5 assorted challenge ficlets
Genre: All Gen
Rating/Warnings: All G
Medium: All ficlets
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Yes, for all of them
If yes, your Tumblr username: mercuryinyoursalmon
Title: Ordinary Extraordinary Day
Characters/Pairings: OCs, Kingsley Shacklebolt
Notes: Challenge 73 - "That's life... one minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary is running you over with a lawn mower."
She didn’t even know how it had happened. One minute, she had been having fun playing in the garden, bouncing the tennis ball up and down on the racquet. The next, there had been screaming and shouting and she had been bundled indoors and out of sight, thrown into one of the spare sitting rooms and told to keep quiet and not move.
That morning had been pleasant. She hadn’t even minded that she’d been told to keep out of the way because the Prime Minister and some of his aides were coming to have a spot of tea. The garden had been open to her and she had gone out there with her racquet and ball, keeping to one side while Mr Jenkins the gardener dutifully pushed the lawnmower back and forth at the other end, chopping away at the grass with an endless buzzing sound. Their garden was huge so she knew he would be there for a long time and she felt sorry for him as he huffed along, sweating under the late morning sunshine.
She had been so busy playing that she hadn’t noticed the grownups come outside for a tour of the place, barely heard the high tones of her mother speaking in that voice she usually had when there was company. She was playing and feeling bad for Mr Jenkins and then wondering if there was any way that he could get his work done faster and then the next thing she knew, the lawnmower had gone flying out of Mr Jenkins’s grasp and straight towards the guests, straight towards her mother who didn’t even have time to start screaming and straight towards the man she had seen on the telly a few times. He was quite important, she thought.
But then a large man had pushed everyone aside and pulled out what looked like a stick and the lawnmower had frozen in place just inches from the important man’s foot and then her mother had started screaming and all was chaos and now she was in this room, just waiting to see what would happen.
Somehow, she knew that it was her fault. But that wasn’t right, either. She rolled the tennis ball back and forth on the floor with the tip of the racquet.
There was a knock on the door and the large man entered, closing it behind him. He was so very tall and so very wide, but not fat, more like a brick wall than anything else. He had serious eyes, no hair and when he took a seat and gestured for her to do the same, she obeyed without question.
“Your mother and your gardener will not remember what happened. You must not discuss it, not yet. Do you understand?”
She nodded because it seemed important.
“How old are you, Miss?”
Nobody had ever called her ‘Miss’ before. “I’ll be turning eleven soon.”
He smiled, and it instantly lit up his face. She felt her heart swell with pride in response. “You’ll receive a letter soon, then. Before the new school year. It will come by owl.”
“By owl?”
“Yes. I will be back then to discuss it with you.”
“You’ll be back?”
“Yes.” She knew it was a promise.
“What’s your name?” It was only then that she realised her manners.
“Kingsley Shacklebolt. And yours?”
“Jenny Livingstone.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing you again, Miss Livingstone. You’re a special child. Don’t forget that.”
Then he was gone. Like he had said, her mother and Mr Jenkins didn’t remember anything. She stood politely with her mother on their front steps waving off the car that carried the important man, his friends and Mr Kingsley Shacklebolt. Jenny smiled and for the rest of the month before her eleventh birthday, she watched the sky until one day, a brown-feathered creature dropped a letter through her bedroom window. The address at the top said Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Title: Baking
Characters/Pairings: Arthur Weasley
Notes: Challenge 78 - Baking
“’Dad, are you sure this is a good idea’,” Arthur mumbled to himself, flicking his wand and opening cupboards, bringing out all the ingredients. Flour, sugar, milk and eggs hovered to the table, plonking themselves down unceremoniously except for the eggs which descended gracefully to land with a soft bump. “’Dad, you don’t know how to cook’,” he continued with a frown as he realised that ‘Accio’ was probably too aggressive a charm to use in order to find the cake tin. “’Dad, she’ll do her nut if you explode the kitchen again’,” he huffed, remembering Ginny’s wide-eyed look of panic.
“Well I’ll have you all know that I’m an adult and perfectly capable of baking a birthday cake for my wife!” The eggs cracked themselves a little too forcefully but luckily, the yolks landed in the bowl. But his children had refused to come up with an excuse to get their mother out of the house unless he had promised not to attempt to use any of his Muggle instruments in a bid to experiment. ‘Just stick to what you know, Dad’, Bill had said reassuringly. ‘Mum will go crazy if you collapse the wall again and let the gnomes in,’ Charlie had reminded him.
He would show them all. The flick of his wand was perhaps a little too enthusiastic. Cake batter went flying to leave a streak all over the clock, which showed that the rest of the Weasley clan were all out shopping. Good. He hoped the kids managed to give their mother a nice day out.
Some time and many mishaps later, Arthur put the finishing touches to his rather wonky (but tasty, he had tried it and then patched up the hole with icing) chocolate cake. He was proud of himself. Surely this would give him some brownie points, enough for Molly to forgive him for the state of her precious kitchen.
Title: Halloween at the Dursleys
Characters/Pairings: The Dursleys
Notes: Challenge 56 - Halloween at the Dursleys
When the doorbell rang, Vernon Dursley snuffled into his cup of tea and pointedly turned up the television. "Ratty kids," he grumbled. "Can't they see that no one's home?" He leaned over to check the telly guide under the side lamp which was on along with the living room's overhead lights, the presence of which clearly indicating that the Dursleys were indeed home, just not interested in answering the door to ragamuffins in Halloween costumes.
"Just dreadful," Petunia sniffed, peeking out of the curtains with pointed disapproval at the young children walking back to the street where their mother was waiting. All of them were wearing black pointy hats and capes. The smallest carried a makeshift broomstick that was almost as big as she was. "We don't need to be dressing up like weirdos." She snapped the curtains shut with a huff and went back to sit down, ruffling Dudley's hair as she went past. He had been unhappy at being told that Trick or Treating was for common folk who didn't know better and that he should stay home because no son of hers was going to go put pretending that monsters and (shudder) witches existed. To placate him, she had bought him a big box of chocolates. He was munching away happily, not minding her presence. Such an independent boy, her Dudders.
"Alright there, Petunia?" Vernon asked as she sat down, arms folded. "Cheer up love, the night'll be over soon enough and we can go back to normal."
She sniffed her assent. She had always hated Halloween but she had started to hate it even more once Lily had been revealed as one of them. She shivered at the thought of what her kind probably did during Halloween. She wanted no part of it. None at all.
Title: Quiet
Characters/Pairings: Molly Weasley
Notes: Challenge 71 - As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.
They had all managed to sit down and have a proper Sunday dinner, roast with all the trimmings and a dessert to boot. Molly had used her wand to oversee all of the cooking, the chicken neatly lifting itself out of the oven to a waiting knife and carving board, the potatoes tumbling into a bowl perfectly crispy and golden, the vegetables arranging themselves neatly on a serving dish and the gravy obediently and carefully taking its place on the table. Plates and cutlery fell into place perfectly and when she sounded the clarion, her little army descended and amid full mouths and sounds of approval, they thanked her with happy and grateful smiles. This was why she loved cooking, this was why she loved providing for her family.
And now, she could sit on the sofa with one of Gilderoy Lockhart’s latest novels, full and cheerful with a cup of tea at her side. It was beautifully quiet.
Too quiet. She sat up suddenly, listening carefully. She was the only one downstairs - everyone else was elsewhere and outside of her direct line of sight. Even if everyone was stuffed silly with food, there was always noise in the house - never silence. Sounds of talking, sounds of laughing, sounds of Arthur doing god-knows-what with some kind of Muggle contraption, sounds of thumping footsteps and creaking floorboards.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of snoring from the twins, a gentle thump which indicated that Ron had fallen out of bed and the sound of Ginny rearranging her things, probably looking for the magazine that she had left downstairs last night. She paused, listening more and then heard a distinct clank of metal which was Arthur. Reassured, she settled back down and picked up her book.
Title: How many wizards does it take to change a flat tyre?
Characters/Pairings: The Weasleys
Notes: Challenge 72 - How many wizards does it take to change a flat tyre?
“No, no, just crank it up!”
“How, Dad? This stupid little thing doesn’t work!”
“Muggles manage to do it, are you telling me that one highly qualified wizard and three of his sons who are currently in the middle of a first-class wizarding education can’t figure out how to change a flat tyre?”
“Dad, I need to ask. How did the tyre get flat in the first place? You can’t even drive this thing.”
“Hush, George. Help your brother.”
“I don’t need help, Dad.”
“Yes you do. Put the wand away.”
“Dad--”
“Put. The wand. Away. And pick up that thingy over there.”
“What thingy?”
“That thingy over there. Ron, hand the thingy over to your brother.”
“This thingy?”
“No, the other thingy!”
“This one? What’s this supposed to do?”
“It’s supposed to--”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Arthur!” There was a crashing sound as Molly stormed into the room. All of the Weasley men quickly jumped backwards as she whipped out her wand, expertly hovering the car some way off the ground, removing the tyre and quickly replacing it with another. The car thumped back down on the ground with a whoosh that sounded almost like a sigh of relief.
Ficlet 1: 22 pts + 5 for challenge = 27pts
Ficlet 2: 11 pts + 5 for challenge = 16pts
Ficlet 3: 10 pts + 5 for challenge = 15 pts
Ficlet 4: 10 pts + 5 for challenge = 15 pts
Ficlet 5: 7 pts + 5 for challenge = 12pts
Total: 85 points for Ravenclaw
Susan/Ravenclaw
Rating/Warnings: All G
Medium: All ficlets
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Yes, for all of them
If yes, your Tumblr username: mercuryinyoursalmon
Title: Ordinary Extraordinary Day
Characters/Pairings: OCs, Kingsley Shacklebolt
Notes: Challenge 73 - "That's life... one minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary is running you over with a lawn mower."
She didn’t even know how it had happened. One minute, she had been having fun playing in the garden, bouncing the tennis ball up and down on the racquet. The next, there had been screaming and shouting and she had been bundled indoors and out of sight, thrown into one of the spare sitting rooms and told to keep quiet and not move.
That morning had been pleasant. She hadn’t even minded that she’d been told to keep out of the way because the Prime Minister and some of his aides were coming to have a spot of tea. The garden had been open to her and she had gone out there with her racquet and ball, keeping to one side while Mr Jenkins the gardener dutifully pushed the lawnmower back and forth at the other end, chopping away at the grass with an endless buzzing sound. Their garden was huge so she knew he would be there for a long time and she felt sorry for him as he huffed along, sweating under the late morning sunshine.
She had been so busy playing that she hadn’t noticed the grownups come outside for a tour of the place, barely heard the high tones of her mother speaking in that voice she usually had when there was company. She was playing and feeling bad for Mr Jenkins and then wondering if there was any way that he could get his work done faster and then the next thing she knew, the lawnmower had gone flying out of Mr Jenkins’s grasp and straight towards the guests, straight towards her mother who didn’t even have time to start screaming and straight towards the man she had seen on the telly a few times. He was quite important, she thought.
But then a large man had pushed everyone aside and pulled out what looked like a stick and the lawnmower had frozen in place just inches from the important man’s foot and then her mother had started screaming and all was chaos and now she was in this room, just waiting to see what would happen.
Somehow, she knew that it was her fault. But that wasn’t right, either. She rolled the tennis ball back and forth on the floor with the tip of the racquet.
There was a knock on the door and the large man entered, closing it behind him. He was so very tall and so very wide, but not fat, more like a brick wall than anything else. He had serious eyes, no hair and when he took a seat and gestured for her to do the same, she obeyed without question.
“Your mother and your gardener will not remember what happened. You must not discuss it, not yet. Do you understand?”
She nodded because it seemed important.
“How old are you, Miss?”
Nobody had ever called her ‘Miss’ before. “I’ll be turning eleven soon.”
He smiled, and it instantly lit up his face. She felt her heart swell with pride in response. “You’ll receive a letter soon, then. Before the new school year. It will come by owl.”
“By owl?”
“Yes. I will be back then to discuss it with you.”
“You’ll be back?”
“Yes.” She knew it was a promise.
“What’s your name?” It was only then that she realised her manners.
“Kingsley Shacklebolt. And yours?”
“Jenny Livingstone.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing you again, Miss Livingstone. You’re a special child. Don’t forget that.”
Then he was gone. Like he had said, her mother and Mr Jenkins didn’t remember anything. She stood politely with her mother on their front steps waving off the car that carried the important man, his friends and Mr Kingsley Shacklebolt. Jenny smiled and for the rest of the month before her eleventh birthday, she watched the sky until one day, a brown-feathered creature dropped a letter through her bedroom window. The address at the top said Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Title: Baking
Characters/Pairings: Arthur Weasley
Notes: Challenge 78 - Baking
“’Dad, are you sure this is a good idea’,” Arthur mumbled to himself, flicking his wand and opening cupboards, bringing out all the ingredients. Flour, sugar, milk and eggs hovered to the table, plonking themselves down unceremoniously except for the eggs which descended gracefully to land with a soft bump. “’Dad, you don’t know how to cook’,” he continued with a frown as he realised that ‘Accio’ was probably too aggressive a charm to use in order to find the cake tin. “’Dad, she’ll do her nut if you explode the kitchen again’,” he huffed, remembering Ginny’s wide-eyed look of panic.
“Well I’ll have you all know that I’m an adult and perfectly capable of baking a birthday cake for my wife!” The eggs cracked themselves a little too forcefully but luckily, the yolks landed in the bowl. But his children had refused to come up with an excuse to get their mother out of the house unless he had promised not to attempt to use any of his Muggle instruments in a bid to experiment. ‘Just stick to what you know, Dad’, Bill had said reassuringly. ‘Mum will go crazy if you collapse the wall again and let the gnomes in,’ Charlie had reminded him.
He would show them all. The flick of his wand was perhaps a little too enthusiastic. Cake batter went flying to leave a streak all over the clock, which showed that the rest of the Weasley clan were all out shopping. Good. He hoped the kids managed to give their mother a nice day out.
Some time and many mishaps later, Arthur put the finishing touches to his rather wonky (but tasty, he had tried it and then patched up the hole with icing) chocolate cake. He was proud of himself. Surely this would give him some brownie points, enough for Molly to forgive him for the state of her precious kitchen.
Title: Halloween at the Dursleys
Characters/Pairings: The Dursleys
Notes: Challenge 56 - Halloween at the Dursleys
When the doorbell rang, Vernon Dursley snuffled into his cup of tea and pointedly turned up the television. "Ratty kids," he grumbled. "Can't they see that no one's home?" He leaned over to check the telly guide under the side lamp which was on along with the living room's overhead lights, the presence of which clearly indicating that the Dursleys were indeed home, just not interested in answering the door to ragamuffins in Halloween costumes.
"Just dreadful," Petunia sniffed, peeking out of the curtains with pointed disapproval at the young children walking back to the street where their mother was waiting. All of them were wearing black pointy hats and capes. The smallest carried a makeshift broomstick that was almost as big as she was. "We don't need to be dressing up like weirdos." She snapped the curtains shut with a huff and went back to sit down, ruffling Dudley's hair as she went past. He had been unhappy at being told that Trick or Treating was for common folk who didn't know better and that he should stay home because no son of hers was going to go put pretending that monsters and (shudder) witches existed. To placate him, she had bought him a big box of chocolates. He was munching away happily, not minding her presence. Such an independent boy, her Dudders.
"Alright there, Petunia?" Vernon asked as she sat down, arms folded. "Cheer up love, the night'll be over soon enough and we can go back to normal."
She sniffed her assent. She had always hated Halloween but she had started to hate it even more once Lily had been revealed as one of them. She shivered at the thought of what her kind probably did during Halloween. She wanted no part of it. None at all.
Title: Quiet
Characters/Pairings: Molly Weasley
Notes: Challenge 71 - As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.
They had all managed to sit down and have a proper Sunday dinner, roast with all the trimmings and a dessert to boot. Molly had used her wand to oversee all of the cooking, the chicken neatly lifting itself out of the oven to a waiting knife and carving board, the potatoes tumbling into a bowl perfectly crispy and golden, the vegetables arranging themselves neatly on a serving dish and the gravy obediently and carefully taking its place on the table. Plates and cutlery fell into place perfectly and when she sounded the clarion, her little army descended and amid full mouths and sounds of approval, they thanked her with happy and grateful smiles. This was why she loved cooking, this was why she loved providing for her family.
And now, she could sit on the sofa with one of Gilderoy Lockhart’s latest novels, full and cheerful with a cup of tea at her side. It was beautifully quiet.
Too quiet. She sat up suddenly, listening carefully. She was the only one downstairs - everyone else was elsewhere and outside of her direct line of sight. Even if everyone was stuffed silly with food, there was always noise in the house - never silence. Sounds of talking, sounds of laughing, sounds of Arthur doing god-knows-what with some kind of Muggle contraption, sounds of thumping footsteps and creaking floorboards.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of snoring from the twins, a gentle thump which indicated that Ron had fallen out of bed and the sound of Ginny rearranging her things, probably looking for the magazine that she had left downstairs last night. She paused, listening more and then heard a distinct clank of metal which was Arthur. Reassured, she settled back down and picked up her book.
Title: How many wizards does it take to change a flat tyre?
Characters/Pairings: The Weasleys
Notes: Challenge 72 - How many wizards does it take to change a flat tyre?
“No, no, just crank it up!”
“How, Dad? This stupid little thing doesn’t work!”
“Muggles manage to do it, are you telling me that one highly qualified wizard and three of his sons who are currently in the middle of a first-class wizarding education can’t figure out how to change a flat tyre?”
“Dad, I need to ask. How did the tyre get flat in the first place? You can’t even drive this thing.”
“Hush, George. Help your brother.”
“I don’t need help, Dad.”
“Yes you do. Put the wand away.”
“Dad--”
“Put. The wand. Away. And pick up that thingy over there.”
“What thingy?”
“That thingy over there. Ron, hand the thingy over to your brother.”
“This thingy?”
“No, the other thingy!”
“This one? What’s this supposed to do?”
“It’s supposed to--”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Arthur!” There was a crashing sound as Molly stormed into the room. All of the Weasley men quickly jumped backwards as she whipped out her wand, expertly hovering the car some way off the ground, removing the tyre and quickly replacing it with another. The car thumped back down on the ground with a whoosh that sounded almost like a sigh of relief.
Ficlet 1: 22 pts + 5 for challenge = 27pts
Ficlet 2: 11 pts + 5 for challenge = 16pts
Ficlet 3: 10 pts + 5 for challenge = 15 pts
Ficlet 4: 10 pts + 5 for challenge = 15 pts
Ficlet 5: 7 pts + 5 for challenge = 12pts
Total: 85 points for Ravenclaw
Susan/Ravenclaw