Professor Vampire.

Chapter 22: The released trolls.

After a few more minutes of playful antics, most of the students from the four houses had arrived.

Dumbledore stood up to announce the official start of the Halloween feast and introduced the first special guest of the evening—a famous singer, Loken Deis!

A pale, handsome man dressed in a black high-collar wizard robe walked onto the stage set in front of a giant pumpkin.

Holding a microphone made of a string of skulls, he smiled charmingly at the young wizards, revealing two sharp side teeth.

The hall erupted in applause, especially from the excited young witches, who let out a series of screams.

"Thank you, thank you everyone!" Half-vampire Loken waved to the audience, then turned and bowed respectfully to the professors, "I dedicate this song, 'By Your Side,' to everyone!"

Since his debut in the magical world, Loken had maintained a cool and abstinent vampire image. His handsome appearance and sexy voice had garnered the admiration of many witches.

This song, "By Your Side," which made him famous, has a strong vampire style.

Its English title, "o You (Your Necks)," is a pun that sounds very similar to "o You (By Your Side)."

It vividly describes the seductive image of a handsome vampire leaning over a young witch's neck to gently kiss and bite, portraying the vampire's feeding as an enticing, harmless act.

This captivating depiction made the love song extremely popular, ranking first on the magical world music charts for 19 consecutive weeks.

Its creation and popularity greatly improved the image of vampires in the eyes of wizards and led to the rapid development of various vampire delicacies in the magical world. This was one of the reasons Dracula had been able to find various vampire snacks recently.

After the song ended, the students were completely immersed in the music and the blush-inducing imagery.

Loken Deis bowed deeply to the audience and then stepped down from the stage.

Meanwhile, Dracula gave him a signal and left the hall.

...

With thunder occasionally rumbling, Dracula left the hall and found a secluded corner in the colonnade of Hogwarts' entrance courtyard. Leaning against a delicate stone pillar, he pondered.

A few minutes later, Loken Deis also came out of the hall. He ran to Dracula and suddenly knelt on one knee.

"Half-vampire Loken Deis, at your service, Count Dracula!" he said solemnly.

"No need to be so formal. Just call me Professor Dracula at Hogwarts." Dracula pulled him up and said.

"According to age, you would be Deis's great-grandson?"

Dracula looked at Loken's black hair and blue eyes and asked speculatively.

"Yes, my great-great-grandfather left a family commandment. The Deis family must unconditionally obey Count Dracula's orders and must not show any disobedience!" Loken said seriously.

"No need for such obedience. For now, just tell me about the current living conditions of the vampire clan over the past hundred years while I was asleep." Dracula asked, "It seems that vampires are rarely seen in Britain. Are they still gathered in Romania?"

"Yes, Lord Dracula," Loken replied. "Most low-level vampires still prefer to gather in Romania because there's unified leadership and a more reasonable distribution of blood resources. So Romania is the preferred place for low-level vampires."

"Our family doesn't have much contact with them, so we don't know the specifics. But during my father's time, I vaguely heard that there were conflicts and major clashes between the vampire clan and the werewolf community."

"As for Britain, wizards here still mostly hold prejudices against vampires, believing that vampires can only rely on brutal bloodsucking to seize life force. The songs I've released are efforts to change this perception, and they've actually received a pretty good response."

Dracula nodded slowly, "I see. Thank you for your family's efforts."

"Lord Dracula, won't you go to Romania yourself? If you were there, the enmity between the werewolves and vampires would surely be resolved quickly!"

"We'll see." Hearing Loken's question, Dracula remained noncommittal and shook his head.

Then he turned his gaze towards the hall and saw several ghosts drifting towards it from other parts of the castle.

"Let's go back to the hall. The ghost performance is about to start, which means the Halloween feast is almost over."

When Dracula and Loken returned to the hall, the Halloween feast was nearing its end, with a few ghosts disappearing into the walls, leaving the hall.

The young wizards were also making a final push against the remaining food.

Harry was eating a baked potato when Assistant Professor Quirrell suddenly rushed into the hall, his large scarf askew on his head, his face full of fear.

Everyone stared at him as he staggered to Dumbledore's chair, leaned against the table, and gasped, "Troll—in the dungeons—thought you ought to know."

He then collapsed to the floor in a faint.

The hall erupted into chaos. Dumbledore had to make purple firecrackers explode from his wand tip several times before everyone calmed down.

"Prefects," he said in a low voice, "lead your houses back to the dormitories!"

Upon seeing Quirrell faint so easily, Dracula frowned.

The man who had escaped from his grasp couldn't possibly be so incapable of handling a mindless troll. And the washed-up troll had already been placed in the trapdoor challenge, so where did this new troll come from in the dungeon?

Thinking this, Dracula jumped off the professors' table and teleported in front of Quirrell.

"Speak up, are you really fainting or just pretending?" He grabbed Quirrell up and asked coldly, "And didn't you send the troll into the trap? So where did this new troll come from?"

Quirrell's expression was almost imperceptible, seemingly completely unconscious.

But when the flames in Dracula's hand surged up, he immediately acted dazed and said, "I... I had a spare troll hidden in my office, but I seem to have lost control of it and it escaped."

Hearing Quirrell's words, Dracula's mouth curled up, and he chuckled lightly.

"Interesting." He said, "Then tell me, where exactly in the dungeon can I find the troll?"