Harry Potter and the Secrets Revealed

Chapter 2

Halloween at Salem's

It was a warm autumn day in Salem, Massachusetts. Red, orange, and yellow leaves littered the streets of the city. Their were pictures of black cats and green faced witches with wart on their nose, flying broomsticks or cackling over a cauldron tapped up in the windows of many houses. In some places, you could see crude drawings of mummies, werewolves, and Frankenstein. Other houses even had orange jack-o-lantern lights hanging from various places across their porches and nearly every house had at least one jack-o-lantern waiting for the night's festivities. Yes, it was Halloween in Salem and you could feel the excitement of the children who couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating.

There was one place in Salem where there were no Halloween decorations or jack-o-lanterns. It was a place many of the inhabitants of Salem never went to, in fear of disturbing its natural beauty. They were not afraid of it, but somehow they knew not to go there. The place was a huge marble building and nearly everything in it was white. It had a large iron fence surrounding the perimeter. The fence was connected to a large iron gate at the front of the building. No one in Salem could actually say for certain how large the property was or what it was used for, but one thing they did know for certain was that whoever owned it never decorated it for any holiday, especially not a holiday based on bright colors that would contrast with the white marble.

This place was Salem's Witch's Institute. It was a magical school for both witches and wizards, even though the name suggested otherwise. Salem's was a unique magical school in the fact that it was the only private magical school in the world to let their students go home on the weekends and every holiday, if they wished to. So after class let out on this very day, Salem wizarding officials would be surrounding the school to make sure that no muggles noticed the students exiting the school.

Being that it was her last year at her beloved school, Samantha Granger was in one of the last groups of students through the gate and driven to the bus station. At the bus station, Samantha said good-bye to her friends and started walking home. Samantha was one of the few students at the institute that actually lived in the town, so she didn't have to travel very far. Her parents were very wealthy and because of that, they had a large property just outside of the town. Sam loved her home. It was an old country house made during the Salem Witch Trials, but had been remodeled slightly. It had a huge field around which made for a very large back yard. In the field there was a storage shed that hasn't been used in awhile.

When Sam reached her home, she saw that once again her parents had gone overboard on decorating it for the holiday. Halloween had always been the Grangers favorite holiday and their enthusiasm only grew when they found out that their daughter and only child was a witch.

The pillars on the front porch had lights strung around them from the top to the bottom, and the stair railing had fake cobwebs and spiders spread out over them. A scarecrow was sitting in an old rocking chair that squeaked when it moved. Jack-o-lanterns were in every corner and on every step of the porch. When Sam opened the front door the sound of a woman screaming meet her ears. Traditional Granger Halloween protocol; a recorded voice timed to go off every time the door opened; very useful in scaring small children. Straight ahead of her was a large plastic cauldron filled to the brim with candy for the trick-or-treaters. The entry way was decorated much like the porch was with the spider webs and lights. Samantha smiled; it was good to be home. She had just set her things down when her mom walked in from the other room.

"Hey sweetheart, how has school been?" her mother asked, giving Samantha one of her famous hugs.

"Great as always," Sam replied. Her mom was a thin, short woman with graying light brown hair and warm gray eyes. She had smile wrinkles on her face, but she still looked younger than her age. Samantha and her mother were very close. Sam knew she could tell her mom anything and she wouldn't tell a soul.

"That's good." Just then the screaming went off again, signaling her father's entrance. He walked through the front door carrying two bags. Her father had dark black hair and brown eyes. He was very tall and a little fat.

"Sammy, you're finally home!" he exclaimed when he saw his daughter.

"Hi, daddy! What's in the bags?" Samantha asked, also giving her dad a hug.

"The Granger women's costumes of course."

"Where's yours?"

"Upstairs. I managed to find mine awhile ago. Yours, however, wasn't so easy." Sam took her bag and looked at her costume. It was one of Cleopatra.

"Daddy, no offense or anything, but I've been Cleopatra three times already."

"I know, but the costume suits you so well." He was right of course. Her dark black hair, dark hazel eyes, and tan complexion, with a little make-up made her the perfect Cleopatra. Sam just shrugged in agreement.

The night was a fun one in the Granger household. They played pranks on trick-or-treaters, ate some of their huge stash of candy, and watched horror movies. By mid-night, all three were exhausted so they decided to go to bed. As soon as Sam's head hit her pillow she was asleep.

Nearly an hour and a half later, she woke up to the sound of something breaking. She sat straight up in her bed, now wide-awake. Footsteps could be heard on the stairs. Sam heard her parent's door squeak open. On cat like feet, she moved stealthily across her room and opened her door a crack. Through the crack she saw a tall man standing over her parents sleeping forms. Her parents woke up and noticed the man standing there.

"Who are you and what do you want?" her dad asked. The man laughed a laugh that sent chills down Samantha's spine.

"I am Lord Voldemort and I am here to kill your daughter," the man said in a British accent. What Sam couldn't understand was what a British man would want to do with her.

"If you want to kill Sam then why wake us?" asked Sam's mother, her voice quivering with fear.

"Because to kill her and not kill you would lead the authorities to me. That and I don't intend to kill her yet. No, I have something planned for her." Sam then watched in horror as he raised his wand to kill her parents. Sam didn't wait to see what happened next. She quietly shut and locked her door, grabbed her wand, and opened the entrance to a secret passageway that led into the shed in the field