AN: Voldemort has no horcruxes and I don't own the Harry Potter series.
Chapter 2: Halloween
By their first Halloween, the Potter twins had become a part of The Potters.
There were photos of them in scrapbooks, on walls, on nightstands, in pockets, in wallets, everywhere in the houses and the hearts of those inhabiting the house and some close friends and Order members, and definitely in the minds of many.
In the morning Lily wasn't saying, "Morning, James. Want me to make coffee?" She was saying, "Morning, James. I'm going to go check on the twins and make coffee."
There was no longer an extra office on the second floor. There was just the bedroom belonging to Lily and James, a bathroom, and the nursery housing the Potter twins.
They were small changes, but they all acknowledged that yes, there are new Potter children here.
In the months prior to their first Halloween, the sickly little girl (or would it be a boy?) was treated for whatever it was that caused them to be so frail and waifish. However, neither of the Potter parents knew much of illnesses- especially illnesses in relation to infants. Or illnesses in relation to miscast charms, not that they had even considered that. So, the sick little baby stayed a sick little baby even if it was fed more or fussed over. After all, who would even think to consider what that miscast charm from all those months ago could have done? Certainly not Lily, and especially not James. Nobody likes to think about how majorly they have mucked things up.
So, on the new Potters' first Halloween, everything was perfectly normal. Peachy, even.
There were magical decorations, like floating candles, bats, and pumpkins. There were cute little onesies for the twins with cute little patterns of candies and Halloween-esque things like bats and vampires. The elder Potters even read 'scary' stories to the poor little infant and its healthy, vibrant twin brother.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on that particular Halloween. It was just a normal day for the Potter family with added sweets and storytelling.
The next Halloween, though…
Not so much.
It may have started the same, with Lily grumbling, "Morning, James," here she would yawn, "I'm going to go check on the twins and get coffee. See you downstairs." She may have even kissed James or some other equally romantic behavior typical to a young couple deeply in love and deeply wanting to go back to sleep for a few more hours.
But, again, it went like the Halloween prior. There were candies, a young couple, the couples' twin children (but really, they weren't looking very alike anymore with how sick one was), stories to be told, cute little onesies, all the typical Halloween things involved in all the typical families. Except, toward nightfall, the parents left the house to attend a little Halloween get-together the younger members of the Order had decided to throw at a well-warded location to 'boost morale'. Or get drunk and forget about a war, but who cares for the semantics? Maybe they were just discussing how cute the various Order members' kids were or which Hogwarts house is superior.
After all, they could afford to leave two perfectly average little babies in a warded room in a warded house for a few hours, couldn't they?
According to Voldemort, no. They could not.
So, Voldemort got the secret of where the prophecy child and its family dwelled from Peter Pettigrew. And he went there, expecting the pathetic little blood-traitor and its pet mudblood to put up some kind of fight as they screamed something like, "Murder is wrong! Don't kill my child! Kill me instead!" or some other nonsense.
But no.
Just an empty house.
So, seeing its empty state, he wandered around. For all he knew, they had left the pesky little prophecy child in a broom cupboard.
Eventually, Voldemort reached the nursery. And the wailing children. Really, did those things ever shut up?
Seeing the prophecy child (children?) right there, practically on a silver platter just for him, Voldemort didn't hesitate for even a millisecond. He aimed his wand, said the incantation, and made the perfect wand movement.
And then sneezed and completely mucked it up and oh no there was a green light going his way and-
There was a pile of dust on the nursery floor. And a cackling infant little boy and a sickly little infant girl (or maybe that charm affected the fetus already in Lily's womb, but who likes to consider those things) in a crib looking down on that pile of dust and silently judging it.
Eventually Lily and James came home, much to their children's relief. After all, a pile of (vile smelling) dust and sleep can only entertain one-year-olds for so long. The most entertaining thing to happen while the poor little babies' parents were off doing shots and sobbing over how adorable children are would likely be that ugly tall guy being a magical failure.
After an appropriate amount of panic over the stinky pile of dust and a half-exploded chunk of wand, the babies were cooed over and the adults were crying and calling Albus Dumbledore to figure out what on earth had happened, and whatever else concerned parents would do in the event of a botched case of infanticide. The aurors were probably involved in some way or another, and Pettigrew was probably labeled as a criminal, but it was a very traumatic night and nobody could be expected to remember every little thing.
That Halloween was traumatic to some, funny to others, but ultimately was just one more Halloween for the family to enjoy together.
It started in a perfectly normal way, almost became a tragedy, and ended in mild hilarity.
It may not have ended up being an average Halloween, but it was likely one of the more eventful Halloweens the family ended up having.
Yep, it was just a plain old Halloween involving a plain family doing plain family things like ending a war and getting drunk with friends.