Back again, and a bit older this time. Our gang is in Hogsmeade, being their happy selves. No striptease from Oliver Wood in this chapter, but someone dresses up like a bunny. R/R. :)
Mad props to JKR one more time for the characters. I am not worthy.


Soliciting Chocolate
By Scabbers
1995, Three Broomsticks


"And he was about to take fifty points from Gryffindor, that bast-"

"Ron!"

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so you could tell he was going to take the points away, right, but then McGonagall shows up just in time, and Snape knows she knows we weren't doing anything wrong."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you?"

"That's not important," declared Ron, sipping his butterbeer happily. "The point is, Harry and I got away scot free." Ron and Harry exchanged a high five in honor of their good fortune, as Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Aww, Hermione, lighten up," said Ron, "It's Halloween."

"That doesn't mean you can-"

"Look, Ron, it's your sister," said Harry, hoping to deflect the row he felt was brewing by changing the subject.

"Wonderful," said Ron.

"Hey, Ginny!" called Hermione, waving her over. Ron rolled his eyes, but nevertheless greeted his sister warmly enough. "Happy Halloween, Virginia dear."

"Happy Halloween yourself, Ronald," answered Ginny sweetly. "You too, Hermione...Harry."

"Why don't you join us," invited Hermione. Ginny glanced over at Ron, who shrugged agreeably before she slid into the seat across from him. "This is my all-time favorite holiday," she said, smiling. "Always has been."

A moment later, she was struck with the horrible realization that Harry's parents had died on Halloween. Her smile faded as she berated herself for her thoughtlessness. "I always say the wrong thing," she thought miserably.

Thankfully, no one else seemed to remember that little detail, and Harry didn't look particularly upset, currently. Ron was blabbering away now, probably trying in his misguided way to impress Hermione with tales of his candy collecting prowess as a youth.

"And that year I was a Chudley Cannon-"

"You were always a Cannon," reminded Ginny, "Every year."

"Go figure," remarked Hermione.

"Yeah, well, what were you for Halloween growing up? A princess or something? No wait, let me guess... you were a witch with a green face and warts and everything. The same as all the Muggle girls."

"I'll have you know that I was always very creative with my Halloween costumes," Hermione said loftily.

"Oh really?"

"Really. Let's see... one year, I was Oscar the Grouch. My mum actually did paint my face green, and I walked around in a trash can."

"Who the hell is Oscar the Grouch?"

"I guess it's a Muggle thing... and watch your language, Ron!"

"You sound like my mum."

Hermione turned to Ginny for support, but she could only giggle and say, "Well you do sort of sound like her."

"Yeah, well...?" Finally, she just gave up and grinned. "Well, I like your mum, anyway."

At that point, everyone sort of noticed at the same time that Harry had been rather subdued throughout the entire conversation. "You okay, Harry?" asked Ron.

'Huh? Oh...yeah," said Harry, seeming startled. "Sorry, I guess I was daydreaming."

"We were just reminiscing about Halloween," said Hermione. "Were you ever anything exciting, or were you just the same thing every year like Ron was?" Ron grinned and shrugged.

"Oh. Well, actually, I never went trick-or-treating, or anything," he said, almost apologetically. "My aunt and uncle wouldn't- oh, look, there's Katie Bell. I need to ask her something." He got up from the table and walked quickly away.

"Um...Katie Bell's not in here," murmured Ron, shaking his head as he watched Harry's retreating back.

"Oh, I feel terrible!" moaned Hermione, burying her face in her hands. "I should have guessed what Halloween was like for him. How insensitive of me!"

"You didn't know," said Ron, patting her arm awkwardly, and immediately turning bright red at the touch.

"That's so sad," remarked Ginny quietly, eyes still fixed in the direction Harry had gone. "I wish there was something we could do..." Suddenly, her face lit up. "I'll be back, guys. I've got to get something from Honeydukes!"

"Great," said Ron, "Pick me up a couple of fizzing whizbees, will you?"

"No, stupid. I'm going to Honeydukes for a specific purpose. For Harry," said Ginny. "I... we are going to give him his Halloween. We'll get loads of candy and spread it out between everybody. Make him trick-or-treat for it!"

Ron looked skeptical. "Are you sure you're not just doing this because you fancy him and you're trying to-"

"Oh, shut it, Ron!" said Hermione. "Ginny, that's so sweet."

Ron glanced at Hermione, ears reddening. "Right, so Honeydukes it is. Brilliant idea, Ginny, really."

Ginny smiled. "But we'll make like it was your brilliant idea, okay? I don't want him to think...well, you know."

"If you say so..." said Hermione to Ginny's now-empty chair. She was already halfway to Honeydukes, her red ponytail bobbing behind her.

~

"So run this by me one more time- why am I wearing the headband?"

"It's not a headband," explained Ron patiently. "Those are your bunny ears. It's Halloween, and naturally, you are a cute ickle bunny rabbit."

"I'm a bunny. Naturally," said Harry, with a slow nod. He looked very, very confused.

"Come on, Harry, it's time to go trick-or-treating," said Hermione, linking her arm through his. "They're expecting us."

Ron and Hermione led a bewildered Harry first to his own dormitory. The door was closed, and Harry could hear spooky music playing inside. "Go ahead," said Ron, "Knock." Harry did so, hesitantly. Slowly, the door opened, and Ron nudged Harry. "Say it!" he hissed, "And hold out your pillowcase."

"Uh... trick-or-treat?"

"Ah, a trick-or-treater!" cackled Seamus, who had charmed his entire face to glow in the dark. "So, tell me, Potter, have you been a good boy this year?"

"Wrong holiday, moron," said Dean Thomas. "Just give him the candy."

"Right, the candy. Neville!"

Neville Longbottom, dressed as a ghost, clambered across the room with a bowl of candy. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to cut eye holes, and he tripped over Ron's bed with a resounding "Oof."

"Beautiful, Neville," said Seamus, scrambling to gather the bits of cockroach cluster and toffee that were scattered across the floor. Smiling, he dropped them into Harry's pillowcase. "They're okay- ten second rule."

Harry didn't know how to respond- no one had ever done anything like this for him before. "Oh, wow. Thanks, guys-"

"We're not done yet," interrupted Dean. He then proceeded to add an armload of Muggle candy into Harry's pillowcase. "Peanut M&M's," he declared, dropping the last package in with great flourish. "Now that is some quality shit."

~

Ron and Hermione accompanied Harry to each dormitory in Gryffindor, laughing quietly to each other as his smile grew with the weight of his pillowcase. Years of barely a fruit flavored tootsie roll were made up for with chocolate frogs in Ginny's dormitory, every flavor beans from Lavender and Parvati, sugar quills from the girls on the Quidditch team, and all kinds of suspicious looking things from Fred and George.

"I can't believe... why did you...?" Harry flopped into a chair in the common room, beaming up at his two best friends.

"Happy Halloween, Harry!" said Hermione simply, hugging him. And then, for no reason at all, she hugged Ron, too, before skipping merrily to her dormitory for bed.

"What?" asked Ron, a moment later.

Harry was smirking, eyebrows raised. "You're grinning," he said.

"I'm NOT grinning," said Ron.

"Oh, but you are."

"Shut up."


~


"I mean, look at all of this," marveled Harry later in the dormitory, looking incredulously at the mountain of candy on his bed. "This is insane. Here, Ron, try this," he said, tossing a Reeses cup in his direction. "It's Muggle candy. You'll like it." Ron, who was looking at something by wandlight, caught it in the air.

"Shh," he whispered. "They're sleeping. Mmm, this is good."

"Whoops," said Harry, wide awake from all the chocolate. "Hey, what are you looking at?"

Ron looked up. "Huh, this? It's just something my mum sent me. An old picture- have a look if you want." He stretched his arm out and handed it to Harry.

Harry laughed quietly. "Halloween, I'm guessing? What are Fred and George supposed to be?"

"Muggles," said Ron, "They were, like, seven."

"I like their extension cords. Oh, and there's you in your Cannons gear."

"Right. Go Cannons," said Ron, yawning.

"And that's got to be Percy...and Ginny the cat. With a heart nose."

"Yup, Ginny," said Ron, fading fast. "It was all her idea, you know."

Harry felt himself blush suddenly. "What was?" he asked, although he was pretty sure he already knew.

"This," Ron said, gesturing sleepily to the pile of candy. "Your Halloween."

"Oh," replied Harry, not quite sure what to say.

~

The minutes ticked by, and Harry found that he couldn't sleep. He couldn't even keep his eyes closed. Ginny Weasley, he thought. "It was all her idea, you know," Ron had said.

He rolled over in bed. Why hadn't she said anything? She must have told Hermione not to say anything either. More importantly, he thought, why had she arranged all of this for him, and what in the world was he going to say to her tomorrow?

Suddenly, there was something he wanted to do, needed to do, and he needed to do it at that moment. Selecting a pack of red Muggle twizzlers and a few bags of Dean's favorite peanut M&M's, Harry put on his glasses and crept silently down to Ginny's dormitory. Quietly and carefully, he opened the door.

The fourth-year girls were all sound asleep- Ginny herself lay on the second bed, mouth slightly open, cuddling a stuffed animal. Harry watched her for a minute, her blankets rising and slowly falling as she breathed.

At one point, she looked like she was about to sneeze, and as her freckled nose crinkled, he imagined the heart that had once been painted on it. She was cute, he realized with a start. She was the cute of someone who had been an adorable child, and then had suddenly grown up while no one was paying attention.

That would be something for him to ponder tomorrow, he thought, looking at the rust colored hair spread messily across her pillow. Yes, he had loads to think about tomorrow.

For now, though, he knelt on the floor beside her bed, and opened the bags of candy as quietly as he could. In peanut M&M's, he spelled "thank you", on top of a piece of parchment so she could eat it in the morning.

Then, beneath it, he made her a smiley face with two green M&M's for eyes and a twizzler for a mouth. There he left it, smiling up at her, as he crept quietly back to his dorm and slept til November.


~
~

The end...

Hope it made you happy, or at least made you crave M&M's. Have an amazing day!
Love,
Scabbers, who was never Oscar the Grouch for Halloween, and actually prefers crunchy M&M's to peanut.