Derrick Harrington

Derrick woke up excited for his first Halloween at Hogwarts. Sammi has told him about how much fun the day is after class is over. They have a huge Halloween feast and the decorations make the Halloween decorations at Aliquam Velit look cheap. The sun was shining into their bedroom which made it easy to wake up. Derrick saw that Cam was already out of bed getting his things ready for his morning shower. Derrick preferred night showers so he did not have to get up right away.

"Happy Halloween mates," Ernie said jumping out of bed wearing his yellow and black pajamas.

"Happy Halloween!" Justin cheered. Derrick had never met anyone as enthusiastic about life as Justin.

"What did you guys do for Halloween back home?" Derrick asked sitting up.

"Well my mum would make us a great big dinner and my dad would give us all chocolate frogs and sugar quills and then we would go to a bonfire in my village where we would celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Wizarding War," Ernie said.

"In the muggle world we would dress up in costumes and go door to door in our neighborhood and the neighbors would give us sweets," Justin said as he gathered his bathing supplies.

"Back in Aliquam Velit we had an all day festival where there would be games and people would be giving out candy then we also had a bonfire at the end of the night where we would all wear masks and dance all night long," Derrick said.

"Well Harris told me that the feast tonight was unbelievable which isn't surprising because all the food here is amazing," Cam said as he left with Justin to hit the showers. Ernie, like Derrick, showered before bed.

Derrick got up from bed and decided to head to the bathroom to use the toilet and brush his teeth. He wanted to head to the Owlery before breakfast so he could give his Eagle owl, Jeffrey, a letter for his parents. Sending letters overseas was quite a journey so it was best to do it during the morning so that Jeffrey would be at the Owl coastal center by lunch so he could rest, and be at Aliquam Velit by dark so he could sleep at his parents house.

When Derrick was done in the bathroom he went to change into his Hogwarts robes and Hufflepuf tie. He ran a brush through his hair and grabbed the letter sitting on his small desk.

"I'll meet you guys at breakfast," he told his three roommates. Cam and Justin had finished their showers and were now getting ready with Ernie.

"Hey are you going to the owlery?" Cam asked.

"Yeah," Derrick said.

"Do you mind giving this letter to Mipsy? I keep forgetting to send it" Cam asked grabbing a letter from the pocket of his robe. Mipsy was Cam's barn owl.

"Sure thing," Derrick said grabbing the letter.

He headed to the Hufflepuff common room where he saw Olivia and Claire who were just leaving the girls' dormitory. Both blonde girls were in their uniforms and had their hair in two braids.

"Oh hey Derrick," Claire smiled with a wave. Claire has become one of Derrick's best friends. When she first came Cam and Olivia took her under their wing. She was so shy and nervous all the times, but she has really come out of her shell recently. She really is cool and super nice.

"Hey girls where are you all headed?" Derrick asked.

"The Owlery. We have letters we want to send home," Olivia explained. What is really surprising is that Olivia has also become a good friend. Derrick never really hung out with her back home. She just seemed like she was trying to hard to impress everybody. She is actually really nice and a loyal friend.

"Me too. Lets walk together," Derrick said.

The three headed out of the Hufflepuff common room and began to head towards the owlery.

"Do the muggles ever find it weird that you have an owl deliver your letters to your parents? I mean you told me that muggles don't use owls," Olivia asked.

"I just have to make sure I send my letters at the perfect time so that the owl makes it to Florida after dark which isn't so weird. My parents told Todd to leave his window open since it is in the back of the house so that the owl can fly in without anyone noticing. Then my parents send the owl back after dark the next night," Claire explained.

"Fascinating," Olivia beamed.

"It is going to be so weird missing the festival today," Derrick said.

"I know, but look at how awesome the castle looks today," Olivia said taking in the floating candles, the glittery cobwebs, and the green and purple smoke on the ceiling.

"Its like the most beautiful haunted castle," Claire sighed looking at the Fat Friar and Bloody Barron having a enthusiastic conversation.

"Well I guess it technically is haunted," Derrick chuckled.

Claire and Olivia chuckled as well.

"I never knew that Halloween was such a big deal for wizards and witches," Claire said.

"It is the biggest deal," Olivia said.

"Doesn't it kind of make fun of our kind?" Claire asked.

"Not at all. It celebrates our kind. And it is the anniversary of the defeat of you-know-who," Derrick explained.

"Right. By Harry Potter," Claire nodded.

"That's right," Olivia nodded.

"I mean from what I've been told you-know-who's demise was a great thing, but this must be such a sad day for Harry. I mean he lost his parents and his twin sister this day as well," Claire said.

Derrick sighed. This was very true and he never really thought of it like that.

"We don't know if his twin is dead," Olivia sang.

"You don't actually believe that do you?" Derrick asked.

"Why not?" Olivia asked.

"It just isn't possible," Derrick said.

"Well I doubt people thought that it was possible for a one year old to beat the Dark Lord," Olivia shrugged.

"Somebody needs to stop reading the Quibbler," Derrick said shaking his head.

"I mean I guess anything could be possible. I never thought in a million years that it was possible for me to be a witch and here I am," Claire shrugged.

Derrick just shook his head as the group walked into the Owlery.

Claire headed towards her barn owl Libby, Olivia headed towards one of the school's owls, and Derrick found his owl who was sitting next to Cam's owl. They were best friends just like Derrick and Cam.

"Hey Mipsy. Hey Jeffrey. Look alive. I have letters," Derrick said.

Mipsy let out a little coo and Jeffrey fluffed up his feathers. Derrick smiled and gave them both a scratch after handing them both the letters.

"I promise that when you get to the destination you will have a juicy mouse waiting for you," Derrick promised.

Both owls flew away to send the letters.

He looked over and saw that they were waiting for Derrick.

The three walked out and headed towards the Great Hall. The Great Hall had glowing Jack-o-laterns floating everywhere.

They headed straight for the Hufflepuff table where Cam, Ernie, Justin, Susan, and Hannah were sitting. Derrick took a seat next to Ernie and across from Cam while Claire and Olivia sat next to Cam.

"I am loving Hogwarts more than ever today. The whole castle smells like pumpkin pie," Cam smiled as he took a bite of his sausage.

Derrick filled his plate with sausage, eggs, and waffles and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"It is quite soothing actually," Susan said taking a deep breath.

"Not soothing enough unfortunately. We only have a little over a month before our midterm grades are sent out and I really don't feel good about my last History of Magic essay so I need to do well on the next one," Hannah said. Derrick noticed that she had their History of Magic text book in front of her.

"Come on Hannah its Halloween. We don't have History of Magic again until Monday. Why don't you close your book and I promise that we can both work on it together tomorrow and over the weekend," Derrick said.

Hannah's rosy cheeks became rosier as she smiled.

"I guess I can try to have a little fun today," she said as she closed her book.

"Besides I bet you did great on our last essay. You always do," Derrick smiled.

Hannah giggled and started to nibble on her piece of toast.

Hannah was probably the most anxious one of their group, but she was still a very loyal, sweet girl.

After breakfast the crew headed towards their charms classroom. Derrick took the seat in front of Kemp and his friends. Derrick is happy that his friendship with Kemp, Josh, and Plovert hasn't suffered because of them being in different houses. He can't really say the same for his female friends though. Things really have changed with that group. He never sees Kristen socializing with any of them anymore. She seems to be content just hanging out with her Ravenclaw friends, especially Padma Patil. Even the Gryffindor girls seem to have drifted from each other. Derrick glanced over to the back corner of the classroom where Dylan was sitting alone. She looked like death. There was no color in her face except for the black rings around her eyes. Her hair looks like it hasn't been washed in days. The only person she talks to is Josh and even he says that Dylan seems to be getting more stand offish as time has gone on. The guys are all really worried about her. She still hasn't seemed to get over the fact that she was a Gryffindor. Her sisters making snide comments everytime she passed wasn't helping either. The only thing that even seemed to help in the slightest was her Quidditch practices and even that didn't do a lot.

Alicia was hanging out with Massie less and less. They were still friendly with each other, but Alicia did seem to be spending more time with Gryfindors Parvarti Patil and Lavender Brown. Kemp said that was probably for the best because Massie was attached at the hip with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley who Kemp has been avoiding for quite some time now. He says that he thought they were cool at first, but now he sees that they are nothing, but trouble and not the innocent and endearing trouble like Kemp was, but the kind of trouble that is going to get them killed some day. Derrick had to admit that the girl who was his first crush and his old female best friend didn't seem like the same Massie he used to know. She wore her hair in a ponytail everyday and no longer wore make-up. She looked tired, not as bad as Dylan, but still not the Massie he used to know. Kemp said that she didn't really act like the same Massie either, except when she was bickering with Kemp's roommate and friend James. Her annoyance for James seemed to bring the real Massie out, but other than that this Massie just seemed tired and overly stressed which was not normal for her.

"Ok class settle down. Settle down," said Professor Flitwick as he stood on his stool so that they could all see him.

The class quieted down so that the little man could start their class. Derrick really liked Professor Flitwick. Charms was one of his favorite classes.

"Now today we are going to finally start practicing the levitation charm," he said.

Derrick smiled and pumped his fist under his desk. He was looking forward to this ever sense Professor Flitwick made Neville's toad fly across the room.

They practiced the wand movement and repeated the enchantment then they were put into pairs. Derrick was paired up with Justin and began to practice trying to make a feather levitate.

It was a lot harder than it looked. Both Justin and Derrick tried, but had no luck what so ever.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Derrick tried.

No luck.

Derrick looked around and saw the everyone seemed to be struggling. Harry Potter and his partner Seamus Finnagin actually set their feather on fire.

"Oh very good Ms. Granger! See class she has done it. 20 points for Gryffindor!" he beamed.

Derrick looked over to see that over achieving Gryffindor beaming while her partner, Ron Weasley was sulking. Derrick found that girl to be quite annoying. She was good at making everyone else look bad and she seemed to enjoy it. Derrick rolled his eyes. He continued to practice with Justin. By the end of class Derrick got it to levitate about an inch for 2 seconds.

Once class was over they headed over to their Herbology class.

"Ugh I'm never going to get levitating. I barely got it to move," Hannah sighed.

"You did fine. The only one who actually had any luck was that Gryffindor girl," Ernie said squeezing Hannah's shoulder.

"Exactly it'll just take some practice," Olivia said.

The group continued watching when Derrick saw Kemp yelling at Ron. Massie, Harry, Seamus, and Dean were standing behind Ron while Neville, James, and Dune were standing behind Kemp.

"That wasn't cool. Just because neither want to waste their time on you doesn't mean they are pathetic. And Massie she used to be your friend. Or have you forgotten?" Kemp asked.

"It was a bratty thing to do," James sneered.

Derrick noticed Massie looking at her feet.

"Whatever Kemp and shove it James," she said pushing past him with the rest following her.

Derrick and Cam looked at each other concerned.

"Hey guys save us a seat in Herbology," Derrick said as the two boys walked up to a Kemp who was still fuming.

"Kemp what's going on?" Derrick asked. Kemp shook his head and walked towards their next class.

"Ron was saying some mean things about Hermione Granger and he said that she was such a big loser that even the pathetic loner Dylan Marvil wouldn't be friends with her," Dune explained.

"And H-Hermione and D-Dylan heard them," Neville mumbled.

"And he was mad that Massie didn't stick up for Dylan," James explained.

Derrick shook his head.

"That isn't the Massie I know," Derrick said in a disappointed tone.

"It doesn't really surprise me. I know she was your friend, but she is a real brat. Sorry mate," James shrugged as the three Gryffindor boys walked past them.

"Massie was always kind of spoiled, but she always looked after her friends," Cam said as the two headed towards Herbology.

Derrick sighed again.

"I guess Massie really has changed. For the worse," Derrick said.

So it seems that Massie and Dylan really aren't friends anymore. In the next chapter Dylan will finally confront Hermione about the book she let Dylan borrow in the girls bathroom where they will have an unexpected, dangerous visitor. Then in the next chapter Josh will meet with Dylan and someone else to talk about some new information the day before the first Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.