A/N: Written for Hogwarts assignment 9 - Childcare: task 2 - Write about a mother surprising her child/children with something.
Word count: 421
Lily's cheeks were beginning to hurt from smiling so much. She cared far more about the box that Sirius had delivered last night than Harry did, that was for sure. The infant had babbled excitedly at the sight of the large red train on the box, but he'd quickly forgotten about it when he'd stuck one of his blocks into his mouth and begun to chew.
He glanced at his mother as she unboxed the large plastic train that she'd bugged Sirius into picking up from a Muggle toy store, but it wasn't until she pulled out the engine car itself that Harry dropped his block and made grabby hands for the train. Lily laughed and handed it to him, watching happily as he chewed on the smoke stack. It wasn't the same as chugging it along a track, but at least he was happy with the present.
"Do you like that?" she asked him in a high-pitched voice, earning a squeal in response that never failed to make her laugh.
Whenever she thought about Harry spending the entirety of his infancy indoors while only interacting with a few people, she felt a twinge of anger and sadness. She couldn't take him out to explore, but she could at least do her best to expose him to elements of the outside world whenever possible.
"That's a train," she told him, tapping on the toy in question. "It takes people and things places. One day, you'll get to ride one to Hogwarts. You'll love it."
Harry babbled on like he was joining the conversation. Losing interest in the engine, he dropped it and reached for an orange box car instead. Lily laughed as he began chewing on that one too.
She reached back into the box and pulled out the pieces of train track that had come with the set. Harry was ages away from being able to assemble the track himself, and she wasn't sure how much he'd care about pushing the train along it even if she did snap the pieces together, but she was determined to try.
Harry watched her snap the pieces together with wide eyes, the train car still in his mouth.
"Once the war is over," she told him, placing a few of the pieces onto the ground, "we'll take you to see a real train. Maybe we can even ride in it. Won't that be exciting?"
Harry let out more babble, and Lily leaned in to kiss the top of his head with a smile.