[mp] hallow's eve in hogsmeade

The blonde jumped as the echoing whoosh swept through the room. “Oooh,” she said, leaning in a bit to look down the stairs. “Teamwork,” Freya declared triumphantly, holding her hand up for a high five.

She took a deep breath, holding it for a moment as she glanced down the ominous-looking staircase. She let the air out in a big sigh. “For you, Dan,” she said. She gave him a final glance and a grin before tentatively taking steps down. It was impossible not to talk, though; if she wasn’t talking, then the tension built up too high for her to handle.

“– looks kind of like the Slytherin common room, y’know? Or at least, how I imagine it’d be. No offense to Slytherins or anything, I mean their common room was basically in the dungeon, right – ew…?” Freya hesitated, then kept going. “I think I can see a… boat? Wow, the magic in this place is pretty intense, isn’t it? Wish they made more stuff like this for adults, yknow? Okay, so it’s just green lights and a spooky – I dunno – underground lake or something? Pond?”

Now that she was down here, it didn’t look so scary. There was water, lots of fog, and everything was green, and there was a little boat that they were clearly supposed to get into... Freya moved over to it, glancing back to check Danny was following before she stepped in. A cold breeze blew just then, and the girl drew her cloak a little tighter around her.

“It’s kinda like that Valentine’s day boat they had in London our first year out of school, isn’t it?” Freya asked lightly. She and Danny and Jeremy had gone on a little magical boat ride together back then, but Freya had had to hide her face when the boys started trying to see if they could throw bits of popcorn at the couples drifting past in boats.

He slapped his hand against hers in a high five before steeling himself as he looked at the next scary challenge. If first years could do this, he could too right? He wasn't that scared, he told himself, even as he took comfort in Freya being with him.

"Think we would've survived as Slytherins, living in a dungeon all those years? Green really isn't my color," he added. Was it just him or did his voice seem extra echo-y down here? He let out a low whistle as some of the fog cleared to reveal a boat on a small pond. "They really went all out for this, didn't they?" he said as he adjusted his pizza costume on his shoulders to sit straighter.

Danny slid his gaze to hers and sent her a grin as he replied, following her into the boat, "Yeah, just like it." Sarcasm dripping from his words, not seeing many similarities in the situation and atmosphere other than the little boat. "Think we'll tip over?" he asked, recalling how he and Jere had tried to rock the boat literally and had nearly tipped them all into the water.

Just then the boat begam moving without warning and Danny reached out to hold on to the side to steady himself. As they reached the middle of the pond, the water started to ripple and move, causing Danny to lean over slightly and peer down into the water. "I think there's something moving in there.."

“Yeah it’s like serious magic,” Freya agreed. “We didn’t have anything like this did we, Dan,” she commented. “Was more like… y’know… life threatening gauntlets and death eaters and big domes…” And death, torture, trauma... et cetera. It was strange to juxtapose her life now with, say, her fourth year at Hogwarts. Strange to think that that had all been real, but that this was all real too. She didn’t like to think of it.

“Absolutely not,” she said, waiting for him to hop into the boat. “It’s depressing enough up here,” she said, “I need at least a little natural light.” She was from Cornwall, and she lived in London. Coming so far north in October was only fun because of the novelty of Halloween. If she had it her way, Freya would be in the south of France every winter.

The blonde looked over his shoulder, but she couldn’t see anything. For the benefit of her costume, she’d opted not to wear her glasses tonight… Unfortunately that meant that she couldn’t see anything.

Just then, she let out a shriek, and bounced towards Danny and away from the thing that had grabbed at her leg. The boat rocked back and forth and she clung to her pizza, thinking that they probably should have sat down but also thinking that it was too late to actually do anything about it. “Creepy hand!” she yelled, pointing, still bouncing on her feet a bit, unable to stand still. There was indeed a creepy hand… attached to a too-long arm that disappeared into the water soon after she pointed it out. Little splashes all around the boat told her that it wasn’t the only one.

"Looks like... an exit?" she asked hopefully, all hyped up on nerves as she nudged him, indicating with her hand a glowy door in the distance.

"Yeah ours were more life-threatening rather than just some haunted house scares," he agreed easily. "Not quite as fun, but definitely unforgettable," Danny joked with a grin. He wasn't much for living in the past, but their Hogwarts years had been pretty crazy by most standards, and not in the good 'crazy' way either. "At least we didn't have to room with the Slytherins during the dome instead of them rooming with us." Then he remembered how terrible it had been rooming with Slytherins, including the prank battles with Elias.

"Actually do you rememeber when---" her sudden shriek caught him off and he automatically wrapped his arm around her as she moved towards him, the boat rocking dangerously as he tried to steady them both while simultaneously shouting "What? What? What?" in rapid succession. He was quick to notice the hand disappearing into the water and his eyes were nearly rolling out of his head as he noticed another creepy hand coming towards them. "Not today, you fiend!" he yelled with a grin trying to kick at the hand that flopped back into the water.

He glanced up briefly to see the door that Tricky mentioned, but his eyes were glued to the water, waiting for the next creepy hand to appear. "Why won't this boat go any faster? What do we have to do? Row ourselves?"

Freya grimaced at his joke; like Danny, she tried not to think too much about certain, specific, traumatising events that they’d gone through at school. “Yeah,” she agreed, thinking once more about natural light and the fact that she would have literally rather quit magic altogether than spent seven years sleeping in a dungeon.

The blonde didn’t have time to answer Danny’s question, as a wet, slimy hand gripped her ankle from behind. It wasn’t very strong; it didn’t grip very hard, but the shock made her squeal, and she kicked at the intruder automatically. Unfortunately, the kick set her off balance and suddenly she was tripping over the side of the boat.

The blonde flailed mid-air, her arms windmilling a little – eyes wide – before she fell out of the boat… and landed on her butt. “Ow,” she said, but it was more out of surprise than hurt; she was only sitting in water a few inches deep. Freya pushed herself up, and when she was standing, the water barely covered the top of her boots. “Huh,” she said, looking down. She was wet now, and the feeling was uncomfortable, but she’d been expecting to be swimming with the creepy hands, so this was definitely an improvement.

She glanced up at Danny, still sitting in the boat, then her eyes slid to the door. She reached for her wand to dry herself. “I guess we walk,” she joked lightly, kicking at one of the slimy hands as it came near her foot.

It was dark and the smoke floating across the water didn't exactly help the visibility of seeing the slimy hands so he was basically squinting into the darkness, batting his feet around kicking at nothing while also trying not to tip over. It didn't exactly help when someone -- or something, rather -- grabbed the back of his costume, making him teeter dangerously as he heard Tricky squeal.

He yanked his shoulder away from whatever was grabbing at him and tried to reach out for her hand, his eyes going impossibly wide as he realized she might fall, but it was inevitable. He didn't manage to grab onto her hand and it all happened so quickly that she was in the water before he could blink. It was actually kind of funny, her flailing, eyes wide, mouth open. He chortled as he offered a hand to help her stand.

His eyes followed hers to the water, surprised by how shallow it was. "Could've fooled me. Thought it was deeper than that," he said with a shrug and a rueful smile. "We could've walked across faster," he added as he stood up from the boat and lithely hopped out, splashing her a bit with grin. "Whoops," he said as he kicked at one of the hands and sent some water splashing in her direction again, only to start backing away, his hands up in karate-defense mode as if that would help in case she wanted some revenge.

Finally they were at the door though and he grabbed at the handle, but then his hold body went tight, every limb shaking, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, his whole body spasming as if he had been electrocuted, an eerie wail sounding from his lips.

Then a second later, he straightened and said "Just kidding!" before swinging the door open and laughing as he peeked through to see what was on the other side.

Freya rounded on him after he splashed her, making sure to send a good kick-splash his way before they were heading to the door together. She dried herself silently with magic, shivering a little as the uncomfortable cold wetness was replaced with a warmth. “Want me to do you, or are you cool being a soggy pizza?” Freya asked, amused.

“Dan?!” Freya’s hand tightened around her wand as he started spasming, her eyes wide for a moment before he was smiling his stupid smug danny-smile, and laughing as he stepped through the door. Cool as anything. “I almost blasted that door to pieces,” she chastised as she followed him through. It was hard to stay mad, though.

“Oh.” The blonde glanced around as she followed him out of the door of the haunted house. They were back in Hogsmeade again, out in the cool air, surrounded by little people in costumes. Once more, she felt a bit weird about being here – like she was far too grown up to be dressed up – but the feeling didn’t last. “Only three rooms?” she commented, walking down the couple of steps outside until her boots came to stop on the path.

“Maybe they change depending on which way you go?” she mused out loud, turning back to her soggy-pizza friend. “You’re a mess, Dan,” she said with a smile. He had slime on him and was missing a couple of toppings.

"Gotchaaaa!" he sang out triumphantly as they stepped back out into the cool air, and Danny shook his head from side to side, artfully rearranging his mussed hair but also scattering some of the water that she had splashed at him. He clip-clopped down the steps with a bounce and shrugged as he turned to glance back.

"Thought it would be more scary," he said coolly as if he hadn't jumped at every mildly frightening thing in there. "We could totally do our own haunted house next year and make it wicked scary. Give first years nightmares for years," Danny said with a grin, waggling his brows, excited about the idea. "Jere will have some good ideas," he added, knowing his partner in crime would be down for it. It did seem like a lot of work though... so maybe they'd just come up with all the good ideas, laugh about how hysterical scared first years would be, and then do absolutely nothing about it. Yeah, that seemed more fitting.

"Oh you think?" he asked, thinking about different rooms. "Should we go back through?" he said, taking a step back towards the door they had just come out of but it clicked shut in his face so maybe the house was telling him he wasn't welcome again. Ah well. At her comment, he glanced down at his costume and frowned. "Oh no, not the pizza," he moaned as he took a few steps closer to her and then held out his arms. "Fix me up then, Tricky," he said, waiting for her to work her magic, his chin tilted up like a little kid.

Freya wrinkled her nose. “Do we really want to traumatise a whole generation of first years?” she asked. The haunted house had been plenty scary, in her opinion. That last part, with the dead hands, especially. It reminded her of actual inferi; she’d been laughing, sure, but there had definitely been a part of her that was only a moment away from blasting stuff with her wand.

“If he ever hangs out with us again,” Freya teased with a laugh; Jeremy and Danny were like a married couple sometimes, she thought, but she’d been wondering lately how Danny felt about his “wife” being… preoccupied. She wondered quietly what had happened to Ellie. Freya had been rather preoccupied herself in the past couple months, after all. If she asked now, she wondered what kind of answer she’d get.

She was amused as she worked her magic on his costume. Charms was really Freya’s forte; she didn’t even have to speak as she vanished the slime, dried him off, and even tidied up some of his toppings for good measure. “All done,” she declared with a smile. Freya tucked her wand back into her long boots, then stood and adjusted her hair. "You hungry?" she asked him, eyes scanning the crowd for some kind of food stand or something.

"Traumatize? No, no, no. We are here to entertainnnn," he told her with a nod. "Besides if we give them lollies at the end or something, they'll be fine. They'll survive." It would be funny if they made someone pee their pants though. He grinned at the thought and then slid his eyes to Tricky. She probably wouldn't think so though so he kept that bit to himself and knew Jere would probably think it funny too.

But the thought of Jere brought its own kind of unsettled feeling. "Yeah, right," he agreed although his expression wasn't as quite as happy or amused as it had been a moment before. "Apparently I don't have the right equipment to keep him entertained," he said, trying to make a joke of the fact that Jere was spending more and more time with Montse and less goofing off with him. Maybe that's why he was spending more time with Frey like he was now. Not that he really begrudged Jeremy for it. He was happy that Jere seemed happy even if it did leave him sitting in their flat alone wondering what to do with himself. Coming from a big family, always being surrounded by students at school, and then being attached at the hip to Jere for most of his adolescent and now young adult life, he wasn't used to being on his own much. He wasn't sure how that made him feel.

Soon enough his costume was back in tip top shape and he let out a big sigh of relief, giving her his dimpled smile and a "thanks Tricky" before he glanced over his shoulder to look at the back of his costume. "Oh, you missed a spot," he said as he turned and squatted a little giving her his bum and shaking it side to side a bit before laughing at his own joke.

"Starving," he said in answer to her question. As if there were any other answer he could possibly give. He was always hungry. "Wanna go to the Three Broomsticks? I hear they have some fun drink specials and you know how I like my cocktails," he said with a waggle of his brows. Sure, he could knock back a couple of brewskis with the homies but he liked a fruity mix with a ridiculous name just like the next basic white girl.

Equipment. Freya smiled at Danny’s joke, making sure to roll her eyes as she was supposed to. There was a little something in his expression, though, and intuitively she felt like she knew what it meant. “Careful,” she said, tapping where her wand was. “Don’t want me to blast off anything you’d rather keep,” she teased, straightening up. “Broomsticks is good,” she said with a nod. The blonde started walking in that direction, glad that she knew exactly where to go without thinking about it.

“So… How’s it been with Jem, anyway?” Freya asked innocently, stepping out of the way of some very small kids dressed as elderly witches (wait, were they little Mcgonagalls??? Amazing). “I mean, he’s busier now, right?” The blonde remembered a time when Danny had asked her what it was like with Finn gone all of the time for practise; it was maybe the first time ever that he’d indicated he really understood her at a deeper level. They both had a hundred siblings, both lived in busy dorms their whole teenage lives.

Danny straightened so quick, he almost got dizzy, but he made sure to protectively cover the important bits in the front with both hands. "Don't threaten my pepperonis," he said with a grin before he fell into step beside her. It was dark but the night was aglow with grinning jack o lanterns, floating candles, and one too many levitating skeletons that hung innocently around light posts. Danny loved everything about Halloween.

He sidestepped a bunch of kids, their costumes catching his eye even as he was distracted by her question, unsure of how to answer. "Are they... no way!" he said as he recognized the costumes to be their former Head of House. He laughed with bright eyes, just imagining McG's reaction if she would have seen them. He needed to tell Jeremy. McG was a great costume idea for next year. But that thought only brought him back to her question. "It's good," he said, defaulting to his usual "everything is good" mode. "It's about time he got a girl, am I right?" he added, nudging her with his elbow.

Still, he couldn't help but slide his gaze to hers as they headed toward the Three Broomsticks and wonder if she could pick up more than he was saying. "Yeah, busier. Around the flat less. It's like we're actual coworkers now, only hanging out in the office and not so much back at the flat," he told her honestly. He frowned a little at the thought that just occurred to him and turned to look more at her. "It's like I don't know what quite to do when he's off with Montse." And because that sounded really lame, he turned it into a joke. "Wow, I need to get a life, don't I?" he said, self-deprecating as he swung open the door and held it open for her.

“Yeah,” Freya said, nodding in agreement but leaving the answer open just in case her silence enticed Danny into elaborating. She wasn’t one to press if he didn’t want to talk about serious things – as he often didn’t – but she was always going to be there if he did.

She felt him glance her way and offered a small smile. She almost rolled her eyes at the coworker comment, though; Freya couldn’t imagine spending literally all of her time with someone at school – literally every class, sleeping in the same room – and then graduating and going off to work with them too. But Danny and Jeremy had always been like that, she thought. Twins who looked nothing alike.

“Trust me, you don't have to tell me,” Freya said, rolling her eyes, “Finn is never home. Isn’t it weird when it’s so quiet?” She stepped through, then waited for him on the other side. “I went to a house viewing last week, did I say that already? The add said they were "in their twenties"–" she made air quotes with her fingers as Danny let the door swing shut behind him, "–but they must have all meant twenty-nine-and-a-half or something, because they all looked forty."

"Too weird, I hate the quiet," he said immediately, feeling more at ease at the thought that she understood. He distantly remembered that she had said something similar when Finn had started being gone more and more due to his quidditch schedule. Maybe she understood him more than he had thought. It was comforting even if the situation was annoying because he was being so weird about it. He should be able to just get over it right? Easier said than done.

He turned sideways so that his wide pizza shoulders didn't get caught in the doorway and then shuffled in after her. "Look, the couple of dementors are leaving that table, let's grab it," he said as he scooted past a Rupert Hartwood lookalike and his girlfriend to the one table that was free in the crowded place. He kicked the chair back and lounged into the chair, glancing at the themed menu on the little table stand.

"Ooof," he said with a grimace and a shake of his head. "Don't tell me you're going to take it. I don't think forty year olds would take kindly to our pizza and nachos nights," he said and then tilted his head. "What do forty year olds do for fun anyway? Visit art museums and talk about broomstick insurance?" He couldn't even imagine it...

“Right,” Freya said, nodding. She followed his gaze to the table he’d mentioned, then pushed past some people (with liberal use of apologies, of course), heading there. “Sometimes I’m at home alone for whole weekends,” Freya admitted, taking a seat. “I’m lucky I’m so busy these days, or I’d probably go quite mad,” she added. Sometimes she had Ari over for a sleepover, sometimes she went out with the girls. She almost always had brunch on sundays with someone, and it was a rare weekend where she didn’t see the boys at all.

Up until recently, she’d been seeing Indy, too, and that had been fun. The blonde glanced at the menu, not really reading it for a moment, and she was glad when he spoke. Freya smiled at that comment. “I dunno,” she said. “I think they liked me but there were a lot of applicants anyway, so they’ll probably go with someone more… mature…” She trailed off, then snorted at the concept. Freya worked in a bank! What was more mature than that?! "I have another viewing this weekend," she added.