Halloween at Hogwarts always carried a faint buzz of anticipation.
Pumpkins glowed.
Students whispered excitedly.
The castle hummed with celebratory energy.
Even the pranks produced by students and staff were raised up another notch.
But tonight…
Tonight something even darker stirred beneath the festive surface.
Fog rolled in thick waves across the Black Lake.
The Forbidden Forest loomed like a cavern of teeth.
And four cloaked figures slipped from shadow to shadow, their breath frosting in the cold air.
Peter Pettigrew led them—unfortunately.
Bellatrix Lestrange stalked behind him like a starving wolf ready to bite the back of his neck.
The Carrow twins trudged along with jittery impatience.
This was it.
No more waiting.
No more hiding in the cold like disgraced animals.
No more humiliations.
Tonight they struck.
Bellatrix inhaled sharply, and her lips curved into something feral.
"Hogwarts," she whispered, "we have returned."
~
Inside the Castle — Through the Passage
One of the Seven True Secret Passages—long forgotten by students and staff alike, save for a few ambitious adventurers—opened from a statue standing within the castle corridors.
They had crept through the twisting tunnel, wands raised, breath quiet.
At last, after a long an monotonous tunnel, which ended with an uphill climb up a slide, only to reveal a swirling hole through which, revealed the torch-lit corridor beyond a stone statue.
Bellatrix grinned.
"Separate," she commanded. "I take the Potter brat. You three take Snapes boy."
"B-but—" Peter squeaked.
Amycus shoved him. "You heard her."
"Do not fail," Bellatrix hissed. "Or the Dark Lord will rip your souls apart one thread at a time."
Peter felt his blood turn to ice.
But they obeyed.
The four split.
Bellatrix glided away toward the dungeons.
Pettigrew and the twins headed deeper into the lower castle, toward a place that through listening to rumors and heresay seemed to be the location of The Draconis Common Room.
~
To their credit, the Carrows approached cautiously.
They were afterall in enemy territory afterall, and utterly without means for retreat or reinforcement.
Peter, however, approached like the universe had pre-registered him for disaster.
Truly living up to the near half century of life lived as a coward.
"Do you even know where this place is?" Amycus hissed.
"Of course I do!" Peter snapped, though his voice cracked. "Students gossip! Someone mentioned it was just off the great hall on the main floor!"
Which was technically correct.
If "just off" meant hidden so thoroughly that even ghosts walked past it without realizing anything was there.
They turned a corner—only to find themselves face to face with a wall, but after following the rumor, they carried on walking regardless.
But it was then that something changed as if the very air itself had become hostile to their very presence.
Runes flared in the stones like angry blue veins.
Air crackled with raw, untamed magic.
A sound like a dragon inhaling filled the corridor.
"What did you DO?!" Alecto shrieked.
"I—I didn't—!"
A blast of force erupted from the floor.
Peter flew backward, smashing into a tapestry.
Alecto was flung into the opposite wall.
Amycus flipped midair with the grace of a kicked ferret.
Then came the flame.
Not real fire—thank Merlin—
But shimmering draconic spellflame roaring down the hallway, chasing them with terrifying precision.
"RUN!" Amycus howled.
"Oh NOW you want to run?!" Peter screeched, scrambling over himself.
They sprinted.
Spellflame chased them.
The corridor bent their shadows like fleeing prey.
Alecto screamed, "WHY ARE THERE TRAPS EVERYWHERE?!"
"It's the Draconis House, YOU IDIOT—THE TRUE FOUNDERS HOUSE OF COURSE IT WOULD BE PROTECTED OTHERWISE ANYONE WOULD HAVE FOUND IT CENTURIES AGO!"
"Then why did we COME?!"
"YOU SAID WE SHOULD!"
"I NEVER SAID—"
A final rune detonated behind them, sending all three tumbling headfirst into a suits-of-armor alcove.
Peter lay on the ground trembling violently.
"We—we can't go near that place," he whimpered. "The castle itself wants us dead."
Amycus wheezed. "…Cassius Snape's bloody HOUSE wants us dead."
Alecto wiped soot from her cloak. "We're leaving. NOW."
They limped away in shame.
Fleeing with their tails between their legs before any teachers could arrive to apprehend them drawn to the noise of the explosions.
~
Bellatrix had far more success.
After all, the Slytherin common room did not reject members of its own bloodline, even if they were traitors in the eyes of the Ministry.
The door opened at her command.
And thanks to how the school wards were setup she was free to roam the dormitory, even getting into the boys side.
In which she discovered Harry Potter—small, sleepy, and very much in the wrong place—blinking in confusion as he wandered out of his room rubbing his eyes, having chosen the worst possible time to wake up to go to the bathroom.
"Huh? Who're—"
Bellatrix stunned him before he finished.
She slung him over her shoulder, delighting in the ease of it.
"Come, little hero," she whispered. "The Dark Lord awaits."
She swept toward the exit.
But when she stepped into the corridor…
A tall, black-clad shape blocked her path.
Snape.
His face was expressionless.
His wand already drawn.
His eyes—
Cold.
Hard.
Deadly.
Bellatrix froze.
"…Severus," she purred dangerously. "Fancy seeing you—"
"Drop him," Snape said softly.
Bellatrix's lips curled. "Now Severus, we are on the same—"
"No," Snape said, stepping forward. "We're not."
Bellatrix blinked.
"Explain yourself."
Snape's wand flicked once.
A razor-thin slash of red light sliced inches from her face.
She dropped Harry immediately.
"You DARE—!"
"Step away from the boy."
His voice was so calm it chilled her more than any shout.
Bellatrix backed up, fury twisting her expression.
"You traitor."
"I suppose so."
"You SERVED HIM!"
"I outgrew him."
Bellatrix shrieked and hurled a curse—
Snape didn't block it.
He sidestepped it like it was beneath him.
A second curse—Deflected with a flick.
A third—Neutralized midair.
Snape advanced without breaking stride.
Bellatrix lunged desperately—
Snape disarmed her wand with the ease of plucking lint from a cloak.
The wand clattered across the floor.
Bellatrix froze.
Snape's eyes were obsidian fire.
Bellatrix's breath hitched.
She fled.
She knew if she stayed for even a second longer he was fully prepared to cut her down.
Snape made no move to follow simply crouching to quickly check on Harry's condition before sending an alert to the castle patrols informing of the breech.
~
Meanwhile in the Draconis Common Room, Cassius sat cross-legged on his bed, Marauder's Map open before him.
Lines inked themselves fluidly across the parchment.
Bellatrix Lestrange fleeing the dungeons.
Severus Snape standing still just outside the Slytherin Common Room.
Harry Potter stationary next to Professor Snape.
Pettigrew, Amycus, Alecto no doubt limping away from the Draconis corridor like drowned rats as they hastily fled back to the secret passageway.
Cassius let out a slow, satisfied breath.
"Well," he murmured, "that was faster than expected."
In all the media these Death Eaters save for Pettigrew were all touted to be among some of the strongest within Voldemorts camp and yet... they had been driven off within a few dozen minutes of entering the castle all without encountering any of the teachers, well save for dear old dad of course.
Though that was mostly their fault for trying to break into the dormitory defended by Lady Draconis herself.
But none of that mattered now, their first real attempt failed and they would retreat for real now before regrouping and reattempting later on.
smiling faintly.
"Happy Halloween," he whispered to the castle.
The map shimmered quietly under his fingers.
"And thank you for the show."