Gifting October THC

For: MoonlightForgotten

Author's Note: I really hope you will like this Moon! It's really not my best, but I did try my best.

Ominous October: Trick and Treat prompts

23rd of October: Trick: The empty swing is swinging.

Betaed by Purple and Bea! Thank you both so much!

Word count: 2056


Near their house, there was a forest, and beside it was a river. Her parents had never allowed her to venture close to the edge though. On the other side was an empty playground, with one lonely swing and a roundabout.

Ginny would always go near it and stare in the times before she went to Hogwarts. The swing would start swinging as soon as she laid eyes on it. When that happened, she thought it was her accidental magic that caused the swing to move. After all, she was a curious child who wanted nothing more than to cross over the water and play.

But now that she was here again, Ginny realised that it wasn't she who made the swing move. She was now twenty years old, a skilled witch in her own right, and she hadn't done any accidental magic in years. She'd come by the Burrow to bring Teddy, whom she and Harry were raising, to her mother for some fun. Harry was waiting there for her, while she'd gone to take a walk down her childhood's memory lane.

Her mother had looked at her as if she wanted to say something before she left, but looking at Harry, she'd become quiet, only saying to remember to not go too far.

The right thing to do probably would have been to go back and talk with her mother about it. But something stopped her. She was unsure what exactly. Ginny took out the shrunk broom from her pocket and enlarging it, she flew over the river, landing right next to the swing.

She soon was knocked over by an invisible force, and noticed the swing was swinging faster and faster.

"Homenum Revelio!" she whispered, taking her wand out.

Nothing happened. She was alone, seemingly. But Ginny knew all too well that things weren't always as they seemed. She went to grab her broom and fly away, but she realised in horror that the broom wasn't on the ground anymore, and in fact was nowhere to be seen. Ginny looked around, summoning the broom with her mind, but nothing. Trying to run out of the playground, she found herself hitting an invisible barrier.

"HELP!" she screamed, looking around. Surely Harry and her mum would come looking for her if she didn't come back soon.

"Hi Hi HI!" A voice came out of nowhere and Ginny turned in circles to see where it had come from.

"Who are you? What's going on?"

"Hi hi hi! Another Weasley! Hi hi hi! Didn't your mother tell you not to cross the river, girl?"

Ginny gulped. Her mother had indeed told her numerous times. If only she'd listened. Gripping her wand, she looked around, hoping to find the mysterious voice's owner.

"You think a wand will stop me? Hi hi hi! Finally, I will have the Weasley I wanted!"

"Sorry? What do you mean?"

Suddenly, a mirage of colours and phantasms spawned around her.

"You will see, girl!"

Ginny blacked out, colours all around her, making out strange sounds coming from all over the place. She tried to shout for help one last time, but her throat refused to work.

When she woke up, she was in the same playground, but the colours around her were muted. Looking at herself, she noticed she alone seemed to be in colour. The swing was still swinging but the mysterious voice was quiet.

Then she saw a young girl come to the playground. She was a redhead too, and was wearing old-fashioned clothes.

"Wait a second. Where's the river?" Ginny whispered, noticing for the first time that there was no river to define the crossing to the playground, but rather grass and a field of flowers.

"What?"

"Shhh, girl. Watch and learn!" the voice said again.

Ginny watched carefully and realised that the redhead girl was her mum. "What?"

But her mother had never lived here before marrying her father. Did she? Didn't she use to live in Scotland? With the rest of the Prewett family?

Then she saw it. The owner of the voice. It was a ghostly figure, dressed in all black, with slick hair. His face was switching between young and old.

Ginny realised her mother was seeing just the child's face reflected at her.

"What are you showing me?"

"The truth, girl!" the voice answered in a sing-song manner. "Now, shh."

Ginny had no choice but to watch. She looked on as her mother grew a friendship with the man, and it grew and grew. And then, things changed when her mother went to Hogwarts. The man wasn't happy when young Molly mentioned Arthur to him.

Soon enough, the time came when Molly confessed to her friend that Arthur Weasley had invited her on a date. That was when the child facade broke and the man appeared in front of her mother, and she started screaming, trying to run away. Ginny was tempted to help, but she knew this was all in the past. Or it wasn't even real, but rather a trick of the creature keeping her prisoner.

Then she saw the two young men, who looked very much like Fred and George, and they came over and shouting spells and curses, and managed to free her mother. They were Fabian and Gideon, Ginny's uncles. Uncles that she had never met.

"YOU DARE TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!" the man, the creature shouted. "YOU DARE TAKE HER AWAY! CURSED YOU SHALL BE FOR YOUR DEFIANCE! SHE WAS MINE AND MINE PROMISED! YOU TWO WILL DIE BROKEN APART! AND SO WILL THE NEXT AND NEXT OF YOUR LINE! NO TWIN MAGIC WILL TAKE WHAT'S MINE AGAIN!"

Then there was a loud bang and Ginny was thrown to the ground. The scene all around her faded, and then she found herself looking again at an empty playground. There was still no river in sight.

Ginny looked around, things didn't seem to have changed much… and yet. She watched as her young brothers came each one around the playground. But none of them truly dared to enter. She wondered if Mum had warned them too. Time seemed to pass, she couldn't be sure. She didn't know where she was, but it didn't seem that time affected her. Ginny briefly wondered if in the present they would even notice her absence.

Then, someone finally entered the playground. With horror, Ginny realised that it was Fred.

"Hi, hi, ha! A soul enters my domain. Who are you?"

"Fred Weasley!"

"A WEASLEY! A twin as I can see!"

Little Fred didn't seem to realise, but the voice was more menacing and threatening.

"FRED! NOO!" Another voice screamed and Ginny saw that it was Percy, running and screaming. "GET OUT!"

Startled, Fred tried to run but found he couldn't. Little Percy did something, and broke the protective barrier keeping Fred prisoner. The creature seemed shocked. As if he hadn't seen something like it before. Ginny could see him, but she noticed that her brothers couldn't.

"Ahahha. Family love, yes. From now, they won't be able to break in anymore. Poor Percy Weasley. Little Fred is already cursed. Your love shall turn away, you will shun what's loved away. And little Fred shall be gone, by the time you remember how to play."

Ginny barely had time to process what the creature had said when she saw her mum running towards them, wand in hand. "Fred, Percy!"

"Mum," Percy said, "he cursed Fred and I!"

"Shh," her mother cried. "You won't remember this," she whispered. "None of you will. The river won't be crossed."

And then, Molly Weasley raised her wand, and water burst from the ground.

"You made the river," Ginny said. "But how? Mum is not an elemental. Is she?"

Then she saw Percy and Fred collapse and be carried away by their mother.

The creature screamed upon seeing the water burst.

"THAT'S EVIL MOLLY! You shall pay for it! Another Weasley will come one day! And you all will pay!"

Then the present creature, the man appeared in front of her, and everything around them froze.

"You see now, do you understand?"

Ginny looked at the man as if he'd grown a second head.

"Understand what? You showed me some things, but only half of it makes sense. How old are you? Mum was just a kid. You started a vendetta against her just because of what? She wanted to date dad? Excuse her for not taking a grown monster guy."

"Grown… monster guy?" The creature seemed very confused.

"Yes."

"I am not… grown. Or a monster."

Suddenly, the man changed into the child she'd seen back when he'd showed her the first scene.

"I am Trick. I am child of the laughter, born on Halloween. I am bound to this playground until I grow up. I have the memories of my ancestors swimming in my brain. Molly was supposed to help me. But she just left. Started saying I look like old man. I am not supposed to look old until I exit the playground. I don't know why I look so now."

"But you cursed my uncles!"

"I did. But they aren't dead because of me. I cursed them to die broken apart, not to die."

"And Fred and Percy?"

"That wasn't a curse. It was a prophecy. My kind are seers. Your mother knows I cannot touch water. She knows, because she comes from a family of water elementals. But she was never able to use her powers until then and then never again."

Ginny was more and more confused.

"If you're not evil, why is she so scared of you?"

"Because she grew up. And I didn't. You saw me throwing a tantrum. I've thrown dozens before and she knew I always calmed down. But she wanted to leave. I never grew up and matured as she did. I may look old, but I am not. My kind doesn't grow as humans do."

"And what do you want with me?"

"To help me grow up. I want to leave this place. I want to fly close to the Moon and Sun. I want to find the rest of my kind who are waiting for me."

"So why did you act crazy?" Ginny was trying to make sense of the strange creature in front of her.

"Because you're a Weasley. You're Molly's daughter. How am I to know if you didn't come to try and kill me? Or seek revenge?"

"If you're telling the truth, let me go. And I promise I will come back and help you become a man."

"That's what Molly said. She would say she'd grow up and help me too."

"I'm sorry about Mum. But I am not her. I promise, I will help you grow up. If you let me go."

The creature man glossed over and said. "Okay. You shall be free. But if you lie, whoever comes next, will pay for your treachery."

"I am not lying. But you have to learn to trust again. Part of being grown up is to understand people make mistakes, but you cannot hold everyone accountable for what a singular person has done. Life doesn't work this way.

As soon as she said the words, a swirl of colours engulfed her again and she found herself alone in the playground. But the swing wasn't swinging anymore and the broom was on the ground, waiting for her.

"What?" she asked herself. "Did I dream?"

"Thank you," the air around seemed to say. "You helped me find what was keeping me a child. Trick is free now and going away. Consider your word kept, young Weasley. And not to worry. It all will be as it never happened!"

As if by magic, the door to the playground opened, and as Ginny flew away over the river, she saw slowly the playground disappearing. Even more strange, she saw the river sinking to the ground. With a blur, she realised, she now could remember playing through the field of flowers as a child. A field that she'd only seen in the memories of Trick.

"He changed time!" she whispered. But Ginny knew there was nothing she could do. Briefly, she wondered if her mother would remember or if she, Ginny, would be the only one to know the truth.