Ford listened with interest, but disappointment seeped in as she explained. "Oh, it's a Muggle festival," he remarked — that it the customs she was describing did not come from magical persons was evident in some of the inherent misconceptions about ghosts. No matter what night of the year it was or what rituals or magic had been performed, a spirit without a body was never capable of manipulating sharp objects or drowning someone. A poltergeist could have, but they weren't typically that malicious; they were beings of chaos and mischief, not evil and torment. The fact that it was Muggle didn't entirely dissipate his interest; Ford regularly went to seances and hauntings and spirit-talkers when he had spare time, because he loved seeing how Muggles interpreted these things and where they different from people who actually knew ghosts. He'd been more keenly intrigued at the prospect of a magical ghost-celebration, however, because it seemed so entirely unique. Muggles made up all sorts of things to do with spirits because they didn't know, and while it was fascinating to see what they came up with, it wasn't as much of a departure from the way things were done in England as it might have been if the festival in question had been magical.

"Have you heard of talking boards? They're popular across the pond. With Muggles," he clarified. "It's a board with letters on it and it's supposed to allow you to ask questions to spirits, and they move the indicator to spell out their answer. It's not — there's no evidence they work, and all the Muggles have their hands on the indicator the whole time so it's likely they don't at all, but it's the same sort of idea, being able to talk with people who are lost. Sometimes when spiritualists do it they ask whoever wants to ask questions for something like a connection... you know, bring a photograph of your dead husband and put it in the center of the table, that sort of thing. Though it's not really as though the connection has to be nurtured," he mused. "And there's reports of them contacting — allegedly, you know — old spirits that no one has any connection to at all, so I suppose that's a difference." He took a drink and wondered whether this sort of thing actually interested Miss Chang or not. Had she deduced that he would be interested and was trying to turn the conversation in a way that appealed to him? Was she feeling bored and only humoring him? Did it much matter?

"If you really could communicate with someone who had passed on," he asked, keeping his tone light — he intended this as the sort of question one might use as an ice-breaker in a conversation, not anything particularly deep — "Who would you talk to? If you could pick anyone."

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