A/N: So in this one you'll find out why Lily is afraid of inferi. Lily is 4, Albus is 6, James is 7 and Teddy is 13, or I think, the math is semi right, I hope. Anyway, enjoy.
It was a quite summer evening, in the Potter's back yard a small tent was set up with jars of what appeared to be fireflies in them, but we're actually sprites. Giggles and laughter could be heard from inside. A man and women approached the tent, pillows, blankets and what looked like an assortment of brightly colored candy wrappers and four water bottles filled with an amber colored liquid.
"Kids, open up." the male called, giggling was heard from inside the tent
"What's the password?" a high-pitched voice called back
"We come with candy." The women called back grinning at her husband
"Candy! Al come on open the door!" an excited voice whispered
The door unzipped to reveal three boys and a little girl all in pj's sitting in a circle flashlights in hand. The eldest was a boy with bright turquoise hair and amber colored eyes, he was grinning at the adults. The two boys were around the same age, one slightly older than the other, both had unruly black hair the two things that stood out were one had hazel eyes and another boy wore glasses and had bright green eyes. The little girl had long bright red hair and bright brown eyes she looked extremely hyper.
"Here are some pillows, some extra blankets incase it gets cold. Are you sure you want to spend the night out here? We can turn the living room into something even better." Ginny told her kids looking very worried.
"Gin we talked about this they'll be fine. Here you go kids, butter beer, chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's every flavored beans, fizzing whizbees, licorice wands, sugar mice, cauldron cakes, more chocolate, and sherbet lemons. Oh and the pizza should be here in a few minutes, I'll bring it out when it arrives. Now we'll be going, please remember the stories shouldn't be too scary and if I hear screaming coming from this tent it will be a very long time until you can do this again understand?" Harry told his kids, they all nodded knowing that their dad meant business.
"Good night kids." Ginny said kissing all of them on the head.
"Harry are you sure its okay to let them sleep out side like this?" Ginny asked, looking around there dark background
"Relax Gin it's been 14 years, and everything has been quite, Ron and I along with other Aruors rounded up the Death Eaters that needed to be sent to Azkaban. And if it still worries you, our house has every protection spell imaginable, as does the tent." Harry told his wife
"Your right, but I'm still worried about Lily, you know how James can get." Ginny said
"Yes, but Lily has Teddy to back her up, she'll be fine, she'll most likely fall asleep before any one else." Harry and Ginny went inside trusting their children not to do anything too stupid.
For about an hour James, Al and Lily listened to Teddy's stories about Hogwarts, what the classes were like, the pranks he'd pulled, the trips to Hogsemade, and about all the cool creatures Hagrid has been taking care of recently. When Harry came out with the kids pizza he found that they were all awake, including Lily, even though it was almost two hours after her bedtime.
"Hey Teddy, tells us a scary story." James said after he was sure his dad was far enough away that he wouldn't hear him.
"He can't James, Lily is with us and we aren't supposed to scare her." Al sighed
"I wont get scared, nothing Teddy says can be scary." Lily said hugging her unicorn doll; it had been a gift from Hagrid for her last birthday.
"Are you sure? I know some pretty great scary stories." Teddy said brow furrowed, he didn't like doing things that would upset her, she was his baby sister, but she was now a 'big kid' as she kept reminding him.
"Yes Teddy, it'll be fine. James' face in the morning is scarier than any story you could come up with." Lily giggled, she wanted to be like her brothers, and she was sure Teddy wouldn't make the story too scary.
"Well alright," Teddy trailed off trying to think of the perfect story that wouldn't be too scary, "There was once a little girl who had a small Rottweiler puppy. She loved the little dog with all her heart, they went absolutely everywhere together, and they were inseparable. Whenever the little girl was scared at night, she would hang her hand over the side of the bed and the puppy would lick her hand telling her everything was fine. The night after her older brothers played a mean trick on her, she hung her hand down and waited for a really long time until her puppy licked her hand, and she smiled and went back to bed. When she woke up in the morning, the little girl screamed. Her entire room was covered in blood and tiny pieces of puppy flesh." Teddy said rather pleased with his story.
"Teddy…we've already heard that one. It's not very scary." Lily said matter of factly
"Lily has a point Teddy. That story isn't scary at all." Al agreed
Teddy had to think for a minute trying to come up with a story that would be scary but not to scary. But before he could think of anything James started telling a story, Teddy thought it would be fine letting James tell a story how scary could a seven year olds story be any way.
"…So the man in the long black cloak went around opening graves and turning the bodies into inferi. The man made the inferi do whatever he wanted, but mostly he used them to scare little girls, he'd make them creep into their windows at night, pull them out of bed and then drag them into lakes never to be heard from…" James was really getting into the story at this point, but Teddy had to step in before it got any worse Lily was already causing the blood to flow into his arm.
"Okay James I think that's enough, you scared Lily enough." Teddy said. Moving around to loosen Lily's grip.
"Nuh-uh, J-jame's story wasn't at…at all sc-scary. R-right Al?" Lily looked to her older brother for back-up but found him fast asleep. "See not scary at all."
"It was too. Teddy, can you tell a real scary story now?" James asked sticking his tongue out at his sister.
Teddy just shook his head and laughed. "No it's bed time now."
The Next day was Sunday so the kids spent the morning helping their parents out at home until it was game night, where Lily and Harry dominated charades, and Ginny beat everyone at Monopoly and Teddy won Jenga against everyone, Al beat everyone at cards and James was just happy he didn't get last, every single time.
That night's bedtime had Lily double-checking her windows were locked and that nothing was going to drag her into a lake. Still she fell asleep rather uneasy.
She woke up everyone in the house around two in the morning with her screaming. It took about 15 minuets for Harry to calm her down, and another 2 minutes for Ginny to find out what caused her to dream of inferi. James was in trouble for the next couple of days. And Harry had to sleep in Lily's room for the next few nights before she decided her dad scared the inferi away and weren't coming to get her.
A/N: I am so sorry it has taken me soooo long to update. but i have and i promise i will try really hard to keep updating fairly regularly. This one is a little longer than my other ones, but this is a back story to Lily's present to Harry on his birthday. i appreciate reviews as well as prompts.
