It was a chilly October afternoon outside Hogwarts’ grounds, and the day’s classes had just ended. Lily Evans took a stroll towards the lake to meet some friends, when suddenly, a voice behind her ear sent her nerves into oblivion.

“BOO!”

She screeched and nearly dropped her schoolbag.

Sirius Black laughed merrily. “What’s wrong, Evans? Scare Season’s just round the corner! Better get used to it!”

She threw one of her spell books at Sirius’s head as he passed by.

“Sirius! Would you cut that out, please?”

Sirius flicked his wand lazily and her book shot into the other direction, slamming into a tree and ricocheting off onto an innocent Remus Lupin.

As Remus whimpered slightly and looked around in shock, Lily stopped and faced Sirius.

“I’m so sick of your little games, Sirius. When are you going to grow up?”

Sirius laughed again, but didn’t answer. James Potter stood next to him, and when he looked at Lily, he began to stand up a little straighter. He cleared his throat.

“How’re you, Evans?” James asked pompously, as if nothing had happened.

Lily’s eyes narrowed. “On second thought, when are you both going to grow up?”

“Oh, come on, Evans, it was only a joke…” James began, but Lily stalked off, heading for the tree that hosted her lobbed book and a sore Remus.

“Sorry about that, Moony!” Sirius shouted. He then took James’s arm and began to pull him away. “Let’s go, Prongs, enough drooling. Those are new robes, remember?”

Lily reached the tree and bent down to retrieve her spell book. Remus was rubbing the spot on his arm where the book had hit.

“Sorry about your arm, Remus. You know how that Black can be,” she said, sounding annoyed.

“Oh, it’s all right,” Remus responded dully, still rubbing his arm. Lily felt bad; it was her fault after all that he had been smacked with her spell book.

“I know a way to repay you,” she said, and took a seat next to Remus. She pulled her bag off her shoulder and began to rummage through it. Remus glanced over, wondering what she was up to. Finally she found what she was looking for—a bag of sweets.

Lily handed the bag to him. “Go on—help yourself.”

Remus shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, What the hell, why not? He stuck his hand in the sweets bag and pulled out a handful of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and a Chocolate Frog. “Just in time. Hallowe’en is right around the corner, as Sirius so delicately put it.”

Lily let out a dry laugh.

“Yeah. It’s too bad that we’re away at school, though. We can’t even go Trick-or-Treating,” she replied dully.

Remus sat up a little straighter. He looked over at Lily, slightly confused.

“Trick-or-Treating?” he asked incredulously. “What’s that? Don’t you mean Spells or Sweets?”

Now it was Lily’s turn to look slightly confused. “Spells or…what, exactly?”

“Spells or Sweets,” Remus responded slowly. “It’s a tradition where little kiddies dress up and go door to door asking for sweets. And if they don’t get any, then they’re obliged to cast a spell on people who are supposed to hand out sweets,” Remus explained.

“Oh. Sounds like the same thing as Trick-or-Treating. I guess it must be the Muggle-term for it.” Lily popped another bean in her mouth. Toffee flavoured, yum.

Remus leaned against the tree again, and let out a short laugh. “I haven’t thought about Spells or Sweets in ages.”

“Me neither. It’s hard to believe how old we are, you know?” Lily said sadly.

Remus nodded in agreement. “When I was a kid,” he began, “we had all kinds of fun. Sometimes we would just go out and drop Dungbombs on mean old neighbors’ houses, even after they gave us the sweets.” Remus laughed to himself again, chewing on a half of a Chocolate Frog.

Lily thought back to when she and Petunia were growing up, and went Trick-or-Treating together, dressed in matching princess costumes or fairies. She missed it so much.

Suddenly, she got a brilliant idea.

“I don’t think we should be doing this,” Remus whispered, sounding slightly nervous at what they were about to do. It was Halloween night, past curfew, and Lily and Remus were crouched and hidden behind a knight on the fourth floor.

“Don’t be such a sissy,” Lily whispered back through her mask. “This should be great fun!”

Remus still didn’t feel convinced. He tried to think of excuses.

“Well…what if we get caught?”

Lily lifted her mask from her face and looked at Remus.

“We won’t,” she answered simply. She sounded so sure.

Remus leaned back against the wall and his shoulder brushed against hers for a second, and her touch sent a chill through Remus’s arm. Feeling a little dazed, he glanced up at Lily’s face and for the first time, really noticing her beauty.

“Lily…” he began, but Lily shushed him, bringing a finger to her lips. She heard footsteps.

They both held their breath. Lily reached up and brought her mask back down, covering her face.

Rounding the corner, whistling to himself and carrying a large box of assorted sweets, was the Potions Master, Professor Slughorn.

Lily didn’t hesitate for a second. She took Remus’s arm and they both leapt out from behind the knight, shouting, “Spells or Sweets!”

Professor Slughorn took such a fright to being ambushed in the corridor, that his box of sweets was flung right into the air. He let out a cry as the sweets showered on him, thumping onto his shoulders and to the floor. One Chocolate Frog landed perfectly atop his shiny bald head.

Lily let out a laugh, and pointed her wand at the sweets on the floor.

“Accio sweets!”

The sweets zoomed toward her before the Professor could utter a word.

“Do it—NOW!” Lily urged Remus.

Remus nodded, and hurriedly directed his wand at the Chocolate Frog perched on Slughorn’s head. Suddenly, he wanted to show off his magical skill a little, like James or Sirius might do if they were in the presence of a girl.

“Engorgio!” he shouted, impressively.

The Frog swelled to four times its size in three seconds.

Remus hesitated for a brief moment, watching in amazement as Slughorn tried desperately to hold the weight of the enormous Chocolate Frog. Lily was backing away now, looking at Remus and signaling for him to finish it off.

“Confringo!”

He ran off with Lily down the corridor as the enormous Chocolate Frog exploded in a cascade of chocolate chunks and melted chocolate all over the walls, portraits, and covering the Professor from head to toe.

The two laughed loudly as they ran, sneaking peeks over their shoulders at the astonished and confused Slughorn, who wiped his face with his hands and attempted to clean the chocolate off himself, all the while screaming protests at them.

It was the most fun both of them had had in a long time.

After climbing three flights of stairs, they slowed to a walk and removed their masks, still heavily breathing from running. Lily’s smile was spread wide across her face and Remus’s was a perfect reflection of hers. They stopped just outside the Portrait of the Fat Lady and looked at each other.

“That was a brilliant idea you had,” Remus complimented, reviewing the image of a chocolate-covered Slughorn repeatedly in his mind.

“Thanks. You were brilliant as well, with that Exploding Charm,” Lily replied, fanning herself with her hand. Remus noticed that even red-faced and sweaty, she still looked beautiful.

“Lily…” he said quietly, and without knowing it, he reached out and took hold of her other hand. Lily looked confused for a moment, looking at their linked hands to Remus’s face and back again.

“Remus…what—?” But there was no finish, for Remus had erased the space between them with one swift step and placed his mouth on hers for a quick impulsive kiss. After a few moments, they parted.

Lily slowly brought her hand to touch her lips and stared at Remus, still slightly amazed that what just took place had actually taken place.

Remus felt a little embarrassed, but otherwise relieved that she had not slapped him and called him a worthless pig.

A few awkward seconds passed with neither of them knowing quite what to do or say. Finally Lily broke the silence.

“Shall we—er—go to bed, then?”

Remus nodded and smiled weakly, feeling more uncomfortable by the second. The Fat Lady swung forward at their given password and they climbed through the hole and into the empty Common Room.

Remus began to head towards the boys’ staircase. “’Night, Lily,”

He heard no reply, and felt even more ashamed. Next thing he knew he was jerked around and in a flash, Lily kissed him again.

“Goodnight, Remus. Save you a seat at breakfast?” Lily said sincerely, giving him a wink before heading up the girls’ staircase. It was Remus’s turn to feel astonished now.

Turning back slowly towards the staircase, he thought happily to himself, This has been the best Hallowe’en ever.