The Hallows cry (pt.02)

Warning; mild horor

Mixed up pov. aka, how messy my mind is while writing this chapter. I just can't find the mood for it.

(MATEO'S POV)

As the Halloween this year started to get near, an uneasy feeling inside of me also grew closer.

Something was going to happen; I just know it will. Whether it was in a form of a student dying or a dragon invading, I just know something major will appear.

And frankly?

I want to sleep so bad….

The air around here was starting to get seriously cold, making me feel drowsy easily. No one else seemed to be affected by the weather… perks of having lived their life here while I usually went out to tropical places or straight out to a desert most of the time in cold season, I suppose. Even the few days I visit my family during Christmas was spent inside a temperature-controlled room with the help of the heat from the fireplace.

The stacking pressure of the exam week also didn't help at all.

.

.

.

"Why are you sitting like that?" I asked, flipping another page of the potion's book. Today was the rare meeting times me and Iryan decided upon.

"Why do you care?" He pouted while grumbling out the answer,

That's new,

Did something happen?

I stopped reading the book and put a bookmark on the recent page I read. I finally put my whole attention at him.

I didn't see how bad of a posture he was in before since I only briefly glanced at him. But wow. Iryan was currently sitting in front of me with the most absurd posture I ever saw anyone could ever do.

One hand on his cheek which was supporting his head that was leaned to the side, back arch like a shrimp and bend over like he had scoliosis, while his shoulders slouched over, to the point it looked uncomfortable.

"What's making you sulk?" I sighed,

"…Nothing, 'm just bored" He slurred his answer, though. He did finally fix his horrible sitting position. Probably his finally starting to feel back pains from how he was seating.

Bored?

"Is it related to Potter?" did that kid do something?

"What made you think that?"

"You haven't been with him lately" He stopped, Iryan didn't immediately deny it. Silence speaks volumes.

So it was related to him. What did he do to—

I couldn't continue my thoughts after that.

Iryan opened his eyes and he was staring at me, he was staring with those murky blue eyes of his. He was getting better and better at pin pointing where people are… it almost looked as if he was staring right at me,

"Mateo…"

"…Yes?"

He chuckled, what was he laughing about... "Are you scared?"

Oh… it was about me,

"no,"

"Is that so?" he closed his eyes again, "Good to know"

He closed the book in front of him and stood up, "And I've already said, I was just bored. It has nothing to do with Potter" He left the library with a soft click on the door.

I was left there all alone,

Slowly, I moved my head and stared at the potion book in front of me,

He was pissed, his definitely pissed.

The heck did Potter do to him?

I've never seen him that pissed before…

…Should I be worried—

It was bad to overthink. So don't. Let's just do potion homework. Yes. Let's just do that.

(THIRD'S POV)

Iryan walked through the hallways he had become familiar with and stopped midway when he knew no one was nearby. He couldn't help but let out a shaky breath out. "Hah…" he sighed, "I overreacted… Frick…"

He covered his face and brushed back his hair.

He had been feeling slight bit pissed because a certain brunet had been ignoring him. Mateo nailing the guess was just adding salt to the wound at that point. Though, he wasn't lying about the bored part.

Without the other, Iryan was basically a loner. Yes, he could strike a conversation with other people easily, yes, he can spend time with the others… but it felt boring.

Iryan also had been feeling a bit on edge lately. He couldn't help but feel that a certain professor was always watching Him, did he know about his Avery bloodline? Was it him just being paranoid?

Guesses, guesses, hell be damned

"Just go back to the common room…" Iryan mumbled, "really need some of Mr. Crowell's chocolate pie… gah…" He started walking again while kneading his neck as if he was massaging it

…

Iryan munched on a chocolate fudge,

It had no taste,

Everything tasted bland lately,

"Harry, how did you…"

"…Wow, I wish I could…"

"…Bloody hell, you can do that—"

Iryan was starting to get tired of listening to the rambles. Not that he could avoid it since it was happening right across him…

"How about you Ryan?"

"Huh?" With the call of his name, Iryan snapped from his trance and focused his entire intention to the one that called him

"We were talking about the exams; how well do you think you'll get at it?" Ron asked,

Iryan noted the excited tone the red head was oozing with, He didn't even bother to pause to think, "Top 10"

"Top... 10…, then again, I wouldn't be surprised. You did so well with every assignment the professors give. Aye, Harry?" Ron turned his head and faced Harry,

"Yea" He nodded, but his mind seemed to be preoccupied somewhere else.

Looking at this, Ron couldn't help but sighed.

He had notice Harry was out of it lately, so he did try to lighten the mood up. But… now even Iryan was spacing out. Did they fight? Was the first thing Ron thought of.

He looked back and forth to the two, they don't seem to be mad at one another… so they must be…

!!!

Ron's eye lit up,

'They must have been feeling guilty, but can't say or was too shy to say sorry first!!!'

Was what he brilliantly deducted.

So, he started to devise a plan for them to get together again,

Unknown to him, a certain ravenette had been watching their exchange since the dinner started. Mateo sighed as he could roughly guess what the red head was thinking. 'There's going to be drama' was what he thought.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, cutting a piece of meat on his plate, "you've been staring at them for quite some time now"

Zabini nodded his head, "Got some one that caught your eye?" he teased, "Who's the lucky fella~"

Mateo stared at him for a second before giving his attention to his plate that was barely filed with anything, "Something interesting is going to happen" he muttered, taking a spoon before eating some mashed potatoes off of his plate.

"Oh?"

BAM

And the doors of the great hall was forcefully and abruptly opened,

"TROLL" A professor with a turban came screaming and panting in, "A TROLL IS IN THE DUNGEONS"

Draco, Zabini, Theodore, Pansy, and several others that heard Mateo immediately looked at him questioningly. Some were amused, but most were giving him questioning looks.

"…Not what I meant," Mateo grumbled out,

"Did you do that?" Zabini whispered, his amusement filled eyes went wide.

"…no," Mateo sighed, "I was talking about Weasley, he seemed to have think of something weird"

"oh…" Zabini shot him a downcast look, and Mateo couldn't tell if Zabini was just bad at masking emotions, or if he was just good at exaggerating them. Probably the later. But not a second later, Zabini gave Mateo the most annoying grin Mateo had ever seen, "Paying attention to Weasley, are we?"

Mateo swore, he was a milli percent away from actually smacking that grin off of his face with a glass plate. Thankfully for Zabini, the headmaster started directing the students to evacuate from the great hall.

Though…

"but isn't the Slytherin dorm at the dungeons?" Theo muttered,

Crabbe and Goyle began shaking after they heard that,

"Maybe its at the other dungeons?" Pansy reasoned, but her smile gave her nervousness away

"Quirrell didn't specify which dungeon… so we can only hope we don't run into it" Draco said, his hand was in his robe.

Mateo watched the interaction from the sides. He agreed with Draco, they could only hope that the troll wasn't in the direction their heading. But then again, "We're taking a different route," He said,

Draco and some others looked at Mateo inquiringly,

"Most of the upperclassmen's didn't look too worried, especially the prefects. They must've already thought of the possibilities too." Mateo answered, "and It was subtle. But I saw some changed and difference with the path we're taking now. We're probably taking a different route than usual"

He also probably wouldn't have noticed it if its weren't for the guide book Mrs. Flickchered gave him prior before him going to Hogwarts.

"Oh…" Theo hummed, "That make sense"

They went through the cold hallways and passed through the green candle lit chamber door. Each stone there looked old, yet they all don't have a single moss growing on them. The air was chilly, and the wind could be heard whispering through the cracks.

Wait, wind?

Click clack

A humanoid figure, clad in murky black cloak, staggered out from one of the corners and Mateo could swear he heard someone choked on their own breath.

Dirty blond-ish hair came peeking out of the hood that was obstructing their view from the figures face. Its ends seemed burnt from where they were standing at. Bone like fingers held on to the walls like a stabilizer for its footing.

Mateo instinctively moved his hand closer to where his wand was kept—same with the upperclassmen and several other's that didn't froze in place.

The figure kept standing there like it was sniffing the air, trying to find something.

Everything was at a standstill and no one at the student's side dared to make a sudden move.

Plop

Someone accidently slipped and dropped their wand to the ground. Mateo noted, it was one of the third year. Brown hair with a nearly forgettable face with no notable features. His hands were shacking and his face became paler than a sheet of parchment.

"??" The figure slowly turned its head towards their direction,

The students couldn't help but let their guard down at the sight of her.

A lady, probably in her late teens, looked at them with a small frown, it almost looked cute. She looked harmless, as if she couldn't hurt a single fly, and… weak. But Mateo knew better, and so did some of the upperclassmen's

The rest? They all nearly drop their guard immediately at the sight of her face. As if forgetting the fear, they felt prior to it.

One of the upperclassmen slowly walked towards her, one of his hand was hidden behind his robes.

"Hello there… miss" he approached her slowly, "I never seen you here before," he gently smiled at her like he was trying to ask for her number,

Mateo then heard someone clicked their tongue, it was so quiet, he wouldn't have heard it if he wasn't standing right next to her. It was one of the female students, she looked… pissed, to say the least.

'Oh?' Mateo mused in his mind,

The male student that was approaching the cloaked girl didn't hear the tongue click. But he did stood distance away from the cloak girl.

The cloak girl didn't answer, she simply stared at him curiously.

"Are you perhaps a guess the teacher's invited? If so, best if you be careful, there's a troll roaming around at the dungeons and…--"

"OSCAR, LOOK OUT!"

The girl beside Mateo shouted—horrible move, honestly. But it did took The boy's attention. The perfect that approached the girl—Oscar. Immediately crouched down and avoided the claw like hands that nearly ripped his head off.

He dug his hand to his robe and quickly pulled out his wand, casting a Protego charm to deflect the next set of onslaughts.

The other upperclassmen were also quick on the uptake and pulled out their respective wands out. But none moved, they all watched Oscar fought the cloaked girl.

The boy was taken by surprise, but he also didn't seem to be having a hard time dealing with it after he was given some time,

"Finish it quickly, we don't want to attract any unnecessary attention from the troll." Said one of the upperclassmen,

"Do I look like I'm playing around?"

"From those duel's I've seen you do? Yes."

"Too bad," Oscar deflected another attack and casted another curse. "Locomotor mortis" he whispered, directing his wand onto the cloak figure,

The cloak figure dropped down like a lifeless doll to the ground.

"You good?" the girl that had been standing net to Mateo came up to Oscar,

"Yea, it did gave me a fright there" he chuckled, "Thanks for the heads up,"

Most of the upperclassmen merely brushed it off and started walking again, leaving some of the stunt first and second years behind.

"Damn… he was so cool" Millicent muttered,

"Yea," Pansy nodded "bet that girl over there his sweet heart?"

"Definitely," Daphne agreed,

"Lucky girl," Pansy merely snickered and started following the upperclassmen's that were already a good distance aways.

Draco clicked his tongue and muttered a small 'I can do that too' before also following the rest. But Mateo couldn't help but feel iffy.

'Why was an automaton here?'

.

.

.

Click

Sssret

Mateo scrolled the paper and let the owl take it to its talons. "Like usual," he muttered to it and the owl cooed.

He stood up as he watched the owl flew away,

It was a report for Mrs Flickchered about the Automaton that somehow ended up at Hogwarts.

If one ended up there, then more might come. And from what he knows, the clue she had been searching might end up there… better be safe than sorry after all.

"Oh, looky here~ I spy with my little eye, a little crow" Mateo snapped his head to his back when he heard the voice to see who it was. He didn't even felt anyone… He saw a familiar head of long blond hair coupled with that annoying smirk on her face.

It was Freya, she was in a Ravenclaw uniform.

He never saw her in any of the classes he had with any Ravenclaws, so maybe an upperclassman? Possibly.

"Miss… Frey?"

"No need to call me miss—how many times should I tell you that?" Frey sighed, walking forward to stand just ten steps away from Mateo. "Fancy seeing you here"

"Yea... you too, I didn't know you were also a Hogwarts student"

"Wonders how fate works" she chuckled,

"You seemed to be busy these days, I couldn't even say hello"

"Sorry, I didn't know you were a student here too."

Mateo turned and faced her; she looked the same as he first saw her. He had to craned his head up before… but now he could almost see her eye to eye. Just about several most centimetre before his at her height.

"It wasn't your fault; you wouldn't have known since I never told you." She headed towards the lake that was now behind Mateo, she crouched down and played with the water, "It was truly a surprise huh? Last night I mean, with the troll. It was truly a Halloween surprise" she chuckled,

Mateo watched as she kept on splashing the water ever so slightly around the tips of her fingers.

"Yea, I was surprised…" He honestly could care less though, "How about you?" were you scared?

"Me? Hmm~" she hummed playfully, "who knows? I could probably handle it myself if worse comes to shove"

"I see…"

Mateo didn't continue, neither did she.

He closed his eyes and took a breath with the passing breeze.

If he could be completely honest, the Prescence of Miss Frey scared him a little. Even when they first met. Maybe that was the reason why he always said Miss even if that's a bit disrespectful when the other party said to not call her that.

He just couldn't help himself.