Yes, Professor Malfoy?

t w e n t y - f o u r

Getting dressed up and into our outfits was absolute chaos.

"I swear to Merlin, Alicia, if you ruin my grand entrance I will-"

"Oh shut up, Evan!" She paused doing her eyeliner and threw her heel at him, rolling her eyes when he fell to the floor, clutching his crotch.

I whipped around from my place in front of the mirror and clapped my hand over my mouth before laughing along with the others. "That's extremely mature." He wheezed.

"Well, I am three minutes older than you." She sang through a strained jaw and gritted teeth as she attempted to finish her other wing. "Now shut up, I'm concentrating."

"Here, let me help you."

Iris came up behind me where I was sat on the carpet, brushing my hair through with her fingers.

"Scorp, amour, aren't you getting ready?" I called, turning on the curling iron and setting it aside, catching his figure with a frown in the mirror as I did so.

"I am ready." He waved a lazy hand over himself and took a long swig from a bottle of Firewhiskey - one we'd already done two or three shots of prior, except for the lightweights. I snapped my fingers and the bottle flew across the room into my outstretched hand, snatching away from his grip into mine without even a splash from the bottle.

The blonde looked dumbstruck.

"You know something, I don't say it enough - I think you're fucking hot, Belle." He winked, arms now resting behind his head as he leant against the wall, white shirt riding up to expose his v-line.

"Malfoy senior thinks that, too." Iris hummed into my ear, reaching over my shoulder for the now-heated wand.

I flinched, eyes leaving Scorpius to glare at her in the mirror and she met my gaze with a smirk. "I hate you."

"You love me." She hummed.

Knowing she was right, I said nothing but grinned and continued talking to Scorpius. "Thank you, but seriously, where's your costume?"

"Halloween's stupid. You just dress up as someone that you're not. There's pretending and there's masks - it represents everything I hate in a person." He explained.

I bit my lip guiltily. Right. Masks. Hiding the truth.

No, I told myself, I'm not doing this. I'm not thinking about any of it tonight. None of it. From now until the travel back to Mother and Father's, I'll pretend I know nothing. I'm sure that's as easy as it sounds.

"Aaand... you're done, Fayre." Iris dropped the last piece of my hair and smiled at me as I admired it. "Now budge, you're in my way."

I squeezed her knee with gratitude before crawling past her and stopping at my chest of drawers to pull out my costume. Ticking them off in my head as I gathered the items, I made my way to my bathroom to change out of Evan's T-shirt that he lent me.

My costume was that of a pirate, involving a corset, long, layered skirt with ruffles and a thigh-high split up the side with a leather strap garter just visible underneath it, a set of two carved daggers slotted in them.

-

Minutes later, I emerged to find Iris completely dressed and in her costume now applying bold eyeshadow, Alicia with her hair makeup done and in the process of slicking back her hair, Evan leant against the wall in his, as well as Scorpius still in his resumed, sprawling position on the open-back sofa against the wall.

"Wow," Alicia mumbled around the few hairs she'd pulled down from the style. "Maybe I won't be the last one ready, for once."

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes and chucked the shirt in the laundry basket, other hand clutching at the loose, bust section of my corset. "Can someone come help me, please?"