Disclaimer: I only own Astrid. She is mine. You can't have her.

ch. 3

~Halloween~

"How can so many people want to come to a party?" Harry was looking downstairs in his mad hatter costume. Luna was standing right beside him in her blue Alice dress.

"I think it's more of the Cullens then us. They are the most popular in school, you know. Alice does amazing work. Perhaps she could help me with Mrs. Weasley's sweater." The boy who lived smiled and shook his head.

"She'd probably run away with the idea though. Come on...better get in there before Remus snaps on everyone." It wasn't that Remus couldn't handle teens, he just couldn't' handle that many. The wolf was quite thankful when he spotted his charges. The pair came over to the man, who was dressed in orange. Many didn't understand his costume but Harry and Luna smiled at the double C on his chest.

"Ron would be proud."

"I'm sure he would. He is a Canons fan too." Remus was happy to have at least something of their lives before in the Halloween festivities, given that it was so important a holiday for them. With the older man being in a Chudley Canons Quidditch costume it was easy to see how many thought he was just in orange for Halloween.

"Harry, wow you look amazing~" The green eyed teen cringed slightly. How did she always find him?

"Hi Lauren..." The girl was dressed as noticeable as possible. Ugh, this was just ridiculous. He managed to be polite though despite his gut churning unpleasantly. Thankfully, Jasper intervened.

"Harry, you alright?" That slight southern accent was still taking a bit to get used to but right now it was like angels.

"Yeah, this is Remus. Remus this is...Remus?" Edward, Alice, and Bella weren't far behind the other Cullen and got there just as Lupin froze. His pupils were dilated...uh oh.

"Luna..."

"It's not for another week...Remus are you alright?" Remus was almost glaring at the Cullens but the family was just about doing the same.

"Why are you here?"

"Rem, these are our friends..."

"Harry, you should know better." What was up with him tonight? The wolf was coming out when it wasn't even due? How could that happen?

"We aren't like you assume. If you would allow we can talk to you after the party...it would be better. There will be much to talk about it...I think." Jasper looked at Alice in disbelief. She had never said something like that. It was so...uncertain.

"Alice what's wrong?" Harry couldn't help but notice that even though Edward was asking Alice a question, his eyes never left Remus'. What the hell was going on?

"I don't know. It's just flashes. Something's interfering...like it knows I'm able to see and it's stopping me. I don't know how. I just get...half second shots."

"Has it ever happened before?" The older man had finally moved from Edward's gaze. The pixie-like teen shook her head. It hadn't. All she could make out was that whatever it was, was strong enough to block her sight, and she would encounter it.

"After the party...and no one better go missing." With that, Remus excused himself. The look he had given Luna and Harry was one they hadn't seen since the Order days.

"You sure it's two weeks away?"

"Positive. It's new tonight." The complete opposite of the wolf cycle. The furry creature should be slumbering right now...

"Maybe it's because of Halloween?"

"Could be. The veil is thinnest tonight. All sorts of things could slip through." Luna wasn't thinking quite along the lines of Harry when she said all sorts of things but the reply was still the same.

"Knock on wood Luna-bell." The Potter laughed when his younger sister stomped her foot twice on the hard wood floors. It was a classic Luna moment.

"That was Lupin? Your guardian?" Alice was looking shocked, if not slightly disgusted. It was true that Remus was a bit disfigured from his transformations over the years but he was a good man...and no one was going to snub him.

"Yeah, he's the best. Why?"

"How well do you know him? He doesn't seem like the right-" Edward had been cut off by the sudden hissing in his head. Whatever he'd said had flared Harry's anger.

"I've known him for years. I trust him with my life...there are very few who could say that." The Cullens could tell there was something not being said. If Harry knew him that well then he knew of his...disorder. That would make their own secret that much harder to keep. Jasper calmed the room down a bit to ease Harry. At least they were able to continue with the party. As it turned out, most of the school had come. Given that Forks isn't that big it was no surprise really. What was surprising was the surprise guests Harry and Luna received toward the end of the night.

"Hey Harry. How you been?" With only a small glance the green eyed teen nodded and went back to his little plate of canary creams.

"Hey Fred. I've been pretty good. Things are definitely less...'lively' as you-FRED!" It suddenly clicked in his head that the twin he had next to him was the dead one. Fred was easy to tell from George now that George was missing an ear...and there were definitely two ears. The only Weasley to have been lost, and he was standing next to him. Pale, dark circles under the eyes...and slightly decayed skin. Under normal circumstances people would've noticed this immediately. But it was Halloween and people thought he was just dressed as a zombie. Little did the muggles know he was actually a zombie.

"H-how? You're...Fred you're dead."

"Nice. That rhymed. Yeah, bummer too. There was so much I wanted to do. George hasn't been the same...I feel bad that I left him."

"I don't think you get it. You're dead as in not walking around anymore. How are you even here?" Slowly but surely Harry had been backing up. It wasn't doing any good though since every step he took back, Fred took one forward.

"Think on it for a moment Harry. Dead guy come back to life on Halloween and who does he come to but Harry Potter?"

"Harry? You alright?" Jasper. How was it he was always there when Harry needed someone around? Alice and Luna weren't far behind him. Luna's head tilted to the side at the sight of their dead friend.

"Fred?"

"Loony! Always nice to see you. I really don't have much time. It takes a lot of energy to do this...you know you got dead things in your midst?"

"Yeah, you."

"Not me Harry. Them...they've got gray auras like me." The red head was pointing toward Jasper and Alice. Gray auras?

"I-...I can't believe I'm having this conversation. I mean a lot of weird things have happened to me but this? Definitely new."

"Not for one person...come on Harry. Think. Why would I be here and not with George?"

"Ah..." Edward came over with Bella holding his head. Whatever was wrong with him looked like a major migraine.

"Edward? His head just started pounding." The poor brunette was trying to figure out what was wrong with her boyfriend. No one could hear what he could though. None of them knew the intensity of the pain.

"In there-"

"No, dangerous-"

"Fred-"

"You should go i-"

"What are you-"

"Side door's best"

"They won't be happy"

"Have to get in."

"Get out. Run."

"Just a little further..."

"Not yet!"

"Hurry!"

There were so many voices all talking at once. It was a complete jumble of nonsense that hurt more then the school did. Each person had their own mind but this...it was like all the thoughts were arguing within the confines of one solitary space. Edward could barely take it.

"Death."

"Walking around like they-"

"Not Fred."

"Run! You can't!"

"Nothing you can't handle"

"You mustn't."

"Need to do this."

The youngest vampire held his hand to his head. Where were all these voices coming from? Everyone had left.

"This is not fair." They all turned to see a lithe girl with shoulder length blonde hair. She almost looked like a jester in the costume she was in...but none of the Cullens knew who she was. Edward realized immediately though that all the voices were coming from her.

"Vampires."

"Demons"

"Gold eyed ones..."

"Not possible"

"How could they." The whispers grew in numbers and soon became nothing but indistinct background noise.

"How come you're allowed and I'm not?" The girl moved over to Harry in an instant and held him close. He was a cousin to her in every sense but blood.

"Astrid...I thought you were in Mungo's."

"Please, like that insane place could hold me." The blonde rolled her eyes with a smile as she turned to Luna.

"Lulu! You're safe! I've been looking all over for you. If I knew you were here with him I would've found his vanished butt sooner. Thank you by the way Fred."

"Anytime. I do have to go though. It's nearing midnight and I have to turn into a pumpkin as the muggles would say." The red head came over to Astrid and kissed her lightly on the head.

"Mm, if only you were that tasty...bye Fred."

"See you Black." The Cullens watched in amazement as the man standing before them faded and disappeared.

"Wha-how? How did that...how could that...what?" That was the appropriate reaction, yet only Bella seemed to have it.

"Astrid Orion Black, what in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Remus had come back in the room and if it were possible, he looked even angrier.

"I'm here~ I thought maybe you'd want to keep me? Perhaps? Maybe? Please Rem, I have no where to go."

"What about St Mungo's, where you were?"

"That place didn't help me! If anything it only made things worse...there were so many Rem...please." Even if the wolf was very close the surface, the wizard still relented and nodded. Astrid somehow always got his consent.

"One question. Who are you and how are you blocking my visions?" Alice could see the cat was out of the bag, there was no point in denying it. The least they could do was answer each others questions.

"Well that could take a little bit to explain..."

"We've got the time As." Harry had moved over to the couch, leading the others as he did. It had been a bumpy ride for him in his life but one thing he knew was to expect the crazy with Astrid Black. She had a bit of the insanity gene that so often plagued her family. Sirius was able to stabilize her mind when he'd been around but after seeing him die...well, she'd gone off the deep end more then once and the scars to prove it.

"Okeh, well for starters...I'm like you. Vampire. But not...wait you guys did know they were fangers right?"

"We do now. Keep going." Take it in stride...don't stop the story or it would never finish.

"Alright, but I'm half. My mom was turned while she was pregnant with me. I guess that's why I age naturally. I was human until I was eight months into incubation. Anyway, I'm also kind of...gifted. Crazy as a loon but gifted. Dad-...dad always said it was the Black legacy. It's history and future. I was a miracle apparently and not just with my surviving my mom's turning. I can do these amazing things that are way up on the super creepy scale. Like with Fred. I did that. I don't do it often since it takes up so much energy and magic. I can block the visions you have because I can see you watching me. I just stopped them from being seen."

"Wait, how? No one can stop Alice's visions." Jasper was a tad concerned with this power that the witch in front of him possessed.

"I put up a wall. It's called Occlumency. Wizards use it to block people from their minds. I'm just really good. I had to be with Voldy out there to get me. They know you're wizards right?"

"They do now." This was information overload. Astrid just couldn't have stayed where she was? Not that Harry didn't love his cousin she was just so...much sometimes.

"Well anyway, that's how. What else...oh! I may have met a few, uh, wolves. Did you know there's a pack running around here Rem?" Remus' head jerked up. There were what!

"Are you sure?"

"Sure as can be, smelled them a mile away. They're different from your scent so I knew it couldn't be you but definitely wolves."

"The Quilettes. The tribe down at La Push. They're werewolves. Can I...what is wrong with your mind?" Edward was still in pain...her head was so full it was hard for him to separate his own thoughts from all of hers.

"Hurts don't it? You get used to it. I learned to tune most of them out years ago. I'm diagnosed with schizophrenia. It's not what I have thought it feels like it at times. What your dear mind reader is hearing is the dead. They're all around. The muggles who died or the wizards who come back to watch over loved ones like guardians, btw, James says hi. I can hear them and if you're tuned in to my head, so can you. What do you hear with them?" Astrid pointed to her family. Remus was probably swearing up a storm with the wolf so close but Harry and Luna she wasn't sure about.

"Luna has words I don't understand and Harry's is just noises...sounds."

"Like what? What's it sound like?" Ooo, Harry couldn't have people read his mind! That was good. He needed that. Edward repeated a phrase that kept going over and over in Harry's mind. The wizards knew the language but only Harry could translate.

"This isn't happening...that's what I keep saying."

"Dude, cuz, your brain is in parseltongue."

"Yeah...figures right?"

"This is going to be fun...I think." Leave it to Luna...with her sentence somehow it broke the ice and they all started laughing.

"What a way to end Halloween...can't wait for next year." Harry said smiling. For the first time in a long time he felt a bit of his old self coming back. Sirius' daughter seemed to have the same effect her father did. The world seemed a bit better with her around...too bad it was only going to get worse.

An: New Chapter for a New Year. It's about a week late but what can you do? Thank you TonksBella for reviewing. ^ ^ you get a happy face. Next chapter will be up as soon as I can get it. My brain doesn't want to focus on the redone Astrid. I keep thinking of her in the time line she's supposed to be in. I originally created her for a different story that I may start posting if I get enough chapters written. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, R&R