MC4A; Hogwarts
Stacked With: Hogwarts; BAON; FPC
Individual Challenges: In a Flash (Y); Hufflepuff MC (x2); Tiny Terror (N); The 3rd Rule (N); Yellow Ribbon (N); Yellow Ribbon Redux (N)
Representations: Hannah Abbott; Susan Bones; Beatrice Abbott (OC)
Bonus Challenges: Nontraditional; Second Verse (Not a Lamp; White Dress)
Prompts: "There's a time and place for nakedness. This is not that time, nor that place." (auction); Deadly (365 words); When We Were Young (Insane Prompts)
Word count: 754
Hannah Abbott had her hands on her hips as she glared at the giggling child. Beatrice was bouncing from piece of furniture to piece of furniture, not touching the ground for it was currently lava in her young mind. While Hannah approved whole-heartedly of her daughter using her imagination, she did not approve of the lengths Beatrice went to make the situation seem true to her standards.
"Beatrice Abbott, what do you think you are doing?"
Beatrice froze where she was stepping from coffee table to couch, wobbling at the sudden loss of momentum and almost falling to the ground and into the lava. "Ground is dangerous," she explained when she had regained her balance.
"So I gathered. Is there a reason you must be naked as you clamber over the furniture?"
Beatrice had to think about that for a moment before she remembered her original reasoning behind stripping out of her clothes. "It's hot!"
Hannah repressed a sigh. "My darling daughter, there is a time and a place for nakedness. This is not that time, nor that place."
"But…lava. I have to stay cool."
"I'm afraid you've got a few things to learn before you can go gallivanting around naked above lava. Why don't you find a path back to your clothes and put them back on, hmm?"
Beatrice pouted but did as she was told, carefully hopping from the coffee table to the armchair followed by the bureau and finally she arrived at the red ottoman where her clothes lay in a haphazard pile. With one final check that she did indeed have to put her clothes back on, Beatrice started wriggling into them.
Hannah watched, ready to give aid should Beatrice ask for it. Her daughter had been insistent that she could dress herself lately, but that didn't mean that she couldn't sometimes require help. Trapped as she was on the less stable and smaller surface area of the ottoman, Beatrice found she couldn't move about as much as she needed to in order to dress and clearly waged a battle inside her mind before holding up the pink dress towards Hannah as a way of asking for help.
Hannah smiled gently and went to step into the living room before Beatrice suddenly yelled, "No! Lava!"
Quickly stepping back, Hannah surveyed the room and tried to find a path. Soon, she was hopping from various pieces of furniture (and once clinging to the wall via a sticking charm) and making her way to Beatrice without ending up in the deadly lava. Beatrice grinned at her when she arrived on the blue ottoman next to Beatrice's red one and Hannah grinned back.
"Let's get you dressed, my dear. Then you can continue your adventures."
"Yes, Mama. Will you play with me?"
Hannah thought about it for a moment before agreeing. With a couple of strengthening charms the furniture could handle her weight and the last time she had pretended the floor was lava was when she had been young herself. Plus, she had no desire to refuse her daughter. "Of course. Arms up."
Beatrice held up her arms and Hannah slipped the dress over her head before pulling it down. As soon as she was dressed, Beatrice lunged off the ottoman and straight for the piano which thankfully had its lid down and did not create a cacophony of noise like it would have if Beatrice had landed on its keys.
She beckoned to her mother and Hannah shook her head, instead opting for the coat holder after casting stability charms on it. Beatrice giggled at the sight of her mother clinging on for dear life to the slim pole and ran across the piano to where she could leap to an armchair. Hannah quickly clambered up the coat stand and levered herself onto the bookshelf.
Susan watched her wife and child move around the living room with a smile on her face and the cup of tea she had been planning on enjoying in the living room held in her hand. It appeared her living room was now full of lava and only for acrobatics. As she sipped her tea, she pondered on the thought of creating a room specifically for when Beatrice wished to leap around above lava.
It was an idea certainly worth considering. Laughter was something both she and Hannah hoarded in their memories as much as they could. Too much happiness had been lost in the war for them not to want to preserve the joy Beatrice expressed.