"For reasons that I am sure many of you understand, it has beome necessary to make some changes that are effective immediately," Dumbledore said at breakfast the next day.

"The outside doors and walls have been warded against intruders. Those who are Hogwarts students will still be able to get inside, but those who are not will require permission to enter. This includes parents, Ministry officials and aurors."

The crowd around me burst into low murmurs at that. Dumbledore waited a moment until the murmurs died down.

"Students are not to be on the grounds after dark," he called out. "First and second years are not to be out on the grounds at all without being accompanied by at least one older student."

I understood the reasoning behind what he was saying, although I heard an angry murmur from the younger students. It didn't seem to bother the older students as much, although many of them seemed confused.

"An intruder attempted to attack a Hogwarts student last night on the grounds," Dumbledore said. "He remains at large."

I saw several of the Slytherins looking at me. I carefully kept my face neutral. It was well known that I had detention last night, and I was sure that several of them were going to ask questions of me the moment the meal was over, if not before.

"The news is not all bad, however," Dumbledore continued. "Tonight is the night of the Halloween Feast, and I can confirm that the Dancing Skeletons will be in attendance."

An excited murmur sprang up from all around me. Considering that ghosts were an everyday occurrence here, I couldn't understand why dancing skeletons would be considered such a big deal. I still suspected that Dumbledore had hired them in an effort to defuse tensions around the school. From what I was hearing around me, it might not have been the worst idea he ever had.

"Secondly, the ghosts are having an after party. Those students who wish to attend must receive the permission from their head of house, although I think that in this case they may be lenient."

Dumbledore smiled genially at the crowd. "With any luck, this will be the best Halloween celebration since last year!"

He waved and sat down.

"Hebert," Draco demanded. "What happened last night?"

He was on the other side of Pansy. He'd made sure to always keep at least one student between me and him at all times for the past few weeks. Whether this was because he thought it would give him more time to go for his wand, or to preserve the illusion that we didn't have anything to do with each other, I didn't know.

I shrugged.

"I haven't heard about anybody dead," he said. "It was you that got attacked, right?"

"I didn't see anybody coming back from Detention last night," I said, which was technically true, even if not true in principal.

He deflated.

"It's not like it'll make much of a difference," I said. "It wasn't like you spent a lot of time by the lake anyway."

"I see enough of it from the bottom," he said dismissively. "Why would I want to sit outside?"

"So does anybody know what they are serving tonight?" I asked. "I've been smelling pumpkin all morning."

"You wouldn't believe how many things they can make with pumpkins," Millie said enthusiastically from her seat on the other side of me.

Draco made a face. Apparently he didn't like some of the offerings.

Pansy made an oinking sound, and I cast a stinging jinx at her. I had my wand in my lap.

She jerked upward, and turned to glare at me. "You shouldn't encourage her. She'll never find a husband if she keeps eating like that!"

"I'd ask what business it is of yours," I said cool, "But what if she wants something more than being the wife of some pureblood?"

"Well, it's not like it's an option for you," Pansy said. "Somebody would have to be crazy to get married to you. You'd end up with more husbands than Blaise's mom, dead because they forgot to pick up their socks."

I noticed that she didn't say I was unmarriagable due to being a mudblood. From Pansy that was actually a sign of progress. Or maybe it had finally sunk in that I didn't punish when criticisms had truth to them.

Not that I expected to have a lot of husbands. The thought of dating right now was... unappealing for a lot of reasons. I couldn't date any of these children, even if I'd had my original body because even those who were almost the age that I had been once were still children in terms of life experience.

Anyone adult who would date me underage wasn't someone I would contemplate either.

Even when I got older, there were things about the Wizarding mindset that didn't seem like they would make for a good partner. I'd need an equal before I became interested, and there weren't many people in this world I felt like that about.

Any, really.

"I might go into government," I said. "And take Millie with me."

"Muggleborn never get anywhere," Pansy said, authoritatively. "You've got to know the right people to get anywhere in the Ministry, and they... don't."

"You think that would stop me?" I asked.

"You'd have to murder half the Ministry, and then they'd put you in Azkaban," she said. "The Headmaster wouldn't be able to protect you from that."

"We'll see," I said, more to get a rise out of Pansy than for any other reason.

I caught Draco giving concerned looks at me.

Ignoring him, I waited until the meal was over before rising and following Hermione, who was rushing out of the hall. She'd been doing that ever since the unveiling of my boggart, and she'd been making all kinds of excuses to keep from talking to me. She'd even started missing training sessions.

However, I knew exactly where she was going through my bugs, and I slipped after her in the crowd.

She was slipping out to the courtyard. I followed her, and managed to get ahead of her. I stepped out in front of her, and before she could say anything, I pulled her behind one of the pillars.

"You've been avoiding me," I said.

"I haven't," she said, but she was avoiding my eyes, as though she thought I was capable of legillimancy. Maybe she thought I could. She also looked as though she was ready to bolt any minute.

"You have," I said. "Neville and Mildred are still showing up for training, but we haven't seen you for a while."

"I've been busy with my studies," she said.

It was an obvious excuse, and I could see color rising to her cheeks. She knew that I knew she was lying, and she couldn't come up with any better excuses?

"I wouldn't hurt you," I said. "I know that seeing my Boggart was traumatic, but..."

It was what I'd been worried about. Seeing what I really was, had it frightened her to the point that she didn't want to be my friend any more?

She looked up hurriedly. "It's not that!"

Other than my Bogart, I couldn't see anything that I had done that would have driven her away. I hadn't heard of any hint of her being overtly bullied, even if she did tend to be ignored by her classmates. Would she have been bullied without her association with me? There was no way for me to know.

"Then why not come back?" I asked.

"Why would you want me to?" Hermione asked. She looked up. "After I was so disloyal?"

"You mean your Boggart?" I shook my head. "That didn't mean anything. We've all got weird little fears that we can't control."

"It was a stupid thing for me to worry about," she said. "And unexpected. I was expecting McGonagall telling me that I'd failed out of school or something, not that."

"Travers was a jerk to make us show out boggarts in public." I scowled. "What if someone had something really embarassing, or even damaging, like it turned out their father was a Death Eater or something?"

"I heard that all the other classes got to do their Boggarts behind a screen, with only him to see," Hermione said. She sniffed. "I was afraid that you were disappointed in me, and I didn't want to face that."

"If I didn't want you back, I wouldn't ask you," I said. "You know me well enough for that."

She nodded.

"So I'll see you at the ghost's party tonight?" I asked.

She hesitated, then nodded. "I find them really fascinating. Do you think that they are really just copies of the person they once were, or do you think there's something left of the original?"

"That's a question I ask myself every day," I said. I smiled wryly even though I wasn't actually joking.

After all, what was I other than the ghost of a once living person. I'd heard a discussion about continuity of consciousness once, and since I'd woken in my new body, it was one that had haunted me.

It was the Star Trek Transporter problem; if you were disassembled and then reassembled somewhere else, were you still you?

Or had the original you been killed and a copy been created elsewhere? The copy would think it was you, and to the rest of the world it would be you, but the original would still be just as dead.

Was I just an imprint?

I patted Hermione on the shoulder and said, "And come back to training. How else are we going to keep ahead of all the idiots?"

She nodded, then frowned.

"That thing last night, with the intruder... did that happen to you?"

I shrugged. "I've made some enemies."

"You were attacked by an adult wizard last night?" her voice rose, almost to a shriek, and I winced. Nobody had been listening in on our conversation according to the bugs, but I could see several heads snapping around now.

"They didn't manage to land a hand or a spell on me."

"You were serious about the Death Eaters trying to kill muggleborns," she said, looking at me with horrified eyes.

"Me more than most, but yeah," I said. "You're probably OK here, but summertime might be a good time for your family to take a trip abroad. Things are likely to get nasty. That's why I want you to keep up with the lessons."

"We can't use spells outside of school," she said.

"In self defense it's OK...and even if it's not, the possibility of Azkaban is better than the surety of being dead."

Staring at me for a moment, her lips tightened and she nodded.

"If someone comes for you, they're going to expect a first year... helpless and defenseless. You won't be able to beat an adult Wizard yet, but if you can get away, that will be good enough."

I was going to have to work with her and Neville and Mildred on tactics, on using improvised weapons, on being me, essentially. Because eventually the people around me were going to learn their lesson. They'd learn that I wasn't easy meat, and they'd save their attack for whenever they thought they had overwhelming firepower.

"Classes are starting soon," Hermione said.

I nodded.

We separated on better terms than we'd started, although I suspected that Hermione was still a little guarded around me.

The rest of the day was a normal school day, although I did hear that Ron Weasley had managed to make a girl in Hufflepuff cry. His brothers had vowed to make him regret it when I'd seen them at lunch.

The scent of pumpkin grew stronger throughout the day, and the sense of excitement grew as the end of the day got closer and closer.

Finally, it was time for the feast.

Jack-o-lanterns were everywhere, their surfaces carved into a variety of faces. I noticed that the faces at the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables tended to be a little more demonic, and the ones at the other two tables tended to be much friendlier.

These people made all kinds of assumptions based on house preference.

Clouds of bats flew overhead, swarming and making the lights glitter and sputter as they flew near to the pumpkins.

The bats were real; I could tell because they were eating my bugs, which made me a little uneasy. It limited my vision and was bringing me back to normal, at least within the hall. I'd have to be more on my guard that usual here.

I kept my face blank and showed no signs that I was on edge.

It really did look beautiful though. Everything was dark and made up in orange and black.

The food was as good as it always was, with an obvious pumpkin theme. There were pumpkin juice, pumpkin pasties, pumpkin pie and pumpkin scalloped potatoes. I hadn't tasted the last before, but I decided I liked them.

Millie seemed to love it, but Draco was making faces at everything. I suppose he wasn't a fan.

The good thing was that no one asked me about the intruder. They knew me well enough to know that I wasn't likely to say anything more about it.

Finally the plates were cleared away, and the Headmaster had us stand. He made the huge, heavy tables vanish with a flick of his wand, and he had us back away from the place where the Professors usually sat.

I heard a strange drumming in the distance. It was thunderous, and it seemed to resonate in my bones. It took me a moment to realize that the doors to the outside were opening, and skeletons were dancing their way inside.

Several of them had trumpets, and I had no idea how they were blowing them without lungs. Others were beating on their own rib cages with what looked like their own bones.

There were male and female skeletons; I'd seen enough bodies to know the difference. Some had flutes that were also made of bone and some had panpipes made of the same material. It should have made a godawful noise, but somehow they made it work in a harmonious whole.

The people around me were cheering and stomping their feet. I felt a little anxious in the crowd without my bugs to give me warning, so I forced my way to the front. Hermione was standing beside me, and she was grinning widely.

This was exactly the kind of thing she'd expected when she'd decided to come to a school of magic; I could see it on her face.

The skeletons were assembling something now; they were pulling bones from their fellows and making something that reminded me a little of a throne, except that the remaining skeletons began to bang their bones against it with a drumming rhythm, and whenever they hit it in different places it made different noises.

The crowd went wild around me, and I found myself grinning along with everyone else.

I'd never actually been to a concert before. I'd spent most of my waking hours over the past two years before my death training, tracking the Slaughterhouse Nine and preparing for the end of the world.

Excitement was contagious, and I found my foot tapping in spite of myself. The music was good, a strange combination of rock and something else that I hadn't heard before. I hadn't bothered to listen to a lot of music, though, not since Emma had betrayed me, and so this was a strange sensation for me.

I was the only one who wasn't dancing by now. Slytherins and Gryffindors were dancing side by side, and I could see Dumbledore beaming. This had been his plan all along; did these skeletons have some kind of magic that made their music so entrancing, or were they simply that good. Was it mass hysteria, or was everybody just having a good time.

Almost beyond my own volition, I found myself starting to dance along with everybody else. Dancing wasn't something I'd done since Emma either.

It was strange that I'd denied myself music and dance; I could have blamed Emma, but I'd been the one to abandon it.

There was a strange sensation in my chest; it was something that I'd almost forgotten, and it took me a little while to remember what it was.

Was I having fun?

When the universe was at stake fun had been the last thing on my mind. Before that, I'd been obsessed with Emma and Sophia and Madison.

The last time I'd really let loose and had fun was when I was the age my body was now, and I knew I wasn't really that good of a dancer. Hermione was doing better than I was, and she was terrible.

Neville actually wasn't doing too bad, and Draco looked like he'd been born to dance. I made sure to keep a distance from myself and others; without my swarm sense it would be easy to get stabbed in the crowd.

Despite that niggling worry, the rest of my mind was swept away, and for the first time in a long time, I let loose and actually enjoyed myself.

I'd been mourning for a long time without knowing it. I had mourned the loss of my innocence.

Maybe now was the time, even if only for a short while, to get a little of it back.