Heya :D This round was about magical objects for the third Chasers. My object was Spellotape. The start and end of the story had to be the same word, as well.

Prompts:

(dialogue) "I'm bored. Play with me!"
(word) bounce
(word) shatter

Enjoy reading! :D

The Toy Broomstick

"Come on Prongslet, I'm bored. Play with me!" Sirius Black whined as he gently poked the giggling, black-haired toddler who was chewing on a wooden block, clearly enjoying the antics of his godfather.

"Let the poor boy be, Padfoot," James Potter yawned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He and Lily hadn't gotten much sleep last night because their son thought it was more fun listening to lullabies than actually falling asleep like a good boy.

It was late September. The sun was out and lighting up the living room they were currently occupying. A few birds could be heard chirping every now and then, not quite ready yet for summer to end and fall to begin. Light brown leaves were starting to cover the streets of the cosy little village called Godric's Hollow, the wind blowing fallen leaves into the air, making them dance on the cobblestones.

It was a lovely day. It would have been even lovelier if their sweet, little boy had decided to let them sleep through the night, though. James grumbled softly to himself as he rubbed his tired eyes.

He could not, for the life of him, figure out how Harry managed to crawl around the room, picking up toys and stuffed animals, throwing them in different directions, just to toddle after them, pick them up again and repeat the whole procedure anew. Their cat was used that kind of action, as she merely blinked at the toddler, who was running past her at an impressive speed. Even his wife had more energy left than him, bustling busily in the kitchen, baking Merlin knew what. And she had been the one poking him in the rips every time he had nodded off, mind you...

Sighing loudly, he picked himself up off the couch and stretched, groaning all the way.

"Sweet Merlin, you sound like an old man, Prongs," Sirius grinned up from the floor. He was holding a stuffed wolf that Harry had just plonked into his lap.

"Oh, shut up," James mumbled, as he ran a hand through his hair, making it even more tousled than it already was from a night without sleep and a short nap on the couch. He hadn't showered either, come to think of it….

"I'm bored," Sirius complained.

James sighed.

"Why don't we get Harry's new broom out of the cupboard?" A maniacal glint appeared in the wizard's eyes.

James' eyes narrowed, suspicious, as he watched his friend's grin grow even wider, threatening to split his face in two.

"Come on, Jamesie! It'll be fun!"

A happy squeal and clapping baby hands followed that exclamation and the decision was made.

"But Lily can't find out," the young Potter said in a low tone, as he pointed at his friend and his son, a serious expression on his face. "Mummy will become very angry with all of us if she sees you on that broom!"

Little Harry squealed delighted and bounced up and down on his diaper-clad bum. James smiled lovingly at his little boy, knelt down beside him and pressed a gentle kiss into the unruly black hair that so much resembled his own.

"Be right back then."

Quietly, he snuck out of the living room and into the hallway. Careful not to alert his wife, he peeked into the kitchen. Lily was humming softly to herself as she mixed flour into a yellowy mixture. Deeming it the best moment he had, he quickly hurried down the hall to the cupboard which held the cleaning utensils that Lily was still adamant about using. Working with your hands has its advantages once in a while, she had said. James smirked as he remembered what had happened afterwards; how very much he had agreed that working with your hands had indeed its advantages.

He opened the door to the storage cupboard, rummaged around for a short while and grabbed the play broom that was stowed away at the very back of the small room, just in case Harry had somehow managed to get into there and find his beloved birthday present.

Back in the living room, he found his best friend and his son grinning eagerly. He couldn't say who, out of those two, was more excited.

"He found it!" Sirius yelled, got up and ran over to where James was standing, holding the broom over his head.

"Be quiet, you idiot!" James hissed, which was followed by a rather forceful pat against his leg. Blinking, he gazed down, astonished to see his son try to reach the broom above his head. His little face was scrunched up in annoyed determination.

"Would you look at him," Sirius cooed and scooped the little boy up. Harry giggled, delighted at the attention he was getting. "You want to play, don't you, Prongslet?"

Harry nodded excitedly, turned around to his dad and pointed at the broom he was still holding onto tightly. "Dada! B'oom!"

"Alright, alright," James laughed and lowered his arm just enough that the broom was hovering twenty centimetres over the carpeted floor. With his other hand, he fished his wand out of his back pocket, tapped it against the broom and grinned as Harry started clapping excitedly as sparks flew out of the broom's tip, announcing it ready to be played with.

Sirius gently put his godson onto the carpet and watched with a wide grin as said boy crawled over to his broomstick, grabbed onto his with surprising strength, and pulled himself onto his feet, using the wooden handle for leverage. Forceful pats with tiny hands had the broom lower itself further to the ground, so that the young wizard could mount it without toppling over.

As soon as his diaper-clad bum touched the wood, the broom rose a bit in height and off it went.

Grinning madly, Sirius' eyes followed his godson, who was whooping loudly and giggling like crazy as the broom flew through the living room. With a quick spin, he transformed into Padfoot and ran after the broomstick and his hysterically laughing godson.

Their cat hissed and quickly fled out of the room as Harry zoomed right past it.

"Watch out!" James yelled as Harry took a sharp turn and brushed the broom's tail against a low glass table which held Lily's most prized possession – her dead grandmother's antique vase.

James winced as the vase toppled slowly, but thankfully didn't fall over. Exhaling, he allowed a rush of relief flow through his veins, as Padfoot continued to run after his son, who was doing surprisingly well on dodging the playful attacks of the black dog. He'll definitely be a Seeker once he's older, James thought, bursting with pride. He's got one hell of a talent going on!

Soft noises came out of the kitchen as Lily started with the washing up. Quickly, pointing his wand toward the living room door, James cast a mild Silencing Charm to keep his wife from hearing what was going on in here. He made sure to use the charm he and his friends had invented in school that led him hear everything that was going on on her side of the charm, but kept her from getting suspicious by hearing yells and screams out of the living room.

He grinned satisfied and turned back around to continue to watch his son work on his flying skills, just as the laughing boy, once again, flew past the glass table. This time, though, his broom's tail swished over the surface of the small table and touched the vase at a dangerous angle. Sirius let out an excited bark as he took the sharp corner with more speed than necessary, his tail wiggling energetically.

James' eyes widened as he watched, nearly in slow motion, as the expensive vase began to topple, roll over the surface of the glass, fall over the edge, bounce off of the soft carpet and come to a halt just next to the table.

Expelling all of the left-over air out of his lungs, James allowed himself a few seconds to breathe. Nothing happened to the vase! It was still intac-

Clang.

Padfoot yelped and transformed back into his red-faced self. Gingerly, he held his hand that was bleeding and still had a piece of broken porcelain stuck in its palm.

Harry, upon hearing the yelp, had stopped the broom from flying and was now looking to his godfather with a worried expression on his glowing face.

The vase – James groaned – lay, shattered, at their feet.

"For Merlin's sake," he mumbled, as he knelt down next to his best friend to look at his hand closely. "Stay where you are, Harry! I don't want you to injure yourself as well!"

Harry blinked and slid off of the broomstick to sit down on the fluffy carpet.

"I'm sorry, James," Sirius muttered apologetically as he watched his friend poke the piece of porcelain in his hand with his wand. "I didn't see the table in time to slow down."

"It's alright, Padfoot," James said and smiled reassuringly at his friend. "Let's just make sure this cut doesn't get infected, okay?" He quickly pulled out the sharp piece of the vase out of his friend's hand, pointed his wand at the palm and mumbled "Episkey!"

A soft blue glow enveloped the hand for a few seconds as the hand stitched itself back together.

"Thanks," Sirius smiled gingerly at his friend, who merely rolled his eyes and turned back to the broken vase on the floor next to them.

"Lily is going to kill me!"

"We can still fix it, I'm sure," Sirius exclaimed, grabbed James' wand, pointed it at the remains that had once been a very old vase, cleared his throat and said "Reparo!"

The porcelain pieces trembled, flew into the air and fell back onto the carpet.

James scowled.

"Well, it was worth a try," Sirius scratched the back of his neck.

"Goo!" Harry clapped his hands to get the adults' attention.

"What is it, Harry," James asked as he watched his son crawl over to them. He held out a hand to stop him from getting too close to the shards.

"Dada! Goo!"

James blinked, confused. "Goo?"

"Goo!" Harry nodded energetically and pointed his little finger to the broken vase. "No wan'! Goo!"

"I think he wants us to glue it back together," Sirius says slowly and Harry clapped his hands, excitedly.

Looking back to his son, James took his hand. "Do you mean we should glue the pieces back together?"

Harry giggled and nodded, grinning widely.

"Clever boy!" Sirius cooed and ruffled Harry's unruly hair.

"But we don't have Muggle glue in the house," James ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I didn't think we'd need it, what with the Reparo Spell..."

"We could always just use Spellotape."

James looked at Sirius blankly. "Spellotape."

"Spellotape," Sirius repeated, the suspicious glint in his eyes was back.

"You do know that using Spellotape is more than obvious?" James asked, speaking as if he was talking to a toddler and not a twenty-one year old man.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Of course I know that, you bimbo," he huffed. "What I mean is that using Spellotape could buy you some time to look up a more appropriate repairing spell to get the pieces back together!"

A slow smile started to light up James' face as he gazed from his son to his friend and over to the shattered vase. "You know what? That could actually work! With a lot of luck. And I mean, a lot of luck."

"What could work?"

All three of them yelped and whirled around to see Lily stand in the doorway, on their side of the Silencing Charm, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Um..." James stuttered and smiled tentatively at his wife, who merely raised an eyebrow. "Well..."

"Mama!"

Saved by the kid, James sighed, relieved, as Lily's stern gaze softened into a gentle smile.

"Hello, sweetheart," she said, as Harry toddled safely, and shard-free, around the couch – which James was very pleased about – and raised both hands into the air, an unspoken demand to be picked up.

"Will you tell mummy what your daddy and your uncle have done this time, love?"

Harry giggled and pointed to the remains of the once beautiful vase that James and Sirius were doing their best in hiding. "Dada an' Pa'foo goo!"

Lily raised her eyebrows and turned her, once again, stern gaze at her childish husband and his even more childish friend. "What did you do?"

James gulped. He knew it would cause a lot less trouble if he just moved out of the way and told her straight out that Padfoot had destroyed her favourite heirloom. He looked over to Sirius, who merely shrugged in a careless manner.

"Well?"

Sighing, James stood up from the floor and carefully navigated out of Lily's direct line of view.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, upon hearing Lily's shocked gasp. "Harry and Sirius were playing and everything got a bit out of hand and it just toppled over and shattered on the ground." His hand rose to his hair almost subconsciously.

Lily took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself. Her grip on Harry tightened slightly, as she pressed her nose into his soft baby hair and inhaled slowly. The calming, fresh scent invaded her brain and helped her slow down her heart rate.

"Does this have anything to do with the broomstick that you are trying to hide behind your back, Sirius?"

Sirius froze and started laughing hesitantly as Lily opened her eyes and glared at him. "You know, Evans, Harry really wanted to play with his new broom and –"

"Don't you dare blame this on my son," Lily said in a very calm voice, smiling angelically at him. Harry was playing calmly with her bright red hair.

"Um," Sirius blinked and looked over to James, begging for help.

"Okay, it was our idea," he said, waving his hand around wildly, as if he was swatting away annoying flies. "Sirius brought it up, Harry got excited and I went and got it out of the cupboard. We're all guilty here."

"I plead innocent!"

"Shut up, Padfoot, no-one is talking with you!"

Lily sighed and rubbed at her forehead to keep a headache from appearing. She knew there had to be a spell that could fix delicate porcelain objects; she just needed to find it. Having to look for the spell for more annoying than having the vase broken in the first place. But, Lily smirked, since I wasn't the one who broke it, I won't be the one to waste my precious time in looking for the right spell. Time that I could spend cuddling with my son.

"Alright, then," Lily said, stepped over the shards that were still lying on the floor next to the glass table and sat down onto the softly cushioned couch that she loved so dearly. Harry made himself comfortable in her lap and pressed his face into his mother's neck. Playing with the broom, laughing all the time had worn him out. His little mouth opened with a wide yawn and he settled down for a short and refreshing nap.

James looked at his small family with loving eyes, as he as well went around the couch and sat down beside his wife and their son, putting his arm over her shoulder and pulling them gently into his side.

"I really am sorry," he kissed her temple softly and smiled gently at the two people he would die for. "I'll make it up to you. I promise."

Lily blinked repeatedly, fluttering her lashes at him as she smiled sweetly at him. "I know. That's why you'll be the one to look for an appropriate, everlasting repairing charm, darling."

Sirius laughed his bark-like laughter as James closed his eyes and sighed, dejectedly.

The smirk Lily was wearing showed that this wasn't all she'd make him do, but that there would be more to come.

There we go! I absolutely LOVED writing this little drabble. I love the Potters to pieces, and having them in a happy moment like this warms my heart!

As always, feel free to leave a comment. I always read and answer them. They make my day!

Word Count: 2683

Until next time - see ya!