#fun fact I knew the names of the killjoys before I figured out who was who in mcr

[logosbot-tm]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANGER DAYS YOU FUCKING BELOVED ALBUM THANK YOU FOR GETTING ME INTO MCR VIA THE LORE OF THE DANGER DAYS WORLD

[halothenthehorns]

THE DREAM

Before Harry could get started, Sirius turned pouting eyes on Lily, who was already excusing herself for the kitchen. She came back not too long later, with no food in sight.

"I set something to bake, it'll be done by the time we are with this chapter," she smiled pleasantly at the fact that she was clearly annoying Sirius. In truth, she'd made the heartiest meal she could think of, she still couldn't shake the image from her mind Sirius was losing weight by the minute.

Sirius didn't argue with her, but instead sat back in his seat with mutiny while Harry began.

Hermione was laying out the groundwork for the end results, ether Crouch attacked Krum, or someone attacked them both.

"So, I wonder what you guys are discussing." James chuckled in surprise.

"You know, I'm surprised at you though Harry," Remus turned to him. "Looking back, you sort of just ran off to do as you were told, didn't it occur to you to go to Hagrid first? He was closer?"*

Harry opened, then just as quickly closed his mouth, that was an obvious enough answer.

"Don't be like that Remus," Lily scolded at once with a sigh, "it's easy to think of those things after the fact, as you just did."

He shrugged in acknowledgment even if he was still puzzled at Harry for it. Clearly the act of doing what he was told by the Dursleys still hadn't really ever left him, or he trusted Dumbledore more than Hagrid, either way it was odd to him.

    Ron was insisting Crouch was the true criminal here, he'd sent Harry to get Dumbledore so he could run.

"While I'd love for him to get sent to a very certain place for pulling a stunt like that," Sirius declared with a nasty look in place, "it fails me to see why he'd do that. Why come all the way up to the school just to pull a stunt like that?"

"You got me," Lily sighed, "the whole situation feels like something out of a murder mystery novel, and I always hate reading those."

Harry disagreed, saying Crouch had looked too weak to be pulling stunts like that, then offering himself a Disapparition.

Hermione said, for the umpteenth time, you couldn't do that on Hogwarts grounds!

"You might have to say it a few more times, just to make sure he got it," James smirked at Harry's eye roll.

Ron tackled a new theory, that Krum attacked Crouch, and then stunned himself.

Remus burst out laughing at this level of enthusiasm from him trying to figure this out, and though he could poke many holes in that, he couldn't deny Ron's spirit.

Hermione's cool response was to remind that Crouch had just evaporated then?

"How come we're not speculating on this?" Sirius pouted, "I've got a few ideas-"

"No Sirius," Lily said at once. "I want as little to do with that man as possible, and having to listen to what happened to him might satisfy you, but it'll only infuriate me more having to hear his name."

"It really won't bother you to at least try to guess what happened?" Remus asked her in surprise.

"I honestly couldn't care less what did, no matter what it was." She stated in no uncertain terms. "If you two want to chat about it later, leave me out of it."

Sirius grumbled at her being a killjoy, but James more than agreed with his wife on this one and waved Harry on.

It was the crack of dawn, and the three of them had never gone to bed. Instead they were on their way up to the Owlery to send a note of all this to Sirius.

"About time," Sirius' pouting increased, he couldn't believe how long it took Harry to get around to that, he should have used his cloak and done it without Dumbledore's say so!

Everyone disagreed with Sirius about that though, now that Harry was one hundred percent away from that, they didn't want Sirius anywhere near it either.

They were all puffy-eyed from exhaustion having stayed up all night discussing the events.

"Of all the fun, late night conversations you could have been having," James groaned. Would it kill his son to have a fun conversation once in a while like a normal kid?

Hermione was coaching Harry to give them a full account one more time.

When Harry got the part about Crouch saying everything was all his fault, he'd even brought up his own son, Hermione agreed that was Crouch's fault.

Harry made a testy noise of agreement along with everyone else, no one was cutting Crouch any slack in here.

Ron asked for a recount of the You-Know-Who part.

Harry repeated all the mention was, that he was getting stronger.

"Because that's always encouraging," James moaned, letting his head fall back against the cushions as the mention of Voldemort always caused such a horrid stirring in him lately even more than it had before his adult son fell into his living room. Now all he could picture was someone who was once a brother making that possible, when Voldemort was the reason he couldn't be there for his son! How on earth had Pettigrew ever worked out that this was okay, that he could continue going along with it? He tried to force himself to keep listening in on Harry, those kinds of questions kept plaguing him in what little time he actually spent asleep, he refused to dwell on it longer than he could.

Ron tried to force some confidence into his voice that this was the speaking's of a madman

"Here's to hope!" Sirius mock raised a glass, which he honestly wished was filled right now.

but Harry corrected he'd spoken of Voldemort when he was in his saner moments. Ron winced as always at the use of the real name.

"You been saying that nearly four years and he still flinches?" Remus asked in surprise.

"As well as Hermione," Harry agreed.

"I wish you'd start referring to him as Riddle," James muttered sullenly, this wasn't helping him feel any better, but he'd never miss an opportunity to mock either. "Be a nice knock to his ego and something everyone might catch on."

Harry honestly never thought about why he hadn't, he supposed the Riddle he met down in the Chamber had just seemed like such a wholly other person it was hard to put that together with the monster who had murdered his parents and so calling him Voldemort somehow made that make more sense.

Harry bitterly put in that if Snape hadn't held him up, they could know what had really happened.

"I absolutely believe that," Sirius snarled.

"Still can't believe anyone so cruel can be allowed in the school," James agreed bitterly.

Lily was still more pissed than anything Snape even still had his job after what he'd done to Remus last year, but this more than anything should have gotten him sacked! What if someone had really been hurt, and he'd just stood in the way and taunted Harry? What teacher could actually get away with that even if they had the audacity to do it?

Harry mockingly quoted Snape as he'd told of what rubbish his story was, and Harry followed up with demanding why Snape hadn't just moved.

"The man would murder his own child if he thought it would upset you," Sirius barked.

Remus gave him a sideways look for that disgusting metaphor, but Sirius raised a brow back to emphasize he wasn't taking it back. Not like anyone would get near that slimy little thing anyways to make it true.

Ron speculated that what if he'd done it all on purpose, what if he'd actually gotten down to the Forest before Harry and Dumbledore had made it?

"I really don't see how," James's face puckered with thought. "Dumbledore appeared and you two made a straight beeline there. Unless he jumped out the window and flew..." he trailed off with a shake of his head, still admiring Ron for keeping at this.

Harry said it wasn't possible unless he could turn into a bat.

"Would not put that past him," Sirius huffed.

Ron muttered he would not put that past him.

Sirius beamed and even Remus chuckled a bit at that one.

Hermione voiced that they needed to go see Moody, to see if he'd found Crouch or anything after they'd all left.

Harry agreed it should have been easy for him if he had the Map.

"Ture that," James nodded along.

"Hey, you think that's how he knew to come down in the first place?" Remus' eyes lit with understanding. "He was lying about Snape telling him, I can't believe otherwise, but maybe he hasn't told Dumbledore about the Map and he made that up on the spot."

"Why wouldn't he tell Dumbledore about the map?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It's on loan from Harry," Sirius reminded forcefully, he'd give that old auror hell if anything was said otherwise, "it's not his to tell about, Moody's respecting that while he's using it."

Nobody disagreed with him, though Harry could still feel a little niggle in him telling him that wasn't really everything.

Ron reminded it only showed up to the school's boundaries, so if-

He was cut off by Hermione shushing him as two more voices approached talking about blackmail.

"What on earth are these folks up to?" James couldn't help but smile in surprise.

"You lot spent way too much time getting blackmail on everyone in the castle," Lily grumbled.

"We did no such thing," Sirius said at once on reflex.

"We were merely keeping an ear out for certain rumors," James added on from old habits, his eyes flickering to Remus and away, "and just happened to come across other things on the way."

All of the boys felt an odd twitch possess them as they realized who should have finished that old joke, what his line would have been less than a week ago and how much they'd all missed having him around. Remus didn't know how he felt about it, he didn't know how the other two would feel about it, but the nasty lingering silence had to feel worse than him finishing instead, "and we only put it to good use."

James ruffled up his hair in unease and Sirius quickly forced a smile that looked almost painful, and Harry quickly read past the moment.

The other told that they'd tried the polite way, now it was time to play dirty unless their blackmailed target wanted them to get the Ministry involved.

The three Marauders had gotten so distracted by their own problem they'd almost forgotten what had started the mess, and weren't nearly as entertained as they knew they should have been by listening to this.

The first was still insisting it was the act of blackmail!

The second was just saying how the complaining would stop once they're payoff came in, when Fred and George walked into view.

"You said what now?" Lily balked, finally dragging worried eyes off her husband to land on Harry.

Harry was blinking down at the pages in shock, some wire in his brain going crazy as he knew he was finally getting to the bottom of how odd Fred and George had been acting all year!

Either the boys were still distracted by their own problem and were only half listening, or too stunned to speak, Harry quickly read out the exchange to silence.

Both parties stayed frozen, until Ron and Fred spoke at once of what the other was doing here?

"Oh lookie, now they're even mimicking each other in the books," Sirius said with a forced smile.

Harry and George responded in unison of sending a letter.

James honestly cracked a grin, egging Harry on and hoping this would continue.

While Hermione and Fred pointed out what time it was.

Now all five of them were giggling, there had never been a better timing for that release.

Fred broke the train first, forcing a smile and saying he wouldn't ask them, if they didn't ask.

He was holding a sealed letter, but whoever it was written for Harry didn't get a chance to read. Whether accidentally or not, George shifted just enough that the words were covered.

"On purpose," the other four said at once.

"Those boys have far too much experience by now to at least try otherwise," Lily told.

Fred tried to wave them out the door, but Ron asked who they were blackmailing?

"Blunt as a brick to the face," James beamed after his own laughing fit.

The twins smile vanished at once, before George played it off as a joke.

Ron insisted it hadn't sounded that way, then the twins exchanged a glance.

"These two are doing remarkably poor at this," Remus looked so disappointed.

"I know, you'd really think they'd learned diversionary tactics by now," Sirius nodded furiously, "change the topic to the most outlandish thing they can until they can slip away."

"You think that would work on their brother?" Lily asked, "Especially one as stubborn as Ron?"

"Worth a shot," James shrugged.

"Better than what they're doing, which is nothing," Remus agreed.

Fred abruptly switched to violence, telling Ron to let it go or he'd take his nose off.

"Oh, threats, that works much better," James rolled his eyes.

"Especially as we've never once seen them carry through on them," Sirius sighed in disappointment, he'd had such high hopes for these twins, yet they couldn't even evade their own brother.

"What are you lot trying to protect the twins for anyways," Harry grumbled in annoyance as a twitching continued just behind his eye. "You want to know what they're up to just as much as me."

"True," Lily instantly agreed.

"But we'd be remiss not to pass on our wisdom," James finished obviously.

Harry fought down the urge to point out the twins weren't here to be receiving this, nor did Harry have much use for it, but simply decided to ignore them.

Ron insisted this was his business if there was blackmail involved, this sounded like serious trouble.

"No one could be in as much trouble as I am," Sirius said instantly.

"That one was actually true," James nodded along, "I'm not even mad at you for that one."

"Miracles do happen," Remus smirked.

George insisted he'd been joking! Clearly thinking they'd argued long enough, he took the letter from his brother, tied it to the nearest owl, and told Ron he was starting to sound like Percy. If he kept acting this way, he was headed for a prefect.

The other's made noises of agitation that the twins were brushing this off, this really had carried on long enough it wasn't funny anymore and actually had verged into honest worry of what those two were up to. No one noticed a funny little smile on Harry's face for George's comment.

Ron snapped back that would never happen!

Harry couldn't stop a surprised bit of laughter even if he had no idea where it came from, though this did draw Remus' attention as he pouted, "and what's so funny? You going to stop hanging around Ron if he does become one?"

Harry rolled his eyes at the joke, shrugging and saying, "don't know, just imagining what the twins would really say if it did happen I guess."

George pitched the owl out of the tower as he concluded for Ron to stop poking his nose where it belonged then.

They left as quickly as they'd come.

Hermione whispered anyways if they could have any news to do with Crouch?

"Way," James drew the word out dramatically, "off topic. There's no way they should even have a clue Crouch was on school grounds unless you lot have mentioned it."

Harry shook his head no, it had gone without saying in his opinion that they hadn't exactly spread this story around.

"It does still boggle the mind what they are doing," Sirius sighed, "it's been going on for ages."

"And escalating," Lily agreed, fear still lacing her tones.

Harry said no at once, they'd never get into something so serious and not tell someone.

"Well of course you'd tell me," Sirius gave Harry as wide eyed a stare as he could, "why would you do anything else?"

It boggled all of their minds how Harry still laughed at this.

Ron didn't looked as convinced, sharing how they'd been going on about needing money for their joke shop, they'd talked about it all the time when, ah well-

Harry supplied for him, when he and Ron hadn't been talking.

"Much quieter and boring times," Harry added on when he saw how agitated they all got at the reminder. They'd clearly forgiven Ron for it, but it didn't stop them being annoyed when it was brought back up.

Hermione still wasn't convinced they'd go as far as blackmail.

Ron insisted they were really into this joke shop, whereas before Ron had just thought they were doing it to annoy their Mum.

"I never thought that for a second!" Sirius yelped indignantly.

They only had a year of school left and were really looking for some ways to make gold.

"But, they already have it, don't they?" James struggled to remember back, "I don't remember how much exactly, but they put a huge price up for that bet of the World Cup, and earned it back double. Bagman paid them back, so unless they've already wasted that away and are trying to get more..." he trailed off with a frown still in place.

"You think they're trying to blackmail Bagman?" Sirius asked in concern. "Trying to convince him to give them more so they can keep going?"

"It would explain why they keep hounding him as much as he is to Harry," Remus agreed uneasily.

Lily was biting at her lip, still wanting to believe the twins would never actually do this, but it was getting hard to come up with alternatives.

Harry was starting to look a little green around the edges, he was utterly convinced they were on the right track with this...but something was wrong, or backwards, or- he forced his mind to cut off before the ache in his head developed further.

Hermione still didn't think they'd do anything like break the law for gold.

None of them were any kind of happy that they couldn't one hundred percent say no to that. They wouldn't claim to know the twins well enough, and well, blackmail wasn't a happy start to the conversation.

Ron wasn't as convinced, saying they broke rules all the time.

"There's a difference between school rules and the actual law," Lily groaned, more for the Marauders benefit than anyone else's, who all blatantly ignored her.

Hermione insisted this was different! They could get a lot worse than detention for this! Maybe they should tell Percy-

"Ouch!" Sirius jumped like he'd been set aflame. "Merlin Hermione, have you no shame, setting those brothers against each other like that!"

"Leave the twins to do their own thing, and they're own consequences," Lily agreed, "Telling on them won't make anything better."

Harry was surprised at his mother actually agreeing with these boys, as often as she tried to scold them, but then he reflected how despite her disapproval of it, she hadn't gone and turned them in for their illegal animagus status either.

Ron told her she was mad telling Percy! He'd do a Crouch and turn them in.

"I, honestly think I believe that," James shivered, "and in no way want to dwell on it."

"Blackmail isn't bad enough to get you a stint in Azkaban," Lily barely got the word out without flushing in anger all over again and throwing a protective look to Sirius, "they'd be severely fined for it, maybe put on watch for a while to make sure they didn't try again."

"Moving on," Remus groaned, honestly still clinging to the hope that Percy wouldn't do any such thing at all.

There was a shifty silence for a moment before Ron insisted they go get breakfast.

Hermione tried to say they should go see Moody first, but Harry pointed out it would be bad to try at this hour, he'd probably attack them in his sleep.

"I believe that," Sirius instantly agreed, trying to force a smile in place at a topic switch. "Who wants to bet he's got his office booby trapped with trip wires to send people to Iceland if they so much as put a toe in there without his knowing."

"Stop exaggerating Sirius," Lily sighed, already growing weary of this chapter and looking forward to lunch just to get a momentary break from his commentary.

Instead he said they'd wait until their break.

History of Magic was usually torturously slow, but even though Harry kept checking Ron's watch to be sure, time seemed to move twice as slow as usual

"I'm sure Ron just loved sharing his arm with you all lesson," James chuckled.

All three of them were exhausted from their sleepless night and would have happily started snoozing,

"I see no reason why you didn't," Remus shrugged, "I know I was guilty of that on several occasions."

"And Binns never said a word, no matter how loud he snored," Sirius smirked.

even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes, but was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus.

Sirius let out a wild gasp of shock, tearing the book away and holding it up to the light and declaring, "What nonsense is this! Say it ain't so, we've all been duped, there's no way this is real!"

Everyone was too busy laughing as Harry tried to wrestle the book back away with a grin in place to say anything.

When the bell did ring, they sprinted off to find Moody just leaving his office, and he looked in as bad a shape as them. His normal eye half sagging with sleep, giving his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.

"I just realized, he literally always sleeps with one eye open," Remus raised a curious brow.

"He's an artist's nightmare to draw," Sirius chuckled, remembering a few of James rants when he tried to sketch someone and their eyes came out lopsided, "all those disproportionate features, no one would ever believe the drawing wasn't abstract."

James gave an agreeable laugh he didn't really feel, he was still very weirded out trying to picture the whole thing and had no want to take Sirius' joke as a challenge as he normally would have.

He stood back to let them into his empty classroom, limped in after them, and closed the door.

Harry called for his attention, and when Moody spotted them, he waited until the corridor was clear before inviting them inside.

"Well, we didn't transport to Iceland," Harry reminded Sirius.

"I said if you snuck in there," Sirius emphasized, "keep up Harry."

Harry asked if they'd found Crouch, and when receiving a no, asked if he'd used the Map?

Moody said of course he had, he'd summoned it to him on the grounds when Dumbledore sent him off looking.

"Well there goes our idea of how he even knew to come down," Remus groaned in frustration. "I can't believe he'd be so careless as to both be looking, and then not grabbing when he left. It's too much of an oversight to him."

"Maybe Harry will ask again how he knew to come down," Lily pacified.

Ron again suggested he Disapparated, only for Hermione to say in exasperation that wasn't possible!

Then she turned to Moody and said there are other ways he could have disappeared though.

Moody watched her steadily as he said she'd make quite the Auror,

"Nah, can't picture it," Sirius shook his head. "She still panics a little too easily."

"You're never going to let that troll thing go," Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"Or the Devil's Snare," James agreed.

with a mind like hers.

"I'll give that one though," Lily shook her head, "Hermione's going to go great places, wouldn't surprise me if she shot up the Ministry ladder faster than Percy, became the youngest head of whatever department she chose."

Harry had a kind smile in place, knowing he had no clue what the real answer was, but very assured his mother was right.

Hermione flushed with pleasure while Harry told Moody that the Map even showed those who were invisible, so Crouch must have left the grounds.

Hermione still questioned if he'd done it himself, or someone forced him to.

"He was acting to out of it for it to be the first, I can't believe anyone's that good an actor. I'm, going with the second?" Remus still managed to make it a question more than a statement, there was just too much weirdness around this and they had no clue what it could be connected to. Their top suspects would have been Snape or Karkaroff, but both had some pretty good alibis, so they had absolutely nothing to work with.

Ron gave the suggestion that someone could have pulled him onto a broom and flown away,

"Now that's a fair theory," James eyes lit with excitement. "Actually I quite like it, the more I'm thinking. Sneak attack on Krum who wouldn't have seen it coming, and the way Crouch was going on, did anyone else get the feeling he was being held against his will or something? I believe he mentioned the word escaped. This mystery person would have been pursuing him."

"So, who then?" Sirius insisted. "Must be a Death Eater," his face twitched with hatred but he kept going, "so is Voldemort still recruiting, and Crouch was one of his targets? Crouch would know where a ton of Death Eaters were, I'll bet he keeps a list of people he thinks are some and where they are from when they'd have gotten off at some point or another."

While this was looking promising, Harry was starting to feel a little sick to his stomach and didn't feel like indulging them as much as usual, so he asked if he could go on and they could keep speculating later.

looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"Poor Ron," James muttered absently.

Moody agreed they weren't ruling out a kidnaping.

Ron asked if it was possible he was somewhere in Hogsmeade?

"Don't go suggesting that!" James said so sharply it made everyone else jump. "Sirius is hanging around there, I don't want Moody anywhere closer to the area than he has to be."

"Alright, breathe Prongs," Sirius pacified at once, his eyes were still a little too dark. "You know Ron didn't mean anything by it, Moody doesn't know about Padfoot, and I want Crouch found, so it was sound enough."

James did not look appeased enough to take it back.

Moody agreed he could be anywhere that wasn't here.

Harry's stomach ache took a nasty turn, whether heading up or down he wasn't sure, but it didn't take much to figure out that meant something to him, something bad.

Moody switched then to telling he'd heard of their previous detective work, and he didn't want to hear of it this time. He and Dumbledore were working this, Harry needed to stay focused on his third task.

Harry asked what he meant.

"Do you have very many other numbered tasks we should be concerned about?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It kind of slipped my mind after the whole Crouch thing," Harry admitted sheepishly.

Then his mind caught up, and Harry realized he hadn't thought about that since he'd left the field with Krum.

"Honestly can't blame you though," James shrugged, "this was plenty distracting."

Moody told Harry that he'd heard of some of Potters previous exploits and this last task should be easy enough for him compared to those challenges about the Stone.

"I still swear on my wand that was too easy for a bunch of first years," Lily grumbled hatefully, that had been one of her first problems with Dumbledore, and it had only gotten worse.

"Moody's got a point though," Remus said fairly, "Harry does have some practice with this, this task sounds at least doable for him."

"Joyful," James deadpanned, "you'll excuse me if I'm not a bundle of glee he's still in there."

Remus rolled his eyes at them but stopped arguing.

Ron quickly said he and Hermione had helped him along.

"And there's that," Sirius nodded, "Harry did get help through the majority of those things, he really only caught that key from Flitwick."

"And stopped Voldemort," Harry reminded with some unease, the act of having second hand killed Quirrell still giving him nightmares sometimes.

"Not trying to forget that exactly," James promised, "but it's not exactly a fun reminder."

He pulled out his hip flask then and took a large swig of it as his magical eye kept on them.

Harry wondered why every time that hip flask was mentioned he felt his gut tightening up. Maybe he was regretting not having ever gotten one of his own?

Moody grinned at Ron, telling him to stick by that and Potter, could never have too many eyes on him.

"As normally I'm not out of their company," Harry rolled his eyes at this display of paranoia, "I don't see that being a problem."

Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning.

"So I'm guessing these caves are going to be a permanent thing," James was actually smiling in relief, while he'd been against the idea originally, he couldn't deny he liked the idea of Sirius' quick replies.

"Why did it still take you a whole day?" Remus asked in surprise, "should have been able to reply in hours."

"I'm probably not inside all that much," Sirius shrugged, he liked to imagine he was reliving old memories by snooping around Hogsmeade and the Forest.

Hermione only delayed his reading it by doing a quick search of her copy of the Daily Prophet and informing them there was no new information before Harry read out.

It did not start happy, with Sirius scolding Harry for going off with Krum.

"Wow Padfoot," James raised a brow at his friend that Sirius couldn't quite interpret. It made him uneasy, since he could usually read James in an instant and go along, but this time he honestly wasn't sure if he was being mocked, or if James was being jealous again that he was scolding Harry.

Sirius opened, then closed his mouth since he wasn't sure which way he was supposed to be talking, but Harry had mostly ignored the pair, reading on with an agitated look in place for how this had started.

He wanted a swear by return of this owl Harry would not be going out at night again.

"Yes sir," Harry told him tartly, some residual shock that anyone even cared that much to tell him to do otherwise not putting enough force behind the sarcasm.

Sirius was starting to look flustered now, he wasn't used to being so wrong-footed and now both of them were giving him a spin.

There was somebody at Hogwarts trying to hurt Harry, and it was obvious someone stopped Crouch from seeing Dumbledore feet away from Harry, he could have been killed.

"Aww," Lily couldn't help but coo, clearly fixing to follow that up with a thank you for Sirius acting like an adult, while Remus pantomimed while she wasn't looking about him being whipped; clearly getting his revenge for all the times Sirius had teased him of this advice previously.

"I'm going to strangle the lot of you!" Sirius threatened as he hit his wits end.

Harry's name had not been in that Goblet by accident, someone was trying to hurt him and this task was their last chance. Stay in the company of Ron and Hermione, and do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours. Stay focused on the third task and start practicing Stunning and Disarming jinxes, as well as hexes. Keep his nose out of whatever Crouch was doing and keep his head down. He'd be waiting for that promise of not going out.

He didn't even sign off as Snuffles, but Sirius.

Harry finished and looked up at his Godfather expectantly, though Sirius had no clue what he was wanting. "What? You waiting for me to apologize? That was sound advice."

"You just agreed with me at the end of the last chapter Hagrid was overreacting," Harry rolled his eyes at him, "I figured you'd do it again for yourself."

"I'll apologize when you admit you weren't thinking," Sirius shot back. "It was foolhardy even if Krum wasn't the problem, you haven't once this year actually acted like your life's been threatened."

"That's rich coming from you," Harry scowled back, "since you won't admit for a second how stupid and dangerous it is to even be in the country."

"I'm getting scared," Lily whispered to Remus as the two kept sniping at each other.

"Harry's certainly growing more and more outspoken about being told what to do the longer this drags on," Remus nodded along, grimacing slightly as he reminded, "but to be fair, no one's ever really earned the right to tell him what to do. Aside from the teachers at Hogwarts, Harry's never exactly had a good role model for authority, Sirius included."

It hurt in the worst way for the mother to be reminded of this, but she conceded the point.

James had been watching on in honest bemusement as Harry and Sirius kept trying to tell each other what idiots the other was being, but finally he cut in, "alright, you're both idiots, can we move on."

"Hey!" Harry and Sirius yelped at the same time, but then they exchanged a grin for that and Harry decided to let it go.

Harry was instantly insulted that Sirius was telling him off for being out of bounds after everything he'd ever done.

Harry gave Sirius an extra look that his point had been said twice, which Sirius acknowledge in the most adult way possible, sticking his tongue out at him and muttering petulantly about how different that was.

Hermione reminded he was just worried, and Harry needed to listen to him.

Harry insisted no one had tried to attack him all year, no one had done anything.

"Which, if you think about it, is the weird part," Remus acknowledged.

He winced when he got some nasty looks for that, but Harry defended, "well he is right. So far it's just been the dragon and some grindylows. So unless someone is hoping I'd gone out with these tasks, it's not exactly been that bad." He finished with an absent minded frown on his face he didn't even seem to realize was there for his own saying this.

He did not get any pleased responses from anyone for pointing this out, nor did he himself feel much better for the reminder. Something about this third task, it was going to be a big game changer, the closer it got the more sure he was of that.

Hermione pointed out the Goblet of Fire, someone had put his name in there for a reason and maybe they'd just been biding their time till now.

They all shivered at that, Harry hardest of all as he heard some color of truth in what she'd said.

Harry insisted that even if Sirius was right,

"I can see how well you took to Snuffles," Sirius gave a half hearted smirk.

Harry did give a sheepish shrug for that, admitting he had been terrible about that one, Hermione and Ron were much better at remembering.

and the person who attacked attacked Crouch and Krum had been right by him, then clearly Harry wasn't the target. They'd waited until he'd left to do anything.

"I think that's giving the kidnappers too much credit," James shuddered at the thought. "They must have just caught up at the best opportune time when you weren't there."

"Still," Remus sighed, "the timing of it all really isn't feeling much better."

Hermione shot back they couldn't make it look like accidental murder in front of the forest.

"She's just sunshine and rainbows lately," Lily scowled in response to that statement.

Harry insisted it could have been done, someone could have made it look like he and Krum and dulled to death.

"You are making some great points," Sirius acknowledged, the only apology Harry was going to get for that letter.

Hermione was getting desperate as she agreed she didn't understand this, but Moody and Sirius were right,

"No one sticks with Snuffles for long," Remus forced a laugh.

"That's your fault Moony," Sirius smirked, "you need to come up with more obscure nicknames."

he needed to be prepared for this last task. And he needed to send that letter to Sirius promising he wasn't going to be sneaking around.

"Pretty sure that owl's flown off by now," James shrugged, "so you've already not done as told, and you'll have to grab a new one."

"You're just full of helpful advice," Harry grumbled.

The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when Harry had to stay indoors.

Harry looked all the more disgruntled at this happening to him at the end of the semester, again! He wanted to ask Sirius if he was happy with himself this time, but that comment just felt too vicious, he didn't want to bring up last year.

For the next few days he spent all of his free time either in the library with Hermione and Ron,

"At some point, I think you three forgot you were Gryffindor's," Remus looked on in pity for Harry, "and you're trying to convince Pince to let you start a new house in the library."

"You're certainly in there enough," James sighed.

looking up spells they could practice in empty classrooms.

Harry was practicing his Stunning Spell.

"You would think it would be easier than Petrificus Totalus," Harry sighed, "the body seizes up and then falls, Stupify just makes you fall on the spot."

"It takes much longer to wear off without Innervate though, so there's more power behind a Stunners magic," Remus told. "Petrificus Totalus will wear off in half the time."

"Trust him on this," Sirius muttered in disgust, "takes nearly an hour for a stunner to go away."

Harry sadly remembered Sirius telling him about the time Snape had managed to stun him and leave him behind a broom shed, so he didn't question the experience.

The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices on Ron and Hermione's part.

"Those poor kids," Lily winced in pity.

"There's really no other way to learn though," Remus shrugged without remorse, "sadly they just don't know about embedding cushioning charms on the floor for this particular lesson."

"There's no better way than to practice on a moving target," James agreed.

Ron suggested trying this on Mrs. Norris,

"I would not recommend it," Sirius said instantly. "Filch will know, and he will not wait for permission to gut you."

"Speaking from more experience?" Harry asked wearily.

"Thankfully not me," Sirius said with the height of innocence, "but I did hear a rumor of some Hufflepuff taking revenge on Filch out on his cat, poor kid was never seen alive again."

Harry had no clue how much truth was being put in this, but he was laughing at Sirius again and he didn't want to ask.

after his fifth time in a row landing on the floor. If they didn't want to use the cat, then Harry could at least try Dobby, he'd do it happily.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Sirius theatrically clapped his forehead, "do you realize how much better I could have felt any number of times if I'd just summoned Kreacher to me and cursed him!"

"Let's just be thankful it never occurred to you," Remus said quickly as Lily gave him a nasty look for that.

He insisted he wasn't complaining,

"Well offering up alternatives isn't complaining per say," James agreed.

while rubbing at his side.

"But honestly I don't blame Ron for complaining," James smiled sadly, "at least he's being a trooper and allowing it to be done to him, I think that involves a little moaning when he lands."

Hermione pointed out he kept missing the pillows she'd laid out for him to land on. He should try falling backwards.

"Did she just try to tell a stunned person where to fall?" Lily giggled in surprise. "I don't think even Hermione could manage that."

Ron told her to take a try and see how she did.

Hermione decided it was time Harry moved on from that spell.

Causing them all to laugh, clearly Hermione wasn't up to taking her own advice.

There was no point practicing Disarming, he'd been able to do that one for a while.

"Always with impressive results," the boys laughter doubled even more as Lily said that, though taking a minute for her to realize the last time Harry had done that, and admitted a bit of a giggle escaped her as well.

Instead she wanted to try out this Impediment Curse, which slowed things down.

"I enjoyed the recreational uses of that spell," Sirius got a lazy grin. "It's the best thing to throw something at someone, using the Impediment Curse on it, and watch them freak out and dive for cover as something went towards them in slow motion."

"Thankfully that joke did wear off fast enough," James chuckled.

"But the looks on their faces were priceless," Remus snickered.

The bell rang before they could try, and Hermione promised to see them at dinner as she ran for her Arithmancy class while the boys went for Divination.

No one exactly looked excited for this, but they were hoping for a few more laughs to crop up so no one protested either. Harry was the only one who didn't seem to be looking forward to this, the ghost of his scar prickling across his forehead as foreboding as it could get.

The sun was still gleaming in the sky as they went up the spiral stairs, and Ron groaned how hot it was going to be in the room, Trelawney never put out that fire.

"Ergh," they winced in sympathy for that heat stroke waiting to happen.

Ron was right, the room was a sauna with the thick curtains and the fireplace crackling as high as ever. Harry took his usual seat next to the shadows and pried open a window while the teacher wasn't watching so that a nice breeze could at least blow in on him.

"There's my ingenuity shining through," James beamed at his son.

"Yes," Lily rolled her eyes at him, "I'm so sure only you could have the power of knowledge in opening a window on a hot day."

"Don't be jealous our son got everything from me," James teased back.

Trelawney called attention as she took her seat, saying today they would be focusing on the planet Mars.

"Ah the Roman god of war," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'm not surprised that would be her second favorite one."

She pulled a planetarium up for all to see, and while she began dissecting the planets orbits in conjunction with each other, Harry felt his eyes drifting shut, the breeze blowing clean air into his face as an insect hummed somewhere nearby.

Harry wasn't remotely feeling sleepy now, on the contrary as some deep sense of warning was trying to go off in his head so loud, though he had no clue what the connection could be. Surely not to a bug, or even dozing off in class like he was clearly doing.

He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, soaring through the clear blue sky,

"Finally it sounds like one of your dreams is something normal," James smiled. "I can't count the number of times I've dreamed of flying, though normally for me it's on a broom, not a bird."

"I think he's subconsciously missing Buckbeak," Sirius chuckled.

Everyone was laughing happily around Harry, it was such a wonderful sound to him. Even after these days he spent with them, it was still always a happy feeling to realize he was just sitting around and listening to his family laugh...so why was he getting such a bad feeling about having to keep going?

He was going through the window of an ivy swarmed house, and landing in a high backed chair.

The longer Harry read, the tighter his voice was getting, like someone was slowly strangling him while he forced this out. The laughter had already died out, but no one bothered to interrupt him to ask why as they must be about to get an answer.

Two shapes were moving, one on the floor, the other writhing on the floor. It was a squat man with watery eyes and a pointed nose.

The growl that erupted from everyone was not unexpected the moment the description registered, and though Harry felt like he was reading past a nail spike driving through his brain as this was being returned to him, he was suddenly very grateful he was the one to be reading this. No one liked to hear more mention of this rat after all, but at least Harry could pretend to force past it without threatening murder every other word.

He was wheezing and sobbing on the hearth rug. . .

James wished this feeling would go away, this bleeding conflict he felt whenever he heard of Peter like this like he had the first time. He didn't know why the rat was acting like that, but he knew with everything in him he deserved it for giving him up, for causing his death and Lily's and what should have been Harry's. He wanted to just feel that murder pulsing through him, rather than anything else...

A voice like pure ice spoke of Wormtail's luck, how fortunate he was his blunder had been fixed and he was dead.

Harry was entirely concerned when no one in here rhetorically asked who that 'he' could be, but that was the kind of reaction mentioning this betrayer wrought in them, nowhere near their normal personalities.

The shadow on the floor gasped its pleasure for the news, and how sorry he still was for it all.

James felt like he was the only one paying attention to the actual words rather than the festering thoughts everyone else was harboring at the mention of him, so he was certain he was the only one trying to figure out what exactly he'd done to be apologizing for, not that he cared one bit, it could only be good news for them.

The cold voice continued ignoring him, instead telling Nagini she was out of luck, she would not be eating Wormtail,

"Here I am again, pitying a snake."

Harry never would have believed that was Sirius if he hadn't been keeping an uneasy eye on him.

but there was still Harry Potter.

Harry looked flummoxed that his being fed to a snake was part of any plan, but even if someone did want to voice their outrage at it, he was reading too fast to let them.

The snakes tongue flicked in the direction of the voice as it continued addressing Wormtail.

In between her mental tirade of wanting to rip every last one of his remaining fingers off, Lily was still trying to understand why Voldemort called him that. Her mind must have been working on it in her recess while she tried to ignore it, because now the only idea she could offer up was Voldemort using that as a derogatory on the rat. What had once been an affectionate nickname given to him by his friends for his rat animal was now being turned on its head by the very man he'd served those friends up to, the rat status still stood but now in the darkest way possible.

Saying he would be given one more reminder of his blunder.

Wormtail begged for mercy even as the shout of Crucio rang.

Sirius should have been far more concerned that he didn't feel a damn thing except disappointment that wasn't him using that curse. Crucio wasn't even the beginning of what he owed that rat, twelve years in Azkaban for starters, then he'd work his way up to other tortures from there.

Wormtail was screaming, every nerve in his body alight with pain, and Harry was screaming just as loud through the fire in his forehead,

If anything could snap them back to the actual purpose of this story rather than sucking on revenge, it was Harry, and him reading in a tight pain laced voice as he remembered this set all of them back on the opposite edge of how they felt for the rat.

he had to stop, or Voldemort would hear him.**

Harry was surprised when the walls didn't shake with them, they were all trembling by the end though for all very different reasons. Too many emotions raining too high to deeply question what needed to be asked, number one of which was: why was Harry still seeing this!? They'd by no means forgotten the first time, but as no new information had arisen from anyone regarding this, they had nothing new to go on, and too much of a chance of it dissolving into another break out attempt in their temper if they tried to dissect it.

Someone was shouting his name, and Harry came back to himself on Trelawney's floor, his hands covering his face as tears burned his eyes from the pain of his scar.

Harry was making sure to breathe slowly through his nose, concentrating on every word so that he wouldn't be thinking on that pain that he could all too vividly remember now. It helped nothing when he glanced up and saw all the scared white faces around him for what this could mean.

The whole class was hovering over him, Ron right by his head as he whispered if Harry was alright?

"Oh he's just spiffing, and you?" Remus got out, surprised when he tasted copper in his mouth after swallowing, he must have bitten his tongue at some point to stop himself screaming in outrage.

Trelawney told Ron of course he wasn't, while looking excitedly down at Harry.

Lily found something to break her temper on, and it wasn't pretty. "Are you kidding me? Is there not one bloody useful teacher in that school! First Snape now her, what in Merlin's sack is wrong with these people! He was on the floor, in pain, and she's excited! I swear if a student didn't take the initiative to run off to get Madam Pomfrey I'm going to curse every last one of them!"

In retrospect that was way too harsh for her, they knew if this had happened in say McGonagall's class or basically any other teacher except these two it would have gotten the proper response of the adult making sure Harry was okay, but no one could blame her heaving chest and wild eyed outrage.

Harry honestly felt in fear for his life if he actually tried to keep going while she was still like this, all for letting her get it all out now, but she seemed to have at least temporarily restrained herself and sat a look on him that said in no uncertain terms for him to keep going.

She demanded what Harry had been seeing, a premonition?

"And this is why no one was disagreeing with you Lily," James looked just as outraged as his wife at this lack of concern for their son, but he was more quietly scheming in the back of his head what exactly he planned to do to Trelawney as payback.

Harry instantly lied it was nothing while struggling to his feet, flinching at every shadow and sure he could still hear Voldemort uttering that curse.

Harry couldn't suppress another shiver for that, that terrible voice still echoing in the back of his mind. Thankfully no corner of this room was shadowed, the warm lights and cozy fireplace in exact opposite of Trelawney's eerie room, and he was surrounded on all sides feeling very safe.

Trelawney insisted it had been something, he'd been holding his scar, and insisted she had experience with this.

"You have as much experience as Lockhart you-" Remus forcibly cut himself off before he went on his own Lily like tangent which still wouldn't resolve anything.

Harry glared at her as he said he was going to the hospital wing for a headache.

"If only that's what it had been," Harry whispered to himself, as sickly looking as everyone else in fear and worry of what all this could mean for him.

Trelawney began to refuse, saying if he left the confines of her clairvoyant powers he'd lose his stimulated and extraordinary moment.

Lily looked ready to incite murder any second, her wand even appeared and she was glaring at every exit clearly wanting to take Trelawney's head off for actually putting her baby's pain on the powers of that bleeding room!

If he left now he may not get another opportunity to see-

"Then by all means, please leave Harry," Sirius ground out, at least mocking Trelawney felt better than thinking of rats.

Harry snapped he wasn't seeing anything but a headache cure, and left with a quick muttered goodbye to Ron.

Trelawney watched him go with a look saying she'd just been denied a treat.

Lily had to concentrate on each one of her fingers not to perform a strangling motion as she heard that, but at least he was finally leaving.

Harry did not go for Madam Pomfrey, instead his feet doing as Sirius had told,

Harry released a breathy laugh he didn't really feel, but any release would be savored as he picked back up his earlier argument with his godfather. "See Sirius, I do listen to some of your advice."

"Oh sure, when it involves Dumbledore," he said back, flipping his hair over his shoulder dramatically but there was still too much anger in his gray eyes for all the recent rat mentions lately for the joke to really be there.

and go tell Dumbledore. This time had been as vivid as the one in Privet Drive.

"Gathered that bit," James groaned, ruffling up his own hair in unease, the longer they sat and thought about it, the more worry they gained with no new ideas, but at least some of the blood lust was being forcibly pounded away as Harry got farther away from mentions of who all had been in the dream again.

He kept replaying the events over in his mind so as not to forget the details, how Voldemort had accused Wormtail of a blunder,

Nope, there it was! Harry was going to keep thinking on it until he got it all out to Dumbledore as well, so he decided now he may as well start trying to remove his finger nails, it would hurt less. The only coherent thought he had left was his prayer Harry wouldn't pass this along to Sirius again, the reaction he could have still terrified him as much as what was happening to Harry. He didn't need Sirius going off on a murder rampage and getting caught, that had to be his next step from going back to Harry's side from that first dream. Then again, Harry hadn't mentioned the rat in his first later, so there was still some hope he wouldn't this time, it wouldn't do Sirius any more good than it was them.

but Voldemort had received good new that someone was dead, and Wormtail was not going to be fed to the snake, that would be Harry.

Hearing it all a second time didn't make any of that more bearable, or comprehensible, if possible it was actually getting worse with Harry's rendition. Now they didn't have anger to cling onto while listening, now they were just a bubbling, twisting mess of worry of how much pain Harry had to go through to get to the age he was at now.

Harry had walked right past the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office without noticing.

Remus forced out a laugh he didn't really feel, but at this point any actual noise besides Harry forcing himself to read through pain was a kindness.

Only when he traced back did he remember that he didn't know the password.

"Oh yeah," they all muttered, having been so lost in their own thoughts they hadn't recognized this problem either. Now what was Harry going to do?

"I swear if Snape shows up again, I'm getting a shovel and digging my way to his useless arse, the magic keeping me in here be damned," James vowed on the spot.

"You could always try what you were going to last time, go to the staff room and tell an actual useful teacher it's an emergency and need to talk to Dumbledore," Remus offered. "I'm sure they'd give you the password."

Harry gave a listless shrug, he had no clue what he was going to do, but managed a brave smile for all of them at even pretending at a joke and normal conversation again...at least he hoped his dad was joking.

He still tried sherbet lemon.

"T for effort," Sirius scolded, "you already knew that wouldn't work."

"Sirius, don't call my son a troll," Lily instantly snapped.

Sirius rolled his eyes at her.

Instead he started trying others, like Licorice Wand and Fizzing Whizbee,

"Upgraded to an A for this though," Remus smiled, "he knows Dumbledore has a sweet tooth, and going off the previous password is taking a good guess it could be more candy."

"He's most likely not wrong," James forced some tension out of his shoulders to try and smile along. It didn't at all work, but he no longer looked like he was sitting on Hickory anymore. "All the times we were there, it was some form of this."

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Oh wait, he didn't like those.

"Who knows, maybe he's found one not earwax flavored since then," Sirius did his very best at a sincere tone, almost getting there.

When none of that worked, Harry told it was an emergency, but still the gargoyle didn't move.

"I'd be more concerned if it did move," Lily sighed.

Harry kicked it, achieving nothing but an excruciating pain in his big toe.

"Did you at least feel better?" James actually did manage a genuine laugh for that one.

Harry ignored the, in his opinion, stupid question.

Now shouting Chocolate Frog and standing on one leg.

"Is this a new game?" Sirius found honest laughter bubbling in his chest, though he wasn't surprised. If anything could make him smile again, it would be his godson. "Hop on one foot and shout treats until you run out, I like this."

Harry tried to keep being angry with them for laughing like this when he knew in the book he was still upset over what he'd seen, but he recognized as well as them that getting angry wasn't helping a thing, at least smiling gave the feeling that everything would turn out okay.

At last shouting Cockroach Cluster in anger, and the gargoyle sprang aside.

"Cockroach Cluster?" Remus crinkled his nose in disgust. "Really Dumbledore?"

"I've heard they actually taste rather like crispy chocolates," Lily offered with her own look of concern at this, she'd never believed the friend that had tried to convince her of this.

"I can't believe he went with that over the Beans!" Sirius gasped.

"I guess anyone who eats Peppermint Humbug has this kind of strange taste," Harry shrugged.

"At least it wasn't Jelly Slugs," James smirked, "I'm still hoping Dumbledore remembers that one personally."

"I do not want to know," Lily groaned at once. Harry was still too distracted thinking about his dream and what all it could mean for him to be to invested in asking for now.

Harry looked at the opening in surprise, admitting he'd been joking.

"Well don't tell it that!" Sirius said mock frantically.

Still he went inside and traveled up to the headmaster's office, but when he got near he heard voices and hesitated.

"You seem to do that quite a lot for someone who insists he's not a snooper," Remus snorted in surprise.

Harry was finally distracted from his own problem by that, looking up at Remus with the widest most innocent eyes he had.

Remus snorted again and shook his head in disbelief, jabbing a thumb at Sirius and saying, "try looking at me with literal puppy eyes and get back to me on that one."

Sirius cracked up laughing so hard he nearly missed Harry pouting but moving on.

The voice inside was telling Dumbledore he saw no connections, it was Fudge.

"Oh, because he's always a joy to have around," Lily said in contempt, not one of them forgetting how last year he'd happily sanctioned Sirius getting Kissed!

Sirius was too busy suppressing his giggles that Remus had admitted out loud that had worked to garner the hatred he should have felt.

He was still insisting that while Bertha was missing, it didn't mean foul play.

"I swear his head is as empty as the Shrieking Shack," James scowled. "What person actually goes missing this long without not being declared dead? It's been what, almost a year now?"

It was their insight that they knew she was dead, but James's logic was still sound that no one would have argued with him otherwise.

There was just no way it had anything to do with Crouch.

They all sat in puzzlement on that for a second, Lily saying slowly, "yes, alright, I can kind of put together how Dumbledore would think that. Harry did verbatim what Crouch had been rambling on about, and he did mention Bertha, but I still can't see how Crouch knew anything."

"Maybe Dumbledore sees a more clear line connection than just the passing along information Harry got?" Remus tried with no honest belief.

Moody's voice spoke up what he thought the Minister thought happened to Crouch?

Fudge said he had two ideas,

"Oh I'm going to love hearing this," James sneered.

the first was that Crouch had cracked and gone wandering off.

"If that is option one, I am terrified for my sanity what option two is," Lily looked dumbstruck anyone could reach that conclusion in these circumstances. Surely Dumbledore had given Harry's account of the matter, no one could be so stupid and blind as to draw that kind of conclusion from it!

Dumbledore simply answered he wandered extremely quickly then.

"Still got to love how Dumbledore kindly points out how dumb the people around him are," Sirius muttered to himself.

Fudge said he'd reserve judgement on the second idea until he saw the place for himself.

"What does that even mean?" Remus asked in surprise. "It was on the edge of the Forest, why do you need to be there to declare anything of it."

"I don't see why we're hearing his opinion on it at all," James's scowl kept deepening the longer this guy was around, "since I hold its weight on the same level as dragon dung."

Confirming this had happened right around the Beauxbatons carriage? Reminding Dumbledore of what she was.

"He did not!" Harry heard everyone bark in outrage. The way his lip curled in protest of having said that however left no one in doubts. No one currently liked Maxime for what she'd done to Hagrid, in all honesty they still blamed her for it even being out, but no one was accusing her of pulling this simply because she was like Hagrid! And the worst part was, no one had any doubts if Fudge was saying this about her, he could be thinking about Hagrid as well!

Dumbledore quietly returned he found her an able headmistress, and an excellent dancer.

"Thank you for that useful information," Remus muttered sullenly, wishing Dumbledore would take that a little more offensively like they had.

Fudge was getting angry now, saying Dumbledore may be acting a little blind for his trust in Hagrid. They didn't all turn out harmless, and Hagrid didn't even sound that with all his monsters.

"That's it, where's the nearest tiny box, I'm cramming his arse in it," Sirius followed that up with a few more swears just as the timer went off from the kitchen.

Lily was saved from having to listen to the rest no matter how much she agreed by going to let dinner cool, by the time she came back all of the boys were still in a temper like her for the slur of a comment but at least willing to let Harry finish as he fingered the last page.

Dumbledore forcefully replied he did not suspect either of them, and in fact flipped back on Fudge perhaps he was the one being blinded by prejudice.

"Least Dumbledore's saying that much," Remus muttered as he poked at a hole in his sleeve, his mind was starting to get a bit stung around the edges his old headmaster wasn't being a bit more vocally against this.

Moody suggested they wrap this up, and while Fudge agreed he wanted a look around the grounds, Moody instead pointed out that Potter must want a word because he was outside the door.

"Got to love Moody must have known he was there the whole time and waited this long to say something," James said.

"Chapter's over," Harry sighed as he gave the book an unfriendly toss onto the table and being the first to exit the room.

HPHPHPHP

Update on Cursed Child: If my review wasn't enough for you guys, I found a guy who emulates everything I ever could think to say. Mine is really puny small in comparison, and I can't disagree with a single thing he says. I left a lot out of mine, but he covers the whole thing! It's funny, go watch!

The Script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - The Dom Reviews

*nahte123456 pointed this out, and yeah, it's a really good point.

**If anybody remembers my rant from the second chapter about how much it bothered me they never explained these third person dreams Harry has, I thank you all for all the suggestions you gave, but I'm still not sold on why it happens. Just because Voldemort doesn't have his normal body shouldn't disrupt the horcrux connection that allows Harry to see inside Voldemort's mind of the body he's in, not from the window's perspective. This isn't from Nagini ...it's just information insert. I do acknowledge that it could well be Harry seeing through Voldemort and we're just getting the outside perspective, JK has done this in the past by switching between characters like in Harry's first Quidditch match, and that's basically the only running thing I can go with, but it still annoys me to no end it's never acknowledged in that way, it's just there.

[ilooklikeaburntchickenugget]

Tour Mom Chapter 2

A/N: Alright I’m having fun with this so I’ll just continue it. My MCR fic isn’t as good as my other ones, but I’m assuming it’s because I’ve never worked with this set of characters before. It may get better over time. Hope you all enjoy!

Pairing: Fem!Reader x Gerard with a little MCR x Fem!Reader

Word count: 2041

You were extremely proud of Gerard. Post-Black Parade the guys took a break. They wanted to figure out how to redefine the band, moving away from the “traditional” MCR, that being Three Cheers and TBP.

You of course, helped Gerard. Just like your helped the boys with their first three albums. It wasn’t much, but altering some lyrics here and there to make their songs more elaborate and more descriptive. 

They had already written and recorded a few songs in the process of establishing the storyline of the Killjoys, which Gerard pitched to you during the last tour. Everyone jumped on board, besides Bob. So he left.

Additionally, in your personal life, you and Gerard were expecting. By that, of course, meant you were pregnant. To be honest, it wasn’t planned at all. You and Gerard had talked about kids in the past. Never too seriously, but enough to know you wanted at least one in the future. The timing wasn’t on point for the expansion of your family, but you two happily accepted it.

And then there came the fact that you weren’t married. While Gerard’s family didn’t mind it, your family kind of did. With your parents having divorced when you were younger, they of course had drastically different views. Your dad had always really like Gerard, and was more than happy for you two, understanding that marriage was something you wanted to do on your own schedule. Your mother on the other hand, was “disturbed” by it. While you didn’t totally care, a part of you was crushed by this.

But of course, Gerard helped guide you through it, reassuring your own little family would be just fine, whether or not your mother necessarily approved of it all. This brought you peace of mind of course.

Gerard also bought you two promise rings. It was almost like an engagement, just something saying he promised he would love you for everyday until you two officially got married and renewed those vows officially. And you of course promised the same.

What was most concerning was the potential for your depression to come back during and after the pregnancy. Your therapist and psychologist had some worries, as well as how your antidepressants would affect your pregnancy, and the potential of your hormones changing too much.

“I don’t know, Gee.” You sighed as you two discussed what to do with it all, “I don’t want to risk the baby, but I don’t want to risk myself.” He nodded.

“You’ve made so much progress,” He grabbed your hand, “It’s really up to you.” “Yeah, but it’s our child.” He nodded.

“Maybe continue on them,” He told you, making eye contact of course, “And please, talk to me about how you feel. If you’re not doing well you need to tell me, okay?” You nodded. You and Gerard were always extremely open about your mental health to one another, so of course you would tell him.

And that led to a long and turbulent pregnancy. You were glad the band had taken a break to be honest, that way every day Gerard could be at home with you. Of course he took the occasional day to go in and record, or to have a meeting, but most of the time we he was with you.

Everyday it got increasingly harder to do things like make your way up the stairs, clean up, even making dinner which was usually one of your favorite activities but became a burden as the bump grew. Gerard was empathetic as always though, helping you with every task he could. Not being too touchy or too obsessive, but just when you needed it.

“I got you,” He told you as he helped to swing your legs onto the bed. The third trimester was by far the hardest. The bump was large, and managed to grow even bigger everyday.

“Yeah,” You huffed, “I know.” You finally sighed in relief as you laid on the large king bed, getting under the covers and in a semi-comfortable position before you would have to switch again in another hour or so.

“You alright?” He would ask every night before the two of you feel asleep.

“As good as I can be for a pregnant woman.” You would answer. He would just lightly smiled, “I just want her to pop out already.” He nodded.

“I love you.” He said, rolling over to face the other side of the bed.

“Love you too.”

And flash forward just a few weeks, you sat painfully in the delivery room after your water broke while making lunch, Gerard by your side, unless you began violently cursing him out for putting you in your current situation, in which he would walk away for a few minutes, usually out of the room to give you breathing space.

Thankfully as well, your childhood best friend was there to assist when Gerard took his break. Y/B/F/N would sit next to you, holding your hand as your painful contractions came and wouldn’t stop.

“You’re ready to push, Ms. Y/L/N.” One of the nurses told you. And so Gerard was called back in to sit right next to your hospital bed, holding your hand as your screamed and groaned in agony and pain.

“You’re doing great.” He would tell you, giving you light kisses on the top of your head. “Just continue, sugar, and you’ll be all good.”

After a two and a half hour labor, you both heard small cries and most of your pain ceased. You were immediately handed your daughter, and all her seven pound self. And you instantly fell in love with her.

Gradually, after you and Gerard, who cried, got some time alone with her, family and friends were welcomed in. “Arden Lola Way.” You said aloud, the final name you and Gerard had decided on, “She’s incredible, Gee.” You told him, showing her off. Despite her little eyes being closed, her fingers perfectly wrapped around her fathers, and her little noises made your heart explode.

“I know she is.” He smiled, “We made that.” “We did.” You smiled even more.

Gradually the waves of people came in to greet you. It started out with your dad who was more than excited to hold his first granddaughter in his arms, and you could’ve sworn if it wasn’t for the line of other people wanting to hold her, he wouldn’t have let go.

Gerard’s dad came in next, along with Mikey. And surprisingly, Mikey too fell in love with your little girl. He seemed a little nervous holding her at first, but lightened up soon.

However, you were already worn out, and were extremely tired. Everyone had left besides you, Gerard, and of course your daughter. “Go to bed, sugar,” He told you, “I can take care of her.” And that was all you needed to be out like a light on the partially uncomfortable hospital bed, that post-giving birth felt like heaven.

But after a few hours, you were awoken by the screams of your daughter. Gee got up, carefully picking up your baby girl and trying to soothe her, which ended up failing. “I got her.” You mumbled, feeling like a zombie, and reaching out.

He gave her over in no time, you attempting as well to calm her. “I think she’s hungry.” You slumped over, giving her complete access so she could breast feed. “This’ll be a fun couple of months.” You sarcastically said, smiling lightly at him who lightly smiled back, nodding.

“Can’t wait.” He placed himself back on the couch next to your bed.

And a few short days later, you were out the door, Gerard helping get you and your daughter into the car and carefully driving off. And by carefully, you meant very carefully.

Which was also how he spent the next few weeks with the two of you. He had basically dropped everything to be at home, especially since he knew you couldn’t handle the baby alone.

“I think we should get married.” He said, sitting next to you in bed and flipping through a book, you doing the same.

“Okay.” You said, keeping your attention on the pages.

“Okay? “Yeah, let’s plan it.” You said, “I mean small, obviously, like really small.” He nodded.

“I love you.” He added on. “I love you too, Gee.” He gave you a quick kiss on the lips, Arden interrupting with her screams, which you could’ve easily mistaken for a murder.

“I’ll get her.” He got up, placing his book on the nightstand and jogging out of the room and down the hall to your newborns yellow room (Which you and he had spent almost five hours perfecting).

You could hear him begin to cradle her through the baby monitor you had on your side of the bed. If there’s one thing Gerard had proved since your daughter was born, it was that he absolutely adored her. If it weren’t for naps and breast feeding, you would bet money on the fact that that man would be holding your baby 24/7.

She slowly began calming down, stopping her ring of cries, and falling nearly asleep in his arms. Then you heard him do what he always did: sing her some lullaby. You couldn’t identify which once, but she was out like a light in less than 30 seconds, giving Gee an opportunity to gradually place her back in her crib.

“She loves it when you sing to her.” You smiled as your fiancee walked in.

“It’s the only way to get her to bed, ya know.” “Besides feeding her.” You leaned back and under the covers, against your pillow. “She takes after her father in that regard.” Gerard rolled his eyes.

And then came the hardest part of it all. Once your daughter was three months old, Gerard had finally brought up the upcoming album. They had scraped the initial one by that point, and were already half way through the new one. And while you were always proud of his work, having a kid presented various other issues and responsibilities. “When are you guys planning on releasing it?” You asked, sitting across from Gee at your dining table, your young one having a nap.

“Later this year.”

“So before or after Ard’s first birthday?”

“Probably after.” He stated, playing with his fingers. He himself was extremely anxious to tell you.

“What about the tour?” You asked, “Because I don’t think it would be best to tour with a one year old. And I would have to stay with her.” He nodded.

“I’m not sure.” He said, “I mean, there’s always Skype, right?” You reluctantly nodded. On the inside you were pissed at him right now for even thinking about leaving you and your daughter, but this was his job.

“Fine.” You said, getting up and beginning to walk away.

“Baby,” You could hear him get up, sounding almost sympathetic, because of course he knew you were mad, “Why don’t we talk about this?” “We just did!” You unintentionally snapped, “Sorry.” You sighed walking back over to him, “I’m just worried, okay? For both us and you.” He gave a confused look, “Well, obviously it’ll be hard for Arden to be away from you for so long, especially with her age.” “I’ll take every break I can and come home.” He stated.

“But what about you?” You looked up at him, making firm eye contact, “I love you, Gee, but you got off of drugs and alcohol once. And I’m not saying you would again, but we both know how stressed you get on tours.” “But I’ve gone the last two and a few in between clean, babe.”

“You also had Ray, Bob and I looking after you. Mikey too.” He looked down for a moment, “I won’t be there, Bob quit, and so now it’ll be Ray and Mikey.”

“I’ll call you if I’m struggling.” You rose in eyebrow in superstition, “I promise.”

“Alright.” You said, “Just please, be responsible, Gee. I know you can, but just be careful. Because now it’s not just me. You have a daughter too.” He nodded. “And I think Skypes will be mandatory with the little one.”

[always-and-forever-a-killjoy]

Hey fuckers! So I wrote this all today and liked it enough to post, please enjoy this minimally edited mess of a fic! But read the warnings carefully!! You also may want to read the other fics in the series to understand this? But it's not super necessary. (First three fics here, here, and here, mind the warnings.) Also shoutout to @wishiwasthemoon-tonight for encouraging my angsty bullshit, for this fic and many, many others.

Title: the last thing i see

Wordcount: 1734

Summary: Cherri Cola has died before.

It’s not a big surprise to him when he dies again.

Warnings: blood, violence, major character death, implied self harm, referenced suicide and suicidal thoughts, and a fuckton of swearing as usual. (How did I fit that all in less than 2k words? Talent.)

Taglist: @wishiwasthemoon-tonight @sleevesareforlosers @stressed-depressed-emo-mess @tasteofamnesia @dagger-queen (message me, send an ask, or reblog/reply to one of my posts if you want to be added or removed)

AO3 Link

(Actual fic under the cut)

Cherri Cola has died before. 

He remembers what it was like, his breaths growing more difficult as the hot sand burnt his skin and everything hurt-hurt-hurt. He remembers how cold the darkness felt, the oblivion it promised. He remembers fighting against it, remembers the fear and the pain and the voice in his head screaming ‘I don’t want to die alone’. The helplessness, he remembers, too, his arms aching from the cuts he put there himself and the way he had forced them to try and drag his weight. Helpless and alone, and scared. He knows what it’s like to die in the desert.

Cherri Cola has died before.

It’s not a big surprise to him when he dies again.

The Girl leaves him by the water cooler, saying she’s going to Dr. D’s for the night. He doesn’t believe her, not after her words at the concert, but Cherri Cola is wise enough to know that he has to let her go. Much as he would like to hold her and protect her forever, he’s already failed to do that when she really needed it. So all he can do now is support her in what choices she makes and not think about how he’s failing to protect her like he failed to protect the killjoys who died to save her.

She doesn’t come back, and Cherri knows he’s already failed. He leaves to help her anyways, that day, when the dreadful news comes that mom and dad are coming home at last. It’s broadcast on every radio station, a cry, a call, a desperate scream for help. 

For the first time in over ten long years, Cherri picks up a ray gun, the weight familiar in his hands. He flicks the safety off, ready to shoot, and flips the switch from stun to kill. Although it takes precious moments he can barely afford to waste, he takes the time to fire a few practice shots before he tucks it away in the holster. He can’t afford for his skill to be compromised at all for this mission- a single slip could cost the lives of many of the young ‘joys of the desert, hardly more than children. So once his ray gun is ready to fire, he pulls on his mask. Die with your mask on if you've got to, just as Dr. Death Defying said all those years ago.

He will die with his mask on, that day.

Cherri arrives to chaos, and he doesn’t hesitate a second before jumping into the fight. Within moments, he can see Motorbaby crouched, looking like she’s been hit by a stun shot as a Draculoid stands over her. There’s not a single second to think, so he doesn’t. He just acts, taking down the drac with a single well-placed shot. Cherri ignores the stares of the ‘joys around him, every ounce of his focus on the Girl.

“Cola?” Her voice is weak, but it’s present, and he breathes a tiny sigh of relief.

“I’ll take care of this.” He’s failed her so many times, he won’t fail her this time.

“Cola, Val killed D. I didn’t get there in time to stop him, I-“ Cherri’s heart breaks at the anguish in her voice as she steadies and goes on. “I shouldn’t have left you like that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” It’s more than okay; it’s his fault, really, but he doesn’t have the time or the words to express that. “Dr. Death Defying will be with our other friends soon. Now stay down!” 

It’s all the reassurance he has time to provide her as plasma bolts shoot past his head. Drac after drac falls to his ray gun, as easily as ever. Killing comes far too easily to him, or did. Now, it’s not quite the same, but he soothes the guilt that rises to choke him with whispers of ‘it’s for Motorbaby’. 

And he hardly has time to think, hardly time to breathe, before the Girl is trying to warn him. “Cola…behind you…”

There isn’t a second to move or dodge as a bolt hits him squarely in the back, and he knows he’s dead. Out of all the ways that he could have died, this one hasn’t been in his head for a long time, now. In his earlier days, in the Analog Wars, ‘in a fire fight’ would be a probable way for him to die, one he thought about often enough that he wouldn’t have been surprised. But by now, he’s been thinking he’ll fall at his own hands, not a scarecrow’s, for long enough that he’s still surprised as he topples to the ground. 

Dying in a firefight is nothing like the ways he’s died before. It hurts, of course it does, but in the detached way that means he’s already dead or close to that. It’s not a slow, painful death, it’s quick and fiery. Pain arcs through him, and he’s dead before he hits the ground. And despite the hint of surprise, he knows that he was never going to survive this fight. Like the Fabulous Four before him, he knew he would die for the Girl.

Cherri Cola dies, and he does not regret it.

The only thing he regrets now is that he can’t be there for the Girl as she stands up- or, rather, her spirit does. The Phoenix Witch scooped his mask off his face, and so Cherri is there too, but she keeps a firm grasp on his soul. There’s nothing he can do, nothing he can say, to the Girl his friends loved so and he loved just as much. They are not in the spirit world, nor even the borderlands, and Cherri is helpless once again. Helpless to speak, helpless to comfort her, helpless to resist as the Phoenix Witch sweeps away with him and countless other souls.

This time, there’s no Newsie to save him. She fell some three years back, and Cherri was not brave enough to quest into the Phoenix Witch’s domain as she did for him. Newsie wouldn’t have been able to save him anyways, he knows. This was his last chance, the Phoenix Witch told him oh-so-many years ago. His last shot at life, granted to him by the love of his sibling.

There may be no Newsie to save him, but when the Phoenix Witch crosses the last boundary of the borderlands where he once stood, there is a Newsie to welcome him. 

They laugh, presumably at his stunned face, running over to give him a tight hug with a “Finally, fucker!” 

“Newsie? Newsie, I’m sorry-“

“Why the fuck are you apologizing? You’re finally fucking here!” Newsie freezes. “Cherri, you didn’t-“

“I died fighting Better Living Industries,” he promises.

“Oh thank fuck. How is it out there?”

“Bad, Newsie, it’s bad. Motorbaby is alive, which is a ray of hope, but some asshole named Val killed D-“

“Oh, yeah, we know. He showed up and immediately started giving Pone shit for making the afterlife glittery.”

“I don’t understand it!” Dr. Death Defying is there, all of the sudden, looking quite distressed. “How do you even make the spirit world glittery?”

“Ey’s Pony, D.” Cherri can’t help but smile. “Ey can’t just not glitter-ify places.”

“That’s because I’m the gayest Pony in the desert!” Show Pony flashes him a smile as ey skates up.

“Sure are, Pone,” Cherri says softly.

Next is Hot Chimp, grinning as she gives him a small wave. “Hey, brother-in-law.”

“Hey, sister-in-law. Nice to see you again."

And finally, four familiar figures who he hasn’t seen in far too long step out, looking exactly how he last saw them but minus the grim determination. Instead, Party Poison is grinning as Kobra Kid gives him a small nod, and Jet Star’s gentle smile is just as wide as Fun Ghoul’s toothy grin.

“I’m sorry,” Cherri tells them.

“We forgive you,” Poison says with surprising gentleness. “We never resented you much to begin with, even if you are an insufferable bastard. We’d never ask you to die for us.”

"I would have." It's important that they know that; he never go to tell them when they were alive.

"We knew that." Poison cracks a small grin. “Pepsi.”

Cherri isn’t even sure if ghosts can cry, but they must be able to because his cheeks are wet and words suddenly seem very difficult as he takes a few shuddering breaths.

“Oh Witch, I think I broke Pepsi,” Poison mutters. 

Newsie flips them off and gives Cherri a playful glare. “Come on, don’t start crying now, asshole! We’re finally all here, or mostly, anyways!”

That only makes him cry harder, burying his face in his hands just as he did the day the Fabulous Four died. It's been a long time since he's cried like this, utterly vulnerable but happy for once, a bittersweet cry as opposed to one of sheer pain.

As it turns out, ghosts can’t only cry, but also hug, and Cherri finds himself wrapped in so many sets of arms he can’t even tell whose are whose. He thinks it’s Newsie’s shoulder that his face ends up buried in, is pretty sure that the hands rubbing his back are Jet’s, but he really doesn’t know. It doesn’t really matter, in the end, because he’s here with his family and that’s all that really matters.

Later, they’ll trade tales of what happened while they were all apart and Cherri will tell the Fabulous Four everything about the Girl he can remember, from her cat to the fight with the exterminators. He’ll pretend not to notice Poison sniffling or how choked Ghoul’s voice is, and they’ll pretend not to notice how his voice breaks when he talks about the day they died.

Newsie and Hot Chimp will update him on all the ‘tea’ of the land of the dead and how Newsie almost punched the Phoenix Witch, and D will give him a surprisingly (given the fact  that they’re both dead) warm hug, and promise that it’s not his fault for failing to stop Val. And of course, Show Pony won't let him get away without a little bit of shittalking his fashion sense and catching up on what's happened since eir death.

But all of that will come later. For now, Cherri’s family holds him tightly, and that’s all Cherri needs.

[daysfade]

Beginnings | Zone 5 Quarantine Fun Fair

Thanks to @killjoynest for doing this! It is also available on my ao3, if you’d like.

The Kids From Yesterday summary: The first time Fun Ghoul and Jet Star ever meet, and how a couple kids can be the start of something huge.

Eleven year old Jet Star sat in the back of the exterminator's car. They ran their finger along the line of the window, watching the high tension wires go by and pretending like someone was running along them. They laughed when the wires ended and they imagined the little guy falling off.

“Do you ever shut up?” Asked the exterminator. He was obviously annoyed with Jet, who’d been giggling and mumbling the entire time in the car.

“Nope.” Said Jet. They’d been living with their mom in a neutral town, but was taken in by a killjoy named Cherri Cola about a year ago. Jet wanted rebellion and Cola gave that to them.

The exterminator groaned. Maybe if Jet kept talking he’d actually let them go. The exterminator pulled over to the side of the road and looked into the backseat at them. Jet was a little scared, they knew they could get killed, but they didn’t give up their attitude. They wanted out! “Please,” the exterminator sounded exhausted, as Jet began to kick his seat. “Just stop this.”

Jet stuck out their tongue. “Fuck you.”

The exterminator opened his mouth wide. “Where did you learn something like that?”

Jet didn’t answer, instead they kicked open the door beside them now that the car was stopped and booked it away from the car. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked. The exterminator could easily start his car and take off after them, but Jet didn’t care much. This was their chance for freedom and they weren’t giving it up. Jet looked back to see the car speeding off in the other direction, and slowed down to take a breath. They made it!

Jet walked for a while away from the highway and hoped they could find Cola, or at least someone to stay with for a little while. They doubted they’d find Cherri Cola, though, but they could hope.

After a few days, Jet took a break sitting under a large rock with enough shade to catch their breath for a while. He’d been there for about an hour when a small face shaded with long black hair poked around the side of the rock. This kid was maybe two years younger than Jet and had a large, very visible scar running up the side of his face from his mouth. “Hello?” He nervously asked Jet.

“Hi.” Jet answered with a bit more confidence than him and waved. This was a kid, but maybe he could still help them out. They stood up and walked towards him, who didn’t back off- which was a good sign- and stood directly in front of him. “I’m Jet Star.” They smiled at him.

The kid still spoke quietly as he returned the introduction. “I’m Fun Ghoul.” He smiled just as hard and enthusiastically back. Maybe he wasn’t shy, maybe he just couldn’t hear very well. “D’you have anywhere to go?” Ghoul sounded like he was just as energetic as Jet when he asked, so Jet took his internal question to be a yes.

Jet shook their head. “No, I got taken by th’exterminator.”

Ghoul looked up at them with interest. “And you escaped?!”

Jet nodded “Uh huh! He stopped and I broke out of the car!”

“That’s so cool!” His shouting was louder than most, so this proved Jet’s theory. Ghoul just couldn’t hear well, so he’d have to remember to speak up around him. Jet didn’t know why he cared so much for him or tried to figure out why he talked the way he did since they’d probably never see each other again, but Jet was already fond of their new friend. Maybe they’d get to stick around.

“Fun Ghoul, d’you have a place to go?” They needed somewhere to go now, so maybe if Ghoul liked them too they could go back with him.

Ghoul nodded. “Yup! I have W-uh-KIL. Why?” Ghoul’s eyes went wide a delayed moment after he asked. “Oh, do you not have a family?” He sounded a bit sad and empathetic about it, so Jet knew he’d let them come.

Jet shook his head.

Fun Ghoul grabbed their hand and darted off. “Come on, it's not that far.”

Jet tried to keep up with him, but how the fuck was he this fast? Eventually Jet couldn’t keep up and had to slow down, tugging Ghoul’s hand and making him slow down too. Ghoul didn’t even ask what Jet was doing, he just went along with it. Jet was right, he and Ghoul were going to get along well.

After a few more minutes of walking through the sand and talking about where they were from, the two arrived at WKIL. Ghoul pushed aside a few planks out front, but let Jet go in front of him before following and pulling the planks shut. The radio station wasn’t very big, and it had a lot of equipment packed into a small area, but Jet liked the place already. It felt like home.

An older man in a wheelchair was seated at the station board currently, but music was playing so he could talk to them. “Hey Ghoul, who’s the tumbleweed you’ve brought in?”

Ghoul beamed at Jet, his new friend. “This is Jet Star. They don’t have a family.” Ghoul was very blunt about these things evidently.

“Would you like to stick around, Jet Star?” The DJ asked. He had a perfect radio voice, Jet was pretty sure they recognized it. This was DJ Dr. Death Defying.

Jet nodded quickly and vigorously. They wanted nothing more than to stay! This was exactly what they were hoping for since the moment they broke out of the car. Meeting Ghoul must have been fate, must have been the witch deciding their path ahead.

“Well that’s shiny,” The DJ sounded content with Jet’s decision, despite the fact that the radio station seemed cramped. This was their home now. “Welcome to the crew, Jet Star.”

Jet Star smiled at him and then turned to Fun Ghoul, who gave him a big hug. This was the start of something special, they could feel it.

[stressed-depressed-emo-mess]

Kayla Bueller’s day off (part 1)

(Quick PSA: This is not my oc, this oc belongs to Kayla and she let me write this. Bueller is not her last name, so this is just a giant reference to the movie how school sucks ass and you don’t need it. Go be gay in the desert t( -.-t). This is for @killjoynest and their Quarantine fun fair thing, and the prompt was Escape, so this is a little two-part backstory, the second bit coming in a day or two. <3)

Beginning | Escape

“Ms. Bueller, please pay attention.” Kayla jerks her head up out of her notebook so see her history robot wheeling itself over to her desk. It was getting hard to pay attention to a robot. Kayla, a 15-year-old girl, was just trying to make her way through the fifteen years of school that was forced upon her by this fucked-up excuse of a government. Her parents were firm believers that this was wrong, but like so many others, they had to keep quiet. The war might have only been three years ago, but it felt like a lifetime. In fact, the entire reason there was a robot standing in front of her was that a teacher was caught changing a lesson plan not two months ago. She was really bored and started drawing little flowers in her notebook until the rusty pile of bolts came over and ruined her fun. “You have one demerit remaining.”

‘Shit,’ she thought to herself. She had stopped taking her medication about a week ago, and she already lost two demerits in that span of time. She sighed and said, “I’m sorry.” and the robot turned and went back to teaching its class of twenty. Of course, Kayla went right back to looking out the window. The sky was grey, as usual, and there were hardly any people on the street at this time of the day, so it perks her interest when she sees a figure slipping out from between two buildings. From what she could see, the figure was wearing a bright blue jacket with black pants and- converse? Kayla had only heard about those kinds of shoes from her parents, she never thought she’d see a pair in real life. Her eyes were drawn to the person’s hair, which was a matching blue to their jacket, and slung over their shoulder was a burlap bag. They looked around to make sure no one was following them, and Kayla turned her eyes back to the teacher. She didn’t want to unintentionally blow the person’s cover by staring too much. She snuck a quick look back, however, and the person was gone.

***

Kayla spent the rest of the class thinking about the person- Blue, she decided to call them- and thank goodness it was the last class of the day. Now, she had all night to draw them, and think about where they came from, where they were going, and what they were doing- rebel stuff was so cool to her. She knew Blue was a rebel, who else would be able to get away with that hair around here, and she wanted to follow them so badly. Kayla knew that it was pure luck that she happened to be watching, but something in her gut told her otherwise; like she was meant to see that secret passageway. Those two buildings were like every other in her section of the city; skinny, tall, and exactly identical. She and her mother lived in a smaller apartment, she and her mom had their own rooms, but that didn’t mean they had any privacy. With only one bathroom, it was kind of hard to get any alone time other than her cramped room- which she was in right now. She sighs, and finishes the last bit of her math homework and sits back in her desk chair, rubbing her wrists and then stretching out. She walks over to her small closet, and reaches to the back, and pulls out her favorite outfit. She and her mom had made some striped black leggings and paired it with a red shirt and her favorite dark purple jacket. To top it all off, she had her combat boots- already broken in- and she was very proud of it. It was her own rebel outfit, after learning that you could wear whatever you wanted out in the Zones she immediately put this together. She even had her giant curly hair planned out as well. Kayla knew that she had an escape now- it was exhilarating. She looked at it, up and down, and imagined herself out there, far away from the prying eyes of BL/Ind. 

“Kayla! Dinner time!” Her mom called from down the hall, making Kayla jump.

“Coming!” Kayla shouted back, throwing the outfit back on the hanger and quickly returning it to its place in the back of her closet. She hurries down the small corridor and into the kitchen where her mom was putting the plate on the table

“Just in time,” her mother says, “how was school?” 

“I saw a rebel.” she blurts out, her mother’s eyebrows shooting up in surprise. She elaborates, telling her about Blue, and how she thinks there might be a way out.

“Kayla. That is not a good idea,” her mother says, putting her fork down, “I know we hate the corporation, but I will not have my daughter running around and getting shot. It’s better to have you here and you being safe than anywhere else. You don’t even know if this person made it back, and this passageway might not even work.”

“Mom,” Kayla whines, “I didn’t mean by myself. We could both go.”

“Kayla! With or without me you are not leaving this city! Ever! Now eat your food.”

Kayla and her mother finished their dinner in silence. When she cleans her plate, Kayla excuses herself to her room and quietly closes the door behind her. She jumps over to her closet, pulling out her outfit and laying it on the bed. She taps her chin thoughtfully, then dives back into the closet only to emerge with the belt she had forgotten about for ages. It wasn’t anything special, but it did have a heart for the belt buckle; that was pretty punk in her book. It’s exactly what the outfit needed. She changes out of her school uniform and reaches for her pajamas; she hesitates, hands heading for the jacket. She takes a deep breath and puts her outfit on, complete with the belt, and stands in front of her mirror. It still wasn’t quite right. She looks around her room for something, anything to add, and her eyes land on the bright red lipstick her mom had bought her. It was perfect. After carefully putting it on, she stands back to admire her handiwork. She was proud of herself. This was the outfit- she could feel the sand already. But when would she be able to go? She thinks to herself as she gets out of the outfit, folding it up and set it next to her backpack. 

‘I could always go after school… no, no I can’t do that to Mom… maybe if I convince her to come with me…’ she thinks through plan after plan- she knows she wants to go, but she doesn’t know if she can. What would happen to her mom if she left? 

She sits down on the bed, wondering if she’ll ever get to go when her mom knocks on the door, “Kayla? Sweetheart, I- I wanted to talk to you about this- before you get mad, just let me tell you, I’m terrified. I won’t be able to leave- I’m old, I’ve lived my life, I’m done. I have to stay here,” she comes over to sit next to Kayla on the bed, “but you, you’re 15. You have an entire life ahead of you, and I realize that you might as well be dead if you stay here. You’re going to be forced to be exactly the same as everyone else, I don’t want you to turn into a mindless follower. You should escape while you can. I love you, and this is the best thing for you.” 

Kayla turns her face into her mom’s shoulder and starts to cry, “Thank you, I- I just don’t want to leave you behind-”

“I’ll be fine, love. Now we gotta get you prepared,” she pulls away, a familiar glimmer in her eyes, and Kayla was excited as well. As much as she dreaded leaving her mom, she knew that her mom wanted her to be happy. She appreciated that her mother would put herself in danger for her daughter. Kayla followed her mother out of her room and down the small hallway to the only other bedroom in the apartment. Something was spread out on the bed and as Kayla got closer she realized it was a map. Of Batt city. How did she have this? 

“So, you said you saw someone come out of a passageway… here?” her mom asks, pointing to somewhere on the map.

“No, over here,” she says, pointing on the other side of the school, “I saw them during history class, that classroom is on that side of the building.”

“Right, and the front of the school is there, that classroom is practically at the back of the building, so we could sneak you there without anyone seeing… you won’t even have to go to school that day.” 

“That’s a good idea, students skip all the time- that’ll give me at least that day… Maybe I could find Blue and ask them to take me...”

“Who?” her mom looks at her sideways, and Kayla realized she never told her mom about the nickname.

“The rebel I saw today, it’s a nickname because of the hair,” Kayla says.

“Oh, ok. So are you ok with me just dropping you off back there?” Kayla’s mother asked. Yeah, Kayla was more than ok with that, but all she did was nod her head. “Alright, let’s get your shit together.” 

Kayla was surprised to hear her mom curse, but then she remembered that her mom was also helping her escape an evil corporate government so she probably should stop believing she knew what her mom was capable of. 

“You know, you have a really big day tomorrow,” her mom says, rolling up the map, “you should get some sleep. I can get you food before we leave in the morning.”

“Alright, Mom, thank you…” Kayla says, tearing up before hugging her mom.

“Of course, love. Now go to bed, we can’t have a sleepy Killjoy- especially on your first day,” she says, petting Kayla’s hair down. 

***

Kayla woke up, rubbing her eyes against the sun shining through her window, she sits up and takes a deep breath and smells- is that bacon? She shoots out of bed and runs down the hall to skid into the kitchen where, sure enough, Kayla’s mother was making bacon and pancakes, her favorite. 

“Good morning dear, you had better go get dressed,” she winks at Kayla, a knowing smile spreading across her face. 

Kayla can feel her face heat up as she retreats to her room to get her rebel outfit on. ‘So Mom knew.’ Kayla thinks to herself, ‘All this time, and she’s never said anything…’ she throws her hair back with a hair tie and some bobby pins. ‘I’m gonna have to cut this down when I get out there.’ She reaches over her bed to grab her backpack and starts sorting through her things to see what she would bring. She throws her headphones and her playlist into her bag, her black and red nail polish catches her eye, she grabs the lipstick and also decides to take her sunglasses with her as well. Slinging the backpack over her shoulder, Kayla walks out of her room and back into the kitchen where her mom was taking the last batch of pancakes out of the pan. 

“Well, well, well, look at you!” her mom says proudly, “All decked out, my color-clad killjoy.”

Kayla spins around to show her mom the extent of the outfit and laughs, saying, “Why thank you, I just hope it holds up out there.”

“Oh, it will. I’m just glad you had it already picked out, jacket and all,” her mother says, Kayla asks her how she could be so sure, but before she can, her mom is already plating the bacon and the pancakes. “Time for breakfast!”

***

The pair pulls up behind the school building, and Kayla can see the gap more clearly now. 

“It’s right there,” she says, pointing over her mother’s shoulder and towards the break in the buildings. 

“Alright. I think my job here is done. Kayla, I do have one last thing to give you before you leave-” her mom reaches behind herself to bring out something, Kayla’s teddy bear. “I know you probably don’t want it-”

“Of course I want it!!” she says, reaching out to hold the bear. She opens up her backpack and places it in, gently, and then goes to hug her mom. “I’m going to miss you so much…”

“I will too,” her mother says, holding her close, “but this is what’s best for you… now hurry, we don’t want to get caught.” They pull away from each other and Kayla’s mom rests her hand on Kayla’s shoulder. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom,” Kayla says, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "Goodbye," she says and her mom gives her one last smile. Kayla opens the car door, steps out, and darts across the street. She slows to a jog and peers into the gap, and she sees a glimmer of something shiny; a door. She turns back, giving her mom one last wave, and disappears into the passageway. Once her eyes adjust to the darkness she feels her way along the corridor to a wall of cold metal- the door she had seen from the top- and feels around for a handle. When she finds it, she pushes all her weight into it stumbling across the threshold and as the door closes behind her, she knew there was no going back. She had escaped.

[tmntxreader-fics]

TMNT Donatello x Reader: Sudden Interest

@mariamonteon97 asked: Hi, could I request a #75 for donnie?

Fair warning, it’s kinda long. 

Warnings: Cussing (as usual)

Word count: 2685

You and Donatello have never really been close. 

In fact, if you’re being honest, out of all the brothers he seems to be the most unapproachable of the four.

When April had described each of her “turtle friends’” personalities, you had been most intrigued by the intellect she had promised from the mutant who donned a purple bandanna. Upon introduction, however, there was disappointingly minimal interaction and no display of the intelligence you’d been expecting. 

Instead, you were appraised for a brief moment, a golden gaze behind ridiculously oversized goggles observing every inch of you in an almost clinical fashion. You could basically see the notes he was probably committing to memory based off of your appearance, to be simply filed away in the miscellaneous sector of his mind. Then, with a polite exchange of names, it was over. Donatello disappeared back into his lab where the only indication of his presence was the occasional muffled curse and distant clatter of metal. 

Despite this disappointment, you find that his brothers are easy enough to like; each offering a unique personality to bide your time with. 

You learn to hover-board with Mikey and bond over culinary adventures within the kitchen together, though that proves to be quite hazardous to your health at times. The leader of the troupe also occasionally invites you to simply relax with him and talk about mutual interests and individual perspectives.

Though, admittedly, you find it hard to remain at ease with Leo. His ice blue eyes are too intense and penetrate the soul even during the simplest conversations, proving it difficult to extended periods of time in his presence. On the other hand, you find Raphael to be incredibly straight forward with no hidden thoughts smuggled behind his gaze. He’s gruff, uncaring and wields a “charming” sense of humour that can only be redeemed by the depth of his personality.

Despite the observations you make of your new friends, there is one who has evaded examination. Even as the days turn to weeks and weeks to months, Donatello remains a mystery to you.

It almost feels as if he’s purposely avoiding you at this point, though, you can’t for the life of you figure out what you had done. What had you said upon meeting him that offended him enough to steer clear? 

It’s only now, seven months later, do you see him for more than a thirty second window since meeting him. Seated at the table with all four brothers, you find yourself precariously perched between Donatello and Leonardo on a rickety stool. There is a weathered game of monopoly set up on the wooden bench and you scowl upon landing on Donatello’s property.

He peers down at the board from behind his glasses, identifying the property name then sifting through his cards to find the cost of rent.

“One hundred and fifty dollars,” he states, gaze shifting from the cardboard in his hand to meet yours. Eyes narrowed, you hand him the pretend cash, fingers lightly brushing his palm. While you grit your teeth at the touch of his skin, he seems unbothered by the transaction. You catch yourself glaring at the board for more reasons than one as Mikey snatches the dice to roll his turn.

  As the game rolls on, you notice Raphael begins to grow heated in the battle against his competitors. You quickly remove yourself from the equation by not allowing your ego to be baited by his barbed comments that are thinly veiled as friendly smack talk. Eventually, the hot head doesn’t bother covering his remarks and outright goes for Donatello when he lands on the purple clad turtles’ property with three houses occupying the space.

“Five hundred and sixty dollars,” Donatello grins a rare, toothy smile and you find yourself almost dazzled by the rarity of the sight. He flashes another lopsided quirk of his lips when Raph groans, holding out his hand, “pay up!”

Meanwhile, the resident muscle looks as if he’s about to blow his top. At the sound of another snarl, everyone waits with baited breath in anticipation of his frustration. “You shouldn’t be allowed to play this shit, Don,” Raph snaps, slapping the money into his brothers’ hand.

“And why not?” Donnie shoots back, immediately sorting his new income into the according piles of his money.

“You’re basically a walkin’ computer,” Raph starts, his voice rough in which you initially assume to be frustration. However, when you see the red clad turtle shoot Mikey a mischievous glance, you begin to suspect foul play. “You got numbers, statistics and strategies up in that head and that’s all you know how to do. Playin’ with you is like playin’ against a bot, game might as well be rigged.”

You frown at the comments being made, then you realise that they’re simply being said to bait Donatello. The second the clever turtle bites, he will start to play irrationally, making bold and risky moves in order to both impress and thwart his competitors; that is when his brothers can move in to take the victory.

“What would you suggest I do, then?” Don says dryly, “Should I play blindfolded and plug my ears in order to give you a fighting chance?” 

Raphael leans in and you watch the unnerving grin pull at his lips. “Nah,” he snickers, golden eyes appraising his brother in an unsaid challenge, “I want ya to play a little risky. Show me what you got, Don.” 

The turtle in question quirks the ridge of his brow bone, shifting in his seat. 

“Don’t bite, Donatello,” you mutter before he can retaliate. Though your voice is gentle, the table falls silent at the sound of it. You continue, “they’re trying to throw you off your game, it’s the only way they’ll win against you.”

His narrowed eyes watch you carefully, an inquisitive gleam in his usually neutral gaze. Donatello licks his lips, tilting his head fractionally with a softly spoken, “noted.” 

Despite your exchange being brief, all occupants of the table remain quiet and motionless for a moment. You ignore the way Leonardo’s gaze constantly flickers between both Donnie and yourself, scrutinising eyes searching for something unnamed.

“Well, there goes any chance you had of winning the game too,” Raphael rolls his eyes, leaning back in his seat with a salty sneer. 

“If I come first thanks to manipulation rather than skill then that’s not a win,” you snark, snatching the dice from their place before him. “Not that you’d know.” 

His eyes widen and the sneer that twists his lips evolves into a mean grin, “oh, it’s on Short-Stack.” 

The game continues (quite aimlessly) for another half hour, until, the leader sighs deeply and bids you and his brethren goodnight. You tip your head in his direction, brows furrowing as you catch the last glance he sends you before striding from the room. 

When Mikey yawns, the jolting realisation of the hour hits you; time has flown and it’s much later than you anticipated. You don’t want to walk the streets of New York City alone in the dark but you also don’t want to burden the turtles to take you home. Raphael and Mikey’s patrol shift is not due for another couple of hours and you’re definitely not going to be able to stay awake until then.

“You can sleep here tonight,” Donatello murmurs, interrupting your spiralling thoughts. You glance up, taken aback by the gracious offer- coming from him, no less! His sight catches yours and he immediately glances away, resorting to reorganising his cards for the third time in a row. “I mean, only if you would like to. We can set you up on the couch; it’s much more comfortable than it sounds.”

You gape at him for a long moment, lingering on the way he stutters over his sudden uncertainty.

“Wow, Don,” Raph remarks dryly, reminding you of his presence. “First girl you invite over and you stick her with the couch.”

You briefly see Donatello’s eyes widen before Mikey croons disappointedly, “yeah, bro. That’s not how you treat a lady. You’re supposed to offer her your bed.”

The purple clad almost chokes on his saliva and your face is burning from both the audacity of the comments and your newfound embarrassment.

“No!” You splutter, catching the attention of all of those who sit at the table. You gather yourself before continuing, “No. It’s okay, the couch sounds great. Thanks, Donatello.”

The turtle in question exhales a little, as if allowing himself to breathe again. There’s a short silence as he regains his composure, his eyes flickering to meet yours with a gentle curiosity.

“You can call me Donnie,” he finally offers, standing to his feet quietly. “I’ll go get you what you need for the night.”

Watching his retreating figure, you assume that he’s talking about a pillow and perhaps a blanket.

“Damn, who knew you were such a killjoy! Let the nerd squirm a bit,” Raph chuckles, letting slip a groan as he stands to his feet. Your narrowed gaze follows his movements, unsure of whether he is being sarcastic or is simply an asshole. He eyes you intently from behind the red fabric of his bandanna, “Don’s real weird about ya so it’s fun to tease him over it- watch him suffer a bit for once since he’s good at most things.” 

Just an asshole then.

You try not to dwell on what he means by that, but the connotations were unnerving.

“Don’t worry babe, we’re just having fun,” Mikey shrugs, though his attempt to reassure you has the opposite effect. You try a smile in response but you suspect that it looks more like a grimace, provoking an intense eye roll from Raphael. The temperamental turtle waves his hand at you both dismissively before making his exit, what you assume to be his version of ‘goodnight’.

The chatter that ensues fades into background noise as the remaining excitable turtle leads you to the couch. “Donnie will be back with your stuff, but,” Mikey trails off cheekily, “if you need anything my bedroom is always open.” 

You roll your eyes and thank him dryly for the ‘offer’, you know for a fact that if you need anything you will be going straight to Leo’s room. At least the leader wouldn’t suggest that you should share a bed with him, which is what you'd guess to be Mikey’s first response. 

The mischievous terrapin shrugs with playful indifference, “the offer stands!” 

“Cut it out, Mikey,” a new voice calls from one of the tunnel entrances. Both yourself and the jokester turn to observe Donatello, eyeing the hilariously tall stack of pillows and blankets in his arms.

“Damn. What; is she meant to be making a fort with all that?” Mikey whistles. Turning to you, he adds, “if so, can I join?” 

“Mikey!” Your voice is blurred against Donatello’s and Mikey throws his hands up as a sign of surrender. 

“Alright, alright, no worries,” he rolls his eyes, “I’m going. Goodnight!”

You bid him good night, ignoring the subtle wink you receive as he turns and leaves the room. 

“So, I have here a few things you might need to make your stay here more enjoyable,” Donatello says, setting down the pile of sleeping material onto the couch. You can’t help but snicker at his travel agent choice of wording. He spares you a quick glance at the sound but continues to talk. “So, I know it gets chilly in here at night, hence why I’ve brought four pillows and four blankets. They’re all a different fabric, so you can choose which one you’d prefer to be in direct contact with you and the rest you can organise to your liking.”

Your eyes widen slightly, four different fabrics? The turtle literally wanted nothing to do with you just a few hours ago, now he’s providing an array of blankets to maximise your comfort? 

“Thanks, Donatello,” you say, visibly bewildered. He nods his head and places the materials onto the couch. 

“I’ve also brought you a bottle of water,” he says, unlatching a clear bottle from where it was tucked on the side of his utility belt. He grips the case lightly in his hands and offers it to you. Staring at him for a long moment you slowly take it with a small nod.

You have so many questions simmering beneath your skin as you both shift around in uncomfortable silence. He doesn't seem to want to leave just yet and you're not sure as to whether you should sit down with him sill there.

"Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?" The words blurt from your mouth, each syllable following in quick succession of each other. You almost want to slap a hand over your lips at the rude inquiry, though you refrain if not only to maintain your dignity.

Donatello's gaze hardens slightly, but not out of offence. He gets your confusion; he knows that his behaviour would seem odd to you and he doesn't expect you to understand the trip. Possibly because he doesn't quite know what triggered it himself.

He just simply wasn't expecting such a blunt question.

You almost regret opening your mouth when the silence stretches and you can't help but feel like a bug being observed beneath a scrutinizing golden lense. It's only when his expression softens and he scratches the back of his do you allow yourself to breathe, unsure of why you were so anxious to begin with.

"I realised that I had severely misjudged you. I'm trying to make up for it," Donatello mutters, a timidness to his voice that you have never witnessed previously within him.

Despite his words you can't help the indignation that claws at your chest, eventually climbing out of your mouth and into the air, "you never even gave me a chance.”

The turtle’s mouth closes softly, his silence encouraging you to continue, “You took one look at me and wrote me off completely.” 

“I know,” he stammers, “I know I was wrong.” 

“Then why?” You question with furrowed brows. What was it about you that repelled him so much? It was the million dollar question. 

“I just,” he just about squeaked, casting his gaze downwards. You’d have thought it impossible for someone his size to seem small; yet, Donatello seemed to be shrinking into himself further by the second. “I didn’t know what to expect after my... ‘experiences’ with April; I just figured it would be logical to avoid you to prevent any future problems.”  

You stare at him for a long moment, unable to form a coherent response. You had no idea as to what April and Donnie’s history entailed, you find that you almost don’t want to know. It’s clear that the reporter unknowingly had a detrimental effect on the turtle’s life. “What happened?” You find yourself whispering. 

He shakes his head, “I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore. What matters is that I had wrongly assumed you to be the same.” Finally he pulls his gaze from the ground to meet yours,.“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. 

You nod your head, a strange feeling swelling in your chest. With a small smile you say, “no harm done.”

He shrugs, knowing that your words were a lie. He scuffs a crescent moon shape into the ground with his foot, unsure of how to appropriately change the topic. 

You stick your hand out suddenly, watching as he flinches slightly from the energetic movement. He looks up at you, bewildered and confused. 

“Let’s start again,” you grin. You state your full name as if meeting him for the first time and gesture towards the outstretched hand. He hesitantly takes it, a goofy smile quirking at the sides of his lips. 

“Donatello,” he states, releasing a breathy sound of amusement border-lining a  giggle as the entire mood shifts for the better. “It’s nice to meet you!” 

You return the sentiment with mirth, buzzed with the opportunity of a clean slate and a prosperous new friendship.  

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

You punch like a girl (young!batsis)(OS)

Warnings: None Word count: 1559 Summary: young!Batsis defends the girls in her school against a bully

He was at it again. Rico Ware. Meanest boy in the whole third grade. Your definition of a bully. It wasn't like he bullied you, he knew about your older siblings and your dad, but every other girl in your class (and the other classes). You wanted to make things right and bring justice over your primary school (you're Bruce Wayne's/Batman's daughter after all), but you knew if you'd tell the teacher you'd be known as a 'killjoy' for the rest of your school-life, so you did the thing you thought your older siblings would do:  you challenged him. He towered over you in all physical categories: He was at least a head taller than you, wider and more likely stronger, but your brothers tried to teach you fighting (behind Bruce's back, even though he also did it) since you were able to walk. 

At first, Rico laughed at you for thinking that you could defeat him, but when you called him a coward he was all in. In the next break, every student knew that Y/N Wayne wanted to fight against Rico Ware, the boy even fourth graders didn't get in trouble with, after school, in the park a street over. At least ten people tried to talk you out of it, twenty told you that they wished you good luck, five made fun of you and a boy (who had a crush on you) told you that he would call an ambulance if something serious happens. You just rolled your eyes and continued with your day.

Then the moment came. The school was over. Class dismissed. All the kids ran over to the park. When you arrived there was a crowd of kids standing in a circle around someone and when the outer circle saw you it got quiet, except for whispers, and the crowd parted for you to walk through. In the middle of the circle stood, as you expected, Rico, with his sleeves rolled up, surrounded by his so-called 'gang'. "Thought you wouldn't come, dwarfy," he said and you responded with a huff, took your backpack off, laid it down onto the ground and took the cardigan off that Jason gave you when he visited last time. "Ready, Ricardo?" you asked teasing him with his full name that you only knew because Tim once taught you how to do research properly. He made a noise that sounded almost like a bark and faster then you could react you felt a sharp pain in your face. The kids around you went silent immediately and only a few gasps were hearable. It seemed like all the other kids just then realized how serious this was. Rico had punched you in the face, but you were pretty sure that your nose wasn't broken. You got up again since his punch threw you to the floor, and wiped the back of your hand over your nose to stop the blood dripping down from it. "Are you ready to give up and admit that this was the stupidest idea you ever had?" he asked in a baby voice. You took your hands down, ignoring your bleeding nose, and got into a fighting stance. A small smirk made its way onto your lips and with only five words the real 'fight' started. "You punch like a girl." Only seconds after the words left your mouth Rico came charging at you, unguarded just as you wanted. He tried to slap you, but you used your smallness to dodge it, duck under it and kick him with your heel in the back of his knee-cap. Surprised, Rico tripped over, but grabbed behind him, trying to take you down with him, but (unfortunately for Rico and very fortunately for you) Damian taught you only a few days ago what you should do in such a situation. You did exactly as you were told and used his hand to your advantage, grabbing it and locking it behind Ricos back making him cry out in pain. All you school-mates stood around you stunned and with their jaws dropped. You let go of Rico -who was sobbing and sniffing by now- and happily hopped over to your backpack, picked it up and turned around one last time, smiling and said: "I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop to bully girls who can't defend themselves or I'm going to defend them again." Rico just nodded and mumbled an apologie, before you turned around and happily walked out of the park, some kids still being dumbfounded, some cheering a bit, but all of them making space for you. 

You looked at the cute, melon-patterned watch on your wrist only to see that it was almost 3:30 p.m. and that you needed to hurry to meet Jason (who wanted to pick you up from school since he hasn't seen you in almost a month) at the entrance of your school. With that in mind, you started to sprint back to the school and through the building (that was luckily still open) and to the entrance. You got super-happy -and confused- when you saw your brothers, Cass and your Dad standing at the wall outside of the school. "Daddy!" you squeaked and ran over to your father. He picked you up, spun you around and after a few rounds he hold you under your armpits a few centimeters away from him. His happy smile (which was specifically reserved for you) got replaced by a very worried expression. "What happened?" he asked, sitting you down onto the hood of the car that stood behind him. Your siblings looked at you and instantly shared Bruce's worried expression. That's when you remembered the blood that was most likely still running down your nose. You fastly brought your hand up to your nose to stop the blood and said, dampened by your hand: "Nothing! I...I fell down the stairs," you quickly, and badly, lied. "Y/N/N, you know that we don't like it when you lie to us. You know you can trust us don't you?" asked Dick, kneeling down in front of you and giving you a tissue. "I know," you mumbled and looked down at your feet. "Did someone did that to you?" asked Jason who already looked like he would start a fight with a first grader if necessary. You stayed silent, not wanting to lie to them anymore, but also not wanting them to know the truth. "You need to tell us shaqiqa (←sister in Arabic). We only want to help you," Damian said with one of his eyebrows raised in suspicion. Cass, who stayed silent the whole time, pushed Dick gently away from you, took your hands in her and simply said: "It's okay," and with that, you threw your arms around her and snuggled your face into the neck, but you weren't sad, you were excited. "I fought and I won," you shrieked and wiggled your legs. Everyone looked at you confused. "What?" asked Dick. His life came crumbling around him. His little princess couldn't get in fights. Hasn't he hold Jason back enough in her early youth? Where did he (or Bruce) make his (their) mistake? You let go of Cass, jumped off the hood and said, jumping a little bit: "We have this bully in our class, Rico, who always bullies my friends-" you started, but got interrupted by your Dad. "You have a bully in your class? Why haven't you told us?" You just shrugged and continued: "Doesn't matter...So this boy is super-mean and I couldn't let him continue that and so I  challenged him-" "You what?" asked Dick shocked. You help your hand up to silence him and proceeded: "He accepted, but then when our fight began, he punched me reeeeealllly hard into the face and said I should give up and called me a dwarf-" "I'm gonna kill him," said Damian, but you whined: "Let me finish," and he held his hands up in defense. "So. He punched me and called me dwarf, but I told him he punched like a girl and then he ran to me, but I was able to dodge him and that I used the move Damian taught me last Friday and  he apologized to all girls and said he'd never bully again," you finished with a proud smile in your face. "Yes. That's my little bird," chanted Jason and Damian gave you a High-five. Cass picked you up and gave you a kiss onto the forehead. "I'm really proud of you, little fighter." "I'm proud too, but next time: please come to us or go to your teachers when you have such a problem, okay?" asked Bruce, ruffling your hair. "Okay Daddy," you smiled up to him and started giggling when Dick grabbed you from Cassandra's grip and started tickling you. While you were laughing in delight from being tickled by Dick, Jason and Cass, Bruce looked down to his youngest son and said: "We're gonna have a serious conversation about teaching Y/N moves later." "You can make that to a family gathering. I know for a fact, that I'm not the only one who teaches her," replied Damian, making Bruce sigh and rub his temples (even though he kinda figured that this would happen someday).

"Where's my favorite nugget?" asked a familiar voice from behind you. All of you turned around to see Tim, slightly out of breath, running towards you. He hugged you and said. "Sorry, I'm late. What have I missed?"

[enby-jetstar]

doesn’t have to all be destruction - Chapter 1 author commentary

Most of this will be under a readmore to make it easier to read. Read at your own risk, as this does include SPOILERS for later chapters! Please enjoy!! 

-----

-I feel like my prologue chapters are a little dry to read? Too much background information, not enough description. The writing style is very different from later chapters.

-don’t ask me how party and kobra knew what route to take to get out of the city because i have no idea lmao 

-i also never had a definite timeline for when party and kobra left the city? I think it was probably a week or two after they figured out they had powers.

-the gathering of rebels party came across the night they escaped the city was in fact a celebration of something big (probably a commitment ceremony or a birth or something similar); when they came back with their brother a couple of days later and found everything abandoned, it’s because the rebels had headed back home.

-because i didn’t have all the details figured out when i started writing, some of the details in the first couple chapters don’t really match up with stuff that comes later? The rebel who smuggled ghoul out of the city would have been a city rebel, not a desert rebel who’d snuck in.

-this fic doesn’t follow the canon timeline at all. BL/ind’s been in charge for about 75 years at the time the events of destruction take place, which is also about how long superpowers have been a thing.

-god ghoul’s backstory…..! I’m so sorry for doing this to you ghoul baby you didn’t deserve it 

-i really wish i’d made ghoul trans in this fic :/ let’s just pretend he is and he knew from a young age and so his parents changed his name to dante before he left the city okay? okay.

-i love writing party and kobra’s relationship….. My favorite siblings

-i just found a fucking typo in CHAPTER 1?? It’s been there for almost NINE MONTHS and no one thought to tell me that i called jet “Jet” at a point i should have been calling him “Gabriel.” i’m going to edit that as soon as i’ve posted this.

-jet’s dad’s death has come up a few times in comments and i have to say that i honestly didn’t mean to make it seem as suspicious as i did!! Jet’s dad died of totally natural causes, just not of something 14-year-old jet noticed. 

-ALSO THIS IS LITERALLY NOT CANON!!! This is another problem with not having all the details worked out: in chapter 1, jet’s powers activate and he accidentally kills his teacher’s wife. I later decided that jet’s powers had a limited range and that the ways he could influence things were also limited; he literally could not have killed this woman in the way described. I might come back and actually edit this out at some point, because it seriously just does not fit with later chapters.

-ALSO NOT CANON: kobra has no way of sensing anyone’s mind when they’re asleep. He couldn’t have sensed ghoul inside the shack.

-ghoul rambling to kobra inside his head is the cutest thing…..

-although ghoul relies heavily on kobra to control and direct his power, ghoul could learn how to control it himself if he worked at it. He was too scared to do so before he met kobra, though, and now he doesn’t really see the point/still doesn’t wanna risk it.

-the word that ghoul almost said in response to kobra blowing up a cactus was just “how?”

-this fic was originally gonna be titled “The Infamous Killjoys,” which was gonna be the name of their supervillain team, but my zucchini suggested naming it “doesn’t have to all be destruction” because they liked that line (kobra says it in response to ghoul’s doubts about his powers), and i agreed. I’m really glad i went with that, because that theme sort of carried on throughout most of the fic, with jet wanting to control his powers and all that happened later.

-making the superheroes the bad guys and the supervillains the good guys was really fun for me! Obviously there’s a few stories/movies and stuff out there that do that, so it’s not an original idea or anything, but it was a fun little role-reversal or whatever you wanna call it.

-jet’s my favorite character and that’s why i gave him the shortest straw of the bunch. Sorry jet star darling.

-----

This concludes my thoughts on Chapter 1! If you want anything expanded on or want me to address something else from the chapter, feel free to send me an ask. I’ll do Chapter 2 tomorrow, probably!

[meet-the-mun-kegan]

My District Manager (DM) is a fuckwad and here’s why, 

We got this new DM about 6mo-1y ago, I dunno when exactly, I wasn’t paying too close attention. We didn’t have a DM when I was hired, and everything was fucking superb.  When I was hired, we had our Store Manager(we’ll call him L), the Retail Sales Manager(Call her C), and our two Front End Supervisors(Jo and M). Jo got a better job, so J was promoted to FES and that was how it was for a while. L went to another store, and G was promoted to Store Manager. All was good. Everyone was relatively happy, with just a few personal qualms within the staff, but nothing serious.  And then DM comes along.  The first thing he changes, makes sense, so I don’t really blame him too much for that. It was just that before when we closed and registers were closed down, we all just kinda sat there and waited for the closing manager to count the safe and send numbers and then we left. DM wanted us still working and cleaning up the store. Aiight, I get it, you can have that one I guess, although you still don’t pay us enough, but whatever. After that, he wanted us to increase the amount of announcements we do. Usually, we’re supposed to do them every 15 minutes, but we don’t because that’s dumb and no one pays attention to them unless it’s about a sale, and even then they only hear what they want to hear. We literally have made announcements before that are like “Join us NEXT MONDAY, (DATE),  for our 50% off sale!” and someone will come up an hour later with a cart full of shit like “I thought the announcement said this was 50% off!?!?!?!” But whatever, so we did increase them to every 10 minutes. And guess what? People complained about how annoying the extra announcements were. The next thing he did was require us to all wear either aprons or vests, to “help customers know we work there”,,, which is bullshit, and no one notices. Do you know how many times I’ll be wearing that god damn apron along with my name tag, and be literally standing behind the register, and someone will come up to me and ask “do you work here?” I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter who you are, the moment you become a retail customer, you become a dumbass. I don’t care, no one is excluded from this. You could literally be the most intelligent person in the universe, but you walk into a retail store and now you’re instantly a total dumbass. No one gets away from it, sorry, I don’t make the rules. After that, DM decides that we’re not allowed to wear fun shirts anymore. Before, I would wear tons of fun shirts, often ones I’d find in the store, and people would compliment the shirts and ask where I got them, and I’d say here. They’d be like “Whaaaattt I had no idea you had cool shirts like that” (I work at a thrift store) and then they’d go back to the t shirts and come back with an arm full of fun shirts. People don’t get that excited about plain fucking solid color shirts. The fun shirts would also strike up conversations, like if I was wearing an anime shirt or whatever, which made customers happier because that’s a nice conversation, and then they come back or write nice things on the online surveys because man that one cashier was fun to talk to. Now I just go through the spiel and hope my resting bitch face doesn’t make people think I’m a heartless heathen. (spoiler alert, it has, and I’ve been called a “killjoy” and been told to “get a personality” because apparently even though I feel like I’m smiling, I guess I’m not??? And I used to get a ton of good reviews on surveys every month. Now I get barely any)

But all this is petty, now getting a bit more serious. Remember how I said he wanted more announcements? Well guess what that excludes? Closing announcements. We’re no longer allowed to make closing announcements. Literally every retail store ever makes closing announcements. We have had so many customers freak out because they were in the store a half hour past close because we’re not allowed to make closing announcements. We had customers who were actively listening FOR closing announcements and using that to keep track of time, and then they were screwed over because we’re not allowed to make closing announcements. Our store closes at 9pm, and usually the closers would leave before or around 9:30, but now they’re lucky if they get to head home before 10, which is hell for the high schoolers who then have to go home and do homework. He’s also very misogynistic and homophobic, he’s been reported to be rude and condescending to his female and LGBT+ staff, but treats his straight (cis)male employees (relatively more) like human beings. I was going to include an actual review about him that was posted on our store’s google reviews, giving a detailed account of how a customer has seen him be like this, but it has been removed. Go figure. I wonder who made that happen. Early January, one of the FES straight up told me that DM was on a head hunt. That he was after our store manager(G), the production manager(CT), and herself, and that he would most likely be after the Retail Sales Manager ( C ) soon after. A couple weeks later, he fires G.  Two weeks ago, he fired both FES and C and the Production manager in the same day. This at first came as a surprise to me, because one of the FES, M, wasn’t listed to be on that head hunt. In fact, she was the most strict on us and was keeping to DM’s new policies. But after thinking about it for a bit, and after hearing the petty ass reason why they were fired, I think I know what happened. I bet that DM wanted J, C , and Production manager gone so bad for whatever stupid reason, but he had nothing to get them on. Because they we’re good at their jobs and were loved by the staff. And so he finally found one thing they did that broke the rules, but M was also guilty of it, so he had to get rid of her too if he was going to use it. 

He’s now replaced all of them. One of them was replaced by one of our own cashiers, which is nice. but the rest are managers from different stores. One of which has to drive an hour to get there. Because apparently I can’t be promoted because he’s transphobic and will never promote me or give me a raise. The two (cis)male cashiers who would be able to be promoted, wont, because one of them quit immediately after hearing that C was fired, and the other one is on the fence about staying. The majority of us are. In fact, I was so close to just walking out on Monday after I was told that we’d have to take turns standing outside and spinning a sign for the sale, that no one fucking reads, in below freezing temperatures. And right now, as I’m typing this, I’m worried that I wont even get to walk out, because I’m probably next in line to get fired. Because of no fault of my own. But these dumb ass new managers didn’t schedule an opening cashier. So they called me last night asking if I could come in early to open. I said yeah sure, I know how to open, that’s my favorite shift. But then it snowed. I knew it was going to, but I didn’t think it would be that bad. I literally can not get out of my driveway. I messaged my work group chat asking if anyone can make it in, but I don’t think anyone has seen it yet. I’ve been calling the store for an hour, waiting for someone to get there, and someone finally answered. It was H, the new store manager, and she sounded irritated when I told her I couldn’t get out of my driveway. None of the old management would have been angry like that. They all saw us as human beings and knew that this shit happens.  DM literally fired all the management who recognized us as humans, and replaced them with assholes who only see us as robots, and they get pissed when we show any kind of clue that we might be anything other than cheap labor.

[johnandrasjaqobis]

First Line Meme

List the first lines of your last 20 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Got tagged by the lovely @solas-you-nerd, thank you !!!

1: Cloaks, Daggers, and Cigarette Smoke (Fallout 4, Nick/Deacon)

The logical part of him considered it absolutely idiotic to start travelling with this woman who seemed to attract trouble like a magnet.

2: Mayoral Privilege (Fallout 4, Hancock/MacCready)

The Third Rail was a considerably nicer place since Vic and his men had been forcibly extracted from the area.

3: Change in Administration (Fallout 4, M!SoSu&X6-88)

It was lucky for the both of them that the Director was so light.

4: or be taken out alive (Fallout 4, F!SoSu, Gen)

She made sure to switch off the radio on the Pip Boy before even stepping toward the door.

5: Breathe (Killjoys, D’avin/Alvis)

It had been a really long time since he had even tried for this kind of focus.

6: Attachments (Fallout 4, Nick/Deacon)

2289 snuck up on the Commonwealth with little fanfare.

7: The Turning Point (L4D2, OC survivors, Gen)

"I can't stop the bleeding…Dammit, Hank, give me that gauze."

8: Festive Deathclaws (Fallout 4, Gen)

Carly hadn’t really noticed Christmas pass.

9: Posting Bail (Killjoys, College AU, D’avin/Alvis)

D’avin would admit that it certainly wasn’t his first time in a jail.

10: Let It Bleed (Killjoys, D’avin/Alvis)

“So what are the chances of you lot making it back here alive?”

11: Speak (Z Nation, 10k Gen)

He couldn’t remember when he had last spoken out loud.

12: When Ghosts Speak (Mad Max/Pacific Rim, Max&Furiosa)

Everyone in the Shatterdome knew of Furiosa, even if almost no one knew whether or not that was her real name.

13: A Different Sort of House Call (House MD/Danny Phantom, Gen)

"House!"

14: One Step at a Time (MCU, Steve/Maria)

Steve was getting the feeling that he wasn’t technically supposed to be listening at this point.

15: The Fire is Coming (Helix, High School AU, Gen)

They always that this school would be better.

16: Homecoming (Helix, Sergio, Gen)

The moment he opened his eyes - barely squinting, it was hard to manage more, they have you drugged - it was easy to figure out that he was under fluorescent lights again.

17: What’s in a Name (Z Nation, 10k/Cassandra)

She knew there was a problem when she started shivering despite the fact that it had been warming up the further west they went.

18: Debrief (Helix, Peter, Gen)

They’d told him they were sending someone up with the CDC team – someone skilled enough to keep the cover while starting the process of cleanup.

19: And We’ll Piece It Together As We Go (Helix, Sergio/Anana)

You learn things about people when you’re on the run together.

20: Come Attrition, Come Hell (Helix, Sergio/Anana)

It was cold.

Patterns: wow uh that’s kinda hard, especially with how far back some of these go (lookin’ at you, House Call). I guess I almost never include names in the first line, which is interesting since a lot of them very specifically reference the POV character somehow. I dunno if there are many real patterns, but that was fun, oh my Helix days I miss them.

If you don’t have 20 fics feel free to just do however many you do have/want, or ignore it completely, or do it even if I didn’t tag you ??? @michiopa @galtori @keycchan @deprofundisclamoadte @absentlyabbie @littleblueartist @genocidershodan @nomette @aggie2011whoop @katrinajg