𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 (𝟐) || HARRY POTTER LOVE STORY

21

By the time Halloween arrived, Harry and Julie were regretting our rash promise to go to the Deathday Party. The rest of the school were happily anticipating the Halloween feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in and there were rumours that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment.

"A promise is a promise" Hermione reminded them. "You said you'd go to the Deathday Party"

"Great, just what I wanted to do on Halloween," Julie muttered under her breath, but Harry heard and grinned.

"Yeah, because nothing says 'Halloween fun' like a party thrown by a ghost who's literally nearly headless." He smirked, nudging her.

"Shut up, Potter," she said, rolling her eyes, though a small part of her liked the playful jab. "I'm just saying, the Great Hall's got food, music, probably dancing skeletons, and no rotten fish. But noooo, we had to promise Nearly Headless Nick we'd go."

"You're not wrong," Harry laughed, throwing her an exaggerated pout. "But hey, at least you don't have to admit it was my idea."

Julie shot him a mock glare. "You've got a way of twisting things, Potter. But fine, let's just get this over with."

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nicks party had been lined with candles too, though the effect was far from cheerful: there were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took.

"Cold, Jules? Or just mad because we're not at the feast?" Harry's grin was growing wider and wider.

"Oh, I'm thrilled. Just loving this," Julie said sarcastically, though she could feel my lips twitching into a smile. She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Maybe next time, I'll just throw you in a freezing cold dungeon and see how much you enjoy it."

Before Harry could throw another response at her, they heard what sounded like nails scratching against a blackboard.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends" he said mournfully "welcome, welcome... so pleased you could come..."

He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside.

It was an incredible sight. There were hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a black-draped platform.

A chandelier overhead blazed midnight blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before us; it was like stepping into a
freezer.

"Shall we have a look around?" Harry suggested.

"Careful not to walk through anyone" said Ron nervously, and they set off around the edge of the dance floor.

They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead.

Julie wasn't surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts.

"Oh no" said Hermione, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle-"

"Who?" asked Harry, as we backtracked quickly.