Disclaimer: I do not own HP, JKR does.

A/N: Thanks for another long wait, sorry. I'm trying to update at most every two weeks, and so far I've been able to do that!

Harry opened his eyes, and in an instant, he was cursing himself for realizing he had dreamed about that damned door again. The door had been in and out of his dreams for quite a while, and he never understood why. Why it had to be that stupid damn dream almost every single night, why he couldn't just get it out of his mind or at least get rid of the memory. But no, he was stuck with the dream, as was Ginny. Harry supposed he was kind of grumpy because today was an agonizing day for him; today was Halloween, October 31st. He had never liked Halloween in the first place, and he had never wanted the day to come, but it always did.

The first time that Harry had discovered his distaste for Halloween was when he was four, and he had found Petunia drowning her sorrows with a bottle of sherry, listening to the blues and her eyes were unfocused. Harry, although four, had asked her what was wrong, because he had never seen her so depressed. At the time he had had a broken arm, although he ignored the pain as she answered, "Well, Harry, you're parents died today, for you." He knew what death was, and that had hit him hard. Harry remembered that he knew he was an orphan at the time, but he never understood why, exactly. It was always that he lived with the Dursleys, and that was that.

Two years later, Harry had begun to realize that he was probably lucky to be alive. It wasn't a nice feeling either, it just made him realize just how alone he was in the world, how he didn't have any other family besides his aunt, since he didn't consider Dudley or Vernon his family, and even after they had died, he still didn't. But, that one Halloween night, everything had changed. He had realized that if his parents had died at the hands of a man called Voldemort, he wasn't going to let himself die too. So, he turned to survival books to give him information, having learned how to read at the age of three. In a matter of weeks, he had read as much muggle survival books as he could, and with no means of getting any magical books, he had decided to start learning some methods of fighting, so he picked out some of those books. And besides his methods of fighting as a wolf, those were the only means of physical attack that he had. He didn't want to be weak anymore, and he finally mastered a type of combat fighting. That had suited him just fine, since he didn't know of anybody else who could help him learn any other fighting techniques.

And then, there was the Halloween in his first year at Hogwarts, which led to Hermione almost dying. It was that sort of thing that convinced Harry that for him, Halloween was a cursed holiday. Bad luck always seemed to happen. Don't be so superstitious, Ginny said, and he rolled his eyes.

Well, look at all what happened on Halloween for me.

I suppose you have a point, albeit rather a weak one.

Once they got ready for the day, the two of them walked out of their room, quite glad that nobody was usually up at this hour, save for a few studious kids who wanted to prepare early for their OWLS or NEWTS, one of them being Hermione. She was on one of the loveseats, books and scrolls of parchment surrounding her, a book in her lap as well as a few quills and a bottle of ink on her immediate right side. She was fully focused on only her studying, so the two of them were able to sneak out of the Gryffindor Common Room quite easily. "Who knew that she was that studious, even when it's the beginning of the year?" Ginny giggled, causing both of them to laugh.

The few DA lessons, which in reality were three, that they had had so far been a huge success. Everybody kept on coming back, wanting to learn more and more, and Harry thought that they were lucky enough to actually know as much as they did, or else he wouldn't have known how to help all the students out. Dia, as Diamond preferred to be called, seemed to already have had training in the DADA subject, Harry had noted by the time the second lesson was over. Although, when he had asked, she had told him she hadn't, although he could tell that she was lying, and so did Ginny.

Finally walking into the Great Hall, the two of them sat down and immediately started helping themselves to the breakfast that the house elves had made. Although, five minutes later, a breathless Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall, and she collapsed onto her seat, before putting some food on her plate. "You alright, Hermione," Harry asked her, "You're usually not up as early as we are, or at least, not that we know of."

"Yes, I'm fine," she answered, "I was just studying, that's all. Happy Halloween, by the way," she finished.

"Sure," Harry muttered sulkily, "Happy Halloween."

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked Ginny, biting her lip, before her eyes widened. "Oh! Sorry Harry, I kind of got caught up in my studying, so I didn't have time to actually realize what today was."

"Its fine," he nodded, before picking at his breakfast.

Although last year he hadn't really been that depressed because of Halloween, he had been depressed and trying to prepare for the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament. Godric that had been a very hectic start to his fourth year at Hogwarts; and his third year, well, he had been scared that his godfather, ironically, was going to come after him. Second year, well, with the attack on Colin Creevey, he had been scared out of his wits, although he hated to admit it. Although he usually had something on his mind to stop him from thinking about it at Hogwarts, it seemed that today was not the case. Instead, he was forced to remember just why he was considered the Boy-Who-Lived, probably for the umpteenth time.

Luna came down next, somehow without George, although she was scowling and sat down, before getting some breakfast. She looked rather pale, although not much paler than she usually was, and her scowl got even worse. "George and Fred aren't feeling well," she explained when they gave her a curious look, "I'm demanding that they go down to Pomfrey and get a Pepper-Up Potion, but George says he won't, even though I'm not feeling one hundred percent as well."

"Yikes," Hermione sympathized, "That must be terrible."

Luna nodded, before going back to pick at her breakfast, although Harry heard her muttering things that didn't even make any sense. She seemed to be complaining about how something wasn't working properly, although he couldn't exactly tell what the name or subject was that she was talking about. Yes, it definitely was something strange, or unusual, but maybe not overly so. That's the thing, though, you never know sometimes.

"He's still not going to take it," Fred yawned as he sat down, "Set on building up his immune system, although, he said that the. . . . Taste to the Pepper-Up Potion was disgusting, and it is."

"That's still no excuse not to take it," Hermione countered, and Luna suddenly seemed very interested in the ceiling, Harry noted.

"That's what he said, and I suppose it's his opinion, because he's not going to take it. Honestly, although it tastes disgusting to me, I still take it," Fred shrugged, before he got his breakfast.

Ron walked into the Great Hall next, although he looked rather exhausted. When he sat down, he glared at Fred and said, "Thanks for the alarm by arguing, but I don't need it, thanks," before he loaded up his plate and started to wolf down his food, much to the displeasure of Hermione.

"Why are you sulking?" Luna asked, before her eyes lit up in shock, "Oh."

Harry, however, was quite glad that she didn't push the subject any further. Although it didn't really bother him anymore, Halloween, it was still quite a sore spot. Ginny really didn't seem affected by his slightly sour mood, although it was a kind of personal topic.

XXX

Harry was eight years old and the date was Halloween. He watched with a scowl on his face as Dudley was all dressed up in his dragon costume, while Harry had promptly said he wouldn't even dream of going trick-or-treating. He had blocked out the painful fact for the entire day, although he was having an increasingly painful headache from blocking it out, not to mention that the flash of green light was always there when he blinked. So far, Harry had pushed away almost all of the food he was given, and that gave Petunia some reason to be worried. His stomach growled, but he ignored it. Today was not a good day for Harry James Potter.

"Get lots of candy, Duddykins," Petunia cooed, although Harry could tell she was secretly disgusted with just how fat her son was.

"Of course, Mum," Dudley replied.

And with that, Vernon and Dudley left the house, leaving Petunia to watch after Harry. She turned to look at him, her facial expression softening, before he sighed, "I'm not hungry, Aunt Petunia. I don't feel like eating."

"You have to eat something," she argued, "Or else you're going to starve. Halloween is not an excuse to skip meals and lock your bedroom door. I don't care if you don't feel like it, because your stomach is telling you otherwise. Even just a roast beef sandwich will do, for heaven's sake!" And with that, she walked into the kitchen, probably to get something for him to eat, although he really didn't want to eat anything, just the thought of it made him slightly nauseous.

Harry walked over and sat at his seat at the dining table, looking at the white colored walls. The walls were always white or a pale pink or pale blue, never yellow and never red or green. Not even black was a wall color, or carpet or rug color. He didn't particularly like the color yellow, but that was no excuse to not have it in number 4, Privet Drive. Harry much preferred black, green, or red, although red was more preferred than the others.

Petunia set a plate in front of him, where a corn beef and Swiss cheese sandwich was on it. Harry blinked, although all his aunt said was, "Eat," Before she went to cleaning the house, for the umpteenth time.

Harry sighed and picked up the sandwich, and forced himself to take a bite. It was a good, although if anything, it made him even more nauseous. He swallowed, and continued the process until there was nothing left, although it seemed from the last beating that his stomach just couldn't take it. Harry sprung from his chair and raced into the bathroom and the contents of his stomach promptly came back out. "Harry?" Petunia asked; only to find him in the bathroom a few minutes after he came in, his face pale with sweat shining on his face and forehead, while his limbs felt like jelly and his eyesight was quite dizzy.

He somehow managed to get into a sitting position, leaning against the bathtub when she opened the door, and least to say, she was shocked. He hadn't exactly made it all the way to the toilet in time, and had also somehow managed to open some scabs on his arms, causing them to bleed. Least to say, he and the bathroom wasn't a pretty sight. He winced slightly as a stinging sensation ran through his arms and back, and his fingers started to tremble. Petunia didn't have any words for what was going on, but Harry focused on the stinging sensation, and it slowly went away, although not entirely. His arms eventually stopped bleeding, and some of the cuts actually healed, before he got up and walked past her. It was his fault for throwing up, he had actually let himself get beaten even worse than usual, and his stomach was never up for it when he put it through that much stress and strain.

XXX

The rest of the day continued on, until he and Ginny were walking out of DADA, Umbitch acting like usual, although Harry didn't really think much of it. She was always that, well, bitchy, and he wasn't going to let her make his day any worse. Ginny gladly pointed out that he was acting like a teenager, and he pointed out that both of them were in fact teenagers. He had laughed when she had retorted that she was having too much fun, and that she wanted to actually try and cheer him up, not get him angry or depressed even more. Well, she did lighten up his mood, so she must have considered that a plus. Hermione and Ron were bickering once again; on what topic he had no idea.

Although, they had actually had four animagus practice since the beginning of October, and surprisingly, Fred also completed the transformation, leaving Ron still struggling. But Harry and Ginny told him that it was different for everybody, and that seemed to lighten his mood some, although not much, which led him to start bickering with Hermione. Harry mentally swore each time they did, as it would usually give all of the Gryffindors a good sized headache, when they did argue like that. It also didn't help when you had hypersensitive hearing. He was about ready to snap, but he didn't. Instead, he tried to block them out as best as he could, but so far that wasn't working.

"Honestly, Ronald," Hermione started to say, before Ginny placed a Silencing Charm on the two.

"Leave them to their own devices," she advised, "I want to see how long it takes them to figure out they can't hear us and we can't hear them."

Several of the students surrounding them snickered, while others didn't know to look scandalized or shake their heads at what Ginny had done. Although, Harry whole heartedly agreed with her, the best way to make those two shut up and stop bickering was to put a Silencing Charm on them, so that when they realized that nobody else could hear them and they couldn't hear anybody else, evidently realizing that their arguing was so annoying that people just wanted them to stop it. The perfect plan to have a headache-free day, even Ginny snickered at what he was thinking.

Harry and Ginny followed the seemingly silent Ron and Hermione into the Great Hall, where their two friends sat down, still arguing. Luna took one look at them before she started to giggle, looking much better then she had at breakfast and lunch. George was there too, although he just shook his head, as did Fred. "Who silenced them?" George asked, although Ron and Hermione still didn't seem to notice that they had been silenced.

"Me," Ginny replied, "I get annoyed when they do that, and Harry gets a headache."

"Merlin knows that those two need to put a sock in it sometimes," Fred muttered, "I'm almost insane from their bickering."

"Weren't you and George already insane?" Luna asked with a straight face, "I mean, you almost drowned Draco quite a few times, you took the Marauder's Map from Filch's office, called Harry the Heir to Slytherin when everybody outside of our group started to hate him," she faltered when she saw the grins on the Twins' faces.

"You know, she's right," George smirked, and she rolled her eyes.

"The things I say sometimes," Luna sighed, before filling up her plate.

Harry turned to look at Ron and Hermione, who both know realized the Silencing Charm. Harry snickered while Ginny released the Charm, and Hermione instantly said, "Ginny!"

"What?" she asked innocently, "You two were bickering. And although you don't seem to notice, not everybody wants to hear you guys argue all the time. It's annoying. Besides, it gives us all a headache to just listen to you two argue."

Ron just seemed glad to be able to listen to the conversation as he ate his dinner, although Hermione wrinkled her nose when he did. "Sorry," she apologized, "I guess we deserve it."

Don't apologize; it's your way of flirting.

Ginny covered up her laughter by taking a sip of her pumpkin juice, although Harry was better at containing his laughter than she was, sometimes at least. It all depended on what was exactly being said, although sometimes, neither of them could contain their severe amusement or laughter.

Harry found the decorations a little bit over the top, to be perfectly honest. There were gleaming gold candles like usual, but also humongous jack-o-lanterns from the pumpkin patch that Hagrid had. He also noted how some people gave him looks of sympathy when they thought he wasn't looking, or how they sneered at him when it was possible. It seemed that everybody except for his group was under the influence of actually having a holiday, and even the teachers, except for Snape, seemed a little bit more relaxed instead of trying to work them to death. But, tomorrow, it would go back to the hectic schedule as usual for the fifth years, leaving many of the students groaning about how their OWLS were a long ways away, while others snickered at their complaints. It would just be another natural thing, and as Ginny put it, his sarcasm would go away.

She had stated this over the summer, because whenever he was in a sour mood, supposedly, his sarcasm and crude humor would come out.

"Hem, hem," said a voice that made Harry's stomach lurch. The whole Great Hall went quiet when Umbridge spoke when they were all about to leave. Umbridge, in her pink cardigan, looked at them all with a fake smile plastered on her face, hell, even the teachers looked upset, Umbridge continued "As High Inquisitor assigned by the Ministry of Magic, my first decree is that all clubs except for Quidditch are no longer permitted unless they have my permission to be allowed or reform. If they do not have my permission, they are considered illegal, and anybody who joins those illegal groups can and will be expelled. Thank you."

"How did she find out?" Hermione asked in a low voice when they were walking back up towards Gryffindor Tower, "I mean does she have spies or something?"

"Do you think anybody in the DA told on us?" Ron asked.

"No," the sixteen year old shook her head, "We would know if anybody told on us. I have to say, it won't be a pretty sight either, but alas, it would tell me who betrayed us, and seeing how nobody has—well, you would know," she finished while a small smirk grew on her face.

"I'm getting the feeling that the Twins have grown on you," groaned Luna, "We don't need more of them running around."

"Don't you like to prank people yourself, Luna?" Harry asked, with a note of humor in his voice.

"That is irrelevant at the moment, thank you very much," Luna said stiffly in reply, before they all burst out laughing.

Making their way into the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry saw some of his fellow house-mates doing homework, Seamus and Dean playing wizard's chess towards the window in the background, and Crookshanks sitting on top of the nearest couch, although nobody seemed to notice. Of course, there were also Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown gossiping on that couch, both of them eager to learn about what the other had been eaves-dropping on, so that they could spread even more rumors across the school. Hermione looked kind of uncomfortable when she spared a glance at the two, although she immediately went up the staircase to the girls' dorms to get her homework, while Ron challenged Luna to a game of chess, which she whole heartedly accepted.

Fred and George went off to plan some of their pranks, leaving
Harry and Ginny to their own devices. Evidently, the two collapsed onto a loveseat, causing Parvati and Lavender to stare at them for a moment, before the two of them started to giggle and turn back to their gossiping. Harry and Ginny started up a conversation inside their minds, although the first topic she chose had him rolling his eyes.

So, it's not that bad of a Halloween, now is it?

No.

The nerve of you sometimes, honestly!

Yes, dear.

Don't you 'yes, dear' me!

He mentally snickered, and she realized he was being sarcastic, and she joined in on the laughing as well.

When they were finally ready to go to bed, which was around a quarter til twelve, and having finished off their assigned homework, Harry and Ginny walked into their room, only to find their usually messy bed made, and a letter in a scarlet envelope lying at the foot of the bed. Thinking it was a Howler, Harry picked up the letter, only to discover it wasn't. So, he tore open the envelope, and reached in, only to pull out a small piece of parchment with very neat writing on it.

Some are quick to take it.
Others must be coaxed.
Those who choose to take it
gain and lose the most.

What is the answer?

D.M.C

"What the bloody hell?" Harry muttered, and Ginny came over and read what the parchment said.

"Why, though?" she asked, "Is it supposed to be a riddle of the sorts?"

"I guess so," he answered, "But what would the answer be?"

"Well, let's see. Some are quick to take it. It's a something, not someone. Others must be coaxed. It couldn't be an animal of the sorts, so maybe a potion or an action? Those who choose to take it gain and lose the most. Gaining and losing. . . . What can you do to both gain and lose?" Ginny bit her lip, before her face lit up, "Risk! Some take risk without thinking, and others must be coaxed. But if you take risk, you will gain something, whether it is punishment or something spectacular, but you will also lose something in the process!"

Harry nodded, before he dropped the parchment in shock. Below the question of what the answer was, appeared the word, Risk, followed by Ginny's explanation. The parchment immediately flew into the envelope, before the envelope itself burst into black and dark red flames, although the flames didn't burn anything in the process. That was beyond strange, and Ginny gasped in surprise, before she stared at where the envelope used to be. "Well, that's unnatural," Harry finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"Why would somebody want to do that, though?" Ginny asked as they both sat down on the bed.

"To test our minds?" he tried, "Although, that doesn't seem like a very logical answer.

XXX

Two letters suddenly flamed into Damion's hands, and he grinned, before turning to look at Moonstone and Quinn. "Told ya that they would figure them out quick enough," he said, before handing the two of them the letters, one which was scarlet and the other which was a dark blue, "Although I think one of the pairs got some help."

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, "Harry most definitely couldn't solve these just because he's a sylph."

"No," Damion shook his head, "Luna and George. Don't tell me you forgot what they're talents are?"

"We didn't forget," Moonstone snapped, before she calmed down, "Godric, sometimes having somebody who's older than you is a pain the arse."

"But I'm not older than you," he rolled his eyes, "I'm only three hundred years old."

"You sure don't act like it," Quinn chuckled, "You act like a teenager."

"Well you don't act like you're seven hundred and thirty-five years old either," Damion countered, "It all comes down to maturity, but nonetheless, I don't have any."

"That's because you're still mentally seventeen years old."

"True. But you don't have an excuse."

"Enough!" Moonstone finally exclaimed, "You're right, Damion, Luna easily used her talents to find the answer to this," Moon then laughed, "And she said she's not happy about it by saying this, 'If you really want to try and figure out how smart I am, could you at least give a damn about it'. I swear she has more of Mary's attitude than Xeno's or Klara's. Same snappy attitude, same hormonal insults," Quinn looked highly amused at that.

"Dia and Lance aren't going to be very happy with us," Quinn smirked, "They told us not to interfere, for the umpteenth time again."

"But we have to," Moon dismissed, "It all comes down to what we want. Not them. Hell, if they knew just what we were planning, they would say that the four of them aren't ready yet, but they are. Merlin knows they already had a hissy fit when we discussed what we wanted to do, but really, Lance didn't give one crap about it. He was actually fine with us, up until we were discussing this, then all of the sudden, BOOM! He's throwing a temper tantrum, and he doesn't really care."

"He never cares, though," Damion laughed, and the two of them joined in.

"No, he really doesn't. His personality is a duplicate of Mary's, to be honest. We tried to help her, but it seems that leaving her with you and Xeno didn't help matters much. Not to mention the fact that Scarlet wasn't in any proper shape to take care of them. She hated children, right up until her death. Never understood why, though, they're all so cute!"

"Even in their teenage years," Damion questioned, raising his eyebrows in the process.

"I don't know what the fuss is about teenagers; they're fine when you put some duct tape on their mouths. Then they learn! But no, parents don't follow our ideas, no, no, no!"

"Both of you disappeared for five hundred years, though. And suddenly Dumbledore gets word that you two are still alive, healthy, and prepared to take on the task of dealing with two couples that are Soul-Bound."

"Memories," Moon smiled, before opening up a bottle of Firewhiskey, "I remember when Mary was just a wee little baby."

"Don't try a British accent, it just sounds wrong," Damion suggested, a smirk coming onto his face.

"We are British! We were born in Wales, may I remind you!"

Damion snickered. Sometimes, the two of them were just a big pain in the arse, bickering, kissing, discussing, and then doing it all over again the next day. He honestly didn't know how Dumbledore didn't find any amusement in the couple, because they were right down hilarious. Although, if he had to admit it, kind of insane too. He had figured out both of them lost their minds around the time he was born, or at least the common sense part of their minds, but that was just at the very least.

But still, he enjoyed the company, seeing how he had walked the UK, as it was now called, for around one hundred fifty years, with nothing to do. Well, that had been his fault. The scar was still there, but he had let it happen. Falling in love with Aubrey had been a big mistake that he wasn't going to take the risks of again. But, a deep part of him in his mind was saying that he was in love again.

"Ya got it bad son, down to your bones, you know it's hiding inside of you, creating its home. She's got everything you need, everything ya want, but no, oh no, you won't take a damn chance again. Oh no, she's too young ya say, well, she's pretty damn hot, but no, no, no! If ya keep denying it, she's gonna go off and get married eventually, leaving ya behind. So take a chance, show her that you aren't a sick, twisted bastard. Show her what's best.

"Ya got it bad, ya got it bad, why deny it? But nooooooo, ya won't just face it. Your heart actually thumps more when ya see her, but you won't pay attention to it, although ya should. Maybe it would tell you right from wrong, and to just go for it. You aren't a monster if you don't act like it, kid, so just go for it. But don't listen to me; I don't know what's best, supposedly. Kid, you gotta get your priorities straight before ya accomplish anything."

A/N: And I got the chapter finished! This is probably one of the turning points in the story, although that's all I'm going to stay about that part. Anyways, now you see why Mary doesn't like her parents, and we get a lot of questions with unknown answers! And I never knew why JKR didn't think that Harry would be a wee bit depressed at Halloween; I really thought he would've been. I mean, there's the happiness all around him, while the teachers would probably feel quite a bit melancholy, especially Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore. Maybe Harry was just good at hiding what he was thinking in the books to us, I don't really know.

Review by Lilykees: Very good chapter. I cannot wait til Harry and Ginny and Luna and George start training with the Lovegoods.

Response: Thank you! Well, maybe this chapter answered some of your questions and gave you some more! Thanks for the review!