Chapter 44

"Hmm, give a moment to talk with my friend." He dismissed the Headless organization and told Sir Nicholas to come closer.

"What is it Allen?" He asked.

"Are you sure you want to join their little club? They seem a bit… classists? I don't know if that would be the right word for it."

"No, it isn't. But I understand what you mean." Said Helena from his side.

Sir Nicholas nodded, understanding as well what he meant. "Yes, even then I still want to join."

Allen let out a long breath. "Alright then. Can you give me some space Helena?"

She nodded and let go of his arm, floating a meter or two away from him.

"Now, I don't know if it can work, but maybe I can try to detach your head Sir Nicholas, it's not that much of skin anyway.

You've seen how I can touch ghosts, right?" Allen smiled at him and Sir Nicholas had a face full of hope.

"Yes, please! Come one, let us hurry!"

"Wow wow, calm down. I don't know if its going to work. This would be like… and experiment, since its the first time I'm trying something like this, so I hope you don't mind it." Allen remembered the last conversation he had with Helena before the party. He didn't want to do the same to another person or ghost.

Seeing the seriousness of it, Sir Nicholas answered in kind. "I understand Allen, even if it doesn't work I won't feel dejected, so you can experiment on me." He finished putting a hand to his chest, almost as if saluting.

"Alright then, I hope you can bear a few minutes being uncomfortable.

First, can you show me how your head looks?" At the mention of that, Sir Nicholas pulled his head, showing the insides of his neck, only joined together by a small strand of skin on his neck.

Allen looked at him using his eyes, then looked back at the Headless Hunt's ghosts. Their heads were joined together by a strand of magic, but they could move it around as long as they wanted.

Seeing this, he looked back at Sir Nicholas, in his case, there was no magic joining his body to his head, the only thing that made the magic flow was that small strand of skin. So there could be two options, cut the skin using the Touching-Ghost spell and wait for the better or circulate the magic that composes Sir Nicholas and try to convert that small skin into the magic that joins his head.

After thinking it for a while he decided to go with the second option since it seemed to be more secure for his ghostly friend. "Alright Sir Nicholas, you are going to feel your magic circulate, don't try to fight it."

"Magic? But my dear friend, I don't have magic anymo-" He suddenly stopped talking after Allen touched his shoulder and felt something moving inside of him. It shocked him, not only because something moved, but because he felt it, from top to bottom, he could feel what made him, him, move around, the small piece of skin joining his head began to heat up when Allen touched his head.

When all of this started to happen, a sudden thought came to his mind. Is this really alright?

For some reason it seemed that whatever Allen was doing, was against the laws of what a ghost should be, or could be, he felt his existence threatened and when he was about to ask him to stop.

His head fell down towards the floor, Helena catched it before it went through it, and Allen backed away a few meters.

"How's that Sir Nicholas?" Allen showed him a big smile and he responded in kind. He didn't know if it was okay for something like this to happen, but since it already did, might as well go with it.

"It was the best gift I could've received Allen, thank you." He extend his hands towards Helena and she passed his head to him, putting it back on again, Sir Nicholas felt it fix it together like nothing happened, then tried to pull it again and it separated from his body. It was a new sensation which he wasn't used to.

After testing it for a few minutes, he looked back at Allen, since they went out of their way to do this experiment, none of the other ghost saw what happened, so it was the perfect opportunity to give them a big scare.

When they arrived back at the Headless Hunt's table, they all looked at their previous companions, but before they could say anything, Allen spoke. "Headless Hunt, I present to you my good friend, Headless Nick.

At the mention of his name, he removed his head from his body and trowed it towards the leader of the organization which grabbed it in a frenzy.

All the other ghost around reacted frightened at the situation, wondering how that could be possible.

The leader stuttered his words then Allen interjected again. "So you'll let him join the organization now that he is headless?"

"I… I… yes, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington can join the Headless Hunt." He finished, as if defeated b something.

Helena came to his side and interlinked their arms again, she gave him a small smile.

Then without missing a beat, a flurry of ghosts came to him, wondering how he did managed to separate Sir Nicholas' head from his body or even touch the ghosts. He received a barrage of questions which he ignore completely and silenced them with his eyes. They all went to their respective places afterwards, scared of him, but before they did so, Sir Nicholas reminded them that they agreed to not divulge what happened on his death day to anyone. Whether it is death or alive.

The ghosts nodded their heads agreeing to it, they had forgotten about it for a minute since nothing usually happens in these type of festivities, but it made sense now why Sir Nicholas asked of them for secrecy.

-------------------------------------------

"We'll take a rest Sir Nicholas, I am a bit tired after socializing with so many ghosts." Said Allen to the now Headless Nick, he was learning how to juggle his own head with the rest of the Headless Hunt.

"Ah, yes, of course my dear friend! Do let me know when you want to leave. Professor Snape asked me to take you to your common room after all. And its the least I can do for such a wonderful gift."

Allen nodded his head and Helena did the same thing. They walked to one empty table and he sat down.

"Are you tired?" She asked.

He answered after a while. "A little, I didn't know I could do that, you know? But I did ask Sir Nicholas and explained to him.

I didn't want a repeat of-"

She interrupted him, grabbing both of his hands which were on the table "It's okay, I know."

They stayed in a comfortable silence for a while. Helena caressed his hands while other ghosts sometimes would look at their table, some tried to also get physical contact from Allen, missing it from their days from being alive, but he stopped any and all of them when he used his bright green eyes to look at them.

"Do ghost miss physical contact that much?" Allen asked her after a while. He wondered about it ever since he came up with the spell and she wouldn't let go of his hands.

"Hmm." She thought about it before answering him.

"Yes, in my case I do miss it." She said, with her eyes wandering towards something unknown. "And in the case of my peers, some do more than the others, but we all miss that which we can't have."

Allen stayed silent for a while before answering. "Yeah, you are right."

After that they returned to the comfortable silence between the two of them, since there was nothing much to do, Allen decided to practice his Occlumency until it was time to leave, he build up his second shield and tore it down. Since he wasn't sitting in the position that the Occlumency book recommended, it was harder to circulate his magic through all of his dantians, but not impossible.

Half an hour later he built a shield which he was proud of. He opened his eyes and found Helena looking at him directly. He turned his head to the side. "Is something the matter?"

She thought for a bit before asking. "Is there a reason as to why you practice so much?" I'm not talking about only your Occlumency, but also the rest of your school subjects. You go through all of them thoroughly. Not leaving anything behind until you fully understood it.

Why?"

"Oh, well, I guess… I just really like magic." Allen looked at her with a small smile. "The first time I came in contact with it was when I was five years old, from there I practiced it everyday, not missing even one. I didn't know that it was magic at first, so I did whatever I could.

The more I use it the better I get at it, and I can tell, its a feeling I enjoy. Even if it hurts sometimes." He thought back on a few spells that put a strain on his body.

"I see. Thank you for telling me."

"Its okay, I feel like its necessary to talk about this kind of stuff with other people." He showed her a smile and she responded in kind.

"Well then, I think its about time we take our leave, don't you think?" Allen looked at his pocket watch, it was nearing the ten o'clock mark.

"You are right. Let's go get Sir Nicholas."

Helena nodded her head in agreement, then after Allen stood up, she floated right beside him, grabbing his arm again.

When they reached the Headless Hunt, they all seemed to be enjoying the company of their new member as he juggled not only his brand new decapitated head, but also the head of other members.

"Sir Nicholas, its about time to take my leave. Can you guide me to my common room?" He asked from his back, catching his attention when he suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Ah! Allen! My dear friend, please don't scare me like that, I'm not used to people being able to touch me."

Allen chuckled before apologizing. A ghost getting scared of a human, it seemed like such a foreign concept to him, yet that's what he did through the whole night. Scare ghosts left and right, not letting even one of them approach him.

"Well then, my fellow headless ghosts! I will take my leave to guide my benefactor back to his common room, but please, continue to enjoy the evening." Sir Nicholas made a small reverence and returned each head to their corresponding owner, then attached his own head back to his body.

"It was nice to meet you all. I hope we can meet again." Allen waved his hand saying goodbye to the Headless Hunt and he also said goodbye to the previous ghosts he held a conversation with when he arrived.

Some ghost looked back at him as he took his leave with the Grey Lady on his left side and Sir Nicholas on his right side.

------------------------------------------

They walked outside of the dungeon and towards the Slytherin common room, since it was also in the dungeons, the walk there was a short one. After ten minutes of walking they reached the common room without finding any prefects around. Maybe Professor Snape told them to not say anything to me.

"Well then, it was a pleasure spending the evening of Samhain with the two of you.

I hope you enjoyed my gift Sir Nicholas."

"Enjoyed? More than that my dear boy! It's been a pleasure. If I'm being honest, it used to be one of my complex. I thank you for helping me, even though I couldn't do anything for you." Sir Nicholas put a hand forward to shake his.

Allen accepted the handshake. "What are you saying Sir Nicholas, you presented me a very good friend." He looked towards Helena who let go of his arm but also smiled at him.

"Ha, indeed! Friendship is a wonderful thing.

I'll take my leave first then, since I'm the one who died today. I need to be present on my own day." 

"Take care Sir Nicholas." 

"I will go in a moment Sir Nicholas."

He nodded before floating away, disappearing behind a wall.

Allen looked towards Helena and she looked at him. "I'll take my leave as well, Allen. It was pleasure to be with you today.

I hope we can continue to pass time together."

"Of course we can, you know where to find me." Allen grabbed her hands.

"But, before you go, I wanted to tell you something. So I hope you'll listen." Helena nodded her head, wondering what this was about.

He took a big breath before speaking. "I… My death day is on the sixteen of May."

Helena looked at him, eyes big as saucers. Surprised by the sudden revelation. "Oh Allen. You didn't have to tell me."

"I know, but I guess I just wanted someone to know." A pitiful smile appeared on his face. "Good night Helena."

"Good night Allen." She let go of his hands and he walked towards the common room. He was glad he could tell someone about his past, even if it was only little bits of information.

Allen felt a weight lift of his shoulders for the first time.