Chapter Three | Samhain
Hermione laughed despite herself. That did sound rather like the wizard. She could just imagine him in his decrepit old house carving each and every one of these. "It's impressive. Very spooky," she said, looking over her shoulder when she heard a branch snap.
Just as she had almost convinced herself that she was overreacting, something darted out of the trees at her. Hermione screamed as she saw the tall, black figure with a jack-o-lantern head stalk towards her, grabbing her around the waist. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, but she reacted without thinking. She had her wand out in the blink of an eye, jinxing the creature far away from her.
Her blood was surging in her ears, but slowly the sounds of the forest filtered back in. And...laughter?
The creature sat up, pulling the pumpkin off of its neck to reveal a laughing Alfie. "Salazar, Hermione, where did you learn to duel?" he asked, standing up, obviously quite pleased with his prank. "I didn't even see you draw your wand."
"Alfie, you thrice-damned son of a bogart!" she growled, pressing a hand to her chest to slow her heart. A grin grew on her face when he took a step closer to her and threw an arm around her waist again. "You're lucky that it was only a Flipendo!"
[AO3]