Signum Vitalis (a dramione story)

The Halloween Concert

Hermione had expected Wizarding New York to be heated the night of the festivities and so was surprised by the blast of cold air that met her as she left the café she had used to floo in. She cast a warming spell and rubbed her arms to shake of the chill.

"Hermione! Hermione? That's you, right?"

Hermione turned and had to take a double-take at the bespectacled wizard calling her name.

"Er... John? You aren't dressed up as-"

"Harry Potter? Heck yeah, I am." John pulled up his spelled-black hair to reveal a lightning bolt drawn in pen.

"John, why would you-"

"Yeah, I know, I should have guessed so many other people would dress like him too."

"There's more?" Hermione muttered to herself. She rubbed her forehead as she took in John's costume and then glanced across the crowd, trying to guess which dark-haired wizards were dressed as her best friend as well. Instead she caught sight of dark-haired man who looked like Malfoy. Wait.

"Is that Malfoy?" Hermione asked John and pointed.

"Oh, and there's Shandra!" John said cheerily and they started making their way over to the small table they had secured.

Shandra was tucked under Malfoy's cloak and was chatting animatedly. When John and Hermione arrived, Malfoy looked up and eyed their costumes.

"Ah, another Harry Potter," he deadpanned.

Hermione got a better look at Malfoy's costume and raised an eyebrow. "You... you didn't dress up as Harry too, did you?"

Malfoy sat up straight. "Potter?" he spat. "Hell no. I'm Morpheus." He slid down the sunglasses from his head and pulled a gun replica from his belt to wave it at her. "See? No Prat-Who-Survived here."

"Morph-who?"

Malfoy tilted his head back to rest on his chair and pulled his sunglasses up for a second before sighing. "Samir said it was a popular movie."

"Samir?" Hermione asked.

Malfoy waved the question away.

"Don't worry, Draco. I got the reference," Shandra said, putting her hand on Malfoy's shoulder. "The Matrix. Very cool."

"Yeah, it is cool," John jumped in, pulling out a chair to sit down. "We should go see the sequel together. That'd be fun, right?"

"Sure," Shandra said, leaning her head towards Malfoy. "Though, why didn't you dress up as Jack?"

"Jack who?" Hermione asked. Malfoy turned and gave her a small smile, just barely tugging at the ends of his mouth. Hermione nodded back, though, really, she was curious as well.

"Jack from Titanic? And I'm Rose?" Shandra gestured to her hair and wardrobe. "I didn't even have to spell my hair-color. It's so romantic and her clothes are so sophisticated." She used a glove hand to play with the diamonds at her throat.

"Is this a movie about the ill-fated ship, Titanic?" Hermione asked,

"It only came out 5 years ago, where have you been, under a rock?"

"I was probably running for my life about then," Hermione answered, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Oh." The conversation died with that. They all stared off at the crowds or very specific people, respectively, and tried to ignore the awkward silence.

However, it didn't last long before the sound of a Sonorused voice echoed across the courtyard.

"Welcome wizards and witches, we're Thestral Teeth and we're going to start off your Halloween night with some spooky fun!"