Malcolm had arrived with his family, dressed in his bunny pyjamas costume like he said he would be. However, he only stuck with them long enough for his dad to get into a rousing conversation with some man whose name escaped Malcolm while his mum and Effie showed off Keith and Achim hovered between his wife and his father-in-law before finally settling on joining in on the conversation with the other wizards. Once they were occupied, he gave a soft "finding mates, laters" to them and headed around to check out everything the museum had to offer.
Wandering around a bit, he debated on going into the haunted wing. He wasn't necessarily a thrill seeker, but he was curious about how it was decorated and what spells they might have used to make it so haunted. He wondered if he'd get scared or not, and he thought about how now would be a perfect time to have a knight or prince or duke or something at his side. It wouldn't exactly be romantic, but it would be nice to not go alone. Just in case, of course. For all he knew, it could be quite scary, though he wondered if they'd really put something quite scary in a place where small children could wander through.
As he considered this, he noticed a hat not too far off. It wasn't unusual given the holiday, but it was a cowboy hat (or what Malcolm considered to be a cowboy hat but was probably just a hat hat but whatever), and he hadn't seen that many cowboys since he arrived. And the two he had seen were a bit more ornate, and one was a girl, so technically he'd seen a cowboy and a cowgirl. And neither looked like the one he was looking at now. The logical conclusion his mind made was that this one was Jude because Jude had said he was going as a cowboy, and the other cowpeople weren't Jude. He had just enough forethought not to shout Jude's name and run through the crowd to see if it was his friend, but he did move quickly to ensure he didn't lose him in the crowd.
"Jude! Hi, Jude!" he said as he came up beside him, thankful that he could recognise his friend's profile. He smiled up at him and took the costume him, having no idea how authentic it may or may not be. But it looked good, so what did it matter just then if it was or wasn't? Malcolm didn't think it mattered much at all since it was Halloween and not some other event where authenticity was key.