"Not interested."
Sherlock remained motionless on his bed, speaking lazily.
"You're not going?" Harry asked, somewhat surprised by Sherlock's response.
"My friend, whether in the Muggle world or the wizarding world, there should be boundaries between the dead and the living. It's just that in the Muggle world, the living cannot communicate directly with the dead."
"Well—I thought you'd be interested in this kind of novel experience!"
"You have a point—but since you've already agreed to go and see for yourself, just tell me what you witnessed when you return."
"Alright—"
Though somewhat surprised, Harry didn't think much of it. He stood up and headed toward the door, saying as he walked, "I'll go ask the others then."
"I imagine the reason you so readily agreed to Nick's invitation was because you had a pleasant conversation when you met with Miss Chang, am I right?"
Just then, Sherlock suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Yes, actually, now that I think about it, I was rather hasty in my decision, Sherlock!" Harry replied instinctively, then realized what Sherlock had just said.
He stopped abruptly, turned around, and looked at his friend with shock, stammering, "How—how did you know?"
Seeing Harry's expression, Sherlock finally sat up on his bed. "Now, my dear Harry, you must admit you're surprised."
"I am indeed surprised," Harry said slowly, sitting back down with a bewildered look.
Before meeting Nearly Headless Nick, he had indeed met with Cho Chang. Though he hadn't intended to hide it from Sherlock, being called out before he could tell him was genuinely surprising.
"I should have you write that down and sign your name to it."
"Why?"
"Because in five minutes, you'll say it was too simple."
"I definitely won't say that."
"You should know, my dear Harry," Sherlock stood up and began pacing around the dormitory, speaking in the tone Professor McGonagall used when lecturing the class, "making a chain of reasoning, with each inference dependent on the one before it, is itself a simple and straightforward matter—not difficult at all. But if I remove all the intermediate reasoning and only announce the starting point and conclusion to my audience, I can achieve a startling, perhaps even dramatic effect, just like your current state."
Sherlock's gaze swept over Harry from head to toe. "So when I saw you walk through the door in clean Quidditch robes, with a cheerful expression, I deduced that you had just met with Miss Chang. It wasn't difficult to figure out."
"Sorry, I really don't see the connection between these things."
"Yes, on the surface they seem unrelated, but I can immediately show you the close relationship."
"Tell me quickly!"
"The missing key links in this very simple chain are.
First, your clothes when you returned were unusually dry with no mud residue. This starkly contradicts the 'soaking wet, covered in mud' state of the other Gryffindor Quidditch players who returned from training with you half an hour earlier.
Second, your collar retained traces of extremely faint magical fluctuations. Combined with the first point, I deduced these were traces of 'Scouring Charm' or 'Cleaning Charm' spells, but these aren't your usual methods.
Third, your body still shows traces of an incompletely dissipated Warming Charm. This also isn't your usual method, further confirming my previous deductions while leading to new ones.
Fourth, you've never been good at concealing emotions. When you entered just now, you radiated a different kind of spirit than usual. Though your face showed some fatigue, the corners of your mouth unconsciously turned up, and your eyes still held a trace of joy.
Fifth, your slightly dilated pupils and facial capillary dilation are typical physiological responses to the combined effects of adrenaline and dopamine.
Sixth, despite spending so much time with the ghost Nick, you still carried the scent of jasmine perfume, which led me to point toward a specific person.
Finally, when all coincidences point to the same inevitability, the answer becomes as clear as a solved puzzle. you encountered that Asian girl from Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, in the corridor, and her kindness and magic saved you from the embarrassment of becoming a walking mud pit."
"That's too simple!" Harry couldn't help but exclaim.
"See, I knew it would be like this!" Sherlock looked somewhat displeased. "Every problem becomes very simple once I explain it to you."
"Ahem—"
Harry's expression became somewhat awkward, because just five minutes ago, he had indeed told Sherlock that he would never say those words. Obviously, he had gone back on his word.
With things as they were, he could only forcibly change the subject. "Well, I'm planning to go to the common room to find Ron and Hermione. Do you want to come along?"
"No need. Just tell them I don't plan to attend Nearly Headless Nick's birthday party."
"It's a deathday party!"
"My friend, holding a party in a cold dungeon classroom and inviting a ghost band to perform—in my view, there's no difference between the two."
"Alright."
Sherlock made perfect sense, and Harry was speechless.
Soon, Harry found Hermione and Ron in the common room and told them about Nearly Headless Nick's five-hundredth deathday party.
"A deathday party?" When Hermione heard the news Harry brought, she immediately became excited. "I bet not many living people can say they've attended such a party—this must be something quite wonderful!"
Only in situations like this would Hermione's adventurous spirit be awakened, like a true Gryffindor. Otherwise, she usually gave the impression of being a rule-abiding model student.
Ron was doing his Potions homework—more precisely, copying Sherlock's homework. This was a headache-inducing task because Sherlock's homework was always creative and unconventional, requiring Ron considerable effort to understand what he had written.
Hearing Harry and Hermione talking, he looked up excitedly. "A deathday party, dancing with ghosts—that sounds cool!"
However, he hesitated for a moment, then looked at Hermione. "But Sherlock doesn't plan to go—even so, do you still want to go?"
"Of course I want to go!" Hermione said, both embarrassed and angry. She glared at Ron fiercely. "What does it matter to me whether he goes or not?"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances and both shrugged. Everything was understood without words.
"Hey, what are those expressions supposed to mean?!"
Seeing their expressions, Hermione immediately became furious.
"Nothing, I'll go ask some others," Harry said, seeing the situation going south, and quickly escaped.
Ron still had homework to deal with, so he could only turn to Hermione with an apologetic smile. "I meant you're right, what brilliant insight you have!"
Hermione huffily turned her head away and ignored him.
Ron hurried to get on with his Potions homework. Time was running short.
On the other hand, though Harry was indeed the savior of the wizarding world, "giving up the Halloween feast to attend a ghost's deathday party" was definitely a voluntary matter.
After asking around, only Neville and Ginny agreed to go with them.
Neville wanted to repay Harry, Hermione, and the others for their help in recent classes. Also, like Harry, he wasn't good at refusing people.
Ginny said she was going to accompany her sixth brother, but judging by the way she kept stealing glances at Harry, it was clear her intentions lay elsewhere.
Time passed quickly, and Halloween Eve arrived as scheduled. Only when the moment truly came did Harry begin to regret his hasty agreement to attend Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party.
At this time, all the other students in the school were happily attending the Halloween feast. The Great Hall was decorated with live bats as usual. The giant pumpkins Hagrid had grown were carved into lanterns large enough for three people to sit inside. There were even rumors that Dumbledore had booked a skeleton dance troupe for entertainment.
In short, compared to last year, the festive atmosphere was even stronger. In comparison, dancing with ghosts and watching ghost bands perform didn't seem like something worth boasting about.
"A word once spoken cannot be taken back!" Seeing that Harry seemed to be having second thoughts, Hermione reminded him domineeringly. "You said you would attend the deathday party. Since you've already promised someone, you must keep your word."
Finding himself in a difficult position, Harry looked pitifully at Sherlock with hopeful eyes. "Sherlock, are you really not planning to come with us?"
"No need. Compared to ghosts, I prefer to attend parties for the living."
Hearing Sherlock's unhesitating refusal, Harry couldn't help but sigh deeply, looking at Sherlock with resentful eyes.
'What a heartless person!'
However, just before they were about to leave, Sherlock suddenly said. "I suggest you bring some food."
Harry was startled upon hearing this. "Why—why?"
He suddenly had an ominous premonition.
Ron said foolishly. "Sherlock, are you worried the ghosts won't host us properly? Nearly Headless Nick isn't that type of person, hahaha—"
Sherlock ignored the laughing Ron and turned his gaze to Harry. "My dear Harry, you should remember I once told you that the dead and the living should have boundaries. A ghost's party most likely won't prepare food for the living."
He then turned to Ron. "My friend, even if they invite you, based on my understanding of those ghosts, they probably wouldn't even think of this."
Upon hearing this, Harry and Ron's faces immediately changed dramatically. Especially Ron—his smile froze on his face.
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