A/N: This is my summer challenge to myself and anyone else who wishes to take it up: write a songfic to a song you've never heard or heard of. This is the first one of many written by me for pure entertainment.
Disclaimer: The song is by Sandra (who I've never heard of before). Ginny and Harry belong to JK Rowling. James and Sirius Jr. belong to me. This could almost go along with the end bits of Easy Choices if you want it too, but I didn't write it that way particularly.
RESPONSES, This is a one shot, but I wanted to respond to reviews so here you go, sorry if you thought this was a real update.
Princess: Sorry, it's a one shot. I'm going to do a Ron/Hermione story soon though, it will probably be about them and their kids actually, because I like future-fics right now.
Lourdes: Thanks for the review.
Sarahmanda: no, sorry, there isn't. There is more to my little challenge though.
Erika: Thanks for the review.
Evening sun is going down
Out on the ocean
Wind is blowin round and round
And this is your home
It's our home now
Ginevra Potter looked at the two small boys cradled one on each arm, her husband had fallen asleep hours ago, halfway through the crying fits that had now subsided, she had forgiven him for it, he'd only just returned from a thirteen-day mission to his significantly larger sons and had been up for the past twenty-four hours with them (well, when they'd had their afternoon nap he'd been up with his wife, but that wasn't something to talk about in public). She started talking to sooth her two sons. "Daddy was so happy to see you two this afternoon, you know, he misses you so much when he goes away- and you know he doesn't really want to, but it's his job. He's keeping you two safe and all that.
It was a stormy night outside and her sons, James and Sirius Potter, hadn't been able to sleep because of the sound of a branch hitting against their window, besides, even at a nine months old, Sirius hated the dark and James was terrified by the sound of the nearby ocean (they had spent the time Harry was away at the summer house Harry had inherited on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean).
They spent most of their time at this house because it was secluded from almost the entirety of the Wizarding population, but connected to the Floo network so that their family and Harry's work were only a few instants away. Ginny was taking a year off, but then she would return to work in England, probably leaving the boys with their Aunt Angelina, Fred's widow, who didn't work, but lived off the profits given to her from the immensely popular Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. She was James's godmother (Percy was his godfather, it was a gesture of forgiveness imposed on Harry by Ginny). Both Harry and Ginny had insisted that Ron and Hermione be the godparents to their firstborn, Sirius.
Here's the place we go to sleep
And here is your garden
I've got one arm for each of you
One lullaby for two
Harry laughed slightly when he awoke to find a small black haired boy playing with his nose quite cheerfully, he quickly checked to see which one it was (Sirius had a birthmark on his left earlobe, James had been bitted by the cat when he was six weeks old and had a small scar on his smallest finger on his right hand), it was Sirius. His little brown eyes looked expectantly up at his father, Harry noted that Ginny had an arm wrapped tightly around James, who was lying with his eyes wide open, chewing on his finger, he slipped both of his sons out of his bed, taking them to their crib.
"Alright, Sirius, James, that there is Mummy and Daddy's bed, and we're not sharing it with you unless you have nightmares, deal? Because Daddy doesn't like to share Mummy with absolutely anybody, even his little boys," Harry told them seriously, deciding that it was time for a father-son chat, mostly because he couldn't bring himself to put them down just now, he couldn't believe how much he had missed these two small beings, it was love on a level he had never experienced before. "And Daddy quite likes to keep his nose to himself, Sirius," he tickled the boy in his left arm under the chin and Sirius giggled. James, however let out a wail as the tree hit the window again, Harry cuddled him closer, "It's OK, Jamie, Daddy's here, don't you worry, and Daddy's got you. It's just a tree, just part of Mummy's garden, Jamie, don't you worry."
Sirius, however, was not happy to have his twin getting all the attention and immediately started crying as well, "well, I suppose there is something to a name then, isn't there, Sirius? Needs all the attention? Well, there's plenty of it to go around in this household for now, I've got an arm for both of you, so stop screeching before you wake Mummy- cross redheads at night are not fun, let me tell you that before you get a baby redhead sister. Never, ever wake a redhead when she's sleeping- well, maybe Mummy sometimes, because there's nothing on this earth she loves more than the three of us, we're pretty lucky that way, but no other ones. Not even Grandma." "Daddy," James said, he was more timid than Sirius in many ways, and definitely didn't have the motor skills of his twin, but he spoke with perfect enunciation, though still in stunted sentences. "Yes, Jamie, Daddy," Harry said before resting his head on the back of his armchair and closing his eyes softly, continuing to talk to his sons until all three of them fell asleep.
Now it's time to close our eyes
Dream and have no fear
The monster's gone he's on the run
And your mom is here
It's your lullaby
Ginny reached out an arm when she awoke to the sound of the storm outside becoming louder and louder, she was looking for Harry, because she hated thunderstorms at night, or at least Sirius and James, who would normally be up and sobbing when things got noisy, but none of the three Potters were beside her. She heard snoring coming from the corner of the room where the crib she always moved into the room when Harry left on business was and pulled herself out of bed, she shot a quick glance at Harry's Muggle alarm clock, 3:38 AM. James and Sirius were generally good sleepers, but they had both been so excited to see their father after almost two weeks that they had stayed up for past their normal bedtime last night, then slept away most of the afternoon so that both of them had been entirely overactive all night, waking up quite a few times each.
She walked over to the armchair and found Sirius awake and James safely curled into Harry's arm, both of them breathing in tandem while Sirius observed with a pensive look on his face. "Now, don't you go getting your father's morose looks, Sirius Ronald Potter," she chastised lightly, quietly, picking him up softly from his father's arms, careful not to wake James or Harry, though Harry woke, opened his eyes a crack, smiled and wrapped his now free arm around James, who snuggled down into this new position in his sleep, a small smile identical to his father's on his face. "I've already had to deal with that quite enough thank you very much. I know Daddy and I have told you and Jamie this enough times already, and you'll hear it again and again as you get bigger, but life wasn't always this nice for Daddy and Mummy- there were scary times.
"We didn't think we'd live that long, your Daddy and I, but don't worry, we stuck it through and we're not going anywhere now. Daddy's a very important man, you know, always has been, ever since he was just about your size, and he had a job to do- but he didn't want to do it very much, I suppose no one really would. But he did, because he wanted you two and any ones that come after you to have a happy life, you were a long way off then- almost ten years, Sirius, and the first Sirius had just died two years before, can you imagine that long ago?- but Daddy and Mummy knew you'd be along someday, and we wanted someday to be a better time for you too grow up. We wanted the only thing that scared you and Jamie to be the dark, and we won, there are no monsters under the bed anymore, well, not for you, for Daddy and I perhaps, but all the real monsters are on the run." She smiled the smile that she had only gotten on the first time she had seen her sons and laid him in his crib, "now you be good, I'm sure Daddy will let Jamie join you soon enough."
There will be joy and there'll be pain
You will find out it's just the same
This is your life that now begins
Here you belong my pair of twins
When Harry woke up to being kicked by James he looked out the window, it was still dark outside, but he thought he saw bits of early dawn striking the ocean, his neck was cramped and his side of the bed was looking particularly appealing, he got up, careful not to wake fussing but still asleep James and slid him into bed beside his brother, mildly wondering how Sirius had gotten there. Sirius, he noticed, was eagerly examining his toes, wide awake, and James too woke as he set him down, immediately letting out a screech, Harry quickly picked him up and held him up. He wondered, for one of those instants that he frequently had these days, whether his father had ever held him like this at night after returning from a mission and what Petunia and Vernon had done when he'd woken up in the night.
"I wonder what you two will be like when you grow up, will you be more like your Mum or more like me? Or will you be like Fred and George- popping out of absolutely nowhere? I wonder if you'll settle down someday with nice girls like I did, or if, perhaps you'll make your mother as insane as Charlie has made your grandmother and play the field insanely? I wonder what houses you'll be in at Hogwarts, well, not really- you're Weasleys and you're Potters, you'll be in Gryffindor, probably. Though I won't be disappointed if you're not. I'm not as blind as your Uncle Ron, you know, I see flaws even in the Gryffindors, well, most of them- I've yet to find anything wrong with Mummy or Aunt Hermione. Well, perhaps a few things with Aunt Hermione, but you two won't tell her that, would you? She's already trying to talk Mad-Eye into work evaluation form- she'll cry if she doesn't get perfect, I'd bet you anything. But you two won't tell her that either, no, of course not, there is such a thing as Daddy-son confidentiality, or, at least that's what I'll tell Ron when he asks how often I have to change your diapers- he still thinks his daughter's abnormal, which is ridiculous, she's six weeks old, of course all she does is dirty her diapers, scream eat and sleep, though rarely, just like you two did. Lucky Ron's only got one.
"It was wonderful of him to name her Lily, wasn't it? I cried, though don't tell Mummy that either. Anyway, I'm exhausted, and you two look happy now, even you, Jamie. So don't wail for a few hours yet- even Super-Mummy and Super-Daddy need their sleep."
Will you be patient with your mom
Some day you'll follow up the sun
I'll be forever by your side
And you will hear from time to time
Your first lullaby
Fifteen year old James and Sirius Potter knocked cautiously on their parents door, they'd seen things they didn't want to see before when they'd opened that door without knocking.
"Come in," they heard their father's muffled voice from within the room, "open for business 24/7." The twins went in and found their father sitting up with his bedside light on as their mother pulled the comforter over to her side of the bed- they were in England that week and Mum had always preferred the climate in the Caribbean. He patted the bed beside him and moved over "come sit down."
"We wanted to apologize to you and Mum," Sirius said as they sat down, there had been a huge row that night after dinner about Sirius's OWLs (all three of them), and James had gotten himself involved as always. Their father had gotten into a towering temper, but even he had been nothing compared to Ginny, who had screamed at them that she and Harry had worked so hard to give them this life and that they were making a total waste of it.
"I want to apologize too, but I was going to wait until the sun came up, Sirius, Jamie," Harry said with a yawn, "your mother and I said some pretty terrible things to the both of you, and we meant them at the time, but we would take them back if we could."
"Call me James," James said to his father, who laughed and ruffled his already messy hair, "but, Dad, Sirius doesn't want to do anything that requires a Potions OWL or NEWT, and he's got it all planned out, and neither of you would listen. We were just trying to get heard, you know how that feels, don't you?"
"Of course we do," Ginny said, sitting up and resting her head on her husband's shoulder, fifteen years and six children had given her a few grey hairs, but she still looked younger than she really was, perhaps about thirty two, and her hair was still mostly red as it draped over Harry's shoulder. "But, Sirius, James, you've both got to accept that things don't always go to plan and we want you to have some bending space if professional Quidditch doesn't exactly work out."
"But, Mum, that's exactly our problem, you won't even say that it could work out, even if you do know that Sirius is bloody good at it." James said.
"Let Sirius speak for himself, Jamie," Harry sighed, it was an old sentence that he felt as if he'd said a million times.
"I agree with James," Sirius said immediately, loudly. Ginny was about to open her mouth when Harry interrupted.
"Let's not start this again, it's four in the morning, we're all tired, let's apologize and agree to discuss this as sanely as we've ever discussed anything in this house in the morning, all right? I'm sure we'll all sleep a bit easier with this off our chests, I know I will," Harry said, Sirius and James nodded, Ginny did too.
"We're sorry, Mum, Dad," Sirius said, "we didn't mean half the things we said."
"No, we really didn't, we're glad we're part of this family, paparazzi, toddlers, infants and all, we love you." James added.
"Of course you do." Ginny said, "and we love you too, more than anything in the world. Family will always come first with us, you two know that, we just let our tempers get the best of us this evening."
"Dad?" James asked after hugs had been exchanged all around. "Could we spend the night in here?" Sirius nodded, and they both made puppy-dog eyes at him. Ginny had taught her sons and daughters well, and it was accepted as fact in the household that all you had to do was go a bit mushy on Dad and he'd say yes to anything short of an Unforgivable on the baby.
"Alright, but if you wake your sister I will have to kill you," Harry said moving over for his two gangly sons. And gesturing towards the small crib in the corner of the bedroom containing six-month old Nicole Emily Potter, their sixth and (if all things went to plan) last child.
Disclaimer: The song is by Sandra (who I've never heard of before). Ginny and Harry belong to JK Rowling. James and Sirius Jr. belong to me. This could almost go along with the end bits of Easy Choices if you want it too, but I didn't write it that way particularly.
RESPONSES, This is a one shot, but I wanted to respond to reviews so here you go, sorry if you thought this was a real update.
Princess: Sorry, it's a one shot. I'm going to do a Ron/Hermione story soon though, it will probably be about them and their kids actually, because I like future-fics right now.
Lourdes: Thanks for the review.
Sarahmanda: no, sorry, there isn't. There is more to my little challenge though.
Erika: Thanks for the review.
Evening sun is going down
Out on the ocean
Wind is blowin round and round
And this is your home
It's our home now
Ginevra Potter looked at the two small boys cradled one on each arm, her husband had fallen asleep hours ago, halfway through the crying fits that had now subsided, she had forgiven him for it, he'd only just returned from a thirteen-day mission to his significantly larger sons and had been up for the past twenty-four hours with them (well, when they'd had their afternoon nap he'd been up with his wife, but that wasn't something to talk about in public). She started talking to sooth her two sons. "Daddy was so happy to see you two this afternoon, you know, he misses you so much when he goes away- and you know he doesn't really want to, but it's his job. He's keeping you two safe and all that.
It was a stormy night outside and her sons, James and Sirius Potter, hadn't been able to sleep because of the sound of a branch hitting against their window, besides, even at a nine months old, Sirius hated the dark and James was terrified by the sound of the nearby ocean (they had spent the time Harry was away at the summer house Harry had inherited on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean).
They spent most of their time at this house because it was secluded from almost the entirety of the Wizarding population, but connected to the Floo network so that their family and Harry's work were only a few instants away. Ginny was taking a year off, but then she would return to work in England, probably leaving the boys with their Aunt Angelina, Fred's widow, who didn't work, but lived off the profits given to her from the immensely popular Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. She was James's godmother (Percy was his godfather, it was a gesture of forgiveness imposed on Harry by Ginny). Both Harry and Ginny had insisted that Ron and Hermione be the godparents to their firstborn, Sirius.
Here's the place we go to sleep
And here is your garden
I've got one arm for each of you
One lullaby for two
Harry laughed slightly when he awoke to find a small black haired boy playing with his nose quite cheerfully, he quickly checked to see which one it was (Sirius had a birthmark on his left earlobe, James had been bitted by the cat when he was six weeks old and had a small scar on his smallest finger on his right hand), it was Sirius. His little brown eyes looked expectantly up at his father, Harry noted that Ginny had an arm wrapped tightly around James, who was lying with his eyes wide open, chewing on his finger, he slipped both of his sons out of his bed, taking them to their crib.
"Alright, Sirius, James, that there is Mummy and Daddy's bed, and we're not sharing it with you unless you have nightmares, deal? Because Daddy doesn't like to share Mummy with absolutely anybody, even his little boys," Harry told them seriously, deciding that it was time for a father-son chat, mostly because he couldn't bring himself to put them down just now, he couldn't believe how much he had missed these two small beings, it was love on a level he had never experienced before. "And Daddy quite likes to keep his nose to himself, Sirius," he tickled the boy in his left arm under the chin and Sirius giggled. James, however let out a wail as the tree hit the window again, Harry cuddled him closer, "It's OK, Jamie, Daddy's here, don't you worry, and Daddy's got you. It's just a tree, just part of Mummy's garden, Jamie, don't you worry."
Sirius, however, was not happy to have his twin getting all the attention and immediately started crying as well, "well, I suppose there is something to a name then, isn't there, Sirius? Needs all the attention? Well, there's plenty of it to go around in this household for now, I've got an arm for both of you, so stop screeching before you wake Mummy- cross redheads at night are not fun, let me tell you that before you get a baby redhead sister. Never, ever wake a redhead when she's sleeping- well, maybe Mummy sometimes, because there's nothing on this earth she loves more than the three of us, we're pretty lucky that way, but no other ones. Not even Grandma." "Daddy," James said, he was more timid than Sirius in many ways, and definitely didn't have the motor skills of his twin, but he spoke with perfect enunciation, though still in stunted sentences. "Yes, Jamie, Daddy," Harry said before resting his head on the back of his armchair and closing his eyes softly, continuing to talk to his sons until all three of them fell asleep.
Now it's time to close our eyes
Dream and have no fear
The monster's gone he's on the run
And your mom is here
It's your lullaby
Ginny reached out an arm when she awoke to the sound of the storm outside becoming louder and louder, she was looking for Harry, because she hated thunderstorms at night, or at least Sirius and James, who would normally be up and sobbing when things got noisy, but none of the three Potters were beside her. She heard snoring coming from the corner of the room where the crib she always moved into the room when Harry left on business was and pulled herself out of bed, she shot a quick glance at Harry's Muggle alarm clock, 3:38 AM. James and Sirius were generally good sleepers, but they had both been so excited to see their father after almost two weeks that they had stayed up for past their normal bedtime last night, then slept away most of the afternoon so that both of them had been entirely overactive all night, waking up quite a few times each.
She walked over to the armchair and found Sirius awake and James safely curled into Harry's arm, both of them breathing in tandem while Sirius observed with a pensive look on his face. "Now, don't you go getting your father's morose looks, Sirius Ronald Potter," she chastised lightly, quietly, picking him up softly from his father's arms, careful not to wake James or Harry, though Harry woke, opened his eyes a crack, smiled and wrapped his now free arm around James, who snuggled down into this new position in his sleep, a small smile identical to his father's on his face. "I've already had to deal with that quite enough thank you very much. I know Daddy and I have told you and Jamie this enough times already, and you'll hear it again and again as you get bigger, but life wasn't always this nice for Daddy and Mummy- there were scary times.
"We didn't think we'd live that long, your Daddy and I, but don't worry, we stuck it through and we're not going anywhere now. Daddy's a very important man, you know, always has been, ever since he was just about your size, and he had a job to do- but he didn't want to do it very much, I suppose no one really would. But he did, because he wanted you two and any ones that come after you to have a happy life, you were a long way off then- almost ten years, Sirius, and the first Sirius had just died two years before, can you imagine that long ago?- but Daddy and Mummy knew you'd be along someday, and we wanted someday to be a better time for you too grow up. We wanted the only thing that scared you and Jamie to be the dark, and we won, there are no monsters under the bed anymore, well, not for you, for Daddy and I perhaps, but all the real monsters are on the run." She smiled the smile that she had only gotten on the first time she had seen her sons and laid him in his crib, "now you be good, I'm sure Daddy will let Jamie join you soon enough."
There will be joy and there'll be pain
You will find out it's just the same
This is your life that now begins
Here you belong my pair of twins
When Harry woke up to being kicked by James he looked out the window, it was still dark outside, but he thought he saw bits of early dawn striking the ocean, his neck was cramped and his side of the bed was looking particularly appealing, he got up, careful not to wake fussing but still asleep James and slid him into bed beside his brother, mildly wondering how Sirius had gotten there. Sirius, he noticed, was eagerly examining his toes, wide awake, and James too woke as he set him down, immediately letting out a screech, Harry quickly picked him up and held him up. He wondered, for one of those instants that he frequently had these days, whether his father had ever held him like this at night after returning from a mission and what Petunia and Vernon had done when he'd woken up in the night.
"I wonder what you two will be like when you grow up, will you be more like your Mum or more like me? Or will you be like Fred and George- popping out of absolutely nowhere? I wonder if you'll settle down someday with nice girls like I did, or if, perhaps you'll make your mother as insane as Charlie has made your grandmother and play the field insanely? I wonder what houses you'll be in at Hogwarts, well, not really- you're Weasleys and you're Potters, you'll be in Gryffindor, probably. Though I won't be disappointed if you're not. I'm not as blind as your Uncle Ron, you know, I see flaws even in the Gryffindors, well, most of them- I've yet to find anything wrong with Mummy or Aunt Hermione. Well, perhaps a few things with Aunt Hermione, but you two won't tell her that, would you? She's already trying to talk Mad-Eye into work evaluation form- she'll cry if she doesn't get perfect, I'd bet you anything. But you two won't tell her that either, no, of course not, there is such a thing as Daddy-son confidentiality, or, at least that's what I'll tell Ron when he asks how often I have to change your diapers- he still thinks his daughter's abnormal, which is ridiculous, she's six weeks old, of course all she does is dirty her diapers, scream eat and sleep, though rarely, just like you two did. Lucky Ron's only got one.
"It was wonderful of him to name her Lily, wasn't it? I cried, though don't tell Mummy that either. Anyway, I'm exhausted, and you two look happy now, even you, Jamie. So don't wail for a few hours yet- even Super-Mummy and Super-Daddy need their sleep."
Will you be patient with your mom
Some day you'll follow up the sun
I'll be forever by your side
And you will hear from time to time
Your first lullaby
Fifteen year old James and Sirius Potter knocked cautiously on their parents door, they'd seen things they didn't want to see before when they'd opened that door without knocking.
"Come in," they heard their father's muffled voice from within the room, "open for business 24/7." The twins went in and found their father sitting up with his bedside light on as their mother pulled the comforter over to her side of the bed- they were in England that week and Mum had always preferred the climate in the Caribbean. He patted the bed beside him and moved over "come sit down."
"We wanted to apologize to you and Mum," Sirius said as they sat down, there had been a huge row that night after dinner about Sirius's OWLs (all three of them), and James had gotten himself involved as always. Their father had gotten into a towering temper, but even he had been nothing compared to Ginny, who had screamed at them that she and Harry had worked so hard to give them this life and that they were making a total waste of it.
"I want to apologize too, but I was going to wait until the sun came up, Sirius, Jamie," Harry said with a yawn, "your mother and I said some pretty terrible things to the both of you, and we meant them at the time, but we would take them back if we could."
"Call me James," James said to his father, who laughed and ruffled his already messy hair, "but, Dad, Sirius doesn't want to do anything that requires a Potions OWL or NEWT, and he's got it all planned out, and neither of you would listen. We were just trying to get heard, you know how that feels, don't you?"
"Of course we do," Ginny said, sitting up and resting her head on her husband's shoulder, fifteen years and six children had given her a few grey hairs, but she still looked younger than she really was, perhaps about thirty two, and her hair was still mostly red as it draped over Harry's shoulder. "But, Sirius, James, you've both got to accept that things don't always go to plan and we want you to have some bending space if professional Quidditch doesn't exactly work out."
"But, Mum, that's exactly our problem, you won't even say that it could work out, even if you do know that Sirius is bloody good at it." James said.
"Let Sirius speak for himself, Jamie," Harry sighed, it was an old sentence that he felt as if he'd said a million times.
"I agree with James," Sirius said immediately, loudly. Ginny was about to open her mouth when Harry interrupted.
"Let's not start this again, it's four in the morning, we're all tired, let's apologize and agree to discuss this as sanely as we've ever discussed anything in this house in the morning, all right? I'm sure we'll all sleep a bit easier with this off our chests, I know I will," Harry said, Sirius and James nodded, Ginny did too.
"We're sorry, Mum, Dad," Sirius said, "we didn't mean half the things we said."
"No, we really didn't, we're glad we're part of this family, paparazzi, toddlers, infants and all, we love you." James added.
"Of course you do." Ginny said, "and we love you too, more than anything in the world. Family will always come first with us, you two know that, we just let our tempers get the best of us this evening."
"Dad?" James asked after hugs had been exchanged all around. "Could we spend the night in here?" Sirius nodded, and they both made puppy-dog eyes at him. Ginny had taught her sons and daughters well, and it was accepted as fact in the household that all you had to do was go a bit mushy on Dad and he'd say yes to anything short of an Unforgivable on the baby.
"Alright, but if you wake your sister I will have to kill you," Harry said moving over for his two gangly sons. And gesturing towards the small crib in the corner of the bedroom containing six-month old Nicole Emily Potter, their sixth and (if all things went to plan) last child.