A Most Unusual Halloween at Hogwarts

Chapter Two

***

Meanwhile, in the Slytherin common room, Draco was trying to decide on a costume.

"What about this, Crabbe?" he asked, holding out a page. Without waiting for an answer, he kept looking.

"Still don't have an idea, Malfoy?" someone said from behind him. He turned - Blaise Zabini.

"What do you want, Zabini?" he hissed, going back to his catalog.

"Nothing much," Blaise said, sitting down across from Draco and taking out his own catalog. "Just the name of whatever you're going as, so I don't pick the same thing. So, any ideas?"

"If I had any, I wouldn't tell you, now would I?" Draco retorted.

Blaise abandoned his catalog and put his arms behind his head. "Well, just don't pick 'Rock Star', alright?"

"And why not?"

"Because," Blaise said, as though explaining something to a small child. "It's much too sexy for you."

Draco stood up. "You know what?" he said, quickly scribbling on his form, "I'm going to choose that, and I assure you I will be very sexy at that party!" With that, he stormed off.

"Alright with me," Blaise said to he retreating back. "But just know I'll have a lot more girls following me than you will!"

***

By the morning of October 31, everyone had turned in their forms. Harry couldn't decide on a costume and finally chose 'Policeman'. Ron kept going back and forth from Telemarketer to Cowboy to Postman so many times that Harry had no idea what he'd finally decided on. Hermione was still keeping hers a secret.

Around midday, they got the rest of the afternoon off and their costumes were delivered to them. Harry and Ron went upstairs to check them out, along with Neville, Dean, and Seamus.

Harry pulled his policeman costume from the box and laid it out. It was blue with a matching hat and included a badge and a pair of handcuffs.

He looked over at Ron as he pulled his own costume out. Apparently, he'd chosen 'Cowboy'. "Ah, excellent!" Ron said, laying it out as well. It was a red shirt, dark blue pants, and a cowboy hat.

Seamus was pulling out his own, looking quite pleased. "Awesome!"

"What is that?" Harry had to ask.

Seamus held it up. "Insurance Salesman!" It was just a suit and tie, with some shoe polisher included.

"And I'm a fireman!" Dean said, pulling out his heavy-looking firefighter's outfit and hat.

"What about you, Neville?" Harry asked, walking over to his bed. Neville held up his costume. "Postman, huh? Pretty cool."

Neville nodded. It was also a blue outfit, with a white mail-carrying bag and a hat.

***

In the Slytherin common room, Draco immediately grabbed up his box and pulled out his costume eagerly. He turned paler than usual as he held it up.

"What is that?" Blaise smirked, coming up. "Doesn't look like Rock Star to me."

Indeed, it was a one-piece sort of thing, making up flared pants and a long-sleeved top with a high collar. And it was made entirely of tight black leather.

"Professor Snape!" Draco said before he could leave. "I must have gotten the wrong costume!" He held it up.

Snape smirked at it. "Mr. Malfoy, you must have written the wrong number. There's nothing I can do about it. I suggest you just wear it."

"But, Professor!" Snape ignored him and swept out.

Draco went back to his costume box. Inside was some sort of headpiece with cat-ears on it. He searched for the costume information and found it. Costume Number 17429.

"No!" he exclaimed. "I wrote the wrong thing! It was supposed to be 17428!"

Reading on, he discovered just what his leather costume was called:

'Sexy Cat-Man.'

***

A few hours later, they were all dressed and ready for the party. Ron had attached a small pair of spurs to his shoes. He tipped the hat at everyone constantly.

"Howdy," he said in a very country sort of accent. "Howdy, howdy, howdy."

Harry rolled his eyes. He felt very uncomfortable in his policeman attire, ever since Seamus had gleefully pointed out all the other things the handcuffs could be used for. He had attached them to his belt, and the badge to his shirt.

Dean looked very nice in his fireman's outfit, walking around and around the dormitory to get used to it. Seamus stood mock-stiffly in his insurance salesman's suit and tie, coughing gruffly when people stepped on his shiny shoes. They were all trying to avoid him, as he kept holding out a fake card and asking if they were interested in some insurance.

Neville sat quietly in his postman's costume, adjusting the messenger bag on his shoulder.

Around six o'clock, Harry suggested, "Should we go now?" They followed him down the stairs. Everyone else was leaving as well, and it was hard to recognize everyone in different clothes. As they went down to the entrance hall, Harry noticed that quite a few people had chosen to just be a 'Muggle'. He saw several other policemen, another firefighter, and quite a few postmen.

He looked around for Hermione and Ginny, but couldn't find them. Then again, he could have past them three times and not have noticed, since he didn't even know what they were dressed like.

At six thirty, Dumbledore opened the doors to the Great Hall. "The party is now beginning!" he announced. Everyone went inside.

The Hall was decorated with floating pumpkins and live bats, with cobwebs everywhere and a band Harry didn't know was playing on a small stage. The house tables had disappeared, leaving a wide space in the room with smaller tables around the edges.

Harry quickly lost sight of Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville. He was about to go look for someone he knew when he was tapped on the shoulder. Turning, he realized he didn't know whoever this was.

"Hi," said a belly dancer.

"Er, hi," Harry said. "Have you seen Ron Weasley, by any chance?"

"You don't know who I am?" the belly dancer asked. Harry shook his head. The dancer lifted up her veil.

"Ginny?" he asked in disbelief.

"Of course," she said. "The majority of guys I asked said 'Belly Dancer' was sexier, so that's what I got."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I'll see you later," Ginny said. "Oh, and Hermione's looking for you."

"Where is she?"

Ginny shrugged and pointed towards a corner of the Hall. "I last saw her somewhere over there."

Harry went off towards that area of the Hall, looking closely at everyone to make sure he didn't walk right past Hermione.

"Hi, Harry."

He turned around. A girl was standing there, her hair piled up loosely behind her head, curls falling out and around her shoulders. She was wearing a very showy dress, he realized. It was low-cut and off-the-shoulder. Her top was white with some kind of brown leather thing (a corset? he wondered) around her middle. Her skirt was long and wide, a lighter brown than whatever was over her top.

"Have you seen Hermione Granger?" he asked the girl. "I'm looking for her."

The girl came closer. "Um, I'm right here."

"Hermione?"

She blushed. "Do I look that bad?"

"No... you... it's really nice... I was just... surprised..." he seemed at a loss for words. "Er, Ginny said you were looking for me?"

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Just wanted to see what your costume was. It's nice, by the way." She smirked and tugged on his handcuffs.

"Oh, shut up," he grinned. "Like I haven't already been bothered enough about these stupid handcuffs."

"By Seamus, you mean?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

She shrugged. "He's going around telling everyone in sight that 'Harry Potter has handcuffs and he's not using them to fight crime'."