BECOMING PRONGSLET ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Fifteen

With Halloween approaching, Milo felt the same pang of sorrow that hit him every year, the painful reminder of his parents' death that had left the Potter family quite the mess. Harry didn't really show any signs of pain and for that, Milo was grateful. Perhaps his brother wasn't aware of the significance behind the date and that was fine. For other students, Halloween was a time of fun and mischief, especially for the Weasley twins. They had taken it upon themselves to convince a few third years to plaster frog brains over the walls for Filch to clean up. Yet, they were always so confused as to why Filch looked at them with such a bitter expression.

Unfortunately, Milo learned early on from his mother that Filch was a Squib and if muggle-borns were frowned upon in the wizarding world, Squibs were a step below. Even the kindest of families did not want to be "plagued" by a squib in their family. It was frowned upon as they possessed no form of magic, they were only able to witness it and live in the wizarding world. But it was quite awkward for most, considering the way the wizarding world viewed them and their lack of magic. Many of them transitioned into muggle schools early on and later on in life, fully transitioned to living life as a muggle.

Filch was a unique case, as he was a squib living and working in the castle, which seemed like a horrible idea. He couldn't really use magic to clean, making it a million times harder for him to clean any prank than it would for anyone else in the castle. Why Filch remained at the castle, Milo wasn't sure, but the man had certainly made it a mission to catch every student along with his cat, Mrs Norris, in order to get them in trouble. 

Fortunately, for the Weasley twins, the third years getting caught had given them the perfect distraction in order to "rescue" a salamander from Professor Kettleburn's class so they could test out their firework theory. Milo took no part in it but he did get to hold onto the map for the time being. It was how he noticed Nearly Headless Nick, the house ghost of Gryffindor approaching him in the corridors one afternoon. He definitely seemed to be in a bright mood which led Milo to be confused considering they were coming upon the ghost's death day.

"Sir Nicholas," Milo greeted the ghost with a respectful nod of his head, " you seem to be in a good mood."

"Oh, but I am, you see, I just asked your brother to attend my Deathday party and he agreed! I'll be having company from all over the country and I'll be able to say that the Boy-Who-Lived decided to attend by five hundredth deathday party!"

People really knew how to hit Milo where it hurt and ghosts were no exception. Once again, it was certainly a pleasure to be Harry as it was an honour to be around the boy, but when it came to Milo, they merely brushed by him. No, he wasn't the boy who lived, but that didn't mean that he didn't have feelings. He didn't need people trying to make him feel inferior to his younger brother without trying, he could do that all by himself, thank you very much. 

"Oh, would you like to attend?" Sir Nicholas offered after a few moments of passing silence. "You're free-"

"I've already made plans, but thank you," Milo said hotly before walking off and pulling the map out of his sleeves again. 

Paden could sense Milo getting worked up and let out a few comforting chirps. After all, Milo would always be the number one Potter in his life. With Paden's excessive chirping, Milo couldn't help but laugh as he picked the bowtruckle from his hair and held Paden in his hand.

"I'm fine, Paden," he reassured his little friend. "I couldn't go to the deathday party even if I wanted to. I made special plans with Mum for Halloween and they matter so much more than celebrating someone's death with a bunch of other ghosts. You'll see..."

They travelled to the Owlery to see if Milo had any letters waiting for him, but it seemed he wasn't the only Potter that decided to visit the Owlery. Harry arrived shortly after Milo to spend some time with Hedwig, his snowy owl, who was still holding a bit of a grudge after the trip to the school.