For the vast majority of students, conspiracy theories were too far removed from their everyday lives.

After Halloween, Hogwarts quickly returned to its normal, fulfilling campus life.

The Headless Hunt became the most popular ghosts in the school. These ghostly patrol teams, riding spectral steeds between the grounds and the castle to maintain order, invariably received cheers and applause whenever they appeared before the young wizards.

On the other hand, the major magical newspapers outside the school naturally didn't miss this hot topic.

The magical world began to seriously pay attention to and discuss Hogwarts's cuisine – not as casual chatter like before, but seriously studying its charm and the magical power it might contain:

Delicious dishes that even ghosts could taste.

This, more than any verbal description or exaggerated dynamic image presentation, was able to arouse people's curiosity.

Countless wizards began trying to cook "ghost dishes" in their own homes, and from time to time someone stood up proudly to declare that they had successfully replicated them, deciphering the secrets of the Hogwarts kitchen's "ghost dishes," but in the end, they were all proven to be rumors.

Just as people were becoming anxious and puzzled, the current Minister for Magic stepped forward to respond.

[Ghost Dishes? A Milestone Achievement in Hogwarts's Teaching Reform!]

"In a brief interview on Tuesday morning, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge showcased some of the achievements of Hogwarts's new curriculum reform and made bold predictions about the future landscape of the magical world..."

"'Oh, yes, ghost dishes are indeed a real thing, a great innovation at Hogwarts – but not a culinary skill as you might imagine – it's a derivative product of the field of potions. In the new semester, we've innovatively introduced several well-known wizards, on the one hand to better teach students, and on the other to liberate their academic research capabilities.' Fudge said, appearing particularly proud and pleased when facing reporters. 'From the current situation, considerable and gratifying comprehensive results have been achieved in less than two months, and ghost dishes are just one of them, we believe there will be more good news in the future.'"

"'As it is currently in the educational and research pilot phase, we cannot reveal too many details. But the Ministry of Magic, the International Confederation of Wizards, and the Hogwarts Board of Governors are trying more cooperation and exploration, and we expect to be able to compile a complete methodology next year and send it to every magical family, so that everyone can equally enjoy the fruits of the new era.'"

"The Minister did not explain much about the principle of 'ghost dishes,' but according to some related insiders, it is a special 'potion' that only potion masters can dabble in, and even at Hogwarts, not all potion masters can successfully complete its production with 100% certainty –"

"Hey, who do you think can make these 'ghost dishes'?"

Lavender Brown secretly pulled out a newspaper from under her desk and asked her classmates mysteriously.

The *Daily Prophet* had at least two or three pages of news about 'ghost dishes.' In addition to statements from the Minister for Magic, there were gatherings and protests by ghosts everywhere, and a lot of experts judging this new thing. For a time, the entire magical world suddenly set off a strange craze for discussing potions and cooking.

"I don't know about others, but Professor Snape definitely can."

Parvati Patil replied softly as she cut up a toad leg.

"I saw in *Witch Weekly* that a well-known wizard analyzed that it's like brewing a heterogenous potion. In addition to extremely deep potion skills, it also requires skilled magical cooking techniques... Most wizards find it difficult to satisfy both requirements at the same time."

They were in the potions classroom on the first basement floor of Hogwarts.

Professor Snape stood on the podium not far away, explaining the potion knowledge to be learned today.

However, compared to the quiet and restrained atmosphere of the previous few weeks, the classroom today was obviously much noisier. The students' whispers, like the buzzing of mosquitoes, hadn't stopped since class started.

As the buzzing sound in the classroom grew increasingly excessive, Snape's face finally turned completely black.

"Enough! Silence—"

Snape tapped the blackboard with his wand and said coldly.

"I said—silence! I don't know what there is to discuss about separating toad skin and tendons..."

After pausing for half a second, the potions professor's gaze wandered around the classroom and finally fell on Lavender Brown through the thin mist in the classroom, or more accurately, on the hem of her skirt under the desk.

"And you, dear Miss Lavender Brown, if you intend to keep propping up that newspaper under your desk with your knees, trying to suppress the newspaper that can help you brew potions – I suggest you choose a slightly narrower newspaper – I don't want to see the head of the person on the newspaper lying upside down on your legs, looking at me. Gryffindor, ten points from!"

Lavender was startled, her face flushed red.

Part of this was because of the embarrassment of being caught on the spot by Professor Snape, and the other part was because of the sadness of causing her house to lose points... Since the house sorting this semester, Snape had obviously been deducting points less often in class. Unless there was a serious operational error or violation of discipline, Professor Snape would not choose to deduct points.

Of course, in the eyes of some students, they might prefer to have points deducted.

Thanks to a hint from a certain little angel who didn't want to be named, Severus Snape had finally come to the conclusion:

Simply deducting points would not deepen the memories of the stupid shrimp.

Starting in the second half of last year, the students who performed the worst in each potions class had a certain chance of being assigned an equally terrible "dark potion cuisine imitation" as punishment for their poor performance in class.

However, this didn't mean that Professor Snape had forgotten the "deducting points" skill.

According to the rules that students had privately summarized, when this potions professor started deducting points, it usually meant that he was in a bad mood. Continuing to act recklessly under these circumstances would most likely result in a fulfilling combo package – deduction of points, extra homework, dark potion cuisine punishment, and detentions such as scrubbing toilets, cleaning, and processing potion ingredients.

"I know what those little brains of yours, infiltrated with something, are thinking..."

Professor Snape looked up at the entire class, his eyes cold and hollow, like two black tunnels.

"Ghost dishes? New potions? That's right... there's some truth to this statement. Those potion apprentices outside who can't even brew a Pepperup Potion have guessed correctly this time, but these things have nothing to do with you ladies and gentlemen."

He didn't continue lecturing but stood by the podium with his arms folded, like a large black bat with its wings folded.

Snape's gaze swept coldly across the classroom, and he said softly with an unkind expression. His voice was only slightly louder than a whisper, but everyone in the classroom could hear every word he said effortlessly.

"This involves the mastery of the essence of potions, understand? It's not a simple potion that can be successfully completed by stupidly chanting spells or following the operational specifications in your textbooks step by step – in fact, most people can't even do the most basic step. Therefore, I don't want to hear about anyone in the class taking their shoddy concoctions to bother the school's ghosts."

As the news about ghost dishes spread wider and wider, students had also made many attempts in the school.

More than one ghost had complained to Dumbledore or the heads of the various houses that from time to time, young wizards would come to them with a bunch of strange soups and hope they would pass through them to see if they had any taste.

Therefore, Professor Dumbledore had specially instructed the potions professors to explain this in their respective classes.

Compared to the other two potions professors, Professor Snape was clearly the focus of private discussions among the students.

After all, last semester, the entire school had witnessed the potions professor's skilled cooking and that enviable mysterious cutting magic. The dishes made by Professor Snape himself were even more delicious than those from the Hogwarts kitchen.

If there was any wizard who met the criteria of being proficient in both "potions + cooking," the first reaction would definitely be the Head of Slytherin House.

However, not many students had the guts to ask Professor Snape this question in person.

The Weasley twins had tried it once, shamelessly pestering Professor Snape in the corridor to ask for cooking secrets.

And the price was that the two of them had fifty points deducted in one class and were also punished to scrub toilets for a week after class. Even if Professor McGonagall came to argue, the deduction of points was only halved, but the detention punishment remained unchanged.

From then on, almost no one dared to be presumptuous in front of Professor Snape again.

Except...

Just as Professor Snape was about to end this topic and start lecturing again, he suddenly frowned.

Harry raised his hand.

Snape's gaze quickly swept over the white-haired ball of fluff who was listening attentively, and after confirming that this question did not contain any incitement or danger, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the potions prodigy sitting next to Draco Malfoy.

"Is there a problem? Mr. Harry Potter—"

"Professor, the textbooks say that some potions can affect ghosts. Why don't they taste anything when the potions take effect... and... do you know how to concoct 'ghost dishes'?"

Harry said clearly, tilting his head and looking at Professor Snape with anticipation.

"I thought I made myself quite clear..."

Snape looked away and waved his hand impatiently.

"Cooking, these are just small tricks. Whether it's practice in potions class or daily simulations... these are just a form to assist you in learning potions, not the goal – including the so-called ghost dishes. Its essence is the transformation after mastering the essence of potions. What you need to think about is how to learn potions, not anything else..."

"But, you can do all of this, can't you?"

Harry said nervously, his emerald green eyes looking at Snape, and asked softly, "If some wizards haven't formed ghosts, but we make extremely delicious 'ghost dishes,' will it give them a chance to come back..."

Just a few days ago, at the Hallowe'en Deathday Party, Sirius had promised Harry that if he had time this holiday, he would take Harry to Godric's Hollow to see the old Potter house and the graves of Harry's parents.

If possible, before that, Harry wanted to try to learn this ghost dish and place it in front of his parents' graves.

For a long time, the world of ghosts had been a completely untouchable and unfamiliar area for wizards.

But with the appearance of ghost dishes, a crack seemed to appear in the barrier that originally stood between the living and the ghosts. Harry had seen similar speculations in many newspapers and magazines – when 'ghost dishes' develop to a certain stage, or when combined with certain substances with powerful magical abilities, it may be possible to resurrect the dead.

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At least in *The Quibbler*, an article reviewed by the editor analyzed it this way:

If some Philosopher's Stone dust is mixed into the 'ghost dishes,' it may have magical effects.

And considering that Nicolas Flamel, the owner of the only Philosopher's Stone, is currently at Hogwarts, Hogwarts is very likely to be conducting some dangerous human experiments. The author of the article even claimed that the Dark Lord had not really disappeared but had been imprisoned in the school by Albus Dumbledore, Nicolas Flamel, and others, as experimental material for research.

Of course, this article was published in the "Loony Lovegood – Views of the World" section.

As everyone knows, this is a completely unreliable, absurd, satirical political fiction story category, but Harry still saw some hope in it... After all, this is Luna's family's newspaper, and Luna is always very good at inspiration.

"...Unfortunately, no."

Snape took a deep look at Harry and didn't get angry.

He was silent for half a second and then sighed softly – of course, he knew what Harry was talking about.

In fact, he had tried and asked Dumbledore about this aspect as soon as possible.

If it weren't for this reason, Snape wouldn't have wasted his rest time to cooperate with the Hogwarts Headmaster in researching and perfecting the methodological operation manual for "ghost dishes." These things should have been the job of a chef.

"Forget it, I'll give you a simple demonstration once, and you'll understand... The so-called ghost dishes are not that magical. They can't awaken ghosts, nor can they restore any vitality to ghosts – it's just a spiritual illusion."

Snape pulled out his wand and waved it gently in the air.

"Toad tendons, this is today's potion ingredient..."

"In conventional potion processing, it symbolizes jumping and the explosive power after transformation... We can extract the corresponding concept from it. If your mental power is strong enough, you can extract part of the concept from materials with 'death' traces and give it magical effects... and in this regard..."

"This is a part of the tissue taken from a dead toad... This concept is very weak, but it exists."

Snape moved the wand in his hand solemnly, commanding the toad leg to fall into the rolling crimson potion in front of him, carefully mobilizing magic to give it the concept of "death."

Then, in everyone's gaze, the rolling potion suddenly became calm and gentle.

"Do you understand? When you successfully imprint the 'death' element on a potion, you will simultaneously kill the magical power contained in it that can be seen by the living, turning it into a magic power that only ghosts can feel..."

"Therefore, it cannot be used as a potion to awaken or stimulate ghosts and give them magical effects – the boundary between ghosts and the living has not been broken or changed. We are just using potion knowledge to create things from the other side of the world, nothing more. This so-called 'ghost dish' is more like a special failure than an achievement."

"It will consume a lot of magic power and mental power. If you are not careful, it may even cause disaster, but in the end... except for satisfying empty desires, it has no effect on the real world – okay, now write down these contents, it will be on the final exam!"

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Yay!!