Wait Until Your Father Gets Home!

This one is for you, Southern. Inspired by your story 'Carvings' and dedicated to you. *hugs*

I want to give a great big thank you hug to CourtneyRochelle for combing through this to point out my numerous errors to help me make this presentable for reading, and to Arabella Bloodgood for helping me create my banner.

Thank you both so very much!

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What happens when you let George babysit on Halloween? If you only knew!

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Wait Until Your Father Gets Home!

Severus was walking home, his black robes billowing out behind him, glad to have the weekend off with his family. Being Headmaster had three perks: first, he could take evenings off whenever he chose to; secondly, he could come home to his wife when he needed to see her or his children, and third, except for the feast, he had no other duties tonight. That and it was Friday. He was just a few houses away from home when he saw his wife standing at the gate to the front garden, holding two glasses in her hand and wearing a long black robe. Oh, this cannot be good! "Okay, what did which one do this time?" he asked suspiciously as soon as he reached the edge of his property.

"A bit suspicious, aren't we?" Hermione asked, handing him his glass of Ogden laced pumpkin juice.

"I find you waiting by the garden gate, wearing my robes, frock coat, boots, and trousers..." he said, his gaze traveling down her body taking in her attire, eyes still narrowed in puzzlement, "obviously waiting my arrival with a drink, and smiling as if you've discovered the thirteenth use of dragon blood. I seriously doubt this is a role-playing suggestion. So, why would I be suspicious? Unless you're simply here to tell me Belladonna's changed her mind about my taking her out so she can trick the neighbors..."

"Oh, you're not off the hook on that one. She's been going on all week that you said you'd take her." Hermione chuckled, wrapping her arm around him as she handed him his drink. "This is just my costume for the evening."

"It's not your size," he stated, smirking. He peered around her shoulder taking in the mock graveyard and floating Weasleys' groaning apparitions. "You've decorated, I see."

"Yes, a bit," she replied, kissing his cheek. "The kids turned the front sitting room into a potions lab. It's adorable. With the drapes open, the Weasleys' All-Night-Erie-Flicker candles and your favorite music – the place looks great. Talfryn entered our house in the Hogsmeade Halloween Moste-In-The-Spirit competition."

"Spare me," he said, opening the gate. "So, Talfryn and his friends snuck out of the castle again? We really need to reconsider allowing Mr. Weasley to continue as our sitter the nights you're working late. He's obviously a bad influence." Severus smirked as he heard his favorite music wafting from the open door, mixing with the groans, screams, clanking, and a croaking frog as soon as he stepped on the walk. However, it was what he saw on the porch that made him halt in his boots. Thirteen jack-o'-lanterns were looking at him – all with one face. His. "Please explain this!"

"Do you remember George's Carve-What-You-Wish knife? Apparently it works!" Hermione stated, hoping to defuse his anger. "Belladonna used it to carve her pumpkins, and Talfryn's as well. The other eight, well, one came from George and the other seven... the boys Transfigured them from apples, apparently," she said cheerfully.

"Belladonna!" he called out.

His daughter came bounding out of the house dressed up like a Swedish short snout, and ran up to him, arms raised. "You're home!" He caught her easily, lifting his daughter into his arms, careful not to crush her tail. "Do you like them daddy? Do you? I did them all by myself!"

Seeing her delight completely defused his ire at the thirteen replicas of his face smirking, sneering, scowling, grimacing, glaring, snarling and frowning at him. "They are..."

"I know, scary!" she interrupted him, hugging him a bit too tightly. "I picked the scariest face I know!"

"She didn't want to do any normal jack-o'-lantern faces, and when I suggested the guys from Mum's horror movies like Leatherface, Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, she simply shook her head. So..." Talfryn said, coming out on the porch, indicating the thirteen glowing renditions of Severus's face. "She said she wanted to do someone real, and you told her those guys weren't real."

"I hardly think that these are scary," Severus growled, pointing to the jack-o'-lanterns as he carried Bella inside to get away from the thirteen glowing faces.

"Talfryn says that every first-year and second-year thinks so!" Bella explained, toying with a strand of his hair. "He said they will scare every kid that comes here. He entered me in the contest, Daddy! Said I'll get a trophy, and my picture in the paper, and a hundred gold Galleons, and everything!"

"Did he?" Secretly, Severus loved it when his daughter fingered his hair. "And why do they have wigs?" he asked, slowly losing his annoyance. "Is this why my sitting room looks like a mockery of a potions lab?"

Bella nodded enthusiastically. "Talfryn and his friends did it for me. Isn't it great? It looks just like yours does!"

Severus's eyes swept the room slowly, taking it all in. It was the most ridiculous lab set up he'd ever seen. Weasleys' Fog Pellets, Steam Pellets, and Smoke Bombs were strategically placed in every cauldron, beaker, vial bottle and even on the floor. Each cauldron had a self-stirring rod twirling away. "It has Muggle chemistry devices," he stated. "You've outdone yourselves."

The griffin knocker on the door announced the first intruder to his bliss. Severus set his daughter down and opened the door scowling, seeing a trembling fairy in pale blue hold up her Muggle-looking plastic pumpkin-shaped carrier. Another Weasley product, I suppose. "T-trick or... tr – treat," she stammered.

"Indeed," he said, still scowling as he dropped a brightly wrapped Weasleys' Fizzing Whizz Wheezes into the carrier the child was holding. The girl screamed and ran as soon as the annoying candy fell into her carrier. No sooner had he closed the door than the griffin announced the next intruder. "This is going to go on all night, isn't it?" he said, yanking the door open again.

"Tri – ah, er, treat, sir," a little girl in a ladybug costume said, as a mini Dumbledore stared up at him as if ready to wet his robes.

"Indeed," he said smoothly with his well-practiced sneer, dropping a Whizz Wheezes in each of the childrens' carriers.

Both kids immediately turned and ran. However, the little girl did stop to yell, "Thank you," from the garden gate.

The third kid was wearing a costume in a ridiculous attempt at impersonating a hippogriff, and fourth was a boy was dressed as a goblin. On the other hand, it could have been a goblin, the way the kid walked away, grinning, regardless of Severus' sneering at him. However, the next set, one girl in a fluffy dress that looked like Snow White and a boy carrying a scathe and wearing black robes, both look properly terrified when Severus opened the door, both running away as soon as they got their candy.

"At this rate, Dad, either we'll be swamped with kids hoping to be scared witless, or the word will get out and no one will come to the door," Talfryn said, ignoring his dad's glare, "and I'll have Whizz Wheezes for months!"

"I have some Polyjuice Potion ready for when you have to go back to the castle for the feast," Hermione added, grinning. "I just hope I can give your snarl the proper justice!"

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Now, Bella, you be careful out there tonight," he said, giving his daughter a loving caress.

"Aren't you taking me?" she said, her pout nearly melting his heart.

Severus pulled a strand of hair from his head, handing it to his wife. "Until seven, then I must return to the castle," he said, picking up his daughter and kissing her on the cheek.

"You, I'll see tonight," he said to Hermione. "And I expect to see you dressed in something appropriate and looking like yourself. I do not want to come home to myself."

"I don't see why not," Hermione said, kissing him while handing Bella her Muggle candy carrier. "I love coming home to your face."

"Thirteen of them on the porch are enough! I'd rather come home and see yours," he said, giving her a hug as the knocker announced the next intruder.

"Severus, do you mind? I'm not in costume yet?" Hermione grinned, turning to walk back to the bedroom.

Severus set Bella down and answered the door, his expression as dark as he could make it, considering his daughter was grinning up at him by his side, hidden by the door.

"Trick – a..." the little boy in a green Chimera costume started to say, then froze. His sister, dressed as a Pixie, and his younger brother, disguised as a bunny, simply stared up at Severus as if Stupefied.

Severus grinned. No, I don't mind this at all. This is fun, although, I'd never tell Hermione that. "Indeed," he snarled, watching the kids blanch and shiver under his intense stare. Beside him, Bella giggled, watching him scare the kids as she waited for him to take her Trick-or-Treating.

The End

~ Trick–or–Treat! ~