A little after noon, just as everyone was starting to feel pleasantly worn out from playing, the house-elves brought out a gigantic barbecue grill.
It was the kind you might see somewhere like Miami Beach in America, a large black drum laid on its side with a chimney attached.
When the sliding lid was opened, a grill rack inside radiated intense heat, while beneath it the charcoal crackled and popped.
Inside, large cuts of meat that took time to cook, pork ribs and slabs of beef brisket, were already laid out, and more meat was added on top of them.
"All right, let's start grilling!"
Miles Bletchley-senpai, clearly unable to wait, clacked his tongs together as he lined up spiral-shaped raw sausages called salsiccia, Brazilian-style skewers of beef rump known as churrasco, chicken hearts and thighs, and Caucasus-style lamb skewers called shashlik.
The moment the meat hit the grill, a loud sizzle rang out, and the rich aroma of melting fat tickled our noses. Our excitement shot straight to maximum.
Meanwhile, Penelope, Farley-senpai, and Percy, who had finished gnome extermination earlier than expected, joined in. Together, the prefect group deftly chopped vegetables with practiced efficiency.
They quickly prepared everything from a vinaigrette of finely chopped tomatoes, onions, lemon juice, and cucumbers, to salsa with added chili peppers, guacamole with avocado, an Asian-style scallion salt sauce made with chopped green onions, sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, and even a sweet-and-spicy sauce with gochujang, sesame oil, and minced garlic. Their skill truly lived up to their status as prefects.
Before long, the meat was grilled to perfection.
"""""So gooood!"""""
The moment we took a bite, a chorus praising barbecue echoed out.
Even before it reached our mouths, the aroma of the perfectly grilled meat teased our noses. With the first bite, the crisp, bursting texture of the surface transmitted itself to our teeth, followed by juicy, savory flavors that filled our mouths.
"Meat!"
"So good!?"
At that point, thinking about anything complicated became impossible. Driven purely by the urge to eat meat, we simply stuffed our mouths full of it.
"Juices splashing!"
"Fat bursting!"
"Flavor soaking in!"
"Make sure you eat the pineapple and grilled bananas too!"
As everyone's vocabulary steadily declined, Penelope-senpai alone calmly distributed dietary fiber. She gently encouraged the Weasley brothers and the more gorilla-like members of the group, who were trying to eat nothing but meat, by saying, "Pineapple enzymes are good for digesting meat." There was something mysteriously comforting about her demeanor.
Before we knew it, Fred and George, along with Davies-senpai and Farley-senpai, spoke in unison, clearly captivated.
""""Mom…!""""
"…Are you idiots?"
Since we were at the sea, seafood was added alongside the meat. Lobsters, Dungeness crabs, king crabs, oysters, and scallops were all placed on the grill.
"Let's grill Flint's octopus too!"
Warrington-senpai arrived with a still-living octopus wrapped around his arm, splashed it generously with olive oil, and boldly tossed it straight onto the grill.
""Fiiireee!""
The twins made a huge fuss over nothing, prompting Farley-senpai to sigh and smile wryly.
"Boys really do stop maturing mentally at around elementary school, don't they?"
"And then once they leave childhood, they suddenly age like Percy."
"So true."
Farley-senpai laughed along with Penelope-senpai, sprinkling cinnamon over grilled pineapple to make it look fancy. Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly murmured, "By the way…"
"Hey, Penny, aren't you going to do that?"
"Do what?"
"You know, the 'here you go, say ah' thing."
She glanced briefly at Percy and raised the corner of her mouth mischievously.
"Gemma, do you want me to?"
"Yeah!"
"Then…"
Still looking a little puzzled, Penny-senpai dipped a small piece of meat into the sauce and brought it toward Farley-senpai's mouth.
"Here you go, say ah."
"Ah."
Farley-senpai chewed happily, like a baby bird being fed, while Penny-senpai watched over her warmly.
Where did Percy even go…?
"Is it good?"
"Yeah."
"Want some more?"
"I do!"
"…Um, could someone please comment on this?"
Looking toward the men in exasperation at the complete lack of commentary—
"Precious…"
"I can't take this…"
"I love it…"
Everyone stared at the two of them with blissful, enraptured expressions.
I believed in you, Draco and Cedric…
Also, Percy, are you really okay with this? Well, whatever. I don't even care anymore.
"Here you go, Flint. Say ah♡"
"Bletchley, I'll shove a moray eel up your ass."
And as always, the Slytherin team kept up their usual antics, with Draco Malfoy, supposedly the youngest, acting the most like a father.
＊＊
By the time we finished our late lunch at a leisurely pace, the sun had begun to sink.
Just like when we first arrived, a deep red sun set beyond the distant sea, and a faint moon appeared in the sky. Perhaps anything with a beginning truly does have an end.
Thinking about it, the wild revelry that had felt so unrealistically fulfilling just moments ago, as if this perfect holiday could last forever, suddenly felt like it was destined to end someday after all. I felt as though I had been pulled back to reality all at once.
Maybe the seniors felt the same way, because I noticed the conversations gradually growing quieter.
For the seventh-years especially, this was truly their final memory. Of course, even as working adults, they would take vacations and go to resorts, but the scenery they saw then would surely be different from what they saw as students.
"So, it really is ending,"
Farley-senpai murmured, gazing wistfully at the sunset as she sensed the four-day feast drawing to a close.
"I knew it would, but it's still a little sad."
"Endings are unavoidable."
It was Marcus Flint-senpai who responded to her sentimental tone.
"Summer vacation ends. Student life ends too. Anything that has a beginning comes with an end."
Then, as if cutting straight through the melancholic mood, he curled his lips into a grin.
"But not today."
But not today.
＊＊
So, with that settled.
"All right, let's start burning through firewood like crazy!"
When you think of summer, you think of the sea, and when you think of the sea, you think of swimming, barbecues, and campfires, the ultimate indulgent trio.
"Wingardium Leviosa, levitate!"
Since I hadn't been much help at the barbecue, I lifted thick logs one after another with a levitation charm and stacked them alternately lengthwise and crosswise. This was what you'd call a classic campfire stack. Once lit, it produced tall, dramatic flames, but the downside was that it was notoriously hard to ignite.
Or so I thought, until it turned out Cedric had somehow gathered pinecones from a windbreak forest near the beach and was now showing them off proudly.
"…Why pinecones?"
"Actually, pinecones contain resin inside, so they burn really well—"
Ah, I see.
"Incendio, ignite!"
Cutting off Cedric's trivia, I cast a fire spell on the logs. Instantly, the fire caught, the wood crackled and popped, and smoke rose high into the dusk, illuminated by the flames.
"Hey, using magic at this point is just unfair…"
Sorry, Cedric, even with your lighter fully prepared, but modern kids value efficiency above all else.
"Still,"
Cedric said suddenly as he tossed more firewood into the flames.
"It's kind of a strange group, isn't it? Even now."
"Draco said something similar."
"I guess everyone's thinking the same thing."
Cedric chuckled softly as he continued.
"I've always gotten along with Roger, but this is the first time I've talked, played, and eaten together this much with the twins and Montague and the others."
"So, how was it?"
"They were even more unmanageable than I imagined…"
"Right?"
The twins go without saying, but Bletchley-senpai and Warrington-senpai are generally pretty rough too.
Last year, when Draco had just joined the team, they jumped him right away with stuff like, "So how many people have you slept with?" and apparently he still feels a bit uncomfortable around them even now.
"But once I talked with them for a while, I got used to it. Slytherin communication is just… unique."
"Unique? That much?"
When I tilted my head, Cedric gave a wry smile and said, "Quite a bit."
"It's like they throw barbs into conversations without any real malice."
"Well, I guess…"
Now that he mentioned it, there probably were a lot of sharp-tongued people. Even if they weren't blood purists, tossing out black jokes like "What, did your blood get tainted?" when someone messed up a spell in class was pretty common.
If that was the case, Ravenclaws, who enjoyed irony and indirect expressions, might be fine with it, but more straightforward Gryffindors or earnest Hufflepuffs could take it at face value and feel like they were being looked down on. That was my guess.
"So when I talked with Bletchley before, I used to think, 'Why is he so obsessed with asserting dominance?' But it turns out that's just how Slytherins talk to each other too."
"Yeah. There might be a sort of unspoken rule that serious conversations without black jokes or teasing are boring."
"Exactly. So when I brushed it off with some light self-deprecation and teased back with a bit of irony, no one got mad."
Compared to Hufflepuffs, who tend to value mutual respect and keep their teasing mild, Slytherins often push much further. That kind of in-group banter, when used on students from other houses, might come across as unpleasant.
"Well, you get used to it. My family isn't a long line of Slytherins either, so at first I struggled with all the sharp-tongued banter myself."
"…Is there such a thing as a more obvious lie?"
＊＊
And so.
Once the flames were burning nicely, we all joined hands around the campfire and sang the classic folk song known as "Oklahoma Mixer," also called "Turkey in the Straw."
At first, there were moments of awkwardness over things like gender and house differences, or maybe not, but as we sang and danced, the tension eased. Soon, we were all holding hands and moving together to the rhythm.
Around us, the hotel's house-elves provided live music as a service, playing violins, guitars, mandolins, and banjos in a fiddling style that gave the whole thing a folk-dance feel. Bagpipes, tin whistles, accordions, and Irish flutes, instruments commonly used in Celtic music, added a simple yet warm energy to the atmosphere.
The most exciting moment came with the passionate tune "John Ryan's Polka." We stomped through fierce tap-dance battles with various partners, linked arms and spun in circles, and by the end, whirled at breakneck speed while holding hands with our partners.
By the time night had fully fallen and the campfire had burned down, Draco brought out the finale: handheld fireworks.
"Oh, you get it!"
Bletchley-senpai immediately lit one and started mock sword-fighting with Warrington-senpai, while Flint-senpai bundled several fireworks together like a hand cannon and bathed himself in a roaring shower of flames.
"Hey, Roger, let's duel!"
"Graham, isn't dual-wielding a bit unfair?"
Of course, when it came to fireworks, the Weasley twins weren't about to be outdone.
"We anticipated this situation."
"And just so happens we've got a prototype 'Weasleys' Rampaging Bang-Bang Fireworks.'"
"What situation were you expecting, exactly?"
At my exasperated comment, the twins grinned and set off their magical fireworks all at once.
In an instant, the beach turned into a battlefield. The twins' enchanted fireworks transformed into dragon shapes and lunged at Warrington-senpai. Spinning mouse fireworks zipped around like flying saucers, rampaging everywhere, while garishly pink sparklers wrote vulgar words in midair in front of Higgs-senpai, taunting him relentlessly.
"Return fire! Draco, lend me some. Don't hold back!"
"W-What? Flint-senpai!?"
Not to be outdone, the Slytherin team lined up Draco's rocket fireworks in a horizontal row like organ pipes and lit them one after another with torches while running past.
Countless rockets streaked mercilessly toward the twins, detonating in midair like cluster bombs. The spectacle had fully crossed into war movie territory.
"Didn't think Pusey's trench would come in handy here!"
"And the sand fortress the girls built isn't losing either!"
The launches were spectacular, the rockets' flight paths just as impressive, and when incoming fireworks struck rocks or the beach and exploded, the sense of realism was intense.
To top it off, excessively flashy smoke bombs were exploding everywhere like napalm, blanketing the area in smoke. With lights flashing inside the haze, people started shouting things like, "It's me, Percy! I'm on your side!" as friendly fire broke out. It was chaos at its absolute peak.
"They really are young, aren't they?"
"Grandma Gemma here. Do you even remember my name?"
"I'll light your actual butt on fire, you know?"
The two senior girls who weren't participating in the battle laughed happily as they watched the men fool around like children, and I felt my own cheeks relax into an unconscious smile.
If only moments like this could last forever.
Fireworks kept shooting up one after another, lighting us up joyfully without end.
(End of chapter)
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