Chapter 23: Halloween
Halloween had finally come. Students spent most of the day trying to frighten their friends. Ron had put on Harry’s Invisibility Cloak (much against Harry’s advice not to) and walked up to Hermione, throwing it off and screaming at her. Hermione had yelped in fright, nearly jumping out of her skin, before hitting him across the head with her book (“Ronald Weasley! What is wrong with you!?”). She got her revenge at lunch when she Transfigured his sandwich into a spider just as he was about to eat it. He had screamed loudly, dropped what had been his sandwich, and fled from the hall to wash his hands, leaving the rest of the Gryffindors in stitches with laughter.
The Gryffindor sixth years won the scavenger hunt later that day because they had merely used the Room of Requirement, which provided them with everything they needed. They turned their sack full of items in to Professor McGonagall, and went upstairs to put their costumes on for trick-or-treating.
“What supposed to be?” Ron asked Hermione, looking confused.
“I’m a dentist.” She answered matter-of-factly.
“You mean those Muggle-nutters who pull people’s teeth out?”
Hermione merely scowled at him; apparently Ron had forgotten that her parents were dentists. She looked him up and down -Ron was wearing his regular clothes, and there was nothing unusual about him at all.
“Well, what are you supposed to be?” she asked.
“I’m not ready yet...” he cleared his throat and pointed his wand at himself.
“Reflecio Simmetrio.” Suddenly an exact mirror image of Ron appeared to his left.
“Okay, so what are you?” Hermione said, still wondering what on earth he was doing.
“I’m Fred and George” he said, grinning.
Hermione rolled her eyes, but Harry could tell she was trying to hide that she was impressed at his creativity. Just then, Katie and Ginny came down the stairs “ Ginny was dressed up as a Muggle’s worst idea of a witch, and Katie was dressed like a frog. They looked at Harry and burst into laughter.
It was understandable, Harry knew he looked ridiculous. He wearing an unusual ensemble including football shorts and numerous layered mismatched socks; the look was completed by a tea cozy on his head.
“What in the name of Merlin are you supposed to be?” Katie asked.
“I’m Dobby the house-elf,” Harry said, grinning. “Stop laughing, it’s time to go.”
Ron, Hermione, Katie, Harry, Ginny, Dean and Neville (who were dressed as a vampire and a zombie) left through the portrait hole. Seamus was waiting outside, and to Neville’s horror he was dressed as ‘Snape dressed as Neville’s grandmother’. They all headed for Professor Lupin’s room first, since it was the closest. Professor Lupin seemed to have grown a few feet (wider as well as taller), had a wild looking beard and mane of hair, and was wearing a huge moleskin coat; he said a booming “How yeh’s doin’?” as he handed them out chocolate. Lupin particularly enjoyed Seamus’s costume.
Next they went to Flitwick, who had charmed himself to glisten a silvery-white and float off the ground. It was much more impressive than the white sheet that Muggles usually associated with a ghost costume, thought Harry.
Even McGonagall had gotten in the spirit “ she had dressed in huge robes and put a horrible pink cardigan over them; she had a small black bow in her hair and she was waving around a tiny wand.
“Er... Professor. Are you supposed to be Professor Umbridge?” Harry asked.
“Hem, hem “ I don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Potter.”
She hid her smile as she put handfuls of Fizzing Whizzbees into their cauldrons. The next stop was Dumbledore’s office. Dumbledore was standing outside his office, he had transfigured a golden beak onto his face, and his body was covered in scarlet feathers; his enormous wings stretched to the sides; he was humming a spine-tingling tune. Harry couldn’t help but laugh... Dumbledore had dressed up as Fawkes. The group walked towards when suddenly “
he burst into flames. Katie, Ginny, and Hermione screamed “ all the boys jumped back in frightened astonishment, Ron letting out a vehement exclamation. Then the flames died down and Dumbledore gave a chuckle as he handed them lemon drops and Chocolate Frogs.
“That was quite enjoyable,” Dumbledore said, winking at them. “A nice tickling sensation...”
They said goodbye and left, several of them were still recovering from the shock of seeing the Headmaster burst into flames. On their way downstairs, Harry passed by the entrance to the kitchens, where there was a small figure handing out sweets to passing students. He had on Gryffindor Quidditch robes, round glasses, a wig of messy black hair and a lightning bolt drawn on his forehead.
“Dobby?” Harry asked, astonished.
“Sir! Do you like Dobby’s costume? Dobby is dressed as Harry Potter!”
“Yeah, it’s great,” he said. “Looks just like me; I dressed up as you, too...”
“Dobby is honored, sir that Harry Potter would dress as him!” he bowed, offering them the bowl of Every Flavor Beans, from which they all grabbed a box. They said thank you and left for Hagrid’s hut.
“What do you think Hagrid’s dressed as?” asked Dean.
“Maybe he’s dressed as Lupin...” Seamus said, laughing.
Hagrid wasn’t dressed as Lupin. He had on an entire black dragon skin suit, and long tail with spikes at the end, and huge leathery wings coming from his back.
“A dragon “ we should’ve known, Hagrid,” said Hermione.
“Not jus’ a dragon, Hermione,” said Hagrid, beaming. “It’s a Hungarian Horntail. Did it fer you Harry, what d’yeh think?”
“Err...lovely Hagrid,” answered Harry trying to think of a reason why Hagrid thought he would be pleased to be reminded of something that had tried to kill him.
“An’ Fang here is dressed as Norbert,” Hagrid said, sounding nostalgic. The group looked down at Fang who was asleep on the ground, and was dressed in green dragon skin, with small wings. Hagrid then put handfuls of assorted sweets into their cauldrons.
“It’s probably abou’ time we all went to th’ Great Hall...” Hagrid said. “The sun is settin’” They all turned and went back to the castle, for the pre-feast celebrations. When they went inside the Great Hall it, there were no lights “ the ceiling provided the only illumination. They Saturday down at their tables. Nearly Headless Nick glided over to them, looking excited.
“Oh I can’t wait. I spent all week decided what stories I should tell you...”
“What do you mean?” asked Dean.
“Well, Dumbledore said there was to be ghost stories. I thought I would start with my first broom ride.”
“Er.. Nick? Not that we wouldn’t love to hear about that. But “ well ghost stories aren’t stories told by ghosts...” said Harry.
“They’re not?” he said, looking disappointed.
“No, they’re stories Muggles tell to frighten each other.”
“Oh!” Nick brightened up a bit. “Well I can do that, too...”
From that point on, the night went well. Dumbledore told a very frightening story that had Hermione clinging to Ron, which Ron seemed pretty happy about. But when it came to bobbing for apples, all the girls were quite disgusted at the way their boyfriends thrashed their heads about in the huge bowls of water before pulling out their soaked faces with apples in their smiling mouths.
“Come on, Hermione “ have a go...” Ron said, laughing.
“We have a ball tonight “ I am not putting my head in there,” she lashed at him.
Katie and Ginny shot Harry and Dean warning looks as though saying “Don’t even think about suggesting we play...” The guys took the hint.
Then, lights came on and dishes and goblets appeared on the table; they were soon filled with food.
“Finally!” exlaimed Ron. “I really worked up an appetite with all that “apple-bobbing” “ I’ll have to teach that to dad....”
“Why didn’t you just eat the apples, you got five of them...” Hermione said scathingly. She looked up at Ron’s sopping mass of red hair and gave a small ‘tut’.
“What’s wrong, Hermione? Not looking forward to being the prettiest girl at the ball?” Ron said grinning. Hermione’s mood changed significantly.
Fifteen minutes into the feast, Katie, Ginny, and Hermione got up to leave.
“Where are you lot going?” asked Dean.
“We have to get ready for the ball...”
“You have two hours...” said Harry.
“One hour and forty-five minutes,” corrected Hermione. “Besides we’re not the only ones.”
She was right, all around the Great Hall, girls were getting up and leaving. When Hermione, Katie, and Ginny were out of earshot Ron looked at Dean and Harry.
“They’re all mad,” he said.
Harry and Dean agreed with him - but they couldn’t help thinking that all the girls looked fantastic that night at the ball. Ron had reverted back to his speechless, stumbling self at the mere sight of Hermione in her shimmering, black robes. Katie, who had worn her hair down for the first time since Harry had known her, had a similar effect on Harry, who couldn’t help notice that her golden robes actually did bring out the color of her eyes. Ginny, who had her hair up, with curls cascading down at the back, looked equally stunning in her velvety red robes.
“Well...shall we...go ?” Harry was still recovering from how amazing Katie looked.
The girls took the arms of the three boys and headed downstairs to the Great Hall, where Seamus and Neville were waiting for them with Parvati and Lavender, who they had taken to the ball as dates. The music was already playing; Dumbledore had booked The Druids for the ball. In the corner, next to a buffet of sweets, Harry spotted Dobby (who had changed out of his costume) and a few other house elves serving drinks. Harry and Katie went over to him.
“Good evening, Harry Potter, sir!” squeaked Dobby, delighted that he had run into Harry twice in one day. “What can Dobby get for you and Ms. Katie?”
“What do you have?” asked Katie.
“We have water, Witch’s Brew, pumpkin juice, and iced pumpkin coffees.”
They got pumpkin juice and went to sit down, watching Hermione and Ron ‘dancing’.
“Ron, you keep stepping on my feet...”
“Sorry...”
“Why are you holding my hand so tight?”
“I didn’t realize...sorry.”
It seemed Ron was too transfixed by Hermione to pay any attention to anything else. After a few minutes, Hermione gave up and they went to get something to drink, and then sat next to Harry and Katie. It seemed, however, that by the time they had reached the table, Ron had already injured Hermione again, because she was holding her hand against her eye, and Ron was apologizing profusely...
“I’m sorry, Hermione, from now on I’ll try not to spit my pumpkin juice in your eye...”
“For most people that’s a given, Ronald.”
Harry, deciding that he would rather not know how Ron had managed to spit in her eye, asked Katie if she would like to dance, and they got up to go to the dance floor.
“They’re really lucky,” said Katie.
“Who?” asked Harry.
“Ron and Hermione.”
“Oh...them. Why?”
“They were best friends for years, and now they’re together “ they must really love each other. It’s pretty rare to find that when you’re so young.”
“My parents started going together when they were at Hogwarts,” said Harry. “But then again, I s’pose they weren’t best friends for years. My mum hated my dad.”
“Really?” Katie said, surprised.
“Yeah, it’s okay though. She like him well enough in the end...” Harry said.
“Were they very young when they died?”
“Yeah, they were about twenty-two,” somewhat sadly.
“I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have asked “ ”
“It’s alright...I like to talk about them sometimes. I should show you pictures of their wedding, sometime.”
Then Harry felt a painful jab in his chest “ he had remembered the picture of Sirius laughing at the wedding. It might be easy to think of his parents, he’d had 15 years to get used to their deaths. But the loss of Sirius was still painful.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine, just “ Sirius was my dad’s best man...”
“Oh...”
Harry wanted to change the subject.
“You look really nice, you should wear your hair down more often.”
“Thanks.”
They danced quietly for a minute or two before going back to sit down. The rest ball was quite a success. Dumbledore had decided to “Muggle-it-up” a bit, as he called it, by teaching everyone some Muggle dances called the Macarena and the Chicken dance (“Dad and Dumbledore should form some kind of a club” said Ginny). Ron had managed to finish of the night spectacularly by throwing his hand in Hermione’s face during one of the Muggle dances. At midnight, they all went upstairs, exhausted. Hermione had somehow managed to remain in a good mood despite Ron’s moronic behavior the entire night. Ron, however, still felt the need to apologize.
“Hermione, I just want to say sorry for injuring you so many times to night,”
“It’s fine, Ron. Some people aren’t very well coordinated.”
“And for not really talking all night...”
“Don’t worry about it...”
“It’s just that, you really look beautiful tonight. You kind of knocked me senseless...”
Hermione’s cheeks turned pink, and she couldn’t do much other than smile and mumble a thank you. Ron kissed her good night and then followed the other four boys up to bed.
“You’re getting much better at all that boyfriend stuff,” said Harry.
“I sure hope so,” Ron replied. “I don’t know what I’d do if Hermione ever broke up with me.”