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 is also a threat of kidnapping & molestation towards a child and a violent protective reaction. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: I'm sorry for what I've done to your babies, Gab.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 13); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Champions (Y); S'il Vous Plait (Y); Beauty of the Abstract; Inevitable; True Colours; Bonjour-Hi; Writing with Music; Gryffindor MC (x4); Magical MC (x6); Shifter MC; Neurodivergent; Rowl in Her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Hold the Mayo; Small Fry; Tiny Terror; Booger Breath; Claimed; Ship Sails; Gender Bender; Zed Era; Old Shoes (Y); Skittles [Gay]; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift (Y)
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 13 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [315](Louis Weasley); 365 [176](Kick); Herbology Club [3-7](Cafune); Auction [6-2](Louis Weasley); Ferragosto [01](A picnic); Pinata [Med](Found Family)
Other MC4A Challenges: Su Bingo [1E](Sun); AU [4C](Thief/Assassin); Hunt [Su Set](Creek/Stream); Chim [Limu](Sharing); TWT (NB Harry)[Task 3](Hot Chocolate); Fire [Hard](Nontraditional Family); Garden [Rose Types](Countless Screaming Argonauts)
Representation(s): Extended Weasley Family/DA as Family; NB Harry Potter; Louis has Sensory Issues
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Muck & Slime; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus); Second Verse (Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Car in a Tutu; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Wind Beneath); Demo 1 (Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Sweetest Burn); Demo 2 (Call Me Dantes; Sitting Hummingbirds)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); FR (Satisfaction; Gestation); O3 (Orator; Oust); TY (Kulonbozo; Enfant)
Word Count: 1684

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Countless Screaming Argonauts
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Louis didn't understand why people didn't seem to like him much. He wasn't mean like Victorie was. She tended to bite people that made her mad, something that she had picked up from their cousin Teddy. He certainly didn't have Dominique's habit of setting things on fire (mostly accidentally, or so she claimed).

Yet people who weren't related to him (or otherwise in the hodgepodge mess that made up their extended family) seemed to actively avoid him like he had cooties.

Mama always looked sad when he brought it up. She would brush his hair out of his eyes, kiss his forehead, and whisper something that had always been too soft for him to hear more than the impression of the French she had used. Then she would finish the ritual by offering to make hot chocolate for him.

Papa tended to get a bit angry when Louis brought it up. He wasn't angry with Louis, but for the few days following, Papa would hover protectively. It was the same way that Teddy got whenever any of the family got hurt or sick. What was really strange was that Papa would do it over all of them and wouldn't stop until Mama got frustrated enough to actually yell at him—not in French or English, either. Mama saved Bulgarian for those moments.

Uncle Viktor choked on his coffee the first time that he was present when Mama yelled. After she had calmed down, he had asked that she never yell at Papa around Rose and Hugo. Mama's cheeks had turned as red as Papa's hair even as she agreed.

Louis didn't understand why people didn't like him.

Not until the day that he did.

They had gone to visit the ruins of some castle or another. Louis didn't really pay attention to the touristy part of the trip. He cared more about being able to climb and run with his many, many cousins. The entire extended family was there, after all. Even Uncle Charlie and Uncle Oliver had made it, and they hardly ever manage to make it to family gatherings that were the big holidays.

The kids were playing tag as the adults set up for the huge picnic lunch that Grandma Molly had prepared for them. Victorie and Teddy ended up teaming up against Rose and Sabine in what devolved into a sword fight with sticks. Dominique set Rose's stick-sword on fire (accidentally, or so she claimed just like always) which brought some of the adults running. Tired of the chaos, Louis retreated to the small copse of trees nearby.

The sound of birdsong accompanied him as he wandered through the trees to a creek running through it. He settled himself on a rock beside it, enjoying the sunshine filtering through the leaves and the soft sound of water tumbling over rocks nearby. He loved his family, especially his non-blood relatives.

Auncle Harry and Aunt Luna were fun. They did Mama's piercings and Papa's new tattoo. They were raising Teddy, because Teddy's parents had died when he was just a baby. Uncle Oliver had already had Sabine when he married Uncle Percy. Aunt Hermione and Uncle Viktor were just as much a part of his family as Uncle Ron and Aunt Padma.

Thinking of his relatives made him feel all warm and sparkly inside. He would even swear that the afternoon seemed a little brighter and magical around him. He didn't notice how the birds had stopped singing.

"Hello, little one," a man said from nearby.

Louis startled out of his stupor at the sound of a voice so close to him when he hadn't heard anyone coming. The man was very bland looking with a round face that looked like it should belong to someone who was kind. But by the hairs on the back of his neck rising up, Louis did not think that was the case with this man. His pale skin was a dark pink, just like the shade Mama would turn when she forgot to put sunblock potion on herself after putting it on Louis and his sisters.

"Aren't you a pretty little boy?" the man cooed. He waved his fingers at Louis like he was a baby instead of nearly eight. Louis made sure to frown at him in the same way that he had seen Victorie do when someone was being stupid. (Or at least like she did when she couldn't get away with just biting them.) "Oh, don't look like that, love. You should always smile."

"I should go," Louis said as he rose from his seat. He dusted off his pants nervously. Only now that he was standing did he realize that the man was blocking the path back to where his family was picnicking. He eyed the man, unwilling to look away with his instincts screaming at him like they were.

"Don't be like that," the man argued, like Louis was being unreasonable or something. Louis' heart pounded in his chest as the man took a step closer. "Do you like dogs? I have a puppy—a very rare breed. I'm actually looking for him right now. Will you help me?"

"I don't know," Louis said. Papa would want him to help if he could, but Louis didn't think the man actually needed help. He tried to look down the path, but the man blocked it completely. Louis felt his mouth dry with panic. "Let me ask my family."

"But he might get farther away," the man protested, taking another few steps closer. Louis stepped backwards a matching amount of steps. Creek water, as cold as ice but moving too quickly to freeze, immediately soaked through his trainers and socks as it tugged at his ankles insistently. "Careful there, pretty one. You wouldn't want to slip and hurt yourself, now would you?"

The man reached out and grabbed a hold of Louis' arms, lifting him out of the water as easily as Louis could lift one of Grandma Molly's chickens. Louis kicked out his legs desperately. He tried to jerk his arms free. The man just carried out of the creek back to the shore, ignoring how much Louis was fighting him.

"We're going to be the best of friends, you and I," he told Louis as he carried him up the creek, away from the path. "I've been looking for someone like you for a long time, you know. And today—oh, today, I just stumbled across you! Just think about what luck that was!"

"Let me go!" Louis cried, still trying to kick himself free. His heart was pounding so hard that it was like having a hummingbird trapped in his chest. "Let me go! HELP! Somebody help me! S'il vous plaît! Aidez moi! Mama! Papa! N'importe qui!"

"It would be in your best interest to let the child go," Uncle Percy said as he stepped in front of the man. Louis almost cried like a little baby at the sight of him. He looked madder than Louis had ever seen him, all flushed and sweaty like he had been running despite how hot the day was. "Just let him go."

"Uncle Percy!" Louis shouted. "Aidez moi!"

All of a sudden, there was a burst of pressure on both his arms where the man had been holding him and the man was screaming as if in extreme pain. Louis fell to the rocky creek bed, rolling a few times before he managed to get his legs back under him to scrabble away. Auncle Harry pulled him farther away and gave him a gentle push towards Uncle Percy.

"Harry, you can't just—" Uncle Percy started to say, sounding both breathless and officious. Auncle Harry sliced his wand through the air sharply and Uncle Percy cut off whatever he had been about to say. If Uncle Percy was angrier than Louis had ever seen him, Auncle Harry looked like a nesting dragon who was about to roast someone who had dared approach her nest. Louis had never seen Auncle Harry angry at all. Even the time that Teddy and Victorie had managed to collapse an entire wing of their Muggle school on top of them, he had been more scared than mad.

"You broke my fingers," the man wailed. Peeking out around Uncle Percy's legs, Louis could see that all of his fingers had been snapped like twigs and were now bent at strange angles. A small part of him was vindictively pleased at how much that must have hurt. "You bastard! I'll have you arrested for attacking me!"

"Percy, take Louis back to Fleur," Auncle Harry said. Despite the fury in his green eyes, Auncle Harry's voice was flatly even, almost calm. Uncle Percy's hand shook when he placed it on Louis' shoulder to start guiding him back to where the family had set up their picnic. "Oh, and let Luna know that I'm apparently going to the Ministry."

"You are taking him to the Ministry then?" Uncle Percy asked, like that was even in question. Auncle Harry smiled, only increasing the impression of a dragon that Louis was getting.

"Take Louis to Fleur, Percy," Auncle Harry repeated, somehow still sounding both calm and like he was threatening the man. "I'll handle this."

"Harry—"

"Percy," Auncle Harry interrupted. His eyes burned as he looked towards them. "Take him to Fleur. he will need her soon, and she needs to know what happened. I will handle this."

"What will you do?" Uncle Percy asked hesitantly.

Auncle Harry said nothing.

Uncle Percy nodded sharply before finally pulling Louis back towards the path. Once they were out of sight, the man started screaming again only to be cut off by the distinctive loud crack of Disapparation. Louis started crying so hard that Uncle Percy picked him up to finish the walk back through the woods. Uncle Percy ran his fingers through Louis' hair as he carried him back to their picnicking family.

Louis didn't even worry about what his cousins would think of him crying like a baby. He just wanted Mama.