Halloween Hijinks and Halloween Horror
Shopping, Harry had decided, was something that had to be covered in Defence against the Dark Arts.
"You have simply got to try this" Hannah decreed and threw a pair of black trousers at him. Harry grumbled as he took off the ones he was wearing, put them on a large pile and started to put on the newer pair. Personally, he was getting bored of all this clothes shopping – though if it made his two friends happy he would do it.
"Excuse me, Little Misses and Little Sir, but the store will be closing in five minutes" an assistant came over and helped them shrink their parcels with a time release that would expire when they got back to Susan's house. Hannah and Susan paid for all of Harry's things before taking the Portkey they had been given to use to return back to where Susan lived. A House Elf briefly popped in before vanishing again with all of their packages and parcels. After going to their rooms to change into something more comfortable around the house, the three came down to see what was for dinner. The two girls had spoken to their collective family elves and they'd come up with a great feast of sandwiches, cake, jellies of all shapes and flavours, sweets and crisps. To wash it all down stood a number of bottles of orange juice, apple juice and cola – the bottles arranged in neat rows like missile tubes on a submarine.
"Miss Susan?"
"Yes, Evie?" Susan looked at a young female elf.
"Your Aunt say she needed to leaves for the Ministry"
"Did she say why?"
"No, Miss"
"Leave a note?"
"Only that she be wantings you three in different rooms to sleep"
"Now that raises the prospect of fun" giggled Hannah.
#
"HELP ME!" Susan wailed. "THE DARK LADY HAS GOT ME!"
"BE QUIET, YOU FOOL, OR I WILL MAKE YOU PAY DEARLY!"
"I'M COMING SUSAN – SHE GOT LOADS OF HER MINIONS ATTACKING ME!" Harry called out.
"FOR THE GLORIES OF THE EMPIRE!" a number of high pitched voices could be heard – followed by some thudding noises and groans of pain.
"Oh shite…" the two Aurors that had returned with Madam Bones took out their wands and charged in with blasting hexes on the front door and cast detection charms revealing where the entire household was. Finding that everybody was in the living room, the pair and Madam Bones went charging in with binding curses and stunners.
"You know" said one of the Aurors, "I'm getting too old for this crap" and the three looked at what they had found. Hannah, who had been stunned and tied with thick rope and chain, was wearing her long black cloak, an old battered witches hat, a liquorice wand in her hand and had been in the middle of tying up a dazed and confused Susan in an armchair. The pair were surrounded by around a dozen House Elves wearing either black or gold t-shirts – each carrying weapons of mass terror… cushions and pillows. Madam Bones looked to her left to see Harry flanked by two elves wearing gold t-shirts holding a number of cushions in each hand by their corners. It was clear that the gold shirts were Harry's forces and the black shirted elves were members of the so called evil empire. As for the boy himself, Harry was wearing a red cape, blue t-shirt and trousers and had frozen in the act of using what appeared to be one of Susan's bras as a multiple rocket launcher. Each bra cup held tiny paint balls, and Susan's Aunt could see the intensity of the 'firepower' from the gold shirted side on the walls, some books and a stunned house elf.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Susan was taken by the evil Badger Empire" Harry said. "Team Gold Shirt launched a counter attack on Dark Lady Han Han the First, but her minions, Team Black Shirt, countered attacked. I was just in the middle of sending in some of my allies with extra cushion supplies when you came in" and then an odd look passed over his face as he watched the Aurors revive the stunned Hannah and house elves. "Dark Lady Han Han?"
"Yes, Super Harry?" Hannah replied as she dusted herself off.
"I propose an alliance" Harry said. "We get together as allies against the evil Ministry Threesome"
"Agreed" Hannah swept her cloak round in a dramatic manner and then tossed her liquorice wand at the closer of the two Aurors – hitting her right between the eyes. "Attack the Aurors, my minions… Show no mercy – then plunder their castles for treasure and sweets"
"ALL HAIL DARK LADY HAN HAN!" the elves picked up their cushions and pillows before charging as one great wedge.
"Team Gold Shirt – attack!" Harry yelled and his elves formed a second wedge and waded into battle. The Aurors were both veterans of the war, had served for twenty seven years and did the only thing they could do with the odds.
"WE SURRENDER!" they dropped to their knees and held up their hands. A few of the elves took them into custody whilst the remainder of the combined force surged onwards and attacked Madam Bones. Within seconds, the experienced and highly trained witch was covered by elves hitting her with pillows and cushions.
"Ah, Amelia…" whatever a newly arrived Fudge was going to say next was cut off as a company of elves broke away from the main group and swamped him and his protection detail. As they went down, one of them accidentally hit their emergency beacon which caused the rest of the DMLE to turn out to Madam Bones's house
"Do you think we should say anything?" Harry said to the girls.
"Naaaaaah" replied Susan and charged into the fray with whirling pillows.
"What she said" Hannah agreed and hurried after her friend.
"Oh well… More sweets, I suppose!" Harry shrugged
#
"Bye" the Hufflepuff Three, as the rest of the DMLE had dubbed them, waved goodbye to the last of the Aurors before carefully carrying their treasure inside the house. The eventual capture of most of the senior positions of the Ministry of Magic by three first year students and some house elves was destined to go down in the history books. None of the prisoners had been released until they had each received a ton in weight of sweets and fizzy drinks.
"Might I suggest" said a flustered and worn out Madam Bones, "That you start on them after you have had dinner?"
"Dinner!" the three said in union and hurried upstairs to store their ill-gotten gains. They came down to a huge feast of all of their favourite dinner foods, orange juice, cola, lemonade and all manner of things. As they talked, told jokes and otherwise enjoyed each other's company, Hannah looked up to see Harry with a sad sort of puzzling and questioning look on his face.
"What is it, Harry?" she asked.
"I saw everybody spending time together, having fun, eating in cafes and stuff… Then there is the fun we had earlier and right now… Is this what a family is?" and he suddenly burst into tears. Susan and Hannah rushed to pull him into a hug and kept gently telling him that he had them – the three of them could be a family together and that they'd live together for ever and ever and ever and ever…
"Do you want to go and have a lie down?" asked Madam Bones.
"No" Harry said, sniffing hard and trying to wipe away tears from his face, "But I'd like to see my parents" and the girls hugged him even tighter.
"It is a little too late for that this evening" Madam Bones said from her place at the table, "But I can give you a little time tomorrow to take you myself"
"Thanks" Harry sniffed again. "I'm sure they'd love to meet Hannah and Susan"
"Harry, they died but they never came back as ghosts" the oldest of the three witches replied.
"Yeah, but they are looking down on me from heaven… I know the Dursleys said they wouldn't get to go there, but if they were good people, and you told me they both were, then surely they got to go to heaven"
"There is no heaven, Harry, we just die" and Harry's eyes widened before he burst into a fresh set of tears. Hannah and Susan glared at Madam Bones before hugging Harry tighter and leading him away and upstairs.
"Ouch!" Madam Bones felt a sharp stab in her right arm.
"Naughty Mistress" a house elf wagged its long finger at her. "Naughty Mistress indeed" and it jabbed her arm several times before muttering to itself as it walked back to the kitchen.
"I could have been an artist" moaned Susan's Aunt to the otherwise empty room.
#
"I think heaven must be a great place to be" Hannah said.
"You have to be dead to go there" sniffed Harry.
"True, but there'd be no homework"
"Fair point" shrugged Susan. "Anyway, I read that book that Ravenclaw girl with the huge hair had, and I like to think there is something up in the sky watching us"
"Even in the shower?" asked Harry.
"Nobody gets to see us in the shower"
"But I get to see the pair of you, and the pair of you get to see me" Harry reminded her.
"Well, that is true, of course, but that's entirely different" Hannah said.
"How?"
"You're Harry – if we can't trust you to see us all naked, then who can we trust?"
"A Doctor or Healer?" Harry guessed with a smile gracing his features.
"Well of course them, you prat" the girls pounced on him and started a brief tickle war.
#
The door opened to admit the solitary figure which slipped into the common room. Using a charm to cancel out the wards, the figure made their way along the corridor to the bedrooms and pushing open one of them. Two girls were sleeping, and the hooded figure seemed to pick one and moved over to be closer. Quickly, almost like a blur, they took out a dagger and stabbed them in the chest as they cast a silencing charm at the same time. The girl gasped silently as the stabbing quite woke her up before giving off a silent moan and passing out from the blood loss that was already soaking the sheets. The hooded figure cocked their head as if listening to something before spinning on their heel and rushing quickly away.
#
Harry was awoken by a heavily sobbing Hannah with a very badly shaken Susan next to her.
"Bad nightmare?"
"You know that girl that sleeps in the room next to ours?" Hannah sniffed.
"Jade Stanger?" Harry asked through a sleep fogged mind.
"Well she got stabbed in the stomach last night while she was sleeping" Susan said.
"At Hogwarts? How? Why? Who?"
"Nobody knows, but Aunty Susan has gone to Hogwarts with a load of Aurors to investigate"
"Is she…" Harry didn't want to finish the sentence.
"Dead? Not that I heard, but I think they didn't want me to know or overhear all that much" Susan said.
"I'll get a shower, dressed and meet you downstairs" Harry said as he pushed the covers off himself and sat up. As he went about getting washed and dressed, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Jade and why somebody had attacked her. It wasn't until he saw Susan's hairbrush that a thought occurred to him. Finishing his shower and dressing quickly, he hurried downstairs to see Susan talking to an Auror.
"Mr Potter, I presume" the Auror said, a little slow in their speech.
"Yeah… Um, I know I'm a kid, but I have an idea about why Jade was attacked" Harry said – feeling the eyes of Susan and Hannah on him.
"Go on"
"Jade has got red hair and so does Susan. They are the only two girls in our year in Hufflepuff that have that colour"
"You mean Miss Stanger was attacked because whoever did it thought they were attacking Miss Bones?"
"Yes… I don't know why, but it seems logical when you think about it. Nobody apart from Professor Sprout and Professor McGonagall knew we were leaving, so whoever did it must have guessed the dorm, seen red hair and stabbed Jade"
"But why would somebody want to kill me?" asked Susan.
"To really upset your Aunt" the Auror replied. "I shall let your Aunt know, Miss Susan… It might be nothing, but it is at least a theory"
"Any idea who it might be?" asked Hannah.
"All we know is that it was somebody who can get into the bedrooms of the girls without setting off the alarms" the Auror replied. "Of course, we automatically discounted Mr Potter because we knew where he was as well as the fact that the wards would have stopped him from doing harm"
"What about Dumbledore?"
"Not seen"
"But" Hannah reasoned, "He was Headmaster there for years and years and years… He must know all about the secret passages and stuff – maybe there is like a secret tunnel to get into the school"
"How amazing the mind of a child is" the Auror said. "I should let your Aunt know everything you have suggested. It is, of course, very likely they have already discounted those thoughts themselves, but it is something of an idea and might, at least, bring up a new theory"
"Will she believe us?" asked Harry.
"She will certainly look into it – an Auror must, at all times, be open to any possibility" and the Auror took their head out of their end of the fire connection.
"I feel sorry for Jade" said Hannah. "She must be really upset and all alone in the hospital wing"
"Maybe she was taken to St Mungos" Susan said. "That's where everybody goes outside Hogwarts"
"Why don't we go and visit her?" Harry asked.
"I think Susan's Aunt would like it if we stayed here" Hannah replied.
"True…" Harry paused, "But if I went as Lord Potter and you came as my bodyguards, then maybe that would be alright" and the two girls looked at each other before the trio raced upstairs to get dressed in the best and most important looking clothes.
#
The three of them got some strange looks as they waited in line for the Help Desk staffed by a grizzled old witch. Hannah and Susan had given Harry a few tips on how to act and talk to the adults they found.
"How can I help you?" the witch asked, looking at them with disinterest.
"We're here to see Jade Stanger" Harry said.
"She is in the secure ward, but she is to have no visitors about from members of the Ministry and her family"
"I am a member of the Wizengamot" Harry said. "I am Lord Harry Potter of the Potter Family… Please tell me which floor she is on and what her room number is"
"You are a child"
"Regardless of what my age truly is, Ma'am, I am a member of the Wizengamot and I demand to know where Miss Stanger is this moment"
"I can allow you, maybe, to see her, but what about these two?" the witch pointed at Hannah and Susan.
"They are my bodyguards… Where I go, they will follow" Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose as if annoyed. "You realise that my family contributes greatly to this place? If I decide to stop that funding, then it would follow there would be an investigation as to why that happened. I would presume they'd ask you and then you would have to tell the truth. Now" Harry smiled as nicely as he could, "What room is Jade in?"
"Room twelve on the first floor" the witch replied after a few moments of internal debate.
"Thank you" Harry said, then pointed to the lift. "Inwards, my brave minions… To glory!" and Hannah and Susan giggled as they followed Harry towards the lifts. They waited for one to be free and went to the first floor where they got back out and followed the corridor until they found the right room. It was guarded by an Auror which the three of them all thought very sensible since Jade had been the subject of a mistaken attempted murder.
"I'm afraid I can not yet you three in to see her" said Kingsley Shaklebolt. After the debacle he had had with Madam Bones, he had been assigned six months at St Mungos as a form of punishment.
"Yes you can"
"Sorry, but I can not"
"Yes you can" Harry said.
"We'll beat you up" Hannah and Susan said together.
"I'm a highly trained Auror with many missions behind me" Shaklebolt said with a bemused eyebrow raised.
"We have cushions" the girls said and started attacking Shaklebolt with them.
"That" said another voice behind them all "Is quite enough of that" and they all looked to see Susan's Aunt striding towards them with a man and woman they assumed were Jade's parents. "Would you care to tell me what is going on here? I pop back home to find out you've all left for here" Hannah and Susan looked at Harry and made small gestures with their hands as she spoke.
"Wizengamot business" Harry drew himself up with all the seriousness that an eleven year old can muster.
"Attacking one of my Aurors?"
"He wouldn't let us in to see Jade" Harry said. "We figured she'd be all lonely here in the hospital, so we decided to bring her sweets"
"Hospital food is all yucky and full of poison" Hannah added.
"And…" chipped in Susan with a knowing look, "They make you eat healthily" and all three children shuddered in disgust.
"If he doesn't let us in" Harry finished, "We'll have to…"
"Shoot him with a stunner?" Jade's mother asked.
"Stun him?" the trio gasped.
"Nahhhhhh" Hannah said. "We were going to put Mr Shaklebolt in the comfy chair"
"No, no… not the comfy chair!" Shaklebolt screamed and ran off down the corridor.
"I picked a hell of a day to give up drinking for a month" Jade's father said. Madam Bones simply shook her head in disbelief before opening the door and allowing the rest to go in first. The joking and fun attitude of the three young Hufflepuffs vanished as they saw their housemate lying in bed. She looked over to see her parents before noticing Harry, Hannah and Susan behind them and she gave a weak sort of smile.
"Hey"
"Hey" they replied.
"What are you doing here?" asked Jade quietly.
"We heard what happened" said Susan, "So we decided to come and make you feel better"
"But we're not that good friends"
"We're Hufflepuffs" said Hannah, "It is what we do"
"How do you feel?" asked Harry.
"Almost back to normal. The Healers said that my magic kept me from dying, but I'll have a few shooting pains for quite some time" the girl gave off a small giggle.
"Well we brought you some sweets and stuff" said Harry, putting the small cloth bag he carried on Jade's covered lap. "We're not sure what you like exactly, so we shoved all sorts of things in"
"That's very thoughtful of you" said Jade's mother.
"My daughter is lucky to have you as friends" said her father.
"Well its partly our fault" said Susan, looking at her feet.
"Oh?" asked her Aunt.
"Jade's room is the one next to ours, Auntie… We think Jade got mistaken for me"
"Why would anybody want to hurt you, though?" asked Jade.
"Dumbledore – me and Hannah upset his plans with Harry. Can't say much more about it, but that's one of the reasons why he is on the run"
"But how did he kept through the wards? They were all changed after McGonagall took over"
"I remember" said Jade's father after a moment of quiet "Hearing some pupils sneaking out of school by way of a secret passage behind a statue. Dumbledore was Headmaster for a long time, so he would have known about the passage"
"Meaning he could have slipped in at any time to hurt or even kill my niece" said Madam Bones. "It seems that I need to go and organise a search… Would you mind looking after these three while I sort this out?"
"Not at all" said Jade's mother… "It will give us chance to get to know them"
#
The old man twitched as the spell hit him. The pain lasted for a full minute before it left his battered body – leaving him gasping and heaving for breath deeply.
"Next time I will not be so merciful"
"Why… Are… You… Doing… This…?"
"Mainly because I can, but also because who would be better at bringing down the reputation of Albus Dumbledore, then Albus Dumbledore himself?" and the tall man in the turban cast another torture curse on the former Headmaster of Hogwarts – laughing at the pain and cruelty he inflicted on him.
A/N:
Well everybody, there it is – another chapter of this story.
Regards
Pixel and Stephanie Forever
