Author's Note: So, for personal reasons I have barely touched my laptop to write for over two weeks now. Something knocked my confidence and I'm struggling to regain it, for that reason this chapter is probably going to feel a little forced, cause it was, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things I really am :)

Prompts:

QLFC:

Round 12 - Write a DRAMATIC story about the WEASLEY family.

Raise a Witch or Wizard:

Section 6: Write about a child's first accidental magic experience

Ultimate Chocolate Frog Card Challenge:

Bathilda Bagshot (Silver) - Include Hogwarts: A History into your fic.

Pokemon Trading Card Challenge:

Oshawatt (Bronze) - (creature) otter

September Team-Work Event:

4. (word) Exaggerate

45. (dialogue) "You just suck the fun out of everything." / "I do not!" / "Fun-sucker."

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise!


Family Bonding

"Owwwww!"

Rose was in the kitchen when the shout sounded. Her motherly instincts and superior hearing picked up on the distressed sound of her young son. She turned away from the idle chatter of her mother and Aunt Ginny as they gossiped about this and that over the steaming vat of beef stew and dumplings. The picturesque window of the Potter household framed the garden beautifully, all sunshine and flowers. Her father and Uncle Harry dozed in their chairs as their various grandchildren ran about squealing, but there, off to one side, her young son James sat on the ground crying, his older cousin Luke looming over him.

Rose frowned, Luke only had a few months on James, less than a year, but he was growing fast and it certainly didn't look like James had fallen over by accident, Luke didn't look a bit concerned or angry.

She hoisted the gurgling Evie higher on her hip and left the older women giggling over the fumes like a couple of wicked witches. She moved through the large sitting room, depositing the giggling baby into the lap of her bewildered father and continued out into the garden. She vaguely heard Scorpius calling after her in confusion, but she ignored him. He wouldn't be much help anyway, sissy for a Gryffindor.

The breeze was pleasantly cool against the heat of the sun as Rose emerged into the garden. She smiled briefly at her nieces and nephews as she passed them but moved with a singlemindedness towards her son who was still on the floor.

"Rose? What's wrong?"

Rose looked down with raised eyebrows at her father, pausing briefly to watch as he sputtered awake and flinched at the look in her eyes. The open copy of Hogwarts a History that he had been trying to read for the last 30 years slid from his lap and landed on the paving with a muffled thunk. "Did you have a nice sleep, daddy?" she asked pointedly in a sugar sweet tone.

Ron looked around, searching for the source of his wrong doing before meeting his daughter's eyes again. "Yes?" he said, though it came out as more of a question, smiling nervously.

He knew straight away that this had been the wrong answer, though he wasn't sure that he could have offered her a right answer. Rose narrowed her eyes and leant down towards him, hissing through clenched teeth. "My son is crying on the floor, father, and you were supposed to be watching him!"

Ron looked towards where little James was still bawling in the grass, only now noticing him for the first time, but as he looked up to speak to Rose she was already storming in the direction of her son.

"Stop crying James! You're such a baby, why do you have to ruin everything?" Luke demanded, Rose could hear the slight panic in his voice as she moved closer but he hadn't noticed her yet. There was a nasty tone in his voice and Rose knew he had been the one to push James over. It was a shock, really. They usually got on so well together.

"Y-you pu-pushed me!" James bawled, crying in that way that children do when they have worked themselves into such hysterics that they can't breathe for crying. A tatty otter toy lay in the grass to one side and Rose couldn't help wondering if this was the source of all the heartache. His tears were obviously exaggerated for maximum effect but the young boy was still more than a little put out by his cousin's hurtful words.

"Yeah, well," the four-year-old searched for a suitable come back. Rose slowed down, waiting a little to see how this would play out. She realised that she wouldn't always be able to look after James, to wrap him in cotton wool, maybe he'd be able to handle this one on his own. "You just suck the fun out of everything!"

James gasped, the tears stopped flowing, but his face turned an alarming shade of red. "I do not!" he whinged as if this were the biggest insult in the world.

Luke, realising he had struck a nerve, smirked down at the younger boy. "Fun-sucker!" he taunted. Rose sighed, moving forward to intervene but she didn't move in time. These was a flash, a bang and before anyone could do anything or even realise what had happened young Luke was flat on his back, red sparks stinging his big, round cheeks.

For a second the whole house stopped, even those who were safely inside looked up frozen from their conversations and distractions. The children who had been running around looked towards the commotion, their eyes wide.

Then Luke opened his mouth, and began to wail.

Adults appeared from all directions, but Rose rushed towards her boy, leaving Luke to be dealt with by Albus and his wife. She searched James for marks, for any sign of the sparks that had stung little Luke, but she could see non. His pale, soft skin was unblemished.

It was odd, Rose thought, where had they come from so violently and so suddenly, but as she looked carefully at James she realised that he son was shaking ever so slightly. His cheeks were flushed bright pink, his tiny hands curled into fists, and the hair on his head and arms was raised slightly as if static and suddenly it came to her.

The sparks had come from James.

She gasped with the sudden realisation, her boy had become so emotionally over worked that he had displayed his first bout of accidental magic. She couldn't help being a little proud as the other adults fussed over Luke. His magic had been used for defence and attack, he wasn't going to be walked all over. Maybe he would be an auror, just like his daddy.


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Much Love, MaryandMerlin x