31 Days of October - October 6 - Ficlet: Lily (Challenge #106)
Title: Lily
Summary: Pumpkin picking.
Characters/Pairings: Lily Potter, baby!Harry
Genre: Gen
Challenge: #106 Lily Evans Potter
Rating/Warnings: None
Medium: Ficlet
October Prompt: Harvest
Word Count: 474
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: No, thank you.
Lily had Harry, less than three months old, strapped to her chest, under her robes, his black-haired head laying against her collarbone. He warmed her in the chilled October air, his little body radiating heat. She stepped over a row of small pumpkins, headed for the back of the pumpkin patch, where the larger, fuller pumpkins sat. Sure, she could just as easily charm a small one to be bigger, to take up the space of the entire kitchen table, but this was one of those times when she clung to her Muggle roots. She wanted to find the perfect pumpkin -- large, round, with a bright orange face ready to be carved -- instead of simply charming the perfect pumpkin.
It had taken her a while to convince James that they ought to hand-carve a pumpkin that year, for Harry's first Halloween. He had idea after idea, all of which involved elaborate magic that wouldn't require the use of a knife. Perhaps it would even include firecrackers or smoke bombs or at the very least, some fog and smoke special effects. Lily couldn't say no to her husband when he bubbled over with excitement like that, but she also couldn't give in entirely. One pumpkin, she argued, let me have one pumpkin, carved by hand, with a single candle inside, a real Muggle Jack-o-lantern. He agreed.
She was careful and meticulous in her pumpkin picking. With one hand cradling Harry's head, she knelt down to turn over a few near her, but remained unsatisfied. It might take Lily hours to find the pumpkin she wanted, and as long as Harry stayed asleep or calmed, at least, against her chest, she would spend the time looking. With a gentle kiss onto his fuzzy head (Should she have covered his head with a knitted cap? She didn't know. She had a drawer full, most from Molly Weasley who was the most productive knitter Lily ever knew, but Lily hadn't even considered grabbing one on her way out. What kind of mother was she, letting her son's head get cold in the autumn breeze?), she turned to walk down the next aisle.
There. She spotted it. The perfect pumpkin.
It sat nestled behind two others, two that were lopsided and a bit green, maybe even a rotting brown, at the top. She hurried over to it, Harry bouncing a little, and just as she bent to pick it up, make sure it was actually the perfect pumpkin, he woke up. She gathered the pumpkin under her arm and tried to shush her son, who began letting out a wail that probably meant either 'I'm hungry' or 'why did you wake me up?'
No matter. Lily found her pumpkin and had harvested it from the field of others. This Halloween, Harry's first, would now be perfect, too.
Sarah / Gryffindor / 16 + 5 = 21 points
Summary: Pumpkin picking.
Characters/Pairings: Lily Potter, baby!Harry
Genre: Gen
Challenge: #106 Lily Evans Potter
Rating/Warnings: None
Medium: Ficlet
October Prompt: Harvest
Word Count: 474
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: No, thank you.
Lily had Harry, less than three months old, strapped to her chest, under her robes, his black-haired head laying against her collarbone. He warmed her in the chilled October air, his little body radiating heat. She stepped over a row of small pumpkins, headed for the back of the pumpkin patch, where the larger, fuller pumpkins sat. Sure, she could just as easily charm a small one to be bigger, to take up the space of the entire kitchen table, but this was one of those times when she clung to her Muggle roots. She wanted to find the perfect pumpkin -- large, round, with a bright orange face ready to be carved -- instead of simply charming the perfect pumpkin.
It had taken her a while to convince James that they ought to hand-carve a pumpkin that year, for Harry's first Halloween. He had idea after idea, all of which involved elaborate magic that wouldn't require the use of a knife. Perhaps it would even include firecrackers or smoke bombs or at the very least, some fog and smoke special effects. Lily couldn't say no to her husband when he bubbled over with excitement like that, but she also couldn't give in entirely. One pumpkin, she argued, let me have one pumpkin, carved by hand, with a single candle inside, a real Muggle Jack-o-lantern. He agreed.
She was careful and meticulous in her pumpkin picking. With one hand cradling Harry's head, she knelt down to turn over a few near her, but remained unsatisfied. It might take Lily hours to find the pumpkin she wanted, and as long as Harry stayed asleep or calmed, at least, against her chest, she would spend the time looking. With a gentle kiss onto his fuzzy head (Should she have covered his head with a knitted cap? She didn't know. She had a drawer full, most from Molly Weasley who was the most productive knitter Lily ever knew, but Lily hadn't even considered grabbing one on her way out. What kind of mother was she, letting her son's head get cold in the autumn breeze?), she turned to walk down the next aisle.
There. She spotted it. The perfect pumpkin.
It sat nestled behind two others, two that were lopsided and a bit green, maybe even a rotting brown, at the top. She hurried over to it, Harry bouncing a little, and just as she bent to pick it up, make sure it was actually the perfect pumpkin, he woke up. She gathered the pumpkin under her arm and tried to shush her son, who began letting out a wail that probably meant either 'I'm hungry' or 'why did you wake me up?'
No matter. Lily found her pumpkin and had harvested it from the field of others. This Halloween, Harry's first, would now be perfect, too.
Sarah / Gryffindor / 16 + 5 = 21 points