Author's Note: Written for…
Next Gen Competition. Prompt: Louis plays a muggle game.
Fifty Peeps Challenge. Prompts: Hugo Weasley, scarlet
PayDay Game Challenge. Prompt: munchkin
Get a Clue
There was nothing quite as boring as being cooped up in school during a freak rainstorm three days after term began, before any homework had even been assigned. Louis was pretty sure things wouldn't be so boring if he'd been put in another house. He heard loads of stories over the years about what the other houses did for fun; most of them came from his cousins and sisters.
Gryffindors had year-long tournaments of wizard's chess and gobstones. Ravenclaws had trivia nights with prizes of Honeydukes. The Slytherins had a whole plethora of common room activities. One house was suspiciously absent from all the fun…
"Hufflepuffs are the most boring creatures ever," he moaned into a couch cushion. It came out with a subtle accent from a summer spent in France.
"You ought to know," Hugo called. Louis looked up to glare at his cousin. He was seated at one of the tables with three other kids in their year. They were hunched over something he couldn't see from the couch.
"What are you doing?"
"Hugo's teaching us a new game," one girl, Lacey, said excitedly. "Come play! We have two open seats."
Louis groaned. "It's not another of your stupid muggle games, is it?"
"I don't remember you complaining during that seventy-two-hour Munchkin match we had with Moll and Rox." The shuffling of cards cut through his speech. "Just come up here already."
Louis obliged, slumping down into a seat beside his cousin glaring at the board game in front of him. He'd seen Hugo and Rose and his Aunt Hermione play it plenty of times during family gatherings, but he'd never bothered to learn how to play.
The board looked like blueprints for a house with nine large rooms. He picked up a piece off the board – a tiny man with a purple base – and twirled it between his fingers.
Hugo finished shuffling the cards and then looked around the table. "Might as well get a full table for this. Zach! Sit down; we're playing a game." The prefect sat down without complaint.
Hugo launched into explaining the rules of Clue, which Louis partially listened to, preferring instead to play makeshift bowling by rolling a die toward the group of characters. He only managed to knock Miss Scarlet over before Hugo snatched the die and gave him a disapproving stare.
Louis paid attention for the rest of the instructions, then followed Hugo's example in marking his cards off on the provided notepad.
"What the hell is a wrench?" he asked, reading through the list of weapons.
Hugo held up the tiny model wrench. "It's a tool."
Louis was doubtful of its usefulness, but let it go. He chose to play Professor Plum because plums were delicious, and then the game began.
It lasted about two hours and became more cut-throat the longer it went on. Everyone was too scared of being eliminated to make an accusation. Louis tried several times to make alliances which Hugo immediately put an end to. At some point he put his wand on the table and started threatening to curse people with horrifying nightmares if they guessed Mrs. White anymore. It was bad enough having only one character in his hand without the entire table knowing about it.
The rest of the common room, apparently just as bored as Louis had been, congregated around the table and began putting bets on the game.
Louis was the first person to make an accusation, which Hugo scoffed at.
"Colonel Mustard, with the revolver, in the lounge," he stated proudly, snatching the cards from Hugo's hand and opening the envelope.
"I am victorious!" he shouted, throwing the cards in the air.
Hugo grumbled something about cheating but Louis didn't pay him any attention, grinning like mad and shaking the hands of all the spectators.
And so began the Hufflepuff Game Nights, which lasted until long after Hugo and Louis had gone from school.