#it's not oct31 i keep telling myself

[enigmaticemperor]

It's November 10th. Not October 31st.

Written for @hinnyfest

#10 I’m so lucky to be able to live this life with you

James giggled and flailed his legs around as Harry tried in vain to get him to stay still.

“Come on, James,” he cooed, “Let Daddy change your diaper. You don’t want to sleep in poo, do you?”

“Poo-Poo!” James told Harry seriously, pointing to his diaper. He turned fifteen months old today and they went all out, a massive party with their friends and family at their home, wanting to make a new memory to signify a Potter child turning fifteen months old. 

Harry was surprised that James still had the energy to do all this, when he just wanted to close his eyes and drift off, preferably cuddling with his wife. James was always a hyperactive kid, though, he surmised.

“I know, Jay. Poo-poo. That’s why I’m trying to change it.” He showed James a clean one to get him to understand. 

He might have understood, as he stopped moving around. Harry let out a sigh of relief but James immediately started clapping his hands and shouting, “Bubba!”

“Bubba?”

James nodded vigorously and said, “Dada! Bubba!”

“I think he means bubbles.”

Harry turned around to see Ginny leaning against the doorframe, in one of his old Gryffindor hoodies, which submerged her, going up to mid-thigh, covering her underwear, not looking like she was five months pregnant. She had a radiant smile adorning her face, her arms were crossed, and her fiery red hair cascaded down her shoulders in waves. Harry thought she was becoming even more beautiful every day.

“Oh! So you want bubbles, Jay?” He turned to James and smiled.

James returned a toothy smile, clapping and shouting “Bubba!” the whole time.

Harry took out his wand and silently made different coloured bubbles of various shapes and sizes appear out of the tip as James fell silent and stared mesmerised, trying to poke the ones that floated near him with his tiny fingers.

He was immediately flooded with a memory.

He remembered the scene through Voldemort’s eyes.

James Potter was making Harry laugh, conjuring multicoloured bubbles out of the tip of his wand, moving around swiftly as Harry wobbled around, trying to chase after the bubbles and giggling loudly every time his tiny fingers popped one.

Lily Potter was smiling and laughing along, looking at them adoringly and full of love.

He remembered Voldemort feeling a perverse pleasure at the pain he was about to inflict on the family as he blasted open the front door.

He didn’t know there were tears running down his cheeks until James wobbled over and hugged him around the waist. He hugged his son back as a pair of freckled arms enclosed both of them and Ginny started lightly kissing his spine, whispering sweet nothings.

He hugged James tighter, kissed his forehead, and James grinned at him. Harry went back to changing his son’s diaper and James didn’t even complain once. His attention was reclaimed by the bubbles. Harry gave a watery chuckle.

He picked James, who immediately snuggled into him, right thumb in his mouth and his left hand reaching for Harry’s hair, twirling it around his index finger.

He turned around and Ginny immediately placed a hand on his heart. She understood him so well. His heart swelled with love for his wife, and both his children. He wouldn’t have dared to dream of this seven years ago.

“I’m so lucky to be able to live this life with you.”

Ginny looked at both of them. She didn’t even want to imagine Lily’s sacrifice not being enough or her children being hunted down by a power-hungry monster. She just couldn’t.

“Me too.”

Constructive criticism is always welcome!