Halloween arrived with floating pumpkins, flickering candles, and the faint smell of roasted sweets drifting through the Great Hall.
Lucien sat comfortably at the Hufflepuff table, Alolan Vulpix curled lazily against his side, eyes half-lidded.
His gaze drifted.
Hermione was at the Ravenclaw table, happily eating and chatting, completely at ease.
Lucien nodded to himself.
Good. She's fine.
Then—
He frowned.
"Ron's missing," he said calmly.
Akeno tilted her head.
Susan blinked.
Tonks, who had been halfway through a story, burst out laughing.
"Oh—oh! You didn't hear?" Tonks said between giggles.
🪄 The Charms Disaster
Tonks leaned closer, voice animated.
"First-year Charms. Professor Flitwick introduces Wingardium Leviosa."
Lucien raised a brow.
"And Ron?"
Tonks grinned wickedly.
"He mispronounced it."
Susan tried—and failed—to hold her laugh.
"Instead of levitating the feather," Tonks continued, "Ron somehow levitated his own wand."
Lucien paused.
"…Impressive."
Akeno covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.
Cedric nearly choked on his drink.
Tonks slapped the table.
"I KNOW, RIGHT? The wand just—whoosh!—floats up like it's escaping him!"
"And then?" Lucien asked, genuinely curious.
Tonks wiped a tear from her eye.
"Crabbe and Goyle saw it."
Lucien sighed softly.
"Oh no."
🐍 Slytherin Commentary
Crabbe and Goyle had been very thorough in retelling it.
"How'd you do that, Weasley?"
"Teaching wands to run away now?"
"Even your wand doesn't want you!"
By the end of it—
Ron Weasley was famous.
For all the wrong reasons.
🚿 A Lonely Bathroom
"He ran off after class," Susan said gently.
"Girls' bathroom on the first floor."
Lucien hummed thoughtfully.
"So he's crying."
Tonks nodded.
"Very loudly, apparently."
Lucien leaned back, amused but not unkind.
"To be fair," he said, "making your wand fly independently is… advanced magic."
That earned him another round of laughter.
Akeno squeezed his hand.
"You're not helping," she teased.
"I'm being objective," Lucien replied calmly.
🎃 The Mood Shifts
Laughter filled the table.
Pumpkins glowed brighter.
Music floated.
And yet—
Lucien felt it.
A subtle tension.
Like the air before a storm.
His eyes flicked briefly toward the doors of the Great Hall.
Somewhere in the castle—
Something ugly was about to happen.
Vulpix stirred.
Lucien gently stroked her fur.
"Stay close tonight," he murmured.
Akeno felt it too.
She smiled softly—but her wings twitched beneath the illusion.