To be fair, Maurice did wait until seven to wake up Roger on Halloween. And then Harold, like every other morning, threw a shoe at his head. Maurice ducked, Roger registered his usual complaints, Maurice forced Roger to get dressed, and they went down to breakfast.

Maurice couldn't have been more excited about the Halloween feast, which was to happen that night. It sounded completely fabulous and full of sweets.

The day was quite boring. Roger insisted on working on his homework, because 'there's nothing else to do, why don't we just do it?'

Instead of doing homework, Maurice decided to draw a picture. Maurice liked to draw, though he wasn't very good. Once he was done with his masterpiece, he showed it to Roger.

"What's that supposed to be?" Roger asked, looking at it skeptically.

"There's you, and you're hitting a bludger at Ralph Roemer's face, and Jack's in the background, grinning evilly, and also that's Luna Lovegood as your cheerleader," Maurice said matter-of-factly. Roger contemplated the picture for a bit, then took it from Maurice and ripped it to shreds. "Hey!"

Roger ignored him and went back to his homework.

Maurice worked on seeing how far he could Wingardium Leviosa his quill. It ended up hitting Goyle in the face. Goyle didn't notice, but Crabbe did, and the two walked over to them. "Oops," Maurice said under his breath.

Roger glanced up from his Transfiguration homework. "What?" he asked.

"Greyback, Macmillan…" Crabbe said. "D'ya wanna help us terrorize Mudbloods?"

Roger shrugged and stood up, shoving his half-completed homework into his bag. "Why not? Coming, Maurice?"

Maurice grinned and stood up. "Yeah, sure, I just need to get my quill."

The other three left him to find his quill, which had bounced off of Goyle's head and ended up underneath a couch. Maurice was covered in dust by the time he got it – what was up with the house-elves? Why weren't they cleaning properly?

Well, that didn't really matter. He was pretty sure that they weren't going to be waiting for him, so he'd have to hurry. He saw Harold on his way out and dragged him along, too, despite the other boy's protests.

"Where could they be…" Maurice muttered, keeping a tight hold on Harold's arm. The last time he'd kidnapped – erm, included – Harold in one of their little expeditions, he'd run away first chance he got. Maurice wanted everyone to have fun at Hogwarts, even if it was by force.

Huh. Maybe he shouldn't have been a Slytherin.

"Well, even if we can't find them, we can watch people decorate the Great Hall," Maurice decided. "I heard that there were going to be dancing skeletons this year! Have you ever seen dancing skeletons? I haven't. Do you think there really will be? I hope there's lots of sweets-"

"You're giving me a headache," Harold said, interrupting him.

"You can talk!" Maurice said, hugging the other boy. "I don't think I've ever heard you say anything above a mutter!"

Harold was rigid under Maurice's grip. "Please let go of me."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, you can go do whatever now," Maurice said, letting go of Harold and waving his hand. Harold headed back for the common room, and Maurice went on to the Great Hall alone.

Once there, he saw Roger, Crabbe, and Goyle shoving that one Gryffindor first year – Colin, right? – into a pumpkin. Maurice giggled and joined them. "Having fun?" he asked Roger, who nodded.

Of course, then Professor McGonagall showed up and saved Colin. Thirty points were deducted from Slytherin. Maurice sighed happily as they exited the Great Hall. "That was fun," he said, slinging his arms around Roger's and Crabbe's necks. "So, what're we gonna do for the rest of the day?"

The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, and soon it was feast time. Maurice was practically exploding with excitement. "And I'm gonna have loads and loads and loads of sweets! I'm not gonna eat anything that isn't at least fifty percent sugar! And it's going to be amazing!"

Everyone edged away from him. Maurice took no notice of this. Roger had to hold him back to stop him from trampling everyone to get to the Great Hall. "Aren't you excited?" Maurice asked, looking back at him. Roger rolled his eyes.

"Sure, but I'm not going to go kill people to get there. There'll be plenty of food. Look, there's Jack!" Roger said, effectively changing the subject. Maurice waved to the redhead and dragged Roger over to him.

"Is he okay?" Jack asked Roger. Roger shrugged, and Jack rolled his eyes. "Whatever, let's get going."

Roger had held them back from all of the other Slytherins, and now they were caught in with the Ravenclaws. They ended up near Luna, Simon, and their fat friend. "Hi Luna, Simon, and fat friend!" Maurice said cheerfully. Fat friend looked at him.

"My name is-"

"His name's Piggy," Luna said, smiling dreamily. Maurice glanced at Roger. Roger was blushing, for some weird reason – ooh, he was walking right beside Luna. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Jack," Maurice said. Jack nodded, glancing at each of the Ravenclaws in turn. With that, he grabbed Roger and Maurice and plowed to the front. "Hey!"

"That's the little Mudblood," he hissed. "The girl's… well, she's at least a halfblood, her father runs a completely insane newspaper or something called 'The Quibbler.'"

"Roger likes her," Maurice informed Jack. Roger turned redder than he already was.

"I- no- shut up Maurice," he muttered, stomping away from the two. Maurice grinned and followed.

The feast was even more than he had imagined. There were sweets everywhere, and it wasn't even dessert time! It looked simply amazing! Maurice wedged himself in between Roger and Harold, grinning brightly at both of them.

If there were dancing skeletons, Maurice didn't know, because he was too focused on eating. "It's a mystery why he isn't as big as Fatty back there," Jack said, staring at him. Maurice grinned at the redhead through a mouthful of candy. Jack shuddered.

"Potter's not here," Draco said, interrupting their incredibly gripping conversation.

Maurice looked over to the Gryffindor table and, no, Harry Potter didn't seem to be there. That was interesting, he supposed. But who cared about Harry Potter when there was this much candy?

"Maurice, we have to go," Roger said. Maurice glanced up. Everyone was leaving. Wow. He'd been really immersed in the candy, which he realized was now disappearing. Maurice bounced to his feet and followed the crowd.

Eventually, the crowd stopped. Maurice grabbed Roger's hand and the two slipped through the crowd until they were even with Jack, Draco, and the like.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

"I don't get it," Maurice said, turning his head to the side and looking at the words. "Is that blood?"

Like usual, everybody ignored him. Harry Potter and his friends were standing near the probably-blood words and the cat. Whoa, was that Mrs. Norris? What was wrong with her?

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, mudbloods!" Draco called out. Maurice looked at him. He looked a little nervous, though he sounded confident. Filch showed up, and Maurice grabbed Roger's hand again.

"Let's head back to the dorms," he muttered. Roger nodded, glancing at the stiff cat one last time.

It was quiet most of the way back. Roger hadn't pulled his hand out of Maurice's yet, and he looked to be thinking. "Do you think it could be Harold?"

Maurice jumped. "What? Who?"

"The heir. He wasn't at the feast, remember?"

Maurice scoffed. "I bet he'll be sleeping when we get back. That's all he does. He's not 'the heir.' And that wasn't his handwriting, either. You're insane."

Hooray, a plot! :D

And also - Samneric will be popping up soon-ish. A few chapters.

And Ralph's more friends with Seamus and Dean. Yeah. He's friends with them.