Aria was still hesitant to tell her dad about Remus, even after overhearing the conversation between him and Snape. She was partially distracted by the fact that Sirius Black had not been caught and by her Gryffindor friends' complaints about the new portrait guarding their common room. Apparently, with the Fat Lady off for restoration, no other painting had wanted to guard the tower except for one portrait of a knight named Sir Cadogan who was constantly changing the passwords. Neville, who had certainly grown leaps and bounds, had resorted to writing down all the passwords in a list and carrying it with him because the knight changed the passwords at random.
The other distraction was, of course, Halloween. Prudence was adamant that she was going to have a proper Samhain ritual done before she graduated and while they had had a bonfire last year, she wanted a bigger one with prayers and dancing and, supposedly, she was trying to see if a priest or priestess could come. Aria was fascinated by the idea that the wizarding world still had religious leaders, though Tracey and Prudence had informed her that these weren't like priests or religious figures in the Muggle world. At least, not in Britain. Most of the men and women called "priests" or "priestesses" were simply Unspeakables whose jobs were to preserve and study the traditions, religious and otherwise, of the wizarding world.
It was still fascinating.
However, Professor Snape informed Prudence that the Headmaster had denied the request to bring one of these Unspeakables to Hogwarts. Which just sent Prudence off into a tizzy.
"Doesn't someone here know the rituals?" Aria asked after watching Prudence rant about the subject for what seemed like the millionth time. She was lounging on Tracey's bed, eating sweets that the prefect's mother had sent. Daphne and Tracey were on either side of her, also eating sweets. Tracey Paddington had books strewn around her as she worked on some kind of NEWTs assignment.
"Some rituals are highly individualized between families," Tracey explained, not looking up from the parchment she was scribbling on. "An Unspeakable would know the more communal rituals. Some families might not want to share how they do things either."
Aria huffed.
"The wizarding world's so confusing," she muttered.
"Only if you're still learning about it," Daphne said. "It just makes sense to the rest of us."
"Okay, so, for Samhain, we've got creating a place setting for departed loved ones as well as an altar of remembrance," Aria ticked these off with her fingers, "all of which we've done for the last two years. Then there was last year's bonfire which included prayers and things but that apparently wasn't a "full ritual" because . . ."
"What we did last year was pretty informal as far as rituals and celebrations go," Daphne explained. "A lot of communal events are informal nowadays but there are more formal ways of celebrating the passing of the year. That's what Prudence wants to do."
"And there's nothing in the Hogwarts library that might help Prudence?" Aria asked. Prudence paused in her pacing and ranting to stare at Aria.
"It's all in the Restricted Section," Tracey said, finally looking up from her NEWTs assignment. "I already talked to Madam Pince. Even she's miffed at that. Apparently, Headmaster Dumbledore had that entire section moved to the Restricted Section during his first year as headmaster."
"But there are other places within Hogwarts that have books," Prudence added thoughtfully, turning slowly to stare at Tracey.
"There are?" the third year Tracey asked. She popped a bonbon into her mouth.
"There are rooms that hold . . . things people would rather keep hidden," Tracey agreed, shutting her textbook and putting the cap back on her inkwell. "Are you thinking of showing these three our secret?"
"We've got to pass the knowledge onto someone," Prudence said, "best get it done now. And I can think of no better person than our little Muggleborn Slytherin and her entourage."
"Again, with the little!" Aria moaned. Why was everyone calling her the little Muggleborn Slytherin as a pet name? If she ever found out who started the trend, she would have words with them. And a few hexes.
"Come on!" Tracey ordered, standing up from her homework. She grabbed her sweets from the third years and yanked them off the bed. "Follow us."
Aria, Daphne, and Tracey followed the two seventh years out of the common room and out of the dungeons. The two older teens led the third years up countless stairs, barely avoiding two moving staircases, to the seventh floor of the castle as if they were heading for the Astronomy Tower. Prudence broke off the usual route to the tower by leading them up the left corridor towards a tapestry of dancing trolls. Aria wondered when the obsession with weird art had come into the wizarding world, or if it had always been there.
"Now watch closely," Prudence instructed Aria, Daphne, and Tracey. "This blanket piece of wall is very important." She pointed to the wall directly across from the dancing trolls. "What you want to do is think about what you want and then make a pass in front of the wall three times. Like so."
Prudence walked by the wall three times. Aria gasped as a door suddenly materialized in the stone. Beside her Tracey and Daphne also gasped.
"What is this?" Daphne cried.
"According to Hogwarts, A History, we think this is the Come and Go Room," Tracey answered, walking to the door. "Also known as the Room of Requirement. It becomes what you require. A place to hide things, a place just to relax . . ."
"A bathroom if you needed it?" the younger Tracey asked.
"I suppose that too."
Following Prudence and Tracey through the doorway, Aria found herself in a vast study. A roaring fire was crackling in a large hearth surrounded by comfy armchairs. The walls were lined floor to ceiling with books! There was even a tea service on a nearby table!
"What did you ask for?" Aria asked Prudence.
"I said I wanted to learn about religious rituals," Prudence answered, already studying the nearest bookshelf.
"How did all of this get here?" Aria wanted to know. "Are these books just here? Just waiting for you to ask the room for religious rituals or would this room show up if you asked for a library or something?"
"Aria," Tracey cried, placing her hands on Aria's shoulders. "Sometimes, magic just is. We're just normal witches here. Some of your questions I think only the Founders would be able to answer." She patted Aria's head and wandered off to join Prudence.
"I've got so many questions!" Aria said to Daphne and Tracey.
"We know," Daphne teased, the three of them wandering to another bookcase. "This is so cool though! We could totally come here after classes or something. I bet we could even get a study room, and then Madam Pince won't get mad when we start talking too loudly."
"Yeah, the last study group got a little out of hand," Aria agreed. It was hard to keep within whispering levels when your study group involved almost twenty students.
Aria pulled the first book to catch her eye off the shelf. It was an older book and fit neatly in her hands, like normal Muggle books, unlike many of the books in the Hogwarts library which were huge and needed a person's whole strength to carry.
The book was hard back and covered with a soft blue leather, which shimmered in the firelight. The color reminded Aria of the Ravenclaw House. Flipping open the book she found it was handwritten in what appeared to be Old English. It was remarkably well preserved for a handwritten book, and she wondered if the magic of Hogwarts had something to do with that.
She went to put it away, only, something stopped her. Aria could not put her finger on the feeling. It came over her suddenly, like a wave, the feeling that she could not put the book on the shelf, that she must take it with her and read it. Which was silly because she did not know how to read Old English. Yet, she stood frozen in her spot for what seemed like hours before she finally managed to lower her hand and turn from the bookshelf, book still in hand, to see where her friends were. Daphne and Tracey were gathered around another book at another shelf and Prudence and Tracey were on the other side of the room, pulling books off the shelves, flipping through them, and then putting them back on the shelf. No one had witnessed her seconds of indecisiveness. Had she imagined it all?
Glancing down at the book again she turned it over in her hand, admiring the shimmering effect on the leather. It was hers now, she decided. She needed to read it.
A cry of triumphant swung her attention to Prudence and Tracey. Prudence was jumping up and down holding a large black tome while Tracey was telling her to be careful with it.
"Found what you wanted?" Daphne asked as the three younger girls made their way over.
"Yes!" Prudence cried, holding the book up with pride. "And it's in English!"
"Very old English," Tracey muttered. "The S is still written as a long F."
"But we can understand it and that is what matters," Prudence retorted. "I won't have resort to translating."
"You know other languages?" Aria asked.
"All good purebloods learn multiple languages," Daphne told her with a mock air of snobbery. "Latin usually. Then whatever language deemed important by the family. I know French. So does Draco, Pansy, and Theo. Blaise obviously knows Italian. I'm not sure what Greg, Vincent, and Milli know. Tracey learned French with me. Don't Muggles learn other languages?
"Yeah, but not to that extent," Aria answered. "At least . . . Muggles in my area. I had to take a French class my last year of primary, but we only learned how to count and how to get help if we got lost."
"You should think about learning another language," Tracey Paddington told her as the group left the Come-and-Go Room. The door disappeared once it was closed behind them. "It's just a smart thing to do."
Two days before Samhain, Dumbledore rose to his feet during dessert, clapping his hands and calling for everyone's attention. The students paused in their conversations to look at their headmaster. Aria managed to wrestle the last piece of pavlova from Daphne before she turned her attention to the man.
"I understand that a few of the seventh years have been working together to host a Samhain bonfire on Halloween," Dumbledore said. Several small cheers went up from the tables and a little clapping was heard. Aria looked around to see several seventh years from other houses giving Prudence and Tracey grins. It was clear Prudence had managed to gather a following to help her. She wondered if Prudence had asked or bullied them into helping. She knew Marcus had been . . . persuaded to help.
"Unfortunately, after speaking to several staff members," multiple staff members looked at Dumbledore with confusion, "I and your fellow professors have made the difficult decision to cancel the bonfire this year."
Angry cries went up from the student body.
"You can't do that!"
"We've worked hard on this!"
"You can't cancel a Samhain bonfire!"
Dumbledore raised his hands and a hush came grudgingly over the study body. Aria watched the Heads of House at the head table. McGonagall and Snape were whispering to each other as were Flitwik and Sprout. The four of them seemed just as surprised by the announcement as the students. A quick glance down the rest of the head table saw the other professors whispering at each other too, just as perplexed. If any of them had brought forward concerns, they were doing a good job at acting like they hadn't.
"It has been decided because Sirius Black is still on the lose," Dumbledore continued. "With the Dementors still around we would not want any students to accidentally get on the wrong side of a Dementor."
"Professors can come too!" someone cried.
"I have made the final decision," Dumbledore stated, sternly. He settled back in his throne-like chair and went back to eating his dessert.
Aria turned back to her dessert only to see that Daphne had swiped half of the pavlova piece and was smugly chewing away at it. Aria moved her plate further away from Daphne and partly turned her shoulder to block the girl from stealing any more of her dessert.
"Prudence looks just about ready to explode," Harry commented.
"I'd be too at this point," Tracey answered.
"Do you really think it's about Black and the Dementors?" Harry asked. "I mean . . . if it were why didn't he just tell them not to have the bonfire back when they started planning it?"
"Dumbledore's always making it harder for those who wish to practice the Old Ways," Theo stated. "I won't just say purebloods, because I know Attlebury was getting help from halfbloods and such."
"In the Muggle world we've got something called freedom of religion," Aria said. "It means people can't stop other people from practicing whatever faith they've got so long as it's not hurting someone else." She remembered learning something about it in history class back in primary school. Mr. Higgins had said something about it after Christopher Hanes had made fun of Lena Ali for fasting during . . . what had Lena called it? Ramadan!
"That sounds nice," Tracey said.
"I highly doubt Headmaster Dumbledore cares one wit about freedom of religion," Theo said with a sigh. "At least he's not banning all festivities. We can still set food out and such and I heard Flint's in charge of the house altar, so we'll still have that to look forward to."
Surprisingly there was very little fuss from the seventh year Slytherins about the bonfire cancellation. Aria should have suspected something, but it was not until a note was slipped to her at breakfast Halloween morning that she realized how stupid she had been to think that Prudence and Tracey and Marcus of all people would just quietly follow the headmaster's orders.
There would be a bonfire tonight if the piece of paper of anything to go by. Aria was quick to shred it up and stick it in a pocket of her bookbag. It would just happen after curfew and was she willing to risk detention for it?
Absolutely.
It was easy, now, that Aria knew where the Come-and-Go Room was to wait until the end of curfew without going back to the common room or being stuck in the library. She, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had decided to hide out there after spending two hours after dinner in the library. The plan was to sneak out of the castle about half an hour after curfew. They were not sure who else was in on this, but the thrill of going to an illicit bonfire was too good an adventure to miss. Even Hermione, who usually took a little more persuading in these things, had decided to go, although she was still not sure about the whole "Old Ways" but she wanted to experience and learn all that the wizarding world had to offer.
Even if it meant possibly getting a detention.
They had, for one horrifying moment, run into Mrs. Norris. However, a few pets from Aria and the cat flicked her tail and bounded away without a single yowl for her caretaker.
"Maybe it's a good thing she likes you so much," Ron said as they hurried out the front doors of the castle. They lit their wands to guide their path as they made their way around the castle, pas the greenhouses, and up the hill towards the other side where the standing stones were. The bonfire, which had originally been planned to be out in front of the castle, had been moved out to the standing stones. A bit of a trek, but in the dark, it would be easily to disperse quickly and have some students make it back to the castle without being caught.
They all hoped.
If it all went well, no one would get caught.
There were a wide range of students already gathered when Aria and her friends arrived. She spotted Ginny with her friend Luna hanging out with Susan, Hannah, Ernie, and Justin. After grabbing some butterbeer from the long buffet table full of food (and how anyone managed to get that much food and drink out of the castle Aria would never know), she and her friends joined them.
"It's exciting isn't it?" Hermione asked breathlessly, watching as some older students began to dance around the bonfire. Somewhere music was playing.
"Samhain bonfires are always exciting," Hannah said.
"No! Well, yes, this is exciting, but I meant breaking the rules!" The third years laughed.
"What do you think Dumbledore'll do if he catches all of us?" Justin questioned.
"Dumbledore's not gonna catch us," Susan stated, the confidence in her voice making her friends pause.
"Why's that Susie?" Ernie asked.
"He . . . might've been called away by the Ministry this evening directly after dinner," Susan muttered.
"How'd you know that?" Ron demanded. Susan's face went red in the firelight.
"I . . . Cedric asked if my aunt might be willing to . . . distract Dumbledore with Ministry business. I wrote to her, telling her that Dumbledore had cancelled the Samhain bonfire for no reason and could she just . . . call him away to the Ministry for a few hours on Halloween do that we could have a bonfire? She said she would, so I suspect Dumbledore's been gone for a few hours at this point."
Aria stared slack jawed at Susan.
"Lady Amelia Bones?" Ron questioned. "Helping us students pull a big one over on Dumbledore?"
"She knew how much we were looking forward to the bonfire!" Susan cried. "To all of Samhain. It's one of the ways we keep the memory of those we love alive!"
Loud barking interrupted Susan's rant. Several students cried out in alarm as a large black dog came bounding through the crowd.
"A Grim!" someone shouted.
"Snuffles!" Harry cried. The dog bounded over to him, looking much better than the first time Aria has seen him, and proceeded to lick Harry's face, knocking his glasses askew.
"Get off me, fleabag!" Harry cried with a laugh. Snuffles barked, but sat, letting Harry straighten himself out.
"Only you, Potter, would make friendly with a Grim," someone said. Laughter went around the gathered students.
"He's not a Grim," Harry cried, rubbing Snuffles' belly. "He's just a big softy. Aren't you, boy?"
Snuffles barked.
"I spoke too soon," the other student muttered. "Only you, Potter, could tame a Grim."
"You're not a Grim are you?" Harry questioned Snuffles. The dog rolled over and licked Harry's face, giving a bark. "That's right, you're not. Don't listen to the mean boy."
"So . . . Harry's got a new dog I see." Neville joined them with Seamus and Dean. They each had a butterbeer and a plate of food. "It's quite large. People are whispering that it's a Grim?"
"Does it look like a Grim?" Ginny asked. Snuffles was now entertaining them by chasing his tail.
"Point taken," Seamus said. "Though it certainly looks like it could be one. Doubt Grims are coming 'round and chasin' their tails." Snuffles barked and bounded off into the crowd to beg for scraps from people's plates.
Aria, Hermione, and Harry were eventually pulled up to dance with their friends. As Daphne explained, the music that was playing (though Aria still had no idea where the music was coming from) was traditional wizarding music. Aria thought it sounded like traditional Celtic music but decided not to comment. The third-year purebloods and were eager to teach their fellow Muggleborns some traditional dance moves. Draco, who had immediately showed up when he saw what they were doing, explained that these dances were known as Bonfire Dances as they were traditionally danced around a bonfire. He declared himself the caller and, even though there was much eye rolling from Aria and the others, no one argued with him.
Aria was immediately reminded of the ceilidh dances that her primary school had held, and which featured prominently at the summer fete put on by the parish. Some of the formations were a little different, but she caught on quickly. Much quicker than Harry, Hermione, and Justin, who admitted they had never been to any kind of social dance before. Aria and Dean had no qualms teasing Justin, a boy who had been Eton bound, about not knowing how to dance. Justin, good-naturedly, flung himself into the dance.
It was not long before Aria's lungs burned as she spun about with her partner. She had ended up partnered with Ernie who thankfully knew the dances so as Draco called out the instructions, he led her through the motions. Draco called them to two lines of partners, the head couple spinning down their respective lines by taking the hand of the person beside them and spinning around to the next person. As one waited to be spun, they clapped. Once the couple reached the bottom of the line, the next head couple copied their movements until all had had their turn at spinning down the line.
The second dance Draco called Aria was more familiar with. It was like an Eightsome Reel with groups forming a square made up of four couples. She and Ernie had decided to swap out partners, and now she was partnered with Theo. The girls all joined hands in the middle, wrapping their other arm around their partners' waist, dancing in a wheel until Draco called for them to switch. The boys swung the girls around so that they could join hands and dance in the opposite direction, the girls now on the circle's outside edge. After repeating the swinging and the joining of hands several times, the group was called to skip around in a grand chain, until they were all back with their partners. Then the girl of the first couple, Draco called Daphne to be the girl, was called to the center of the circle they now made to give a short solo jig until Draco called the next girl.
Aria was thankfully the last girl he called of the group. She did not know the fancy jig footwork that Daphne and Susan and Hannah had known – she almost wished she was in the same group at Hermione because then she would not be the odd man out – but she managed to stomp her feet in rhythm with the drum beats and gave a few good twirls. Her friends cheered her on, and she laughed as she stumbled back to Theo's side.
"Not bad!" Theo cried as they began the whole dance sequence again. "You having fun?"
"So much!" Aria cried.
After a third dance, Aria called it quits. At least for the moment. She watched as Theo grabbed up Daphne as a partner while Harry hurried to Aria's side. Hermione and Ron were still dancing away with each other. Ginny and Luna had joined at some point. Luna was with Dean and Ginny with Seamus.
"Come on, let's get more drinks," Harry said, pulling Aria towards the food and drink table. They grabbed another bottle of butterbeer each and were just putting together makeshift sandwiches with the focaccia, meats, and cheeses available to snack on when a cry went through the crowd.
"Professors!"
Almost immediately the bonfire went out, plunging the stone circle into darkness. Aria grabbed shoved both the sandwich and butterbeer into one hand, grabbing hold of Harry with her other. They both stumbled in the direction of the castle as professors with their wands alight came charging into the circle. The two of them dashed off into the darkness, laughing as students were called out by name.
The stars twinkled above, and the waning moon gave off little light as the two friends ran across the meadow towards the glistening lights of Hogwarts. Laughter from themselves and other students echoed across the small valley, overwhelming the shouts of the professors that had come after them.
The front doors of the castle were being guarded by Professors Sinistra and Vector, forcing Aria and Harry to backtrack towards the greenhouses and slip in through the usually locked door that led between the herbology classrooms and the greenhouses.
Breathless, the two of them collapsed onto a sofa in the common room.
"That was wild!" Harry cried, throwing back a few gulps of butterbeer. He had lost his sandwich in the dash for freedom. Aria took a bite of hers and let him take a bite. They polished off the sandwich between them.
"I've never had so much fun in my life!" Harry continued. "That was amazing!"
Aria could not help but agree.