Chapter Eight: Halloween Dates

Alessa opened her eyes slowly the next morning. The sun was streaming in her window, and she was incredibly warm, though the days had been growing steadily colder. She snuggled deeper into her blankets only to come into contact with a warm body. She looked up into George's sleeping face and smiled, watching him for a few seconds, then she carefully extracted herself from the bed, quietly leaving the room.

She had showered and made a mug of coffee and was just about to settle into the couch when loud knocking came from her door. She pulled it open quickly, coming face to face with Ginny, who was scowling at her.

"Good morning Ginny, how are you today," Alessa asked, sipping her coffee as she stood aside to let Ginny storm in angrily.

"It's afternoon now, I let you sleep in. And don't pull that crap with me. You purposefully didn't talk to Oliver last night," Ginny hissed, jabbing at Alessa with her finger.

Alessa shrugged, dodging away from her. "He wasn't my type," she said, then lifted her cup to hide the smile that appeared when Ginny sputtered.

"Fine. I have another boy you can meet tonight," she said, smirking as Alessa's face formed into a frown.

"I'm not going out two nights in a row Ginny. Besides, I have to work tomorrow morning," Alessa said, glad to have a moderately good excuse to use.

Ginny's eyes narrowed. "Fine. Thursday then. And don't make an excuse or I will make your life hell."

"But Thursday is Halloween," Alessa said, frowning.

"I know. And I happen to know of several great parties happening that night. You will come to one of them with me and you will meet another one of my friends," Ginny said, an evil glint in her eyes.

"Okay, I will, I promise," Alessa said, then looked over Ginny's shoulder as her bedroom door opened. She saw George start to walk out, see his sister, and rush back inside, shutting the door behind him with a click.

"What was that," Ginny asked, turning toward the noise.

"Just the wind," Alessa said calmly. "I left my window open last night. It gets really warm in there at night, all that muggle heating and stuff."

"Oh," Ginny said, immediately forgetting the noise as she turned back to her. "I know the shop is closed on Halloween, so I expect you at my place at 4pm sharp."

"Yes ma'am," Alessa saluted grinning. Ginny finally broke a smile. "Here, I have your shoes and dress here," Alessa said, remembering the clothing she had set on her couch arm the previous day.

"Keep the dress, I just want the shoes back," Ginny said, taking them from her. Alessa grinned and hugged the younger girl in thanks.

Finally Ginny left, and Alessa sighed when the door closed then went to let George know the coast was clear.

"That was hilarious," Alessa said, laughing. "Your face when you saw her was completely horrified."

"Well she is a truly frightening little demon," George said, laughing.

"Come on, I was just about to make breakfast, though Ginny has informed me that it is afternoon," Alessa said, turning back to the hall.

George followed her, but as they reached the living room, he pulled her back, wrapping his arms around her and letting his head rest on top of hers for a few seconds. She hugged him back, arms around his waist. Finally he pulled away, pecking her on the lips.

"What was that for?" She asked, continuing on to the kitchen with a smiling.

"No reason," he smiled, leaning against the wall to watch her make some scrambled eggs and toast using the muggle appliances in her kitchen. They were both quiet until she set the food on the table and pushed aside a stack of books to make room for him. Since she usually was the only person to sit at the table, the rest of it was covered with books and papers.

"I like your place," George said, looking around the room. "It's homey, even if it is full of boxes."

"I like it too," Alessa admitted, then frowned. "I've been trying to find a place in Diagon Alley, but nothing there drew me in as much as this place did. Maybe my standards are too high."

"You could live with me," George said offhandedly. Alessa's head jerked up.

"Don't you think that's moving a little fast? I mean, we've only been dating for a week," she said, and was embarrassed to find her voice shaking a little. She cleared her throat, then looked up to see George watching her closely.

"I didn't mean with me with me. Just, with me," he said, frowning a little.

"Yes, because that makes sense," Alessa said, trying to lighten the mood that had fallen around them. She could feel curiosity coming from George, along with a pang of rejection. She sighed.

"I meant, I have a spare room in my flat that is never used," George said, keeping a straight face.

"Oh," Alessa said. "I didn't mean that I'd never want to live with you I just…"

"I know, it's fine," George said, going back to his breakfast. She smiled a little as she felt the rejection fade away. She didn't want to hurt him, he was already broken. Suddenly she felt the stress of the situation she had put herself in. She would have to constantly watch what she said and did now, because even if he didn't show it, George was fragile and unsure of himself. Anything she said could push him over an edge. She pushed her hands over her face and into her hair.

"What's wrong?" He asked, finishing his food.

"Nothing, it's just going to mean a lot of packing and reorganizing," she told him, changing the subject. He grinned.

After breakfast Alessa washed the dishes, letting George dry them with a towel and put them away in the places she pointed out to him. It was almost three when they settled on the couch and Alessa flipped on the television again, turning it to some comedy show that was playing.

"Would you like to go out to dinner?" George asked half an hour later.

"Tonight?" George nodded, still looking at the telly. "Like a date?" She asked, a smile spreading across her face.

"Yes," George said, grinning back at her now.

"Sure. Where should we go?" Alessa asked.

"Somewhere in the muggle world," George said. "I've never been to a muggle restaurant."

"Oh, I have. I know some really good ones around here. What kind of food do you want?" Alessa said, switching off the television to face him.

As they planned their first date, deciding on an Italian place about three blocks away, Alessa worried about the Halloween party Ginny had mentioned. She knew George would probably not be willing to be dragged around to a bunch of parties with them, which meant Alessa would have no one to talk to except whichever boy Ginny was setting her up with.

"Should we tell Ginny yet?" Alessa asked as they walked to the Italian restaurant that evening. She didn't specify what she was talking about, but George understood her anyway.

"Already? Nah, trust me, she isn't even close to as pissed off as she could be. She gets so riled up about things that are out of her control. You have to wait at least two more dates. By then she will be half crazy," George said, walking beside her with his hands in his pockets. Alessa had only worn a sweater and a scarf, but now she was wishing she had a thicker jacket. It had been unseasonably warm for most of October, but today had become very crisp, and the wind wasn't helping either. She pulled her scarf tighter to prevent the wind from hitting her neck.

"Okay," Alessa said, agreeing with George since he had known Ginny longer than she had. After another moment they arrived at the restaurant. It was a very casual place, and it was warm inside, which to Alessa was all the qualifications that a first date required. They found a booth and picked up the menus from the table, taking a few minutes to decide.

The night went by quickly. They chatted about insignificant things, from favorite quidditch teams and vacations they had been on to favorite colors and which classes they had enjoyed in school, though they kept their voices lower when talking about things from the magical world.

"You liked potions?" George said incredulously as he sipped his drink. They had finished their meals nearly a half hour ago, but neither of them wanted to leave yet. "Whatever for?"

"I don't know. I mean, my parents both worked as potion makers, and I really liked how meticulous certain potions were. And the sense of accomplishment you get when you perfectly brew a really difficult potion. I just liked it. I wish they had offered a class about human psychology though. That probably would have been my favorite class if they had," Alessa said.

"Psychology?" George asked.

"Yeah, like, how people think and why they think something. I've always found that interesting. I've read a lot of books about it, most of them are muggle ones. Muggles are actually really advanced in that area. I was thinking about applying for the program St. Mungo's has to train their healers who work with memory, but I didn't want to be restricted to just memory, I want to work with the whole mind and help people recover from things that have made them 'lose their minds' so to speak. I don't know if it's possible to bring people back once they've gone mad, but I have always wanted to try," Alessa said, drinking her soda. Soda was one of the things she loved most about Muggle restaurants.

"Why didn't you take that program for the experience and then just change fields later on? I'm sure St. Mungo's would have made a new area for someone to work on people's minds. Maybe you could bring people out of a coma," George said, thinking of all the things that could come out of someone who could heal minds.

"I brought it up to the lead healer a few times actually," Alessa said, her hands balling into fists on her lap as she looked down.

"What did he say?" George asked, sipping his drink again.

"The first time I brought it up, he said that they had no funding for something that was all theory. The second time he told me to be a good little girl and get back to my paper work," Alessa said, looking away in anger.

"All theory? You could easily show him what you can do. Just go into his mind like you did mine," George said, frowning.

"No," Alessa said, looking up. "And you can't tell anyone about that. Ever."

"Why not?" George asked, taken aback by her suddenly harsh attitude.

"Think about it," Alessa said quietly, trying to soften her voice. "Have you ever met anyone else who could leave their mind and go into someone else's without a spell or some sort of dark magic? Someone who can do it the way I can?"

"Well, when you put it that way, I've never even heard of it before," George said, thinking.

"Exactly. That's because no one else can," she said.

"So why can you? If no one else can do it, how did you learn it?" George asked, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forward, head in his hands. Alessa sighed, then she looked around at the muggle patrons. She drew her wand out of her sleeve and held it out of view under the table. She quietly cast the muffliato charm around them to ensure that no one else could hear.

"I need you to swear you won't ever repeat this. I shouldn't even be saying it. And if you want to know, you have to agree to let me take the information from wherever you store these memories and put it into something that can't be broken into using occlumency," She said watching his eyes grow wider as she spoke.

"Serious then. Yes, I agree. What is it?" George said, leaning closer across the table.

"Have you ever heard of Empaths?" Alessa asked quietly, not able to look at his face.

"Yeah, my mom used to read us stories. The Empaths were the evil people luring their victims to them by controlling their emotions," George said, obviously confused with the change of subject.

Alessa shook her head. "No, that's how wizards preferred to paint them so that they didn't seem like murderers when they killed the Empath. Most Empaths couldn't even control emotions like that, they could only feel them, and sometimes feel the thoughts behind them. Empaths were the most understanding and patient people. Who wouldn't be when they could feel how the person they were talking to could feel? The ones that controlled emotions were wizards who captured an Empath, cast certain spells over them, then killed them to absorb their powers."

George had frowned in concentration throughout her story.

"I've never heard that before," George said when she paused.

"I'm not surprised," she said, her voice soft with sadness. "History books are written by the people who win, so they are all one sided. Anything you read about wizards is tilted so that they look like the superior species because they conquered all the other magical species' centuries ago. In the dark ages, there were a lot of empaths. The empath gene is passed down from parents to children, and it can be latent for a few generations then come back, much like the abilities of a seer." She paused to take a drink and look around them again, making sure no one had come within the range of the charm she had cast.

"So back in the dark ages, a small group of wizards saw the abilities of a young empath girl, she had been showing off for her parents by guessing how they were feeling or something, I'm not really sure about that. These wizards stole the child and developed multiple spells and curses to steal her abilities. They wanted to control the world by controlling emotions. They killed the girl, and when they realized that their spells had worked, they began killing off more empaths, thinking that the more power they absorbed, the stronger they would get. Soon more wizards found out about what the group had done. A few were against a mass slaughter, but many wanted the power for themselves. Whole families were tortured and killed. Even the children who showed no abilities yet were taken. It became a game, to hunt the empaths. People kept them as slaves, selling them to whoever paid the most," Alessa said angrily, then took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down.

"After a while, the wizards stopped hunting the empaths, and whoever remained went into hiding. Maybe a handful of families survived. And they never showed their talents to anyone, not even other family members. They taught their children to be private, rarely talking to others, and those children taught their children the same. Now, empaths are a story. If they exist at all, they are too afraid to say anything, in case some wizarding family has passed down the secret spells to take their powers. They hide, never getting close to people."

George had watched her face closely through her story. Now he reached across the table, taking her hands into his. She finally looked up at his face. He smiled at her.

"I got it from both parents," she said, watching his face closely. His eyes didn't widen, his breathing didn't change, and his smile didn't falter.

"So I can't tell anyone," he finished in an even voice. "Stop looking so worried. I'm not going to drag you off and kill you, I promise."

She let out a small, relieved laugh then, and her muscles loosened from their tense state. She hadn't thought he would try to kill her or anything so extreme, but she had expected him to be a little upset at her for hiding it from him. Suddenly his face was serious again.

"Thank you for telling me that. You didn't have to," George said softly, stroking the back of her hand with the pad of his thumb.

"A relationship grown of lies will never bear fruit," she quoted at him. He smiled again, then slid out of his seat and stood.

"Let's go home," he said, pulling her out of her seat. She grinned, feeling completely free for the first time in her life, and she followed him back to her flat, hands clasped between them.

"Would you like to stay at my flat tonight?" He asked as they walked down the street watching the sun set over the city.

"I agreed to move there. Wouldn't that make it 'our' flat?" Alessa asked smiling up at him.

"I'm sorry," George said grinning back. "Would you like to stay at our flat tonight then?"

"Oh I dunno. My new roommate is really weird," she said, straight faced as they approached her building.

"Yeah, but I hear his girlfriend is hot," George said, also keeping a straight face. Alessa's cheeks burned and she looked at her feet. George chuckled.

"I've never seen your face so red, Alessa. Are you sick?" He asked, putting a hand over her forehead in mock concern.

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he leaned down to kiss her sweetly, then followed her up the stairs of her building so she could pack a bag of clothes.


Over the course of the next few days, Alessa packed up the rest of the things in her apartment and brought them over to George's place, a few boxes at a time. She hadn't slept there since the night after their date, but they spent most of the day together, and usually went to get dinner together after work.

On Thursday morning, Ginny showed up early to drag her out for a day of shopping for costumes. Finally, they got back to Ginny's place to get ready for some party Ginny wanted to go to. George had wished her luck on her date, stating that he would rather be eaten by wolves than go to a party, and laughed when she hit his arm.

"I have a picture from Witch Weekly of how your makeup should be done," Ginny said, throwing their bags onto her bed and pulling out different articles of clothing. "Do you think you can copy it while I get ready?"

"Sure," Alessa said, glad Ginny wouldn't be torturing her again. Alessa had gotten a lot of practice with makeup since becoming friends with Ginny, and she was confident she could do her own for once.

"Great," Ginny said, already striping off her clothes to change into a skimpy outfit she had picked out. She pulled on a black sports bra and paired it with black short shorts, then wandered to the bathroom to grab her makeup. She set up camp next to Alessa in front of the big mirror in her room. Alessa had removed her shirt so it wouldn't ruin her makeup later, and sat in front of the mirror patting pale powder onto her face, her hair still braided out of the way from their daytime shopping adventures.

Half an hour later, Ginny and Alessa looked at each other, and both laughed. Ginny had used a charm to produce a black tail and ears to go with her outfit, and she had drawn cat whiskers onto her face. Alessa was wearing multiple layers of flowing orange material. Her makeup was done drastically, her eyes lined with a thick black kohl line, and her eye shadow gave her a smokey look. She wore a bright red lipstick, and Ginny had used bronze powder to make Alessa's face more defined, and her hair swept away from her face in large curls, the rest fell completely straight down her back. Ginny had enchanted it to float every time she moved, in the fashion of the old myths of Sirens, who used their beauty to lure sailors from their ships only to drown them in the sea.

"We look ridiculous," Alessa said, casting a charm to shrink her extra clothes and purse, then tucking them into the pockets of her jeans that she was still wearing underneath the heavy material that draped around her legs. "And you are going to be so cold."

Ginny was wearing practically nothing, and the day had cooled enough for Alessa to see her breath as they had walked from shop to shop. Now that the sun had set, it would be freezing.

"Nah, I cast warming charms over my clothes earlier. I'm nice and toasty. Besides, Halloween is basically the best excuse to dress up like a slut. Come on, let go meet your date," Ginny said, dragging Alessa to out the front door. Alessa rolled her eyes, then held onto Ginny's arm as they apparated.

"Why are we here?" Alessa asked, taking in the front of Zabini manor. "This is where the party is?"

"Yep," Ginny said, dragging Alessa through the open gates and up the drive. The front door was open, and there were hundreds of people milling about inside. Loud music came from the ball room, and people filled all four of the sitting rooms on the ground floor, as well as the two lounges. Elves walked around carrying trays of snacks and drinks over their heads. Ginny grabbed two cups, pushing one into Alessa's hands. Everywhere they looked the two girls saw overly eccentric costumes.

"Ginny, how are you going to know who is who?" Alessa asked, following Ginny through the crowd to the largest sitting room.

"We arranged to meet here," she paused, looking around for a clock. "In about ten minutes." She had pulled Alessa to a corner of the room and they stood, looking around them. Alessa spotted Blaise a few feet away, talking to a group of boys, so she wandered over and stood behind him, waiting for a pause in their conversation.

"I'm hurt to find that my own family didn't bother to invite me to their party," she said dramatically, wearing a forlorn expression.

"Alessa!" Blaise said, turning around in surprise.

"So why am I being disowned?" She asked sadly as Blaise pulled her into his circle of friends.

"I did invite you, dear cousin. It wouldn't be a party without you here," he said, grinning in amusement.

"Well I never received an invitation," Alessa said, crossing her arms and pouting her lip.

"I told Little Red to bring you along," Blaise said, laughing.

"Little Red?" Alessa asked, tilting her head to the side.

Blaise pointed over her shoulder to where Ginny was chatting with some other girls she knew.

"Since when are you friends with Weasley?" One of the other boys asked, and Alessa looked back around at them.

"Since she became the youngest chaser ever to get signed to play as a reserve for England," Blaise said, grinning at them.

"What! She didn't tell me that," Alessa said, looking back at Ginny with a frown.

"Oh, she doesn't know yet," Blaise said, grinning.

"How do you know then?" Alessa asked.

"I have my sources," he said, winking at her. She laughed, then turned to leave, her hair fanning out behind her. She heard someone sigh behind her.

"Dude, your cousin is hot," one of the boys said.

"Shut up, Goyle." Blaise said, smacking the boy. Alessa chuckled, then walked back over to Ginny, who had procured a new boy to talk to.

"Alessa, this is Dean Thomas. Dean, this is my friend Alessa," Ginny said, making introductions. Alessa laughed, shaking Dean's hand.

"How much did she have to pay you to come to this party?" Alessa asked, watching his uncomfortable glances toward the nearby Slytherin's and guessing that he had been in Gryffindor house.

"No payment, she just threatened," he grumbled, then smiled at her, taking in her appearance.

"Nice costume. A Siren right?" Alessa nodded, then listened as Dean told some story about someone in his family nearly dying because of a siren, though she wasn't sure it was true. Ginny wandered off after introducing them, and she was still missing a half hour later when Alessa started to get bored with the conversation.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked as she shifted again in the chair she had taken earlier, looking around to see if Ginny was nearby.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, turning her attention back to the boy.

"I know," he nodded as though agreeing with her though she hadn't said anything. "It's weird to be here, in a Slytherin house. For all we know there could be death eaters hidden in the attic or something. I've been uncomfortable all night." Alessa's eyes narrowed the longer he talked.

"I can guarantee there are no death eaters in the attic," she said sharply. She didn't know a lot of Slytherins, but her cousin was one of the nicest people she knew, and his friends weren't that bad either, for the most part.

"Yeah, they'd probably prefer the basement," Dean said laughing, not hearing the change in Alessa's voice. Suddenly she had an idea.

She leaned in towards him and looked over her shoulder as if she was about to tell a secret.

"Do you want to go look?" She whispered to him, watching his eyes widen in fear and excitement.

"No way! What if Zabini caught us? He'd probably murder us," Dean whispered back, looking over his shoulder at the last place her cousin had been.

"Oh," she said, leaning back and sighing in fake disappointment. "I just thought it would be a cool adventure, but if you are scared, then we'd better not."

"I'm not scared," Dean said, standing up suddenly. "Come on, lets go." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Alessa waved her wand at a nearby table where a bunch of scrap paper sat. The quill jumped up and started scribbling on a sheet quickly.

"Come to the basement, and try to act really angry. I need to teach someone a lesson. ~A"

She sent the paper zooming off to find Blaise, then hurried to follow Dean out of the room. She caught up to him in front of the door that led downstairs. The old mansion did have dungeons in the basement, but they were mostly used as storage these days. Alessa followed Dean down the stairs, making sure the door shut behind her. They had made it all the way to the back of the room, looking inside each cell to see that they were empty. Dean sighed, relaxing slightly, and turned back to her.

"Well, no death eaters," he smirked at her, then the blood drained out of his face as he spotted someone over her shoulder. "Shit," he yelled, lifting his wand.

"Expelliarmus," came Blaise's voice, and Alessa's wand followed Dean's to land in Blaise's out stretched hand. She whipped around to see him walking toward them. He grabbed her wrist, holding his wand out towards Dean, a snarl on his face. He looked quite deranged and Alessa had to suppress a laugh.

"What do you think you are doing down here?" Blaise said in a cold voice, slowly stalking closer to Dean, dragging Alessa along.

"N-Nothing," Dean stuttered, backing away from them. "We were just-"

"Just snooping around down here, looking for prisoners?" Blaise asked, advancing on him slowly. "Maybe you would like to see the inside of a cell up close then?"

"N-No no, we were just lost, I swear," Dean said, taking another step back.

"I'm sure," Blaise said sarcastically, pulling Alessa along as he took another step towards Dean. Dean, unknowingly, was backing right into an open cell. Two more steps and Blaise slammed the door on him. Dean screamed shrilly, and started yelling nonsense as Blaise pulled Alessa out of earshot.

"What did he do?" Blaise asked quietly, looking her over quickly. "Did he hurt you?"

"No way," Alessa said, laughing under her breath, but touched by his concern. "No, he was just being a biased git."

"Nice. Um, do you have any idea where the keys are for those doors?" Blaise asked sheepishly. Alessa laughed loudly this time, her voice echoing around the room.

"Alessa?" Dean called, his face pressed against the bars of the cell door, squinting into the darkness. "What's going on?"

Alessa plucked her wand from Blaise's hand, lighting the tip of it before walking back to the cell with Blaise, who was grinning now.

"You set me up," Dean accused, glancing from face to face as they approached the cell with identical grins, drawing the similarities between their features to attention.

"Well you called my family death eaters, I had to do something to defend my name," she retaliated, laughing as his eyes widened, looking between her and Blaise, who was laughing now too.

"No, no, let him think I'm a death eater, I love it when people are scared of me," Blaise said, throwing Dean's wand to him through the bars.

"Let me out," Dean demanded, glaring at the two of them.

"Well we would," Blaise said slowly, exchanging a look with Alessa. "But neither of us know where the keys are. You will have to wait until my Grandmother come's home, she would know," Blaise said, finally getting his laughing under control.

"Well when is she coming back?" Dean demanded.

"Since her and my mother are on vacation to Italy until the end of next week, I'd say you have a while to wait," Blaise said, laughing again, then pulled Alessa after him, leaving the room as Dean screamed behind them.

"How long should we leave him down there?" Blaise asked as they climbed the stairs together.

"Maybe a half hour?" Alessa said, shrugging, not concerned. She knew where the keys for the estate were kept, and she guessed that the dungeon keys would be in the same place. As the basement door closed, Ginny ran up to her.

"There you are," She said, reaching them. "Where's Dean?"

Alessa and Blaise glanced at each other, than said "Bathroom" at the same time, then grinned identically.

"Okay, whatever," Ginny said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Anyway, I'm going to head home, Harry said he would look after his godson tonight, and he's probably having a really bad time of it, the kid is a terror sometimes."

Alessa said goodbye to Ginny, then wandered upstairs to find the keys. If Ginny wasn't here anymore, then Alessa could go home without getting an earful about it the next day.

The doors upstairs were all locked so that guests didn't wander up there, but since Alessa had Zabini blood in her, the wards recognized her as family and let her open the office door. She quickly located the key she wanted, and hurried back down to the basement again. Dean was still yelling.

"Oh shut up, I have the keys," Alessa said crossly, a headache forming.

"About time," Dean snapped. "This was the worst date I've ever had."

"Good, I have no interest in someone as prejudiced as you. You're worse than those pureblood supremacists," she said, unlocking the door. Dean sputtered some nonsense about joking, then pushed passed her and practically ran up the stairs.

Alessa located Blaise, giving him the keys and telling him she was heading out. He hugged her around the shoulders, then returned to his conversation.

It was only ten when Alessa walked through her door, but she didn't have enough energy to do anything more than wipe off her makeup and shed her costume before she fell into bed, passing out in her jeans and tank top.