She who plants a garden plants happiness

~:~

Why does Lily want James to be quiet when he comes home?

~:~:~

James opened the front gate of the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow and at the same wonderful moment, the front door popped open too. James forgot his security question. "Hullo!"

Lily pressed a finger to her lips instantly. "Sssshhh!"

"What?" James hurried up the path. "Have you had trouble getting Harry to sleep?"

"No, not that at all!"

"Oh!" James remembered. "A security question!"

Lily waved this away. "Not that. Hush up and come on in!"

"But I ought to," said James stubbornly. "Give me a moment to think." He racked his brains. None of the Order of the Phoenix were using fixed security questions, as Dumbledore had said the chances of a Death Eater getting two random pieces of trivia right were much slimmer than torturing a fixed question out of someone. "Er – what really annoying thing did I do when we were seventeen?"

"Stopped asking me out every time you saw me," said Lily, looking nearly as put out as she had then. "Now come on in!"

James stood his ground. "And you ought to ask me one."

Lily looked at him. "Why did I marry you?"

"Lily! That's unanswerable!"

"Quite," said Lily firmly. "So shush!"

"But-"

At this point Lily administered a kiss as a form of Silencing charm and dragged him into the house.

"I took Harry out in the sunshine while I did some gardening," she whispered, hauling James steadily towards the back door. "And then Sirius came. He said you were worried sick about leaving Harry and I while you were off on an Order mission-"

"Thanks a bunch, Padfoot!" James broke out indignantly. "I only said-"

"Never mind what you said – Hush!" Lily opened the door. "You just have to see! He helped me move a few buckets of weeds. Then he found that a bit strenuous, so he went to 'mind' Harry. And, well-" Lily giggled. "It seems they both found that a bit strenuous..." She pointed, and James stared.

On a blanket on the bench, curled in a ball in the sun fast asleep, lay Harry.

On a blanket in front of the bench, stretched out in the sun fast asleep, lay Padfoot.

~:~:~