The Admiral of Hogwarts

When the scent of pumpkin filled the entire Hogwarts castle, Halloween arrived. Everyone in the school was happily preparing for the upcoming holiday feast.

Naturally, at this time, various rumors about the Halloween feast began to fill the entire school.

For example, regarding the question of what program Professor Dumbledore had prepared for everyone at this Halloween dinner, rumors circulated in the school about a Banshee Choir, a Skeleton Dance Troupe, and even the Weird Sisters.

There were even dozens of guesses about the dinner menu, but unlike the previous guesses about the programs, everyone unanimously believed that, like last year's Halloween, this year's Halloween menu would also be pumpkin-centric.

After all, pumpkins and Halloween are a perfect match. For example, the pumpkins Hagrid had previously grown were skillfully carved by the house-elves into jack-o'-lanterns and placed in many places around the school.

Those lanterns were so large that three people could sit inside them.

In addition, some bats emitting colored light that Hagrid had prepared also added a lot of color to this Halloween feast. Those were a kind of magical creature Hagrid bought from Knockturn Alley, originally from the Far East, which used various lights as their food. Hugo and the others had even gone to Hagrid's hut to help him feed these little guys with lit lanterns.

"Each House also has its own arrangements after the Halloween party ends." Just as they were about to attend the evening banquet, Ravenclaw prefect Penelope reminded everyone in the common room.

"For example, our House's arrangement this year is a story night. Everyone will gather together to tell ghost stories. We will give the winners some small gifts as prizes."

"Sounds a bit exciting." After hearing Penelope's words, Veneto's eyes lit up with excitement. "Let me think—I have many scary stories circulating in southern Sicily here."

"They're ghost stories, not scary stories." Looking at Veneto's excited face, Hugo had to warn her through the admiral network. "So you'd better filter your stories, instead of telling everyone some real-life cases that are not suitable for children."

"Seriously, spraying bullets in the streets with a gun or blowing people into bloody fireworks with a bomb is more interesting than those fake ghost stories in my eyes, and it can also scare these little devils into wetting their pants."

After hearing Hugo's words, Veneto muttered a few words, but then agreed to his request. "Okay, I promise to tell traditional Italian ghost stories."

On the way to the Great Hall, Hugo and the others discovered that in addition to the large jack-o'-lanterns, many fist-sized paper jack-o'-lanterns were hung in various places in the school.

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But unlike those large jack-o'-lanterns with candles or oil lamps in the middle, these small jack-o'-lanterns were simply enchanted to make them glow. And various candies were placed inside the jack-o'-lanterns for the students to taste.

"I didn't see these last year." After taking a piece of chocolate from a small jack-o'-lantern hanging on the staircase railing, Hugo turned to Hermione and the others and said.

"After all, wizards don't have the traditional custom of trick-or-treating. I don't know how they thought of this trick this year."

"Because this is what I suggested to Headmaster Dumbledore." Just as Hugo finished speaking, Professor Quirrell, wearing a blue wizard robe, walked over from behind and said.

"Before holding this kind of large event every year, the headmaster will consult each professor for suggestions on the event, and this year I introduced the custom of trick-or-treating in the Muggle world to the headmaster, and suggested placing some candy in the school."

"The headmaster was quite interested in the opinion I put forward, so he voted on this issue at the previous faculty meeting. Obviously, everyone was quite supportive of this approach, which doesn't cost much money but can greatly enhance the atmosphere. So the situation has become what it is now."

"Did every professor put forward their own opinions at that meeting?" Hearing Quirrell say this, Hugo asked curiously. "Then what kind of opinions did the other professors put forward?"

"Like those professors who have worked here for a long time, they often put forward the old ways, such as Professor McGonagall's decoration of the Great Hall, and Professor Flitwick's arrangements here." Quirrell shrugged and said.

"Of course, this year we rejected Professor Lockhart's so-called Halloween Spooktacular plan. He originally planned to perform the stories from his novels at the banquet this year."

"Oh my god! That guy really likes to show off too much." Hermione said with an incredulous look. "I really don't understand those things are clearly just—"

Speaking of this, Hermione looked around at the surrounding students. After discovering that those people were not too close to her and couldn't hear what she was saying, she lowered her voice and said. "—Those things are clearly just stolen by him, how dare he brag like this usually."

"There's nothing abnormal about this. I've seen many people who believe in their own lies, and even think that the stories they make up are true."

Quirrell also lowered his voice and said to Hugo and the others, "I think Lockhart should be in this situation. Think about how much he has cheated outside through these stories. Isn't it normal to become addicted to cheating in this situation?"

Thinking that Lockhart had obtained a lot of benefits through various deceptions, Hugo and the others immediately felt as uncomfortable as if they had eaten a fly. However, after eating some candy that Quirrell handed over, they quickly recovered their happiness.

After everyone entered the Great Hall, the banquet quickly began. The entire hall was decorated with lights and candles, and the tables were filled with various gold utensils, which presented a golden halo under the light of the candles, looking very attractive.

After seeing that everyone was in place, Dumbledore stood up and waved the Elder Wand in his hand.

In an instant, most of the lights went out, leaving only some light sources concentrated on the platform at the front of the hall. Then, a slightly ethereal singing voice came from the illuminated floor.

A few seconds later, a pearly white, translucent head emerged from the floor, followed by the entire body. Soon, in the eyes of all the teachers and students present, a dozen semi-transparent banshees emerged from under the floor. At the same time, they climbed upwards while singing a song that sounded very ethereal.

Because of the banshees' slightly ferocious faces, many timid first-year wizards screamed directly. But most people at this time enthusiastically applauded to welcome the Banshee Choir, which is very famous in the wizarding world.

"Dumbledore actually invited the Banshee Choir, this is really great." Cho Chang clapped and introduced to the surrounding students who didn't know much about the situation, "This is the top classical singing group in the entire European magical world."

After all the banshees emerged from the floor, they quickly flew around above the hall, forming various formations, while constantly chanting a song that sounded slightly sad.

Soon, the hall quieted down, and everyone quietly listened to this beautiful song.