Harry came back from his Occlumency lessons with Snape later that night with his scar prickling profusely. Of course throughout the course of his lifetime, it had done so very often, and so by now Harry was accustomed to it. He then walked up the stairs and into the Gryffindor Common Room to find Ron and Hermione, shockingly enough, working peacefully on their homework in the same room.
"How bad was it?" Ron questioned, without looking up from his parchment.
"The usual," Harry grumbled in reply. He did not want to tell Ron the other memories Professor Snape got to scan through whilst consistently breaking into his mind. Snape had seen things ranging from his escape from the Dursley household in his second year up to the battle between Bellatrix and Sirius last year, which had caused Sirius to fall through the veil. Harry still couldn't help but blame himself for that event, and still held the two-way mirror like a priceless possession. It was, after all, all he really had left from Sirius; the house had been given to Dumbledore and The Order so that they could continue pursuing their activities there.
In this lesson, like his other most unsuccessful lessons from last year, he managed to collapse several times, leaving him very weary. He had apparently also shouted very loudly – to Sirius, in which Snape chided 'He's gone, you foolish boy. Now, get off of the floor, and let's begin again. You must start practicing!' Luckily, Harry still seemed to not have full conscious control over his actions, and had, in the midst of having his mind attacked by Snape, managed to perform a few memorable hexes, curses, and charms. Yet, as Harry grinned upon this recent memory, he was quickly brought back to reality by Hermione, who attempted at bringing the conversation back to a more cheerful note.
"So, are you going to Hogsmeade then, next week, Harry?"
Unfortunately, Harry had lost Sirius as a guardian, and thus the piece of parchment he had given to Dumbledore after the end of the 3rd year had lost its validity. Needless to say, the Durselys were still bent as ever on avoiding the topic of magic the one week he was there, and thus, he had never gotten his permission slip signed. Not that that situation would've stopped him of course, he still had his invisibility cloak with which without he would most certainly have gotten a lot more detentions, and possibly even have faced expulsion by now.
"Next week?" Harry questioned, suddenly realizing the date, "But Halloween is this week? Isn't it?"
"Well," Hermione replied in her typical know-it-all voice, "I think Filch is trying to prevent the annual pranks that usually come with this time of year. Besides that, Fred and George have just opened their shop, so I think that he is just taking extra precautions."
"I don't think that will matter," Harry replied bluntly.
"Nor do I," Hermione said, dipping her quill back into its inkpot.
"So, how long do you reckon it will take you both to catch up on your homework?" Harry asked, slightly amused.
Ron glared at him, "Longer if you keep interrupting me."
Hermione, who happened to be seated near Ron, glanced towards Ron and snorted. "Oh please, Ron, I happen to know that you have been staring at that same page for the last 30 minutes."
"Well, for your information," Ron said heatedly, "it's only been taking me this long because you keep interrupting to correct me!"
"Well, maybe I wouldn't have to correct you," Hermione responded, "if you had actually paid attention in class."
"Actually, Hermione," Harry began.
"You, yourself aren't any better, Harry!" Hermione said irritably.
"What'd you interrupt Harry for?" Ron said, his voice rising, "He was just trying to tell you something."
"Well, he was interrupting our conversation!" Hermione said shrilly.
"What conversation?" Ron yelled back. "All I hear is a bickering girl falsely accusing me of not paying attention!"
Hermione looked as if she had just been slapped in the face and quickly replied. "Well then, this bickering girl is not going to bother you with correcting your homework anymore." She slammed her books shut, gathered her backpack, and headed up towards the girl's dormitories muttering: "I hope you get a D. You would deserve it for not paying attention."
Ron shut his books loudly once Hermione had entered the girl's dormitories, and pounded his fist on the table. "The only reason I 'wasn't paying attention' was because of you," he muttered in a voice only Harry, who moments ago had been standing between Ron and Hermione, could hear.
"So," Ron said, now speaking in his normal tone of voice, "are you going up to the boy's dormitories as well, Harry?"
Harry, who was utterly confused at how two people could argue so much, merely replied, "Uh, yeah. Let's go to bed, I'm a bit tired anyway."
The next morning, Harry woke up extremely early, most likely due to the lack of sleep he had been getting this year anyway. Oddly enough, Ron was up too, pacing across their dormitory, apparently so deep in thought he did not even notice Harry watching him do so.
"Ron, Ron!" Harry shouted, attempting to finally get Ron's attention.
"Huh, what?" Ron jumped, shaking off his trance.
"What were you thinking about, mate?" Harry asked concernedly.
"Err, nothing," Ron said, rubbing the back of his neck. "What time is it?"
Harry took a quick glance at his clock and replied, "It's about 6:30, why?"
"I'm hungry, I really wanted to go down to the Great Hall," Ron replied truthfully.
Harry laughed. "Well then, we have two options."
Ron raised an eyebrow at his remark, telling him to go on.
"One," Harry grinned, "we could sit here and wait about another 30 minutes at least for breakfast to be ready. Two, we could take a walk down to the kitchens. It's up to you to decide of course."
"Kitchens, definitely the kitchens," Ron replied with an eager grin.
When Ron and Harry were still in the kitchens an hour later, they were quite stuffed, and in no mood whatsoever to go to the Great Hall. Yet, they realized that if they didn't go, some people might get suspicious or wonder where they were. After all, Ron was never known to pass up a meal.
So, Harry and Ron quickly left the kitchens in an attempt to not appear too late to breakfast and to also avoid the mass of house elves that seemed to be giving them an endless supply of food.
When the pair of them finally made it into the Great Hall, they found it to be filled with elaborate decorations. It seemed that both of them had forgotten that today, in fact, was Halloween. As Harry was making his way to his seat at the Gryffindor table, he noticed more ghosts than he thought lived in Hogwarts gliding across the room, whispering fervently to each other. Although Harry knew that Halloween was well celebrated in the magical community, there seemed to be more of a fuss today than normal. He took a quick glance around the Great Hall, and noticed looks of anxiety and fear stricken upon many of the students' faces.
"Oh, this is horrible," he heard Hermione say in a hushed voice while he was making his way to his seat.
"How is Halloween horrible?" Ron asked in a skeptical voice. In his typical manner, it seemed as if Ron had not noticed the looks of anxiety slowly spreading across the Great Hall.
"Not that," Hermione said, "this." She pointed to an article heading the first page of The Daily Prophet. Now, Harry could see why the Great Hall was making such a spectacle.
13 MUGGLES, 5 WITCHES AND WIZARDS FOUND DEAD. BELIEVED TO BE THE WORK OF YOU-KNOW-WHO.
On October 30th at 9 o'clock at night, it is said that You-Know-Who and his remaining followers that aren't currently residing in Azkaban made an appearance in a community mainly consisting of Muggles, Liverpool. This sudden appearance led to the death of 13 Muggles, and a combination of 5 witches and wizards whose names shall not be disclosed to the public in respect to their families.
A wizard who managed to survive this experience, although extremely shaken, Aiken Ramsey said: "It was a horrific experience, watching all these people die and knowing that you could do nothing about it. I would've done something to help, but was greatly discouraged and seemingly paralyzed after I watched five of my fellow friends die while struggling for their lives. I quickly tried to hide, and make an escape so that I would not have to watch him further torment these people, and to save my own life. I had always hoped the days living in fear of You-Know-Who were over, yet now I have seen him return, I am more afraid now than I was then."
In response to this recent event, Emmeline Vance, the new and first Ministress of Magic, commented: "At the moment, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to track down You-Know-Who and his remaining followers not already within our Azkaban prison as well as conceal the recent event from Muggles in collaboration with the heads of the Muggle government. We have successfully wiped the memory of this event from all Muggles who watched that event unfold before their very eyes and who somehow succeeded in surviving. It is very crucial that the magical community does not respond with rash actions and does not slip into a period of hysteria; it would only be what he wants. The magical community should only be concerned with carrying out their normal daily activities, considering at the moment the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to prevent further attacks and is following all the precautions to ensure our safety."
