New Chapter after sooooooo looooooooooong... sorry for the wait...

Halloween came rather fast for the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the Great Hall is yet again decorated for the occasion. The four tables of the four Houses are filled students eating, drinking and talking rather animatedly with each other. Above the tables, the floating jack-o-lanterns grinned eerily, while the ghosts mingled with the students and each other.

On the head of the teachers' table, Albus Dumbledore watched a young student in Slytherin. He sipped some wine from his goblet, his eyes not leaving the boy. He watched as the boy laughed with his friends, thinking that it was just right for the boy to enjoy the little things that life has to offer, after all he was deprived of it in some way.

On the right end of the same table, Severus Snape was also watching Harry Potter. He could not even fathom the reason how the boy came to be in his House. Slytherin was the former House of everyone involved during the First Wizard War, and those who killed the boy's parents. He watched the boy, as he himself speared the steak on his plate and sliced a piece. He almost choked, good thing Irma Pince sat next to him and immediately gave him some of her beverage to drink. Snape cursed, it was very unlike of him to be affected this way. Why was he intrigued by the very presence of Harry Potter?

Harry sat beside Blaise Zabini on the Slytherin table, while Ever McClaren and Theodore Nott sat opposite them. They were happily laughing about what happened to Nott that very afternoon, much to the chagrin of the very red boy.

"Did you see her face when he asked her?" Blaise asked in between guffaws.

Ever and Harry just nodded, they were trying to contain their laughter. Their plates were almost untouched, except for some missing slices on the steak. McClaren was slapping his hand on the table, his other held his fork with a piece of grilled fish. Harry was holding his belly, and was rocking back and forth trying to contain his laughter.

"Harry," Daphne Greengrass asked, "what are you talking about?"

The Slytherin girl was sitting on the other side of Harry, and she interrupted her conversation with her friends to listen to the story the boys were talking about. The girls near her were also watching the four boys. They stopped eating to listen to the amusing story, one of them has her fork midway towards her mouth.

"Nothing amusing happens to them," Draco Malfoy, who was listening to the conversation, said with a wave of his hand.

"Says who, Mister Thicko," Blaise asked, his eyebrow arched.

"Och! This bettae be werth it," Ever exclaimed, a fork in his left and a knife in his right.

Harry just looked at Draco with a something like pity, while Theodore Nott went back to eating while shaking his head. The girls, including Daphne, looked at Draco with venomous eyes, which were not lost on the blonde boy. With a harrumph, Malfoy stood up with his two lackeys, and went to another part of the table.

"He seems to be afraid of you, Ever," Harry said, watching Malfoy's haughty displays. Apparently, he was telling everybody near him what had happened to poor him.

The group went back to eating, with a slight snicker from Blaise, and their own conversation. Ever, having finished first, pushed his plate and told his friends that he would be going to their room. Harry and Theodore nodded, while Blaise waved his hand. The Scot gathered his things, and promptly went out the Great Hall.

"What was the amusing thing that happened today, Harry?" Daphne asked.

"Will you please let it go," Theodore said, his ears red.

Blaise laughed, his fist slamming against the table. Harry snickered, and whispered in Daphne's ear. She blushed, and giggled a bit. Nott covered his face in his hands, all the while shaking his head, as if to erase the memory.

"What did he say, Daphne?" a girl to Daphne's right asked.

"Not you, too," Nott said, which elicited laughter from the other two boys.

"Well," Blaise began, "if you must know, Nott was having thoughts of―"

The door of the Great Hall burst open, and in came a running, gasping, very sweaty Professor Quirrel.

"Troll in the Dungeons! Troll in the Dungeons!" he shouted. "Thought you should know." And then he fainted.

A second ticked by, and then there was pandemonium in the hall. Students yelling and panicking, with a great deal of pushing and running towards the exit. Harry, Blaise, and Theodore all looked at each other and uttered one word, "Ever."

Ever McClaren walked slowly along the lighted corridor, rummaging through his bag. He uttered a soft "Aha!" when he bumped into someone. It was Professor Quirrel, whose eyes were wild and glittering. With a mumbled apology, the teacher hurried along towards the hall Ever just left. Ever often wondered why the professor's head was always covered by a turban when he does not look like from India.

Ever shook his head, his auburn hair swaying along with each movement. He ran, towards the forked end of the corridor. He turned right, towards the dungeons, and he slowed down to a walk. He took out his wand and the new book he had gotten from the library that afternoon, and he went towards the dungeons.

He heard a low growl, accompanied by the sound of heavy wood being dragged along the stone floor. He hid behind a stone pillar, and waited for something to appear. He was not disappointed, when he spotted a huge, stinking figure. There was a troll wandering in the school, and Ever does not know what to do. He was still deliberating when he saw the troll wandering towards the stairs, and then he decided to follow. Ever McClaren, of the Highland Clan of McClaren, knew he was going to regret that decision, but he steeled himself and followed the creature.

The trio fell behind the milling Slytherins that were exiting the Great Hall, whispering amongst themselves. Daphne and the girls were trying to come nearer to them, but the students were panicking so they were further pushed away from them. There were much mumbling and chattering amongst the students, and the teachers have all disappeared.

"No wandering around," the Slytherin boy-prefect shouted over the din of the students.

Daphne watched helplessly as she saw three students break away from the Slytherin group, and she knew those boys. She tried to follow them, but the crowd kept her from getting to her destination.

"Daphne," a mousy girl called her, "where are Harry and Blaise?"

"I don't know where they are Bridget. Even Theodore Nott's here," she answered.

"Hermione!" a boy's voice called.

Daphne turned towards the sound, "Greg!"

Gregory Potter, the tall and thin cousin of Harry's, was wandering the corridor from where Daphne and the Slytherins were milling about. He was accompanied by a lanky, flame-haired boy, who was a bit taller than Greg. Greg's eyes wandered around looking for Daphne, who was waving her hand above the heads of the huddled students. He grinned when he saw her, and motioned for the other boy to come with him.

"Hey, Daphne," Greg waved. "What are you milling about?" He pointed at the Slytherins, who were glaring at the two boys from Gryffindor. Greg was still grinning, even with all of the milled students' intense hatred. "You remember Ron Weasley?"

"Hi," the lanky boy said, his face a myriad of emotion. He smiled at Daphne quickly, followed by apprehension, fear, and then anger. He scowled at the glares of the Slytherins.

"Please, Greg, Harry and his friends are gone," Daphne said.

"Oh no," Greg exclaimed, his hand slapping his forehead. "Not again."

"Will you please look for him?"

"Ok," Greg said. He motioned to Ron with a jerk of his head, and the two left. Daphne waved before the two went out of sight.

a chapter finished...