Crescent Moons ; J.S. Potter

43. hoggy warty halloween.

Once Daisy had told her friends about her breakup, their reaction was pretty much the same as on the train. They had all been expecting it and seemed to know that Daisy wasn't upset. Still, Gwen had hugged her tight. James hadn't had any real reaction, which Daisy convinced herself was good. It was good that he didn't care about her love life anymore, right?

Now, it was the night of Halloween, also known as the only night when she hated being a Head Girl. Luckily, she was Head Girl, not a Prefect. So, she and Thomas had left Halloween duty on another pair of unlucky Prefects. Not her proudest moment, but after two years of doing Prefect duties on Halloween night, she felt she deserved it.

This was also the first night that she was going to a Halloween party on her own accord, rather than being dragged to one by James. James had been planning this one like mad for the past few weeks, and by the sound of it, it sounded quite exciting.

She had one condition for herself: don't get drunk on Firewhiskey.

So, she was heading to the Room of Requirement with James, Thomas, Benjamin, Marlee, and Gwen beside her. Since both Thomas and Daisy had Head Girl and Boy privileges, none of them were worried about getting caught by Mr. Filch.

They strut into the Room of Requirement at ten o'clock at night. The sight was really something: there were orange lights blaring everywhere, stars hanging from the ceiling, music blasting from speakers that Daisy couldn't see, and loads and loads of snacks, including Firewhiskey.

"Nobody leaves before two o'clock, OK?" said James. This was his rule for most parties. Daisy nodded. They walked over to the snack table and James poured them each a small glass of Firewhiskey. "Here's to ..."

"Our seventh year!"

"Our final Halloween!"

"Legal Firewhiskey!"

"Alright!" said James. "Here's to legal Firewhiskey!"

The six of them all clinked their glasses together before chugging them down. Compared to her seventeenth birthday party, this amount was minuscule. So, Daisy didn't have much of a problem finishing it up.

"Want some more, Daisy?" asked James, holding up the Firewhiskey bottle. She shook her head at once.

"No, I don't want a repeat of—" she stopped, and James seemed to be thinking about the same thing as her—her last birthday party. "I just don't want any more."

James turned away, and Daisy could've sworn she saw his cheeks turn pink.

"Right, so ..." said Gwen, "let's just dance?"

"Yeah!" said James. Together, the six of them wrestled through the crowd of people. The song played so loud that Daisy couldn't understand the lyrics. She remembered how much she enjoyed going to parties with her friends, and was happy that at least, for the last year, she had chosen to go to the annual Halloween party.

After dancing in the same spot for what felt like hours, Daisy's feet were beginning to hurt.

"Guys, my feet hurt!" she shouted, as loud as she could in order to overpower the music. James seemed to be the only one who heard. He grabbed her hand and the two of them made their way through the crowd and away from the dance floor. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said. He looked around, and his expression turned from excited to horrified. "Oh Merlin, what happened?"

"What happened" was right. When Daisy looked around as well, she saw absolute and utter chaos. There were smashed Firewhiskey bottles on the floor, random students snogging on couches, and multiple huddles of people sitting on the floor.