I love your writing and am really curious to see what you'd do with “How many elves are you trying to fit in this room?” for Hartwin
Aw thank you~ I’m a bit rusty, but this was still fun to write. Here’s a brief glimpse into my very much unestablished Hartwin magic!au.
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The door to the locker room has barely shut behind him when Eggsy hears a large crack from the training room, followed by a wobbly, shuddering wave that often accompanies unstable magic. For a moment, Eggsy considers ignoring it, but when the cursing starts his curiosity gets the better of him and he heads down the hall.
“Everybody out,” Harry commands, “And for gods sake Michael, stop kicking them, you’re making it worse.”
The door opens wider as the five remaining trainees do their best not to shove each other on their hectic exit. Sebastian is last, wringing his hands and still mumbling apologies when he backs into Eggsy.
“Agent Galahad- I’m so sorry-“ he starts again, but is interrupted by a thunk and a sharp shriek.
“Easy there, Sebastian. What’s happening in there?” Eggsy asks, trying to see what’s happening in the room.
“We were practicing summoning spells,” Sebastian mumbles. “But I seem to have made a mistake.”
Eggsy raises an eyebrow at him, and gestures for Sebastion to follow the others so he can peer through the doorway. Out of everything he was expecting, it wasn’t Harry, ankle deep in small, bearded creatures with pointy ears. One of them is making a break toward the door, and Eggsy throws up a ward with a quick flick of his wrist. The bearded creature bounces backwards off of it, and takes a moment to level a glare at Eggsy and bare its tiny, pointed teeth at him, ears pinned back to its head. They’re profoundly ugly, and he has to repress the urge to scowl back at it.
“How many elves were you trying to fit in this room?” Eggsy asks, and Harry takes a moment to level a less than amused look at him.
“Eggsy, don’t be ridiculous. Elves aren’t real,” he chastises, shaking his leg to dislodge one that had been trying to sink its teeth into his calf. “These are gnomes.”
“Then how many gnomes were you trying to fit into this room? It looks like you’re starting to reach capacity.”
There’s another small pop and another two more startled gnomes appear a few feet off the ground and fall into the pile.
“You don’t say,” Harry snarks, clearing a path through the small angry creatures with a wave of his hand, sending the ones in the way tumbling backwards into their brethren.
There’s still one clinging to Harry’s shoe, tiny hands wrapped around the laces as it attempts to chew through them. He gives it a brief zap, forcing it to let go and allowing Harry to step through the nearly invisible ward.
“Nasty little ankle biters,” Harry mutters as he straightens his sleeves, scowling at them as a wave of them collide with Eggsy’s barrier.
“So, we gonna dress em up in little fishing outfits and hats, sell em at the farmers market, or are we just going to lob a grenade in there and shut the door?” Eggsy asks as a few more appear out of thin air.
“No, we’re going to wait for them to disappear,” Harry says. “Shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Eggsy peers around Harry’s shoulder, fascinated. “Where’d they come from?”
“Sebastian was meant to summon a single gnome, but he got the intonation wrong and summoned ‘the gnomes’ instead.”
Eggsy snickers, and Harry raises an eyebrow at him. “Do I need to remind you of some of your first forays into magic?”
“Oi, I blew up a few tablets and set a bit of furniture on fire. At least I never opened up a box of infinite gnomes,” he points to where the gnomes are nearly a foot deep, roiling like the sea as they try to climb over each other. “’sides, Merlin’s told me about your first forays into magic.”
“Has he now,” Harry says blandly.
“I know all about the butterfly incident,” Eggsy grins, and he sees Harry struggle to keep the neutral look on his face. “And that one time in Malaysia.”
Harry’s eye twitches, but before he can storm off Eggsy laughs and steps forward under the guise of straightening Harry’s tie.
“You saw most of my magical mishaps while I was training, it’s only fair Merlin fills me in on a few of yours,” Eggsy teases, rocking forwards onto his toes so he can reach up to give Harry a quick kiss. He’s stopped scowling when Eggsy leans back, but before he has a chance to comment on it Eggsy realises that the gnomes are now at eye level.
“…how long did you say it’d be before the gnomes started vanishing again?” Eggsy asks.
“Oh, about another fifteen minutes or so.”
“And if the room is now three quarters of the way full with gnomes?”
At this Harry turns around, and the pair of them stare at the little gnome faces shoved up against the ward, angrier than ever.
“What was that you were saying earlier about the hand grenade?”
