Arthur could hardly believe how Halloween had crept up to him.
The assignments combined with working in the greenhouse had made him really busy.
The month of detention had also proven a grueling task, what with having to meet the standards of what were essentially magical cleaners.
It was made only more harder due to them not being allowed to use any magic.
The first thing he did after finishing the punishment was to go to the library and learn the ‘Washing up’ spell.
The spell enchanted dirty dishes to wash themselves with a literal flick of your wrist.
Arthur vowed to never touch a dirty dish again and he meant it.
Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, Arthur could hardly believe it when he realized that he’d already been at Hogwarts for two months.
The castle felt more comfortable the more time he stayed.
If only the Slytherin’s would stop giving him dirty looks all the time.
He guessed cleaning toilets all over the castle would do that to you.
Even the seniors were talking about how Snape had managed to outdo himself since usually the punishment he gave would only be about handling potion materials.
There was even a time when the Slytherins had to clean the abandoned girls bathroom in the second floor by fetching buckets of water from another floor.
It was this contrast in their punishment that made him very alert.
Arthur was careful to always have a crowd nearby him and made sure his friends did it too.
But anyone could see that it was a loosing battle.
You can’t guard against a thief forever, on in this case vindictive little children who thought magic would give them a better edge.
The magic classes had not taught anything that would be especially useful in a fight.
Their best chance at learning that being charms or defense against the dark arts class.
But they had only been learning theory at charms for quite some time and the only thing being taught at defense against the dark arts class was how to quickly identify various dark creatures and how to notify the nearest adult as fast as possible.
To improve themselves, they had all been training in the common room, whenever Tonks was free.
So much so that it evolved into a regular house activity.
The seniors would move the furniture to make space in the middle and sit around cheering for them.
Arthur didn’t mind the audience.
It made the dodging session even more exciting.
He had to make sure to give his best every time to make sure not to embarrass himself.
Because Tonks had apparently set out to do so, specifically with the boys.
Watching Lucian having his head turn bald was all the motivation he needed.
Poor kid had to wear a cap all week till the spell wore off.
Did you know that there was a spell specifically made to give you temporary baldness?
Well now you do.
Arthur wasn’t just passive in the learning though.
At Teddy’s suggestion they had searched the library for various spells they could use.
Cedric wanted to practice more dangerous or as he said it ‘useful’ spells but Arthur already had enough of detentions.
The more complex were also more dangerous for everyone involved so they decided to start simple.
If only the kid knew just how dangerous light could be.
Arthur convinced him by reasoning that they already had a background on it and the counter spell was universally ‘Nox’ making the practice a lot safer.
They could always practice the more dangerous spells later.
Arthur ordered some pair of cheap sunglasses, from Perfect Levi who provided it readily, just as a precaution.
He would thank himself for that decision for a long time to come.
…
On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through their beds.
The smell was almost overwhelming outside the common room, being that it was so close to the kitchen.
Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they’d seen him make the desk levitate.
Professor Flitwick had spent all the time till now teaching how the repair charm worked on different materials and they were all sick of it.
Was it really important to dedicate an entire class on why cotton and wool repaired similarly?
To Professor Flitwick it was.
Somehow he was even in a good mood for the whole class.
The professor put class into pairs to practice.
Arthur’s partner was Cedric, which was not surprising in the least.
“Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” said Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual.
Would he really be a Ravenclaws if he didn’t perch?
“Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too — never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ‘s’ instead of ‘f’ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.”
Arthur thought that he had heard something wrong when the professor spoke, because he just couldn’t figure out where the ‘f’ was in ‘Wingardium Leviosa’.
That was probably the reason why when he cast the spell on the feather, it darted straight up and logged itself in the roof.
He wasn’t the worst at it though, Patricia had somehow managed to disintegrate the feather.
One minute it was there and another it had turned to dust.
Putting the question on the back of his mind he focused on the task at hand, getting his feather down from the roof.
Concentrating on the spell he recited with a wave of his wand, “Accio Feather.”
Arthur should have thought it through before casting or at least asked the Professor because all the feathers in the classroom came crashing towards him.
…
The Great Hall, with the Halloween decorations, was even more magical than the night they had arrived.
It was a tall ask putting a night sky in its full magical glory to shame, but the Hogwarts staff sure had tried.
A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter.
The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Arthur had just picked up a baked potato when Cedric asked, “Where are Lucian and Teddy?”
“They didn’t tell you?” Patricia said, “They’re at the ghost party down in the basement. Some ghosts invited them and they thought it would be cool.”
“Ghost party?” Arthur asked confused, “Weren’t the house elves preparing rotten food for that event? How come they didn’t know?”
They all turned to look at Flora who shrugged and said, “Don’t ask me. They never enter the kitchen. Besides Perfect Levi already put in a notice right in the common room. It’s brightly colored and everything. The words even glow.”
“Let’s just save some food for them.” Cedric said causing them all to agree.
…
They left the great hall as the feast started to fizzle out.
Carrying some turkey legs and some baked pumpkin they descended the basement searching for any traces of the ghost party.
What they found was just as disturbing but just in a different way.
As they turned a corner, their way forward was blocked by five Slytherins.
Arthur looked back the way they had come from and found more Slytherins there.
“We’re surrounded.” Arthur announced.
They had been ambushed.
Thinking quickly Arthur said, “Circle out with our backs to each other.” With no other choice they stood back to back in a circle ready to respond to anything thrown at them.
“The ghosts worked perfectly.” said someone from the crowd.
Arthur couldn’t make out exactly who because the corridor very dark with only a singular torch as a source of light.
“Nowhere to run little badgers.” Henry Macmillan said from the way they had come, “Can’t punch your way..”
“You don’t get to say that Henry.” Arthur interrupted the boring monologue, “You were crying in the infirmary when you friends were getting punched.”
Henry actually growled at that and shouted, “WANDS OUT! Let’s show these gnats how real magic works.”
Arthur could agree with that.
As a signal to his friends he taunted them again, “Say goodbye to your EYES!!!”
Some poor soul innocently asked, “Why?” Arthur almost felt bad for the kid.
Almost.
But the only response the Slytherins got was five coordinated voices chanting in unison, “LUMOS SOLEM!”
Anyone could tell you what a bad idea looking directly at the sun was.
The Slytherins didn’t get in a choice in the matter as the dark corridor was filled with sunlight.
The contrast between the dark corridor to the stunning sunlike brightness was too much for a bunch of first years to handle because they all clutched their eyes and started backing away.
Arthur and his friends took the chance to quickly make their escape.
Hopefully they would find Lucian and Teddy before the snakes recovered.
Arthur wasn’t worried about detention for using magic in the corridor.
The perks of using literal sunlight as your weapon, it left no visible traces.
At least none that would not be embarrassing to explain for any ambitious person.
Luckily for the Hufflepuffs, House Slytherin was full of them.