Before Zoë knew it, it was Halloween. Her favourite holiday of all, no matter what anyone said. Dante may prefer Christmas and Zephari may dislike every holiday in existence, but Zoë adored Halloween. As such, she made her two friends participate in her crazy tradition, which she had developed from the Muggle tradition: dressing up.
"Wake up, Zeph! Wake up, Dante!" She cried joyfully, jumping out of bed and changing into her costume of a vampire.
"Go 'way, Zoë." Zephari muttered, rolling over.
"Save me some pancakes." Dante added, doing the same.
"Spoil sports." Zoë growled, making her face pale with a special powder. "Up, now! The day of the dead does not wait for the living!"
"Pity." Zephari grumbled.
"Oh, cheer up Zeph! We're being vampires this year!" Zoë cried, tossing her a pair of special black robes.
"I'm ever so grateful." She muttered.
"Spoil sport." Zoë repeated, stepping up to Dante and prodding her sharply until she woke up. "G'morning, sleepy!"
"Vampire!" Dante screeched, rolling away and falling off her bed in the process.
Zoë giggled triumphantly. "Good, it's convincing."
"Anything's convincing when you're sleepy." Zephari muttered gruffly, changing into the robes. "What are these made of? Fifty layers? Are you trying to drown us in fabric?"
"Snape wears more layers than this." Zoë pointed out.
"He's an adult, he can carry heavy robes." Zephari snapped. "Hey, wait..." She smirked and muttered a spell on them to make them lighter. "Ha!" She said triumphantly.
"Come on, Dante, get up and become undead!" Zoë urged happily.
The girl sighed; rolling her eyes, and changed her appearance to one with pale skin, cat-like eyes, veins showing and black hair. She then pulled on the robes and muttered the spell to make them lighter before altering her teeth to make the canines abnormally pointy. She grinned wolfishly at Zoë, who scowled.
"No fair." She stated.
Zephari had taken the strange teeth-attachments and hooked them onto her canines. She grinned. "Good thing we're vampires every year." She said easily.
Zoë put her own in. "We are not vampires every year. We were werewolves last year and I'm pretty sure we were dragons the year before."
"But the three years before that we were vampires." Zephari pointed out, "And we used these teeth every year."
"That's useful, as we can eat with them, unlike that first year." Dante pointed out. "We're lucky this is a Saturday, I doubt these robes are allowed."
"You're caring about that right now? Dante, lighten up!" Zoë cried, horrified.
"Rule-breaker." Dante teased.
"Goody good." Zoë responded.
Zephari had been staring off into space during their little argument and Zoë touched her shoulder. She blinked in surprise. "We'd better go downstairs before Nat wakes up; you know how she is in the morning." She said distantly.
Zoë stared at her friend for a moment before leading the way downstairs. The common room was relatively empty except for the accustomed early risers. Suddenly, Zoë got an idea. "How about we go visit the boys?" She offered, smirking evilly.
Zephari grinned evilly, as did Dante. That settled it for Zoë. She led the way up the boys' part of the tower and into their room. They were all sleeping soundly. She giggled slightly and Dante barely managed to stifle her own mirth. Zephari looked as if she might like Halloween after all, which was saying a lot. They each went to their positions around the boy's beds, as they had discussed when jokingly planning such a prank: Zephari between Liam and Xander's, Dante between James and Nathaniel's while Zoë went to the foot of Abe's.
"Ready?" Zoë whispered.
The others nodded. "Ready." Zephari said, smirking at the sleeping forms of Liam and Xander.
"Ready." Dante whispered through another fit of stifled giggles.
"Three, two, one!" Zoë cried, grabbing Abe's ankles.
Zephari grabbed both of her 'charges'' arms while Dante did the same. Their plan worked perfectly, as the unexpected contact woke all five of the boys. Seeing the rather well-disguised girls must have frightened them, as they all screamed.
Gryffindor's four Prefects ran into the room at their screams, only for three of them to dissolve into laughter. Ryan Weasley had to clutch the doorframe to stay upright while Spring and Summer shook their heads in unison, tears forming in their eyes from laughter. The last Prefect, Francis Creevey, looked confused.
Zoë cackled and leaned close to Abe, holding him by the collar. "Happy Halloween." She said with a smirk.
Zephari had released her two captives, "Neither of them is even worthy of being my meal. Oh, and happy Halloween boys."
Dante had sniffed at James before turning and doing the same to Nathaniel. "No blood in these pathetic things. We should return another Halloween when they're mature enough for harvesting. Happy Halloween, Gryffindor younglings."
The three then swept out of the room past the laughing Prefects, leaving a very stunned group of first years behind them. Zoë started laughing uncontrollably, sitting by the fire, "I think we made Abe wet himself." She cackled.
"Liam knew it was us when he got a good look at me, but Xander looked pretty petrified." Zephari said with a smirk. "This Halloween is actually a little worthwhile. Why have we never thought of scaring anyone before?"
"We had no one to scare, remember?" Dante added, grinning as well. "Nate and James both looked ready to cry."
Natasha came stumbling down the stairs from the girls' dorms. "I heard someone scream, is everyone alright?" She asked.
The three started laughing again and Annabelle joined Natasha before grinning slightly. Only Natasha did not understand, until Zephari quieted her laughter, "We gave them a bit of a Halloween scare." She told Natasha, "It appears that the lot of them are quite afraid of their classmates dressed up as vampires."
Both other girls began to laugh as well and the five had another hearty chuckle before boys came down the stairs. Abe glared at Zoë and the other two. "That was not funny!" He exclaimed.
"Are you kidding?" Liam countered, "It was bloody brilliant!"
The other three murmured in ascent with Liam, earning glares from Abe. Nathaniel was still a little pale, yet he was smiling. "Next year, we should all pretend to be vampires and go around scaring first years."
Zephari looked pleased. "Halloween may be a worthwhile holiday after all."
"Hey... The Slytherins..." James said simply, grinning evilly.
"We'll scare them for you." Zoë said brightly, standing up. "Come on, you two; best to catch them in the gloom of the dungeons."
"Can we come with?" Annabelle asked shyly.
"Discreetly." Zoë told them. "Stay just in earshot, alright?"
That settled, the first year Gryffindors left the common room in groups. Zoë, Dante and Zephari went first with the other seven following behind. Zoë adopted a stalking walk, baring her pointed teeth at a few portraits. Zephari had adopted a surly expression, though Zoë knew she was elated. Dante was snapping her teeth at a few portraits on the other side of the hallway.
"Very nice disguises, dears," A portly wizard commented.
"Yes, very convincing." His portly witch companion added.
"One of the best." The wizard finished proudly.
"Yes, yes indeed." The witch agreed.
They reached the dungeon corridors without seeing many other students. They hid in one of the spare classrooms, waiting for the sounds of the Slytherin first years' passing. They did not have long to wait before they heard Veronica Parkinson's snobby voice. Zoë pushed open the door of their hiding space, having it creak mysteriously and ominously.
"What was that?" She heard Nora Flint ask.
"Dunno, let's check it out!" The eager voice of Matthew Pritchard said.
Footsteps neared and Zoë tensed, glancing at her two friends. The ten Slytherin first years walked into the classroom and looked around. They did not see Zoë hiding in the shadows near the door. The only light came from the doorway, so they could not see Dante or Zephari. Once they were in the center of the classroom, Zoë closed the door with a slam.
"What the?" A few cried, whirling to see Zoë in front of the door.
"Vampire!" The majority screeched at that moment.
Zoë advanced towards the center of the room along with Zephari and Dante. "So hungry..." She breathed.
"We've been deprived of nourishment for so long..." Zephari moaned, stretching out a pale hand.
Zoë was amazed by how vampire-like her friend looked without any makeup. Dark robes and a pair of elongated canines made her friend just as pale; her veins stand out just as much, as Dante's metamorphmaging and Zoë's powder-technique did. She glared at Zephari and she withdrew her hand with a hiss.
"I sense fear." Dante announced, watching Torrence.
"I smell blood. Fresh blood..." Zephari growled, advancing.
Zoë glared at her again. They had already established that Zoë would be the dominant one, Zephari the hungry and creepy one while Dante would be the quietly dangerous one. "Wait. The more fear, the better the blood."
"Can we not even kill one of them? Just for a little bit of fun?" Zephari demanded, looking hungrily at Horace Jortin.
"No. Not yet." Zoë growled.
"Don't eat us!" Katherine Medar cried.
"We'll give you anything you want! Gold, jewels, anything!" Sora Zabini added.
"Just don't hurt us!" George Goyle said in a high-pitched voice.
"Our families are very rich!" Christopher Crabbe added in the same tone.
"Silence!" Zoë barked. "We do not want your mortal trinkets."
"Just your blood; all we want is your sweet, live blood." Zephari purred, stretching out a hand as if to touch Horace Jortin's cheek.
"I will have first drink." Zoë snarled quietly.
Zephari withdrew her hand with a withering glare, her eyes twinkling as she did so. "Then get it over with, I am dying of hunger."
"Their blood must sustain us until we leave the grounds." Dante reminded them casually, looking Veronica up and down. "We will need to hasten once we are done."
"Help! Help us!" Matthew began yelling as loud as he could.
Zoë advanced on him, clapping a hand over his mouth. "Silence, mortal. Or do you want us to go after your family as well?" She demanded, not letting him respond.
"Finish it already!" Zephari growled.
Zoë approached, as if to bite his neck and simply whispered in his ear. "Get out." She snarled.
"What?" Zephari demanded.
"They are not worth it. We will be able to come after them later, when they have more magical energy. Then they will be worth being discovered." Dante snarled.
"Are you all deaf?" Zoë demanded. "I said out!"
The Slytherins stumbled over their own feet as they ran for the door and into the corridor. The sounds of their footsteps quickly dwindled to nothing, replaced by laughter from their companions. The seven other Gryffindors emerged from the store room, doubled over with laughter.
"You three are bloody brilliant!" Liam cried, giving Zephari a hug around the shoulders.
"Absolutely magnificent!" James chimed, patting Zoë on the back.
"Positively devious." Xander added, beaming around at them.
"You fooled them so well!" Annabelle cried, hugging Dante.
"We'd better hurry to breakfast." Natasha said, grinning, "Then we can all go lounge around the lake."
"But, we have homework to do!" Dante protested.
"It can wait one more day, Dante. Come on, it's Halloween!" Zoë cried.
Zephari felt a little guilty about not being such a festive person, even when Halloween was a fun holiday. She just could not help but think that she would not even be born if she had not been born fifteen days earlier. She could not help but think that, twelve years ago, her mom had died. She smiled for the others, staying in a kind of stupor on the way to breakfast. She ate mechanically and, when they went out to the lake, she stared at its sparkling surface, unable to think of anything but what Halloween meant to her.
She got up suddenly and went to the lake's edge. She picked up a small, smooth rock and threw it as hard as she could across the lake. It made a large splash and did not even skip once. She picked up a bigger one and threw it, not skipping. A tentacle flicked the two rocks at her feet and she glared at the lake. She felt mocked by its serenity and peace. It seemed to say that even if the world had lost so many people twelve years before, it made no difference.
"But it does." She growled, throwing the first rock again and managing to make it skip twice. "They should still be here." She threw another, skipping it three times and having them returned to her by the squid, "Those fighting on the good side should still be here." She whispered, skipping the first five times.
"A knut for your thoughts?" A kind voice asked beside her.
Zephari rubbed her eyes dry with the back of her hand. She looked up at the kind face of Dethol, framed with slightly wild strawberry blond hair. His clear blue eyes were concerned and she took heart from that. She looked over at her friends, some of which were watching her.
"Perhaps a walk would be a good idea." Dethol offered and she nodded.
They walked off around the edge of the lake. "Do you know what day it is?" She asked quietly, looking at the dirt beneath her feet. "It's Halloween, the thirty-first of October."
He did not respond and Zephari was grateful for that. She just needed someone to talk to; someone who would not tell her to calm down or lighten up or tell her not to worry or think about it. She was tired of getting those responses. All she needed was someone to say nothing, just nod and urge her quietly on.
"They should still be here!" She cried suddenly, clenching her fists, "They shouldn't have died against Voldemort and his cronies! They should be here! They should be able to look outside and see how nice a fall we're having! They shouldn't be enclosed in tombs in the ground with flowers on top of them." She started to cry and he hugged her around the shoulders. "They should still be here." She trailed off, "They should..."
She had not noticed that they stopped, but she was aware that Dethol was hugging her and stroking her hair, doing what her father had done back when he was alive. He, too, had died on the thirty-first of October. She hated the day with a passion; for all that the holiday was amusing. She had forgotten how much she hated it when she was terrorizing others as a vampire, but it had hit her anew as soon as she left.
"Come on, let's go inside." Dethol urged, "I'll make you a cup of hot chocolate."
She followed numbly, his guiding arm around her shoulders. She was aware of the stares of the others, but she did not care. She hated Halloween. She always would, no matter how many people she terrorized.