I honestly didn't intend for this chapter to become such a monster. I'm currently editing a 'real' book and having to write longer chapters for it, and it does seem to be spilling over here. Whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you!

Please leave me some author-food and tell me what you think!

Meta tried to focus through the haze of gold and light and crystal and wondered if this was what it felt like to be drunk. She was happy. Deliriously, idiotically, mind-blowingly happy. All her worries about what was happening beyond the thick walls and wards of Hogwarts seemed to have dissipated like early morning mist in the sun. Her friends were with her - well, all except Remus who was ill again, poor thing - Minerva was watching from on high, and it seemed that every single bowl on each of the tables that stood against the walls of the Great Hall were filled with her favourite food. She gave a sigh of pure delight, and Lily grinned at her, her green eyes sparkling from behind the crone glamour.

"This is beyond smashing, isn't it?"

Meta returned her grin. "Aren't you glad you're not at a boring Muggle school?"

Lily's smile said it all for her, and feeling suddenly affectionate, Meta flung her arms around both Lily and Rosemary, causing the latter to look startled. "You're my bestest friends, you know that?"

"You're my bestest too!" Lily said with equal enthusiasm.

Rosemary smiled weakly and said nothing, but before the other two could pull her up, she turned sharply. "What was that?"

Meta's silly grin vanished. "What?"

"Someone just touched me!"

"'Course they did, it's a party if you haven't noticed. This place is bunged to the rafters!"

"Someone probably just brushed - hey, what was that?" Lily whirled and glared at Sirius Black, who happened to by standing near in his D'Artaganan costume. Beyond the clothes, a sword, a mustache, and the temporary bristle on his boy-smooth cheeks, he was not disguised. "Was that you, Black?"

Sirius twirled his mustache lovingly and tried to leer. "What have I done to offend you, fair lady - er, crone?"

Lily snorted. "Don't be such a donkey. Did you tap me - or Rosie?"

Sirius put his hands up. "'Twasn't me, ma'am, honest-"

"Can't you ever be serious?" Lily snapped back.

"Don't start him on that one, please," Meta implored. She had been watching while Lily quizzed Sirius, and all through the hall little scenes like theirs were repeating. She couldn't tell who all the 'victims' were, of course, but something niggled. She shrugged. "Someone's prob'ly just messing around, Lils. Leave it, do. You and Rosie aren't hurt, are you?"

Rosemary shivered despite the warmth of the hall. "No, b - but it was cold. Like being touched by a block of ice..."

Meta shrugged off the feeling of uneasiness. She was having fun. She was. She wasn't going to let anything spoil it. "It's all your imagination," she said impatiently. "C'mon, look, there's some Chocolate Fudge Flying Cakes. Didn't you tell me they were your favourites?" She reached out and grabbed one of the little chocolate fudge cakes with sugar wings that were hovering above the plate, and put one in her dormitory mate's hand. "Here. Shove that in your gob an' stop trying to scare us."

Rosemary looked upset. "But I wasn't, honestly..."

At that point the lights dimmed and everyone screamed, proving just how on edge they were. The screams died away as the gold and crystal was replaced by a series of multicoloured glowing lights that danced lazily across the ceiling, and some music began to play.

"It's Celestina Warbeck!" Meta heard one over-excited Third Year scream. "She's doing that song. 'A Cauldron of Hot Strong Love'.."

Meta sniffed and rolled her eyes. "Idiots," she muttered, but as the familiar strains of Warbeck's best known song began to float across the hall. Lily grabbed her hand, and they began to dance ... and then laugh as Sirius embarrassed poor Rosemary horribly by pretending to be courtly and elegant and then put the timid girl into such a fast spin that she shrieked to be allowed to stop. All around them everyone seemed to have forgotten the mysterious touching and Meta and her friends flung themselves into the fun, knowing that the great clock in the hall was already well past their normal 'lights out', and being able to stay up late was too rare a treat to be lost in nitpicking and worrying.

After another hour, the sound of Warbeck's latest 'hit' faded away and the coloured lights vanished to be replaced by the normal candles. Everyone groaned and Meta saw James and Sirius smirk at the number of Seniors who sprang apart, visibly flustered..

"It'ud be funny if some of those smarmy Slytherins ended up dancin' with a Gryff by mistake," Sirius chortled. "'Cos they'd never know, would they?"

"They will now," Meta reminded him. "It must be nearly midnight and Professor McGonagall says all the disguises will go then." The deep resonant gong went just as she spoke and she looked down at her hands, marvelling at how the charmed wrinkles and age-spots disappeared to show her fresh eleven year old skin. Beside her, Lily was rubbing her pretty nose thoughtfully, as if to check that it was bumpless, and Rosemary, who was vain about her silky brown locks, was running her fingers through her hair. Sirius and James looked rueful as they chaffed their boy-smooth cheeks, once again bristle free, and all around them, Meta could see other students doing likewise. There was laughter and exclamations and mockery as the disguises were revealed, and even the staff table seemed amused. Meta could have sworn there was a wide smile on her sister's face.

Then James, who had been teasing plump little Peter Pettigrew about how ridiculous he had looked with a nascent beard and breeches, stopped and frowned. He reached over and brushed Lily's shoulder, and the girl glared at him.

"Oi! What are you doing?"

James's face seemed oddly white, Meta thought, but that was probably the light. He was still brushing at Lily's back, much to her annoyance. Meta glanced at Rosemary, who had turned to grab another Chocolate Fudge Flying Cake, and realised what was probably worrying James. A wispy skull hovered a milimetre or so away from her back, and when Meta tried to brush it away, it clung to her fingers like airy candy floss before resuming its shape and fading into nothingness so rapidly that she blinked. She swallowed and looked at Lily's back, and sure enough, the skull was there too, becoming more transparent by the moment..

James's eyes met hers. "They're not the only ones," he whispered hoarsely, and they turned around and saw the skulls float, here and there. Lily and Rosemary noticed them too, and both girls yelped, but they relaxed as one by one, each of the ethereally whispy skulls vanished..

"Someone playing a stupid joke for Halloween," Rosemary said placidly as she munched through her bun. "That must've been what we felt, Lily."

Lily nodded, but her eyes were fixed on Meta and James. "She's right, isn't she?"

James tried to smile, but it looked forced, Meta thought. "Yeah. It's a joke." She could tell from the look in his eyes that he was thinking: Only we don't play jokes like that in the wizarding world...

She glanced up at the staff table. Surely someone there had noticed, and felt oddly relieved at the sight of Minerva's familiar scowl as her eyes raked the crowd. She watched as her sister leaned across to speak to the Headmaster, and then began to tap her glass for silence, her frown still in place.

The Headmaster rose in a flurry of red and white robes and spread his arms wide. "That is the end of our Magical Masque," he said formally, and the remnants of food left on the tables disappeared. "Everyone had fun, did they not, and I know I speak for all the staff when I say how very impressed we have all been by ingenuity and magical complexity of many of your disguises. Give yourselves a round of applause!"

Meta frowned as she clapped her hands. Hadn't he noticed? Hadn't Minerva told him?

Professor Dumbledore raised a hand and quiet fell at once. "I wish I could end there," he said, the ever-present twinkle gone from his eyes. "However, I cannot. I noticed in the course of the evening that a number of students thought it amusing to appear as ominous figures in black who happen to closely resemble our traditional figure of Death, or the Grim Reaper. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that some among you could think that the news we have had this week is a cause for levity. I tell you it is not. You have been very clever, but you and your actions have been noted and my staff and I will do our best to seek you out. Do you have something to say, Miss Black?"

Bellatrix Black, a dark and intense Fifth Year Slytherin, had her hand up. "I was just wondering," she said innocently in her affected voice, "how you can be sure, Headmaster, that the joke was played by one of us? After all," she continued as Slytherins around her began to nod in agreement, "it was a Magical Masque. Anyone could have got in."

Meta shivered and waited with bated breath for Dumbledore's response. She was not disappointed.

The Headmaster smiled at the older girl in a paternal fashion, but his voice was icy cold when he spoke. "Forgive me, Miss Black, but I fear you are wrong. Do you think that I am unaware of the growing darkness of our times? Of course I am not. When we planned this evening's festivities, we were careful to ensure that the castle could not be breached at any point, known or unknown, hidden or visible. Thus I can indeed state with certainty that this disgusting joke was perpetrated by someone, or a group of someones, in this hall tonight."

"What's all the fuss about anyway," Cassandra Avery was heard to mutter. "It was just a fancy dress, for goodness sake."

Professor McGonagall was on her feet, her tall thin form rigid. "No, Miss Avery, it was not just a fancy dress." Ignoring the Headmaster as he leaned towards her to murmur something, the Deputy Headmistress flicked her wand in a quick, decisive movement, and the cloudy skulls Meta and James had seen earlier reappeared above their targets. A grim smile crossed the professor's face as a murmur of realisation went from the students, and Meta, down with the First Year Gryffindors, felt Lily grab her wrist.

"Muggles," her friend breathed. "All of us who were marked. We're Muggleborn...."

Beside her, Rosemary burst into sobs, and James, looking embarrassed, patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "There, it's OK, it'll be OK, you'll see...."

A high-pitched and near-insane laugh came from among the Slytherins, giving the lie to his words. Meta did not know who it was. She did not want to know who it was. Suddenly the evening's fun had turned to ashes. As she helped Lily console the howling Rosemary, the snake that had taken up residence in her tummy these days was writhing and twisting, the sensation almost one of pain.

I just wanted to enjoy school, she thought resentfully. I thought my only problem would be Minerva. I wish it would all go away...