#hphmbang2020

[slytherinliththorne]

The Moon is Brighter By Your Side

This is my part for the @hphmbang2020​. I had so much fun drawing this, it was really a challenge. @nuttydelphox​ wrote the other part for this bang so go read it!!!

Prompt: Chiara once lost a friend to her lycanthropy and had avoided contact with people since then. But the unexpected friendship with Jae Kim changes it all. 

[crustyshrimp]

A Drunken Exchange

“Between all their spinning around they should be retching all over the place with all that alcohol in them, and after the first few times you would think they would be more careful not to fly into each other and hitting themselves bad, like quidditch injuries made by Rath bad. But no. They’re undeterred. And Badeea thinks there should be less trees in the training grounds. There’s already so few of them and yet, they still get constantly stuck on them. And the impulse needed to get them unstuck just sends them rocketing to the nearest castle wall. The very hard stone, uneven, dangerous castle walls. She should be getting paid for this.”

-

A collab me and @mervinamoonishere did for @hphmbang2020! It was a lot of fun and the accompanying fic they did is linked above!! It came out swimmingly :^D

[kathrynalicemc]

HPHM Reverse Bang || The Weasley Burrow

My art companion piece to @cursebreaker-lilith's fic which can be found Here! Go check it out! 💕

@hphmbang2020

[lexrius]

This art was done by the amazing @cokebottlesanddenim and the writing underneath is done by yours truly with the help from my wonderful partner for this project. These pieces were done for @hphmbang2020

--------

Summer brought so many visitors to the Appalachian trail. The forest rangers were bustling in their office bases, going through the trail and even off the trail, and checking ponds and lakes around the area. Ranger Oliver and Amanda made their normal routine. The two rangers made their way through he forest trail towards the lake.

“I’m telling you Amanda! These mountain wackjobs get stranger every year! I’m so tired of hearing about these strange sightings.” Ranger Oliver sighed out loud. He’s had multiple people come in and tell him about the sasquatch, runalongs and rabbirds. Ranger Amanda smiled and laughed at him.

“At least you never had to deal with the people of New Mexico. Alien sightings left to right. I enjoyed the paranormal mythical creatures rather than E.T.” She leaned against a tree as she went down the hill. Both chuckled and moved closer to the lake. Ranger Oliver looked down and spotted something on the shore. He grabbed hold of his hunting rifle and oved down towards the lake shore. He spotted what looked like a mountain lion leaning over something. He sent a shot into the air which sent the creature running. There at the bottom of the lake was a torn up man.

“Amanda….. we have an animal attack.” He called out to his partner. She pulled out her radio as he checked the body. He looked towards the direction where the mountain lion ran off and saw something unbelievable. A six legged mountain lion standing a good ten feet away.

“What the-”

———

It seemed like a normal day for magizoologist Liz Tuttle and Barnaby Lee. The smell of nature filled the air making them feel  at ease. The magizoologist offices had creatures all around them. Barnaby had his loyal crup next to him while Liz had been treating a mooncralf’s eye infection.

She couldn’t help but listen to her colleagues talk about any crazy news going on around the world, but this latest installment seemed more serious," Did you here about the Wampus attack?”

“Yeah it’s the fifth in a week. Shouldn’t they just block the trails until spring season is over?”

“MACUSA won’t do anything. I heard the rangers are going to go hunting for it since it’s killed five people already.”

Li found that very off putting as it was cub season for the Wampus. It was most likely a mother protecting her cubs. Liz glanced over to Barnaby who had the same expression. Her fellow Slytherin hated hearing news like this. It wasn’t until a couple of wizards in suits walk in looking annoyed. Everyone stopped as they recognized the look of MACUSA’s law enforcement officers alongside the head of the Magizoologist office. He stopped and looked over to where the two prior Slytherins were located.

She understood the look and got up,” Come on Barnaby. I think we have a new case.” He nodded and walked over to the offices with her. Their boss Cassielle Williams closed the door behind them and sat down at his desk.

The three law enforcement agents looked the two magizoologist up and down,” These your best agents?”

Cassielle nodded and looked at the two now nervous magizoologist,”Yep. Tuttle. Lee. Let me introduce you to our guest from MACUSA. Agent Laurson, Agient McCalley and Agent Willson.”

Barnaby shook hands with them and sat down,” What’s this about?” HE asked crossing his arms in worry. The agents looked at one another until Agent McCalley set a file down and opened it in front of them,” You know about the hikers getting attacked by a Wampus? Well our Magizoologist are busy dealing with a werewolf riot in Sleepy Hollow.”

Liz picked up the file and observed it. It had documented cases of the animal attacks, pictures of all the victims, and a hazy picture of the creature. She looked up at the MACUSA agents with curious eyes,” What do you want us to do?”

“We received orders to kill the thing, but our local magizoologist who works with the Rangers on the Appalachian trail wants to move the creature to a new den that’s in a sanctuary deep within the forest. We’re sending you both undercover to find out what’s really going on.” They slapped down some passports and fake muggle credentials.

“Our Magizoologist will meet with you when you get to America.” They smiled. Both Magizoologist looked t one another and smiled; whilst accepting their new mission.

———

Barnaby looked outside the window in excitement while Liz sat next to him gripping the chair quite hard; trying not to think about the fact that they are thousands of feet in the air in a giant metal bus!

“Liz! Look at the clouds!” He sighed in wonder,” Man I wish I could fly this high on my broom.” Liz groaned as she caught sight of the cloud. She poked her friend’s check to get his attention,” Listen Barnaby; we are surrounded by a bunch of muggles. Keep quiet about our world.”

He nodded and returned his attention back to the sky and clouds. The plane rumbled a little; causing Liz to gasp and tighten her grip on the chair. Just then a little tap on her shoulder caught her attention. She looked back to see a little girl peaking up at her from the top of the seat.

“I didn’t know adults get scared?” She spoke bluntly. Liz gave the girl an annoyed look and turned back to her hour of torment. Just then a stuffed frog which reminded her of Sir Ribbithe fell on to her lap. She glanced back at the little girl who smiled at her sweetly,” He helps me when I am scared. I know he’ll help you too.”

Liz smiled and looked down at the frog plushie,” He is definitely helping. He reminds me of my frog that I own at home.” The girl gasped and squealed quietly; not wanting to wake her mother,” You have a froggie!?”

“Yep. Sir Ribbithe. Although…between you and me. I’ve been thinking of picking him up a girlfriend named Lady Croaker.” The girl squirmed in delight as Liz spoke about her fat toad. Unknown that Barnaby was watching and smiling at the scene in front of him.

After giving back the girl’s toad as she slept; Liz went to sleep for herself. Barnaby not far behind finished his peanuts and laid his head back. His hand resting under Liz’s.

———

Finally arriving in Virginia; they met up with two rangers who were waiting outside the airport. Liz pulled Barnaby aside as the rangers helped put their luggage into the car,” Remember; we are zoologist who are here to look for a rare species of mountain lions.” Barnaby nodded and stretched.

“So how long have you both worked at the trail?” Liz asked. The male Ranger shifted his head back to their passengers and smiled,” Five years Ma’am. Amanda here is a transfer from New Mexico.”

“To be honest; we’re glad the professor recommended you two. He says that your group handles these curtain sightings well?” Amanda piped up. Barnaby nodded,” It gives us a chance to study rarest species like our mountain lion friend.”

Ranger Oliver sighed and looked outside of the car. Amanda rolled her eyes and glanced at her partner,” Oliver…Get over yourself! I still think you ate bad lunch meat that day.”

Barnaby looked at Liz confused,” What are you talking about?”

Amanda chuckled,” He’s the one that spotted the mountain lion. Said something crazy; like having six legs or something like that.” Liz glanced at Barnaby,” Weird. Sounds like a bad case of food poisoning.”

Oliver looked back in worry and stayed silent the rest of the trip. Once they reached the Ranger station; Barnaby unpacked their stuff from the car and brought it up to their rooms in a nearby campsite motel cabins. Both collapsed on their beds with tired eyes. A knock at the cabin door snapped them out of their jet lag.

An older looking man who looked like a perfect picture of a wilderness man came in,” Aw you must be the Magizoologist?! Names Carter. Michael Carter!” He closed the door and set down a map. Liz stretched and walked over to him,” So your the local Magizoologist in this area?”

“That’s right? The group of MACUSA agents you probably met told me to expect you guys coming by in a couple of days!” He smiled and then marked the map. Barnaby pulled up a chair and looked at the map in confusion,” So what is a Wampus doing so close to the trail? Don’t they usually live deep with in the mountains?”

Carter nodded and then set down the pictures of the animal attacks. Liz looked at him confused. Carter then pulled up two. The most recent one and one from two weeks ago,” These two were wizards. They have been on our wanted list for illegal trading. Part of a group we had been hunting for a while.” He looked at the two fellow magizoologist with worried eyes,” We think they have cubs. The Wampus is a mother looking for her cubs.”

Liz sighed and rubbed her fingers on the bridge of her nose,” Okay; so where do we start looking?”

“The mountain trail.” He smiled.

After packing for the climb they traveled to the mountains. They split with the trails and it was now just Barnaby and Liz. This was the first time they had been to America and Barnaby pulled out his camera and took pictures of any animal they ran into.

“Barnaby let’s go; this is the fifth time you stopped to take a picture of every little thing we see.” Liz adjusted her glasses as she looked at the man in the distance taking pictures of what looked to be bowtuckles bustling in the tree.

He let out a small giggle,”They’re playing! Liz come look at this!” He spoke softly, but with excitement. Liz shuffled over and saw that they were jumping over one another almost like they were playing leap frog. She let out an audible gasp and started writing down the fun little finding.

After finally peeling the excited magizoologist away from the playing bowtuckles. The two had traveled to America to research the magical creatures that resided here. They were trying to find the elusive Wampus cat. They had been on the mountain trail for days trying to spot one. They had run into numerous small creatures such as pixies, bowtuckles and even gnomes. Tired from all the walking they made camp for the night. The Appalachian mountains felt like they went on forever, but the view was worth it. The starry night sky and the high view of the forest below.

The next morning they continued on the path. Liz gasped as she spotted a herd of winged horses. She spotted aethonans, granians and abraxions all mixed together. Barnaby snapped a picture as the herd rode away. Both traveled up and around the mountain. They still couldn’t find their target. Barnaby sighed and wiped the sweat from his head.

“We had to do this in Summer?” He sighed out. Liz lifted her water flask taking a swig. She looked over and her heart dropped. There behind Barnaby was a hidebehind. She pulled out her wand slowly,”Barnaby…..Hidebehind.”

He turned quickly and made his way to Liz where they apparated a mile away from the creature. Barnaby went to the nearest tree and puked up their lunch. Liz pat the poor guy’s back in pity,”Sorry, but that is one creature I do not want to deal with.”

Barnaby gave her the thumbs up as he wiped away any remainder of fluid chunks around his mouth. He sighed and set up their camp. She sat at her desk and looked at the map in front of her. She looked at the path they had taken. Barnaby listened to the radio he had in his tent while reading about the Wampus.

Liz walked into his tent with her map in hand,”I think we need to visit the Ranger base. Learn what we can about the recent sighting and attack.” Barnaby looked at the map and nodded,”Might be best to track it by its last known location of the creature.” Liz sighed and slumped in one of the chairs in the tent. She took her glasses off and cleaned them. Barnaby looked down at the map and sipped on his water canteen. He pointed to the river that Carter marked,”If we follow the river maybe we’ll find their camp or at the very least; find the mother.”

Liz nodded and leaned back against her chair,”We’ll apparate in the morning.”

Barnaby groaned at this and hugged his stomach.

———

Liz smiled as Barnaby found a couple of Jobberknoll hopping around and took a picture of them. She scouted the riverbed and saw no signs of the six legged cat anywhere. She spotted a couple of Gnomes digging through the rock beds looking for food.

A couple of Goblins fishing.

Huge paw prints.

She did a double take on the ground and looked in shock as she spotted the track of paw prints in the mud and dirt,”Barnaby! I found tracks!” She heard heavy footsteps behind her followed by a tumble and even more heavy footfalls,”Where?!” He looked down and took pictures. They then followed the prints deeper into the woods.

Barnaby set up camp and set up defenses around the camp,”These should stop a Wampus attack…Right?” Liz looked up from her journal and looked at his handiwork,”Pretty much.” He made his way to the fire and looked into the forest. He glanced at his partner who was drawing in her journal. He let out a low whistle tune and turned up the radio. Liz glanced up at him curiously. He smiled and stood up and danced a little bit. She smiled and let out a small giggle as she watched him. He then held out his hand to her.

She gladly took it and the two started dancing together around the fire. She laughed at his silly dance moves and he joined her in those laughs. Soon they were laughing in each others arms. Barnaby felt nervous as she laid her head on his chest. He hadn’t felt this nervous since the Celestial ball when they went as friends.

Soon their quiet moment under the stars was interrupted by the crack of twigs nearby. Both magizoologist reached for their wands and waited. Liz’s breath hitched as the feathered creature emerged from the forest. The Occomy like creature wandered around sniffing the air as it let out a low hissing noise from its throat.

“Is that a dragon?” Barnaby looked in wonder as he put his wand away. He grabbed his camera and snagged a few pictures as it’s reptilian legs emerged from the darkness of the forest. Liz began jotting the creature down in her journal,”No. That’s a Snallygaster!” The creature then jolted up and ran off into the dark forest as a low yowl emerged from the forest.

The two wizards looked at one another in worry and put out their fire and the campsite. With wands raised they walked forward. There they saw the campsite. There were so many cages filled with magical creatures.

One cage held a couple of mooncalfs who were huddled together in fear and confusion. A smaller cage held knolls who were just curled up. And then there was the cage with the Wampus cubs inside. Liz curled her fist as Barnaby pulled her back,”We need to contact Carter.”

She nodded and marked the tree with some paint she had in her backpack. The two then apparated back to their cabin and set their stuff down. Barnaby walked towards a window and wrote letter about their discoveries and sent it to the MACUSA Law Enforcement Department. Liz went down to the Ranger offices and spotted Carten and his men walking back.

Carten saw her and waved at the rangers to go on without him,”Did you find anything?” She nodded and pulled him towards the cabin/motel,”We found their camp. I’ve marked it and even marked it on your map.” With how many cages they had; they won’t be leaving for a while.”

Carter nodded and made his way inside,”So we just wait now?” Barnaby walked back from the window and nodded,”Let’s hope the Law Enforcement Department get the message and get here by tomorrow.”

Carter nodded and sighed,”We still had no signs of the Mother Wampus.”

“We tracked her, but it’s almost as if she disappeared. Her tracks vanished.” Liz looked over the map and marked their trail. Barnaby nodded and showed the magizoologist the pictures. He looked at them and almost squealed at the sight of a Snallygaster,”The call of the Wampus scared it off. We went to go search for it, but we came across the camp pf the poachers instead.”

Carter ran his hand over his beard with worry,”We’ll discuss this in the morning. I bet you two had a long two day hike. Get some rest.” With that he left the two magizoologist alone for the night.

———

Liz and Barnaby laid in their beds wide awake. Barnaby sighed and turned to look at Liz,”Remember when Hagrid let loose all of those nifflers by accident?” His smile grew bigger as Liz let out a laugh,”And we had to catch every single one? Yeah I remember; especially since you were playing with them instead of catching them.”

Barnaby laughed at the memory. HE heard Liz sigh and shuffle off of her bed. He could barely make out her figure in the moonlight. What caught his breath was when she moved and sat on the edge of his bed,”Do…do you miss back when we were kids? Where we were so blind to the evil in the world?” Barnaby sat up and hugged his legs up to his chest.

Liz listened to the silent air before Barnaby finally spoke up,”Easy for you to say. The only thing about my childhood I liked was Hogwarts. Magical creatures and my friends were my only escape from my home life. I think that’s why I…..” He stopped mid sentence. Liz placed her hand on his back and rubbed small circles. Her hand traveled to his shoulder,”Barnaby?”

The man sighed and looked to his friend,”I think that’s why I like you so much.” His hand found its way to her now blushing cheek. His sparkling green eyes latched on to her chocolate brown eyes then down to her lips.

Liz was blushing furiously; noticing how close the two of them were. She remembered back to the celestial ball. She went alone and Barnaby was with a different date, but she remembered the look on his face when she greeted the future Magizoologist. His face had turned beat red and it looked as if he had stopped breathing.

Now here she was; identical to the giant dork in front of her. She leaned into his touch only for him to pull her up to her feet. He lit some candles and then turned to the radio and turned it on. He kept the volume low as he intertwined his hands with hers,”Wanna continue our dance from earlier?” He asked.

Butterflies filled her stomach and chest as his warm and calloused hands pulled her closer. The music was soft in the background.

This Romeo is bleeding, but you can't see his blood It's nothing but some feelings That this old dog kicked up

Barnaby smiled down to his friend as her smile shined radiantly. It's been raining since you left me Now I'm drowning in the flood You see I've always been a fighter But without you I give up Now I can't sing a love song Like the way it's meant to be Well, I guess I'm not that good anymore But baby, that's just me

Liz smiled and nuzzled into the crook of Barnaby’s neck as the two slow danced to the music in the background. His left hand left hers and entangled into her curly hair. Barnaby held her close; glancing down at his feet every now and then so he doesn’t step on her toes. She hummed along as the song continued.

Yeah I, will love you, baby Always and I'll be there Forever and a day, always

I'll be there, till the stars don't shine 'Til the heavens burst and the words don't rhyme I know when I die you'll be on my mind And I'll love you, always

Her hands flowed to his face as her thumb brushed over the stubble on his cheeks. He leaned down and rested his forehead on hers. The tip of his nose clipped her glasses which caused her to giggle.

Now your picture's that you left behind Are just memories of a different life Some that made us laugh Some that made us cry One that made you have to say goodbye

What I'd give to run my fingers through your hair Touch your lips, to hold you near, When you say your prayers, try to understand I've made mistakes, I'm just a man

When he holds you close, when he pulls you near When he says the words You've been needing to hear, I'll wish I was him 'Cause these words are mine, to say to you 'Til the end of time

She leaned up a bit and brushed her lips against his. The tiny ounce of bravery that she summoned to do this flared up as he began to kiss her back. He pulled back with rosy cheeks,”I….I wanted to do that earlier, but with everything going on I-”

She shushed him with her lips again,”I know love. I agree; I’ve wanted to do that since Hogwarts.” She hummed. She laid her head on his chest like earlier that night. As the song continued on the night sky turned into morning.

Yeah I, will love you, baby Always and I'll be there Forever and a day, always

If you told me to cry for you, I could If you told me to die for you, I would Take a look at my face There's no price I won't pay To say these words to you

Well, there ain't no luck in these loaded dice But baby, if you give me just one more try We can pack up our old dreams, and our old lives, We'll find a place, where the sun still shines

Yeah I, will love you, baby Always and I'll be there Forever and a day, always

I'll be there, till the stars don't shine 'Til the heavens burst and the words don't rhyme I know when I die you'll be on my mind And I'll love you, always Always

———

Once the agents showed up; Barnaby and Liz traveled back to the location of the poachers’ camp. With a frustrated sigh they scoured the abandoned camp. Some bigger animals like two hippogriffs and the small herd of mooncalfs.

The agents looked around and began to scatter. Barnaby kept close to Liz as they made their way to the cages. She calmed the beast alongside him so the creatures were now calmer. Barnaby glared at the ground and searched for any prints that he can follow. He saw blood on the ground along with footprints and paw prints. With his wand pulled out he got up and followed the prints deeper into the forest. The deeper he went the fresher the footprints got the more blood he saw.

He stopped when he saw a pool of blood seeping into the dirt. He saw the mangled corpse of a woman in a bush. He continued forward with a rush and spotted a cart moving ahead. Inside one of the cages was a bloody adult Wampus which was letting off low growls. Barnaby moved behind a tree to get further view of the poachers. He could see the cubs and even the Snallygaster; which was beat up and bloody.

He could see about five poachers walking fast towards a man with a suitcase. He felt his stomach drop as he noticed the portkey behind him. Barnaby looked around and then came to a simple, but rash decision.

“Accio Portkey.” He whispered. The portkey, which was a boot, and he chucked it as far as way as he could. The poachers turned their attention to the magizoologist.

“Stupify!” They all shouted and aimed their wands at him. He dodged and took cover behind the tree he had been using to hide behind. Barnaby took in a deep breath and swung around and aied his wand at the closest poacher,”Petrificus Totalus!” He dodged more stunning spells which were hitting the tree and causing the bark to shrapnel everywhere. He turned to the other side and fired a stunning spell towards another.

Before he could dodge the next spell; a stunning spell hit him straight in the chest causing him to fly backwards into a fallen log. Barnaby dropped his wand as his head spun from the impact on his head. A poacher walked up and smiled at the young magizoologist with interest,”Well well well…..Looks like we found our shadow from last night boys!” He chuckled and looked to his buddies. He then quickly punched Barnaby in the face. A sickening crack was heard as his fist collided with his jaw.

The poacher pulled the bulky man’s head back to face himself. His smile was as rotten as his teeth as he brought Barnaby up to his feet and decked him again. Another poacher walked forward and kicked Barnaby in the gut causing the man to fall to his knees only for his face to meet with another poacher’s knee. Blood now poured from Barnaby’s nose as he stumbled backwards. The poacher with the rotting smile went for another punch, but Barnaby caught his arm and snapped it.

“You think I’m going to let you get away for what you did to those animals? Just by a few punches?” He pulled back his fist and decked rotten smile right into his nose; breaking his nose. He took a couple more swings before being pulled away by the other thugs. Rotten smile pulled out his wand and aimed it at Barnaby’s chest,”Your funeral then; Avada-” He started, but was interrupted when a callused hand punched him in the face.

“Expelliarmus!” Liz cried out as she disarmed another poacher. Barnaby picked up his wand and aimed at another,”Stupify!” Another poacher ran up and with his wand at the ready, but was stopped by a MACUSA agent. The other poachers are stunned and pinned by the other agents. Liz sighed out of worry and ran to Barnaby who was bleeding and bruised.

“Barnaby….” She pulled out her wand and pointed to his nose,”Episky.”

Barnaby winced as his nose was put back in place. She handed him some bandages which he put to his nose to clean the blood. She got up and made her way to the cages. Barnaby followed closely watching as she went to the cages. First to the cubs,”Let’s get you back to your mum.” She pulled the cute cubs out and pushed them through the semi wide bars to the mother’s cage.

He watched as Carter and a MACUSA agent slip a sleeping draught into the mother’s food causing the poor creature to finally sleep along with the other creatures and put them all in the case. From there they transported the creatures to the MACUSA Magical Creature Sanctuary to rehabilitate the animals. Liz and Barnaby checked over the animals to make sure they weren’t hurt.

Barnaby picked up one of the cubs and looked them over. The mother mewed as she watched her cubs being checked. Barnaby looked at Liz and smiled in relief,”The cubs are fine.” He sighed. He placed them on the ground and watched as they started chasing one another. Barnaby’s eyes twinkled and he pulled out his camera snapping pictures of the playing cubs. The mother watched from afar as she was still getting over the sleeping drought.

After a couple of pictures he brought the cubs back to the mother Wampus. Liz looked over the mother finding some scrapes and cuts against her fur. She starts to mend the wounds and then made her way to her co-magizoologist who was taking multiple pictures of the small family of Wampus. Liz took out her sketchbook and started sketching and noting about the Wampus.

Liz felt a hand on her shoulder causing her to jump a bit. Carter chuckled and looked over to the family with pure happiness,”I’m glad that you both came. You and Lee are the best Magizoologist I have ever had the pleasure of meeting besides Mr. Schamander. Now there shouldn’t be so many no-mag deaths on this path due to magical creatures.” He held out his hand to the magizoologist,”I thank you both. Now how about we go eat and rest up. You both have an early flight tomorrow.”

Liz groaned in horror as she remembered the giant clattering scrap of metal. Barnaby walked up beside her and put his arm around her shoulder,”Don’t worry. I have the perfect companion for you! Just have to go pick up some cookies for the office!” He hummed. The two magizoologist followed Carter out of the sanctuary for their last day in America.

———

Liz laid back in her seat as she looked outside of the window. Many passengers were still boarding at the time. She noticed rangers Oliver and Amanda waving at them and making their way back to their cars. Barnaby was going through his film with excited eyes that reminded her of a child looking at all the options at Honeydukes. The copilot announced their take off and soon her anxiety came back.

She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing only to feel a light bit of weight on her lap. She looked down and saw a cute frog stuffed animal in her lap. She looked to Barnaby who smiled warmly at her,”I know it helped last time. His name is Cricket by the way.”

Liz felt her face flush a little as she picked up the stuffed animal. She looked back at Barnaby who was also blushing,”About what happened back at the hotel….I…I wanted to apologize.” He stammered a bit. Liz looked at him in surprise. He adjusted the salmon collared shirt away from his neck,”I just….well we’ve been friends for a while and-” Liz shushed him with a peck to his now prickly cheek.

He looked at her in shock,”I like you to you big dork.”

He relaxed and put his arms around her as she started to talk about her sketches and notes that she had from their most recent adventure.

[cursebreaker-lilith]

HPHM Bang--home

For the @hphmbang2020 ! 

It was fun to write this? The Weasley’s are great! I don’t focus on them enough. Math is not my forte (lol) but ages should be roughly: Bill-16, Charlie-14, Percy-11ish, Fred and George-9, Ron-7, Ginny-6.

The art that goes with this is done by @kathrynalicemc ! You can find the art here ^^

Story under the cut or on Ao3!

A day in the Burrow always begins with Molly Weasley in the kitchen. She’s up before anyone else, dressing quickly so she can get some food into her husband before he leaves for work.

It’s quiet in the house, save for the spells she whispers to ignite the stove fire and gather the dishes. Even the ghoul is quiet this early in the morning, no moans or thumps coming from the attic. It’s so different from how the Burrow is usually, and Molly always takes a moment to appreciate the quiet. She loves her family and doesn’t mind the cacophony they bring, but all that commotion just makes quiet moments like this sweeter.

Arthur is usually the first downstairs—and the first out the door depending on his work schedule. Molly gets a peck on the cheek as she hands Arthur a bowl of porridge. He smiles in thanks and begins to wolf it down. Molly holds back a sigh. Seems like today is one where he needs to leave early.

Her oldest three usually wander downstairs next. Both Charlie and Percy are natural early risers—Charlie likes to take a walk before breakfast in the early dawn light, while Percy basks in the rare silence of the house with a book. It’s the only time she doesn’t admonish him for having a book at the table. Molly knows how much he enjoys the calm.

Bill isn’t an early riser like his brothers, but he’s got into the habit of waking early anyways. When she had been pregnant at the same time as raising toddlers, she had relied on Bill to help her wake, dress, and feed his siblings. Even now, every time he comes downstairs, he asks her if she needs any help, to which she always replies that she doesn’t. She can handle the cooking just fine now, and she wants to let her eldest relax like a child should in the morning.

It’s usually the three of them, Molly, Bill, and Percy, for a while after that. Charlie is out walking, while the younger kids sleep. Ginny sometimes is with them, but as she’s gotten older, she has started to sleep in more. Molly misses bonding with her only daughter who is always so fascinated by seeing food float through the air, but she’ll let her daughter sleep in with her brothers.

Charlie’s arrival is usually when she goes to wake her other children—after she makes Charlie wash all the dirt he accumulated on his walk off at the door and change into clean clothing. None of them appreciate the wake up, especially Ron, but the smell of food wafting through the house usually convinces them it’s a good idea.

With the noise of groans echoing through the house and stomps coming up and down the stairs, she goes back down to the kitchen to start filling bowls. Once everyone’s downstairs, the quiet peace of the morning will be gone until tomorrow.

-x-

Breakfast is loud. Much too loud in the opinion of Percy. Why can’t they all just sit quietly and eat? Why does Fred have to chew with his mouth open to gross out Ginny who squeals? Why can’t his family be normal sometimes? It’s exhausting.

Percy is usually the first to finish because he actually eats his food instead of trying to convince Ron that spiders aren’t that bad. Percy scoffs inwardly. You’re not going to get anywhere, Charlie! He’s terrified of the pests.

He pushes his chair back. “May I be excused?”

His mother gives him a concerned look. “Did you eat enough? You finished pretty quick there.”

Percy considers it. “I’m—”

“Hey, are those the school owls? Percy, get the window.” Bill’s voice interrupts him, and Percy is out of his chair and opening the window before anyone can say anything else. He is turning eleven in a few weeks’ time, just before September 1st, and despite his parent’s assurances that he will be able to attend Hogwarts this year, a part of him is terrified he will have to wait another year.

His heart soars when he sees what the owl is carrying.

“Three letters!” Percy cries out triumphantly. He will get to go to Hogwarts!

Fred and George moan but that is to be expected. They are annoyances who are to be ignored whenever anything big happens. Ron and Ginny join in on the complaining as Percy passes envelopes to Bill and Charlie. He ignores them too, focusing only on his own letter.

Dear Mr. Weasley

We are pleased to inform you that….

He continues to read and desperately tries to ignore his younger siblings rising insistence that they all want to go to Hogwarts now. He can’t let them ruin this for him.

Percy switches to the booklist, scanning it. He has already read all the books for the year, except for the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. Percy thought it would be that way. He always read Bill’s schoolbooks after his brother finishes a school year.

“So, what’s yours say, Perce?”

A hand snatches the letter from him. Percy sputters as Fred holds the letter in front of his face.

“Fred! Don’t take something from your brother’s hands like that!”

Despite their mother’s reprimand, Fred is unrepentant. “I want to see what the letter looks like!”

Percy snatches his letter back, silently fuming. Fred and George are always like this, ruining every good thing Percy gets. He gets that they’re little kids, but do they have to be so annoying all day every day? “Like you haven’t read Bill or Charlie’s letters? I’m going to my room.”

“Percy—” his mother tries to call, but he ignores her and dumps his empty bowl in the sink. Percy retreats upstairs to his room, ready to savor his Hogwarts letter in the relative quiet of the currently empty upstairs.

This is supposed to be a happy moment and those are always ruined when he’s around the twins.

-x-

Charlie surveys the collection of bits and bobs spread out on a towel. While the assortment of rocks in front of him is undoubtedly very cool looking—one rock is dark grey and shaped like a shoe if you squint, while another seems to have some sort of quartz in it—no matter how you look at it, none of his morning finds is a dragon scale.

Logically, Charlie knows it is unlikely he will find a dragon scale—or tooth, or claw, or dragon related anything—by the Burrow. They live nowhere near a dragon reserve and the Ministry of Magic strictly regulates where dragons can fly, but Charlie can dream. It is possible he could dig and find some dragon scale left behind centuries ago. It isn’t an unheard of thing, just rare. A slim chance is still a chance, and Charlie is nothing if not optimistic when it comes to dragons. He fully believes that he can join the small percentage of people who have happened upon dragon relics.

For now, he stuffs his collection of rocks back into his bag. He usually puts them in a chest by his bed, but Percy is sulking in the room they share and he doesn’t want to deal with his little brother’s snappish mood. It always takes Percy a while to calm down after Fred and George rile him up.

Instead, he goes outside. It’s a nice day. Slightly cloudy, of course, but it doesn’t seem to be rain clouds. As good flying conditions as it’s going to get.

None of his family is outside, so Charlie isn’t interrupted as he takes a broom from the shed and lifts off gently into the sky. He gives himself a minute to just enjoy the feeling of being in the air. Usually, one of his siblings would have noticed him on a broom by this point and begged for Quidditch help so they could also make the Gryffindor team when they went to Hogwarts. Charlie doesn’t mind helping them, not in the least bit, but it is nice to just fly without distractions. To hover and take in the land laid out before him. See light glisten on the river that winds its way through the countryside and into the distant Muggle town. Feel the sun on his back, giving him the slightest bit of warmth against the wind. Flying calms him, and, slightly ironically, grounds him. It reminds him that there is more to life than dragons, believe it or not.

He can’t really leave the shadow of the Burrow—they live too close to Muggles for him to really be able to fly—but doing lazy laps around his home is fine.

“Oi, Charlie! If you’re flying, then can you help us with Quidditch?”

Charlie snorts. The moment of peace was nice while it lasted.

-x-

Ron trudges up another flight of stairs, seriously regretting picking the top floor to live in once he was old enough to have his own room. It is one of the biggest rooms in the house and super cool, no doubt about it, but having to walk up all those stairs after several hours of playing Quidditch nonstop with his brothers is not fun. Not fun at all. Every muscle feels like it’s on fire and those last few steps seem to take forever to make.

He can’t help but let out a groan as he collapses onto his bed. He is covered in sweat and dirt and probably should shower before he gets his blankets and sheets dirty, but he’s too exhausted right now to bother. Mum will clean them anyways before the week is over.

The impromptu Quidditch practice went well, in Ron’s opinion. Fred and George had persuaded him and Charlie into dodging balls that they sent flying, but that wasn’t very hard, even for Ron. Their family didn’t have real bludgers to practice with and had to settle for regular balls that weren’t enchanted to knock people off brooms. Fred and George’s aim was improving, but they couldn’t send the balls flying that high.

Charlie had been amazing to watch. Unlike Ron, who had kept higher in the sky to avoid the twins being menaces, Charlie had kept the ground. Ron could understand how he had become Gryffindor’s Seeker in his second year—there was a precision to how he flew. He seemed to know exactly where Fred and George were going to hit the balls and swerved out of the way easily.

Ron wishes he could fly like that. He tries to tell himself that Charlie is that good because he is fourteen and a teenager, but sometimes Ron has trouble believing that. Charlie has natural talent, everyone says so, but they never say that about Ron.

Quidditch Through the Ages is still on his bed from where Ron had dropped it when he went running to practice Quidditch. He flops over onto his stomach and sighs, flipping through the book. It automatically opens to the section on the teams in Britain, specifically where the small part on the Chudley Cannons starts. Ron isn’t much of a reader, but he’s read this book dozens of times over.

His brothers favor other teams, but Ron thinks his favorite is the Cannons. He maybe relates to them a little. No one expects anything from the Cannon’s, so anytime they do well it’s a celebration.

Flipping through the book, Ron loses track of time. Someday, he wants to play for one of the team’s mentioned. That would be so cool. Quidditch is so cool. Maybe if he bothers Charlie enough they could practice again later—

“Ron!”

He jumps at his mum’s voice.

“Yeah?”

She opens his door a bit and peeks through. “Lunch is ready, dear. Did you not hear me?”

Ron smiles sheepishly. “No, sorry.”

Molly smiles back. “It’s fine. Just be down quickly, okay.”

He nods, and sets Quidditch Through the Ages down. Practice is nice, but food is even better.

-x-

Ginny smashes the two dolls against each other, almost angry that her dolls are made of fabric and not something harder. If they were, then there would be banging noises to represent how upset she feels, and also one might break and that would represent her feelings too.

Well, no, she doesn’t really want to break one of her toys, but she is still so angry! Her stupid brothers spent the whole morning playing Quidditch and when she tried to play with them too, they hadn’t let her. It isn’t fair! Ron is only a year older, so it isn’t like she’s too young. They were only doing it because she’s a girl and that is such a stupid reason.

She smushes the dolls together again in anger—pretending that they’re Fred and George colliding midair because that would be funny to watch—then throws one of the dolls across her room. It hits the wall and then the floor with next to no noise. Ginny pulls her knees to her chest and puffs out her cheeks.

Boys are stupid. Brothers are stupid.

“You okay there, Ginny?”

Ginny looks over to Bill standing in her doorway.

Okay, maybe all brothers aren’t stupid. Just most of them.

She continues to pout but doesn’t yell when Bill comes into her room and sits down across from her.

Bill has a small smile on his face. “Still angry about this morning?”

“No,” she lies. “Maybe.”

He winks at her. “They were being kind of mean, weren’t they?”

Ginny throws her arms out. “Yeah! They wouldn’t even let me watch!”

“Awful.”

“Right? They’re all such stupidheads.”

“The stupidest.”

With that agreement, Ginny finally relaxes and launches into a ramble about all the ways that her brothers (except Bill of course) are very stupid and mean. Bill nods and doesn’t interrupt which is why he is Ginny’s favorite and the only boy in the whole world who isn’t stupid. Well, Bill and her dad. And Harry Potter. They’re all okay.

“You okay now?” Bill asks and Ginny nods. It feels good to have someone take her complaints seriously and not make fun of them (like Ron or Fred or George always do) or reduce them (like her mum sometimes does).

“Thank you for listening,” she says, because she’s polite.

Bill laughs and musses up her hair. She benevolently lets him. “Anytime, kiddo. Have fun playing with your dolls.”

Ginny nods once more as Bill walks out. She crawls over to the other side of the room and guiltily picks up the doll she threw earlier.

“Sorry about that,” she tells the doll who does not reply. “I didn’t really mean to throw you.”

She crawls back to her original spot and picks up another toy on the way, an old doll-sized toy broom that barely can float after years of being owned by the Weasley’s. She puts one of her dolls on the broom.

“There. So, you’re the new Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies and…”

-x-

“So, I think we should first try tricking Ron—”

“Yeah, but if we do, then he’s just going to squeal to Mum—"

“Yeah, but if we try to just sneak into Mum and Dad’s room without a distraction, then we’re more likely to get caught. Ron’s gonna squeal but it’ll have her distracted.”

“Distracted? More like Mum’ll make us wash dishes the Muggle way as punishment.”

Fred and George glare at each other, neither wanting to cede victory to the other. Usually, they get along swimmingly and know just what the other wants, but sometimes fights do happen.

The two noticed their dad sneak in some chocolate bars the day before, likely for Percy’s birthday coming up soon, and he had hidden the chocolate somewhere in his and Mum’s bedroom so no one could eat it. Well, that’s just a silent challenge in the twin’s eyes! It probably wouldn’t take long to actually find the chocolate—Mum kept her room clean and they knew her regular hiding spots—but getting in is the hard part. Their mum always seems to know when they are sneaking into rooms not their own, and they always are scolded for it.

“We could always bribe Ron to help us,” George says eventually. Ron is the easiest of their siblings to bribe. “Instead of tricking him. We are looking for chocolate bars after all.”

Fred wrinkles his nose. “It’d work, sure, but then we’d have to actually give him some of our hard-won chocolate.”

George shrugs. “Can always tell him we found less than we really did. Or not tell him about the chocolate at all and trade a favor.”

“That could work,” Fred strokes his chin as if he is pondering something important and not candy theft. He grins. “We’ll just tell him we won’t bother him for a whole two weeks. That’ll probably work.”

George laughs. Ron is their favorite victim after Percy. Soon, he’ll be their main victim since Percy is off to Hogwarts in a month. “Give him a small reprieve before the real pranks start.”

Identical smirks grow on identical faces.

“Oh, yeah, this will be good.” Fred is laughing now too. “We can even extend it; say we won’t bother him until the others leave for Hogwarts. Lull him into a sense of false security.”

“Obviously, this means we need to come up with something good to do to him on September first.”

“Obviously,” Fred agrees, eyes alight with mischief. “Something big to do the moment we get back from King’s Cross.”

The two of them laugh, any tension from their small fight earlier gone.

George calms down first. “We can plan for that later. Now, we need to convince him to distract Mum so we can have that chocolate.”

Fred falls backwards onto the floor, staring at the ceiling with a smile on his face. “Chocolate. That’s exactly what we need to plan the best prank ever.” He sits up and stretches. “Well, no time like the present! Let’s go.”

-x-

Bill studies the parchment in front of him. Only a few months previous he had taken his O.W.L.’s, and the letter with his exam grades had come a month ago. Despite all the panic he’d felt before and after the exams, Bill had done fine. His schedule the past few years, not even including any extracurriculars, had been packed with twelve classes. The fact that he passed every single one, that he received 8 O’s, 2 E’s and 2 A’s, was amazing and something to be celebrated. People would kill to have marks like that.

Still, part of him feels conflicted going into his sixth year. Apart from Divination and Muggle Studies, the two classes he received the Acceptable grades in, he can get into any N.E.W.T. level class he wants. He even managed to get the O necessary for Snape’s Potions class. But he doesn’t really want to leave any of his old classes behind. He knows it’s necessary and he knows what classes he needs to take to have a career in curse breaking, but he still is so reluctant to commit to them.

It’s the first step towards being an adult and, for the first time in a while, Bill doesn’t want to take the step.

He’s always had to act older than he was, told to look after his siblings and take care of them when his parents were busy, so he’s used to acting in adult ways. It isn’t anything new. But looking at his Hogwarts letter, it suddenly hits him that he is sixteen. One year from now, he’ll be considered an adult by wizarding laws. In two years, if he passes his classes and applies to Gringotts, he could very well be in a different country working to break curses in Egypt or Greece. It’s exciting, Bill can’t deny that, but also terrifying in a way.

Bill looks down once more at the letter from Hogwarts. Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy are the classes he needs to take to become a curse breaker. All are classes he received an O in. Bill loves learning and part of him wishes that he could take more classes than those five, but five N.E.W.T. level classes is already an insane workload. He can always study in his free time, or during vacation.

It’s later in the afternoon, the time of day he is pretty sure is called the golden hour. Outside, he can see that golden reflection in everything below him. He takes a steadying breathe, tries to feel as calm as the environment around him looks. It will be fine. Growing up and becoming and adult is okay.

“Bill? Are you up there? Dinner’s ready soon! Can you get your siblings down to the kitchen?”

Bill stretches, having been musing for quite a while. “Yeah! Be down in a sec.”

“Thank you, dear!”

He listens as his mum wanders away and smiles to himself. It’ll be fine. Growing up is just a new extension of what he’s already been doing his whole life—taking care of his family.

-x-

Depending on how work goes, Arthur usually comes home right as dinner is being served. He has no idea how Molly does it, how she always seems to know right when he finishes his paperwork and clocks out, but there’s rarely a day where he has to wait more than ten minutes for dinner.

He pecks Molly on the cheek, admires her smile, and listens to the jeers from the disgusted children at the table. Fred and George in particular are at that age where any sign of affection is considered sickening, while Ron and Ginny always try to mimic them.

“How’d work go, Dad?” Bill asks with a bright smile.

“Delightfully!” Arthur crows, mostly meaning it. There was more paperwork than usual today and he had to deal with Jameson, but he also had a Muggle-born witch explain to him how planes fly! Apparently, her Muggle brother works as an aerospace engineer and has spent a lot of time explaining the mechanics to her. He enthusiastically explains this to his considerably less excited children.

Ron crinkles his nose in confusion. “I didn’t understand any of that.”

“Dragons are cooler anyways,” Charlie adds predictably. “Do you want to know how they fly?”

“No,” comes several long-suffering voices, used to Charlie’s dragon rambles.

Charlie sulks a bit in his chair. “Dragons are cool,” he mutters.

“Maybe another time, Charlie,” Arthur says, smile still on his face. Charlie perks up a bit at that and nods. Arthur doesn’t mind listening to Charlie ramble—he knows what it’s like to have your passions thought of as weird and wants to give Charlie an outlet somewhere.

“Fred! George!” The two boys yelp at Molly’s loud exclamation. “You’ve barely eaten! Is there something wrong with the food?”

Both boys wildly shake their heads and begin to comically scoop large portions of shepherd’s pie into their mouths. Ginny laughs, but Molly purses her lips and gives Arthur a look. He nods slightly—the boys probably got into some food store and ate before dinner. He’ll have to look for that chocolate for Percy’s birthday cake he hid. That seems like the most likely thing they ate.

Conversation goes from there. Percy rambles a bit about receiving his Hogwarts acceptance letter and gets a proper congratulations for it. Bill talks about the classes he needs while Charlie valiantly tries to talk about dragons once more.

Dragon talk gets derailed by a long discussion about Quidditch after Fred makes a comment about something that happened earlier in the day. This draws in almost the whole family—only Percy and Molly stay quiet.

Arthur shares a smile with Molly as the discussion gets particularly lively. For all the still mornings they see and how much he enjoys those quiet moments, nothing beats the lively debates that happen at dinner where they are all together, as a family.

[hphmbang2020]

Update!

Hello! Have you gotten in touch with your artist/writer? Don't forget that communication is very important in this event! Also, due to the general vagueness of some of the art prompts, we have decided to lower the story minimum word limit to 3k rather than 5k!

You can find the artist/writer you’ve been paired with here if you need a reminder!

The first check-up will be on July 25th! 

The art/writing will be due several days before September 1st!

Hope you’re all having an amazing day!

[hphmbang2020]

Claiming Day!

Hello everyone! First off, a massive thank you and congratulations to the artists who have worked hard on their wips and finished them for Claiming Day! All of the pieces we have received are so awesome and I can’t wait to see what stories the writers come up with for them!

At 3 PM EST today, we will be reblogging this post with the Claiming document! 

It will look like this!

Claiming Instructions

Access the document and you will see five columns. After checking out all of the available prompts and their wips, you will write down your username in the ‘writer’ column and have it linked to your profile, just like in the first column. (Don’t know how? We can help you! You first highlight what it is you’d like to turn into a link. Then you press ctrl-k and just paste in the link to your profile!)

Until all pieces have a writer, you may NOT add your name to a piece that is already taken. Once all pieces are taken but writers still want to join, they may double up. At that point, you cannot add your name to a piece that has two writers, and so on so forth. 

NOTE: We will be keeping an eye on the document while claiming is taking place, as well as checking on on the revision history. If anyone attempts to erase someone’s name to put theirs down, they will be immediately removed from the bang and banned from entering further events. Please treat one another with respect! This is first come, first serve. 

Artists - once a writer has chosen you, we will message you who you’ve been paired which and you will both be free and encouraged to contact one another and discuss the remainder of the bang!

We’d like to thank everyone who has joined! While a number of artists have dropped, we will do everything we can to help move this event along as smoothly as possible and ensure that all participating parties have an amazing time! 

[hphmbang2020]

WIP  Half-Way Point!

Hello, everyone! We’ve got several announcements to make!

First off - today is the LAST day you can join the bang as an artist! So if you’d like to participate, please message us with a Title for your prompt as well as a two sentence description! 

Today we’re coming around and asking for the status on the WIP’s for all the artists! You don’t have to be finished, nor have started already, we’re simply making sure everyone is still committed to the project. If you don’t think you can participate, please tell us so that we aren’t left scrambling t the end of the event!

Once all the artists have submitted a wip, a title and a decription, we will open up claim viewing for the writers! On Claiming Day, we will open it up for the writers to select their piece! 

We hope you’re all staying safe! Please message with any questions you might have!