positively bedeviled

uh, absolutely! here, have two from a fic where James and Lily come back through the veil at the end of OOTP

***

“I can,” Harry protests, but more for the spirit of the thing. He can’t even get a hand up to steady the bucket when he pukes.

“You made me wait in the hallway,” James says patiently. “Now you have to endure my hovering.”

Lily snorts from the other side of the bed. She’s got some incense burning and a tincture Ted left stirred into very weak tea for their boy.

“Serves you right,” she tells Harry. “Your dad doesn’t know what to do with all the clucking he saved up.”

“Like a chicken with a complex,” Sirius puts in. “Let him hold your snack, kid.”

Harry cracks one eye and glares with it. “You’re lucky I can’t feel my hands.”

***

“Help me understand.” Sirius keeps his voice open. No accusation. He’s still paying off the debt of thinking Harry ought to be a new James. He can’t get this wrong. “From where I’m sitting, it’s a good thing.”

“Yeah. You know them.”

There it is.

“They want to know you.” Sirius swallows past a sob or a hunk of guilt or a curse upon Peter’s name. “It’s not your fault they don’t yet.”

“I saw them, after the third task.” Harry kicks his feet. “At the graveyard.”

“Oh?”

Harry’s never told him details about that night. Or anyone, really. He knows nothing beyond the debrief he had with Dumbledore and the quick, gentle touch he managed to Harry’s shoulder while he slept in the hospital wing. Not that they’ve had time, of course. It strikes Sirius then, how little time he’s really spent with his godson. Who’s been talking to him, helping him grow?

hi!!!! a bit of cabaret plot from an altogether too long exes to lovers WIP:

***

“It’s just wrong!” Moira’s voice, which had been detached and almost amused by David’s histrionics, goes high-pitched and pleading.

David lowers his hands and narrows his eyes, looking closely at his mom. “Okay,” he says on an exhale. “If it’s wrong, then I can fix it.”

Moira smooths a hand over the front of her skirt. “If you insist, David. Though I hope you can have it ready at a reasonable juncture.”

My PLEASURE.

***

“You aren’t supposed to be in here,” the Healer insists. “Mr. Black, I don’t want to call security after…everything, but this isn’t permitted.”

“I need to be here,” Sirius says again, patient as he can. He can’t meet the woman’s eyes, focused as he is on Remus’s curled-up body in the bed behind her. “Please, can you just look the other way or something? Just until he wakes up.”

Right Before Your Eyes | read on AO3

Gladly! It's a 5+1 (written in Johnny's POV because apparently I hate when writing is easy) about Johnny trying to engineer family bonding and it (mostly) going wrong. Here's a bit from #4:

--

"Unbelievable, Moira. This is unbelievable. Our kids are--"

"Unbelievable, dear, I heard."

Johnny points at her. "Right." This whole thing was far more effort than it was worth. Johnny can't be expected to do everything for this family. What a bunch of entitled--

"John?" Moira asks. "Did you, perhaps, neglect to tell our progeny of this Dickensian little get-together?"

Mostly I'm mad at myself because writing Johnny POV is VERY VERY VERY hard! But the gist is a 5+1 about family bonding Johnny tries to initiate, like 5 times it didn't work and one time it did. Here's a bit from #2:

--

"Moira, can you grab the kids please?"

Muffled shrieks over the sound of the water in the shower are the only response he receives, which he knows from long experience is a reluctant yes.

"I'm going to grab the game from the car. Five minutes, dear!"

A bang on the door is his confirmation.

"What am I looking at?" David asks half an hour later, after Johnny stands at the foot of his bed and tugs his leg hard enough that he finally rises, muttering about stretched fabric and maligning the tailoring of Johnny's suits for some reason.

"It's Monopoly, son." Honestly, he wonders what those tuition bills for private schools that encouraged open inquiry and critical thinking went to sometimes.

"Thanks," David says. "Why is it in your room?"

"We're having a game night." Johnny rubs his hands together. This was one of his better ideas.

Patrick the traveling music festival organizer! And David the Schitt's Creek transplant who can't believe that his family went through all this bullshit with Eli and *still* can't spot Patrick as a scammer! This fic is over 3/4 done and it's high on my list once I finish the fic that's almost post-able. Here's a bit from David and Patrick snipping at each other:

--

"David," Patrick says politely. It's so annoying, the way that he acts like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Okay. So he's got to stop rereading Fried Green Tomatoes before someone gets him a fainting couch and hand fan. This week has been stressful, and no one is taking him up on his banned books display.

"Patrick."

The cool tone must snap something behind Patrick's glossy veneer, because his smile slips before he ratchets it back into place. "Is there something I can do, David?"

"Excuse me?"

Ahhhh of course!! The idea of this one is that David and Alexis fall out of the sky and Patrick finds David. Then the two of them are looking for Alexis together. Here's a lil snippet/the best joke I've ever made:

--

“You have a Schitt candle,” David breathes. Wait. “<em>You</em> have a Schitt candle?”

“Yeah,” Patrick says dejectedly, holding out the stumpy bit of wax. “I have a really shitty candle.”

“Oh my god,” David mutters under his breath. But still, maybe there’s a silver lining to this whole cloud thing he’s got going tonight, except that metaphor has never made sense and also it was a fucking necklace that knocked him out of the sky, not a cloud and certainly not a cloud with any kind of lining. Time passes slowly while David thinks, weighing his options. He can either make it clear to Patrick that he’s right—and he does so love being right—or he can make a grab for the candle and hope it’s got a long enough wick to get him to Alexis. He lifts a hand, then sighs when the chain wrapped snugly around his wrist chafes.

thank you @maxbegone for the tag!

post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it. and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

(this isn’t all of them but all of them is TOO MANY so here’s six)

exes to lovers

sweet home alabama AU

stardust AU

music man AU

ski instructor fic

HAHA johnny pov

"No! No-no-no-no-no-no-nooooo!"

David sighs and nudges Patrick's bag toward his husband with his foot. "Honey, I'm sorry; you were outvoted. This is just as hard for me as it is for you."

In this moment, Patrick can't believe this is the man he married. "You can't just force me to take a day off, David--that's not how co-owning a business goes!"