A/N: Here's #2 for Halloween Week! Enjoy.

The Halloween feast was spectacular. Grinning jack-o-lanterns floated below the darkened enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall. A gigantic red moon shone down on the polished wooden tables, giving everything an eerie glow.

The food was also extraordinary. The great feast comprised of roasted chicken, red potatoes, simmering vats of various vegetables, ice-cold pumpkin juice, warm mulled apple cider with cinnamon stick stirrers, loaves of bread that were still piping hot, and assorted treats, including Amelia's favorite, moon-shaped marble cake.

And among the festivities, there was something that held the attention of all the Hogwarts students. Everyone was abuzz over a few tureens at the center of every table, each with a card labeling the contents.

"Essence of Toad? Eau de Cat? What are these?" Amelia wrinkled her nose at the smell of dead leaves coming from one of the liquids.

"They're potions," James said nonchalantly, spooning a bit of Scarecrow Surprise into a goblet. "Dad told me about them. They're the tricks to go with the treats on Halloween. Each one of them does something interesting that's supposed to scare you or make you laugh. For example," he paused to demonstrate, as at that very moment John Menton swallowed some potion and immediately turned into a toad, leaving his clothes in a billowing heap on the bench.

"How long do they take to wear off?" asked Scorpius. He seemed vaguely interested, but was focused on prodding a Marching Marshmallow onto his plate with the smooth end of his spoon.

"Not that long," said James. And, just as he said, John reappeared a few moments later, looking wildly disoriented but laughing all the same.

Amelia pushed the tureens away from her, feeling green. "I'll pass, thanks," she said. James shrugged.

"Suit yourself," he said with a devious grin, then swallowed some of his potion. He spat it out immediately, and began to sneeze until bits of hay started to come out his nose. Scorpius burst into laughter, and Amelia just rolled her eyes.

Her gaze fell upon the Ravenclaw table, where Bean, Carly, and Bridget sat. Carly was holding a Cloner above her head and taunting Bean, who was laughing. Given their previous arguments, it looked like Carly was trying to threaten Bean with a minor hex if he didn't take some of the potion. Bean had done the same to her yesterday under threat of a dry-inkwell curse, only she'd had to eat tripe instead.

Bridget had dark circles under her eyes, but smiled brightly at her friends and sipped something out of her goblet. Finally, Bean appeared to give in. He ran a hand through his red hair and lifted a cup of potion to his pale lips. He disappeared into a puddle of robes, and a black cat with flaming green eyes sat in his place, looking rather irritated.

Amelia giggled, thinking of Arthur, her own black cat. She wondered what he would have thought of Bean in this state.

"What do you think, Amelia?"

She snapped her head back around, flinging her blond hair over her shoulder.

"What do I think about what?" she asked blankly. "Sorry, wasn't listening."

"I asked what you thought about the moon," repeated Scoripus.

"It's…red?"

"No, I meant like, do you think it's beautiful? Or scary?"

"I dunno…both?"

Scorpius nodded. "Well, a blood moon is supposed to be a dual omen; it can be good or bad, depending on the person's fate. Some say it's a 'harbinger of secrets that will be revealed'." He made his index and middle fingers into clawed quotation mark gestures to emphasize the point.

James rolled his eyes and sighed. "That's completely ridiculous," he said. "Who told you that?"

"My father," said Scorpius, and then, after a beat, "so it probably is wrong, then. He was rubbish at Divination."

"So was mine."

The boys grinned at each other goofily.

"Erm…what's Divination?" Amelia needed to ask. "Is that like, studying the stars? Because I thought we already did that in Astronomy."

"It's the study of the future. Of predictions," said Scorpius. "It's totally useless, unless you have the Sight." He paused, then said, "Which, apparently, none of the students here seem to have, because Bradley told me yesterday they're all failing the class this year. He said something about tea leaves being evil..."

"Well, Trelawney might have the sight," said James doubtfully. "No one really knows for sure."

"Yeah, I heard she's really weird-"

"-erm, what's the Sight?" Amelia interrupted, feeling lost.

"It means they can see into the future," explained James. "They see what most people can't, basically. They can tell when people are going to get sick, or when they're going to break something, or when their pets are going to die, or whatever. Some people who are more gifted with the Sight can even make prophecies. And if they do, the information gets stored in a secret vault in the Ministry. It's all so that people don't hear the prophecy and decide to do something stupid."

"What kind of stupid?"

"Well, if you heard the world was going to end because we ran out of quills, what would you do?"

"Probably stockpile as many…oh," Amelia said, getting the point. "So Seers are really rare?"

"Yeah, assuming there even are any real ones left," Scorpius said, reaching for a chocolate frog. "It's supposed to be a family thing, but you don't really see many real Seers around."

"Hmmm," Amelia said, gazing back up at the moon. "Maybe you're both right – it's probably ridiculous after all."

"Most likely. But we'll still have to study it. Tea leaves, crystal balls, and omens," James sighed dismally.

Amelia grimaced. "So that's what we have to look forward to."

Scorpius suddenly made an irritated noise in the back of his throat. "Agh, James, I got your dad again."

James casually held his hand out to take the chocolate frog card – the one that proclaimed Harry Potter as the Boy Who Lived. "This is like the tenth one this month! We'll probably be able to mail it soon."

"You know," Scorpius said through a mouthful of chocolate, "I'm kind of looking forward to sending all those Harry Potter cards to Father. If he's disappointed in me already, he hasn't seen anything yet." Scorpius looked pleased, and rubbed the Gryffindor crest on his robe for effect.

"I'm glad you're channeling your family issues into something meaningful," Amelia deadpanned.

And then someone behind them screamed.