Disclaimer: No, I do not own Harry Potter as much as I'd love to.
Our Gift to You
It was a lovely Sunday morning at the Potters house. Quiet and peaceful which was normal as the Potters usually slept in. It seemed like an ordinary day.
In reality, it wasn't. Today was Mother's Day and Harry and his three children; James, Albus and Lily were planning to give his wife Ginny a wonderful surprise.
"G'morning," said Harry brightly as he entered the kitchen. Inside was Ginny, sitting at the glass table wearing a bathrobe and drinking a cup of tea. There were shadows under her eyes and her expression could not have been more drained. She looked as though she had not slept.
"Is it?" she asked wearily. She lay her head down on the table. "I was up half the night with Lily. Poor thing had a nightmare about being turned into a turnip. Can you imagine?"
"Maybe you should rest," Harry suggested, looking concerned. He pulled a chair up and seated himself next to Ginny.
"No, I have a lot of work to do. Clean the house, cook dinner, do the laundry…" she ticked each chore off her fingers.
Harry took her hand and gave it a little squeeze.
"Don't worry about work today. I want you to sleep; you need to be well rested for today."
"Why is that?" She lifted her head off the table and stared at him with a slightly suspicious look, her eyebrows raised questioningly. It strongly reminded Harry of Mrs. Weasley.
"Nothing," he said innocently, not quite meeting her eyes. "I just want you to be… er… healthy." Nice job Harry he thought to himself sarcastically. You're doing a great job at keeping secrets.
"I suppose you're right," she said, but the suspicious look in her eyes had not quite left. "Are you sure you can handle everything?"
"'Course I can."
That was close, Harry reflected as he watched Ginny leave the room. Now time to get the kids up. He crept upstairs, heading to the nearest door marked "Lily" in flowery pink font. He pushed the door open to find Lily, his five-year-old daughter, sleeping peacefully in her white canopy bed.
"Lily? Wake up," Harry murmured quietly. Lily groaned, tossing and turning. "Lily, come on, wake up. Today's the big day." Her eyes suddenly snapped open, her wide brown eyes that she'd inherited from Ginny staring into his face.
"Daddy! Today's Mother's Day!" she squealed excitedly, jumping out of bed.
"Shhhh, I know dear but it's a surprise for Mummy remember?" Harry whispered, lifting his index finger to his mouth.
"I know," she whispered back and she put her index finger in front of her mouth.
"You get ready and go down to the kitchen, and I'll wake up your brothers ok?"
"Ok."
Harry then proceeded to the room next door, marked "Albus". Unlike Lily, he found Albus playing with his Albus Dumbledore and Dark Lord action figures he'd got from Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Go, Albus go! You can defeat the evil Dark Lord James who stole all of the Pumpkin Pasties- oh, hi dad." He looked up.
"Hi Al, let's go down for breakfast, then we have to prepare everything for your mother."
"Right," he said. "Dad, you won't let James eat all the sweets this time right?"
"Yeah, I'll guard them for you," laughed Harry, as the memory of James eating the dessert Harry had bought from Honeydukes (the London branch) for Albus' seventh birthday flashed through his mind. Although the incident happened months ago and Harry treated everyone out for ice cream instead, Albus never quite forgave James.
"Hey! You said you wouldn't talk about that!" Harry and Albus turned to see James leaning against the door frame, looking annoyed. "Mum already grounded me for that. Couldn't you leave it?"
"No," retorted Albus, "It's your fault, you deserve it."
"I do nooot!" said James indignantly.
"Yes you dooo."
"All right boys that's enough. Let's go down for breakfast, Lily is waiting downstairs and we've got to get everything ready for today."
The three of them walked down the stairs, careful to make as little noise as possible. When they entered the kitchen, Lily was seated at the table counting tiles on the floor.
"Let's get some breakfast. Who wants scrambled eggs?" said Harry, rubbing the palms of his hands together.
"Me!" said Lily and Albus together.
"I want cereal," whined James.
"Fine," said Harry producing a box of corn flakes from the cupboard above the stove. I didn't take long for Harry to make the eggs for himself, Lily and Albus and once they were all settled at the table with their breakfast, Harry brought up Mother's Day.
"When your mother wakes up, I'll lead her into the sitting room where dinner, dessert and presents will be set up for her. She'd done a lot for you and this treat should be really special."
"I haven't got anything to give her!" said Lily. Her eyes were filled worry. "Can I make something for her?"
"Of course you can," said Harry, "That makes it special."
"Well, I've already picked my present," James gloated. "I'm already set."
"So do I!" exclaimed Albus. "What's yours?"
"It's a surprise, and it beats what you're giving Mum," said James smugly.
"What did you get for Mum, Dad?" asked Lily. Harry grinned.
"You'll see. Now, James, you're in charge of making sure Mum doesn't come into the kitchen. Lily, you can work on your present for her if you want and Albus, you get to be my assistant cook. Sound good?"
"Couldn't I be the assistant cook?" asked James.
"You have an important job, making sure Mum doesn't find out though."
"Oh, well if it's really important…"
"It is. Trust me."
James trudged out of the kitchen, rolling his eyes leaving Lily, Albus and his father.
"It's not fair," he muttered crossly. "They don't have to stand around doing nothing. It's not fair!" He stomped his foot, scowling heavily. "I'd rather be doing something else than being a stupid guard-"
"A guard? For what?" James turned to see his mother walking down stairs, yawning and stretching.
"Um…treasure," said James quickly. "Albus and me are… are… playing a game. He's off finding the treasure inside this cave (He pointed at the kitchen door) while I guard the front so that no mummies can come and chase him."
"Can I come in?"
"You're a Mummy; I have to protect the treasure from you!" He shook his head at her.
"All right," she laughed. "I just wanted to check on everything. Where is your father?"
"Erm… I… he…" James was lost for words. What could he possibly say? He's in the kitchen, cooking a surprise dinner for you?
"Ginny?" Harry came out of the kitchen. "I thought you were asleep?"
"I was but I thought I'd see if you were managing ok." She turned to James. "I thought no one was allowed inside the cave?"
"I slipped inside when he wasn't looking," said Harry, grinning. "Everything is fine."
"Ok, ok, I think I'm going to sleep a bit more." She rubbed her eyes.
"Right." James and Harry watched her as she trooped back up the stairs.
"You can tell me about the kitchen being a 'cave' later," said Harry to James, who grinned at his clever distraction. Harry walked into the kitchen and James resumed his guarding position.
Sitting at the kitchen table was Lily, working on her present to her mum.
"What 'cha making?" asked Albus curiously, eyeing the craft materials Lily scattered over the table.
"A picture frame. And in it, is gonna be a picture of the family. See?" She waved a family photo above her head for Albus to see. "What are you making with Daddy?"
"Shepherds pie. Dad says Mum loves it. And we don't have too much to do 'cause Dad already got pie shell."
The rest of the afternoon carried out smoothly. Ginny didn't make another unexpected trip to the kitchen and both James and Lily had their presents wrapped and ready to go. Harry and Albus finished their pie and later, Harry briefly left the house to get some pudding from Honeydukes. Then everyone pitched in and helped with the laundry and other chores.
Harry brought the dinner and gifts into the sitting room and got the kids cleaned up. He checked his watch; it was half past six. Time to get Ginny.
He found her lying in bed awake with her eyes wide open.
"Have you been awake all this time?" Harry asked incredulously. Ginny smiled.
"No, I only just got up. I had a refreshing nap."
"All right then. Let's go downstairs. There's… something you should see…" Harry adapted an anxious, guilty tone, which to his delight, made Ginny frown.
"Did the stove explode or something?
"Well…it's not quite that bad…"
"Harry! You said everything was going well! I'm never leaving you alone in the kitchen ever again!" she cried exasperatedly.
"Well, I supposed you'd better come and see the damage."
He led her to the sitting room. It was still, silent and dark.
"Harry, where are the children?"
Suddenly, someone was giggling, and although it was muffled, it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Lily! I thought I told you not to laugh!" cried James exasperatedly.
The lights flicked on and there, crouching behind the sofa was Lily sprawled on the floor, laughing hysterically. James looked extremely annoyed while Albus appeared to be tickling Lily.
"I'm sorry but Al is a good tickler. I couldn't help it!"
"You ruined the surprise for Mum!"
"No she didn't," said Ginny beaming. "This is the best surprise ever. Oh and Harry? Nothing did happen to the kitchen right?"
Harry grinned and Ginny softly punched his arm. "That was brilliant," she said, pecking his cheek.
"It's our gift to you. Oh, and this is too." Harry reached into his pant pockets and withdrew a small velvet covered box and opened it. Inside, was a silver, heart-shaped brooch with GP engraved on it.
"Oh my… it's beautiful," she stared at it with wide eyes. Harry wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her forehead.
"Hey Mum, open my present!" said James. He thrust a badly wrapped, flat package at her.
"Mine too," said Albus, hurrying forward.
"And mine!"
As Ginny opened her presents (a short poem from James, a bouquet of wild flowers from Albus and the colourful picture frame from Lily) they couldn't help but feel warm and happy. Harry, James, Lily and Albus achieved their goal: to express their appreciation for Ginny. It was indeed a special day for Ginny and joyful for them all.
Hey people! Yeah, I know I haven't been writing lately, it's just I had a bad case of writers block and every time I tried to write something, it just didn't seem right. I'm still working on the incomplete stories. I wrote this story in honour of Mothers Day. It just seemed like a good time to try and write a nice one-shot. As always, read and review and I'll love you forever!
-the Chocofreakazoid
PS Thank you Soul Reaper Vile for the critique, I really appreciate it.