The First Night of Halloween PV Madison Bennett Finished

Madison jumped but did not scream. He was a bit disappointed by her reaction, but realized the whole set-up was perhaps a bit too obvious, or maybe she knew him too well at this point. Simon was not a fan of jump scares, and he had only pulled a jump scared on her once before, but since it was Halloween, he felt like it would be know or never.

"What are you sorry for? Scaring me on Halloween? It's ok, I would have done the same to you either way."

Simon laughed. He could totally see Madison do that. Great, now I have to watch my back wherever I go for the rest of the weekend, he thought. "I bet you would."

"I'm glad we're inside and not out, it looks really cold and wet out there. Kind of reminds me about when we were in the Boathouse together not too long ago and there was thunder and lightning for what seemed like forever."

"Yeah", said Simon and looked out the windows. "It's that time of the year. Let's lock the door. But I don't think anyone's gonna come here either way."

When the door was locked he took the jack-o'-lantern with him and went over to the far end of the classroom with Madison where the teacher's desk was.

"Okay. I realize I was very cryptic in my last owl but I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Since it's Halloween, I thought we could have our own little Halloween party, or Halloween kickoff, if you will", said Simon, and held out his hand to show his surprise as they approached the other side of the desk.

Behind it, Simon had built a cubby house of blankets, looking almost like a tent. He had used four chairs as pillars to hold a red blanket for ceiling. There was a small entrance that they would have to crawl through, and inside was a blanket on the floor, a couple of pillows and a plate with cookies and some candy: Liqorice wands, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fudge Flies, Peppermint toads and Assorted Sour Strips.

"Enter the 'House of Horrors', if you dare", Simon said in a low voice and smiled. "After you, Aqi."

He was glad that Madison appreciated the surprise. Another rumbling thunder was heard as they crawled through the opening to the improvised cubby house. He noticed her Halloween-themed braids but before he had a chance to comment them, Madison got a look of all the candy:

"No way, Fudge Flies, those are my favourite! I mean, i love most candies, but those are so good! Most years, my mum and dad get us a big box of candy for Halloween, and this year, my box was majority Fudge Flies so this is amazing!"

"Same!" Simon placed the flickering jack-o'-lantern on some of the pillows beside them, which created a warm, dim and cosy lighting. "This was what Hoax brought me from my parents and I thought we could open these boxes today."

When Simon looked up at Madison, her eyes had suddenly changed. The excited look on her face had vanished and been replaced with something that looked like confusion. No, fear. She was looking at something behind him, over his right shoulder.

"S-Simon, what's that?"

As he turned around, Madison placed her hands on his shoulders and he jumped. Then she started giggling. Simon sighed.

"Ha-ha, very funny...", he said before she shoved a Peppermint toad in his mouth.

"Hehe sorry, you had it coming, since you pranked me earlier."

"Okay. I might have deserved that one", he said while chewing and continued with a wink: "But I only jumped because your hands were so cold."

"Hey, I know it's Halloween, but, if you're ever down in London during the Christmas break, let me know, I'd love to show you round my neck of the woods."

"Absolutely! I'd love to come. Gonna talk to my parents about it. By the way, your braids are really cool today. I'm beginning to think you dad's letter was a lie - you probably got stuck in front of the mirror again!", he said with a cheeky smile. "Wouldn't be the first time. Okay... Since it's Halloween and all, I thought we could have a little story time together... My question for you is, what is the scariest experience you've ever had? Not like losing sight of your parents at the grocery store when you were a kid, but scary as in a 'Halloweenian' sense."

As Simon listened to Madison's story, he took a Liquorice wand.

"Woah, that sounds super cool. I mean, a rational explanation could be that someone pulled a prank on you, because they knew it was the site of the match in 1884, almost like people take advantage of old ghost houses to rig them. But what if it actually was the rogue snitch?"

Simon realized that his usual analyses was perhaps not wanted in this situation. After all, Halloween was a time for wonders and mysteries. Rational thinking would only destroy the mood so he decided to put that aside from now on.

"What about you Ori, what's your scariest 'Halloweenian' type experience?"

"Hmm... That would have to be something that happened in our house a warm summer evening two years ago. Me and my mom was in our backyard, gardening after dinner. Dad was out in the front. We were almost finished when our neighbor, Mrs. Nettleton, stopped by our house. She had been talking for a short while with my dad before coming around to us in the backyard. Nothing special was said, just the usual exchange..."

Simon paused for a moment before looking at Madison.

"Then Mrs. Nettleton asked... 'By the way, who is the guest?'. My mom didn't understand. 'I'm sorry?', she said. 'That woman, in your house', said Mrs. Nettleton. Mom just looked at her, and I could tell Mrs. Nettleton was a bit bothered. 'I saw an old woman in one of your windows on the second floor as I was talking to Raeborn. Latin American, I believe?'. But there was no guest in our house. And we don't know any Latin American women, far as I know... 'Mrs. Nettleton, are you alright?', asked my mom. After that, we searched the house of course, but there was no trace of the woman. My sister was freaking out about it and slept downstairs for a whole week." Simon shrugged his shoulders. "And that's the end of the story."

"Woah, that's super creepy, Mrs. Nettleton sounds kinda creepy too though, maybe she sees ghosts and spirits."

"Nah, she's just an ordinary Muggle. Nothing special about her, really."

He had a hard time seeing Mrs. Nettleton as some kind of psychic, but if it was in fact a ghost, Simon had learned that you did not have to be psychic to see ghosts. Maybe it was a ghost who came looking for his dead grandfather? After all, his grandfather had spent a couple of months in Latin America. But he had also spent a lot of time in the US, Asia and Central Africa, as well, so perhaps it was a bit far-fetched. Maybe Mrs. Nettelton had just had too many Margaritas that warm summer day. Simon kept these reflections to himself though.

"Seriously, a whole week? Dang, she sounds like a real city kind of girl, your sister."

She got that right, Simon thought. "Yes, why do you think she moved to London?", he said, laughing.

Madison kind of reminded him about his sister, but they differed in a number of ways. Whereas Clara would have got panic if she had broken a nail or got dirt on her fancy clothes, Madison did not seem to mind. She was more outdoorsy in that regard, despite giving the impression of putting a lot of thought into her appearance.

"I wonder what made someone decide that pumpkins were to always be carved out on Halloween", said Madison while studying the jack-o'-lantern with her eyes. "Why wasn't it watermelon or some other round and big food?"

"That's so typical of you to ask something like that!" Simon chuckled. "I don't know. Since the tradition is from the US, I guess they didn't have many watermelons growing naturally over there. But they had pumpkins." His smile slowly faded before he got a more serious look on his face. "I'm glad to be your friend, Madi. Thank you for being...you."