Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There's also reference to a severe food allergy. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: This is based on another fic that I wrote. All that you need to know from Tropical Fruit is that the twins had a severe allergy reaction to a new food and had to be rushed to the hospital. That is mentioned in the fic.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Misunderstood; Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Small Fry; Food Roulette; Gryffindor MC (x2); Sett to Destroy; Seeds; Tissue Warning; No Proof; Golden Times; Interesting Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A [Love]; Themes & Things B [Risk]; Neurodivergent; Tiny Terror; Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Letter of the Day; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Two Cakes!
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 07
Subject (Task No.): Folklore (Task#1: Write about trying to warn someone about something.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [496] (Hospital); 365 [91] (Young);
Space Address (Prompt): Fa Bingo [1D] (Legacy)
Representation(s): the Weasleys; Food Allergy; Autistic Percy Weasley
Bonus Challenges: Under the Bridge; Queen Bee; Second Verse (Corvid Brain; Muck & Slime; Lyre Liar; Lovely Coconuts; Unwanted Advice; Spinning Plates; Mother Hen; Sneeze Weasel; Nontraditional; White Dress; Persistence Still; Not a Lamp; Ladylike); Chorus (Head of Perseus; Abandoned Ship; Tomorrow's Shade; Mouth of Babes; Peddling Pots; Machismo; Fizzy Lemonade; Wabi Sabi; Pear-Shaped)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: SHoE (Terse; Brood); O3 (Olivine); T3 (Terse; Tether)
Word Count: 748
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The Lord in the Grandson
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Molly paced the length of the waiting room. Ron was a solid weight in her arms and still hiccupping from the crying fit he had at all the activity. He was the most reactive of her children. It led to a lot of thrown toys and hit siblings, but it also made him the easiest one to teach sharing. In the end, it all balanced out, really.
However, after having to rush to St. Mungo's with five children because the twins had reacted badly to the tropical fruit that she had gotten as a splurge, dealing with a terrified three-year-old who was wailing like a banshee in her ear was not doing anything for her nerves. Healers had immediately taken the twins away to be treated. Not having the pair of five-year-olds where she could see that they were responding to treatment was making everything just that much worse.
"Mum," Percy whispered from where he was sitting on a bench with Ginny. A quick glance showed that the two-year-old was fighting off sleep. That was probably why Ron was refusing to settle, too. They were usually halfway through with their afternoon naps by now. At eight, Percy was handling the stress of the emergency better than the overwrought toddlers. He was still pale enough that his freckles stood out like reversed beacons. As Molly watched, Ginny tried to stick her thumb in her mouth. Percy immediately pushed it away. Ginny gave a wail of tired protest at being denied her sleepy ritual. "Mum, can you—"
"Percy, let your sister have her thumb," Molly scolded distractedly. Ginny's wail had set off Ron again. Where he had been calming towards sleep, he was ramping up for a full-out fit now. Ginny cried again as Percy held both her hands away from her face. "I'm serious, young man. There is nothing wrong with her sucking her thumb."
"But Mum, she shouldn't do it!" Percy shouted. Molly looked at her third-born and currently the oldest of her children not at Hogwarts. He looked like he was close to exhausted tears himself. If Ron was the most reactive of her children, then Percy was by far the most even-tempered. Oh, he was still as capable of fire and waspishness as any of them and just as stubborn as her own mother had accused her of being. But he was not usually disobedient or outright defiant like this. Ginny gave another shrill wail with Ron echoing her.
"Percival Ignatius Weasley," Molly snapped, driven to her wits end by the stress, "let go of your sister right this second or so help me—"
"But Mum—"
"No 'buts'. Now."
"No," Percy said with a firm tone that no eight-year-old should be capable of achieving. His blue eyes sparked with a cold fire that demanded attention. With a hiccup, Ron stopped crying completely. Even Ginny quieted to whines instead wails. For the first time, Molly saw Septimus Weasley, Arthur's estranged father, in one of her children.
"Percy—"
"No," he repeated. "Ginny needs her hands washed first."
A chill went through her at the realization of what Percy was trying to prevent. Ron had eaten the fruit without any issue. Percy had refused to even touch his bowl. Ginny hadn't eaten any of hers, but she had played with the chunks, which would have left the juice all over her hands.
And they had no idea if she was also allergic.
"Oh, Merlin," Molly breathed. Her distraction and impatience had almost cost her dearly. She felt like crying herself. Percy gave an almost-imperial incline of his head in acknowledgement, clearly not ready to forgive her quite yet. "Yes, she does. Let's get that done right now."
Arthur arrived at that very moment in a flurry of frantic motion. The letter that the receptionist had been kind enough to send him using one of the hospital's owls was clutched in his hand. The vibrant lime color of the paper seemed too bright for the gloom of the waiting room.
Only later, after Ginny's hands had been washed and they had all been allowed to join the twins in the room they were being kept overnight for observation, did Molly realize that Percy hadn't spoken a single word to her since their confrontation. She couldn't help but feel a bit colder without the normal spiel of information that Percy would share. She hoped he would feel more like himself after they all got some well-deserved rest.