Scene 1 - Bedtime

The child watched her Ma and Pa through lowered lashes, wishing fervently that they would, just this once, let her stay up late.



Things were looking good. Ma seemed thoroughly involved in the thick tomes spread about the hardwood kitchen table while Pa – (and here the child stared openly, abandoning any attempt at being inconspicuous) – was Pa sniffing Ma's hair?



His slender fingers (their tips calloused from those many hours spent dealing with exploding potions and Malvolio, their extra-frisky tomcat) caressed at Ma's temples, making tiny, soothing circles. His beaky nose (the child absentmindedly touched her own) was buried in the glorious mane of Ma's brown locks and it was for the whole world to see that at that moment, Pa was the happiest wizard on Earth.

So mesmerised was she by The Scene before her that when a huge yawn threatened to escape her, she let it go without a battle. Pa jumped, and Ma took off her reading glasses and, bundling her up in her favourite woolly blanket, carried her up the stairs to her room. Pa joined them soon after with a mug of hot milk, and while she sipped contentedly at the warm liquid, Ma and Pa told a riveting tale of a young, orphaned boy who, upon discovering that he was in fact a wizard, went on to have the most exciting adventure with his two best friends at his side, encountering Grindylows and Nargles and even a baby dragon. The child fell asleep with the silvery Hippogriff that Pa had conjured prancing above her head, dreaming of the day when she would get to go to Hogwarts and meet her True Love, who would delight in the scent of her curling, obsidian hair.


Disclaimer: All original HP characters and the HP-verse belong to J.K. Rowling.