Ficlet: Trick or Treat

[westwardlee.livejournal.com]

Title: Trick or Treat
Author: Lee West (westwardlee)
Rating: G
Character: Sirius Black
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to J. K. Rowling
Summary: Young Sirius finds out how cool Trick or Treating is.
A/N: My failed attempt to answer a challenge at an old 100-word comm; at that time I couldn't write 100 words, so it wasn't posted there. The challenge was about Halloween. I'm not sure if children go trick or treating in the U.K., but let's assume they do, just for the sake of this drabble.
Word Count: 408



Andromeda Black had returned from her first year at Hogwarts full of interesting facts about Muggles in general. Most brilliant of all was the tale of children dressing up in costumes and getting lots of candy, just by going door-to-door on Halloween. Her young cousin Sirius listened to her, enthralled.

On October 31st, five-year old Sirius Black went to bed at 8 p.m., as he did every evening. However, instead of sleeping, he dressed in his best robes; he didn’t know exactly what ‘costume’ meant – Andromeda had described children dressed as goblins, witches and ghosts – so he opted for dressing up. He put on the pointed hat he used only in formal occasions, tiptoed down the stairs, past the parlor where his parents were having their after dinner drink, grabbed a small cauldron from the kitchen and stepped out of 12 Grimmauld Place.

It was the first time he saw the Muggle world that existed outside his house. The Blacks never went out through the door. The adults Apparated and the children used the Floo network. He stared in amazement at the children mobbing the square. Andromeda was right: there were goblins, and ghosts, and witches… He joined the throng of children going trick-or-treating. No one noticed the extra child tagging along. He quickly caught on – all he had to do was to say “trick or treat”, and he would get candy in his cauldron. It seemed easy enough. At one house, a nice lady gave him extra candy “for being so cute and having the best costume.”

When his cauldron was filled, he returned home quickly. The door, recognizing a Black, opened quietly. He hadn't been missed. He tiptoed back upstairs and into his room. He closed the door and emptied the cauldron on his bed. He stared with delight at the variety of strange candy – no chocolate frogs, no Every Flavor Bean. Here were Muggle chocolate bars, toffees, lemon drops! He thought about sharing some of his treasure with Regulus, but decided against it; he’d only get in trouble if anyone knew how he’d been given Muggle candies. And Regulus would probably talk – he was a baby still, only four years old!

Halloween is brilliant, he thought, as he munched on yet another piece of chocolate. My favorite holiday! And Muggles are really nice… Thanks, Andromeda!

***

Years later, back at 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius would recall that Halloween as the day he’d started becoming a ‘blood traitor’.