Bonnie loved Halloween. She always had. The freedom of it, the laughter...the decorations and traditions of Hogwarts castle.
The carved pumpkins she probably could have fit inside of.
She sprang out of bed that morning and dressed in her usual rush.
She even threw on a black headband with little jack-o-lanterns on springs that bobbed whenever she moved and flickered with magical "candlelight".
Classes moved more slowly than normal, especially History of Magic, which Bonnie could hardly stand on a "normal" day. She actually fell asleep, completely and totally asleep, until Cedric jabbed her with his elbow at the end of class.
"Elfric the Eager!"
Cedric raised his eyebrows at her as he placed his books into his bag.
"Bon, class is over," he said. "You fell asleep."
"I fell...oh, goodness. Did Binns notice?" She asked anxiously.
"Does Binns ever notice?" Tess said, stopping by Bonnie's desk on her way to the door. "Don't worry, Bonnie, you weren't the only one - Thal drifted off five minutes in..."
As the three of them made their way down the hall back toward Hufflepuff, they were interrupted, suddenly, by "Bonnie!" shouted down the hallway. They turned to see Ian Rosier weaving through the crowd, catching up to the little group of Hufflepuffs quickly. He nodded to Cedric and and Tess, then turned to Bonnie, eyes flicking up briefly to the pumpkins dancing above her head.
"Are you free now, from classes?"
Behind Bonnie, Cedric and Tess glanced knowingly at each other.
"Yeah," Bonnie said, "I have nothing until the Halloween feast tonight. Why?"
"Weasley and Clearwater asked me if I could find a way to cover their shift," he said. "And I asked Ellis to join me, but she...as usual, she'd rather not work any harder than she has to."
Bonnie sighed, thinking longingly of the Common Room and the very beginnings of the Halloween party.
"I can ask the Ravenclaws," Ian said, smoothing his hair, "But they're both on edge about O. and have been burying themselves in books since the beginning of the year. They barely emerge to do their own patrols."
"Of course I'll help," Bonnie said. "Meet you in the Entrance Hall in...ten minutes? I just have to drop this off, get changed..."
"Of course," Ian said, smiling sheepishly.
Bonnie waved and returned to her friends.
"I can't believe you agreed," Tess said, picking through a carton of Bertie Bott's for her favorite flavors. She turned a brown bean, squinting at it. Cautiously, she nipped off the end of one.
"Coffee," she said with a relieved laugh. "Thank goodness. That could have gone horribly wrong..."
Bonnie smiled at her and shed her Hogwarts robes. She folded them neatly and tossed them on the chair by her bed.
"Anyway," Tess continued. "Why did you, anyway?"
"Because Ian's my friend," Bonnie said, voice muffled as she changed into a charcoal-grey Hogwarts sweater. She hopped around on one foot, attempting to pull off her socks.
"And no-one else would help him, and I felt bad."
She found a pair of jeans and pulled these on, too.
"You would've done the same for me and Ced, wouldn't you?"
"Of course. But he's..."
"My friend," Bonnie said firmly. "I wish the rest of you would get a grasp of that."
She shoved her wand in her back pocket "And as much as I'd love to continue this discussion, I have to go. Patrols await."
"And Ian Rosier," Tess said, voice flat.
She was rewarded by a pillow to the face just before Bonnie skipped out the door, this time without pumpkins bobbing around her head.
"Sorry I'm late," Bonnie said, skidding to a halt in the entrance hall. Ian, who had been leaning against the wall, pushed away to meet her.
"You're late by maybe a moment," he said. "It really isn't worth apologizing for."
Bonnie shrugged and walked along beside him as they began patrols. After several long, silent minutes, Bonnie sighed.
"Doing alright, there?" Ian asked. "Am I boring you?"
"Not you," Bonnie said. "Just patrols."
Ian chuckled.
"That's what you get for being a Prefect," he said.
"How about a game?"
"A game?"
Ian glanced at her, clearly wondering what he would get himself into if he said yes. "What, like I Spy?"
"No, silly. Something like...Truth."
"I already don't like the sound of that."
"Haven't you ever played?"
"No, and I'm not sure I would like to."
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun!"
"I sincerely doubt that."
"Please, Ian?"
"Why are you so..."
"Because I'm booored."
"I think you are secretly about five years old."
"How in the world did you guess?"
"Fine. Fine! But just this one patrol. Never again. Do you hear me, Bonnie? Never again."
"Yes! You go first. Ask me something, anything, and I have to answer truthfully. And then I do the same to you."
"And how will you know if I'm lying?"
"You won't," Bonnie said, seeming very sure of herself. "Because you're an honorable person."
"You're very sure of things about me I don't even know for myself. But alright, let's see...you told me in Hogsmeade that the Hat considered putting you in Gryffindor. What made you choose Hufflepuff?"
Bonnie looked at him quizically.
"The Hat just Sorted me there," she replied. "I didn't choose it."
"But don't you know that you do choose your House, in the end?" Ian replied. "If you didn't want to be put in Hufflepuff, you wouldn't have been. It takes your choices into consideration."
"Who told you that?"
"No one. Have you ever heard of a Hat-Stall?"
"A what?"
"A Hat-Stall. It's when you're so evenly split between two Houses that the Hat cannot make up its own mind. In that instance, it's up to you to decide where you want to go."
Bonnie shrugged.
"My mum was a Hufflepuff," she said. "And I grew up kind of assuming I'd either be in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. I knew I couldn't be a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin, so when the Sorting came I decided I'd be happy with whatever the Hat chose, if it was between those two. Which probably actually helped it make the decision to put me in Hufflepuff, now I think of it...I don't know. I guess I just instinctively knew I would fit better in Hufflepuff than anywhere else."
"I think you were right," Ian said. "Well, then. I guess it's your turn. Allow me to brace myself for whatever question you're concocting." "Oh, mine's the same as yours, really." Bonnie said. "Why Slytherin?"
Ian sighed, a long, heavy sigh.
"I was a Hat-Stall," he said. "You might remember how long my Sorting took. The Hat was stuck between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. It kind of battled with itself for a very long time. Something about cunning versus dedication and intelligence against ambition. Finally, it just kind of...oh, I don't realy know. It got frustrated or it gave up, and I thought I'd give it a nudge, so I just thought "my whole family is in Slytherin, I want to do great things, just put me in Slytherin." It asked me if I was sure, and when I said it was, it bellowed out "Slytherin!" and away I went. Simple as that."
"That's how, Bonnie pointed out, pulling aside a tapestry to make sure no one was sneaking around in the corridor behind it. "I asked why. We can't move on until you answer the question I asked."
"You don't miss much, do you?"
"You will never fool the cedar carrier."
"...What?"
"It's what Mr. Ollivander told me when I got my wand. Anyway, stop trying to change the subject. Answer."
"I chose Slytherin because...because it was the House I least wanted to be in, but knew I most fitted."
"I don't understand."
"Most of my family, as you've probably guessed, were Slytherins. With the exception of my mother's side, who were mostly Ravenclaws. And I suppose you could say I'm intelligent - I do well in classes and I love reading. But I also...I'm quite a bit more Machiavellian than I'd even like to admit."
"Machi..."
"Ends justify the means to the end," Ian said. "That kind of thing."
"Oh."
"Not your cup of tea, Hufflepuff?"
"No. No, not quite."
"Your House and Gryffindor are the honorable ones," he said. "Ravenclaw can be. Slytherin...we'll toss honor away if we need to."
"It's survival," Bonnie said quietly. "I can kind of understand it."
"More than most people can or will do," Ian said.
The corridors during classes were deserted and quiet, students with books in their arms wandering to the library or back to their Common Rooms for rest until dinner.
"Your turn again," Bonnie reminded Ian.
"How much longer do you want to play this?"
"Until the patrol is finished?"
"Fine. What...If you had to face a boggart, what would you see?"
Bonnie shuddered.
"I see the Dark Mark," she responded. "Death Eaters killed a lot of my mum's family. She never told me about it, but I heard her talking to my dad about it. I just...coming home to see that hanging over the house and to wonder what I would find inside, it...it petrifies me."
Ian's face was somber.
"Fair enough," he replied.
"If you brewed Amortentia, what would you smell?"
It was out before she could stop herself.
"Actually, you...um...you don't...have to...answer that. Sorry."
"It's quite alright," Ian said. "Professor Snape...you know how he favors his own House. He brewed some of the more interesting potions for us, once. Last year. And I could smell butterbeer, Quaffle leather, and..." he seemed to battle with himself for a moment before he finished. "And vanilla and strawberries," he said, quickly and quietly. She didn't notice that he glanced at her when he said it. "So I guess I am going to take the easy way out this time, and bounce that very same question back to you, Miss. Hargrave."
"We brewed it once in Potions Club," she said. "Just a few of us, and it took us days and days to get right. But I...I smelled the grass after it rains, and clean linen, and chocolate."
Their hands brushed as they were walking, and Bonnie felt a jolt, something like what the Shock-o-Choc had done, burst through her.
Classes let out, and the halls were soon teeming with students.
"Well," Ian said, "I guess we had better go. Thank you for doing patrols with me."
"It was no trouble at all," Bonnie replied. "I'll see you at the feast."
She smiled shyly and dashed away, disappearing into the crowd on her way to rejoin the Hufflepuffs.
As always, the Hogwarts Halloween feast was magnificent, and the Great Hall was resplendent with orange and black and gold hangings. Jack-o-lanterns grinned with candlelight mouths, and, sure enough, there were dancing skeletons kick-lining their way between the tables.
Full, happy, and ready for the weekend to follow, the students poured from the Great Hall, chattering and laughing and loud as they ever were. Bonnie wound up next to Ian in the doorway.
"Bonnie, can I have a moment?"
Again? she thought.
"Of course," she said. Ian took her gently by the elbow and pulled her out of the way of the last few students.
"Bonnie, there's something that I wanted to tell you. Ever since we were talking on patrols, I..."
He looked so nervous. Bonnie automatically, forgetting that this was not Cedric or any of the other boys, took one of his hands in hers.
He looked down at it as though this were equally the strangest and worst thing to happen to him all day.
"When we were talking about the Amortentia, I told you a lie."
"Ian! I told you the rules!"
"I know. I guess it's just in my nature. But the lie had been plaguing me all day. It isn't a big lie, Bonnie, and there is a hint of truth to it. Do you remember that the last thing I told you was that I could smell vanilla and strawberries?"
Bonnie, confused already, nodded.
"The lie is in that," he said. "I do smell strawberry and vanilla, of a sort, but it's not...separate. It's combined, like..."
Bonnie raised her hand, suddenly, and covered Ian's mouth, glancing around.
"Bonnie?" He asked, voice anxious and muffled.
"Listen."
It was near silent. It shouldn't have been silent, it was never silent so soon after meals.
"Something's wrong," Bonnie said. Without letting go of Ian's hand she took off, forcing him to follow or have his arm pulled from its socket. They dashed up the stairs and nearly collided with a wall of people, all staring forward at something Bonnie couldn't see. She leaned up onto her toes, trying to look over the sea of heads.
"What are they looking at?" She asked Ian. He craned his neck, and his eyes moved as if he were reading something.
His face went white.
"Ian, what is it?"
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened," he read mechanically. "Enemies of the Heir, beware."
"Enemies of the...Chamber of Secrets? I thought that was a legend."
Ian, still white, shook his head slowly.
"I think...Merlin, I think it's written in blood. And Mrs. Norris is hanging from her tail. She's petrified. Bonnie, this is real. This is very real."