Chapter 8: Christmas Party (Edited)

Time passed quickly, and Christmas arrived.

To celebrate Bell's release, his father, William, decided to organize a grand Christmas party in the castle. Leaders of the main pure-blood families, high-ranking Ministry of Magic officials, and famous wizards were on the guest list.

From early in the morning, house-elves had been busy preparing for the party.

The grand hall, which was already impeccably clean, underwent additional thorough cleaning. Brand-new tables and food utensils were brought out, and all kinds of luxurious decorations were placed in the hall.

Bell and Shanna were also forced to dress in formal attire. In reality, Bell didn't like wearing this kind of clothing at all; he always felt it was too tight and restricted his movements.

In the midst of the frenzied preparation (in Bell's opinion, it seemed like complete nonsense), time flew by, and the afternoon arrived. Guests began to arrive at Bell's house one after another.

Seeing that the moment was approaching, William led Bell to the main stage in the grand hall and delivered a brief speech, introducing Bell to everyone present. He then officially announced the start of the party.

During the banquet, Bell was dragged by his father, William, to greet various "important figures" in the wizarding world.

After exchanging a series of pleasantries and receiving compliments from everyone, Bell finally freed himself from the troubles of the adults and ran off to find his sister, Shanna.

Shanna was with her mother, Elena, at the time. And so, Bell went from the frying pan to the fire, being led by Elena to greet the "important ladies" of the wizarding world...

(╯#-皿-)╯~~╧═╧

'Will this never end?!'

Bell smiled on the surface, but in his heart, he could only think: 'Darn.'

Finally, at long last, Bell was released. Holding his sister, he ran over to the group of young wizards.

Since the party had been officially presented as a celebration of Bell's fifth birthday (no one else knew the specific details about Bell), many families with children of similar ages had brought their own kids.

"Shanna, are you enjoying the party?" Bell asked his little sister as he held her.

The little girl's face was flushed, and she seemed very excited.

(*/ω*)

Shanna covered her face with her hands and didn't say anything.

"?" Bell scratched his head. "Why aren't you talking, Shanna?"

Shanna turned around and jumped into Bell's arms, still silent.

'Well, I guess she's shy seeing so many people. No wonder she's been so quiet for a while,' thought Bell as he shrugged and sat in silence, listening to the young wizards in front of him bragging.

One young wizard was boasting about his Christmas gift he received this morning.

"When I woke up this morning, I couldn't find my clothes anywhere; the gifts had buried them. I had to make a big effort to get out of the room. It wasn't until lunchtime that I could finally open all my gifts. Guess what I found inside? A complete collection of Chocolate Frog cards!"

(￣▽￣～)~~

"I already have all the cards," said another young wizard disdainfully.

"Haha! Don't think I don't know. You asked your dad to buy you lots of Chocolate Frogs, and after taking out the cards, you gave the chocolate to the house-elves at your home. Cards you collect like that have no soul," said the young wizard who boasted about his gift.

"How do you know?"

"My dad told me. He said your dad complained to him about it."

Looking at the red-faced young wizard, Bell couldn't help but feel sorry for his dad and hope he had a good night's sleep that night.

Another young wizard said he had been skiing in the Alps a few days ago and had seen two Yetis on the mountain.

"They're 3 meters tall, with white fur and long fangs."

The young wizard described the situation and gestures in great detail.

"Fortunately, I had my dad's wand with me. I screamed, drew my wand..."

Since the description was quite long, to sum it up, it was a movie-style battle, and the young wizard finally managed to successfully scare away the Yetis.

"Next summer, my mom is taking me on a beach vacation in Venice. I've heard that sea monsters often appear in that area. I haven't fought a sea monster yet. After defeating one, I'll prove my worth. Then, I'll write a letter to Professor Dumbledore and ask him to allow me to enter Hogwarts early."

Another young wizard chimed in, "Fighting is for barbarians; real men play Quidditch."

"Let me tell you, my flying skills are fantastic; I've never chased a Golden Snitch for more than 5 minutes. But the other day, I suddenly felt that catching the Golden Snitch was no longer a challenge, so I decided to go up into the sky and catch an eagle."

"And did you catch it?"

"I almost caught it," the boy said regretfully. "At that moment, my hands were about to touch the eagle's feathers when suddenly, a Muggle plane appeared. To prevent it from crashing, I had no choice but to give up on the eagle."

"But guess who was on that plane," the boy mysteriously said in a low voice. "It was the coach of the Scottish National Quidditch team! After seeing my excellent flying skills, he got so excited that he jumped out of the plane and tried to invite me to join the Scottish National team."

"How can the coach of the Scottish National Quidditch team be on a plane?" said another young wizard in disbelief. "Surely, he travels on a broom."

The boy was offended and, in a fit of anger, seemed like he was going to punch you until you believed him. So, didn't he just say, 'Fighting is for barbarians'?

"Fight, fight!" Bell thought as he enjoyed the show.

However, things didn't go as Bell expected. Another young wizard, after sizing each other up, timidly asked, "So, did you join the Scottish National team?"

"No," the boy said regretfully. "I told him I'm English and couldn't join the Scottish team."

"..."

Bell was entertained. These wizards, despite their young age, had a talent for exaggeration and inventiveness that Muggle children couldn't match.

After a while, someone finally noticed Bell, who was having fun while holding his little sister.

"Hey, what's your name? What are you good at?"

Bell thought carefully. The only thing he considered himself "good" at was reading books, but he figured that wouldn't be interesting to others. The young wizards dismissed his response with a contemptuous "Pff!" and went back to their tall tales.

Bell enjoyed the peace. After bringing a pile of food for himself and his sister Shanna, he started playing with Shanna while eating and drinking. Occasionally, he shared some of his food with the other young wizards or nodded as he listened to their exaggerated stories.

Although he barely remembered their names, he had at least managed to make himself known among these young wizards.

Bell also recognized some of the young wizards who had appeared in the books, such as Draco Malfoy, Hannah Abbott, Pansy Parkinson, and others. He wasn't going to judge people based on his impressions from his past life. So far, these young wizards seemed quite cute. Of course, if he compared them to his sister, they would be light-years away.

Finally, around 9 o'clock at night, the party came to an end.

As the crowd dispersed, the Minethil castle returned to its quiet routine. After the last guest left, William looked for Bell.

"Bell, are you tired? If not, I'd like to talk to you. Can you come to the living room?"

'What else can I say if you've already mentioned it?'. Bell was already looking forward to going to bed.

"All right, Dad. Let me take Shanna back to her room, and then I'll come to meet you."

Shanna was already sleeping with a smile on her face in Bell's arms. Tonight, the little girl experienced great excitement in such a setting, which quickly exhausted her. Besides, it was already quite late, and not even the noise from the party could disturb her sweet dreams.