[mp] time for the moon night • {tomie}

Hazel So was always torn about Halloween. On one hand, being the daughter of a chocolatier, she appreciated everything sweet and tasty – and Halloween celebrated that! On the other hand, she detested all things scary and spooky, and Halloween celebrated that too – arguably to a larger extent. So, it was with trepidation that she decided to venture out with a group of other Slytherin girls to Hogsmeade. They’d convinced her with promises of fun and lots of treats; catering to her sweet tooth was the easiest way to get to her. But now, here she was, in a fairy costume with a full bag of candy and no friends surrounding her.

Hogsmeade was so crowded tonight that somehow in the midst of running from store to store, she’d been separated from her friends. Normally this wouldn’t worry her. The size of the village allowed for easy navigation, and if this were a regular night, she could find her friends in no time. Because it was not a regular night – and Halloween at that – she was stuck trying to tiptoe and peer over the heads of children not much shorter than she was to discover her housemates. “Ugh.” She exhaled in frustration. Surely Sienna’s bright red hair should’ve stood out amongst the sea of blondes and brunettes, but Halloween must’ve also been the night of Weasleys or something; every shock of red she thought to be her friend was someone else. Without much options left, Hazel decided to take a chance at actually moving around. She ducked and weaved through the crowd, trying to push past while simultaneously keeping her bag in a protective hold. If she dropped her sweets after all of this effort, she would be absolutely devastated.

Making her way to middle of the village proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. Everyone else, bursting with excitement, pushed and shoved, and she found herself being jostled further than she wanted to go. Before she knew it, she was being pushed deeper and deeper into the village and while her small frame often gave her an advantage when moving, it was of no help tonight. When she finally arrived at a more calm area, she paused to breathe, relieved to have escaped the monster horde of people. A hand clutched her heart dramatically while she calmed down, and once she looked up to observe what was going on, she was surprised to discover herself in a line. The surprise soon gave way to sheer horror when she realized exactly what the line was for.

Beside her was a sign: ‘Hector Higgins’ House of Horrors: Get Ready for an Awful Fright!’ She could have died right on the spot. There was no way in the wizarding world that she would ever, ever step foot in this place. She was about to turn and make a beeline for the exit when a rough hand on her shoulder stopped her. Shocked saucers met the narrowed eyes of an older Slytherin who was probably volunteering. “You’re up. The person in front of you needs a companion to go in.” Hazel’s mouth opened to sternly inform him that this was an awful, terrible mistake and she would be leaving, but her eyes met the person’s in front of her and she knew she couldn’t walk away without looking like a coward. Salazar, could this night get any worse?!

@Tomie Vos

"I 'on't care, I'll go by myshelf," She boasted, her voice muffled over the lollipop in her mouth. Her eyes flicked up to the building as she and her friends were jostled to the front of the line. The witch took the lollipop from her lips with an audible pop!. "I'm not scared," she said, brassy bravado clear in her tone. Tomie liked horror. Actually, she loved it. She'd loved it since her parents' newsagency had ordered in a special horror graphic novel for a customer, and she'd read it before it had been collected. When she was little she'd gotten in trouble once or twice for reading her little sister stuff that had given Evelyn nightmares. Her mother disapproved of this particular interest for obvious reasons. But Tomie's interest in horror stories and comic books hadn't waned at all as she'd gotten older. She'd already showed all of her friends her graphic novel collection and they knew about her interest - so it seemed particularly important to prove herself here and now.

As soon as the five of them were at the front of the line however, and the first pair had gone in, they were informed that people weren't allowed to go inside alone. "Aww, c'mon mister," Tomie had whined, but it had been no use. The little witch didn't particularly want to go in alone (not because she was scared though!!) but her pride made her argue just a little bit. So she let her friends go in with a relaxed shrug and waited for another person by themselves to join her. She wasn't scared of doing something like this with a stranger. It was pretty novel to be in Hogsmeade at all, in only her second month at school; she might as well make a new friend.

But then it was Hazel So.

She raised her eyebrows, her large, brown eyes flicking momentarily down the other girl's form. A fairy costume? Typical. Hazel knew this holiday was supposed to be spooky, didn't she? The pair were asked to stand side by side as the attendant gave them a quick safety briefing. Between the chatter behind her and the occasional scream from inside the house, Tomie could barely hear him. "You know this is a haunted house, right?" she asked under her breath, ignoring the guy talking. If he noticed, he didn't care. "Aren't you scared you'll break a nail or something?" Tomie popped her lolly back in her mouth, the stick poking out one side. She gave her yearmate a skeptical side-long glance.

The protests were at the tip of her tongue, and there she forced them to stay. In this situation, her pride and need to prove that she was just as brave - if not braver - than any Gryffindor far outweighed her desire to run away from thrillers and frights. As they stepped forward and into the entry, Hazel pursed her lips together in a sign of silent displeasure, barely listening to the attendant. He couldn’t say anything that would help Hazel here. The most she could hope for was that she would somehow remain unmoved and composed among all the jump scares and eerie noises. The minute she reunited with her housemates, she was going to give them an earful; they would never hear the end of how they abandoned her to perish in the worst predicament of her life.

With Tomie Vos. Euch. Reminding Hazel of her unwanted presence, she spoke up and the Slytherin’s mouth instantly twisted into a scowl. “Of course I’m scared of breaking a nail!” She huffed, clutching onto her bag desperately. “I actually take pride in my appearance.” She took this time to examine her yearmate’s look, eyeing her from head to toe. “Unlike some people. What are you even supposed to be anyway?” Leave it to this girl to use an opportunity for dressing up and costumes to wear something hideous. Did she even care?

Flicking her gaze back to the attendant, Hazel impatiently waited for the okay, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. When he was done speaking, he stepped aside and held his arm out, indicating that they could walk forward. The corridor in front of them coiled into sudden darkness. Shrieks and screams permeated the air in the distance, creeping over the animated prattle of the people in line behind them. Hazel pushed out a shaky exhalation. Although she wanted to, she couldn’t stay planted on the spot. Tomie was already moving on, and Hazel was not about to look like a scared child. After closing her eyes for a miserable moment, she trudged forward, staying close enough to Tomie to shove her into the clutches of any of the workers if necessary but far enough so that she was closer to the exit.

Like they were on cue, someone jumped out at that moment and made their way between the girls, eliciting a loud shriek from Hazel.

"I'ma lethifold, obvioushly," she said through her full mouth, with an emphatic eyeroll for good measure. Not that it was that obvious, really, since lethifolds usually just looked like pieces of cloth. Her original brilliant plan had been to go as a dementor - those things were super freaky - but she'd only finished the hands and hadn't gotten around to doing the face, so lethifold it was. She took her lolly out again to speak more clearly, holding it to one side with freakishly long, greyish fingers. Tomie started walking as soon as they were allowed to do so, completely unsurprised that Hazel had already fallen behind. "Y'know," she said, brushing some cobwebs out of her way, "they pretend to be cloaks or sheets 'n then they strangle people. Kinda related to dementors?"

Tomie side-stepped a skeletal hand that reached out to grab her, looking over her shoulder at the Slytherin girl. Lethifolds were mostly from the tropics, so maybe Hazel didn't know about them? Actually, where was Hazel's family from, anyway? Tomie got asked where she was from all the time and she usually just rolled her eyes and said London before giving people the answer they wanted. Right now, though, she was suddenly curious. Definitely more north somewhere, like japan or something. She wondered if Hazel was bilingual too -

Thump!

"AaaeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE!!!"

Tomie nearly tripped over her cloak, shocked mostly at the loud and piercing sound that had erupted from Hazel rather than the person who'd just pounced in between them. She squealed too, but her yell was tinged with panicked delight. Instinctively, Tomie shoved the guy to the side, grabbed Hazel's hand and bolted further into the house. The girl swiped at low-hanging cobwebs as she ran, stopping only once they'd rounded a corner and the guy was out of sight. A fake tentacle snaked out to grab their ankles and she stomped it immediately, her heart beating fast in her chest as it receded into the wall, a weird yellowish liquid oozing from it. She dropped Hazel's hand.

"Yeah... so... Lethifold," she said, leaning against the wall, a little out of breath. "What about you," she asked, inspecting the bottom of her shoe, poking absentmindedly at the weird tentacle pus, "don't you know you're supposed to dress up for halloween?" Tomie grinned at the Slytherin, enjoying the teasing as she caught her breath.

“I know what a lethifold is,” she said, putting on her most ‘duh, that’s so obvious’ tone to brim her words. Truthfully, she hadn’t ever heard of that before – the attention was on their more famous cousins; there was genuine recognition on her face upon hearing the word ‘dementor.’ Mentally, Hazel tucked away this new bit of knowledge so she could do more research about it later in the library. She watched as the girl twisted the lollipop and wrinkled her nose at the long grotesque fingers. Maybe she would conduct that research another time.

The squeal had erupted from her without a thought. In her fright, she’d thrown up her arms, and before she had time to process anything, there was a hand around her wrist and she was running. They were speeding forward, Hazel quickly picking up her feet to keep up with Tomie’s pace. She barely had time to process the ghosts zipping overhead or the yells and snaps coming from various corners of the house. Her heart was racing, her face was reddening, and the contents of her stomach were churning. When they paused at the corner, she leaned against the wall, hunched over, trying to steady her ragged panting. “I,” she said between breaths, “do not… run.” When her breathing finally slowed, she stood up straighter and examined her costume to ensure that there were no snags during the run.

Momentarily, she paused and realized that maybe she could have been a little more grateful; at least she hadn’t been left behind. But then she realized that they were even further in the house than they were before. There would be a lot more to clear before they could exit. Hazel let out a groan that transformed into another yell at the feeling of something slimy around her ankles. “Ugh!” Tomie got rid of it quickly, but Hazel still hobbled away from the wall. “How much longer do we have!” She shook her foot trying to eliminate some of the slimy yellow goo on her shoo, but there was still some left. Great. Hopefully whatever it was didn’t stain.

Hazel checked the floor for any other oddities, but wanted to stay alert for anything else that might pop out. If she saw a bug, she just might pass out. She turned to face her companion, faintly annoyed by how calm and collected the other girl appeared to be. “I’m a fairy.” She was offended that Tomie would even ask. Her carefully crafted wings weren’t just for fun. “You’re one to talk. That costume’s not too far from how you usually look, y’know,” Hazel quipped, crossing her arms. Then it dawned on her. Her features contorted into an expression of disbelief, then morphed into utter despair. “I dropped my sweets!”

"Shoulda left you there," Tomie said, rolling her eyes again as she put her lollipop back between her lips. This time, she bit down on it, scrunching her face in anticipation before it broke into a lot of smaller pieces. The girl ground these up and swallowed them, logic being that there could be more running, more scares, and that she probably didn't want to choke and die at such a young age. She pushed her hood back from her face, letting it flop behind her head, and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Surprised it's not pink," she said dismissively, wiping her slimy shoe against the wooden floor, still leaning against the wall. She glanced up at the other girl as she spoke again, the words eliciting a grin. Tomie wiggled her creepy fingers in the Slytherin's direction, reaching out to touch her arm. She stopped at the talk of sweets, her eyebrows going up in both surprise and actual, genuine concern. "Oh, crap," she said, wondering if they should go back and risk it.

"The boys have mine," she said apologetically, as if she were about to share hers with the girl in front of her. Tomie frowned for a second, thinking about the fact that Benny had let her put her bag of sweets in his backpack. She knew Benny would know not to eat them, but what about the others? One time, Simon had eaten her cupcake by mistake and she'd been so angry she'd cried; surely they wouldn't eat her Hallowe'en treats?? She held this conviction in her heart, too scared to question it. Very little mattered more to Tomie Vos than food.

Squelch!

Suddenly, she felt the wall behind her move. "What the - " It sunk inwards like thick, viscous slime, and she was pulled backward suddenly. She screamed, arms flailing as she struggled to escape. It was tugging at her legs, her cloak - "HAZEMBLLMMM," she yelled, eyes wide as her face was drawn back through the slime wall. In a moment, it was just her legs, kicking frantically, and then she was gone. The wall shuddered, then blobbed back into looking like a solid wall.

Where was the time for recovery in this stupid house?! After being attacked by whatever it was that had leapt between them earlier, then shaking a sticky tentacle away, something new was already occurring, giving them little time to catch their breaths. Hazel hated this feeling of constantly being on edge with no ending in sight. There was a reason she was so meticulous. Her mouth formed an ‘o’ shape when the wall gained motion and abruptly ended their short break. It looked like it was caving in almost, its shape warping and moving to entangle the Gryffindor in its slimy clutches. Hazel froze, then reached forward to grab Tomie’s hand. Swift and slippery, the wall refused to allow her a grasp, squelching between her fingers as she tried to claw through it to reach the other girl. But she had to pull her out of there! She didn’t want to be alone! Why send them in pairs if there were possibilities of separating?! This. Was. So. Frustrating.

Helplessly, she watched terrified as her partner was pulled into the void. What was on the other side? And what was she going to do now?

Hazel cowered for a bit, hesitating to press forward. She didn’t want to be swallowed by the house. Was this a flaw of some sort? It was a stupid haunted house made for stupid children in Hogsmeade for Merlin’s sake; did they really need to get this intricate?! Her features crinkled as she debated what her next step should be. In the distance, she could hear howling and the groaning of ghouls that only seemed to be coming closer and closer. If she ever made it out of here, she would never step foot into one of these dumb things again; she didn’t care how silly it made her look. Heaving a weighty sigh, Hazel stepped closer to the wall and reluctantly poked it with a finger, then retracted her hand quickly. No response. What? A little braver now, she poked again, curled her fingers into her palm to form a fist, and knocked the wall with as must strength as she could muster. “Tomie?! Tomie, are you there?!” No response.

Things were just getting worse and worse, weren’t they? Hazel placed her head in her hands. She wasn’t even supposed to be here, in this creepy house, with these creepy creatures, and all these creepy things happening. She wish she had her stuffed pygmy puff, Pinky, with her right now. Pinky always made her feel better. “Just breathe, Hazel,” she told herself, turning to face another dark winding corridor. Her gaze shifted between this path and the now motionless wall. She could make it through there and maybe find Tomie. Or the exit. The exit would be nice, but she supposed at this point she couldn’t just leave the other girl behind. Her muffled yelling echoed in Hazel’s ear and though she tried to shake it off, she knew it would bother her if she didn’t at least try harder to find her.

Hazel returned to the wall and after a few more unsuccessful attempts, she decided to take a risk with the corridor. Her shoulders hunched forward as she took gradual tentative steps towards the darkness. Once she rounded another corner, there was a large crash and she shrieked, which was followed by some maniacal laughter. “That’s not funny!” she yelled, deciding it might be better to maneuver at a quicker pace. Her feet felt heavier but she willed them to move faster, cupping her hands around her mouth and yelling as she switched to a brisk walk. “Tomie! Tomie, where are you?!” A chilling whisper responded, ‘She’s not here.’ Hazel shivered.

“Tomie! Come out! This isn’t funny!” She was stopped by the hallway dividing into two separate paths. Which one would take her to the missing Gryffindor? She paused, but this one moment of hesitation was all the house needed. The walls around her were covered in a green mucus that began to glow, and she heard a gross squishy sound coming from the left hall. A faint light came into view, and then a face that made Hazel feel cold. Around the corner crawled an oversized Glowing Glopgrub, huge white worm-caterpillar hybrids that left a trail of vivid green goo in their wake - much like the one on the walls. Hazel knew which corridor she had to take now. She made a dash towards the right, screaming all the way, and was both relieved and horrified at the sight that met her – there was Tomie, thank goodness, but before her was a huge spider, and by the looks at all the webbing scattered around the room, it was trying to catch some prey. “Oh no.”

For a second, she thought she was going to suffocate. But then the sensation passed, and she was spat out the other side, landing ungraciously on her butt. Rubbing her tailbone, Tomie got unsteadily to her feet, her dark eyes taking stock of her new situation. The wall had returned to being just a wall. She slapped her palm against it (recoiling quickly) just to check. Seemed kind of stupid to pair them up if they were just going to get separated anyway, she thought.

The girl tucked her hair behind her ears again, jumping a little at the unexpected sensation of her fake fingers against her skin. After a moments' hesitation, she peeled the things off her hands and tucked them into a pocket under her cloak. If she had been in here with Benny instead of Princess Hazel, she doubted she'd be stuck on this side of the wall. If he hadn't been able to drag her out then he'd probably have at least jumped into the wall with her and they'd be laughing it off together right now. Sigh.

She turned around to check out the rest of the room, but it wasn't very interesting. Rectangular, wooden floors, low lighting, creepy wardrobe in one corner. A door on each end. Tomie picked a door at random and went for it, not even looking at the wardrobe as it shuddered beside her. She stepped out into another corridor, this one a lot... stickier... than the last. The girl looked both ways. Loud screams caught her attention, and her head snapped back to the sound. So high-pitched. So dramatic. It could only be one girl...

Tomie took off at a jog. "Hazel?" she called, rounding a corner. She stopped dead in her tracks - her shoes scuffing the ground - as a big spider appeared before her. And on the other side of it... Hazel. "Is there another door that way?" she called, cupping her hands around her mouth for extra volume and then pointing emphatically back the way the other girl had come. She didn't much fancy taking on a big spider, even if it was some kind of illusion or enchanted prop or whatever. She bounced on the spot, ready to bolt if she needed to. "You might just have to run past it," she yelled.

This was it. This was the moment where she died. She hadn’t even had the chance to present her Transfiguration project – and she had worked so hard on it. Hazel took a few steps backwards, shoulders hunched forward in a sort of defense mechanism. She barely had time to process her own thoughts she was so afraid. How could people like stuff like this? A spider in a haunted house was third place on her list of things she never wanted to experience, only sitting below expulsion and detention. Her fingers clasped together and she held her clutched hands close to her heart. “Good spider…” She tried to placate it, but the words tasted like the bitter lie they were – spiders weren’t good!

Its big red eyes blinked curiously at her while it snapped its pincers a few times. Merlin, she hoped it wasn’t sizing her up for a meal. She couldn’t even deny smelling delicious; she’d washed her hair with strawberry-scented shampoo just that morning. “You don’t like to eat people,” Hazel reminded. “You like bugs. I’m not a bug.” This would stop her from getting eaten, right? She wished that somehow, whether it was fake or not, it had some sort of sentience or understanding of where she was coming from. The monster leaned forward, its red orbs shifting from left to right, almost looking past her, and she remembered her wings. “I’m a fairy!” she replied hotly. “Not a bug.” The spider snapped its pincers more aggressively this time and let out a strangled screech that elicited another scream from the first year.

Never in ten trillion lightyears would she ever admit it but, at that moment, Tomie’s voice was a welcome sound. Another door? She was scared of turning away from the spider but quickly craned her head to check. The path behind her had disappeared. Merlin’s boots, who had designed this stupid house?! She gave the other girl a frantic look and was both disappointed and horrified to hear her solution. Running? Again?! Past a huge spider?! Hazel shouted out in frustration but as there were no other options, she closed her eyes and launched herself forward. Miraculously, she made her way to the other side but by the time she had opened her eyes, she was already too close and ended up colliding with Tomie with a soft ‘oof!’

Hazel fell down and put her hand onto the wall to pull herself back up, but retracted it like she’d just touched a hot pan. She did not want a repeat of what happened to Tomie. Dusting herself off, she let out another dejected ‘ugh!’ and turned to the Gryffindor. “Can we just leave!”

Tomie was impressed when Hazel leapt forward; she wasn't sure the other girl had it in her. Sure, she'd have left her if she had to but Tomie was reluctant to abandon anyone in a house that might literally eat them up, even Hazel So. It didn't sit right with her Gryffindor's sense of chivalry or whatever. She glanced down as the other girl's food clipped one of the many legs of the spider, surprised to see it got straight through. Huh! An illusion then? She made a mental note to ask Benny if he saw it. One day they'd be able to make stuff like that, she thought proudly. Tomie was less impressed when she looked back up and noticed that Hazel's eyes were closed, a second before the Slytherin literally ran straight into her. "Watch where y- !" Smack!

Her arms windmilled as she took a couple of quick steps backward, but didn't fall. "...Going," she finished unnecessarily, catching herself and mirroring Hazel in leaning against the wall before quickly stepping away from it. Steadying her breath, Tomie nodded. She wasn't scared - nope, not even a little - but she was pretty done with being in this house. "I think it's this way," she said, pointing over her shoulder with a thumb. After a beat, she turned and started walking, assuming that Hazel would follow her.

"That wasn't half bad, fairy girl," she said, glancing at her as they walked. "Thought you might, like, faint, and I'd have to carry you out," she joked, a teasing smile on her lips. "Oh, look," she said cutting Hazel off and pointing lazily ahead. The hall had changed since she'd been here a few minutes ago; now there was just one door, with an ominous sort of glow about it. She slowed to a stop as they approached it. "Exit?" she asked, checking with her companion before reaching for the doorknob.

Being carried sounded quite nice actually but it’s not like she would let Tomie do it. Hazel huffed in exasperation and stomped forward, about to snap something back, but she was abruptly cut off by the discovery of a door. There was something eerie about the soft fuzzy light that peeked through the narrow gaps. Hazel hesitated, eyebrows furrowing. There was a fifty-fifty chance that this would lead them on their way out, but even then, she knew that there would probably some new scare tactic to get them one last time. Wringing her hands together, she nodded, and when Tomie pushed the door open, there was a soft sighing sound and a bit of mist spiralled out of the opening.

She peeked down the corridor before entering, but there was mostly just a lot of fog. In the distance, she made out the faintest glow, and hoped it was a sign that they were near the end. She looked at Tomie pointedly, waiting for her to walk through first, and once the other girl rolled her eyes and took the first step, Hazel remained close behind her. The Slytherin took tentative steps, loosing her fingers and trying to stay on the lookout for any potential jump scares. Their vision was impaired and she felt a twinge of sympathy for people with naturally bad eyesight. The sound of howling wind added to the already ominous atmosphere, and her shoulders were stiff as she tried to duck away from it.

Then came the scares; costumed wizards (or were they the actual creatures; she didn’t have any trust in her anymore!!!) began to run through, screaming and looming and just being all around awful people in Hazel’s mind. The girl shrunk, tossing her hands on her head and keeping her head down. As if unimpressed by her method of survival, Tomie had once again grabbed hold of her wrist, and she could feel her hand being pulled from her head. They were running for the third time. This was the most exercise she had ever gotten and it was terrible. Ducking and dodging to avoid the scarers, Hazel could feel her ears ringing.

Finally, they arrived at the glow and before their eyes it turned into another door. “Well…” Hazel was breathing hard again and pressed a hand against her forehead. “Open it.” She closed her eyes once again, afraid that maybe it wouldn’t be the exit they were hoping for. When the door opened to the sound of chatter and generic spooky music, she allowed herself to take a look. Relief washed over her. They were done!

Tomie was brave, but she wasn't fearless. Besides Hazel, though, she kinda felt like a superhero. Hazel was all hand-wringing and skittish, whereas Tomie's instinct was to laugh at everything. It certainly made her look tougher, even though the laughs were her natural reaction to fear. "Eeeeee," she said, being intentionally dramatic as she opened the door in slow motion. The Gryffindor girl was all giggly and wound up, half expecting someone to jump out at her as soon as she opened the door. When nothing happened, she almost didn't believe it.

Catching the look Hazel was giving her, Tomie almost laughed again, opting to just smile and roll her eyes instead as she took a tentative first step through the door. As the peace continued, Tomie was ready to make a joke about it. But then things changed. Misshapen forms loomed in the mist; were they illusions too? Or actors? Tomie squealed, half in delight and half in terror, as something brushed her arm. She bounced forward, planning on just sprinting the rest of the way. The girl had barely gone three steps towards the exit, though, before she realised that Hazel wasn't beside her. Ughhhhh, why was the Slytherin so useless? She felt a brief flicker of actual concern when she looked back and saw that Hazel wasn't even screaming, though, just sort of shutting down. Tomie couldn't leave her behind, so she took her with her instead.

And in moments, they were out.

A little breathless with excitement, Tomie skipped ahead of her companion, her hair flicking behind her. Then she was walking backwards in front of the other girl, facing her, as the pair stepped out of the haunted house and into the crowd. It was a little less busy on this side, but Tomie still felt high on the sensory stimuli. "That was wild," she said, impressed that her heart was still beating a bit too fast, and not from the running. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, not even wincing at the squishy texture of the fake fingers she'd been wearing earlier. Huh, she'd forgotten were in there.

"Sorry about your sweets though... I dunno if you're getting those back." Naturally, Tomie's thoughts lingered on their previous talk about food. If it were her sweets, she probably would have turned around as soon as she realised she'd dropped them. It was pretty sad, actually. She wondered why Hazel hadn't been more upset about it. "Wanna, I dunno, get some more or something?" The brunette offered a shrug, her hands still in her pockets. The boys would be around here somewhere, but one more in their group of five didn't seem like much of an addition. Besides, Tomie was eager to swap stories with the others, and she did feel genuinely sad about Hazel's devastating loss.

Hazel stretched, flexing her fingers, then tapped the cobbled ground of Hogsmeade with the tip of her shoe for good measure. Her blue flat still had dry bits of the yellow slime on the sides; she was disappointed upon discovering that that part of the experience hadn’t been an illusion. Nevertheless, when the ground didn’t morph into gooey grey sludge and pull her down, she allowed herself a small relieved smile, and figured that was good enough confirmation that they really were done. If she were a less civilized person, or a Gryffindor (same thing, really), she might have kissed the ground in relief.

In front of her, Tomie was skipping around with this giddy smile on her face that erased Hazel’s own smile and replaced it with an incredulous expression. “That was the worst experience of my life,” she countered. Wild indeed! Hazel frowned, her brows knitting together. How could Tomie be happy right now? “We probably could have died in there,” she said, bringing her hands to her face as she remembered that huge spider. Hazel shivered, and begun to examine her costume for any other gross souvenirs from the haunted house. There better not have been Glopgrub goo on her fairy dress. She would definitely have to send this outfit back to her mum and have it magically cleaned.

Then, it dawned on her - she still needed to find her friends! At the same time, Tomie mentioned her sweets, and Hazel became upset all over again. It was official - this year, she hated Halloween. Where was the Halloween dedicated to sweets and sweets only? All around them, children were walking about, goodie bags in hand and she could feel a pang of envy. It was not enough to make her consider Tomie’s offer, though. Her eyes narrowed. “We’re outside now,” she told her. “This isn’t an illusion. We don’t have to hang out anymore.”

Did she still have time to stop at a few stores and restock? Maybe, but she wanted to find her friends first; she was sure Lulu and Darcy would be willing to share with her at least. “I’m going to look for my friends.”

Tomie was unscathed; between her hands stuffed casually in her pockets and the bounce in her step, she looked like she could have just walked out of a candy store rather than a haunted house. Hazel, on the other hand, did look a little shellshocked. Her eyes were wide, her usually-perfect hair had gotten mussed up at some point, and Tommie didn't want to mention it, but there were some cobwebs strung along the bottom of her fairy dress at the back; a little piece was brushing the ground.

"Nuh-uh," she said, shaking her head. "They wouldn't let anything actually happen," she disagreed. She believed that, too. "Our parents - oh, sorry mister - " she apologised as she bumped into someone, then fell into step beside Hazel instead of walking in front of her. " - Would riot!" Tomie couldn't quite bring herself to tease Hazel right now, even in a fun way. She did look like she'd had a bit of a traumatic experience. Besides, hadn't they just gone through it all together? With anyone else, getting scared like that would be the catalyst for a new friendship to form.

Obviously Hazel didn't feel as bonded by the experience they'd just shared as Tomie did.

For a second she actually felt a little hurt, and that reaction took her off guard. Embarrassed by the feeling, Tomie felt anger and frustration rush up in her chest in response. Both at herself and the girl in front of her. She frowned, the flash of hot anger a little too big for her little self to contain. "Well maybe..." say something, say something, "you should fix your hair first," she finished quickly, unable to take the jibe with an eyeroll or an amused shrug, like she had been earlier.

Tomie waited a beat after speaking before turning off into the crowd, her body reacting to the sudden emotion in all the usual ways; beating heart, hot face, sweaty palms. She stormed through the bodies, thinking grumpy things about girls, Slytherins, and of course Hazel So in particular. She felt like kicking something. She needed some food.

Her hair?! Hazel wished she had brought a satchel along; her sweets would have been safe and she probably would’ve kept a little compact mirror in there to check and see what exactly was out of place. What a disaster! Anyone who knew her knew that she kept her appearance immaculate. Maybe Tomie was just messing with her? But this joke was not even remotely funny. This was exactly why she avoided those sorts of stressful adrenaline-based scenarios! Hazel raised a hand to smooth out any stray strands and opened her mouth to retaliate, but she didn’t have a chance. The Gryffindor was already stalking off into the crowd.

Left alone, Hazel was a little surprised by the suddenness of Tomie’s change in mood. Grooves wrinkled her forehead as her eyes squinted in confusion, but the bewilderment evaporated almost as soon as it appeared. Gryffindors were such weirdos. She was still too concerned about her appearance to worry about someone she wasn’t even friends with anyway. Hazel waved a flippant hand and shuffled through the crowd. She needed to find a window or something to inspect her reflection! Please don’t let it be too bad.

On the way, she bumped in Tallulah and Darcy and after expressing their relief at finding each other, she scolded them: ‘Where did you go?’ ‘I almost died, you know!’ Then, when all of that was out the way, she launched into her story, emphatically moving her arms to and fro as she described the monsters that popped up. The girls spent the remainder of their time exchanging stories, laughing, and sharing treats. Then, they returned to the castle for the evening, silly monsters and Tomie Vos no longer on Hazel’s mind.