Happy Halloween
Harry's morning walks with Sirius became a regular occurrence in the following weeks. The went around the same time every morning, and every time, they came across the same blonde girl. Most mornings she was coming back towards the castle, though every once in a while she would be leaving as they came back. After a week and a half of seeing her, Harry started getting nervous when they didn't cross paths (which only happened once). Two weeks after they'd first seen her, they found her in the entrance hall about to leave.
"Oh, hello." She smiled, as she always did. "Are you going out again too?"
Harry smiled a little and nodded.
"Would you like to walk together today? It seems a bit silly not to, since we're both leaving at the same time. Of course if you'd prefer to be alone, that's fine too."
"T-together's f-fine. If y-you don't m-mind I m-mean." Harry answered.
She smiled again and they left. They walked along the same route as always, neither speaking.
Once they'd returned to the castle she smiled again and said, "That's for walking with me. It was nice to have company today."
He smiled back and nodded again. She turned and skipped off down the hall.
"Do you think she meant it? Or was she just being nice?" Harry asked. Sirius pressed against his side, tapped his paw on the ground once and nodded.
"Yes to the first question?" Harry translated.
Sirius nodded again.
"I hope your right."
The next day the girl was waiting for them in the entrance hall.
"Oh good." Her voice had dreamy quality to it. Sirius had first thought it might be because she was still sleepy, now he thought it was just how she talked, "I thought you might have left already. Yesterday was nice, so I hoped you might like to do it again?"
"Y-yeah. Th-that'd be n-nice. I m-mean I'd l-like th-that."
Like yesterday, neither spoke until the got back. When they said goodbye and parted ways.
Harry and Sirius got to the entrance first the next morning.
"What if she's already left?" Harry was chewing his lower lip, "Or she doesn't want company today? Or what if-"
Sirius snapped twice.
"Right, right. I'm overthinking. But still..."
The girl came skipping into the entrance hall a minute later. "Am I late today?"
Harry shook his head, she smiled and they left without another word.
The next week was spent like that. They'd wait for each other by the door, go for a walk in silence, then say goodbye just before parting ways. The tradition was broken when Harry blurted out, "I don't even know your name." The he slapped his free hand over his mouth with wide eyes.
The girl smiled, "Luna Lovegood. What's yours?"
Harry looked genuinely surprised, "You d-don't kn-know?"
Luna tilted her head to the side.
"I m-mean! N-not th-that you sh-should! It's j-just th-that people h-here usually d-do and-"
"I do know." Luna cut in, "I just thought it might get annoying, people knowing who you are before you know who they are. So I thought I'd let you introduce yourself."
"O-oh." He scratched the back of his neck, blushing. "Th-that's nice of you. A-and you're r-right."
"Would you like to try again?"
He frowned, "R-really?"
She nodded, "Here I'll start." She stopped walking and turned to him, "Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood, what's your name?"
"H-Harry Potter. N-nice to m-meet you." He smiled.
Luna returned it, "Say, that's a lovely dog, Harry. What's his name?"
"Sh-Shadow."
They started walking again, "The second time did go smoother, don't you think?" Luna sighed.
"D-definitely. Thanks, Luna."
"Of course, Harry."
The Saturday before Halloween was miserable. Raindrops the size of bullets pelted the castle. Still, Harry and Sirius went to meet Luna for their morning walk.
"I don't think walking outside is the best idea today." Luna sighed, "Normally, I quite enjoy the rain. But it is coming down rather hard."
Harry nodded, "Plus, e-everyone's been c-catching cold l-lately. Don't think ch-chancing it is th-the best idea."
"We could just walk around inside. I'm sure Shadow still needs the exercise."
"G-good plan."
They wandered around the castle for a while before starting back to their usual meeting spot. On the way, they ran into Nearly Headless Nick. The ghost had been staring out the window grumbling to himself. Luna skipped over and greeted him nonetheless.
"Hello, hello." The ghost sighed when he saw them.
Sirius pressed against Harry's side and sat down.
"You look upset." Luna said.
"A matter of no importance," Nick assured her, "It's not as though I wanted to join... Thought I'd apply, but apparently I 'don't fulfill the requirements.'"
"It s-sounds l-like something of s-some im-importance." Harry pointed out.
"Well, you would think, wouldn't you," He pulled a letter out of his pocket, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt ax would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"
"Y-yes."
"I'd say."
"I mean nobody wishes more than I do that it was quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule."
Sirius yawned, he'd heard Nick's rant before. He'd been rejected again and would mope about it for the next few days.
"I w-wish th-there was s-something we c-could do." Harry was saying.
Luna nodded in agreement.
"But there /is/ something you could do." Nick suddenly seemed very excited, which made Sirius nervous. "Harry- would I be asking too much- but no, you wouldn't want-"
"W-what is i-it?" Harry looked pretty nervous too.
"Well, this Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday. I'm holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons. Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an /honor/ if you would attend. Naturally, you would be invited too, my dear." He added to Luna, "You could bring some of your other friends as well, of course. But I daresay you'd rather go to the school feast."
"I'd like to go." Luna said, "I've never been to a deathday party. It sounds fascinating."
"I-I'll come t-too." Harry agreed.
"Wonderful! I do look forward to seeing you both! And do you think you could /possibly/ mention to Sir Patrick how /very/ frightening and impressive you find me?"
"Of course."
Harry nodded.
Nearly Headless Nick beamed at them.
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At seven o'clock on Halloween Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Sirius went down to Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party. Fred and George had promised the three that they would sneak some food up from the feast for them. They'd have gone too, but apparently they had a special Halloween prank planned. Sirius sighed as they walked past the Great Hall. This year looked really good.
Luna and Nick met them in the doorway. Harry was quick to introduce Hermione and Ron to her. Sirius blinked at all the decorations. /At least it's spooky enough for the Halloween season. Of course, it is a ghost party so what else would it be?/
"My dear friends." Nick greeted them. "Welcome, welcome... so pleased you could come."
Sirius could actually recognize several of the ghosts at the party. Every now and then they'd gotten some of the Hogwarts ghosts to help out with a prank. Hermione paled when she saw Moaning Myrtle and redirected them to the food table. Sirius pressed closer to Harry. It was really cold.
"Shame." Luna sighed. All the food was rotten or burned beyond hope of saving. "I suppose it is to be expected."
They watched a ghost pass through rotten salmon with his mouth wide open.
"Perhaps they let it rot to give it a stronger flavor?" Hermione suggested.
Sirius whined up at Harry. The smell was getting to be too much for him.
They moved a little way from the table. Peeves stopped them before they could get too far.
"Hello, Peeves." Ron said.
Peeves offered them a bowl of fungus covered peanuts, "Nibbles?"
"N-no th-thanks." Harry answered.
"Heard you talking about poor Myrtle. /Rude/ you was about poor Myrtle." He took a deep breath and bellowed, "OY! MYRTLE!"
"Peeves, don't tell her what I said." Hermione whispered, "I didn't mean it, I don't mind her- er, hello Myrtle."
"What?" Myrtle said sulkily.
"Not enjoying the party?" Luna asked.
Myrtle sniffed.
"Um, it's nice to see you out of the toilet." Hermione tried.
"Miss Granger was talking about you." Peeves chimed in.
Sirius huffed. He tugged Harry away. That damned smell from the food was making him irritable.
"Hey, Shadow. No pulling! Come on, you know better than that." Harry protested. Sirius took a deep breath once they were far enough away from the food. He could still smell it, but it was much more manageable now.
Myrtle flew out of the room sobbing. Peeves shot after her yelling, "Pimply, pimply!"
Harry's friends joined him a moment later, Hermione looked pretty upset. Nick flew over a second later, "Enjoying yourselves?"
"It's been very interesting." Luna answered.
"Not a bad turnout. It's nearly time for my speech, I'd better go and warn the orchestra."
The sound of a hunting horn cut off the orchestra for him.
"Oh, here we go." Nick said bitterly.
Through a wall in the dungeon burst a dozen ghost horses, each with a headless rider. Everyone burst into applause, except Nick. Harry started to clap, stopped when he noticed Nick, started again when he looked around at everyone else, then stopped completely and grabbed Sirius instead.
The lead horseman came over to them, squishing his head back onto his neck. "Nick! Head still hanging in there?" He guffawed and clapped Nick on the shoulder.
Sirius rolled his eyes. He could practically hear James and Remus booing.
"Welcome, Patrick." Nick said stiffly.
"Live 'uns!" Patrick gasped, spotting the kids. He jumped back in "surprise" so his head fell off and the crowd howled with laughter.
"Very amusing."
"Don't mind Nick!" Patrick's head called from the floor, "Still upset we won't let him join the Hunt! But I mean to say- look at the fellow-"
Nick gave Harry a meaningful look. "I th-think Nick's v-very frightening a-and-"
"Ha! I bet he told you to say that!"
Harry shrank down some. Hermione touched his shoulder gently before rubbing his back.
"If I could have everyone's attention, it's time for my speech!" Nick called out. Once he'd stepped up to the podium Harry and Sirius slipped out of the room. The others followed them.
"I sc-screwed up and n-now N-Nick's p-probably mad a-and-"
"It's alright, mate." Ron got him to sit down against the wall and crouched beside him. Hermione motioned for Luna to do the same, whispering something to her. "Nick's probably put enough people up to that so Patrick would've seen through it no matter what.
Hermione nodded, "He'll be mad at the Hunt, not you."
After a minute or two, they decided to go head back to the common room. Luna offered to go with, but Harry insisted that he was alright and she should go see if the feast was still going on.
Harry froze before they'd made it out of the passageway. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Ron frowned.
"There's a v-voice." He stepped closer to the wall. Sirius listened too. He thought he could hear, something. But he wasn't sure what. It definitely wasn't a voice though.
"This way!" Harry took off. Sirius stumbled a bit before catching up.
"Harry where are we-"
"SHHH!" Harry paused for a second then yelled, "It's going to kill someone!" and took off again.
When he'd finally stopped, Ron panted, "What was that all about? I couldn't hear anything."
Hermione gasped and pointed down the corridor, "Look!"
Luna moved closer, "Is that..."
The others followed her slowly. On the wall was written:
The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of The Heir, Beware.
"What's that, hanging underneath?" Ron gulped.
Harry almost slipped on a large puddle of water as they walked forward. Sirius yanked him back when he saw what it was.
"Mrs. Norris." Luna breathed. "Poor thing." The cat was hanging by her tail from one of the torches. She was stiff as a board, her eyes were wide and staring
"Let's get out of here." Ron said.
"Sh-shouldn't we t-try and h-help-"
"Trust me." Ron insisted, "We don't want to be found here."
/Too late./ Sirius thought.
The feast had just ended. Students began pouring into the passage from both sides. The noise and chatter of the students died suddenly as the people in front spotted the cat. Harry swallowed and slid a hand into Sirius's fur.
A voice pierced the silence as Filch shouldered his way through the crowd. "What's going on here?"
Harry stepped back towards the crowd as Filch spotted Mrs. Norris.
"My cat! My cat! What's happened to her?" His eyes fell on Harry, "/You!/ You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you!"
Harry was shaking his head and trying to edge back to the crowd. Sirius stepped between the enraged caretaker and his godson, snarling.
"Argus!" Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by several other teachers. He quickly detached the cat and turned to Filch, "Come with me, Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, Miss Lovegood."