Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table. The lions' enthusiasm helped dissipate his melancholy about not being in the same house as Audrey. He smiled shyly, responding to the Gryffindors' welcome.
A minute earlier, Audrey had found an empty seat and sat down. The little snakes on either side immediately leaned in.
"Hello, Miss Astley, my name is Bonnie Hanover, fourth year!"
"I'm Isaline Windsor, fifth year. It's lovely to meet you!"
"..."
Audrey handled the little snakes' greetings with great poise. After the wave of salutations passed, her attention was drawn to the long table before her.
The traces of ancient magic were so conspicuous!
Lines of magic, nodes of magic... she was instantly absorbed.
Speaking of which, Audrey had to thank Nicolas Flamel. The old gentleman, still determined to take her as an apprentice, had slipped a lot of extra material in while teaching Audrey runes, allowing her to learn a lot of alchemical theory without realizing it.
Audrey's eyes followed the echoes of ancient magic on the long table, paying no attention to the rest of the Sorting Ceremony, until Dumbledore said:
"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
All kinds of food appeared on the long table. Audrey looked closely: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, sausages... potato chips, pudding, peas...
However, what appeared in front of her was a plate of spicy crayfish, a plate of double-cooked pork, and a plate of Mapo tofu. Of course, there was also white rice and a pair of chopsticks.
Audrey: ...
Ancient magic certainly wasn't this intelligent. This food was all prepared by the house-elves in the Hogwarts kitchen.
Therefore, the only one who not only knew her tastes but could also make it, was Momo.
Two months ago, Audrey had used her premonition to learn from Dumbledore that Momo was at Hogwarts.
It seemed now that the one sending her to the Headmaster's office later would most likely be her, too.
Audrey smiled and drew a line of words in the air with magic: "Thank you, Momo."
Then she found the information transmission node on the long table and sent the text.
Her actions were hardly noticed by anyone else, partly because her movements were small, and partly because everyone's gaze was focused on the dishes in front of her.
"What's this? It looks a bit like shrimp?"
"Why is the food in front of Astley different from ours!"
Isaline Windsor's mouth was slightly open, but her upbringing was clearly excellent. She reacted immediately, covering her small mouth with her hand.
"Is this Chinese crayfish?" she said uncertainly. "I saw this when I visited China with my father as a child. I was too young at the time and didn't dare to try."
Audrey smiled and asked a completely unrelated question: "Are you afraid of spicy food?"
Isaline shook her head. "My family's cook is from India. She's best at making curry, so my tolerance for spicy food is okay."
Audrey nodded. "Good that you're not afraid of spicy. You can try this spicy crayfish."
She deftly peeled a crayfish, first slurping the head tomalley, then skillfully removing the shell and popping the meat into her mouth.
Seeing Audrey's blissful expression, Isaline was tempted, but she came from a noble background. The dining etiquette engraved in her bones prevented her from making such a bold move.
She was just about to politely decline when Audrey snapped her fingers. A crayfish flew into the air, rapidly disassembled, the shell peeled off, and the meat, drizzled with tomalley, floated directly onto Isaline's plate.
"Try it!"
Isaline said her thanks and put the meat into her mouth with her fork.
"Mmm..."
Fresh, sweet, fragrant, spicy, springy, satisfying.
Audrey laughed inwardly. In the culinary desert of Great Britain, any random dish from China was a heavy hitter, not to mention this late-night snack king that was popular all over the country.
As long as one could handle the numbing spice, it was a knockout.
Isaline was lost in the flavor for two seconds, then immediately recovered her composure.
"Oh, this is a rare delicacy," Miss Windsor praised. "But what amazes me more is Miss Astley's spellcasting skill. Weren't you not supposed to have encountered magic? How can you...?"
Audrey smiled: "Back in July, Headmaster Dumbledore found me a teacher. I've been cramming for two months."
As she spoke, Audrey fed another peeled crayfish to Isaline.
"Miss Astley, may I call you Audrey?" Isaline asked.
Audrey found it amusing. 'This is a little snake bought with just two crayfish.'
"Of course, Isaline."
Bonnie Hanover, sitting to Audrey's right, looked jealous and muttered, "I want to eat too..."
However, no one paid him any mind. Audrey's hearing was excellent, so she had clearly heard him, but she just didn't want to bother.
It had nothing to do with gender, only looks.
Isaline looked like a porcelain doll; you could describe her as a Ragdoll cat.
Bonnie, on the other hand, had a face full of stubble, pretty much at the level of a Shar-Pei.
Suddenly, a hand reached across the long table and stabbed a fork into the plate of crayfish, sending sauce splattering.
Audrey waved her hand, and the sauce in the air flew back onto the plate, not splashing anyone.
The owner of the hand forked two crayfish and retreated.
Audrey and Isaline frowned in unison. 'How rude!'
It was a girl with regular features, but her upturned eyebrows made her whole face look somewhat arrogant and fierce.
The eyes under the fierce eyebrows stared fiercely at Audrey, which made her feel baffled.
"That's Arjonia Rolle," Isaline introduced. "She's a sixth-year."
Then Isaline blushed and added in a small voice, as if ashamed of gossiping about others: "She's had a crush on Dorca Yaxley for years."
Audrey nodded, indicating she understood. She really didn't want to get involved in this kind of crap.
She met Arjonia's provocative gaze and gave a smile that looked very friendly, but actually had a hidden edge.
'Is it just because your crush is my fan? Is that any reason to be so hostile to me?'
'If you have a problem, go tell your crush. What's with aiming your nose and eyes at me!'
Arjonia continued to glare at Audrey and viciously dismembered the crayfish. Matching her actions, she narrowed her eyes, the threat obvious.
'Little brat! You're really pushing it!'
'How can I let this slide?'
Although Audrey often let small grudges go because of laziness and procrastination, she was more than happy to return the favor in face-to-face situations like this.
Arjonia Rolle felt she had intimidated Audrey, so she began to taste the crayfish. The aroma had been drilling into her nostrils for a while now, and she couldn't hold back any longer.
She opened her mouth and bit down.
Crack!
The lobster meat was as hard as a rock, directly knocking out half of Arjonia's front tooth. Blood immediately filled her mouth.
Audrey quietly retracted her finger, acting as if nothing had happened, and continued to enjoy her special meal.
'I'm someone who can use Transfiguration to exchange five... four... well, three rounds with Emperor Grindelwald. Bullying you isn't a piece of cake?'
"Ah! What kind of trash food for low-lifes is this!"
Arjonia said hatefully. She stood up and left the long table, not suspecting Audrey at all.
Gemma Farley's voice traveled past six or seven people to Audrey's ear:
"Astley, what is that food? Why can it break someone's tooth?"
Audrey smiled and replied: "That's just because she doesn't know how to eat it. If you don't believe me, I'll treat everyone!"
To disprove Arjonia's "food for low-lifes" comment, Audrey prepared to go all out.
She wrote in the air: "Momo, send up another five kilograms of crayfish!"
Input, wait.
Ten seconds later, two large basins of crayfish appeared in front of Audrey.
The Slytherin snakes: ...
'Wait, why can you still order food?'
'Does Hogwarts belong to your family?'
'But isn't this your first day at Hogwarts?'
Audrey clapped her hands. The crayfish all came to life, shed their armor, "splattered their livers and brains," and automatically jumped onto the little snakes' plates.
Thus, their questions about Audrey vanished amidst the deliciousness.
The little snakes who couldn't handle the spice were hissing and huffing, rushing to drink milk, and naturally wouldn't think too much.
As for the one drinking milk most frantically, it was none other than Draco Malfoy.
As his cousin, Audrey naturally had to take special care of her little cousin. Therefore, the ones she gave Draco had been rolled in the sauce a dozen times.
It was truly delicious, and truly spicy.
Seeing her little cousin moved to the point of shedding hot tears, his cousin felt very gratified.
Plate after plate of crayfish was served. Later, everyone no longer needed Audrey's help. Only then did they discover that the crayfish they peeled themselves were the most delicious!
Even a wizard like Draco, who was already dying from the spice, couldn't help but fork more crayfish onto his plate. 'How strange! Why aren't the ones I peel spicy at all?'
When the dishes were cleared, the little Slytherin snakes stared blankly, entering a post-meal sage-like state—either too satisfied to think, or numb all over from the spice.
Few even listened to Dumbledore's after-dinner "reminders." It was the same every year, anyway, just with the addition of not going to the fourth-floor corridor this year!
'In any case, their snake pit is in the dungeons. Apart from class, who would go to the fourth floor!'
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!"
Audrey sighed. What was bound to happen, happened. 'Is it time for the chaotic rabble?'
You see, the Hogwarts school song had no fixed tune. Everyone sang it in a different key.
For a "musician" like Audrey, such a messy chorus was undoubtedly torture.
"I have a proposal," Dumbled. "Since we have a famous singer here, why don't we have her lead the singing?"
Audrey: ...
'I told you, I shouldn't have come to Hogwarts!'
'Look at this, the number of awkward moments in one day is more than I've experienced in the past sixteen years!'
Thus thought Audrey "Awkward" Astley.
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