You find yourself in a hallway, flooded halfway to your knees, with a strange groaning sound in the air accompanied by the drip, drip, drip of water from overhead pipes. You find a heavy metal door, and about head level on it is a slide covered window. You slide the cover off, finding bars inside the window. As you look in you see what looks like a black haired boy with his back to you. His head snaps to see you, revealing glowing, blood red eyes. The window is snapped shut.
"I know it's that time of the year, and All Hallows Eve is all about fear," Blood Brandy rhymes, "But an easy and painful way to die of fright, is to find yourself in my inner demons sight." He grabs an overhanging wire and gives it a pull, at the sound of a flushing, the water below you begins to swirl and pull you down. When light returns, you're back in the study, oddly dry.
"In the sprirt of the season, I hurried a bit to get this together in a bit of a hurry, so it's not my best, I will, however, be adding on to it a bit someday. Happy Halloween." He hands you a black folder with orange letters on the front.
Halloween Harry
Running…
Running…
Running…
The young boy kept running, tears in his eyes.
Why did they treat him like this? Why didn't his family love him like other did?
Young Harry had had enough, enough of how his so called family treated him, how the neighbors and teachers and everyone else treated him with the mean things his family had said about him. He was young, but Harry knew that was not how families were supposed to treat each other, they weren't supposed to beat on a family member, they weren't supposed spread lies or drive off those who want to be friends. Tonight he had tripped and accidentally torn his cousin's Halloween costume, once he had terror filled his heart when he saw his uncle raise his hand into a fist. Harry had had enough and ran. He kept running and running so long that he didn't really notice the scenery blur or the great change in his surroundings until he finally stopped to catch his breath and he found himself in a place like he'd never been before. It was an overgrown pumpkin patch surrounded by an old metal fence, and just on the other side he could see a barren graveyard, the full moon just peeking over a hill.
Seeing he was alone, Harry did the only thing a child of his young age would think to do in such a situation. He sat on a large pumpkin and he cried. He cried because he was alone, he cried because he had nowhere to go or live, and he cried because he knew nothing else to do. Soon he felt like he had no more tears, he looked at the rising moon, he had heard of children wishing on stars, so he hoped the moon would be as good.
"I-I wish my parents were alive, no matter what they were like, I wish I had a mum and dad like everyone else," he lowered his eyes to the ground, "someone who'd love me."
Unaware he'd been heard.
She had gone out to get some peace and quiet before the festivities began, and had happened on this beautiful pumpkin patch just as the full moon rose over the hill. She hadn't expected to hear a crying child. Keeping out of sight, she found the child, a boy in clothes that seemed much too large for him. As she moved closer, she heard his quiet wish, and her heart nearly broke in two. Her father had never really been anywhere near being loving father of the year, but he was there for her, especially when she was young and learning, before she became 'so damned rebellious' as he might put it. When she heard the whispered end of his wish, she couldn't hold back. She quietly crept up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him tense, so she turned him around and hugged the little boy.
Harry was caught off guard. He could never really remember anyone hugging him, not family or friends, let alone a stranger. But he let her, he wasn't sure why but she felt…safe. She held him tight and he hugged back.
"It's alright, it'll be alright," She said as she rubbed his back. Harry pulled back to see this lady, she must have been pale and dressed for Halloween, because her skin seemed to be a light blue and covered in stitches. Her dress was simple in design, but made from random samples of different fabrics of different sizes. And her eyes, they were large for her head, wide and expressive. In contrast, her mouth seemed small, but was also made to look bigger by a trail of stitches extending from each side. Her red hair didn't seem entirely like hair, it almost seemed like fine string. All in all, Harry could tell she must have put a lot of work into her costume.
"What's your name?" She asked softly.
"H-Harry, ma'am, Harry Potter," Harry said shakily.
"Harry, my name is Sally," the woman said, "I heard what you wished. I know it might seem sudden, but if you'd like, I can give you somewhere to stay, at least for a while. You may find our home and town to be…odd, but if you'd still like to stay, and if it's okay with my husband, I'd like you to, maybe try and become a part of our family."
Harry was…cautiously optimistic, "R-really?"
Sally smiled, her stitches making seem ear to ear, "Yes, if you'd like." She rose and led Harry towards the graveyard.
"Where are we going?"
Sally smiled again as they came to a large, ornately decorated pedestal with an angel statue on it. "Tell me, Harry, do you believe in magic?" She asked as she reached towards the pedestal. A door opened and she carefully stepped in, bidding Harry to follow. Harry wasn't sure about this, but something inside told him this is something he should do. He followed Sally through the door and down the stairs. They continued for a few moments, before Harry realized he had somehow switched from going down to going up without noticing, looking back, the stairs only seemed to go down from where he was, and when he faced forward again he found they were at another door. As he stepped out, he found they were in another graveyard and the moon seemed bigger that it should have been, much bigger. The trees were mostly bare and a nearby hill, instead of going up to a peak, spiraled to one side at the top.
"Let's go, Harry," Sally called as she lead him away, "if we hurry, we can catch my husband before the festivities begin." She led Harry down a path past numbers of small headstones and markers to a large, creaking set of metal gates. She lead him along past groups of people, all in really good costumes, a creepy clown who, although he was almost as big as uncle Vernon, was somehow balancing himself on a tiny unicycle, a werewolf, an odd man whose hat was easily as tall as he was. Even the kids had incredible costumes, like a zombie and a mummy, each with only one visible eye. Soon, after Sally had led him past a number of unbelievable costumes, Harry was looking up at an oddly tall house at the top of a hill. Sally pulled out a key and opened the door, leading Harry into a sitting room and showing him to a chair before moving into the next room.
"Sally, I've been looking for you," a loud, jovial voice came from the room, "Tell me, does this look alright? I keep having the strangest feeling there's something missing, something I'm forgetting." The voice trailed off near the end."
"You have the wrong cufflinks on, Jack," Sally answered, "Jack, there's something I need to talk with you about." Their voices lowered considerably, so Harry could only hear mumbles through the door. Soon, he heard light but sharp footsteps approach.
"Well then, let me see the boy," Jack actually sounded happy when calling him boy, unlike Vernon had. The door flew wide open, and so did Harry's eyes, as Jack entered the room, "Ah, you must be Harry; it is just delightful to meet you."
Harry stared wide eyed for a few seconds before he and his chair fell back in a dead faint.
Flash Forward
Minerva McGonagall looked over the first years preparing to be sorted, but one student stood out, not because of odd clothes or hair or actions, but because of his absence. After many unanswered letters, Hagrid had been sent at the Headmasters insistence to see the boy. The giant of a man had returned with the news that Harry hadn't been there in years. Minerva took absolutely no happiness in her 'I told you so' to the Headmaster. Neither hide nor hair of the boy could be found, leaving this year's class one student poorer. With a heavy heart, she called for silence and unrolled the class list when an odd sound filled the now silent Great Hall.
Sleigh bells.
And students looking up could see the enchanted ceiling had taken on a snowy look.
"HO HO HO!" A sound came from outside, before the hall doors burst open once again, "Ho-Ho-Ho-Hoo!" Through the door flew a figure easily recognized by, at the very least, every muggle-born in the room, a heavy set man in a red suit with white trim, riding in a flying sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, that soon hovered over the teachers table. "Early Delivery!" Santa called out as a large, three foot tall package dropped in front of the sorting hat and it's stool. It was a stereotypical looking present, but with black ribbon and ash-grey paper.
Everyone in attendance stared at the box for a moment, unsure of what to do, when McGonagall pulled on the ribbon, the package quickly coming undone, inside was an equally large black box with orange pumpkin designs and a crank on the side. The crank began to turn itself, playing a brocken form of 'Pop Goes The Weasel', and at the end the top popped open and…nothing. Minerva looked quietly for a moment before gingerly taking a step forward. Once she had, the top erupted in flames, eliciting screams from the students. As professors each drew their wand to douse the flames, a black figure leapt from the box, doing flips in the air before landing in front of the new first years with a loud, booming 'BOO!', getting loud screams from all of the students, even causing a few to wet themselves.
The figure stood there menacingly for a moment before he broke into loud jovial laughter and turned to McGonagall, revealing it was a young man, maybe a bit taller than normal, but no older than the one he had just scared the daylights out of. He was dressed in an ash-grey, pinstriped suit. His skin was a little pale, his hair black as night, the bangs almost reaching his slightly sunken green eyes.
Green eyes and black hair, Something clicked in Minerva's mind. It can't be.
"Thank you for the ride, Uncle Nicholas," He called to the red figure, who let out his loud laughter and left. The boy then moved towards her with surprising speed and grace, sliding the last couple feet until he stood right in front of her. He reached into his breast pocket, "Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall," he bowed and pulled out a slightly crumpled Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, "Harry Skelington, formerly Potter, at your service."