Chapter 8 : The Halloween Duel

Albus had the strange feeling that his friends were starting to resent him. Not that he could blame them, however. Over the next couple of days he sporadically started up conversations of the potential crimes that their Headmaster may have committed, to the point where not only was he behind on his work from obsessing over it, but behind on his entire schedule period.

"Look, I said I'm sorry" he was telling Scorpius in Charms the day before Halloween.

Scorpius merely shrugged and levitated his newt off of his desk; they were having a review day. "It's fine" he said unconvincingly, still not meeting Albus' eyes.

Today was Scorpius' birthday, but Albus was so behind on the dates of each day, what with Quidditch practice and furious theorizing with Mirra, that he had completely forgotten. He hadn't wished him Happy Birthday or gotten him anything, something that was worsened by the fact that Morrison had went so far as to order a large variety of sweets from Honeydukes as a present.

"No, really, it's fine" Scorpius went on as Albus continued to apologized. "I get it. It's a lot to remember."

Albus scowled at him and turned to Morrison, who was rapidly prodding various items on his desk and switching their colors. He merely gave a guilty shrug. "It's the day before Halloween, Al. You know when Halloween is."

Albus groaned and put his head down at his desk. Perhaps he was spending too much time focusing on something that his uncle had told him not to. But it was, after all, his mystery to solve; it had been he who had found the stray wand, and he who had learned of Ares' incarceration.

Scorpius' bad attitude towards him remained for the rest of the day, but Albus was quite thankful to note that it had thinned out by the following. Hogwarts looked absolutely beautiful with the numerous Halloween decorations, even if it was hauntingly so, what with real bats hanging on the ceiling and gigantic carved pumpkins placed in random hallways.

"Did all the decoratin' me self" Hagrid said proudly as they caught him while they were leaving Herbology. He was carrying another gargantuan pumpkin on his shoulders-so massive it looked very much like it would have crushed Albus had it fallen on him.

"How come no one helps you?" Morrison asked him.

Hagrid beamed. "They've offered, but I've been decoratin' this school fer more than fifty years."

"How old are you Hagrid?" Albus asked him.

"Real ol' Al. Real ol'."

Even some of the teachers had started taking part in the Halloween festivities. A few of the teachers, like Neville and Professor Bellinger, had changed their outfits slightly so that they were wearing orange as well as black. Tiny Professor Flitwick also dressed in all orange, and even gave himself a green hat so that he looked like an extremely thin pumpkin.

Their final class on Halloween day was Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors. Professor Handit had opted for a bit of a free lesson; he was allowing them to partner up and practice minor jinxes on each other. Albus sat with Morrison and Scorpius in a corner, discussing the upcoming Quidditch game instead; it was set to take place only a week later.

"I don't know, you know Erin Sykes, that girl in Ravenclaw?" Morrison asked them. "I overheard her saying that one of the Beaters for Gryffindor broke his leg. They're pretty much letting anyone who's up for it fill in for him. One less thing to worry about Al."

"It's not Bludgers I'm worried about" Albus told them-which was quite true, he felt he could dodge anything that a Beater threw at him pretty well. "It's just catching the Snitch in time. Atticus straight up told me last practice-we're going to get flattened in the scoring department. Even without my brother, have you seen their Chasers? He told me I needed to catch it before they're a hundred and fifty points up."

"That gives you about five minutes" Scorpius grinned. "Hey, watch it!" he shouted at a group of Gryffindors that included both Charles Eckley and Donovan Hornsbrook. They were both sniggering. A blue spell had whizzed right over Scorpius' head.

"Prats" Morrison muttered. "Always trying to start with someone."

Albus nodded his head in agreement. Only a year ago Albus had been kicked out of this very class because of them. He was pleased to see however, that this time Rose wasn't part of the group. She was in the middle of the room, fiercely concentrating on whatever spell she was attempting to utilize on her partner, Mirra.

Another spell whizzed by them, this one a canary yellow that narrowly missed Albus by inches. It hit Dante Haug square in the chest, and he doubled over laughing; he had been hit with the tickling spell. "I said watch it!" Scorpius yelled in Albus' defence, while they doubled over in laughter.

Professor Handit looked up from his desk and peered around the room. "Keep your jinxes to yourselves, we're supposed to be practicing, remember? Not fighting!" he yelled to no one in particular, before going back to reading a magazine.

"Does anyone have a quill I can borrow?" Morrison asked them both. He seemed to be hard at work doing homework that was due the day before.

"Yeah, there's one over in my bag" Scorpius said, pointing to it. They had not taken their things over into the corner with them.

Morrison got up and walked over to it, peered in the bag, and on his way back with the quill, yelled "AARGH!"

The class turned to look, and the majority of them starting laughing at once. He had been hit with such a good Jelly Legs Jinx that his legs had literally formed what looked like a spiral; they coiled themselves around each other as Morrison tried flailing close to the wall for support.

"Settle down, settle down" Professor Handit said as he got up and performed the counter curse. "Who did this?" he asked Morrison.

Morrison pointed over towards the group of Gryffindors that were desperately trying to stifle their laughter. "One of them" he said furiously.

Eckley looked shocked. He held up a textbook. "We've been reading sir. I can't- I can't imagine anyone over here doing something like that" he said with a look of mock concern. Just then however, the bell rang, and the class, most of them still chuckling, shuffled out the door.

Despite Eckley's disbelief that one of his friends had jinxed Morrison though, Albus saw Donovan mouth "One for three" as they were leaving.

"And you were ticked when we got him chucked off of his broom" Morrison said grumpily to Albus as they walked down a hallway. "I'm pissed he didn't get more hurt!"

Just then however, a spell flew over his shoulder and ricocheted off the wall-narrowly missing Scorpius. He spun around in less than a second and whipped out his wand.

Eckley, Hornsbrook, and a few other Gryffindors were at the other end of the hallway laughing. Albus saw Mirra whisper something to Eckley that made him stop and turn around. Scorpius, however, did not seem to be willing to let him throw in the towel. "Come back!" he shouted.

Eckley turned around and raised his eyebrows. Albus saw both Mirra and Rose tug at his robes.

"What's wrong, you can only jinx me when my back is turned?" Scorpius yelled. He began walking down the hallway. Several of the Gryffindors went "ohhh" and a few of them started chanting for a fight.

Eckley turned and looked at his friends, then began walking down the hallway as well. Mirra buried her face in her hands. Morrison went to join Scorpius, but Albus held out his arm to stop him. Eckley may be a foot taller than Scorpius, with a much better build as well, but Albus had little doubt that in a wizard's duel, Scorpius would win. Lazy though he was, he was easily the most talented of their year, and Albus had seen first hand how easily he learned some of the hardest spells that they had been taught.

"What if they jump in?" Morrison asked him.

"Then we'll jump in too. But Scorpius can take him by himself, you've seen the spell books he reads."

Eckley and Scorpius were now only a few feet away from each other. "Just let it go" Eckley said to him. "We were just messing around."

"Oh yeah, it's only messing around when I start to fight back" Scorpius shot. Even with the height difference, he didn't look intimidated at all. Albus thought that Scorpius was quite wrong however. He had the strange suspicion that Eckley backing off had more to do with Mirra asking him to, not so much because he was frightened.

Eckley twirled his wand between his fingers. "I'm gonna' feel real bad if I hurt you" he said. "So just let it go."

Scorpius snorted. "Reducto!" he shouted, and Albus watched as his spell blasted Eckley right in the chest, sending him flying back several feet, clutching his ribs.

Many of the Gryffindors stepped back against the wall to leave the hall cleared. Eckley staggered to his feet, still clutching his damaged ribs, and shouted something resulting in a fiery red spell.

"Protego!" Scorpius yelled, and the red spell flew into the ceiling. "Fernunculus!"

The spell hit Eckley square in the face. He clutched his hands to his cheeks, though through the cracks in his fingers several large boils had emerged. Many of the Gryffindors were shrieking. Scorpius, apparently deciding that the battle was done, slid his wand back into his pocket and turned around.

"Look out!" both Albus and Morrison yelled at the same time. Scorpius turned around just in time to get a hex thrown at him by Eckley, who has back on his feet, boils all over his face and seething in rage.

It was Scorpius' turn to clutch his face now, and Albus saw that a large red welt had appeared on his face-he had been hit with a moderately powerful stinging hex. Many of the Gryffindors were shouting now, especially Mirra and Rose. It seemed that many of them had never expected it to go so far.

Scorpius removed his hands from his face and whipped his wand back out. Just as he was about to fire a spell however, someone cried "Expelliarmus" and both Scorpius and Eckley had been disarmed.

Albus turned and saw Professor Bellinger hurrying towards them. "What's going on here?" she asked.

"Malfoy started it miss-"

"Scorpius threw the first spell-"

The Gryffindors were all attempting to tell her what had happened.

"That's ridiculous!" Morrison shouted up. "That prat's been firing spells at us all day!"

"Thank you Mr. Vincent" Professor Bellinger said coolly.

She examined both of their faces. She cringed when she saw the boils on Eckley's. "Hornsbrook" she said, and Donovan stepped out of the crowd. "Take him up to the Hospital Wing. Scorpius" she said, turning to him. "This doesn't look too bad. Do you think you need the hospital wing?"

Scorpius shook his head furiously, just as Albus knew he would. Going to the Hospital Wing as well would make it a tie.

"Twenty points from both houses" she said, and most of the Gryffindors groaned.

Albus and Morrison walked Scorpius back to the common room, and within minutes, he was fuming, kicking random things in their dormitory.

"I knew he could only hit me when my back was turned" he spat out as he paced around the room in anger. Albus and Morrison sat on their beds, exchanging hesitant glances.

"Well it's over now" Albus said.

"No it isn't" Scorpius shot, touching his hand to his face and feeling the welt. It had went down in size considerably, but was still quite red. "And what are Mirra and Rose playing at? Over there with him...probably egging him on."

"That's not fair, Mirra tried stopping him" Albus said.

Scorpius merely sneered. "Yeah okay. Whatever. But Eckley will get what's coming to him. I have a plan."

Albus exchanged yet another glance with Morrison and saw that he was thinking the same thing. Slytherin was about to lose more than just twenty points.

Scorpius' bad temper had fluctuated for most of the day, and by the time they were being served delicious food at the Halloween feast, he had seemingly forgotten all about his threat. Indeed, he was rather enjoying himself. As only second years had been present during his duel with Eckley (Or, that 'Pompous ass second year kid' as he was referred to by a sixth year) many of the older students were tuning in to his conversation for details.

"So then he tried firing some spell at me-never found out what it was, I deflected it so fast-but either way it hit the ceiling-"

Albus was pleased to see that he talking about it easily, but when he stood up and looked over at the Gryffindor table he saw that the reception was quite different. For one thing, Eckley was buried in his food. He had thick bandages on his face-no doubt from having had the boils popped-and wasn't talking to anyone. James, who was sitting a few seats down from him, was talking very loudly, spraying those around him with his food.

"He hit you with your back turned?" a lanky fifth year asked Scorpius.

"Yeah...but that won't happen again. Lost us twenty points though" he said with a small frown.

A seventh year a few seats down from him leaned forward and said to him "Don't worry about it. We haven't won the house cup in like ten years anyway."

The rest of the Halloween meal passed by with Scorpius retelling his story for people who were just tuning in. Albus barely commented, or even spoke at all. The food was so delicious that he rarely had an empty mouth as it was.

The feast ended just a few minutes shy of when the second years had to go to bed. They shuffled out of the Great Hall after being dismissed by Neville; their Headmaster had neglected to even attend the feast. As they left the Hall, fighting their way through a crowd of people, Albus was stopped by Scorpius.

"Come with me real quick" he muttered to him.

Perplexed, Albus followed him as they fought through the crowd, near a group of Gryffindors that included Eckley.

"Hey Eckley!" Scorpius called out, causing him to turn around and stop talking to one of his friends.

"What are you doing?" Albus said under his breath, but Scorpius ignored him.

Eckley approached him cautiously, two of his friends joining him. "What do you want?" he asked.

Scorpius smirked. "We never really got a chance to finish" he said. "I know you want to settle things without teachers there."

Eckley plunged his hands into his robes, his two friends and Albus doing the same, but Scorpius merely held up his hands. "Stop this right here" he said. "I want things to be fair. How about a duel, just me and you, tonight."

Eckley kept his wand out, but relaxed his grip on it. "Where?" he asked.

"Dungeons?"

Eckley snorted. "That's hardly fair. You barely have to leave your Common Room."

"Hmm" Scorpius put his fingers to his chin and apparently gave the ordeal a great deal of thought. "You're right. How about the fourth floor corridor, right near the painting of those wizards playing cards? This way it's the same walk for both of us. And Peeves finishes his rounds at midnight, so around one 'o clock?"

Albus watched as Eckley considered it. He found it quite strange however, that Scorpius had negotiated so quickly. What was he playing at? Making it a fair deal for them both...

"Okay, that's fair" Eckley said after a moment. His eyes lingered on Albus for a second before saying "Come alone, no tag alongs."

"Deal" Scorpius said with a smirk.

And yet, twenty minutes later, he was laughing in the Common Room, pounding his fists on the floor.

"What's so funny?" Morrison asked, looking up from his Charms book.

Albus quickly told him the conversation that Scorpius had with a very bandaged Eckley, then added "But he's not going to the duel, are you?"

Scorpius wiped tears from his eyes. "No, I'm not" he said, and then began cracking up again.

"Why not?" Morrison asked. "You're not scared are you?"

But Albus had figured out his entire plan almost the second the duel had been scheduled. "What are you going to try and frame him for?" he asked Scorpius.

Scorpius shrugged and tried to calm himself down. Breathing slowly, he admitted "I'm going to tell Darvy that I overheard Eckley telling his friends he was going to vandalize the portrait of the wizards playing cards. I'll tell him the time, and Darvy will meet with him instead!"

"But what if you can't find Darvy?" Morrison asked.

Scorpius shrugged again. "I don't care, I'll just pick some random teacher. Either way, he'll get nailed with detention for at least a week. That's an attempt to destroy school property, that is."

Albus thought about it for a moment. "He's not going to show up" he said. "Seriously, you'd have to be really stupid to fall for something like that."

"Well since when has Eckley been the brightest? Smart move" Morrison said, giving Scorpius a thump on the shoulder.

Albus sighed. "It's...it's dishonest though."

"So?" both of his friends said in unison.

"So...I don't know, it's just messed up." He shuddered to think what would happen if someone like say, Mirra, found out that he was in on such a cowardly activity.

"So is jinxing someone with their back turned!" Scorpius defended himself.

"True, but still..."

And yet, there was no swaying Scorpius against the matter. For the next half of an hour he tried, until Scorpius finally went to the door to go and alert a teacher of Eckley's dastardly plan. He had just reached the stone wall that would lead him to the exit of the Common Room when Albus had shouted "Everyone's going to think you were afraid of him!"

Scorpius turned and looked back. "Afraid of who?" he asked.

"Eckley" Albus said. "He's going to tell everyone you didn't show. People aren't going to think you outsmarted him, they're going to think that you got lucky the first time and thought that you couldn't do it again."

Scorpius looked at Morrison, who was now sitting Indian style on his bed. He gave a shrug. "He makes a point. That's what the other three houses will think anyway. They hate us, remember?"

Scorpius narrowed his eyes. He looked as though he was in deep thought. "So what should I do?"

Albus thought fast. He didn't want Eckley spreading bad rumors, but at the same time, he didn't want Scorpius to get in trouble. "Look...why don't we just meet him at the scheduled time...and tell him you're calling it off?"

Scorpius looked outraged at the mere thought of it. "Call it off right to his face? That's hardly better!"

"Look, if he still wants to go through with it, go through with it, but try and talk him out of it. You guys don't want to be in detention for my game do you? I know you don't!"

Scorpius heaved a tremendous sigh. "If I get a bad rep for this, I'm putting the blame on you!"

"Fine, fine...this will all turn out okay though...trust me."

And so, the small groups of people in the Common Room slowly started to thin, finally disappearing completely around half past twelve, Morrison started getting ready for bed and told them that if they weren't back by one thirty, he would tell everyone that they had been caught doing something heroic.

"We're not going to get caught doing anything you prat" Albus told him as he rifled through his trunk, finally pulling out a silvery thin cloak; the Invisibility Cloak that he had received from his parents almost a year ago. "We'll be going in this."

"Think it can fit both of us?" Scorpius asked.

"It can probably fit all three of us, now that I think about it" Albus replied, unfolding it and taking in its monstrous size.

He threw the cloak over both he and Scorpius, then turned to Morrison. "Can you see us?"

"Nope" he replied, staring way too far to the left. "Neither of you."

"Ok, looks like we're ready to go."

They left the Common Room and began walking through the cold labyrinth dungeon-though it felt as though it took them an hour to get to the end of the first corridor. Albus was slightly taller than Scorpius, but his legs were much longer, and it showed. His strides covered so much more distance that the Cloak kept slipping off of his sneaking partner. Eventually, they had to devise a method for letting them walk in perfect synchronization.

"Okay look, for every two steps I take, you just take a regular step" Scorpius muttered.

Albus tried taking a long stride and felt himself lose balance-causing Scorpius to topple over into the wall.

"How clumsy are you?" he asked.

"Sorry...let's just keep going."

Walking up the stone steps was probably the hardest. Scorpius suggested that they take the Cloak off until they felt that they needed it, but Albus point blank refused. If he was caught, not only would he get in trouble for something that wasn't his fault, but the school would also know about his Cloak.

They fidgeted around for a while, trying to plan their steps, until they finally reached the staircase nearest the Great Hall, the main staircase. Slowly walking up it to reach their destination, neither of them even bothered looking where they were going. The next thing Albus knew however, both he and Scorpius had ran into what felt like a brick wall. There was a loud scream, a pain in his head, and then-quite suddenly-he and Scorpius were at the foot of the stairs.

"Who's there?" came a familiar voice.

Albus pulled Scorpius near him and tried concealing every part of them in the cloak. Slowly, he slid back against a wall. Scorpius started to say something but Albus covered his mouth. The Headmaster was a few feet away from him, holding his side in pain and looking around frantically.

"I said who's there!" he repeated, this time pulling out his wand and aiming it a few feet away from where Albus and Scorpius sat silent and still. He continued scanning the room, his eyes rapidly shooting over every inch of seemingly nothing but air. Sweat was pouring down his forehead.

Albus tried to calm down and slow down his heartbeat; he new that Ares could probably hear it, it was beating so fast. But the Headmaster stood there for several more moments, until finally lowering his wand and continuing down the stairs. He walked right past them; Scorpius had to tuck in his legs to avoid more collision.

With one last suspicious look back to the stairs, the Headmaster entered the corridor that led to the grounds and disappeared.

"He's going to the forest!" Albus whispered.

"So let him go!" Scorpius whispered back. "Let's go to the Common Room! Forget Eckley, and forget sneaking around, we almost just got expelled!"

"But we could follow-"

"No!"

Albus sank back against the wall, knowing full well that this may very well be his best chance at seeing what Ares was up to. He sighed. "Okay, let's go back."

They walked back to the Common Room in silence, not talking, fidgeting, or tumbling at all.