Luca exited from the Wand selection hall, a corner of his eye caught an abrupt change. He looked behind, solid grey wall replaced the pathway, his hand involuntarily stretched to touch it. Feeling the coldness and smoothness of stone, an ethereal voice interrupted his impudent massage.

“Fifteenth that couldn’t help and caress the rocks this year.” a bunch of ghosts came out of the walls, Luca’s face changed to that of interest. He stared at the nearest floating, transparent man, wearing a shining silver doublet, suit pants, and mid-calf boots. If not for his transparency and missing half of his head, anybody could mistake him for being alive.

“No screeching? It’s all fault of those horror movies I tell you, they are way too realistic. No freshmen have even batted an eyelid so far, we have to pick up the slack. Next student, shout boo and only lean out our heads?” one of the ghosts complained about Luca’s lack of reaction, and proposed to upgrade their way of appearance.

“Good idea, Half-headed Rick goes to the nearest corner, he has a natural advantage.” some ghosts were enthusiastic, but a dozen or so females out of them floated up to Luca and gushed out how cute he looked, and they never saw a student so handsome. One tried to touch his head, apparently forgetting that she lost such possibility at time of her death. Luca felt his skin patted by freezing popsicles she had for her fingers, but his body quickly warmed the area, uncomfortable sensitivity lasted only a second. He thought in a flash something wrong with the scene, weren’t ghosts supposed to be unable to interact with world of the living? Why can he feel the pinch of her fingertips on his cheek?

“So warm and supple, I never felt anything more pleasant! You drink those special beauty potions since newborn?” the brain of this ghost didn’t seem to work very well, she looked like a twenty-something year old bubbly girl, wearing a Victorian corset and a long skirt. Streaks of vivid silver splashed over her stomach, where a puncture hole was visible.

“Don’t touch him, don’t you know it feels bad?!” another older and stricter ghost tried to slap her hand away to protect Luca from harm, but her hand went straight through.

“Ah, sorry! Wait… what?!” the bubbly ghost took her hand away in panic, but then brought it in front of her face in stunned realization. Her exclamation earned the attention of the rest of the floating flock, busy in discussion considering the best-looking wizard they had a crush on while alive and comparing them to Luca.

“Guide me to the house?” tentatively asked Luca, rejecting this scrutiny under the spotlight from long-dead people. Even if he felt the existence of ghosts to be very interesting and magical, fact of being special in one more way stopped eliciting any emotions except a flat ‘oh’ from him, at least this day full of wonder. The ghost girl came out of the reverie of her hand, she immediately tried to catch Luca’s face between both of her palms, but Luca dodged deftly backward.

“I can touch! I, you, I can t-touch!!!” the ghost didn’t let up, incoherent, with a singular purpose left in her literally empty and translucent head: to grasp Luca’s hot body and feel any sensation again, after more than a hundred years of existing as a phantom. She floated to him aggressively, Luca’s boxer instinct kicked off, and he brought out a beautiful right hook landing square at her nose. The ghost girl flew out faster than she came and sank behind the wall, dismayed expressions of all the ghosts watching her go transferred to Luca in eerie silence. Luca’s blood boiled, it felt good to smash someone to fly that fast, giving him an illusion of unparalleled strength.

“Can I get a guide then?” he played it cool, provocative grin on his lips. Sadly, he didn’t foresee that his smile awakened the ghost witches as if they swallowed a vial of aphrodisiac, eager to try and hug him.

“Ahh, my heart is melting!”, “Can he touch us?!”, “Little boy, just let me hold a finger!” ghost witches of all ages said as they rushed with open hands to Luca, he dropped the briefcase and assumed position, knowing full well that allure for ghosts to feel his skin shouldn’t be underestimated, maybe similar to Catherine’s obsession. If he didn’t beat them down today, the following years might involve them surrounding him like now. Kicks and punches, silvery ghost ladies dressed eclectically in all sorts of garments flew out from the tornado Luca turned himself into.

“Should we help or what?” uncertainly asked one of the watching male ghosts.

“I missed something, what is going on?” a clueless ghost came back from giving a tour to his freshman.

“How do you help, we don’t have weight.” observed the reason for ghost ladies' failure four-eyed intellectual of them.

“It will take centuries for them to nag if we do nothing at all, boy should get tired eventually.” burly ghost went heroically up, intent to consume Luca’s stamina. He flew out of the picture immediately, but his statement resonated with the rest of ghost men. They sighed collectively and went up to pointlessly besiege Luca, lest the ladies hold a grudge.

“Get off me, what do you think you’re doing?!” Luca felt difficult for his battle situation, as he observed the ghost girl return with an intoxicated expression on her face, sticking it forward as she rushed again. He slapped her hard in the face, catching a glimpse of a silly smile as she flew again.

“G-g-ghost attack! Ghost attack, help!!!” suddenly, a student emerged from the wall, witnessing the pack of ghosts grabbing Luca’s arms and legs as he thrashed around, she yelled piercingly and ran away, falling in panic, she began to crawl away horrified on all fours crying for help. Ghosts froze ashamed, in any case, they are all above hundred years old wizards, it is unbecoming to scrap like ruffians.

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“Ehem, treat it as you win this time, little boy.” one of the male ghosts gave everybody a wink, signaling to stop the situation.

“We can touch him! Hahaha!” one female ghost started to laugh crying, silver tears vanished before reaching the floor. This started a common giant weeping session among the ghost ladies that felt Luca’s punches hurt them, even such a sensation welcome. Luca got both ashamed and weirded out, not knowing how to proceed. Behind him, the ghost girl emerged sneakily from the floor, creeping up on him, she pounced and entwined her limbs around him. Luca fluttered his body once from cold trauma and decided to try holding her down, so he grabbed her wrists and threw her over his head and under the floor.

“Aaaa…” the ghost girl made a noise as she flew, abruptly ending as her mouth went inside the stones. Now kneeling and holding only the sticking-out delicate silver hands, Luca deeply understood and reflected on the absurdity of the magic world.

“Abigail can be your guide, we have to call the ghost council considering your situation, boy. Everyone, to the council room! Stop crying, start figuring out how to deal with him! You lot, stay and do our job quicker, inform the rest as they come back from castle tours!” the same authoritative ghost stated to order ladies not to cry in the open like that, part of men to stay and get serious in their task. Luca figured out that Abigail is the ghost girl he holds downstairs, so he yanked her up.

“That was awesome, one more time!” she yelled pedaling in the air to get closer to him, limited by the length of his arms. Annoyed Luca fulfilled her wish, waving her with one hand like a screaming human-shaped balloon. This was witnessed by another student emerging from the wall beside them, he stared at the illogical spectacle until Luca spotted him and picked up his stuff to leave the area, pulling the wilted ghost girl behind him.

“Where am I supposed to go, you idiot?” lost after crossing several similar corridors, slight variation in paintings and decorating tapestries, Luca turned to her and asked. Abigail closing her eyes as she frowned and desperately concentrated on the sensation of holding his hand, ignored him.

“Useless…” exhaled Luca, a particularly noisy painting of an ongoing picnic caught his attention. Thinking hard as he looked at it, wizards having fun in it pointed their fingers at him after a while, one of them run forward and enlarged himself to cover a sizeable part of the canvas.

“Hey, what you looking at, punk?!” he yelled red-faced holding a glass of wine.

“Uh… Where is house Wampus dormitory?” Luca asked hoping for some luck to have a normal conversation with the abnormal picture-creature.

“Way you came from, left, right, forward two intersections, right, forward, left, forward. Got it?” the wizard gesticulated wildly.

“Yes, thank you.” Luca memorized it and bowed politely.

“No problem, take care!” wizard saluted him with the glass and drank it to the bottom. Luca went back, passed in front of the ghosts staring at him again, and after five minutes of walking reached a vividly painted on a wall massive black cat-head, small cats in different poses on bronze background all over the same wall. Luca confidently walked right into it, bumping his head heavily on the cat’s nose. He stayed pasted on the wall for a while, breathing slowly to calm himself down. Isn’t it obvious to just go straight in as he did? Why the hell it didn’t work?

“F-first years have to press their student card once onto it… Then to enter later, you have to scratch Aisha’s chin.” barely audible shy voice came from his right. Luca turned his ruby eyes to look at the ghost girl fidgeting by herself as she looked back at him. He slowly put his hand in his pocket to take it out, with her whole being moving according to their still attached fists, he felt her fingers brush his abs. He put the parchment to the cat’s cheek, his hand sinking inside the wall, Luca got permission to enter and went in.

A giant square living room came into his view, hundreds of amazingly thick carpets of all sizes and shapes covering its floor. Hills made of pillows, soft sofas in front of scattered coffee tables, and hanging from the ceiling cat-walking construction, a series of walkways sometimes multi-leveled, sometimes gathering in a big basket. Hundreds of cats leisurely laying or playing above the space designed for students, some wizards fortunate to be sorted sooner already surrounded, playing with them using scattered all-over toys, like a mouse tied to a rod, or a massage roller. Hanged on the walls were a variety of cold weapons, swords, maces, daggers, and spears. Plate armours, some with kittens poking their heads from the top of flat helmets they wore, stood imposingly. Two sides of the room covered in glass let plenty of natural light in, small holes were cut in the corners of the windows leading outside the castle for cats to use. Two wooden spiral staircases leading up in the middle of the room were painted pink and blue.

“This is Wampus's common room. Go up to leave the baggage in your bedroom…” whispered the ghost girl, Luca went up as she instructed. On the way, as he looked down to wonder about the material those soft carpets were made of, something hit his neck. Alarmed Luca turned straight and bend back, brushing his half-free hand being held by the bothersome ghost to shake whatever it was down. The object fell off him with a milky purr, glaring back it turned out to be a black kitten looking at him aggrieved. Shiny fur, big pale green eyes, wagging tail, and a slightly open purring mouth made the boy couldn’t help but squat on the spot and start petting it fiercely. The ghost finally let him go, as her touch would scare the kitten.

“Is it raining kittens here daily? You should watch out tiger, don’t fall on people… Who’s the softest of them all?” Luca babbled whatever as he roughed up the kitten, it relaxed and let him while squinting its eyes with enjoyment. Luca had enough after a while and stood up, kitten immediately meowed loud, and run to climb his leg.

“Is it juvenile Wampus?” asked Luca the ghost girl, sensing it to be unusually attached.

“No, any cat can evolve into a Wampus, they aren’t born... I’m Abigail Bagley, forgive me for my behaviour. I got overwhelmed and become hysterical…” Abigail imitated sitting on her knees as she apologized loudly, very ashamed now that she had her share of feeling Luca’s warmth for a while and calmed down.

“It’s fine, I apologize too for punching you in the face. Doesn’t it hurt? Luca Granger by the way.” Luca was curious about it, logically if he can touch them, he should be able to break ghost bones or something. He helped the kitten up on his shoulder, it put its legs and paws inside his collar on both sides of him to hold on tight and stuck its tiny head forward below Luca’s chin.

“A bit, but like a sting over the area instead of a lasting injury.” Abigail didn’t know why it worked like this either, now that she apologized, she could muster the courage to act normally.