185- The Hogwarts Dining Table

    Rhys hurried down the stairs, hoping that the desserts in the Great Hall hadn''t been cleared away yet.

    If he moved quickly, he might still snag a bowl of pudding.

    As for the food Daphne had brought, Rhys wasn''t holding out hope.

    There was nothing edible for the living at the Deathday Party, and there were four young wizards left behind at the scene. The meat soup in the lunchbox was probably already gone.

    Halfway down, Rhys realized he was too late.

    A deep, rumbling murmur rose from below, resembling distant thunder. It was followed by the sound of hundreds of footsteps ascending the stairs—signs that the feast had ended.

    Moments later, the students appeared, flowing past Rhys like a dense school of fish. He could faintly catch the aroma of roasted meat and pumpkin in the air.

    Sighing inwardly, Rhys pushed his way against the crowd to head downstairs.

    He considered fishing in the Black Lake to roast something for dinner and silently regretted not figuring out the kitchen''s location from the Hufflepuffs back in the day. Surely, a few recipes could have solved his hunger problem...

    When Hogwarts Castle was being built, each of the four founders was responsible for designing specific areas. For instance, Rowena Ravenclaw designed the library, while Rhys handled the Potions classroom.

    The responsibility of designing the kitchen and dining area, however, fell to Helga Hufflepuff.

    In the end, she combined the dining area and the Great Hall into one and kept the kitchen''s location a secret from the other founders. She didn''t want them interfering with the meal preparation process.

    ...

    "Meals are of utmost importance. Considering the castle''s size and the functional division of other areas, I see no need to build a separate Great Hall. A dining room is sufficient. Both students and teachers can hold assemblies there," Hufflepuff explained, pointing at the model of Hogwarts Castle.

    "Alright."

    "Sounds good."

    Slytherin and Ravenclaw had no objections. They both found Hufflepuff''s two-in-one approach rather clever. Ravenclaw was delighted at the prospect of using the saved space to expand the library, while Slytherin simply didn''t care one way or the other.

    If every member of a house sat at the same table, wouldn''t that make them an easy target for mass poisoning?

    As for Helga''s claim about "students'' only difference," Salazar did not agree.

    Were Muggle-born students the same as those from wizarding families?

    He had always opposed admitting children from Muggle families into Hogwarts. In his view, at least one of a student''s parents needed to be a wizard to ensure loyalty; otherwise, their natural allegiance would lie with Muggle lords, which could one day bring disaster to the school.

    Unfortunately, Helga and Godric wouldn''t listen to reason, and Rowena''s stance was ambiguous.

    With the support or acquiescence of the other three founders, the Hogwarts dining hall was ultimately designed by Helga to include four long student tables and one for the staff.

    She also enchanted the dining hall with ingenious magic, allowing the house-elves in the kitchen to transport dish after dish directly to the long tables.

    However, this was not solely due to Helga''s magic. The house-elves, a remarkable group the four founders had rescued from Odin''s palace, played an essential role.

    These magical creatures had an extraordinary talent for spatial magic, enabling them to transport food to its proper place.

    Initially, Helga had stationed the elves at the ruins of Odin''s palace to clean up the aftermath. But now that the castle was complete, it was time to summon them to Hogwarts to serve the school.

    ...

    As Rhys recalled this, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

    While it was true that the elves were adept at spatial magic, wouldn''t it make more sense—logically and practically—to place a room directly beneath the Great Hall and arrange five tables in alignment with the ones above?

    Then the elves would only need to place the food correctly before transporting it straight upward, ensuring each dish landed perfectly on the tables above.

    Pondering the layout of the castle, Rhys felt he might have just figured out where the Hogwarts kitchen was located!

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