#fandomcampcounselor writes fic

[fandomcampcounselor]

Title: You Can’t Magic Baking Knowledge Into Your Head Rating: G Description: What if Ron tried out for the Great British Baking Show? What if he actually made it on? General after-the-war featuring most of the Weasley clan and the golden trio. Lots of sweets and Ron pretending to be a muggle. A/N: Warning, there is almost no structure to this at all. Just the ramblings from an idea that came to me while watching GBBS a while back.

Okay, but what if Ron was on the Great British Baking Show? He sees Hermione watching it and then decides to bake some of the things they’ve made on the show. Molly would teach him all the tricks to get perfect bakes with magic. He tries out for the show on a whim. Just for laughs. When he gets through the audition process there are a million things to consider, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Start at the beginning.

Let’s say that after the Battle of Hogwarts Ron goes to auror training, but then quits. The training was fine, he had Harry and a few members of the DA at his side always, but once he gets out into the field... everything reminds him of the war and he can’t handle any of it. He moves home for a week, but then can’t handle that either.

By this point Hermione has just finished her NEWTs and gets herself an internship at the ministry. She lets a muggle flat and Ron moves in and loafs for a while. Hermione gets them broadband and comes back from work to sink into episode after episode of The Great British Baking Show. He looks at the television and imagines his dad’s wonder at it, then looks at Hermione and sees her eyes glaze over at a shot of a decadent devils food cake. The next day she comes home to a near perfect recreation of it.

Ron spends weeks just baking. Apparating home some mornings to learn cooking magic from his mum, where they would work on scones and layer cakes. Molly taught him how to charm the whisk to get to stiff peaks for a meringue and cast a cooling charm on chocolate once it’s set so it doesn't melt on you again. He brings sandwich cookies and triple layer cakes to everyone he knows, eventually winding up at Weasley’s Wizard Weezes with two dozen jaffa cakes on a very busy day.

George hadn’t wanted to reopen the shop at first, it just wasn’t the same without Fred, you see, but Lee Jordan convinced him that some laughter may be exactly what people need right now. With George and Lee working together the shop had gotten into a good rhythm again, even if Fred’s spark was missing. So Ron comes into the shop planning on unloading these jaffa cakes on George and the rest of the staff and winds up pulling out back stock until they have to close for the night.

The next day he comes back with freshly made pretzels and a proposal. George agrees to take him on as Lee has been itching to move into his next adventure. So Ron is working at the shop and keeps baking and on his day off a few months in sends off an application to be on The Great British Baking Show. Harry helps him with the video that night, pulling out a DSLR camera Ron didn’t know he’d bought. He talks about his mum and growing up with 6 siblings and working in a joke shop and yeah, he has to fudge a few details, but this is just for laughs anyways.

Except he gets an email (more accurately, Hermione gets an email) that they want to schedule a phone interview for him. He panics in the shop when he and Hermione go to set him up on a pay-as-you-go mobile, but the interview goes rather smoothly and it’s on to the next. In person. With treats. He settles on a layer cake with chocolate ganache and Hermione gives him a kiss as he leaves in the morning, apparating to a block away from the interview, almost splintching himself due to nervousness. He’s as surprised as anyone, two months, three interviews, and a technical bake later, when they offer him a spot on the next series.

Before they even get to filming the episodes, a camera crew comes to the Burrow to film Ron in his natural habitat. Muggle-proofing the Burrow is a massive headache, but Harry and Hermione manage. It’s a family dinner and Hermione has had a stern debriefing with everyone at the table. After Ron brings out a tart for dessert, and the camera crew leaves for the night, Arthur nearly bursts with excitement. Ginny deflates with a groan that he will be beside himself for weeks. She mutters about not coming home until the whole thing is blown over, but they all know it’s a lie. She goes home to her tiny flat in Holyhead and Ron sends her a batch of blueberry muffins the next morning.

The first time he has to take the train to Sussex, Harry goes with him. Shows him how to make his phone tell him the directions. Helps him figure out what charms he can use to make sure he doesn't forget anything he needs to keep with him. By the end of filming he’s stopped whining about “How do they manage without magic!?” and has relaxed into the ritual of it. He spends the trip running through the recipes in his head, picturing a perfect execution. He tries not to think about the technical bake. There’s nothing more he can do to prepare for that.

In between week one and week two he lies in bed next to Hermione and asks if she thinks he’s cheating by using magic when the other contestants can’t. She turns on her side and watches his profile for a moment. No. She tells him that he put in the work. You can’t magic knowledge of baking into your head. You can’t magic knowing the exact right time to pull a souffle from the oven. He’s put in the work and it shows. He’s not able to use obvious magic on camera, which limits any advantage the magic might have given him otherwise.

Pretending to be a muggle is the real trick. Hermione, who has watched all the episodes of every series of the show quizzes him while he bakes. “What are you making?” “Where did you get the idea for that flavor combination?” “How are you going to ensure structural integrity of that tower?” She turns it into a game with a buzzer for wrong answers (too magical) and a bell for really good answers (honest, but also upholding the statue of secrecy). Hermione also deals with convincing the ministry to allow for this at all, bless her. She fills out form after form and Ron simply signs on the dotted line.

During the week, between filming, he goes down to part time hours at the shop. He spends sleepless nights practicing for the weekends. He sends new versions to Harry and the aurors to try every day and they send Pigwidgeon back with notes on the bakes. He buys muggle cookbooks and tries his best at the toughest bakes he can find. Tries to find new ways to spell them slightly better. He’s gotten much, MUCH better at wandless magic than he ever thought he would need to be.

Ron does well. He isn’t able to let the cream whip itself on television, but he sneaks in a few warming charms on bread week and comes out with perfect english muffins. He’s the first to get a handshake from Paul Hollywood, who jokes that he must some sort of magic. Ron’s face turns the color of his hair and he bites his tongue, reminding himself that there’s a microphone pinned to his tan apron.

The camera crew comes with him to his flat in London one week later on (much less muggle-proofing, thank goodness). They interview Hermione and Harry and Ginny. They spend a few minutes on camera asking how it is that he lives in London, but is often at his parent’s home in Devon and his sister lives in, Holyhead? Did you say? And you’re all so close? For some reason the audio on that footage is so scratchy they can’t even hope to recover it.

He makes it to the final. He comes out of the tent with a beautiful lemon chiffon cake decorated with flowers and spun sugar. He’s so sure he’s boffed the technical challenge that he’s just happy to go out on a win. He sees his whole family out on the lawn and nearly drops the cake when his eyes flood with tears. They look nearly normal after Harry dressed them all from head to toe, even spelling them to not be able to say anything about magic. He sees others in the crowd, Lee Jordan and a few of his friends from the shop who could be trusted not to raise any suspicions.

Ron doesn’t win it, but he laughs and hugs Chelsea when her name is announced. Paul and Pru congratulate him on his progress. Pru gets pulled into a conversation with Molly about the best methods for creating meringue. Lee and George pull him up onto their shoulders to parade him around. Arthur starts asking Chelsea’s family what living in Broadchurch is like, listening to their answers with rapt attention.

[fandomcampcounselor]

XFWC Prompt - Sight

Title: Basement Believer Rating: T Timeline: Season 8 up to (but not really including) “Deadalive” Summary: After Mulder is abducted, Scully dreams about finding him, but no matter what she does, she can never reach him. Notes: Written for the Writing Challenge prompt Sight. Scully in season 8 has always fascinated and infuriated me. She takes on Mulder’s role until he returns, but is back to her old skeptical self as soon as he returns.

When he’s gone she sees him in her dreams.

If she’s honest, Mulder has been making appearances in her dreams since they met. She would have strange dreams about going on wild goose chases with him, and would wake up with him staring at her from the drivers seat while they were on a stakeout. She would have dreams where he made momentary appearances, ones where he was a secondary character, and ones where he was the star player. Mysterious dreams, slightly odd dreams, and titillatingly sad dreams, sometimes even erotic dreams, but these are different.

They’re different because he’s gone. They’re different because she doesn’t know where he is this time. Not in Puerto Rico or the Bermuda Triangle or Graceland, but somewhere else entirely. Somewhere she can’t follow even if she could explain it. 

They’re different because of all the impossibilities, she has his child growing inside her.

It’s usually the same dream, or some variation on in. She sees him from far away, and he doesn't see her. She can never tell if that’s because he physically can’t or because he doesn’t want to. She tries to go to him, but when she gets to where he was, he’s gone. Sometimes he’s gone in a whiff of smoke, or a sudden whoosh of movement, but usually just gone.

When she wakes, she clutches her stomach and tries desperately to forget that these dreams are rooted in truth. That she doesn't know where he is. She instinctively knows that if even if she were to find his trail she would never be able to trace it all the way to him.

So instead of dwelling on it, Scully takes her vitamins and goes to her appointments with the pre-natal specialist and goes to work.

With Mulder gone, Scully is the one finding the cases for the X Files now. The skeptical and stern Special Agent John Doggett inexplicably looks to her for instructions. She finds that even in her rationalism, she’s the basement’s believer now.

Nothing about that makes sense to her, but they investigate and try to find the answers like she and Mulder used to. Of course, this Doggett is nothing like Mulder, but they find a rhythm. He quickly proves to be useful.

Still, her entire life aches with the missing of him.

She struggles to fill his role of basement believer even while Doggett falls so readily into her old assignment of reasonable . Even trying to fill Mulder’s shoes is almost enough to make her laugh out loud, but it’s as if the whole world has been lowered to half volume in the wake of his absence. 

At the doctor’s office, she is the only woman in the waiting room without a significant other nearby to wait on her hand and foot. Not that she would expect him to do that, but it would have been nice to have someone to listen to her sarcastic commentary. Her mother comes along sometimes, but it’s not the same.

When she comes home at night she makes dinner for herself and reads What to Expect while she eats. She mostly know what to expect, but reading it gives her some small comfort. Until she comes across the ‘daddy’ chapters and flings the book across the room in a near rage.

She takes a bath and listens to music and hopes beyond hope that in the morning she’ll find a clue to where he might be.

In her dream, she finds him. She traces his tracks from Oregon through the stars. She follows his spirit from New Mexico. She finds the truth that he was always searching for and it leads her to where he is. He’s been waiting for her, and she doesn’t take her eyes off him, but when she reaches for his hand, hers goes right through him and he fades away in an instant.

On the weekends, she and her mother go to Babies R Us and find things that she’ll need and mountains of things she probably doesn’t. This isn’t Maggie’s first grandchild, but it’s the first within driving distance and she’s beside herself.

They go to church, and Scully is engulfed with well-wishers. Other new and expectant mothers bring her into their fold. Their children listen to her stomach to try and hear the baby. Teenagers offer to babysit, telling her about taking red cross training and other jobs they’ve had recently. She thanks them warmly and takes their numbers when they offer.

Her plans shift every day. Most of them involve Mulder coming back at some point. She knows the statistics of missing persons cases, but she also knows that they have always been the exception to the rule. She doesn’t stop looking. In her dreams she chases after him.

She was always chasing after him. Picking up the pieces of her partner. She dreams of every sentimental thing he’s ever called her. His “one in five-billion”, “touchstone”, and once “songbird” when he was definitely teasing her. Their conversations echo in her head every day and haunt her dreams at night.

And then they’ve found him and all her dreams are shattered into a million pieces that even Mulder - had he been there to try - wouldn’t have been able to put back together.

So she adjusts her plans. No one even tries to tell her it’s going to be easy, but she surrounds herself with a community to try and make it bearable.

The night of his funeral she dreams that Mulder is in her kitchen. He’s making breakfast for her and her child. In her dream she is deliriously happy, even as something on the edges of her mind tells her that this isn’t quite right. Mulder goes to the fridge to get milk or bread or butter or something else entirely and, when he turns towards her again, his face is mottled and grey with death. He opens his mouth to ask her something and his jaw falls off his face and drops to the floor.

She wakes up screaming and crying and seething. 

Because he’s done this to her, even if he didn’t mean to. She’s carrying his child and he doesn’t even have the decency to stick around for any of it. She’s given up everything for him and he left her on her own to deal with the consequences. She’s so angry she could spit, but she misses him so much she cries instead. She’s alone in her bed, her only company the swell of her belly as she thinks of all the things Mulder’s ever said to her, ever made her realize and believe.

Mulder has made a basement believer out of her and even in all the darkness, she hasn’t quite given up hope.

[fandomcampcounselor]

XFWC - Touch

Title: Hard and Soft Rating: G Timeline: before, during, and after Ice Summary: Mulder understands why his new partner is trying to keep her distance. He’s even resigned himself to her leaving, but her touch seems to bring them both back from the brink. Notes: For some reason I had a hard time with this prompt. This is my second attempt, done in under an hour. Playing around with Mulder’s perspective this week.

At the beginning of their partnership, he could tell that she was trying very hard to be immovable. Stoic. Professional and hard.

Especially after her indiscretion on their first case. He sometimes remembers her coming to his hotel room in the night, scared out of her wits. He remembers hugging her to his chest and the gasp of relief in her breath. Bug bites.

He can see her trying to build a wall between them after that. She avoids his touch and he doesn't mind. He’s trying not to get attached, and the best way to do that is to keep his distance. He doesn’t think she’ll last very long on the X files.

Not that he minds her being around. She’s pleasant enough to work with and brings a certain air of credibility to the case reports they hand in to Skinner. He starts to think they might even have some sort of partnership forming between them, but he can almost tell that she’s giving him the side-eye when he’s not looking. Not that he can blame her, he’s doing the same.

He’s not even a little bit surprised when he happens upon a blank “Request for Transfer” form in their basement office soon after the case that Jerry brings them. Jerry’s appearance in the office must have made her think about what her future would be if she were to stay here, he muses that night during a commercial break in the Star Trek repeat on TV.

There wont be much of a future for her with him. He knows that. He’s resigned himself to a life of X files induced purgatory, but he doesn’t blame her for wanting to get out. That night in his mind he lets her go off into another department of the bureau. He makes his peace with her leaving.

The next afternoon they leave for Alaska.

If asked, Mulder would say that this case captured his attention because it was in and of itself a fascinating case, but he’d be lying if he were to insist that her leaving had nothing to do with it. One last case. He figured he’d see her out with a bang.

Everything changed in Alaska though. They had always had each other’s backs, right from the start, but he hadn’t realized how much he had cared for her until she became the only person he could possibly trust.

He could see the change in her eyes too after she checked him for infection. Her eyes were so serious, but her hands were so gentle. He suddenly couldn’t imagine working on cases without her. When he checked the back of her neck he turned suddenly angry. As much as he understood why she would want to leave, he was furious with her for taking the opportunity.

That night he’s lying in bed stewing in his anger when he hears a soft knock on the door. And of course it’s her. Her hardened professional demeanor is gone, in fact she’s nearly in tears.

“I didn’t wake you did I?” she asks.

He just shakes his head. He has to at least try to keep the distance between them. For his own sake.

“Mulder,” she says his name, and practically lunges forward. And suddenly she is in his arms and whimpering softly and he’s stroking her hair and telling her that everything will be alright. And for all her stoicism he finds that she is softer than he would have even imagined.

He finds himself promising impossible things. That he will never bring her to a place like this again. That he will always be there for her. That he can slay all the demons. Of course, this is all impossible, but it seems to calm her down. When she’s back in control of herself she pulls away from him slightly, but is still much closer than they would have been previously.

She makes her excuses and goes back to her room. The next day they finally figure out what’s happening. Help arrives and they are soon on their way back to Washington.

The following Monday he is in early as usual. He goes upstairs in search of coffee and when he comes back he finds Scully sitting in her usual spot, typing up a report. He stares at her for a full minute before she even realizes that he’s returned.

“None for me?” she asks, gesturing to the coffee mug in his hand.

He doesn’t respond. His mouth doesn’t seem to work.

“You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easily did you?” she peers at him.

He comes and stands closer to her, not entirely believing that she’s even there at all.

“Mulder,” she touches his arm, the warmth of her hand soaking through his shirt, and starting to pull him out of his stupor. “Did you have a file for me to look at? What are we going to investigate?”

“Have you ever been to NASA, Scully?”