Note From the Author—This year I'm writing a short holiday themed story for every category I write in. I think this is number five, but I could be wrong : )
Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of Harry Potter or the song which inspired the story and the title
Up until his daughter was five years old, Harry managed to avoid the difficult questions that parents didn't quite have an answer to, though only with her; the boys were a completely different story. But just after his little girl turned five, Christmas rolled around.
There were the usual questions about whether or not they could make gingerbread houses and stay up late to watch films and everything about Father Christmas; those didn't phase him. But one day the great and famous Harry Potter, defeater of Voldemort and savior of the Wizard world looked at his daughter and found himself completely dumbfounded.
"Daddy, can I have an alien for Christmas?"
Harry froze. "A what, sweetheart?"
"An alien!" Lily exclaimed.
Damn it, he hadn't misheard. He looked over at Ginny for help, but his wife only covered her giggle with her hand and went back to wrapping presents. When he looked back his little girl was still standing there waiting for an answer. "Well…"
"Yes?" she questioned expectantly.
He pinched his nose briefly before praying to everything he knew that he was about to do the right thing. "Well no, darling, you can't."
Ginny's head snapped up to watch him closely, her eyes narrowing as Lily's face fell. "Really?"
"Yes really." Harry motioned for her to climb into his lap. Wrapping her in his arms he spoke to her softly. "Well, to get you an alien we'd need a rocket ship, and we don't have one of those."
"I guess."
"Plus, we would have to take a little alien for his family. You wouldn't want to be taken from us just because an alien wanted a little girl for Christmas would you?"
Her eyes widened and she shook her head hard. "Nuh uh."
He smiled down at her. "So you can see why we couldn't get you an alien." He brushed a finger down her nose playfully. "But if you want a toy alien we can certainly see what we can do about that."
Lily's grin just about lit uo the room as she threw her arms around her father and gave him a huge hug.. "Thanks daddy!"
She was already on her way down the hall yelling for her brothers before he could say anything else, but Ginny was on her feet and she came over to plop down in her husband's lap, pressing a kiss to his mouth before she pulled back with a smile. "Well played, Mr. Potter. Well played."