Collision Of Worlds: The Crystal Lake

Chapter 14: Halloween Preparation

Previously:

7 April, 1806

Today we discovered Arya is pregnant! I'm so happy, this is unbelievable. We're only 25, but this is a blessing from God. King George III visited our village a few days ago, and he gave us a bag of gold. This week truly is amazing.

***

"Where is it?!" Tom searched through his desk frantically. "It should be here!"
"What are you looking for?" Parker strolled into the boy's Gryffindor dormitory.
"Parker!" Tom looked around startled. "O-oh. My Halloween decorations,"
"Really? What do they look like?" Parker asked, bending down picking up his pillow that had been thrown on the floor.
"Um.... it's a similar shape to a potato -blue and kind of resembles a... witch!" Tom lied.
"Amy wouldn't be impressed by the way you describe it." Parker raised an eyebrow at him. "Seems like we can't find it, maybe can search again after breakfast?"
"Yeah," He sighed sadly. "She'd be probably nagging us to go by now."
As if on cue, the female Gryffindor yelled from behind the doors
"Come on! Me and Ron are starving!" She complained.
"Ron and I! Let's go." The blonde boy agreed. "We need to meet up with Hannah and Lukas to help decorate the hall for Halloween."
"We can find it later, I guess." Tom held open the door for his friend. "And you guys know you can leave without us, right?"
"Yeah, but we don't get to annoy you and it's rude to not wait. Plus we've got to meet up with the gang after." Amy and Ron walked alongside them as they exited the common room.
"Oh! Hermione told me to meet her in-" The youngest Weasley boy ran off.

***

Meanwhile, deep under the school in the Slytherin dungeons, Emma had been quivering on her bed thinking of Jayden's hideous plan. Why could he be doing this to Harry and Tom? And why couldn't she stand up to him? After all, he was half her size.
"Em?" Draco knocked on the door. "Dinner is starting soon - you can't punish the other houses in the dorm!"
She couldn't even face Draco anymore without wondering whether he'd seen Jayden's blackmailing device.
"I'm coming!" Emma yelled back cheerily, hiding her frustration and fear. She made her bed, and walked swiftly to the door. Opening it, she smiled happily at the blonde. They walked down to the hall with Pansy.
"What took you so long? It doesn't take that much time to get ready, does it?" Draco asked.
"Nevermind that." Emma caught Evan's eye as the Slytherins entered the hall. "Can you hang out with Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle after?"
"Yeah, ok." Draco turned to face Jayden. They were soon deep in conversation about quidditch immediately. She ate alone for a while, too deep in thought to notice the girl approaching her.
"Emma!" Pansy planted herself next to her fellow Slytherin and sneered. "Jayden told me everything."
Emma gulped. Was he going to tell Draco too?
"I think it's a wonderful idea!" Pansy smiled evilly. "Getting close to your ex-friends and giving us information, ingenious!" She applauded her best friend.
"Yeah, that's great." Emma sighed relieved. "I better help decorate the hall, it's going to take ages to replace every candle with a pumpkin."
"Since when did you help with anything?" Draco overheard their conversation.
"Since at least one person from every house has to join in, and I'm not giving you the satisfaction of helping Potter and Granger. And - the idea..." Emma replied. She stood up and headed to the Ravenclaw table, where all the decorations were.
"Emma!" Evan made sure no one was looking, then ran over after he had finished chewing. "You were quivering while talking Parkinson, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing..." Emma stuttered. "I've just come to help with the decorations, that's all."
"Oh, mind if I help you?" He asked. "You can carve the pumpkins and I can put the candles in them."
"That would be great!" Emma agreed. "We'd better get started then!"
Evan went to go fetch some candles while Emma started carving pumpkins. For once she was working well with someone, but she couldn't help but see Draco next to the Great Hall doors -  chatting with Pansy. She got up from her seat and approached the entrance.
"Where are you going?" Evan asked, carrying a large box of unlit candles.
"I'll be back... don't worry." Emma smiled at him and walked off.
"Just be careful, okay?" Evan called as he placed the box onto the table.
"I will." She assured him, and slowly walked over to the platinum blonde.
On the other side of the hall, Hannah and Terrence were hanging decorations on the dusty, dark walls. They had arrived to breakfast early in order to help set up for the Halloween Feast.
"What do you think, Terrence?" Hannah held to objects in both of her hands. "A purple cat or a white ghost?"
"Both look great to me!" The boy smiled warmly up at her. "I think maybe a cat - I'll go get the rest of them!" He walked over to the box of paper decorations. However, while walking his shoulder brushed the ladder that Hannah was standing on. The girl lost her balance, and fell down - loudly.
"Hannah!" Terrence turned around, but stood in awe of what he saw.
"You should really stop falling off of things." Lukas told her. He was carrying her in his arms, bridal-style. "You never know when I won't be there to catch you."
"Y-yeah." She stuttered. "How can I make it up to you? I mean you did save my life twice already."
"You couldn't of died, actually." Terrence crossed his arms. "That was only a metre fall and so was the one on the quidditch field. You could've just broken a leg and that's about it."
"She still would've gotten hurt." Lukas crossed his arms. "She's lucky someone like me is there to catch her."
"Oh-" Terrence towered over him, annoyed he had been dissed by their new friend. Amy noticed Hannah falling, and was now shooing Lukas away with a piece of bread.
"Guys!" Dahlia sipped from her goblet and rushed over.
"Hannah can make it up to him later. Amy, go find Tom and Emma. Terrence you get Parker and Evan." Dahlia pointed to the door that she'd seen Emma leave through. "And I'll find Ruby."
"Why?" Hannah asked. "Why's Emma included in this?"
"Dumbledore wants to see us about something that happened before we came to Hogwarts. Sorry, he doesn't need anyone who wasn't there." The good Slytherin explained. "Now go, I'll search the library."