It had been Henry's idea to have a picnic. He wanted to get out into the fresh air, sit around with his family and just be a family. Since Lily had told them about the baby, Henry had started to accept this version of Lily as his mother, and he wanted to spend time with her. Daisy had taken a bit of convincing, but Jasmine was easy to convince. She loved being outside, as the excitable toddler she was.
Lily and James spent an hour and a half making what Lily had deemed 'picnic food', which included sandwiches of varying types, little containers of cut-up fruit, and a lot of juice boxes. Henry was bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement while he waited, Daisy just rolling her eyes at her twin. He'd even found a blanket and a basket for them to use he was so excited.
When Lily finally called out that they were done, Henry bolted to the kitchen to grab the basket. Daisy followed behind him, rolling her eyes the entire way. He was such a kid sometimes, she swore. They were teenagers now, for Merlin's sake.
James chuckled at his son's excitement, ruffling his hair as they headed out. James had taken the blanket from Henry when Henry took the basket, as it was only fair.
Lily had apparently spotted the perfect picnic spot on her last walk, so she was leading them there. The entire time, Daisy was looking around and taking in her surroundings, just in case she needed to come this way again.
Finally, Lily showed them the meadow she'd found. It was full of, ironically, lilies and daisies, as well as soft green grass and some bushes. James laid out the blanket, Henry placing the basket on one of the corners and flopping down next to it.
Lily handed out sandwiches as everyone else sat down, smiling broadly. She was glad that Henry and Daisy were warming up to her, because she wanted to be there for them. She may not remember them from when they were babies, but she was here now and she wanted to get to know them as teenagers.
"Did you guys pick names?" Henry asked after a long silence. He was excited for a new little sibling, even if he loved Jasmine to bits. Little babies were just so cute.
Lily and James exchanged a brief look before nodding.
"Franklin," James told him, which made Daisy raise an eyebrow.
"You mean, like that turtle from those kids' books?" she asked, an 'are you serious' tone to her voice.
Lily and James frowned. A turtle? What was she talking about?
"You know, Franklin the turtle?" Daisy prompted. "Henry was obsessed with those books when we were still little. Kept getting Dad to read them to him as often as he could."
A look of recognition dawned on James. "Ah yes, that Franklin," he muttered. "Maybe that's where I got the name from."
"I still like it," Lily told him.
"What'd you pick for a middle name?" Daisy asked curiously. Her middle name was Violet, and Henry's was John. In Daisy's opinion, they had a bad track record with middle names.
"Dmitri," Lily said with a small smile.
"Isn't that Dad's middle name?" Henry frowned. From what he knew of his brother, Henry knew hat Harry's middle name was James. He figured it was fair to give one of their kids Dad's middle name then.
James nodded. "It is indeed my middle name. Not sure where my parents go it, but the little one is getting it from me."
"So you're sure it's a boy then?" Daisy hummed. A boy would balance out the numbers at the fort at least. Henry was outnumbered two to one at the moment.
"As sure as we can be," Lily shrugged.
They lapsed into silence as they ate, Henry getting a juice box dumped on him by Jasmine when he tried to give her a piece of watermelon.
It was close to sunset when they packed up to return to he fort, and James handed the blanket off to Lily so he could carry Jasmine, who had fallen asleep. Everyone else wanted to fall asleep, but managed to make it back to the fort before they crashed.
