Hiya guys. This is not a chapter, it's just a holiday special I decided to write for Halloween. Sorry it came two days later. I tried. Anyway I hope you enjoy. Also this is set after Age of Ultron, just in case you get confused.

"You want me to what?"

"That's right. I want us to carve Jack- O- Lanterns for Halloween."

Harry had managed to gather together a whole bunch of people to carve up some massive pumpkins that Hagrid was kind enough to grow and send over for him. It was great because they were all placed inside a box with an undetectable extension charm, along with a charm to make the box feel weightless.

"Loki, can you help me to pull them out?" Harry asked kindly, even though said god was lounging on his sofa, not really paying much attention.

"Can't you ask your man of Iron to help? I daresay, I do find this mortal tradition ridiculous."

"Fine." Harry rolled his eyes, "Tony, would you please be so kind. These pumpkins will be heavy."

Tony stepped closer to the box. It was a pretty box, covered in carvings of vines and runes. "I don't see any pumpkins, just a small crate." Tony said, casting his eyes around Harry's sitting room and then back onto the box.

Harry grinned. "Oh, they are here all right. Fresh from Hagrid's pumpkin patch, untouched from its Floo journey."

"Be glad they are not covered in soot, wherever they are."

Harry chuckled and then opened the box. Immediately something big and orange appeared, as if toys were bursting from a packed cupboard.

"Get a hold of the vine, I will help you pull." Harry said, getting a good grasp of a piece of the sizeable stalk. They pulled with all their might, but found great difficulty. After some more heaving the pumpkin actually moved and then popped out from the box like it was made of rubber.

"That is one huge bugger," Harry gasped with a heave.

Tony too heaved out a large breath of air and promptly sat himself down onto the carpet heavily. "NO kidding. Next time remind me to bring along my suit gauntlets. I can now see why you asked psycho god over there to help."

"Keep talking man of iron and I will boil you where you stand." Said Loki, tossing a ball up into the air.

It was that moment that Luna and Pepper walked into the room from the kitchen. Luna was carrying a tray covered in mugs and a pot of tea.

"We made spiced apple tea." Pepper said with a smile.

Tony was about to complain about lack of coffee, but Harry cut him off. "That's perfect. It will go nicely with the pumpkin pie I made earlier. Harry flicked his wand. A few seconds later a plate whizzed out from the kitchen. Harry levitated the pie laden plate next to the tea tray.

"If you had told us Harry I could have brought it in also." Luna admonished the black haired man. She waved her wand and some more plates with forks and a knife flew in. Luna caught them quickly and set them down. "At least remember all the essentials."

Harry blushed. "Sorry."

It didn't take long for Tony to dive for a slice, having experienced some of Harry's cooking first hand. "This is real pumpkin pie." He said after a big bite. He didn't even bother to use a fork, just manhandled it towards his mouth. "This is better than anything I have tried at a harvest fair."

"Thanks for the compliment." Harry leaned over and placed a quick kiss over pie flavoured lips.

"Do I get a kiss for every compliment I give you?"

Harry shook his head. "Please don't."

Everyone laughed whilst Loki revealed a small smirk.

"Who would like some tea?" There was a show of hands and Pepper promptly began to pour the tea into some mugs. Loki took his as it was. Luna and Pepper added a little sugar to theirs whilst Harry added a spoonful of honey and a dash of milk, appreciating the calm flavours.

"It looks like you are drinking milk," Tony observed.

Harry hummed after taking a sip. "I like my tea sweet. Milk just adds to it in my opinion. I'm not so keen on the tartness of the apple if the milk isn't added." He explained.

"That hardly counts as what a real cup of tea should be." Loki sat primly with his cup. His accent was more refined than Harry's thicker West Country accent. Even though Harry grew up in Surrey he never really picked up the accent. He supposed it was because he was born in Godric's Hollow in the south west of England his magic wanted him to keep those accented r's and rolling o's. Harry also supposed it had something to do with not wanting to be like the Dursleys. Once he finished at Hogwarts he moved back to the West for a couple of years to reconnect with his roots. He stayed within a little house not too far from Godric's Hollow.

Loki was highborn. He definitely thought himself as much too. His accent was crisp and sharp, his words perfectly formed with no loose syllables at all. He would actually make a wonderful teacher if he wasn't so mean. 'He really does remind me of Snape, just his voice doesn't drawl.' Whereas Snape resembled a bat out of hell, Loki was a sleek panther on the prowl.

"Want some pie?" Harry asked the god, offering a slice on a plate. The god looked at Harry and then inclined his head in a slight nod of affirmation. Harry handed the plate over.

"Even gods have to eat delicious pie." Tony said after Loki took a bite of pie using the fork.

Loki's eyes glimmered. "Indeed." Harry supposed he too liked the pie. He felt glad. There was something about Loki that you just wanted him to accept you, to like what you do.

"Harry, are you going to get the rest of the pumpkins out?" Luna asked.

"Oh yeah." He placed his cup down and went back over to the pumpkin box. He reached in, a little ways and came back up, dragging a slightly smaller pumpkin out. Harry placed it next to the bigger one. The two were the perfect shape to complement each other. One was short and very rotund with a bright and healthy orange colouration. The other was slightly elongated with a few little growths that resembled warts. This pumpkin was slightly more yellow in colour.

Harry looked into the box. "Let's see how many more pumpkins Hagrid placed in here. He reached in again, this time the whole top half disappearing into the box.

"I have never seen a stranger thing." Pepper said. Tony waved at her, a fake hurt expression on his face. "No Tony, not as strange as what you get up to. Apart from that." Tony smirked wide.

Harry returned, again, but without a pumpkin. "This one is too heavy for me to pull out. He got his wand back out so that he could levitate it out. "Accio massive and exceedingly lumpy pumpkin." He said.

The pumpkin attempted to breach the sides of the box, but it didn't have enough shove to get through. "Tony, catch it!" Harry half shouted as he felt the spell begin to wane. Tony surged over and grasped the stalk, but immediately the magic dropped and the pumpkin fell back into the box, Tony sliding after it.

"What the hell, this is so cool!" He said from within the box. It's bigger on the inside than on the outside!"

Loki was laughing. Whats more was that it wasn't an evil laugh you would expect a villainous personality such as him to have. It was genuine. A person who saw something funny and was deriving enjoyment from it. He walked over, grabbed Tony around the waist and used his demigod strength to haul him out along with the pumpkin.

Tony dropped the pumpkin once it popped out, his brown eyes wide like a doe caught in the headlights.

Loki actually had the audacity to hold Tony up as if he were a child. He held him by the waist, a hand on each side. The act was simply to embarrass the man, and it did its job. "Put me down you feathered creeper!" He whined.

"You really are a worm, meant to grovel beneath my feet." Harry could tell that Loki wasn't being malicious, just playful.

"Any help here?" Tony held onto Loki's hands to steady himself. He swivelled his head around, pleading.

"Loki is just playing Tony." Luna said, sipping her tea.

Pepper, being the good friend that she was simply giggled. "I bet Loki could keep you under control."

"Drop. Me. Now." Tony said coldly.

"Of course." Loki then opened his hands. The man dropped to the ground.

Harry was supposing Loki wanted Tony to land on his butt, but the man was used to dropping out of the air when landing in his suit, so he landed nicely on his feet like a cat. The move was practiced and Tony smirked at Loki's dark expression.

Tony then whistled when he saw the pumpkin. "Now THAT is a big bugger!" Indeed, the pumpkin was bigger than the first and was grossly misshapen. "Dibbs on that one."

Harry smiled as he went back over to the box, tipping it up and letting much smaller pumpkins roll onto the carpet.

Of course the girls went for the smaller pumpkins. "I will carve this little one first so that it doesn't feel left out." Luna said in her odd way.

"Carve them outside or in the kitchen please." Harry requested. Last thing he wanted was pumpkin innards all over his nice carpet.

Harry and Tony rolled the two smaller of the larger pumpkins into the kitchen. Loki was kind enough to drag the other one along after them, although that was about as much as he was going to do. He pulled up a kitchen stool and sat on it, leaning his weight against the far counter. It was the perfect place for him to observe.

"I assume you have carved a pumpkin before?" Harry asked everyone. There were nods from all except Tony. "Really Tony. Not even when you were a kid?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah well, my dad was never one for celebrating holidays, and he would never allow my mom to teach me to carve a pumpkin. It wasn't the Stark thing. Had to invent."

Harry gave him a nod of understanding. It was a similar story for himself after all.

"By the way, where is that feathery Scraggamuffin?" Tony looked around.

"Fawkes is out visiting Buckbeak. I'm sure he will appear when he needs to."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Pepper said, eager to begin carving.

"I have knives and spoons over here." Harry pulled out a load of knives. "Never mind buying a pumpkin carving set. I find that they never work as well as a trusty old knife.

Everyone collected a knife and then set to work. The two ladies chatted as they worked, slicing around the top of the fruit to get the top off so that they could take the seeds and extra flesh out. Loki simply watched.

Tony on the other hand was sat there, not really sure what to do. Harry was already hacking into one of the large pumpkins. He was using an extremely long and sharp knife.

"You okay there Starkers?" Harry came over to the flummoxed genius.

"Oh fine. Just pondering how to go about this. He brandished a knife and began to cut around the top. The pumpkin was so large that Tony had to kneel over it to see over it. Harry wondered how Hagrid could grow pumpkins so big.

"I guess it is easy to figure out." Sometimes Harry forgot that Tony is a genius and could work things out in a fraction of a second.

Harry returned to his carving, cutting deep into the orange fruit. He looked over and saw that Tony was already wrenching to cut top off. Harry could see that Tony had very strong arms and hands, likely from hefting around heavy metals, using hammer and other tools and generally keeping himself fit for hero work. Harry could drool.

"This is disgusting!" Tony crowed in glee. He had reached into the cauldron of a fruit and started to yank out seeds and the stringy pumpkin flesh.

"Keep the seeds, we can toast them later."

"Oh, I love toasted pumpkin seeds. I haven't had any since I was a teenager," Pepper said as she scraped them out and placed them on the tray that Harry had got out. It was placed in the middle as they worked. The four that were carving were all sat in a circle on the kitchen floor.

"Are you sure you don't want to carve that last beast there Loki?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

"I am quite sure young Harry, thank you."

Harry hummed, but then got an idea. "How about you judge the best carvings." He suggested. Loki raised an eyebrow.

"I suppose I could do that. I will be brutally honest though."

"Show no mercy." Harry laughed, glad that he could get Loki to do something.

Luna was humming as she worked, no doubt thinking about what she was going to design onto it.

"What are you going to design Tony?" Harry asked, genuinely interested.

"Hmm," Tony mulled it over. "It's a secret." He stuck his tongue out at Harry.

"Oi you." Harry threw a bit of stringy orange flesh at his boyfriend.

"Hey," Tony ducked, then reached into his pumpkin and took some seeds and flesh out to then dive onto harry, rubbing it into his hair.

"Tony!" Harry screamed, laughing his head off.

Pepper and Luna tried their best to ignore the two guys as they wrestled about, but Loki was getting a little irritated. "Oh do stop manhandling each other in front of me." He said.

Harry managed to push Tony away, who had his hand down his top, shoving leftover guts onto his belly. The older man got up, winking at Harry.

"Eww, gross." Harry pulled his top up, wiping the grunge off his skin with a piece of kitchen towel.

"You had It coming~" Tony blew a kiss. He was being extra flirtatious today.

"And there are the bedroom eyes," Luna said, getting the two to shut up. Tony nodded but Harry blushed again. He sat down and carried on with his carving to cover his embarrassment up.

After that everyone got into the swing of things. The pumpkin carving took up a lot of concentration and even Tony was quiet as he worked. Pepper knew that once the man delved into his inventions he was extremely focussed, only speaking to Jarvis or when herself, Happy, Rhodey or Harry were trying to speak to him.

Harry glanced over, noting the extremely neat, angular slices Tony had placed into the skin. He was mapping it out bravely. Harry could never do that; he always had to draw a design in marker before he could start carving.

The room smelt of pumpkin, the fragrance seeming to disgruntle the owls that sat over them from the branches and perches. Although they did appreciate the quiet despite the number of people.

There was the sound from the kettle steaming. Harry didn't even notice Loki boiling some more water. He then picked up another slice of pie and continued to watch everyone carve.

"What are you going to do this year Harry?" Luna asked whist she cut.

Harry wasn't sure. He had only just finished scraping the inside and placing the last of the guts to the side. "I'm going to look at some designs online to gather some inspiration."

"Okay. Well I think I will just do a ghost or something." Luna began to hum again. Harry knew she would create something odder than a simple ghost. She always did.

"What about you Pepper?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to do an owl. Plenty of reference everywhere," she glanced around the room at all the different owls. James and Lily were roosting not too far away and Colin was hopping about excitedly.

"Best not to watch Colin. He moves too much." Harry laughed.

Harry had his laptop out, the screen full of pumpkin designs. Harry wasn't much of an artist, but he couldn't not draw. He could follow simple designs and execute them nicely onto something. Once he got his inspiration he decided to begin drawing.

The afternoon wore on. Pepper and Luna had finished their pumpkins over an hour ago whilst Harry and Tony were still carving. In their defence the pumpkins were much bigger.

"Is that a stag?" Tony asked, peering over.

"Yeah," Harry nodded. He had scraped the skin and some of the flesh away to show the silhouette of a stag. He was now working on a Werewolf with a large moon cut out behind it. The wolf was blocked out so that it looked like it was being silhouetted by the moon.

They had plenty of space to work on, so the cutting wasn't anywhere near as fiddly. They were spending so long on one pumpkin each that the last large pumpkin was being neglected.

"C'mon Loki, why don't you do the last one. Use magic if you want to. It will soon be too late to prepare it." Harry pleaded.

Loki sighed from the sofa. He had moved back there earlier to be more comfortable. He placed the book he was reading down on the table and reluctantly got up. "Very well, I will endeavour to take part." All the man did was wave a hand and the pumpkin in question was already prepared with a full design on the front. Both Tony and Harry got up to have a good look.

"Nu ah!" Loki said, making the pumpkin disappear. "Not until the judging commences."

"Aww come on!" Tony whinged. "I bet it's a scene of you finally beating up your brother."

"Don't be absurd. I no longer wish to engage in battle with that oaf." Loki actually looked offended, but Tony suspected there may have been a lie there.

"Whatever," he mumbled beneath his breath.

"You nearly done Starkers?" Harry asked as he carved the image of a large dog into the skin. There were little stars and planets surrounding the figure.

"Sure Raven. Just one last bit."

Tony was the last to finish. He was one for precision, spending a lot of time making sure there were no rough edges to his design. It was precise, much like his beautifully made and sleek suits. It showed how scientific his mind was and that everything he cooked up was derived from analysis, planning and precision.

"Oh, he joins us!" Harry cheered from the couch. He was sat between Luna and Pepper with a glass in his hand.

"You should never rush an artist."

"He is an artist now?" Pepper said.

"I think he thinks he is everything."

"No one can be everything."

"Are we going to get on with this thing?"

Everyone stopped to look at Loki.

"Sure. It's dark now, we should light the buggers." Harry placed his drink down and got up. "And I have the perfect way to light them.

He went over to the cabinet by the patio and collected a whole bunch of flasks and jars. They were all different shapes and sizes. "I keep the jars that contain the potions and ingredients I purchase. These will do nicely." He placed them onto the table and then brandished his wand.

"Don't people usually light a small candle and place it inside?" Pepper asked. She was confused about the jars.

"Oh no worries. We will still be using fire." Harry tapped his wand on the rim of a larger jar.

Tony hovered excitedly as he watched a bright blue flame appear on the end of the piece of wood. It behaved strangely, as if it were actually liquid instead of gas. It dripped down the end of the wand like a melted gummy drop and splatted into the jar. It wobbled slightly before it burst into light and glowed like a will o' wisp in the dusky light.

"Hermione taught me this little trick. She knows how to change the colour, but I'm not sure how to do that yet."

Tony picked up the jar. "Wow, it's not even hot. This is fascinating!" He peered closely at the little flickering flame.

"Here guys, I will conjure up a flame for you all." Harry proceeded to fill a few more jars with the little blue flames. He made Pepper giggle when he got two jars and pretended he was a mad scientist when he allowed the flames to fall out and then be scooped up by a different jar. He shook it and made it wobble before he handed a little empty jar to her. He poured the flame into it for her.

"They are great fun."

"That's fabulous. Magic is amazing!" Pepper awed, peering into the glass. "It can do so much."

"Yeah, it's super handy," Harry started, placing more flames into the rest of the jars. "Only thing you have to watch out for is the need to become lazy and too reliant on it."

"I could understand that. If I could do magic I would just Accio everything to me." Tony said.

Pepper guffawed a laugh suddenly. "Hardly, you just get poor Dummy, U or Butterfingers to get everything for you."

"They love it!" Tony shrugged.

Whilst Pepper and Tony were conversing Harry watched Loki pick up the last large jar. He held it with the tips of his fingers from the bottom and held it level with his green gaze. He raised his free hand, placed the tips to the jar and then in a flash the bright blue flames changed colour into the bright and vibrant gold. The gold fire seemed to sparkle and instead of flickering lazily it sparkled like a firecracker.

"That's cool, what spell did you use." Harry asked.

Loki replied, "It was not a spell. I can feel the magic in this realm and I can manipulate it to do my bidding with but a quick thought. I need no wand to harness that power."

"That sounds quite handy. Wizards here have been known to use wandless magic, but it is tricky and often it happens when you don't mean for it. Like that time I blew up my aunt like a balloon when I got angry."

Tony laughed. "Hah, you actually did that? Why was that?"

"She was speaking horrible things about my dead parents. I got so pissed off that I just let it happen."

Loki's eyes glowed with mischief. "Yes, some magic folk let their emotions do the work. Sometimes the spells formed in that fashion are the most powerful. Mortals and non magicals would call them 'miracles,' but we magicals know better."

"Yeah."

Everyone collected their pumpkins and lined them up on the floor in front of the patio window. It was now completely dark outside, the only lights to be seen belonging to the faeries in the garden.

The flame jars were placed inside each pumpkin and the caps placed back.

"They are all green!" Harry laughed, suspecting as much. Blue light was shining through yellow fruit flesh.

"Loki's is so gold I'm almost blinded," Luna marvelled, loving the cheeky grin of the face on the pumpkin. "Classic designs are always some of the best."

"Oh, that isn't the only carving I did." Loki clicked his fingers, the pumpkin spun around, showing a work of art depicting a phoenix in flight. Ashes were scattered behind it as it flew and they too seemed to glitter like energetic fire."

"Okay, I'm more than a little jealous." Harry said.

"Yours is lovely Harry." Luna patted him on the back, appreciating the design he chose. Harry had decided to design the marauders, with Moony in the middle and Padfoot and Prongs surrounding him. The stag's antlers were well cut out and he looked proud and tall. Padfoot had bright eyes where the pumpkin has been completely cut away.

Moony was howling at the moon, his angular form prominent from Harry's memories. He hadn't seen Lupin change after their encounter in third year.

"My dad was a Stag Animagus whilst my godfather was a large black dog. My teacher and good friend was a werewolf. He was locked up within a place called the shrieking shack every full moon and my dad and godfather and another of their friends would keep him company. Werewolves are less likely to attack animals you see."

"That's pretty damn awesome! Are you an Animagus Harry?" Tony remembered Harry explain to him that some wizards and witches could change into animals.

"Well, that isn't much of a surprise if I told you." He patted his nose with his forefinger. "Mums the word."

"Aww, that's mean." Tony pouted.

"And Tony," Luna began, breaking up the two from their conversation, "is that Ultron?"

Tony grinned and patted the pumpkin. "Sure is. Junior was a massive pain and caused much grief, but his design was pretty cool." Tony had carved a really detailed portrait of his face. He really managed to capture the menacing eyes and glowing orifice of his mouth. The being on the pumpkin looked cynical and proud. As much as Harry didn't want to compare Tony with the evil robot, he couldn't help but think they were very much alike.

"Pepper, I love your owl." Luna pointed at the small pumpkin harbouring a cute image of a squat owl with large orb like eyes and a happy smile.

"Thank you Luna." Pepper looked happy.

Tony pouted. "Girls and cute things. What is the obsession?"

"You can't understand, you are not a girl." Harry placed his arm sincerely on his shoulder. "Even I do not understand." Indeed, a real owl was much cuter to him.

Tony quickly placed his arm around Harry's waist and pulled him close. He pressed a kiss to his cheek. "We will put up with it together."

"Oh no, no more flirting please." Pepper requested even though she was smiling. She actually thought that the two lovers were cute.

"I think the man of iron is feeling a little- shall we say- frisky!" Loki explained to Luna and Pepper.

Tony ignored Loki, but Harry was getting a little out of breath, especially as Tony decided to start tickling his sides, causing Harry to giggle like he was still at school. He wriggled from his grasp and quickly diverted Tony's attentions. "Oh but Luna, care to tell us what you did."

"Oh course Harry." Luna sat next to her pumpkin. "I did a ghoulie wearing wellies. It will most likely be raining back in Britain. We must be prepared, especially as we are visiting soon. We must remember to wear our raincoats and wellies."

"Hear hear," Harry agreed. Britain rained without fail every autumn. It always got cold and wet and muddy. Mud always made its way up the staircase and the window sills were always damp with rain and condensation. "Can't wait for it."

"It makes me glad that I live here, where it is warm." Tony gazed at Harry meaningfully.

"Ah, a bit of rain isn't so bad," Harry admitted sarcastically.

"Anyway guys, who is the winner?" Everyone looked over to Pepper when she sad that, and then they all looked over to Loki.

"Loki can't judge now, he is in the competition." Tony huffed.

Loki sneered, "As if I could not outshine all of your designs. Artistry is poor down here."

It was then that there was a ripple in the air, and then there was a sudden crack and a flash. Everyone turned to see that Fawkes had teleported into the home behind them.

"Hey, now we have a judge." Harry held his arm out when Fawkes fluttered over. "Which Is the best one Fawkes?"

Fawkes hopped off and looked at each design. Harry put a lot of faith in Fawkes, but everyone else knew that Fawkes was still just a bird and thus held no ability to critique or judge artwork. He simply hopped over to the phoenix and trilled at it.

"Oh come on. Of course he was going to choose the reindeers pumpkin. It looks just like him!" Tony waved his arms in the air in defeat.

"Yeah, it was a bit biased," Harry giggled.

"But everyone had fun right?" Harry looked hopeful as he gave everyone a questioning look.

Everyone nodded, even Loki, who just seemed pleased that the bird chose his work as the winner.

"Let's spread them around. Anywhere inside, and lets turn the lights off."

Everyone picked up their pumpkin and placed them around the room. Pepper placed hers above the fireplace and Luna placed hers inside one of the plant pots. It looked like the ghost was peeking up above the rim.

Loki proceeded to place it in front of the sofa so that he could prop his legs up on it. He carried on throwing the ball up into the air.

Harry and Tony kept theirs close together next to the patio.

I will go and roast these seeds and then we can watch some movies."

"Great idea. I want to watch all the classic horrors. Nightmare on Elm street, the exorcist-"

"I think we should have a vote." Harry interjected before Tony spouted all the titles he knew.

"If we all suggest two films and then put it through a voting system. We can watch the top three films." Pepper suggested.

"That's a fab idea Pepper," Luna smiled.

"Okay, then I will suggest 'Sleepy Hollow' and 'the nightmare before Christmas." Pepper wrote down Harry's suggestions onto her phone.

"I vote for 'Halloween' and 'nightmare on Elm Street.' Tony said.

"The black cauldron' and 'ghost.' Was Luna's suggestions.

"Although I haven't seen many films, I can suggest we watch 'the Blair witch project' and 'the exorcist.' Loki managed to surprise everyone, wondering when he had the time to watch any films.

"Good list. We will vote when Harry returns."

Harry was quick in the kitchen, preparing the seeds and placing them in the oven.

"You cannot vote for your own films." Tony looked a little put out by that. It was voted that they will watch 'the nightmare before Christmas,' 'the exorcist,' and 'sleepy hollow.'

They put the first film on after Harry collected the freshly cooked seeds. He placed them into a big bowl on the table so that everyone could help themselves. They all got comfortable as the film rolled. Harry sat leaning on Tony with Tony's arm around his waist. Loki sat next to Harry with his feet on the pumpkin and Luna and Pepper took the two remaining armchairs.

With the fire going, Fawkes trilling along with the songs from 'the nightmare before Christmas' and the scent of pumpkin, Harry felt so happy and chilled. No trolls, homicidal godfathers, good company and movies, this was the best Halloween yet.

I hope you liked it. I'm sorry if you were expecting the next chapter. I got inspired. Anyhow, I am currently writing the next chapter whenever I get a bit of time. Hope you guys had a spooky Halloween.