HP: The Dropout Who Saved the World

Jane Yu found herself extremely busy.

Between serving detentions in Snape's office, burning incense for ghosts, brewing potions in the bathroom, and occasionally dealing with the sudden appearances of the Weasley twins...

She barely had time to plan her overall strategy for dropping out of second year.

The only good news during this period was that after this week's detention, Professor Snape informed her she no longer needed to take the Soul Stabilizing Potion.

One day after class, walking alone in the corridor, she encountered Nearly Headless Nick.

"I thought I might find you here, Yu."

While maintaining good relationships with ghosts had taught her many ancient spells and secrets, the downside was receiving their complaints regardless of time or place.

Sure enough, Nearly Headless Nick started rambling about being rejected from the Headless Hunt by Sir Patrick, muttering about "just half an inch" and "not clean enough," before finally getting to the point.

"This Halloween Eve will be my five-hundredth deathday."

"If you could attend and perform your Eastern secret art, I would be most honored."

People celebrate birthdays, ghosts celebrate deathdays - makes sense, Jane thought.

Nick looked at her anxiously, and seeing her hesitation, continued:

"Perhaps you'd prefer the school feast? Of course, students dress up as vampires and skeletons, there's dancing and trick-or-treating, probably more appealing to a witch your age..."

Dress up as vampires? Dancing? Trick-or-treating?

She imagined a bunch of vampires dancing around asking her for candy.

Not friendly to her eyes at all!

"I'll come to your party," she decided immediately.

Nearly Headless Nick did two happy loops in the air.

...

On Halloween Eve, she headed toward the dungeons carrying several bundles of sandalwood incense. Turning a corner, she saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway, draped in black velvet.

Seeing Jane arrive, he sighed in relief and spoke in a tone mixing melancholy with excitement:

"My dear friend... welcome... your presence means more than any ghost here."

He removed his plumed hat and bowed to Jane, leading her inside.

The dungeon classroom was packed with hundreds of pearly-white, translucent ghosts floating about. A ghostly orchestra on stage played violins that sounded like sawing wood. Long tables were laden with normal food, identical to what students were eating in the Great Hall, but the ghosts clearly couldn't eat it, much to their dismay.

"Quiet, everyone!" Nick called out to the orchestra.

"A living person?" The invited guests whispered among themselves.

The music stopped, and all ghosts turned to look at Jane.

Nearly Headless Nick puffed out his chest and announced proudly:

"Miss Yu has arrived, make way!"

The Hogwarts resident ghosts immediately burst into cheers.

The Fat Friar squeezed through the crowd of ghosts, greeting her with a beaming smile:

"Good child, we're so glad you came."

The Bloody Baron nodded at her with his hollow eyes; Peeves zoomed around, setting off party poppers that scattered streamers through the air, shouting "Miss Yu! Miss Yu!"; even Moaning Myrtle stopped crying and looked shyly in Jane's direction.

The visiting guests were utterly bewildered, and the Wailing Widow came forward to ask:

"Nick, why are you all so excited?"

Hearing the question, Nearly Headless Nick puffed his chest out even further, saying mysteriously:

"You'll see soon enough."

As ghosts, curiosity wasn't as strong as when they were alive. Getting no answer, the orchestra resumed their wood-sawing; guests returned to their previous activities, passing quickly through the middle of the tables with mouths wide open, simulating eating as they had in life.

The ghosts started complaining again:

"Nick, nothing's moldy or rotten, there's no taste at all!"

Nearly Headless Nick's mustache bristled with anger as he loudly retorted that they had no refinement and couldn't appreciate fine dining.

But then the orchestra stopped playing again as a hunting horn suddenly sounded.

Through the dungeon walls burst twelve ghost horses, each carrying a headless rider. The lead ghost, a large fellow, held his head high above him, causing laughter among the ghosts.

He let out a wild laugh, loudly asking if Nick's head was still hanging on.

Nick's expression soured as he stiffly said, "Welcome, Patrick."

Soon Sir Patrick and the other Headless Hunt members were playing a game of head hockey, making all the ghosts laugh heartily, no one paying attention to Nick still trying to give his speech.

Nearly Headless Nick's expression worsened, and he shot Jane a pleading look.

"Excuse me, coming through—"

Jane carefully squeezed through the crowd of ghosts to reach the stage, where she began inserting sandalwood branches into cauldrons filled with sand.

As the branches were lit, the dungeon gradually filled with a rich, calming sandalwood fragrance.

"What is this scent?"

The ghosts stopped laughing and talking, crowding onto the stage, trying to get closer to the source of the fragrance.

The Headless Hunt's ghosts and their horses all froze in place. The riders lost control of their mounts as the horses threw them off, charging onto the stage and pushing aside the ghosts gathered around the cauldrons, trying to nuzzle Jane with their manes - but they failed, as their icy presence made her quickly withdraw her hand.

The riders called frantically for their horses, but when they caught the scent themselves, they collapsed, writhing on the stage like cats with catnip, completely unfazed even when their horses kicked them repeatedly.

All the ghosts calmed down, some sprawled on the floor, others sitting cross-legged, greedily inhaling the sandalwood fragrance like gluttons.

Nearly Headless Nick proudly began, "This is the grand gift I prepared for everyone—"

Before he could finish, he lost control and sat down, starting to breathe deeply.

The Fat Friar regained consciousness among the intoxicated ghosts. Having received incense offerings for several weeks, his self-control was much stronger than the visiting guests.

Noticing other ghosts were still entranced by the fragrance, he quickly moved his rotund form to the long tables, where some of the food had already turned silvery white.

Ignoring the proper cutlery and plates, he grabbed a roasted chicken with his hands and took a huge bite, completely unconcerned about the grease staining his face and sleeves. Before other ghosts could react, only the skeleton remained.

As he reached for a second chicken, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.

It was the Bloody Baron and Nearly Headless Nick!

They gave him that same sinister smile from last time!

As more food on the long table turned silvery white and the fragrance began to dissipate, the sprawled ghosts regained consciousness and rushed to the table, frantically grabbing at meat chops, roasted bread, and pizza.

Heads and limbs flew everywhere, with the Headless Hunt becoming prime targets due to their greed - heads carrying meat chops while hands clutched pizza!

In mere seconds, the plates were cleared.

Yet many unsatisfied ghosts still licked the residual grease from the plates, looking as if they wanted to swallow the plates whole.

The Wailing Widow, sucking her fingers, began discussing with Nearly Headless Nick the possibility of relocating from Kent to Hogwarts.

Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore personally wrote an invitation letter on the spot, asking Nick to become a special member of the Headless Hunt.

"Rules can be bent, exceptional ghosts deserve privileges," he said, deliberately lowering his gruff voice.

But at the mention of privilege, Nick's pride had already taken over.

"No thank you, Patrick," he lifted his head, standing beside Jane. "Rather than joining the team, I prefer standing with my true friend Miss Yu - we at Hogwarts have our own branch-burning entertainment!"