All You Have Is Your Fire
“So, what were the candles for?” Cedric asked.
“They’re for tonight, among other things.” Harry responded, gently rolling the prepared candles up with some cloth.
“The Halloween feast is tonight though?”
“It doesn’t have mandatory attendance, however, and I have my own traditions that I observe, which I’m inviting you to attend with me.” Harry replied. “Do you have anyone who’s passed on that you would wish to keep in mind?”
“Well, there’s my nan.” Cedric replied, voice slightly heavier. “That’s about it though. I, uh, don’t really get along with my family. And I’d be happy to come along.”
“Do you have a preferred humanoid being or beast?” Harry asked, pulling out a paintbrush, and a set of paints.
“I mean, I think mummies are really cool.” Cedric responded, earning a chuckle from Harry, who was approaching him. “What?”
“It’s rather funny that you said mummies when you’ll be mumming.” Harry replied, flipping through a book after setting the paint set on the table next to them. “Fair warning, I’m going to have to straddle you now.”
“What?” Cedric exclaimed, a faint blush creeping up his face.
“I’m going to have too straddle you.” Harry repeated, avoiding eye contact. “I need to paint your face, and that’ll be the easiest position.”
“Oh… okay.” Cedric said, calming down, feeling a little joyful at the blush he could see creeping up Harry’s face. “What’s mumming, though?”
“It’s an old tradition that evolved into trick or treating when traditions like Samhain were syncretized with Allhallowtide. With the liminal nature of the day allowing spirits and the passed-on dead to return, you disguise yourself as one of them to protect yourself.”
“Allhallowtide? What’s that?” Cedric asked, refusing to make eye contact as Harry got into position to start painting.
“It’s a period of time observed by Western Christians.” Harry answered, pulling the paint pots closer. “The first day is All Hallow’s Eve, which eventually became the modern Halloween. After that was All Saint’s Day, a commemorative feast day to honor any and all saints and martyr’s be they known or unknown. The final day is All Souls Day, a day to honor all faithful Christians not known to your parish, living or dead, though it’s become slightly conflated with All Saint’s Day.”
“And how does all of that relate to Halloween?” Cedric asked, mindful of the fact that he wouldn’t be able to ask another question with how close Harry was getting to his jaw, blush returning in full force at the thought.
“All Hallow’s Eve is commonly believed to have been syncretized with traditional Celtic festivals as a means of easing the conversion of the locals and allowing the practicing of their traditions in a manner that didn’t offend the church. Combine the traditions of harvest festivals like mumming, All Hallow’s Eve, and guising, where children would go about accepting offerings in the stead of spirits to protect themselves, and a few centuries later, you have Halloween. Now quiet.”
-{╣ ҉ ╠}-
“So, what are we doing?” Cedric asked Harry, who had some sort of sea creature painted on his face.
“We’re heading into the Forest.” Harry replied, handing Cedric a basket. “Do you have your stones?”
“Yup!” Cedric answered, feeling the weight of the stones that he had written his and his grandmother’s names on.
As they walked, Cedric noticed Harry looking through an odd stone on a necklace. Ignoring that, he asked Harry something else.
“So, what’s going to happen?”
“Some divination, some food, some dancing. Although, it’s slightly less coherent than that suggests.” Harry replied, as he finally led them into a clearing with a stone table set up, where five chairs were set. “Pass me the candles and the matches.”
Slowly, with Cedric handing Harry various items from the basket, Harry set the stone table for a meal for five, getting the seemingly endless food out of a basket hanging from his side.
“What’re the extra plates for?” He asked as he helped Harry pile wood into a small bonfire.
“They’re for the dead we wish to commemorate. By setting the table for them, we leave them space to be with us when the veil is parted.” Harry replied, moving over to light the candles on the table as the sun began to set,
“One setting for each soul.” Harry continued, pulling three stones out of his bag, prompting Cedric to pull his out. “One for your grandmother, and one for each of my parents.”
Once the stones were set around the wood, Harry lit the bonfire with a mournful sounding whistle, before proceeding to pull Cedric into a dance, circling the fire to some song only he seemed to hear, accompanied by the howls and caws of his companions.
“Do you trust me?” Harry asked as they danced.
“Yes.” Cedric said, resolute. If Harry was willing to let him participate in a tradition of his, he couldn’t not trust him.
“Jump when and where I jump.” Harry responded.
Minutes later, he jumped through the bonfire, finishing the dance, and watched as Cedric did the same.
“I wouldn’t have thought that jumping through fire would have felt so… refreshing.” Cedric commented as he followed Harry to the two plates set out for them.
“That’s the purpose of the bonfire.” Harry explained as he sat down. “It represents the sun, and as the bonfire dies out, so too does it represent the slowly fading light as we enter the cold months of death where no life grows.”
“But just as it represents the death of the sun and summer, it also represents the promise of the sun’s return, and a return to the months of life and growth.” Harry continued. “Though that aspect is more important to the winter solstice, in every context the light of the bonfire represents the light of life and hope, two constants that find their way through the dark no matter the circumstances.”
Not long after they had finished eating, and cut ten leaves from a length of ivory, discarding the tenth, they were sitting in front of the bonfire, Harry playing a song on his lyre.
“I’ve been wondering something.” Harry said, breaking the silence. “What do magicians do for the equinox? Normal mortals go trick or treating, or party, or something similar. I have my own traditions I’ve cobbled together. But I’ve no idea what your society does.”
“Well, it depends, really.” Cedric replied, resting his head on his propped-up knee. “Arty, she usually goes trick or treating, usually with the Weasley’s. Me, I stay in and read my nan’s poetry that she wrote. I don’t know the specifics for other people, but there are a few usual things. Some people, they fancy themselves historical reconstructionist followers and claim to follow ‘The Olde Ways’ but they just got hood winked into following Wiccan traditions, there was a whole expose about it, they claimed the truth was being hidden by Dumbledore for some reason. There are families that host an annual feast for their friends and family, then there’re the rites that Pellarastic Christians follow but I’ve no idea about those – I was never initiated – there’s probably a Mass, but most people? I dunno, I think most people just… see it as another day, y’know?”
Hearing the hum of a response, Cedric tilted his head to look at Harry, watching how the light of the fire lit the edges of his profile, how it caught in his wild-green eyes.
“Why did you invite me? Not that I haven’t enjoyed this celebration to the feast I had last year, but it just… seems personal?”
“Harvest festivals are about community.” Harry answered lightly. “They’re about the community banding together to gather food for the long months that are ahead, the community banding together to distract each other from the dark, to protect each other from the spirits lurking in the shadows.”
“I’ve never really had the chance to have that sort of community. My relatives… isolated me, from the community, from themselves… then I left them, and I was by myself for a while, so I had no community to properly celebrate with either. It got better after Artorius, he helped scare off any malevolent spirits, but…” Harry continued, setting his lyre down and drawing his knees against himself. “And, well… you’re sort of the only human I talk to. The only person who could really be considered a part of my community.”
“Well, I’ll be part of that community for as long as you’ll let me.”