Leo Perry and the Scrolls of the Druid

- CHAPTER ELEVEN -

Halloween

'Professor Simmons!' Lizz cried.

'Yes, Miss Leclair. Now would you and your friends like to explain to me what you are doing out here so late at night?' said the messy haired witch. Leo turned to look at Lizz and Deirdre, what were they doing out here?

'We were . . . ' Lizz started.

'...Meeting some boys. W-we were meeting some boys from Godrocerf. They didn't show up though. I-it must've been a trick to get us into trouble,' said Deirdre, coming up with an excuse very quickly.

'Be that as it may, Miss . . . Killen is it?' said Professor Simmons, 'You should know better than to be out of your dormitory this late at night! And you, boy,' she looked at Leo, 'What're you doing out here? I assume that you are not meeting boys.'

'No,' said Leo, 'I came to stop them. I was trying to get them to go back to the dormitory.'

'And how did you know they were leaving?' the teacher asked skeptically.

'I fell asleep in the living room,' Leo decided to stick to the truth the best he could, 'I saw them leave.'

'Well, you are all in serious trouble,' said the Professor, 'Now get back to your dormitory before you end up in more trouble. I can assure you that you will receive detentions in the morning. Now go!'

The three went straight back to the living room without stopping or talking. When they arrived in the living room, Leo stopped the two girls before they ran off to their dormitory.

'What?' Lizz asked, irritated.

'Hey you're the one who got me detention!' Leo said.

'More like the other way around! If you hadn't snuck up on us, we wouldn't have screamed and we wouldn't have been heard!'

'It's not my fault you scare easily!' Leo retorted, 'Besides you were the one yelling out weird names to the corridor! Are you going to tell me the real reason to why you were out there?' he asked turning to Deirdre.

'You already know!' Lizz cut Deirdre's response short, 'We were meeting some Godrocerf boys.'

'Alright, do you want to tell me the truth?' he turned to Deirdre again.

'That is the truth!' Lizz cried.

'Yeah right! You can't expect me to believe that! I'm surprised that the professor bought it! Either tell me why you were out there or I'll . . . '

'You'll what? Are you going to curse us? Are you going to tell on us? Well if you hadn't noticed we were already caught!' Lizz yelled.

'Would you shut up and let Deirdre answer me!' Leo yelled even louder and he heard a cough from one of the dormitories. Lizz was immediately quiet and she looked down at her feet. Leo just stared at Deirdre.

'C'mon, Deirdre,' Lizz said after a moment, 'Let's get back to bed.' She walked toward the girls' dormitory and motioned with her hand for Deirdre to follow. Leo continued to stare at Deirdre and she hesitated, looking back.

'Sorry,' she shrugged her shoulders and then followed her friend to the dormitory.

Leo turned towards his dormitory, ready to go to bed. He walked down the long room. He saw people look at him from the beds. They must've been woken up from all of the shouting.

'Sorry,' he whispered as he passed. He changed into his pyjamas and hopped into bed. He was glad that Henry had not been woken up. Leo would have to explain all of the night's events in the morning, anyway. He went over it all, in his head, as he drifted off to sleep, with Casper at his feet.

'Why didn't you wake me up?' Henry asked. They were sitting in a corner of the living room and Leo had just finished telling him what happened the previous night.

'If I had run back there to get you,' Leo explained, 'Deirdre and Lizz could've been back to their dormitory by then. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I didn't plan it. Besides why did you want to go? We all got detentions.'

'Well I get that, but you couldn't have woken me up last night and told me what was going on?' Henry asked skeptically.

'It was after midnight Henry,' Leo said, 'I didn't want to get in any more trouble for being up late.'

'As you play by the rules. Isn't this the second time you've been out at night?'

'No,' said Leo defensively, 'The first time, I just went out the front door. I was looking for you. And this time it was Deirdre and Lizz's fault. If they hadn't been sneaking around, I wouldn't have gone after.'

'Yeah, well I'm going to go do some homework,' Henry walked off toward the dormitory. Leo thought about what Henry had just said. It was Monday morning. Henry didn't have any homework. He had finished it all the night before. Leo figured he was upset that he didn't get to go on the 'adventure' the night before. Leo decided to head to the dining hall. He could have some breakfast and also try talking to Deirdre.

Deirdre was in the dining hall. Leo approached the Loberon table at which she was sitting alone, poking at a plate of scrambled eggs with a fork.

'Hey,' Leo said, sitting at the table, across from her.

'Hi,' she said gloomily.

'What's wrong?' She seemed too upset for it just to be the fact that they had gotten in trouble.

'Nothing really,' she said, 'I've never been in trouble though. You know, before now. The worst thing I've ever done is stay up too late, reading. Now, now I've got a detention and when my parents find out . . . '

'It can't be that bad,' Leo tried to feel sympathetic, but his curiosity interfered. 'So why were you guys out there last night?'

'I don't think I should tell you,' said Deirdre.

'What? W-why not?' Leo asked.

'Lizz says that she doesn't want you to know and she's one of my best friends.'

'Yeah, but,' Leo started, 'You don't seem so sure. I know I wouldn't be able to put up with her for long. Is she forcing you to keep your mouth shut?'

'No!' Deirdre almost yelled. They looked to see if anyone had noticed, but there was no one else there. 'Lizz is really nice and we really get along. If you just got to know her . . . she's not forcing me to do anything.'

'Yeah, but still,' Leo continued, 'If I'm going to serve a detention for going out after you guys then you should at least tell me why I have a detention in the first place.' He had not wanted to say that unless he had tried everything he could to get Deirdre to talk. Un fortunately she wouldn't say anything, so he tried to go for guilt. Now she looked as if she would tell him. She opened her mouth to speak.

'You have the detention for not minding your own business,' Leo turned and found Lizz, 'Now, she's not going to tell you, so why can't we just go back to all being friends?'

'Yes, but,' Leo started.

'You're on a need to know basis,' Lizz said, 'Right now, you don't need to know.'

Leo agreed to get along and stop asking, but he was still angry with Lizz. She was now on a need to speak basis. He wouldn't speak to her unless it was absolutely necessary. She was basically doing the same thing.

Leo watched Henry come into the dining hall with Tyler and Ryan. They sat at the other end of the table.

'This is ridiculous,' Leo muttered.

'What?' Deirdre asked.

'Henry's angry with me for not waking him up and taking him with me last night.'

'Why? Does he want detention?' she asked.

'I guess so,' Leo said.

'Happy Halloween!' Ashley had just walked by and greeted them.

'Oh,' said Lizz, 'With everything that's been going on I forgot that it was Halloween! The feast is tonight. It's going to be great. Jen said it's great!'

'Is that your sister?' Leo asked, forgetting his vow.

'Yeah, she's in Loberon too. She's a fourth year.'

'I know who she is,' Leo told her, 'I just didn't know that was her name.'

'Well it isn't,' Lizz explained, 'It's really Jennifer, but then mine's Elizabeth.' She shuddered.

'It's not that bad a name,' said Deirdre.

'Well at least it's not Leo,' Lizz teased, 'I'm going to class. Are you coming?' she asked Deirdre. The two girls left for their first class of the morning.

Leo decided he would try to talk to Henry. He walked over to where he was sitting.

'Hey Leo,' said Tyler. Henry hadn't told them why he was mad. Leo was glad. He didn't want all of his friends to be mad at him for something stupid. He sat down.

'Hey,' Leo replied, 'So today's Halloween. We'll find out if we made the Nittlemac team or not, tonight, Henry.'

'Yeah,' was all that Henry said. The bell rang for first classes to begin and Leo breathed a sigh of relief. He headed to class as far as he could. Henry was not far behind him.

Professor Lillith spent the first twenty minutes of class scolding them all on how badly they had done the last report that she assigned.

She then had them start practicing wand movements to turn shoelaces into spoons. It was one of the most boring classes Leo had ever been in. On top of the dull lesson plan ("read this and then do it") Leo had no one to talk to and tell jokes with as it seemed that Henry was ignoring him. The bell finally rang and Leo practically ran to his next class.

He James had a long conversation about Nittlemac. James had tried out for the Aguilor Nittlemac team. While answering a whole load of questions from their text book they each wished each relived the afternoon of tryouts and wished each other luck for that evening.

When the bell rang, Leo ran after Lizz and Deirdre.

'Can I eat with you guys at lunch? Henry is still mad.'

'Alright,' said Lizz, 'Just don't get use to it, we can't be seen with you too much.'

'You know, I actually started to take you seriously there, but then I remembered who I was talking to,' Leo retorted.

'Aren't you funny,' Lizz replied.

'So do you think Henry will come around?' Deirdre asked as she sat down at the table with the other two.

'Yeah, probably. He'll realize that this is stupid eventually.'

As they began to eat many of the other Loberons arrived for lunch. Pretty soon, Ashley and three other first year girls had joined them. Julie, Rachael and Lisa were three girls who never seemed to stop whispering and giggling. When they saw Deirdre sitting next to Leo, they went silent. This was the first time Leo had known any of them to be quiet for more than a second. It didn't last long however. Julie and Lisa started giggling more than Leo had ever heard and, to Leo's surprise, Rachael started to give Deirdre dirty looks.

'Hi Leo,' the three girls said in unison.

'Um, hi,' he said quickly.

'Don't mind them,' said Ashley, 'They think you're cute.' Leo felt his face burn red and all three girls shot nasty looks at Ashley.

'What?' she asked defensively, 'It's true, isn't it? You were talking about it this morning!'

'So . . . Do you have much homework from this morning Leo?' asked Deirdre, quickly changing the subject.

'N-no,' he could now feel his face going back to normal, but he still kept his face down.

'Oh my gosh!' he heard one of the girls whisper, 'Is that Travis Guy? He's so cute!'

'He's not that good looking,' said one of them.

'Yeah but you're still obsessed with Henry.' Leo spent the rest of the meal trying to block out all conversations around him. These girls, even Lizz and Deirdre, only talked about "cute boys" and who likes who.

'Wow!' said Leo, leaving with Deirdre.

'What?' she asked.

'I didn't know that sitting with you girls would be

so . . . '

'Yeah I know. All they talk about are boys. They'll talk about one and then completely change their minds three seconds later. They talk about you and Henry a lot, though.'

'You, know?' said Leo, 'You don't have to tell me this.'

Deirdre smiled and walked off toward her next class.

The rest of Leo's afternoon was extremely boring. Henry still didn't want to talk to him in Magic History. Then Leo was late for Introduction to Magic and had to stay ten minutes after class. On top of that he had homework for Halloween. How was he supposed to finish it before the feast?

He ran back to the living room as soon as he had finished with Professor Beech. He grabbed all of his books and sat in a corner to finish all his homework. He didn't let anything distract him, but by the time had finished it was already six and he would have to head down to the feast at anytime.

He ran to the dormitory to make sure he looked alright. Henry was there sitting on his bed.

'Hey,' said Leo rushing past him. He combed his hair in front of a mirror.

'Hi,' said Henry quietly. After finishing his hair Leo went back to the living room, followed closely but silently by Henry. They met Tyler, Ryan and some of the others in the living room. They headed down to the dining hall.

Leo and his friends stood in front of the dining hall's closed doors when they arrived. A large group soon gathered. Most of the school was now standing in the main foyer waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly the doors swung open with an earsplitting, high-pitched scream. Most of the first years jumped and screamed.

The school filed in through the doors. Leo could see lit and carved pumpkins hovering over tables. There were skeletons dancing all over the place and more than ten black cats were wandering the floors. Leo had never seen anything so spectacular.

A few teachers were flying around on broomsticks in full, stereotypical witches garb. They would drop wrapped candies into the hands of waiting students. There was a chilling music that seemed to seep through the walls and floor.

Leo sat down, staring with awe.

'This is amazing!' said Henry. He was even so amazed that he forgot to not to talk to Leo. The other students shook their heads in agreement.

Suddenly all of the school's ghosts popped out from underneath the tables. The students, Leo included hadn't seen the ghosts on a regular basis. One might glide by every now and then, but it was rare. They mostly liked to keep to themselves. Leo had even heard some rumors that there were hidden chambers in the school that you could only get to if you could go through walls. That was supposedly where the ghosts stayed.

Many of the students jumped and some girls screamed. The ghosts laughed. Halloween was clearly their favorite day of the year. Leo looked to the head table and noticed that it was empty. They were in the dining hall for a feast and all alone. Could all of the teachers (who weren't flying above their heads) have forgotten?

Everything suddenly went quiet. The flying teachers landed, the bones stood at attention, the ghosts froze on the spot and the creepy music stopped. Then with a clap of thunder from overhead the light from candles and pumpkins went out.

'Wasn't it a nice sunny day today?' he heard someone whisper. All of the students were quiet now. He heard a whimper or two. He looked at his friends and then to the front of the hall.

With another clap of thunder and a flash of lightning that lit the hall, Leo could see people standing behind the head table. They were dressed in long black robes with hoods that covered their faces. The candles and pumpkins suddenly lit back up and now Leo could see all of the figures they were all staring. They were staring around the room at every student. They would look into different pairs of eyes and reach to the depths of a person's soul and know their every secret.

Something suddenly caught Leo's eye. There, from inside one of the hoods were glowing red eyes. He wasn't sure if they were looking at him, but a chill ran down his spine. He stopped breathing to listen to the silence and stare into the cold eyes.

Leo blinked and the figures were gone. Now, there stood only the teachers behind their chairs.

'Gotcha,' said Professor Olorin. Leo breathed a sigh of relief. He had learned that some wizards practiced the dark arts and were evil. He knew that some belonged to cults and he had genuinely thought for a second that he was in big trouble.

'Now that the fun is over,' Professor Olorin announced, 'Let's eat!' The tables filled with food. There were all sorts of potatoes, turkey, chicken, all kinds of gravy, squash, turnips, yams and many other delicious foods.

Leo filled his plate, making sure to avoid the squash and turnip. He joked with Tyler and Ryan and talked indirectly with Henry. He also had conversations with Tom and Beth, who sat next to him and Deirdre and Lizz who were not far down the table. He was having one of the best days of his life.

After a desert of pumpkin pie and whipped cream, Professor Olorin stood up.

Oh no, thought Leo, He's going to announce the Nittlemac teams now. Leo was sure that after today, which had been a bad day despite the feast, he would not make the team. First he received a detention in the early hours of the morning, then his best friend got mad at him, Lizz argued with him about telling him about the night before, then he had the most boring day of classes, he had been embarrassed to his wit's end at lunch, he was late for class and then he spent three and a half hours doing homework. Now he would have to face this and was sure of the outcome.

'I understand that after a very talent-packed tryout the captains of our Nittlemac teams have had to make very hard decision,' Olorin continued, 'I am sure that their decisions will be right and I am anticipating an eventful season for our beloved school sport. I would now like to call the Godrocerf captain up to call out his team, please.'

The captain read the names.

Leo clapped.

'Aguilor, please.'

The captain read the names.

Leo clapped.

'Now we'll have Raserpen.'

The captain read the names.

Leo clapped.

'Now, Pumogar.'

'Baroso.'

'Zoropard, please.'

'Cabolom.'

'Loberon, now.' Leo crossed his fingers under the table and watched as Nate got up from the Loberon table and walked to the front of the hall.

'I would like to welcome to our team, Lindsay Hatch, Richard Morasca, Ethan Towery, Leo Perry and Britney Walken.' The Loberon table erupted in cheers and Leo was patted on the back many times. He looked over to Henry, who, to Leo's surprise, was beaming at him. Henry had not made the team.

'You alright?' Leo asked sympathetically.

'Yeah!' said Henry, still smiling, 'You made it! I didn't really care that much any way.' Henry was so happy it seemed as though he was no longer angry with Leo.

'Now,' said Professor Olorin calming everyone down, 'We should all head back to our dormitories. We still have classes to attend in the morning and I don't want anyone sent to my office for sleeping in class, as I'm planning to sleep in myself! Goodnight students!' The old man laughed. Leo received many more congratulations as the evening ended. Everyone at the table talked about it. Many people talked to him as he headed out the doors of the dining hall, including Tom who was congratulating him for the third time. Almost everyone in Loberon congratulated him and the other new team mates before they could head to bed. As Leo was about to head to the dormitory and go to bed.

'Congratulations Leo!' he heard four voices, in perfect unison. He turned to see Ashley, Rachael, Lisa and Julie running off to the girl's dormitory. He quickly bent his face toward the ground and headed to his bed even faster. He was followed by the other first year boys who were giggling almost as badly as the girls had at lunch.

Ten minutes later all of the lights were out and Leo was finally crawling into bed. He was getting tired of the word 'congratulations' and all of its different forms, already. Finally everything was quiet.

'Leo?' he heard Henry's voice.

'Yeah?' he said, sitting up in his bed.

'Good job.'

'Thanks.' This wasn't such a bad day after all.