i A/N /i : This is my first story so it's a bit rough around the edges. Any constructive criticism or comments would be appreciated.

Chapter 1

Harry opened his eyes with a start. He had been having a strange dream but as fast as he tried to remember the details, they slipped away. With a shake of his head to clear away the last bits of sleep, he sat up and grinned. "Finally, Halloween" he thought, quickly thinking over the list of pranks that he and Ron had stayed up planning the night before.

Throwing back his blankets, he got up and walked to the window to open the closed curtains. "Ron, wake up. Its Halloween," he shouted, pulling the curtains wide to let the sunshine in. Looking out, he saw a thick band of clouds just coming over the forbidden forest, heading towards the sun. "Perfect weather for Halloween" he said to himself, seeing the rain coming in with the clouds.

"Ron!" he hollered again, wondering why none of the other boys were stirring behind their closed bed curtains. He walked over to Ron's bed and yanked the curtains aside, expecting to see his friend lying there snoring still, but was startled the find his bed empty and neatly made.

"Wow, he managed to get up before me," Harry thought. "He must have been really excited about today. Letting the curtains fall back into place, he walked around the room checking Neville, Seamus and Dean's beds. He found them all empty as well.

"Strange" he mused out loud to himself" they never make their beds. As he said this, the band of clouds finally covered up the sun causing the room to get suddenly cold. Shivering, Harry quickly got his clothes and started pulling them on, hoping to find his friends downstairs.

A few minutes later in the common room, Harry looked around wondering if it was later than he thought. Nobody was in the room; not ever Crookshanks doing his usual morning snoop. There wasn't even a fire burning in the grate.

Harry signed, exasperated, as he climbed out the portrait hole wondering why none of his friends thought to wake him up. Looking around the corridor, he completely forgot the he was missing breakfast when he saw all of the grinning faces of the glowing jack-lantern lining the walls. Spiders the size of saucers crawled along the floors and walls and Harry laughed out loud at the thought of what Ron's face must have looked like when he saw them.

He started making his usual way to the great hall, using the short cuts so he could get there faster. As he went, he started to get an odd felling. Looking around to see what was wrong, he realized there was nobody around. He had gone down five floors and he hadn't seen a soul, There were even any of the usual ghosts flying around.

Starting to feel unnerved, he turned back down the corridor and started walking quicker wanting to find some people so he could get rid of the creepy feeling the empty hall gave him.

Just as he turned the corner, he heard a crash from behind him. It sounded like someone had broken a window. He dashed back around the corner to see who it was, but there was no -one there. Halfway down the corridor, he could see glass on the floor from the broken window. He realized that if the glass was on the inside, whatever broke it came from out side. He walked down the hall to see if he could find what it was and to fix the window.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew down the corridor towards him extinguishing the torches that lined the walls. With the clouds covering the sun, the only light was the dim glow from the enchanted flames of the jack-o-lanterns which didn't give off enough light to see by, but cast strange shadows all around. From out of nowhere, a thunderclap rattled the windows and shook Harry to his bones. Lightning lit the corridor for a moment and in the quick flash of light, it seemed as if thick black shadows were rolling towards him.

From somewhere is the distance he heard a voice start singing in an eerie voice, "This is Halloween, This is Halloween." The voice raced towards him getting louder and shriller. All of a sudden, the voice was right behind him, nearly shouting in his ear. He whipped around trying to see who it was that was singing but as he did everything went silent.

With the silence ringing in his ears, he took off at a dead run down the hall, not watching where he was going. As he slid around the corner, he barreled into something soft and warm that let out an ear-splitting scream. He went tumbling down with it and started rolling across the floor. As soon as he stopped tumbling, he thrust his hand into his robes and pulled out his wand.

"Lumos," he yelled, wishing he had thought to get his wand out before he started running. The light fell over a mess of familiar red hair.

"Ginny!" he exclaimed, feeling as if he could cry with happiness: he jumped up and ran over to where she lay and looked down at he. As she looked up at him, he saw her tear filled eyes spill over.

"Harry!" I'm so glad to see you. I've looked everywhere but there's nobody here. The entire castle is deserted. I just heard this awful singing and the voice was chasing me but there was nobody there." Harry bent down as she started to sob and put his arms around her while trying to think of what to do. Finally, he pulled away from her and stood up, pulling Ginny up after him. "Come on," he said to her gently, "Let's go down to the great hall. We can't be the only ones here and that's where we're most likely to meet everyone.

Harry and Ginny made it to the great hall without hearing the strange voice again. Harry's heart started to sink and he thought that if there were people in the room, they would be making enough noise to be heard where they were.

As he walked towards the entrance, Ginny grabbed his hand and gripped it hard. Giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, he led her into the hall. Quickly looking around the room, he gave and excited yell.

"Hey! Ron, Hermione, what are you two doing down here?" He pulled Ginny along as he ran down the length of the Gryffindor table towards the two figures each bent over a plate. As he got closer, he realized something was wrong. Neither of them seemed to have noticed their friends running towards them yelling their names. As he got up beside Hermione, he looked down and saw that she was eating pumpkin pie covered with live maggots.

"Oh my god! Harry, look at their faces." Ginny yelled suddenly.

As he looked over, Ron lifted his head and grinned at the two of them. "Nooo," Harry yelled and scrambled back as Hermione lifted her head and started to get up. "Is something wrong, Harry?" she asked sweetly.

Ginny screamed beside him, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from their faces. Bits of skin hung loosely on their cheeks and what remained of their teeth was rotted and falling out. As he watched, two spiders

crawled out of Ron's hair and ran across his face to the other side where they disappeared again.

"Would you like some pie, Harry?" Ron asked, picking the plate up off the table and offering it to him.

"Its wonderful Harry, you should try it." Hermione added. "Would you like some to Ginny?" She picked up her plate and offered it to them.

Suddenly, a thundering noise made them turn around. "Oh look, he comes everybody else." Hermione said, pointing to the entrance where hundreds of students started coming through the entrance. Harry screamed as he saw them. They all looked just like Hermione and Ron, bits of skin falling off them as they jostled each other trying to make their way down the table.

He threw his arms out in front of himself trying to keep the crowd away but they quickly engulfed him. Dozens of hands grabbed at him and pushed him to the floor pulling at his cloths and hair. He couldn't breathe as the bodies pressed all around him, and he choked on the smell of mold and rotting flesh. He heard Ginny screaming somewhere nearby as more and more people crowded around them and everything started to go black. Welcoming the escape, he quickly let the blackness take him.

"Harry!"

"NO! Get away from us!" Harry yelled tearing at the robes surrounding him. He groped around trying to find his wand in the dark.

Suddenly, the robes were whipped away from his face and he stared into the concerned face of Ron.

"Are you alright mate?" Ron asked handing Harry his glasses.

Harry looked around the dorm and saw Neville, Seamus and Dean staring at him from their beds. He started laughing as he realized that it had all been a dream. "Happy Halloween, mates," he said as he jumped out of bed. "Happy Halloween," they all shouted back as they got up and started pulling on their robes.

"Hey, Harry," Ron said holding something out to him," do you want some pumpkin pie?"