A Taste of Magic

Chapter 127: 127th Course- Awkwardly Blissful

"Hello Harry," Dumbledore smiled.

"Hello Sir! Hi Fawkes!" Harry set the tray down on Dumbledore's desk and smiled when Fawkes landed on his shoulder, singing hello and emanating warm light. He put out the plates of food he brought, including one for the phoenix as per usual.

"Ah, a small change from our usual tea," Dumbledore said with anticipation. "What do we have here?"

"Some Chinese food they have called Dim Sum," Harry said brightly. "Sue taught them to me. They have a meal where they drink tea and have lots of small dishes of different foods and it's wonderful. I thought you'd like to try them. These are shrimp dumplings. This is called Luo Bo Gao which is a steamed and then pan-fried daikon radish cake. This is Lo Mai Gai which is like the zongzi with chicken and wrapped in lotus leaves. And finally, these are egg custard tarts."

"You spoil me and I thank you for it," Dumbledore said happily and poured out the tea. "Mmm, and this is Jasmine tea? Lovely." The trio ate hungrily, Fawkes warbling with delight as he devoured his bundle of sticky rice and savory fillings. "It is different from the usual British tea but it is just as delightful and delicious."

"There's so many things that can be made for dim sum," Harry said. "It's so good."

"I do admire your willingness and eagerness to try new cuisines and things," Dumbledore said as he ate the luo bo gao. "Mmm, this is very tasty. Interesting texture. Oh and the sausages I like are mixed in."

"It's fun," Harry said. "I'm lucky I have great teachers and people who know what it's supposed to be like though. It'd be a lot harder if I didn't."

"Indeed. Part of the risk of trying spells from old books," Dumbledore said. "I recall trying to cast an intriguing transfiguration spell once about changing the state of water."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Well, it changed the state and also apparently changed another property that it was not too clear on in the book," Dumbledore said ruefully. "I turned the water into a mist which also made it rather corrosive. I ended up melting a table before I could stop it."

"At least when I mess up a recipe, I won't melt anything," Harry laughed. "Wait, actually, Mr. Drake's hot sauce does melt crackers so that's not entirely true." He smiled at Fawkes' hearty snickering. "I do have to worry about food allergies too, come to think about it."

"Like the crake toxin," Dumbledore nodded.

"I'm glad Headmaster Karkaroff didn't get too mad at me," Harry said.

"That was not your fault anyways," Dumbledore said genially. After they ate their fill, with Fawkes claiming the leftovers, they got to the other reason for their meeting. "So, what morale raising do you have next?" Dumbledore asked eagerly.

"I thought it might be nice to do something for Saint Valentine's Day," Harry said.

"Oh yes, that would be nice," Dumbledore agreed. "I know the Hogsmeade weekend during February is especially popular for just that reason. What do you have in mind?"

"I actually did a bit of research about the origins and it's kinda wild," Harry said. "Apparently there used to be a fertility festival that might have been the basis for it? Which don't worry, not going to do anything with that," he added hurriedly.