I'm back, OTPeople! I'm currently rereading the entire Harry Potter series just to improve this fanfic. I'm reading The Deathly Hallows while writing this chapter, actually. I'm changing the prefect rules. Each grade (first-year, second-year, etc) can be represented by a prefect from any house. So it can be four Hufflepuffs, or a Ravenclaw and three Slytherins, and so forth. That's the only the whole 'class representative scenario' with Chloe and Marinette can work. I suppose I should also mention that Mr. Damocles is the librarian on Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and Sundays. On weekdays, the library is managed by someone else. This chapter will include Darkwand, Hogsmeade, the akumatized version of Juleka (it's not going to be Reflekta), and a cliffhanger! Ah, yes, enough filler. This will be the last filler-ish chapter, I swear. The next chapter will involve a Quidditch game, a mysterious new student, and…...a rival Wizarding school. But enough spoilers. On with the story!
…...
Chapter 5: An Unhealthy Butterbeer Addiction
"I forgot to add a dash of moonstone!" Alya panicked, looking at the contents of her cauldron.
Instead of the turquoise color that her Draught of Peace was supposed to be, it was a strange shade of lavender.
"Dump it in before Professor Mendeleiev notices!" Marinette whispered.
Alya quickly poured some silvery-blue powder into her cauldron and stirred it.
"Counterclockwise!" Marinette corrected her.
Alya stirred her potion in the opposite direction.
The bubbling lavender liquid turned a bluish-green color.
"That was a close one," Alya sighed with relief.
Poof!
Pink mist rose out of Kim's Draught of Peace.
"I told you to ground your porcupine quills into adequate pieces, but did you listen?! No!" Max shrieked.
"Max, what's the matter?" Professor Mendeleiev asked.
Max pointed to Kim's head.
Or rather, the space where Kim's head normally was.
"You made your head invisible? Again?" Professor Mendeleiev deadpanned.
"Yes," Kim sheepishly answered.
"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Professor Mendeleiev sighed.
Kim's headless body walked out of the dungeons.
Marinette and Alya, who had already completed their Draughts of Peace, quickly became bored.
"I have an idea," Alya whispered. "Try to find the weirdest-looking Draught of Peace in this room."
Marinette surveyed the cauldrons.
It looked like each person was brewing a different potion.
The substance in Nathaniel's cauldron was thick, brown, and emitting orange and blue sparks.
He huddled over his potion and attempted to fix it.
Mylene's potion was bright yellow, and she was currently using way more hellebore syrup than necessary to make her Draught of Peace turquoise again.
Adrien's potion was exemplary and produced a cloud of silver vapor, unlike Nino's, which had black smoke wafting from it.
Rose and Juleka kept on shoving the potion components toward each other, saying things like "You can have the moonstone dust, I'll wait" and "Go ahead and use the stirring spoon, no, you deserve to go first" until both potions had nearly evaporated from the significant lack of ingredients.
Chloe's potion was the worst of all.
It was a murky gray color and had a whirlpool in the center that was sucking in every ingredient she added.
"I think Chloe's Draught of Peace might have teeth," Marinette shuddered.
"Nope. Those are definitely tentacles," Alya said.
"Sabrina, help me!" Chloe whispered.
"Alright, where did you go wrong?" Sabrina asked.
"Step one," Chloe responded.
Sabrina sighed and made Chloe's Draught of Peace disappear with a Vanishing Spell.
Chloe brewed a new potion, and although it was neon blue, at least it didn't have tentacles.
"Please pour your Draught of Peace into a vial and mark it with your name. Then place it on my desk," Professor Mendeleiev said.
Most of the students had gotten the Draught of Peace right, but each potion was a different shade of blue or green.
"Your homework is to write a three-scroll essay on how Gregory's Unctuous Unction was first discovered and the vital mistake that was made in developing the recipe," Professor Mendeleiev continued. "Class dismissed!"
The students left the dungeons, grumbling about their homework as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch.
"I can't believe how much homework we have!" Nino complained. "We have the Potions essay, Herbology research on Puffapods, and we have to practice the Unlocking Charm for Charms!"
"That's easy for you to say. I have modelling and Quidditch practice later," Adrien sighed. "And you forgot to mention that we have to be able to turn a teapot into a turtle by 2:15."
"Do you think that Professor Damocles will notice if my turtle still has a spout for a tail?" Alya asked.
"Don't worry, mine has a floral print on its shell," Marinette giggled.
"Mine still breathes steam!" Adrien added.
"At least yours doesn't have Earl Gray tea in its mouth instead of spit," Nino grumbled.
Adrien furrowed his eyebrows. "How do know that it's Earl-"
"Don't ask," Nino ordered.
"As your friends, it's our duty to be nosy. What happened?" Alya questioned him.
"If you really must know, then I'll tell you. My turtle spat in my face the last Transfiguration lesson," Nino said.
Marinette and Adrien burst into laughter.
"Anyway, it's time for us to split apart again. To separate into four houses, never to speak to each other again," Alya dramatically said.
"It's only an hour, you'll get over it," Nino snickered.
"Who are you, Quakelance?" Marinette grinned.
"Who?" Alya blankly asked.
"Y'know, the Muggle poet. He wrote A Midspring Night's Dream," Marinette explained.
"I think you meant Shakespeare," Alya laughed. "And it's Midsummer, not Midspring."
"Oh," Marinette blushed.
"Don't worry, we all make mistakes like that," Adrien reassured her. "I honestly thought Attila the Hun was Nutella the Hun until last year."
"Really?" Alya laughed.
"How am I supposed to know about Muggle history?" Adrien retorted. "I know the basics. I can name some of the most famous Muggle rulers on earth. Like the first American present-dance, George Washingtub."
"First of all, it's presidents," Alya snorted. "Second of all, it's George Washington."
"Winston Chapelhill," Adrien tried.
"Winston Churchill," Marinette piped up.
"Rudolph Wittler?" Adrien guessed.
"Even I know this one. It's Adolf Hitler," Nino chuckled. "Dude, you should really start taking Muggle Studies."
"I don't need to!" Adrien protested as Chloe walked up to them, accusing Nino, Alya, and Marinette of "brainwashing her poor Adrikins to hang out with Muggle-obsessed hooligans," and promptly dragged him towards the Slytherin table.
The remaining three each joined their house's table and tucked into a hearty meal that consisted of soups and sandwiches and whatnot.
"Time for Transfiguration," Nino mumbled as they headed to Professor Damocles' classroom. "Whoopee."
"It's not that bad," Adrien hastily said. "Plus, I think we're going to turn frogs into rocks or something like that."
He was partially correct.
"Today, we will review turning teapots into turtles. Then, you will Transfigure toads into rocks," Professor Damocles announced. "Those of you who succeed will turn teddy bears into bear cubs."
Everyone demonstrated what they had learned the last lesson (Nino's turtle had camomile phlegm this time) and began turning toads into rocks.
Marinette's rock croaked whenever she jabbed it with her wand and Adrien's rock was covered in warts.
Ivan had not fully Transfigured his toad; his rock, which still had toad legs, hopped around the classroom.
About nine students moved onto turning teddy bears into bear cubs.
Alya's bear's stomach was still made out of carpet-like material.
Sabrina's bear squeaked whenever she pressed its paws.
Kim, who had just returned from the hospital wing, had Transfigured his bear perfectly- except for the fact that its mouth was made of pink thread.
"Class dismissed!" Professor Damocles said.
"Charms, right?" Adrien asked.
"Yeah," Marinette nodded.
"Did you hear about the competition for first-year prefect? I would nominate myself, but….." Alya's sentence trailed off as she gestured to Chloe. "And I have my newspaper, which is already enough for me to deal with."
"What about everyone else? Chloe can't be the only one who wants to be the first-year prefect," Marinette thought out loud.
"Chloe threatened to tell everyone about my extreme fear of Acromantulas," Kim said.
"Chloe said that she would find a way to steal my scrapbook," Rose sighed.
"I honestly don't care about all this prefect junk," Alix shrugged.
"What about you, Marinette? You would be a great first-year prefect," Ivan suggested.
"I'll think about it," Marinette said, biting her lip.
She already had so many responsibilities, and she really didn't want to add 'first-year prefect' to that list.
"Today, we are going to begin a competition," Professor Bustier said. "We will vote on the first-year prefect for Hogwarts. They can be from any house. Raise your hand if you want to participate."
Chloe raised her hand.
Kim was about to raise his hand too, but a deathly glare from Chloe made him put his hand back down.
"Anyone else?" Professor Bustier asked. "Okay, Chloe, since there's no one else-"
"I'll run! For first-year prefect," Marinette blurted.
"Wonderful. Chloe and Marinette, prepare your speeches for tomorrow. Good luck!" Professor Bustier grinned.
After practicing the Mending Charm many times (Alix and Kim really enjoyed breaking things so the others could fix them), Charms was over.
"How are you going to win, Chloe?" Sabrina whispered.
"By getting rid of the opponent first. Get some dirt on Marinette. Perhaps her diary?" Chloe evilly smirked. "The Gryffindor password is 'velvet cushion,' by the way."
Sabrina's head jerked up and down and she walked towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Good job, Marinette! I'm definitely voting for you," Juleka smiled.
"So am I!" Rose added.
"Yeah, you're really brave to run against Chloe!" Kim said, patting Marinette on the back.
"You have a very high chance of winning. Approximately 86% of Hogwarts prefers you over Chloe," Max said.
After everyone had congratulated Marinette, only she, Alya, Adrien, and Nino were left in the hallway.
Adrien checked his watch.
"I have about an hour until Quidditch practice," he announced.
"Do you want to check up on our owls or something?" Marinette suggested.
"I'd rather not. My owl, Meteor, got diarrhea," Nino shuddered.
"Maybe the library, then," Alya advised.
"That sounds good," Marinette agreed.
The four students headed to the library, where the twenty-three-year-old part-time librarian, Juliet Wicker, showed them the new edition of the Daily Prophet.
"That'll be three Knuts," she said, handing them the newspaper.
"Chloe's father won the election," Adrien said, dropping three coins on the table.
"He's still the Minister of Magic, huh?" Nino mused.
"Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Professor D'Argencourt wanted the spot, but errrrrrr…..he didn't exactly have a great amount of supporters," Marinette winced.
Alya whistled.
"97% to 3%. Wow," she said. "The very definition of landslide. And it says here that he had the least amount of votes in the entire history of the Ministry of Magic."
"And according to this article, Mr. Bourgeois is going to arrive at Hogwarts today to make a speech," Adrien added.
Suddenly, Professor D'Argencourt stormed into the library, followed by a dozen Daily Prophet reporters.
"This is a library! Be quiet or leave!" Juliet yelled, but her voice was no match for the amount of noise the reporters were making.
"So, Mr. D'Argencourt, how do you feel about your painful defeat?"
"More importantly, how is your current relationship with the re-elected Minister of Magic, Andre Bourgeois?"
"Do you think that the election was rigged? Did someone tamper with the results?"
"Are the rumours about your romantic infatuation with your colleague Darlene Mendeleiev true?"
"GO AWAY!" Professor D'Argencourt roared. "I deserved to win the election! It was rigged! My ancestor was Merlin himself, the greatest wizard of all time! He even invented the Conquering Spell! Everyone adored him! But there's no respect for me, no, none at all!"
The reporters furiously scribbled away in their notebooks.
Marinette noticed that some of them were using very unreliable Quick-Quotes Quills, the preferred writing utensil of Rita Skeeter.
"Yes, yes, go on! The public will love this!" a young reporter muttered to himself, twisting Professor D'Argencourt's words as much as possible so that it seemed like the loser of the election was now declaring war on the whole Ministry of Magic.
"Wait! Andre Bourgeois is at Hogwarts right now!" another reporter announced, sprinting into the library and nearly crashing into a flying book.
"Where?" the reporters asked.
"I am done with this utter nonsense!" Professor D'Argencourt yelled, running out of the library.
…...…...
"Such a shame. No sympathy for Armand. I didn't vote for him either. But soon, even Andre will be bowing down to him!" Hawkmoth cackled. "And speaking of which, I heard that Andre will be arriving at Hogwarts right about now."
He pointed his wand at a butterfly.
"Akuma Kedavra!"
The akuma flew out of the window fluttered around the Hogwarts campus.
Armand D'Argencourt was walking by the lake to clear his mind.
The akuma landed on his wand.
"Darkwand, you can easily conquer the Ministry of Magic, but let's start with Hogwarts first. Everyone respects Merlin, but nobody respects you. With my help, you can be more powerful than your famous ancestor! Your adversary is pacing in the castle as we speak. But more importantly, I need something else that resides at Hogwarts: Cat Noir and Ladybug's Miraculouses," Hawkmoth grinned.
"They're going to pay," Armand muttered, the akuma's dark magic spreading over him.
His robes were black and adorned with a pattern of metallic blood-red crescents and stars.
He had a pointy cone-shaped wizard's cap with the same pattern.
His black hair had grown out and and the stubble on his chin grew into a black beard that was nearly three feet long, much like Merlin's.
His wand was black and crooked, like a charred, twisted twig.
Darkwand used the Conquering Spell on a group of students.
"Eversione!"
Their robes changed into ones exactly like his, except that their robes' crescents and stars were light green.
They marched into a perfect formation of wizards and faced Darkwand, prepared for any orders.
"Storm Hogwarts castle!" Darkwand commanded them.
His wizard army marched towards Hogwarts, their wands waving threateningly.
…...
"What?!" Marinette shouted.
"I know! I can't believe that Chloe's using Jagged Stone to get votes! He's in the Great Hall right now!" Alya groaned.
"Well, he is the most popular guitarist in the Wizarding World," Nino added. "Your speech has to be really good if you want to beat Chloe."
"I'm going to stop her from buying votes," Marinette said.
A second-year Slytherin girl ran into the library.
"Adrien!" Aurore Beaureal, one of the Beaters for the Slytherin Quidditch team, shouted.
"What?" Adrien asked.
"Kim cancelled Quidditch practice because of the new akuma!" Aurore frustratedly responded. "And I really wanted to try that new dive, too. Hey, what's that?"
Aurore, Juliet, Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino looked outside a window.
Sure enough, there was Darkwand, using some sort of spell to launch his wizard soldiers in the air, trying to make them crash through the windows.
The rest of the soldiers were close to breaking down the main door to Hogwarts.
"Professor D'Argencourt! Argh, I should've known!" Marinette said. "We have to barricade the school to keep him from getting to Chloe's father."
Everyone except for Adrien left the library.
"A new akuma?" Plagg sighed.
"Yeah. Plagg, claws out!" Adrien shouted.
Cat Noir pole-vaulted through a window.
…...
Most of the students were in the Great Hall because of Jagged Stone, who was currently signing autographs for everyone.
"And remember, if you vote for me, you'll get free tickets for Jagged Stone's next concert!" Chloe said through an enchanted megaphone.
Her father stood beside her, smiling at the students.
"Hey! Everybody! We need to protect Hogwarts from an akumatized villain!" Marinette yelled, but nobody heard her.
"You're going to have to do better than that if you want to be heard," Alya said. "I learned this one from Quidditch Through The Ages."
She pointed her wand at Marinette's throat.
"Sonorus!"
"What did you do to her?" Nino asked.
"Just say what you were trying to say," Alya winked.
"Everyone, we need to barricade Hogwarts! Professor D'Argencourt has been akumatized and he wants revenge on Mr. Bourgeois," Marinette calmly said, her amplified voice echoing throughout the Great Hall.
The students stopped what they were doing and looked at Marinette.
"We need to shut all the windows and barricade the door," she continued.
"Now, that's a real prefect! Instead of someone who tries to buy our votes with concert tickets!" Alya loudly said.
"Well, that's what I was about to say! Barricade the doors!" Chloe shouted.
Alya pointed her wand at Marinette's throat again and used a Quietening Charm.
Suddenly, a trumpet fanfare reached the students' ears.
"Andre, thee mayst approacheth!" Darkwand roared.
"What?" Mr. Bourgeois asked.
"You better go see what that pathetic wizard wants," Chloe scoffed.
Her father, Alya, Marinette, Rose, and Kim slowly opened the door.
"Bourgeois, pathetic knave, come forth and do battle!" Darkwand yelled.
"What does he mean?" Mr. Bourgeois whispered.
"Basically, he wants to bust you up," Alya summarized.
"Errr…..try again tomorrow!" Mr. Bourgeois nervously said.
He slammed the door shut.
Meanwhile, most of the students were watching Cat Noir fight against Darkwand's army.
He used his metal stick to deflect incoming hexes and used their Stunning Spells against them.
"That was a nice warm up," Cat Noir grinned.
And then…
He dabbed.
Nobody said anything.
After a second of silence, everyone in Hogwarts either facepalmed or cheered.
"This is definitely going in The Ladybulletin," Alya laughed.
Marinette sighed.
"Mine ancestor's crest shalt flourish above thy school!" Darkwand declared.
He waved a black banner with the Mark of Merlin, a silver wand crossed with a gruesome red-tipped sword.
Jagged Stone, who had no idea whatsoever what akumas were, stepped outside.
"Crazed fans, calm down! There's no need to fight over autographs!" he said.
"Behold, a minstrel!" Darkwand cackled.
He jabbed his wand in Jagged Stone's direction.
"Eversione!"
Jagged Stone turned into another member of Darkwand's army.
"What are you waiting for? Barricade Hogwarts!" Marinette shouted.
Students Summoned desks and chairs to block the door.
"You need to transform!" Tikki whispered.
Marinette squeezed her way through the crowd and ran up a staircase so that she was a floor above the other students.
"Tikki, spots on!" she shouted.
Ladybug looked out of the window and saw that the wizard soldiers were closing in on Cat Noir.
Her yo-yo dropped down and Cat Noir saluted them.
He pulled on the yo-yo and crashed into Hogwarts, landing on his head.
"I was doing purrfectly okay on my own. But it's always nice to see mew around," Cat Noir shrugged, leaping into a standing position.
"Formation for attack!" Darkwand yelled.
The wizards scrambled into place and fired spells at the door, trying to burn, cut, and blast it open.
Ladybug and Cat Noir jumped into the crowd of wizards and stole half of their wands in one fell swoop.
"Thou curseth thee, Bourgeois, and thy colorful acrobats!" Darkwand snarled.
He launched more of his wizards into the air.
"What exactly are they trying to do?" Cat Noir asked.
"They're trying to get to the flag!" Ladybug said.
On top of the Main Tower, a flag bearing the crest of Hogwarts billowed in the wind.
Darkwand used a spell on himself.
"Tally ho!" he cheered, flying towards the flag with Merlin's banner in his hand. "Once thy crest is supplanted by mine coat of arms, thou shalt reign supreme!"
Darkwand burned Hogwarts' flag and replaced it with his own.
A circle of dark magic appeared around Hogwarts and started to close in.
Ladybug and Cat Noir yo-yoed and pole-vaulted towards Darkwand.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug shouted.
A red, black-spotted, vibrating thumb tack fell into her hands.
She couldn't help but laugh; she was forced to.
Her Lucky Charm was a new product from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes- Tickling Tacks, thumb tacks that had been hexed with the Tickling Charm.
Ladybug threw the Tickling Tack at Darkwand.
He started laughing uncontrollably and accidentally let go of his wand.
It soared into the air until Cat Noir caught it and tossed it to Ladybug, who snapped it in half.
She purified the akuma and threw the Tickling Tack towards the sky.
"Miraculous Ladybug!"
Darkwand and his army turned back into their normal selves.
Ladybug and Cat Noir fist-bumped.
They detransformed and entered Hogwarts.
"Where were you the whole time?" Chloe sneered at Marinette. "Safely hiding in a closet, I presume?"
"I was turned into a dark wizard, thank you very much," Marinette replied.
"So was I! It was a hexperience that I would never wand to happen again," Adrien added.
"Wizard puns?" Nino sighed.
"Chloe! Please help me!" Sabrina whimpered, covered in boils and some sort of slime.
Her hair was twenty times as long.
"What happened?" Chloe gagged. "You look awful!"
"It bit me!" Sabrina whined, waving a small pink book that had its teeth clamped around her right hand.
"That's my diary!" Marinette gasped.
"Merlin's beard! How many times did you curse and hex your diary?" Alya amusedly asked.
"Too many times to count," Marinette simply responded.
She tapped her diary with her wand and its teeth disappeared.
"Thank you!" Sabrina said.
"You should probably go see Madam Pomfrey," Alya suggested.
Sabrina ran to the hospital wing as quickly as possible.
"I would like to know why you hired Sabrina to steal my diary," Marinette frowned.
"What? Me? Of course not! It was her idea, I was completely against it!" Chloe scoffed.
"Suuuuure," Alya said. "But how could Sabrina possibly know the password to the Gryffindor Common Room? Unless you told her."
"I….I…...I…..I'm completely done with this prefect business anyway! Go ahead and have Maritrash as your first-year prefect! I bet no one's going to vote for her anyway!" Chloe yelled.
"OKAY, RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU'RE GOING TO VOTE FOR MARINETTE!" Alya bellowed.
Every hand except Chloe's went up.
"Well, that settles it," Alya said.
The day later, the official results of the election came.
Marinette, a fourth-year Slytherin girl and two Ravenclaw boys were voted as prefects.
But that news was overshadowed by a new announcement on the notice board.
The first Hogsmeade trip will be on October 23rd. ~Headmaster Fu
"That's only a week from now!" Nino smiled. "I'm glad they changed the stupid permission slip rule, or else my mom wouldn't have signed it because of W.W.W."
"Who's W.W.W.?" Alya asked. "Are they an evil witch or wizard?"
"W.W.W. isn't a who. It's a what. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the best joke shop of all time. I've bought one of almost every product. Except the love potions and Muggle magic tricks," Adrien explained. "Don't tell my father, though. He would have a heart attack if he knew how many Extendable Ears I've bought."
"A joke shop?" Alya deviously grinned. "And love potions, you say? Hey Marinette, do you-"
"I am not going to use a love potion on anyone! Buy a bottle if you want to, but I'm not touching that stuff!" Marinette said, blushing furiously.
The week leading up to October 23rd seemed to go by as fast as a Golden Snitch.
The air was rather cold and the students bundled up in earmuffs, hats, scarves, mittens and gloves of the four houses' colors.
Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino met up at Hogwarts' main door, the same one that had been barricaded with desks and chairs not so long ago.
"Where should we go first?" Alya asked, unfolding a map of Hogsmeade that was previously tucked in her blue and bronze scarf.
"Wow, you came prepared," Marinette mused. "But I think we should actually go to the town first."
They began a brisk walk to Hogsmeade, talking about its shops and all of the homework they had yet to complete.
"Let's start off at Honeydukes," Nino decided. "I'm in the mood for some Pumpkin Pasties, and maybe some Cauldron Cakes too. I'm definitely buying some Pepper Imps, I want to prank a third-year in my dorm that been a real brat lately-"
"Tomes and Scrolls," Adrien suddenly said. "It's a small bookstore. I know it doesn't look like much, but it was my mother's favorite shop. A hidden treasure in Hogsmeade."
"That sounds wonderful," Marinette agreed. "Anyway, look at the amount of students in Honeydukes right now! We can save the sweets for later."
The line for Honeydukes trailed out of the shop's door.
They surveyed the area until they found Tomes and Scrolls.
Adrien pushed open the door and they stepped into an ancient bookshop that smelled of musty parchment.
"My, my. Is my vision failing me, or can you really be Adrien Agreste?" an old woman behind a wooden counter chuckled, pushing her glasses up her nose.
"Yes, I am. You must be Ms. Zinnia," Adrien greeted her.
"You look so much like your mother. With the number of books she bought, I'm surprised that she wasn't a Ravenclaw like your father and me. But I suppose that Slytherin is great, too," Ms. Zinnia softly smiled. "And you brought friends! What are your names?"
Alya, Nino, and Marinette introduced themselves.
"I suggest Mary and the Wand of Legend by Ian Esther. It was Avery's favorite book. There should be a few copies left," Ms. Zinnia said.
"I found it!" Marinette said after five minutes of searching for the book. "It's about a young girl who was just like us, and when she went to Ollivander's, the Elder Wand chose her."
"You should buy it, Marinette. I've read it loads of times," Adrien said, appearing behind her.
She spun around.
"Oh- seems book this interesting! I mean, this book seems interesting," Marinette stuttered.
"I'm getting a few books myself," Alya added.
"A few?!" Nino choked.
Alya was carrying a stack of at least eight thick books.
They payed for their books and left the shop.
"Come again soon!" Ms. Zinnia said.
"Don't worry, we will!" Adrien grinned.
"How much money did all those books cost?" Marinette asked her best friend.
"Nine Galleons," Alya responded. "It's only ten o'clock. What should we do now?"
"There are less people in Honeydukes," Nino noticed.
"If you want candy so badly, we'll go," Adrien laughed.
They entered Honeydukes, which was still packed with sugar-loving students.
The aroma of cinnamon and vanilla reached their nostrils.
"Goodbye, allowance," Nino said, nearly drooling. "We'll have to buy some Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, treacle tarts, exploding bonbons, Chocolate Frogs, Pepper Imps, Peppermint Toads-"
"Do you want to buy the whole store?" Alya snickered.
"I'm just going to get some Every Flavor Beans and Pumpkin Pasties," Marinette said. "I'm not quite fond of their Cauldron Cakes. But that's coming from the girl who grew up in a magical bakery."
"Ice cream that never melts? It looks delicious! I'll have a caramel swirl cone, please," Alya said.
One of Honeydukes' many workers scooped out some ice cream.
"Two Sickles," he said.
Alya handed over some silver coins.
Nino had bought enough sweets to last him a month.
"It's good that all of this candy and chocolate never goes stale," Adrien said.
"Want some Every Flavor Beans?" Marinette offered her friends. "I've been lucky with this batch so far. The worst one I had was bread-flavored."
Adrien grabbed a bean from the bag and spat it out immediately.
"Rotten eggs," he gagged. "I'm not so lucky."
He took another one.
"Hey, this one's not so bad," Adrien smiled. "Wait. Gah, it's jalapeno!"
He nearly choked and managed to swallow the bean.
"Marshmallow," Marinette beamed.
"Chicken," Nino said after he chewed his Every Flavor Bean. "Adrien, for the safety of your tastebuds, you better not stick your hand in that bag again."
"Watermelon!" Alya cheered.
Adrien's stomach rumbled.
"I think it's time for us to go to the Three Broomsticks," Marinette smiled.
The pub was full of students, and most of their friends were already there.
A large crowd had formed in the middle of the Three Broomsticks.
Alya, Marinette, Nino and Adrien squeezed their way to the front.
"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!" a couple of third-years chanted.
Kim and Alix were surrounded by more than thirty mugs of Butterbeer, and most of them were empty.
Alix downed another glass and Kim belched.
"And…..stop!" Max said. "Alix, you drank fifteen glasses of Butterbeer. Kim, you drank seventeen. Therefore, Kim wins Round Two!"
"Dang it!" Alix groaned.
"Would anyone else like to challenge me?" Kim shouted.
"I will," Alya smirked.
"Alya, are you sure about this?" Marinette asked.
"Of course I am," Alya winked.
She sat next to Kim while Max ordered more mugs of Butterbeer.
"Round Three begins…..now!"
Kim and Alya started drinking like there was no tomorrow.
Soon, Alya was finishing two mugs for every mug that Kim forced down.
"Seriously, where is she putting all that stuff? Where?" Nino dumbfoundedly asked.
"I have no idea," Adrien simply said, just as shocked as his best friend.
"And…...stop!" Max yelled, trying to make himself heard over the crowd's racket. "Kim, you drank nineteen mugs of Butterbeer. And Alya, you drank- you drank-"
Max gulped.
"-twenty-nine mugs of Butterbeer. Therefore, Alya wins Round Three."
"That was awesome!" Marinette grinned, high-fiving Alya.
"I'm starving. Let's order lunch," Adrien said.
They ate a few sandwiches and Alya ordered yet another thermos of Butterbeer 'for the road.'
"What- how- you have an unhealthy Butterbeer addiction. That's all I have to say," Nino sighed.
They exited the Three Broomsticks and walked to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
"This place is awesome!" Marinette gasped.
"Look at the fireworks!" Adrien said, pointing to a colorful array of explosions just below the ceiling of the joke shop.
A firework-dragon soared right above them.
"I'm going to check out their Skiving Snackboxes," Nino said. "They're definitely going to help me through a good deal of History of Magic lessons."
"I'm going to buy Dungbombs," Alya said. "Just in case Chloe tries to do something horrible again, which she probably will."
Among the Weasleys' products, Marinette saw a few packets of Tickling Tacks, the very object that had saved herself from becoming a dark wizard.
A young man demonstrated a Headless Hat, a cap that made your head as invisible as Kim's Draught of Peace.
A voice on the magical loudspeaker reached the students' ears.
"Maintenance, please. Somebody accidentally released a Portable Swamp in Aisle Six."
A witch dashed over to Aisle Six and muttered a few incantations while waving her wand.
Her wand suddenly turned into a pair of boxers.
"Alright, who gave me this trick wand? I need my real one!" she yelled.
The wand thief, a fourth-year boy wearing a pair of Extendable Ears, reluctantly gave the witch's real wand back to her.
The maintenance witch soon made the Portable Swamp disappear.
Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino regrouped and wandered over to the cashier to pay for their joke products (including a love potion bought by Alya).
The ghost of a young man suddenly drifted over to them.
"How are you doing? I'm Fred Weasley, the one and only. Cursed to haunt my own company forever," he dramatically sighed.
"It's an honor to meet you, sir," Nino awestrickenly greeted him. "You died in the Battle of Hogwarts, right?"
"Correctamundo. And there's no need to call me sir. I see that you're buying some Skiving Snackboxes. Try the Fever Fudge, it's my favorite," Fred grinned.
He floated away to advertise his products to another group of students.
The four friends made one last stop at the Three Broomsticks to hang out with everyone else for an hour.
They decided to retire to their dorms for the remainder of the day.
Everyone was tired after the first Hogsmeade visit.
For the first-years' next few Herbology lessons, they learned how to grow enchanted pumpkins, for it was nearly Halloween.
Peeves the Poltergeist's pranks took a scary turn, and he developed a habit of jumping out of coffins and frightening the unlucky students that were passing by.
Even the ghosts seemed happier.
October 31st arrived and the scent of pumpkin spice filled the air.
The hallways were covered in Halloween decorations.
Everyone was joyful except for a certain Ravenclaw first-year.
Juleka shoved the bathroom door open and locked herself in a stall.
She sat on the toilet and started to cry.
"Are you okay?" Moaning Myrtle asked, appearing in Juleka's stall.
"N-no," Juleka bitterly said. "I-It's the anni-anniversary of my m-m-mom's death today, and Chloe t-teased me a-about not h-having a m-mother. I w-wish I could be with M-Mom, but she didn't c-come back as a ghost. I w-wish I w-was dead."
"Well, that's horrible," Moaning Myrtle drawled. "But not as horrible as Olive Hornby, the little brat!"
She wailed and dived back into her toilet.
Juleka sighed and looked at her wrist mirror, the last gift from her mother.
…...…
"Poor girl. I know exactly how it feels to lose someone you love so dearly," Hawkmoth ruefully said.
He pointed his wand at a white butterfly.
"Akuma Kedavra!"
The akuma flew out of the window and landed on Juleka's wrist mirror.
"Spectre, you can give the students of Hogwarts a scare that they'll never forget and avenge your mother's death. But I need Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses in return," Hawkmoth said.
"I'd love to, Hawkmoth," Juleka muttered.
Dark magic washed over her and she rose into the air.
She wasn't dead, but nevertheless, she was transparent, because she was a ghost.
Her Ravenclaw robes had transformed into a silvery dress.
She was wrapped in chains and her eyes were completely white.
Her face had a rather blank expression.
She floated out of the bathroom and aimed her wrist mirror at a few students.
A silvery vapor came out of it and wrapped around the students.
They turned into ghosts, but they didn't move.
They just hung limply in the air.
Spectre smiled and levitated down the hallway.
…...
"Wow, Hogwarts really goes all out for Halloween," Marinette grinned, looking at the skulls that littered the hallways.
"Yeah, and- duck!" Alya shouted.
A swarm of enchanted bats narrowly missed their heads.
"I swear, I'm going to be decapitated like Nearly Headless Nick if that happens again," Marinette said.
They bumped into Adrien and Nino.
"Seven black cats have crossed my path today. Seven," Adrien groaned. "I must be cursed with bad luck for all eternity."
A black kitten suddenly rubbed against his shin.
"I think you meant eight," Nino laughed.
"Midnight, come back here!"
A third-year Hufflepuff girl scooped up the black kitten and ran to her dorm.
"PEEVES!" Professor Timmonds roared. "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT RELEASING BOGGARTS, ESPECIALLY ON HALLOWEEN?! WHERE IS IT?!"
"That's funny, I don't remember at all!" Peeves mischievously smiled.
Professor Timmonds stormed off to find the shapeshifting creature.
CRACK!
The lights went out and cobwebs appeared in the corners.
A chilly fog formed in the hallway, and the blue sky darkened, turning the daytime into nighttime.
"Please tell me that this is just one of W.W.W.'s pranks," Marinette said.
"I have a feeling that it's not," Adrien frowned.
"I am Spectre," a voice said, but its owner was nowhere to be seen.
"Chloe ridiculed me for my mother being gone, but at the end of Halloween we'll see who's going to have the last laugh. My mother's dead, but soon all of you will die too!" Spectre cackled.
"An akuma? Let's see, I have my camera, my quill, my notebook…..Yep, all set!" Alya said, leaving her friends to find the new villain.
The fog surrounded the students, completely obscuring their vision.
Marinette and Adrien quietly tiptoed away from the rest of them to transform.
"Tikki, spots on!"
"Plagg, claws out!"
Ladybug and Cat Noir nearly crashed into each other in the fog.
"Let's start off with something simple. Who was akumatized?" Ladybug thought out loud.
"Well, the victim sounds like a girl, and we know that her mother is dead," Cat Noir said.
And so is mine, he thought, trying not to cry.
"It's Chloe's fault. Again," Ladybug added. "Shocker. Hold on a second, it's that gothic Ravenclaw Chaser!"
She tried not to reveal that she knew Juleka's name.
"Poor girl," Cat Noir muttered. "We better look for her."
They slowly walked through the fog and saw a terrifying sight.
Five ghosts were suspended in the air.
Ghosts of students.
"What did Spectre do to them?" Ladybug gasped.
"If they're ghosts, then so is Spectre. We're dealing with the supernatural," Cat Noir said. "Her name's sort of a given. But these students didn't die."
"The way that ghosts work-" Ladybug began, "-you live, you die, and then you have the option of becoming a ghost or not. They aren't alive or dead. But the way that Spectre did this…..they lived, then they became a ghost. Completely skipped the dying process."
"You sure do know a lot about ghosts," Cat Noir mused.
"Well, my grandparents are transparent. So yes, I know a lot about ghosts," Ladybug huffed.
"If Spectre wants her mother back, she's going to go to her cemetery. My guess is that she's buried at Hogwarts, along with over two hundred people. Spectre's going to- going to- forcibly bring her mother back as a ghost," Cat Noir whispered in horror.
But can I do the same? Can I bring Mom back? he thought.
He immediately dismissed the idea from his head.
Ladybug and Cat Noir dashed towards the Hogwarts Cemetery and saw Spectre screaming at a headstone.
"Mom! Come back! Do I need more life so I can be with you?! Do I?! DO I?! Please, Mom…...please," Spectre weeped.
She suddenly vanished into thin air.
The superhero duo strolled to the grave.
"Here lies Diane Elaine Couffaine," Cat Noir quietly read.
"Kitty, look at the ground," Ladybug mumbled. "Look. At. The. Ground."
Silver wisps circled around the grave, forming the distinct outline of a woman.
"That's life. Those are the very life essences of people," Cat Noir firmly stated.
"And Spectre's going to get more. We need to go back," Ladybug said.
They hightailed it back to Hogwarts and caught Spectre turning more students into lifeless ghosts.
"To bring back my mother, I need something that you have," she snarled. "Your Miraculouses."
"Do they really have to announce what they want from us every time?" Cat Noir groaned. "You'd think we would've gotten the point by now."
"I think your life force is going to be very useful," Spectre said, pointing her wrist mirror at them.
Instead of silver vapor coming out of it, ghostly chains shot out and wrapped around Cat Noir.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted, swiping at them.
His hand went straight through the chains and they vanished.
"Lucky Charm!"
A camera fell into Ladybug's hands, similar to Alya's.
"We're reversing the roles this time," she whispered to her partner. "While I distract her, grab her mirror."
Ladybug rapidly took pictures of Spectre, the camera's blinding flash forcing the latter to shield her eyes.
Cat Noir nicked Spectre's wrist mirror and smashed it.
After the akuma was purified and Ladybug threw the camera into the air, Spectre faded away and Juleka was left in her place.
"What happened?" Juleka sniffled.
"You were akumatized," Ladybug gently said, helping her up. "But everything's okay now."
"And if you ever feel sad about your mother, just remember her laugh, her smile, her eyes…...just remember everything about her," Cat Noir said.
His green eyes widened. "I mean, uhhhh, that's what one of my my old friends did when he was sad about his father."
Ladybug raised an eyebrow underneath her mask.
"Thanks for the advice," Juleka said. "But Rose is probably worried about me."
She walked away, checking her wrist mirror every other step.
"We better treasfure Halloween and its purrks while we still can," Cat Noir added.
"Happy Halloween," Ladybug grinned.
…...
The students stuffed themselves with every food possible, from turkey to dancing bowls filled with mashed potatoes to pumpkin pie topped with blue whipped cream.
Alya's parents had sent her some Muggle candy.
"I haven't had a Hershey bar in forever!" Alya laughed.
"A what bar?" a fellow Ravenclaw asked.
Marinette's parents had sent her a miniature cake with frosting that changed its design every five seconds.
Headmaster Fu rang a small bell for attention.
"I have an announcement," he said. "Hogwarts has decided to participate in a prestigious competition, along with our Wizarding sister school, Ramhorns. It has already been agreed upon by Headmaster Freeburrow and myself. A student from each house shall compete."
Gasps and murmurs spread through the house tables like wildfire.
"That's right. We are bringing back the Triwizard Tournament."
…...
I give all credit to blackmailingqueen for coming up with the Triwizard Tournament idea. She's stayed with this story from the very beginning, and I'd like to acknowledge that. I already have the first and final tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, but I'm deciding what to do for the second task. Reviews and PMs are highly suggested. Updates should be more frequent now, because I've finished An Armada of Ships. Please read it!