A/N This is one of my entries for Round 9 of the Houses competition
House: Ravenclaw
Category: Themed
Prompt: Diagon Alley
Word Count: 867
An eerie green glow lit up most of Diagon Alley, as shrieks of laughter echoed from all around. It had been the first year Diagon Alley decided to hold their own version of trick or treating amongst the shops. Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour handed out not only ice cream but all sorts of sweets and chocolate to the young, dressed-up witches and wizards in front of them. Flourish & Blotts, as well as seasonal confectionery, offered free small pieces of stationery such as self-correcting ink and beautiful quills. Ollivander put on a magic show and The Leaky Cauldron handed out free drinks. Even Gringotts joined in the fun, gifting small pouches of golden chocolate coins to those dressed- up for the occasion.
The alley itself, usually a bustling street full of wizards and witches in suits and robes, was now full of huge cobwebs, pumpkins, and people dressed up as all sorts: from bony skeletons and dusty mummies to horrifying demons and disgusting monsters. Magic assisted the realism of the experience greatly, helping people easily change from their mundane appearances to creatures from nightmares. Fred and George Weasley, for example, changed their bodies to resemble twins, but so that they only had one eye and their body looked completely a muggle, it would have been terrifying, to them it was hilarious. Despite the grotesque nature of some of the costumes, everyone seemed to be having genuine fun collecting treats and browsing around the various stores.
Fred and George weren't just here for the treats, though; they had some tricks up their sleeve as well. After sneaking away from the other Weasleys, their first mission was to get into the Magical Menagerie. One of the shops that didn't take part due to the potential hazards the animals possessed with people running around the shop all night. Their plan being to turn all the puffskeins green and watch as the owners of the shop panic at the sight As well as gain a potential pet for themselves. George was enamoured with the idea of getting a baby dragon to compete with his brother Charlie's work or a giant orange snail, that oozed poisonous goo. Fred, on the other hand, looked forward to getting his hands on a fire-crab
Breaking in turned out to be easier than expected. A quick utterance of "Alohomora" from George, a flick of the wand and they were in.
It was quiet in the shop. Most of the animals were asleep, even so, they had expected there to be a little bit of noise from some of the creatures.
George walked straight over to the glass cabinets full of the brightly coloured snails he had his eye on, whilst Fred walked over to a set of dark cages and peered in, when he couldn't see anything he tried opening a cage.
"Hey, George, come here, I think there may be some Puffskeins in here!" The boy whispered excitedly.
Fred turned and looked back inside the now open cage, he realised there were no Puffskeins in here but, in fact, bright blue, tiny, humanoid creatures.
"Oh," was all he had time to mutter before the pixies rushed at him and his twin.
Havoc then ensued.
The Pixies flew around the twins' head, pulling their hair and tugging on their clothes. Others explored the rest of the room, opening cages, breaking glass display cabinets as the two boys, now being swarmed by pixies could do nothing but swear loudly and try to bat them away. Their shouts were drowned out by the squawking, howling, growling and various other noises emanating from the multitude of awakened creatures from inside the shop.
Other animals fled out from their opened enclosures now. An owl that had escaped from its cage suddenly found itself with a sheet thrown over its head. Before the twins knew it, the wooden door to the shop was being opened, with difficulty, by one of the blue menaces and the sheeted owl was flying outside along with half of the inhabitants of the shop.
Panic erupted in the crowds, children screamed, parents ran, Ministry officials dashed over to try deal with the matter but when faced with the seven-foot python that just slithered out of the door, they slowed their pace, waiting for another official to interject first, with the madness that was all these escaped magical creatures.
Amongst the destruction, the now slightly battered, but otherwise unharmed, twins smiled to each other and marvelled at potentially one of their best unintentional pranks to date.
"Happy Halloween George," Fred laughed. As he handed over a box containing a bright orange snail. "I may not have found a fire crab but we could maybe share him." He indicated towards the box containing the snail
"Happy Halloween, Fred," the other replied amused, "Course we can share him, what should we name him?"
"He deserves recognition for the joint prank we've achieved tonight. I think he should be called...Sir Snailington"
"Fred, no! That's so lame! What about the Orange Monster?"
"That's even lamer!" cried Fred.
The bickering continued as the two twins left the shop, eager to show the rest of their family the latest addition.