The next month and a half passed rather quickly and before anyone knew it, Halloween was almost upon them and the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor on the first weekend of November. In less than a day, the entire castle was decorated for Halloween from floating candles to real bats in the rafters. On Halloween day, Logan was walking out of the Great Hall after lunch to see Hagrid struggling to bring several giant pumpkins into the castle. Since there was a short break in between lunch and his next class, Logan decided to help out. "Need some help?" Hagrid looked up, "Actually if ya' wouldn' mind tha'd be great. I can' get these through the door withou' magic but strictly speaking, I'm not allowed ter use it." Logan considered whether to use his strength or wand to get them in. He decided on his wand because Hagrid, who was larger and probably stronger than Logan, hadn't been able to lift them. But then again, if he used his wand and got the spell wrong, he'd probably blow the pumpkin- and perhaps Hagrid- up. So he re-decided on strength. They both grabbed a side and lifted, Man Hagrid was right. These are heavy. "Can' understand why there so heavy. I already gutted 'em and everything," Hagrid grunted. Logan felt the weight of the pumpkin shift towards him along with a very faint "Oof!" "Wait a minute," he set the pumpkin down and Hagrid had no choice but to do the same. Nudging the top off, Logan pulled himself onto the edge of the pumpkin and peered into it. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff stared back. "Get out of there!" They both pulled themselves up and out, laughing uncontrollably. Hagrid blinked in surprise, "You two! I told ya' not ter mess with me pumpkins!" Logan glared down at them, "Don't worry. I can just tell their head of house." Pietro's eyes widened, "No please don't tell Snape! He'll give us detention and it'll probably be cleaning cauldrons." Wanda made a face, "Or de-horning horned toads." Logan blinked, "That's fowl. Alright I'll let you off the hook this time. But I'm taking five house points. Each." He turned to Hagrid as they left, "I can do that right?" Hagrid nodded and now that the pumpkin had been relieved of the burden, it was fairly easily to bring inside. Hagrid then brought the rest in after asking Logan if he minded carving the pumpkins with his claws. When Logan had finished, he'd been particularly proud of his work, as was Hagrid and the tiny Professor Flitwick who was overseeing the decorations. "Positively frightening!" he squeaked. Logan's eyes flitted to the ceiling, and he excused himself from further decorating to find his way to his classroom early for once. Halfway there, Logan relaxed as he knew exactly where he was and that it wasn't hard to reach the classroom from here. "Excuse me but have you perhaps seen the Bloody Baron?" Logan turned to see a transparent man floating behind him, head sitting on his neck precariously and threatening to fall off. Logan had seen this man- or rather ghost- at dinner several times. He was the Gryffindor ghost by the name of Nearly Headless Nick. Of course he preferred to be called by his full name: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. There was no way Logan was saying either, so he was Nick or Nicholas. Logan raised an eyebrow, "No I haven't." The ghost sighed, "Peeves has taken the third corridor hostage and refuses to let anyone pass without dropping pens and ink on their heads. I must find the Bloody Baron to stop him." Logan shrugged, "Sorry I haven't seen him." Nick nodded and glided over to float next to Logan, "Well I'm sure the other ghosts will find him. But perhaps I'll just accompany you to wherever you're going." Logan folded his arms, "Are you scared of finding the Baron?" Nick shook his head, causing it to wobble dangerously, "Absolutely not. How dare you even suggest a thing!" Logan smirked, knowing he'd hit a nerve, "Well good because I'm even worse bub." Nick narrowed his eyes and said sarcastically, "Professor Logan you are hilarious." Logan turned and made his way down the hall, Nick trailing behind him. A thought suddenly struck Logan, "Nick, how long you been around?" Nick "scratched" his chin in thought, "Since 1492 I believe." Logan swallowed his surprise and asked his next question, "So did you know the dark wizard?" Nick stopped mid-glide, "I-I well yes, but, I, I am not the one to ask. Perhaps Helena, yes, she could tell you much better than I could. But no one, could tell you better than Dumbledore. I-I must be off, must find the Baron. If you'll excuse me." He passed through the wall to the right and was gone. Of course it hadn't been Logan's, well, main goal to get him to leave, but it was still achieved. His main goal had been to find out more on the man who had given him his metal claws. "Ask Dumbledore, I just might do that."
The entire school was buzzing with excitement for tonight's Halloween feast, but neither the X-Men nor the Maximoff's knew why. Logan had seen the decorations in the Great Hall, and besides the pumpkins, there hadn't been much to really get excited over. That, however, was not the case when everyone came into the Great Hall that night. Live bats flew around the ceiling; the large pumpkins Logan had helped carve were filled with light and set at different corners of the hall. Instead of the normal feast set out every night, the food was mostly candy related, and the few actual nourishing foods were Halloween inspired, and therefore everyone was wary in trying them. "Dinner" consisted mostly of candy-filled pumpkins, apples, black cauldrons filled with big lollipops, and carrot cake. Bats, orange streamers, and all sorts of Halloween-related decorations adorned the tables. At the end of the great feast, the Hogwarts Ghosts came out of the walls and performed some formation gliding. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and even Logan had to admit it was all rather impressive.
Logan deeply regretted now that there was nothing to eat but candy, and even if he'd eaten very little, his stomach would not let him sleep. He spent close to an hour trying to conjure up food, but having barely mastered simple spells like 'Wingardium Leviosa' and 'Accio,' it was extremely difficult (even if it had been possible to make food from nothing) and after conjuring a parrot at least seven times, Logan was ready to call it quits and perhaps just eat the parrot, if only it was actual food. A knock sounded on his door, and Logan wondered for a second who could be up (besides him) at midnight. The knock sounded again, louder, "Alright! I'm coming." Logan made it about halfway to the door when Kitty stuck her head through it. "Mr. Logan are you, like, as hungry as I am? I mean the candy was good but it wasn't filling you know?" "Well come on in," Logan said sarcastically, which Kitty missed and just stepped through his door completely, clad in her pink pajamas. He sighed, "Yeah Half-pint I'm pretty hungry. There's gotta be some sort of kitchen in this place." Kitty nodded, "Yeah there is! I heard some older students talking about it. I know where it is too! It's like, near the Hufflepuff common room entrance." Logan was a third down the hall, "You coming Half-pint?"
Kitty led him down to the basement of the school, towards the Hufflepuff common room. She led him down a flight of stairs near the entrance to the Great Hall and into a broad, brightly lit, stone corridor decorated with cheerful paintings of mostly food. Logan noticed several barrels stacked against the wall in a nook on the right-hand side of the corridor, and Kitty explained that it was the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. She walked up to a large picture of a silver bowl of fruit and reached to the pear, tickling it and waiting as it turned into a large green door handle. She yanked the portrait back like a door and they stepped into what could only be the kitchens. It was enormous, with high-ceilings and five tables identical to the ones in the Great Hall, which Kitty explained was where food was placed before it went up to the tables in the Great Hall above. Large quantities of pots and pans were heaped around the stone walls, and a large brick fireplace sat at the other end of the hall from the door. At first, Logan saw no one and wondered where all the employees slept, when several tugs at his pant legs, accompanied by several high-pitched voices met him. He looked down and could only gape at the tiny creatures around him. They were only two or three feet tall, with thin arms and legs and large heads and eyes. As they spoke, their large, bat-like ears flapped up and down as they nodded their heads at him. All were wearing what looked like pillowcases, and their voices were so high Logan was having trouble hearing what they were saying. Kitty giggled, "These are house-elves. They, like, make all the food and clean the castle." She bent down, and one of the creatures spoke, "What woulds you like miss?" Kitty thought for a second, "I'll have a sandwich. Mr. Logan what do you want?" "Sandwich is fine," he managed to get out. Several house-elves looked almost sad at the simple request, "Wouldn't you likes something more sir?" Logan didn't know how to reply, or wait, yes he did, "I'll take a firewhisky if you have it."
The house-elves were more than happy to get them anything they asked, always asking if they wanted more and calling Logan "Sir" and Kitty "Miss." The house-elves had gotten them their ordered sandwiches, but Logan couldn't remember asking for thirty of them. Nether the less, he ate them all. Kitty had one sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup that a house-elf had brought her. The house-elves then proceeded to bring dessert: chocolate éclairs, cakes, pumpkin pasties, and donuts. Neither Logan nor Kitty remembered ordering dessert, but the house-elves seemed to delight in bringing them food, the plates and dishes balanced on their heads as they ran back-and-forth. At half past one, Logan suggested they leave. Kitty nodded and the two started to make their way to the door, still being bombarded by house-elves with cries of "Would you like some to take with you sir?" "Would you like somes too miss?" Kitty held up her hands, "No really it's, like, okay. I'm good you know?" With some difficulty, Logan and Kitty left empty-handed (well not Logan, he'd taken some firewhisky) and bid each other goodnight. Kitty went to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room while Logan climbed the stairs and slowly made his way to his room.
He stopped in front of the Great Hall, tugging the cork of a bottle with his teeth and glancing around in the dimly lit area: the doors leading outside and to the hall were closed, locked tight; suits of armor stood stationary, unmoving (though they sometimes did) while the few occupants of the paintings on the walls were sleeping soundly. Torches burned in their fixtures, and Logan wondered not for the first time why a school of magic didn't have electricity. He stopped trying to uncork the bottle and sniffed: someone was coming. The figure didn't have to come into the light for Logan to know who it was: the shuffling gait, bitter muttering, and occasional meow of a cat: Filch. Logan groaned and looked around to see if by some miracle he could get out of meeting the man but there was none. As Filch came into the circle of light cast by the torch above Logan, Logan continued to tug at the cork in the bottle of firewhisky having come to the assumption that after an encounter with the bitter caretaker, he was going to need it. Filch was muttering to himself about "the damn poltergeist" and didn't appear to be a good mood. Terrific, Logan thought and now realized that with how slow Filch had been going, if he'd sprinted to the stairs he could have avoided a confrontation. Too late now. Filch had now seen Logan, "Someone's been down to the kitchens. Lucky you're a teacher or I'd report you to the headmaster." Logan clenched his fist to keep from hitting Filch. He started towards the stairs, "Luck ain't got nothing to do with it bub. Now get lost." Filch scowled but didn't reply as Logan made his way up the stairs to his room. Unfortunately, the staircase leading to it decided to move and wouldn't move back, leaving Logan on a landing he'd never been on. On a split decision, he went through the archway and down the hall; half hoping he'd meet a patrolling teacher. Several paintings grumbled as he passed, for he'd gotten his wand out and managed to light the tip and they didn't appreciate having a light shone in their eyes. A rather large portrait of a rather large women grumbled quite loudly as he passed, but that wasn't why he stopped.
Rogue had had a detention with Professor Snape, and he'd conveniently made it last past curfew, knowing she'd get in trouble if she was caught. That, and when she'd gotten to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, the picture that guarded it, the Fat Lady, had changed the password and refused to let her in because she didn't know it AND she'd woken her up. She was lying next to the portrait trying, possibly, to get some sleep since she'd already missed about four hours of it. So it was just her luck that Logan found her. She was going to get ANOTHER detention and possibly some points deducted AND when they got back to the Institute for the summer, he'd probably make her do some really hard training exercise. Logan was holding two bottles of what Rogue wasn't surprised to learn was firewhisky, and his lit wand, looking at her with a slightly amused, slightly confused expression. "What are you doing up at two in the morning? And out here?" Rogue sighed and stood up, glaring in the Fat Lady's direction, "Professor Snape gave me detention and ah only just got out like an hour ago. The Fat Lady changed the password and ah don't know what it is. She won't let me in!" Logan raised an eyebrow, "Snape know it was past curfew?" Rogue crossed her arms, "Yeh he did. That's why it took so long. He never liked me and he hoped I'd get caught by a teacher." She motioned to him, crossed her arms again, and looked away, "Guess he got his wish. So, what're you gonna do? Give me another detention? Take points? Wouldn't be the first time." Logan rolled his eyes, "You've had enough trouble for one night." He walked over to the now sleeping Fat Lady, "Hey." She woke rather grumpily, "What?" she snapped, "Three times! I've been woken three times tonight! Dumbledore will be hearing my complaints I assure you." Logan rolled his eyes again, "You do that. Now let her in," he pointed to Rogue. The Fat Lady sniffed haughtily, "No password, no entry. What do you think I'm here for?" Logan smirked, "Well you're not just standing there looking pretty," he muttered loud enough only for Rogue to hear, who covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Logan held out his left hand, letting his claws slide effortlessly out. "Now, I can assure you this girl is a Gryffindor student, if that's what you're worried about. But if you disagree," he casually turned his claws left and right, the torch light catching them and reflecting back. The Fat Lady narrowed her eyes and swung forward to allow Rogue to enter. "For future reference, the password is 'Cadogan.'" Logan raised an eyebrow as he retracted his claws, "Like that painting of the guy and the pony?" The Fat Lady rolled her eyes, "I lost a bet." Logan smirked as he continued down the hall, now set on finding Snape and giving him a piece of his mind rather than getting back to his room.
Although Snape and Logan had had a civil conversation during the three hours they'd been forced to work together in the "memory session", they were by no means friends. If anything, they simply tolerated each other a little more than before. But as Logan now realized, not by much. He knocked on Snape's office door and without waiting for a reply, barged in. Snape looked up from what must have been grading homework, and glanced at the clock. Logan glanced at it too: it was nearly three in the morning. Why is it normal to be up at three in the morning? Logan wondered. Snape sighed and set the quill he'd been using and leaned forward on his desk, finger tips together. "Can I help you Mr. Howlett?" Logan rolled his eyes at his formality, "What's your game bub? Keeping Rogue past curfew knowing she could get caught?" Snape tilted his head slightly to the side and smirked, "Ms. Darkholme blew up her cauldron in my class. She received detention and I, ah, lost track of time." Logan narrowed his eyes but before he could retort, Dumbledore entered the room. Logan looked at him skeptically: something was off about him. Snape meanwhile had stood up, "Headmaster? What is it you need?" Dumbledore smiled and Logan stared at Dumbledore's eyes: they weren't twinkling, yet he seemed happy. He sniffed slightly and closed his eyes. They shot open and he growled: he knew that scent. In one swift movement Dumbledore was against the wall, Logan's claws inches from his neck while Snape protested almost to the point of hexing Logan. Logan jerked his claws to Snape, "What's his first name?" he snarled to Dumbledore, who didn't answer. Snape sputtered in disbeleif, "He knows that! It's-" Logan pointed his claws to him, "Don't." Dumbledore didn't say anything, and Logan put his claws away, only to grab Dumbledore's neck. "What do you want?" he growled. Dumbledore smirked and replied in a more feminine voice, "Nothing. I'm just having a bit of fun. Don't you know what that is?" The old man's features slowly melted away and a blue-skinned woman in a black high-necked top showing most of her stomach, black skirt with two rather high thigh slits and symmetrical slits in the waist, ankle high black boots and a matching piece of material around her left wrist stood in Logan's grasp, her red hair flattened against the wall with a yellow jewel placed in the top of her forehead. Her yellow eyes glinted mischievously. Logan let go of her neck, but grabbed her arm and flung her to the ground. She smirked and stood up, "Logan," she said, still smirking. "Mystique," he growled but didn't attack. Snape looked back and forth between the two figures, wand raised but no longer pointed at Logan. "You-you know each other?" Mystique looked to him, "No," she replied sarcastically. In the small space, she still managed to do a back-flip onto the chair in front of Snape's desk, propping her feet on it. "What's this I hear that you gave Rogue detention?" Logan rolled his eyes and leaned against the now closed door, "Awh did you come to get revenge but I got in the way?" he asked mockingly. Mystique smiled, "Well no, not exactly," she turned to Snape, "But you did give her detention?" Snape nodded, slowly lowering his wand, but watching the blue-skinned woman closely. Mystique nodded, "Well let's not do that again." It wasn't a direct threat, but still held a hint of danger, something that Snape didn't want to test. Mystique picked up the quill, tapping her finger on the tip, "You actually use this?" Logan snorted, "Strange right?" Mystique set the quill down and looked at Snape, "You know they have pens right?" He just stared; curious as to how her skin was that color, and also as to why she was there. Before he could ask, however, Logan voiced his thoughts: "What are you doing here?" Mystique inspected her fingernails as if his question wasn't as important, "Well I heard that Pietro and Wanda were here-" Logan waved that away, "You don't care enough about them." Mystique continued, "I heard Rogue was here, as were the rest of you, and Erik sent me to keep an eye on his children, especially Wanda." She stood up and gave a great sweeping yet mocking bow, "I'll be an assistant to Professor McGonagall in the Transfiguration department. Speaking of which, this is obviously not. They really need a map: I've gotten lost twice and have run into that infuriating caretaker and the stupid poltergeist. Until we meet again." She turned to go as Logan couldn't help but laugh, "Until we meet again, which is breakfast." At the last second, she turned around and looked at Snape, "What is your first name?" He cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter, "Severus." Mystique nodded, "Raven, though you can call me Mystique." Her form flickered and she became a pale-skinned woman with large glasses and short brown hair, "Or Ms. Darkholme," her form shrunk and she became a pink and purple haired girl, "Or Risty," she said finally in a slight British accent. Changing into her original form, she left as Logan called after her, "Or how about irritating?"