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You said fanfiction and you like Harry Potter, so here you go. I commit comment fic in your name. Lol

Trio ficlet that actually fits with a longer fic on AO3, but should be okay alone. Rated PG in deference to the location. :D

Edit: Came back to edit if needed now that I have time and realized I forgot the showpony. :)) Could I get this girl, please?


Dusty Racket

~*~

"Harry, tell me again why we agreed to this," Hermione whispered into his ear, pressing close to Harry's back as they watched the house on Grimmauld appear.

Harry shifted the invisibility cloak a bit to better cover them as they started across the empty street. "Because he was feeling nostalgic," Harry replied with a grin, "and you thought it would be romantic, sneaking about like we used to."

Hermione was silent until they reached the door, waiting for Harry to work the rather complicated unlocking charm she had put on the door before she asked, "Why don't I remember that?"

Harry snickered, opening the door and leading her inside to close it before he removed the cloak from them both and replied in a more normal tone, "Because you were sitting next to Mum at dinner and she kept refilling your wine. Fed you half the bottle, at least."

The hallway looked nothing like it once had, clean and bright even by the light of the lamp near the door. The wood had all been painted white and the old dark wallpaper replaced by a simple pale blue with ivy vines in all shades of green trailing down from the top almost at random, tiny white flowers blooming along the vines. The flooring was different too, the old dark wood covered by a long shag rug down the middle of the hall that greatly resembled an especially plush lawn. The overall effect was as if you had walked outside by coming in the front door.

Hermione's eyes widened as she stared a Harry. "Mum wouldn't do that to me!"

"Has she gotten her grandbaby from us yet?" Harry asked, stuffing the wadded up cloak into a pocket of his robe that definitely wasn't large enough to hold it, but did anyway because he wanted it to.

"But getting me drunk won't help with that," Hermione protested, laughing. She knew Molly would do just about anything to get another grandbaby. Teddy was getting old enough he didn't have time for his 'gramma Molly' now, instead following 'Poppy Charlie' as often as he could get away with, which was most of the time. Bill and Fleur had taken little Angelique with them to visit Fleur's family a month ago and still weren't ready to come home yet, so Molly had an empty house for the first time in several years.

"I know that," Harry said patiently, "and you know that, but Mum, she's willing to try anything, I think." He gestured down the hall towards the kitchen with a slight bow, smirking slightly as he added, "Ladies first, Mrs. Potter."

Hermione laughed and kissed him lightly, then walked towards the kitchen door as she said, "Of course, Mr. Potter."

"Speaking of, I wonder what he was off to do before?" Harry half-asked, grinning as he followed right behind Hermione. It had been five years since they got married, but he still enjoyed hearing Hermione or Ron addressed as Mrs. or Mr. Potter. He would have been glad to become a Weasley, but Hermione and Ron were right. There were a lot of Weasleys, but just the three of them were Potters.

"I've learnt not to ask when he's like that," Hermione said, grinning over her shoulder at Harry. She reached to open the kitchen door, moving into the darkened room as she added cheerfully, "Likely off to buy something embarrassing from that shop we found in Amsterdam."

Fireworks suddenly went off in the darkened room, lighting it long enough to see the whole family and many of their friends crowded in around the long table as they all yelled, "SURPRISE!"

Hermione fell back against Harry with a squeak, her wand appearing in one hand even as she began to laugh, blushing and watching more fireworks go off as she realized everyone had heard her. It wasn't as if it would surprise anyone, but she was still glad she hadn't said what sort of shop she meant.

The lights around the room flared to life suddenly when the fireworks ended and then everyone began to sing 'Happy Birthday' as Harry pushed her towards the cake sitting at the near end of the table piled with food and presents, singing just as loud as anyone.

Hermione laughed and let herself be guided, already starting to plan Harry's party.

Turnabout was fair play, after all.

To the Moon

“Take her to the moon for me, okay?” – Bing Bong

Riley smiled as she walked down the gantry towards Aphrodite. She was certainly a long way from Minnesota now. She had never forgotten Minnesota. Minnesota hadn’t forgotten her, either – the schoolkids of Minnesota were so excited that one of the Mars Five was from Minnesota that she was buried under emails and postcards begging her to come to their schools when she returned.

She still couldn’t believe she was here. She’d wanted to be an astronaut ever since 8th grade. Her family had decided to celebrate the successful IPO of her dad’s company by traveling all the way down the California cost. They camped in Yosemite and the Sierra National Forest, went to Death Valley and Joshua Tree, and had spent a couple days in San Diego and Los Angeles, including the fateful tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Once the bug bit her, she just couldn’t shake it. Tragic vampire romances were out. Space travel was in. She re-arranged the stars on her ceiling to first look like constellations as they would look from Minnesota, then from the Moon, then from Pluto, then Alpha Centauri. Her choice of movie for family movie night was always space-themed from Space Odyssey (ended in a massive popcorn fight) to The Martian to Red Planet to Lost in Space to Alien (though that one gave her nightmares at first) to Galaxy Quest. She took as many math and science classes as she could throughout high school and college, including Topology (twice. Never give up, never surrender!). Her father was more than willing to share his programming knowledge with her, and was unsurprised when she turned it to rover and satellite programming.

And now here she was. One the Mars Five, the first humans that were going to walk on Mars. While their mission was officially known at NASA as Jupiter VIII, a Facebook reporter had referred to the astronauts as the Mars Five in a livecast and the name stuck. Aphrodite would launch within the hour and would deploy her solar sails as soon as they left Earth orbit. All those years of preparation and the time was finally here. She didn’t know when she’d ever been happier. It wasn’t just joy she was feeling. She always got a little nervous, the little tickle of fear that crawled in her belly. She was sad she wouldn’t be able to see her family and friends face to face for almost two years. She was mildly disgusted that broccoli was included as the veggie in so many of their freeze dried rations. She was angry that this mission almost didn’t happen due to another last minute budget crisis in Washington. She closed her eyes and savored all these feelings.


Joy watched all of this through the monitor. Riley was born just a little too late for the moon missions. Mars would just have to do.

---

Pushing Higher And Higher

Shame on those poor, uneducated people. Galaxy Quest is amazing.

I've got a few more horses that would love to leave the barn they were born at, and see the world! Anyone may receive a show horse.

Beautiful! Thank you. Adding to my chat for you now.

Very nice! Thank you! Adding to my chat now for you.

Fandom: Hunger Games
Title: In Front of Me (Part 1 of 2)

In front of me is a stick bug. It is hard to see. Its very body is made to look like the tree in which it lives. They don’t run fast, and they don’t fly, they just hide and survive.

My youngest sisters call me Hanners. I don’t know why. It’s not really shorter than my actual name. There are seven of us all told. Seven sisters and one father and one mother buried in the tree roots. I am in the middle. Too young yet for school when mama died, but not too young to stay with daddy all day. One less to shuttle off to neighbors and trade food for child care. I don’t regret it. Martha had to become mama for all of us at ten. I got to go with dad to the logging sites and learn to climb trees. The foreman’s daughter is loved by all the loggers. First they set me to work pulling the sticks and twigs off the logs. Later I learn to sand boards and strip bark. Later I climb high and take care of the smallest and highest branches where no one else can reach. My younger sisters start school. Daddy teaches me to read from his ledgers.

In front of me is a praying mantis. They hold still, stiller than the stick bugs. Some look like leaves. Some look like sticks. They wait. They wait. Then they attack so quickly the eye can’t follow. They eat bugs. They survive, too.

In front of me is the Justice Building, and I have just been Reaped. One year from safety, and I have been Reaped. My sisters and my daddy troop in to say their goodbyes. Not see-you-soons, goodbyes. The little ones - not so little anymore, but seeming to act like small children again in the shock - are crying. Martha tries to hold them all together. Betty, the next oldest, who joined daddy and I in the forest last year, is trying to fight everyone. I watch as The Peacekeepers drag her away. Two of them pick up the littles and help Martha and daddy take them home. Martha gives me a necklace - a small piece of amber hung on some string. There is a fly caught in the amber. Don't be the fly, she tells me.

I think the last time I cried was when mama died. Maybe before. When I get off the train in the Capital, I bury my face in my hands and cry. I don't care if the cameras see me. Oleander frowns at me. He has never seen me cry before.

I close my eyes. In front of me is a milksnake. Red touches yellow; you’re and unlucky fellow. In front of me is a coral snake. David, one of daddy’s friends, taught me to know the difference. He told me how the milk snake dressed up to look like the coral snake so people would leave it alone. But now the coral snake has to fight the reputation of looking like the milk snake and is all the more angry for it.

In front of me is the Parade. We are trees. This is not a surprise. We wear crowns of holly and barely-there clothes of holly and jewelry of holly and shoes of holly. Holly is not native to District Seven. People used to plant it because it was pretty, but now it runs unchecked. We cut it down when we find it so that the stronger, straighter better trees can grow faster. Holly is only good for burning.

Oleander is standing tall, a grim expression on his face. Trying to be a warrior. I feel the tears leak from my eyes and can feel my make up running down my face. He has given up asking me what is wrong with me.

I close my eyes. In front of me is a polyphemus moth. Its wings are reddish brown, dusky, unassuming shades. But startle it, and you will see a pair of giant eyes staring back at you. The birds think they are a cats eyes, but they are really just eyespots that the moth can reveal when the time is right.

In front of me is the training room. I float among the stations, trying to keep my face confused while I absorb as much information as I can. I’m good with the plants and shelter building. We would set our snares to catch squirrels, but I have never tried to fish in my life. I know how to light fires for the controlled burns that make our forest stronger, but I've never had to camp over one, or start it from flint and steel. I don’t know how to find water in the desert, or what trees are safe in the jungle. There is so much they don’t teach you that they expect you to know before you go into the arena. While I study, I watch the others. Too fast. I’m not slow, but days on the logging teams have emphasized stamina over speed. I am too slow.

I don’t touch the axes.

I close my eyes. In front of me is a masked hunter. Just a baby one. It has coated itself in sand and dust and you can hardly see it. It hunts bugs.

I sleep during lunch, but sneak as much food as I can with me into the training room. I cry a lot.

In front of me is our private training session. I cry the whole time. I can barely handle the axes. I drop one on my foot. There are a dozen throwing axes, and I throw them all at the target dummy. None of them strike true. I try to hack the dummy with the larger axes, but none of them bite and they all bounce off. I look up at the gamemakers to see if they notice. Most them look bored or are chatting amongst themselves. One is watching me. He’s heavyset with pale blonde hair. He smiles.

I wonder if he knows. Knows how hard it it to drop an axe on your foot without loosing the foot, how hard it is to throw a dozen axes and have them all hit handle first. I burst into tears and hide my face in my hands. They dismiss me, and give me a three for a training score.

I close my eyes, and in front of me is a black locust. They don’t belong in district seven either- daddy says they really belong in 12- but they make good firewood, so we let them grow, chop them down, and repeat. Young black locusts are bad for climbing. They have spikes. When I was young, David says God cursed the black locust when it agreed to be Satan’s walking stick, it Daddy told David that I wasn’t old enough for those stories yet, and that David better not tell them anywhere near town. Martha said our names came from the stories, but she didn’t say any more because of the littles. It's unlucky to have names from the stories, she says. The Capital doesn't like it, she says. Better to be named for the forest.

In front of me is an Arena. It is a forest this year. It looks to be overgrown and full of tangled under bush. Not as wet as home, but still good. If I die here, at least it will be amongst the trees. There are mountains. Not big like my mountains at home, but big enough I suppose. No snow. Fewer people to share them with, at any rate. The air is hot and sticky. Let the Seventy-First Hunger Games begin. When the gong rings, I run. I saw the axes -large killers, handy hatchets, and small ones for throwing at the cornucopia, but I am not fast enough. I run for the underbrush, once I am far enough in, I climb a tree and watch as terrified Tributes scurry away, pursued by their predators. I stay still. I wait. I fall asleep in the tree. Six die that day, including Oleander. He tried to run for a weapon at the cornucopia.

He was not fast enough.

That first night, I cry quickly as I fix my clothes. I pull from amber from its string, and use a thorn from a black locust as a needle. I sew pine needles and leaves and sticks and flowers into my shirt. I cry the whole time that I miss home, but the next day, I am invisible in my trees.

I travel by nights looking for water. There are a few small creeks. There is no rain. I set snares. I gather plants. I hide and sleep whenever I can. Around me, people die.

Took me a little while to find a fandom I wanted to write a drabble for.


Happy Ever After

Thank you!

Added and added!