Chapter 23: - All Hallows

Because Miriam had insisted on being released from the hospital wing that day solely for the Halloween feast, Miriam's two brothers and their friends had insisted on dedicating the feast in her honour, and despite the disapproving comments of Prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis the four houses for once seemed happy to be mingling together. Miriam's grandfather had stayed true to his word and had arranged for a wizarding band to play at the feast and he had also provided lots of other entertainment ranging from jugglers to fire eaters. Some of the teachers even decided to get in on celebrations by providing some type of entertainment as well.

Professor McGonagall and some of her advanced Newt students transfigured many of the cutlery into real live bats that swooped around the great hall, Hagrid had grown huge Pumpkins that had now been carved into Jack-o-Lanterns and little Professor Flitwick charmed them to hover above the long house tables so that they cast huge shadows over the floors and walls. Even Professor Iching the third year divination teacher was enjoying the fun and games as she was giving fortune readings in a small tent like structure at the back of the great hall where a large queue of giggling girls had started to form.

"This is the best Halloween I've ever had!" Lily called to Miriam over the noise of the near by fire eaters "Are all the Halloween's like this? Lily asked in amazement as the fire eaters in front of them spat a huge fountain of fire across the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, as many of the students whooped and gasped in awe.

"Not at all!" Frank yelled in reply "My dad said that the only good thing about Halloween at Hogwarts was the food! I think I would have remembered if he told me about this!" Frank said his mouth dropping as the fire eater spat more flames across the aisle in between the tables. All the students seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Sirius Black and James didn't seem to mind the patronage that had made it possible, the only person that did seem to mind was Bellatrix Black,

"Your Family always has to show off don't they!" She said bitterly to Miriam as she pushed herself past Alice at the Gryffindor table under the pretence that she was heading towards the queue of giggling girls near Professor Iching's tent,

Miriam ignore her, and reached for a sandwich off a nearby plate

"It's always the same you have to try and make it look as though your family is better than anyone else don't you?" Lily was pleased to see that Miriam still didn't retaliate and just started to eat her sandwich.

"Well!" demanded Bella pushing Miriam in the back "Your family thinks so much of themselves don't they?, I bet the daily prophet would love to hear about this wonderful party that your Granddaddy had us throw in your honour and all about your mysterious absence!"

"For some reason I don't think the flu is very news worthy" Miriam said finely her voice sounding very lazy, almost board, as she repeated the story that most of the teachers had been telling the other students to explain Miriam's long absence.

"Whatever! But I know the truth!" Bella said smiling eerily "Maybe you'd like another addition to your families scrap book? I could always arrange another shocking revelation" Bella had pushed it too far,

"Maybe you'd like to start your own family's scrapbook off with an obituary!" Miriam yelled as she leapt at Bella, and before Lily could do anything to stop them the two girls where on the floor kicking and punching each other, or at least Miriam was, Bella was screaming like a banshee and trying to pull Miriam's hair,

"GIRL FIGHT!!!" Yelled Frank jumping up onto the Gryffindor table as he beckoned the rest of the school as though it was the best thing to have ever happened! "Yeah! GIRL FIGHT!"

"Miriam stop it!!!" Lily called as she and Alice tried to pull Miriam off Bella,

"Mi please!" Alice begged as more and more students began to crowd round them and pushed the two girls aside Lily had never realised how many students there had been at Hogwarts but at Franks shout it felt like thousands of people rushed to crowd around the two fighting girls, Lily was pushed to the floor in the crush of bodies and only just managed to avoid being trod on by a burly sixth former as James pulled her onto the Gryffindor table top and Sirius pulled Alice under the table with him and Dymphna and Amy,

"Better stay up here" James said as Lily clung to him "at least it's safer"

"Who is it?" Lily heard the Thaddeus demand a look of concern on his face as he jumped onto the table next to lily as Professor sprout shouted at them to all get down as the other teachers tried to pull the crowd apart, "Tell me, who's Fighting?" Thaddeus demanded, but Lily could already tell that he knew,

"It's Miriam and Bellatrix!" Sirius called from under the table,

At the mention of his sister's name Thaddeus' face took on a very stern expression as he jumped off the table and rushed into the crowd followed by Bella's two older sisters as they pushed Peter Pettigrew out of their way and he climbed onto the table for safety. At the same instance at hearing Miriam's name Jedidiah and Ludo both dived onto the Gryffindor table scattering plates and food everywhere as both launched themselves cannonball style at the mull of students, suddenly the world around Lily looked as thought it was moving in slow motion as both older boys forced Peter out of their way as he slipped backwards off the table his arm flailing madly as he struggled and failed to keep his balance, Lily turned from Jedidiah and Ludo just in time to see peter crash into the near by fire eater making him accidentally spit out another fountain of fire just as Lily managed to pull James flat against the table as the flames roared over their heads narrowly missing the pair of them.

"Bloody hell!" James called out as the flames dissipated and James patted his hair trying to feel if it had been singed,

Lily's brain didn't have time to register the events that had just happened as the world suddenly returned to normal and loud screams signalled Jedidiah and Ludo's abrupt entrance into the centre of the crowd as many of the students scattered in fear of being hit or injured by the boys as they made their presence know, because of this the fight was soon dispersed, and Thaddeus was soon shoving the remaining students out of his path. The brothers pulled Miriam to her feet as Narcissa and Andromeda, Bella's sisters who had followed Thaddeus pulled Bella away from Miriam.

As Lily's head cleared and from her position on the table Lily managed to quickly look Miriam up and down as did her brothers all of them fearing the worst, but somehow Miriam hadn't even been scratched, whereas Bellatrix looked as though she had gone ten rounds with the Whomping willow and was blubbering her eyes out as she hung to her older sisters.

"What in Merlin's name possessed you?" Thaddeus demanded of his sister as Jedidiah struggled to hold Miriam back as she still tried to get to Bella,

"Miriam what's wrong with you!" Andromeda called over Thaddeus as she tried to comfort Bella,

"Hay don't you going putting all this on Mi" Jedidiah yelled back as stepped in front of his sister "I have you know that I saw everything!" Lily highly doubted that seeing that Jedidiah had been trying to chat up one of the female fire eaters at the time the fight had broken out but Lily felt a sudden surge of affection towards Jedidiah for wanting to stick up for his sister no matter what, after all Lily knew the truth and that it had been Bella that had provoked the fight.

"Master Artemis!" Roared Professor Viridian as he pushed his way passed several second year Hufflepuff boys making them flee back to their own table "I might have know that you where involved here!" At these words Miriam tried to protest her brother's innocence but Lily saw Thaddeus cover her mouth muffling her protest and under the scrutinizing glare of Viridian Miriam fell quite,

"I see that our little chat the other day didn't dampen your exuberant spirits did it now?" Viridian said his lips turning into a cruel smile as he looked at Jedidiah and the crowd of students slowly filtered away as the other teachers managed to restore order to the great hall, leaving only the three Artemis, the three Black's and Ludo and Lucius standing a little distance away from the group as the rest of the school settled themselves back down to dinner.

"What on earth was the meaning for all this?" Professor McGonagall demanded, as Viridian still glared at the three Artemis',

"Professor it was -" Bella began before Narcissa cut her off

"It was nothing professor, Bella merely tripped and fell!" Narcissa said hurriedly

"Indeed?" McGonagall said her eyebrows raising slightly as she turned to look at Bella who had shot her eldest sister a deathly look,

"And the shouts of fighting?" Viridian enquired as he still looked at the three Artemis'

"That was us sir!" Thaddeus answered quickly as she nodded towards his younger brother "The great idiot accidentally knocked Bellatrix over sir and -" at this both Bella and Miriam let out a gasp which was quickly concealed by both of their eldest siblings "-well one thing led to another and I hit him sir!"

"You hit me?" Jedidiah said almost laughing as he glared at his brother in disbelief "Yeah right more like I hit you!"

"It doesn't matter who hit who!" Thaddeus said through clenched teeth,

"Well it does to me!" Jedidiah said as he squared his shoulder "I'd take you out with one hand tied behind my back -"

"You really think so you degenerate boil-brained miscreant?" Thaddeus scoffed

"YEAH!!!" Jedidiah said looking angry as both boys looked as though at any moment they would start squaring up to each other,

"That gentlemen will be enough!" called Professor McGonagall, "Never – Never in all my years have I EVER seen a more dysfunctional family then yours!" Lily couldn't believe that McGonagall had just said what she had and it wasn't only Lily's mouth that had dropped at McGonagall's words Frank, Alice and the rest of the first years looked just as stunned, but Lily could see Bella starting to smile has she still pretended to cry in Andromeda's arms, Lily also saw that Professor Viridian had broke into a smile and Lily was reminded of her first dark arts lessons with him and how he had shown a certain dislike towards Miriam even though he had never met her before. Lily suddenly realised that it wasn't Miriam that Viridian disliked and not even Thaddeus or Jedidiah but it was the fact they were Artemis' that also explained, Lily thought, why Professor Viridian was one of the few teachers that was unwilling to participate in the fun activities that had been organised by Mr Amadeus Artemis.

"I believe that another talk is in order don't you Jedidiah?" Viridian said smiling even more as he bared his yellow teeth, both Thaddeus and Jedidiah squeezed their sisters arm grinned at her reassuringly and then followed their head of house out of the great hall. Lily saw that Narcissa mouthed the words 'Thank you' to both of them as they passed her.

"Very well I suggest that if you are not injured then you should all return to your tables" McGonagall said in an exasperated sort of voice as she shepherded the girls and Ludo and Lucius back towards the tables.

"Don't worry about your brothers" Lucius said to Miriam as he and Ludo escorted her back to her fellow Gryffindor first years "Jed's done lines lots of times before and Tad may look like a wimp be he'll hack it!" Miriam smiled meekly as both boys pattered her on the back

"It was a nice uppercut you gave Bella" Ludo grinned "But you should really work on your left hook" with that both boys headed back to the Slytherin table as Miriam sat down besides her, Lily was still wondering why doing lines would be such a terrible thing as Alice spoke,

"Are you ok?" she asked Miriam as she rubbed her arm reassuringly,

"Yeah!" Miriam said automatically but Lily could tell that she wasn't "Where's Remus?" Miriam asked in a slightly distant voice as she obviously tried to change the topic

"Dunno?" Frank said "Also makes you wonder why Dumbledore didn't stop your fight though doesn't it?" Lily immediately looked around the hall and couldn't see any signs of either Dumbledore or Remus, but any thoughts that she had about where they both could have been was pushed out of her mind as the food in front of her was replaced by pudding.