Title: Family

Fandom: The 39 Clues

Summary: Everything that makes up the world's biggest extended family in 100 stories.

Disclaimer: The 39 Clues (c) its respective owners. I'm only playing around with characters.

Author's note: Based on 100 writing prompts found while surfing the Web. Genres will vary wildly, crack pairings and self-made fanon will abound, and updates may be sporadic, but I hope you'll all have fun reading this, as I intend to have writing it. Unless otherwise noted, none of these take place in the same universe and nothing past The Medusa Plot is canon. Moreover, as is usual for me, nothing found in the trading cards, the Black Book, or the website will ever be regarded as canon. All characters will be respected. Prompt ratings are unlikely to go past a high T. Requests (for pairing, characters, etc.; as detailed as you like) will all be considered, and those that are written will be dedicated to whoever requested them. Reviews and favorites will be met with gratitude.

Prompt: 1. A dusty old top hat

Rating: K

Genre: Family

Characters: Broderick Wizard, Jonah Wizard

Note: Shameless fanon. You may perceive the ending as ironic or just as an excited kid, whichever suits your fancy.

.oOo.

It was love at first sight.

Perhaps the existence of affection between a boy and his appropriately dubbed Wizard Hat was debatable, but Broderick didn't think so. With the marked absence of a puppy, a sibling, or any other sort of sociable critter resounding through his son's childhood, an old, velvety black top hat was perhaps just the companion Jonah needed.

The relationship lasted nearly three years to the day. It had started – quite unexpectedly, really – when Broderick's grandma passed away and he headed down to Georgia to collect the few knick-knacks she had left to him, as well as any other stuff the rest of the family didn't care to claim. Among the assorted curios, the weathered top hat had caught his eye, and he'd brought it home along with a banjo, a distinctly ugly ceramic cat, several ferns, and a good-sized heap of moth-eaten knit blankets.

The ferns perished on the return flight.

After a day of feeling its creepy lopsided stare stabbing him right between the shoulders, Broderick gratefully allowed the cat to mysteriously disappear out of his car window into the sparse shrub barrier around his cousin-in-law's yard – he had a strange feeling that she'd cherish it.

He'd have gladly kept his grandpa's old banjo and the colorful, albeit holey blankets, but Cora wouldn't have those things in her house, thank you very much.

But the hat made its way under his wife's radar, quite by accident, really. For whatever reason, it decided to enter his mind the very next Saturday that he found himself alone with Jonah, so on the spur of the moment Broderick suggested that they try out an adventure game instead of holding their two-man-band's usual concert. Jonah was open to the idea, and so began the epic tale of a quirky young wizard-slash-rapper, an evil sorcerer king, a magical hat, and a couple of invisible squirrels. Broderick wasn't exactly sure where those came from, but he played along.

The saga wended its way down paths of darkness and light, of humor and drama, of raucous shrieks and glorious song, and inevitably it was the old Wizard Hat that saved the young hero every time he was near despair. Sometimes it whispered words of sage advice in his ear, while other times it produced bursts of celestial melodies that drove back the threatening evil. And though throughout almost three years of Saturdays, young Ha'noj never quite managed to defeat Kiredorb forever, he had often cornered him and cast powerful spells of bondage with the power of the holey Wizard Hat –

"I don't wanna do it anymore," Jonah said suddenly, brushing the hat off his head with a dismissive twitch of his hand. An air of finality lingered in his words as he blinked slowly at the floor, then slid his eyes tentatively up towards his father. "I got an audition today again anyways. With Mom. Soon." Almost apologetically, he bent down again and scooped the hat off of the floor, cradling it for a moment as if it were a child. Then, as if remembering himself, he thrust it away, holding it out towards Broderick. Broderick took it wordlessly and Jonah's shoulders trembled momentarily but didn't yet slump. "It's not really a wizard hat, anyways," the boy offered lamely, making an excuse for his actions. "It's a magician hat. Magicians are kinda fake. No real powers, yeah, Dad?"

"No." Broderick had been turning the ragged black hat in his hands, running his fingers over the now-rough cloth worn by the eager touch of a child's hands. "They're just actors, Jonah, you're right."

"But you know what?" Jonah's dark eyes sparkled. "You know what the real thing is, Dad?" He didn't wait for his father's answer, but plunged right ahead into the answer. "Wizards! They don't fake at all, an' guess what? I'm a Wizard. I'm the real thing!"

.oOo.