October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup Potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny, who had been looking pale lately, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.
Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened, which was why Olivia was to be found, late one stormy Friday evening a few days before Halloween, returning to Gryffindor Tower, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud.
Even aside from the rain and wind it hadn't been an easy learning session. Oliver had Olivia training with a bludger today to see if she would make a good beater when the twins left. It was a disaster. Liv could hardly lift the bat and she had almost hit the bludger with her broom more than with the bat. "Yeah, that's not your strong suit." Oliver told her two hours later. "I'm thinking, from watching you fly, that you should try my position next week... keeper." Liv nodded slowly, exhausted from flying for two hours straight.
"I'm tired Oliver." Olivia told him with a small yawn.
"Alright, let's go turn in for the night." Oliver ruffles her hair and turns to march up to Gryffindor tower with Olivia following close behind.
Once Liv had properly washed and changed, she went down the stairs to the common room to see what everyone else was doing. She spotted Jennifer sitting in a chair playing chess with Brittaney. Liv decided to bring out her sketch book and draw some pictures until she was ready for sleep.
Liv curled into a bean bag in front of the fire and started to sketch out a picture of a tree with a creature poking out of the leaves. Liv wasn't sure what creature she was going to draw yet, but she was focusing on the tree first.
As Olivia sketched, line after line, Liv's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. As Olivia slept, she started to dream. It started rather pleasantly; she was flying on her own broomstick around the quidditch field. Her heart soared as she looped, dived, and zig zagged. As she changed directions, so did her dream. She was back in the basement of the Dursley's house being screamed at by the Dursleys. As she sat there in the dark, she noticed a strange boy watching her from behind Uncle Vernon. Olivia pushed past the yelling Dursleys and tried to follow the boy.
He was a very tall boy, perhaps a head taller than herself. He had jet-black hair, like Harry, and was rather handsome. Olivia followed him up the basement steps, and when they crossed the threshold of the top of the steps, Olivia was teetering on the edge of a cliff. She tried to backup away from the edge, but the boy stood in her path. Grabbing her hand, he spoke in a quiet voice. "Quickly, jump before they get you. It's the only way."
"Before who gets me?" Liv asked, and looked around. She then noticed the snakes.
There were hundreds slithering towards them. Liv quickly turned around and as she did, she felt a hard push and she was airborne. She screamed as she nearer and nearer to the rocks. She could only hope to narrowly miss the jagged edges of rocks and hopefully land in the water below. Just as she was about to hit the water, she was shaken awake.
Liv shot up and felt her forehead connect with something hard.
"OWWW!" Liv and someone else howled at the same time. Liv rubbed her head and opened her eyes, tears were streaming from her eyes, but she wanted to see who she had hit. She saw Seamus staggering backwards, holding his nose and there was blood streaming out between his fingers.
"Oh Seamus, I'm so sorry! Let me get something for you." Liv looked around and found some tissues. "Here use this for now. Do you want to go to Madame Pomfrey?" she asked him worried about his nose. Seamus shook his head.
"No, I'm good. It's just a bloody nose." He waved his bloody hands at her. Liv handed him a new tissue, and when he removed his hand for a moment, she saw that his nose was a little crooked.
"Ummm, Seamus... Your nose looks a little broken." Liv told him weakly, feeling terrible that she broke his nose. "I think we should go to Madame Pomfrey."
Seamus nodded slowly. "Ok, you might be right. Help me up."
The two made their way to the hospital wing. "So, what were you dreaming about there Liv?" Seamus asked as they rounded a corner of the corridor. "You were screaming and crying, which is why I tried to wake you up... Though I didn't know that you would break my nose."
"I'm sorry about that..." Liv apologized and told him about the bad dream. "I get a lot of bad dreams, but most don't cause me to scream. At home Harry used to have to wake me up a lot at night. He's a rather light sleeper, but he definitely knows better than to shake me awake like that." she laughed.
"Well, now I know too, haha." Seamus laughs too, which causes him to wince in pain and makes more blood drip from his hand onto the carpet.
Upon reaching the hospital wing, they find it empty. "Where is Madame Pomfrey?" Liv asks, and then notices a door on the side of the room with light pouring out of the cracks. She makes her way over there and Seamus follows. As soon as she knocked on the door, it is flung open.
"I thought I heard voices out here. What are you two doing awake?" Madame Pomfrey looks at the two Gryffindors in their pjs.
The two tumble out the story of how Seamus tried to wake her up from a bad dream in the common room and she broke his nose. Madame Pomfrey lights her wand to look at Seamus' face.
"Alright, that is easy enough, you two should not have wandered around the castle in the dark or you'll be caught and get detention, but I'll let you two slide for now. Hold still now. Episkey!" Madame Pomfrey pointed her wand at Seamus' nose and his nose went back to normal and stopped bleeding. Seamus gingerly felt his nose then smiled.
"Thanks Madame Pomfrey."
"Yes, yes, now back to bed the both of you." She waved them away and the two made their way back to the Gryffindor common room.
A few days passed and the school was happily anticipating their Halloween feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for entertainment. Olivia was so excited to go to the Halloween party.
On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Later that day, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make books zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Olivia's partner was Jennifer.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest." Liv thought that would be rather funny if that would happen in their class, but she would rather want someone else in the class to do that.
It was very difficult. Olivia and Jennifer swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Later in the class little Emma, Ginny's partner, was the first one to do it. Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.
"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Mason's done it!"
Once Emma had figured it out, Ginny was the very next one in the class to figure it out.
"That was great Ginny!" Liv congratulated her after class. "You really do seem to be great at charms!" Ginny smiled and the two girls walked to their doors.
As the night and time for the party drew nearer, Liv was practically bouncing with excitement. Liv went down to the feast with Jennifer, Emma, and Brittaney. Ginny wasn't around when they left, so they guessed that they would see her in the great hall.
The Great Hall was glittering invitingly with gold candles. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. It looked amazing. The girls sat near Seamus and Dean. Ginny joined the girls right before dinner started. The feast began and all students began stuffing themselves. A skeleton troupe was there to provide music for the entertainment.
After dinner, the majority of students wanted to dance, so Dumbledore moved the tables and made a large dance floor. Ginny went to go see if she could find Harry and Ron to see if Harry might want to dance. Jennifer had a huge crush on James, a boy in their class, so she went to dance with him, but the rest of the girls danced with each other and Seamus and Dean. Some of the other boys in their class came over to dance with the girls and soon most of the first year Gryffindors were in a rather large circle dancing. There hadn't been too many opportunities for Liv to really interact with some of these people outside of class, since she had a lot of things to do, so it was really fun for her to hang out with more people. Drew and Demetri paid the group of girls some special attention while they were dancing and they found that the two boys were really fun.
Soon the feast was over, and the hall was getting ready to go to bed. Liv and the other girls were making their way back to the dormitory with the other Gryffindors, when suddenly the chatter from the people in the front, stopped suddenly. Liv, wanting to see what was going on weaved through to the edge of the crowd. She saw Ron, Hermione, and Harry standing in a large puddle of water staring at a dark shadow on the wall. Liv couldn't make out what was written on the wall.
Then she realized that the dark shadow was Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.
Then someone shouted through the quiet.
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Liv couldn't see who had said that, but she now knew what was written on the wall and that sure didn't sound good.