Disclaimer – I'm getting almost bored of this now, but my first initial's E, not J.

Chapter 18: Presents, Plans, and Trick-Or-Treating

Previously: 'How about all four of us go together?'

'In one big glump of people?'

'Quite.'

'Just as well there won't be more than six of us then.'

'I see it's still just you and me and the safety regulations against the world then, James.'

He laughed. It was going to be a good day.

Lily, James, Remus and Sarah sat in The Three Broomsticks later, sipping Butterbeer and refusing James' offers to refill drinks, shake hands, or have sweets, as they had just been to Zonko's.

'Potter!' exclaimed Sarah in exasperation as he offered her, fruitlessly, something he claimed was a "Cheering Cherry", but she knew was a "Singing Sherbet".

'Davies!' he imitated. Sarah rolled her eyes, and he continued, ignoring her, 'If one of us is annoyed, it should be me! You won't try my delicious sweets! Oh sweet Davies, do you not trust me?'

'No,' she said, answering despite the fact that the question was rhetorical. She put her head on one side, a strange look on her face, and suddenly added, all in a rush, 'Call me Sarah.'

James seemed surprise, but smiled. 'And me James.'

Sarah smiled back. 'I was sort of assuming I would.'

'Assumption is the mother of all muck-ups.'

Lily and Remus snorted into their Butterbeer.

'Oh gosh!' cried Lily suddenly. 'Birthday! Sarah, birthday!'

Sarah took one look at her and screamed shrilly for a second. 'Oh Lord! Birthday! I'd completely forgotten!'

Remus and James looked at each other.

'Are you two drama queens going to tell us what's going on, or are we just going to have to wait until you come off your sugar-high?' asked Remus, who sounded amused, but with a hint of annoyance.

'Sorry, Remus,' said Sarah. 'It's, well, it's Suzie's birthday soon, and we'd forgotten it! And now we don't know what to do!'

'What d'you mean, you don't know what to do?'

'Well, we usually do something for her birthday, a little party up in the dorm or something. We do it for all of us, but we've forgotten it this time, and haven't got anything ready. Anyway, it's not going to work in the dorm this year, what with Peter and all,' replied Lily.

'Why not?'

'You obviously haven't seen Caroline's famous underwear streamers,' the girls said in unison, giggling.

'Do I want to?' asked Remus, looking slightly disgusted.

'Well, maybe. I dunno. The point is, it's nearly Suzie's birthday and we haven't done anything!'

'Well… be that as it may, it's never too late to start,' said Remus, a smile on his face.

Lily sighed. 'With only three of us, or rather two, seeing as Caroline is off in lovey-dovey land? We need two months, not two weeks.'

'You're assuming, my dear, that there will only be the three of you. What I think this operation needs is a bit of marauder-style help…'

'Some... pazaam.'

'Oomph.'

'Snap.'

'Style.'

'What?' asked Lily, cutting through their increasingly excited list. James stared at her as if asking how she could ask such a question.

'We're going to help you, Lily, Dav-Sarah.'

'Really?' Lily was shocked, but understandably pleased.

'Yes. Now, what does dear Gibson like?'

'Well, above all, she hates attention,' said Sarah brightly and completely unhelpfully. Remus didn't bother to roll his eyes, but merely closed them in exasperation.

'Yes, we know that, bright spark,' he said scathingly, 'But what does she like?'

'Well,' said Lily, thinking hard, her mind going blank all of a sudden, 'She likes animals…and transfiguration. And…and…'

'Peter!' giggled Sarah.

They all laughed at that. It was obvious that Peter and Suzie were made for each other, so saying that she liked him was slightly superfluous. After the laughter had died down, James said,

'So, what are we going to do for her party then? Common room? Streamers? Some sort of wild party?'

The girls and Remus looked at him incredulously.

'This is Suzie we're talking about, not Caroline, James. She doesn't like attention!'

'Fine, fine. A little party, us eight, presents, streamers, empty classroom, that sort of thing?'

They looked at him incredulously again, and again Lily piped up.

'I think I must be rubbing off on you. That was actually sensible.'

She then blushed.

'I didn't mean it like that!'

Sarah giggled into her Butterbeer, and said, grinning, 'Great or, at least, dirty minds think alike, Lilikins.'

'Shut up. But that was actually a good idea, but we'll need to buy streamers and so on.' She started packing everything back into her bag. 'Sarah, you're coming with me. Boys, go and buy her presents.' She shooed the boys away, thrusting their wallets at them.

'Like what? Books?'

'Underwear!' cried Sarah.

'Sarah!' scolded Lily, before adding, to the boys, 'Get her chocolate or something… something nice. And don't put anything in it!'

The boys waved and walked off.

'Speaking of which, what's up, Sarah?'

'Up? Up? Nothing, honeybun… no… nothing… cherub.'

'Sarah… what did you drink? You didn't have any Firewhiskey or anything, did you?'

'No, just Butterbeer. Want to share my last… glass?'

'No! Did you let James refill it?'

'James? Hunky-boy? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.'

Lily picked up Sarah's glass and sniffed it. It smelled, quite strongly, of Dirty Drops.

'Sarah, look at me.'

'I didn't know you felt that way, love.'

'Finite.'

Sarah's eyes crossed, and uncrossed again. She looked, alarmed, at the boys' empty seats.

'Where did they go so quickly?' she gasped.

'They've been gone a couple of minutes.'

'What?'

'James managed to get a Dirty Drop in your drink.'

Sarah looked confused for a moment, then groaned.

'On an embarrassment scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, where was it?'

'Five.'

'Only five?'

'You only said a couple of embarrassing things before the boys left. The rest was only witnessed by me, and I don't care.'

'Good. What are we doing now?'

'Buying streamers for Suzie's party.'

'Underwear streamers?'

'No!'

'Sorry. I don't think it's quite worn off,' said Sarah, grinning sheepishly, 'and I don't think it's Suzie's kind of thing. Though I'd quite like some...'

'Really?'

'No.'

Lily and Sarah walked off, smiling, in search of streamers that didn't have underwiring.

'Should we get her these?' asked James, waving a jar of Cockroach Clusters underneath Remus' nose.

'No. get her, and I quote, "get her chocolate or something… something nice."'

'Fine.' James put the jar back on the shelf.

'What about these Chocolate Cauldrons?'

'Er… maybe… we should ask the girls.'

'Unfortunately, they are not here, but buying streamers, and balloons, and party hats and so on.'

'Party hats?'

'Well…maybe not party hats, but you get the idea.'

'Mmm. Oh, speak of the devil!'

Sarah and Lily had just walked into the shop, the former carrying a bulging bag with paper streamers and what looked suspiciously like party hats peeking out, and the latter carrying a large box, which had a blue-green glow around it.

'It's a cake,' she said in response to their unasked question. 'It's got a refrigerating charm on it, seeing as this is the last Hogsmeade weekend before her birthday, and a, well, I'm not really sure, but basically a non-squashing charm on it, seeing as it's hard to get a cake in pristine condition to a party.'

They nodded, impressed.

'Should we get her these?' asked James, proffering the jar of Chocolate Cauldrons he still hadn't put down.'

'No, they have Firewhiskey in them, and she doesn't like it. She gets light-headed with Butterbeer.'

'Fair enough.'

'But she likes pumpkin. This,' Lily jiggled the cake, 'has pumpkin in it.'

'Pumpkin Pasties?'

'Mmm… maybe…'

'If you think it's a bad idea, just say so.'

'It's a bad idea.'

'OK then.'

Sarah and Remus, who had wandered off, came back with another jar. 'These are Pumpkin Parcels.'

Lily and James looked curiously into the jar. It was nearly full of delicately shaped translucent pastry parcels, which seemed to be full of pumpkin.

'Perfect. We've already gotten her presents – facemasks and really nice soap. Caroline, through us, got her some bath bombs, so she owes us two Sickles, five Knuts.'

Remus shook his head. 'That's weird. Why do girls get each other soap? Is it a subtle suggestion that the other girl smells, or something? And if you get her facemasks does it mean she has spots?'

Lily and Sarah laughed.

'No, they're just nice presents,' explained Lily, grinning, 'It's nice to get something that smells nice and makes you feel all clean and lovely.'

'But if a girl bought that kind of stuff for a guy, then yes, it means he smells,' interjected Sarah helpfully.

'Fair enough. But I think I'll stick to chocolate.'

The girls laughed again. Remus went up to the counter with the jar of Pumpkin Parcels, and came back with a box.

'She asked me if they were a present,' he explained. 'I said yes, so she wrapped them. I'm not very fond of pumpkin, but they do look good.'

Everyone nodded. Lily glanced out the window, and said, 'It's getting dark. We should be getting back soon. Does anyone have anything else to do?'

There was a general shaking of heads, except for Sarah, who had just caught sight of the Acid Pops.

'I'll just get a couple of these, and then we can go. Do we know where the others are?'

'Erm…' said James, suddenly looking alarmed, 'just walking into the shop right now!'

Lily and Remus quickly put the boxes behind their backs, James picked up Sarah's bag and did the same, and Sarah, instinctively, put the jar of Acid Pops behind her back, and walked over to the others.

'Great,' she murmured out of the corner of her mouth, 'We look so guilty that if they hadn't noticed us before, they've definitely noticed us now.'

'Guys!' called Caroline, walking over to them, Suzie following her. 'What's that you're holding behind your backs?'

'Erm… nothing…' said the others simultaneously and completely unconvincingly.

'Oh… OK. I'll just get some chocolate… we were going back to school… we'll wait for you, if you want.' The others weren't sure if she minded them not telling her, but if she did, she was sensible enough not to pry.

'No – I was just getting some Acid Pops,' said Sarah, feeling incredibly foolish. She took the jar from behind her back. 'I'll just buy them now – you don't need to wait.'

Pretty soon, Sarah, Remus, Lily, James, Caroline, Sirius, Suzie and Peter were all walking back to the castle together, with at least three of them trying to hide what they had bought from at least one of them.

'Caroline', hissed Lily to her, as Suzie and Peter were lagging behind, 'You owe us two Sickles, five Knuts. And Sirius, you owe the boys one Sickle, nine Knuts.'

'What for?' they hissed back.

'Suzie's birthday presents.'

'Oh… expletive', hissed Caroline. 'I forgot.'

'So did we, but then we remembered again, so we don't care. You wouldn't have had an opportunity anyway, with Suzie there.'

'Am I making streamers?' asked Caroline.

'No. I bought some.'

'Boring person.'

'Are there a large number of snakes around, or has someone got a puncture?' asked Remus, amused. The two girls looked at him guiltily.

'No.'

'That wasn't a yes or no question.'

'So?' said Caroline.

'Uh-oh. I just thought,' said Lily, 'Pumpkins!'

'What, didn't you hand yours in?'

'No, no, of course I did, but it's the Hallowe'en feast next. This means there will be pumpkins. People will be eating said pumpkins; or rather Suzie will be eating said pumpkins. Hyperness ensues.'

'Oh. I forgot that.' muttered Remus, frowning to himself.

'You won't forget it again in a hurry.'

'Or a curry,' chipped in Caroline.

'Caroline, what on earth was that?' asked Sarah.

'Curry.'

Sarah rolled her eyes and they walked on in silence to the castle. When they had all put their coats and shopping away in the dorm, they went down to the feast.

'Mmm… pumpkins!' cried Suzie happily. It was strange. Normally she was shy, reserved and quiet, but put the girl in front of a table spread with pumpkin-related comestibles, and she was entirely unrecognisable.

'So, which will you have first?' asked Sarah. 'Cream of pumpkin soup, fried, roasted, lamb and pumpkin stew, pumpkin seeds, or will you just not have pumpkin? There are some lovely toffees here.'

'I'll have them all, except the toffees. What a stupid question,' said Suzie, and, as she ran to the Gryffindor table, she squealed, 'Wheee!'

'And she hasn't even eaten any yet,' groaned Lily, and they all joined Suzie, who was happily piling her plate high with the promised everything. She started munching her way through it noisily, as her friends started giving themselves some food of their own. There was, apart from nearly everything that could conceivably be crafted from pumpkin, lamb chops, sausages, various stews, potatoes, carrots, peas (which Lily steered well clear of) and enough to make a glorious meal for all.

Unfortunately, this left Suzie to be quite, quite hyper, in the worst sense of the word.

'Lily,' she giggled, 'why did the chicken cross the road?'

Lily rolled her eyes.

'I'm sure I've no idea.'

Suzie's face fell. 'Me neither. Meanie.'

The girls escorted her up to the Gryffindor common room, and motioned for Caroline to bring down her chocolate.

'Chocolate, Suzie, chocolate.'

'I like chocolate. It's good.'

'Lily,' hissed Sarah, 'Why on earth do you want her to get more hyper?'

'It means that we don't have to take care of her, because she'll be too busy eating, snogging, or sleeping.'

'You have a point.'

They were silent for a while, during which Caroline came down with her chocolate, and the boys came up from the feast.

'How many helpings did you have?' asked Sarah disapprovingly.

'Well, seconds up to fifths, depending on the weight of person, stamina of same, and tastiness of pudding,' replied Remus, sighing, 'I was sensible, seconds of most, but thirds of one thing, but James and Sirius went the whole hog. They're never going to think of chocolate gateau the same way again.'

They smiled. James and Sirius were groaning, and they looked sick at the amount of chocolate Suzie was consuming. Lily was fussing over them, and feeding them a potion.

'What was that?' Caroline asked her jealously after they sat up, looking much more comfortable.

'An indigestion potion. I made it last year in potions, that day we had the first make-your-own-potion lesson.'

'And it works?'

'Yes, it does, thank you ever so much.'

They both flopped down into armchairs and took a piece of chocolate from the quickly diminishing pile.

'You know what I miss about pre-Hogwarts Hallowe'ens?' commented Lily after a while, not caring whether they wanted to know or not, 'It's trick-or-treating. I really miss it: "trick or tre-eat!"'

'What?' asked James, not familiar with the concept of trick-or-treating.

'You know, trick-or-treating? When little children dress up as scary monsters or witches and wizards…' they all laughed, 'and go round to houses and say trick or treat. And then they get sweets or something. The point is that they're supposed to play a practical joke on the house if they're not given sweets. It's usually egging it – it isn't very nice, but that's only what the older children do. Little children generally only ask for sweets, and if they don't get them, then they go.'

'I think Muggles are onto something with that. Hey! Why don't we trick-or-treat here?'

'Huh? How would that work?'

'Well, we'd try to collect people's leftover sweets from the Hogsmeade trip. The dorms would be the houses, and we'd go round, saying… what is it again?'

'Trick or tre-eat!' put in Sarah excitedly.

'That's it. Trick or tre-eat!' announced James, and everyone chorused it back to him. That is, everyone except Lily.

'But they might not understand! And they might not have any sweets! And where would we get costumes? And –'

'Oh, Lily!' exclaimed Suzie, 'Don't be such a schpol… a schpill… a schpoilschnort.'

'Do you mean a spoilsport?' said Remus, amused.

'Yes, that's what I said,' said Suzie, rolling her eyes. 'Anyway, they will have stuff. And we can explain it to them. And we're going as scary witches and wizards, Lily, don't be silly.'

Lily still looked unsure, but before she could say anything, Caroline jumped in.

'Well, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it properly. Everyone, get your wide-brimmed hat – that's what witches and wizards wear in Muggle pictures. We can use our cauldrons for collecting sweets.'

'We'll only use one of them. We can split the sweets afterwards,' said James, feeling practical.

'You know, this is stupid. I don't think there's any way I can make it any less or more stupid, so I'm just going to go along with it,' said Lily, her last defences down. It was a strange idea, but it would be fun.

They all rushed upstairs to their respective dorms, getting their wide-brimmed hats, and they took Suzie's cauldron.

They met up again, looking very well-mannered, and only slightly scary.

'Would we look scary to Muggles?' asked James in despair.

Lily eyed herself and them all critically.

'No, merely very strange.'

'Ah-ha!' cried Suzie.

'What?' asked Sarah, prepared for some more hyperness.

'I brought my make-up kit with me! I didn't think we looked very scary, you see.' She produced a large, pink, plastic bag out of her cauldron, and continued, 'OK. Caroline, you do the boys. Shadows under the eyes or something. I'll do the girls – big red lips, and a lot of eyeliner.' She passed the grey eye-shadow to Caroline.

'What?' asked James in disgust. 'You're not putting that on me; it's vile!'

'Do you want to look scary?'

'Yes…'

'Then eye-shadow it is.'

'But, but… Lily! Help!'

Lily, who was having vast amounts of eyeliner applied, glanced over at him as he backed away. She waved at him, but made no move to help.

'Sarah! You'll save me, won't you?'

'Are you kidding?' asked Sarah, 'I'm quite looking forward to the sight of all of you in make-up. Now sit tight and let Caroline put it on.'

The boys groaned. This was not good.

Lily, Sarah, Caroline and Suzie all sat on Caroline's bed that evening; faces clean, in their pyjamas. They were all starting to yawn, but were determined to finish their sweets before they did so. The Gryffindors had been quite amused by the sight of their seventh-years coming round trick-or-treating, and had coughed up a few sweets.

'This was quite a good haul,' commented Lily with the air of one who knows what they are talking about. 'for people who didn't know about it.'

'What? We only got two sweets each! At least it wasn't embarrassing,' grinned Caroline. Lily snorted. The idea of anything embarrassing Caroline was utterly ridiculous.

'Oh, not for you, maybe. That snotty little fourth-year asked me out. I was hard put to stop Peter knocking him out! It was mortifying!' giggled Suzie, who didn't really seem to be upset by the incident at all.

They all laughed, and Lily gave a huge yawn.

'I can't believe we did so much today! It seems like much longer!'

'What, breakfast, shopping, feast, trick-or-treating? Not too much,' said Caroline, who had yawned the least of the lot.

'Fine, Miss Little-ball-of-unstoppable-unembarrassable-energy. Stop contradicting us,' said Sarah lazily, 'anyway, our sweets are all finished. I reckon it's time to brush our teeth and toddle off to bed.'

'You can toddle. I'm not… toddling… anywhere,' said Caroline, giving a huge yawn.

'Oh yes, you are, grinned Suzie, 'don't think we didn't see that. I liked today, it was fun.'

'Yeah, it was. Night, Suzie.'

'Night.'

Ok. That is the end of Hallowe'en, and in two chapters time it will be Christmas, all credit to Hepsa. It's squeeful, so get ready. I know last chapter was painfully short and fillery, but a) I had writer's block, and b) doesn't this make up for it? Yes? Good.

Subject: Family get-togethers with about everyone in your entire family ever.

Larka :)