Harry Potter and the Story Without Delphi

Chapter 20: The Great Hijacked Halloween Feast

Over the next couple of weeks, Albus tried to bring up Nova's mysterious summer meeting with her parents, but she kept evading his attempts to corner her. Any trace of her irritation or sadness was gone, so eventually, Albus gave up trying to mention it.

Halloween fever was beginning to sweep the castle, and Scorpius made it his mission to create an elaborate Halloween experience to win Rose's heart, despite Albus's protests.

"Say, what if," Scorpius said, as the three walked to a Potions lesson "I sneak into the Gryffindor dorm, and hide rare Chocolate Frogs in all of her socks!"

Albus stared at him incredulously.

"So not only do you want to invade another house's dorm, but you also want to infiltrate the girl's rooms, somehow find Rose, then open her personal belongings and throw candy in it?!?"

"I said CHOCOLATE, not candy!"

"That's what you're acknowledging??"

"Scorpius," said Nova "How would you know if a Chocolate Frog is rare without opening it? What if you stuffed her socks with ordinary ones huh?"

Scorpius considered this.

"That's true Nova, guess I'll have to change up the plan..."

"That's what makes you change the plan???"

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In the week leading up to Halloween, Scorpius and Nova continued to plan a surprise to win over Rose, while Albus voluntarily excluded himself from the proceedings. He contemplated warning Rose, but he decided to trust that Scorpius had a sliver of common sense left him his body to prevent him from doing something too outrageous.

As he should have expected, he was terribly wrong.

On Halloween morning, he knew something was up when neither Nova nor Scorpius was anywhere to be found. The day fell on a weekend, so he resigned himself to trying to finish his two-week overdue essay for Herbology. The common room, though slightly less hostile than before, was still not the most welcoming of environments, so he tried his best to write on his bed. After spilling half a bottle of ink of his sheets and nearly breaking the quill out of boredom, he decided to get some fresh air.

As he head down the staircase, he noticed that it reeked out flowers. However, Hogwarts was a place where strange occurrences and smells happened regularly, is he paid it no mind. As he opened the doors to the outside, he made a mental note to ignore Nova and Scorpius when he saw them as punishment for abandoning him. He sat on the crisp breath and closed his eyes...

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"Oi! Wake up you slimy Slytherin!"

Albus awoke abruptly with a sharp blow to his shoulder. He recognized the tall Gryffindor boy who was kicking him as Jack Finnigan, who hadn't said a single word to him since the boat to Hogwarts during their first year.

"Relax I'm up! What's your deal?"

"It's time for the feast," Jack grumbled.

Albus was bewildered yet somewhat touched that Jack cared enough to wake him up.

"Don't get any weird ideas ok," Jack grunted, "I'm only doing this because James asked the all the Gryffindor second years to treat you a little better."

Albus rolled his eyes, any feelings of gratitude gone. His dad had tore into James after hearing about the bullying Albus had been subjected to, so James was trying to look after him in the most convenient way possible.

"Well thanks anyway," Albus mumbled, leaving Jack behind and heading to the castle. 

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As he entered the Great Hall, the traditional display of suspended candles and fantastical pumpkins stunned Albus for a moment. When he walked towards the Slytherin table, he still saw no sign of Nova or Albus.

When most of the students had been seated, Headmistress McGonagall took to the podium and began the annual Halloween speech.

"Good afternoon students, welcome to the annual Halloween-"

Suddenly, McGonagall's voice cut. She was still trying to talk, but the amplification was gone.

"What the..."

As if he already had a feeling, Albus's head snapped towards the Grrifydor table. Suddenly a booming voice filled the hall, which, to Albus's horror, turned out to be Nova's.

"Greetings Hogwartians! The feast will resume shortly, but we momentarily interrupt this grand occasion for one young man's beautiful dream of love!"

Albus, along with everyone else in the Great Hall watched open-mouthed, as the candles in the Great Hall turned to flowers, which starting gently flowing down from the ceiling. Headmistress McGonagall reached for her wand to put a stop to this nonsense, only to find to her chagrin that her wand had been taken.

Another voice filled the hall, reciting eye-waveringly bad poetry.

"My dear Rose,

You are amazing from your head to your toes,

Anybody that knows you knows

that you look fantastic in any clothes

Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,

Please accept my love this-"

Before the poem could finish, McGonagal had spotted her wand in the corner of the room, grabbed it, and transfigured the flowers back to candles. The entire Great Hall was shaking with laughter, except for Albus, who was horror-struck, and Rose, who had turned a vibrant shade of tomato red and was quickly getting up to flee the room.

Scorpius, who had just burst through the doors tomato red himself, ran to Rose. Before he could say anything, she slapped him right across the face and fled. Before he could run after her, the Headmistress amplified her voice and yelled...

"MALFOYYYY! IN MY OFFICE RIGHT NOW!"

A/N Thank you to everyone who is continuing to read! I would like to give a massive shoutout and thank you to lupin-lupout for being the first comment and vote after my long hiatus! All comments and votes mean so much to me, so please feel free to comment  any advice, thoughts, or suggestions! Until the next chapter!