Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor any of it's wonderful characters, it all belong to J.K. Rowling
"Okay Teddy, so you know where everything is and their bedtime is 8:30," Ginny concluded to me. I was going to babysit her three kids for the night; this was going to be fun.
"And um, call us if you need anything… I think Harry knows how to work these strange muggle contraptions," she finished, referring to the cell phone in her hand.
Just then, Harry came down the steps.
"Are you ready to go sweetheart?" he asked Ginny.
She nodded, and they kissed their children on the head before turning to go. "Good luck Teddy, call us if you need anything," Harry said.
"Already covered that," Ginny mumbled, as they walked out the door, "Have fun tonight!"
"Okay," I answered, along with the Potter children.
I turned to the three Potter kids I would be babysitting tonight, "so, who wants Mac and Cheese?"
"Meeeeee," they all said, rushing into the kitchen. James, the oldest, at six years old, got there first and heaved himself into a chair. Albus, a year younger than James, managed to get himself into the chair next to James, but Lily, the youngest, at three, reached up for me to put her in her chair. Then I went to the fridge to get them their macaroni.
Once they were done with their dinner, it was playtime. I groaned inwardly, how on earth was I going to get the kids to agree on something to play? We all trudged upstairs to the playroom.
"Let's play princess!" little Lily squealed excitedly.
"No! I don't wanna!" countered James.
"Me neither!" agreed Albus.
"But pleeeeeeease," Lily whined, "Teddy will play with me won't he?" She made her best three-year-old puppy dog face at me, and I melted.
"Fine," I consented, "how about I play with Lily and you two can play with your toys together over there?" They agreed, and I went off to Lily's dress up corner where she was trying on a pink princess gown.
When she was ready, she said to me, "Ok, I'll be the princess and you'll be my prince, let's go to the ball!" She grabbed my hands and I started dancing with the little three-year-old.
"No, no, no!" she exclaimed, "You have to dance with me like Daddy does!"
"How does Daddy dance with you?" I asked. She motioned for me to pick her up, so I stooped down to raise the little bugger into my arms, and twirled her around. She laughed with glee.
"Now you have to kiss me like Mommy and Daddy do!" she exclaimed, and before I could think what she meant, she had pressed her tiny little lips against my own. I sputtered and broke away, aghast, and nearly dropped her. Instead, I set her down gently, and told her to go play with her brothers.
Merlin's Beard! I thought, I just got kissed by a three-year-old! My first kiss! By a three-year-old! In all my thirteen years…
I was so distracted; I almost didn't notice the argument breaking out between James and his sister.
"No! You can't play!" James screamed at Lily.
"Yes I can! Teddy told me I could!" Lily squealed back.
"No you can't!" James yelled, "Albus tell Lily she can't play!"
"Sorry Lily, but he's right," Albus told her, "you can't play, you're too young!"
"No I'm not!" wailed Lily.
"Yes! You! Are!" forced James, through gritted teeth. Suddenly, the wooden train track he and Albus had been playing with, just moments before flew apart and scattered right over Lily. A few pieces had hit her in the eye and on her forehead, leaving a rather nasty scrape and giving her a black eye. She burst into tears. James and Albus had similar looks of horror on their faces.
"How—I—I didn't mean to!" wailed James, "I don't know what happened!"
"You blew the train tracks apart!" exclaimed Albus, with a mixture of horror and admiration.
"I—I'm sorry!" James wailed.
"Shhh, it's not your fault," I comforted him; "it looks as though you've gained your magical powers though."
"Really?" asked James excitedly, following me down the stairs with Lily to get her an ice pack, "does this mean I get to go to Hogwarts now?" James had heard all sorts of exciting stories about Hogwarts from me, his parents, and his oldest cousin Victiore, and I knew he couldn't wait to go himself.
I laughed lightly, "No little buddy, you have to wait until your eleven, that's when everyone your age will start."
James looked disappointed, so I added, "But this means you'll definitely get in, when the time comes." James grinned, and spent the rest of the night gloating to his younger brother and rubbing it in his face.
I got Lily a couple of ice packs, promising her that Mommy would fix it when she got home. Then came the impossible task of trying to put the three Potter children to bed.
I sighed and told them the dreaded words, "bed time!"
I fully expected all the whining and complaining that went along with those words. I managed to get Lily in bed first and as I was saying goodnight to her she mumbled, "I kiss you like Mommy and Daddy do, I kiss Teddy like Mommy and Daddy do."
Drat, I was trying to forget about that too, and with my luck she'd probably be saying that to everyone she meets. I sighed and went to turn out the lights, "Goodnight Lily Flower."
Lily, it turned out, was the easy one, and now I had to try and get the boys to bed. I think all the Potter children had inherited their mother's stubbornness, which wasn't necessarily a good thing, and sure made my job as babysitter a lot harder.
Once I'd finally managed to get the boys into bed (kicking and screaming), I settled down in front of their muggle television to watch Quidditch. I sighed; babysitting for the Potters was hard work.
At around 10:30, Harry and Ginny came home.
"How were they," asked Ginny.
"Well," I began, "they ate their dinner and then we went up to play princess—"
At this Harry chuckled, "Glad to see you've kept your manliness Teddy," he told me.
I groaned and mumbled, "They're your kids." Harry laughed some more.
I went on, "and then Lily got bored and decided she wanted to play trains with James and Albus, but James didn't want her to play trains with them I guess, and so they got into an argument and James must have lost control and he blew apart their train tracks and hit Lily in the head."
"Oh my!" exclaimed Ginny, "is she alright?"
"She's fine," I said, "I gave her a couple of ice packs and I figured you could fix it when you got home." Ginny nodded, and went up to her youngest daughter's room.
"So you mean that James showed his magical powers?" Harry asked, astounded.
I nodded, "I told him that, and told him that it wasn't his fault, he had seemed really upset that he hit Lily with the tracks and was very sorry, but when I told him that this meant he would definitely get to go to Hogwarts, he got very excited."
Harry grinned, "well, I guess we'll have to keep an eye on him from now on…thanks so much Teddy." He handed me three gold galleons, "I'll floo you back to your grandma's house."
When Harry got home, he went to check on Lily. He found Ginny in her room, performing the spell to get rid of her bruises and black eye. When she was done, they both kissed her goodnight and turned to leave. Before they left, though, they heard Lily mumbling, "I kiss Teddy like Mommy and Daddy do."
Harry and Ginny turned to look at her, but she had fallen back to sleep. They decided to go to bed, just a wee bit confused.
