I sort of wish it was October, just so this would actually be seasonally appropriate, sadly cannot be. I always loved the description of Halloween at Hogwarts, so here's a little chapter that features it.

Disclaimer: The world in which Albus Dumbledore exists is one I'd like to have, sadly it all belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 10: Hallowe'en Revelations

The morning of one of the most celebrated holidays in the witching world Miranda woke up to Aoife's incessant meowing. "Turn that off!" grumbled Belinda half-dazed from under her covers, "It's not time for class yet!". Grudgingly Miranda left the warmth of her bedspread to attend to the spotted creature. "What is it girl? Why are you meowing?" It didn't matter, nothing she could do would calm the usually peaceful cat.

Aoife continued her one-sided conversation until Miranda and the rest of the girls were all up and dressed, and made it impossible for them to leave her behind. In the end they relented and made their way to the Great Hall's breakfast with the cat coming along. It was fairly out of the ordinary for students to be accompanied by their pets, particularly when they were of the feline variety, so the witches-in-training had to endure a fair amount of pointing and snickering as they settled down to eat.

Miranda was just finishing off her bread with butter when Erika cried out "Oh, look. Mail's here!" just as the owls dropped their daily packages of rolled newspapers and letters. What was most surprising was that Miranda got a letter of her own. "Who's that for M?" asked Lis, "Should I pass it along?", "No, wait. It's for me" said Miranda as she tore the envelope open, trying to remember why the handwriting scrawled on it seemed so familiar. "Oh! It's from Gregor!" she exclaimed, "Who?" wondered her friends, unfamiliar with the name. "It's my old penpal. We've been sending letters for years. I hadn't sent him any since coming here until last week when I finally managed to figure out how to get things to the Muggle post" the girl explained, "I wonder how he got it here?" she mused, as she started to read the letter.

"Have you heard?" interrupted Stuart, one of their Ravenclaw classmates, as he sat down next to the four "There's a killer on the loose!" he finished with relish. "What are you going on about?" returned Lis, fork half-raised, "Look here! It says it on the front page!" the boy replied, brandishing the day's Daily Prophet. "The Ministry of Magic asks for witches and wizards to remain at their most alert" read Belinda, "for it appears that a most sinister wizard is on the loose. Three young women from towns in close proximity have been found dead from the Killing Curse, known as one of the three Unforgivable Curses. The motives behind these anonymous attacks are as yet unknown, as is regrettably the identity of the killer." "Isn't it thrilling?" beamed one of the students nearby, "it's like a real live novel!" she continued. "I don't think that's quite how I'd put it" commented Erika blandly, "I think it's terrible. Imagine how those poor girl's families must feel!" declared Lis, hazel eyes flashing. Her point was accentuated by Aoife's anguished yowl.

That day, classes had a much more festive ambience. Professor Cogsworth had adapted her lesson plan to fit the occasion, asking her students to transfigure ordinary jack-o-lanterns and increase their size exponentially. Their Potions lesson consisted in brewing Pompion potion, which caused great amusement when Kendrick was the unfortunate chosen to try it out, later having to continue to their next lesson with an inflated pumpkin head. Their last subject of the day was Defence against the Dark Arts, in which they began to learn the art of Wizard duelling. Although only fairly harmless curses were permitted, Miranda was saved from a few uncomfortable after-effects by Aoife's meowed warning whenever she didn't pay enough attention to Albus, her partner for the exercise.

The students were finally let out and Miranda took advantage to go and read the letter she had been prevented from finishing that morning:

Dear Miranda,

It was great to get a letter from you again! I'm glad you are enjoying life at your new school. You may be wondering how I knew to send you this by owl. You see my mother is a witch too, although I didn't inherit her magical powers. When you told me you were now studying at Hogwarts I knew it was a wizarding school, much easier too, I'm not very fond of Muggle post.

There isn't much to report, but I would love to hear more about your friends and classes. Do you really know Harry Potter's son?

Hope to hear from you soon!

Gregor

Miranda finished reading the message, surprised to learn this about her old friend. They had shared a great deal throughout the years of their communication and she had never even suspected his knowledge of this whole world. Though to be fair, she hadn't even known of its existence until a few months before. It prompted her to wonder, what other secrets did her penpal hide?

Her musings were soon forgotten as she was swept up in the preparation for the annual Hallowe'en banquet. The feast had taken a more formal turn over the years, requiring the girls to dress the part in clothes slightly more becoming than their usual robes, but of course causing great deal of strain amongst the first-years who didn't know what to expect.

In the end, the party went off without a hitch. The magically enlarged pumpkins floated above their heads while the students filled their bellies with culinary and confectionary delights. There was much laughing at the grimaces pulled when given an unfortunate flavour of Bertie Bott's Beans or when a Chocolate Frog managed to leap away. That night Miranda slipped into bed with dreams of caramel apples and sugared treats, although an unsettling feeling drifted in the back of her mind.