✔️Out of the Veil (One-Shots!)

~Sandcastles and Adders~

Characters: Tom (Age 5), Bellatrix (Age 4), Harry.
Word Count: 2050
(Tom and Bella both want to make a sandcastle. It's Bella's turn but Tom is unhappy and he takes desperate measures for revenge. Harry has to give him firm consequences for his actions)

!Chapter contains the non-consensual spanking of a minor!

"I want to play with that too!" Tom whined. Bella was currently hogging the sandcastle toys and he wanted to make a sandcastle too. He had already collected the perfect sticks for his fence too.

Harry looked up from his book. "Tom, just play with something else and then Bella will give it to you after she is done," Harry said and went back to the book he was reading.

The little five-year-old huffed and went to sit on the edge of the sandpit a mere few feet away from the bratty girl who was hogging his toys. He continued to mumble under his breath about how unfair Harry was being.

Just then a snake slithered by. He didn't know why but he loved snakes and he recognized this one to be an Adder. He knew the snake bites, especially of an adder hurt a LOT, he had seen a boy at his orphanage get bitten and his whole hand was red and he cried.

"Hellooo ssssnake" he hissed in parseltongue.

"Hellooo little ssspeaker," the snake hissed back.

"Can you dooo me a favourssss?"

"Yesss ssspeaker, Kaiya will lissstenn to ssspeaker,"

"Goo bite herrr, ssshe's being veryy mean to meee" Tom pointed to Bella who was happily playing with his sand toys. The snake slithered closer to the oblivious little girl.

Harry, whose ears perked up at the sound of someone speaking parseltongue, heard and saw everything. He quickly got up and vanished the Adder which was a mere foot away from Bella. Tom looked shocked and Harry was livid.

"Bella, we are going inside," he said, barely managing not to yell. "Now," he added when he saw the girl open her mouth to protest. Bella wasn't always eager to comply but also knew better than to cross Harry when he looked so red from anger. She hurriedly piled up her sand toys into the bucket and hurried inside through the backdoor.

"You," Harry pointed to Tom. "In my study, now!" He was redder than tomato now. Tom wanted to argue. He was guilty but Harry could hardly prove that. People didn't understand what he said in Parseltongue anyway.

Harry paced around for a moment not sure as to how he was going to handle this. If only Ginny was here! She would always calm him down no matter what happened but she had chosen today out of all days to go visit Mrs. Weasley with the kids. Tom and Bella wanted to stay behind so Harry could look after them. Harry thought about it a bit more. Tom had deliberately tried to hurt Bella. Tom was 5 and knew more about snakes than Harry himself did. There was no way he didn't know how dangerous adders can be to children.

Tom (even though he was only 5) was on a sort of probation with the ministry and they're just barely holding back because they don't have a legitimate reason. Something like this would most definitely get him chucked into Azkaban.

Tom was also pacing around the study trying to think of a good lie but Harry was furious! Denying he had absolutely anything to do with this would be the best course of action. After all, Harry couldn't prove anything anyway.

The little boy heard the man open the door. Harry went to sit on his grey armchair and called Tom over. Harry pulled Tom between his knees and placed his arms around him.

"What were you thinking?!" Harry asked, he was much cooler than he was before but he was still pretty mad. Bella and Tom were far

"Nuthin'! I did nuthin'!" Tom attempted to lie.