Chapter eleven

After lunch, Harry, Lily, Ginny, Hermione and Ron apparated to Godric's Hollow, they met in a small lane not far from the cemetery, then Harry led the way to his home, but Lily never let his hand go the whole time. Harry stopped and pointed, the others all turned and looked at his home.

'That's big daddy.'

'Yep, really big, so let's get in,' Harry still holding Lily's hand led the way inside. The moment they stepped through the door, a loud and boisterous puppy bounded towards them, skidding on the shiny floor making Lily giggle as the puppy slammed into Harry's legs, 'Snuffles, settle down mate,' Harry knelt down and gave the puppy a pat as Lily reached her hand out and patted him, the puppy licked her face making her giggle again, 'Not her face Snuffles, now let's get into the house instead of standing in the entrance way,' Harry picked up the dog and walked into the large living room, then put the dog down and looked around, 'I knew it, he can't help chewing everything. I bought him a heap of chew toys and he chews the rugs,' Harry pointed his wand at the three different rugs and repaired them, 'No more Snuffles, chew your toys.'

'He's funny.'

'He's cute Harry, but look at the mess he made, not just chewing your rugs, but he's pulled everything out,' Hermione said staring around.

'Yeah, he keeps doing that, so I've started putting different scents around the cupboards to stop him, looks like it didn't work though.'

'It might be a good idea to leave him outside when you go out,' Ginny said.

'I can't until I block the property, too many small areas he can escape through. I'll get us all a drink,' Harry put the puppy down and went into the kitchen, but Lily followed him, 'Did you want to help me?'

'I want to stay with you.'

'Alright,' Harry grinned, got everyone a drink, put them on a tray and floated it back into the living room with Lily holding his hand.

'Daddy, can you show me my room?'

'Lily darling, you don't have a room here, you live at the Burrow.'

'No, I live with daddy, I want daddy.' She said stubbornly.

Harry knelt in front of Lily, 'If you're mother lets you, you can stay here sometimes.'

Lily wrapped her arms around Harry's neck, 'Always, I want to stay with you.'

'She's bonded to Harry, I mean really bonded to him. It's a very rare bond that a parent and child will have. It's like she knows Harry is part of her and needs to be with him. That's probably why she never really got close to anyone else, she knew in her heart that someone was missing.'

'What do you mean she never really got close to anyone?' Harry stared at Ginny looking puzzled.

'Lily wouldn't let me hug her, well sometimes, but not a lot. I'd see Victoire and Dominique hugging Fleur and Bill, Lily wouldn't do that with me, with anyone. From the time she was walking, she would put herself to bed, that was after I'd give her a bath and get her changed. I just thought she was independent, she liked to do things for herself.'

'Come on daddy, show me my room, it has to be right next door to yours.'

Harry looked up at Ginny, 'What do I do Ginny?'

'Let's just see what happens, but you can show her a room.'

Harry nodded, 'Alright sweetheart, come on,' Lily held her arms out to Harry who picked her up and she just kept her arms around him as they walked up the large winding staircase, 'This is my room, so you can have this one right next to it,' Harry pushed open the door, then pointed his wand at the furniture and changed it so it looked like a little girls room, 'How's that?'

'Pretty,' Lily pointed to her bed, so Harry sat her down and Snuffles tried to jump up, Harry picked the dog up and sat him on the end of the bed, while Lily got into her bed and instantly fell asleep.

Harry saw Ginny, Hermione and Ron staring into the room, 'What's going on?'

'It's a bond Harry, a very rare bond. She needs to be close to you, it's like she feels something will happen if she isn't with that parent. I'll go through my books because it's been a while since I read about the bonding between a parent and a child.'

'Does she normally fall asleep during the day?'

'No, not for a while anyway, so let's leave her sleep,' Ginny took Lily's shoes off then followed the others down the stairs. 'Why did you buy such a big house Harry?'

'When I saw it I just fell in love with the place, but I keep a few rooms with power. I have another large living room set up with a flat screen tv, dvd players, stereo. I've been buying a heap of movies, I watch them of a night before going to bed. My office has power as well, that's where I keep my lap top. This room, the library and the bedrooms don't have power, neither does the conservatory, ball room or pool room.'

'Pool room, what do you mean pool room?' Ron asked.

'There's a huge indoor heated pool at the other end of the house. Does Lily swim?'

'She's just learning, but no, she doesn't.'

'I'll go seal it just in case,' Harry hurried from the room, closed the door and charmed it so it couldn't be opened before he checked on his daughter and saw her and Snuffles asleep before he joined the other three, 'Snuffles is asleep on the end of the bed, he has his own bed that he likes.'

'Snuffles probably can feel she's yours and wants to be close to her. When you said puppy, I wasn't expecting a German Shepherd. They are really large dogs.'

'Yeah, but I wanted a dog but also something that can scare people away as well.'

'So these glass things around the room, did you make them?'

'Most of them I did, there's a few from the people that taught me how to do it. If you look closely you can see how much better there's are to mine. But what's going on here, you know I never look at newspapers?'

'It's been really quiet over the last few years,' Ginny said.

'What about you, all of you, what do you do?'

'Well I helped George for a year to get the shop up and running again, then I joined the aurors,' Ron said.

'I got a job in the department of regulation and control of magical creatures, then three years ago I started at the department of magical law enforcement.'

'I became a mother.'

Harry sat there listening to his two best friends and Ginny talk about what had been going on in their lives over the last five years. He heard about their friends, who married who and which ones had children of their own and he realised how much he missed out on. But Harry also knew he couldn't have come back any sooner, he needed that time away. He's only regret was Lily, not knowing about her and not being there from the time she was born, so he was determined to make it up to her.