Halloween
“I love the school during the holidays.” Mary smiled, looking around the Great Hall.
The hall was decked out in Halloween decorations, covered in oversized pumpkins and eerily realistic cobwebs alike, and despite the fact that it was morning, the gloomy weather didn’t permit much light into the school.
“Me too.” Lily said as they sat down, poking a large pumpkin on the table. “Hagrid’s really gotten these things huge this year.”
Mary nodded, pointing at one the size of a small car in the corner of the hall. “Look at that one, it’s practically Cinderella’s carriage.”
“Cinder-ella?” Marlene frowned, talking through a mouthful of toast.
“Muggle fairytale.” Lily supplied as she poured herself coffee. “Poor Cinderella gets visited by a fairy, who turns a pumpkin into a carriage so Cinderella can go to the royal ball.”
“I bet I could do that!” Marlene scoffed. “And I’m no fairy.”
“You could not do that.” Dorcas said, rolling her eyes. “You tore apart a plant trying to turn it into a bug in Transfiguration last week.”
“McGonagall was so annoyed.” Mary grinned while fixing her hair in her pocket mirror, fluffing her curls out.
“That was one time! And only because I was exhausted from practice.”
“You’re always exhausted from practice these days.” Dorcas pointed out, eliciting another scoff from Marlene.
“I’ll totally transfigure that pumpkin into a carriage and back right now!” She declared, whipping her wand out of her robes and aiming it towards the aforementioned oversized pumpkin.
“Oh, put that away.” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “You’ll just blow up the huge pumpkin and poor Hagrid will be so sad.”
“I’ll do this one, then.” Marlene gestured at the pumpkin on the table in front of them, one that was relatively the size of Lily’s head.
“No, I think you’d blow that up too.” Dorcas shrugged, not looking up from the sausage she was cutting.
“I would not!”
“I don’t know.” Dorcas taunted, still not looking up at an infuriated Marlene. “Feel like you would.”
As the focus of Marlene’s wand turned towards the pumpkin sitting in between them all on the table, Lily reached out to stop her.
“Marlene Mckinnon, don’t you-“ Before Lily could finish her warning, however, there were chunks of pumpkin flying at her from across the table. The huge, orange thing had been mutilated, pieces of it flying in every direction. Almost all the students turned to look at the scene, wondering what the source of the resounding bang that had just echoed throughout the hall was. Marlene turned red under the attention, covered in pumpkin pulp and chunks, just like her three friends.
Mary, infuriated, turned on Marlene. “What the fuck! I just washed my hair, you git!”
“Told you.” Dorcas said while smirking, tugging on the pumpkin pieces in her braids. Lily though, much like Mary, was struggling to find the humor in the situation.
“There’s like, twenty minutes to class!” She groaned, gesturing to her hair and clothes and general current state. “Are we all meant to shower again by then?”
Marlene at least had the decency to look ashamed. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry! But we are witches, I’ll just scourgify us-“
“No!” Mary yelled. “No more magic out of you!”
Marlene shrunk under her angry gaze, muttering another apology. Her messy blond hair was covered in what could only be described as orange gunk, an image that Lily would have found funny if she wasn’t looking exactly the same.
“It’s fine.” Lily sighed, pulling out her wand. “Scourgify.”
They all waited expectantly for a moment, confused when nothing happened.
“Scourgify!” Still nothing.
Lily tried again, then Mary, then Dorcas, but to no avail. Every cleaning spell they tried wasn’t working; the pumpkin chunks were sticking to their clothes, hair, and worst of all skin, like glue.
“God, what kind of magic did you use?” Lily asked incredulously, running a hand over her skin. “It won’t budge!”
While Marlene turned even redder with guilt across the table, Mary groaned loudly beside Lily, dropping her head on the table. “Isn’t this just lovely?”
Suddenly, a stern voice spoke from behind her, making Lily jump in her seat. She spun around to be met with dark green robes and a disapproving frown.
“Miss Mckinnon, is there a reason you’ve chosen to blast pumpkins open at 8 AM?” McGonagall raised an eyebrow, peering over the rim of her glasses.
“She was trying to transfigure one into a carriage.” Dorcas answered for her, seeming to take a little too much joy in Marlene’s misery.
“Sorry.” Marlene winced for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes.
“Right. Well, If you don’t clean up this mess by the time class begins, I expect to see you in detention next week.”
Marlene made a noise of disbelief. “That’s not nearly enough time, Professor! No spells are working on it!”
“You should have thought about that before-“ She cut herself off, eyes drifting to the entrance to the Great Hall. “What in Merlin’s name do they think they are doing now?”
Lily turned to follow the Professor’s gaze, spotting James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter striding in. The first thing she noticed was that Potter had given himself a comically long white beard, accompanied by a ridiculous set of purple robes and a matching hat. By his side, Sirius had his hair slicked back in a bun, sporting spectacles and green robes. Remus was trailing a bit behind them, clutching a broom in one hand and a toy cat in the other, wearing long dark robes. It wasn’t until she saw Peter’s huge, scraggly beard that Lily realized who they were dressed up as.
“Oh my god, McGonagall is going to kill them.” She muttered to Mary. Marlene and Dorcas were trying to suppress their laughter, much like the rest of the students.
“Cheers, Minnie!” Sirius grinned as they reached the Gryffindor table, coming to a stop in front of the disgruntled professor. McGonagall simply glared at him in response, having temporarily forgotten about Marlene. “The resemblance is striking, is it not?” He gestured between the two of them, and even Lily had to admit that everything about his outfit was impressively accurate to the professor’s, down to the exact shade of emerald of her robes.
“Mister Black, what do you think you are doing?” She demanded.
“I’m dressing up as my favorite professor for Halloween!” He replied cheerily, not faltering under her stern gaze.
“It’s a group costume, see?” Potter tacked on, motioning to his own ridiculous outfit.
“I can see clearly, thank you very much.” McGonagall replied dryly.
“Obviously James is Dumbledore and Peter is Hagrid,” Dorcas pointed at the two of them before turning her attention to Remus. “Sorry, who are you meant to be?”
“Is there a reason you’re all covered in pumpkin?” Peter wondered aloud, a question ignored by everyone at the table in favor of watching McGonagall stare down the boys.
“Moony, I told you no one would get it without the hair!” Potter groaned, throwing his hands in the air.
“And I told you, I’m not wearing a Filch wig!” Remus retorted, like this was an ongoing argument. Now that he said it, Lily could see that the robes he was wearing were Filch’s usual dark clothes, which made the broom he was clutching make sense.
“He’s got Mrs. Norris too!” Sirius proudly pointed at the stuffed cat Remus was clutching. He held it up in the air apprehensively as the rest of them all grinned at McGonagall eagerly, seemingly pleased with their hilarious idea. She was thoroughly unimpressed.
“First Mckinnon blowing up pumpkins, now this.” She sighed, rubbing her hand over her eyes. “What am I going to do with you all?”
Potter, completely unphased by the revelation that Marlene was blowing up pumpkins, abruptly fixed McGonagall with a look of complete sincerity. “Minnie, punish us how you must, but you cannot give me, Sirius, or Marlene detention Friday.”
“Just fuck us then.” Peter muttered to Remus, Lily only over-hearing because of how close he was standing.
“‘Punish us how you must’?” Remus snorted. “How melodramatic can you get?”
“There’s quidditch on Friday, Moony.” Potter said. “You know that.”
Anyone who had spent more than two minutes with Potter in the past month knew that. Although he was far from the only person in the school getting worked up over the upcoming match, McGonagall included.
“Oh, calm down Mr. Potter.” She let out an exasperated breath. “None of you are getting detention, because unfortunately, you haven’t exactly broken any rules. Except Ms. McKinnon.”
Marlene’s short lived glee was gone, the smile vanishing from her face.
He grinned, sticking his hand up for a high-five. “Should’ve known you’d never do us like that, Minnie!”
Her annoyed expression faltered for a second, amusement playing at her face. Whether it was at Potter’s antics, his terrifyingly accurate Dumbledore costume, or the combination of the both, Lily didn’t know.
“Stop calling me that.” She said, ignoring his outstretched hand.
Sirius reached into his pocket, eagerly whipping a tin box out. He opened it, holding it out to McGonagall. “Biscuit, Professor? You seem a bit upset.”
It seemed like he had been waiting for his moment to make this joke- him and the other three boys, judging by the way they were all trying and failing to suppress their laughter. Potter was clutching Sirius’ shoulder, giggling like Peter was, while Remus laughed into his hand behind them. Sirius just kept smiling widely, expectantly holding out the tin.
McGonagall smiled back, reaching into the container. “I would love a biscuit.” And with that, she turned and walked back to the staff table, biscuit in hand. “Wrong flavor!” She called out, making the boys laugh that much harder.
“I’m afraid she just destroyed you.” Mary laughed, watching McGonagall walk away.
Lily turned in her seat to be fully facing Remus, smiling. “Honestly Remus, you are the worst prefect I have ever met.”
“We’re not technically breaking any rules.” He protested, crossing his arms. Although, it was hard to take him seriously when he dressed as the spitting replica of Filch. She felt her lips twitch, and then before she knew it she had burst into laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Mary, Dorcas, and Marlene followed suit, cackling.
“You guys look so stupid!” Marlene gasped, clutching the edge of the table.
“Oi!” Potter exclaimed. “We’re not the ones covered in pumpkin guts!”
“Yeah,” Peter said, sitting down at last. “What is that about?”
Mary stopped laughing, remembering her previous annoyance with Marlene and rolling her eyes. “Marlene’s idiocracy, that’s what.”
“She wanted to make the Cinderella carriage.” Dorcas added, still chuckling to herself.
“Well, what’re you all just sitting around coated in the stuff for?” Potter raised an eyebrow, lazily flicking his wand and muttering a spell as he slid into a seat by Peter. Before she could blink, the mess that coated Lily, her friends, and the table, had disappeared. She turned to him, shocked.
“How did you do that?” She said, while Mary, Marlene, and Dorcas expressed similar sentiments of surprise around her.
“What the fuck, James?” Marlene muttered, marveling at her clean clothes, while Mary ran a hand over her pumpkin-free hair.
“Cleaning messes made by magic has different rules.” Potter answered as he reached for an apple.
“Yes, but we’ve only learnt those kinds of spells in theory thus far.” Lily frowned. Flitwick had only briefly touched on the concept of magical-made damage versus hand-made damage, and it wasn’t like Potter listened regardless.
He just shrugged and flashed her a grin in response (barely visible through his stupid beard), only serving to annoy her further. Both him and Sirius barely tried during class, almost never paying attention, but were still just as good, if not better than her. Remus shot her a look of understanding, rolling his eyes at his friend. Still, Lily felt this irrational urge to prove that she was smarter than James Potter. James Potter, who was currently desperately trying to get the Headmaster’s attention to show him his idiotic costume.
~
“Lily!” Sirius called, spotting her from across the common room. He had to yell to be heard over the loud music, ultimately leading him to stumble and giggle his way to the couch Lily was sitting on.
“Lily!” He repeated, slumping on the couch beside her. “What are you doing all alone over here?”
“Feet hurt.” She replied, gesturing to the heels she had thrown on the floor. “I see you lot changed your costumes, though?”
Sirius had a huge pink and blue lighting bolt painted across his face now, just like Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album cover. Lily hadn’t gotten a chance to see what the rest of the guys’ costumes were, but she could clearly see that they had all abandoned their costumes of the professors. Lily herself had dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, not caring that the purebloods wouldn’t get it.
“Yup. Funny costume during the day, but I had to be sexy for the party, yeah?” He winked at her.
Lily rolled her eyes. “The ego on you is astounding. Besides, now you’re implying McGonagall isn’t sexy.”
“I would never!” He gasped, sitting up. “Minnie is the love of my life. Sexiest woman I know!”
“Maybe lay off those firewhiskeys, yeah?” She laughed.
“I would hold the same opinion sober.” He mumbled, turning away from her.
He looked out at the Common Room, to where their friends were all laughing and dancing on the other side. Potter and Sirius had taken it upon themselves to throw a Halloween Party, despite the fact that it was a Tuesday night and they were planning on having Sirius’s birthday party on Friday. They had pushed all the couches to the edges of the room, taken Remus’ record player to blast music, and somehow made it to Hogsmeade and back to stock up on Firewhiskey- the dedication was almost admirable.
“Marls and Dorcas are so dense.” Sirius said, pointing to where the two were dancing and giggling with each other in a sickly sweet manner.
“Truly.” Lily agreed, playing with one of her pigtails. “I can’t believe you two ever dated.”
“I don’t need this from you too, I get enough bullying from Remus.” He slumped further down into the couch cushions. “And Marls, which is so hypocritical.”
“Aw, I’m sorry.” She said, the way one might if they were consoling a child. “We’ll find you a proper girlfriend, yeah?”
He gave her a funny look, sitting up a little straighter. “I’ll have you know I’m in a committed relationship.”
“So you are, Sirius.” Lily dismissed his comment as a joke, because it clearly wasn’t true. She had not so much as seen him interact with a single girl for more than five minutes this year, let alone be dating one.
“I’m not joking!” He exclaimed.
“Who, then? Introduce me.” She asked disbelievingly. He turned away from her, scanning the room for his supposed secret girlfriend.
“Moony!”
“So you don’t have a secret girlfriend!” He had clearly given up on the bit, choosing to shout for his friend instead.
“MOONY!”
Several people turned, startled by his loud shout, including Remus, who grudgingly made his way over.
“Padfoot, you know you can walk over and get me?” He said, sighing. “Hi Lily.”
“That’s a lot harder.” Sirius shrugged.
“And what are you supposed to be, exactly?” Lily raised an eyebrow. He was wearing what was essentially his school clothes: black trousers, a white button up, and a Gryffindor tie.
He pulled rectangular frames out of his pocket, sliding them onto his nose. “I’m James.”
“Oh my god.” She groaned. “That is such a low effort costume.”
“This is all besides the point!” Sirius grabbed Remus’ wrist, pulling him towards them. “Lily refuses to believe that I’m dating-“
Remus stopped him, putting a hand over his mouth and glancing at Lily. “Pads, you’re drunk. Really drunk. Let’s get you to bed, okay?”
Sirius frowned, clearly not wanting to, but letting himself be dragged off the couch anyways.
“G’night, Lilyflower.” He called behind him. Despite herself, the nickname was starting to annoy Lily less.
As they retreated up to the boys’ dormitories, Mary found her way to Lily’s little couch.
“Come dance with me!” She held her hands out, smiling. “It’s Waterloo, you have to!”
Lily considered her offer for a second before grabbing her shoes.
“How could I say no to ABBA?”