A/N Here we go again!:D:D another chapter... they are at Hallowe'en already! Hope you like it! Thanks to Andrea, who reviewed, but I couldn't reply - so I am saying thanks here! Hopefully this is longer! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from J.K or anyone you recognize, I own Grace Williams.

Chapter 14

Hallowe'en!

The end of October was fast approaching, and that meant one thing: Hallowe'en!

"So, muggles, at Hallowe'en, dress up and knock on peoples doors for sweets?" laughed James incredulously

"Yes! It isn't thought as stupid, it's what people do!" said Lily exasperatedly

"I think it is ridiculous." said Sirius

The first-years were seated in the Gryffindor Common Room, eagerly discussing Hallowe'en, which was the following night.

Remus, who was teaching Edgar how to play chess ["Wow! They move!" exclaimed Edgar excitedly], looked up.

"Muggles always do it, but it first came from America, we British just got the idea off of them. I must say, we have gruesome costumes but Americans have flowers and Fairies… weird right?"

"What? They know fairies, or 'faeries' as you would say Remy, are real?" said James amazed

"Don't be stupid!" said Grace "They think there is a tooth fairy, not ones that light up!"

Mary, who was reading, snickered.

James frowned.

"Oh."

"Muggles these days, with their funny little ways of doing things, did you know that they have telelistens?" said Sirius knowledgeably

Marlene, Grace, Alice and Mary laughed.

"Don't you mean Televisions?" asked Remus, sniggering

"We have one at home, everyone likes coming round to look at it." Giggled Peter

They all stared.

"You have a Television?" they gasped.

"It isn't that rare you know, I mean, they came out ages ago, like in the 1920s. We have one at our home too." said Lily

"James, you really need to know more about Muggles." Said Remus with a shake of his head.

James looked highly offended.

"Excuse ME? RUDENESS!" he said loudly, and very immaturely.

"Shut up Potter, Remus is right." Snapped Lily, flaring up

"Alright Evans, keep your hair on, back to surnames now?" said James

Lily glared at him, so James glared back, unperturbed.

"Wow, how come you guys always manage to jump down each other's throat?"

"C'mon, I'm tired, let's go to bed."

The girls, minus Grace, got up to move. Frank and Edgar, who had finished playing chess, went to.

"So, what shall we do?"

"Eat?"

"Shut up Pete, how about a roam?"

"A 'roam'? what do you mean?"

"Sneak about the castle of course! There must be hundreds of secret passageways here, this castle is thousands of years old!" exclaimed Sirius excitedly

Remus looked concerned.

"Won't we get caught?"

"Of course not Remy dear! Who do you think we are?" said Sirius

"Well -!"

"I'm in, how about you Peter?" interrupted James

"Um, OK I will…"

"I'll come!" said Grace

"Excellent, so, Remy, still not coming?" said Sirius, rubbing his hands together.

Remus groaned.

"I will to keep you out of trouble and do not call me that!"

"No promises deary, off we go!"

They all got up and walked out of the Common room. Nobody took any notice of the first-years.

They stopped.

"Where to?" whispered Peter

"What about the kitchens?" said Grace brightly

"Great idea! So, the Hufflepuff common room must be near it as the come up from, like, under the Great Hall. So, where do the Hufflepuffs come up for breakfast?" asked James

"Well, defiantly on the ground floor, so there must be some sort of staircase going down." remarked Sirius

"Let's go."

So they headed off, occasionally stopping for the sounds of shuffling footsteps. They checked the corners, making sure they didn't attract attention from the portraits.

James and Sirius began to get bored of the quietness when they had got down to the third floor.

"This is boring, it's meant to be fun." Sirius said, loudly.

Remus glared, his senses sharpening.

"Get back! Filch!" he hissed.

They backed up against the wall.

The shuffling footsteps of Filch approached. James held his breath. Filch shuffled around the corner and into the corridor they were in. There was no way out.

"Where's Grace?" whispered Peter suddenly.

James looked around.

"She was right next to me! Grace?" he whisper-yelled.

"I'm here!" came the muffled reply from behind a wall. A cold hand reached out and grabbed James by his robes. He jumped.

"Hold on to the others!"

James obediently grabbed Sirius, who grabbed Remus, who grabbed Peter.

"OK!" he whispered

The hand pulled back, dragging the boys along with it. The wall rippled as the bodies made contact, but they slipped right through.

"OOF!"

"OUCH!"

"SIRIUS! That's my arm not my -!"

"Shut up guys! Filch will hear us!" whispered Grace

"Grace! You're alive!" said Sirius joyously. She rolled her eyes.

"SHH! He's coming this way!" hissed Remus, who had his ear to the wall.

They stopped talking, their breath hanging in clouds above their heads. Grace shivered.

"He's gone."

James wiped his forehead. "Phew!" he exclaimed "That was close!"

Sirius turned to Remus.

"How did you know Filch was coming?"

"I heard him! You were being loud… I mean, everyone else heard him too… right?" Remus looked around. James frowned and shook his head, Grace shrugged and Peter was wide eyed.

"Oh. Um, I wonder where this goes." said Remus, changing the subject, panicking at the look in Sirius and James' eyes.

They turned to see where Remus was pointing at. There was indeed a cave-like tunnel inside the wall.

"I don't think anyone's been down here for years." Grace said in a hushed voice.

"Shall we see where it goes?" asked James. They nodded, intrigued.

They proceeded down the tunnel which was very dark.

"I can't see!"

"None of us can!"

"Ow! What was that?"

"Sorry!"

"SHHH! There's something up ahead! Careful, we don't know if the floor is stable!" hissed James. "Who wants to go first?"

"No thanks…"

"Fine! I'll go!"

James, with nerves in his stomach, crept forwards, cursing the dark. He got his right foot and tapped the floor ahead carefully. He squinted. There was a ball of light in the distance, shielded by some sort of barrier. He hurried forwards.

"Guys! You have to see this!" he said as he ripped aside the ivy growing in front of the entrance.

The room beyond was filled with plants of every type; a large pond was in the centre, complete with a bridge, bench and lily pads. There was a small waterfall down one wall and a twinkling stream winding its way to the pond, glistening in the mysterious light. The ceiling was blue sky and clouds, with birds soaring through. It was wonderful.

"Wow…" breathed Grace

"What is this place?" asked James quietly. The room made you want to be calm and peaceful, not loud and boisterous.

As if the room heard him, a piece of parchment, enlarged by magic, floated down from the 'sky' ceiling, coming to rest by their heads.

Grace took it.

"What does it say?"

"Go on Grace, read it."

Grace cleared her throat.

"'Dear Guests. You have just entered the chamber of harmony. I created this room when building Hogwarts School with my fellow founders. I can only guess that they too made secret rooms and chambers for themselves and others that we, the founders, do not know about. I have decided any house can enter this room as many people need it. There is intense magic in this room. Please respect it as it is a place of quiet thinking, peace-making and happiness. Your worries and bad thoughts will disappear in here. But be warned, very few people have come into this room and most of them have wasted away, loving the new world of no worries, beautiful gardens and warm temperatures. I myself have faced worries and could not draw myself away from this beautiful room full of magic and harmony. Please be careful. You have been warned.

Rowena Ravenclaw

Founder'" Grace finished and looked up at them.

"Rowena Ravenclaw wrote that and made this room?" gasped James

"I guess so… it says that she couldn't draw herself away, does that mean she died in here?" asked Grace

Peter shivered. "If that's true, I'd rather not like to be here any longer."

James looked at him. "Mm, I really like this room, but we really should get back, it's probably late. We can come back another time. C'mon guys."

They trooped off until James realised something.

"Where are Sirius and Remus?"

Remus and Sirius were over by the pond, blissfully thinking of nothing bad, only good thoughts.

"Remus? Sirius? We're going now."

"No! Let's stay here all night." Replied Sirius

James and Grace stared at each other.

"But, we need to get back-!"

"NO we don't! James why can't you be happy for me? I have no worries!" said Sirius loudly

Grace turned to James.

"It must be the room; they must have a lot of worries and bad memories, so they want to stay here! We have to get them out!"

James nodded.

"OI! Sirius! You won't have your birthday if you don't come out!" called James

Sirius immediately came out of the trance.

"What?" he yelped "No way!"

James grinned in relief.

"C'mon, we have to get Remus out!" he exclaimed

"Umm, magic?"

"Don't be stupid – we hardly know anything! But what have we learned to help Remus?"

"Well, we learned that colour change spell the other week."

"That… that is not helpful Peter."

Grace threw her arms up in the air. "Argh! Think! Wait… maybe we could levitate him out! If we all do it together then that will be strong enough to make him float, and he's going to sleep so he won't notice a thing!"

"Brilliant!" said James

"Excellent, now then, get your wands at the ready!" commanded Grace "3, 2…1…"

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

A purple light combined in the air because of the magic coming from each wand, it floated towards Remus, engulfing him in a bubble of purple. He rose up into the air and hovered a few feet above the ground.

"Ok," whispered Grace "We need to point our wands at the entrance and walk over to it, don't break the connection!"

They shuffled forwards towards the exit [or the entrance] keeping their wands at Remus the entire time.

After what seemed to be a lifetime, they were dropping Remus to the floor in the chamber behind the wall.

Remus sat up dazily.

"What? Where are we?" he said "Wait, I was in that room behind the ivy stuff, how did you get me out?"

"We levitated you! Now quick! We have to get out of here before Filch gets us!" said James quickly

Remus scrambled up.

"Do we just walk back through?" asked Peter nervously

"I assume so." said Grace.

She walked forwards and stuck her hand out. It sunk right through. She then proceeded to stick her head through to check the coast was clear. She lent all the way through until she disappeared.

"Come on! Nobody's here!" whispered the voice behind the wall.

James and Remus [James dragged Remus – just in case] went next, followed by Peter and Sirius.

The journey back to the dormitory was uneventful, except when Sirius sneezed as a prefect walked down the corridor and they had hidden behind a suit of armour. Luckily the prefect thought the armour had sneezed, so he walked on.

Finally, dragging their feet, they reached the common room entrance.

"Bat wings." said Remus to the Fat Lady [the password had changed a week before]

"Where on earth have you been?" she squawked as she swung forwards to reveal the common room.

They all ignored her, but hurried through and collapsed on the sofas.

"What time is it?" asked Peter drowsily

"Nearly midnight!" replied a shrill voice from behind them

They all jumped out of their skins.

"Evans! Merlin…" James said, clutching his heart

"Lily! What are you doing? It's late, you should be asleep!" said Grace

"And so should you!" she snapped "I only came down here to get my Charms essay I left. I expected you to be here, as your bed was empty, but no one was here at all!"

Sirius chose not to answer directly.

"We have a Charms essay?"

"Yes, due on Monday! Shut up Black, that's not what I asked!" she glared at Sirius, who recoiled.

"Easy Evans!" exclaimed Sirius, stepping back in alarm "We are innocent!"

Behind him, Grace snorted, but covered it up with a cough.

"C'mon Lily it isn't that bad! We didn't get caught or anything!" said Grace

"It's against the rules!" she replied "Don't you care about them?"

"Not re-." began Sirius, but was cut off by Remus.

"Of course we do! We just had a bit of fun, now we are tired, so goodnight!"

Taking that as their cue, the four boys sprinted up the stairs, with Grace giggling behind her hand.

"Well, that went well." Remarked James a while later, sinking back into his pillows and staring at the roof of his four-poster.

"Mmm, hope Evans didn't give Grace a hard time…" said Sirius sleepily from the next bed.

"Goodnight guys, I have been trying to get to sleep for AGES now!" said Remus

The next morning, James got drawn back to life with the delicious smell of baked pumpkin wafting in from under the door – and the fact that Sirius had sat on his stomach and was currently staring at him.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! MERLIN SIRIUS! Don't DO that!" yelled James

"Well, it was funny watching you sleep!" replied Sirius "Did you know that you breathe louder in when you are sleeping?"

James looked at Sirius.

"That is the stupidest thing, ever."

Sirius shrugged, jumped off the bed and remarked "I'm hungry Jamsie, hurry up!"

"Alright!" grumbled James, falling onto the floor "I need a shower before we go."

"Ergh!" came the reply

Half an Hour later, they arrived in the Great Hall in time for the post.

Just as he was helping himself to bacon, James received a letter on his head.

"You've got a letter." said Sirius helpfully

James rolled his eyes but chuckled.

He opened the envelope to find a letter and a Daily Prophet cutting. He opened the letter.

Dear James

Thank you for your letter! It was lovely to hear from you. It is nice to know that you are helping your friend Sirius by staying at Hogwarts for the holidays – it is fine by your father and me. The thing I was mainly writing about is in the newspaper cutting with the letter! Isn't it exciting that you dad has got a major promotion? He is now head of the Auror department! I am so proud, he has worked very hard to get this role, but sadly has now got much more work to do! I hope he doesn't get stressed. Anyway, if I do not see you at Easter, I will see you in June!

Love Mum

James smiled broadly and picked up the newspaper cutting.

NEW HEAD OF AUROR DEPARTMENT

Christopher Potter, long-time Auror has finally succeeded in achieving his goal

Christopher Potter, from the outskirts of Tillingham, has become the new head of the Auror department after Francis Grayling decided to retire last week at the age of 60. He has been an Auror since he left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where his only son is currently attending. Potter got the job in his first interview with the Minister for Magic, Nobby Leach, and his deputy, Josephina Larding. Potter's wife, Celeste Potter, is extremely proud of her husband's promotion. "We are very happy for Christopher as he has been waiting for this moment for a long time, and I expect James, our son, is more than pleased." She stated in the early evening of October 30th. Hopefully Potter will bring hope and comfort within families and make the Auror's, minister and old Francis proud of him and his work. "I knew from the day I hired him that he would achieve great things for the Ministry, and I know that he will be a victorious Head of the department." Said Grayling last night when we interviewed him. We also hope that he will be good for our community. For the biography of Francis Grayling please turn to page 13. Article by Jonathan Elroy.

"Hey, James, what's that?" asked Sirius

"Letter, look, my dad –he's the new head Auror!" James said, thrusting the paper into his hands.

Sirius read through. "Hey that's cool! An Auror, now that is awesome."

"You'll need top grades for that Mr Black." said a crisp voice behind James.

"Minnie!" said Sirius joyously "You've come to join us!"

Professor McGonagall chose to ignore the comment and address James.

"Congratulations to your father in making the Head Auror, I will expect great things from him, he was a good student when I taught him that one year."

"Um, thanks Professor."

The day past quickly for the boys, who, as it was Saturday, amused themselves by chasing Mrs Norris around the school without getting caught by Filch.

They arrived in the Great Hall for the Hallowe'en feast. The Hall was decorated with orange and black drapes, pumpkins hung from the ceiling, big enough to fit at least two grown men inside, bats flew in black clouds of the tables. The feast was like the start-of-year one, where it magically appeared.

James was just picking up a pumpkin pasty when a voice spoke to him from his left.

"Be careful with that, you never know what is in them, I know, from personal experience."

James turned to see a kind-faced seventh-year girl with bright auburn curly hair and freckles. Sirius, who was stuffing his face, looked up and was glad to see the happy face of Molly and Arthur again, from the first day.

"Really? What happened?" he asked eagerly

"Well spiders jumped out of it as soon as I bit into it. But I think it was a prank some boy, probably Jeremy Towers, pulled." She said

"Why would Jeremy Towers prank you?" asked a boy with equally bright ginger hair opposite her.

"I refused a date with him."

The boy looked smug. James smiled slightly. The girl turned back to James.

"So, what's your name? Mine is Molly Prewett, I'm head girl and that's Arthur Weasley, head boy and my boyfriend." She said

"James, James Potter."

"Hey! I remember you! My dad works with your dad at the ministry, so we went to a party you had. I met you then. This was ages ago; I think you were about… two? I was nine." said Arthur smiling.

James grinned. "I vaguely remember being surrounded by people…"

Meanwhile Remus and Sirius were having a conversation, or an argument, about How-teachers-really-shouldn't-give-detentions-to-people.

"If you've done something wrong you need to!" exclaimed Remus

"You don't need to at all! It just makes the teachers hated by people – what's the point? And if you get detention from pranking-,"

"Which we shouldn't do in the first place!" Remus cut across

"- they should congratulate you instead!" finished Sirius loudly.

"Should not!"

"Should too!"

"Should not!"

"Should too!"

"Should not!"

"Should t-!"

"Oh shut up!" cried James "Stop bickering like a married couple!"

Remus and Sirius glared at him.

"Are no-!"

"Merlin Sirius!" said Emmeline from across the table "We can hear you, you know!"

Sirius grinned at her cheekily.

Soon, everyone's plates were empty but their stomachs full. Professor Dumbledore stood up graciously and asked for attention.

"After that amazing feast, I would like to announce that the ghosts have a performance!" he said when everyone was looking.

Immediately transparent heads rose from the tables, several shrieks followed but mostly it was laughter. The ghosts rose up and did a spectacular display of their abilities. Nearly Headless Nick – the Gryffindor ghost – did his own beheading re-enactment that caused lots of applause. There was one ghost, Sirius noted, that wasn't like the rest. He was short and podgy, with a luminous bow tie with purple spots.

"Who's that?" Sirius asked the Heads.

Molly looked. "Oh, that's Peeves, a poltergeist. Better watch out for him, always lands you in trouble and pulling pranks on people – especially first-years."

"Don't worry, we always stay out of trouble." said Sirius, Remus snorted behind his hand.

The night ended with the ghosts lining up and bowing them out of the Great Hall. Sirius and the rest traipsed up stairs, dragging their feet, trying to keep their eyes open. Finally they collapsed into bed, falling asleep immediately.

I just had to put Peeves in somewhere, I have managed to not mention him from every other chapter!