Chapter 7: What Happened on Halloween

The mail came and went, and no owls, dark-feathered or otherwise, came for Sypha Veranades. She hadn't expected anything (If old patterns still held, her first letter from home would come in roughly two more weeks), and was almost relieved enough to forget the other night's incident as a bad dream and nothing more. James and Albus were beginning to talk again, and Sypha had managed to make friends with the Care of Magical Creatures professor. Unfortunately, she wasn't taking his class. But that was how life often went – and besides that, if Scorpius was telling the truth about Hagrid unleashing wild beasts on the students, she thought that perhaps it was better to keep the friendship out of the classroom.

Speaking of the young Mr. Malfoy, there he was, eating breakfast right next to her. Alexander had already left the table, and Lisa was probably going to finish soon – "soon" being a relative term, as the amount of food on her plate was no indication of eating time. She had a tendency to talk more than eat. Sypha felt a slight responsibility to say something to Scorpius about teasing Albus, but it was countered by her desire to see the boy learn to defend himself. That, and it would be much easier to make Alexander talk to the boy for her. Sypha glanced to the young blonde boy again, still in thought when something hit her lightly against the head.

"I'm sorry!" Lisa shouted. "I was aiming for your plate!"

"What happened?" Sypha asked, trying to see what Lisa threw at her this time. It looked like a cookie.

"Peanut butter cookies from home. Want one?" Lisa was holding more in an unwrapped package. "They're my favorite. Mum sends them all the time."

"If you promise not to hit me with them," Sypha chuckled and took another cookie. Her first week at Hogwarts ended well, all things considered.


Sypha shuffled into the potions dungeon for one of the classes she did not share with Lisa Pringle and Alexander Dioti, as they were in Arithmancy during that period. Under reflection, if she had grown up with them all six years in school, her classes would probably have been synchronized with theirs, too. As it was, Hufflepuff greatly outnumbered Slytherin in the Potions class, probably due to the fact that their Head of House taught it. Because of Professor Merrythought, the dungeon really couldn't be properly called a "dungeon" anymore. It was decorated with potions ingredients (the dangerous or unsightly ingredients were conspicuously absent), bubbling cauldrons and vials, and more than a few potted plants. She seemed to have placed color in random places in the room, likely in an attempt to repair the class's reputation somewhat. Although there was an even number of students from both houses in the sixth-year class, there was an odd number within each house. Professor Merrythought had been forced to create an odd inter-house pairing each class in the hopes that a Hufflepuff and Slytherin student could work together, but so far as the beginning of week two of classes, nothing had happened except for several arguments, a few explosions, and one case of boils. The professor was there today, and had already drawn two names from her hat before everyone assembled.

"Today's little 'experiment group,'" she announced, "will consist of Veranades, Sypha G., and Lane, Louis L." Mathilda Merrythought was a large woman, in height as well as girth, but her overly-cheerful demeanor helped offset her intimidating appearance. "Everyone else, please seat yourselves as you normally do and open your textbooks."

As Sypha moved behind one of the desks and began to set up her equipment, she was joined by a familiar student.

"Hi, Sypha," Louie said. "Where are your friends?"

"Arithnomancy," she answered, looking up to his face. "I see your hair's still blue."

"They said I've gotta wait until it wears off. I guess I should dye my hair, shouldn't I? What do you think of Hufflepuff colors?"

"You'd look like a bumblebee." She smiled. "Just stick with blue for now."

"That's a great idea!" he answered, which was loud enough to earn a warning glare from Merrythought.

"Come now, we can all talk as much as we want when we've started mixing. Now, page 287, Draught of Living Death. This potion is very, very difficult to make, and I can guarantee not many of you will be able to make a serviceable one yet. So, let's just have fun and try to learn from our mistakes, okay?"

They took the professor's advice, and held off further conversation until brewing time began.

"What's the G stand for?" Louie asked, tossing a few ingredients into his cauldron. He didn't show enough attention to detail – Potions was not his best subject, not by a long shot.

"Grace," Sypha carefully added a few herbs to her concoction – she was much better at this field than many of her other classes, but still had the idea that the draught might not turn out correctly. "What does the L stand for in your name?"

"Lex," Louie asked, beginning to stir. Some liquid slopped out of his cauldron and sizzled on the desk, but he kept working.

"Louis Lex Lane?" Sypha looked up from her work. "That sounds like a really bad pun."

"I know, I think it's some kind of Muggle joke," Louie said, and bent over his cauldron. The liquid was doing something strange. It was very strange indeed, as the concoction exploded a moment later.

Although there was plenty of chaos, it was short-lived. Professor Merrythought, well-versed in handling potions accidents, cleared away the greenish-yellow smoke before it could pose too much of a threat. The two students closest to the explosion appeared to be in decent shape, despite the heavy coughing.

"Now," she said, "This is why concentration is important. Utterly important! Are you two dears all right? You weren't disagreeing over what ingredients to use, where you?" She cast a sympathetic look to Louie, who was from her house, and an entirely different glance toward the Slytherin girl next to him.

"No, we just got distracted," Louie admitted. "I'm sorry. Are we going to need to go to Pomfrey's for this?" Despite the abuse it had just undergone, Louie's cauldron was still in relatively good shape. His robes were stained in multiple colors, and when combined with his hair almost suggested some sort of new counterculture. Either that, or a clown blew up. Sypha was unaffected.

"No, no, you'll be all right, dear," the professor said, and looked at Sypha again. "But you seem to have escaped unscathed."

"I think Louie formed a natural shield." Sypha felt smaller now – surrounded by two rather tall people. "It's okay, I'll help clean up."

Merrythought nodded once, and then addressed the entire class. "You see, everyone, what a brief moment of inattentiveness can do? What you saw here was the result of one incorrectly-sliced root. One small misstep can cost you the potion. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, but please keep your eyes focused on your cauldron at all times! You may return to your brewing now, please." She stepped away, and Sypha and Louie began to try to prepare the draught again.

"I'm really sorry about this," Louie said, seeming to shrink from within his newly-colored school robes. "Usually my potions just fizzle. They don't explode."

Sypha chuckled under her breath, and tried to sound reassuring. "That's usually what I say."

"Why? Your potions are turning out good, and I'm sorry you have to start all over again because of it."

"My potions turn out well because it's one of the few things I know I can do around here," she answered. "You should see me in Charms. You won't, because it's with the Ravenclaws, but – here, you need to cut that into finer slices. Like this."

Louie thanked Sypha, and followed her lead for the rest of the class period. Surprisingly, nothing else went horribly wrong, although cleaning the mess afterward took a terrible amount of time. Professor Merrythought sat behind her desk, periodically looking up from her next class's notes to check on their progress.

"Look, Sypha, you don't have to stay and do this," Louie rolled up his sleeves and started scrubbing at the desk.

"Nonsense," she answered, ducking under her chair to clean up some of the mess that had splattered all the way down there. "I can fit in places you can't."

"I still feel bad about it."

"The best way to make things better," Sypha said, moving out from under the chair, "is to see what went wrong this time, and try not to repeat it. Does that help?"

"I get confused on potions," he said. "Get mixed up somewhere in the ingredients, or measuring something, or stirring, or something like that. It's not like Quidditch." His voice dropped to a whisper. "And I know it looks bad for poor Professor Merrythought. I'm from her house, and I don't know how I'm gonna do in her own class."

"Would you like some help?" Sypha asked, and sighed. For a Slytherin, it really seemed that she had been volunteering herself out to everybody lately.

"You mean you would? You really would?" he asked. "Thank you! Can I pay you back somehow? Make you good at flying, or something?"

"No, you don't need to," she answered, brushing floor-dirt from her robes. "If you don't cause any havoc in class, that's payment enough."

"How is the cleaning coming along?" Merrythought asked, adjusting her reading glasses as she looked up.

"Excellent!" Louie answered, beaming like a puppy with an extra-large bone. "Should be done in a second, easily!"

Sypha looked down to the desk, and began working on the mess there. A dark spot smeared, forming an uneven, wavy V-shape that almost resembled a bird in flight. It struck a very recent memory, and she spoke to the teacher.

"Professor Merrythought?"

"Yes, dearie?" Merrythought responded.

"I guess you're not the one to ask about this," Sypha said, "But about the school owls, are any of them black? I mean, really black? Like a raven, kind of?"

The professor looked at her oddly. "I don't think so. Some of them are a little darker than others, I guess. Do you have a peculiar preference, Miss Veranades?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm just curious. An owl woke me up tapping at the window the other night. It was really dark, but I guess it kind of startled me a bit. It didn't have a message or anything." She neglected to mention the red eyes, still holding out some hope that she had imagined that specific detail because it was late.

"Very curious," Merrythought said. "Perhaps the poor little thing had gotten lost, and was trying to find its way. But don't the Slytherins live in the dungeon below here?"

"The common room is underground," Sypha answered. "Our dormitory is a little higher. We've got ground floor windows. Thanks, though."

"You can always check the Owlery to see if it's one of the school owls or if it belongs to one of the students here." Professor Merrythought tapped her quill against the edge of her paperwork. "I imagine it wasn't wild. Very peculiar, though. Very peculiar." With that, she returned to her reading.

"An owl scared you?" Louie asked, beginning to rub harder at a particularly stubborn spot.

"It was a weird owl," Sypha explained, lifting her cauldron to clean underneath it. "I can't really explain. I think I'll check the owlery after we're done here."

"Can I come with you?" Once again, Louie Lane had begun to resemble a puppy.

"Sure, sure."


As she climbed the stairs to the Owlery, Sypha did not envy the Gryffindors with their tower.

"I guess it's just a matter of curiosity, that's all," she said to Louie. "I mean, it woke me up tapping on the window, and sometimes things like that can freak you out, you know?"

"Like mistaking a coat rack for a monster, right?' Louie asked, climbing up after her. "I used to do that a lot when I was a kid. Except then, I'd attack it. Really annoyed my parents."

"I'd imagine," she answered, and stepped into the owlery, the doorway of which was marked by the distinct scent of bird droppings. At first, she felt overwhelmed at the sheer number of birds in there, most on ledges leading up to the ceiling. A few flew into the building or out of it, some carrying messages. A snowy white owl swooped in and onto its nest, a mouse caught between its beak.

"Solomon would go crazy here," Sypha commented, walking around the room as she gazed at the animals. Some were gray, some were dark brown, and she supposed that without a good light source she could have mistaken some of them for black. A little voice chimed inside her head that no, she knew the color, and it wasn't gray or brown.

"Do you see anything?" Louie asked, putting his hands in his pockets. "They all look pretty light to me."

"Ummmmm…" She turned around again, taking in the different feathered animals in the building. One of the dark gray owls turned its head toward her, and she saw that its eyes were a deep, rich amber color. Perhaps a trick of the lighting or lack thereof combined with her half-asleep state could've…

It's the wrong shape. The black owl looked different than that, and its eyes really were red.

Sypha banished that thought from her mind by saying, "I think maybe it was this one" and smiling. She didn't want to keep thinking about the owl. Her mind might start to travel down less-desirable paths, such as whether or not that was really an owl, and why it would have come to visit her.

"Yeah, I think this might be it. Is probably it. Sure." She turned around to Louie and smiled. "Let's go back downstairs now. I want to see what Albus is up to, and you've got to practice for the Quidditch trials."

"Sure thing! When can we meet about Potions?"

"Anytime, just meet me in the library." Sypha answered, and smiled again. She put all thoughts of the owl out of her mind, and considered the odd fact that she seemed to be collecting people from different houses. Now she just needed to find an insecure Ravenclaw to counsel.


The next several weeks passed without major incident. Sypha's grades were generally decent, although her performance in Charms and Transfiguration had begun to become somewhat erratic. It was nowhere near what often went wrong in salem, but did bear a few similarities. She was genuinely suffering in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Although nobody had yet to produce an actual Patronus, they were beginning to come close. Often she found herself distracted, unable to focus, or overly tired. Once recently she felt slightly nauseous during class, and decided to eat less at breakfast the next day. Herbology had been going well, and Professor Longbottom volunteered to help Sypha with her Defense work. Albus and James continued to get along better over time, and Sypha enjoyed Rose's company when neither of them had to behave like a babysitter. Louie had easily regained his spot on the Quidditch team, and his potions work had seen a marked improvement since Sypha began to help him. His hair was still blue, however. Scorpius still teased Albus, and Alexander refused to take sides on the issue. He, Lisa, and Sypha had formed and maintained a good friendship, although he often added little jibes about how she seemed to be spreading herself around all of the houses.

Because of Rose and the boys, Sypha had finally managed to speak with Professor Weasley on a few occasions, and was reasonably familiar with her outside of class. Hermione had remarked that she may be late for a few upcoming classes, as she predicted that one of the legendary Auror Harry Potter's cases would break soon, and she'd have a very public trial to adjudicate. If things got too busy, a substitute would teach in her stead.

The school was busy in preparation for Halloween, and Sypha had not been invited back to the Slug Club. She didn't mind this too much, despite the occasional snide remarks from Serenity when she saw her in Defense or between classes. If she wanted to go back, she could always ask someone to invite her at Christmas if she really wanted to go again, anyway. There was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, and she remembered Professor Eytinge's offer for tea – although he had also offered the same to Professors Weasley, Longbottom, Slughorn, and "Harry Potter, if you can invite him here." She could wait. Socializing with all of these teachers felt somewhat odd, although it was welcoming to see how much the Hogwarts faculty truly cared about their students.

"Heading to Defense?" Longbottom asked Sypha as students filed out of the greenhouse.

"Yes," Sypha nodded, taking off her gloves and settling them on the pile. She had a slight bit of trouble with the Snargaluffs this time, and had a fair amount of greenish sap staining her robes. "Thanks again for the help."

"You'll do fine," he said. "Just remember what we talked about. I know you're behind the class right now, but it's like a chain reaction. Once everybody else starts producing Patronuses, it'll be easy to follow right along. Keep your happy thought in mind."

"Thanks," she smiled. "Thank you, sir. Professor Weasley thinks that we should start mastering it any day now."

"She's an excellent woman," Neville said. "And Happy Halloween."

"Happy Halloween to you, too," a second nod, and Sypha walked off to join the rest of her class. It was raining hard outside, nearly storming, and the sky was nearly dark because of the clouds. She thought that it was rather dreary weather in which to practice "happy thoughts." She ran to catch up with Lisa and Alexander, passing serenity on the way.

"What do you think?" Lisa asked. "Do you think we'll get it today?"

"Yeah," Sypha nodded. "At least I hoped so. You're a happy person, Lisa – maybe you'll figure it out."

"I think I know who won't," Alexander Dioti said, and pointed. A tall, French Ravenclaw student was marching through the rain, grumbling to herself. "With a mood like that, I think happy memories are the last thing on her mind."

The others shook their heads, and said nothing about Serenity. She did not look very serene, after all, and earning her ire would certainly make it harder to concentrate in class.

The room itself was warm and inviting in comparison to the nasty weather outdoors. Slytherin and Ravenclaw students entered and sat behind their desks, waiting for the professor to arrive.

"She's late again," Alexander said. "Typical for a Weasley." He winked to Sypha when he said this, so she only elbowed him lightly.

"I meant typical for a Gryffindor!" he amended. This earned a harsh look, but she didn't hit him. "Think about it this way. She could be Hufflepuff. Then she'd never get here."

"Ravenclaw would be here early," Sypha added, joking with them. "But she'd start lecturing before the students arrived, and demand to see our notes."

"You mean Professor Binns?" Lisa asked, and fluttered her eyelashes innocently.

"Typical Slytherins!" Serenity muttered as she passed by, giving a toss of her hair that nearly drenched all three of them with rainwater. "Always mocking others without anything to offer, yourselves."

"And one of the Potters," Alexander added. "You forgot that we got one of them."

"So you're bragging about it now?" Sypha asked when Serenity had left to find a seat.

"You take what you can get," Dioti said. "And one's better than none, right?"

"You still haven't told Malfoy to lay off him," she said.

"The kid'll learn to stick up for himself, and they'll be fine," Alexander answered. "Don't worry about it."

At that moment the door slammed open and Hermione Weasley entered. She was sopping wet and muddy, still wearing her coat, and very obviously flustered. She set her bag on the desk and waved to the students, indicating that they should stand. It was evidently going to be another practice session, not necessarily a lecture.

"I'm sorry, everyone," Professor Weasley said. "I would have been on time, but the door was shut, and it took some time to get in. And then I tripped and fell in the mud – it almost felt like I was knocked down. The weather is really terrible today, isn't it?"

The students nodded in agreement, and moved to the front of the room. The professor waved her wand a few times, and the desks and chairs neatly stacked themselves against the wall.

"Everyone, please begin to practice as usual," Hermione said, taking off her coat and using her wand to siphon off some of the mud and water. "The lecture will begin once I have determined what aspects of the spell you need to learn most."

The students formed lines around the room, held their wands in the practiced position, and began. Just as before, the results were meager – a spark or a wisp here and there but nothing lasting. Sypha practiced as well, continuing her earlier pattern of producing absolutely nothing, no matter what memory she focused on. Did she not have a happy enough life? Was she not concentrating on the right things? Were her wand movements off? Did all of this self-analysis and rumination ruin it? Also, she was beginning to feel another headache – likely a result of stress, the weather, and hard work. And the sudden (but very light) nausea was probably due to what she ate for breakfast and the trouble with Snargaluffs earlier.

"Look!" a Ravenclaw student shouted. "Professor Weasley! Look! Look!" A small wisp of silver extended from his wand, reaching out like a tendril before beginning to dissipate. Hermione jumped to her feet and moved forward, seeing the student's progress.

"Very good, Felix. Do you see this, everyone?" There was mild applause from the class at this new accomplishment. "I want everyone to think about this – get into the spirit! Combine your happy memories with thoughts of success!"

Now encouraged by what had just happened, the other students began to practice even more fervently. Sypha still felt slightly ill, in fact a little more than before. She thought it unfortunate that she felt awful today, of all days. There was another glimmer of silver light as one of the Slytherins began to create an incorporeal Patronus for the first time.

"That's the spirit!" Professor Weasley cheered them on, moving among the rows of students, adjusting wands and posture here and there. "Ignore the weather outside – in fact, use your Patronuses against it. Pretend that you are driving way the rain!"

The spirit of the room lifted even further, and just as Longbottom had said, it was like a chain reaction. It seemed as though everyone was suddenly creating silver lights left and right, some of which nearly even took shape. Sypha still had nothing, and now her head and stomach began to feel worse. She didn't connect it at all with what was going on in the classroom now or the previous time, and she was in fact beginning to feel greatly frustrated. Was she coming down with something? Getting sick? Why now? Why on a holiday, and why exactly when the rest of the class is succeeding so much? Couldn't it wait for a normal, ordinary day?

"Good job!" The professor said nearby. Alexander Dioti had produced a particularly impressive stream of light, which moved slightly on its own, moving around Sypha and nearly touching Lisa. Sypha stumbled, her head throbbing harder, and felt a pair of hands steadying her.

"Careful, now," Professor Weasley said. "You're supposed to be thinking happy thoughts, not performing gymnastics. Are you all right, Sypha?"

"I'm fine," she lied, and put on a reasonably convincing smile. Talking in an even tone took some effort, and even more was needed to stand and lift her want properly. "I'll just keep trying."

Hermione nodded and walked on, adjusting Lisa's wand a little before moving to the other students. Another girl's Patronus formed a visible shape this time, possibly some sort of bird. Sypha's stomach turned over on itself, and she felt bile tickle the back of her throat. She pressed on, now wondering what it was she ate that could have caused this.

She barely heard the students' applause through the sudden, fierce pounding in her head. Sypha stopped wondering if she had eaten something bad, and most of her thoughts even as she did the motion for the spell was that she would see Madame Pomfrey when this was over. Then even that thought disappeared, replaced only with the desire to stay standing, to keep the wand up, to look normal until everything is over.

Lisa Pringle at that moment became the first person to fully cast a successful Patronus. The spell appeared in the shape of a silver horse. It was beautiful, glowing, glimmering, gracefully prancing across the classroom. Sypha shut her eyes hard as her head pounded in agony, trying to focus, trying to figure out what was happening to her. Her stomach felt turned inside-out, and although she no longer felt the need to vomit, she could barely think through the pain. Sypha's head swam even more, and the room seemed to spin even with her eyes closed. She bumped into Alexander, nearly knocking him over. She opened her eyes again when she hit him, still trying to steady herself.

He grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her. "Sypha? Are you all right?" he asked.

"Sypha?" Lisa dropped her Patronus immediately, running to her friend. It was only later that she would connect this with the girl's bad headache in the first week of classes.

"Sypha?"

"What's happening here?" Professor Weasley asked, seeing that something had gone wrong. "Sypha? Are you okay? Miss Veranades!"

Sypha barely heard them. Her sense of the outside world wavered, and her vision began to black out. Sypha's wand fell, clattering on the ground. She landed beside it a moment after.