MONDAY: Babies
Hello! I'm arnica and I'll be your ridiculously excited guest host for this week. It's Monday and your theme for the day is Babies! Human babies, alien babies, babies on doorsteps, and babies at home. Give me grumpy babies, laughing babies, and babies that won't stop crying.
As always, please follow the rules:
• No more than one prompt per post, three ( Read more... )
As always, please follow the rules:
• No more than one prompt per post, three ( Read more... )
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Remus finds Lily on the back porch.
She’s sitting in a rocking chair, curled in her grandmother’s crocheted blanket. Her fingers are picking mindlessly at the holes, her eyes looking out over the horizon. She doesn’t turn when he pulls up one of the wooden footrests - a wedding gift from her father - to her chair.
“I’m not ready for him to grow up, I don’t think,” she says after a few moments. She brushes the hair from her face and rests her cheek in the palm of her hand.
Remus glances back behind him, where Sirius and James are crashing through the kitchen, chasing Harry around on his toy broomstick. Sirius trips over a Matchbox car and goes flying into the stove; this does not faze him, though. He disappears from view.
“Harry or James?”
She laughs quietly, then sighs. “He’s only a year old. Aren’t I supposed to go through this when he turns eleven? When he goes off to Hogwarts?”
He rubs his hand over her arm soothingly. “Everyone goes through this. Every mother, every father - even grandparents. Godfathers. Sirius almost had a breakdown last night. Scared to death about the future.” He looks out over the small backyard, gazing out into the woods surrounding the house. “He nearly started crying.”
“Oh, Sirius,” Lily says fondly. They sit in a peaceful silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the night. Owls hooting in the trees; the soft breeze ruffling the grass; Sirius, James and Harry laughing, laughing, laughing - “You love him a lot, don’t you?”
“Sirius?” Remus ducks his head to hide the grin threatening to curl across his mouth. “I suppose.”
She laughs, sudden and loud and quite like a schoolgirl - Remus jumps a bit in his seat, but grins. “He was mad about you for years. I can’t believe it took you this long to get together.”
“For years? This long? Hypocritical, I should say, Mrs. Potter.”
She slides his hand into hers and squeezes. “And poor Mr. Pettigrew? Think he’ll ever find a girl?”
Sirius swings, quite suddenly, through the doorway. “Peter?” He laughs. “Christ, no. Not unless she is covered in frosting and chocolate like a pastry.” He squints at the ceiling for a moment before raising an eyebrow at Remus.
“Oh, God,” he responds, and covers his face with his hands.
“Why is everyone out here?” James appears behind Sirius, breathless, his glasses askew. “Harry Potter is one year old, and he’s going to break every goddamn vase in this house and you are missing every second of it. Now excuse me, but I am going to go inside to watch my son follow in his father’s footsteps and become the best goddamn Chaser Hogwarts ever had.”
He goes back into the house. Sirius leans down and kisses the side of Remus’ mouth, quick, before following.
“I think he’s grown up,” Remus says, and she smiles.
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