"Deathday party?!"

Hermione said with great interest, her eyes sparkling.

"I bet not many people have the chance to attend such a party while they're alive—it must be amazing!"

By this time, they had finished dinner and returned to the luxurious Hufflepuff common room.

"A gathering of ghosts, that's indeed a very interesting thing."

Luna rarely stood on the same side as Hermione. She was lying limply on the bed, letting the Quidditch captain gently knead her arms and calves for relaxation after Quidditch training.

"Compared to the Halloween feasts we see every year, once we miss this invitation, who knows how long we'll have to wait..."

"But, aren't we going to have dinner?"

Hannah hesitated, "I mean, the food provided by ghosts at the party probably isn't suitable for the living..."

"We can eat a little beforehand, or sneak into the Great Hall for the feast afterward."

Elena replied quickly, nonchalantly, while looking at *Hogwarts, A History* by the desk and thoughtfully scribbling on *Notable Medieval Wizards* beside it.

"Besides, the banquet is prepared by the Hogwarts kitchens. Currently, Nick's request is to prepare some 'strongly flavored' and 'visually shocking' food. I will try to balance our stomachs and the ghosts' mental experience—it's like the Halloween decorations, which can lean towards horror or fairytale cheerfulness."

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?"

Danilova sat on the bed, tilting her head and slowly drying her wet hair with a towel, asking in confusion.

"It sounds rather depressing to me..."

"Well, there are many explanations for this. I prefer the 'birthday theory'—if you consider a wizard's life before and after death as two separate lives, then the day he becomes a ghost is equivalent to the beginning of a new life, isn't it?"

This time Hermione answered, recalling the introductions she had read, speaking uncertainly.

"That's what they say, but I also think..."

Just then, the flames in the fireplace outside the bedroom suddenly turned green.

The next moment, a cute little chubby chicken flew out.

Goo ha ha ha ha—

"Reserve food?! How did you... wait—"

Hannah looked in shock at the little chubby chicken landing on Elena's shoulder, nuzzling affectionately against the girl.

"Floo Powder, that's all, what's so strange about it?"

Elena took the letter from Reserve Food and casually explained.

"I forgot to tell you before, the name of this room is now called 'Goo ha ha ha ha'."

To ensure smooth communication, she specifically asked Dumbledore to use his authority as Headmaster to name this bedroom. In addition to the sound of Reserve Food, another layer of protection was the local network blockade—the fireplace connected here was limited to within the castle.

As for Reserve Food's intelligence, Elena thought it might be smarter than Dumbledore's big turkey.

Elena unfolded the letter and carefully looked at this "Queen" inquiry response that she had marked as urgent.

Sure enough—

A glint of understanding flashed in the young Dark Lord's eyes.

There was only a very simple, nonsensical reply on the letter.

"1350-1492: No such person found."

According to records at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, there was no wizard named "Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington."

Just like Helena Ravenclaw, who was now known as the "Grey Lady," "Sir Nicholas" was clearly also a non-existent alias, or rather a "personalized epithet"—which was not uncommon in the magical world.

But the problem was that Sir Nicholas was recorded in many books.

There were historical documents that could be consulted, there were friends who could testify, there was a complete life... only in the reflection of the real world, there was no trace of him ever having lived. This made Elena think of something interesting.

Long-standing, reputable, ancient and pure—the [Apocalypse Family].

"Kenaz—"

Elena flicked her fingers, and a wisp of flame quickly devoured the note in her hand.

"Who exactly are you, and... what exactly are you hiding? Respected Mr. Nicholas."

……

Halloween Eve.

It was still raining heavily outside the window, and the sky was as dark as ink.

The Gryffindor common room was bright and cheerful, with countless soft armchairs illuminated by the firelight. The young wizards sat inside reading, playing chess, and chatting. The professors had mercifully not assigned too much homework, so the students could welcome the Halloween feast later with a relatively pleasant and relaxed mood.

Except for Hermione Granger, she still had some extra homework to finish.

"It's completely unbelievable, they must have used magic to cheat..."

Hermione muttered unhappily, she was completing the last of her Advanced Arithmancy homework.

"Why can Professor Lockhart memorize an entire dictionary in half a day? I'm not complaining... I just think, Elena, is there something you haven't told me... This is too unreasonable, human memory has limits."

Since going outside the school with Elena on the weekend and seeing the so-called "adult world," Hermione's original impetuosity and pride had been smoothed out by more than half overnight—perhaps she could be considered extremely excellent among her peers at Hogwarts, but when she was in the "Academy City" research institute, she was just a little bit clever.

Not to mention those nearly monstrous foreign scholars, even her "classmates" were much stronger than her.

Besides her, Professor Lockhart and Professor Quirrell were also taking Muggle knowledge tutoring there on weekends.

As members of the same "Magic-Science" tutoring class, the last person in each test would be punished—twice as much homework as the other students, and Hermione accounted for almost ninety percent of the punishments.

"Perhaps that's just talent, otherwise how could they become professors—"

Elena shrugged, frowning as she looked at a book on Tudor dynasty history.

At this time, the British authors who would later study the Tudor dynasty had not yet published their books. Even if Gringotts Wizarding Bank used financial offensives, they could only find a pile of troublesome historical materials in a short period of time.

Just like the results from Gringotts, if you used "Nearly Headless Nick" in *Hogwarts Ghosts* and his own descriptions to search, you couldn't find any similar records during the reign of Henry VII—perhaps it was normal for other countries and other wizards, but it would be too strange if it were placed in the Tudor dynasty, which attached great importance to the peerage system.

And what was even stranger was that within Hogwarts, the records in books and the ghost's oral accounts were surprisingly consistent.

"Granger, do you remember how many versions there were when we were researching the founding time of Hogwarts?"

Elena tapped the cover of the book, thoughtfully asking softly.

"Roughly four or five versions, after all, that was many years ago... recording deviations are very common."

Hermione said casually, somewhat irritably, while dealing with her homework without looking up.

"What are you asking this for? Let me make this clear, I don't have time to help you organize the history of magic recently—are the people living in those Mendeleev Institute and Landau Institute all monsters? This level of homework doesn't even count as entry-level?"

"In a sense, you can understand it that way... but you're also very good."

Elena glanced at the stack of homework Hermione was about to finish, and played with her hair with some guilt.

You know, she originally intended to arrange the learning intensity with the idea of ​​making Hermione give up in the face of difficulties.

Who knew that it would stimulate Hermione's motivation instead. After realizing that there were more geniuses in this world, Hermione Granger completely corrected her mentality after being frustrated for less than half a day, and began to adapt at a shocking speed.

Fortunately, the simple "calculation machine" has not realized that she has been scammed yet.

At least at this stage, Elena, who relies on foresight to propose various ideas and discusses the direction of scientific research with the top scholars in a decent manner, is still quite bluffing—although such times may not last long...

It's just that these future things don't need to be considered so much for the time being.

"No misprints or deviations... what a pity—"

Elena's gaze lingered on the book describing the "Tudor Dynasty". If even Professor Binns, who has always been loyal to historical truth, participated in it, then according to the theory of overlap, all the motives and answers are completely complete.

If there are no accidents, tonight's five-hundredth deathday is the last performance.

In that case...

Elena's gaze lingered in the Gryffindor common room for a few seconds.

At this moment, most of the students, including Luna and Hannah, were curiously gathered around a large table by the fireplace.

A bright orange lizard was lying in the center of the table—this was secretly "rescued" from Magical Creatures class by the Weasley twins—they were preparing to feed it some magical fireworks to see what the effect would be.

"Ahem, hey, guys—"

Elena closed the book in her hand, jumped onto the table, and clapped her hands vigorously.

"Tonight in the basement there is a "once-in-a-lifetime", "thrilling", "Gryffindor-exclusive" Halloween special party—"Nearly Headless Nick" is hosting a five-hundredth deathday feast—the Hogwarts kitchen is opening a flame cooking special there, and there will be a performance by the Headless Hunt..."

She raised her eyebrows, a glimmer of light flashed across her delicate face, and she whispered enticingly.

"The only unfortunate thing is that the time is slightly in conflict with the feast in the school hall. I'm afraid you will have to make a choice between enjoying pumpkin lanterns, bat decorations, and skull dance troupe performances—"

"Nick's party?! Why didn't you say such an interesting thing earlier!"

"What are we waiting for, Halloween, a ghost feast—only a fool would miss it!"

Fred and George's eyes lit up and they said quickly.

And like the two of them, almost all the Gryffindor students echoed excitedly.

Once in a lifetime, Gryffindor exclusive, thrilling...

These adjectives are simply a must-kill for little lions who are naturally fond of adventure!

"Elena, I'm afraid this is a little..."

Percy Weasley frowned and said hesitantly.

Looking around at the excited crowd, Percy was a little worried. When the Hogwarts feast started, would there be no one at the Gryffindor long table, and everyone would have run to Nick's deathday party.

If such a scene really happened, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall might freak out!

"Don't worry, Percy—it's unreasonable not to go!"

Elena shook her finger triumphantly, and said with a serious face.

"Gryffindor students, attending the deathday party of the Gryffindor resident ghost on Halloween, what's wrong with that? In fact, in my opinion, we should not only go, but we should go in a mighty and aboveboard manner!"

"But I still think..."

Before Percy could finish speaking, suddenly, the ignored fire lizard on the table soared into the air, spinning wildly in the room, crackling and popping out sparks, and accompanied by the sound of ???? explosions, instantly interrupting Percy's thoughts.

"Fred! George! Are you planning to set the common room on fire!"

Percy waved his wand to extinguish the splashing sparks, and scolded his two brothers severely.

The fire lizard spat out orange-red stars from its mouth, which was very beautiful and spectacular. In less than a few seconds, it escaped into the fireplace with a series of explosions, leaving behind a chaotic Gryffindor common room.

"Uh—accident, accident—"

"Oh, right, I'm going to notify other students—"

George and Fred glanced at Percy's unkind face and quickly slipped from the common room to the boys' dormitory.

……

So, at seven o'clock.

Elena, Luna, Hannah, Danilova, and a group of Gryffindor students set off mightily from the Gryffindor common room and went straight through a doorway—that doorway happened to lead to the crowded central hall.

There were lanterns and decorations, candles shone brightly, and the tables were filled with gold plates, which were very tempting.

However, the mighty crowd did not waver in the slightest, and walked past the hall with their eyes straight ahead towards the basement classroom.

The passage leading to the deathday party had also been simply decorated. Nick originally intended to use some dark, thin little candles—these candles had been piled up in the warehouse for a long time, and no one had ever used them—but since he had the full support of the Hogwarts "Academy President", he naturally didn't have to be so frugal in terms of funding.

Half-human-high candles burning with ghostly blue flames floated on both sides, lighting up in turn as the students walked past.

The temperature seemed to be a little colder than before, but each student was holding a small pumpkin lantern given by the Hogwarts kitchen. In the soft orange light, it wouldn't really make people feel too cold.

At this time, Hermione and the others heard a sound, as if a woman was humming a sad melody in the distance.

"This is the siren's song. If you don't pay, it won't be so pleasant..."

Elena whispered, showing off to Hermione and others with a triumphant little voice.

Then, they turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a door. He was draped in an ill-fitting black velvet curtain, which did not make him look so noble, but rather a little funny.

"My dear friends," Nick said with infinite sadness, "Welcome, welcome... I'm so happy that you could come—"

Nearly Headless Nick's voice suddenly stopped, as if he was a frog that had been suddenly grabbed.

His eyes fell on the mighty Gryffindor troops behind Elena, his feathered hat shaking. Nick looked blankly at those familiar faces. This seemed to be very different from the scene he had imagined before.

"This, this is..."

"Oh, didn't you say before that I could invite some friends over?"

Elena smiled shyly and proudly pointed to everyone behind her.

"Not betraying the mission, look—besides Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Black, and Professor Lupin, almost everyone in our Gryffindor academy is here—I guess the professors should come later."

"Uh, uh—" Nearly Headless Nick opened his mouth, making unclear sounds.

"What's wrong, Nick... aren't you happy?" Elena asked innocently.

"Welcome! Welcome... I'm so happy that you could come..."

He came back to his senses, took off his feathered hat, bowed and invited the students in.

Looking at the Gryffindor students filing in, Nearly Headless Nick couldn't help but sigh softly—Professor Binns reminded him correctly, he should keep a little distance from Miss Kaslana, she is too unpredictable...

Fortunately, everything should be able to come to an end after today's deathday party.

Just then, Nick suddenly heard a light sigh in his ear.

"What a spectacular sight, I guess the performance later will be quite exciting..."

Elena stood by the door, looking at the lively scene not far away, with a devilish cunning smile on the corner of her mouth.

"You said so, in this way, you successfully and completely killed that wizard named Thomas Cromwell, and by the way, completely buried those past events of the Tudor Dynasty in the dust of history, right? Respected Sir Nicholas... oh no, or now should I say, Respected—Earl Isaacs."

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Hooray! A big chapter!