This is for the Halloween Challenge on HPFC.
Disclaimer: I own neither Hogwarts nor Halloween. They belong, respectively, to JK Rowling and the Pagans.
A Very Hogwarts Halloween
Hogwarts had to adjust to the increasing number of Muggle-borns and half-bloods who had been born and raised in the Muggle world. The old-fashioned castle had to evolve to accompany the expectations and disappointments after the nineteen years of wizards coming and being slightly surprised at the lack of school organised events. That's what everyone said, at least.
Ergo, a set of dances had been constructed. There were complaints and speculation, not to mention much head-shaking and general disapproval. But, nonetheless, to the much excitement of the students and exasperation of the teachers, four dances had been organised: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's and summer.
After the Halloween feast, the houses went to their dormitories to change into whatever costumes they had brought, and came back down at eight, returning to bed at midnight, unless they had the desire and cunning to find elsewhere to spend the night. McGonagall was getting particularly good at weeding out those young couples.
This year was the third year they had the dances, so the teachers, one would think, would be relaxed, seeing as they knew what was going to happen, but no. This year was the year that the Weasley and Potter children were all above third year and allowed to come. "That Malfoy boy" was one that was often included in that group, too, and a good thing, seeing as the youngest son of Harry Potter was Slytherin.
"Scor, you've got to be kidding me," said Albus Potter dubiously.
"What?" Scorpius Malfoy looked down at his Hogwarts uniform. "What's wrong with it? It's perfectly accurate."
"It's creepy!" said Albus angrily. "Just a heads up: I don't know you when the Aurors show up." He pawed through his suitcase for a black marker before drawing the Dark Mark on his forearm and charming it to slither.
"You're one to talk," snorted Scorpius. "We'll have a regular Death Eaters later."
"All we need is a Voldemort," said Albus. "Besides, I couldn't think of anything else."
"Everyone goes as a Death Eater, though," he whined. "At least do something more original. I think Rose is doing some fancy charmwork for hers and helping Hugo's with his. Some Muggle movie monster, I think."
"Would you like me to go as your dad?" asked Albus. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at his temple fake enthusiastically. "I can dye my hair, too, you know."
"Yeah, I haven't forgotten the great hair disaster of '12yet," grumbled Scorpius.
Albus shivered before leaving the dorm room and entering the green and silver that was the Slytherin common room. "Let's go find the Gryffs and 'Claws."
"You going to break into the Towers again?" asked Scorpius, tagging along.
"Nah, just wait in the Great Hall."
"Oh, Rose," gasped Dominique Weasley.
"Wow," said Lily Potter.
Rose frowned self-consciously and looked down. "It's nothing special," she muttered, a warm glow spreading through her. She fingered the fine material as she came down the stairs from her room.
"You never dress up for these things, though," said Dom, still a bit star struck. "It's incredible."
Lily grinned and laced up the front of her mother's blue and silver Quidditch robes. POTTER was even on the back in big letters. "Scor is gonna fall all over you," she said.
The warm glow Rose had been feeling started to go out. "What?" she asked, surprised.
"He fancies you," said Dominique casually, looking in a mirror as people started to leave the common room in various styles of costumes as the younger students looked on, envious. She tilted her tiara a few degrees to the left before scrutinising her platinum blonde hair and blue eyes carefully. She was a Veela, in traditional costume: thin, silvery material folded and whispered over her body with long silver chains and beaded necklaces ending around her waist.
"Dom, you're always the most beautiful girl in the room," said Rose exasperatedly. "What about Scor?"
"He likes you," said Lily, putting on her own Ravenclaw Quidditch gear. "For a year or so, I guess."
Suddenly thinking this was a terrible idea, Rose turned to Dom. "What am I supposed to do if he asks me to dance?"
In a remarkable feat of self-control, Dom pulled herself from the floor-length mirror and managed to look serious and caring. "Ask yourself, right now, 'Would it be so bad if you got together?' "
Instead of shouting, "Well, I don't know!" Rose thought it through. On the plus side, Scor was smart, funny, endearingly stupid instead of stupid-stupid of normal boys, and liked Quidditch. On the negative side, Dad was going to kill her, and if it didn't work their friendship would get painfully awkward at best.
"If it's in the moment, I'll say sure," said Rose, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.
Lily laughed.
"I'm sorry, is my misery amusing?" asked Rose sharply.
"Remember last year?" asked Lily. " 'In the moment' might not be the best way to play things." She kept giggling.
Rose paled. Even though Lily hadn't gone to last year's Halloween, it had been all over the school. Fred and James were given detention for months for putting charmed alcohol in most of the drinks.
"I'll ask them what they didn't poison. Or just bring my own beverages," said Rose faintly, thinking what Scor might do if FJ got him drunk.
Dom laid a hand on Rose's shoulder. "If they try that this year, they'll be expelled for sure, or at least kicked off the Quidditch team and Gryffindor needs them if they have any hope of beating us."
"Okay." Rose took one last deep breath before saying, "Let's go." She went down the stairs and headed to the left, leaving Dom and Lily staring down the other staircase with a curious look on their faces. Rose sighed. "I promised Hugh I'd help him with his costume. You know he's hopeless at Transfiguration."
In the Gryffindor common room, things weren't nearly as dramatic.
"Hugo Ronald Weasely!"
"Calm down, Roxie," said Hugo, stepping into the purple wetsuit and pulling it up quick. If this didn't work, he was going to kill Rosie.
Roxanne came hurling into his dorm room, Lucy not far behind. "Where're my ribbons?" Rox demanded.
Hugo glared at the girls. "You two are lucky I got this over my waist." He pointed to the skin-tight material that he was dragging up his chest.
"Remember that summer Rox burst in when you were taking your bathing suit off?" reminded Lucy helpfully, looking down at her red t-shirt and pulling her arms inside, turning it forewords, so the logo BON JOVI was visible.
Hugo grimaced. "I'm trying to forget. Rox, you should learn to knock."
As if on cue, three knocks sounded.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Hugo."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Hugo."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Hugo."
"But not like him," said Hugo, zipping the suit up completely. He crossed the room and opened the door, seeing Louis wearing the most ridiculous costume Hugo could imagine. It was a long, thin purple gown with large yellow stars, his pale hair was hidden beneath a massive blue velvet hat with silver stars and an obviously fake white beard that reached his brown sandals.
"What'd you do, Lou?" asked Hugo tiredly.
"I'm Merlin, isn't it obvious?" said Louis brightly, stepping in. "I bought the bits in a Muggle store Mom took me to."
"It's so..." started Rox.
"... fake," finished Lucy.
"That's the brilliance of it," said Louis, still brilliantly pleased with himself. "I'm totally going to win Most Muggle Costume."
"You're lucky Molly changed from Muggle to house-elf at last minute," said Lucy. "Thing is, I borrowed her costume!"
Louis's constant smile slipped a little as he took in her sneakers and blue jeans that were a little too short. Clearly, she had tried to shrink them to her own size but had gone too far; three inches of her neon green and black socks showed.
"Where's my brother?" demanded Roxanne.
"He and James are getting dressed," said Louis. "They're not letting me in."
"Not surprising when you knock like that," muttered Hugo, searching through his suitcase and bags. They always packed together, spending the entire summer together and things got mixed up. He pulled out two long strings of blue satin. "Here're your ribbons, Rox. Now're you gonna tell us why you're dressed like some medieval princess? You hate those clothes."
Rox had a pale blue corset that contrasted with her bright red hair that was braided and extended down to her feet, and long white and blue skirts. She tied in the blue ribbons in the bottom and pulled her wand from the belt at her waist. "El gave me the idea last summer: I'm Rapunzel. Now, seriously, I need James or Fred," she said briskly, marching outside and up the stairs to the sixth year boys' room.
Without any warning, like always, she burst in and said, "Fred, could you change my hair colour?" Or she would have, if she hadn't stopped midway through her brother's name.
Fred's skin was deathly pale and his teeth elongated to sharp points. His red hair was slicked back and was steadily darkening to black. His eyes were also going red and there were drops of red near his mouth. "Ve vant to suck your blood!" he shouted. "Damn, these teeth are a bitch to talk around," he said, slightly muffled but normal-sounding. "Whatdoya think? I'm definitely going to win Most Muggle, huh?"
Molly poked her head in, straightening a long, dingy drape around herself and tying it at her waist. It wasn't breaking the dress code, but it was certainly stretching it. Her ears were bigger and bat-like, and her nose was much longer and pointier. She took one look at Fred and said, "That's racist."
"Course it is, Mol, that's the point. It's funny and there're no vampires here at school!" Fred looked in the mirror and carefully slicked down a stray hair. "I'm Dracula, anyways, and he's not a real vampire. For one, he bursts into fire in the sun. Haven't you seen those old Muggle horror movies Hugh's so obsessed with?"
Hugo blushed faintly.
"Guess who James is," said Fred with a toothy smile. "If you don't get it, he's going to jump out that window."
James was wearing some filthy robes that were striped black and white, although you could hardly see the difference. His hair was much longer and curlier and his eyes were grey. He held a photo in his hand, an old newspaper clipping. "I think it's perfect," he said.
"Mate, you should've gone with post-Azkaban," snorted Fred.
"You're an Azkaban prisoner, then?" said Molly.
"A very specific one," said Fred, while James compared his reflection with the picture.
"An innocent one, from the Second War," interjected James.
"Half the people in Azkaban during the War were innocent," said Roxanne. "They just wanted to say they got some people locked up."
"Who am I?" demanded James.
There was complete silence for a moment before it finally clicked in Louis's head.
"James Sirius Potter!" he shouted.
Everyone looked at him, dumbfounded.
"We know that!" said Molly, in tones of complete superiority.
"No, no, no, James Sirius Potter," continued Louis. "You're Sirius Black!"
James clapped sarcastically. "This'll be a long night if it takes my cousins this long. Come on." He lead the Weasleys and Potters outside Gryffindor Tower, and down the stairs. It took him a minute to realise Hugo wasn't with them.
Hugo waved them on, saying, "I gotta wait for Rose."
They shrugged and continued, talking anxiously about the party.
Hugo blew on his hands. It was chilly in the stone corridor and his costume was fairly thin. What if it didn't work? What if Rose was wrong? Oh, please let her come soon.
Then, as soon as he thought that, Rosie came up the steps, smiling self-consciously. Hugo's jaw almost fell to the floor.
"Yes, blah, blah, blah, I look nice, I know, now do you want me to do this or not?" she snapped good-naturedly
Hugo nodded and let her mutter the spells and tap her wand. Pretty soon, the fabric thickened and expanded, the outermost layer turning jelly-like and translucent, catching the light in a purpley-pink, wiggly blob of jell-o.
"Good?" she asked.
"Good," he said, testing it, moving around and making sure he could sit. "Perfect." He started going down to the Great Hall, but noticed his sister wasn't following him. "Rose?"
She stayed just outside the Gryffindor portrait, her hands at her sides, pulling at the material uneasily. "You go, I'll be down in a minute," she said, her voice a little higher than normal.
Hugo looked at her for another minute before continuing to the dance.
"I can't believe you're coming as my dad," grumbled Albus.
"Why not? He's famous, isn't he?" said Scorpius happily, cleaning his round-rimmed glasses on his Gryffindor Hogwarts uniform that he borrowed from his own dad and charmed the colours. His eyes were green, his hair black and messy, and, worst of all, there was a small lightning scar on his forehead. "Besides, you went as my dad. Talk about hypocrites," added Scorpius, punching Albus on the arm.
Albus stifled a grin. He had, in fact, dyed his hair white-blonde and charmed his own eyes grey. There was a Dark Mark on his arm and he was wearing black Death Eater robes. "I'm not your dad, I'm just a generic Death Eater," defended Albus.
"You should've gone as Snape," said Scorpius.
"Nah, James is going as his middle name," said Albus absently, scanning the crowd for any redheads. The Hall was decorated with real, live bats flying around and jack-o-lanterns accompanied the floating candles, which kept changing colour to the music. McGonagall had booked a band, someone Albus hadn't heard of, and they were playing some light, string song at the far end, but Albus knew the bass would be tuned up and there would be creepy words added. The side walls were lined with the house tables, loaded with food.
"There's the 'Claw girls," said Scorpius, pointing to the staircase, where a familiar duo was standing. "Oy, Lils, Dom!" shouted Scor. "I didn't think your mom would let them borrow her old Hollyhead Harpies robes," he said quieter to Albus.
"Hey, don't stare at my cousin," said Albus as he noticed where his friend's eyes were drooping. A loud, hard smack on his head, and Scor stopped staring.
"Why?" he asked, still looking from the corner of his eye.
"Because that's my cousin and your fourth cousin," hissed Albus.
Scorpius cringed. "Fine. But anything past third cousins isn't family."
Lily and Dominique came up, smiling, Lily innocently, looking everywhere at once, Dom dazzlingly, eyeing Scor until he blushed. It appeared Veela traits were very persistent.
Before Scorpius fell under a Veelic spell, like he had last year, Albus pulled his arm and said, very loudly, "There's Rox and the Gryffs, come on."
Reluctantly, Scorpius followed his friend to the other end of the hall. He perked up when he noticed Fred and Louis. He voiced the question Albus was thinking. "What in the name of sanity are you two?"
"Nice fangs, Freddie," added Albus. "Love the hat, Lou."
That broke whatever awkward tension was between them. Al and Scor both burst out laughing, and they found they couldn't stop, much to Fred and Louis's anger. It took several minor hexes and two Silencing Charms to calm them.
"That was pretty much what I was thinking," Rox said dryly.
A wave of James's wand and the boys could speak again.
"So... what—?" started Scorpius, but Albus stepped on his foot hard.
"Nice Rapunzel," said Albus pointedly. Before the others could argue and make Scor guess, Albus pointed to his cousins' and brother's costumes. "A Muggle, Merlin, Sirius Black, Dracula and house-elf, right?" Hugo bounced up to them, about three feet wider than normal, made of a purply, spongy jelly. "Hugh's the Blob, right?" added Albus hurriedly. Hugo's face fell, disappointed that no one got to guess, but brightened when Albus said, "It looks really, really good."
"Huh. It made me think that I'd never eat jell-o again, but, okay," said James, smiling. Hugh spun around but Fred tapped his shoulder absently.
Scorpius wasn't listening anymore. He was staring at the staircase, where the only one of them left, Rose, was coming down, looking like she could hardly be more self-conscious. Her costume everyone had been looking forward to, since she had kept it such a secret and Hugo didn't even see anything special being packed. Lily and Dom smiled in a self-satisfied sort of way; the boys looked and then sniggered as they noticed Scorpius, but he was too busy staring to notice.
Albus almost didn't recognise Rose. Rose's reddish-brownish hair was arranged in elegant, smooth curls. Her eyes had a sparkle to them. A dress made of a periwinkle blue material that gathered at her waist and flowed down in waves reached her feet.
The band started another, much slower song; Rose smiled softly; Scorpius's jaw slowly, comically dropped as he took it in; everything was getting too clichéd for Hugo, so he jumped in and shook Scorpius so hard that his glasses slipped off and made an unhealthy-sounding crack as they hit the floor. Scor looked ready to murder Hugh.
"Toldja," whispered Dom to Lily, as the others tried to not laugh but failed spectacularly. Dom and Lily ushered the boys to the dance floor, then the food tables, leaving Scor and Rose alone.
None of them knew what happened, but they spent the night mostly by themselves, either talking or dancing, staying far, far away from slow songs. By ten, the others found Rose and Scor slow-dancing, and by midnight, they had disappeared.
As had been expected, there had to have been something in the food or drink, since Sprout grabbing the microphone and singing I Want a Hippogriff For Christmas.
"That was fantastic!" gushed Lily as they left the Hall and were beginning to separate to their own houses. The Gryffs stayed with them; Al had gone down to the dungeons, abandoning Scor.
Dom smiled. "What did I tell you?"
A few of the older couples had gone to the bushes or a private place, and the teachers were rooting them out. Soft sighs and hushed giggles broke through the after-party bustle the halls were filled with. James and Fred liked to try to break up a few smooching couples, too; they smirked at each other and disappeared down a corridor. They returned a minute later, faces pale and faintly stunned. Each of them held either Rose or Scorpius by their collars, both a bit red in the face and grinning.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," moaned Hugo. Scor was pretty much family; they considered themselves siblings, not cousins or friends.
"Let's send them back to their dorms," said Dom, taking Rose, "and let them do what they want when they have wicked hangovers."
The houses broke apart, Scor going his own way, and Lily snickered.
"What's so funny?" asked Dominique. Lily gave her a look. "Besides the obvious," Dom added hastily.
"I don't think this was a drunk thing," she said in the tones of one confiding a particularly good inside joke.
"Neither do I," said Dom drily. She was thinking about what would happen if Rose and Scor broke up; could they all stay friends?
"So..." prompted Lily.
"So what?"
"So can you imagine the look on Uncle Ron's face when we come home for Christmas?"
I kind of like this, actually, so not too hard. Sorry it's a bit long. :)