On Monday, October 12th, 2020, the first meeting of the Hogwarts Planning Club was held.
James, Albus, Hugo, Devon, Fred, Roxanne, and Lily all met in the History of Magic classroom at 7 p.m. for the first meeting.
"Now," said James matter of factly, "In this first meeting of the Hogwarts Planning Club we are going to plan Halloween at Hogwarts 2020. Now as president of the Hogwarts Planning Club, I am the one who will make the final decisions and present them to Professor McGonagall. However, I will listen to all of your ideas and give each and every one of them fair consideration. one thing I have already made my mind up about is that we are once again having the Treat or Trick session we had last Halloween. I loved having Halloween candy at Hogwarts last year and I look forward to seeing Trick or Treat return to Hogwarts this year. That's the one thing I've locked in. What suggestions would the rest of you like to add?"
"The thing about Halloween," said Albus in a crystal clear voice, "Is that it offers so many different possibilities. Last year the "fun" aspect of Halloween was emphasized with the prominence of the color orange and the making of Jack O Lanterns in class. I think we should emphasize a different aspect of Halloween this year. I suggest emphasizing the "scary" aspect of Halloween this year. Perhaps have a haunted house event and screen scary movies?"
"Then there's the dressing up aspect," offered Fred, "We could have a costume contest."
"Even within the Treat or Treat part I think we should make some adjustments to the candy. Maybe have more specifically Halloween themed candy." said Devon eagerly.
"We could also consider a carnival themed Halloween," suggested Hugo.
"I think Albus makes an excellent point about the versatility of Halloween," said Roxanne crisply, "But I think we shouldn't do too much in one year. Pick one theme for the year's Halloween and stick to that theme. That leaves other themes fresher for use in future years."
"I think the best way to go is to have a different theme every year and vary the candies every year," said Lily in a firm but polite voice.
"one thing we could do is to try to match some of each year's candies with that year's theme," suggested Albus.
"Good suggestions, everyone," said James happily, "I'm going to deliberate for a few minutes and then announce my decision."
Everyone in the room smiled at each other. They knew that James had lots of quality options and they trusted James's judgemnet.
"Alright," piped up James after five minutes and five nanoseconds, "I agree completely with not doing too much in any one year so that we can keep some ideas fresher for use in later years. Here's what we're going to do next. I am going to give each of you a "ballot" with three options for what Hogwarts Halloween theme will be this year. The three options will be scary theme, dress up theme, and carnival theme. Whichever idea receives the most votes shall be the idea implemented for this Halloween. If a tie occurs, I will cast a vote to break the tie."
James unzipped his schoolbag, pulled out a sheet of paper and ripped it into six pieces, and then pulled out seven pens.
James decapped the first pen and used it to write out six ballots. He wrote vertical columns on each of the six sheets of paper that read
Scary.
Dress up.
Carnival.
James drew square boxes besides each option.
"When I pass around the ballots, please place a check mark in the box that resides by your preferred theme. No names are to be written on these ballots. Please do not look over each other's shoulders."
James handed out the ballots and waited patiently while Albus, Fred, Hugo, Devon, Roxanne, and Lily all made their choices.
When Albus, Fred, Hugo, Devon, Roxanne, and Lily had all returned their ballots to James, he read them over. Each of the three options had exactly two votes.
"We have a three way tie with Scary, dress up, and Carnival each receiving exactly two votes. I am going to break the tie. I know that there will be some disappointment. Can you all please promise me to accept my tiebreaking vote without bitching should your preferred theme not be chosen?"
Albus, Fred, Hugo, Devon, Roxanne, and Lily all nodded their heads. James trusted them all so he wasn't worried that his making the tiebreaking vote would cause any kind of rift.
"My final decision is that we will do the Scary Halloween theme this year," announced James.
"YES!" screamed out Albus and Devon. Hugo and Lily, who voted for carnival, applauded politely. Fred and Roxanne, who had been hoping for dress up, had disappointed looks on their faces.
"Alright!" squealed Albus in delight, "I can't wait till Halloween rolls around. Having a Scary Halloween will be totally awesome baby!"
"Scary Halloween is going to be da bomb!" smiled Devon, "Halloween, please get here fast."
"I'd have preferred the Carnival Halloween," said Hugo honestly, "But a Scary Halloween should still be pretty enjoyable."
"I voted for Carnival as well," admitted Lily, "But Scary Halloween will be fun. Couldn't have gone wrong with any of the choices."
"I'm disappointed dress up didn't win," said Fred quietly, "But it was a fair process and I'm confident Scary Halloween will give us some great thrills."
"I'd really hoped dress up would win," said Roxanne sadly, "Maybe I'll have better luck next year. For now, time to move forward and hope Scary Halloween delivers the goods."
"Congratulations Albus and Devon," said James with a smile, "Hugo, Fred, Roxanne, Lily, better luck next year and thank you for handling yourselves in a classy way."
Next nanosecond, Hugo, Fred, Roxanne, and Lily all shook Albus's and Devon's hands and congratulated them on the win. This further displayed the class that James had just referred to.
"So," said Devon excitedly, "Are we going to start planning Scary Halloween tonight?"
"I think we can start planning the candy part tonight and next Monday night we can plan how scary Halloween will actually go. We can start an outline of that tonight and fill in the details next week," explained James, "Now I definitely want to keep Old faithful bars in the candy mix."
"I think blood flavored lollipops would be a perfect fit for the theme," said Devon with a grin.
"The blood orange flavored dots would be perfect as well!" said Albus excitedly.
"You know," said Lily thoughtfully, "Last year we had chocolate pumpkins. I would like to see those make a return. But I also think we ought to add candies in shapes related to the year's theme. For Scary Halloween we could add bat shapes, ghost shapes, mummy shapes etc."
"Big sis, that's bloody brilliant!" chorused James and Albus.
At that nanosecond, James, Albus, and Lily all gave each other warm and genuine smiles. It was a watershed moment. While James had long affectionately referred to Lily as "big sis,", Albus had never addressed Lily in any way other than by her name. That Albus had just called Lily "big sis" for the first time ever and did in chorus with James was symbolic of how close all three of them had become.
The surgery Healer Cochlain had performed on James, Albus, and Lily had bonded all three of the closer together than any of them could have imagined. This wasn't just a result of Albus gaining perspective either. Even James and Lily felt closer to each other than ever before. The procedure Healer Cochlain had performed on them meant that all three of them had magical cores that were essentially brothers, having all grown from the same father core as it were. The magical cores that James, Albus, and Lily now in themselves could feel each other's magic and emotions. This meant James, Albus, and Lily had a bond unlike any before it.
"Thanks, baby bros," smiled Lily, relishing in the plural.
"I suggest using different shapes for different types of candy," piped up Hugo, "Chocolate bats, marshmallow ghosts, licorice mummies,"
"Great suggestions, Hugo," smiled Lily.
"I say we include the Halloween M&Ms," said Fred briskly, "The color mix does give off a bit of that creepy Halloween feeling,"
"How about Skittles Darkside?" suggested Roxanne, "Dark colors and flavor names would fit our theme."
"Those are excellent ideas as well," agreed Lily.
"Clearly, we've got some good candy ideas," said James in a satisfied voice, "So how do we want to go about that haunted house? We won't plan the specifics until next week but what should the outline for this haunted house be?"
"I think the best idea is to have the whole castle be turned into a haunted house for the day with each class being like a room in the haunted house and the Great Hall will be part of that as well," put fourth Hugo.
"I also think," said Albus with a grin, "When we go into the Great Hall for meals that day, we should have Frankenstein music playing in the background,"
"That's perfect," squealed James and Lily.
After another few nanoseconds, James addressed the room.
"I think we have an excellent start on planning Scary Halloween," said James cheerfully, "At next week's meeting we can decide on the specifics, such as what each room in our haunted house will be like and finalize the candy list. But before we adjourn, I'd like to say a few words. Hugo, Fred, Roxanne, and Lily, I want to thank you all for your classiness. I know you were disappointed when my tiebreaking vote didn't go to your preferred themes, but you all handled the vote not going your way gracefully. I really appreciate that. I loved seeing how all of you really threw your energies into the planning for Scary Halloween whether you voted for it or not."
Everyone just smiled.
"The first meeting of the Hogwarts Planning Club is officially adjourned," announced James, "Our next meeting shall be Monday, October 19th, 2020 at 7 p.m. Hogwarts time. Hugo, Devon, Fred, Roxanne, you are dismissed. Big bro and big sis, please hang back, I want a word."
Hugo, Devon, Fred, and Roxanne all walked towards the door. Roxanne pulled the door open and held it for Hugo, Devon, and Fred, before exiting behind them.
once Devon, Hugo, Fred, and Roxanne had all gone, James looked Albus and Lily eye to eye.
"My second attempt at Wandmaking is tonight," said James matter of factly, "However, the wands I am making from now through the end of December are not allowed to be used because I have not been responsible for the entire process. I can't go into specifics but part of the Wandmaking process includes treating woods and cores in Potions beforehand and finished wands in potion afterwards. I won't be taking responsibility for those stages until January. Right now, I'm doing only the actual Wandmaking. Wizarding Law requires that a wand be made by a Wandmaker who was FULLY responsible for the Wandmaking process in order to be allowed to be used and that includes the potion cure parts."
"Baby bro," said Lily warmly, "I can't tell you how much it meant to me last week when you presented me with a replica of my wand as a gift. That was truly special, and I will indeed use it as motivation for myself as you wished."
"I'm quite gratified to hear that," said James quietly.
"But my question is, are you planning on making any more replica wands?" finished Lily.
"I am planning to make another replica wand tonight and I also intend it to be a gift to the person whose wand I'm replicating. I will be making replica wands through the end of December and presenting them as gifts. Since these wands can't be used the best thing, I can do is make them mean something."
"Whose wand are you making a replica of tonight?" Lily asked James,
"Tonight, I am planning on making a replica wand for someone who is not at Hogwarts at this nanosecond but that all three of us Potter siblings have met. We are not close to this person and haven't seen this person very often, but this person has played an important part in our lives and all three of us are indebted to this person."
"Will you tell us before our sibling time tonight who this person is?" asked Lily.
"Yes," promised James, "Big bro and big sis, you will both be very interested to learn whose wand I replicate tonight,"
James, Albus, and Lily exchanged smiles. Then for a long time the three of just sat there chatting, not really caring much about what subjects came up, but just enjoying each other's company and talking to each other. It was like an extra sibling time session ahead of James's Wandmaking lesson with Olivander in addition the one they would have after James's Wandmaking lesson with Olivander.
Eventually, Albus and Lily got up and walked towards the exit. Lily pulled the door open and held it for Albus as he left. Lily was about to leave herself when she saw someone coming towards the door. They hadn't realized how late it had gotten and this person was Olivander. Lily held the door for Olivander before finally exiting, shutting the door behind her.
Olivander took his usual opposite James at the desk.
"Well, Mr. Potter. I take the first meeting of the Hogwarts Planning Club was a long one?" asked Olivander
"I asked Albus and Lily to hang around after the meeting for a word. Amongst other things, we talked about my lessons with you. Don't worry I didn't tell them any Wandmaking secrets. But I did explain to them that the wands I make won't useable until January. For that reason, I am going to make replica wands as gifts for the rest of the year. Tonight, I wish to attempt a replica of...