At Hogwarts, the 31st of October means a monumental Hallowe'en Feast. When the students had awoken that Sunday morning, they were greeted by giant pumpkins in every corner of the castle, masses and masses of flaming orange and inky black streamers, and hundreds upon thousands of pumpkin lanterns grinning toothily and cackling every time someone walked by. At breakfast, they were served nothing but the finest Pumpkin Pastries as one thousand bats flitted around their heads, along with the usual owls of the morning post.

Lily seemed delighted when the morning post arrived and a handsome looking tawny owl dropped a letter and a small package onto her lap,

"It's from my mum and dad!" Lily exclaimed excitedly, waving the letter in Susanna's less than enthusiastic face. Next, Lily tore into the parcel, and giggled as a strange looking mask, a rubber bat and what Susi could only presume were muggle sweets, fell onto her breakfast plate.

"I'm not sure I understand," Susi's brow furrowed.

"They've sent me a trick or treat parcel!" Lily smiled, looking into the still confused face of Susi, "You know, for Hallowe'en."

"I don't know Hallowe'en," She stated plainly. She had noticed the abundance of pumpkins and party decorations, but had just presumed that someone had decided to brighten up the castle with Autumnal decorations.

"You don't have Hallowe'en in Italy?" Remus butted into the conversation, helping himself to one of Lily's muggle sweets. Susanna simply shook her head in reply, blushing at her apparent ignorance to this English tradition.

"It's supposed to be the scariest night of the year- when all the ghosties and ghouls come out to play. People get dressed up and have parties and children go to their neighbours houses and ask for treats in exchange for not playing a trick," Lily explained, "at least that's the muggle version of things anyway."

Remus nodded in agreement, "it's like a celebration of the dead. There are feasts and parties and lots and lots of pumpkins," he explained, "And chocolate of course."

Susi considered this for a moment, before widening her eyes in understanding,

"Ah! Giorno dei Morti! Um, day of the dead? That is the 2nd of November for us though."

"Must be the same thing," Remus mumbled, his mouth full of pumpkin pasty.

Lily wrinkled her nose at the sight of Remus talking with his mouth full. Thought it seemed she was not alone in the reception of Hallowe'en care packages from home, James potter had received and enormous amount of sweets from home, and was following his Pumpkin Pasties by working his way through a giant jar of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans with the Help of Sirius Black.

"Those are my favourites," Susi uttered the first not unkind words to James since that unfortunate night of the detention,

"So? It's not like I was offering them around," Potter snapped at her, obviously sore from the bruised ego he had received from the public snub he was receiving from Lily and Susi.

Susanna was rather taken aback by his tone, but she chose to ignore it; since coming to Hogwarts she had learned that the best way to cope with immature little boys like Potter was to rise above it and ignore them, a feat that was rather trying to her fiery Latin temper. With a knowing glance at Lily, the two girls shot James a synchronised withering stare and strutted out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase, towards the library.

The girls spent most of their day holed up in the library, practising transfiguring pumpkins into teapots- Susi would have preferred mice, but it seemed that they would not be transfiguring live animals until their second year- until Susi could take no more and announced to all four of her fellow female first year Gryffindors (the other three had joined Lily and herself after lunch) that Susi pushed back her chair and announced that the stuffy library was giving her a headache, and that she was going for a walk.

Susanna had greatly underestimated the harshness of Scottish winters when packing warm clothing for Hogwarts, for the weather outside was bitterly cold and there was a harsh wind blowing. Nevertheless, Susi wrapped the scarlet and gold scarf, which her Papa had sent her in celebration of her sorting into Gryffindor, around her neck and strode off with a plan to explore the grounds, however she didn't get very far without bumping into whom else, but Sirius Black.

He smirked when he caught sigh of her, although, Susi noticed, his swagger didn't seem quite so confident without James Potter at his side. Susi had planned to ignore him, but with a flick of his wand he managed to flip up the hem of her robes, giving himself an excellent shot of her underwear.

Flushing beetroot red, Susanna was about to raise her wand, when a booming voice stopped her in her tracks,

"SIRIUS BLACK! STOP THAT OUTRAGEOUS BEHAVIOUR AND GET TO MY OFFICE THIS INSTANT!" bellowed Professor McGonagall who had stuck her head out of her office window the moment she had caught sight of Blacks misdoings.

With a roll of his eyes and a wink at the still blushing Susi, Sirius sloped off towards the castle, leaving Susi to try and calm the huge wave of embarrassment that was engulfing her. She was so embarrassed that she couldn't even bring herself to be furious with the boy, and a tear slipped down her cheek as she began to wonder how on earth she was going to face seeing him at the grand Hallowe'en feast that was taking place tonight. Knowing Black, he would be mouthing off about it over the roast potatoes, shaming her to the entire school.

She had taken refuge underneath a beech tree, when a familiar hoot echoed around her, and with a slight smile she extended her arm for her family's eagle owl, Homer, to perch upon. Homer stuck out his leg in order for Susanna to detach the scroll of parchment that had been fastened on by a leather throng. Homer gave her ear an affectionate nip, before soaring into the air in the direction of the west tower, where the owlery was located. Excitedly, Susi unrolled the parchment,

Mia cara Sus',

I'm sorry I haven't yet written to you! It is not easy training to become a healer, and it is very time consuming. Papa tells me you have been sorted into Gryffindor, shame on you ragazzina! Only joking, but still, Ravenclaw is by far the best Hogwarts house.

I have a special surprise for you when you come home for the Christmas holidays! I know it's a while away yet, but I couldn't simply keep it from you, but I want to wait until we are in person to share my happy news.

Hope you are enjoying Hogwarts, and that you are not finding the Scottish climate too harsh. I miss you my little sorella minore,

Tutta la mia amore,

'Bella

xoxo

Susi's heart was instantly warmed, back home, Susanna had always bickered with her sister, but now they were apart it was plain to see how they missed each other so. In Susi's opinion, Lily could keep her silly 'trick or treat' goody bag, for the letter Susi had just received seemed like a far better present than some muggle sweets and a rubber bat.

That evening was the feast, and due to it being such a special occasion, Lily was taking an unusually long time to get ready, insisting that she dressed up a little for the occasion. The whole concept passed right over Susanna's head, and instead of flouncing around in front of the mirror with Lily and Fiona, Susi perched on Lily's bed, flicking through a copy of Strega Settimanale.

"Did you hear about Sirius?" Fiona asked in a scandalised tone,

"No, what?" replied Lily.

Susi's face turned bright red for the second time that day and she ducked her head behind her magazine.

"McGonagall caught him up to his usual mischief and barred him from the feast tonight. He has to collect all the owl droppings from the owlery for Professor Sprout by hand, without any sort of protective gloves, and then he get to eat some leftovers in McGonagall's office," Fiona grinned. She loved to gossip.

"Really! What did he do this time?" Lily laughed, taking some delight in his misfortune,

"No idea. He's keeping his mouth shut. Not even his sidekick Potter knows what he's been up to. I'm pretty sure McGonagall hit him with a tongue tying curse, so it must have been pretty bad whatever it is."

Susi breathed a sigh of relief and felt a rush of gratitude towards McGonagall. She now felt much better about going down to the feast, safe in the knowledge that Sirius Black would be unable to broadcast the colour of her underwear to the entire school, and that he was paying for his crimes in a messy and rather smelly way. She bounded off the bed, and proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes trying to persuade Lily and Fiona to hurry up, before giving up and making her way down to the feast without them.

The great hall looked magnificent during the feast. The thousands of candles that were usually suspended above their heads, illuminating the hall had been encased in carved pumpkin heads, casting an eerie glow over the room. The ghosts were abnormally lively, and soared around the room laughing and joking, occasionally swooping down on unsuspecting students and causing a scream. The food, as always, was excellent, and that night the puddings had been particularly superb, even if the kitchen staff had gone a little overboard with the red food colouring, odiously desiring everything to look rather sinister and bloodstained. At the end of the evening, the students made their way back to their dormitories well and truly stuffed to burst.

"You go on ahead, I'm heading to the owlery," Susi called to Lily over the babbling crowd that was trudging up the marble staircase. She wanted to post the reply she has written to Isabella. Lily nodded and gave her a wave, before being swept off in the crowds of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who were making their way back to their towers.

By the time Susi was making her way towards the Gryffindor tower, it was almost curfew, noting this she began to hurry, not really looking where she was going, which resulted in a collision right outside the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Oh, it's you." Susi spat in a rather disgruntled manner, picking herself up off the floor and dusting down her robes.

From a heap on the floor, Sirius black glared daggers at her, his grey eyes boring into hers. He was evidently very annoyed at having missed the feast and in his eyes Susi was the reason he had missed out on the festivities. He looked away, a sheepish expression beginning to form on his face,

"Look, about earlier, um… McGonagall says I have to apologies," he couldn't bring himself to look directly at her and it was obvious that he considered this an apology, even though the word 'Sorry' had yet to pass his pouting lips.

"Well I don't accept. And I wont ever. Stay away from me, Sirius Black, you're nothing but a selfish, immature mischief maker who has no consideration for other people's feelings!" Susi hissed at him, the anger she was unable to feel that afternoon creeping up on her, "I mean it, come near me again and I'll do more than set your bogies on you."

Sirius scoffed, thinking it highly unlikely that a first year that had only just finished her second month at Hogwarts could produce any sort of spell that would cause him any real harm. Susanna held her head high and muttered the password,

"Samhain," causing the portrait to swing open and grant her access to the tower.

Outside, Sirius was still sprawled on the floor, shaking his head and muttering darkly about 'that Italian witch', only he didn't say witch, causing several of the nearby portraits to shriek in alarm, curing at him to wash his mouth out. The Fat Lady was feeling quite mean, and in a show of solidarity with Susanna, refused to let Sirius by, forcing him to sleep curled in a ball, outside the portrait hole. Now he really hated that Susi girl.