~*~ I just want to take this moment to thank those who has reviewed this fic. I really appreciate them. Please continue on reading the rest of the chapters and as always I love reading your reviews. I am doing my best to update almost every day, but sometimes I get writer's block and I couldn't think of what to write for the next chapter or what to add to a particular chapter. So please bear with me. I'll post as many updated chapters as I can, just hang in there. THANKS! ~*~
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Trick or Treat
Halloween at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is always a memorable experience. For Mystyk it's an overwhelmingly whole new experience. She got to actually see a live ghost show and the feast in the Great Hall...she has never seen--or eaten--so much sweet in her entire fifteen years of existence!
"Had enough sweets, Mystyk?" Draco asked when he noticed Mystyk stopped taking treats from the vast selection before them.
"Yes. I think my sweet tooth's already satisfied." she gave him a genuine smile then asked, "What about you? Still going for more treats?"
Draco looked shocked at her show of interest. In the past few weeks Mystyk hasn't given him any indication of being friendly to him, but tonight she's all friendliness and smiles. It makes him wonder what she has got planned under her sleeves.
Mystyk caught the last thread of Draco's thoughts and hastily assured him, "Draco, I don't have anything bad planned against you. Why can't you just take whatever is being offered to you at face value?" she asked, frowning as she studied his face. She could see she surprised him once again for reading his thoughts. Really she has to stop saying stuff to people before they could even open their mouths.
"How..." Draco began but decided to abandon whatever he was about to ask her. He already knew she would give him a flippant reply if asked how she read his mind. And she said to take whatever is being offered to him at face value? But if you're offering me your friendship, Mystyk Rydel, that is not what I want. I want more than just your friendship.
Mystyk frowned. She definitely read that thought!
Oh Draco... she sighed as she continued to look at him fondly, making sure that she doesn't voice out any concerns. You're a great guy, if only you'd let it show sometimes.
I wonder why she says that. Harry wondered as he looked at the raven-haired Slytherin girl seated across the room beside his arch enemy, Draco Malfoy. Since their first meeting at the library, he has seen less and less of Mystyk in the following days--except during breakfast, lunch and dinner when he could catch a glimpse of her dining with her fellow Slytherin housemates in the Great Hall.
Mystyk obviously heard him because her head suddenly darted to his direction and her bright, violet eyes sought his. Smiling at his direction she read what her mind was saying: Can't you read what Draco's thinking?
Harry frowned. Oh no...it can't be happening again!
I can read your mind again. he answered her.
That's good then. We can have a conversation. she replied.
But...how? I mean, I don't have any psychic or telepathic training. he frowned, his gaze holding hers and a smile forming on the corners of his mouth.
And neither do I, but I can do it anyway. Besides, it's nice to finally have someone to have some telepathic conversation with. Honestly, I am with Slytherin, but the only person I talk to is Draco. Not that Draco's a very good companion at times, but I can sense something nice lurking beneath his conceited demeanor. None of my other housemates are worth two figs to talk to. she complained.
Harry chuckled, nodding his agreement. Although he is not personally acquainted with any Slytherin students, he could tell just by watching them over the years that none of them are worth talking to. Nothing but gossip and backbiting from most Slytherin students.
Hermoine noticed Harry grinning and followed the direction of his eyes, frowning when she saw Mystyk Rydel smiling back at her housemate and best friend. Shaking her head and rolling her eyes heavenward, she jabbed Harry on the ribs and whispered, "Stop playing goggley-eyes with Ms. I-Can-Read-Your-Mind Slytherin Girl, Harry. People who might catch you two looking at each other like that might think something's up between you two."
Two pink stains appeared on Harry's cheeks as he hastily broke eye contact with Mystyk, mumbling under his breath to Hermoine, "Did it really look like Mystyk and I have something going on?"
Hermoine frowned and shook her head, "Oh Harry, you have a huge crush on her, you don't even know it!" she chided, nudging her friend slightly sideways.
"Hermoine..." he hissed, his face turning a bright shade of red as he continued to blush.
"What?" Hermoine gave him an innocent look, snatching another swirly red and white lollipop from the basket of treats set before them.
"I don't have a crush on Mystyk." he denied.
"Yeah-huh. And I am not really a bookworm."
Harry glared at his friend, "I just find her interesting. Unlike her other Slytherin housemates, she's different." he pointed out.
Hermoine stopped licking the lollipop she just grabbed and gave her friend a quizzical look, "And how exactly can you prove that, hm?"
"I can't really prove it, but it's just a gut-feeling I have. She's so unlike the rest of Slytherin. She's not a gossip. She doesn't backbite. And if you ask me, she has tried to befriend everybody else, but since she is in Slytherin house she's having quite a hard time finding friends around her."
Hermoine's eyebrow rose after she listened to what her friend has to say. "My, Harry. I think Mystyk Rydel has just found her champion in you." she teased.
"Hermoine, will you please take me seriously for a change?" he hissed, exasperated at his friend's dubiousness towards him.
"I am taking you seriously, Harry. But what you're saying sounds...well, it doesn't really sound far-fetched since I've heard from a couple of our housemates that that they have seen Mystyk at the library and actually shared a table with her. They said she's really nice and friendly, found it quite odd when she answered questions neither of them voiced, but of course none of the other people here--with the exception of you, Ron, myself, and Dumbledore--know that she's a psychic-slash-telepathic." she replied earnestly.
"But if she is like that, then why is she placed in Slytherin?"
"That's the question only the Sorting Hat knows. Remember it's the hat that puts us where we're ought to be placed." she reminded, "Who knows? Maybe the Sorting Hat found in her qualities that best signifies a Slytherin than a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."
Before Harry could say something back to his friend, the jubilant mood inside the Great Hall were soon interrupted when a strong gust of wind that came from nowhere slammed open the Great Hall doors and all the Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff ghosts came floating inside, their faces holding a different, more menacing expression. Everyone felt the cold chill as the ghosts floated, hovered and watched each student intently.
What's going on? Is this a regular event during Halloween? Mystyk asked, her eyes focused on Harry.
Harry kept his eyes fixed on the floating ghosts overhead but answered Mystyk's inquiry, No. This isn't a normal event during Halloween. This is the first time the ghosts gave out this menacing feel about in the air.
Then what's wrong? What's going on? I am not really a ghost fan. I always thought they're eerie and mean. And right now they are starting to make me believe what I initially thought of about them.
Your guess is as good as mine, Mystyk. Your guess is as good as mine. Harry removed his eyes from Nearly-Headless Nick, the usually friendly Gryffindor ghost, to meet Mystyk's trouble gaze.
But what-- "Aaahhh!" Mystyk didn't finish her mental question to Harry as she let out an ear-piercing shriek when she was suddenly pulled off her seat beside Draco and lifted a few feet into the air by one of the Slytherin ghosts whose eyes pierced right through her skull.
Everyone turned to the direction of the Slytherin table, gasping and gaping as they watched Mystyk dangle above them. Professor Dumbledore was shouting orders to the dastardly ghost that pulled Mystyk off her seat, but the ghost wasn't paying attention to him. The ghost kept a firm grip on Mystyk's neck while everyone else, especially Harry and Draco, fret beneath her, ordering the gutsy ghost to unhand its prisoner. All their attempts were futile.
Harry was thinking of using some sort of spell on the ghost when he too was suddenly yanked off his seat, his feet flailing and his wand fell on the table beside Hermoine as he levitated a few feet off the ground. This time the ghostly culprit was Nearly-Headless Nick that held on to Harry's neck tightly. Once Harry was securely off the ground, the two ghosts started to float away with their captures.
Both Mystyk and Harry attempted to unclamp the ghosts hands off their necks, but to no avail. All they scratched and kicked was think air.
"Help!" Harry and Mystyk screamed at the same time as the ghost floated them away from their house tables. "Somebody help me!" they sing-songed when no one moved or even attempted to help them from their ghostly captors.
Ron and Hermoine shot a worried look at their best friend and the Slytherin girl being taken away. They were too worried, too scared, and too nervous to think of a plan to execute.
"Hermoine, help them!" hissed George, his eyes darting back and forth from Harry and Nearly-Headless Nick to Hermoine and back to Harry and Nearly-Headless Nick once again.
"How? I--I don't know how to stop those ghosts from taking them away. They're not listening to Dumbledore. And they're ghosts! What could possibly repel ghosts?" Hermoine asked, looking wild-eyed at Ron then to Ron's twin brothers before turning her gaze back up to Harry and Nearly-Headless Nick.
Everyone stopped their worried chattering when above the students' chatter Professor Dumbledore's voice rose, commanding both ghosts to unhand Harry and Mystyk right at that instant. Everyone in the Great Hall hushed up and looked at the teacher's table where Professor Dumbledore now stood, his eyes glaring up at the two ghosts floating above the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables.
"I know this isn't the real ghosts that you two are. You're both being manipulated by someone. Now I demand you safely put Mr. Potter and Ms. Rydel down." his angrily snapped, "Put them down are I'll be forced to vanquish you both permanently off this place and off this plane!" he threatened when the two ghosts remained stubborn.
To everyone's surprise, both ghosts turned to glare back at Professor Dumbledore. They spoke at the same time, their voices not their own as they chillingly said in a menacing tone: "Let this be a warning to you, Dumbledore. Nothing stand against me and what I want."
The entire Great Hall gasped as both Harry and Mystyk were let go by the ghosts, their shrieks echoed around the big room. Other students covered their eyes as they watched in horror what is happening to two of their schoolmates while the rest remained rooted to their seats--frozen--and their eyes not peeling away from the two bodies falling steadily to the ground. Just before Harry and Mystyk crashed to the hard, cold Great Hall floor, a pair of small mini tornado appeared above the ground, catching them both in time before their heads splattered on their floor.
They were both knocked unconscious by the fall.
The teachers quickly scrambled off their seats, rushing to the aide of the two students. Professor Dumbledore told the Prefects to usher the students to their houses. He gave the Head Boy and Girl the task of making sure his orders were followed before he rushed to an unconscious Harry and Mystyk.
Nearly-Headless Nick and the Slytherin ghost, as well as the other ghosts, came off the trance that made them act very much unlike their usual selves.
"Good gracious! What just happened?" demands Nearly-Headless Nick and he glanced down and found Harry and Mystyk being carried out of the Great Hall. "Oh no, Harry!" he called and floated down to see what happened to the young Gryffindor, but he was reprimanded from coming any where near Harry or Mystyk by Professor McGonagall.
"Not right now, Sir Nick." she commanded sternly.
"But--but--what happened, Professor?" he asked curiously, worried at what happened to Harry whom, just minutes ago, he saw happily eating all the sweets presented before him at the Gryffindor table.
It was Professor Dumbledore who spoke on Professor McGonagall's behalf, "Sir Nick, I need a word with you. As well as with the other ghosts. The teachers will escort Ms. Rydel and Mr. Potter out of here. I want all of you to remain here with me."
With one last fleeting look at Harry, Sir Nick expelled a sigh and remained in the Great Hall with the headmaster and the rest of the Hogwarts ghosts.