68 - Spirit
Title: We'll be waiting
Author: apostrophe_ess
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR, I merely gain from playing these games in her playground.
Pairing/Character: James, Lily (from the other side) and Harry Potter
Word Count: 647
Rating: G
Prompt: For potterverse100, number 68 - spirit. Prompt table here
Summary: In the future James and Lily are willing to do anything at all to be with their son.
Author's notes: I originally wrote this last year, but am including it now as one of my allowed pre-challenge writes. It's a really, really busy week without a second to be seriously creative, so hopefully this is better than nowt!
We'll be waiting
"James, James. Come quickly." Lily called to her husband who was leaning lazily against the wall. "The door, it has to be him. Come on."
*** ***
Both of them had waited for the day that Harry would arrive at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Unknown to most (though they suspected that Albus Dumbledore would know) they’d sneaked in to live in a minor portrait in an almost forgotten corridor and set themselves up to guard over a cupboard containing incidental furniture from a disused Professor’s quarters. Over the years few students had passed by. Undeterred James had insisted that Harry would, that living with Sirius, his godfather, there was no way that he wouldn’t have the Marauder instinct. He turned out, of course, to be exactly right.
The corridor for a day or two had been a hive of activity. First Professor McGonagall, then Professor Dumbledore, and then Filch, had passed by. None of them had really changed Lily noticed on one of the many occasions she’d dashed back out of view as a pair of eyes bobbed their way. They were all a little older but still as sprightly or as ugly and annoying (in the case of Filch as James had corrected her) as they’d always been.
The last such visit had taken place just a few days before, when Dumbledore and Filch had installed a large object into a room nearby.
“It’s a mirror James,” Lily had told him flopping into his lap on the floor of the portrait when she returned from her afternoon walk. “A huge mirror, and I think you could work out how to get into it, if you wanted to.” The winning smile and the nuzzle into her husband’s neck, as usual, got Lily what she wanted. For a few days James used his knowledge of all things magical to make his way from portrait to mirror, and on succeeding was greeted with the view of a large room, disappointingly empty except for a further stack of old furtniture.
*** ***
“Happy Christmas love.”
“Do you think he’ll get it today?” James asked. His Invsibility Cloak would make a brilliant present for Harry; he’d wished all along that the instruction had been for him to have it this Christmas as a gift from the two of them.
“I don’t know. If he does I’m sure we’ll know though.”
The day passed unexplainably slowly. Perhaps because it was Christmas, or perhaps because they wanted so much to see Harry today, the first chance of seeing him on Christmas Day since his very first when they were all together.
*** ***
“James, James,” Lily called to her husband who was sitting in a corner of the room, inspecting his fingernails. “Come on, come and see.”
“Is it him?” He jumped up and joined Lily, his hand resting over her shoulder, to see a younger version of himself, very thin and with a nasty looking scar, looking back. “Wave to him, see if he can see us.”
“He’s coming closer James,” Lily said needlessly with excitement.
“Wave again. He’s talking to us.” Together they waved, and nodded towards Harry. Yes, they told him, they were his mum and dad.
Lily tried to lean out and hug her son, she’d missed that so much. Her arms had been empty for too long. Harry came forward, pressed his own hands against the glass. Could he see the tear fall down her cheek, or hear James coughing a little to clear his throat.
“That was nice,” Lily said afterwards, ages later when finally Harry had gone. “We saw him, like we wanted.”
“He’s great Lil, isn’t he?” James picked Lily up and turned in fast crazy circles with her till they were both laughing and ready to fall over.
“He is. Do you think he’ll be back?”
“Well be waiting if he does. Just like we always have been.”
Author: apostrophe_ess
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR, I merely gain from playing these games in her playground.
Pairing/Character: James, Lily (from the other side) and Harry Potter
Word Count: 647
Rating: G
Prompt: For potterverse100, number 68 - spirit. Prompt table here
Summary: In the future James and Lily are willing to do anything at all to be with their son.
Author's notes: I originally wrote this last year, but am including it now as one of my allowed pre-challenge writes. It's a really, really busy week without a second to be seriously creative, so hopefully this is better than nowt!
We'll be waiting
"James, James. Come quickly." Lily called to her husband who was leaning lazily against the wall. "The door, it has to be him. Come on."
*** ***
Both of them had waited for the day that Harry would arrive at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Unknown to most (though they suspected that Albus Dumbledore would know) they’d sneaked in to live in a minor portrait in an almost forgotten corridor and set themselves up to guard over a cupboard containing incidental furniture from a disused Professor’s quarters. Over the years few students had passed by. Undeterred James had insisted that Harry would, that living with Sirius, his godfather, there was no way that he wouldn’t have the Marauder instinct. He turned out, of course, to be exactly right.
The corridor for a day or two had been a hive of activity. First Professor McGonagall, then Professor Dumbledore, and then Filch, had passed by. None of them had really changed Lily noticed on one of the many occasions she’d dashed back out of view as a pair of eyes bobbed their way. They were all a little older but still as sprightly or as ugly and annoying (in the case of Filch as James had corrected her) as they’d always been.
The last such visit had taken place just a few days before, when Dumbledore and Filch had installed a large object into a room nearby.
“It’s a mirror James,” Lily had told him flopping into his lap on the floor of the portrait when she returned from her afternoon walk. “A huge mirror, and I think you could work out how to get into it, if you wanted to.” The winning smile and the nuzzle into her husband’s neck, as usual, got Lily what she wanted. For a few days James used his knowledge of all things magical to make his way from portrait to mirror, and on succeeding was greeted with the view of a large room, disappointingly empty except for a further stack of old furtniture.
*** ***
“Happy Christmas love.”
“Do you think he’ll get it today?” James asked. His Invsibility Cloak would make a brilliant present for Harry; he’d wished all along that the instruction had been for him to have it this Christmas as a gift from the two of them.
“I don’t know. If he does I’m sure we’ll know though.”
The day passed unexplainably slowly. Perhaps because it was Christmas, or perhaps because they wanted so much to see Harry today, the first chance of seeing him on Christmas Day since his very first when they were all together.
*** ***
“James, James,” Lily called to her husband who was sitting in a corner of the room, inspecting his fingernails. “Come on, come and see.”
“Is it him?” He jumped up and joined Lily, his hand resting over her shoulder, to see a younger version of himself, very thin and with a nasty looking scar, looking back. “Wave to him, see if he can see us.”
“He’s coming closer James,” Lily said needlessly with excitement.
“Wave again. He’s talking to us.” Together they waved, and nodded towards Harry. Yes, they told him, they were his mum and dad.
Lily tried to lean out and hug her son, she’d missed that so much. Her arms had been empty for too long. Harry came forward, pressed his own hands against the glass. Could he see the tear fall down her cheek, or hear James coughing a little to clear his throat.
“That was nice,” Lily said afterwards, ages later when finally Harry had gone. “We saw him, like we wanted.”
“He’s great Lil, isn’t he?” James picked Lily up and turned in fast crazy circles with her till they were both laughing and ready to fall over.
“He is. Do you think he’ll be back?”
“Well be waiting if he does. Just like we always have been.”