Disclaimer: Anything and everything you see here belongs to the marvelous JKR!
A/N: This was in answer to Lovelyluna's Halloween challenge over on the forums. Thank you to FaymosAmos for coming up with the title for this!
Tricks for Petunia, Treats for Lily
by: 62442almystery
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were fluttering about, trying to get their two daughters ready for their first ever Halloween. Lily Evans, their daughter of four years, and Petunia Evans, their daughters of three years, were both going to be going trick-or-treating in just a short while, and there parents wanted everything to be perfect. They had decided that last year, Petunia was too young to be doing it, and they didn't want Lily to start without her, so Lily had had a year to come up with what she wanted to dress up as, and finally, after visiting the store, had picked a witch. Her mother was busy applying some nail polish and make-up to make Lily more of the stereotypical kind of witch. Finally, she topped it off with a cute black, full-length dress and pointy black hat.
Then, it was Petunia's turn. Petunia had definitely not wanted to be a witch, saying that witches were stupid and fake, though Lily thought Petunia was scared of them after watching a movie a few days ago. Instead, she was going to go as some movie actress, which had been her father's idea after Petunia wouldn't settle for anything else.
Her mother put on a flashy dress on her, and then she put some glittery plastic jewelry on her, and Petunia was ready. She ran to find Lily and said, "Ooh. Look! You look uuuuuugly!" Petunia stuck her tongue out at Lily and started making faces. Then she said, "Look at me! I look ado-wa-ble. Mommy even said I did!" She started stretching her lips and making funny faces.
Lily retorted, "Well! I'm a scary witch and I can do magic on you and turn you into a toad! Ha-ha-ha!" Lily widened her eyes, and brought her fingers up and started wriggling her fingers and started saying nonsense. "One-two- and by three you'll be a toad!"
Petunia started wailing, "Moooooommmmmmmmyyyy! Daaaaadddddyyy!"
In no time at all, their parents had arrived at the scene. Her dad spoke up, "What's the matter, Petunia, honey?"
Petunia pointed a finger at Lily, "She's scawing me!"
Her dad glared at Lily for a second, but then his gaze softened. "That's okay, Lily's just in the Halloween spirit, aren't you, Lily?"
Lily smiled and nodded her head, though she wasn't sure exactly what he meant. She was her dad's favorite, as Petunia was her mother's. It was her mother's turn to speak up, "Which way do you want to go? The left side- they have plenty of houses, but don't ever give much, or the right side- they have a few houses, but give loads?"
"I wanna go to the left side!" Lily promptly replied.
At the same time, Petunia answered, "Right! Right! I wanna go to the riiight side!" She started tugging on her mother's dress. Her mother glanced at her father, who shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
"I guess we'll have to split up. I'll take Lily one way, while you take Petunia to the other, okay?"
"Are you sure?"
"We don't have any other choice, and I want this to be perfect for our two daughters," he gave a weak smile to his wife and at the same time squeezed Lily's shoulders as Mrs. Evans took Petunia's hand and they walked out the door.
Mr. Evans then looked at Lily and bent down to kiss her forehead. "Well, it's just the two of us now, Lily." He moved his hand toward her hair, getting ready to mess it up, but thought better of it and pulled his hand back. "Oops… sorry, didn't want to mess your hair up."
Lily smiled merrily and grabbed her dad's hand and they walked out.
The cool air outside made Lily shiver. She looked around, and saw many kids run around and scream and ring bells and eat candy. She smiled, knowing that she would be joining the fun in a few quick minutes.
"Oh, no!" Mr. Evans slapped his head in frustration, and Lily looked at him curiously. "I can't believe I forgot the most important part!"
Lily was now even more confused, so she asked, "What's that, daddy?"
"Your trick-or-treat pumpkins! You know, the thing you keep your candy in? You need one of those, but your mother and I completely forgot to buy them." He rubbed his temple in concentration, and then he remembered something else. "Petunia didn't take one, either, did she? Oh, now what are we going to do?"
"Daddy, daddy! I saw Petunia take a pump-kin, I did!"
"Did she really have one?"
Lily nodded her head vigorously, smiling innocently. "Does that mean there's one for me, too?"
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry, I don't know where she got hers from, I- just let me think for a moment, I'll figure something else out that you can take your candy in."
A few seconds later, Lily began to get impatient and started walking around the house a little, and then she walked back to the front porch and her eyes lit up. "Ooh! Daaaaaddy!" Her voice was that of a greatly thrilled child.
Her dad's entire body turned around to see what she was looking at.
"I found it! I found it! I found it!"
"Found what?" He squinted his eyes a bit to see what she was talking about, and saw that she had found a plastic pumpkin. In a surprised tone, he inquired, "How did that get there? I could have sworn I didn't see it on my way out."
Lily widened her eyes and spoke, "I didn't see it either, daddy. Maybe it was sended here by magic!" She squealed with excitement, thinking of the possibilities.
Her dad laughed heartily and shook his head, "Oh, Lily…" He didn't finish his sentence, letting Lily's imagination wander and not spoiling her fun.
"Well, then, we've already spent quite a while here, what do you say? Should we head on out now and really get this party started?"
Lily glowed, "Ooh! Yes, let's go!" She grabbed her dad's hand and he squeezed it and winked at her.
The cool night air was refreshing to the both of them as they went from house to house collecting the scant treats that the owners's would provide. It was about thirty minutes later that she heard something really strange, "—dressed up as a Quidditch player." Now, Lily knew she was little and didn't know many words, but she was most certain that "Quidditch" was not a real word at all. She decided to ask her dad, but when she looked up, she saw that her dad was nowhere to be seen, so she decided to go check out what the boy was talking about herself.
Her first few steps were quick, but then she became more hesitant, but she reluctantly brought forth the courage to go ask the boy what he was talking about.
Finally reaching within ten feet of him, she bashfully spoke, "Umm… what were you talking about just a few minutes ago?"
The black-haired boy spun around in no time and looked at her questioningly, "Who are you?"
"Sorry, I'm Lily, I was just wondering what you were talking about a few minutes ago. It soundeded funny!" Lily covered her mouth to stop a giggle, but a smile came to her lips anyways.
The boy looked at her, as if she were lying, "What are you talking about?"
Lily was now rethinking. Why had she even come over to ask him in the first place? Why had she let her curiosity take over? She cleared her throat and replied timidly, in a weak voice, "What-what's Qwid-ditch?" She spoke the last word slowly and clearly.
If the boy hadn't thought her crazy before, he definitely did so now because he burst out in laughter. "You- you honestly can't be asking that!" The boy spoke in between laughs.
Lily felt her eyes start to water, she had never been laughed at before, except by Petunia, though she didn't count. "Why are you laughing?" The boy didn't answer because he was laughing so hard, so she added, "I always knew boys were stoopid!"
The boy stopped laughing immediately and said, "What? No! Quidditch is only the bestest sport in the world!'
Lily shook her head and retorted, "That's not even a real thing!"
The boy gave her one last look, and then he just shrugged his shoulders, rolled his eyes, and after that just walked away muttering under his breath about "Mugs", or that's what it seemed to Lily.
Lily was puzzled, so she started looking for her father, who was now walking towards her. Seeing her, he ran towards her and hugged her, "Oh, Lily! I've been looking for you! Where have you been, darling?"
Lily pulled away and said, "Oh, daddy! There was this really mean boy, and he was talking about something silly!"
Her dad's face immediately became serious and he said, "What did he do to you? Where did he go? I'll go set things straight, just tell me what happened."
"Noooo, no, Daddy, he was just being a silly little boy talking about stuffs that wasn't real!"
Her dad tried to laugh it away, and then he grabbed her hand and asked her, "Honey, do you think you've had enough for tonight?"
Lily looked at her candy. Though there was less than fifteen pieces, she smiled pleasantly and said, "Oh yes! I had sooo much fun tonight! Is it time to go home? Let's go home then! I can't wait to show Mommy and Petunia." Lily, with a faraway look in her eyes, started trying to tug her dad away, and he laughed jovially.
"All right, all right! We're on our way now. I'm glad you've had fun, then."
Fifteen minutes after Lily and her dad had arrived home, a wet Petunia, and a disgruntled mother returned to the Evans' house, both glum, and Lily was sure that Petunia had not enjoyed herself.
Lily and her father had been in the study, and her father had been reading, so he turned his head around when he heard water drip on the floor. His eyes widened and he inquired, "What happened to Petunia?"
Mrs. Evans replied, trying to keep calm about it all, "Some miscreants were on the prowl, and they decided to throw water balloons at all the poor little children as their fun." Having said this, she clutched Petunia's shoulders and said, "Isn't that right, dear?"
Petunia nodded her head slowly, and then burst into tears, "Oh Daddy! They was horrible! They got me all wet, they messed up my dress, and- and…" Petunia paused to think for a moment, and then took a deep breath before continuing, "And then, they stole all my candies!" At the end, she started bawling, and Lily frowned. Though her sister often fought with her, she still felt sorry for her, and that's why she decided to do something about it.
She walked towards Petunia quickly, hugged her, and then she said, "Petunia, you can share my candies with me!" Petunia quit crying and looked at Lily, looking as if she were about to thank her, but then, instead, she pushed Lily and said, "No! I want my own candies! I don't want your dirty one!"
Lily was disheartened, and she turned to look at her father to see what she had done wrong. He, however, smiled at her and patted her back. "That was so kind of you Lily!" He then stooped down and kissed her on her forehead.
After he got back up, he glared at Petunia and reprimanded her, "Now, Petunia, enough is enough. Lily was trying to help you, but since you didn't accept, you can just do without candy."
Petunia dared not defy her father, so she nodded her head and left to her bedroom, and her mother followed.
After they were gone, Mr. Evans spoke firmly, "Okay now, Lily, it's time to go to bed. I'll come tuck you in and read you a story."
Lily sighed and walked up to her bedroom with her dad in the rear. She opened the door, turned on the light, pushed the covers to the side and lay down. Her dad entered, leaving the light on, and then he spoke, "What story do you want to listen to today?"
"No, I don't want to listen to a story today."
Her dad looked baffled, "But isn't that your favorite thing to do?"
Lily shook her head, "No, Daddy, I need you to tell me about," Lily uncertainly spoke the next word, more in a whispered tone, "Qwid- ditch."
Her dad, now thoroughly confused, said, "What's that?"
Lily shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. That's what I wanted to ask you about. This boy was talking about it, and I told him it wasn't real, and he laughed."
Her father, finally catching on, responded, "Oh, I bet he just made the entire thing up for today, trying to fool you! But I guess it didn't work, did it, Lily?"
"Nuh-uh. It did not! Yay!" Lily gleefully cried, and then her father kissed her and left the room, shutting the light on his way out.
Before shutting the door, he said, "Sleep tight!"
Lily cozily shut her eyes and started dreaming about what "Quidditch" could be. Little did she know that in eight years, she would find out, and in eighteen, she would be on her deathbed, married to a Quidditch star.