And we are on to Halloween!

This chapter will include some filler/not filler. It's mainly development between Merlot, Charlie, and Scortwit.

There might be a bit about Hermione in there too, but you'll have to read to find out for yourself.

Anyways, let's go!

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The air had begun to grow cold as the seasons crept closer to winter. The leaves turned gold, brown, and red, and began piling up on the ground, making travel difficult without a broom.

Charlie and Scortwit began getting busier as Swedish Short Snout mating season reached its end, leaving Merlot to practice reading and magic on her own.

So now, the girl found herself outside, standing before a large pile of dry leaves that she had gathered and put into a pile away from any flammables, as well as the woods.

The girl took a deep breath and raised her wand. "Swish and flick… just like always."

Merlot inhaled and exhaled deeply, steadying herself before waving her wand in the basic motion. "Incendio!"

An orb of yellow flames burst from the tip of the wand and smashed into the pile of leaves, causing them to burst alight. The leaves were so dry that the fire spread as if it were burning through sawdust, running hungrily across the pile until no part was left unconsumed.

Merlot nodded. "The output was less than yesterday… I've gotten a bit better at controlling that, at least…"

The girl raised her wand again, and gave yet another swish and flick. "Aguamenti."

A cascade of water sprung from the wand and turned to steam on the burning pile of leaves. Merlot frowned. "Come on. Aguamenti!"

Another splash of water turned to steam on the flickering flames. Merlot groaned. "Why can I get flames down, but not water?"

"There's a reason that the water charm is taught in your fifth year."

"Charlie! I didn't know you were back yet." Merlot smiled. The redhead gave a tired grin in response, before taking his wand and using the water charm to effectively put out the fire.

"And I didn't know that your self study included lighting things on fire."

Merlot swayed back and forth innocently. "It's an easy way to practice magic control. The less magic I use, the smaller the flames."

"Initially, that is until they have a good fuel source. You need to be careful with magic like this." Charlie frowned.

"I know… I'm sorry."

Charlie patted the girl on the back. "To answer your question. The water charm, while it summons the element, is actually considered conjuration. Unlike parselmagic which wishes the element into existence at its basic level, proper incantations are layered. The water charm creates water from nothing, and requires more magic than normal to sustain its existence."

Merlot nodded and looked at her wand. "I know I can do it…"

"You will." Charlie nodded. "The ability to even create just a splash from your wand at this age is incredible."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Charlie smiled. "But again, please exercise caution when it comes to dangerous spells. Come on, Scortwits bringing home some pumpkins for us to carve."

"Pumpkins?" Merlot blinked.

"For jack-o-lanterns." Charlie nodded. "We'll show you."

"I remember Dudley making one… you use a real pumpkin?"

"Yes, who doesn't?"

Merlot shrugged. "I don't know, I just didn't think it was a real pumpkin."

Charlie nodded. "Why don't we go and get dinner started. Scortwit will be back by the time it's ready."

Merlot nodded and followed Charlie into the dragon lodge. The young man began chopping up vegetables as Merlot grated some cheese.

"We'll be having loaded acorn squash." Charlie nodded, popping the vegetables open and scooping out the center. "So I'm going to fire these in the oven for a little while and we can prepare the filling."

"All right."

Merlot began cooking sausage together with some garlic and onion. Once it was all cooked through, she added in diced potatoes, celery, some crumbled up stale bread, and chicken stock that Scortwit had made a week prior.

After finishing the stuffing, Charlie took the acorn squash halves from the oven and filled each with a few spoonfuls of the mixture. The young man popped the food back into the oven and began heating a cast iron pan.

Merlot watched as Charlie sauteed some mushrooms, before mixing in half of the cheese and some cream. With a swish of his wand, the mixture spun about in the pan and smoothed out into a nice white sauce.

The door to the lodge opened just as Charlie and Merlot took out the acorn squash and placed it upon the table with the mushroom sauce and extra cheese.

"Look at you two!" Scortwit chuckled. "Got dinner all hot and ready to eat!"

Charlie and Merlot smiled, both sitting down to eat.

"I got a group of pretty good pumpkins this year Charlie-boy! The real big ones that Cordhoffer grows."

Charlie grinned and nudged Merlot. "You're gonna love it!"

Scortwit rubbed his hands together gleefully as Charlie passed him a serving of squash. "Let's dig in and then dig out those pumpkins!"

Charlie grinned and took a bite of his food, while Merlot blinked at hers. "Why are we carving pumpkins anyways?"

"It's All Hallows Eve, Halloween, Samhain. Whatever you want to call it. A jack-o-lantern helps guide good spirits to the next world, and they ward off bad spirits of the night." Scortwit answered.

"Oh."

"It's also a very fun activity." The man said. "And it looks beautiful afterwords."

Merlot nodded. "Okay. Oh my… this squash is divine!"

"Amazing use of that word Merlot!" Charlie smiled. "I think this will be the best night ever."

"Until Yule, that is."

"Yule?"

"Christmas? Winterfest? Whatever you want to call it. A holiday celebrating what we have." Scortwit and Charlie smiled. "We gather around the fire and have cookies, and we exchange gifts."

Merlot took another bite of her dinner. "It sounds amazing."

"Doesn't it?" Charlie smiled.

Merlot grinned and took another bite of food. "Although, I don't know what I'd get you…"

Scortwit shrugged. "Well, it's supposed to be a surprise. I'm sure you can think of something."

"But you two already have everything!" Merlot said.

"Oh… there is plenty that we don't have." Scortwit smiled. "But still, we have more than enough to go around."

Charlie finished his plate quickly and placed it at the sink. "Anyone else?"

"Sure thing Charlie-boy, I'm done as well" Scortwit nodded. "You finish your food Merlot, Charlie and I will set up the pumpkins."

Merlot nodded and took another bite of her dinner as the two adults ran into the next room giggling like children.

After finishing her plate, Merlot set her dishes to the side and followed after Scortwit and Charlie. She found them in the lounge, sitting on a large collection of newspaper with three massive orange pumpkins.

"See? Told you they were big!" Scortwit laughed. "Do you want help carving yours Merlot?"

The girl shook her head and sat down next to the pumpkin set aside for her. "No, I'd like to do it myself, thanks."

Scortwit nodded and handed the girl a knife.

"Why can't we use a cutting charm?"

Scortwit shook his head. "Very hard to control. You could end up chopping your pumpkin in half."

"Fair enough." Merlot nodded and began following along with Scortwit and Charlie, who took out a small circle atop the pumpkin.

"Now comes the squishy part." Charlie handed Merlot a spoon. "We have to scoop out the innards."

Merlot nodded and watched as Scortwit reached in and pulled chunks of string bound seeds out of the pumpkin. The girl shrugged and reached into her own pumpkin.

It was cold, and it was slimy. The girls face went white as she grabbed a hold of a handful of stringy guts and they oozed.

"Not a fan?" Charlie chuckled.

"No… I just wasn't expecting it to be… quite this slimy."

Scortwit laughed as he slipped another handful of guts onto the newspaper. "You're gonna have to get used to it if you want a jack-o-lantern."

Merlot nodded and drew out the massive handful of pumpkin, before throwing it onto the newspaper with a wet slap.

"Nice one! You hit minister fudge!" Charlie grinned.

"Who?"

"England's minister for magic. A right oaf he is." Scortwit nodded. "Doesn't know his head from his arse most of the time."

"There's a minister for magic?" Merlot blinked.

"In England. In other countries it's different. There's a czar of witchcraft in Russia, in Germany there's the Konig, which despite it's translation is actually a body made of six magicals who make decisions for the country. In America they made a magic senate to vote on bills. The minister for magic is a political figure in the magical world. He carries out the word of the noble families of the wizengamot, and he has the power to overrule some of their decisions." Scortwit nodded.

"I guess it makes sense that there would be people with laws placed on magic…" Merlot nodded, wiping away the pumpkin guts to see a picture of a soft looking man speaking over a podium.

"There are some restrictions on the limitless, because for every bit of magic we know there is a world of unknown spells, potions, and rituals. The only problem is how dangerous they can be." Charlie spoke. "The magical law bodies around the world make sure that wizards and witches are kept safe."

"And they do such a good job." Scortwit snobbed. "The problem is that they have no idea what to do when a dark lord appears. The politicians just duck and cover."

Merlot hucked another handful of pumpkin guts onto the pile, before grabbing the spoon she was given and scooping out the edges.

"So… it's because of cowards like him that my parents died?"

Scortwit blinked while Charlie gawked at Merlot's attitude shift. "Sort of. They can order around the aurors of Britain, dark wizard catchers. So, if they did more, maybe your parents would be alive."

Merlot nodded and looked at the picture of the minister, before covering it up again with a well placed throw of pumpkin guts.

"Much better. Now, I'm all done hollowing out my pumpkin." Merlot smiled.

Scortwit nodded and passed her a paint brush, along with some black paint. "Put a picture up on the pumpkin, and then carve it out. You can do a face, or a silhouette. Anything really."

Merlot nodded and took the paintbrush. She began painting a picture of a witch on a broom, flying in front of a full moon.

"You have a very talented hand." Charlie blinked, as he caught a glimpse of her pumpkin. "Are you sure you'll be able to do all of the details with that knife?"

Merlot blinked and looked down at the knife. "Oh right…"

'If only there were some way to use magic for this…'

'Interficiam Parva…'

'What?'

Merlot blinked as the cold voice slithered through her mind. It didn't belong to Charlie or Scortwit. It was far more… menacing.

'Interficiam Parva…'

The girls eyes were drawn to her wand as the voice spoke. She took it subtly and focused.

"Interficiam Parva."

The tip of the wand flickered with a small gray light. Merlot blinked and jiggled it around a bit, watching as the light stuck firm on the end of the instrument.

"Having trouble with your cuts?" Charlie asked.

"No." Merlot shook her head. "I'm doing fine."

The red head shrugged and went back to painting his pumpkin. He seemed to be going for a fang filled face.

Merlot blinked and pressed the wand to the pumpkin. She noticed a small sliver open up as the magic touched the orange skin of the vegetable.

Understanding what the spell did made Merlot grin. She could cut with much more precision with this rather than a wonky kitchen knife.

Slowly, Merlot dragged her wand around her rough piece, cutting out sections of the pumpkin as the picture began to take shape.

After a few minutes of working, the pumpkin was complete. Merlot looked and saw Charlie's pumpkin looking like a many toothed monster, while Scortwits was quite cheery, with a few square teeth and cheeky eyes.

"Woah! You really made yours pop!" Scortwit exclaimed, looking at the pumpkin.

Charlie looked at Merlots work and gave a whistle. "Looks like we've got a pumpkin prodigy on our hands."

The girl grinned and wiped her hands off on her pant leg. "I wouldn't say that."

"I would! Look at all of the details. How did you manage it?" Charlie asked.

"I just… I was in a grove I guess." Merlot shrugged. 'Still… I don't know where that spell came from…'

"Well, now that we're all done, we get to light them up!" Scortwit smiled. "You got the jars, right Charlie boy?"

The redhead nodded and procured three glass canning jars, along with their lids.

"Are we making candles?" Merlot blinked.

"Sort of." Scortwit smiled. "There's a charm that makes flames that will burn for several days on end, if you do it right, that is."

The man pulled out his wand and took a jar from Charlie. "Do like so." He placed the tip of his wand to the top of the canning jar. "Lacarnum Inflamare."

Small flickering flames dripped from Scortwits wand like water, spattering down into the jar and flickering in and out as they grew. After a few seconds, Scortwit pulled his wand back and placed the lid on the top of the jar, leaving him holding a flickering blue and yellow lantern.

"Brilliant." Merlot's eyes sparkled.

"Wanna give it a go?"

The girl nodded and Charlie handed her a jar. She followed Scortwits instructions to a T. She placed the tip of her wand upon the top of the jar and focused. "Lacarnum Inflamare."

The same blue flames that Scortwit had conjured trickled down from Merlots wand and into the jar. Once it was roughly half full, the girl stopped the spell and took her wand back, placing a lid upon the jar.

"It's surprisingly not hot." Merlot said.

"Bluebell flame charm. Best way to heat your hands in the winter." Scortwit nodded. "Now, let's slip these into our pumpkins like so…"

Merlot followed Scortwit and Charlie's example and set the jar of bluebell flames inside her pumpkin. The three stepped back and looked at their combined creations. Scortwit gave a nod. "Let's take 'em outside!"

Charlie helped Merlot carry her pumpkin (Why they didn't use the levitation charm, she had no idea.) and place it outside a few paces in front of the dragon lodge.

"Now what?" Merlot asked.

"Now, we step back and just… watch." Scortwit smiled. "I'll make up a fire if you want some cider?"

"Sounds lovely." Merlot nodded.

"Here, come sit down." Charlie summoned a blanket from inside. "Is there still leftover pumpkin sage bread from yesterday?"

"I believe so." Scortwit nodded, propping up a few wooden beams to hang a cauldron from outside. "Why don't you grab my copy of 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' while you're at it."

"Of course. It looks like a perfect night for 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot.'"

"I was thinking about 'Babbity Rabbity' myself." Scortwit shrugged.

Merlot smiled as the two discussed what story would be told that night and she looked up at the stars. Though it was only for a moment, Merlot swore she saw a man with messy hair like her own, only shorter, along with a woman with long hair and striking green eyes, before they vanished.

The girl didn't know why, but that small glimpse warmed her heart a little bit, so much so that the conversation between Scortwitr and Charlie faded to a low buzz in the background of the world, and she was simply sitting there, watching the stars and the flickering glow of the jack-o-lanterns as the world passed by.

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Halloween!

Sorry if it wasn't as on point as the other chapters. I mainly wanted this to be a bit of magic, a bit of pumpkin carving, the whispered spell, and the ending.

The spell will come into play later in the story, and as it is on the list of spells I came up with that are "Dark magic" it only made sense to have it introduced through the horcrux, even if it is just sleep talking.

This entire thing will be explained as the story progresses. I say sleep talk because that's essentially what it is. The horcrux letting out bits of information for Merlot to follow to a goal. Sort of second soul side quests.

Anyways, until next time

adios.