cigarette daydream || james potter

"As I recall, you were lookin' out of place,"

Halloween had always been Estella's favourite feast of the entire school year.

Christmas was wonderful, of course. The castle glittered beneath mountains of enchanted snow and towering Christmas trees, and there was something magical about spending the holidays at Hogwarts while the grounds disappeared beneath a blanket of white. But Halloween possessed an entirely different kind of magic. It was darker, louder and far more chaotic, and there was an unmistakable excitement that seemed to spread through every corridor of the castle from the moment students woke that morning.

By breakfast, everyone was talking about the feast.

Lessons became almost impossible as students whispered across classrooms, wondering what decorations Professor Dumbledore had planned that year, what the house-elves would serve for dessert and, perhaps most importantly, what sort of mischief people were planning once the celebrations began. Even the professors seemed more relaxed than usual. Professor Flitwick had decorated his classroom with tiny floating pumpkins no larger than tennis balls that whizzed cheerfully around students' heads throughout the lesson, while Professor Sprout had somehow convinced several enchanted pumpkins to sing horribly off-key whenever someone walked past the greenhouses.

The ghosts were particularly lively.

Nearly Headless Nick spent most of the day proudly telling anyone who would listen about previous Halloween feasts, while the Fat Friar floated happily between the house tables before dinner, greeting students with an enthusiasm that suggested he looked forward to Halloween almost as much as they did. Peeves, naturally, took the celebrations as an excuse to become even more insufferable than normal. By lunchtime, he had already dropped handfuls of fake spiders into three classrooms, covered Filch's office door in sticky pumpkin pulp and somehow managed to convince an entire group of first-years that the moving suits of armour had come alive.

By the time evening finally arrived, the castle practically hummed with anticipation.

Students flooded out of their common rooms dressed in their school robes, filling every corridor with excited chatter and laughter as they made their way towards the Great Hall. The sound of hundreds of footsteps echoed through the ancient corridors, accompanied by the occasional shriek of laughter whenever Peeves appeared overhead to throw sweets stolen from the kitchens at unsuspecting victims.

Estella walked through the corridors with the rest of the Gryffindors, her hands shoved comfortably into the pockets of her robes as she listened absent-mindedly to Sirius and James arguing over which Halloween feast had been the best since they'd started Hogwarts.

"The fifth-year one," James insisted confidently. "That chocolate fountain was brilliant."

"It exploded."

"Exactly."

"You spent three days finding chocolate in your hair."

"Worth it."

Remus walked beside them, quietly amused, while Peter enthusiastically agreed with whoever had spoken last.

"You say that every year," Remus pointed out with a laugh.

"Because every year I'm right."

"You also said Professor McGonagall secretly enjoyed fireworks."

"I stand by that statement."

"You were in detention for two weeks."

James grinned.

"She admired them."

"No," Sirius replied. "She admired how quickly she could assign detention."

The group dissolved into laughter as they reached the enormous oak doors leading into the Great Hall.