Outside the window, rain poured down. Night had fallen, and the sky was black as ink. Inside, the atmosphere could not have been more different. Warm firelight filled every corner of the brightly lit room.
"Jerry, are you going?"
At dinner, Harry asked the others whether they wanted to join him on Halloween Eve for Nearly Headless Nick's five-hundredth Deathday Party.
"No thanks. I'm not interested in a ghost's deathday!"
Jerry made an excuse to turn him down. He knew exactly what a ghost's Deathday Party was like.
The Weasley Twins had gone out of curiosity last year. Jerry had watched them come back supporting each other and throwing up.
When he asked what had happened, he learned they had eaten the moldy, rotten food served at the party! Jerry had nearly applauded them. Now those were true Gryffindor students!
"A Deathday Party?" Hermione seemed fascinated, but when she saw Jerry's reluctance, she hesitated. "Jerry, are you really not going? I've never even heard of a Deathday Party before!"
Jerry shook his head again. Hermione thought for a moment, then turned Harry down.
"Why would anyone celebrate the day they died? It sounds unlucky," Ron grumbled, then bent over his Potions Class homework again.
In the end, only Harry, Neville, and Ron agreed to go, though Ron was reluctant.
Nearby, Fred and George Weasley were discussing what might happen if they fed fireworks to a Fire Salamander. When Harry spotted them, he invited them too.
The Twins heard "Deathday Party" and immediately shook their heads, waving off the invitation.
But like Jerry, they told Harry and the others nothing about what the party was really like.
Before leaving, they winked at Jerry and gave a slight shake of their heads, signaling him not to tell. Jerry caught on, grinned wickedly,