"Acceptance"; "Adulterants"; "A Dose of Butterbeer"
Title: Acceptance
Character(s): Hermione Granger, Molly Weasley
Rating: G
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 145
Hermione knows she has been accepted when Molly teaches her how to brew butterbeer. Molly has taught none of the boys, and not even Ginny. "You don't have the patience, dear," she says when Ginny complains that she wants to know how, too, and it's true.
So Molly shows Hermione how to measure, how to mix, how to set the charms so that the concoction brews at a constant temperature over time, and even lets her in on the special spice mix that is the secret to Molly's especially flavorful butterbeer (it involves cardamom, of all things). When they taste the first batch they have made together, Molly smiles and says she will have to go out to the shed and make sure Arthur tastes it, as it's quite good.
Hermione, finally, relaxes to the tips of her toes.
Title: Adulterants
Character(s): Slughorn
Rating: PG
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 131
Slughorn has been channelling Mad-Eye Moody ever since the poisoned mead. Even drinks in the Great Hall---no, especially drinks in the Great Hall, ever since the Carrows came---are unilaterally on the receiving end of a few charms designed to reveal adulterants.
Three months after the Battle of Hogwarts and the day before the school opens for the new school year, the staff has their own end-of-summer celebration in the Great Hall. Slughorn looks around the hall and finally lets down his guard. As they toast the new year, Slughorn smiles broadly and downs his butterbeer.
And promptly spews liquid everywhere, because it appears that the elves have decided that this year Firewhiskey is a necessary component of all celebratory drinks.
Title: A Dose of Butterbeer
Character(s): Winky
Rating: PG-13
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 108
Winky doesn't really remember how she became an alcoholic. When she was with the Crouches, she had a bottle of butterbeer on holidays, and enjoyed the flavor but not the subsequent light-headedness. Sometime early during her time at Hogwarts, she discovered that the light-headedness masked the pain of clothes.
Now Dobby---Dobby! the only one of all the Hogwarts elves to be kind to her, even if he was strange and spoke poorly of his family---is gone. Even though she now drinks two bottles of butterbeer a day, it is not enough to cover the loss of both her family and her only friend.
Character(s): Hermione Granger, Molly Weasley
Rating: G
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 145
Hermione knows she has been accepted when Molly teaches her how to brew butterbeer. Molly has taught none of the boys, and not even Ginny. "You don't have the patience, dear," she says when Ginny complains that she wants to know how, too, and it's true.
So Molly shows Hermione how to measure, how to mix, how to set the charms so that the concoction brews at a constant temperature over time, and even lets her in on the special spice mix that is the secret to Molly's especially flavorful butterbeer (it involves cardamom, of all things). When they taste the first batch they have made together, Molly smiles and says she will have to go out to the shed and make sure Arthur tastes it, as it's quite good.
Hermione, finally, relaxes to the tips of her toes.
Title: Adulterants
Character(s): Slughorn
Rating: PG
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 131
Slughorn has been channelling Mad-Eye Moody ever since the poisoned mead. Even drinks in the Great Hall---no, especially drinks in the Great Hall, ever since the Carrows came---are unilaterally on the receiving end of a few charms designed to reveal adulterants.
Three months after the Battle of Hogwarts and the day before the school opens for the new school year, the staff has their own end-of-summer celebration in the Great Hall. Slughorn looks around the hall and finally lets down his guard. As they toast the new year, Slughorn smiles broadly and downs his butterbeer.
And promptly spews liquid everywhere, because it appears that the elves have decided that this year Firewhiskey is a necessary component of all celebratory drinks.
Title: A Dose of Butterbeer
Character(s): Winky
Rating: PG-13
Challenge(s): Butterbeer
Word count: 108
Winky doesn't really remember how she became an alcoholic. When she was with the Crouches, she had a bottle of butterbeer on holidays, and enjoyed the flavor but not the subsequent light-headedness. Sometime early during her time at Hogwarts, she discovered that the light-headedness masked the pain of clothes.
Now Dobby---Dobby! the only one of all the Hogwarts elves to be kind to her, even if he was strange and spoke poorly of his family---is gone. Even though she now drinks two bottles of butterbeer a day, it is not enough to cover the loss of both her family and her only friend.