(For laziness, I have split Halloween in 2 parts. In Italics, will be Alyssa/Prongs. In bold, Harry.) As always: I don't own it. Enjoy!

Haunted Halloween….

AlyssaPOV

I never subscribed to the "Prophet", but Hermione did. Every time she handed me that rag, I'd roll my eyes and she'd tell me that I needed to keep up with what's going on. Like that two page long expose on my arrival at Hogwarts. It had taken the Ministry weeks before they found out about me. Even though the Department of Magical Education already knew.

I suppose this Minister wasn't too keen on the up and comings of new arrivals.

I had just sat down at the table ready for a decent breakfast. Around me people were milling around, some half asleep others buried in books. Well, just one. She was hidden away by quite a large tome. Even I had to wonder how she carried that thing around.

Reaching for the jam, I had finally learned to ignore Ron's horrible table manners. Just as everyone else had. Though we were supposed to sit with our year, it didn't matter to those three. They sat with me anyway. My Potions notes were sitting close by and I peeked over them. It was a Hiccoughing Solution. I swear, I had made this last year, but it was required. Snape still didn't like me but I normally came away with perfect potions.

Or at least the ones he didn't try to screw up. He hated that I had already taken this course and was determined to catch me a cheat. Which wasn't going to happen.

Harry sat down beside me and mumbled a 'good morning' before reaching for breakfast himself. As I was sipping my tea, the doors to the Great Hall burst open. Turning, we all looked on too see a crowd of Aurors with several higher ups with them. What was going on? The rumors of Sirius had been quite for some time now.

They kept marching until they reached the front table. The portly one with a green bowler hat marched up to Dumbledore. They whispered something to each other for a long minute before the man turned around. Tearing off his hat, he scanned the crowd.

"Students of Hogwarts, we are here on business. Now, where is Alyssa Potter?"

I almost rolled my eyes. These people were incompetent.

"Now Cornelius, we can do this in my office…" Dumbledore suggested. A fine one at that, I might add.

"No, we will not." This Cornelius said without looking at him. "Now, I will repeat myself. Where is Alyssa Potter."

Harry paled while Hermione nudged me. I sighed and stood up. Swinging my legs over the bench, I straightened my school robes before addressing said crowd. "I'm here….May I ask why you're pulling me from my cuppa?"

Two Aurors nudged me to walk toward the front of the Great Hall. Following them, I could feel the panic roll off my brother. The curiosity of everyone in the room was overwhelming. If I had time, I would have searched out the dark intent. However, I was ushered to the front like cattle. Standing before this bowler hat man, I looked him over. He wasn't much of a man, if you ask me. The one beside him was tall with quite a long white-blondish head of hair. He looked like a complete asshole.

"You will not ask questions!" he said glaring at me. "Now you say you're Alyssa Potter, but the records show that you are dead. How are you here?"

"Your information is false. I did not die. I've been living in America these past twelve years. My magical education was conducted at Ilvermorny." I told him with a bored tone.

"This is impossible! You must be under Polyjuice. I demand use of Veritaserum for your testimony…."

"If I'm going to be tried, I want my lawyer here. I'm not sure what you're going to prove to everyone here. My records are documented at Gringotts where I subjected to a Lineage test to access the Potter Vault."

"You insipid child! You will not talk to the Minister like that." sneered blondie.

I looked over at him incredulously then I narrowed my eyes. "You, sir, will address me by my proper title. I am Alyssa, Lady Potter. To do so otherwise is an insult." Blondie's eyes nearly bugged out his head. It wasn't a good look for him. He was going to protest, but Minister hushed was going to go two ways. One, I was going to make these people look like the idiots they were or…. well there wasn't an option two.

"How do we know you're not lying? The future Head of the Potter line is Harry Potter."

"Actually, I'm the Head of the Potter family right now. I will step down when my brother comes of age. Then he can play Lord Potter." I countered.

"This is impossible. You will submit to Veritaserum or we will take you to the Ministry in chains." the Minister threatened.

"You most certainly will not!" I heard a voice cry out from the crowd. Turning, like everyone else, was Harry. Dressed in a mix of Muggle and Magical attire, he looked quite dashing. Yet very imposing. I almost felt intimidated. I raised my eyebrow at him. What in Merlin's name was he doing here? I scanned the crowd for my brother. He nodded his head at me.

Coming up to me, he handed me something. Opening it, it was my lineage paperwork from Gringotts. His hand rested on my lower back and I wished I had my Potter robes right now. Looking up at the boyfriend, all traces of the laughing carefree man was gone. Replaced by the Royal that he was trained to be.

"And who are you to interfere with this?" The Minister shouted.

"Harry, Prince of Wales." the crowd gasped and I could hear the whispers. Imagine what the Prophet would say about this.

"What is a member of the Muggle Royal family has to do with this?" Blondie asked gaping. What, no bowing and scraping? Geez, how have these people lost their manners.

"Muggle-born you mean. My brother and I are Muggle-born. We were students here at Hogwarts years ago." Harry said. I inwardly groaned. What a way to come out of the magical closet. I wanted to throttle him.

"I have documents proving that Alyssa is indeed Lady Potter." he looked down at me. I could see his eyes twinkling. He had something planned. Remind me to throttle him after I fully snog him….

Handing over the paperwork, the Minister snatched it from my hands. While he was opening it, Harry helped me into my Potter robes. How he had procured them was beyond me. I didn't think I left them at Kensington. After settling me into them, he draped my school robes over his arm and I could feel several emotions pouring off him.

Agitation

Anger

Love

The Minister and blondie read the paperwork several times before looking up at me. "This is impossible! You-you-can't be!"

"Yes, I most can be. I told you Minister that I was who I said I was. I am not lying to you and Goblins do not lie. They take their work seriously."

"Then why haven't you registered at the Ministry?" Blondie sneered. He was avoiding using my title. I could tell he didn't believe me.

"With everything going in, I must have forgotten. My education is very important to me. I know that the Department of Magical Education has my transcripts from Ilvermorny." I simply told him. I had embarrassed him.

Albus finally found his voice. I watched as he stood up from his chair and motioned for everyone to be quiet. "Now Cornelius, all you had to do was move this Chamber of Reception and we could have done this privately."

"The Ministry needs to know these things, Albus."

"Well now you know…" I added. Thrusting the paper back into my hands, he and his fellow Aurors that weren't stationed left the Great Hall. Turning to look at Harry, he gave me a tight smile.

"We're talking after my Potions class…."

"Yes, we are."

The next day he and I were sprawled over the Prophet.

Alyssa Potter, not dead defended by Royal Family.

Royal family magical?

After that muck up, I didn't think it was going to get any worse, but Halloween was slowly coming up...

BANG!

I looked up annoyed to see Ronald slam his bookbag on the breakfast table. The thud shaking the silverware around him. Halloween was getting close and I could feel it. I could feel the dread. The pressure of the holiday. As well as the absence. I didn't dare look at Harry. He would quickly figure out I hadn't been sleeping. Three days of not sleeping was finally taking a toll on me.

I was snippy.

Barely tolerable.

But I couldn't sleep. Just couldn't. The nightmare would come back and haunt me. Like it did every year. This year, when I fell asleep, I was dragged into the nightmare that I barely escaped. Gasping for air, I was glad that I put Silencing Charms around my bed at night. Tomorrow was Halloween. It was still my most hated holiday ever invented.

"So you ready for the Halloween feast tomorrow?" Harry asked me looking concerned, but grabbing food.

"No." I quickly replied trying to bury myself in my Charms homework.

"Why not?" he asked curiously. "It's quite a show. Pumpkins floating in the air, the food, the magic…"

"What part of 'I'm not ready' is so hard to grasp?" I snipped harshly.

He reeled back as if I had slapped him. I didn't mean it. I really didn't. Blame it on my lack of sleep. Sighing, I closed my eyes for a split second hoping that tomorrow was already over. "Sorry Harry…."

"It's fine. Are you alright?"

"No." I gathered my things and left the Great Hall quickly. I could feel Uncle Mooney watching me leave. The whole entire school watching me walk out on breakfast. Picking up the pace, I slipped out the hall. Leaning against the cool stone wall, I took a shuddering breath. I couldn't get their emotions to roll off me.

Curiousity.

Defeat.

Despair.

Intrigue.

I had to get to my double Charms.

Harry POV

"What...was...that?" Ron asked looking at me.

"Not a clue? She's never acted like this."

"I heard she's not sleeping well." Hermione spoke up from behind her Potions textbook.

"How do you know that?" I asked curiously.

"Because I overhead one of the seventh year girls say she hadn't been to her bunk. I figured since she IS your sister, you should know this."

"Do you think it has something to do with Halloween?" Ron asked looking toward the door my sister had stormed out of .

"Dunno. Your guess is as good as mine." Just then their was a flock of owls flying to deliver post. When Poe landed at Alyssa's spot, he looked around for her. Looking at me, he stuck his foot out. Untying it, I set it aside and gave him bacon. Nicking it, he flew off.

"That was odd. Normally owls don't' hand over other people's post." Hermione said.

"Yea, but I think Poe knows that I'm her brother. I'll deliver this to her later. If she's up for talking to me."

"You know she'll be fine. She did give at least a half hearted apology."

"True. She did do that." Ron winced at his post before tossing it in his bag and devoured his breakfast.

Everyone around me had already forgotten about Alyssa storming off and returned to their daily activities. Having lost my appetite, I sat back and grabbed her post. I would give this to her or have someone place it on her bunk. I almost opened it but I received a shock when I tried tearing the seal open.

"Ouch!"

"What's wrong?" both my friends asked.

"This," I held it up. "just shocked me."

"It has a warning charm on it. Won't let anyone but the receiver open it." Hermione tried to hide her smirk by hiding further into her book. "Means whatever the contents inside, aren't for your eyes to see."

A distant bell rang and everyone rose from their respective tables and headed out the Great Hall to the never-ending day of classes.

Alyssa POV

Curling into the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room, I promptly ignored everyone. The only ones that kept trying to bother me were my brother and his friends. Not that I minded, but I had third year students for friends. But then I reminded myself-I wasn't here to make friends. I was here to right some wrongs and graduate.

When the Common Room door swung open, I saw a tuft of black hair and I sunk further into the couch. I purposely kept avoiding eye contact, but a shadow loomed over me. I looked up and he was standing there.

"Poe came after you left and gave me this to give to you." he said handing over the parchment scroll. "Don't worry, I didn't read it." he assured me.

"You wouldn't be able too. The warning shock spell would keep nosy people out of my private business." I replied taking it gingerly from him. "I am sorry about this morning."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you have your reasons."

"Oi! Harry we're heading down to the Great Hall. You coming?" Ronald shouted standing close by a gang of redheads.

"Yea, I'll be there in a second. You coming with us?" he turned back to me asking. I shrugged. "Well if you decide you have a seat. Plus you need to eat tonight."

"Yea, yea….dad I got it." I poked my tongue out. Getting up, my stomach growled enormously. I had skipped lunch in lieu of avoiding everyone.

Following him out, we arrived at the Great Hall. I ate as quickly as I could and left. When I got back to my bunk, my journal was glowing. Harry had written me. Worried about me. I wasn't in the mood to talk.

"I'm fine…

"No you're not. Don't lie to me Alyssa."

"I'm not lying…"

I could literally hear him growl hundreds of miles away.

"Yes, you are. You're not sleeping, are you?"

Damn, he knew me too well. I could keep up the pretense of lying to him but if I did that, I know he would try to wheedle it out of me and I would finally confess. I wouldn't dare take a Dreamless Sleep Potion to save my life.

"Alyssa, damn it...You aren't, are you!?"

"No, I'm not. I can't. Harry, I swear this time when I did, the nightmare was horrible. I barely escaped it."

"You should have woken me up. Alyssa, you know you won't bother me if you did. I care about you…."

"I know I care about you too, but I hate when everyone worries about me. Hell, I jumped Prongs ass for asking me about tomorrow's feast."

"The Halloween Feast? It's truly an experience…"

"Yea, I'm sure it is, but I can't. You know for a fact I've never celebrated Halloween."

"Will you be OK? Do you need me to come to Hogwarts?"

"I don't know ….I really don't."

"You know, you could cave and tell Prongs what's going on."

"No, because he has enough with this worry about Sirius Black coming after him. And he's busy."

"You and your excuses….haha. You know Sirius isn't a threat to him."

"I know, but I'm not telling Prongs anything about him. He's been asking, trust me. There's been rumor that someone saw a huge shaggy black dog inside Hogwarts. Poor Neville, his friend, lost his Hogsmeade privilege for the rest of the year."

"Poor bloke. You should tell him, but I can understand why you're not going too. Have they upped the Aurors in the castle?"

Hmm...he seemed to remember I had told him about the Aurors patrolling the halls. It's one of the reasons why I loved him. Other than caring immensely about me and kicking my ass when I was down or nervous about something.

"Yea, they are. The Fat Lady is all out of sorts. She's like three seconds from getting hexed by me. Trust me, I'm not the only one who's annoyed. All the prefects are as well."

"Incredible. I hate to have to break this short, love, but I do have to go…."

"Already?"

"Yea, I don't want too either. I'm in the middle of state dinner and I escaped long enough to talk to you."

"My, my….blame it on the caviar. Works every time."

"I'm sure it does. I'll talk to you shortly...Did you ever get Prongs blood droplet for the Journal?"

"Yea, I did. Just in case, like we talked about."

He didn't write anymore after that. Must have dashed out of his room and back down to confess that it was the caviar. Sighing, I sat the journal under my pillow. Pulling the curtains around my bed, I pulled out my homework and begin the long night of not sleeping.

When finally the last girl fell asleep, I snuck of out my bed. Casting a Disillusion charm, I escaped the Common Room and begin roaming the halls. Not even Mrs. Norris would bother me after I hexed her. If I couldn't sleep, I would jog, walk, train, do something to pass the time.

Finding the empty classroom that I'm sure hadn't been used in decades, I closed it off and placed several wards and silencing charms around it. Conjuring and transfiguring various objects around the room, I proceeded to train. I never thought to read the letter that Harry delivered earlier.

The next morning rolled around it found me to be in a worse mood than yesterday. Nearly four days with hardly a wink of sleep was really taking a toll on me. I had dozed off for some time in that classroom but woke up as soon as the nightmare started. I was trying to avoid it like the plague. I had every reason to believe that if I kept this up, then at midnight, I would be able to sleep. Get this horrible day over and maybe I will crash out. How I was superbly half right and half wrong.

The school day dragged on and the later it became, the harder it was for me to stay focused. The more I wanted to be away from people. Around mid-afternoon, I couldn't handle it anymore. Leaving the Common Room, I hunted my classroom back down. When I found it, I looked around suspiciously. Seeing no one, I crept in the room and locked it with a Potter locking spell. It was a neat spell that a ancestor of mine created.

I sat there...and I was determined to wait this out. Alone in my own thoughts was probably the worst thing I could have done.

Harry POV

"Have you guys seen Alyssa?" I asked looking at my friends. Both Ron and Hermione looked up from their respective time-wasting materials and shook their heads. "I wanted to convince her to come tonight. I know she'll like it.

"No, Harry we haven't. She's been avoiding everyone lately." Hermione said softly. I know this hurt Hermione because she kind of looked up to my sister. More for her brains than anything else.

I sighed. Where would she have gone? The feast was suppose to start in a hour but no one seemed to have seen her since mid-afternoon. I know, because I have asked several of the seventh years. Each of them told me the same thing. She had been in class, dropped her things off and disappeared.

This was starting to take a toll on me. Here I was with family and I had no idea how to take care of them. Especially when something was wrong. And I knew something was wrong. I could catch glimpses of her emotions when she lost control of herself. One of the many things she had told me. We can sense emotions. Just a "Potter trait" she had explained. Nor did she teach me how to use or control it.

Which frustrated me to no end.

Told me that when I turned fifteen, it would come at me and it wouldn't leave me. I would be able to sense the emotions of just about everyone. Then she could teach me as best as she could. Said learning Occlumency would help me. But that wasn't for another two years. If I could last another two years of whatever she kept from me. She had hinted around that there were plenty more 'trait's that ran through the family, but she said she wasn't ready to tell me. Everything in due time. She had tried to convince me.

Closing my eyes, I felt the fire from the fireplace hit my face, warming it considerably. We had our first Quidditch match soon and I was hoping Alyssa would be better by the time it came around. The scuffle of people around us kept me anchored to my surroundings. If something was wrong, how in the world could I fix it?

"Harry!"

"Yes, it's good that you know your name…." Hermione teased.

"Mate, you gone barmy on us?"

"No, Harry. He'll know how to break Alyssa." Turning to Hermione, "Can you please get her journal?"

She looked at me skeptically but nodded anyway. The plead in my voice moved her quickly and she soon disappeared up the stairs. Sneaking into the Seventh Year Girls dorm wasn't a bad thing, it was just rude. When she returned a few minutes later, she looked quite pleased with herself.

"Didn't get caught!" She exclaimed proudly. Handing me the journal, "Here ya go. Are you sure this is the right thing to do? I mean, you know what happened to Agatha Miller…."

Ron shuddered violently.

"Yea, I remember but she 'programmed' me to be able to use this." I explained. I flipped it open and a blank page showed up. Today's date appeared in the top right corner. Snatching a quill, I looked at my friends. "Here goes…."

"Harry, this is Harry…...funny, right? We need to have me a nickname. Anyway, listen, do you know what's wrong with Alyssa? She's gone missing…."

We sat there and waited patiently for what seemed like the longest, but Ron told me that it was only three minutes.

"Harry, what do you mean your sister is missing?! What happened?"

"That is so cool." Ron said with awe dripping in his voice. "She seriously has to make me one of these."

"Hush, Ronald!"

"She's been out of sorts for the past 3 days. Hermione says she's not sleeping. Today she's been quite right out and I asked several 7th yrs if they've seen her. They said she dropped her stuff off and disappeared. What is wrong?"

"Listen, I know what's going on. I know you don't like secrets between you two but your sister hasn't had a great life before she found me...it got better when she found you. Always remember that, kiddo. I can be at Hogwarts in a couple of hours. I asked her last night if she wanted me there. She told me she didn't know."

I paled. His words sent a chill down my spine. Looking frantically at my friends, I read his words back to them. Both of them seemed troubled by this. Who would have thought? James Potter's kids having a rough upbringing. Many couldn't fathom to see this.

"She's hiding stuff from you? That's nothing new. There's things about the family she hasn't told you yet." Ron said.

"BUT this is different. She's in pain. A lot of it."

"I would tell you not to worry, but I'm sure you're freaking out right now. Can you feel for her?"

"Harry what's he talking about? Feeling for her?"

"It's some sort of Potter trait she said we have." I closed my eyes and tried to reach out to my sister. Clearing my mind as best as I could, I concentrated on her. Really concentrated. So much that I was sure I was going to burst a vein. After a few minutes of concentrating, I finally felt a spark. There was a lot of pain.

Too much of it.

"Yea, I finally found her. I'm tired though. She's in a lot of pain. I don't know where at….." I wrote back feebly.

"Give me a couple of hours. Head down to the feast….and try to enjoy yourself."