For Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Assignment 7, Aquatic Studies Task Ten: write about staying up all night.

And Ultimate Battle Competition: next-gen.

1104 words excluding A/N.


"It's eleven o'clock at night," said Ginny wearily. "Far too late for you to be staying up."

"We want to be here when Daddy comes home!" protested Lily.

"Daddy's out catching nasty men," Ginny explained. "He's not going to be back until very late. Go to bed now, then you'll see him in the morning."

"But you're staying up for him," James pointed out.

"That's different. I'm a lot older than you, I don't need my sleep as much as you do."

"That doesn't make sense," protested James. "Everyone needs sleep."

"Yes, but when you're young you need it even more. Otherwise you'll be tired tomorrow, and we won't be able to take you all flying."

"I don't want to go flying," said Albus. "I want to stay up until Daddy comes home. What if he's hurt or something and we're asleep and don't find out?"

Ginny winced. How could he express her own fears for Harry so accurately? "Then you can find out in the morning," she said, her patience beginning to run out.

Lily frowned. "But we won't be able to sleep until we know he's safe," she said.

"Yeah," said James. "I'll just lie in bed all night and not sleep. There's no point in going to bed."

Ginny sighed. It wouldn't do them any good to stay up all night, but her children were just as stubborn as their parents had been and she could tell she wasn't going to get them to bed. "All right," she said finally. "You can stay up."

The children's faces broke into little grins. "Thank you, Mummy," said Albus.

"Now, what are we going to do while we wait for him?" asked Ginny.

"I want to build a den!" said James. "Can we build a den?"

"Yeah!" said Lily.

"What are you going to build it out of?" Ginny asked.

"Blankets and cushions and furniture and whatever we can find," said James.

"All right," said Ginny. "Let's build a den."

They all got to their feet and began searching the house for den-building materials. Cushions were flung off the sofas, duvets taken from the beds upstairs, chairs dragged halfway across the house until the living room was filled with a massive, chaotic pile of stuff.

"Right," said James. "What have we got? If we put the chairs like this, we can drape the blankets over the top…" He dragged one chair into position to demonstrate his point.

"I want to have a big rug for the floor," said Lily. "Then it'll all be nice and cosy."

"Sure," said James. "Let's use this one, it's really soft and fluffy. Then we can put the chairs on top…"

Ginny smiled as she moved the chairs to where her son wanted them, arranged in a circle around the edge of the rug. They draped blankets over the edges of the chairs so their edges trailed on the floor.

James stared at what they had so far. "It needs a roof," he said. "But none of the blankets are big enough to go all the way over the top."

"Do we have some kind of wood we can use to prop up the top?" asked Albus.

James grinned. "Brilliant, Al! If we pile up a few chunks of firewood in the middle, we can have the blankets on top of that!"

"You need to be careful with the wood," said Ginny. "Otherwise you might get splinters."

"It's fine, Mummy," said James, glaring at Ginny. "Come on, Al. Let's fetch some wood."

The two boys went off together to find the right-sized wood chunks, leaving Ginny and Lily alone.

"What d'you think of the den so far, then?" asked Ginny.

"It's nice," replied Lily. "I like it. I think it could be prettier, though. Can I make it pretty?"

"Of course you can," said Ginny, smiling. "What do you want to add?"

"Toys," she said. "All my little creatures."

"Why don't you go and find them, then?" asked Ginny.

Lily nodded eagerly and scampered off.

Ginny smoothed down the blankets, adjusting them a little, and tried not to think about how worried she was. Harry had promised her he'd be back by half past ten, almost an hour ago now, and he'd never been late before.

She sighed and shook her head in an effort to clear it of worries.

"What d'you think?"

Ginny looked up to see her boys returning, arms full of wood. "Looks good," she said, smiling. "Do you want some help arranging it?"

"It's okay," replied James. "We can manage, can't we, Al?"

"Sure. I guess. Where did Lily go?"

"She wanted to get some decorations."

"Why do we need decorations?" asked James dismissively. "The den looks cool enough as it is, it doesn't need anything else."

"Lily wants to add some," said Ginny gently, watching carefully as the boys began piling up the wood.

"Can you fetch some large elastic bands?" asked James. "We need some to hold the blankets in place."

"Where are they?" Albus asked.

"Don't worry," said Ginny, "I'll get them." She walked off to fetch the elastic bands from the draw in the next room, but stopped when she heard the sound of the front door. Her heart leapt and she raced into the hall in time to envelop Harry in a massive bear hug.

"Come on, Ginny, let me breathe," he said, pulling away and adjusting his glasses. "So sorry I'm late."

"It's fine," Ginny replied. "The kids are still up, they wanted to see you come home and I couldn't convince them to go to bed. They're building a den out of blankets and chairs in the living room."

Harry grinned. "Let's go and see how they're getting on, shall we?"

By the time they got back, James was balancing on the woodpile and struggling to attach a blanket to the top, while Albus stood anxiously below and Lily carefully arranged her soft toys around the entrance.

"Hello," said Harry. "You've been busy, haven't you?"

All three children immediately dashed over and hugged Harry, who collapsed comically to the ground. "Get off me," he said, "you're heavy!"

"Daddy! You're home! Mummy was ever so worried," said Albus.

"No, I wasn't," lied Ginny. "I knew you'd come back to us."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Harry.

"Can we stay up and play in the den tonight?" asked James.

Ginny glanced at her watch. "It's getting close to midnight," she said.

"Can we?" added Lily, making her cutest puppy eyes. "Please?"

Harry and Ginny glanced at each other and smiled. "How can we say no?" asked Ginny.