Team: Ballycastle Bats

Positon: Keeper

Prompt: Jurassic Park

Word Count: 2,662

"Must we do this, really?" I huffed at my husband, Bill, as I tried to wipe large smears of mud off of our child's face from where he'd landed roughly from the port key trip. I brushed some red curls away from his face with a sigh. He'd gotten that classic Weasley hair, much to my dismay, but at least the green of his eyes was mine.

"It's just one of Dad's crazy ideas, it won't be too bad, eh?" He grinned, shrugging off my discontent, as usual, Bill was considerably more carefree than myself. It wasn't that I particularly disliked his parents, despite his mothers' incessant need to constantly feed her son and grandson, she was quite alright, pleasant...ish.

"I guess not," I frowned, as I scrubbed one particularly stubborn smear on Gideon's left cheek. This is all whilst the chaos of multitudes of witches and wizards arrived via port key, my irritation only grew from the noise.

"Is Mum scared of Granddad's show?" Gideon laughed.

I couldn't decide between being down-right crabby or just heartbroken: even my four-year-old Gideon had picked up on my worry, I could see the nervous look he gave his father despite the laughter.

This just felt like another harebrained scheme. A scheme that was sure to be disastrous, especially when you consider that out of the three of us, only Bill's wand was in working order.

"No! Don't worry bud. She's just upset because she forgot to see Mr Ollivander about her wand." I pursed my lips at Bill, as he knelt down next to me smiling at our son to convince him we were all happy.

My wand had just straight-up shattered two days ago, it was all thanks to a nearly impervious curse placed on a chest deep in the Peruvian mountains.

When Bill and I had met my wand had the tiniest of cracks in it, now, considering we'd met in the middle of an old Indian cave almost five years ago, it'd held up pretty well.

Curse-breakers like us didn't last long, Gringotts had a constant influx of new thrill-seekers every year: it made us just a bit expendable. When I first started I was a total mess, I was in and out of St. Mungo's almost constantly, but once Gringotts paired us up in India, Bill would always come to visit me.

"Come on then, we should get going now," Bill stood again, holding out his hand to Gideon.

I then realised that I'd just been staring at my poor child's face for the last minute or so while scrubbing away, I probably traumatised him. 'Right! Focus on what you're doing and do not daydream the morning away'.

"Where did he say to meet him?" I stood as well and put the handkerchief back into my pocket to follow behind Bill and Gideon as we searched for Bill's dad in the crowds of curious Wizarding folk.

"He said something about a large bird," Bill shrugged. He shared a knowing look over his shoulder, I sighed, it would be a long day.

Ever since the youngest Weasley, Ginny, had gone off to school and Gideon was born, Arthur had taken up yet another muggle obsession. It was all because Fred and George took him to see some movie about Dinosaurs.

Molly said nothing about the number of hours he spent reading over old muggle textbooks, nor his growing collection of rocks he called fossils. Though I imagined that was only because Bill and I worked continuously, which meant she had her hands full whenever we dropped Gideon off to stay. It was usually for a few days as a curse breaker's work is never done.

"Let me guess...a large bird that should be extinct?" I mumbled under my breath, my mood not improving as we are pushed past a large group of people exiting the attraction. Arthur was fascinated with archaeology: far beyond the point of looking at the fossils of non-magical creatures.

As I spent my work life running into creatures, enchantments, curses and hexes that are all trying to kill me, I didn't quite fancy taking my child to a circus filled to the brim with such oddities for the entire day.

But this wasn't my day, as I had to keep reminding myself. This was for Arthur's birthday, and he'd found a circus that claimed to display all sorts of creatures that no one had seen for over millennia. And no Weasley would go - except us.

"Selene!"

I turned my head to the side, recognizing the older ginger man who was my father-in-law. Arthur's hair was more distinctive now due to the growing bald patch at the back. I'm sure we had a lot to do with that.

"Arthur," I called as I pulled on Bill's arm, we all stopped to greet the excited man. Arthur was already offering Gideon a box of popcorn with a grin when he was close enough, like I said, incessantly feeding!

"Say thank you, Gideon," I raised a brow, Gideon had just begun to grab little fistfuls of popcorn and throwing them into his mouth: he picked that up from his father, I swear to Merlin.

"Thank you," came Gideon's muffled bit of graciousness, which of course, allowed kernels to escape and tumble out of his mouth. It made me sigh as I realised: he's now speaking with his mouthful. This was supposed to be a fun day, a day where Bill and I took him out with his Granddad, and I'm making a huge deal about manners. Terrific. I can only imagine what Molly will make of it.

"So, what's this place all about?" Bill asked as he laughed, letting go of Gideon's hand to grab a handful of popcorn himself. I watched as my husband stuffed his face just like our four-year-old child had, with maximum enjoyment and little regard for any sort of manners as kernels fell out of his mouth.

"There I was, sitting in the pub when I found a flyer for this place." Arthur began his drawn-out tale about just how he found this dive of a park! Great!

"It's supposed to have all sorts of creatures, magical and non-magical you know? All dead as far as muggles know anyways." He winked at that last comment and it only made me more nervous.

"Then we probably should take Gideon home..." I trailed off, eyeing the man with a bit of wariness. Molly would have a cow if she knew that her only grandchild had been taken to a roadside attraction filled with creatures that could, and would eat him in a single bite. But, of course, Molly was never around when she would actually be on my side.

"No, no. It's all quite safe, they're behind glass!" Arthur's head bobbed up and down as he smiled reassuringly at me. I considered what I was more afraid of today: Gideon not getting the full day with his grandparent as promised? Or Molly hearing about the danger later?

"Well...let's go see some these beasties then." I declared with faux excitement after watching Gideon inspect my face, worried I'd call it all off.

It was an easy decision for me considering that my son needed to spend some time with us, after all, we'd been in and out a month at a time since he was born. But the bills didn't just pay themselves, you know? And curse-breaking is very much an, 'at the moment' sort of thing; either you make it big, or you have a sickle to live on for the next month. We needed new jobs, something at the Ministry maybe? But I didn't really want to deal with that amount of paperwork.

"Right! Come on, Gideon," Arthur called with a clap of his hands in child-like amusement.

Despite the things that irked me about the in-laws, they were definitely the family type; Arthur picked up Gideon and sat him on top of his shoulders, just so he could see more. I was thankful enough for that to deal with all sorts of eccentricities.

"Now this one died a while ago, he's called an Austroraptor," Arthur said as I followed behind him and my son. I stepped carefully as we passed by cages upon cages of creatures, each looked angry enough to go on a bloody rampage. The thought crossed my mind that if they did decide to test out the glass there were at least a few that could easily break through it...this seemed like one of those.

"He's pwetty." Gideon sounded delighted. He tried to speak clearly which was endearing, the exact opposite of what I was feeling for the beast.

I watched as the odd feathered creature stalked around its habitat, my nerves in tatters just at the sight of it.

"Down!" Gideon's voice was sweet, not really commanding but you could tell he'd still get what he wanted though. I glanced at my son and husband as Arthur sat Gideon down after only a second of Gideon's wriggling.

"He is! It says here that he likes to eat a good sausage or two, and that he weighs 208 kilos." Arthur encouraged him, Gideon got more and more excited as Arthur read out the little facts that were posted next to each creature's enclosure. The beast in question was much larger than I would have liked, considering how confidently it glared at me.

"Can I touch him?" Gideon asked.

I froze as my little boy took two steps forward, pressing little fingers up against the glass curiously. He didn't know it, but just the act was making my heart do backflips inside my chest. I'm pretty sure that I only became this panicky when I became a mother. I actually used to be cool, people liked hanging out with me.

"I don't like that one," I mumbled to Bill while glancing between Gideon and the beast, said beast stopped it's stalking to simply watch me. Its eyes flickered between Gideon's hand and me with a calculating look.

"It's just a mindless beast, love." Bill shrugged as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I knew I was just being paranoid but, I got the feeling that it knew a lot more than it ought to for a 'mindless beast'.

He was always managed to stay calm and collected, even if I'd just blown the bloody roof off with a poorly aimed spell...sometimes it was just plain annoying especially when I was freaking out. Plus he was so good at charmwork and I wasn't, despite my grades at Hogwarts: I always get nervous right before I cast a spell.

"I know," I huffed. I couldn't help pouting at the fact that he was literally- that calm.

I could only recall one occasion when Bill wasn't Mr Calm and collected, when Gideon decided he was officially making his way into the world, right in the middle of Christmas Eve. I mean, Bill was composed and all, right up until the contractions started, then all hell broke loose. After that he was a panicked mess: flailing as he shoved clothes into a bag, whilst simultaneously trying to guide me towards the Weasley's floo, his whole family came to see the show. Like I said before; family people.

"Corn?"

I glanced down feeling the empty popcorn box being pulled out of my hands, my child with his head buried inside the box. He definitely took after his dad.

"I'll be right back with more, baby." I pull the box from his hands, almost laughing as I promise more.

"Need help?" Bill asked, raising a brow as I pull away f to go search for another popcorn stall. I'm pretty sure it was one of Gideon's favourites solely because we only let him have some when we were having a family day out.

"I think I can find a popcorn stand on my own, thanks," I snorted, shaking my head.

"Yeah, but can you find us again?" he smirked.

I glared at him for a second, irritated by the sarcasm in his voice and the shit-eating grin on his face.

"I've only gotten lost once!" I retorted as I rolled my eyes.

I started walking towards where I could smell popping kernels and melting butter, the sound of chuckles fading behind me. I'd gotten lost outside the same cave in India where Bill and I had officially met: he never let me live it down, especially as I tried to correct him on the right direction to go.

It took me maybe 15 minutes to find a stand where the line wasn't 50 meters long, and 15 minutes more for me to get to the front of the line. I had no idea wizards were actually this interested in seeing fossils that had been magicked back to life.

"Here ya ar'," I mumbled half to myself, slipping back into my Irish accent a little as I handed the man two sickles.

I'd been out of Ireland for a good long while now, thanks to the fact that my parents still lived there and I had zero interest in visiting them. You'd think religious muggles would see their child performing acts of magic as more of a God-given gift rather than a sign she'd been possessed by the devil, but hey. Who am I to judge?

"Than-" The vendor's words were drowned out by the sound of a woman shrieking making my blood to run cold.

"Is that apart of the show?" I ask desperately.

My eyes quickly darted up to the man's face, I nearly fell apart when he looked just as panicked as me. He shook his head slowly, shoving the popcorn at me before a quick wave of his wand forced the doors and window shut on his little stall.

No time had passed at all, I barely had time to blink before chaos descended around me; people shoving and yelling, shouting for their loved ones, while others just apparated with a pop. I don't know if it was my motherly intuition or just how panicked I was, but all I could do was shout for my child.

"GIDEON?" My voice nearly cracked as I shoved past a group close to where I'd last seen my family.

They weren't there of course so instead of screaming like a banshee; my panicked eyes searched for a speck of flaming red hair.

"Selene?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when a hand wrapped itself around my arm, I relaxed at the welcome sight of my husband.

"Where is he?" I begged, a lump forming in my throat, I searched around for him, but I couldn't see him or Arthur.

"We looked away for a second, h-he's little." Bill was panicked too, and it didn't make me feel any better.

He shook his head from side to side, guilt just as prevalent as worry on his face. Before I knew it a tear slipped out of the corner of my eye, I wiped it away angrily with the back of my hand.

"Dads looking for him as we speak. He's probably just hiding somewhere." Bill sounded confident, but I knew how to read his face, the facade couldn't fool me. He was worried, and when my husband was worried you knew something was terribly wrong.