Halloween

Chapter Six

T'was the night before Christmas, thought Nym as she walked through the decorated corridors towards Potions. The halls were festively decorated, and there was a general buzz through the castle. Not, of course, that it was Christmas. That was months away yet. Today was the day before Halloween, and Potions was her last class.

Despite the festive air and jovial spirit, Nym wasn't looking forward to Potions. Oh, it was an alright class to be sure, and Professor Tofty was interesting, old as he was. All in all it was a good class. The problem was, Nym was terrible at it.

She would follow the directions exactly, do everything just right, and then came the inevitable mistake. She'd knock over a cauldron or bump the scales or drop a vial. Professor Tofty would shake his head and smile a little sadly whenever this happened, which was almost every lesson. Today wasn't going to be any different. She could feel it.

"I thought we'd do something a little different today," Professor Tofty said. Well, Nym thought, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad after all. "In preparation for the celebration tomorrow, what say we make some fireworks?" There were several cheers, and some that were a little uncertain. So far they'd made potions to turn things blue, and to heal blisters, and similar small workings. Fireworks were big and dramatic. How complicated they must be.

"Of course," the professor chuckled to himself, "our wizard crackers are very complicated, and involve many advanced charms as well as the correct potions. So," he clapped his hands, and the long tables were suddenly cluttered with ingredients, "we'll be using some muggle techniques. The basic recipe is on the board, of course."

While many of the students began to work, cautiously working with these strange, non-magical ingredients that were supposed to become magical, Nym copied down the formula. It was the sort of thing you might want another time.

As she finished, Professor Tofty returned to his lectern. "Why don't we make this more interesting? We'll have a competition, to be judged by the teachers tomorrow night?" Hearty approval greeted his suggestion. Around the dungeon, students set to work feverishly, adding more and more volatile ingredients. Over the next hour, several cauldrons exploded magnificently, much to the chagrin of their users.

Nym packed her powder into the provided cardboard tubes with a great sense of satisfaction. Her cauldron hadn't exploded once, but she'd lit a little of it on the counter with her wand and been greeted with exactly the effect she'd hoped. Well, very close. It was still missing something.

On impulse, she pulled out her potion ingredients. Her mother, mindful of Nym's clumsiness, had packed them in rubber containers rather than the typical glass ones. Here was what she wanted; the active ingredient in the colour-changing potion. Professor Tofty had said it was very volatile. A few students hadn't taken him seriously, or had slipped up, and the resulting explosions had caused them to evacuate the dungeon. A few drops to each of the cylinders, and then she capped each one. She paused at the last one, the final one in the set. Surely it should be something special.

She added a pinch of this, a little of that, but still it didn't seem right. None of the ingredients were all that exciting.

Something on the table caught her eye. A little black globe, lying in the middle of what looked to be clippings of short, red hair. She added them, and closed the firecracker with a sense of achievement. Who knew what the last two were, but surely they'd add something. Something interesting. They'd probably been left behind by the fifth years who had had Potions the period before, and they were always doing something interesting.

It was with only the slightest regret that Nym tucked in to the Halloween feast. She missed trick or treating, as she'd done for several years past. The celebrations at Hogwarts were incredible, but there was something to be said for the free candy. Besides which, she missed Zack. She'd spent the day with Rick, Jerome and Mandy Smith, Zack's little sister, and they'd had a great time down by the lake. But all day she'd caught herself glancing around, trying to spot Zack's sun-bleached hair, burned gold from long hours flying.

All right, she thought glumly, I admit it. I miss him. She didn't like to admit it, even to herself. The idea that she might need anyone didn't sit well with her. She'd manage on her own, or she'd die trying. But what was there to manage here, with or without him? It wasn't like she needed him to get through the day, she just liked to have him around. Which was sentimental fluff, like all that stuff her dorm mates talked about after they'd all gone to bed at night.

Speaking of that unhappy reality… there were her dorm mates, a little ways down the table, dressed up as best they could for the feast. Even here she could hear their unceasing conversation. At least now they weren't talking to her. Or about her. It amounted to about the same thing, really.

Earlier, she'd been getting ready to go down to the feast. If you could count brushing parchment dust off your robes and digging through your trunk for the tie you'd lost sometime earlier in the week as 'getting ready'.

"Oh Nymphadora," Rose had sighed, "whatever are we going to do with you?"

Nym bristled. "Why should you do anything with me?"

"Your robes," Hope said in a voice of long suffering.

Nym had looked down at her robes defensively. What was wrong with them? They were what she wore every day, and she said as much.

"That's just it," Opal had put in. "They're getting old."

"I've only had them two months, they're not old," Nym had snapped, but her words were drowned out by Mary.

"And is that a burn?" Nym covered the offending sleeve with her hand. So there had been unexpected complications to playing with the firecrackers yesterday. So what?

"Perhaps we could do something with your hair?" Opal had suggested. Though she seemed to be talking to Nym, Nym got the impression that the question was really directed at the other three girls.

Nym had thrown her arms over her head and raced from the room, completely forgetting her tie. Sirius had caught her in the Common Room, grabbing the collar of her robes and pulling her up short.

"No running in the corridors," Prongs had said with mock severity.

"I'm not in the corridor."

"She's got you there," Sirius had said, as if he were a judge weighing the situation. "I suppose you'll have to let her go."

"No Sirius," a girl had said, appearing at Prongs's elbow. "You'll have to let her go." She'd smiled a little at her joke, and James had chuckled. Sirius had just rolled his eyes.

"C'mon Nym, let's leave the incredible prats to it." He'd started to lead her away, still holding her collar, when the girl stopped him short.

"Sirius Black, let her go this instant or I'll report you."

Prongs wasn't about to be left out. "I'll give you prat." His hand twitched toward his wand, as his mouth curled in a smile. Some sort of long standing joke, Nym supposed. There were no jokes in the girl, though.

"Well?" she demanded. "What are you waiting for? Let her go."

Sirius had just smirked at her. "Give it up, Evans. What're the chances of me listening to you? I mean, really." He'd led Nym away to where Lupin was reading a book.

"James Potter," Nym could hear the girl chastising Prongs, "why do you never help?"

Evans still hadn't forgiven Prongs and Sirius when Nym headed down to the banquet with them. She talked in a falsely cheerful voice to Nym, occasionally shooting dark looks at the two boys, and occasionally Lupin and Wormtail as well. Just for variety, Nym figured, since neither of them had done anything wrong. Well, maybe Wormtail's insistence on following Sirius's lead and scorning Evans could be seen as an offence, but Lupin had done nothing to deserve the angry glares.

As a result, Nym spent most of the banquet in silence, talking only occasionally when directly addressed by Lupin or Sirius. She still wasn't sure about Prongs, and Wormtail was to busy copying him to pay Nym any mind. Perhaps Evans was nice enough, but the state of her temper showed through even when she was talking to Nym. Once she forgot herself completely.

"I suppose you're following their lead, aren't you? Your robes are burned, your collar's crooked and you don't have a tie."

"Give her a break," Lupin cut in, sparing Nym the need to answer. "It's not a big deal."

That didn't go over well with Evans. "You're a prefect, Lupin. You're supposed to be helping me enforce these rules."

"They're stupid rules," Nym said, helping herself to a piece of pumpkin pie. Evans ignored Nym except to tell her to eat her vegetables before she started on dessert.

All in all, it was a relief to make her way out to the grounds to watch the fireworks. The air had the littlest nip in it, but didn't seem to forecast rain. There were no clouds either, so the students cheerfully spread out on the gently sloping lawn to watch the display.

Nym lay down in the grass near the lake edge. The nearest group of students was several yards away. All the chatter that had filled her ears for the past hour and a half faded to a buzz. She knew Rick would probably be looking for her, but right now she didn't really care. It was nice to be alone.

Someone settled into the grass beside her. She couldn't tell who it was because they'd positioned themselves in a shadowy area. She tensed, wondering who they were and what they could want. Her mother's warning about wizards, unthought-of these past months, came back to her vividly. "Hey Nym."

"Zack," she smiled in relief. "I thought you were someone else."

"Like?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Some evil Dark wizard come to kill me, I guess."

He laughed. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Where were you all day?"

"Oh right," he muttered. "I meant to tell you. Third years can go to Hogsmeade sometimes."

"So that's were you were."

"Yeah. I brought you all some candy back from Honeydukes, 'cause I know it'll be a long time before you get to go." He handed her a little package. "I already gave Rick and Mandy theirs."

"Thanks," Nym said, touched in spite of herself that he would remember her when he was off having fun with kids his own age.

The fireworks started then, saving her the need to say anything further. Some worked as they were supposed to, some didn't. Some worked, but certainly not the way they were meant to. Several times there were screams as burning debris rained down amongst the students, until one of the teachers created an invisible shield. Nym's fireworks blew beautifully, creating brightly colored flowers in the sky. The last one created a showed of gold that flew directly for the students, who shrieked as the sparks avoided the barrier and settled around watches and pin to glow. What, Nym wondered, could I have possibly put in there?

She hadn't won, she knew. Jessica Mugskin of Ravenclaw had, easily. Hers were nearly impressive enough to be wizard crackers. When Professor Tofty stood up to announce the winner, Nym stopped watching. She'd wanted to see the fireworks. The award held no interest for her.

Something in the lake caught her eye. There was a lump of some sort, rising about the surface. Like a round rock, except that it hadn't been there earlier. Where she turned a little to get a better look it slipped beneath the surface with the faintest sound. Zack hadn't seen anything, so she decided not to tell him. Some things were a little too weird, even in the wizarding world.