I wasn't going to prompt you with Runerva. BUT! I think given that the subject matter is custom-made for Runerva-- and given that you specifically *invited* me to prompt you with Runerva -- I better do it. ;) So, the prompt: Runerva, dealing with Halloween-related antics from their respective underage charges.
Also, here’s some Runerva for your birthday, @jeeno2!
“God, this is impossible,” Rupert muttered to himself asXander started to cry because Buffy got the candy that he wanted.
How had Halloween turned out so wrong once again? This hadthe stamp of Ethan Rayne all over it, which was impossible, because Rayne wascurrently locked in some impenetrable prison somewhere in Britain in some dealthe Watcher’s Council had struck with another organisation. They’d told Buffyand Rupert the broad details but had refused to divulge who exactly ran theprison. Willow had even tried Googling Azkaban Prison but it had no presence onthe internet – not even as a rumour. It was shady, but he knew they wouldn’tactually lie about having Rayne incarcerated.
So, he had no clue who turned Buffy and her friends intohyperactive six year olds, but he wished whoever it was would take pity on himand turn them back!
“There, there, Xander,” he said soothingly, “Maybe they’llhave some of that candy at the next house.”
And Rupert was stuck taking the baby Scoobies trick ortreating.
“Yes, Harry, you can keep all the sweets,” he heard behindhim. “No, you don’t need to collect them and then hand them over to Dudley.”
The Scottish burr was familiar, one that he hadn’t heardsince he was a student at Oxford and getting into all sorts of inadvisablemagical shenanigans.
“Minerva?” he said, turning and spotting an older version ofthe girl he’d lost his heart to years ago.
“Rupert?” she exclaimed back, just as surprised.
“What are you doing here?” they both said at the same time.
“I’m taking my…er…niece and her friends trick or treating,”Rupert said. “What about you? I thought you’d returned to Scotland to be ateacher.”
“Yes, I still am in Scotland, but I’m escorting some of my studentson a trip to California and we thought we’d take in Halloween over here!”
They both grimaced at the ‘spooky’ lighting, copious amountsof fake spider webs and slime that decorated the street before smiling alittle.
“It’s certainly something,” Minerva said before she got aglance at the small little red-headed boy who had somehow gotten hold of thephone that usually rested in Rupert’s pocked and was now staring at it withawe.
“Ron, you must give that back,” Minerva said.
“I’ve never seen Muggle stuff up close before,” the redhead,Ron, said before he tugged on the bottom of Rupert’s tweed jacket and added, “Whatdoes it do, Mister?”
“It’s a telephone,” Rupert said, a little amused. “Have younever seen a mobile phone before?”
“Well I have,” alittle girl with the bushiest hair he’d ever seen interjected before shestarted to spew forth facts about mobiles and which brands were better thanothers.
Rupert blinked a little dazedly before Minerva smiledapologetically at him. “Sorry,” she said. “They’re a little excited to be insuch a new environment.”
The sound glass smashing had him looking around and henoticed that Buffy was standing defensively in front of a kid with scruffylooking black hair and glasses. She was poking her finger aggressively into thechest of a much larger boy. “What you going to do? Hit me?” she was saying.
“Er…got to go,” Rupert said distractedly, keen to grab Buffybefore she put someone in hospital.
Before he could go and extract Buffy from the fight that wasabout to break out, several people just appeared in the street wearing blackrobes and silver masks of some kind.
“Merlin’s beard!” he heard Minerva exclaim behind him andturned just in time to see her bring out a wand and shoot some sort of spelloff at two of the robed people.
“You’re a witch?!”he yelled somewhat strangled.
“Can I explain over tea later?” she asked with an apologeticglance.
“There better be cake,” he replied as he pulled a sword outof his bag and stood by her side.
