Deathday Party

A few days before Halloween, Ginny and Luna were sitting in the library.

"The whole meaning of Halloween belongs to the Great Pumpkin." Luna looked up from The Fifty Most Mysterious Days in The Year.

"Who?"

"Uh-oh. You're done. You don't even know the Great Pumpkin. He flies out of a pumpkin patch at midnight every Halloween and gives presents to every good child. You don't believe him. There's no present for you this year."

This was again one incredibly strange thing that Luna believes in.

Ginny put down the camera she was playing with. "Have you received it before?"

"I did a long time ago when Mum was still alive. I didn't see much of him afterward. He was probably too busy."

Ginny remembered that Luna's mother passed away and regretted asking.

"The best thing about Halloween is walking by people's houses and asking for candy," Ginny wanted to say pleasantly. "Trick or treat! My favorite part."

"There's no place to ask for candy at school this year."

"Yes, that's a pity."

"I know how to make it up," said Luna, laughing. "Come with me to a fun place on Halloween night."

"Where?"

"Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party."

Luna had wandered to the third-floor storage area that day, coincidently spotted Nick and Peeves struggling to bring down a large cabinet, which very hard for ghosts to suddenly move such a heavy object as they were, well... transparent, mostly. Luna was enthusiastic; she remembered the Principle of the Lever, picked up two brooms in a corner, propped them on a small trunk, and pried the big cabinet.

The cabinet fell down, the deafening sound filled the corridor.

"Well done, run! Filch's coming up!"

Luna ran behind Nick on her legs like the wind and with the force of lightning.

As it turned out, he was trying to distract Filch away from Harry, who was in trouble. Nick also said that there would be a deathday party on Halloween and that Luna would be welcome if she wanted to.

"So go with me. The school party happens every year, but the 500th anniversary of death only happens once every 500 years."

"But I was not invited."

"It is the duty of every living man to honour the dead."

Since it is a duty, it cannot be excused.

Halloween soon arrived and the school hall was once again decorated with live bats. Hagrid's enormous pumpkins were carved into lanterns that big enough for three people to sit in. Professor Dumbledore had personally booked a troupe of dancing skeletons. The dinner was even fancier than usual, and Ginny was in a very gloomy mood as Luna forcibly removes her from the table.

In the basement, Ginny and Luna are given a warm and cold welcome by Nick.

Warm attitude, cold temperature.

The scene inside was as bizarre as you can think of. Inside the room, hundreds of pale, transparent people, no, ghosts, were floating on the dance floor, waltzing to the eerie sound of music. On a darkened platform, a symphony orchestra tugged vigorously at thirty chainsaws. The chandelier overhead glowed in blue. Their breath became vapour as if they had walked into a refrigerator.

Ginny held up the camera and shoot at the scene rapidly.

"You still haven't given it back to Colin?"

"He didn't say when to give back, and he didn't ask me for it."

Just then, a short ghost floated out from under the table, suspended in midair, and stopped in front of the camera.

The troublemaker wore a bright yellow party hat, a rotating bow tie, and a broad smile. In comparison, he is the least pale and transparent among all of the ghosts.

"Fancy a bite?" He took a plate of food.

"Thank you, that was just in time." Ginny took a handful without even looking at it; it tasted funny, but spat it out would be rude, so she swallowed it forcibly.

"Can a living person eat this?" Peeves' eyes glowed. "Those kids who just got here refused to eat. Young people nowadays don't cherish food at all," he sighed.

Ginny's face turned green with these words, and whispered to Luna, "Luna... what did I eat... I don't dare look... "

"You ate a handful of moldy-"

"Never mind, I don't wanna know."

Luna did as Ginny pleased.

"Go to your living friends," said Peeves, stretching out his stubby fingers. "Over there."

"Ginny, it's your brother."

Looking at Peeves' fingers' direction, they saw Ron, Harry, and Hermione on the other side of the table, with a milk-coloured girl.

"They seem to have made Myrtle cry." Peeves said, somehow sounding like he's gloating over their misfortune.

"Myrtle cries whenever and wherever, there's no need for others' help. She has already made an art out of crying." Ginny said.

"I know how to keep her from crying. Just ask her how she died, and she'll be glad to tell you." Then Luna stepped forward. "Myrtle, tell us how you died, I'm dying to know."

"Really? I thought nobody in the world cared what happened to poor Myrtle." The girl stopped crying immediately. "Ooooh, it was dreadful." She said with relish. "It happened in the girl's bathroom on the third floor. I died in a stall inside. I remember it so well. I was hiding because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then-"Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?" Harry said.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away... " She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she's sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses. Did I tell you what I did at her wedding? It was in June I think, about forty years ago, when I heard... "

Myrtle told the story of the wedding, the story of the dog, the story of her Grandma's shawl, the story of the cake, all of which had something to do with the pain of the classmates who had laughed at her before, and Ginny suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated.

"I'm not feeling well." Ginny glanced at Myrtle. "Not because of your story... I... "

"Do you feel like you wanna throw up?" said Luna slowly.

"How do you know?"

"What you just ate was a handful of moldy peanut, which contains aflatoxin. A small amount of it causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and convulsions."

"In large amounts, it can cause severe damage to the liver, even cancer, and death!" Hermione cooperated.

"You're too obsessed with food. That's all." "They chorused.

"I want to go back… "

Five people were walking in the dark corridor. Ginny was not happy that they had used her to escape the deathday party.

"Nick, we're so sorry, Ginny is nauseous, she's not well, we need to get her to the hospital wing!" Ginny let them carried her and rushed out, pretending her situation very serious. When they got out of the basement, they threw her back to the ground.

"You're really heavy." Ginny glared at Ron, vowing that she would never give him a wedding present when he's getting married.

As they walked, Harry suddenly stopped; he leaned against the stone wall and listened intently; his eyes fixed on the dark corridor.

"Harry, what are you-"

"Listen!" said Harry eagerly. "Did you hear anything?" But others apparently heard nothing.

"This way." He yelled as he ran up the stairs, the four others following him inexplicably, and Harry hurried up the third floor, stopping at the end of one corridor.

Ginny pressed the shutter of the camera, creating a flash to light up the dark corridor. The clicking sound reverberated uncomfortably in the corridor.

"What's the matter?" Ron wiped the sweat from his face. "I can't hear anything..."

Suddenly Hermione gasped, pointing down the corridor.

"Look!"

The front wall was glistening. They walked slowly, step by step, closer to the wall, their eyes wide.

On the wall, the words scrawled on it was glitching under the flickering light of the torch.

Ginny read it aloud subconsciously.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the h... h... something beware?"

"The her," said Luna.

"The heh," said Ron.

"The heir!" roared Hermione.

There is a large pool of water on the floor. Ginny looked closer at these words, leaning over the black mass below it, and pressed the flash again. Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was instantly recognizable - her tail hanging from the torch barrel; her body as stiff as a board; her eyes wide open.

"Ahhh... " screamed Ginny.

"What? What do you see?"

"You guys stay here. I'll be right back... "

Luna hurriedly escorted Ginny to the bathroom nearby.