Chapter 41:

A Typical Halloween

Saturday morning came around and Harry was the last man standing, as it were.

Half of the volunteers had gone home to get some sleep and return in the mid-morning to relieve those who preferred to run on no sleep than insufficient sleep. Harry was one of them, hating the grogginess of a four to six hour nap in favor of the tiredness of an all-nighter.

Nothing of further note happened, really. Everybody was a bit tongue tied and looking somewhat shell-shocked by the declaration of peace. It was also possible that everybody, on both sides of their unexpected debate, also felt greatly humbled by their expanded worldviews, or else embarrassed and uncomfortable with their conduct the night before, that they were just walking on eggshells around one another.

Harry found it indescribably amusing, but kept his good humor to himself as there was work to be done.

The werewolf guests slowly recover throughout the morning. All of them looked and sounded like people coming to with a horrific hangover, especially those who had been stoned through the night.

Those workers who had gone home returned, looking similarly dreary, and got to work making their guests feel like human beings again. They helped the guests shower, in the two separate shower rooms they had prepared for male and female guests. There was a third bathroom, but that strictly belonged to his renters.

Guests were showered one by one, by hand, as a volunteer of the guests choice sat them down in the shower seat and washed them down with hot water. It was slow work, cleaning them two by two, and lunch rolled around by the time they were done with it. At this point, the guests were feeling normal enough to feed themselves and so they were provided extra black coffee and what remained of the food stuffs.

From there, the detox potions administered and everybody was given a physical. Thereupon they learned that many of them hadn't had a checkup, medical or dental, in years, and so the lovely mediwitches provided them all with such.

By the time everything was said and done, it was nearing evening, and the werewolves were cleared to go home. Or back to being homeless, in some cases.

Hildebrand, Lucius and Valentine along with the workers from yesterday were waiting outside offering transportation... and job application forms on the sly. Everybody else pretended not to notice. It was a blind eye that needed to be turned.

They would still get a little sick throughout the night, maybe grow some extra hair or have their teeth become uncomfortably pointed, but they wouldn't fully transform or be infectious. That only happened on the day of the full moon proper.

Everybody cleaned the place up, returned the transfigured furniture back to their original states, and helped the wheezes put their wheezes back onto the restored shelves. Hands were shaken, hugs and busses were doled out, and people went home promising to return on the following full moon.

Harry was the last to leave, save for two main guests. Hildebrand and Mrs Shunpike. The former came forward as the latter stood away patiently.

"It looks like I may have some new employees to process over the next few days, and I would like to have them do the finishing on your extension when they're ready to start. Can I count on you to hire us to finish the job?" He asked.

"You can count on it." Harry promised with a smile.

Hildebrand shook his hand and exited through the front door.

Mrs Shunpike approached him, with her hands folded demurely in front of her.

"Is there something you need to warn me about?" Harry asked.

She tilted her head curiously at him.

"That I am able to talk to you about? Very little you don't already suspect." She told him.

Problem was, he suspected such a wide myriad of often contradictory things about so many subjects, people and organizations – especially in regards to the Unspeakables – that this affirmation meant literally nothing to him.

"I actually wanted to speak to you about your battle precognition ability." She said.

"Battle precognition ability?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes. Both Madame Marchbanks and young Figg described your ability to dodge and attack as if by precognition in your mock duel." She said.

Harry made an "oooh" mouth and smiled.

"It's not precognition. It's actually related to my skill with wandless magic. It's complicated." He explained.

She blinked at him.

"I imagine my other self took great pleasure in researching such an ability." She fished.

"Sure. But she had to wait in line with all of the other Unspeakables, and half of the magical researchers on the planet." Harry asked humorously. "The latter of whom I found much more palatable and honest."

She shrugged.

"That's more than fair. I bid you goodnight, Professor Morrigan." She told him before leaving.

Harry closed the door behind her and sighed. It was done.

"Floo should be up and running in twenty." Said Katie.

"Thanks. But I can walk home in that time." Harry replied.

"Or you could shower here in that time and by the time you floo back to your office you can just swap to pajamas and plop into bed." Lee suggested.

Harry was honestly flabbergasted by the brilliance of such a suggestion and took it in stride. Twenty minutes later he did floo back into his office. Being freshly showered he cast a switching charm on the clothes he was wearing, replacing them with soft, silk pajamas.

When he finally got into bed he remained conscious long enough to feel Headwig glide over to sit on his bedpost, before falling into blissful sleep.

Harry woke up to a letter from Andromeda.

It was a party invitation, for Halloween evening.

I took the liberty of inviting Lucius, Cissy, and Bella. Of course my husband and daughter will be there as well. You joining us would make it a full party.

Costumes required.

Harry jotted a quick acceptance before thinking on it. Right, Nymphadora was going to be there. Which meant they were missing one important person. He accepted under the condition that he be able to bring Remus along. It was time to play matchmaker.

He checked Bella's calendar, which she had gifted him so he could know when she was free for a date, and saw she was training today… With Fleur Delacour. Yeah, he didn't want to be anywhere near that storm, so instead, he spent his Sunday patrolling the halls, catching troublemakers, docking points, and thankfully avoiding handing out any detentions.

It was a good Sunday. That evening he wrote a few letters, such as the one to Hildebrand's company offering to hire them to finish the job on the Shrieking Shack, at which time he received a reply from Andromeda accepting his conditions.

He then turned in.

Classes that week turned out to be a bit on the melancholy side. With the three-day weekend following Halloween on Thursday, he couldn't get the students to pay much attention to anything at all.

Especially not with news of a ceasefire and respite from the constant fear of terrorist attacks and assassinations, on both sides of the great hall, everyone seemed so much… lighter. Some students outright began skipping between classes like Luna, who curiously did not, content to watch others bemusedly as they took up her usual method of getting from class to class.

Those four days came and went, where the only thing of interest to happen was a short chat with Remus.

"Oh hey, I'm going to the Tonks household Thursday night. You're my plus one." Harry told him.

Remus shrugged.

"Okay." Was his simple reply.

Then Halloween arrived. His class, like the others this week, were instructed to read and catch up on other class work or finish their homework from said classes. He had yet to break his oath not to assign the crap thus far, an oath none of his coworkers had taken issue with thankfully.

He had to admit, his anxiousness was growing as the day wore on. But to be fair, the fecal matter striking the fan part of Halloween usually came in the evening. Dinner time at the earliest, which arrived far too quickly for his liking.

It was announced by a knock on his door.

"Come in Remus!" Harry called out.

Remus walked in, dressed up for Halloween as a red shirt.

"Star Trek? I imagine only Teddy and maybe Tonks will get that." Harry told him.

"Aren't all of them Tonkses?" Remus asked.

"No, I mean their daughter. She prefers to just be called Tonks." Harry warned.

"But Nymphadora is such a pretty name." He tried to get out without snickering but failed. "But anyways, where is your costume?"

Harry removed his robe, to reveal he was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"Responsible Adult costume." Remus read his shirt. "Well now you're just living in fantasy land."

Harry smirked at the humorous man and motioned him over to the fireplace. He flood to the Tonks household first and was greeted by the entire Malfoy clan. Of course, he didn't readily recognize them at first.

Lucius was dressed as Dracula, the Bela Lugosi one, not the one that looked uncomfortably similar to Sirius. Or who knew, maybe he was going for Christopher Lee? But even Lucius Malfoy couldn't pull off that level of posh and gentlemanliness.

Next to him was Narcissa dressed as Bride of Frankenstein. She somehow made the look more attractive than the original actress.

"Putting Elsa Lanchester to shame?" He complimented.

Draco was the odd one out. He was easily recognized, as he wore only a toga. The back of which had knife hilts sticking out like porcupine quills.

"Julius Ceaser?" Harry guessed.

Draco tapped his nose.

Remus flood in behind him and also took a moment to realize who he was looking at. He eventually smiled and shook everyone's hands.

"Star Trek huh? Uncle Ted loves that stuff. I think it's more boring than flobberworms." Draco said.

"And who are you supposed be?" Remus asked.

"Julius!" He said, in a voice that almost sounded like a father disappointed in his son.

Remus reached out pulled one of the knives out of his back to reveal a full-on blade. He then inserted it back in, before repeating the process with the other knives.

"Owe. Owe. Owe. Owe." Draco deadpanned with each knife as they were reinserted.

Harry immediately recognized his costume was that mokeskin cloth Fred and George had been working on. So, Draco had been the main benefactor of Weasley Wizard Wheezes? How interesting.

The Tonkses rejoined them and escorted them to the living room, where they found it decked with all manner of Halloween themed foods, drinks and decorations.

As with the rest of the day, their evening flew by. Harry didn't drink much, but he still could barely remember that evening save for the laughter, the fact that stories were told, and Draco was the king of charades. But only the acting bit. He couldn't do the guessing part too well though.

They didn't even have a proper dinner, per se. Just slowly snacking throughout the night and filling on said snacks.

Sadly, the night had to come to an end, and everybody had to go home. The Malfoys left first, followed by Remus and Tonks, who did not leave together despite Harry's internal wishes.

He was getting up and readying to leave when Theodore stopped him.

"Please, stay here the night. We have a spare bed and want to share our weekend with you." He invited. "Bellatrix already agreed to do the same."

Harry looked at his girlfriend. He smiled at her.

"That sounds perfect, sir. Thank you. Let me help clean the place up, but then I need to crash." Harry accepted.

Even with magic it took him twenty minutes to store all of the leftovers, clean the dishes and put the decorations away. By that time, he had heard the showers start and end, and Theodore and Andromeda had both switch into pajamas and come down to wish him goodnight.

He was a yawning mess when he stepped out of the shower and proceeded to Tonks' old room. Finding the bed without linen, he then went to the closet down the hall to retrieve some. His actions were interrupted by a light cough.

"Hadrian?" Bellatrix said from her bedroom door.

He turned to see her standing in the doorway, giving him the most bemused look a woman had ever given him. She was dressed in a strategically sheer nightgown that was cut significantly shorter than was considered appropriate for pureblood women for simple sleep.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her bemused smile creeping into her voice.

That was a good question. Here they were, sober, having dated for months, staying the night in the same house, and he was sneaking off to sleep in a different room? Right, yeah, he needed to get his head checked.

Harry shrugged and walked into her room, slinging her over his shoulder as he entered. The surprised "Ooh" she made was delightful. The giggling as he layed her down on the bed even moreso.

"My goodness, Mr Morrigan. You certainly know how to keep a lady waiting." She said.

Voldemort arrived, side-alonged by his companion.

There they stood in London, atop big Ben. Him and Alastor Marchbnaks, now fully recovered from their productive sparring match and subsequent heart to heart.

"A few moments until midnight." Alastor said.

Voldemort withdrew the diary and the Timekeeper. A device Alastor had clued him in, as well as his oaths would allow him, to the existence of and means of stealing. The breathing room of the truce this last week had allowed him so much extra room to tackle projects. Hunting down Nahashtan, which turned out to be a hitherto unknown species of Coatls, and finding the thing dead but entombed had been a disappointment at first, until he got a team to harvest the body parts for potion experimentation. Results were promising.

But his personally breaking into the department of mysteries for this prize? Now that had been productive.

"Such simple, and yet overlooked magic." He lamented, glancing down at the giant clock face.

"Only the theory behind it, not its application." Said Alastor.

Fair enough. But symbolic sorcery, magic of faith and belief and superstition as fuel and blueprints for esoteric magics, was just so readily available and obvious. And here he was, standing atop a symbol. The center of the world. The reference for all timekeeping. All clocks on the planet were set in reference to this one. Located at the point by which geography was annotated.

There was such power in that. There was such beauty in that, and yet it was so often overlooked.

The bell tolled, and he raised the timekeeper high into the air.

For all two of you who are still here from the original version of this story, with Harry and Alastor's bromance, this is what I was building up to in that version of the story. But I could tell readers didn't give one iota of a fuck about exploring the magic of faith, the hints at Unspeakables pulling shenanigans in the background, and Alastor Marchbanks in particular. So this betrayal, and the coming conflict, lacks the buildup it needs to reall hit home. But its still the original outline of the story I'm working with here.