Fluff for your Monday
Hermione smiled down at Emily. “Emily, why don’t you run on ahead and ring the doorbell?”
“Yes, Mummy!” Emily agreed readily and scampered down the front walk while Hermione lifted Andy into her arms and grabbed one of the bags while she did so.
“Harry, can you get the rest of the bags?”
“I’ve got them.”
Reassured, Hermione turned to greet her mother who had accompanied Emily back down the walk-accompanied as in being led by the hand, Hermione noted with some amusement. “Hi, Mum.”
She accepted her mother’s kiss on the cheek.
“Hermione, here you are! We were expecting you almost an hour ago. Here, let me take Andy from you.” Claire Granger smoothly reached out to take Andy, who went willingly, with a cry of “Nana!”
“Oh, here’s Nana’s favorite boy! Andy, you’ve gotten so big!” Claire exclaimed, giving Andy a kiss on the cheek before setting him down. “Come along, both of you, inside. Nana has cookies for you.”
“Cookies!” Emily and Andy exclaimed in messy unison and ran off towards the house.
Harry and Hermione exchanged quick smiles. “Do my ears deceive me or did your mum just offer the kids cookies?” Harry asked quietly.
Hermione grinned. “Don’t look like that, Harry. I’m sure they’re sugar-free.”
“Whew,” Harry said with exaggerated relief. “I was beginning to wonder if the pod people had taken over your mum’s body.”
Hermione laughed as she preceded him into the house. “Honestly, Harry!”
“Harry, Hermione, there you are,” Doug Granger greeted them, only to pause to stare at the bags each of them was carrying-Hermione’s two smaller ones and Harry’s three larger ones. “Good grief, what is all that?”
“Don’t look at me,” Hermione said, laughingly disclaiming any responsibility as she set her bags down. “I only packed this one small one; Harry’s responsible for the rest!”
“Harry, I thought you were only going away for the one night?”
“We are,” Harry assured Doug. “But I wanted to be sure the kids would have everything they might need. Emily can’t do without her stuffed animals and I had to pack their favorite books and Andy can’t sleep without his blanket, you know. Plus, we needed to bring several changes of clothes since there’s no telling what they might spill on their clothes.”
“Well, it looks like you packed up half the kids’ rooms and brought it with you,” Doug commented.
“He nearly did,” Hermione laughingly informed her father.
“I did not!” Harry protested. “I only packed what I thought was necessary.”
“Funny, how your definition of ‘necessary’ somehow expanded to include just about everything in the kids’ rooms,” Hermione quipped.
Harry’s lips parted to defend himself but he was interrupted by Emily and Andy who ran into the room, each holding a cookie in their hand.
“We got cookies, Daddy!” Emily announced.
Harry greeted Claire with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, before addressing Emily. “I see that, Emily-kin. Did you say thank you to Nana?”
“Thank you, Nana,” Emily and Andy chorused in messy harmony.
“You’re very welcome, my dears,” Claire smiled, ruffling Andy’s hair. “And once you’re done eating the cookies, there are surprises for you upstairs.”
“Ooh, presents!” Emily exclaimed.
“Oh, Mum, you really shouldn’t have,” Hermione said mildly.
“It’s nothing much. I was going through the attics and found some of your old toys and books that I thought they might like,” Claire answered before changing the subject. “Now, how have you been feeling lately?”
Hermione made a face. “I’ve just been tired all the time. I basically doze off every time I sit down for a minute and I can’t seem to concentrate well.”
“But you haven’t been feeling sick?”
“No, not much. I just don’t like feeling so listless all the time.”
Claire patted Hermione on the arm. “It’s only for a few more months, Hermione, and it might go away before then.”
“I hope so!” Hermione said fervently.
“Nana, Nana!” Claire’s attention was demanded by Emily. “We finished our cookies. Can we go up and get our presents now?”
“Emily,” Hermione remonstrated mildly.
Emily looked momentarily sheepish but then gave Claire her best angelic smile as she quickly rephrased, “May we go up and get our presents now, please, Nana?”
Claire laughed, ruffling Emily’s hair. “Yes, you certainly may.”
Emily’s angelic act lasted just long enough for her to say, “Thank you, Nana,” with scrupulous politeness and then was abruptly discarded as she squealed “Presents!” and raced upstairs to be followed by Andy as quickly as his shorter legs would allow him.
Claire laughed as she caught up with Andy and lifted him up in her arms to carry him the rest of the way.
“You and Mum will spoil them terribly if you keep giving them gifts every time they come to visit,” Hermione scolded her father mildly.
Doug gave her a look of exaggerated innocence. “Don’t look at me. Your mother’s the one who found all your old toys.”
“And I’m sure you tried very hard to dissuade her.”
“Since when have I ever been able to talk your mother out of anything?” Doug asked with mock surprise.
Hermione only laughed and shook her head.
Doug’s gaze moved to where Harry had opened up one of the bags and was neatly setting out a row of stuffed animals. “Good heavens, Harry, did you bring every toy the kids own?”
“I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t want any of their toys and then not have them. Andy never plays with any one toy for very long,” Harry explained lightly enough. “I also packed their favorite blankets and their books. Bedtime is at 8 but it always takes them at least half an hour to get ready. They usually only get one bedtime story but can get two if they’ve been good. If Andy wakes up in the middle of the night, he’s usually pretty good about falling back asleep. Emily likes to be sung to when she wakes up in the middle of the night. They both tend to wake up early but Andy will almost definitely be up and bouncing around by six.”
Doug looked over at Hermione with a quizzical smile on his face at this long recitation. “Do you know, Hermione, I seem to remember that your Mum and I have taken care of a little kid before and she doesn’t seem to have turned out so badly.”
Harry had the grace to look a little sheepish and Hermione laughed at him, even as she addressed her dad. “Don’t mind Harry; with the way he’s been fretting over this, anyone would think we were abandoning Emily and Andy for months. I’ve been expecting him to cancel this weekend and announce that we couldn’t possibly leave the kids alone.”
Doug chuckled. “Well, I was planning on letting the kids play with scissors but I guess I won’t.”
Harry managed a laugh. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to relax.”
“Daddy, daddy, look! Me got a pony!” Andy hurried down the stairs, clutching a stuffed black horse. A very familiar black horse that brought back a flood of memories to Hermione.
She went and knelt down by him, reaching out a light hand to touch the horse’s mane. “This used to be mine, did you know that, Andy?”
“Yours, Mummy?”
“I called him Blackie and we had a lot of adventures together so you’ll have to take good care of him, okay?”
Andy nodded vigorously. “Me will, Mummy.”
“And I got a knight and a princess!” Emily said, proudly displaying her new possessions to Harry.
Harry promptly put on his best impressed face as he studied the toy knight mounted on a horse. “The knight seems to be missing his sword,” he said mildly.
“No, Daddy, see,” Emily explained patiently. “The princess has the sword.”
“Ah.” Harry carefully refrained from looking at Hermione to keep from laughing at this very Hermione-like modification, noting that the sword, clearly taken from the knight, had instead been taped to the princess figure’s hand. “So the princess rescues the knight, does she?”
Emily nodded. “Mm hmm. I think it’s better that way, don’t you, Daddy?”
“I do,” Harry agreed solemnly, thinking for at least the millionth time that there really was no doubting whose daughter she was. He heard Doug cough in place of a laugh and studiously avoided glancing at his father-in-law as he went on. “Boys do get into trouble a lot and then they need girls to rescue them.”
Emily beamed at him. “I knew you’d agree with me, Daddy,” she declared with such perfect confidence that Harry’s heart clenched. And he could only hope desperately that somehow, he could be the man his kids thought he was, could only wish that he might never disappoint them and would be the father they deserved.
“And Nana gave us books too!”
“That was very nice of Nana and Grandpa so you and Andy should be very good for them, okay, Emily-kin?”
“We will, Daddy.”
Harry smiled and dropped a kiss on Emily’s forehead before straightening up. “That’s my good girl. Remember Mummy and I will be back tomorrow.”
Hermione bent to give Andy a hug, lifting him briefly off his feet before setting him down again. “I want you to be a very good boy for Nana and Grandpa, okay, little man?”
Andy nodded vigorously. “Andy be very good,” he promised.
“Now go say bye to Daddy.”
Andy promptly scurried over to fling himself at Harry’s legs only to be caught under his arms and lifted up, giggling, so he could throw his arms around Harry’s neck. “Bye-bye, Daddy.”
Harry kissed Andy’s cheek and then put him down again.
Hermione hugged her parents.
Harry hugged Claire as well before shaking Doug’s hand. “Thank you for watching the kids for us.”
Doug waved a dismissive hand. “It’s nothing. You know we love having them over. Claire’s liable to kidnap them if we don’t see the kids enough, you know.”
Harry laughed. “Still, thanks. Hermione will have her mobile with her, just in case, and we can use the Floo network to get back here in an hour, if need be.”
Doug nodded.
“And do you have Ron’s phone number too so he can take you to St. Mungo’s if necessary?”
“Yes.”
“And what about―”
“Harry,” Hermione interrupted mildly, “I’m leaving without you if you don’t leave now.”
“Okay, I’m coming.”
He ruffled Andy’s hair and lightly touched his knuckles to Emily’s cheek in a habitual caress before joining Hermione just outside the door.
They glanced back as they reached the car to see that Claire had lifted Andy up into her arms as they all waved.
“Have a good time in Paris!” Claire called.
“We will,” Hermione answered, waving back.
He felt her glance and then she asked, “Are you all right?” as they drove off.
“Of course. The kids will be fine and we’re going to be gone barely more than 24 hours as it is,” he blurted out and then inwardly grimaced. His answer would have been more convincing if he’d just stopped at a simple ‘yes.’
Fortunately, Hermione didn’t comment on his irrational worry, only responding with a noncommittal “Mm hmm.”
And of course, he was being irrational. He knew that. Hermione’s parents had baby-sat the kids before, albeit for only hours at a time since he and Hermione had never left the kids overnight before, and everything had been fine. Besides which both Emily and Andy enjoyed spending time at their grandparent’s house, no doubt helped by the fact that they got gifts of one sort or another on every visit.
He smiled to himself at Emily’s gift this time.
“Hermione, how old were you when you decided that the princess should be the one wielding the sword?”
Hermione laughed softly. “Just a little older than Emily is now.”
He was silent for a minute, mulling over the thought of his little girl, his princess, seeing nothing at all unusual in having the knight be rescued by the princess. His little Emily-kin, so young, but already showing signs of being every bit as clever and strong as Hermione. Every inch her mother’s daughter.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way. It was, he thought, with a sudden rush of emotion, all he could wish for his daughter.
“You’re the best role model Emily could ever have,” he told Hermione quietly.
He felt her glance and sensed rather than saw the slight smile curve her lips. “I love you too, Harry.”
Answering his thoughts, rather than his words, characteristically for her. He kept his eyes on the road but reached out with one hand to squeeze hers briefly. “Happy birthday, love.”
And neither of them said anything more for the rest of the drive home. But, as always between the two of them, nothing more needed to be said.
~The End~