Book Club: Red Rising

Prompt:

(setting) castle

"Mum, I want to go on the bouncy castle, but Dad says no!" Harry complained, tugging on Lily's apron. He pouted up at her and said, "Mum, will you please tell him to get off?"

"What? Your father's on the castle?" Lily asked, quickly placing the bowl of custard on the table and rushing over to the door. "Why am I not surprised?"

Harry giggled as he ran after her. "Uncle Pads and Uncle Wormy are on it, too. Dad says they're havin' a compition."

"A competition?" Lily asked, opening the door and striding through it towards their backyard. "When will these men grow up?"

"Uncle Moony says never," Harry said happily, trying to keep up with her. He was just five years old; he had shorter legs, after all. "Are you going to kick Dad and Uncle Paddy and Uncle Wormy out?"

"I'm not their mother, sweetheart," Lily said. She caught sight of the large red-and-yellow castle almost flying up in the air as three different heads popped up and down on it.

"But you're my mother," Harry said. "You can do anything — Dad says that!"

"Aww, yes, I can do anything, but telling your dad, Uncle Paddy, and Uncle Wormy to stop doing something is even out of my hands. How about I help you onto the castle, though? We could play on it, too," Lily said, wiping her hands and bending down to pick Harry up.

"Okay, Mum, but you can put me down. I'm a big boy now," Harry said, pushing his round glasses up his nose.

"No, you're not. You're always going to be my little baby," Lily cooed, kissing his cheek. Harry giggled and gave her a goofy grin as he hugged her tightly. Lily beamed and said, "Now, let's go and show them we'll kick their butts at jumping."

Just then, James' head popped up from the bouncy castle and he waved frantically. "Lily! Come, look! We're flying without brooms!"

"You're bouncing, James," Lily said with a laugh. She walked closer to the castle and chuckled when she saw Sirius doing perfect backflips as he jumped, while Peter flailed his arms around to steady himself, but he kept falling onto his backside and laughing at his predicament.

"Still, it's just like flying!" James cried excitedly. "This was a brilliant idea to rent this castle thing for Harry's birthday!"

"Which you're spoiling by not letting him up on that thing," Lily said pointedly. Harry nodded in agreement, pouting at the three men.

"He'll get hurt," James protested, slowing down and falling right onto his face. "Oh, stop jumping, you two! We're having a conversation here!"

"Never!" Sirius and Peter yelled in unison and continued jumping near James. But then, Sirius tripped over James' feet and went down with a soft plunk, the castle still bouncing underneath them. The two black-haired men tried to get up, but it was practically impossible.

Shifting Harry on her hip, Lily said, "This castle was supposed to be for Harry. Not you three overgrown babies."

"Who you calling babies?" Sirius asked, rolling around to find traction. He glared at Peter over his shoulder and barked, "Stop jumping, Pete! We need to get up!"

"I can't stop! Help!" Peter cried, flailing his arms in terror. "How do you stop this thing?"

"Bounce over to the wall and then hop off the castle," Lily directed.

Peter did his best to follow her instructions, but as he was trying to get down, he stumbled and fell again. Harry burst into guffaws and pointed at him. "Uncle Wormy fell down!"

James cackled and said, "That's what you get for not listening to me!"

Peter stuck his tongue out at James and stood upright, dusting himself off. He rubbed his head and muttered, "Wow, I feel like I'm still bouncing. I think I'll sit down for now." He stumbled over to the garden-chair and plopped down on it.

Lily turned to look at Sirius and James, who were both still bouncing away on the castle. "Scoot over. Harry and I are coming up."

"But he could get hurt. He's a baby!" James cried again, but Lily didn't listen to him. She placed Harry down on the ground, crawled onto the castle, and then helped Harry up beside her.

"I'm not a baby, Dad! I'm five years old now!" Harry said, immediately crawling over to the wall and using it for leverage to stand up. Instantly, he fell and burst into peals of laughter. He tried to get up, but he kept on tumbling. So, he just sat there and started bouncing on the spot, clapping in delight. "This is fun! Mum, look!"

Lily laughed as she watched Harry have fun, and she turned towards Sirius and James. "You two still want to compete? Because I bet you both—"

"Who's betting and on what?" Remus suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere, startling them all. He beamed when he saw Harry bouncing away on the castle and said, "Aren't you adorable, pup? You having fun there?"

"Yeah, Uncle Moony! Come, play with us!" Harry exclaimed, trying to stand up again. Sirius purposely got onto his knees and jumped near Harry to make him fall over. "No fair, Uncle Paddy!"

"Life isn't fair, Prongslet," Sirius said dramatically before Lily knocked him over with a well-timed jump. James and Remus burst into laughter. "Damn it, Lily! I just managed to get up!"

"Karma is your female version, Sirius," she teased, making sure not to use the right word in front of Harry. He always managed to repeat the things he should not have heard.

"Oh, shut up," Sirius grumbled. He somehow got to his feet in the second try and whooped in delight. James grabbed Sirius' thigh and hoisted himself up, knocking him over immediately. Sirius glared up at James and hissed, "I hate you."

"No, you don't," James said cheekily, blowing him a kiss. He helped him to his feet and said, "Now, up you get, so we can show these nerds who's boss!"

Remus scoffed and said, "Oh, you called us nerds. Then, it's on! Whoever falls last will win. Harry, pup, will you get down for a few minutes? Mum and Uncle Moony need to kick their butts." When Harry giggled and agreed, Remus turned towards Peter, who was sipping on a glass of chilled Butterbeer, and called out, "Pete, take Harry, will you?"

"Gotcha." Peter hurried over and scooped Harry up into his arms. "Good luck."

"Thanks!" they all said in unison and immediately glared at the other duo. They immediately started arguing that Peter had wished them luck, and Peter rolled his eyes.

"I'm taking back my good luck," he said quickly before they could continue arguing.

"No takesie-backsies!" Sirius cried, but Peter mimed taking his words back and throwing them away.

"Harry, do you want to start the countdown? Start counting to three," Lily said gently, coming to a slow halt. The three men stopped bouncing too, grabbing hold of each other's arms to steady themselves.

"One, two... three!" Harry cried, and the competition began.

Harry and Peter howled with laughter as they watched the quartet's swinging arms, flailing feet, and bouncing hair. The castle looked as though it was about to burst under their weight, but somehow, it managed to hold.

Lily's hair flew in her eyes as she bounced, and she cried out when she realised she couldn't see properly. "Wait, I can't see! My hair's in my face!"

"Boohoo for you," James taunted, purposely bouncing near her so that she could fall over. But he miscalculated the distance between their feet, and the next thing he knew, he was on top of Lily with their legs tangled together.

"Oh… Hello, there," he cooed, not bothering to move off of her. He grinned as the castle continued to bounce under them. "What do you say we try out something new tonight?"

Lily glared at him and said, "We are not doing that on this. Now get off of me, you big lug!"

"That big lug is your husband," Sirius said with a laugh. He did his best to bounce over to Remus and smirked. "Looks like it's just you and me, Moony."

"No, it's just me now," Remus said sweetly right before he kicked at Sirius' knees and sent him flying backwards. "Ha! The nerds win!"

"You cheated!" Sirius and James cried, but Remus simply shrugged.

"All is fair in love and war, and besides… no one said we couldn't cheat," Lily said quickly. The two black-haired men groaned at her explanation but had to concede that they couldn't do anything to change the fact that they had lost.

Harry cheered as he ran towards them and did his best to climb up onto the castle again. "Mum and Uncle Moony are the best!"

"Yes, we are," Lily and Remus said in unison as they high-fived each other. True, they didn't win anything, but they could at least gloat about it for a long time.