Ok so, it says daughter here, but I'm changing it to match the Harry Potter universe, so just switch out daughter for son. Also, I'm deviating a bit from canon, because otherwise, it's quite hard to write the prompt, so in this, let's pretend Harry was with his parents for a while longer than he actually was. Also, this is a birthday gift for my friend, Shriya. (Her Wattpad username is shriyan_sara if yall wanna check out her stories)

aNyHoO, I'm going to stop rambling in this long author's note and give you the story itself.

Prompt: Your daughter is afraid of the dark. To help allay her fears, you started scolding the monsters hiding under her bed. As she grew older, she started doing this herself. One evening you're laughing outside her door as she does so, that is until you hear a very gruff voice say I'm sorry.

- Jily,

When James first holds Harry in his arms, the spitting image of his messy curls, mixed in with the green eyes he fell in love with, he never wants Harry to feel anything but joy.

Never.

So when he's awoken for the first time he got some goddamn sleep by his son, in the middle of the night, with Harry crying, James gets up softly, so as to not wake up Lily.

It was Harry's first night in his new room, so James had expected some push back, but Harry's tears make him feel very stupid for leaving his child all alone for the night.

"What's wrong, son?" James asks as he sits Harry down in the room, praying it's not nightmares, or ghouls, or god forbid, Voldemort.

Instead, Harry replies, "It's the dark daddy, it's so scary."

Ghouls and nightmares, James can't fix. The dark, however, is quite simple.

"I can put in a nightlight," He says, consolingly.

"But the monsters under the bed, daddy."

Oh. Well. James doesn't exactly know how to keep his son's imagination, and evade the "monsters".

It's too late in the night for him to deal with this.

Trying something new (and something that makes him feel like an idiot), James decides to try to scold the monsters under Harry's bed.

"Now, now. Who are the little monsters disturbing my glorious child's sleep? This is simply unacceptable. Unacceptable to the highest degree. Now. I suggest that you either vanish, or stay silent, and let my son sleep. If not, you'll have a problem with me." James says, using an authoritative voice, and he notices Harry's tears are quickly being replaced with smiles, so he relaxes slightly, and plops Harry on the bed.

"Thanks, daddy," Harry sniffles. James just ruffles Harry's (already messy) hair and goes back to his own bed.

The next day, Harry calls James in to scold the monsters away again. Lily hears this somewhat odd request and then proceeds to watch James make a fool of himself, and she doesn't do that great of a job holding in the laughs, either. A few days after following the same routine, however, James hears Harry scolding the monsters himself.

It's an adorable scene to hear, and he and Lily make it a point each night to listen to the very creative ways Harry tells off the monsters under his bed.

One night, however, Lily isn't there with him at their usual perch behind Harry's door. Chalking it up to work, James ignores Lily's absence and listens to Harry's funniest telling-off of the monsters yet.

While holding in a laugh, James hears a low, gruffly voice replying "I'm very sorry," and then proceeds to freak out.

He storms into Harry's room, frantically looking under the bed, but seeing nothing. All the while, Harry's staring at his father, bewildered at the sight.

And what a sight.

James's hair is at its worst, unruly to the point in which it would probably break a comb or brush, and his usual glasses plopped sideways, angling on his face.

Lily then comes waltzing out of Harry's bathroom, laughing so hard tears are coming out of her eyes.

Then James realizes that his son, his own flesh and blood, has colluded with his devious specimen of a wife.

The betrayal is forgiven rather quickly, however, as Lily promises to kiss away all of his "hurt".

Harry boos them out of his room and leaves the couple in their blissful peace.

James knows, at that moment, that this is what paradise is.