In honor of Halloween, and Molly Weasley's birthday, I am posting a Halloween one-shot set in my Unity series. This takes place while Harry Potter/James Lydell is seven years old and living at the orphanage. Before anyone claims I made a mistake, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were called the 'Hero Turtles' in Britain and some other European countries when it first came out. I looked it up on Wikipedia. If this isn't very good, I apologize in advance. I don't think I could write as good Halloween fics set in the HP universe as the ones Snapegirlkmf has written/.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. The gifted author J.K. Rowling does.
Halloween had arrived and all the children over the age of three at the Sunnybrook Orphanage were quite excited. Bags of sweets had been bought, and each child got nine pieces, one from each of the employees, and two from Mrs. Draper, the director. Also, those four and older could dress up and go trick-or-treating in the neighborhoods nearby. Mrs. Draper and the cook took all the four, five, and six-year olds, while the housekeeper and her husband, also a teacher, took the seven and eight-year olds. Everyone else was considered old enough to go out without adults, though the nine and ten-year olds had to stay together.
This year, however, James wasn't quite as excited as usual. Last month, in September, a couple named the Carters had come to the orphanage and decided that they wanted to adopt one of his two best friends, Kyle Melling. While Kyle was happy to be adopted, he really did not want to leave his friends James and Mariko Kishi. However, the Carters couldn't exactly adopt three children at once, and in any case, James no more wanted to leave behind his pretend siblings, Stuart and Stella Lydiell, than he did his friend. So once the paperwork was completed and the judge approved things, which would probably be sometime next month, Kyle would leave Sunnybrook to live with his new parents. Therefore, it was the last Halloween that James, Kyle, and Mariko would celebrate together.
Despite this, James wanted to make the most of his favorite holiday, next to Christmas, and enjoy things. He got dressed in his costume, which was Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. He tied on the orange mask around his eyes, put on the green turtle suit Mrs. Draper and the housekeeper had made, and picked up the nunchaku he had made out of cardboard tubes and painted and a bag decorated with the Hero Turtles for his sweets.
"Kyle, are you ready?" he asked, turning around to look at his friend. Kyle was dressed as a knight. He had on a plastic knight's helmet, chestplate armor made of cardboard covered with foil, a shield of cardboard painted yellow with a red construction paper lion pasted on, and a plastic sword borrowed from the toy chest was at his belt.
"Almost," replied Kyle. "I just need to grab my horse and sweets bag." He picked up a stuffed toy horse's head that was attatched to a broom handle and a bag decorated with pumpkins.
"Okay, let's go get Mari and then join the rest of the group," said James with a smile. "Luke, great costume."
Luke, who had just turned eight and shared the room with them, gave a little laugh. "Well, it's almost the same as yours, since I'm Leo."
James gave Kyle a mock glare. "You were s'posed to be Donatello, you know. Not a knight, Kyle."
"Someone had to be the knight in shining armor that rescues the princess from the dragon!" Kyle half-protested. "'Sides, that let Paul and Brian dress up as Raphael and Donatello."
Mari had decided to dress up as a princess this year, which had prompted Kyle to decide to be her 'knight in shining armor' and was the reason for his costume. However, as Mari wasn't the type of girl that was content to sit back and let herself be rescued, had quickly said, "But I'm helping you defeat the dragon. I'll tell you how to get past the traps and I'll throw stuff at the dragon to 'stract him when you're fighting him."
"You know I'm not really mad, Kyle," said James. "We do have all four Hero Turtles. Now, let's go join the rest."
Across the hall, the four seven- and eight-year old girls left the room they shared. Among them was Mari, who was wearing a plastic gold-colored crown with fake rubies, a pretty pink dress from the dress-up trunk, and carried a Disney princess bag. She looked quite pretty, and when Mrs. Draper appeared, exclaimed, "My, you girls look adorable!" Since the other three were costumed as an angel, the Disney version of Cinderella, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, complete with a stuffed black dog, it was quite true.
Paul and Brian McDowell, the six-year old twins, joined the group. Though being six, they were trick-or-treating with the seven- and eight-year olds so the four Hero Turtles didn't have to split up. Mr. and Mrs. Goddard turned up at this point and complimented everyone on their costumes. Then they gathered the group of nine kids and escorted them out. After a five-minute walk, they arrived at the neighborhood and walked up to the first house.
At each house, people said that the girls were adorable or cute and similar things, and complimented the boys on having a knight and all four Hero Turtles. Everyone handed out sweets, except for one house that gave out popcorn balls because the couple that lived there were dentists.
After an hour and an half, the group had gone to all the houses and they headed back to the orphanage. The nine kids were going through their bags. James and Kyle traded their Cadbury and Mars Bars, since James liked Mars Bars the best and Kyle liked Cadbury. When they arrived at Sunnybrook, Mrs. Draper allowed them to have two pieces of their sweets, then sent them up ro bed.