Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JKRowling does. This is just a poor unpaid fanfic.

Spread Your Wings

By Ebona Nite

Chapter Ten: Halloween at Hogwarts

Minerva McGonagall was not a happy witch.

Her sixth and seventh year Ravenclaws had almost to the man (and woman) turned in their summer assignments weeks early, before classes had even started. And they had all wanted them back, with comments, on the first day just as she had predicted.

Unfortunately all of them seemed to be budding novelists from the lengths of essays she was given. She hadn't assigned over three feet, but finding an assignment under five was almost impossible! She hadn't seen the surface of her desk for a month. It was nearly Halloween now, and she had only just gotten to the last one.

Minerva sighed. It was only two months into the new school year and already she was counting the days until Christmas, and then again until next summer. She needed a vacation. The Bahamas maybe. She picked up the essay, brushing off collected dust.

And blinked blearily down at the dusty and oh-so-innocent envelope addressed to "Hogwarts Deputy Headmistress" that had been hiding under the pile for who knows how long.

The essay could wait.

A half hour later Minerva was sitting in the Headmaster's office with an agitated Albus Dumbledore, an upset Minister of Magic, an excited Daily Prophet reporter, and a team of aurors petitioning for paid vacation for all their troubles impersonating a ping-pong ball across Europe.

It turned out the envelope was a letter from the missing Harry Potter. He had written stating his choice to go to a different school, where he felt he had a larger choice of classes and subjects (which was what had Albus so agitated), had more freedom to remain away from his horrible relatives (after hearing the interrogation results of the Dursleys, she couldn't blame him for that), and where he could learn more about a wider variety of magical beings and creatures (this last part Luna had insisted he add in, and had the reporter up in arms). He didn't say where he was going, or even what country the school was in.

So the Ministry was being forced to call off their search for the Boy Who Lived despite Cornelius Fudge's insistence that he "belongs at Hogwarts – for his own good!" Plus it would be easier for Fudge to get ahold of him, and perhaps some campaign contributions, but he didn't say that out loud. After all, not even the Minister of Magic could dictate where children went to school. And Shacklebolt's auror team could now be taken off the search, but they were insisting on paid vacation for their troubles at following Rita Skeeter's obviously made up "sightings" across Europe at Fudge's insistence, which was upsetting Fudge even more.

Also, somebody owed Xenophilius Lovegood and The Quibbler an apology. Fudge had yet to successfully delegate that task. The Daily Prophet reporter had snuck quietly away before he got roped into that.

Dumbledore was finally able to shove – that is, encourage – everyone out of his office, and summoned a house-elf for tea for himself and his deputy.

"Do you think, Minerva, that there's any possibility –"

"Of getting him to come to Hogwarts? Not this year Albus. It will probably take us at least until next September just to find him, considering how little luck we've had so far."

Dumbledore sighed, "Yes, you're probably right. Well, I'll try sending Fawkes out again." He wrote a short letter, gave it to the phoenix, and watched as his familiar flashed away in a burst of fire. But Fawkes was back trilling sadly within minutes, the note undelivered. No such luck. Dumbledore and McGonagall could only wonder where the boy was, and what had driven him to chose a different school even after shopping for Hogwarts supplies. There were a handful of schools that offered summer housing and a handful more which were year-round. Many of those… did not have the nicest of reputations.

But they could do no more than send letters asking about the last Potter, and any replies were always negative.

Soon enough it was Halloween.

It was a typical day for Hogwarts, but a not so typical evening. Right in the middle of the Halloween feast, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrel, came running in shouting about a troll in the dungeons. The students were sent to their dorms and the teachers hurried off to search for the beast.

Down in the dungeons, the Slytherins found it. Or rather, it found them.

Luckily the prefects and most of the upper years kept their heads, shoving the younger years behind them. Half set up shields to protect their housemates, the other half began shooting spells. Within minutes the troll was subdued. One 5th year prefect had a broken arm from the troll's club, but everyone else was fine.

Blaise Zabini allowed herself to be ushered into the Slytherin common room while the injured prefect and his friend headed for the infirmary and two more prefects headed for the Great Hall to find a teacher. Most of the rest of the upper years remained in the hallway, making sure the troll stayed unconscious.

A troll in Hogwarts, thought the safest place in Britain after Gringotts bank, was not a good sign of things to come. Her mother was going to be extremely upset when she heard about this. Blaise went up to her dorm to find the enchanted stationary her mother insisted she keep for emergency messages, for when she couldn't find an owl or get to the owlery. The paper would send any message written on it directly to her mother's paper, and receive any reply her mother sent. Blaise had no idea where her mother had gotten it, since she had never heard of such stationary existing elsewhere, but she was glad she had it now.

Later that evening, Hermione Granger and Lisa Turpin came out the second floor girl's lavatory. Hermione had spent most of the day crying in there after Ron Weasley had insulted her for trying, in her own bossy way, to help him with the levitation charm in Charms class. When she hadn't shown up for the feast, Lisa had gone to help her calm down.

They emerged into a deserted school.

There was no one in the hallways, no sounds of festivities… even the Great Hall, usually open to midnight for the Halloween feast, was empty. The food and deserts and candies were still on the tables.

Wondering if they'd been thrown into the Twilight Zone, the two muggleborn first years quickly headed for the Ravenclaw common room.

They weren't quite fast enough. A limping Professor Snape caught them one hallway away and took 50 points each for beings outside their dorms after ordered not to stray – he didn't say why or let them explain they hadn't heard – and gave them both detention. It was nearly an hour before they were able to calm down, and then calm their over-excited housemates down, so they could get an explanation as to why they'd been put under a lockdown three hours before the usual curfew.

It was a miserable ending to a usually happy, though over-commercialized, day.

Author's Note: One thing I forgot in my note last chapter, was to comment on elite-Academy vs deadly-Academy. There are some fanfics out there where Harry goes to a school that is elite, tough, has tons of classes, and kills off a lot of the students through lethal competition and sabotage and just plain risky classes. And a lot of those are very well written and interesting too! But I didn't want to go that route, instead I'm trying something a little different.

Atlantis may have some University graduates that have been taught to be assassins, spies, and other deadly professions (in fact, there's a big reason I included this, as you will see later) but murder, torture, spying, stealing, and things like that are not only illegal in the schools but over the whole Island as well. So those people live and work Outside.

Hopefully I explained that part well enough last chapter, but I wanted to include why I made that part of Atlantis. They are an isolated community, with limited citizenry (though a tiny few Outsiders either become students and then citizens or marry citizens), and their community is based on interspecies relations. Assassins and the like would disrupt that. That won't stop people from becoming these things but they are pretty much ordered off the Island if they do. Not as deadly for Harry. Just a stressful amount of classes.

Also people may be wondering why the Academy gets 2 weeks off for Midsummer, which is in June, but doesn't pick up again until September for the next school year, and how Harry and Luna have two weeks at the end of August to settle in as other arrive. I did have Harry mention last chapter that Orlando rambled quite a bit and his Atlantis history class would get around to that subject. I promise to explain better in a later chapter.