17 Halloween.

On Halloween morning, I woke up and exercised in the dorm room. I couldn't run anymore, but I didn't give up on exercise. I planned to learn the shrinking and engorgement charms to get some gym equipment from the room of requirements, but Hermione argued to complete the first-year spells before moving on to the second year. She was probably right; there must be a reason why certain spells should be learned first. The study group was going well; Neville's confidence skyrocketed after he learned he wasn't the problem. But he still used his father's wand; he practised more and hadn't decided if he would get his wand. I also gave him an exercise routine, and he was losing weight. We gave Seamus some breathing exercises, which seemed to be helping, but he still blew up something. we joked it was because he was in the IRA. There had been a vast improvement in all of us; even Hermione's attitude improved when I had a frank conversation about being a know-it-all. She was trying to help her classmates, but they felt it was like she was showing them up.

My roommates and I headed to breakfast. We had sat down and started talking when Harry and Ron joined us. "Happy Halloween, guys," I said to them. "Happy Halloween", said Ron and Harry.

"Come to ask to join the study group?" I asked.

"Maybe; how do you know?" Ron said.

"Because you're getting left behind, and you don't know why" I said "you probably thing where using strange dark magic or something" I laughed.

"Who told you?" Ron asked, frightened.

"Um, Hermione, Neville, Seamus, Parvati, and Lavender. By the way, lavender thinks your red hair is cute," I said the last in a whisper. He got a blush at that.

"If you want to join, you will have to wait till after Halloween." I continued, "The banquet is supposed to be a pretty good event." Truth is me, and my mates were dreading it. "Anyway tomorrow afternoon classroom 1-15" I told Ron "what are we practising tomorrow?" I said, looking at Grant.

"Disarming charm", he said, not looking up from his potion book.

"Right, Expelliarmus, one of the first duelling spells we'll learn in charms and defence against dark arts, but that's next term," I said.

"You already a term ahead? " Harry asked. "How"

"By working together, obviously, hard work and tips and tricks we each share, like the secret of potions class, Neville has a huge knowledge of herbology," I said. "Ah, I have to talk to the headmaster." I saw him looking at me from the teacher's table, and he gave me a small invitational wave.

I approached the headmaster. "Headmaster, you wanted to see me."

"Yes Eddie, I have completed my project" he place a box before him "its all in there, I must say it's a most excellent device." He smiled. "And that Album was absolutely excellent", he said. "I must confess I completed it a week ago but was just enjoying the music."

"Ah, thank you very much, headmaster." I picked up the box.

"My notes and rune formula is in the box too, it might be a bit beyond you, but I will be publishing it soon, so maybe we'll see more muggle products make their way to the Wizardry world" he smiled greatly.

"That sounds fantastic; um, professor, can you suggest a book to start to understand your work," I asked.

"The runic language by Phinnes Tallow and drawing runes by Nicholas Flamel", he said. "You will find them in the library, I'm sure."

"Thank you again, headmaster", I said and returned to my friends.

"He finished it?" Tim asked

"Finish what?" Harry asked interested.

Opening the box I found a notebook and my walkman, it now was etched with golden runes, it had a beautiful unquieness to it. I pulled it out of the box.

"A walkman?" Harry asked. "My cousin Dudley had one till he broke it."

"Yes, however, this one will work within Hogwarts and other heavy magical areas," I said. I placed the headset on and hit play. The sweet jazz of Glenn Miller reached my ears, and I smiled.

"He's an addict to music", Tim said to Ron and Harry. "Like, really, he suffers withdrawals if he doesn't do something musical or listen to it." Harry and Ron looked at me strangely. I just smiled and waggled my eyebrows. "he gets grumpy and irrational."

"It's just my passion", I said, removing the headphones. "What do we have first today?"

"History of magic", Grant answered again. Without looking up.

I sipped pumpkin juice, "can we go back to the dorms first?" I asked Grant

<temus > he cast, finally looking up. "Nope, we will be late." I slumped at his answer. Oh well, jazz will have to do. My information retention was worse without music as a white noise. Well, Glenn can keep me company until I return to the dorm. I noticed a permission slip in the box, but it only allowed me to use it outside the class. It also said how it was used, and I had to laugh at that.

The history of magic passed quickly for me, but I still saw people nodding off. I dragged Grant and Tim back to the dorm room after class and started digging through my collection. I grabbed my classical mix tape, which is always good if I need to read, Michael Jackson's Thriller album, and my power mix tape. I also grabbed some batteries. I popped in the Michael Jackson cassette and hit play; I bopped to the first song [wanna be startin' somethin' ]. Thriller had been stuck in my head all day. It's Halloween, so why not listen to the whole album? "Come on, guys, let's beat it." I smiled at my mates as I moonwalked out of the dorm room. Tim laughed, but Grant looked puzzled.

We had herbology before lunch, with the Venomous Tentacula as the subject. We did not get any hands-on experience with it; it was just a theory lesson with a demonstration done by Professor Sprout. It was a fascinating lesson; she explained just how dangerous the plant was and how people keep them as pets and to remember the rattling sound because that is the warning it makes that sound even if it is still. 

Lunch I spent reading headmaster notes. Like he had told me it was beyond my understanding, but I did get some clues how it worked, essentially it worked like the containment circle, the room of requirements made, protecting the devices eltronics from magic. The runes seemed to make a magical Faraday cage. I think alot of the runes decided things like size and shape, I had notice on the back of each ear phone was a circle of minewt runes that looked like a fuzzy golden circle.

After lunch, we had a defence against the dark arts, another boring lesson where we learnt about Nogtails xxx-rated creature. Only a fool would be hurt by a Nogtail. Basically, it was a demon pig that blighted farmlands; it was classified as a pest, and they were afraid of pure white dogs. They were swift and hard to catch, and wizarding families used Nogtails like the British elite used foxes. By that, I mean they hunted them for sport.

The Halloween banquet had arrived. We were expected to be in formal uniform, including a wizard's hat, which wasn't like a hat at all. It was a pointed cap because it didn't have a brim. The great hall had be decorated with jack-o-lanterns that where bewitched to float and make faces, there were also a colony of live bats, fluttering around. The feast began like always, with food magically appearing on the table after Dumbledore's very short speech of "Welcome students, happy Halloween, now tuck in".

I shovelled food into my mouth; I had put my headphones on and cranked the volume so I didn't have to listen to Pansy or Draco. I knew they were spouting rubbish by the looks on Grant and Tim's faces. Slipping the headphones off.

"Why is he wearing those stupid muggle things? Doesn't he know he looks ridiculous?" Pansy was complaining quite loudly about my earphones to Grant and Tim. "How is he even allowed them?" Draco said. "I swear, Fathers, right, this school is just getting worse."

"Tim, Grant eat fast, and we can leave, theses fools can't mind their own business" i said "if our presence upsets you draco, look the other way" I said to him.

"Don't talk to me like that mudblood, my father is on the board of hogwarts, I can have you expelled if I want" he threatened.

"No, you can't; the governs can not really interfere with the running of Hogwarts at all, especially your father; it takes a majority of them to sack a teacher and a unanimous decision to get rid of a headmaster," I said, Draco's face was getting pale. "Actually, if a sitting board member targets a student, it actually a reason for him to be dismissed as a board member." I looked at him in the eyes. "And next time you send Marcus Flint after my friends or me, he will be the one expelled, and his wand snapped; maybe he'll give you up, and you will have to go somewhere else." Forge and Gred finally got back to me about who they thought my attacker was; they didn't have to use the map; they had just overheard Marcus bragging to a Slytherin girl about it. I had told them about the room of requirements, but they refused the knowledge of the marauders, saying that they had used nicknames for a reason. And we're thinking of using nicknames for themselves. After I had given my warning to Draco, Professor Quirrell busted into the hall screaming, "Troll! In the dungeons!" Silence reigned the he said "thought you ought to know" the promptly collapsed. I looked over to Gryffindors table and looked for the bushy haired girl, she was not there. Inwardly, I cursed. Every one was panicking, I switched tapes in my walkman, the POWER mix tape going in, hitting rewind to the start of the tape. Dumbledore was sending the students away, I saw Harry and Ron slip away so I followed, Grant and Tim did too.

We chased after them, and as we caught up, I said to them, "Where is Hermione?" I asked them. They jumped, and my sudden appearance.

"Ah, bathroom," Harry said, "she's been in there crying since charms."

"Why!" I got angry and looked at Ron.

"I called her a snake lover," Ron said sheepishly. "She was just annoying me during class, trying to prove how better she is."

"Or trying to help you, you idiot", I seethed at Ron. "Anyway, let's go find her before the troll."

"Ah, too late", Harry pointed, and we saw the troll in question walking into the girl's bathroom. the 12-foot grey-skinned creature was dragging a wooden club behind it.

I dashed forward m, putting my headphones on. "Eddie, I don't think it's time for music," Grant said as he ran beside me.

"Trust me, Grant, now is the time for music powerful music." Sliding into the bathroom, we heard Hermione scream as the trolley decided to destroy this bathroom. "His head is his week point bonk him hard" I said to Grant "I'm going to give you an opening. Ron, Harry, and Tim were behind us. I hit play on my Walkman. I had designed this mix tape for battle; loud rock music and power cords amplified my magic, but It was only for quick bursts, like trying to end a fight in one spell. Trolls were magic-resistant; with my excitement, my magic was already pumping. Dee Snider's voice blasted out of my headphones and started to work his magic on me. •I wanna rock by twisted sister•

♫I wanna rock! (rock)♫

The rest of the band joins, I gripped my wand tightly. A manic smile etched itself on my face.

♫I wanna rock! (rock)♫

I started bobbing my head. my feet shifted. Harry, Ron, and Tim started to throw debris at the troll.

♫I want to rock! (rock)♫

"Ready," I said to grant

♫I wanna rock! (rock)♫ <stuperfy! > I shout casted my spell, bright red bolt shot out of my wand smacking the troll in the back of the head, I collapsed as my magic quickly drained. The troll stumbled forward, Grant used that opertunity to snatched the trolls club with the levitation spell. The troll was groggy from my stunning spell. It got even worse when Grant dropped the club on his head. All I could think was, 'God bless twisted sister' as I watched the troll collapse.

I was exhausted and on my knees, sweat dripped off me. Twisted Sister, I wanna rock blaring in my head. "Eddie, you okay?" Grant asked concerned. Taking my headphones off with trembling hands. "Yeah, just used a lot of my magic in that attack." The professors came running in at that point. Snape glided past me to look over the troll. Professor McGonagall was furious. "You six, what on earth were you thinking you could have been killed?" Harry, Ron, and Tim started to make excuses. "Professor!" I yelled, "We were only trying to warn Hermione about the troll because she was in the bathroom when Professor Quirrell gave us his warning. But the troll had found her first," I said, huffing in breath, faint music coming from my headphones. "I, for one, was not going to watch my friend die, so we charged in," I said the last in a whisper.

"You okay, Mr. Carter?" McGonagall asked noticing my state I had shifted to sitting leaning against a stall door.

"Just exhausted" I said "and hungry" I added.

"He used a very big stunning spell to the back of the troll's head", Grant said. "Then I used the legation charm to drop the troll club on its head."

"I award all five of you bys for extraordinary courage in the face of danger 5 point each" McGonagall said after thinking "now off to your common rooms, there will be food from the feast there." Grant and Tim helped me up; I sighed because I knew there was no way we were going to get any of that food. We headed to bed.