Professor McGonagall’s green robes billowed in the air as she strode down the stairs, her aura making anyone who caught a glance instantly feel that this Witch was resolute and swift in her actions.
Following closely behind her was Snape, whose black robes looked like an old bat spreading its wings as he descended the stairs, a cold frost seemingly hanging on his face, yet his eyes swept over Harry incessantly.
Professor Flitwick followed closely behind, his short legs moving even faster than Quirrell behind him, clutching his wand tightly as if he were already prepared for battle.
Quirrell looked as though he had been terribly startled, wearing a troubled expression.
Upon seeing the Troll, he clutched his chest and panted heavily, as if he had been scared out of his wits by the Troll lying on the ground.
The crowd of Professors also saw the Troll’s small head sunken into its chest cavity, as well as the chilling, ice-filled corridor.
Professor Flitwick’s eyes lit up.
With his spell mastery and dueling experience, he could tell the situation at hand at a glance.
His gaze quickly swept over the hands of the Young Wizards, only to see the wand in Will’s hand, prompting him to raise an eyebrow—a first-year Young Wizard solved a Troll all by himself?
“Well done, Wi—”
He had just wanted to open his mouth in praise when the green-robed Witch interrupted him.
“What kind of damn tricks are you lot playing at?” Professor McGonagall’s voice carried an icy fury.
She swept her frigid gaze across the students, making the few Young Wizards feel immense pressure.
“Count yourselves lucky you weren’t killed by it. Why didn’t you stay obediently in your dormitory?”
“We wanted to come and sa—save—” Ron’s words trailed off halfway, not knowing how to continue.
When the incident occurred, Hermione wasn’t in the girls’ bathroom at all, so how could she need him to save her?
“Professor McGonagall, they thought I was in the girls’ bathroom and wanted to come inform me about the Troll,” Hermione explained to Professor McGonagall, still being the kind-natured young Witch she was.
“I want to remind them that Will, Sylvia, and Neville all came along for my safety.”
Hearing this, Professor McGonagall’s expression softened slightly.
“Trolls are extremely dangerous creatures, which you should have learned about in class. How many adult Wizards have died beneath the clubs of these dangerous creatures!” Speaking of this, McGonagall glanced sideways at Quirrell, who was clutching his chest beside her, and couldn’t help changing her words.
“Perhaps you haven’t specifically studied them, but you should understand their danger!”
As Professor McGonagall said this, she kept staring at Will and Hermione.
“Alright, the children not getting hurt is the best outcome. Can you tell me how you dealt with this big fellow?” Professor Flitwick stepped forward to smooth things over.
“That’s right, Professor.” Hearing Professor Flitwick’s inquiry, Sylvia’s eyes lit up: “When we came down, Harry and Ron were running in the corridor, and they drew its attention. Will used a spell to freeze its head, and then this big dummy crashed into the wall on its own, probably killing itself from the impact.”
“Clever, very clever, Mr. Behrens. I’ve never seen a first-year Young Wizard manage to knock down a Troll.” Professor Flitwick clapped his hands.
“An excellent combination of spells. I’m awarding you twenty points, and for everyone else’s courage, five points to each.”
Smiles appeared on several faces, but soon, Professor McGonagall poured cold water on them: “Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, because of your recklessness, an additional five points will be deducted from each of you.” This chapter was copied from novelping(.)com without permission.
The brothers’ faces drooped.
“Clearly, the famous Mr. Potter failed to use his fame to knock down this Troll.” Snape continued to wantonly splash his venom.
But Will knew that this guy was probably the person here who cared about Harry the most.
“Since the matter is already over, I won’t say much more, except that I will inform Headmaster Dumbledore of this affair. Furthermore, you’d better hurry back to your common room right now; the other students are still enjoying the Halloween feast.” Urged by Professor McGonagall, the group left the underground classroom.
Ron and Harry walked at the back, shivering and whispering: “Professor McGonagall is really scary…”
The group separated at the stair landing.
Hermione and Neville naturally had to return to the common room to attend the Halloween feast, while Will and Sylvia couldn’t very well go with them to Gryffindor’s common room.
“Will, are you going back to the Room of Requirement?” Sylvia knew very well that Will didn’t like staying in Slytherin’s common room with that group of arrogant Young Wizards.
“No, I plan to have a proper meal tonight.” Will didn’t want to mistreat his stomach, and he himself loved fine food; otherwise, he wouldn’t have learned those spells from Conjuring a Feast and Magical Kitchen.
“This isn’t the way back to the common room.” Sylvia was puzzled; could Will be going to eat at another house’s table?
“Come with me, I’ll take you somewhere.” Will mysteriously didn’t tell her where he was going.
Ten minutes later, Will stopped in front of a painting depicting a bowl of fruit and gently tickled a pear inside the painting.
The pear chuckled, and then, under Sylvia’s astonished gaze, turned into a green doorknob.
Will grasped the doorknob and gave it a gentle twist: “Welcome to the Hogwarts kitchen.”
Opening the door, a rich fragrance of pumpkin rushed over them.
Sylvia curiously looked around.
The Hogwarts kitchen was a large room with a very high ceiling, equal in area to the Hogwarts Great Hall above.
Around the stone walls were piled many gleaming copper pots and basins, and at the other end of the room was a large brick fireplace.
In addition, there were four large tables set up in the room, placed in the exact same positions as the four house tables in the Great Hall above.
These four tables were connected to the tables in the hall by some kind of magic, and dishes placed on these tables would be transported to the corresponding tables in the hall—of course, this was all controllable.
Everywhere in the kitchen were busy house-elves, who were constantly sending the dishes for the Halloween feast to the common rooms.
A House-elf saw Will enter and hurried over: “Respected Young Wizard, is Doky able to do something for you?”
Sylvia was quite blasé about these house-elves; she also had quite a few house-elves at home.
“Bring us something to eat, a bit of everything according to tonight’s menu.”
The two sat beside a long table, and the House-elf named Doky quickly brought over dishes one by one.
Pumpkin soup, roast pumpkin, smoked duck with pumpkin puree, Beef Wellington, shepherd’s pie, roast mutton, veal, pumpkin pudding…
In no time at all, the table was filled with delicacies.
Will had been hungry for a long time; after hastily washing his hands, he picked up the aromatic roast mutton and began to feast heartily.
“Young Wizard, this is your pumpkin juice.” A House-elf brought over a large juice goblet filled with sweet orange juice.
“Are you the House-elf who brought me food every time I came a while ago?” Will recognized this House-elf, which wasn’t easy, seeing as they all looked a bit too abstract.
“Yes, yes, Young Wizard, you remember Anko, Anko is honored!!” The House-elf named Anko happily jumped up and down and went to serve pumpkin soup for the two of them.
Will thanked Anko.
“Thank you, Anko.”
“The Young Wizard said thank you to Anko, oh, Anko is so ashamed, this is what Anko should do.” However, upon hearing the praise, Anko actually scampered off to another room in shame.
Watching that behavior, Will couldn’t help feeling that these little creatures were somewhat morbid, but the entire community of house-elves was like this, and he didn’t dwell on it.
Nor did he have any thoughts like Hermione’s about fighting for freedom for the house-elves; that was far too naive.
Anko’s matter served merely as a small interlude.
Sylvia hadn’t spoken a single word to the House-elf from beginning to end; she couldn’t even recognize all the house-elves in her own home.
“When did you discover this place?” Sylvia asked as she eyed the kitchen while cutting the pumpkin stewed chicken on her plate.
“The other night, I wanted a midnight snack, so I looked around, and it really turned out I found it. After that, I came over often.” Will pulled over a plate of smoked duck with pumpkin puree.
“We can come often in the future; these house-elves’ cooking skills are quite good.”
Sylvia shook her head: “Forget it, I probably won’t come here often.”
Seeing Will’s inquiring look, she explained: “I certainly don’t want to eat too much and let my figure get out of shape. Will, you’d better pay attention too; just think of Selwyn—he looks just like a wild boar from Kent.”
“Can we not bring up those appetite-ruining things? This is my first time celebrating Halloween, after all.” Will made a fake vomiting gesture, earning himself an eye-roll from Sylvia.
However, she still asked doubtfully: “Is this really your first time celebrating Halloween?”
“Of course, why would I lie to you?”
This truly was his first time celebrating Halloween.
His alcoholic mother certainly wouldn’t celebrate such a holiday, and after his mother’s passing, he couldn’t be bothered to prepare things for the holiday himself.
Sylvia looked at Will’s solemn and confident appearance and picked up her goblet filled with pumpkin juice: “Then every single Halloween in the future must be spent like this. To future Halloweens, cheers!”
The crisp sound of clinking glass drew a perfect full stop to Halloween.