Amelia Merlin and the Songs of the Elves

Chapter Ten: The Halloween Feast

Amelia wished whoever had created the Ancient Laws had never been born. She paced back and forth in the Room of Requirement, her hands running through her hair and tugging at the necklace around her throat. She wasn't alone in the room. There were several students who were sitting quietly or lying in a bed they had made. The whole room was covered in sleeping bags, hammocks, and clothes. They had made the best living space they could with that the Room provided. 

Neville burst through the door, sweating and a wild look in his eyes. 

"Jesus, Amelia it is insane out there," he panted. His hands pressed on his knees while he caught his breath. "I was almost seen about a hundred times."

"Bloody hell," she swore under her breath. "You're sure no one saw you come in here?"

Neville had a swagger about him this year that Amelia found strangely endearing. "Don't worry, I made sure that even if they did, the Room wouldn't let them in."

"Well aren't you clever?" she laughed. 

"It was Luna's thing. She told me how to do it all. I wrote it down if you want," he passed her a piece of paper which Amelia tore up. 

"Don't write our secrets down. Ever. It's stupid." 

"Yeah, you think I would have learned that by now," he chuckled. They sat down cross-legged on the floor of the Room. Although they had been laughing a second ago, the reality of their situation pressed down on them like a heavy fog. "What do we do now?" 

They had been kicked out of school. That was a light way of putting it, they had been forced to run away. Amelia was pretty sure the damn Carrows would have killed her if she stayed around. They had been torturing students and there wasn't anything Amelia could do about it. She couldn't attack them because of the Ancient Laws which said they had to attack her first in order for her to do something to them. She had tried everything she could but there was no way out of it. So Amelia had taken to teaching. She, Neville, and the rest of her friends had reformed the D.A. and made it a secret rebellion against Snape and the Death Eaters they had running the school. 

But people got scared. Less and less they started showing up to the meetings. By the time October had rolled around, it was getting hard to ask people to do anything. Those who got caught were tortured and sometimes, if the Carrows were in a bad mood, you would get tortured for nothing. 

It was fucking anarchy and all Amelia or Neville could do was try to help but that wasn't enough. The Carrows were too smart to attack Amelia directly so they took it out on her friends anytime she stood up to them. She was done seeing Oliver or Parvati or Lavender try to keep from screaming so she stopped. They had run away to the Room of Requirement where they could still keep an eye on things. Amelia tried to get out every day to see people. She visited common rooms, the library, and dark corners of corridors to help people. She could heal wounds with the touch of her hand so that was her task. Neville was mostly in charge and he had named Amelia the healer. 

When she wasn't healing people, Amelia would go with Oliver to try and get people to join them. It was difficult because people were so damn scared. But that was the biggest mission the D.A. had, they had to keep people safe. 

"Amy?" Oliver sat down beside her and Neville. "I think we need to talk."

"Do you want me to leave?" Neville asked. 

"No, no, it's probably better you're here too," he shook his head. "I think we need to start doing something else."

"What do you mean?" said Neville.

"People are getting tired of all this shit. It's Halloween tomorrow and we should have a feast here," he said firmly. 

"Okay," he said slowly, "I agree, but how are we going to do that?" 

"Amy can do some magic with whatever food we get from Aberforth, transform it or something so it's fancy."

"You can do that?" Neville looked impressed. 

"I don't see why not," Amelia shrugged. "We can make this place look festive too. I can get some people to do decorations. It might be fun if everyone helps out a bit. I think some of them, the younger ones, are getting tired of doing nothing all day."

So for forty-eight hours, the Halloween Feast was the only mission Dumbledore's army cared about. Lavender and Luna lead the decorating team, Seamus and Dean brought loads of food back from the Hog's Head and even made a trip to the kitchens of Hogwarts. Amelia transfigured, multiplied and adjusted the food until they had a spread fit for royalty. It took a ton of manual work from everyone but they had it done in time for the Halloween evening. 

There was a certain buzz of excitement in the air, a giddiness that only came from doing something that was maybe a little bit ridiculous. It reminded Amelia, strangely, of Bill and Fleur's wedding. Although the timing was in the middle of something horrid, the occasion was perfect. 

Amelia laughed as Neville, who was a bit tipsy from all the Butterbeer, stood up to make a speech. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards-" he began. 

"Get on with it!" Seamus called from the back. "We want to eat!" 

"Alright, alright!" Neville chuckled. "Happy Halloween everyone! I can honestly say, as I look around this room, this is the finest group of humans I have ever seen. You're all amazing, enjoy the food" he bowed and sat down. 

The meal was perfect. Although Amelia had messed up on some of the food stuff, no one complained. She went to bed that night with a full stomach and a happy heart. She didn't usually sleep very well because of the dreams that still haunted her, but tonight maybe Akkedis was on a break because when the time came, she slept like a baby. 

Amelia went to bed and found herself wondering when the hell Neville, of all people, actually became sort of attractive.