There was an air of awe and amazement in the eyes of all students in the Great Hall. The room was filled with decorations, the ceiling enchanted like the night sky, with floating pumpkins alight. On the walls were transfigured webs, bats and whatever that was on the wall near the Slytherin table.

Lucy's eyes were bright with wonder. Her experience with the holiday could not compare to the effort and beauty before her. Beside Lucy were Natsu and Erza, and across them were Gray and Gajeel. Lucy eyes surveyed the teachers table and saw a plump man seated beside the headmaster. He wore a formal black suit with his jacket fastened with a large yellow button.

The blond furrowed her brows; the man's face seemed familiar to the girl. Only moments later she realized that he was Duke Everlue. The man is a wealthy politician, overruling a town whose name Lucy cannot recall.

…

Duke Everlue was seated comfortably, as the Guest of Honor he was seated at the right of the Headmaster. Excitement coursed through his body. It has been quite some time since his days in Hogwarts. Only after years of overseeing the small town of Shirotsume and climbing up the tower of politics had he gotten the free time to visit Hogwarts.

Everlue straightened the spine of his back, only recalling a moment later the task handed to him by the higher ups in the political chain. If his task is successful as he had planned, then not only would he be rewarded with a higher position and Jewels more than he could carry, but he would be respected with so much regard in political society. A smirk adorned his features, and he stood up as he was addressed by the Headmaster and with a grateful nod, seated himself and ate to his heart's content.

Conversations ran through the air. Light laughter and bright grins were plastered on the faces of the students all around. Everlue forced a wave of guilt from his system. If his plan went through without a hitch then everything will go the way as it was supposed to be. No one will suffer. At least, he hoped so.

…

Lucy giggled with the rest of her group, amused by the story said by Sting. She scooped up another dollop of mashed potatoes onto her plate and drowned it in savory gravy. Bisca, who sat by Erza's side gaped at the copious amount of gravy on her plate. The golden haired girl shrugged with a grin on her face and released a satisfied sigh as she spoons a mouthful into her open mouth.

Lucy's eyes surveyed the area once more and gave a couple of waves to her other friends at the Ravenclaw and Slytherin table. After drinking a glass of water she turned her body to face the Hufflepuffs seated behind her only to see her year group with worry on their faces. As she was seated with her back facing the Badgers, it was only Lisanna who was able to meet her eye, seeing the girl's back turned to look over the other tables, as if looking for someone.

Lucy made a mental head count and saw that Juvia was missing from the table. She waved at the white haired girl and asked about Juvia's whereabouts. Lisanna's eyes widened even more as she shook her head. "No ones seen her since we had Transfiguration," Lisanna whispered.

Lucy gasped upon hearing her friend's words. It's been hours since the last class of the day. And the blue haired Hufflepuff has been gone since long after that. Since she wasn't in the Great Hall, its most likely she would be missing the Halloween Supper.

Determination and worry clouded her eyes and she leaned over to whisper, "I'll spread the word, we'll go look for her after supper. Bring as much food as you can carry, she'll surely be hungry by then." Lisanna nodded gratefully and told her housemates what Lucy ought to do.

She missed the thankful glances her Hufflepuff year mates sent her as she whispered to her own housemates of Juvia's disappearance. From across her she saw how Gajeel scowled, he and Juvia were from the same orphanage and practically grew up as siblings together, finding out that she was missing boiled his blood.

As Gray was seated nearest their year mates in the Ravenclaw table, he stood up, ignored the looks from the older years and gained curious ones from the first years from both Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

"We've got to find her, she's been gone for hours," Gajeel growled out. A dark gleam shone in his ruby eyes as he pushed his food around on his plate. From beside her, Erza nodded with ferocity in her dark eyes.

"But we've got to make sure that we won't be stopped," the red haired said, forking a large piece of strawberry cake into her mouth, "we might get caught by prefects if everyone from our year group goes gone. Let's assign a few per house to look for her, that way the others can distract the prefects if it takes long."

Lucy nodded to Erza's plan and whispered loud enough to be heard only by their group. "I'm going to look for her, who's joining me?"

Natsu immediately voiced out that he was going with her, and Erza mentioned that she and Bisca stayed, lest the girl's dorm be left with no occupants. Lucy's eyes gazed towards the four boys in front of her, the boys arguing if it would be a good idea for the boy's dorm to be left with only three or two lest they get caught.

While they argued Sting stood up, briefly mentioning that he wouldn't mind staying or looking for Juvia and left to tell their Ravenclaw friends the plan. Lucy on the other hand, arranged a couple of napkins in front of her and grabbed three containers from her small bag (something that she never goes anywhere without) and arranged a couple of roasted chicken in one container, a large portion of Juvia's favorite pasta and finally, poured in a whole pitcher of pumpkin juice in the bottle container. Knowing that no one would look at a first year student, Lucy carefully piled the three containers on top of the arranged napkins, and with expert hands, folded the napkins to hold the containers within.

She felt Natsu nudge her elbow with his, she paused from her focused folding and met his eyes. He tilted his head and his eyes momentarily left hers as if telling her to look out at the direction he eyed and she did so. Lucy, as nonchalant as she could, eyed the direction Natsu had gestured. With a bit of confusion on her part, and a little of whispering on his, she finally met the gaze of a gaping politician.

"Do you know him?"

Lucy's eyes left and met Erza's dark hues. She tilted her head to the side, confusion on her face as she shook her head no.

"He's been staring at this direction for quite some time now, and because most of us are nobodies–" Lucy glared at the insult the red haired said about herself–"maybe he's looking at you."

"All I know is that he is Duke Everlue, and that he lives in some town I can't recall," Lucy mused. She pursed her lips, now a sting of familiarity coursing through her. "Maybe I've met him before, but I'm sure it's been quite some time, surely he doesn't remember."

Erza's lips were pursed and her brows furrowed, she seemed to be in deep thought. "Well, I don't like the way his eyes gleamed, something tells me that he's a bad man, don't stay anywhere alone with him, okay?"

Something in Lucy's gut tells her that what Erza's feeling is right and she could only nod her acknowledgement. Taking another glance at the High Table, she sees Duke Everlue in an enthusiastic conversation with Headmaster Makarov. Her eyes left the person of the plump man and met the eyes of one Professor Jiemma. Once more, a feeling of familiarity coursed through her veins and she swiftly disconnected her gaze from his and went back to her folding. Once finished, she quickly checked to see that no one was looking at her, and dropped the napkin covered containers into the infinite space within her bag.

Now all she and the rest of her worried year mates could do is wait for the end of the Halloween Supper, in order to be able to look for the missing blue haired Hufflepuff.

…

Supper had just ended minutes ago and with the help of the other first years they were able to distract the prefects and dodge the towering older years as they bounded off into an abandoned classroom. Anxiety wafted through the air as she and the rest of her housemates nervously wait for the appearance of their year mates from other houses.

Lucy twirled a golden lock around her finger. It was uncountable, the number of times she and the rest of her group, consisting of herself, Natsu and Gajeel – after a tough deliberation on the number of boys that should be left behind in their dorms they concluded that only the two boys would look for their year mate — would stop their pacing, or anxious leg bouncing in hopes to see the moment the rest of their search group would arrive.

Her brows were furrowed, she could feel it. Her lips were pursed, she knew it. Her year mates had yet to arrive, and Lucy was worried. "What's taking them so long?" Gajeel growled out, standing close to the doors, "Who knows where Juvia's been, she must be stuck, or hidin' and– and, she must be starvin.'" Little by little his ruff voice decreased in volume till he said his last with a whisper, "She might be hurt."

"Gajeel, nothing can be accomplished if you're stuck being pessimistic. It's only been at least three minutes since supper ended, there are still plenty of students outside," Lucy tried to console the worried boy. She knew for a fact that Gajeel and Juvia were close, having grown up together in the same orphanage, they were close as siblings. Opening her mouth once more, she tried to appeal to him, only to fall silent upon hearing the sound of the doorknob opening.

The three in the room moved as quickly and quietly as they could, hiding themselves from immediate sight in case it were not their fellow year mates. Lucy saw from where she hid how Natsu crouched low under a desk, covering his mouth with both hands. She saw how Gajeel stood near the shadows, his back towards the door. With two hands she followed as her pink haired friend did, she couched low, prayed a short prayer to the heavens, and held her breath.

It may have felt longer than minutes, but in actuality it were only seconds till she and the rest of her friends heard whispers from the door way. Quick pitter patters of feet sounded in the large room and heavy breathing could be heard as the doors closed shut.

"I thought you said that Fullbuster said we'd meet in the same room last time."

"He did!"

"Well, where are they, then?"

A relieved sigh left Lucy's lips, tension leaving her person, and from the looks of her companions, it seemed the same for them too. She soon left her hiding place and grinned at the shocked looks from her year mates, knowing that they had expected the room to be empty as they seemed. A few had yelped their surprise, and the rest quickly covered their mouths quiet.

"Damn! We thought you guys were ghosts!" Cana groaned out, her hand clutching her chest. Lucy giggled at the relief in their faces, waving their hand for the group to come closer.

The search team stood in a circle, surrounding the teachers table by the board. Lucy's eyes wandered and counted. There were three from Gryffindor, Levy, Max and Alzack for Ravenclaw, Cana, Mirajane and Minerva for Slytherin and for Hufflepuff were Lisanna, Eflman and Yukino. In total there were twelve students to aid in searching for Juvia.

"Okay everyone, let's hush and listen to the plan the Eagles made," Minerva spoke with a low tone, her voice gaining the attention of the people in the room. Upon her guidance, the first years then faced the direction of two girls who stood side by side each other. Levy and Lisanna stood with their backs straight, papers in their hand. Minerva handed them another paper, with contents that Lucy isn't aware of but appears to be something the two girls were grateful for.

"We've arranged a plan for everyone to be in groups of four." Levy arranged her papers on the table, with Lisanna adjusting it for everyone to see in every angle. "I'll quickly group everyone, but since we're running out of time, I'll separate us Ravenclaws, they can understand the plan and map I made." She handed one of her dorm mates a copy of her papers after everyone's quick reads. From where Lucy stood she understood why the blue eagles were to be separated, she didn't think anyone but another Ravenclaw could understand the harsh lines and curves on the paper on hand and glanced at the two other Ravenclaws who were looking at the paper as if in amazement.

"As each of the three groups will be accompanied by a Ravenclaw, we will be leading the search in three directions. Please check your maps and search quickly, Juvia's been gone for quite some time and it's up to us to make sure she's safe," Lisanna announced, worry tinged in her voice.

Everyone's face was full of concern. Normally first protocol would be to ask help from the older years, prefects and professors or Head of House. But as this was a special case, none of them could ask help from their elders. And none of them would want to, given the chance.

"We have at most one hour to look for Juvia until the prefects find out that we're missing from our year group."

A few somber seconds passed and later everyone gave tense nods. They left the room, ears focused on the corridors outside. With no hesitation the three groups shared one last nod at one another, in hopes that one would be able to find their year mate.

…

Juvia was seated on the cold ground floor. It's been hours at least but still she could feel tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. "People can be mean to Juvia," the blue haired girl whispered to herself. She sniffed and rubbed her nose, clearing it from snot. "Juvia's heart hurts."

She closed her eyes and tucked herself close. It was unsanitary, she was fully aware of it, but she'd rather have that than to face the harsh bullying from the older years. Juvia's eyes watered once more as she bent her legs closed, ensuring that her bare feet wouldn't touch the cold floor. Another pair of shoes gone.

She took another sniff and once more she made a swipe at her nose. She ignored the countless rumbles of her tummy, and she continued to do so, "Juvia can eat later, she knows the trick to the kitchens." She then closed her eyes, maybe some sleep would do her good.

"Juvia wishes she had a friend."

…