Chapter 23: The Halloween Tradition

Simon swore every dish was made with pumpkins. Not that he hated pumpkins but he would have thought a wizarding school with the rich history of Hogwarts which took Halloween seriously would have come up with more diverse dishes. Simon reminded himself to buy Mitty a muggle cookbook for Halloween party treats. It was not clothing and was certainly going to help Mitty serve better as a house-elf. At least that was how he was going to phrase it to get the house-elf to accept his gift for helping sneak his friends to the kitchens for many nights since the first. Simon peered down at his burgeoning belly. Maybe they should cut down on the kitchen excursions. At this rate, he would also need to build a gym within his suitcase!

Suddenly, Simon noticed whispers from down the table. After a nudge from Esther Davies to hurry up already, John Hilliard swallowed a mouthful of pumpkin pasties and cleared his throat.

"First-years! Remember to head back to the common room immediately after dinner! Older years know this already but it is a Ravenclaw Halloween tradition!"

Sharon appeared to squeal in delight, while Simon and George looked at each other blankly. None of them had Ravenclaw relatives and really had no idea what they were walking into. Jake joined them in their confusion.

"I hope they are doing a good one this year," Fahim grinned at Roger.

"Yeah, I heard they put in a lot of work on it. Clover helped out this year!"

"Hey. Mind telling us what this is?"

Fahim and Roger looked at Simon and Cheshire cat smiles appeared on their faces.

"It is best for you to *experience* it without being spoiled by us."

---

The common room looked very different.

It did not even seem to be the right place when the door opened for the first-years. An unnerving mist covered every inch that could be viewed. Simon felt the dampness of the surface he stepped on. It almost gave him flashbacks of his Amazon rainforest excursion.

"Where did all the upper years who arrived first go?" Jake mumbled, feeling a chill run down the back of his spine.

"Okay, this looks pretty realistic, I would give them that," Roger said, peering around and trying to feel the contours of the common room walls.

*"Raze, are you seeing anything?"*

*"Interesting…"*

*"Hey, can't you keep your human familiar posted…"*

***"WELCOME!"***

Simon's mental debate with Raze was cut short when an eerie booming voice echoed through the space and the Ravenclaw common room door closed behind the first years with a thud. A slight yelp could be heard coming out of Julia Clearwater.

***"It was October of 1987, just two years ago…when the most peculiar thing happened."***

Suddenly, beams similar to stage lights shone in front of the first years, showing the silhouette of a student in robes sitting on a table doing some work.

***"It was a normal day for Jamie Brunt, a Hufflepuff first year. Before the incident, he was last seen in the library."***

Roger and Fahim seemed to recognise the name but the scene quickly changed before they could react more to it.

The silhouette was seen frantically searching through a cabinet, before pulling out a broom.

***"As if possessed, Brunt ran to the quidditch pitch and stole a broom before riding towards the Great Lake…"***

Strong gusts of wind mimicking how one would feel when flying on a broom came hurtling towards the first years. Jake slipped and fell at the impact while Sharon fell onto Simon's back.

As Simon helped the girl up, the scene changed again as the silhouette began to circle the body of water that had appeared before them. Suddenly, the sihoulette on the broom dived into the "Great Lake" and water gushed at the first years.

Simon was getting a bit fed up by this 4D cinema experience as he watched the silhouette appear above the lake and then dive in again multiple times.

***"Brunt kept diving, and diving, and diving. It must had gone on for almost an hour when the professors were notified of the young man diving into the lake on a broom in the late hours."***

Silhouettes of professors in pointed hats appeared, waving their wands. The silhouette on the broom was slowly levitated from the lake and brought towards them.

***"And when they saw him…"***

Suddenly, every first-year felt a tap on their shoulder.

Simon spun around to see a student with just white in their eyes.

***"…his eyes were gone."***

Multiple screams and shrieks echoed throughout the space and Simon did his best to hold in his surprise.

***"It took weeks before he looked somewhat normal again…but he did not know what caused him to fly and dive into the lake. He still did not know to this day."***

Suddenly, darkness engulfed the view of the first years.

***"All he recalled was the darkness of the lake, and those which inhabited it…"***

Hands started crawling up the legs of the first years.

Almost everyone jumped.

***"And that, is a Halloween story."***

Suddenly, lights came on and the common room returned to how it had always looked. Applause could be heard around the common room and on the stairways. It appeared some older years were watching this all unfold with a birds-eye view. Raze was perched on the stairs watching too. "Traitor," thought Simon.

With a flick of their wands, the eye-less students all transformed back to having normal faces. Many were familiar faces. Clover Davies, who looked very much like a mix of Roger and Esther, was laughing at her pale faced brother who still could not believe he was spooked by his own sister. Simon found himself staring at Andre Egwu, the Ravenclaw quidditch team captain.

"Damn, I thought I could get you to scream but you were really good!" Andre laughed jovially, "You seem quite unfazed by all this – you would do well as a keeper in high stake games!"

Before Simon could thank the current Ravenclaw star keeper for his praise, the boy had spun around upon hearing the continued sobbing of Julia Clearwater, "Ahhh shit. Tulip may have taken her acting a bit too far…"

Julia only calmed down after being hugged by her older sister, who appeared to have been controlling the lighting from behind the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw.

"Well, that was one way to celebrate Halloween," George muttered, adjusting his robes.

"That was actually bloody terrific!" Jake said ecstatically, "It was like I was in a film! Like *A Nightmare on Elm Street* or something!"

"What's that?" Fahim asked as Jake started listing a bunch of 80s horror classics.

Jake seemed to enjoy not being the one asking questions for once and smiled confidently at his roommates, "You've all got a lot to learn!"

---

As the boys all slowly crawled into bed, Simon ran their past hour's discussions through his mind. In between Jake's horror movie sharings, Simon learned from Fahim and Roger that the horror performance just now was indeed based on something that happened two years ago called the Black Lake Incident. After having such a scare in his first year, apparently Jamie Brunt had transferred to Ilvermorny where his American cousins attended. There were rumours that he was cursed by his family's debtors or drank a botched potion. Jake was surprised such incidents could happen in Hogwarts and be talked about so casually afterwards. George just seemed annoyed that Bill, Charlie and Percy never told him about this incident.

Meanwhile, Simon was intrigued. Maybe it was just a curse by someone who hated the Brunts or a mistake made by Jamie himself. But Simon's gut told him he should check out the lake. Even if there was nothing that made Jamie dive in, there was bound to be lots of interesting things in the lake which was worth a dive. And it would definitely be more fun than trying to find ways to deal with Horcruxes. It should be an interesting research side project that Lord Lian would enjoy too.