Purple Hair Ties ♔ Draco Malfoy ♔

| ninteen |

" enemies of the heir, beware "

Halloween finally rolled around and, instead of sitting in the Great Hall with her friends, enjoying the Halloween feast, Romy was on her way to a Deathday Party for Gryffindor's ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. She would, however, have three of her friends with her. Harry had told her of the party one day during classes, and that Ron and Hermione would be attending, and that it would be a bit more enjoyable if she also went. And she couldn't say no when she saw those big green eyes staring up at her. So, at seven o'clock, she begrudgingly walked pasted the decorated Great Hall, following her friends into the dungeons.

The passageway to Nick's party was lined with candles, but the effect was the exact opposite of the cheerful feel the candles brought in the Great Hall. No, these candles were long and thin, burning bright blue, casting a ghostly light over their very-much-alive faces. And, with every step they took, it felt the temperature dropped another degree. The friends shivered, huddling together to (hopefully) provide some heat between them, and a noise that sounded like a thousands fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard filled the air.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Ron hissed as they turned a corner, seeing Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends," he said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome...So pleased you could come..."

He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside, which was a sight to see. The dungeon was full of pearly-white people, drifting around a crowded dance floor. It looked as if they were waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of an orchestra of musical saws, played by some ghosts on a raised platform. A chandelier of thousands of the dreadful candles hung above them. Their breath rose in a mist before them. It took everything in Romy to not die of laughing.

"Shall we have a look around?" Harry suggested, wanting to warm up his feet.

"Careful not to walk through anyone," said Ron nervously, and they set off around the edge of the dance floor. The friends passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, the cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Even the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was present. Though, he was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts, which was slightly understandable. The ghost was very creepy.

"Oh, no," said Hermione, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle—"

"Who?" Harry asked as they backtracked quickly.

"She haunts one of the toilets in the girls' bathroom on the first floor," Hermione explained.

"She haunts a toilet?"

"Yes," replied Romy. "It's been out-of-order all year 'cause she keeps having tantrums and flooding the place. Most people avoided it, anyways. Can you imagine trying to have a pee with her wailing at you—"

"Look, food!" Ron interrupted.

On the opposite side of the dungeon was a long table, filled with food. The group approached it eagerly but, when they could actually see the food, they stopped dead in their tracks. Not to mention, the smell was atrocious. Large, rotten fish were laid out on silver platters. Charcoal-black cakes were heaped on salvers. Then there was a maggoty haggis, a slab of furry green cheese, and an enormous grey tombstone-shaped cake with tar-like icing that read Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, died 31st October, 1492.

"Ughhh, can we move?" asked Romy.

Ron nodded in agreement. "I feel sick."

As they turned around, a little man swooped from under the table, coming to a halt midair in front of them. "Hello, Peeves," Harry said cautiously.