“Howie, shh! Will you stop singing?” AJ scolded him. He clamped a hand over his mouth and shoved him against the wall of a shop. “When we get to the passageway, you need to keep your mouth shut. Do you understand?”

Howmione nodded but as AJ released him, he drew his wand out with a sly grin. Alex tried to grab it before he did any spell work, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“Pumpion!”

Where AJ’s head had been, there was now a large pumpkin with a crooked smile and goatee. Light shined through from the center. AJ’s hands reached up, and he screamed. The pumpkin’s expression shifted slightly, but the grin was unchangeable. Alex did manage to grab Howmione’s wand at last.

“Hey!” Howmione said angrily. “That’s my wand...” His anger disapparated in a matter of seconds, though. Soon he was singing again. “Quit playing games with my wand... Even in my heart, I see, you’re not good at wizardry...”

Brian and Nick simply stared. They exchanged a glance and had a newfound respect for Howmione. He had always seemed simply booksmart. Brian had never seen him use anything he’d learned. Now he knew to never get on his bad side.

“Happy Halloween!” Howmione cackled.

Or enchant him with peeps.

“Change my head back,” AJ urged him. But every time Howmione looked at his pumpkin head, he was hit by a new wave of laughter. AJ turned to everyone else. “Anyone know a counter curse?”

“It’s probably in one of his books,” Brian suggested. “We can look when we get back to the castle.”

“Until then, we’ll use you to light our way,” Alex said. “Pun’kin,” he added affectionately.

The three of them snickered while AJ walked ahead indignantly. Alex got Howmione to follow and moved him away from the window.

“Who’s that?” Brian asked, noticing a wanted poster.

Nick glanced over his shoulder. “Huh. Looks like someone escaped from Azkaban. You know, the prison.”

Brian glanced at the man. He was screaming silently, with dirt smudged on his face and his hair unruly. Brian was sure he’d never want to run into him. He shivered.

“Where’s the prison?”

Nick shrugged. “Out in the ocean somewhere. Some of the most dangerous wizards in the world are trapped there.”

“And you’re not worried that one has escaped?”

“Well, Hogwarts is one of the safest places to be, isn’t it? Who’s going to mess with Dumbledore?”

Dumbledore didn’t seem particularly threatening to Brian, but he was intelligent. Anyone could tell that within seconds of meeting Dumbledore. And in the wizarding world, your wand was your weapon, not physical strength. Brian thought again of Howmione. Obviously it was the smart ones you had to watch out for.

Brian took one last look at the picture of the demented man before following the others.

Most of the journey went without incident, although the passageway was just as chilly as the night air. As they neared the castle, though, they needed to be careful to not be heard, and Howmione was still laughing sporadically at what Nick had deemed the AJ-O-Lantern.

This wasn’t funny to AJ, so it was Nick’s turn to try and reason with Howmione. First, he checked to make sure that Alex still had the confiscated wand. Then he said, “Do you want to play a quiet game?”

Howmione shook his head.

“You’ll get a prize. It’s waiting for us in the Common Room.”

Now Howmione seemed interested. He dramatically clamped a hand over his mouth. This only worked for a moment, though. AJ tripped and accidentally busted his head on the passageway wall. A little chunk of pumpkin fell off.

“Ooh, all he has to do is fall a few more times, and we can make pumpkin pie,” Brian whispered to Nick.

Howmione heard this joke and cackled louder than ever.

“Howie? Snap out of it.” Nick smacked him across the face.

“Ouch,” Brian muttered under his breath. “Did you really have to hit him?”

Howmione seemed so surprised, though, that he stayed quiet.

“You say an ouch for him because of a little smack?” AJ asked. “I have a piece of my head missing!”

They returned to the castle. The mixture of enchanted peeps and butterbeer finally seemed to be wearing off on Howmione. Unfortunately, as they entered the hallway to return to their tower, he suddenly stopped. Then he started slumping over.

Nick and AJ caught him, and Brian rushed in front and noticed that Howmione’s eyes were closed.

“He’s out like a lamp.”

“A what?” AJ asked him.

“Nevermind,” Brian said.

They’d been trying to hurry, but the walk was slow now that they were dragging Howmione along. Brian rounded a corner and was not happy about who he found waiting for him.

“Potter? What are you doing out so late?” sneered Draco Timberlake.

“None of your business,” Brian tried to get past him.

“Oh, and you’ve got my cousin with you,” he said as Nick rounded the corner still supporting Howmione. He said “cousin” as if Nick were contagious with some strange disease.

“Oh. It’s you,” Nick replied.

Timberlake laughed coldly. “I wonder what will happen when I tell the teachers you were wandering the corridors so late.” He crossed him arms and looked smug.

“Probably the same thing that would happen to you if they found out that you were wandering around,” Brian shot back.

Timberlake’s expression remained the same except for his eyebrows lowering. Brian had him and he knew it. “Unless they thought I was dragged out here against my will.”

Alex laughed. “Like we would willingly go into the Slytherin dungeon. We wouldn’t want to be around your lot.”

“You and your equally pathetic clone are infamous for your pranks, after all.”

“Threaten me again, and I’ll personally make it true. If I’m going to get in trouble for it, I might as well be guilty of the punishment.”

Timberlake sneered but didn’t have an answer.

“Can you move?” Nick said.

“Maybe if you asked more politely.” He didn’t budge.

“Get the bloody hell out of the way,” AJ spat, coming into view for the first time.

Timberlake’s face paled and his eyes widened, the glow of the pumpkin’s light reflected in them.

AJ realized that Timberlake couldn’t tell who he was, and he went with it. He gave a ghostly moan and raised his arms into the air.

“The Hea-hea-headless Horseman,” Timberlake whispered in pure terror.

“Give me your head!” AJ screamed and lunged towards him.

Timberlake ran, his own high-pitched scream following him down the corridor.

Everyone laughed but the knocked-out Howmione.

AJ smacked his hands together. “Well, I took care of him.”

“Yes you were illuminating,” Alex said pointedly, and they laughed again. AJ didn’t seem to mind his pumpkin head anymore since it meant he’d gotten to prank Draco Timberlake.

“I can’t believe he believes in the Headless Horseman,” Brian said. Then he noticed that everyone was staring at him.

Nick shook his head and turned to the others. His expression clearly read, If he only knew. There was a third round of laughter.

Brian was the first to come to his senses. “We’d better hurry. If anyone hears Timberlake, the professor’s are going to come out and see what’s going on.” All four of them pitched in by taking one of Howmione’s limbs. Finally they were swinging him in to the Common Room.