shiny hoppenings
a/n: happy easter to all who celebrate. there is really no excuse for this, but enjoy anyway.
It was Easter, and Les and Barty had just finished hiding all the eggs for the Easter egg hunt they had planned for the adopted children. As soon as they sat down on the back porch, exhausted from spending the last half-hour planting various eggs around the property, the back door slid open to reveal their eldest.
"Mummy, Daddy, someone's here," Modesty told them. "Should I let them in?"
Les waved a hand. "Tell them to come around back. There's no point in having everyone inside when the egg hunt will be outdoors, Modesty."
The door clicked shut with a soft thwip. Moments later, little Draco ran around the house, shouting, "Hi, auntie Les!" as he passed.
"I don't think so, young man," Ella managed to capture her son and pick him up, transferring the squirming toddler to her fiancé as she turned to greet the host couple. "I do hope Gellert plans to keep his pants on today," she said once the initial greetings were exchanged.
"You're in luck," Les responded. "I made absolute sure to dress him in his overalls today. Gel won't try to disrobe with those on."
Next to arrive were Cam and Harry, the latter of whom insisted on being allowed to see Sev and Gel (whom Les was only too happy to pry out of the house for some fresh air.) Soon afterward, she had only to see the plush niffler to know Newt and Albie had arrived.
When the next guests arrived, a caterpillar tongue preceded the family themselves as it wrapped around the stair railing and began to lick it. When Amycus himself actually made it there, hand in hand with his sister, everyone was immediately blinded. Alecto wore a shiny dress, as was usually the case when she wasn't trying to take her clothes off, though for this particular occasion, she also wore shiny shoes and a pair of shiny bunny ears. The day's bright sun certainly didn't help, either.
"Hello, Amycus, Alecto," Les greeted them. "You're looking very…shiny today."
"I know!" Alecto said excitedly as her brother licked Les' cheek in greeting. "I just got it for Easter. It was in my shiny basket with all the shiny candy!" As she spoke, a glinting wrapper dropped onto the porch.
So Alecto had had a fair amount of sugar that morning. Les internally groaned. She was hard enough to deal with even without the sugar rush.
Maisie appeared behind them a few moments later. "They didn't give you too much trouble, did they?" she said with a slight smile as she sat on the arm of her husband's chair.
As Les politely shook her head, a hissing sound interrupted her thoughts. Dragon had arrived with Nagini slithering along beside her.
"Sorry if we're late," she said. "Nagini ate the shoes I planned to wear, and then Creeds thought Chastity might like to come, so we had to make a bit of an extra trip."
"Not a problem," Barty said. "We weren't waiting long."
"That's right," Les agreed. "Just tell them we'll start when they come back here."
-x-
Once everyone was situated in the backyard, Les distributed the baskets. Gellert was told he was absolutely not to put his overalls in the basket, and Newt was offered a place to deposit his plush niffler so as not to take up space. Once she was satisfied the younger children (and Alecto) were going to stand still and hold their baskets for a few seconds, she handed the last few to Modesty, Chastity, Credence, and Nagini.
"I get one?" Chastity asked, clearly puzzled at the very idea that Les would think to include her. "Don't you need help looking after the younger children?"
"We have enough parents here, they can take care of it," Les said. "Besides, not everything is about work, Chastity. You deserve to have fun once in a while."
Chastity managed a small smile before returning to stand with her siblings. While Barty kept the children in line, Les began to explain the rules and protocols of an Easter egg hunt.
"Before we begin," she started. "do we all know what an Easter egg hunt is?"
Modesty raised her hand, and when her mother nodded, she explained it to the younger children. "I remember those. We had them at the church a few times. There were eggs hidden everywhere, and when we opened them, there were peas inside, covered in chocolate."
Les sighed. Every time she spoke to one of the Barebones there seemed to be a new anecdote about Mary Lou and all her peas.
"Yes," she said finally. "It's like that. But instead of chocolate peas, there is candy inside the eggs. You're all welcome to all of the candy inside the eggs you find, but don't open them before the hunt is over."
"Wait," Chastity interposed. "You mean there aren't any peas inside the eggs?"
"I hope not," Alecto said, wrinkling her nose. "Peas are yucky."
"Right, Alecto. Peas are yucky, so we put candy inside instead of them. No matter what egg you pick up, there won't be peas inside."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't push or shove anyone, and most importantly, no biting," Les concluded. "There are more than enough eggs out there for all of you, and there's no reason you can't behave in a civil manner when you hunt for them. I know there shouldn't be any trouble from the older children, but I expect the younger ones to model their behavior."
The children nodded their agreement. Les turned to Barty. "Is there anything else we need to say?" she asked.
"I think not."
"Then on the count of three, the hunt begins. Three…two…one!"
-x-
As soon as Les spoke, the children ran off in search of eggs. Barty had warded the property line so that the children couldn't go farther than the driveway, but he knew that wouldn't make it any easier to round up a dozen egg-hunting children later on.
Almost immediately, Severus toddled back over to the porch, a bright blue egg in his hand. "Look, mummy!" he said. "I found one!"
"Good for you!" Les addressed him. "Now go look for another one, Sev!"
The little boy, excited, complied immediately, and his mother decided she may as well enjoy this peaceful moment while it lasted.
How long was that? About…six minutes.
The sound of crying rang out from around the side of the house. "What's going on over there?" Barty called.
Seconds later, Chastity appeared with her basket in one hand and Harry in the other. "Nagini was trying to grab an egg," she explained. "But I think she bit him instead by accident."
"I really am sorry," Nagini said around the baby pink egg that was still in her mouth. "I didn't see the child there. I do hope he's okay."
Harry, sniffling, accepted Nagini's apology and calmed down. When Chastity set him down, he ran off immediately.
"It seems no harm was done," Dragon said. "But, Nagini, do be more careful next time."
The Maledictus promised to be more vigilant, and she and Chastity returned to their search.
For the next fifteen minutes, the only scuffles were minor. Alecto and Albie discovered the same egg at the same time, but before any grown-ups could intervene, Albie saw another egg and ran off, allowing the young woman to gleefully claim her prize. Newt temporarily lost Pickett in a bush green with foliage, but he soon found his bowtruckle clinging to the handle of his basket. Gellert took advantage of Credence's momentary distraction to swipe an egg from him, but Modesty saw him out of the corner of her eye and insisted the pants-hating little boy give it back.
And for a while, the accompanying adults could actually relax. The children were entertained, and the spring breeze in their hair was lovely.
The only trouble was that as more and more eggs were found, less were available, which meant that whenever one of the children did happen upon an egg, everyone wanted it. Alecto found an egg lying beside the fence, and little Severus wanted it so badly that she insisted Maisie hold into it rather than putting it in her basket. Gel told Albie that allowing him to have the egg they'd found would be "fow the gweater good," but Albie countered with the same statement. They were still fighting when Chastity, who didn't know what the toddlers were fighting about, picked it up, and both cried when they saw it was gone.
Harry and Alecto found the last two eggs, and immediately Les summoned everyone back to the porch to open their eggs. The last thing she needed was any more tantrums over eggs that simply weren't out there anymore.
-x-
Though not as much an event as the hunt itself, the opening also proved to be an experience. Gellert opened an orange egg, found a few jelly beans inside, and after eating them, he shoved the empty egg down his overalls. He did this with at least three more eggs before Les pulled him aside to have them removed.
The Barebones seemed relieved to learn that Les and Barty hadn't concealed peas inside the eggs, though when Credence opened one, Dragon whispered to Les, "He won't begin to nausea, will he?"
"Absolutely not," Les replied. "There's nothing in there that should cause him to nausea."
Dragon's relief mingled with Maisie's concern. In the second she'd looked away from Alecto, her shiny-loving daughter had shoveled about seven eggs' worth of candy in her mouth and now found sitting still nearly impossible.
Still, this was every bit as chaotic as things usually were with this set of children. And with all of their parents nearby to monitor them, Les was confident she could handle it.
Barty, however, looked a little uneasy, and it wasn't just because Harry was chattering away to him and Cam, and he didn't always have the patience for that.
When the little boy moved onto Ella, Les turned to her husband. "Is something wrong, Barty?" she asked, planting a concerned hand on his shoulder.
He gave her a tense smile. "Alessia, do you remember the special shiny egg we were going to put out, but decided against?"
"Yes."
"Well…just so you know, I left it inside, in the –"
"Shiny!"
Alecto, whom Maisie had finally managed to calm enough to sit quietly for a few moments, sprang free, reclaimed her basket, and ran inside to look for the shiny egg. Within a few seconds, all of the other children had followed her. Even the older children, who were generally very well-behaved, felt the need to join the hunt.
"Barty," Les said with a sigh. "Could you have told me later, or at the very least done anything else besides inciting the children to go in and turn the house upside down looking for a shiny egg?"
-x-
When she saw the look on Les' face, Ella volunteered to accompany the couple inside to see what had been done to their house. This part, Les figured, would be difficult but doable. She'd explain that there had been a bit of a misunderstanding and that this wasn't a continuation of the egg hunt, and Chastity could help round the children up and take them back outside. Simple, right?
Wrong. The children would never believe that. They'd think Les just wanted the shiny egg for herself, which would just make Alecto more determined to find it, and everyone would follow her. And as for their child-wrangler, Les had specifically told her she had the day off from looking after the little ones. What kind of person would go back on that?
Inside, it was just as they had expected. In the living room, blankets and cushions were strewn everywhere. Someone had overturned the lamp, and Newt was half-wedged under the couch in search of the shiny egg.
"I don't think there's an egg there, Newt," Ella said, uprighting him and giving the small boy his basket back. "Why don't you look in another room so auntie Les can clean?"
At least she could use magic to take care of the problem, Les thought. If she had to clean her house the Muggle way, she probably would have thrown an Alecto-style tantrum.
In the kitchen, all the cupboards had been opened and emptied, Severus was peering inside the oven, and when Barty opened the refrigerator he found Harry. He obviously hadn't been there very long and seemed entirely unscathed, but they knew they had to find everyone and end this before the damage could get any worse.
Upstairs, Barty peeked into Modesty's room, where he told Alecto that he was absolutely certain there were no shiny eggs in there. She followed Draco and Albie into the bathroom, and he came forward, picked up the two little boys, and carried them downstairs to the living room where Ella stood with Newt, Severus, and Harry. Containment was clearly the key here.
Chastity stood in the doorway of Sev and Gel's room. "Did you look in the closet?" she asked Credence. "Nagini says it's not in either of the beds, and I just sent Modesty to look in the toy chest."
At the very least, this group seemed to be making an effort to clean up after themselves.
"It's not in here," Les told them. "You'd probably have better luck if you tried downstairs."
Almost immediately they filed out of the room. Les removed Gel from her bedroom and Alecto from the bathroom, sending them both downstairs and following suit.
"So where is the shiny egg, anyway?" Newt asked, placing his stuffed niffler into his basket for safekeeping.
Barty lowered his voice so only his wife could hear. "What should we do now?"
"Where did you put the shiny egg?" Les inquired.
"In the basement," he said, "in the space behind the washing machine. I didn't know if we were going to use it or not, and if we were I didn't want our children to know before the others."
Les quietly relayed this information to Ella, who unlocked the basement door. "As a matter of fact, it's downstairs. Now go on and find it!"
At this point, the easiest thing to do was just go through with it.
-x-
Downstairs, two pairs of tiny feet were visible from under the couch, and Les even pulled Draco out of the dryer. The coveted egg, she saw, was walked past by three different people, none of whom even thought to look behind the washing machine. Alecto, one of the few people tall enough, looked inside of it, but sighed disappointedly and moved to search the couch cushions.
She had just managed to discourage Albie from looking down the shower drain in the bathroom when –
"I – I found it."
The hunt had ended at last. In Credence's hand lay the shiny gold egg, glinting even in the dim light.
"Well then, I suppose that's the end of the hunt!" Les said. "There's nothing else to do in here, so why don't we go back outside? I'm sure the other parents are wondering what's taken us so long."
-x-
As everyone had expected, Alecto threw a tantrum when she didn't find the shiny egg, but fortunately everyone else's disappointment could be fixed with jelly beans. Les knew she'd have sugar-hyped toddlers running around the house for hours, but then again, what was Easter for if not an excuse to feed the adopted children all the candy they could ever want?
Across the patio, surrounded by little kids, Credence stood admiring the shiny egg. "Open it, Credence!" Modesty said. "I want to see what's inside!"
"Me too!" Harry shouted.
"I do, too!" Sev said, tossing aside the egg he held and looking up at the older children.
"I'd like to see, too," Chastity offered.
Credence turned to Dragon, clearly unsure of how to handle this. "Go on, Creeds," she told her son. "I'm sure the children would enjoy seeing what's inside."
When he did, a small ball of golden glitter rose from the egg, settling high above their heads for a moment before it burst, showering everyone in shiny gold flecks.
The results were quite interesting indeed. Little Newt held up his plush niffler, giggling as it enjoyed the "shiny party." Albie and Gel merrily dumped shinies into each other's hair, into both their mouths and each other's, and even down their pants. Even Alecto, who had looked as if her crying could recommence at any time, smiled slightly as the shinies fell around her, and within a few seconds she was trying to catch all the shinies she possibly could.
Les had offered to go inside and get everyone new shiny-free drinks, but she lingered in the doorway, watching the scene unfold for a moment. All the colored eggs and shiny children that littered her back porch…
One thing was certain. Any holiday she spent with her friends and their children would certainly be far from conventional, but she'd never have it any other way.
-end-