As Peyton filled up his plate, Nicholas reached over and picked off a piece of fruit.  "Hands are full," he shook the staff and popped the fruit into his mouth.  He grinned and leaned in, "Just make sure to keep me in sight-"

"Hey"

"-later."  He turned to the voice, only to see Fauna dressed as a...bar wench?  And not even a sexy bar wench, which did not make sense.  Nor did the axe she was carrying.  It probably had to do with the theme that Nicholas hadn't paid attention too.  He'd decided ages ago this year was going to be a god of some kind of alcohol.

He grabbed a glass and tipped his staff until wine started filling the cup. "Dionysus.  Peyton is the god of sexy."  He drained the glass in one gulp.  He sat the glass down, "What you don't think he can let loose? Such a mean thing to think about our host.  Where is he anyways? He-" Nicholas pointed at Peyton, "got side tracked by the food."

She smiled at Sasha, glad he liked her costume. "I'm on the case," she winked. At his defensiveness over Figaro's comment, she gently squeezed his arm in reassurance.

Abby pouted at Raine when she said she might skip the trails, catching a trace of worry in her flatmate's smile. Though her worry made Abby doubt for a moment, she held her gaze and shrugged. No way was Abby missing out on the fun. She'd find her later, as birds of a feather did.

While Raine and Sasha caught up, Moira fell in line beside her, the skull prop hovering near her shoulder.

"Do you know where you want to explore first when we start?"

Abby faltered in her steps, a grin spreading across her face.

"Does this mean you're coming with me, Moira?" She hip-nudged her as they walked towards the house. As long as someone responsible was with her, she'd be fine. Her friend wouldn't leave her in the forest.

"Figaro!" She called over her shoulder. "You're coming with us, right? After we stock up?"

She could just imagine Raine's concerned glance boring into the back of her head, but Abby was curious! Raine didn't like him. Fauna had confided that she'd met him for drinks and all was well now. Moira and Figaro knew each other, at least.

"I don't know many muggle fairytales," she told them as they turned the corner in the hall, hearing familiar voices from the dining room. "But I'm happy to follow the fox or whatever."

They were going to get so, so lost.

Figaro popped his head up from where he was holding an obnoxious golden goblet out for Nick to fill with wine from his staff.

"What?"

It was Abby.

"Yes!"

He didn't know who 'us' was, but it didn't matter. Everyone here was getting along, or at least under an uneasy ceasefire. He gathered up his bag again, slid his mask back on, and went to follow Abby and the rest of the 'us'.

"If I don't speak with a dead fox as soon as possible then I'm going to break a window," he explained in calm hyperbole. How the hell Sasha had managed a talking fox skeleton, he could guess other than Sasha always being quite good at magic. Or was it science? Spooky.

"Really?" Fauna tried to remember the gods of Greek Mythology, and smiled as she realized the joke. "I mean, it works for him," she agreed with a nod at Peyton.

She sipped at her wine glass, which she'd filled with fermented pumpkin juice that someone with good taste had left on the table.

"Um, he's probably doing last minute preparations. Or worrying as his, uh, last step." Fauna raised her eyebrows at Nick. "We could find him and say hi?"

She briefly considered bringing Sasha gillyweed.

As Moira, Abby, and Figaro entered the dining room and Fig made a beeline for the wine, Abby was laughing at something he'd said. Fauna's face brightened, glad to see them.

"Dead foxes?" Fauna moseyed over, glancing at Nick in case he'd heard about this.

Abby hugged her, exclaiming that she made a feisty bar wench, and though Fauna's face fell, she let it pass. She wasn't quite sure which bird of prey Abby was.

"You look like a badass bird."

"Phoenix," Abby smiled.

That made sense. "I brought pumpkin spice cupcakes," she told her, and Abby was off, selecting a few treats from the table.

"Fig!" Fauna hugged him, careful to avoid the full goblet he carried. She hadn't seen him since he'd told her that his mum was well again, and that warranted a hug, too bad so sad.

She smiled at Moira, and glanced at her costume with the floating skull, and Fig's mask. "Did you two coordinate?" Fauna tilted her head, confused.

Peyton let a well earned blush rise to his cheeks and he gave his boyfriend a teasing kiss by his ear, "It's Apollo actually." He mentioned after Fauna came to realize Nick was making a joke. He motioned to the bow and quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder.

"It's Blake right? You used to play for the Hufflepuff team. Ayla talked about you a lot." He gave her a friendly smile. He didn't know the older girl all too well, other than what he had heard from others, "Berkeley says you're making a great Auror these days."

It was almost surreal as the pair were joined by a splattering of former Hogwarts students. Had it not been for the fact that the last four months had seemed like a dream Peyton would have thought he was back at the castle. The only person he didn't recognize was the red head that had thrown her arms around Fauna.

"I love phoenixes!" Peyton added as she mentioned what her costume was. His favourite broom had been nicknamed Phoenox and before he started dating Nicholas, his patronus had been one of the firebirds as well.

He looked confused for a moment, "Dead foxes? What has Sasha been up to?"

"What?  I didn't say anything untrue."  Nicholas laughed as Fauna got the joke and Peyton explained.  "Don't get any ideas though, he's mine.  Unless you want to share?"  He looked at Peyton, "Sharing is caring.  Though Sasha would have a heart attack if we turned his party into a Greek orgy....Roman orgy?  We should have come as Roman gods."  He sighed at the missed opportunity.  Though he was pretty sure he was the only exhibitionist in the group.  Well Fig might be convinced.

He would have met Abby with a hug when she came in with Fig and Moira, but Fig had presented him with a goblet to fill before he had a chance.  That was why he'd chosen the costume.   "Hopefully not killing the local wildlife.  The muggles frown on that right?"  He asked no one in particular.

"You look like a badass bird."

"That's because Abby is a badass bird.  But your costume looks awesome too.  Did you bring chocolate?  Is there chocolate over there?"

She let the others outstrip them on the way to the kitchen, lingering behind at a sedate pace as she chatted with the infamous Schlawkward. They had come a long way from being two prefects on midnight rounds in the castle. It was funny to think that neither of them graduated as prefects - him because of some disciplinary issue, her because she'd given the role up to train with Ira and never claimed it back.

That meant something right? About how they'd changed? Less about the rules, more about their interests.

"I'm glad you found something to throw your efforts into," she remarked with a glance at their surroundings again, smiling dryly. "Not that anyone would ever doubt you would. Never one for idle hands being the devil's playground."

Perhaps all for the better. Godric knew what kind of evil her old classmate would be capable of if he set his mind to it - and she preferred him on her side of the law. Unlike some people who she would prefer to apprehend. The witch glanced ahead as Fig disappeared with the others into the kitchen to join another group.

            "Is it too much?"

"I mean..." Raine laughed lightly. "It's a little nouveau riche but it gets the job done, doesn't it? And Halloween is all about putting on a show. You should feel proud of what you've accomplished here."

Her upbringing had been different from his - initially less wealthy and then, when the clan welcomed her, their wealth was painstakingly classist in its use. Not to mention the wizarding element. But Ira would have probably approved of this theatricality and the potential for chaos.

"Does this belong to your family?" she raised her eyes to the high ceilings, trying to imagine generations of Schlagenweits living within its halls - nerdy young man and bashful young women all with noses in books.  "They must have had many more children in the past. Or were they more like us?" Raine gestured at herself, meaning the Almasys. "Living with extended families?"

"Me?!  Idle hands?"

After momentarily feigning offense, complete with a hand pressed in dramatic agony against the gold-hued tunic, Sasha grinned and shook his head.  "I'm not sure I know how to be idle," he admitted.  "In the end, it was all remarkably therapeutic."   

He had a suspicion, even without saying as much, that that was something to which Raine could probably relate.  They'd both hand an interesting assortment of ... perspective-altering, unintentional life experience.  Both of their times at Hogwarts had been unexpectedly challenged by unwelcome outside forces.

Against all odds, it seemed, they'd both made it here. 

He followed Raine's gaze up to the ceiling as they trailed Abby, Moira and Figaro into the hall and chuckled, with a slight shrug.  "The original was destroyed in the war, but it belonged to my step-father's family, so I guess it does, by marriage."  The same familial dynamic he'd soon be sharing with Raine.  "Which I guess will be the case with-"  he started to say before catching himself, both from a moment of uncertainty and the sudden conglomeration of quite a number of their former classmates. 

"I think it was a combination of the two.  Lots of children.  Extended family.  Staff and armsmen.  The whole keep type thing - at least until the wars.  Then, obviously, the familial skeletons had to slink away to the closets and-"

"Dead foxes? What has Sasha been up to? ... Sharing is caring.  Though Sasha would have a heart attack if we turned his party into a Greek orgy....Roman orgy?"

So, Nick had arrived.  Sasha rolled his eyes as he turned away from Raine to greet the recent arrivals.  "No.  More just disappointed at your lack of entertainment creativity.  But, I suppose, there's no shortage of rooms.  But, the dead foxes are outside." 

It already looked like people were starting to split off on their own adventures.  Sascha grinned and waved at Abby before turning back to Raine and grinning at Fauna. 

"Should we go find our own adventure?  I mean...I know most of them, assuming they haven't found a mind of their own."