AN: So yeah. A new story. It's just a tiny oneshot, but I might turn it into a NextGen oneshot dump if I work up the energy. For now, it's just a little Pottery goodness that's been in my head for weeks now and it simply wouldn't go away. I'm not sure how I feel about, but it's too late now, yeah? Er… yeah. So read, I guess, and enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't the Harry Potter series or any of it's characters. They all belong to the almighty J. K. Rowling. The song Poprocks and Coke belongs to Green Day.
Harry had found over the years that while Ginny felt natural protectiveness over all of her children, Lily Luna was the one she was most defensive of. Perhaps that was hypocritical of her, considering that when she was younger she had wished that her mother would stop worrying about her all the time and just let her breathe a bit. It was different with Ginny and Lily, though, Harry reasoned. Ginny knew Lily was a smart, capable witch. She knew that Lily would want to start making a lot more decisions on her own now that she was fifteen, and Ginny always let her. No, Ginny would only snap if James told Lily to put on a longer skirt, or Al suggested she wear a little less mascara, or Harry grimaced when her shirt was just a bit low cut. And Lily appreciated it because, really, what teenage girl wanted her dad and two older brothers harping about how she dressed? If anything, Ginny's defensiveness helped Lily through those independent teenage years.
That was why, when Lily came downstairs while everyone else was eating breakfast in a sports bra, pink shorts, and running sneakers, Harry kept his mouth firmly shut.
"I'm going running for a bit. Be back in half an hour?" Lily said, tightening her ponytail and putting her iPod ear buds in.
Harry nodded stiffly and gave her a convincing smile as she walked out the door. Ginny, grinning broadly got up to clean her plate. Stopping by Harry on her way to the sink, she kissed him on the cheek and said, "You handled that beautifully. Thank you." Harry gave her the same convincing smile and prayed that she wouldn't tell Hermione, who would most definitely tell Ron in hopes of persuading him to lay off Rose, of who he was especially overprotective. And if Ron found out, so would the rest of the Weasley brothers and they would all shake their heads and "tsk, tsk" at him.
When he looked across the table at James and Albus, however, he knew that the last thing they felt like doing was thanking him.
"You're really letting her out dressed like that?" Al asked incredulously. Before Ginny could get in a word, James continued.
"Are you out of your bloody mind?" he said, his feeling of betrayal leaking into his tone and expression.
They stood up simultaneously, and stalked towards the door Lily had just come out of, James muttering all the while about bringing her straight back this very moment. Ginny sighed and sat back down at the table wearily. Harry, half listening to James calling, "Oi, ginger!" was filled with love for his sons, and had to repress a grin to keep his wife from knowing how proud he was of them. They were only looking out for her, really, and having not experienced that kind of sibling protectiveness growing up, Harry thought he might have to explain to his daughter how lucky she was to have it.
"Perhaps you should let Lils deal with this one, love," Harry said cautiously, unsure if Ginny would see through him and tell him to stop siding with the boys. She looked surprised for a moment, and then nodded unwillingly; Harry felt very guilty for a moment that she trusted his opinion so much. She stood up and almost made it to the sink to clean the rest of the plates before Harry intervened, saying he would do them. Trying to get her in as good a mood as possible, because he had a bad feeling about how long the boys were taking, Harry suggested that they put in that five hour Muggle movie that she loved so much later tonight, "Pride and Prejudice" because, Ginny, when was the last time we saw that? She didn't even have to nod because just then there were loud voices outside the back door, and then Al was pulling it open with one hand, the other gripping a pair of sneakered, kicking feet. James soon followed Al inside, carrying a struggling, enraged and shouting Lily.
"You let me go right now, you arseholes! Mum! MUM! Make them let me go!" Lily shouted shrilly, her face red and her iPod dangling pathetically from the strap on the arm. She tried to tug her arms from her sides, but James had them pinned there much too tightly. Al was being much gentler, and he received a sharp kick in the shoulder for his efforts.
"Put her down, boys!" Ginny said partly startled, partly amused, and partly bewildered. Harry could only gape from his place at the sink, not quite sure what to say. He quickly recovered and put on a disappointed face – and he was disappointed. He had wanted James and Al to persuade her to put on something else, not drag her through the house!
They finally set her down at the foot of the stairs. She stumbled, huffed, rubbed her arms, glared at them each in turn, and fixed her mp3 player. James' messy hair was in complete disarray, sticking up in every direction, and he was raising one eyebrow at Lily, completely unaffected by her contemptuous glares. He had to push his glasses up his nose, as they were very close to falling off, but he did it while still keeping that one eyebrow in place. (He was the only one in his family besides Dominique who could do it. He really only did it to aggravate Fred and Lily, who were the ones most upset that they lacked that one ability, or when he would try to impress his girlfriend, Asphodel Jacob, back when she hated his guts.) Al's hair was just as messy as his brother's, and he looked properly contrite, but Harry doubted that he was completely sincere. He kept on rolling his shoulder and attempting to fix his hair.
"Go on," James said, "Put a real shirt on. Without any arguments, if you don't mind. We'll just drag you up there and force one on you if you do, won't we Al?"
Al nodded, but then quietly informed James that it might be less painful for them if they just cast one on her, seeing as they were both of age. Harry shook his head. They were both of age. A little body bind would have been much more successful than what they had pulled.
Lily gaped at them, huffed angrily again, and then stormed upstairs. Ginny sighed and then went upstairs after her to offer some words of comfort.
Harry was left with James and Albus. They cautiously turned to him, and seeing that he looked merely disappointed, relaxed. "You shouldn't have done that." Harry chided them.
"Like you wanted her running around the neighborhood in that." James scoffed, and Al rolled his eyes in agreement.
"No, but you could have handled that a bit more... something. Aunt Hermione would probably call you barbarians. You're going to have to ease up on her a bit. And she isn't a great person to have as an enemy. Lily knows some good hexes." Harry argued.
"True, but I could prank her horribly in an instant, and she knows it." James said a touch arrogantly.
"And really, who could stay angry at this gorgeous face I have?" Al said, partially to make fun of James and his conceited tone, partially to pretend suck up to his dad who James looked like a lot, but Al was practically twins with him, and partially because it was true. It was hard to stay angry at Al no matter how hard someone tried.
They stopped their conversation when Lily came stomping downstairs, though. She already had her iPod in and Harry could hear the music from his place by the table and she was wearing an old t-shirt with some Muggle, girly band from the 90's on the front.
"Good enough for you?" She asked sarcastically, but was out the door before anyone could speak.
James answered as though she was still in the room, "Well yes, that's much better, but I would prefer a pair of sweatpants. You're welcome, dear Lily Luna, for looking out for you as an older brother should. Really, it's no trouble at all. Lily, I was glad to do it. What was that? I'm your favorite brother? Shush, Lily, Al is right here! Don't be rude," he chided the imaginary Lily gently and started walking upstairs still talking, "I know not everyone is as clever or as funny or as dashing as me, but you're making me blush now! You want to do the rest of my chores for the week? Lily, how kind of you! Are you sure? If you insist…."
I hope it didn't make you gag or anything. Reviews are greatly appreciated, even if they just talk about how this story should be immediately deleted, my fingers cut off and my keyboard burned. But, yaknow, I'd prefer if they didn't.
Ciao!
thosebrooklynboys