Written for Assignment #1 on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry forum: Demonology, Task #1 – Write about someone having a mid-life crisis. Word count: 630. List of additional prompts below the text.

A Crisis

"Is there a reason you're staring at me like I'm about to burst into flames?"

"You are drunk," Molly stated the obvious.

"I know," shrugged Arthur. "I know."

"Again."

"I know."

He'd been having a tough time lately. He didn't really understand it, but everything seemed to be so dull and pointless. He was almost forty. He had a steady, but pitifully low-paid job and a family with the woman whom he had once been head over heels in love with. He was not so sure anymore.

The children were sleeping, fortunately. Not that it was surprising at half past four in the morning. It was Molly who was used to getting up at the dawn, and he… He simply hadn't slept all night.

"I'll better go to the shed."

The shed was his little retreat, safe place to hide in and think a little. Or to sleep, when he was in a state nobody should see him in. And lately it had become the place where he could freely trinket with some muggle stuff and experiment with charming some of the things. He found it relaxing. Molly, on the other hand, complained about his new-found "obsession".

"I'm not done with you yet!"

"But I am."

Not many people stayed at the Ministry this late. Of course, there was always somebody from the Magical Law Enforcement; aurors could be needed at any hour. But in offices like the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts or the Administrative Registration? Most of his colleagues left their desks as soon as the clocks announced five in the afternoon. Which had been… Almost two and half hours ago.

"What are you doing here?"

Edward Prickwillow, from the Improper Use of Magic, peeked into Arthur's office.

"Working," replied Arthur. To show his point, he vigorously signed the report from the last intervention. Somebody jinxed a toilet to spit its contents on anyone who used it. An easy thing to fix, not counting several muggles that needed to be obliviated.

"Working, ha!" Prickwillow commented. "You can't actually be serious about this. Misuse Office doesn't have that much to do" he said. "And that means you have another reason to sit here all alone."

He came in without asking for permission, took a gingerbread from a bowl on Arthur's co-worker and leaned on the unoccupied desk.

"Been there a few years ago, you know. Staying overtime, running away from problems. But aren't you a bit young for a mid-life crisis?"

Arthur tried his best to ignore the man. He turned the page and tried reading, but Edward didn't seem to take the message.

"I don't have a mid-life crisis."

"No?" he asked, biting on the gingerbread. "Then go home, damn you!"

Painting a fence was a perfectly good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Painting it the muggle way, of course. Arthur kneeled on the grass, working intently, when he was interrupted by the youngest two of his children.

"Mum says dinner's ready," Ginny informed.

Arthur froze with the brush halfway between the paint bucket and the fence's surface. A bit of the paint dripped from it. A dog barked nearby, probably a stray that sometimes visited them. Arthur hesitated for a moment.

"I'll come when I finish, honey."

"Mum says she wants you to come now," she insisted. She was only six years old, but she already seemed to have inherited her mother's stubbornness.

Arthur turned around to looked at the kids. Ginny's hair looked damp; Molly must have planned to sent her to bed right after the dinner and told her to bathe early.

"I said: I'll come when I finish," he repeated. "Mum will understand, go eat."

That was not exactly true; Molly would not understand. But at the moment, he couldn't force himself to care.

Writing Club January – Book Club, Toramaru: (animal) dog, (object) fence, (action) (dialogue) "Go home, damn you!"

Writing Club January – Amber's Attic, #12. Flash: Write about running away from something. (5 bonus points)

Writing Club January – Angel's Arcade, Characters #4. (dialogue) "I'm not done with you yet!"

[January Event] Build a Cheese Board – Meats – Dry Cured Salami: The Burrow (setting)

Winter Seasonal Challenges – Days of the Year, January 26th - Spouse's Day: Write about a married couple.

Winter Seasonal Challenges – Winter Prompts: (object) Gingerbread

Winter Seasonal Challenges – Birthstones: (dialogue) "Is there a reason you're staring at me like I'm about to burst into flames?"

Winter Seasonal Challenges – Elemental Challenge – Water: (word) Damp

Winter Seasonal Challenges – Star Chart Challenge – January 3rd and 4th – Quadrantids Meteor Shower: (dialogue) "You can't actually be serious about this."

365 Prompts – (70) permission

The Insane Prompt Challenge – (895 – family) Weasley