Writer's Block 41.4 - Voting!
banner by renrenren3
Challenge: Road Trip
Points: 2pts for voting. 1st/2nd/3rd/Participation Only: 50/40/30/10 points & 20/15/10/5 knuts, respectively, for winners.
Deadline: Voting until Sunday, August 26 @ 11pm UTC.
Details: Vote for your top 3 favourite drabbles. Do not vote for yourself or have other people vote for you.
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NAME/HOUSE OR SIGTAG
A.
Title: Ford Anglia
When Fred and George walked into the living room, Ron was alone at the table, biting his thumbnail. He barely even looked up when Fred flicked the back of his ear.
“What’s up, little brother?” George asked.
“Harry hasn’t answered any of my letters,” he said plaintively. “I’m starting to get worried.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like you anymore,” Fred suggested.
“Maybe his Muggles ate him,” was his twin’s idea. “His cousin did look like the type when we saw him...”
Ron threw them a desperate glance. Suddenly, Fred had a thought. His father had been telling them just the other day about this car he was working on... This flying car... He turned to his twin and saw a twinkle in his eye.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Gred?”
“I don’t know, Forge. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
After a beat, they both simultaneously yelled out what they were thinking:
“ROAD TRIP!”
B.
Title: Negotiations
AU where Severus Snape survived the war, several decades have passed, and Hermione has taken it upon herself to cheer Severus up. Written for the prompt “Road Trip”.
“I know precisely what you need.”
Severus didn’t even bother turning his chair around to face me. “Oh? And what precisely might that be?”
A lesser mortal might have been cowed by the sheer amount disdain compressed into that statement. They didn’t put me in Gryffindor for nothing, though. “You need to get out more. We should go on a road trip.”
“A what?”
“A road trip. Wherein we leave the confines of Hogwarts and go gallivanting.”
“Gallivanting.”
“Oh yes. Gallivanting. We would have the potential for escapades.”
“Escapades. Are you insane?”
I walked over and leaned my elbows on his shoulders, ignoring his irritated shrug. “Just as much as when I agreed to our partnership, what was it, twenty years ago? Why yes, Severus, it was twenty years ago to the day, wasn’t it?”
“Is that was this is all about? Some trifling nonsense about anniversaries?”
I kissed the top of his head. “No, you insufferable git. This is about you moping around the dungeons after your article was rejected and me getting sick of it.”
He scowled. “The editors have no taste.”
“Clearly. But your brilliant, cunning plan has been what? To submit to another journal? No, it has been to sulk. For weeks. And as today is our anniversary, I’m taking spousal prerogative and dragging you into the sunlight for some adventure.”
“Pah! I’m no bloody Gryffindor. In fact, I believe you just called me an insufferable git.”
“Yes, but you’re my insufferable git, and I want to get out. And you’re coming with me. Unless…” I trailed my hands across his chest.
“Unless?”
“Unless you translate your sulking into productive work.”
He crossed his arms. “And what, pray tell, counts as productive in your eyes?”
“Why, I’d allow for anything that leads to you submitting your article to another journal.”
His lips twitched. “You’re subtle like a brick, you know.”
“Yes, but look how often I get my way, hmmm? So, which is it? Road trip or journal resubmission?” I winked down at him. “I promise I can help edit the cover letter.”
“I’d say I hate you, but you’d never believe me.”
“Too right. I learned how to translate long ago. You have the most curious way of crossing hate with love.”
“You are an insufferable woman.”
“And aren’t we a pair?”
He brushed his lips lightly over my fingers. “I hate you so.”
“I know. Now get writing.”
C.
Title: Bittersweet Memories
Hagrid does not really remember his mother. He remembers someone big and grey and not kind, someone who was disappointed by his small stature by giant standards. But Hagrid remembers his father, and how they loved each other. How his father would kiss him goodnight and tell him how proud he was of him. The thing Hagrid remembers best is how they would do road trips every summer. They would take his father's car and travel around the country Muggle-way, exploring different cities and sites. His father would always tell Hagrid bits and pieces of information, teaching Hagrid the Muggle history as well as their own. Those were good times.
D.
Title: And off to see the Muggles
They’d been working on it for months. They collaborated with Hermione and Harry to check out all the possible places Muggles abandon vehicles until they found a Ford Anglia that looked exactly like the old one. Same model, same year, same color.
Then they spent weeks upon weeks fixing it up. They enchanted the inside so there was room for everyone in addition to all their stuff. They even went so far as to add a refrigerator and a small bathroom.
The hardest part was getting their mother on board. Molly was not pleased, to say the least, that all her children were magicking another Muggle vehicle, but even she could not deny their enthusiasm for long, and she ended up being the one to volunteer to speak to Arthur’s boss and put the whole thing in action.
Finally, the night before the grand reveal, Arthur’s boss made sure to give him extra work to keep him late at the Ministry. While he was gone, the others - Ron, Ginny, George, Charlie, Bill, Fleur, Harry, Hermione and Molly - hurried around the Burrow, packing clothes and food and even some Muggle accessories that Harry and Hermione had bought for them, like fire pokers and sleeping bags.
Then they waited for Arthur to get home.
“What’s going on?” he asked, when he stepped out of the fireplace and saw all their earnest faces peering at him.
“We have a surprise for you,” George said, and he led his father outside.
The noise Arthur made when he saw the shiny new Ford Anglia was almost inhuman.
“And look!” Ron told him excitedly. “We even get every Muggle radio station across Britain! Hermione fixed it right up!”
Then they showed him the maps, a red line indicating the journey they were about to embark on.
“This is where Muggles travel?” Arthur asked. He looked like he was about to break into tears of joy. “There will be real Muggles there too?”
“Oh, dear,” mumbled Mrs. Weasley as her husband grew more and more excited while Ron, Ginny and Hermione explained the ten-day trip to him. “This might not be a very good idea.”
“Oh, it’s definitely not,” said Harry, who was standing right beside her. His face broke into a grin. “But it will be an adventure we’ll never forget.”
“That it will be!” said Charlie. “Everyone in the car!”
And with Molly looking uncertain, Arthur whooping and hollering and everyone else grinning like fools, they climbed inside the Ford Anglia, ready to start their Muggle road trip like no Muggle had before.