AN: Finally getting to the plot of PoA...be prepared for things to pan out differently from cannon though...


Chapter 8: Halloween

"How could a night so frozen

Be so scalding hot?

How can a morning this mild

Be so raw?

Why are entire years strewn

On the cutting room floor of memories?

When single frames from one magic night

Forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind"

-"Halloween" from RENT

XXXX

October 31, 2001: Willow, Oz, and Remus decided to spend the morning and afternoon of Halloween together with Lily as that evening was the first of the November full moon. Willow and Remus called off classes for the day and the three adults (and one baby) gathered in the young couple's new Hogsmeade home. "It's probably better for Lily to do Halloween early in the day anyway," said Willow after Remus' fifth time apologizing for the inconvenience. "Besides, it's not like you're the only one transforming tonight."

"She's got a point," said Oz, quirking an eyebrow at Remus over Lily's head.

"I'll give you that," replied the older man, dipping his head in acknowledgment and smiling wryly.

"So," said Willow, "what are Halloweens like at Hogwarts?"

"Oh, they're wonderful," said Remus, smiling happily. "Back when I was in school, the Great Hall was decorated with all sorts of festive decorations: skeletons, pumpkins, and often even live bats. Sometimes Dumbledore would hire a band to play and we'd have a Halloween Ball and costume contest. Those were some of the best Halloweens I ever had." His face turned sad. "Of course, I haven't truly enjoyed Halloween since 1989."

"What happened in 1989?" asked Willow curiously, missing the over-the top slashing motion Oz was making against his throat from his spot on the other side of the couch, behind his father's back.

Remus' voice when he spoke was raw with pain. "My whole world fell apart," he said.

XXXX

Fred and George had sent off a letter to their parents about the name they'd found on the missing children list, but their mother's reply had been purposefully evasive and vague. "This will never do," said Fred, re-reading the letter for the thousandth time.

"No, it won't," said George distractedly as he tore through their pile of books and papers with wild abandon.

"You lose something there, Forge?" Fred asked curiously.

"Just the book I borrowed from Mary that she suddenly has the burning desire to re-read."

Fred visibly flinched. "Which one was it?"

"The blue one with the gold lettering?" he said, sounding unsure, but not pausing in his search. Not that Fred blamed him; Mary's anger was a sight to behold…especially when someone messed with her books.

"You don't remember?" said Fred. "Your girlfriend's going to kill you if you lost it, you know."

"I know," snapped George. "So are you gonna help or what? It's the one we needed to look up the families of those kidnapped kids."

"The one on wizarding genealogy?" asked Fred slowly, stopping in his tracks, a guilty look spreading across his pale face.

George stopped and glared at his twin. "What did you do, Fred?"

"I may have returned that one to the library." At George's glare, Fred held up his hands defensively and said, "Hey, I thought it was a library book. I didn't realize you'd borrowed that one from your temperamental girlfriend. Why's she have it anyway?"

"She wanted to look up her family history and the library didn't have it, so she bought it over the summer in Diagon Alley. She's gonna kill me; she kept going on about how hard it was to find." George groaned and covered his face with his arm as he flopped down onto his bed dramatically.

"Don't worry, Forge," said Fred, sitting down beside his brother and patting his twin's other arm comfortingly, "we'll pull a little marauding mischief out of our pants and this'll all be solved by morning."

"It better be," mumbled George from under his arm, "or she'll never speak to me again."

XXXX

"You know, we had some pretty interesting Halloweens back in Sunnydale," said Willow, attempting to divert the subject.

"Oh?" said Remus curiously. "What happened?"

"Well, a couple of years ago we went to this haunted frat house that Oz helped set up and it turned out that someone had accidentally summoned the fear demon Gachnar, which made the house actually haunted. It made all of our fears come alive; Xander was invisible, Buffy couldn't stop fighting demons, Oz started to transform, and my magic got away from me."

"Sounds…rather festive, actually," said Remus. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want that to happen to me, but I understand the sentiment."

"The best part was that the fear demon was only a couple inches tall so Buffy just squished him with her boot," said Oz.

Remus laughed. "That sounds like a whole other story."

"The Gaelic inscription in Giles' book read 'actual size,' but he didn't realize that til after," said Willow.

"Any other exciting Halloween stories?" asked Remus curiously.

"Well, there was the year that Giles' old buddy from his demon summoning days came to town and caused everyone who bought something from his store to turn into their costumes."

"That actually sounds kind of interesting," said Remus. "I'm assuming something went horribly wrong?"

"Of course," said Willow, "it's Sunnydale. Xander got turned into a soldier, Buffy was an eighteenth century lady, and I got turned into a ghost. A bunch of little kids got turned into demons and this one vampire, Spike, decided to use the chaos from the spell to recruit them to help him go after the Slayer. It nearly worked too, but Giles confronted Ethan and was able to stop the spell just in the nick of time. Everyone went back to normal and Spike was left confronting a royally pissed off Slayer."

"That was actually the day I first really saw Willow," said Oz, a soft sort of half-smile in his face. "I had no idea who she was, but I knew at first glance that I just had to meet her."

Willow blushed scarlet and Remus chuckled. "Love at first sight, eh?" he said.

"For me, anyway," said Oz. "Since I met her, she's been it for me. Even before Jordy bit me."

"Jordy's the wolf that bit you? I thought you said he was your cousin?" said Remus.

"Well, three days out of the month he's a wolf, yeah, but he's still my little cousin."

"Was he born a wolf, then?" asked Remus. "I've never heard of a bite from a non-transformed werewolf turning someone if he wasn't born as one."

"Well, yeah," said Oz. "Turns out Uncle Greg was bitten shortly before he married Aunt Maureen." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Is that a legit concern then? A born werewolf being contagious twenty-four/seven?"

"Yes, but if your Lily hasn't transformed yet, you don't have to worry. A born werewolf will transform on the first full moon after their born; if she hasn't yet, she's not one."

"I was wondering about that," said Willow, glancing over at Lily, who was playing with her dolls in the corner. "All of the books were pretty vague on the subject."

"I could recommend you some books on the subject," said Remus. "I've done a lot of research on it over the years and I can tell you which ones are worth reading and which are completely useless."

"Can you? That would be amazing," said Willow, eyes shining with enthusiasm.

"And they're off," said Oz, sitting down beside Lily and picking up the doll he was handed. "I think it's best to leave Mama and Gramps alone for a while, Lily-Cub."

XXXX

Later that night…

Willow was woken from her sleep by a rather loud commotion outside her rooms. Quickly throwing up a silencing spell so that Lily wouldn't wake too, she shoved her feet into her fluffy rainbow colored slippers and stepped out into the corridor in her purple and lime green flannel kitty pajama set.

She caught Charity as she rushed past. "What's going on?" Willow asked her.

"There's been an attack inside the castle," said the frazzled woman, her chocolate hair tousled and her peach colored nightgown rumpled from sleep. "Sirius Black was inside the castle; he slashed up the Fat Lady trying to get into the Gryffindor tower."

"Is everyone alright?" asked Willow, concerned.

"No one was hurt," said Charity. "The Fat Lady's in a panic, though; she won't show her face and she's hiding somewhere up on the third floor. It's just the fact that Black made it past the dementors at all…it's concerning, Willow. With all the protections around the school, he never should have been able to set foot inside."

Willow frowned. "Aren't there like a million secret passages here?" she asked, the gears in her head turning a mile a minute. "Are those being guarded?"

"Well, yes," said Charity. "All the ones that Filch knows about, anyway. Which is most of them, I think."

"But it's possible that a former student might know of some that he doesn't?"

"Well, I suppose…"

"Where's Dumbledore?" asked Willow.

"He's gathering everyone in the Great Hall for the night, but…"

"Alright," said Willow, ignoring the older woman, "I need you to go get Lily and meet me there, please. I have something I need to discuss with the Headmaster like right now." Without another word to the confused brunette, Willow ran off down the hall and disappeared out of sight.

XXXX

"Dumbledore!" Willow called out as she skidded to a stop in the Great Hall. "I have to talk to you!"

"Miss Rosenberg," snapped Snape, sliding silkily across the room to her, "kindly refrain from yelling like a lunatic as there are children trying to sleep."

Willow rolled her eyes. "Yeah right, Snape," she said. "After all this excitement, the only ones who are going to be sleeping are the ones who are passed out drunk. And don't tell me that none of the students would dare cause I can list at least a dozen off the top of my head who would. Move aside, Snape, I need to talk to Dumbledore now."

"No need to shout, Miss Rosenberg, I'm right here," said Dumbledore, appearing suddenly from behind the greasy Potions professor. "What is this urgent matter you need to speak with me about?"

"Sir, it's about Sirius Black," she said. "I think I might have an idea about how he got into the castle tonight."


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