly rushed over. Even though Liam quickly sheathed the sword, the blade still left a small cut on Nick's hand.
Seeing Nick staring at the wound on his hand, Liam thought he was worried about being seriously injured. So he quickly reassured him, "The Calamus Sword affects ghosts the way ordinary knives and swords affect humans. This is like getting cut by a knife for us. It will heal in a few days, don't worry too much."
To Liam's surprise, after hearing this, Nick suddenly knelt on one knee and clasped his hands together, saying, "Mr. Liang, I have a request. Please, you must grant it."
(End of Chapter)
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