On Halloween morning, Lily awoke to find that her normally hot pink bedsheets and pajamas were orange. Looking down at her feet, she saw that her slippers were now orange as well.
"Oh," said Lily to herself, "Everything's been bewitched to be orange for Halloween."
Taking inventory of her room, she saw that her comb, toothbrush, flip flops, and schoolbag had all changed from hot pink to orange as well. Even the Gryffindor patch on her school robes was now orange accented with black instead of its usual scarlet accented with gold.
When Lily went down to the common room, she was greeted with a chorus of "Happy Halloween," from Hugo, Devon, James, Ainsley, Stephanie, and Samantha.
"Happy Halloween!" replied Lily happily. But she frowned when she saw that Hugo was clutching his left shoulder looking miserable.
"Hugo, are you okay?" asked Lily with concern in her voice.
"My shoulder hurts like hell," said Hugo in angst. "I'm going to try to enjoy Halloween though. If it still hurts like this tomorrow morning, I'll see the nurse."
"Okay," said Lily, "Do you all remember what your Hogwarts letters said about a different Halloween this year?"
"Yes," said Hugo, still in obvious pain. "We're going to have a whole Halloween themed day."
"Correct, said Lily eagerly, "The bewitching of the castle to make many objects appear orange was the first part of that."
"And after breakfast," said Stephanie excitedly, "We're supposed to have a Halloween themed Charms class where Professor Flitwick teaches us to make Jack o Lanterns."
"That should be fun," said Ainsley happily, "We can all put our own individual touches and creativity on our Jack O Lanterns."
"Excellent point, Ains," smiled Lily, "I can't wait what everyone comes up with."
"And," said James cheerfully, "After the feast, they're going to set up trick or treat stations for us in the Great Hall. Hogwarts students have never had the opportunity to get Halloween candy before so I'm excited about that too."
"Actually," Hugo reminded James, "You are supposed to give your Halloween candy to Lily after that bet you lost with her on the Quidditch European Championship match this past August."
"James and Lily had a bet on the Quidditch European Championships? "Devon asked Hugo curiously.
"Yes, I won a bet with James on the Quidditch European Championship match this August. I liked Spain to win and he liked Germany. Germany has great Chasers, but I knew the Spanish Seeker was the best in the world. Spain met Germany in the title match. James offered me a bet. If Germany won, I would have to give him all my Halloween candy at Hogwarts this year, if Spain won, he would give me all his Halloween candy at Hogwarts this year. We shook hands on it. Well, with Germany leading 140-0, the Spanish Seeker caught the snitch for a 150-140 win and the European Championship for Spain for 2019. So, I won the bet," explained Lily with a grin.
"However, " added James, "Lily and I never did anything to make that bet binding and there are plenty of ways to do so both legally and magically. I am canceling that bet because it ultimately would be too big of a bummer for me to be in the Great Hall or Gryffindor Tower tonight and be the only one without candy."
"James," said Stephanie sharply, "You can't just cancel a bet because it didn't go your way. When you agree to make a bet, you agree to abide by the terms of that bet whether you like the outcome or not."
"I guess you missed what I just told you about Lily and I not doing anything to make that bet binding," retorted James.
"James IS telling the truth here," said Lily firmly, "There ARE many ways we could have made that bet either legally binding or magically binding or both and we never did so."
"Lily," said James apologetically, "Look, I did you a disservice by not informing you of my decision to cancel our bet at an earlier date, especially since I've actually known for at least a couple of weeks that I ultimately would not be willing to give up my Halloween candy when it came to it. I apologize for failing to inform you of this decision in a timelier manner."
"It's totally fine, baby bro," said Lily cheerfully, "We're all good, buddy, Hi five?"
Lily held up her left hand and James high fived it with his left hand.
"If the worst thing James ever does to me is fail to inform me of this decision in a timelier manner, then I'm a very lucky sister," said Lily matter of factly.
"But how do you feel about James actually making the decision to cancel the bet?" Stephanie asked Lily uncomfortably.
"It's his decision and not mine," said Lily simply.
"Lily is always going to be the bigger person because that's who she is but I agree with Stephanie that James should honor the bet," said Hugo firmly, "It would be different if Lily had offered to forgive James of that bet or even if James had asked Lily to let him out of it and she had agreed to. But I don't like what has just transpired here. I'm disgusted by how James has just backed out of the bet without letting Lily have any say whatsoever."
"Especially since James is the older one in our circle and should be the more mature one," added Stephanie in a disgusted voice, "People breaking promises is my biggest pet peeve and backing out of a bet is the equivalent of breaking a promise."
"A promise is not a contract, more like a plan," piped up Devon.
"Bingo," agreed James and Samantha as Hugo and Stephanie shook their heads.
Lily said nothing. She would never back out of a bet or break a promise herself, but she would also never make a big deal of it if someone else did it to her. And in reality, she wanted James to be able to enjoy every aspect of this Halloween to the fullest.
"Honestly, " said Lily cheerfully, "I would much rather James be able to participate in every aspect of this Halloween than not. I honestly wouldn't have been able to have brought myself to have taken James's candy anyway. "
"Ultimately, "said Ainsley wisely, "It's between James and Lily. If Lily doesn't have a problem with James making this decision, then neither should anyone else."
That ended the discussion as everyone realized Ainsley was right. Stephanie still looked a bit put out though.
They all went down to Great Hall to discover that the tables and dishes were all orange as well.
The featured item at breakfast was pancakes with Halloween shapes cut into them. The Halloween themed pancakes had the shapes of bats, cats, and ghosts and a few had the word BOO! inscribed on them.
"These pancakes are super cool!" beamed Stephanie, "As a massive Halloween fan these get my stamp of approval."
They are pretty neat," added Samantha. "I especially like the BOO!" pancakes.
"The bat pancakes are pretty wicked!" exclaimed James.
"As a cat lover, these cat pancakes are bloody brilliant!" said Ainsley glowingly
"I love how Hogwarts has added these touches for Halloween this year," said Lily brightly, "Halloween offers a lot of potential and Hogwarts nailed it this year."
"They sure did," said Stephanie approvingly.
Of course, it would be Devon would who actually eat the most, consuming thirty of the Halloween themed pancakes to go along with five jugs of Sunny Delight.
James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all ate three pancakes and drank one glass of Sunny Delight.
After breakfast, Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie, and Lily all headed down to Charms. Hugo's shoulder pain had now spread to his elbow. Lily was feeling deeply uneasy.
When they were all settled in Flitwick's room, they saw that six hollowed out pumpkins were sitting on their desks waiting for them.
"Today we are going to be using the Jack o Lantern Charm to create Jack O Lanterns for Halloween. Now, I have pre hollowed out these pumpkins. To Hollow out any object with magic is very difficult and requires a well-developed magical core. Even with accelerated classes, you still won't be covering how to hollow out objects by magic until your N.E.W.T. years. However, the Jack O Lantern Charm is an easy spell to perform well even at a young age so we're going to have some fun for Halloween. All you have to do is point your wand at your hollowed out pumpkin and say "Jackify." while thinking of the form you want your Jack O Lantern to take. You don't have to focus that hard on it. As long as it's in your mind at all it will work. Since it is so easy, why don't you all just do it at once,"
Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie and Lily all pointed their wands at the pumpkins in front of them and cried "Jackify!"
Devon's Jack O Lantern took the shape of Hogwarts Castle.
"You really love being at Hogwarts, don't you Devon?" said Lily.
"I really do. I do still occasionally feel sad that I'll never see my old muggle friends Miles, Gary, and Todd ever again. But I tell you what; the day I got my Hogwarts letter and the day I came to Hogwarts have proven to be the two best days of my life." answered Devon.
"I'm glad you're happy to be here," said Lily warmly.
"I don't think anyone could come to Hogwarts and not be happy to be here," said Devon brightly.
Ainsley's Jack O Lantern took the form of a cat. She had also put the word "MEOW" below the cat in all caps all block letters.
"You like cats, Ainsley?" asked Lily.
"I'm a great cat lover," explained Ainsley.
"And a cat is a great choice for Halloween," piped up a smiling Stephanie.
Stephanie had created a Quidditch themed Jack O Lantern using quaffles for eyes, a snitch for the nose, and a Beater's bat for the mouth.
Lily suddenly realized something as she looked at Stephanie's Jack O Lantern.
"Stephanie?" observed Lily, "The most common thing to see you wear when we don't have to wear our uniforms is Gryffindor Quidditch robes."
"Yes, I'm a huge Quidditch lover," confirmed Stephanie. "That made the results of my initial Beater trial hurt that much more. Still, all's well that ends well."
"I'm really glad to have you as a teammate," said Lily warmly as Stephanie smiled at her. "I'm a Quidditch lover too."
Samantha had given her Jack O Lantern two eyes made out of coal, a red nose that glowed, and had added a beard below the mouth.
It was Devon who correctly deciphered Samantha's Jack O Lantern.
"Samantha is a Christmas fan and has combined the holidays in making a Christmas themed Jack O Lantern," observed Devon.
"Yes," confirmed Samantha, "The eyes are those of Frosty the Snowman, the nose is that of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the beard represents Santa.
"I'm a Christmas fan too," Devon told Samantha, "Oh by golly have a Holly Jolly Christmas this year!"
But it was the comparison of Hugo's and Lily's Jack O Lanterns that stood out the most.
Hugo had created a Jack O Lantern that showed a lion, badger, and eagle with a smile below them on the left-hand side and a snake with a frown below it on the right-hand side.
Lily, however, had done a quadrant Jack O Lantern with a lion in the upper left-hand corner, a snake in the upper right-hand corner, a badger in the lower left-hand corner, and an eagle in the lower right-hand corner. This was similar to the Hogwarts crest. But she didn't surround the houses symbols with the letter H. In its place she had inserted an = sign.
Predictably, the difference in Lily's and Hugo's Jack O Lanterns led to an argument about the houses.
"Really, Hugo, you do need to be more open minded," said Lily in, what was, for her, an unusually angry voice, "It's totally unfair of you to judge a whole house of people when we don't even know any Slytherins personally yet."
"You're the one who needs to keep sight of the fact that Slytherin was the house of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort," said Hugo in an equally angry voice.
"But it's not fair to judge people of today because of the actions of a few bad apples of the past. Voldemort and Bellatrix have been dead over two decades," argued Devon, taking Lily's side, "If Lily was as close minded as you apparently are, I wouldn't have my best friend at Hogwarts. I might not have any of you for my friends. Imagine how much different this year might be if Lily had wanted nothing to with me because of who my father was."
"There's a big difference between a merely mean person and a dark person," said Hugo, clinging firmly to his anti-Slytherin attitude."
"But the similarity," said Lily clearly, "Is that we shouldn't judge people based on past events without even getting to know any of them."
"I fear it may take a Slytherin doing some act of bullying or damage to you before you grasp how horrible Slytherin house is," said Hugo, wincing.
"I sincerely hope an act of kindness from (a) Slytherin(s) will open your eyes to being more open minded," said Lily fiercely.
"A Slytherin commit an act of kindness?" laughed Hugo, "It's more likely that Sirius Black and Severus Snape shared a lip to lip kiss in their fifth year at Hogwarts than it is that a Slytherin will ever perform an act of kindness."
"You'll be eating your words on that one, Hugo," said Lily confidently.
When Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily left Charms they ran into James, who had Charms the hour after them. They didn't have much time to chat, but James did say, "Those Jack O Lanterns are super cool. Lily's is far better than Hugo's though."
Lily smiled at James and Hugo glared at him as they passed him by. Lily appreciated James's open-minded attitude.
Later at lunch, James joined them, and they had black shell beef tacos and black bun hamburgers.
"I love seeing black get its due here" said Devon in a pleased voice, "Yes, orange is the primary Halloween color, but black is a Halloween color too and this lunch was clearly meant to acknowledge that,"
"Totally agree," said Stephanie the Halloween lover.
"Black is my favorite color," said James, "Because it's a color that represents boldness and I'm one of the boldest wizards alive today! You know what I did for my Jack O Lantern today? I performed a Color Change Charm to turn my pumpkin black before using a wand for a mouth, microphone top for a nose, and candy corns for eyes."
"That sounds cool baby bro!" smiled Lily."
"It was the epitome of cool," said James proudly.
"Orange hot sauce and black beef in a black shell," said Lily happily as she munched on her first taco, "The lettuce is still green and the tomatoes are still red,"
"So, both Halloween colors and both Christmas colors," smirked Samantha as she bit into her first taco.
"The black buns on the burgers are super cool," added Devon.
Devon would eat twenty of the black shell tacos and twenty of the black bun hamburgers and wash them down with six bottles of Coca Cola Classic.
James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha and Lily each ate one black bun hamburger and two black shell tacos and drank one bottle of Coca Cola Classic.
Later in that day, Lily was very disappointed to see that her brother Albus had also produced an anti-Slytherin Jack O Lantern. He had made a Jack o Lantern that featured a snake with the no sign through it.
Lily said nothing to Albus as she passed him. Albus could have a hot temper and Lily was in no mood to provoke him.
Of greater concern to her was that by the time feast was approaching, Hugo's pain had extended through all both his arms and legs. It was lucky that his hands and feet still felt okay, but Lily knew Hugo might have to see the nurse that night.
When they entered the Great Hall for the feast, the celling had been bewitched with floating Jack O Lanterns and bats were swooping around above.
There was nothing particularly notable about the feast itself as it was pretty much like Hogwarts feasts of the past.
After the feast, each of the four house tables had four trick or treat stations set up at them. Each student was given a sturdy orange bag with an embroidered black cat on it to carry their candy.
"Wow, these are awesome bags," said Ainsley, who loved the black cat embroiderment.
"We get to keep the bags too! "said Stephanie brightly, "A souvenir from Halloween if you will,"
"Another win for this Halloween," smiled Lily.
The students were instructed to form a line. James, Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie and Lily wound up towards the back of the line. They would start at the Gryffindor table.
The Gryffindor table featured muggle chocolates such as 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Old Faithful bars, and even had some unbranded chocolate pumpkins. The Hufflepuff table featured muggle non chocolates, SweeTarts, gummy bears, Dots and, of course, Skittles. The Ravenclaw table featured wizarding non chocolates such as Licorice Wands, Sugar Quills, Ice Mice, and of course, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The Slytherin table featured wizarding chocolates such as Chocolate Frogs, Honeydukes slabs, and special unbranded chocolate Jack O Lanterns that actually made scary noises.
After collecting their candy, James, Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all walked back to Gryffindor Tower together.
Once they were inside, it was James who spoke first.
"I'm a huge marshmallow and chocolate lover," said James eagerly, "Let's try the Old Faithful bars first."
James, Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all pulled their Old Faithful bars out of their bags and unwrapped. They all took their first bite at the same time and while they all liked them, it was James who exclaimed, "Old Faithful is the best candy bar ever."
"I say we eat the chocolate pumpkins, both magical and muggle, tonight. They will be a bit obsolete after tonight and everything else is everyday candy," said Ainsley matter of factly.
James, Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Stephanie and Lily all agreed to this.
And it seemed most of Gryffindor had the same idea.
Fred and Roxanne had pulled out their muggle chocolate pumpkins and were munching away on them.
Albus, Rose, and Pamela all had gone for the magical version of the chocolate pumpkin first.
As they had had a feast that night, most of them managed to eat only the chocolate pumpkins, both muggle and magical.
By the time the they had decided to put away their candy bags for the night, Hugo's pain had spread to his stomach and back. Only his hands and feet, and face were unaffected.
"Hugo, you've got to see the nurse tonight," said Devon urgently.
"Hugo," said James desperately, "Listen to Devon. You can't put this off anymore. You've got to go set it taken care of now."
"You really do," added Lily in a firm voice, "Wait any longer and-"
Lily could not bring herself to finish the sentence.
"Ainsley, could you please conjure up a stretcher for us to carry Hugo to the hospital wing in?" asked Lily urgently.
Ainsley conjured a stretcher for Hugo and Lily gently laid him in it. Hugo screamed a piercing scream when Lily touched him.
James, Devon, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha and Lily all followed Hugo to the hospital wing. Also coming along out of great concern for Hugo's well-being were his sister Rose and cousins Albus, Fred, and Roxanne. Pamela Patil also came along to support Hugo,
They all had tears in their eyes as they saw how their friend/cousin/brother was suffering.
Madam Pomfrey transferred Hugo from his stretcher to a bed.
"Mr. Weasley," said Madam Pomfrey clearly, "I am going to check in with St. Mungo's at once. I am going to bring a fully trained Healer here to look at you. My job is mainly to look after Quidditch, creature, falling, and fighting injuries. Something of this magnitude requires a fully trained Healer."
Madam Pomfrey used the Floo Network to reach St. Mungo's and returned through the Floo Network with an averaged sized averaged heighted woman with golden brown hair and green eyes.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley, "said the Healer kindly, "My name is Healer Amy Cochlain."
"Cochlain?" said Hugo, looking over at Ainsley.
"Yes," nodded the Healer, "I am Ainsley's mother. Now, tell me about when your pain started and how you've been feeling since."
After listening to Hugo's explanation of how his pain had started in his left shoulder and gotten progressively worse and spread rapidly that day and doing some basic diagnostic spells with her wand, Healer Cochlain delivered a grave diagnosis.
"Mr. Weasley, you have Sapavetius," said Healer Cochlain tonelessly. "Sapavetius is a rare magical bug that starts in the shoulder and quickly encases the body in pain. It should be noted that Sapavetius causes no health or safety problems or risks. It does, however, make the victim's life a living hell. In many cases, victims of Sapavetius have died from loss of the will to live. A fair few have stopped eating. Sapavetius is actually considered a deadly disease for that reason. There is a cure for Sapavetius, however, though it's not often available."
'What is the cure?" Hugo asked Healer Cochlain at once.
"The only known antidote to Sapavetius is...
