I am so sorry for taking this long with this chapter! I could give you a whole number of excuses, but ultimately it boils down to me being lazy and this chapter hating me. I've just finished writing it, so it's entirely unedited, but I figured you guys had waited more than long enough.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It warms my heart :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and am not making any money from this.

Dark Lords Ascending

Chapter 7: Halloween

Over the next few weeks, Azriel's control over his wand bettered, and by the time his wandless ability returned fully, he was able to cast any given spell both with and without his wand without exploding anything even once.

After weeks of research, they had finally found the perfect spell to teach the Slytherins some manners and couldn't wait to see it enacted. It had been Hermione who had had the idea, but all three of them loved the concept. The only part of their little project that gave them headaches trying to find a solution to was how to get all the Slytherins at once, but when Ron had mentioned Fred and George always getting extra food from somewhere Azriel had finally found the answer to their problem: instead of bespelling the Slytherins themselves, they would cast the spell on the pumpkin juice that would appear on the Slytherin table. Ron had gone and asked Fred and George for the location of the kitchens; unsurprisingly, they seemed very well-known to the house-elves working there. Azriel was now finally getting the food he liked, they had a way to get the spell to the Slytherins; overall, everyone was rather happy.

They had decided that the less people knew the perpetrators of the spell the better, so they avoided talking about their plan near other people. This meant many late-night meetings in unused classrooms and being very careful not to get caught by Filch, oftentimes taking a route back to their dorms that led all the way up to the seventh floor, down into the dungeons and finally to the Gryffindor Tower. The fact that the stairs kept moving on them did not help, either.

Their luck ran out after their last meeting before the Big Day: as they rounded a corner on their way back to their dorms, they encountered a certain ugly cat glaring balefully at them. The three of them froze. Mrs Norris meowed gleefully before she turned around and vanished down the corridor.

'Oh no, she's gone to get Filch, what will we do, we'll be in so much trouble, we shouldn't be here!' Hermione moaned.

'Calm down,' Azriel said, 'panicking won't help us now. Let's take a different route.'

They doubled back and went through one of the secret passages everyone knew about whose entrance was hidden behind a tapestry depicting dragons battling trolls. Their efforts proved fruitless, however, when they heard Filch's voice a few corridors away saying, 'Come now, my sweet, where are those miscreants? Where are those naughty students? We'll string them up by their ankles in the dungeons. Maybe the rats will nibble their fingers a little, that should teach them to go to bed on time.'

Ron and Hermione looked at each other in disbelieving horror. Azriel motioned to them to follow him and crept down the stairs leading to the third floor. Behind him, Ron missed the first step and cursed, grabbing onto Hermione to stop himself from toppling down the stairs. Azriel closed his eyes for a moment in annoyance. There was no way Filch hadn't heard that.

'Run,' he whispered, then took down one of the corridors, through the door disguised as a coat of armour, and right into a locked door. He fumbled with the lock for a moment as Ron and Hermione came up behind him, then gave up and shot a careful 'alohomora' at the door. The door swung open and the three of them quickly crowded inside, trying to catch their breath as the adrenaline pumped through their veins. Azriel pressed an ear to the door, trying to hear if Filch was coming after them. All was silent outside. Behind them however… he turned around in trepidation and was confronted with a beast straight out of a child's nightmares: three huge heads, each the size of a small car, mouths open and dripping with saliva, rows of teeth sharp and gleaming. Without allowing the fear to overcome him, Azriel leaped into the air and, with three rapid kicks, knocked the giant dog-beast out cold.

Hermione and Ron were looking wide-eyed at the felled monster. Finally Hermione found her voice. 'Is-is it dead?' she asked haltingly.

'No, I just knocked it out,' Azriel answered. 'More importantly, did you see what it was standing on?'

'Well, the floor obviously,' Ron ventured.

'It was standing on a trapdoor,' Azriel corrected. 'The dog is guarding something.'

Ron brightened. 'You think there's a treasure? If we find it, we'll be rich!'

'No, Ron; if a three-headed dog is guarding it, then it obviously belongs to someone,' Hermione said patiently, 'either to Dumbledore himself or to a friend of Dumbledore's, otherwise it wouldn't be in Hogwarts in the first place.'

'Oh. True,' Ron said in a disappointed voice.

'We should leave, the dog will wake up any moment,' Azriel interrupted, pointing to the three-headed monster which was slowly starting to stir.

'Yes, yes we should,' Hermione said hurriedly, opening the door and motioning for the other two to get out of there right now. Neither of the two was loath to follow her directions.

Once outside, they quickly scampered through the castle towards the Gryffindor Tower, intent on avoiding both Filch and Mrs. Norris. They did not meet anybody on the way, but just when they thought they were safe, they were confronted with the next problem: the portrait that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor tower was empty. It seemed the Fat Lady had gone on a midnight visit to one of the other portraits in the castle.

'It's just not our day today, is it?' Ron groaned as they stood in front of the empty frame.

'Now what?' Hermione asked helplessly, ignoring Ron's exclamation.

Azriel shook his head. 'I'm afraid we'll have to wait,' he said. 'Unless you have an idea, Ron?'

'Well, we could get some brooms from the broomshed and fly up the Gryffindor Tower to see if someone left a window open.'

Azriel opened his mouth to answer when a cough made them all whir around in shock.

'Misters Potter, Weasley; Miss Granger, what are you doing out here at this time of the night? Shouldn't you be in bed?' McGonagall asked in a stern voice.

'We're sorry, Professor,' Azriel answered for all of them. 'We were studying in one of the unused classrooms and quite forgot the time, I'm afraid.'

'That's all very well, Mr. Potter, but why weren't you studying in the library or in your common room? There are more than enough places in Hogwarts to study where you will be reminded to go to bed on time.'

'Well, we can't discuss what we're studying in the library, and the common room is too noisy most of the time,' Azriel replied.

'Your desire to study is commendable, Mr. Potter, but I'm afraid you will have to watch the time more closely in the future. I will not take any points –'

At this Hermione sighed in relief.

'– but you will each receive a detention.'

Ron groaned. Professor McGonagall ignored him.

'I will give you the exact time tomorrow. And since the Fat Lady seems to have returned, you can now go to bed. I wish you all a good night.'

'Goodnight, Professor,' the three of them chorused dejectedly.

'Pig snout,' Hermione told the Fat Lady and they clambered into the common room. There were still quite a few people about, especially from the upper years, mostly studying or chatting quietly in twos and threes. With a shared nod they decided to talk about the evening later, after a good night's sleep. Ron and Azriel bade Hermione goodnight and climbed the spiralling staircase up to their dormitory.

As they got ready for bed Ron murmured to Azriel, 'Well, now we know why Dumbledore warned us not to go to the third floor corridor…'

Azriel nodded silently. That they did, indeed.

XXX

The next morning found the trio sitting quietly at the breakfast table, sleepily munching pumpkin bread and drinking pumpkin juice.

'Not that it's not delicious,' Azriel mumbled, 'but why are we having pumpkin bread for breakfast? The house-elves don't usually bother with anything that extravagant in the morning.'

Hermione looked at him strangely. 'Haven't you noticed the date yet? It's Halloween tonight!'

That revelation startled him; he'd been in Hogwarts now for almost two months. He felt a little guilty for forgetting one of the most important festivals of the year, but his self-depreciating thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of an owl that landed on the edge of his mug of pumpkin juice and held out one leg towards him while staring balefully. Looking closer, Azriel saw a slip of parchment tied around the owl's leg and untied it. The owl didn't budge from its place.

'What now?' Azriel asked it, annoyed. The owl hooted at him. 'What do you want? Food?' He broke off a bit of the bread that he'd been eating and offered it to the owl. The owl gobbled it up and flew off.

'Finally,' Azriel grumbled as he took a swig of his pumpkin juice and unrolled the parchment with his free hand.

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.

Prof. M. McGonagall

Ron, who had gotten the same letter, groaned loudly. 'Great! We'll miss half the party! Couldn't she have chosen some other day?'

'Well, it is supposed to be a punishment,' Hermione said matter-of-factly. 'Professor McGonagall probably chose today on purpose.'

Naturally, this did not cheer up Ron one bit and he continued to be morose throughout the rest of the day. The prospect of finally learning the levitation charm in Charms lifted his spirits slightly, but when Hermione managed the spell on the third try and Azriel on his fourth (the first time, he had accidentally used both wandless magic and wand magic and hat shot the feather they were trying to float straight through the ceiling), he became rather grumpy again. Hermione, who had been partnered with Ron, tried to help him perform the spell correctly but even so Ron only managed the spell a minute before the end of class.

'Well, at least you managed it in class at all,' Hermione told him as they walked down the staircase towards the Great Hall, 'look how many people couldn't make their feather float at all! Neville and Lavender and Seamus – Seamus just managed to make his feather explode again! He's such a pyromaniac – and you, Harry, I thought you'd gotten over your issue with overpowering your spells?'

'I thought so, too,' Azriel replied ruefully, 'but I did get the hang of the spell pretty quickly.'

'What do we have next, by the way?' Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation. 'Honestly, Ron, I can't believe you still haven't got our schedule memorised, it really isn't that difficult! You should know we have Herbology now.'

'Why should I waste my memory if I have you?' Ron mumbled. Hermione glared but otherwise ignored the comment.

Herbology turned out to be pretty crazy that day. In honour of Halloween, Professor Sprout had taught them the many uses of pumpkin in wizardry (mainly in appearance-changing potions and potions for cleaning talking mirrors) and had shown them how to make a pumpkin-shaped hat from the leaves of the pumpkin plant. Through some spell-gone-wrong shot by one of their classmates, they all had the hats stuck immovably to their heads. Professor Sprout hadn't been able to get rid of them with any banishment or unsticking charms and had told them the spell would fade after a few hours and until then they would just have to wear them.

Thus it was that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff first-years earned many strange looks and – from the Slytherins – derision and ridicule. Azriel held his peace, though, and managed to prevent his companions from doing anything untoward. He had not forgotten what would happen during the Halloween feast.

Just before the feast that evening, Azriel quietly slipped off to the kitchens. The house-elves greeted him with their usual exuberance, attempting to give him cakes and muffins and biscuits and all manner of other sweets that Azriel politely declined.

'Which one is the juice for the Slytherins?' he asked the house-elves.

'This one sir, this is the one! Does sir want to cast the spell now?' The house-elves answered noisily.

'Yes, that is right. Would you mind getting out of the way? I don't know how the spell affects house-elves.'

They all scrambled to get to the other end of the huge kitchen, where they all stood in a row, watching him Azriel with bulbous eyes. Azriel ignored his audience and concentrated on the spell he was about to cast.

A minute of muttering later and the gigantic jug of pumpkin juice glowed blue for a second. Azriel sighed in relief; the spell had been rather complex, but the blue glow indicated that all was well. He turned to the watching house-elves and said, 'You won't tell anyone, will you?'

'Oh no, the house-elves won't, Harry Potter, sir!' One particularly enthusiastic house-elf squeaked. 'House-elves keep their word!'

'Good,' Azriel answered. 'It was nice talking to you all again, but I really must leave now. The feast is about to start.'

These words resulted in a sudden increase of activity as the house-elves realised they had wasted time watching a spell and frantically tried to finish all the food in time. Azriel shook his head in amusement over their antics and climbed out of the painting disguising the entrance to the kitchens.

XXX

'Where were you?' Hermione asked anxiously when Azriel joined his friends in the Great Hall. 'We were looking everywhere for you!'

'I was doing some last-minute research,' Azriel answered, looking meaningfully at Ron and Hermione. Hermione's eyes widened in understanding, but Ron asked, 'last minute research for what?'

'Oh come on, Ron,' Hermione said in an annoyed tone of voice. 'You know, that extra credit charms assignment we've been working on for the last few weeks?'

'Oh. Oh!' Ron's ears brightened as he realised he had forgotten about their little project.

'Have they all drunk the pumpkin juice yet?' Azriel asked the other two.

'I think so… wait a moment, I'll check.' With that, Hermione surreptitiously took out her wand and pointed it at the Slytherins underneath the table. A moment later, she reported, 'Marcus Flint hasn't. Neither have Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass.'

The trio started covertly watching the three Slytherins. Marcus Flint was the first to fall, taking a big gulp out of his goblet as the trio glanced at each other in suppressed triumph.

Nothing happened for a long time as the three tried to continue eating and keep up a superficial conversation while still watching the two Slytherin girls like hawks. Finally, after she had finished her main course, Millicent Bulstrode took a few sips of the pumpkin juice. Azriel grinned in satisfaction at his co-conspirators.

They were approaching pudding when Azriel finally lost patience with the Greengras girl. With the tiniest bit of magic he dried out her throat and sent a signal to her brain that screamed 'THIRST!!!'. She immediately responded, grabbing her goblet and swallowing half of it in one go. The Gryffindor trio grinned at each other victoriously.

'Hermione, stare at one of the Slytherins for a while,' Azriel suggested. 'That should provoke the reaction we want…'

Hermione smiled vindictively and proceeded to stare at Draco Malfoy. It did not take long for Pansy Parkinson to lean over towards Draco and whisper something to him – and sure enough, ugly purple patches burst out of her pores and started spreading over her skin. Draco flinched back from her in shock as he saw what was now written right across her face in block letters: MUDBLOOD.

The trio watched with glee as Pansy cocked her head questioningly at Draco, who produced a mirror from his robes (Ron snorted at Malfoy carrying around a mirror) and held it up in front of her face. Her shrill shriek turned the heads of everyone in the Great Hall and everyone started murmuring frantically among themselves. Was Peeves behind this again? Was it the revenge of some muggleborn? Yet another prank of the Weasley twins? Divine intervention? A few more Slytherins were afflicted with the same malady in the process of the wild speculation before they figured out not to actually say the word that was now written across quite a few faces.

It was rather like Voldemort's Dark Mark, Azriel reflected as he surveyed the chaos contentedly, surprised at himself that he hadn't thought of that earlier. The spell itself was rather complicated, but the idea behind it was simple: a certain action triggered a certain reaction. In this case, every time the person bespelled uttered the word 'Mudblood', that same word would appear tattooed across their face. The first time, the tattoo would stay visible for a week; afterwards, it would only reappear for a day or two every time the spell was triggered.

Before the rumours about the cause of the Slytherin's new facial beautification could get really ridiculous, Dumbledore conjured a firecracker and caused it to explode in an ear-splitting blast. Everyone's attention shifted to the High Table.

'Now, would anyone care to tell me why the Slytherins seem to be afflicted with an unusual case of magic-induced acne?'

Silence filled the Great Hall as Dumbledore looked down upon the students sternly.

'No? Very well. Would all the affected students please visit the infirmary after the feast; I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be able to restore your youthful complexions in a jiffy. Now, please resume eating. We wouldn't want to miss such a wonderful feast, after all!'

XXX

Eleven o'clock found the trio waiting in the Entrance Hall for the caretaker to arrive. They did not have to wait for long; all too soon Filch appeared with a lantern in one hand and an evil grin on his face.

'Follow me,' he said, walking towards the entrance without glancing back. 'I bet you'll think twice about breaking the school rules next time, eh?'

Azriel bit back his amusement. The problem was not breaking the rules, the problem was getting caught.

'Ah, it's a pity they got rid of the old punishments,' Filch continued with a wistful note in his voice. 'Hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, that always cured the troublemakers… I still have the chains in my office, I keep them well-oiled just in case.'

Azriel carefully filed that information away for potential future use. It was always good to know where the torture and killing devices were.

'But no, your Head of House has decided on something more productive today,' Filch went on with a leer. 'You'll be going to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid today.'

'But isn't that – well, forbidden?' Hermione asked in a high voice.

Filch grinned at her. 'Why, you have a special permission today,' he answered gleefully.

Azriel looked up as they approached Hagrid's hut; the gibbous moon was shining from the heavens with a rare orange glow. It was a beautiful night. Now if only he could somehow get away from his companions…

'Coming!' Hagrid called when Flich knocked on the door hut. A dog barked wildly and they heard Hagrid say, 'Back, Fang!'

The door opened and Hagrid emerged from within, holding a struggling black boarhound by its collar in one massive hand and a few black velvet pouches in the other.

'Ah, good, yer here. Thanks, Filch, I'll take over now.'

Filch gunted and smiled nastily at the trio before turning back towards the castle.

'Righ. Well, we'll be colectin' a very rare plant tonigh'. It only grows where unicorn blood was spilled and blooms when the ligh' of an orange moon shines on it. We had an injured unicorn here just two weeks ago, and since nothing in the fores' will touch unicorn blood, the plant should be in full bloom now.'

He gave them each one of the pouches. 'In there yeh'll each find a silver knife; use tha' ter cut off the plants at the base – be very careful to leave the roots, mind yeh – an' put 'em in the black pouches. Only cut the ones with flowers, though; the others're worthless. Now come along, I'll show yeh where yeh can' start.'

He led the trio down the path along the garden patch behind the hut and into the forest. They walked silently for a while, Azriel enjoying a rare moment of peace while the others were probably too frightened of the tall, ominous trees growing ever thinker around them as they went deeper into the forest.

Finally Hagrid called a halt. 'See tha'?' he said, pointing at a spot a few feet in front where the moonlight was glinting brightly off something. 'That's the unicorn blood. The trail continues in that direction,' he continued, pointing to the left where Azriel could see glimpses of glowing white between the black trees. 'I sugges' we split up now so we can get enough of the plants before the moon changes colour again. Two of you stay here with Fang, an' I'll go on with another.'

'I'll stay,' Azriel volunteered. Perhaps he could get some privacy after all.

'Then I'll stay too,' Ron said.

'Great, I'll go on with Hermione, then!' Hagrid said. 'Don' worry, you two, I won' be very far off, an' if yer in trouble, jes' shoot some red stars up an I'll come.'

He had Azriel and Ron practice until they could both produce a bright burst of red sparks from their wands.

'Great, we'll be goin' then. Jes' remember only ter take the ones with flowers!'

Silently the two got to work. Ron crouched down right by the path, not daring to go in deeper, while Azriel moved in a little further in search of the still-unnamed plants. Perhaps he'd ask Neville about them tomorrow.

He had been collecting the plants for about five minutes when in a flash of blue, a piece of parchment appeared in the air in front of Azriel's eyes. He grabbed it before it could fall into the blood and looked around surreptitiously. Thankfully Ron hadn't noticed the flash and was still bent over his patch of blood. Quickly Azriel unfolded the note and tilted it so the moonlight fell on the writing.

Azriel, it said,

I have a task for you to complete this year: somewhere in the school, Dumbledore has hidden away a certain very valuable object. Find it and bring it to me when school ends.

There was no signature, but Azriel knew who it was from. With a quick thought, the parchment crumbled to dust between Azriel's fingers, dulling the shine of the unicorn blood underneath. Azriel gazed at it, pondering the contents of the letter.

It seemed the school year was about to get very interesting.

oO()Oo

Well, there you have it. It's a little shorter than I had intended, but I felt the rest of their 'night out' just wasn't necessary to the story and probably also quite boring. I'll go start on the next chapter now and you can review and tell me what you think!