Faced with the holiday wishes from her two old friends, Rowena's control over her expression nearly collapsed.
The reason was simple: although she was now in a ghostly state and far stronger than ordinary ghosts, even capable of touching physical objects, she was still, in the end, a spirit. Forget enjoying food—she could barely even smell it.
Even the tea and snacks she usually served guests were handled with magic tricks to get by. All that talk she'd given Salazar before about "being able to sense flavors" had just been stubborn bluster.
In truth, her sense of taste was almost completely gone.
Before her death, she had devoted nearly all her effort to preserving her magical power; things like taste simply hadn't been given much thought.
It was like a patient who couldn't eat after surgery, while two awful friends sat by her hospital bed, each holding a family-size bucket of food and eating with gusto.
With just a glance at Rowena's expression, Rhys knew exactly what she was thinking.
He let out a mischievous laugh and told her he'd recently come up with an interesting little invention.
"Memory Potion!" He casually produced a crystal vial glowing with multicolored light.
"Oh?" Rowena's brow relaxed slightly.
She knew Salazar wasn't someone who acted without purpose. If he brought this out, he probably had a solution to a ghost's inability to smell.
"All we need to do is extract the memories from when food is being tasted, add them to this potion, and then you just apply it to yourself. You'll be able to experience the aroma of food again!"
Rowena: "…"
Helga: (.-ω-)
Rowena felt like something about this was a bit off, but being able to sense the aroma of food again was her highest priority. In the end, she deliberately chose not to think too deeply about it.
Rhys pressed his wand to his temple and extracted a silvery-white strand of memory from his mind.
With a snap of his fingers, the stopper of the crystal vial popped open, and a small mass of potion floated out.
The potion, glowing with iridescent colors, hovered in midair. Under the combined effects of gravity and magic, it took on an irregular shape, looking fantastical and eerie.
Anyone unaware of the truth would surely feel a sense of reverent awe at the sight, but stripped of all pretense, it was essentially a "ghost feeder."
When the silvery memory merged with the multicolored droplets, a burst of light flashed, and the mixture transformed into the same color scheme as the Tequila Sunrise Rhys had prepared earlier. Just one glance made Rowena feel as though a rising sun were slowly lifting itself before her eyes.
"Want to try the drink I mixed?" Rhys waved his hand, and the droplet drifted toward Rowena.
According to what Salazar had said, Rowena could feel the flavor contained within the droplet no matter where she applied it to her spirit form. Still, she guided it toward her face, letting the droplet touch her lips.
The next moment, Rowena accessed the memory carried within the droplet. A long-lost tremor rose from the depths of her soul, causing even the color of her spirit form to subtly change.
After keeping her eyes closed and savoring it for a long while, Rowena finally opened them and looked at Rhys. "Salazar, that was brilliant."
Rhys raised an eyebrow. "Naturally. I am the best potioneer in the world."
Faced with Salazar's seemingly arrogant "self-praise," neither Helga nor Rowena refuted him—because he was simply stating a fact.
Of course, not refuting him didn't mean she wouldn't poke him. Helga was absolutely going to seize the chance to give Salazar a "head-on blow."
So she deliberately asked, "Really? That's wonderful, Mr. World's Greatest Potioneer. Then could you make me a potion of immortality?"
That didn't stump Rhys at all. He agreed immediately and said that the lady only needed to bring her own ingredients!
He didn't ask for much—just a Philosopher's Stone would be enough.
As long as she provided a Philosopher's Stone, he would make her an immortality potion for free.
Rowena stood to the side, quietly watching the two old friends bicker.
The scene made her feel as though she had returned to the past—those two had always enjoyed picking at each other like this.
"Another one." After the lingering aftertaste brought by the memory faded, she eagerly ordered another Tequila Sunrise.
"I really don't know how to describe your invention. The name 'Memory Potion' is truly awful." After finishing her second "glass" of Tequila Sunrise, Rowena began to consider whether she should help Salazar come up with a better name for his invention.
"Hmm.. Look, doesn't the way this potion floats make it look just like a bubble? And it contains memories inside—how about calling it a 'Memory Bubble'?"
Helga offered her suggestion. Both Rhys and Rowena's eyes lit up—it was a pretty good name.
"That's it," Rhys decided with a final rap of his knuckles. He officially named the product formed by mixing the memory potion with memories a "Memory Bubble."
After that, Rowena eagerly ordered several more Memory Bubbles in different flavors, including the various strong liquors Helga had provided, as well as some of the foods Hogwarts had served during the Christmas feast.
"Wonderful!" After consuming more than a dozen Memory Bubbles in succession and "sampling" several dishes and drinks, even Rowena—usually known for her solemn nature—couldn't help praising her old friend's invention.
"For ghosts, this is easily the number one invention. If witches and wizards outside knew something like this existed, wouldn't even more people choose to become ghosts?" Rowena remarked after downing her third "glass" of Tequila Sunrise.
In truth, every wizard could achieve a kind of immortality—Horcrux makers excluded—by choosing not to board the train to the afterlife when death arrived, and instead turning back.
When a departed soul returned to the mortal world, it would automatically become a ghost, able to wander the places it had frequented in life, and even converse and interact with the living.
This, in itself, was another form of immortality. Helena and the Bloody Baron had "lived" this way from the era of the Four Founders all the way to the present day.
So what was the price? Never again being able to smell food was one of them. Ghosts even had to deliberately let food rot just to catch the faintest hint of a scent. That putrid odor was something any living person would recoil from, yet ghosts longed for it desperately.
Even more frightening was that choosing to become a ghost was a one-way road. Once you stepped onto it, there was no turning back. It wasn't something you could reverse on a whim—you would forever remain a being neither fully alive nor truly dead.
After seeing the real living conditions of ghosts at the school, almost no wizard was willing to choose this path.
However, if Salazar's invention were to spread, it might make "becoming a ghost" an extremely tempting option.
Rhys shook his head, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Rowena's sentiment.
Enough joking around! Did she really think this potion was easy to make? Ghosts don't have money—why would a master potioneer specially make this kind of potion for ghosts for free? Did she think all potioneers were philanthropists?
_____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI