24: Halloween Party (2)

'Come little children I take thee away.'

'Into a land of enchantment.'

'Come little children the time's come to play.'

'Here in my garden of shadows.'

Students of Hogwarts could hear the song echoing from the great hall, the doors were open but they could see a statue of a giant dog with three heads looking forward. The pumpkins around the entrance were slowly floating and dancing alone, they also were kinda inviting to the children to approach them. Students would look at Abyss and enter the great hall, get attacked by thick fog for some seconds before it becomes thinner and thinner, seemingly it would disappear at any moment, but then it would get thicker again... It was like a heart, beating. They continued forward when suddenly a swarm of bats dashed across them, scaring some of the children. Where normally candles would float were small jack-o-lanterns with blue, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, green, white, and black.

The atmosphere was creepingly scary, unconsciously the kids were getting nervous. They walked forward, sitting into their tables, the Headmaster and the teachers were on their table too, all of them except Azes Flamel. Azes Flamel was on a tent made out of Acromantula Silk, he was just sitting there, looking at the children with a smile in his lips. "Sit down, sit down!" the Headmaster of Hogwarts said while the children started to sit down, he chuckled and said: "Welcome students, today's decoration was provided by Professor Flamel and Professor Dumbledore, I warn you that you may get scared or surprised by this "decoration" that Professor Flamel and Professor Dumbledore used, but do not worry, Professor Flamel will make sure that no one gets hurt. Physically... or mentally." Azes could hear the students gull their saliva, some of them screamed as they saw a Boggart, the party just started.

The song continued to play as the students were eating, some children tried the "Trick-or-Treat" Skeletons. Some of them got candies while others got the spooky part, Azes was ready to heal or even delete some memories if necessary, but it wasn't necessary... By now. Azes watched as some troublemaker kids screamed in horror, Azes smiled because he knew that his fog monster enchantment worked! While the party continued, he watched as Boggarts jumped between kids and transformed itself into their worst nightmares, making the kids scream but right after an automatic enchantment would activate the spell "Ridiculous" and transform their worst nightmare into something they think is funny. This created a very unique atmosphere around the great hall, with screams of horror, laughter, cries, and more.

Some kids were curious about what Azes was doing on a tent made out of Acromantula silk and Azes would tell them scary stories and use his magic to scare them, if they listen to the end they would get the enchanted pumpkin that sings the songs that were echoing across the great hall. Then there was Newt Scamander and Leta Lestrange that approached his tent, they were really curious about what he was doing... "Hello, Professor Flamel," Leta said while getting near the tent, ready to touch it. Azes that was at the back of the tent said: "I do not recommend you to touch it." Seconds later he appeared and said: "Hello Leta, hello Newt. I can see the curious glee in your eyes shining across the dark interior of this hall. What do you desire?" Azes smiled, Newt could swear he saw something moving behind him... "Well Professor, we wanted to know what you are doing here," Newt said, thinking that it was just his mind playing with him.

Azes smile grew wider as he looked at Newt, saying: "Oh Newty, I tell stories and if you listen to them till the end, you can get something interesting." Leta nodded her head and Azes snapped his fingers, making them sit down two newly created chairs that simply appeared out of thin air. "Well, if you are curious about what stories I tell you, you can choose one of these." Azes shows a card, there were several words, titles. Newt and Leta noticed that it had different colors also, from light green to deep black. Newt and Lena nodded at each other and pointed at the dark title they found it read: [Dark Story: Spiders], making Azes smile. "Oh... It seems that you have chosen a dark story. I must warn though, it may scare you, super scary. So scary you may die. Are you sure?" Azes serious eyes locked on them and they nodded, making Azes break into crazy maniacal laughter.

Newt and Leta were not expecting this and were taken back by this display of madness that their Professor was doing right now. They looked around to see if anyone was looking at them, but no one seemed to notice. "Now that you are sure, I can tell you..." They looked forward again just to see that Azes was not there anymore, but it was empty the silk tent. "Once upon a time, three wizard friends were visiting a forest. This forest was said to be cursed by the witch that there died and upon her death, she cursed the place with her own soul, saying that no one would take her land and family." The scenery changed, Newt and Leta watched as their surrounding area changed into a forest, it was night and dark, they could only look up and see branches and more branches from different trees. Suddenly the saw three men, walking forward with wands in hand. They couldn't see their faces not could identify those men, they could only listen.

"The three arrogant wizards wanted to undercover the truth about the land and if it really was cursed." They watched as the three men suddenly looked around, they seemed to be ready to fight. "There were some rumors about this forest in the muggle world." They heard trees being broken, sticks snapping, and rocks being thrown out. "About a monster." Suddenly a roar echoed by, and the three men looked at each other, nodding and preparing to defend themselves. "About... spiders." After Azes' voice died down, a burst came from below the three men, several small, medium, big, and gigantic spiders appeared. As Azes had not taught or shown them about Acromantulas yet, they were quite stunned to see these ginormous spiders attacking the three men. "They couldn't even move, as death came and knocked on their doors. They didn't have the option to not open it, they could only open the door." The illusion faded to black as it showed the tree men being dragged by the spiders, warped into cocoons.

The illusion then showed the spiders approaching a huge cavern. The cavern was dark, the spider continued down dragging the three cocoons that once were the three men. "But you know, as humans have their kings and queens..." The illusion showed a giant paw hitting the ground, the screen rises up until eight red gigantic eyes shone. "So do spiders." The giant Acromantula King screeched loudly, Newt and Lena watch as the there cocoons were simply devoured by the giant spider. Suddenly they felt like the spider was looking at them, they had the urge to flee, to run for their lives... But they couldn't move. The spider rushed towards them, its eight paws clicking the stone floor of the cave, destroying stalagmites and stalactites. When the giant spider roared, ready to bite them, the illusion faded to black. They opened their eyes again and they were back at the great hall, looking at Azes that was smiling at them. "So, did you liked my story?"

Newt and Leta were sweating. Azes smiled and gave them each a palm-sized jack-o-lantern pumpkin that was singing "Come Little Children". "Professor... what were they?" Leta asked as her face still pales from fear, just thinking about it makes her afraid. "Oh, they were Acromantulas. Tomorrow you will learn about them." Newt then asked, a little fear in his eyes: "Do they really have kings or queens?" Azes smiled a little and said: "Don't be silly Newty, it was just a story. Acromantula Queen or King, they do not exist... Or do they?" As soon as Azes asked this, eight red eyes shone from behind him. Leta and Newt that had seen something moving behind Azes, were scared shitless. Azes then watched as both troublemakers disappeared running away, he chuckled as his trap had worked. He would try to make them choose the Spider story so he could scare the shit out of them and it worked.

Other kids just watched as Newt and Leta darted back to their tables while Azes was smiling and waving his hand like usual. Tomorrow's lesson will be fun. For Azes, not Leta or Newt.