Hello! I decided to write a Halloween story about the Marauder's and Lily. It takes place the Halloween before Lily and James are killed. I haven't written a Fanfic in years so I hope that you enjoy! It is just a one-shot.
Disclaimer: All characters, places, and settings belong to J.K Rowling.
Lily and James opened their door on the evening of Halloween to find a madman standing there. He was wearing shabby, black robes, his black hair was tangled in knots high above his head, his face was covered in dirt and grime, and his mouth was twisted into an amused grin at the sight of his friends faces.
"Like my costume?" Sirius questioned, grinning.
"Nice! You really had me scared at first. I seriously thought you were some kind of murderer!" Lily said, once the shock had worn off.
"Wait, where's your costume? You look the same as you normally do," James teased, receiving an elbow to the stomach from Sirius.
The inside of James and Lily's house had been expertly decorated for the occasion. In fact, it looked so perfect that it must have been done by magic. Sirius, however, was not interested in the fancy decorations because something had already caught his eye on the kitchen table.
"What's that?" he asked, nodding at a giant bowl just sitting on the kitchen table.
"Oh, that's for the trick-or-treaters!" said Lily, enthusiastically. Sirius looked toward James for help but he only shrugged with an equal look of confusion on his face.
"You two have never heard of trick-or-treating? Man, magical families sure do miss out! Trick-or-treating is something that you do when…,"
She was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Hey, maybe that's one now!" Lily exclaimed, grabbing the bowl and racing for the door. But instead of an excited trick-or-treater, she found a shivering, rat-like man.
"What? Oh, hi Lily. I am here for the party," quivered the always nervous Peter Pettigrew.
"Oh yes, yes, come in!" she said brightly. "What, you didn't want to dress up?"
"Oh. Yeah, I-I did dress up. See, I-I'm, a rat," he practically whispered, pointing at some hand-drawn whiskers sloppily applied to his face.
"Oh, I see. Sorry, how could I have missed that," Lily blushed. But Peter's costume was very difficult to see since the man's features already so closely resembled that of a rat.
"Hey Peter!" said James, from his seat at the kitchen table. "Lily was just telling us about trick-or-treaters!" he grinned, with mock excitement. While James talked, Sirius examined Peter's costume, muttering under his breath.
"Well, we are only missing one now!" Lily said. "Oh yeah, Remus said that he is going to Floo in so he will probably be here pretty soon."
"Anyway, Muggle children will dress up in a costume of their choice, just like we did, and they will go parading around the streets once it starts getting dark. At each house, the owner will give them a few pieces of candy and they keep collecting until their bags get full or it gets too late."
None of the guys, however, seemed faintly interested in this strange Muggle tradition but all three did have their eyes on the candy bowl in the center of the table.
"What, have you guys never had Muggle candy before?" she asked, seeing what they were all looking at. She started taking out certain candies and telling them about it.
"This is a Snickers bar. It is chocolate, caramel, and peanuts. And these right here are jelly beans which are basically the Muggle equivalent of Bertie Bott's. And this one is called…"
"Hey Lily! Are you going to let us try any of these or not?" Sirius exclaimed, impatiently.
"I only got enough for the trick-or-treaters! I've got plenty of other food for you guys though…wait, I think I hear Remus!"
Lily sprinted out of the kitchen and into the living room to go and greet the last arrival with James and Peter at her tail. Meanwhile though, Sirius had other plans. He went to the front door and cast an array of charms.
"There, that should keep them away. And now for me…," Sirius smirked, licking his lips at the bowl of Muggle candies waiting to be devoured.
"Hey Sirius!" said a familiar voice, approaching from the living room.
"Aaannnd…I didn't think the costumes could get any worse than Peter's but you have proved me wrong, dear friend," Sirius said, eying Remus's costume.
"What?! I am Cornelius Agrippa. You know, the German author who was imprisoned…,"
"Yeah, yeah, save it Moony! You aren't embracing the spirit of Halloween! You aren't supposed to dress up as your History of Magic book!"
"Whatever. Just because some people don't understand the importance of studying our history…,"
"Hey, look guys! I think we have our first trick-or-treater!" said Lily. A small boy was running up the driveway. He was dressed as a werewolf, although all of them, knowing very well how a werewolf should look, were amused at the sight of him. All of the sudden, the boy stopped. Scratching his head, he turned around and hurried in the other direction.
"Oh…Well, maybe he is lost or something," Lily said, clearly disappointed.
"What a shame, Moony. I feel like you and he would have had a lot in common!" joked Sirius, receiving a glare from Remus. Remus would never admit this but he actually kind of enjoyed seeing kids dressed up as werewolves on Halloween. In a weird sort of way, he felt like Halloween was a day where, when he dressed up, he could escape from his curse that he had to live with the other 364 days of the year. And plus, on Halloween, werewolves were accepted, even appreciated, making Halloween easily his favorite day of the year. So although Sirius always teased him about his nerdy Halloween costumes, he had to admit that it felt great to walk in someone else's shoes, even if it was just for a day.
"James, nice costume! Oh, and you too Lily!" Remus said noticing his friends costume choices. James was going as Godric Gryffindor. Never afraid to boast, he had shamelessly found every piece of Gryffindor attire that he owned and had worn it for the occasion. In his right hand, he carried a fake model of the legendary Sword of Gryffindor. Lily had gone for something that she wasn't so familiar with. Never quite the Quidditch player herself, she seemed to have borrowed some of James's old robes from his glory days at Hogwarts.
"Thanks!" Lily said, looking truly proud of herself. "Here, I went out and bought some Cauldron Cakes and Butterbeer for all of us." At this, Sirius turned his head from the still full bowl of Muggle candy and managed to forget about the Muggle candy, for a little while anyway.
"Hey, look! I think more trick-or-treaters are coming! There is a bumble bee and…that one sort of looks like a Death Eater," James said, peering out of the window from the kitchen table. Everyone seemed to tighten up at the sound of 'Death Eater'. Of course, it wasn't really a Death Eater, it was only a child dressed in a Grim Reaper costume. However, the sounds of the words alone were enough to remind them that there was still a war going on all around them. Peter visibly shivered and Remus gulped. Lily, noticing the tension, said "Wait right here guys. I am going to go and give them their candy." Breaking from his somber trance, Sirius smirked.
"Hey! They just checked their watches and turned away. What is going on? Maybe I don't have the front light on?" she said, seemingly offended at the lack of interest in her house. After checking the light, she frowned, shaking her head, rejoined the others in the kitchen. The atmosphere was back to normal and all four marauders were sitting around the table reliving their favorite tales of mischief and close calls by the time she had gotten back.
"…and do you remember that prank we pulled on Snape during Halloween our fourth year. He was dressed as Glynnis Griffiths, that amazing Seeker from the Harpies. I levitated his Charms book around his head and asked him if he could even catch that!" Everyone chuckled, except for Lily. Remus's laugh seemed forced and he quickly looked down at his shoes afterwards. Peter laughed hysterically until he realized that everyone was staring at him. He stopped abruptly and shrunk down in his chair.
"Look, look guys! I think we have a trick-or-treater for real this time," Lily shrieked, rushing to the door. But before he reached the door, the kid tripped over something that Lily could not see, turned around, and sprinted back the way he had come. "Alright, what is going on here?" Lily cried over the laughter from the kitchen. "Interesting use of charm work there, Padfoot," she yelled, annoyed, as she walked back in from the porch. "I don't think we will have any more problems though. And look, here comes another kid now. You guys better get ready. You have to give him his candy!"
"Oh yeah, no problem!" grinned James, sliding something into his pocket, while the others smirked. They headed to the front door and when the doorbell rang, opened it to find a little boy wearing a green mask.
"And what are you supposed to be?" Sirius questioned.
"A goblin. Isn't it obvious?"
Unable to contain their laughter, all four of the men burst out laughing at the sight of the Muggle's costume. It looked nothing like the real goblins they'd seen before at Gringotts. He was wearing a lime green mask with sharp, pointy teeth, bright red eyes, and sharp claws.
"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you. Your costumes aren't much better". Turning to Sirius, he said, "What are you supposed to be, a prisoner? And you-", he said, turning to James. "What are you, defender of the Spanish flag?" he asked seeing the red and yellow Gryffindor attire and the sword, which James was still clutching. "And who are you, an old warlock?" he sneered at Remus.
"No, I'm Cornelius Agrippa-the German author who was…oh, never mind!" Remus sighed. But the rude goblin want-to-be had already turned to Peter.
"You're costume is actually pretty good. All of your features are very rat-like. I don't know how you did it," he said, nodding in approval. Peter looked like he didn't know whether to be honored or offended since all he had done was draw on whiskers.
"Now, can I just have my candy?" said the boy impatiently once he had finished insulting each of them men's costumes.
"Oh yes, hold on one second," grinned Sirius. He turned towards the bowl but reached into his pocket instead and brought out a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"There you go!" Sirius said, dropping it into the kid's bag with a grin. The other men tried to hide their smirks but were unable to do so. After they had shut the door, all of them ran to a window. The boy reached into his bag and took out the candy. He read the name on it, shrugged and reached into the box. He took one of the beans out, sniffed it, shrugged again, and popped it into his mouth. The boy's expression instantly turned to horror and he spat the bean out before running into the bush. Judging by the sounds they were hearing, it seemed like the boy hadn't been crazy about the flavor he had gotten. When the boy had emerged from the bush, he sprinted as far as he could from the house, not looking back even once.
"How did it go?" Lily smiled, as they walked back into the room. "It seems like it went pretty well." But none of them were listening to her.
"…and did you see his face when he ate it?"
"Why would he eat the brown one? How many brown jellybeans do Muggles have?"
"Do you think he is going to try any more?"
"Oh, gosh. I knew that having you guys hand out the candy was a bad idea on my part," Lily said as they explained to her what they had done. They could tell she was trying her best not to crack a smile though. Finally, she gave in and joined in laughing with the rest of them.
"Ah, I love Halloween!" said Remus, looking around happily at all of his friends.
"Yeah, me too!" Peter chipped in.
"We should do this again next year!" said James and Lily nodded in agreement. "Yes, but maybe next year we can…"
"Hey guys! This Halloween isn't even over yet. The night is young and so am I!" shouted Sirius, receiving an eye roll from Lily. But they all gave in. They spent the rest of the night reliving their childhood memories, pranking any Muggles that happened to come their way, and planning next year's Halloween adventure.
All five of them went home very happy and looking forward to what next year's Halloween held for them. Unfortunately though, as you probably know, it didn't turn out as they had planned.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed! Please review and tell me what you thought.