jimithang - I wouldn't say the story is well written because of the fact that I don't outline my fics nor do I organize what is to happen in the story. I just type down all the junk that's in my head and edit it XD! I'm glad the story suits you well; hopefully the future chapters will be all right.

Author's Note: Are you sick of my author's notes yet? Well anyhow, here's the eighth installment! I'll post chapter 9 a bit later, but I'll keep it here for now. I must warn you that this chapter may become strange, confusing, weird, or what what, but you'll just have to deal with it for now. Forgive me wannabee writing skills .! Oh, yes, the disclaimer! JKR owns most of the characters in the story; Jo Rowling who happens to also be JKR also owns some of the plot to this fic as well; JK Rowling, who happens to be both JKR and Jo Rowling, also owns the setting of this fic. So JKR, Jo Rowling, and JKR are the same person! It took me a while to realize that. .

Chapter 8: Halloween

Indeed, time was passing much too fast for James, and by now the day of Halloween would start in less than five hours. There was something really bugging him this evening, and he wasn't feeling the spirit of Halloween because of it. He was currently the only one in the common room because he had gone ahead, leaving Sirius, Remus, and Peter in the Great Hall to finish eating. That sound… James thought to himself. There must be something behind that painting I saw…

Earlier that day, James had apparently walked in the wrong direction and came upon a strange painting of a bowl of fruit. He had never seen the painting before and he swore he heard voices coming from behind it—dozens of voices. It had been bugging him the entire day, and he wasn't able to tell any of his friends because where ever they went, there were people with open mouths and ears ready for the latest gossip.

James sighed and rumpled his hair; he was beginning to grow tired of waiting for them. Maybe I should have stayed with them and waited… he thought, his mind blaming him for being so eager. He made up his mind and walked toward the door, right when he did so, it shot open and a large amount of students came clambering in nearly running him over.

"Oh sorry, Potter!" said Lily Evans nearly knocking James over. She then walked away with Raven tagging along behind her.

"Hey, mate, what did you want to talk to us about?" asked a familiar voice. Sirius had walked through the doorway to see James looking back at Lily. James quickly looked away and hastily pulled Remus and Peter inside the common room.

"I think I found something." James whispered to them, he glanced around to see if there was no one listening in and then he continued, "Tomorrow would be a perfect time to check it out!"

"During the Halloween Feast?" Peter whimpered slightly, "B—But we'll miss the food!"

"This better not be another bathroom." Sirius yawned stretching his arms. "Well, I'm heading to the dormitories now... see you in the morning."

"H—Hold on, just a second." Remus interrupted and everyone glanced at Remus curiously. They could see the lines of worry in his face and they became concerned with what he had to say. "I have something important to do with Hagrid tomorrow night. Professor Dumbledore asked me to help him out, so do you mind going there without me?"

James furrowed his brow looked at Remus disappointedly.

"Well…All right." Said James sadly. "But exactly what are you going to do?"

"I—erm—promised to help transfer the pumpkins to the feast." Remus told them hesitantly. James noticed that Remus was beginning to grow nervous, but didn't want to question it.

"We'll help you out then, right James?" Sirius exclaimed smiling, "Five's better than two, right mate?"

"No!" Remus yelled out, "I mean, I can do it on my own. Dumbledore said that they just needed one more person."

James, Sirius, and Peter looked at each other warily, but Remus insisted that it was all right.

"Well, if you say so." James shrugged, rumpling his hair.

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The following day, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter awoke bright and early for Halloween. The four of them got dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Remus…" said Peter looking at him carefully, "Did your hair grow again?"

Remus smiled lightly at Peter and nodded. James, who was walking behind them, quickly got behind Remus started messing around with his hair. It seemed to be slightly hairier than the usual hair Remus wore every day, and James found it rather humorous.

"H—Hey!" Remus yelped ducking, trying to avoid James from messing around with his hair even more. James laughed and Remus couldn't help but laugh along with him.

Sirius, who was walking in front of them, lazily had his arm behind his head and walked without much care. The way he moved about was most relevant to the movements of a dog who had nothing else to do but roam around.

James found this a perfect opportunity to gang up on Sirius, and he whispered his plan to Remus allowing the laughter to cease. Sirius who had been listening the whole time became quite concerned when his friends had stopped talking and slowly turned around to see James and Remus about to take him down. He stared wide-eyed for a second, like a puppy staring at a car that was about to run it over, then quickly tried to get away. But James, who had always wanted to mess Sirius's hair up, wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by.

"James!" Sirius screamed out. "What's the point in doing this?!"

The point, my good friend, is your hair will become messy!" James explained, grabbing Sirius' cloak and scrambling for his head. "Much like mine, you see?"

Sirius had obviously given up because he stopped running and sighed hopelessly.

"What is today 'Look Like James Potter Day' or something?" said Sirius sarcastically.

"It's Halloween!" James retorted, clasping his hands together, "And we're going to that secret passage tonight!"

Sirius smirked, grabbed James' glasses and looked through them to see his reflection, then quickly gave back his glasses. James had hoped that the new hairstyle would create a different appearance for Sirius, and that it would create a less 'attraction' toward the ladies. Unfortunately for him, it didn't do much. His friend still looked like a handsome young lad with a new hairstyle, and it apparently attracted more people to Sirius.

"Ohhh! I love your hair, Black!" squealed a passing girl who was apparently from Hufflepuff.

James shrugged, rumpled his hair, looked up at Sirius, and whispered, "I hate it when you do that…"

Sirius merely snickered at James as they went to sit at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall. Peter seemed to really like Sirius' new look and would continuously look at it from time to time. When James had finished his meal, he tried to fix Sirius' hair back to the way it was without him knowing, but he gave up because it became much too hard for him to do.

"All right, Remus?" asked James glancing over at him.

"You look pale, mate." Sirius added.

Remus seemed to be perspiring quite a bit and he hadn't taken a single bite of food since they got there. Not only that, but he also seemed to be breathing rather heavily, but he managed to look up at them, give a weak smile, and say, "Don't worry I'm fine… I—I'm just not hungry."

"You don't look fine…" Peter whispered looked at him in worry.

Remus hadn't been like this before, sure his hair grew a lot over night once and while, but this was much different. Remus looked like he was struggling—almost like struggling to hold something back.

"Oh look! The mail's here!" yelled out Dorian Gray of the Hufflepuff Table.

Sirius didn't look too happy to see the mail, and James understood why soon enough. A large amount of owls fluttered in dropping letters and packages from family members to their children.

James's owl, Cinder along with another owl, had dropped him a small package and fluttered off. Peter had gotten himself a letter from one of his family members and he whimpered as he read through it. Sirius had also gotten a letter, but didn't wish to open nor look at it just yet. Remus was the only one who hadn't gotten anything, and by now, they all had noticed that Remus never got anything in the mail.

"Hey Remus—Are you okay?" James wasn't able to finish his question because he noticed that Remus had closed his eyes and was now breathing rapidly. "Remus?"

Frantically trying to breathe calmly, Remus stood up and struggled to let words come out of his mouth, "I—I need to t—talk with Dumbledore… Y—you guys go on to class without me…"

He ran out of the Great Hall without anything else to say. James, Sirius, and Peter watched Remus disappear into the corridor, their faces full of worry and concern. It wasn't like Remus to do something like that, nonetheless pretend to do something like that.

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They didn't see Remus until after their final class in which the three of them were really glad to see that he didn't look as bad as he had that morning.

"Did I miss any important assignments?" Remus asked smiling at the three of them.

"Just an essay on trolls." Peter replied cheerfully.

Remus gave a sigh of relief and turned toward James who had an abnormally large grin on his face.

"Remus, you wouldn't believe the luck we're in!" he exclaimed pulling each of them to a place where they wouldn't be over heard by anyone. "My dad sent me the invisibility cloak!"

"Oh, really?" Remus laughed, "I'm guessing you're going to use it tonight, am I right?"

"You bet!" Sirius smirked, "Are you sure you can't come along? I'm sure Hagrid won't mind."

Remus frowned; the three took is as 'of course I can't go! Hagrid would be furious with me!' and they didn't push it.

As the Halloween Feast drew closer the sky began to grow darker, and the four of them knew that it would only be a matter of time till they were going to set off.

"Erm… I have to get going now…" Remus told them as they walked down the corridor. "You know—Hagrid wouldn't want me to be late."

They nodded and saw Remus off. Now that he wasn't there anymore, they decided it would be best to visit that painting now. James brought along the invisibility cloak just incase they heard someone coming. Peter clung to James' sleeve as they walked down the passageway James had found the day before, by mistake, and they indeed came across a painting with a bowl of fruit on it.

"This is it," James murmured to them, "listen carefully."

Sirius and Peter pushed their ears against the painting and they did hear the sound of voices coming from behind it. Peter stumbled backwards and stared at the painting.

"What's the matter Peter?" Sirius asked looking down at him. "The voices don't scare you, do they?"

"No…" Peter said softly, "The voices just sound like house-elves."

James smiled widely and said, "If their house-elves we have nothing to worry about! I was just worried if they were teachers."

The three of them looked around at the picture curiously seeing if there was anything that really stood out about the picture.

"So—How do we get in?" Peter asked glancing at Sirius.

"How should I know?" Sirius shrugged and patted down his hair with his hands.

James walked toward it and tried pushing against the painting, but it would budge. Sirius and Peter tried joining in; they tried pulling it, stomping on the floor to find a secret lever, and pushing around the walls around it, but they found nothing. The lot sat on the floor exhausted and disappointed.

"Let's try doing something to the painting itself." James suggested standing up again. He placed his hands on painting and felt around it, first feeling the bowl that held the fruit and then the grapes.

"You don't think it would be the very top of that banana, would it?" Peter suggested looking up, the painting was much taller than them, and if it were the banana, they would need some sort of leverage to get them up there.

James then moved his hand to the pear and kept it there for a few seconds — there was something weird about it. James then moved his hand along the pear slowly, and they heard a small muffled chuckle come from it. The three of them looked at each other and knew that it had something to do with this strange pear.

"Hey James, try scratching it!" said Sirius excitedly. The pear did nothing but sigh slightly when James finished scratching it.

"Why don't you try tickling it?" Peter suggested smiling. James laughed and began tickling the large green pear; this time it began to squirm and chuckle. It then transformed itself into an extremely large green door handle.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" James smirked reaching for the handle and pulling the painting, which was now obviously a door, open.

They clambered into a room, which seemed to be just as enormously large as the Great Hall itself. They stared in awe at the room they had just discovered and saw mounds of glittering brass pots and pans, which lay around the stone walls. There was also a really nice brick fireplace at the other end of the room. Peter was right; the voices were indeed coming from house-elves.

Their large, round eyes stared up at them with delight and honor. James instantly knew where they were and smiled widely at his two friends who were still looking around curiously.

"I can't believe it!" James exclaimed looking down at the many house-elves who were staring up at them.

"Believe what, mate?" Sirius asked glancing at James.

"We've found the Hogwarts Kitchen!" he replied back. "So the house-elves are the ones who cook all the food!"

Sirius smiled down at the lot of large circular eyes that stared at them.

"You're great cooks, that's for sure." Sirius told them. The house-elves looked extremely delighted by the comment and pulled James, Sirius, and Peter deeper into the kitchen and allowed them to sit on comfortable chairs by the fireplace. Several of the house-elves also brought them a wonderful meal for them to eat; it consisted of crumpets, pumpkin juice, pumpkin pies, and roast chicken.

After finishing his full he lied back comfortably in his chair and sighed. Sirius and Peter did the same and they all felt like this was the best Halloween they've ever had. Peter had nothing to complain about missing the Halloween Feast, but they knew they should go back up there sooner or later.

"Thanks for the great food!" James exclaimed to them as they walked toward the painting again.

"Come back again!" yelled one of the house-elves causing Peter's face to light up.

"We will, and we'll bring another friend if you don't mind." Said Sirius as he climbed out of the room and into the corridor again.

After closing the door behind them, the green handle transformed back into the pear and it looked like another ordinary painting. They quickly climbed up a marble staircase and through the corridors toward the Great Hall and found that the feast was just about done.

They quickly glanced around the Gryffindor table to see if Remus was sitting down anywhere, but found that he was nowhere to be found. They sat in an empty spot toward the end of the table and pretended to eat some of the food on the table. The Great Hall's decorations were wondrous and live bats flew around carelessly. James, Sirius, and Peter didn't pay much attention to any of it because they were now extremely worried about Remus. Where could he have gone?

"Maybe he's still with Hagrid." James said aloud to them, but Sirius shook his head vigorously.

"Bad luck, mate." He said pointing toward the long table where the teacher sat. Hagrid was sitting at the table smiling happily at the students. This made them grow even more weary and worried, and they decided to ask after the Feast if Hagrid asked Remus to run an errand or something.

Lucky for them, the feast ended in less than five minutes and the students began to file out of the Great Hall. James and Sirius walked toward Hagrid confidently and Peter tagged along behind them.

"Hi Hagrid!" James said cheerfully, trying his best not to look too worried.

"Oh, how are yeh?" replied Hagrid in his deep voice. "What can I do fer yeh?"

"We're great, Hagrid." Sirius lied, folding his arms. "Did you, by any chance, give Remus an extra job to do?"

"Remus? Oh! Yeh mean ol' Lupin?" Hagrid laughed looking at the three of them, "Why, I haven given him nothing to do, and I haven seen 'im all day!"

They stared.

"But Remus told us that he was helping you bring pumpkins into the Great Hall!" Peter exclaimed, worry appearing all over his face.

"Pumpkins? Crikey, do yeh see any o' 'em in here?" Hagrid replied laughing. "Yer kiddin, righ'? No one tol' me to bring pumpkins here! If they did, I'm sure it was some sort o' joke."

James, Sirius, and Peter looked at each other in shock. Had Remus been lying to them? Playing a joke on them? It deffinitly wasn't something they would think Remus Lupin would do.

"It wasn't a joke," said voice from nearby. They all looked to see Professor Dumbledore smiling at them. "Don't worry about Lupin, there were some changes in plans, and he had to do some things for me. I never got a chance to tell you, Hagrid, to bring the pumpkins into the Great Hall."

James, Sirius, and Peter felt like their worries about Remus had left them and they became less aware. Even so, something was troubling James, he felt as though there was much more to it than what Dumbledore was saying… James shook his head; Professor Dumbledore wouldn't lie to us…

"I assure you, you'll see Lupin in the morning." Said Dumbledore calmly.

James looked deeply into Dumbledore's eyes and he felt like there was much more than meets the eye. There must be something that they were telling them, but what? He wouldn't lie to us… James reassured himself but he suddenly felt a rush of doubt run over him, …would he?

::To be or not to be, that is the question::

Next Chapter: The Problem (dun dun dun!)

Howdy doo to you too! I'm excruciatingly hyper at the moment so don't mind the stupidity of it all. Anyways! I'm too lazy to threaten the lot of you to review this fanfic, so instead I'll just send you my pet dancing chicken to peck at your brains until you comment/review/flame! He'll be outside of your house in about 15 minutes or so. Just wait for him :D!

(note: the dancing chicken that has just been mentioned was killed by a farmer about two seconds after you read this note and it was sadly sold to the farmer market for profit and gain. I on the other hand, am morning over the loss of my good friend... I never even got to say goodbye. ;-;)