A Day to Remember

Lily's sleepy eyes blinked open as Ginny changed her into pajamas. Ginny did the last buttons and then allowed her ten month old baby to squirm away and toddle to her toys. Ginny sighed—Lily had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from the seaside, and bedtime would have been so easy if she had stayed asleep.

"Reg sweeping sand," squeaked a very small voice at the door. Their two-year-old elf, who stood about as tall as Lily, bounced in with a dustpan. He began gathering up the sandy clothes that Ginny had taken off of Lily.

"We could clean tomorrow, Reg."

"Reg not tired. Not getting to work for you a-day," he explained.

"Okay, thanks."

The Potters always treated Reg as well as they could. Harry, especially, hated seeing the ways that house elves' lives reflected his own childhood, but Ginny grew up with wizarding tradition and found it easier to accept that Reg was a different species. He was growing up much faster than human children and in a few years would be an expert on all things domestic (though, to their knowledge, he might never be the intellectual equal to a human adult). Sweeping and cooking was play for him, and he loved the cozy security of staying home and sleeping in a cupboard.

Reg dumped the sand in a trash bin and started following after Lily, replacing each toy as she pulled them out of her toy box. Lily chuckled and threw them farther. Ginny scooped her up in her arms.

"Toothbrush time!" said Ginny, but as she carried Lily to the door, a huge, bright stag burst through and galloped around the room.

"Da-da!" said Lily.

"Harry?" Ginny called, "Is everything okay?"

"Yes," came the reply from downstairs. "The boys just wanted to see a patronus."

Ginny smiled. She had an idea of what Harry was doing—it wasn't the first time.

In the living room, Ginny found James and Albus nestled on either side of Harry on the couch. She brought Lily and joined them. Reg sat contentedly on the floor.

"I liked jumping in the waves," said James, "and when you enlarged our sand castle so we could walk around on it!"

"Big the castle bigger bigger!" chimed little Al.

"That was fun. What else?" Harry asked.

"Feeding seagulls, throwing pebbles, running..." listed James.

Ginny asked, "what about you, Al? Do you remember what made you happy today?"

"Ice cream!" said Al.

At the mention of ice cream, Lily jumped off of Ginny's lap and looked around expectantly.

Al continued. "You flyed me, Mummy."

"Hm?"

"You flyed me up in the sky!"

Ginny looked at Harry, wondering if he understood what Al was talking about. They hadn't flown on broomsticks that day. Harry shrugged.

"I don't remember that, Al."

"'Member? You flyed me in your hands up and down."

"Oh, yes, now I remember. I just lifted you up and tossed you. Do you remember what I said when I caught you?"

Al didn't say whether he remembered, but ran over to Ginny and demanded, "again!"

With the characteristic energy that had made Ginny a success in her quidditch days, she stood from the couch, scooped up the squealing toddler and threw him toward the ceiling. She caught him and brought him nose-to-nose, and said, "I love you. That's what I said: I love you, Albuddy."

James yawned. "You always say that, Mum."

"It's important." said Ginny.

"Very important," added Harry. "If you only remember one thing, remember that we love you."

James said, "I bet I could make a patronus thinking about playing in the waves."

"Good, James. Try picturing it in your mind," Ginny prompted.

James closed his eyes.

"What did it look like?" Harry asked.

"Water and sand and bubbles on each wave. Standing still, my feet would sink."

"What did it sound like?"

"Whshhhh, and splashes and people laughing."

Harry nodded. "Excellent, especially the people laughing. Remember who was with you."

James opened his eyes to give his dad a look. "You were with me. Duh."

"Yes, I was. Don't forget that." Harry ruffled James' already-messy hair.

Ginny said, "Focus on the memory again, James. Were there any smells or tastes?"

"Salt."

Al, who was now roaming the room in busy, aimless toddler fashion, agreed, "Salty salty water."

"And most of all," said Harry, "focus on what it felt like inside."

"No, beach is outside, Daddy," said Al.

"I mean feelings, in your heart."

"Fun and happy," said James. Eyes closed, smiling, and moving his arms a little as if with the waves, James looked like he was truly capturing the memory.

Lily climbed on Ginny's lap and sucked her thumb comfortably. Harry lifted Al and Reg up onto the couch. Ginny breathed in the scene. She was proud of all of them.

"How do I say the spell?" asked James.

"Septo atomum!" said Al, and tossed a toy unicorn.

"Expecto patronum," Harry corrected.

James repeated it, throwing his wand hand out purposefully. He said, "then I make a stag like Dad's!"

"Maybe," said Ginny, "or a horse like mine. Or something else."

"A stag." James reasserted. "Lily's will be a horse. Al's will be a slug."

"A seagull, to eat the bread," said Al.

"Patronuses don't eat!" objected James.

"Then I can be a owl, or a phoefinix, or...OR, a DRAGON!" Al spoke louder and spread his arms higher with each suggestion. He climbed up on the coffee table and jumped off, then pretended to fly around the room.

James leaped off the couch to join him, and Ginny gave up trying to keep Lily on her lap. Ginny and Harry watched their three children run in circles, making halfhearted efforts to calm them down, until Al knocked their owl's cage off its stand and James ran into Lily. The idyllic moment devolved into feathers, tears and shouting. Just another day.

Notes:

I'm still here, and I will be adding chapters to the Malfoys, Weasleys story. When? I don't know (my life resembles the above story and it's crazily awesome. Minus the house-elf. I could use one of those).