“Lily, grab your coat; we need to make go to the store!” I called down the hall to my daughter.

I heard the quick pattering of her feet as she hurried to get ready. “Coming, Daddy.”

As I waited, I buttoned up my own jacket and wrapped my scarf around my neck. The night was only sixty-five degrees, but the wind made it feel like fifty. I grinned as I saw my little girl running towards me with the front of her coat crooked.

“I’m ready,” she said excitedly. “Look, I did it by myself!” She motioned to her coat to show off her buttoning skills.

“I see, and you did a very nice job, Lily. But it appears that you may have missed a button,” I replied, kneeling down in front of her.

She glanced down at herself and stuck out her lower lip. “Really?”

“Yes, darling. Here, let me get it for you.”

Quickly, I unbuttoned her coat and then redid it so that every button was hooked.

“There you go; now you won’t get cold. We aren’t going very far, would you like to walk?” I asked unlocking the door and stepping out into the night air.

Lily grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the sidewalk towards the front gate. “Yeah! Come on,” she said.

“Woh, hold on there,” I laughed. “You left your gloves downstairs and your mother’s bringing them up. You’re not leaving without gloves, your hands will freeze.”

I herded my eager five-year-old back into the house and headed for the stairs. We were in the family room when Ginny met us with a pair of lavender gloves.

She handed them down to the bouncing little red-head at my side. “Here you go, Lily; behave while you’re with your father.”

“’Bye, Gin,” I said softly, and leaned down to kiss her. I let our lips touch, briefly; teasing her by pulling away a second later. She responded with a wicked grin accompanied by a mischievous glint in her eyes that clearly said “wait until you get home.”

“Come on,” Lily whined, tugging on my sleeve.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” With a wink at Ginny, I turned and headed out the door.

*~~~*~~~*

We’d made it about a block and a half when I started noticing children walking around the neighborhood dressed as goblins and ghouls. For a moment I was perplexed as to why on Earth they would be doing this, and then it hit me… tonight was Halloween. Things at work had been so hectic that I had completely forgotten about the holiday.

I watched as parents led their children from door to door, picking up candy and other goodies along the way. I peeked out of the corner of my eye at my own child holding my hand. She had noticed the children as well. Her eyebrows had pulled together in confusion and she reached up her free hand to scratch her head.

She seemed about to ask something, but before she could we came upon a very interesting group of children. Standing on the same corner, waiting for the signal to cross the street, as we were, was a bunch of trick-or-treaters discussing their plans for the night.

“I love your costume!” a girl gushed. “You’re a witch right?”

“Yes, isn’t it great?” answered another girl. This one was dressed in long, black robes, stringy gray hair (obviously from a wig) springing out at odd angles from under the hood, and ugly pointed boots. She was wearing a long plastic nose that hooked down and almost touched her lips. Also, her face was painted a revolting shade of green and fake warts were scattered all over her face.

“It’s very gruesome. You look like you’re about to throw me into your boiling cauldron and eat me for supper,” squealed the third girl.

Giggling and cackling like the witches of their imagination, the girls ran across the street and up to the front door of the first house on the block.

Lily tilted her head back to look at me questioningly, a tear trickling from her eye. “Daddy, what was that? Why was that girl dressed so nasty? Why were they making fun of witches?” she asked, just as I was expecting she would.

I paused in the middle of the sidewalk and crouched down to hug her. “It’s alright, honey. Don’t cry,” I whispered to her as I patted her back.

“But, Daddy, her face was green,” she said incredulously, emphasizing the last word.

I held my daughter out at arm’s length. “Well, Lily, Muggles have only heard stories about witches. They don’t really know what they look like,” I said, shifting my feet.

“But why would they ever think a person is green? We aren’t aliens,” she asked, her voice revealing how hurt she was.

I wiped the tears off her cheek with my thumb. “Of course we aren’t. I don’t know why they think of us as green; it’s just what they’ve heard in stories. They don’t mean to offend you.”

“I know… why are they dressed up anyway?” Lily asked, confusion written across her face.

“Well, Lily, tonight is Halloween.”

“I know that, Daddy. Teddy should be at the feast right now. Can’t you picture it?” she said, lapsing into a daydream. “All the jack-o-lanterns and candy, but what does it have to do with those Muggles?”

“Well, sweetheart, it’s a Muggle tradition to dress up in costumes on Halloween. They do this thing called trick-or-treating where they go to houses around the neighborhood. And the houses hand out candy to the kids,” I explained.

Lily thought for a few minutes, processing this new information. “Why?”

I was at a loss for words. I never realized being a parent would be quite this hard. Children are so inquisitive, and that’s what made them so brilliant. I knew Lily would never stop if I didn’t give her a sufficient answer, and it was while we were walking down the bread aisle of our local grocery store that I began my whole explanation.

“Lily, let me tell you now that I don’t know that much about Halloween in the Muggle world either. When I was your age I wasn’t allowed to trick-or-treat,” I began quietly so no one would overhear.

“Why not, Daddy? Didn’t you grow up like a Muggle until you got your Hogwarts letter?” Lily asked, getting very confused.

“I did, but,” I paused, never before had I discussed my life with my uncle and aunt with my children; it just wasn’t information that they needed to know. “Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia just never let me. I just stayed home; it wasn’t too bad.

“Anyway… thank you,” I said to the cashier as he handed me my change and bags full of groceries. When we got out of the store, I continued, “It’s a tradition in the Muggle world. This is the day where children can dress up as anything they want, be whomever or whatever they want to be.

“It’s the only day of the year where they can be as crazy and not like their normal selves as they want, and nobody will make fun of them. Also, the kids like to get all the goodies from their neighbors.”

“Oh,” she replied quietly, contemplating what I said. “Why don’t we do that?”

“Well… You know, I really don’t know why we don’t,” I replied, I hadn’t expected her to ask that. “Perhaps it’s because all the creatures they dress up as are real in our world. That would really limit your costumes.”

Lily nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, maybe that’s it. What other things do kids dress up as?”

I scratched my head, trying to think of the costumes I watched walk by from the windows of the Dursley house.

“Well, they dress up as vampires, witches, doctors, movie stars, lots of things,” I listed.

“How strange…” she mused, laughing to herself.

We continued walking in silence, letting the crisp fall air caress our faces. A smile spread across my face as I listened to Lily’s gasps and giggles as she watched the Muggle children scurry by in their Halloween costumes. Perhaps one day I’ll have to take Lily out to trick-or-treat, just so she can experience something new and fun.

Lily reached up and took my hand. “So, Daddy, Muggle girls, like that one back at the corner, dress up like us because they aren’t us? Because in real life they can’t be us?” she asked.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. “Well, yes. That’s a great way to put it. You’re such a brilliant little witch, just like your aunt Hermione,” I praised.

I extended my hand and tousled her long, red locks.

“Stop it, Daddy!” she giggled, swatting at my hands.

Quickly, I bent down and started tickling her sides. I laughed with her as I watched her dance around the sidewalk, trying to avoid my hands. When Lily began gasping for air around her shrieks of laughter, I stood up and waited for her to catch her breath. Once she got settled down, we began walking back to the house.

We walked in silence, father and daughter, for a few minutes, listening to the crunching of leaves beneath our feet and the shouts of excited children.

Normally, not very many people would come all the way to our house, but today, when we got to the picket fence that surrounded our house, we passed a couple rare trick-or-treaters leaving our porch.

I swung the gate open and held it as a child with a sheet over their head and another with an axe protruding from their head ran through.

“Booooo!” cried the child covered by a sheet.

Lily stood outside the gate, gazing after the running children. “What was that kid supposed to be?”

“A ghost,” I said, waiting to hear her contradictory protests.

“No, they weren’t. Ghosts don’t look like that, silly,” she laughed, just as I had predicted she would. “Ghosts are real people, just see through and dead.”

“You really know you’re stuff,” I said, gesturing for Lily to go ahead of me through the gate. “But Muggles don’t know that about ghosts. They just think they’re spirits that haven’t gone to heaven; their stories even say that most ghosts are mean and cause lots of problems.”

Lily stopped and cocked her head at me. “Not all ghosts are like that, though. Most are nice, like Nearly-Headless Nick, right, Daddy?”

“Impressive,” I said, smiling down at my intelligent daughter.

Slowly, we shuffled our way to the front porch. I sat on the first step and watched, in the glow of the porch light, as Lily danced around in the leaves that blew in the breeze. It brought a smile to my face as I listened to her giddy giggles and watched her arms gracefully swing through the air.

Lily shook her head, trying to rid her hair of the pesky leaves. “Daddy,” she giggled, running up to where I was sitting. “I dressed up for Halloween, too; guess what I am?”

I laughed, happy that she was enjoying herself, and interested in what she was coming up with. I rolled my eyes to look up and scrunched my mouth into a wrinkled frown as I pretended to think as hard as I could.

“I give up; what are you, darling?”

“I’m a Muggle!” she squealed, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet.

I looked at her jeans and sweater attire, jacket lying abandoned in the leaves, and laughed. I had never thought about it but she was right. My laughter subsided when I heard the soft, bell-tone laughter coming from behind me; turning around, I saw Ginny standing in the doorway watching us.

“Come on, my little Muggle; it’s time to clean up for bed,” she laughed.

Lily grinned and scampered past her mother and down the hall. I leaned down and kissed my wife on the cheek as I crossed the threshold. Ginny reached out and entwined her fingers with mine as she gently swung the door shut.

“I guess we’re all Muggles for Halloween, aren’t we?” she said.

I ran a hand through my hair, smiling at the thought. “Yeah, I guess we are.”