"A ghost's deathday... I've never attended one before," Harry said with genuine interest.
"Trust me, a ghost's deathday isn't so wonderful," Ron said with obvious reluctance.
"Is there some problem?" Hermione also asked curiously.
As two children raised in Muggle families, they were indeed curious about ghost deathdays in the magical world.
Ron looked pained, not knowing how to explain for a moment, and could only say vaguely, "Anyway, the feeling probably won't be too pleasant."
"But we've already agreed to attend Nick's deathday, so you'll find out then."
Dudley watched all this thoughtfully, already having some educated guesses in his mind.
In the following period, Hogwarts seemed to truly return to peaceful tranquillity.
Dudley hadn't sensed any dangerous aura in the castle for a long time, as if that mysterious yellow light had never appeared.
The people living in the castle, after the initial panic, returned to their previous comfortable state.
Most people felt that the yellow light might have just been an accident. After all, Hogwarts was an ancient school that occasionally had various supernatural problems.
But like the problems that had appeared before, often when people ignored them, they would disappear on their own.
Just like this time. Everyone acknowledged the existence of that mysterious yellow light, but many people felt it definitely wouldn't appear again.
During this time, Dudley hadn't rashly used his interrogation authority to investigate anyone. Firstly, the danger hadn't reappeared, and secondly, he didn't want people to think he was abusing his power or deliberately creating crises to gain authority.
Time passed day by day like this.
Soon, Halloween was approaching.
"Oh, I'm somewhat regretting agreeing to go to Nick's five-hundredth deathday," Ron said with obvious chagrin, looking at the magnificently decorated Great Hall, especially that huge carved jack-o'-lantern.
Although Harry was curious about a ghost's deathday, seeing the Great Hall so grandly decorated for Halloween, he inevitably felt some regret too.
"If you really don't want to go, then forget it. I can go alone. After all, I was the one who agreed," Dudley said reasonably.
At that time, he had felt somewhat embarrassed about accidentally hurting Nick with the Solar Ring, which was why he had agreed.
"No, since we promised, we must do it. And when you said we would go, that didn't just represent you alone," Hermione said with serious conviction.
"I was just talking casually," Ron muttered quietly.
At seven o'clock in the evening, the four left the lively Great Hall and headed downstairs.
Nick's deathday was in an underground classroom. When Dudley and the others arrived, a row of candles had already been lit in the corridor.
But these candles were completely different from those in the Great Hall. They were black, thin, and emitted not bright orange-yellow light but eerie blue fluorescence, making Dudley and the others' faces look very ghostly.
"So this is a ghost's deathday? It really is different," Harry said, looking around with fascination.
"It feels like the temperature here is considerably lower," Hermione said, grabbing Dudley and Harry's hands respectively for warmth.
"There seems to be some kind of rotting smell too..." Ron said with a pained expression.
"Harry, this time last year, we should have been eating a sumptuous Halloween feast in the Great Hall," Ron continued wistfully.
Harry nodded. He had spent a completely different Halloween last year, and thinking back now, it felt very happy.
"This time last year, I should have been crying in the bathroom," Hermione suddenly said.
"Well..." That one sentence instantly left Harry and Ron speechless.
"Good thing you came to find me later, or I might have been beaten to death by a troll with a club," Hermione continued.
"Thanks to Dudley. He used his powerful strength to defeat that troll."
Hermione's words stirred up everyone's memories.
"I remember I was startled at the time. Dudley was like the incarnation of a warrior, a bare-fisted combat wizard," Ron recalled.
"From then on, I firmly decided to stick close to Dudley."
Dudley remained silent, somewhat embarrassed by the praise.
Recalling last year's events, everyone's mood improved considerably, and they didn't seem to regret coming here as much.
Turning a corner, they saw Nick standing at the door of the underground room, draped in black velvet curtains.
"My dear friends, welcome. I'm so delighted you could come," Nick expressed his welcome in an infinitely sorrowful tone.
Dudley and the other three came before Nick, momentarily unsure what to say.
Should they tell him to grieve? But Nick had been dead for five hundred years.
Should they tell him to cheer up? But this was someone's deathday.
"Please go in quickly. The banquet is about to begin," Nick said.
Just when Dudley and the others didn't know what to say, Nick removed his feathered hat and gestured for the four to enter the classroom.
Dudley and the others quickly nodded and went in.
The scene before them surprised them all.
In this small classroom, several hundred milky white, semi-transparent figures were crowded together.
They saw many familiar figures... the ghosts belonging to Hogwarts... but there were also many they had never seen before.
Various rotten foods were placed on tables, and the ghosts would occasionally pass through these rotten foods, as if this way they could taste the food.
Not far away, several ghosts were playing jarring music with musical saws, like thousands of fingernails scraping against a blackboard.
"I really regret this now," Ron said with a pale face.
The temperature in this underground classroom was extremely low, like a large freezer. Each time they spoke, large amounts of vapour would puff from their mouths.
"It's indeed... not pleasant," Harry said with a frown.
"Oh! Turn around quickly. I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle," Hermione spotted a familiar figure among the ghosts and quickly turned away, afraid of being seen by that ghost.
"Who?" Ron asked.
"Moaning Myrtle... that ghost over there with glasses and a melancholy expression! She stays in the second-floor girls' bathroom. She has a terrible temper and often wails shrilly. So frightening..." Hermione secretly pointed in that direction.
Dudley and the other two looked in the direction Hermione indicated and soon saw a girl wearing thick glasses, half her face covered by long bangs.
She looked very melancholy, and even the air around her was filled with a depressing atmosphere.
"Her?" Seeing this ghost, Dudley frowned slightly.
"You know her?" Hermione asked somewhat strangely.
Moaning Myrtle basically stayed in the second-floor girls' bathroom. How would Dudley know her?
"Once, when I was bathing in the prefect's bathroom, I discovered a ghost peeping at me. It was her," Dudley said, pursing his lips with obvious discomfort.