Chapter 56: Chapter 57: Halloween
(Oct 31st)
"This is rare. You up early for breakfast?" Padma asked me as I sat in front of her.
"Yeah, my stomach's been hurting since last night. Probably cause I didn't give it anything yesterday."
"You didn't eat all day yesterday! Why? Do you want to visit the infirmary so soon again?"
"No, just busy. Got worked up about a spell that frankly, was pretty useless. I just got lost in it for a bit. I am an idiot." Why do I do this?
"I don't deny that. But just eat something now. You got all day to think about a cure for that later."
"Yeah. And what is up with all the decorations? Did I download a theme pack?"
"Today is 31st."
"….. And? Tomorrow would be 1st?"
"Ugh! Its Halloween."
"Oh! The one where kids dress up and get candies."
"Yes that one."
"Hmm, you know maybe the spell wasn't really as useless after all." I think about the event about to happen tonight.
"What spell was it anyway?"
"A spell that gave me the strength of the trolls."
"*Chuckle* and you actually believed that?"
"Oh it worked, just only for the arm. Anyway, I gotta go."
If it happened tonight, I have to push the spell a bit more.
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'Okay, so and a stroke there. Now finish up with a circle there and done!'
After the runes were done, I tried channelling the magic again and tried to notice the difference.
I didn't think there was much difference in making it easy, since once you covered everything, it was kinda easy to maintain it, but the main difference came in the duration I could retain it for, since the magic was a bit 'smoothed' out or 'tamed' somehow? I don't know, it was helped, and that was all that mattered.
'Okay, so I can do it for around 10 minutes now instead of 4 minutes initially. Good progress. Now step two.'
"This is going to hurt."
I brace myself for the pain and clenched my teeth and started with gathering the magic in my other hand......
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Padma POV
(Dinner time)
"Hey do you know here the idiot is?" Parvati asks me.
"No idea. He wasn't in his room nor his usual empty class. He seems to have become a ghost these days"
"Ohh is his spirit lingering here? Maybe we can find him at that dead party." Hermoine chimes from nearby.
"At the what now?" Paravati asks the question in both our minds.
"There is some kind of a ghost party thing. Harry and Ron were invited there." She tells us.
"Huh, guess it makes sense. Halloween and ghosts parties."
"Yeah. And even Nymphadora is missing?" Parvati points out.
"Maybe she's just a little late."
"Hey, do you know why the bathroom on the first floor is out-of-order?" Hermoine asks.
"Yeah, it is weird. Things being out of order in a magical school. We made a mess of the classroom that day and it was good as new in the time we got something to eat." I say.
"Magic usually handles repairs pretty fast. Maybe a pipe burst or something and they couldn't figure it out." Parvati says.
'Hmm, why do I…. But that doesn't make sense....no never mind.'
"*Sigh* I miss the days when I was little and got to dress up. My favourite was a witch costume with a pointy hat and a little cauldron. Now I am an actual one, who would've guessed that?" Hermoine says.
"I once dressed as a squirrel. My mom enlarged a nut to the size of my head for me." Lavender Brown says.
"What about you guys?" she asks us.
"Oh, we didn't have that in our country. By the time we moved here, we were a little too old for this stuff." I tell them.
"Yeah, but we did get costumes the first time we came to know about it. I dressed as a fairy and she dressed as an occamy." Parvati tells them.
"Though we didn't get any candies. We just stayed at home, it felt embarrassing to go out."
"When was it exactly?" Hermoine asks.
"…. Around two years ago." I tell her.
We pass the time chatting among ourselves, though I can't help but get a heavy feeling in my chest.
The feast is truly grand, but the best part is the desserts. They are marvellous.
'I have to ask them for the recipe sometime.'
"*Bang* Troll in the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." And he fainted.
...…
We looked at each other's faces, thinking about what just happened.
Then it clicked-
"AAHHHHH!"
"We are all going to DIE!!"
"HEELLLPPPP!!"
It was chaos. Everyone yelling and scared and trying to-
"QUIET!"
I suddenly felt a calm sensation wash over me. Suddenly, I wasn't panicking anymore. I look at the teacher's table to hear Headmaster Dumbledore's instructions.
'Why are we scared? We have one of the most powerful mages alive with us.'
Headmaster Dumbledore told the prefects to take us students back to their dormitories and for all teachers to follow him to the dungeon.
'See handled it perfectl-'
'Oh no!'
I quickly rush to Professor Flitwick.
"Professor Ansh is missing, he isn't in the hall. He wasn't in the dormitory when I came here. I don't know where he is."
"You did well telling us, Miss Patil. We will find him and make sure he is safe. You go back with the others." Professor Flitwick reassures me.
I follow the prefect back.
'I hope I am just worrying over nothing.'
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A/N: Troll in the next chapter.