September faded into October, and, as Halloween neared, homework piles grew as the trees turned from green to orange. Vivian grew more and more excited about the Halloween feast, and so became so distracted in lessons that she was threatened with a detention several times. But she managed to avoid detentions, and it was suddenly the night of the feast, and everybody was looking forwards to it.
Dumbledore made a small speech, and then the platters filled with all sorts of Halloween food: Pumpkin Pasties, Witch Pies, Black Cat sandwiches and jugs full of Pumpkin Juice, which Vivian really liked. She had always avoided it at breakfast, but she decided to try it and wished she had done earlier. Hermione was absent from the Gryffindor table, as she had locked herself in the girls toilets all day after overhearing Ron calling her names. Vivian was annoyed at him for this, but nothing was about to quench the overwhelming excitement of that day. It was her first proper Halloween; there had been small parties at the orphanage, but there weren't allowed to go trick or treating, they weren't allowed to do things properly. And besides, Vivian had a good feeling about that night.
She grabbed a couple of everything, and ten set about eating. She liked everything except for the Witch Pies; pastry filled with some kind of disgusting cheese. She slipped them onto Ron's plate as a joke and watched in disgust as he ate them.
"Ron!" Vivian cried. Tears were streaming down Harry's face as he laughed hysterically. Ron pulled a face and swallowed. His tongue hung out of his mouth, by this time Vivian was screeching with laughter. Then there was a small cough from behind them. They turned around to see McGonagall stood there, looking very unimpressed and the whole hall looking at them.
"Oops?" Vivian tried in vain.
The hall soon returned back to its natural noise level, and Dumbledore had just stood up to make another speech when Quirrel (the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher) ran in, screaming.
"TROLL! TROLL ON THE LOOSE! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" And then he fainted.
Absolute pandemonium broke out. There were students running everywhere, screaming. Harry and Ron looked at each other and ran off, leaving Vivian alone. She joined the mad scramble which the prefects were trying to calm down, and then was swept away in a current of students making their way back to the common rooms. Vivian just managed to get out as they raced past Gryffindor's stop. She collapsed onto the floor, followed by somebody who looked very similar to Ron. It wasn't Fred or George, she knew that, so this must be Percy, the only brother Ron doesn't really like.
"Hello!" Vivian said brightly, but Percy just looked at her in disgust and walked away.
"Charming," Vivian retorted, but she gave it up as a lost cause. When she walked into the common room, it was full of Gryffindors, and there were no available seats, so she sat with her back to an armchair. Her eyelids felt heavy in the heat, and she soon dozed off.
She was awoken later that night by a constant tapping on her arm.
"Gerroff me," Vivian mumbled, half asleep. "I'm trying to sleep!" She opened her eyes to see Harry, Ron and Hermione stood in front of her. Harry and Ron headed up to the boys dormitories, and the girls were left alone.
"You'll never guess what happened." Hermione said breathlessly.
"What?" Vivian asked in a non-committal voice.
"Ron and Harry saved me from the troll. They were brilliant, you should've seen them Viv'." Hermione smiled, "I owe them sooo much. They saved my life."
"And…?" Vivian asked.
"Well, I'm good friends with them now, so I was thinking, well, we could make a foursome?" Vivian stared at her in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, I work in ones or twos," Vivian said expressionlessly.
"Oh!" cried Hermione. "Fine! I get it! Selfish Vivian prefers to have somebody all to themselves, to not share them! Well, that's fine! I guess we can't be friends then, seeing as I'm not losing Harry and Ron!"
"FINE!" yelled Vivian, watching Hermione run upstairs. When she was gone, and Vivian was truly alone, Vivian sank to her knees, crying bitter tears over the good friend she had just lost.