Pumpkin Spice - Drabble

Pumpkin Spice - drabble

Rating: General Audience - there are ships, and they have sailed. General description: Zoo trip with a toddler. Bonus material: Toddler is better at art than the author is. Thanks to @lumosinlove, @noots-fic-fests, and @hazelnoot-analyst

Cap and Loops join James and Lily on an excursion, taking not-quite-3-year-old Harry for his first visit to the zoo. At the zoo shop afterwards, Harry doesn’t want a little lion toy, but instead hones in immediately on a giant stuffed red panda. “Sweetie, it is bigger than you, you won’t be able to carry him home.”

"‘Sa colour ‘a punkin spice. ‘Sa best spice. Like Momma's hair. Gonna call her Pie." Sirius and Remus sneak the purchase through while James and Lily are preoccupied with getting Harry to use the bathroom before they head back to the car.

"Tanks Unca Pafoo’! Tanks Unca ‘Oops!" ---

Unca Pafoo! Unca Pafoo! Pie painted you a picture! For your fridge! 'Sa burnt pumpkin pie!

[Picture description: 44 inch stuffed red panda sitting on a wooden table with its paws folded as if silently asking you to admire its artwork. The artwork is in front of the stuffed red panda, a crinkly A4 sheet painted with abstract swirls of olive green and orange paint.] *This was a "get well" picture made for me by my friend's three year old. It really is titled burnt pumpkin pie. Pie is actually called Panda Roux, and you can find their cousins in zoo shops around the world or online. They provide excellent lumbar support. **Most of my submissions from here on out are likely to be short, or silly and very low effort, and there is only one that might maybe be in French...

Sorry.

Chair de poule - snippet

Rating: General audience but with warnings Trigger warnings: Walburga Black's A+ parenting, corporal punishment, book burning, bad French* (although less than expected because it was a very unproductive weekend and I didn't get my act together.) Description: A view into Sirius's childhood, and how Pascal Dumais ended up with multiple complete sets of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series in his basement. Thanks to @lumosinlove, @noots-fic-fests, @hazelnoot-analyst for their excellent work, @1-800-shedevil for the fun line divider, and to R.L. Stine for giving me many nightmares (not that I ever read a full book, just the thought of the stories and YTV show gave me nightmares.)

-Sirius. SIRIUS! Descend de là tout de suite. Tu étais censé commencer tes exercices il y a cinq minutes.

Sirius sort de sa chambre, tourne pour se présenter pour une rapide fesser (peut-être il pourra ainsi éviter une punition plus sévère), puis se dirige vers le foyer ou se rangent tous les patins. Il avait oublié que son père n’avait pas un match ce soir, et sa mère était toujours plus stricte et attentif quand son père était là. Se peut-il que son père entrerait assez tôt pour observer un peu de son entrainement? Sirius savait qu’il était toujours un petit peu trop lent, qu’il n’avait pas réussi à surpasser les objectifs fixés par Orion pour le mois peu importe qu’il ait fait des intervalles pour une heure chaque soir sur la patinoire dans la cour, même après les entrainements avec son équipe les lundis et mercredis. Devrait-il tenter de changer l’objectif pour démontrer son contrôle de la rondelle? Il a beaucoup amélioré sa technique depuis la dernière fois que son père l’ait vu. Mais, en ce faisant, il sera peut-être puni pour avoir l’audace de changer le régime qu’Orion lui avait dicté. Non, mieux qu’il se prépare pour une double session sur la patinoire avec son père. Sa collation n’était qu’une banane, s’il vomisse, ce ne serai pas trop dégoutant. De toute manière, s’il ne se gave pas à diner, son père ne croira pas qu’il s’est efforcer jusqu’au bout. Ce soir, il n’ira pas au lit affamé. Perdu dans ses calculs, il commence ses étirements puis se lance dans sa routine. --

He was right, he was in for a double session on the ice, and then a lecture after supper to boot, since he both failed to meet his father's speed goals and missed the net with one of his slapshots. What he hadn't expected was for Walburga to then bring Regulus into the room, carrying his stack of Chair de Poule novels. He had convinced his parents to buy him the series and each new novel, because it was what most of his team was reading on the bus, and it was important to fit in with the team. He had been passing them on to Regulus after reading each one and they would read them together on the few nights that they could sneak into each others' rooms - usually when Walburga and Orion had a team event.

Walburga showed Orion how she had been tracking the boys' practices and progress, and more importantly, how they had been lacking in discipline and failed to follow his set training regime. She claimed that these books were a distraction, were the reason the boys had failed to meet Orion's expectations. She had seen both boys reading on multiple occasions over the past two weeks, when they should have been studying the plays Orion had designed for them to practice. Sirius had been late - late! - to start his practice sessions twice - twice! - in the past month, because he was holed up in his room reading.

Orion looked very disappointed as he ordered both boys to lower their pants and bend over. He reviewed the boys' lap times, and told Sirius that he would remove his signet and Cup rings this time, since Sirius had gotten faster, albeit if not fast enough. Afterwards, he lectured the boys about the need for drive and discipline if they wanted to make it into the NHL and win Stanley Cups for Slytherin. Distractions would derail their career before it ever began. Distractions must be eliminated. Their team mates would respect them more for their dedication to the game if they studied playbooks on the bus. He and Walburga then ordered the boys to feed the books into the fireplace, one by one, until they were all reduced to ash. It took over an hour to burn the 60 books they had - nearly the full collection. Sirius blamed the smoke for the tears he and Regulus were both blinking away.

-- « Sirius, tu as un livraison », cria Celeste Dumais quand elle entenda Pascal et Sirius sortant du garage. «C'était un peu lourd, et je ne voulais pas descendre les escaliers avec un tel poids...» --

Celeste and Pascal were expecting their third child, and Sirius didn't want her attempting the basement stairs with a heavy package either. He hadn't been around many pregnant people, but even he knew lifting wasn't what they should be doing.

He hefted the box, and brought it down stairs. Pascal watched with a raised eyebrow but made no comments as Sirius started unpacking a complete set of Chair de poule books.

Pascal's eyebrows raised further when Sirius ordered, and unpacked, the exact same series three months later.

He figured it was a Black secret that Sirius would eventually unburden himself of when over the course of the next three years, Sirius bought more than thirteen complete sets of the series. He thought he had it nearly figured out - as far as he could tell, Sirius ordered a new set around the time he reached a point milestone, or if he broke his own scoring record within a season.

When Sirius moved out, he only took one set of the books with him, and asked Pascal to give a set to each of his children, and donate the rest. Pascal did that, but also left a set on the basement shelves. He would often find Logan reading one of those spare copies in the quiet hours of the morning, or at night when he was still too keyed up after a game to sleep but none of the Dumais kids were awake to be read to. In fact, he himself had started grabbing one or two of them when he was still keyed up after a game but Celeste and the kids were in bed. Adele had outgrown them, and never really liked that brand of horror anyway, but she had loved snuggling into Sirius when he started reading aloud. She had recently sent her complete set back to the basement because she had run out of space on her bedroom bookshelves. Marc and Louis were about the age to find them the right amount of frightening, and Katie was into anything that would get her snuggle time with Logan, so they were still getting lots of use.

He hoped that whoever next billeted in the basement would be able to carry on the tradition with the kids' horror books. He didn't expect Regulus to tear up when he saw the complete set on the bookshelf in the basement bedroom when Pascal gave Regulus a tour. He certainly hadn't expected it to be the deciding factor when Regulus was hesitant about moving into the basement. Maybe one day Regulus would explain the attachment the Black brothers held for these books? Although, given how attached the two brothers were to just these books, and what he knew about their childhood, maybe he didn't want to know.

Toothbrushes - imagine if...

In Chapter 7 of @lumosinlove's masterpiece Sweater Weather, what if Remus knew exactly why the Dumais had so many extra toothbrushes laying around, and it was because the dentist gave them new toothbrushes for all of the kids anytime one of them had an appointment. So, you have the whole scene of Sirius brushing his teeth while taking off his shirt, getting jealous of Remus wearing Logan's t-shirt, and so on, along with the next morning scene in the bathroom, all happening with these beauties:

Bonus points if you imagine them using the sparkly toothpaste dentists used to give kids in the 90s.

New definition of gritty reboot: the story is exactly the same, but one main character has been replaced by Gritty.

Snippet - Remedial movie night @ Dumo's

Rating: General audience, O'Knutzy with some long-distance squinting General description: Snippet of a movie night at Dumo's. Leo learns to "Grip with his toes". Thanks as ever to @noots-fic-fests for the prompts and cards, and @lumosinlove for the characters -- “Okay, guys, I get it now. Grip with my toes, grip with my toes.” Leo gets hauled up off the couch from where he was sandwiched between Logan, Katie, and Finn - all three had dozed off. Kunz and Nado made him do the little dance with them, even as Nado cracked up at tall, gangly Leo on his tiptoes.

“Tu sais, en francais, le nom de ce film, c’est Rasta Rocket?”

“Quoi?!”

“Ouais.”

“C’est pire que Very Bad Trip, ça.”

Kunz, Nado, Pots, and Blizzard had just started a rousing rendition of “Hey, Jamaica, you know you won’t believe…” when Celeste’s voice came from the kitchen.

“Okay boys, it’s almost midnight, time to go home.” Katie’s little voice piped up, “Non, non, Lolo, ne veux pas faire dodo.”

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” Remus said, adjusting the focus on his camera.

Sirius snorted. “I don’t think Wayne Gretzky was talking about photography with that one, Re.”

“And I’m pretty sure whoever said “Communicate to score” wasn’t talking about how you use it either,” retorted Remus. “But you won’t hear me complain…”