POV of Parvati Patil
The next morning, I woke up around 7 o'clock and noticed that my arm must have completely healed, as it no longer hurt. However, I did have some muscle soreness from playing Quidditch. After Madam Pomfrey quickly checked my arm again, I made my way to breakfast in the Great Hall. Actually, the day passed rather uneventfully, if you disregard the Gryffindors who were still in a celebratory mood and the mountain of homework I still had to complete.
In the following weeks, nothing really exciting happened. I spent a lot of time with James and Bella, who always sweetened my classes with their jokes.
Then finally, the day I had been looking forward to since the Quidditch match arrived: Halloween. The Great Hall was already decorated for breakfast. The candles that usually floated in the air had now been replaced by pumpkin lanterns, and skeletons stood around in the corners of the hall. Since it was Thursday, we of course still had classes, although the night-time Astronomy lesson was cancelled as there was to be a feast in the evening. This was to be held in memory of the day when "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" lost his power.
Throughout the school day, most of the students found it difficult to focus on their lessons, as the anticipation for the feast was too great. Then, when we were finally on our way to dinner, we saw that the Hall, now that the enchanted ceiling showed a gloomy sky, looked much spookier than it had at breakfast. Together with James, Hermione, and Ariana, I sat down at the Gryffindor table, where Cat-Lee joined us. Only Bella, who usually always sat with us, was neither with us nor could I spot her at the Slytherin table.
Dumbledore gave a very short speech, just as he had at the beginning of the school year, before the food appeared on the tables. The house-elves had once again done an excellent job and prepared various dishes suitable for Halloween. For example, there was blood punch and blood orange juice to drink, and the food included sausages that looked like fingers and eggs that were supposed to represent eyeballs. But the desserts were definitely the best. Of course, there was cauldron cake, but there were also various types of pudding with chocolate or gummy insects swimming in them, and cookies in the shape of ghosts, skeletons, and pumpkins. I chatted happily with Cat-Lee and Hermione, who, like me, had never really celebrated Halloween at home. Since I had always thought that celebrating this holiday was more the norm, I asked the two of them what their families' reasons had been against it. 'My parents deemed it not worthy because the holiday originated from Muggles as a way to drive away wizards and witches... and that was that…' was Cat-Lee's answer, while Hermione explained to us that her parents, as dentists, didn't want to support a holiday that was primarily about candy for children.
While I was still listening to them, I noticed a bowl of undefinable green goo, which I pulled towards me to examine more closely. When I was still undecided after a while whether I should try it or not, Cat-Lee suggested I mix in some of the glittery sweets that were lying near her, which I then did. I also stirred in a few licorice bats before finally offering it to Hermione with a grin. I must admit, I hadn't expected her to actually try it; it was meant to be a joke. However, she actually put some on her plate and immediately made a face at the first spoonful, pushing the bowl back to me. She looked so disgusted that Cat-Lee immediately poured her some pumpkin juice to get rid of the taste. 'What? It doesn't taste good? Well, let me try…' I said to Hermione, feigning innocence. 'No, it tastes awful, go ahead and try it yourself!' she replied and immediately took another sip of her pumpkin juice.
I tried the slimy stuff myself and had trouble not making a face because Hermione was right: It was by far the most disgusting thing I had ever eaten. The goo alone probably wouldn't have tasted so bad, but in combination with the stuff I had mixed into it, it was absolutely inedible.
'So, does it taste good?' Hermione asked me challengingly. 'Of course. It's my own creation after all! I call it 'disgusting goo with glitter in it',' I answered her with a grin before quickly drinking something as well, which made all three of us grin. 'If it tastes so good to you, you can just eat it all up,' Hermione suggested to me after a while. 'Nah, that would be rude, I'm sure the others want to try it too,' I said, just before the first unsuspecting student (Neville) reached for my concoction. We had to really pull ourselves together not to burst out laughing from sheer schadenfreude at the disgusted expression he made afterwards.
The longer we sat at the table, the more restless I became because Bella still hadn't shown up. While Cat-Lee tried to reassure me that Bella had surely just forgotten that the feast was today and was probably in the Slytherin common room with some other Slytherins, Hermione also began to worry. Only after Cat-Lee had said goodbye to us, as she still had to write an essay for the next day, did Bella rush into the Great Hall. At that moment, Hermione and I were just incredibly relieved that she had shown up. 'Where have you been? We were worried!' I greeted her. 'Has anyone seen my gloves? I've been looking for them the whole time…' she asked us directly. In response, we just shook our heads, whereupon she sighed and continued: 'Sorry, but they're really important! If I don't have them... Well... then my hands get cold…'
Bella was a bit strange. Sure, the corridors were indeed not very warm at this time of year, as it wasn't so easy to heat such a huge castle, but that was no reason to need gloves! When she pulled the sleeve of her robe over her left hand, with which she tried to serve herself some pudding, I didn't know whether I should still find it funny. I thought she was slowly overdoing it, so I grabbed her arm to roll up her sleeve, as it otherwise threatened to land in the pudding. In doing so, I touched her hand, whereupon she flinched violently and stared at me shocked with wide eyes. A moment later, she jumped up and hurried away, not without turning back to us once more, still with that horrified expression on her face.
'What pixie bit Bella now?' Hermione was the first to speak again. Somehow I had a really bad suspicion, but that couldn't be! I pushed the thought aside and answered unconvincingly that maybe she had just remembered where she had left her gloves.
