Chapter 101 Dinner Party
Although traditional Halloween activities could not be carried out, the auditorium was decorated very nicely.
When Della turned to the stairs, she saw several large, glowing pumpkin lanterns at the entrance of the great hall. The pumpkins cast with the Swelling Charm that had been kept at the door of Hagrid's hut for several months were now perfectly serving their intended purpose.
As Draco got closer, he could see live bats flapping their wings constantly - they were confined to a small place by several spells and could only flutter like this.
Going further inside, after marveling at the slightly dark splendor inside (today's candles burned black fire), if you are a timid person, you will definitely scream at the large group of skeletons sorting their clothes beside the wooden table.
However, compared with the various "monsters" on the long table below, the Skeleton Dance Troupe is not so unacceptable.
Compared to the elves and vampires seen during the day whose faces only changed slightly, the students at night not only changed into more closely-fitting clothes, but also became more diverse, with zombies, ghouls, and female ghosts all appearing, and the completeness of the characters was quite good.
Della was not wearing the Hogwarts uniform under her green cloak. She altered her and Draco's old clothes and both of them put on jungle-style clothes underneath.
"Look, we're lucky we got some costumes." Draco took Della's hand and leaned close to her ear, with a few streaks of green paint on his face shining.
"Indeed, there are more people wearing makeup tonight than I thought." Della followed Draco to find their seats. "I'm a little curious about how this happened."
"Why think so much, oh! Our seats are over there!" Draco shouted softly, and they pushed through the crowd and walked over.
"You're right..." Such a trend, whether it's potions or clothes, can make people make a lot of money. Moreover, it's such a groundbreaking thing, I guess there must be people like this in Hogwarts.
But it wasn't really something worth delving into. Della was just a little curious.
They sat down. Because they arrived early, the people next to them had not arrived yet. After smiling and saying hello to seniors Rosier and Alex, Della chatted with Draco while fiddling with the gold plate in front of her.
"Those Gryffindor guys are just no match for us." Draco muttered this after just chatting for a few words while glancing back.
"I think it's okay, very creative." Della looked back along his line of sight. Everyone's decorations were actually similar, except for a few who were too outstanding (tree people, lizard people and the like). Some people with simpler dresses also achieved similar effects.
Looking at Draco who was still glancing at the Gryffindor table with his lips pursed, Della belatedly said, "Ah, you are looking for Harry, right?"
"He must have been in such a bad shape today that he didn't come." Draco subconsciously ignored the other people who came in school uniforms.
"Harry invited me to Sir Nicholas's Deathday party before, but I think he's going there tonight and won't come." Della turned around and started fiddling with the tableware in front of her again.
"He invited you? A ghost party?" Draco looked over at Della, his face wrinkled.
"I don't think it would be a good experience, Draco," Della continued to look at the gold tableware that was not often placed at Hogwarts, "Think about it, you have never seen those ghosts enjoy a dinner."
"So, that's the only reason you rejected his invitation?" Draco's voice sounded a little vague.
"Hmm?" Della finally shifted her attention away from the exquisite plate in front of her. She looked at Draco and found that he had turned his gaze away uncomfortably.
Della raised her eyebrows and looked at the tip of Draco's ear. She reached out and rubbed it. "The more important reason is that I already have a seat in Slytherin tonight."
The seat next to mine!
Draco immediately added this in his mind, not even caring about the heat on his ears, and forced a smug smile, "Of course, we are Slytherins!"
Della smiled lightly, withdrew her hand, responded to Draco's words, and then continued chatting idly.
"Look, what radiant elves." A familiar voice sounded behind her, and Della immediately turned her head with a smile.
"Senior Ailian!" she called out happily.
Today, Aryan's outfit was relatively conventional. She simply changed her black robe to look like a vampire, but she wore a half-face black lace mask on her face, which gave her a different look than usual.
"You guys are dressed really well today," Aryan said this while glancing at Draco beside her. Her deliberately red lips curved into the same friendly arc as usual, and she pushed a brown-haired girl with glasses who looked a little shy over to her.
"Aurora Bilau, a fourth-grader, is sitting next to you. She's a little shy, so remember to take good care of her." After Aurora was asked to sit down, Ariane placed her hand on Della's shoulder, then waved to them and walked away.
"Reidel, hello." Aurora looked very nervous, her face was red, and she stammered as she greeted Della.
"Just call me Della, senior." Della immediately said with a smile.
"You can also just call me Aurora," she said with a forced smile.
"Oh! I didn't notice just now that the robe you are wearing is also a custom-made one?" Della smiled and pinched the sleeve of her black robe.
"Looking at the fabric, it seems to be from the same company as ours. It has that fine shimmer." Draco added.
"My brother sent it to me, and I put it on," Aurora said this quickly, and then slowly, "He also sent some other things, but I didn't use them..."
"Ah! I haven't even ordered their robes yet. It must have cost you a lot of money to expedite the order!" Alex, a fourth-grader from the opposite side, interrupted the conversation.
"It turns out that there's a reason why they're expensive. You look really different in these clothes." Rochelle, who's also in the fourth grade, also said with a smile.
Seeing that Aurora was shaking slightly, Della hurriedly held her hand, then smiled and chatted with the people around her. From time to time, she would ask Aurora a few small questions with everyone's eyes on her, to ensure that she always felt involved in the conversation.
Although they were only in the middle, Alian also gave Della some consideration.
Firstly, several so-called pure-blooded twenty-eight clans were arranged around her. In addition to Malfoy, there were Alex, Rochelle, Avery, etc. Then, there were people like Billaud whose families held important positions in the Ministry of Magic. Della's role should be that of an appreciated smart person.
In the small circle of people around Della, apart from Malfoy, Biraud is the person with the highest social status, because her mother, Rachel Biraud, is the director of the Internship Management Office, which has much more real power than those pure-blood families who are only in name only.
It was not a very high position, but it had the power to almost determine a wizard's future.
Hogwarts is, without a doubt, a place to train good wizards.
However, for the Ministry of Magic, that only proves your learning ability. Accordingly, unless you want to continue to improve in wizardry (become an Auror), you can only get access to some insignificant clerical positions.
If you want to enter a department like the Law Enforcement Department where promotion is easy, you must continue to obtain certificates in law, economics, etc. so that you will be eligible for future transfers.
In this case, if you can be assigned to an important department after the internship period, even if it is just to do odd jobs, things will be much smoother.
The problem is that Rachel was a Hufflepuff. It was said that in her first year in office, she removed the name tags from all the gifts sent to her and threw them outside her office door.
Even so, when her eldest son entered school ten years ago (also sorted into Hufflepuff), the students all gathered together, not for anything else, even if it was just to make themselves familiar with the school and give them a little advantage under the same conditions.
It was hard to say whether that approach had worked, but when Aurora Birlow was sorted into Slytherin four years ago, almost all parents saw an opportunity.
But no one expected that Aurora was such a shy child that she couldn't even speak properly. And her defense was so strong that it was hard to estimate. Although she was very polite, she didn't make any new friends after entering Hogwarts except for those she had known since childhood.
To be honest, Slytherin has never been the only utilitarian group, it's just that this label has been put on her. If Aurora doesn't know how to adapt to the fact that she is different in the eyes of others, Della doesn't think she will be able to make many true friends even if she is sorted into other colleges.
In this case, Slytherin's clear rule of mutual benefit is actually a good thing.
Della had already shifted the topic to college life. On this most meaningless topic, everyone could have different opinions, and it could also reveal a person's character to a certain extent. No matter what, as long as they could get through this social conversation, it would be fine.
It wasn't a very meaningful social interaction, but it was necessary, and Della understood and adapted to it.
She hasn't figured out her future path yet, and now she's just focusing on grabbing the resources in front of her. If she has to say, this can be considered an instinct.
In a house like Slytherin where the environment is like this, students have this tendency to a certain extent, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Della didn't hate this atmosphere, and she felt that considering the future early was not something that needed to be criticized. However, she always felt a sense of inexplicable fatigue in social situations recently. This absent-mindedness did not affect her social performance, but only made her more detached.
"Della..." Just as her heart was wandering, her sleeve was pulled by Aurora. When she turned her head, she saw Aurora biting her lips lightly. "Where's your...Maggie?" she asked.
"This kind of occasion is too noisy for him, so I didn't bring him here. If Aurora wants to see it, Maggie will be on your shoulders tomorrow." Della smiled gently. Facing this shy senior, she had unconsciously put herself in the position of an older sister.
"Yeah...yeah." Aurora nodded with a blushing face, and then continued to eat her dinner.
Della smiled at her and continued with her dinner. After the initial social peak, she just chatted with Draco beside her. When the topic came to the right topic, she also talked about Aurora.
The Halloween dinner ended leisurely like this. After eating and drinking their fill, the students walked towards their respective lounges under the guidance of their class leaders. Along the way, everyone was talking and laughing loudly in their Halloween costumes.
The noise suddenly stopped when the students rushed into the aisle from both ends. Faced with this sudden change in which all four colleges reacted in unison, Della raised her head toward the center of the crowd.
On the wall one foot above the ground, hung the stiff body of Mrs. Norris, with a line of bright red words flashing next to it:
[The secret room has been opened. Those who are enemies of the heir, beware.]
Before she could further think about the meaning of this scene, both of Della's hands were grabbed. On the left was the trembling Aurora, and on the right was the solemn Draco. It was rare that this timid boy did not have a cowardly expression on his face.
Harry and the other two stood right in front of the bloody words. They also looked very shocked, but their position made them suspicious. However, Della had no time to consider their situation.
She looked at her classmates who also had panic in their eyes, and finally figured out where her recent fatigue came from.
Slytherins usually use status, wealth, and talent as the weights to measure a person's value. In the process of measurement, they ignore the original value of life. This is something that Della, who has faced life and death, cannot fully agree with.
Even if she fits in and adapts to the environment.
But when an external force strong enough to tip the balance appears, when their lives are equally threatened, the false balance disappears, and they finally face up to the equal land under their feet.
The weight of those weights is not worth mentioning at all.