Prompt:
Lullabies
Every father has a different song that they sing to their children. Arthur Weasley's was just different enough so each one of his children would remember it.
It was a bright morning at the Potter's house as the party got started. It was Angelina's baby shower and everyone that they considered friends or family was there.
"So, George, what lullaby are you going to sing to your kids?" Ginny asked.
George smiled, remembering the lullaby that Arthur sang to every single child of his.
"We'll see, Gin. Maybe I will come up with my own lullaby to sing our kids... What do you think, Ange?"
Angelina smiled at her husband. "I think that whatever you sing our children, will be very sweet, but you should probably cast a perfect pitch charm on yourself so you don't burst the children's ear drums."
"Oi! Ange! You are just too kind to your wonderful husband." He playfully punched her in the arm and with the look on her face, he rubbed the spot and kissed it.
"Anyone care to sing this priceless lullaby that we all hear about?" Audrey asked. Everyone knew that she wanted Arthur to actually sing the lullaby, but she didn't want to come across rude. Arthur took his cue and cleared his voice to tell the story.
"It seems like just yesterday..."
Arthur and Molly were walking around the stores in a small little Muggle village when they came across a new music store that had just opened. Molly was purr-using the aisles as they were looking around and she found a Muggle CD player. She pushed the first number that she saw: 7. The song that came playing out of the player was a melody that was soft and sweet. The lyrics sang of a sweet baby sleeping in their cradle as their father watches over them.
As the song played, Arthur listened to the words and felt as though he would always remember that song. The words were drilled into his heart and he almost felt a tear trickle down his cheek as he listened.
It was that day, a few hours after they had left the Muggle music store that Molly had told Arthur they were expecting Bill. Arthur now knew that he wanted to forget that song. The next day, he went back to the store and bought that CD. He played track number 7 over and over again.
Arthur never forgot the day his first son was born. On that day, was the first day that he sang the song to someone. He sang to William Arthur Weasley as Molly slept. Bill never really cried as he was singing to him, but Arthur did learn as Bill got older that he wasn't all that great of a singer. Arthur would sing that song every night to each of his boys. He would go into their rooms and sing to them one-on-one. He always thought that the singing was a secret thing between him ad his boys, but he did realize, about by the time Percy was 4, that Molly had always known, and that she would sneak down to listen to him sing his boys to sleep.
Arthur continued to sing the song and sometimes, he could get Bill to sing along with him in his little squeaky voice. Arthur always said that someday, he was going to teach his sons to sing that song so when they had boys, they could sing it to their kids, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought he should be the one to sing the song to his grandchildren. It would be poetic after all.
Arthur again cleared his voice, and started to sing this time.
You rest your eyes,
Sweet child of mine,
The day is done,
The night has come.
My child,
Sweet and innocent,
My child,
The one I love more than the rest,
Rest your eyes,
Sweet child of mine,
The day is done,
The night has come,
My child,
Precious in my sight,
My child,
Perfect in my light,
Rest your eyes!
Sweet child of mine!
The day is done!
The night has come!
So rest your eyes,
Oh rest your pretty eyes,
The day is done,
The night has come,
So rest your eyes.
When he finished singing, he noticed tears in almost every adult eye in the room, and Lily and Hugo had both fallen asleep in their father's laps. As he had sung that famous lullaby, he had looked around at all of his children, then his children in laws, then his grandchildren, and last, but not least, at his wife.
"Thank you, Arthur! That was just beautiful! Will you sing that to the girls every time you
watch them?" Audrey asked with brightness in her eyes.
"I would be honored to, my Dear," Arthur replied.
A new conversation broke out within a few minutes, but almost no one noticed that Ginny had raised her self from her seat on the couch next to Harry and walked over to her father with tears in her eyes.
"Ginny, Dear, what is it?"
"It's that song, Dad! You would sing it, and I would love it, but after a few years of singing it to me, it didn't really matter, it was just normal, but then when I went to Hogwarts that first year, and all that stuff with the Diary and Tom Riddle, and Harry saving my life, and everything, and you sang that song to me, and it has meant the world to me since. Thank you Daddy!"
Now it was Arthur's turn to cry. He held his little girl and they cried together over the memories of the lullaby.