Mysterious Journey
Chapter 873: Ghostly Banquet (Part 1)
Elenna looked at Moaning Myrtle suspiciously.
"You didn't collude with Professor Dumbledore beforehand, did you?"
"It's really true. If Miss Kaslana, you're betting because of this..."
Myrtle's voice rose slightly as she looked timidly at the furious girl, cautiously saying, "Then from Professor Dumbledore's perspective, he didn't deceive you. But I'm not blessed with photographic memory, I just put in more effort than others. After all, I'm from a Muggle family, and there's so much I need to catch up on—"
"Huh, so you really are... the once-in-a-century top student who ruled Hogwarts back then."
Elenna suddenly froze, her expression as if Christmas had ended early.
Facing Elenna's incredulous, suspicious gaze, a strange emotion rose in Myrtle's heart.
However, this subtle feeling of pride was quickly overwhelmed by another kind of frustration.
Myrtle lowered her head in disappointment, and a mist seemed to begin to fill behind her pearl-colored glasses, she sniffled.
"Alas... I'm just good at rote memorization, but what's the use of good grades? Do you know what others call me behind my back? Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle! Acne-faced..."
"That's amazing! Good grades, isn't that enough?! We are witches with magic!"
Elenna said with shining eyes, waving her hand heroically, and said with a murderous look, "In any school, good grades mean you can do whatever you want. Whoever dares to scold you behind your back, beat them up! Even if you can't find evidence for a while, it doesn't matter, just beat them up if they dare to beep! Beat them up even if they ignore you! If they dare to tell the teacher... then after serving detention, catch them and fight them to the death all the way, anyway, you have good grades, they'll collapse after a month—"
"Uh... uh?"
Moaning Myrtle looked blankly at the girl who had suddenly become a little scary.
Elenna's voice was like magic, constantly drilling into Myrtle's ears.
"Knowledge is power. We do not offend others unless they offend us; if anyone offends us, we will punish them no matter how far away they are – think carefully, is there any use in backing down when facing cold violence and bullying? What truly makes them submit besides even greater violence?"
Accompanied by Elenna's voice, Myrtle involuntarily began to recall her previous experiences.
Most of them were scenes of Olive Hornby and other girls mocking her, and some were of her chasing Olive Hornby for revenge, and finally, with the coordination of the Ministry of Magic, she accepted Hornby's apology and returned to Hogwarts Castle.
If, from the very beginning, she had...
No, no!
She would definitely be given detention!
But it seemed to make sense, her Charms grades were much better than Olive Hornby's.
"For example, last semester, I heard that many girls in Ravenclaw were talking about me..."
As Elenna spoke, she glared threateningly at the few wings beside her who wanted to speak but stopped, lowering her voice and telling her story in a somewhat low, depressed, and helpless voice.
"In the beginning, I chose to swallow my anger. I thought I could subdue them with knowledge. I naively thought that everyone could gradually become generous under the influence of complex and profound wisdom. But I was wrong. Small groups, like cold, sharp-edged gravel, responded to my kindness with cold curses... So I changed my approach."
Elenna's voice gradually rose, mixed with a hint of dangerous pleasure.
"Wh-what approach... did you fiercely... scare... um, beat them up?"
Myrtle subconsciously stopped sobbing and asked curiously and expectantly in a low voice, clutching her clothes tightly.
"No, that's the last resort – superior wisdom is mankind's greatest wealth."
Elenna shook her head gently, revealing a gentle smile.
"We cannot fight violence with injustice, but we must learn to fight back under the rules – in the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, I used the Quaffle to take them all down, cruelly, leaving no one behind, openly and justly, completely defeating them. Myrtle, do you think I did the right thing?"
"Um, huh, this..."
Myrtle stared blankly at Elenna, not knowing how to answer for a moment.
"So you've been permanently banned from the game since the beginning of this semester."
Hermione glared at the witch princess who even deceives ghosts, and turned to look at Myrtle.
"Good evening, Myrtle... Don't listen to this white-haired ball of nonsense. She's now pretty much Ravenclaw's public enemy, and at least half the nights of the week, students are whispering curses about this bastard in the corridors all night long."
As the new "Calculation Machine," after learning about Myrtle's past experiences, she naturally developed some wonderful sense of identification: Muggle background, earnestly reading books and preparing lessons. Except for the fact that she couldn't temporarily surpass a certain unreasonable white-haired ball in the competition for the top spot in the grade, Myrtle was simply a replica of her—in terms of learning.
In fact, if it weren't for Elenna, if she had entered Ravenclaw, she might have been bullied and excluded as well.
Compared to the pure and enthusiastic Gryffindor, the small groups in Ravenclaw were too complicated.
"Not curses, a more accurate term would be... chanting my name."
Elenna corrected quite seriously.
She couldn't be blamed for that – if you can't answer the Eagle Ring's question, you can't enter the common room, that's Ravenclaw's rule.
As a pioneer in leading Hogwarts education, she simply updated and optimized the school's hardware configuration.
Not to mention, Hogwarts' velvet sleeping bags are quite warm, and Hogwarts also has washrooms for male and female students on every floor, everything is done within the scope allowed by the rules.
This is Hogwarts, where you learn magic, it's not complicated to solve personal hygiene problems by flexibly and reasonably using spells.
"Ugh, I'm so hungry... Elenna, can we talk while we walk?"
Hannah complained gloomily, poking Elenna and Hermione in the back with her fingers.
Compared to those two low-energy tablets, as the heavy assault tank among the "NaNaNa," she was not as resistant to hunger in the first place, not to mention that in addition to normal physical exertion, due to the frequent use of "healing runes" to maintain discipline, Hannah's demand for food intake was almost close to a quarter of Hagrid.
"Let's go, let's go see what there is to eat. Myrtle, do you want to come with us?"
Elenna nodded and extended an invitation to Myrtle, who was floating beside her.
"Ghosts can't taste anything..."
Myrtle said sadly, her gaze lingering on Elenna and the others for a moment, "But, if you want to come talk to me later, you can come to my bathroom anytime – I, I won't disturb you or yell at you."
"That's not necessarily true. Maybe it used to be like that, but don't forget who I am..."
Elenna winked and puffed out her chest with immense pride.
"I'm the head chef of Hogwarts. Tonight's Deathday Party was originally prepared for ghosts and living people alike. I've carefully studied the literature, ghosts are not completely isolated from reality. Aren't you going to give it a try..."
"Food that ghosts can eat?"
Luna looked curiously at the dining table not far away, something even her father hadn't thought of.
"Not entirely accurate, it should be said... they can only taste a little bit, I guess?"
Elenna said somewhat uncertainly, shrugging her shoulders, "We'll have to try it to know if it works. There aren't many special dishes like this, but from a purely theoretical point of view, I think there's a certain feasibility."
In the magical world, the world of the living and the dead are like two sides of a mirror, unable to touch or interfere with each other.
This is pretty much common sense in the magical world.
However, in Elenna's opinion, it's not entirely without any chance.
If she, this butterfly, hadn't flapped her wings to alter the course of history, then in this semester, Nearly Headless Nick would have almost enjoyed Madam Pomfrey's magical potion – he would have become the third batch of Basilisk's attack victims, becoming a "petrified ghost."
Only after "taking" the petrification cure made from Mandrake would he be able to recover.
Although the original book didn't describe in detail how ghosts drink medicine, it still revealed an important detail.
Ghosts can be affected by magical potions.
Or rather, magic can affect spirits in certain specific situations.
This also means that if you incorporate potions brewing techniques into cooking, it's not entirely impossible to make magical dishes that ghosts can perceive. Tonight's Deathday Party is for testing the ghosts' tastes and verifying hypotheses.
Compared to house-elves, who get tired, injured, and die, ghosts can be said to be the best employees in the world. Apart from not being able to perform physical work, they have too many ways to liberate labor – since seeing Professor Binns, who can teach 7x24 hours non-stop, the "Lovely Fairy Queen" has been thinking about this.
The only limitation before was that Gringotts couldn't provide a reward that would attract ghosts.
But…
Elenna's gaze wandered around the hall, flashing with the kindness of a big capitalist.
If the Hogwarts kitchens could produce ghost cuisine, how many ghosts would be able to resist this temptation?
……
"Look, food."
A moment later, they arrived at the other end of the Great Hall.
Just as Elenna had designed, the buffet area here was clearly divided into two parts.
If viewed from above, it could be clearly seen that the U-shaped tables presented two colors, like an enlarged horseshoe magnet in black and white photos – the students were all gathered in the white area, and the black area was particularly deserted.
It can't be blamed on the young wizards being picky eaters. The dishes on the black velvet table looked too scary.
Roasted eyeballs piled up on the plates, bare bones with straws inserted in them like drinks, solidified blood floating in the soup, unfamiliar vegetables quietly oozing red juice, intestines taken out and chopped into small pieces mixed with chili peppers, presenting brownish-black devil eggs, deep-fried black and white cubes exuding an ominous stench...
Compared to these things that obviously aren't for living people to eat, the Gryffindor students naturally chose the other side.
Although it's generally believed that the little lions at Hogwarts are the most reckless, they are actually very witty. At least from the weekend game time last year and the extra income from the Potato War, Gryffindor always came out on top.
Even without any labels, they could tell which ones were dinners for the living just by looking at the dishes.
"...Uh, why is everyone going to the ghost cuisine side?"
Elenna exclaimed in feigned surprise in the dining area, then unhesitatingly walked towards the black velvet side.
As the head chef of Hogwarts, she naturally knew what the dinner menu was today.
In order to fit the atmosphere of the Deathday Party and Halloween, the menu that Elenna set up for the "living" was actually dishes that looked strange from a visual effect, but the cooking techniques and ingredients were still normal, such as: bursting sheep eyeballs, secret large bones, pickled pepper duck blood, stir-fried red amaranth, hot fried pork intestines, cold mixed preserved eggs, crispy stinky tofu...
Whether in taste or ingredients, they were all top-notch Chinese dishes.
"Huh? Wait, isn't it this side?"
Hannah asked in confusion, watching Elenna start to fill her plate on the black velvet side in a daze.
"Of course not, white is for funerals – well, actually both sides' food can be eaten, but I personally recommend eating this side's food first, you see Luna has no intention of going over there at all."
Elenna casually explained, then nodded as if she had suddenly realized something.
"Oh, I understand... I forgot to put up the dish guide."
Then, she clapped her hands lightly.
Two huge signs appeared on the sides of the two tables.
The white side said "Suggestion: Ghosts," while the black side was noted "Suggestion: Living."
In addition, rows of small triangular metal signs also appeared next to each dish, carefully noting the name of each dish and the cooking process – at the bottom of the sign at the entrance, there was also a row of overviews like a menu.
"This is useless!"
Hannah looked at the rather perfunctory Elenna with a pout, pointing to a line of small words on the white side.
"Casu Marzu cheese, Haggis, Icelandic Hákarl, Tofu Curd... these foods are obviously more reliable than the side you chose. You're not just worried about wasting food, so you deliberately mixed up the signs on both sides, are you!"
Since knowing the true face of the "Forbidden Forest Fluffy Soft-Shelled Crab", the iron-headed girl has been particularly vigilant about the raw materials of the ingredients when accepting food – Luna and Hermione are all unreliable villains, they clearly noticed that there was something wrong with that pile of "crab legs", and they still teamed up to coax her to finish it all alone.
As for Elenna, Hannah had never seen her dislike anything, so there was no reference value at all.
"Of course not, you'll know later..."
Elenna shook her head meaningfully, looking at the buffet table next door.
As the dish names and cooking processes gradually appeared, some young wizards had already frozen in place, silently starting to change their positions, but more careless Gryffindor students immediately filled in, quickly adding their favorite dishes to their plates.
This could also be considered a valuable lesson in the lives of Gryffindor students.
Sometimes, you can't just look at the surface...
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Hooray! (Please don't search for cheese pictures~)