Trick or Treat.
"Are you sure about this?" Draco asked his wife.
It was Halloween and they were taking their kids to the Potters. In the wizarding village where Harry and Ginny lived, a night of trick-or-treating had been organised. The entire village had been decorated, and wizarding children were encouraged to visit the village and call at every house. The village hall had even been turned into a fun house, with all sorts of spooky games and activities going on inside.
"Of course we are," Hermione replied. She knew Draco wasn't sure about the evening activities as there'd been nothing like this when he was a child. In fact it was a fairly new thing in wizarding Britain at all, with the idea originally coming from America, where Halloween was celebrated in style.
"And Harry is okay with this as well?" Draco questioned. He'd never really understood how Harry could celebrate Halloween the way he did given what had happened to his parents on that day.
"Harry's looking forward to it," Hermione replied. "And so are the children. If you want to disappoint five kids, be my guest."
Draco grimaced at the thought of disappointing not only his two children, but the three Potter children as well. He didn't have to worry about the other kids, as all their other friends had plans. Pansy and Theo were taking their children to Pansy's parents for the weekend, Blaise and Daphne were on holiday with Alex, and Ron and Lavender were attending a party thrown by one of Lavender's friends.
"So are we ready?" Hermione checked.
"Yeah, let's go," Draco replied.
Hermione called for Scorpius and Lyra and the two children came flying into the front room, complete with their Halloween costumes. Lyra was dressed as a witch, with a black and purple dress, pointy hat and toy broomstick and cat. Draco had pointed out she didn't look much like a real witch, but Lyra had retorted that she was dressed like the muggles expected a witch to look. Scorpius meanwhile was dressed as a zombie, with very realistic make-up that made him look as though his skin was peeling off.
"You two look great," Hermione said, smiling at the pair. "Now let's get going. Scorpius, you go first."
Scorpius flooed to the Potters, closely followed by Lyra and his parents. Arriving at the Potters, they found that the family were ready to go. Like Scorpius and Lyra, James, Albus and Lily were all dressed up. Lily was wearing an outfit identical to Lyra's, only where Lyra's outfit was black and purple, Lily's was black and orange. Draco half expected the two girls to be mad that they were wearing matching outfits, but it quickly became clear that it was all planned and they both knew they were going to be dressed up as witches. Meanwhile, ten year old James was wearing a skeleton costume, while Albus was dressed as a mummy.
"Thank Merlin we didn't have to dress up," Harry whispered to Draco as the kids compared outfits.
"I wouldn't have stood for that," Draco replied.
"I'm sure you would have dressed up for Hermione," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Only in the privacy of our bedroom," Draco retorted with a smirk.
Chuckling at the blond wizard, Harry picked up the plastic pumpkin buckets he'd picked up that day and handed one to each of the children. "Each of you fill up your bucket with goodies."
"Won't they get sick eating a whole bucket of sweets?" Draco asked with a frown. To be honest he was surprised that Hermione was happy to let Scorpius and Lyra stock up on so many sweets.
"Not everyone is giving sweets," Ginny answered. "It's been decided that people will provide small toys and games and healthy snacks as well as sweets. By the end of the night, the kids should have a bucket full of all sorts of goodies."
"Let's get going then," Hermione said.
Steering the kids outside, they began to meander thought the small village where the Potters lived. While the kids ran on ahead, the four adults strolled along behind them. They were all admiring the village, which had pulled out all the stops to look amazing. Every single house was decorated and there was even decorations in gardens and out on the streets.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before," Hermione remarked as they watched the children call at the first house. "It's amazing."
"It's a perfect way to celebrate Halloween safely," Ginny said. "We know the kids are welcome at every house, and they're having a ball."
"It looks like everyone's having fun," Hermione said. The village was actually pretty packed with kids dressed up and their parents watching on.
"Look what we got, eyeball marbles." Albus cried as the children came back from their first port of call.
Excitedly Albus and Scorpius showed their parents the bag of marbles they had. Only instead of normal marble colours, the marbles were painted with different looking eyeballs.
"Lovely," Hermione said, trying to sound sincere even though she found the marbles creepy.
"Come on, let's see what else you can get," Harry said, ushering the group to their next house.
Trick-or-treating went on for a couple of hours, before they headed to the village hall. Once at the village hall, the children indulged in all sorts of games and won dozens of prizes between them. They also had their picture taken on a stage set up to resemble a graveyard, with both Hermione and Ginny ordering copies.
"Can we do this again, next year?" Scorpius asked as they made their way back to the Potters.
"We'll see," Draco replied. He knew if the village did the same again next year, they'd be back. The kids had really enjoyed themselves, and he had to admit it had been a good evening.
"If they do this again next year, I'm going to insist the others join us," Ginny said. "Tonight has been really good."
"It has," Hermione agreed.
The kids also agreed, and when they got back to the Potters they compared what was in their buckets. They all had a decent selection of sweets and snacks as well as small toys and games. The girls even had some sparkly hair bobbles and a hairband each, while the boys had quidditch figurines.
All in all it was decided the night had been a success, and the following year the rest of the group joined in with their children. Halloween at the Potters village soon became a yearly tradition, which carried on until all the children were off at Hogwarts.