Just remember, you asked for this

Seamus Finnegan stares in muted horror at the chaos that is currently his living room. The bag of takeaway hanging from his arm swings idly back and forth, forgotten in his bafflement at the sight before him. Twenty minutes have passed since he'd left the house to pick up their usual order of Indian from the restaurant in town, and it really shouldn't have been enough time for this to happen.

"Hi honey," Dean says carefully, looking up at him from his position on the floor. On his lap, their youngest daughter Hope squirms, leaves and silly string stuck in her hair even as she attempts to reach the bowl of popcorn on the floor, just out of reach of her pudgy hands. Their oldest, Declan is tangled up in a makeshift hammock suspended from the ceiling fan, flushed red and wide eyed in the face of his father's entrance. His eyes dart to his pops and back again warily and with good reason; the room is wrecked.

All the furniture bar the side board has been knocked over, and the carpet is covered in an array of rubbish, from silly string to empty bottles of apple juice. In the far corner of the room is a suspicious looking stain that Seamus is already dreading discovering the cause of. He can see scorch marks up the wall and stuffing tossed all around, and is that–? How in Merlin's name did they get jelly stuck to the ceiling!

Dean smiles sheepishly. "I can explain?"

"Sure," Seamus challenges, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow, "go ahead. I'd love to see you try."

"In my defence," starts his husband, already getting out his honey-I-can-explain voice, "Dec pulled out the puppy pout."

"Oh no, not the puppy pout," Seamus deadpans coolly, taking a moment to cross over to the upended coffee table and set it to rights.

Dean soldiers on bravely. Hope's perpetually sticky fingers poke him in the cheek and he huffs. "It's like this – you see Declan thought it'd be a good idea to make a pillow fort for movie night, and, well–"

"Harvey's dad does it without magic!" Declan interrupts from somewhere inside the tangled mass of sheets that has started to wiggle from side to side as he tries to get free.

"Exactly." Dean points at their eldest child in emphasis, giving Seamus a significant look. "See? We can't have Harvey's dad beating us in the cool parent game, now can we dear?"

"What does that even–?" Seamus cuts himself off. He sighs in exasperation, giving his husband a pleading look. "What are you even talking about?"

Dean gives him a lopsided smile that still sends Seamus' heart for a spin, even after all these years, and says, "We can't let David be cooler than us, love. That's just not right."

Seamus opens his mouth to protest, but then he remembers meeting David that one time at parents' evening and shuts it again. "I guess you're right," he concedes. After all, the guy wore Birkenstocks with socks; if he and Dean weren't cooler than that, he'd be worried. He eyes the rest of the room apprehensively. "That still doesn't explain…this."

Hope lets out a loud gurgle, spotting Seamus for the first time and immediately reaching her arms out for him, squirming on Dean's lap. It makes Seamus smile and walk over to her, crouching in front of Dean to take her from his arms. Dean shares a soft smile with him as he takes the bag of takeout.

Hope now safely situated on Seamus' knee, he coos at her. Without taking his eyes from his daughter, he tells Dean levelly, "Don't think this means you're getting away with it. I'm expecting an explanation about now."

"Right," Dean gulps, before having the breath knocked out of him as Declan, finally untangled from the hammock, collides with his back, arms wrapping up around his neck. Dean uses one hand to stabilise Declan and with the other he moves the takeout safely out of reach of being knocked over. While he's at it, he shifts the bowl of popcorn further out of reach too.

"I'm listening," Seamus prompts.

Declan's eyes blink at Seamus from over Dean's shoulder, and his muffled voice says, "I wanted to play with Silky."

At this, Dean winces and his face turns an interesting shade of green. "Yeah," he mumbles, "Silky."

Seamus frowns. What does any of this have to do with Hope's pygmy puff? It had been a gift to her from Ginny Weasley-Potter for her first birthday and the adorable ball of fluff had proven to be an object of great intrigue to Declan, the boy never seeming to tire of asking his fathers to play with it. He looks around the room. "Where is it, then?"

"She," Dean emphasises pointedly, "got in a bit of an…accident." His pointed look turns fairly sheepish at that, and his eyes dart down to Hope briefly. He grimaces. "Quite a significant one."

Seamus narrows his eyes and bounces Hope on his knee, causing her to giggle and burrow her face into his chest. "Significant how?" he asks suspiciously.

"Uh…"

Dean is really drawing this out and Seamus has about had enough. He exhales roughly. "Just tell me, Dean."

"It'll be easier to just show you."

Now Seamus is intrigued, and he shuffles closer as Dean gestures at his phone sitting on the floor by his hip. Curiously, and shifting Hope so she doesn't slide from his lap, Seamus picks up the phone, unlocking it to see it open to the camera roll. There's a recent video and Seamus clicks play. The sounds of his family laughing, tinny and loud, burst to life. The video wobbles for a moment before stabilising on an image on Dean assembling the sofa cushions into a decent shaped cubby, with Hope sitting on the floor playing with Silky. It's obviously being filmed by Declan from the angle it's at, and the hint of fingers Seamus can see poking over the edge of the frame.

Suddenly, their puppy Bentley hurtles into the room and the camera shakes as he bounds over to Declan for cuddles.

"Look! Look, Bentley!" Declan is saying, "Say hi to Silky!"

Bentley sniffs the pygmy puff in Hope's lap, and that's when everything changes.

One moment, the pygmy puff is sitting happily in Hope's lap, the next it's disappearing into Bentley's slobbery mouth and the puppy is racing from the room to screams of, "No! Bentley, no!" from both his husband and son. Hope hasn't seemed to realised what's happened just yet.

The video ends when the phone is dropped to the floor and Seamus stares at the black screen in silence for a moment before slowly looking up at Dean. His husband is attempting to hold back a grin and Seamus finds himself fighting back a laugh at the sight. He forces himself to meet Declan's innocent eyes and says, "I think we need to give Ginny a call."

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Round 7 for the QLFC

Team: Montrose Magpies

Position: Beater 2

Prompts: Write about a magical creature mishap

Additional prompts used:

(13) character Seamus Finnegan

word count: 1172

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The title is meant for the mods/whoever came up with the prompt. This is horrifying and I love it, but I would never have written it without this prompt so QLFC, this ones for you