October began to scream towards the Halloween celebrations quicker than William could have ever anticipated. The dueling club continued to build his knowledge of spells though the sixth graders were still unable to spar. By now William also found himself with several grades for the first semester, and continually found himself flustered by his low marks in History of Magic. He wasn't sure why but William just seemed unable to follow the lengthy amount of history the course had already covered, and the frosty persona of Ms. Codswell did nothing to alleviate his problems. Still, William was doing well in most of his classes, and positively excelling in Transfigurations and Potions and his grades in Defense were steadily climbing. He wasn't sure if his grades in Defense were because he joined the dueling club or if since joining it he began to take the subject more seriously and study for it diligently.
Still it was sometime towards the end of the month that William decided to sit down and draft another letter to Megan O'Rourke back home. William wrote his parents on a regular basis, informing them of his classes and that he had joined a club, they would write back to tell him about life at home and how they missed him. Still he had only wrote Megan once at the beginning of the year, it had been a rushed letter explaining how he was quickly adjusting to school away from home and how great it was. Now though he finally had stuff to say, and it was as he was about to start going on about how great the Dueling club was and how his grades were great when he suddenly realized that he couldn't tell her any of this.
He sighed, crumpling the letter after a few moments more of staring at it. He then stared at the blank sheet of paper, and began to write about more general things. William found himself asking more questions about things back home than actually saying anything about his time at Salem, but still he figured that was better than actually letting slip about the world of magic. William shook his head staring at the letter, still feeling strange about abandoning his childhood friend and not being able to tell her the truth. He fumbled with the letter in his hands for a few minutes before finally folding and tucking it into an envelope. As always he provided a fake muggle return address, something the school had posted in one of the lounge bulletin boards early on to be provided to muggle relatives. He then etched her address into the center of the envelope, and stood to make his way to the campus post office.
As William headed out he tugged on a scarf and his thick leather potion gloves. The cold New England weather had finally settled around the campus and while there was no snow yet, the weather was certainly hinting at snow in the next few weeks. Leaves were regularly falling off the trees, covering the once green fields with collections of reds, browns, and orange. They crunched beneath William's feet as he marched to the squat building attached to the owlery which served as the school's post office. William stepped into the dimly lit room, and found it surprisingly empty for the late afternoon.
Normally students were rushing to mail off their letters before the office closed, William shrugged and quickly proceeded to the counter. The school only had one person actually assigned to its post office, an old wizard who wore very official blue robes with an owl silhouette over the left breast. While some days he was assisted by students who were serving detention, today there didn't seem to be any. As he peered over his spectacles, his eyebrows jumped up and he asked, "May I help you young man?"
"I'd like to mail a letter," William said, setting the letter down on the counter.
The old man nodded, inspecting it for a moment, tapping the stamp in the top right and quietly chuckling to himself. He shuffled off into the back for a few moments, and William could hear an owl fly off as the old man returned. The post-wizard settled back onto his stool, checking something off in a book and then saying, "That will be five knuts."
William carefully counted out the coins and as he placed them onto the table he asked, "Sir, why isn't there anyone here today?"
The older wizard shrugged, looking about as if to confirm the boy's question before replying, "I'm as surprised as you are young man, normally the place is packed before a federal holiday."
"Federal holiday?" William asked again.
"Well, Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, but the government only operates during the week so the federal holiday is moved to tomorrow," He smiled a little, and added, "I'm quite looking forward to my three day weekend."
William stared at the old man and asked, "When did Halloween become a federal holiday?"
The old wizard guffawed for a few moments before explaining, "Well it has been since before I was born, boy." He scratched his chin a little and then snapped his fingers, "I don't think the muggles have it down as one though..."
"Right," William nodded slowly backing off as the old timer began to reminisce aloud about Halloween when he was young. William quickly ducked out of the post office and began to quicken his pace, wondering if the old wizard was still talking even though he was gone. He smiled though as he thought of Halloween being around the corner it would definitely be one of the nicer parts of the year.
The night of Halloween was a really big deal on campus, the one thing that William did notice though was that not many people were actually dressing up in costume, though many of the high-school age students were wearing dress robes for the dance that would be held later on that night. The school itself was decorated to the tee. Jack-o-lanterns floated by in the hallways, some of which seemed to actually belch candy, while others belched fire (though the fire was enchanted to tickle, it was still more than enough to make most people jump up in fright). Animated skeletons were also wandering about the campus, shaking their bones, singing haunting melodies, and generally scaring people. Finally bats had taken up residence in the tops of high ceilings and were now swooping about the school, screeching and flying by the students.
William was walking down the brick paths with Nick and Chris making their way towards the Halloween dinner. "Think Henry is going to do something tonight?" Nick asked looking about as he did.
William shook his head, "No, he already shot me with a jelly leg's curse after I blocked Theodore's in the hallway." He sighed, even with his practice in the Dueling club he wasn't able to stop the two bullies cold, and it didn't look like his ability to do so would slow them down anyway.
"Well at least that's good," Chris stated as they made their way into the entrance hall.
The dining hall itself wasn't large enough to fit all of the student body at one time, so extra tables had been set about the large entrance hall along with a bundle of different games. William noticed that there was everything from bobbing for apples to something that looked like the magical version of a shooting gallery. The hall was lit solely by the jack-o-lanterns which were moving in a mesmerizing dancing pattern. As the boys made their way through the hall Chris said hi to several other students, many of whom called back, and once or twice there were rapid introductions. This didn't surprise William, as he had begun to spend more time with the dueling club Chris had started meeting tons of people often introducing them to William at different times.
As they descended the small flight of steps into the dining hall they found the place packed. As they got into line, they were quickly approached by Sarah and her roommate. Alexandria gave Nick a strange look when the girls joined them in the line but she didn't say anything, she merely made a strange face. Sarah immediately confronted William though, "Why weren't you at the Quidditch game?"
"Erhm, what?" William asked. He hadn't even known there was a quidditch game let alone remember ever agreeing to go to one.
She sighed, "There was a quidditch game yesterday, I felt like I was the only one there!" Alexandria gave one of her soft laughs, and Sarah scowled at her.
"I'm sorry," William responded, "I was writing a letter back home...it must've slipped my mind." He shook his head, not wanting to admit that he wasn't even paying attention to the school sports.
Chris just clasped his shoulder and then said to Sarah, "Forget it, he like the rest of the country, is too enthralled by the glory that is quodpot to remember your crazy sport!"
Sarah's face burnt up in a rage, as she began shouting about the superiority of quidditch. Chris began to add fuel to the fire with several more comments, and they quickly descended into their usual sports bickering as the line continued to progress forward.
As Nick watched on with an amused look on his face, Alexandria sidled in next to William, "William," she asked, "Who is that friend of yours?"
"Oh, that's Nick," William answered. He then slowly hit his head, "Sorry I forgot to introduce you guys." After a few times around Alexandria he realized that old wizarding society seemed to follow a lot of rules he really couldn't understand. One of them seemed to do with introductions and remembering people, but he still wasn't sure of the ins and outs of it. As Chris and Sarah's argument began to gather a small crowd of both spectators and joiners in, he lead Alexandria over to Nick. "Oh hey Nick, this is Alexandria." He made a gesture to the girl.
Nick nodded, to her, and seemed about to extend his hand to shake when the girl made a curtsey motion and stated, "Alexandria Blair, of the New York City Blair's." She then extended her hand palm downward, and slightly limp.
Nick looked slightly confused and frightened and he shared a quick look with William who could only shrug, Alexandria normally mentioned her family but he had never seen her do something so formal. Nick took her hand and made an awkward shaking motion, "Uh, Nick Hawthorne from Falmouth, Massachusetts?"
Alexandria's face immediately flushed nearly scarlet and she quickly stood upright and slid her hand out expertly from his awkward and weak grasp. "I'm so sorry," she stated, "I, uh, thought you were someone else..." She seemed to shimmy away from him, her face turning redder by the moment.
By this point, Chris and Sarah had settled into a glaring silence, and as Alexandria shuffled away through the crowd, Nick asked, "What was all that about?" William merely shrugged, as mystified as the other boy.
Sarah looked over at them, and after her fleeing roommate, "From the looks of it, she just made some sort of old blood faux pas thing." She shrugged, "She cares way too much about that stuff."
"Faux pas?" Nick repeated after a moment.
"You know, like a mistake, but in high society," Sarah shook her head, "I saw her forget to do something really ridiculous a few weeks ago, she cried about it later on. I don't get it at all."
Nick nodded numbly, before adding in a mumble, "Wonder who she thought I was..."
"Who knows," William responded, turning back in the direction the girl had fled. It was a little strange, but as the group came to the tables laden with plates constantly refilling themselves with heaps of food, and more importantly desserts and candy it faded into some distant past. The fun of the evening only continued as they ate, and played games in the entrance hall.
The fun came to an abrupt halt when Nick started looking a little green, when he coughed and heaved a little William agreed to walk with him back to the dorms. They had made it halfway back to the dorm when Nick actually did retch onto the grass, and groaned a little. William helped him stand straight and half-carried half-walked Nick to his room, where he deposited the taller boy onto his bed and placed a bucket next to the bed. He patted Nick on the shoulder and said, "Feel better man," before heading back out.
All William was thinking was that he could make it back in time to still have some fun, when he rounded a bush to get onto the main path and a voice shouted "Serpensortia!" A small horde of green snakes flew around him and William jumped in fright.
As he grasped his hand around his wand and began to yank it from his robes' pocket, he distinctly heard Henry's voice call out the body bind spell. William quickly found himself once more rigidly at attention, as Henry laughed coming up from behind him. Theodore popped out from the bush laughing as well. Both bullies quickly grabbed him and began dragging William off through campus. They dropped him on one of the seldom used paths, and that's when Henry pulled something out from underneath his robes.
It was a small box maybe a foot long, William attempted to figure out what it was, he was worried wondering what possible end Henry could have envisioned for this already ridiculous prank. This is why William was slightly surprised when it was merely a carton of eggs. They all sat there gleaming white in the moonlight, Henry casually levitated one with his wand and flung it at the small boy frozen on the ground. Theodore laughed and quickly joined in. The boys laughed and flung eggs for a few minutes, while William held his eyes shut, happy that neither of the other sixth graders hadn't realized he couldn't feel the eggs hitting him. After a while the egg throwing stopped and William watched as they wandered off.
The small boy had no idea how long he had been laying there frozen on the brick path before he heard a bubbly giggle coming down the path, followed by a deeper laugh. Rounding down the way William saw two older students decked out in their dress robes. It took him a few moments before he noticed that the girl of the pair, giggling and her hair all about her shining in the late moonlight was Clark the hard-nosed instructor from the dueling club. He spotted the older boy, with a thin goatee pulling out a flask when Clark let out a small shriek of surprise.
"Holy shit," murmured the older student as she knelt down to stare at him. She immediately had her wand in hand. She had already cleaned him off when she canceled the body bind.
Like always William was overcome with a feeling of pins and needles across his body. However this time there were the addition of several sore spots around his body where the eggs had hit him hardest. He winced as he began to sit up.
Clark held him still though and said, "Don't try to move yet."
The older boy had rushed over and was now kneeling over William, running his wand over him and murmuring several incantations, "He'll be alright...I think."
Clark nodded and then helped William into a sitting position. William could already feel his face flushing, as the normally cold girl looked at him with such profound concern. She rubbed his hair a little and then said, "Come on let's get you to the nurse."
"No," William answered sort of shrugging off the older girl.
Her eyes went wide, and William looked away blinking at the tears that were forming in his eyes for some reason. The older boy nodded and settled down next to William, "Here kid, drink some of this."
Clark then shook her head, grabbing the flask from the older student's hand, tucking it into her dress robes, and she reprimanded him in a whisper, "Brian!"
Brian seemed to hold his hands in a 'what?' expression, before turning back to William, "I get it kid, don't worry. I've been taking healing magic for the past year, and I think I can take care of this."
Clark glared at the older boy, as he began to gently press his wand across William's body, murmuring incantations the whole way. As he did so, a warm sensation spread over the boy, the soreness was replaced by a good relaxed feeling in his muscles. William felt his eyes drying up, he was still embarrassed but ultimately he felt pretty good. Clark helped him up and passed the small flask back to the older student, "Look, I should walk him back, it's past curfew and..." She shook her head at the younger duelist.
"Yeah, I understand," Brian responded. He gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before saying, "We should do this again some time." He smiled at her as he walked off.
Clark nodded, and blushed slightly when she caught William staring up at her, "Come on squirt." She said and she gave him a gentle shove on the shoulder.
The air was tight with silence as they walked back to Corey Hall, neither of them asking the questions that were on each other's minds. William broke the silence though with a slow realization, "My sister calls me that."
"Huh?" Clark responded absently.
"My sister she calls me squirt sometimes," William explained, he hadn't thought of his sister much since he had come to school and he suddenly found that weird.
"Oh," Clark said, pausing a little before saying, "I didn't know you had a sister."
William nodded, realizing suddenly that for someone who he saw several times a week he didn't know much about Clark either, he paused trying to remember if he had ever heard someone call her by her first name. William turned to stare at the older girl, she looked so different than she did at the dueling club. Instead of her tight Salem duelist uniform she was wearing a deep green dress, it had a slight frill on the end of the sleeves that was mixed with gold and white and her bright red hair was spilling out behind her as opposed to bunched up. The final thing he noticed was the slight click as they walked, and he saw that she was wearing high heels, which explained why she was slightly taller than he remembered. It all seemed very unlike the Clark he knew, as he looked at her face he realized she was thinking the same thing about him. They both looked away from each other at that moment.
Finally she asked the question that was hanging over the whole interaction, "What happened Fraser?" Her voice was nowhere near as demanding as it was in club but it was definitely not the soft informal tones she had used earlier.
"Uh," He stumbled, unsure of what to say, he finally said, "Just some people playing a prank." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't quite the truth.
She frowned but didn't contradict him or anything, she merely stated, "I know Tall Elk wouldn't approve, but I feel confident that you could deal with them Fraser."
William nodded, unsure of how to respond to that comment. They were now standing outside of his dorm hall and she smiled at him. "Now get to bed," She paused for a brief moment before adding, "squirt." Clark ruffled his hair on the last word and he quickly slipped into the dormitory. As the door closed with a thud, Clark frowned worried about the younger student and what had happened. Despite her gut feelings she decided against informing anyone as she turned on heel and made her own long walk back to her own dorm.
