AN: Because what's a holiday without a holiday themed fic? I know there will probably be several, but let's just hope this one stands slightly out from the rest.
Harry ran around the halls of his house, trying to catch the hyper active Teddy that raced through it. Harry was going to be taking Teddy trick-or-treating and the boy couldn't stand still with excitement. It made Harry think back to when the time Dudley gave him a caramel apple. He was so happy, thinking that the Dursleys, well, Dudley, had finally accepted him. Then he bit into a rotten apple and spent the remainder of the night and some of the morning before school in the bathroom, hunched over the toilet.
Because he was so focused on trying to find Teddy he didn't see his wife and, long story short, tackled the unexpected ginge.
"What are you doing?" Ginny groaned as Harry rolled off of her.
"Looking for Teddy so we can leave," Harry said. His face was red with embarrassment.
"He's by the door, waiting for you!"
"Oh, okay," Harry finished brushing off the fake dust on Ginny's shoulder. He headed toward the door when he was stopped, once more, by his wife.
"Where's your costume?"
"Gin, adults don't wear costumes."
"Oh really?" Ginny asked, indicating to the pink, fluffy bunny onesie she had on. Harry's jaw dropped. It was almost an exact replica of the bunny suit the kid had to wear in the one movie, "A Christmas Story."
"You look like Victoire's room threw up on you," Harry winced.
"Shouldn't you be leaving?" Ginny snapped, furious with Harry's idea of a kid-friendly costume, unlike her neighbor.
"Yes, I should," Harry replied. He kissed Ginny good bye and grabbed Teddy's hand. The two headed across the street to pick up another member of the trick-or-treating party. Harry didn't bother knocking and just let himself in. It was just Bill and Fleur after all.
The story behind Harry and Ginny living across the street from Bill and Fleur is something of a mystery since they both moved in around the same time. There was still a lasting debate on whether Harry and Ginny moved in across the street from Bill and Fleur, or if Bill and Fleur moved in across the street from Harry and Ginny. Either way, they lived across from each other.
"Hello!" Harry called. Teddy held hung onto him with impatience.
"Hey Harry!" Bill called from somewhere to the left. Harry followed the sound of his voice to the sitting room where Bill was relaxing on the couch, sipping some fruity drink in a glass. In the middle of the room, Victoire was standing on a pedestal while Fleur made some final stitchings on her costume.
"Hello Harry, Teddy," Fleur muffled through her mouth full of pins.
"Look! I'm a bear!" Teddy cried.
"No, Ted, you're the lion from the "Wizard of Oz"," Harry explained to the boy. Why he wanted to be the cowardly lion to begin with was an enigma to him, but that's what he wanted to be.
"I want to be a bear!" Ted pouted. Harry rolled his eyes and gave his wand a small flick. Teddy's costume turned from a lion to a fluffy brown bear. Teddy, seeing his costume change, hugged himself happily.
"Vicky's a muggle," Bill said. The three year old jumped up and down happily. Fleur furrowed her brown in frustration. She quickly finished her stitch and handed her daughter a brightly colorful bucket.
Victoire bounced off the stool and she and Teddy raced out the door, eager to get as much candy in the two and a half hours their curfew would permit.
"I better catch up with them," Harry said shyly.
"Wait, where's your costume?" Fleur asked him.
"Don't have one," Harry said simply.
"You have to have a costume!" She cried indignantly. Harry rolled his eyes and flicked his wand toward himself. He only had one costume idea since he was a neophyte when it came to dressing up. He looked down at the quadrilateral-ish shaped outfit.
"What are you supposed to be?" Bill asked, from his new position at the window, seeing where the kids ran off to. He wasn't surprised to find them with his sister, who was a ridiculous bunny outfit.
"Well, I remember Hermione saying something about this state over in the U.S that had a birthday the same day as Halloween, so I thought I'd be that state."
"Creative."
"Where's the kids?" Fleur asked.
"With Ginny," Bill replied.
"And that's my cue to take off. Bye Bill, Fleur," Harry waived as he ran across the street to redirect the kids to the candy route they drew earlier that morning.
The night seemed to go by rather slowly for Harry. He would stand by the kids protectively as they received candy from strangers. It may just be his past, auror training, or growing paranoia, but he say some stranger grabbing Teddy and Vicky, dragging them inside where they have a torture chamber in their basement and that would be the last time he'd ever see them again.
The three headed home early. Part of the reason was that their candy buckets were so filled, Harry now had to carry them and part of the reason was because the children were starting to fall asleep as they walked.
When they got to their street, there was still a steady bustle of trick-or-treaters, but Harry noticed that a majority of the little kids were gone and were replaced with teenagers.
He dropped Vicky off at home since she actually had fallen asleep standing up and Harry had to carry her the remainder of the walk and Teddy wasn't far behind her.
"I thought you weren't going to dress up," Ginny commented as Harry trudged inside. Teddy went straight for Ginny, who scooped the five year old into her arms and carried him inside to put him to bed.
Harry collapsed on the couch and pulled off his shoes. No wonder Dudley was crying when he came back from trick-or- treating. Actually, Dudley came home crying because he didn't get enough candy so, Aunt Petunia would give him what was left in the bowl of hand outs she had, which was generally half of a punch bowl. His feet were incredibly sore. He had no idea why either. He had endured far more foot torture in auror training.
Harry put his head back and closed his eyes for a brief moment.
"You know you're probably will be doing this for about 13 more years right?" Ginny said, entering the room again as well as 'blessing' Harry's presence with her costume.
"What makes you say that?" Harry mused, "Teddy goes to Hogwarts in six years."
"Yeah, but you're going to have to take our kids too."
"We don't have kids."
"Not yet, anyways," Ginny said.
"Is that your way of telling me your pregnant?" Harry wasn't in the mood for games.
"No, I'm just saying."
"Okay, well I'm just going to say goodnight," Harry stood up and dragged his dogs up the stairs and down the hall to the master's.
On his way there, he passed by Teddy's room. While doing so, teddy jumped out in front of Harry and screamed, waiving his arms around in his bear costume. Harry, caught off guard, screamed too, and staggered back, tripping over a rubber ball that was left in the hall and narrowly missed tumbling down the stairs.
"Ha! I scared you good, Harry!" Teddy squealed and ran back to his room.
"That kid gets no tip," Harry mumbled to himself, pulling the bag of candy he slipped from the bowl to give to the boy out of his pocket and slipped a toffee into his mouth.
AN: the end! That state by the way, is Nevada! Happy...146th birthday Nevada! Hope you enjoyed it. I still don't own any of this, but I am positive that will not discourage you from reviewing ! Reviews=love. Happy Halloween/ Nevada day people. Make good choices
