Written for The Golden Snitch (Hufflepuff, Hogwarts) Trick or Treat Quick Event.
You've been tricked! Write about a deathday party.
Party Crashing
Scorpius had missed dinner. He had stayed in the library until it closed. At that point his stomach decided to remind him that he hadn't eaten since lunch. It was already past curfew but the kitchen wasn't as far away as breakfast. Mind made up, Scorpius headed past the Great Hall towards the basement.
The hallways were empty. Scorpius bit his lip as he remembered the reason he'd been hauled up in the library. Because today was the anniversary of the battle of Hogwarts and he was hiding from people who had lost relatives to former Slytherins.
A chill went through him as he recalled what he knew of the battle. His father didn't want to talk about it much but occasionally he relented. At school Scorpius had learned more and realized the true amount of people lost that they and the cost light had paid for victory.
Scorpius heard a sound and stopped in his tracks. The Hogwarts Song was being sung to the tune of a slow funeral march. He tried to keep his eyes ahead but then they flickered to the door of the Great Hall where he saw light radiating. Scorpius hesitated. Very slowly he began moving towards the door. The march sounded louder and he reached out and grabbed for the doorknob.
"Don't touch that!" ordered a disembodied voice and Scropius nearly jumped.
He grasped the doorknob even harder to steady himself.
"Let go right now!"
Scorpius screamed as he looked down and was greeted by a ghostly freckled face. His first reaction was to strike the knob face with his free hand.
"Ouch!" declared the voice as the door fell open, "you have wounded me, sir!" It burst out of the knob and Scorpius screamed, then in a panic, slipped into the Great Hall and as the face lunged at him, pushed the door closed behind him.
He leaned against the door and tried to steady his breathing. Just as he almost managed it, another cold shot through him and the ghostly figure of the man with a freckled face slipped through the door.
"What has happened to the youth of today?" he lamented. „Slamming doors in faces of their elders?"
"They lack discipline!" declared another voice, a voice Scorpius recgonized. The voice he'd heard from the portrait of Severus Snape, a man his father had introduced to Scorpius. He turned around and saw the Great Hall was filled with figures. They hovered around a table filled to the brim with all sorts of delicacies that gave off a very pungent aroma of decay. At first Scorpius just stared in horror at the sight. Then he began to recognize faces. At the back two schoolboys were playing a game of gobstones. A smaller student was snapping pictures of everyone with a ghostly camera and a rather pretty girl was showing off her new shoes to an older man with kind eyes.
The freckled ghost was in a conversation with Nearly Headless Nick and Scorpius caught a string of words from the younger: "Oh, I understand completely. Decapitation would have been my favored way to go too. Just imagine leaping out of the shadows juggling your own head? Brilliant! A killing curse doesn't even leave a nice blood stain!"
Albus Dumbledore was licking with a ghostly tongue a cauldron cake that looked moldy and disintegrating. He looked up merrily and smiled at Scropius. „Welcome, my dear boy! Come join the celebration!"
Scorpius frowned. "A celebration...of what?"
"Our deaths of course, dear boy!"
"But...but..." Scorpius realized the connection. They had all fallen in the battle."But why have I not seen you before?"
A cold flash went through him and he stumbled. The freckled face was inches from him. "Because parties are the best part of life! Or in our case, death!" he hovered away as fast as he came.
Dumbledore nodded. "Our unfinished business lies elsewhere, my dear child, but on this day here is where we celebrate." He smiled. "I'd suggest that you don't dwell upon it!"
"I'll take him back to his common room!"
Scorpius turned around. To his great relief he saw the speaker was not a ghost but a short woman with pink hair. He had never seen the woman before but he was glad for the presence of any human, as the ghostly party of fallen was for some reason raising hairs on his arms and chills down his spine.
Dumbledore nodded. "I think that's best." He gave Scorpius one last glance. "If I may offer a word of advice, let the dead party and don't dwell on it. That's what I always did!"
Scorpius wanted to ask something more but Dumbledore's attention was already gone.
The woman did as she had promised. She walked with Scorpius back to the Slytherin common room and gave him a smile when they reached the entrance. "You should do as the Headmaster said and forget what you saw. It's easier that way. And be careful when sneaking around. You might just end up finding something you didn't want to!"
Scorpius nodded. "Thank you. For walking me back. Father said ghosts can't really harm me but-"
The woman smiled. "Don't mention it." She leaned closer. "I used to be afraid of ghosts to!" as she spoke, her features morphed into ghostly ones and her face and hair lost all color "Back when I was alive!" Scorpius screamed as she laughed and flew straight at him.
I don't think that metamorphmaguses keep their power as ghosts in canon, but wouldn't it be fun if they did :P