One year ago on Halloween night, Niobe Thursby had made the terrible decision to allow Dominik Wiedman back into her life.  Naturally, Dominik wanted to mark the anniversary of this momentous occasion with some kind of adorable, loving gesture.  It was unfortunate for him that, one moon and one fortnight before, he'd made a promise to Niobe to never do such silly things.  Dominik thought, because this was in exchange for Niobe no longer denying they were an item, it was particularly important to not go overboard with his preparations. 

So when he arrived to pick her up at her flat that evening, he wasn't wearing last year's Raven costume to be cute, or any costume at all, for that matter.  He'd actually spent a whole week purposefully neglecting to shave and roughing himself up to acquire a calculated appearance of chaos and rebellion. 

Dom carried his broom through Muggle London rather nonchalantly, thinking that nobody would look twice on Halloween night.  In his other hand he carried a single black rose which he'd soaked in ink and water until the dark purple petals transformed into an inky black.  He thought, if she didn't like it as a flower, Niobe could throw a nib on it and use it as a throw-away quill.  He had rehearsed how to present this flower to her for several hours earlier in the day.  His aim was to look as though he hadn't put any thought into it, was merely paying her some attention, and would get it out of the way as soon as possible so they could go frolicking irresponsibly together into the night.

He rapped at her door.

Halloween was supposed to be fun, right? A night of bounce and tricks, the one night where the muggle and magical world were as close to each other as they'd ever be.  It was a night to toe the line, to live on the edge, to show one's magical pride.  A night where your darker side could trot amok.  Right?

Niobe was sulking.  She had a few invitations for the night, but for some reason there was no boost in her rocketship.  The Daily Prophet was having something at the office, and she'd gotten a VIP invite from Finn Grosvenor at Signature in Hogsmeade.   And even her friends Maggie and Colette had nudged her but she'd made some excuse.  It all seemed so dull. 

She knew it was immature and that it would ultimately sully this perfect night, but sulking she sat.  No forward momentum.  The Wireless was on running re-runs of Grey's Necromany, a St. Mungo's radio drama, and Niobe sat in her big chair eating a tub of ice cream.

A knock at the door.  She didn't move.  Even muggles knocked on her door at Halloween. 
Another.  She got up like a floppy noodle and shuffled over to the door to check through the peephole.

She screamed in delight! "EEEEEEEEE!  Yes! Bloody yes!"  She danced in a little stocking-feet circle, and then flung open the door, smiling so dangerously.

"Dominik, Dominik, you are my savior!  MMMmmmmmmwah!"  She planted a giant kiss on his fuzzy cheek, and came up still grinning.

"In! In! In!  I need a few minutes to get dressed - what is it you're dressed as? I can't tell!"  She was off about her single-room apartmernt.  Her bedroom was lofted over the main area, so her voice was easy to hear as she flew around getting ready.  Getting ready for what?  Who knows?

What she had been wanting had arrived.  She hadn't even realized that's what she wanted.  What had she wanted? Adoration and attention and scandal.  And all of that was in Dominik Weidman, her sort-of boyfriend, maybe fiancee? She could never remember. 

There was a long draw of silence and, for a moment, Dominik feared for the worst.  He dreaded that she would be out already, that he'd have to go out and find her, and that he would probably do so for hours and then appear to her like a kicked puppy who could not bear to spend holidays apart.  Again he rapped on her door, this time louder.

The response from inside moments later was audible and surprising.  He felt a rush of excitement that he hadn't been expecting.  Dominik was suddenly flushed with the impulse to tackle her, the drive and adrenaline to go rushing off into the night to cause maniacal, sexy mayhem.  She flung open the door in a frenzy that was contagious.   

Dropping his broom, he wrapped an arm around her and smelled her dreadlocks happily.  He mirrored her grin with danger in his eyes, then she was off and ordering him inside.  He got his broom and went in, swinging the door shut with a dull bang, and sauntered into her little flat with renewed confidence.   

What was he dressed as?

"Your 'napper," he said.  "London's worst nightmare.  Some kind of animal." 

He leaned against a wall and twirled the rose in his thick, ring-clad fingers, eyeing her up on the loft from below with a grin.  He wondered and hoped that she had she been only waiting for him to arrive.  He had come as himself, but it was the darkest image of himself that he went for.  Halloween was a night for ill omen and bore a resemblance to Saturnalia - with Witches and Wizards on top of the world and able to rule the night with a wicked wrath inspired by their giddiness and greed.  Muggles were never any the wiser as to what was real on this night, and claims were quickly discounted as ghost stories told in the Halloween spirit. 

He was as hungry as her for adventure.

Niobe came trotting down the spiral staircase in her costume.  Most of what she wore were old pieces she'd already had - a long black cloak with silver around the edges, gloves with claws built in the end - but the best bit was the pair of curved ram's horns, they were new.  She'd got them fastened in and nested in her dreadlocks so that they curved out from the sides of her skull.  They were tawny and black and finely crafted. 

"You as horny as I am?"  she asked once at the bottom of the stairs and struck a pose.  A juvenile pun, but Halloween didn't edit out for cliches...

Pose struck, pun landed, and she was in motion again.  She threw things into her bag, just odds and ends: gold and silver, a tube of lipstick, a couple of small potions vials, a cock's foot on a chain, her Verbatis Quill, a pocket watch, and some candles.  The last thing she needed was her small black mask.  She settled it onto her face; it only covered her eyes but it was enough. 

She took the long black rose from his hand and held it next to her horned face.  "Are you ready, Mr. Nightmare?  Let's take your broom." 

Pending an affirmative, Niobe would have led them out of her flat and up the stairs to the roof (not down to the street-level exit).  Once on the roof in the cold misty night, she'd have mounted the broom behind them, and suggested a destination.

"Let's go find some trouble."

Dominik beamed darkly at her masked appearance, still somewhat caught off guard by her infectious enthusiasm.  "You look stunning, pet," he told her, leaning heavier into her wall at an angle, so as to appear properly nonchalant.  He remained giddy, though not too giddy, and impressed, as he propped himself up lazily twirling her flower lest she forget it.  It took her a few minutes to throw her odds and ends together into her bag; and they were odd things, though this did not surprise Dominik.  There was never any knowing what you might need, and when you were able to bring anything without worrying about the bulk or weight, there wasn't any reason to edit out what might be necessary.  They would have a ready compartment of supplies for any adventure they were to make from scratch, and that was an intriguing order. 

"Allright?" he asked.  "Yeah, and that's why I brought it; let's definitely take my broom so I can show you just how I play," he said.  "After you." 

He followed Niobe closely, eyes not far off from her agile and visually engaging frame.  This was shaping up to be quite an entertaining night already, and they hadn't even left her flat yet.  Dominik was flattered by just the gift of her presence, let alone her willingness and even eagerness to spend Halloween with him.  The hardest part of any of it would be figuring how to appear easy going for her.  He mounted his broom as he always did and scooted up on the handle, looking over his shoulder a bit blindly to invite her on.

"You ought to hold on to me tight, then," he offered plainly, not sugar-coating his words in the least, and still purposely trying to sound non-committed.  "So many strange Muggle delights going on this evening," he had to comment in preparation for their take-off.  "And  I can't help but remember rumors of a mutilated corpse written about by the quill in your very hand, love.  I bet we should visit the scene of the crime tonight.  But yeah, let's start with a proper visit of our favourite town." 

He kicked off the ground, seeing her properly seated on his twisted, famous broom.  The damp air whooshed past them as they gained height, and he quickly dipped forward to plummet through London proper with a flourish.  It was late already, and the stars were showing through the early night sky.  Dominik was not flying meekly, but rather wanted to show Niobe Thursby how it was being on the other end of Dominik Wiedman's broom stick during one of his rough and violent flights of fancy.  They ravished through the sky, low on the horizon, past sky scrapers dangerously visible to possible Muggle watchers. 

"Off to the crowds, first?" he asked.  "It's all fun to see the wee Muggles prance about in anticipation of our spooks."

Niobe obeyed and wasn't shy about it.  She nested against the curve of his back and wrapped her arms around his waist.  In all honestly, she thought she was holding on well snug.  She as wrong!  She had never been aboard a broomride like this.  The speed sucked the breath out of her and she realized in an instant that her grip had been piddly compared to what she'd need.  She held on even tighter, her cheek pressed against his back.  It was incredible!

Perhaps she should have given Dominik more credit - he was arguably among the best players in all of Britain and Ireland.  And of course she'd have never denied it, but his Quidditch skills had hardly ever been relevant currency between them.  They enjoyed each others' danger, noteriety - not Niobe's flicks of the quill nor Dom's broomhandling.  But this - !

For a few minutes, it was all Niobe could do to hold on.  She couldn't even open her eyes to see the city rushing by below them.  But once she caught her breath, found her balance, she could lift her head and really see. The city was wonderful and dark, and in the creases of the streets among the carlights were flashes of celebratory flames and firecrackers, orangey yellow.

He'd offered before take-off to take them both to Westminster or the Tower of London where those bodies were found and the suggestion was so dangerous and off-limits that she almost wouldn't have dared.  But it was Halloween, she had Dominik, so in her brain she knew she must. 

"Yes!" she said to the crowds.  "Soho!"

Niobe felt Dominik change their course in an agile and daring turn about a traffic signal and they were headed towards London's West End to Soho.  Soho never slept and Niobe knew the muggles would be rebelling there in grand All Hallow's Eve faire.

Dominik slowed as they neared Old Compton Street so that Niobe was able to speak to him.  "Funny why muggles love Halloween same as us.  Do you think they ever suspect it's not all just a game?"

Dom rode unforgivingly fast, going for rough and tumble twists in the air, trusting her to tighten up her grip and save herself from falling.  Of course, if she fell he would have been well enough equipped with speed and reflex to dive down at any odd angle to catch her again onto the end of his trusty, well-kept broomstick.  That was the point, though, to give her a good ride; Dominik knew how Niobe loved the thrill of danger, and he very much doubted she'd had a broom ride like this before.  He felt her grip tighten substantially round his waist.  It was a good reminder, he thought, of why she just had to keep on loving him.  And for him it was a gift to have her with him for a frolic.  She was the wild-maned, ram-horned, mask-faced other half to his unconventional, nightmarish rebel.  To hell with masquerades, charity balls, and quaint society.  He wanted to see London scared.

It was good he'd given her his usual pair of goggles to wear, and fitted himself with a spare.  It was like a fond Witch wearing their Wizard's over-sized undershirt the next morning, a signal of affection and bonding.  Even if she didn't realize it, they were bonding and growing closer since they'd solidified their arrangement.  It wasn't lost on the love puppy Dominik Wiedman.

"Never, love," he answered as they slowed over the crowds on Old Compton Street.   He took out his flask now they were going slower and took a swig of Firewhiskey, handing the flask back to her after.  "They're too good to party this night, cause they've got the right spirit.  'Specially here in London, where they know how to do a good Halloween.  It's the thought the spooks are real that gets them hot, then they'd never question it seriously cause they just want the fun in it, don't they?"  He pulled up on his broom to come in for a landing on the only small stretch of green near the area, a lawn off of chancel court between Wardour and Dean Streets. 

"Goggles," he said, taking off his own and dropping the bulky things into his pocket, where they absolutely disappeared.   He tapped his broom with his wand and it shrunk five sizes.  He put that, too, into his pocket, and held onto his wand.  Grinning like an animal at her, he pulled her into a broad hug, tackle-style, with a good growl for measure.  Aiming his wand over her shoulder, he sent out vibrant green sparks that went flying over towards Old Compton street, where several people yelped moments after in response to the grounded flares.  He tore his jacket off and threw it over his shoulder.  It may have been a nippy night, but their ride had warmed his blood substantially.  He grabbed her hand and pulled her along toward the crowds.  The racket was lovely. 

"What'll it be, love?  Bet they've never seen a patronus before, yeah?  Or some of my lil' sister's bug bombs?"  He rattled his very full pockets as they walked briskly, and they were soon enveloped by the crowds and crowds of riled up Muggles in magical drag.

Niobe shrieked with laughter as Dominik cobbled her up in his arms and performed a bit of harmless magic in full view of muggles.  The muggles own startled yelps disintigrated into some chuckles and shoving as well, and no one could have suspected these two dark snugglers to have been the source of anything but whispers. 

Niobe on her own feet again stood close to Dominik, facing him in the stance of two people focused on themselves.  She rapped him on the chest in admonishment with her knuckle but she looked excited.  Pleased.  For all her brashness, she was not a law-breaker.  But that's why she had Dominik, to grant her some kind of permission to behave badly.  It was against everything she was brought up with to use magic where muggles could see, to do it deliberately just out in public.

It was wrong, it was risky. 

"I can't believe you," she claimed, her grip on doing the right thing slipping.  But then she hugged him and laid her head on his chest - in doing so, she could turn and see down the street. 

"I can't.  You do it." 

Dominik bit his lip and grinned, wrinkling one side of his nose in seductive rebellion as he held onto Niobe round the middle and sauntered with her into the crowds.  It was twice as good as any concert and the city was alert with the celebratory screams of its denizens and foreigners, drunk with frenzy that was dark with the aura of the night. 

Rummaging in his robes while squinting an eye, Dominik purposefully extracted the bottle with a squat, rounded bottom and a thin bottle neck, little raised circular bumps decorating the mid-piece.  Once out of his deep dark pocket, it showed itself to be a substance contained in a rosy-coloured, rippled glass.  Delighted at the thought of their undone deeds, Dominik let his broad grin settle into a smirk.

"All a bit of fun, love," he said before tossing the bottle in an underhand into the busy, pedestrian-ruled street.  They fused with the Muggle crowds so easily, as the streets were just teeming with people and as soon as the bottle smashed against the ground several feet from them, Dom had turned his heel, and they were one with the oblivious on-lookers. 

He wrapped his arm round Niobe's shoulder and spun again, sauntering firmly and smugly forward. 

The effect was obvious.  A light red cloud of fog erupted around the gathered, heavily costumed people.  Suddenly, they all fell into a swoon.  Kissing, necking, and frolicking gayly, the crowd on Old Compton Street went visibly mad.  Dom cackled roughly in response, cocking his elbow into an angled hook and pulling Niobe loosely into him with a grateful grin.

"Look at those louts!" yelled Dominik happily with another easy, rolling belly laugh.  "My if you aren't the easiest thing I've laid eyes on since the 2006 Quidditch World Cup, mizz Thursby honey baby, feck yea," said Dominik.   

Niobe rolled with Dominik through the crowds.  She couldn't help feeling special somehow, that she and Dominik were different, mighty and had a secret.  Every other day of the year, she didn't feel that way.  There were muggles in her family, she'd grown up learning to respect them.  She lived among them each day, passed them on her way to work, even shopped in their stores sometimes.  They ruled the world and good little witches kept quiet and kept to their own.  It wasn't hardly even difficult to do.  Two worlds occupying the same space. But it didn't always feel fair.

And tonight, with Dominik, she felt what he must feel all the time.  Power.  Invulnerability.  She strolled with him and just noticed him dropping the vial - a potion from his sly sister no doubt.  She howled with laughter same as he did when the muggles were suddenly pawing at each other like teenagers with no regard for public space or observation! It was absurd! It was scandelous.

"Oh my god! Look at them!   It's disgusting! C'mon!  Oh god, please!"   Niobe tugged at him and trotted them both away from the red fog and all the snogs.  It was hilarious and off-putting at the same time.  What would they think had happened? What could they possibly suspect?

Soon they were mostly clear of it.  But there was still a party all down the street and it wasn't long before they found themselves in the overflow from a bar with a patio.  There were lanterns and lights and the alcohol was flowing.  Niobe and Dominink again looked quite in the right place among the costumed young people like themselves.  But they were not the same at all, were they?  Not even a little bit.

Now, Niobe had her had on her wand, too, held at her side.   She knew a good one.  A classic.  She eyed a crowd of lads in football shirts banging the bottoms of their large pint glasses down the table in rhythm, chanting something bawdy.  With some slick little flicks and her incantations hidden by the din of the party, three little sparkles of spells shot off.

It took a breath, it always did.  And then one muggle lad suddenly doubled over and made like he was going to be sick.  Immediately his friends prepared to handle their over-imbibing friend with teasing and a toilet escort, but in a shout they all leapt back.  He was vomiting bright green, banana-sized slugs!  And in a moment or two, two of his mates did likewise.

"My word, what is that?!" Niobe shrieked and batted her eyelashes most convincingly.  "It's horrible!  What in the world!"

Dominik's grin was permanently affixed to his face, as he was totally delighted to be running wild on this the freest of all nights.  Already, he was drunk on Niobe's unusual, encouraging laughter in response to his jejune behaviour.  He'd never dreamed that she'd go along with this without a hiccup and he was excited that their anniversary was going so blindingly brilliant thus far. They pulled each other along in a laughing stumble through the Soho streets, amidst the twinkling lights and glowing lanterns a pair of dark shadows. 

Niobe, brash as all can be, her black, tawny horns shining in the light of the nearly full moon, joined him in his trickery, causing his heart to swell in pride as a triad of jocks began expurgating their sluggery!  He took one look at her comical expression of innoxiousness and dropped his mouth in horror. 

"Disgusting!" he proclaimed convivially.  "The things lads do for dares on All Hollow's Eve!  Ridiculous!"  He leveled his wand and got a solid lock on a Muggle who was dressed like a zombie.  He cast Tarantallegra, and the man's legs went into a corybantic dancing frenzy.

He laughed with contentment. 

Niobe's heart was pounding.  She'd never done anything like this before.  The only things she'd ever done that were illegal were in the line of duty, in search of truth, bending the rules to get to the bottom of some tight-sealed story.  And it never hurt anyone.  She felt an anxious feeling of fore-boding, but the thrill of it was just too much to resist.  Dominik's entrancement with her surprising boldness, it was intoxicating.  It drove her on.

Speaking of intoxication.

"I need a drink..." she said so only her dark knight could hear.  "Inside, c'mon."  Dominik's be-dancing of the Soho zombie was getting quite a reaction with people moving away, laughing jeering, and the ghoul himself shouting and clawing for someone to hold onto.  It was all too good.

She squeezed them inside the bar's narrow entrance and shoved her way through deeper into the tightly packed crowd.  The feeling of being different only intensified as she realized everyone in here was probably a muggle.  All of them, and she and Dominik were impostors among them.  She felt totally powerful and completely exposed.

She shoved her way to the bar.  "Two whiskeys.  Straight.  Tall."  She shouted through the din at the bar-tender.  Monster Mash played, barely audible.

The grin went nowhere fast, but sat plastered on Dominik's face.  This was the best night ever, and every second he was thinking about how to make it better.  But it just seemed to be happening perfectly.  He'd never had this much fun; had he?  He never remembered anything being this much fun!  He let himself be pulled along by Niobe's enthrall, through the tight bar entrance and into the busy, Muggle-crawling hovel within.  She started ordering them straight, tall whiskeys and Dominik happily went along with it, at first. 

He was not the type of Wizard who carried around muggle money and, not knowing if she had any wasn't enough to deter him.  If she didn't they would just go without paying.  It was Halloween.  There was one way of going about things, but....

"Why?" asked Dominik suddenly, with the air of, Why Not?

He accioed a large, unopened bottle of 25 year old Scottish Whisky, grabbed Niobe's hand, and disapparated with her out of the pub.  They landed up the street and he laughed, holding the bottle up, victorious.  Those stupid muggles would never guess what happened.

It had dawned on Niobe just after she'd shouted her order that she had no way of paying for it.  She didn't just carry around muggle money all the time.  She had some, sure, for Indian Restaurant and the shop on the corner, but not tonight.  But her worry was fleeting and replaced by another wave of excitement.  A bottle of whiskey had flown off the shelf and into Dominik's hand and in a flash, Dominik was leading her out the back.

She jogged after him, the din of the bar quickly fading.  Breathless she threw her arms skyward as well and crowed. 

"Woo hoo!"  She brought her hands to her head and held her dreads, accidentally bumping her horns.  She was laughing, still out of breath from their escape.

"You took it!  I can't believe it...!"  This had already become Niobe's most illicit night ever, for some reason stealing a bottle of whiskey was worth noting.  Niobe paced a little, working out the jitters, and then took the bottle from Dom and screwed off the cap. 

"Cheers," and swig.  She gasped after the shot and handed it back.  The booze heated her up from the inside.  She stood with her fingers laced behind her neck with a half-grin on her face.  She gave Dom the side-eye.

He looked amazing standing there in a dark.  He was a castle.  "Dominik, you're a bad influence, you know that?"

She handed him back the bottle and he tossed the cap unceremoniously over his shoulder.  Dominik took three tall shots in one go, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and grinned at Niobe.  She was so hyped up and his own heart was thumping against the confines of its cage like a madman.  She was in a way his inspiration for all the foul deeds that were sending them into a frenzy; she was his willing audience, and Dominik was thrilled to have her undivided attentions and... adoration?

"That's you love," he said, pointing a finger at her before he gave the bottle back her way.  "Drink up, it's gettin' nippy," said Dom, taking it upon himself to 'straighten' her horns, which was more an excuse to stay close to her than anything.  He put the final touches on by pressing a rough kiss on her forehead.

They were in a hidden back-alley lit by the fullish moon and naught else, a dingy asphalt and concrete area with patches of long, wet, stomped-on grass and a large, muggle electricity box on which he now leaned.  It smelled faintly of urine.  "You think you can't believe me!  That was wicked of you with those fecking slugs," he laughed. 

"Here's one though," he added on with a purposeful squint of his eye, leaning towards her, still daring without end as he pulled his wand out and sent something like fireworks out of its tip, way up into the sky above them.  Instead of erupting into a champagne coloured ball of celebration, however, the mock fireworks bent unnaturally into the form of a gryffin, and made the motion of roaring before fading out in flames.  They could hear muggles for blocks swoon over the brilliant green and red display, and Dom thought this was hilarious.

"Favourite night of the year," he said.  "This is what it's supposed to be on Halloween!  What's next?"