Songfic to 'Cinderella' - Steven Curtis Chapman
A/N - Hi everyone! I heard this song last night and it made me cry straight away, and I wanted to do something with it! (It is a beautiful song, by the way, I really recommend it) I've put it in the setting of Harry and his daughter at three points in their life together, aaaand I hope you enjoy it :) I do have another idea based around a similar theme, but I'm not sure if that will be another oneshot or another chapter to this...I guess oyu'll find out at some point!
Harry watched his youngest child in the garden, spinning round and round in the fading golden light. Her red hair swirled around her face, sliding over the silver fabric of her dress, which trailed on the floor behind her, tangling around her feet. Her lips moved silently, a look of intense concentration on her small face, lips pursed in opened the back door quietly to get a better look at the little girl dancing around barefoot on the lawn, but she noticed. Her face broke into a huge, innocent smile.
"Daddy!" She ran over to him, stumbling a little "There's a party! And I'm going to go and meet my fairy godmother. But I need to practice dancing. Dance with me Daddy!"
Harry smiled at her words, and he immediately lifted his little girl up and swung her around him, her laughs filling their small garden. She hit him lightly on the arm
"Stop it! Stop it right now!" He set her down and she looked up at him indignantly "That's not how you do it Daddy. It's like this." Harry complied like the perfect student while the little girl instructed him in ballroom dancing, suppressing his smiles and trying to look as serious as possible, but when she paused for breath he beckoned her close.
"Lily" he whispered "Do you want to know a secret?"
She nodded solemnly
"And I promise not to tell anyone, never ever"
"Well, if you promise. The best way to dance is if you stand on my feet. Try it like that."
He stood straight and the little redheaded girl balanced on his feet. The whirled around, and Lily didn't notice when Harry cast a charm on her that levitated her up to his eye level, because she was having so much fun.
Ginny looked out of the kitchen window at them, a tea towel dangling from her hands as her husband danced their daughter around in the twilight. The train of the silver dress that Ginny had worn the night Harry proposed dragged slightly on the ground, and the only sound that rang through the crisp night air was their laughter.
"Mum! Dad! Guess what?" Lily rushed into the kitchen where her parents were chatting. Without pausing for breath she continued "They announced at the end of last term that there was going to be a ball, and Nick Wood just wrote to ask me to go with him! You'll really like him, Dad" she addressed her Harry hopefully "He's a great guy, and he plays quidditch even better than his dad did. Can we go and look for a dress tomorrow Mum? I need to write to Molly and ask her to meet us there, because she needs one too!"
"Yes Lily, we can go tomorrow" Ginny called after her daughter, but Lily was already halfway up the stairs to her room, so she turned back to her husband. She clearly recognised the look in his eyes as the same as her own father's, the night she told him that she had a boyfriend. "It had to happen, Harry" she murmured, rubbing his shoulders "She was always going to grow up eventually.
"Dad? James? What do you think?" Lily entered the living room where they were sitting around the fire with her Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, her lower lip quivering with excitement. She was stunning, her long red hair caught up in a bun, showing off her long, elegant neck. The dress was long and golden, with a thin braided strap passed behind her neck. It flared out slightly from her hips and flowed sleekly to the floor.
"Oh, Lily" Hermione gasped. James and Ron both offered compliments and turned back to their conversation. Harry stood up and hugged his daughter.
"You look beautiful, Lils" he said gruffly, and his eyes met her mother's behind her back, and they were all full of unshed tears.
"Are you excited for the waltzing, Lily?" Hermione asked, recognising the emotion in her friends' faces and trying to distract them before Lily realised.
"Waltzing?" Lily looked at her in shock "Since when is there waltzing?"
"That's how they open the ball, honey. It's fine, its a very simple dance. We all had to learn it in fifth year."
Lily turned to her dad, totally trusting "Will you teach me to dance it, Dad? Please?"
"Course I will. Let's go outside, there's more space"
The little party walked out onto the lawn, and Harry and Ginny demonstrated at first for their daughter, and then she tried herself. She was a natural: graceful and light on her feet. And as the light faded from the sky, once again it shone over a father dancing with his daughter.
Lily looked at herself in the mirror, in her old room and she saw her parents' reflection in the hallway behind her. She turned nervously, and smiled when their eyes met.
"What do you think?"
Harry swallowed a lump down his throat, and Ginny smiled tearily. Lily was...radiant. The ivory dress was simple in the extreme, beautifully so, and her long veil made it look like she had a halo.
"You're beautiful, Lils" He said after a long pause "My beautiful girl."
Ginny nudged his arm. "It's time. I'll see you two down there, Okay?" She rushed away down the stairs into the garden, where the sun was just starting to descend from the height of the sky.
"You ready, Lils?"
"So ready, Dad. And so happy" She looked it, too. Her face shone with happiness, pure and simple. "And I think they're ready for us now"
Harry led the way down the stairs, pausing at the bottom to help his daughter down. He took her arm in his and they reached the door. He looked down at her, her expectant face gazing down the aisle to the man waiting for her. The music started, and they began the slow procession down to the rest of her life.
Ginny looked back from her seat at the front, tears spilling over from her brown eyes as she saw her daughter in the position that she herself had been in, not so long ago. When Harry joined her in their row, and Lily walked to the front to join her soon-to-be husband, she held his hand tightly, and a tear streaked down his cheek as well.
At the reception, once the speeches were all finished and both the bride and groom had been thoroughly embarrassed by their friends, it was time for the dances. Lily held her hand out to her dad, smiling widely.
"Nick's rubbish at dancing" she whispered conspiratorially "Let's show him how it's done, right dad?"Harry grinned back at her, and they began to dance circles (both literally and figurativley) around Nick and his mother. The song was slow and everyone present was struck by the sight of the tall, black haired man dancing with his beautiful daughter, and how simply happy everyone looked. There wasn't any need for superlatives. The emotion shining from the faces of the bride and groom was pure happiness.
The music began to change, and Harry looked around, confused.
"You have to pass me over now, dad" Lily whispered to him "Now I dance with Nick, and you can escape the limelight again."
Harry passed over his daughter, for the last time, and went back to sit with Ginny. She took one look at his face and led him away from the party. They slipped away as Lily was dancing, and back into their house.
Later that night, Harry and Ginny were sitting by a window in their house, watching the party progress in the tent. Two figures exited it, both tall, one broad shouldered and one slight, in a very light dress. Ginny gasped slightly and pointed them out to her husband, new tears starting as she recognised her daughter. Lily's husband turned back to her, and held out his hand, bowing. She took it and they began to dance, foreheads pressed together. The golden light of the setting sun washed over them, giving them the appearance of a well-loved memory, reflecting off Lily's dress and hair so that they seemed to sparkle and glow.. Harry gave up on choking down the lump in his throat and gave a throaty sob. He looked at Ginny and she was crying too, tears pouring down her cheeks like rain on a leaf: slick droplets falling on her green dress.
"She really is grown up, isn't she?" he asked his wife sadly "She has someone else to dance with now"
Years later, A small, brown haired girl dances around her garden, playing games. And when she sees her daddy in the doorway, watching her, she runs over and begs him to dance with her. And he whirls he round and round in the air until she is quite dizzy, And all the while Lily watches from the window, tears in her eyes, and she finally understands the sorrow she saw in her parent's faces at her wedding.