Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while, but this one's a little long if it helps. I hope you like the chapter! Please review, and thanks so much! -Kelly :)

CHAPTER 8

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Rose and Aidan stood in the back of the office as the professors discussed quietly together what was going to be done after Professor Trelawney had declared that it certainly had been a vision. Rose wasn't entirely sure why they were trusting Professor Trelawney's opinion in this situation, but since they had already been fairly sure she supposed she could understand. Arya was still sitting in the chair nervously, and wouldn't talk to anyone. She was staring at the floor, clearly frightened, and Rose could hear parts of their discussion when they would get more expressive.

"We can't call the rest of the school back now, there isn't any way," McGonagall said, and Rudomin nodded.

"Maybe if we sent an owl to the Owl Post there they could send the students back…?"

"Possibly, but I'm not sure that will be necessary." McGonagall turned to Arya and asked, "It was dark in your vision, wasn't it, Arya?" Arya nodded hesitantly and McGonagall said, "If nothing will happen until nightfall, I believe it will be safe for the students not to return until 6:00 as scheduled."

"Are we going to tell the students?" Rudomin asked.

"I don't think that would be wise, other than the Prefects. They aren't in any danger that we know of. I suggest that during the feast, the faculty guards the Great Hall and throughout the night we keep a close watch. We must inform the ghosts to be cautious, however. Perhaps their celebration should be postponed."

"I'll talk to Sir Nicholas, he'll pass it on to the others," Rudomin said.

"Perhaps you should talk to Mr. Creevey and Miss Brown as well, I believe the student ghosts keep themselves relatively separate." Rudomin nodded and started to leave. "Victor, inform the other Heads of Houses as well." He nodded again and left the office. "Sybil, I trust you to gather the rest of the faculty for a staff meeting. I will be in the staff room in half an hour, I expect all professors and Mr. Filch to be present as well."

"Of course, Minerva. And have you thought more of my request to—"

"We can discuss the possibility another time, Sybil, but yes, I might be open to discussion." Professor Trelawney hurried out of the office and McGonagall seemed to notice them again for the first time in a while. "I apologize for all of this," she said. "Miss Weasley, I would appreciate it if you would take Miss Collins to the hospital wing, and Mr. Tanner, if you could find Mr. Potter or Miss Matthews as soon as possible to call a Prefect meeting directly before the feast. I will be attending." Aidan looked surprised but nodded and McGonagall said, "Thank you. And you are not to tell any students other than Prefects about the situation, understood?" They nodded and left the office quickly.

"I'll find Ava, meet us at the Prefect commons around 6:00, okay?" Aidan said when they had reached the bottom of the staircase. Rose nodded and he hesitated a little before he kissed her and left quickly.

Rose turned herself and Arya towards the hospital wing and as they walked, Arya said faintly, "Are you guys in love or not?"

"What?" Rose asked, completely taken off guard. "Er… we're just… I don't know."

"That kiss looked pretty awkward."

"It wasn't—aren't you supposed to be nearly catatonic?" Rose muttered and Arya rolled her eyes.

"I'm trying to distract myself," she mumbled, and they reached the hospital wing fairly quickly. "Sorry about this," she said quietly as Rose waited for Ms. Abbott to open the door to the wing. "At least I didn't do this in front of Willow."

"It's okay, Arya, some pretty weird stuff has happened to me, too," Rose said, and Ms. Abbott opened the door and brought Arya to a bed quickly. She waved halfheartedly before a curtain was pulled around her bed and Rose walked down to the Great Hall to wait for the rest of the school. She realized she finally had free time and studied as much as she could before she started to hear students pouring in through the castle doors. She jumped up and checked the time; she had ten minutes till she was supposed to meet Aidan. Rose wove her way through the crowd until she found Al and Scorpius. Al looked a little mad until she ran up to him and said, "Emergency Prefect meeting. Now."

"What?" he asked. "And where were you today?"

"You'll find out, I'm sorry, I can't tell you here. Come on." Al glanced at Scorpius and shrugged apologetically.

"Are you seriously not going to tell me what's going on?" Scorpius asked.

"Prefects only," Rose said shortly.

"I'll tell you later," Al said, and Rose pulled him through the crowd.

"No he won't!" she called behind them, and they ran up to the Prefect commons to find Ava coming in with Aidan and a few other prefects. James was already inside, sitting with Alice and the other Gryffindor prefects, and Rose and Al went to sit in the sofa across from him.

"Rosie, where'd you disappear to?"

"Long story. McGonagall will explain."

"McGonagall? What the hell is going on?" James asked, suddenly a lot more concerned. Ava walked over and pulled him up from the sofa.

"Please actually act like Head Boy," she muttered, and he grinned and shrugged. "This isn't funny, what if it's an attack?"

"It's not on us, it's the ghosts—" Rose began to explain, but the room quieted when McGonagall walked in. After she explained what had happened that afternoon, she said, "The faculty and I trust all of you to be responsible and cautious tonight, and to help us protect the school and your fellow students. You are all to remain alert in your respective common rooms from nightfall at 8:00 tonight until your Heads of Houses inform you that the danger is passed. Thank you."

"Professor, what about the ghosts?" Ava asked.

"Please inform any ghosts you may see that I highly recommend they remain inside their Houses, and that unaffiliated ghosts are welcome to seek refuge in any House they choose. Other questions?" The room was quiet, and she continued. "None of you are to inform the student body of what is happening unless the faculty has already done so. We are hoping that the students will never have to be concerned with this matter." The Prefects dispersed and Rose walked down to the feast with Al, already growing nervous about the night to come. When they entered the Hall the feast had already begun and they hurried to sit next to Hugo, Min, and Roxanne. Scorpius, Rose noticed, was sitting farther along down the table with Emma, and didn't seem to show any signs of moving down to sit with them, which Rose was perfectly fine with. The last thing she needed tonight was to be thinking about Scorpius. As the feast progressed, however, she couldn't seem to avoid watching him from down the table. She noticed with alarm that she saw him smile and felt the same strange feeling she had felt last year whenever she saw him. That had to have been cancelled out by what he did, hadn't it? She felt guilty when she thought about Aidan as well, and there was a small part of her that knew that even though she may have felt that way about him occasionally, she didn't feel the same way he did. She had no idea what to do.

"Rose?" Al said loudly, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Could you help with that Charms assignment tonight? I'm really screwed if I can't get it done by Monday…"

"Well, sure, I mean, Aidan wants to go for a walk but I'll be up by 8:00 obviously."

Al raised an eyebrow. "A walk?"

"What?"

"Do I have to kill him?"

"What?" Rose repeated, starting to get indignant.

Al rolled his eyes. "Merlin, Rose, I'm only joking."

"Nothing's going to happen, we're literally going for a walk."

"Sure," he said quietly, and Min chuckled. Rose glared at her and she stopped but still looked a little too pleased. Rose started to feel sick. Is that really what Aidan meant by— but the feast was over and she didn't have any more time to think. Aidan was waiting by the door to the Entrance Hall and she tried not to show that she was incredibly nervous.

"Hey," he said. "Let's go up one of the towers, it'll be quieter there."

"Okay," she said quickly, and followed him about halfway up the Astronomy Tower, where true enough, there were no students at all. Aidan stopped after a while and sat down on a bench along a corridor, and Rose hesitantly sat down next to him.

"We aren't supposed to be getting people back to the dorms, are we?" he checked, and she shook her head.

"They've got till eight, it's only 7:30," she said, and he smiled.

"Good, it's nice to finally have some time alone," he said, and she nodded quickly. She was starting to think Al was right. Aidan wasn't exactly walking. "I've missed you lately, we've hardly talked."

"I know," Rose said. "I didn't exactly predict this whole Arya situation."

"Funny that," he said. "We always get interrupted somehow. I suppose that's what I get for dating a Weasley. You're all always in trouble."

"Is that… bad?" Rose asked and he laughed.

"Not at all. You know how much I care about you."

"…Yeah," Rose said, not wanting to mention that was exactly what she was worried about.

"Kiss me," he said suddenly, and Rose felt like she was going to be sick. She kissed him anyway, though, and it only took a few seconds for Aidan to pull her closer and before she knew what she was doing, she pushed him away.

"Aidan, I—I'm not sure I—"

"You what?" Aidan asked, looking more than a little embarrassed. Rose took a deep breath.

"I don't know if this is… working."

Aidan hesitated before saying, "…Okay. Yeah, okay."

"Okay?" Rose asked.

"It's okay, Rose, I understand. I knew you didn't really fancy me, but I hoped that since he was gone, I could—"

"What?" Rose asked, confused now.

"I can't compete with Scorpius Malfoy," Aidan said. "It's fine. I knew anyway. We can stay friends."

"It's not about Scorpius! Aidan, I'm not… it's not that I don't care about you, because I… I do, but—"

"As a friend," Aidan said. "And that's fine. I'll be fine." There was a very awkward silence for a few seconds before he said, "We should… get back to our Houses. It'll be nearly eight when we get there."

"…Are you sure you're okay?" Rose asked quietly. Aidan nodded and forced a smile, and the whole situation was too awkward.

"Good night," Rose said. "I'm… I'm sorry." She dashed out of the corridor and entered the stairwell. She was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't hear or see the couple at the bottom of the stairs until she was eye level with them, and froze as she realized who it was. Scorpius and Emma were pressed together against the window on the other side of the stairwell, snogging eagerly, and Rose stared in complete disbelief until Emma noticed and pulled away, eyes wide.

"Rose!" she squeaked. "Er, I, um…"

"What's the matter with you, Weasley? You look pissed," Scorpius said, straightening his robes and starting to fix his hair.

Rose glared at him and was speechless for a second before she managed to say, "Early curfew's in twenty minutes." She stomped down the rest of the stairs and reached Gryffindor tower ten minutes early. She had no idea what was happening in her life anymore; everything had made sense this morning, what had happened? She sat down next to Al in a huff and he looked at her, confused.

"Are you okay, Rose?" he asked. "What happened with Aidan?"

"It… wasn't good," Rose muttered, and James looked at her from the opposite sofa, concerned.

"What'd he do? I'll kill him if you'd like. I could take the little prick."

"No, it's not—I broke up with him, it's fine."

"Oh." James and Al were quiet for a minute before James said, "Well, if you broke up with him, you should be happy, right?"

"I probably will be eventually, I just need a minute." Rose hesitated before adding, "And Scorpius is snogging Emma in the Astronomy Tower, by the way."

James's eyes seemed to bug out of his head. "Oh, now that's someone I'll kill." Rose shrugged and Al looked a little concerned as Scorpius and Emma burst through the portrait hole, giggling in a way that made Rose want to die. "Malfoy! What the hell are you thinking?"

Scorpius stopped in front of the portrait hole and raised an eyebrow. "What, James?"

"James, don't—" Emma said, but he cut her off.

"You know bloody well what!"

Scorpius remained calm in the way Rose had learned to be wary of and said quietly, "Emma, could you excuse us for a moment?"

"Don't kill each other," Emma sighed, and quickly went to sit down with Roxanne across the room.

"I'm not sure why this is any of your business, Potter," he said, and James rolled his eyes.

"Like hell it isn't. She's a fourth year, she's 14 years old—"

"Fifteen, actually, and it's kind of a mutual decision, it's not like she didn't want to—"

"Merlin, Malfoy, you've got your pick of girls here, just stay away from my cousins!"

"It wasn't the first time, you arse," Scorpius growled, and James looked affronted. Rose felt her face flush and tried as hard as she could not to think about the incident in third year.

"Excuse me?" James asked and Scorpius stepped back a little.

"Nothing," Scorpius muttered, and turned around to stomp up the boys' stairs. Rose internally sighed in relief. The common room had gone uncharacteristically silent.

"What?" James asked, and the rest of the students looked away quickly and chatter resumed. James stalked back to their seats and looked furious. "Bloody git. I'm glad you finally saw sense, Rosie."

"Yeah," Rose said quietly.

"What the hell did he mean, it wasn't the first time?" James asked.

"Well, don't look at me," Min said, and he looked questioningly at the two of them.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous," Rose said quickly, and Al stared back at his brother.

"What the hell are you looking at me for?"

"Well, you never know," James said, shrugging. "Can we just forget this ever happened?"

"Please," Rose said.

"You know you're on duty as Head Boy," Alice said quietly. "Might want to act like it."

James blushed a little, something Rose didn't think she'd ever seen, and said, "Er, yeah, okay." He stood up and walked into the center of the room. "All right, everyone, early curfew's just a precaution, but we really can't tell you why. Sorry." There were some general groans about the room and James waited for a second. "Okay, so it doesn't matter when you go up to bed or anything, just stay in the House. Got it? Great, thanks." He walked back to where they were sitting and said, "Hey, Min, you kinda have to leave, sorry."

Min rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. I'll make sure you didn't traumatize Emma."

She walked across the room and James added, "We need to account for the ghosts, right?"

"Well, we're only expecting Colin and Sir Nicholas," Hector said, "and Nick's playing chess with a second year in the corner."

"Where's Colin?" Rose asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen him," Gemma said, looking a little concerned. After a minute or so of quiet, Colin came in through the far wall and over to them.

"Hey, I'm here, I just was checking on a few of the others. Osric's pretty shaken up. He keeps saying he wants to find out what's going on. We reckon he should just stay inside, but he won't listen…"

"Brilliant," James said, rolling his eyes. "Thanks, Colin."

"Sure," he said. Rose and the other prefects waited as calmly as possible until around 11:00, Rose helping Al with his Charms essay, and trying not to think too much about Aidan or Scorpius. Did Aidan really think she was breaking up with him because of Scorpius? Was she? She honestly didn't know.

A little after 11:00, Professor Rudomin came to the dorms and said, "James, can we talk outside?"

James looked at them, a little anxious, and said, "Sure," before getting up and following the professor outside.

James and Rudomin didn't return until nearly 11:30, and most of the other students had gone to bed already when they returned and Rudomin said, "We're fairly certain the danger's passed. It's all right for you to go to bed now. Thanks so much for your help."

Rudomin left quickly and Al immediately asked James, "What happened?"

"Osric's… well, he's not dead, I… I don't know how to put it. It's like he's frozen. He's sort of in a coma but he's a ghost so…"

"Do they know what did it?" Rose asked. James shook his head.

"Well, how do they know it's passed?" Al asked.

"Probably because Arya only saw him on Halloween," Rose pointed out, and James nodded.

"Yeah. I suppose. We might as well go to bed."

"I don't know if I can sleep. What the hell can kill ghosts?"

"If you don't mind my asking," Nearly Headless Nick said from across the room, "what's happened?"

"Osric Campbell is in the hospital wing, he's sort of frozen… they aren't sure what's happened," James said. Nick suddenly looked very grim. "What is it? Do you know what's happening?"

"I have a theory," Nick said. "I hope I'm wrong. Perhaps Mr. Creevey can explain… we were both afflicted by—"

"By what?" Colin asked.

Nick turned to him and said, "I believe Mr. Campbell has been Petrified." Colin seemed as if he would have gone white had he been alive and James was getting impatient.

"What is it?"

"It's bad, mate," Colin said grimly. "If we're right… it sounds like the Chamber of Secrets."

"That's rubbish, my dad killed that thing, didn't he?" Al asked nervously.

"Well… we think so, but… all we're saying is that's what it sounds like," Colin said. The ghosts went off through the wall and the prefects went up to bed. Rose attempted to fall asleep but laid on her bed for what felt like hours, thinking about what had happened. If the Chamber of Secrets was open, no one was safe. That was certain.