The Ghosts

A few weeks after the conversation between Draco and Zosar, it was finally the examination time. And, with it, came Draco's birthday.

"It's nothing special, but I think you will be able to make good use of it," commented Theo as he handed an elegantly wrapped package to his friend. "Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you, your presents are always quite unexpected and interesting," answered the blond boy with a smile.

Draco, Theo, Daphne, Susan, and Hannah were sitting on the lawn near the lake, where they agreed to meet up to celebrate Draco turning twelve. The Hogwarts' elves were quite eager to arrange them a picnic basket full of snacks once they heard about the occasion, so they were now sitting on a blanket while enjoying tea and carefully-packed food (to the envy of other students).

Over the past year, it already became a tradition between the five friends to gather together on important occasions and exchange gifts and well-wishes.

"Then what about our presents, are you implying that they are boring?" asked Susan teasingly. Hannah and Daphne exchanged glances and rearranged their expressions into sad looks.

"It seems that boys are really ungrateful – my mother didn't lie when she said not to get my hopes up too much," sighed Daphne with mock-disappointment.

"Indeed, maybe we should just keep our gifts to ourselves," echoed Hannah while brushing away fake tears.

Draco's eye twitched slightly as he watched the girls' performance. Their eyes were clearly showing enjoyment and lips were unconsciously trying to form smiles – who would believe their words?

"If I don't get my presents, there WILL be consequences!" he threatened unhesitatingly.

"What kind of consequences?" asked Daphne seriously, as though weighing in her mind whether the threats were worth giving away her gift.

Draco was silent for a moment. Indeed, what kind of consequences could there be?

In the end, he could only resort to the classic Malfoy family threat:

"My father will hear about this!" he replied with mock seriousness, while arrogantly raising his chin.

Daphne, Hannah, Susan, and Theo exchanged brief glances, as silence suddenly descended between them.

"Alright, this threat is too serious – we have to give them to him now," cautioned Susan solemnly, though her twitching lips betrayed her.

"Yes, yes – it's better to give up," nodded Hannah hurriedly, her blonde hair, which was tied into two cute pigtails, wildly swaying in the wind along with the rapid movement.

"You girls give up too quickly! With my negotiation skills, we can surely bring down his threat to only telling his mother!" Daphne seriously persuaded.

The group finally couldn't hold up and burst out laughing, attracting strange gazes from the students nearby.

"Really? The best you could do is telling your father?" asked Theo after calming down slightly, though his blue eyes were still sparkling with amusement.

"It was the first thing that came to mind," defended Draco.

"Alright, alright… Your answer was so classic that it definitely deserves presents," commented Susan with a smile and finally handed in her gift. The other girls also followed.

"I will remember this," Draco muttered to himself and carefully placed the gifts into his extendible bag to be opened later. "How were your exams?"

"Well, hanging out with two smartest boys in our year made it impossible for us to mess up even if we wanted to," answered Hannah, easily accepting the change of topic. "One more exam to go tomorrow and we are all set… By the way, what are your plans for the holidays?"

"I and Draco plan to visit Japan in July," answered Theo and picked up a biscuit. "This country is well known for its special environment – I hear that there are ghosts almost everywhere! Can you believe it?"

"But how is that possible? Ghosts can only live in magically saturated places!" the blonde girl asked incredulously.

"Well, apparently not," answered Daphne tiredly.

Recently, the boys have been constantly talking about this topic in the common room. At first, she was also interested, but eventually, it got rather tedious to listen to them go on and on about many mysteries of how ghosts came to be, where they could live and how they could be exorcised.

"That's what we want to figure out," answered Theo, ignoring Daphne's pointed looks. "In Europe, the environment for ghosts is too adverse. Only ancient places such as Hogwarts, where magic has been constantly in use for longest of times, can manifest ghosts. But in Japan even muggles frequently get involved with the other side… Those ghosts are also stronger – they can sometimes affect material things, much like poltergeists. I really want to investigate them…"

Susan nodded thoughtfully and added:

"My father was involved with a few artifacts from Japan related to ghosts, shikigami, and other such things. Although I am not too clear on the principles of how they work, I know that some of those things can be scarier than cursed Egyptian items, which are notorious for killing many people."

"Now that I think about it – it does sound quite scary," shuddered Hannah.

"Yes," the redhead agreed and proceeded in sharing more of her experience. "My aunt also once mentioned a similar item. The Aurors received a report about a suicide wave among muggles, which was suspected to have magical origins."

Draco thoughtfully nodded. "Your aunt is the Head of the Auror Department, right? No wonder you hear about these things… What happened to make those muggles commit suicide?" he asked with interest.

"In the end, the report turned out to be true – one muggle found an ancient coin which was possessed by some kind of money-hating spirit. The muggle was constantly haunted by it and felt relief only when he spent money. In the end, he sold all his assets and had to go beg on the streets for money to spend, but such method didn't earn him much and he went insane, finally deciding to die…"

"And then? How did one coin manage to affect so many people?" Theo inquired, his eyes widening with fascination as he listened.

Susan cooperatively answered:

"It turned out that the coin could multiply and select targets... Supposedly, the one who died from the first coin also became a spirit and went on to haunt others. The cycle repeated and every time someone died - the coins doubled. Finally, the Auror Department was alerted and found out about the incident, successfully managing to contain it."

Hannah listened to the whole story with a rapidly paling face – a complete opposite to the three Slytherins who seemed to be enthralled with the tale.

Susan was no better – she was telling everything with a straight face, looking completely nonchalant as she recounted the story. Her family - which worked with criminals, often dueled dark wizards and witches, and did other dangerous things - often told her even scarier tales, so she was completely desensitized to them by now.

"I will never go to Japan," quietly muttered Hannah to herself. If one item from that country could cause so much damage, then what about everything else?

"I hope we can find where to buy some similar stuff – it even works among muggles in Europe! Getting a chance to analyze it would be fascinating," commented Theo excitedly.

"If you get a chance to buy it, bring back more. Hate to say it, but it does sound interesting… I wonder, how does it work – I bet it was made with Arithmancy," agreed Daphne.

"If we find it, we will bring it," assured her Draco. "Anyway, it is better than those casual souvenirs…"

Hannah silently moved away from her friends, for the first time feeling that the company she kept was rather… strange.