BINGO O5 Wizarding Children's Toys
BINGO O4 Costume Party
Card Name: Bonfire
Square #: O-4
Square #: O-4
Link:
Line Y/N?: (Down, Across, Diagonal) Y, ACROSS
Blackout Y/N?: N
Your Team: Vampire
Prompt: Costume Party
Card Name: Bonfire
Square #: O-5
Square #: O-5
Link:
Line Y/N?: (Down, Across, Diagonal) Y, ACROSS
Blackout Y/N?: N
Your Team: Vampire
Prompt: Wizarding Children's Toys
Beta Love: Dragon and the Jack-O-Lantern, the Flying Dutchgirl01, Commander Shepard the Snickers Addict
Family Matters
Give children toys that are powered by their imagination, not by batteries.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr
The party was like any other in the Wizarding World. There was plentiful food and drink, amusements large and small, and far too many WWW pranks.
Severus, as per usual, wanted to be anywhere but there, and Hermione felt obligated to attend not due to any tie to Ronald Weasley or the Weasleys but for Harry, who had asked her to come to the release of George's latest Wizarding toy line for WWW.
Everyone was dressed in some sort of Halloween costume, from monsters to cute animals, both mundane and magical.
Severus leaned back in the seat closest to the wall, and Hermione leaned into him, both offering the other comfort in solidarity against the evil that was social interaction. He wasn't in a costume, but everyone presumed he was dressed as a vampire, much to Hermione's amusement.
Severus swore he'd make Potter wish he'd never invited them, but Hermione kept her hand on his—his wand hand even—just to keep him from instinctively cursing someone as a matter of principle. The other hand, however, kept the all-too-curious babyfolds from getting into trouble by attempting to taste test some random visitor to the store's party.
Nothing puts some extra scream into a party like a hungry Lethifold noshing on an unwary partygoer.
Even if it was just a baby one.
One of them was cooing at its reflection in the water glass, trying to induce the other babyfold to play, not realising quite yet that it was playing with its reflection. Others chased each other around the table, as others taste tested the snack platter, getting biscuit crumbs and bits of cheese in places where such things did not belong. One spronged onto a fork and sent its compatriot flying in the air with a squeak, and Severus reached out and caught it deftly, setting it back down on the table.
"I can't choose!" Pyegirl cried as she inspected the playful babyfolds. "They're all so adorable."
The babyfolds squeaked at her super cutely as if daring her to make a choice and break their everloving hearts forever.
Pye teared up, completely emotionally manipulated by small bits of carnivorous cloth.
Hermione, however, seemed to know the solution, and she dangled a bit of shiny between her fingers, and one babyfold in particular glommed the shiny and her fingers tightly. It was black with spots of white, a shiny iridescence in the black that looked like a shiny oil slick.
"I think this one's for you," Hermione told her. "It's the magpie of the bunch." She guided the little babyfold over and hung the shiny on Pyegirl's pocket. The babyfold oozed up, grabbed the shiny, and then slipped into her pocket with a squeak.
"Don't burst into tears," Severus snapped. "You'll just encourage the others to be utterly insufferable."
Pyegirl bit her lip and nodded, trying hard not to do exactly that.
"Don't be so hard on her," Hermione said, patting his hand. "A first Lethifold is a big step."
"They're insufferable," Severus said, lips puckered to the side as Barbara the Lethifold slicked his hair into a shiny crest-like sculpture.
Severus sighed, knowing it was probably horrible.
George made it to the centre of the party and had apparently finished yammering about his products and pulled back the curtain to reveal his latest line of Wizarding children's toys.
As the curtain rolled back, an enchanted set of puppets that looked like they were from a Punch and Judy show proceeded to smack the everloving shite out of each other while saying random one liners like "You should get married" only for the red-headed male puppet to shove its face into a bowl of food. The female puppet beat on the other in true Punch and Judy style, and the children broke into uproarious laughter.
Severus' eyebrows rose into his hair as Hermione snickered into a nearby babyfold.
George's mortified mum and oblivious baby brother (who was helping himself to the barbecue chicken wings at the party instead of paying attention) only made the children laugh harder as they put together who the puppets were mocking.
That night, George said he made enough money in the sale of the puppets to add a new floor to WWW.
"Thanks for the recommendation, 'ermione!" George said, giving her a hug after the guests finally trickled out. "I think you just solved all my funding problems for the store and I'll have enough to get a decent cottage for the family too!"
Hermione shrugged and kissed his cheeks. "Good luck with the clean up," she said with a grin.
As Severus and Hermione walked down the street to the Apparation point, a curious Severus asked, "What was the recommendation?"
Hermione smiled smugly. "I just told him, if he really wanted to make a product that would make people laugh and bring in some money, he just needed to look a bit closer to home."
Severus blinked and then burst into laughter. "That's my mate," he said as he pulled her close to him and smiled, fangs glinting. He descended upon her neck as they Apparated home with crack.
And they lived (silly punching, beating, smacking puppet show noises) ever after…