October arrived spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle.

Madam Pomfrey, the matron, was kept busy by a sudden spat of colds among the staff and students.

Her pepper-up potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours.

Ginny Weasley, who had been looking peeky, was bullied into taking some by Percy.

The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.

I'm Vanessa Zoltan.

I'm Jackson Bird.

And this is a special Halloween episode of Harry Potter in The Sacred Tess.

Ooh.

Jackson, I'm so excited to have you here for this because I hate Halloween.

Whoa, big reveal.

Didn't know that coming into this episode.

Oh, yeah.

I just lived on a college campus for too many years.

And Halloween is just like drunk teenage boys and masks with like no repercussions.

That is completely fair as someone who loves Halloween. I mean,

tell people how much you love Halloween. I mean, I've loved Halloween since I was like a toddler for as long as

I can remember for so many different reasons. I feel like throughout my life, I've sort of identified

more and more reasons why I like it. And part of it is like as I have grown, I've

just learned more about some of the meaning behind it and the origins of different cultural

traditions and the metaphors that we can bring from them as well. You may be interested in the

sort of divination history of Halloween and that it often was a time where you would sort of like

...