author's notes: written for hogwarts (challenges and assignments). prompt(s) will be at the bottom.
round trip
Travelling on New Year's was terribly tricky. Maisie really should have known better than to buy the tickets, but they were the cheapest she'd ever seen just after Christmas, and she really wanted to show Alecto the world.
She couldn't show Alecto the entire world on their round trip, two week vacation, but she could certainly get a head start on it.
The trouble started at the airport.
•
Les's and Ella's family had decided to take a combined trip to Europe way back in September. They bought their tickets early, nabbed good seats near one another, with a plan to always have two adults watching the children — two each — while the third rested. They would take turns sleeping on the long flight to their first stop, Madrid, Spain.
For weeks, they begged Maisie to come with them, but she was too busy making sure Alecto's first holiday season as her daughter went smoother than smooth. And then, seemingly overnight, she changed her mind, bought tickets, and packed everyone's suitcase. To say Alecto was delighted was an understatement. It would be the perfect ending to a perfect year.
They didn't plan on what happened at the airport. Then again, when did things around Alecto ever go as planned?
•
In the security line, little Gellert watched people take off their shoes, coats, hats, and, the last straw for the toddler, even their belts. He never could resist an opportunity to drop his pants, and down they went!
Alecto was, as always, easily convinced into doing the same. Maisie and Les covered their mouths in horror and embarrassment as the pair's loud noises slowly began to attract attention from everyone else in the line — which unfortunately included security.
"What is going on here?" exclaimed a middle-aged balding man dressed in the standard blue TSA uniform. "Ma'am," he turned to Maisie, "are these your children?"
Maisie flushed a deep scarlet. "The young woman is."
"And the pantless toddler is mine," Les said, before glancing over at her son and realising he had apparently shed every other article of clothing he had previously been wearing. A trail of discarded clothes led out the security gate they'd already come past to get to TSA. She nudged Maisie. "Psst," she whispered. "They've escaped."
Maisie followed her gaze and her hand fluttered between her mouth and her forehead.
"Please, ah...reclothe them immediately." The man said before walking away.
"Right away!" Les called after him. She laughed nervously. "As soon as we find them, that is..."
•
Eventually, the children — and I use that term as more of a behaviour scale than an age one — were found. Alecto had run to the bathroom, where Ella found her, and Gellert pressed every inch of his stark naked body to the window of the vending machine, where he was spotted by Barty. He didn't exactly blend into his surroundings, so it wasn't hard to find him.
They were just in time, as their flight was announced as having arrived. The group rushed to their gate and boarded, still clothing the children in the line. Ella, Draco, and Thorfinn sat in a row, with Maisie, Amycus, and Alecto directly across the aisle. In front of them, spread across both sides, sat the BartyLes family. They had strategically placed Severus and Modesty on the other side of the aisle, as they were less prone to taking off their pants, and buckled little Gellert in between them. He wasn't getting away or unclothing anytime soon.
The flight was long, filled with lots of movies, games, cookies, and juice. The flight attendants hadn't witnessed Alecto and Gellert's pantlessness, so they doted on the children of the group, handing out colouring books and packages of gummy fruit snacks.
As soon as they landed, the children struggled to unbuckle their seatbelts, eager to escape their restricting seats.
"Welcome to Madrid," said the pilot over the intercom. "Please keep your seatbelts fastened until we have come to a complete stop at the gate and the fasten seatbelt sign has been turned off."
"You keep that on, mister!" Les dove across the aisle and helped Modesty click Severus's seatbelt back in. "We'll be there in a minute, Sev. You can get out then."
When the plane pulled into the terminal and the orange sign flashed off, the entire group breathed a sigh of relief. They were here, safe and fully — well, mostly — clothed.
Now to see if they could manage two weeks in Europe without being banned from somewhere.
word count: 759
prompts
around the world: laos — ticket — write about going to a new city/town/village