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Bold = Parseltongue
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"Hi Cutie!" Clara greeted at the same time he felt her weight on his back.
It's a good thing I've gotten bigger since we first met, Harry thought as her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms encircled his neck.
"Hi Clara," He returned, turning his head to get his kiss from her, the one she'd always place on his cheek when they got together.
Ever since Cora had wrapped herself in studying and doubled down on a sisterly front, he'd sought more time with Clara to make up for it. Unlike her cousin, Clara wasn't nearly so invested in her studies or a purely platonic relationship. Both of those facts were very good for Harry, while the former wasn't necessarily all that good for Clara.
Ah well, at least the pair of them were rich off of old money. He didn't think their fledgling relationship post-Hogwarts would hold itself together all that well if it weren't for that one key fact.
"So what're we doing today? Anything special?" Clara asked energetically, her exhales going directly into his ear that was by her lips. She must've noticed the effect it had on him too, for her continuation was close enough that he could feel their softness and the lingering sense of moisture those two beautiful things left behind. "We gonna get married finally and start our family? Or are you going to continue on insisting that we wait?"
Harry rolled his eyes and began walking with his childish girlfriend on his back in the direction of the kitchen. For one, a breakfast feast was sounding mighty fine to him, and secondly, food was always an amazing way to distract or otherwise earn the forgiveness of Clara.
"Ohhh, what'd you cook, Cutie? Is it my favourite like I think it is?" Clara sniffed exaggeratedly, the noise tickling the back of his neck before she spoke again. "Aww, you're so perfect. I'm so happy I got to take you before all those other little wicked witches did."
Feeling like he wanted to tease her, Harry turned his head to look at her as he continued his walk towards the kitchen. "You haven't married me yet, so technically I'm not yours. For all we know, so—"
Whap
Harry had walked right into the edge of the doorframe, his head connecting solidly with the trimming. He was sent reeling back thanks to the pace he'd been walking at and the added weight on his back. Clara's head had struck the back of his too, which meant he'd been assaulted on two fronts.
All in all, it wasn't a very enjoyable feeling despite the softness of her body at large pressing against his.
"Boytoy!" Clara said in a chastising tone as one hand moved up from his neck to flick at the tip of his nose. "No walking into walls, do you want me to fall? Oh, that rhymed… don't do that next time."
Harry groaned and used one hand to rub at the mark on his forehead. "I'll try not to."
Another dozen or so steps later and in the kitchen of their temporary home, he released his hold on Clara so that she could seat herself at the table. There was a plethora of food that he'd made and placed heating charms on, and most importantly to his girlfriend, the centre plate was piled high with banana pancakes — there was the typical twist that she liked within them, or rather, between them too; peanut butter.
If those banana pancakes didn't have a thin layer of peanut butter between them, there'd be the devil to pay.
Literally. Clara would start cursing you out and claim attempted poisoning. She'd apologise, sure, and the kisses were nice in those instances when she was serious, but he'd rather a happy girlfriend from the start.
"I love you, Cutie," Clara said as she took six pancakes and placed them on her side plate, a happy, goofy expression on her face as she pulled him closer to her. "Such a perfect boy. If only you'd stopped growing so I'd still be bigger than you. That would've made everything perfect."
Harry shook his head and laughed. "If I would've stayed smaller than you, I guarantee you'd be keeping me in your lap or cuddling me non-stop."
Clara nodded nearly a dozen times in short succession. "You're right! Our roles would be reversed and you'd be the little spoon when we cuddle. I guess me being the little spoon and smaller one in the relationship has its advantages too though."
"Yeah?" He asked with a smirk, genuine curiosity eating at him.
"Yeah! I get to ride your back as much as I want, you'll get to do the bridal carry when we get back home, when I'm pregnant I can cli—"
It was that final point she'd been about to make that had Harry spew out his tea and look at her with an outrageous blush. "Clara!"
"What?" Clara asked innocently, her head cocked and a bit of pancake flapping about from her mouth leaving a peanut butter smear on her nose.
"Too explicit," Harry said with a roll of his eyes as the two settled into eating their breakfast.
Clara would usually call it her second favourite meal of the day… after she nibbled on his neck in the morning.
She was weird, she definitely was weird, but she was his.
"We're home," Clara said with a sigh as the pair fell backwards onto their king-sized bed in the Avery mansion.
"We are," Harry agreed with a tired tone as the mattress engulfed his body.
Merlin, did he love a cloudy mattress rather than that firm nonsense.
Clara rolled her head lazily to look at him, a devious and still tired look dawning on her face.
Uh-oh, he thought to himself when he saw it.
"You know," Clara prefaced as she nonchalantly scooched closer to him on the bed, the sheets balling up around her. "We are engaged now, so technically speaking, we could get up to some… activities that my parents wouldn't be all that fond of otherwise."
Harry snorted. "As if you've ever listened to them."
"I d—"
He cut her off with a stern look, or as stern a look as he could give the older girl. "Clara. As long as I've known you, you've spent all your free time here with Cora and I. Don't forget that you've barely spent a Yule with your family since I've known you."
Clara huffed, then she blew the strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face out of the way. "Can't ever let me have my fun, can you, Cutie?"
Her voice was petulant and whiny, and to Harry, strangely cute.
"Didn't you ride on my back through the hotel lobby despite the dozens of other witches and wizards being present?" He asked, an eyebrow raised and his arms coming up to cross themselves despite their laying down positions.
"Pfft, that's normal though. I bet every couple spends time like that together in public," Clara then waved her hand, summoning two potions from her top drawer, one to each of her outstretched hands.
To say that Harry was astonished by the bit of wandless magic wa— oh, never mind… her wand was in her opposite hand. He supposed casting a spell silently and in your non-dominant hand was cool too.
"Drink up," Clara said as she forced one bottle to his mouth after downing hers. "Pepper-up potions, we can't be falling asleep right when we get back. Especially not with the others away with little Aster Junior."
Harry supposed she was right, but goodness was sleep calling him. "We could take a nap," he tried, his voice muffled thanks to the vial at his lips.
"Nuh-uh, drink Cutie, or I'll tickle you into downing it," Clara warned, one now-empty hand coming up to wiggle at him menacingly.
Seeing that, Harry obliged his girlfriend very quickly, lest the tickle monster of his youth comes back to haunt him. Not more than a minute passed before he was back to feeling good again, great even. Whoever had brewed them had done a bang-on job.
"Better, huh?" Clara said smugly, her cutesie tone still in effect.
Harry nodded reluctantly and rolled free of the bed. "I suppose it's alright."
"Suppose?" Clara asked, aghast and with a hand on her chest. "I put honey into them for the taste and learned the recipe straight from Professor Slughorn! They're way better than alright, you brat!"
"Me? I'm the brat?" Harry asked as he turned towards his still relaxing girlfriend, her hair splayed out like a prized peacock on the bedsheets.
"Yup, you heard me, you're a brat. Don't you remember how much I used to spoil my lil Cutie? I can still remember when you refused to sleep without Cora or I keeping you company," Clara had a faraway look come to her then, and with it was one of her truest, most beautiful smiles. "There was that one time on Christmas four years or so back, we'd only known each other a year or two at that point, I can't remember, but you refused to sleep. Cora was on one side, but that wasn't enough for you. Auntie A couldn't get on your other side because of Uncle C either, so it left me, your favourite witch in the whole world."
Harry smirked and rolled his eyes at that, but he didn't interrupt Clara. Not when the memory seemed so cherished and so… what was the word… vibrant?
Whatever it was, he wouldn't risk the beautiful smile and rare serious moment that'd struck her. Not when she looked a grander vision than usual, and that was saying something, especially with how much pride she took in her appearance.
"...four in the morning, I think it was. Cora had just gotten out of the bathroom and she looked absolutely exhausted. Obviously, being the wonderful cousin that I am, I asked what was wrong and she mentioned something about you having a rough night," Clara had continued despite his brief bout of thinking, and when he'd tuned back in, he found himself right at the good part. "That was when I came back with her to your room and took up that cold empty side that you didn't like. You were my Lil Cutie from that day on."
"You never say Lil Cutie anymore," Harry said as he finally moved towards her side of the bed and held out a hand.
Clara took it daintily, not wanting to risk her perfectly kept nails, and when she was pulled up she chose that time to speak. "You're not very little anymore, are you?" Clara scoffed and stood upon the tips of her toes to kiss him then, those soft lips of hers as pleasant as they always were when he felt them. "No matter how big you get, you'll still always keep the more important part of that nickname, Cutie."
Harry shivered then, the suggestive tone and the meaning behind her words getting to him as they stared into one another's eyes. He didn't know what he did to deserve sisters in Cora and Alisa, parents in Aunt Ashtyn and Uncle Celtsean, a nephew in Asher and most of all, a wonderful soon-to-be wife in Clara.
Whatever it was or whoever had granted him such a wonderful life… he was happier than words could ever descri—
"Hey," Clara said, her tone offended as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't think you can zone out while I'm trying to be all romantic and mushy with you, mister. That's not how this works, not in the slightest! Come on, let's go, we're taking a shower so you wake up before the rest of our family gets back, and while we're doing that, you're having a lesson in 'how to please my wife' by your future wife."
Before he could say what he'd been thinking about or why he didn't need said lesson, Clara was on his back pointing towards their bathroom while shouting: onwards, Cutie!
Months Later
"Man, can you believe we're about to be married? Time goes by so fast!" Clara exclaimed from her spot beside him on the couch, the two of them alone once more while the rest of the house's inhabitants went about various adultish tasks.
Not him and Clara. Never them; they were still immature enough to eat out nearly every meal of the week and even then, they'd usually skip meals if they felt like snacking for the day instead of eating some full-blown entree.
"It does go by fast, doesn't it?" Harry said, his question more of a confirmation than anything else as he yawned, one arm slyly finding its way around his older fiancee's shoulders. "You're still not annoyed about the snow, err, lack thereof, are you?"
Clara's eyes narrowed at him and her feet which had previously been idle in his lap wiggled about like a snake. "Of course I'm still peeved that we've not got anything to sled or play in. That's where we had most of our fun when we were younger, now all we get is this boring inside stuff because it's too cold to go out to enjoy the bare, dead land. Snow makes everything better, Cutie, especially when it means coming in after a snowball fight all drenched so that we'd have to take a hot bath together…" Clara trailed off and did a happy wiggle in her seat as her lips puckered up. "Mmm, I can imagine us running out of the bath and diving into the covers to get out of the chilly air. We'd have to cuddle up because it'd be so cold, and once that happened, maybe our first ki—"
Harry rolled his eyes and leaned over to Clara, momentarily making the girl stop in preparation to receive a kiss; he didn't give her one. Rather than her sweet 'Cutie' giving her a kiss as thanks for her little fantasy, he flicked her on the nose.
"You're in another one of those moods, huh?" He asked when he went back to his original position.
Clara glared at him for a few minutes, then, she crossed her arms under her rather sizable bust. "One of what moods, future husband?"
Ah, Merlin, there she is using the marriage as an early excuse for kids again, Harry thought with a smirk on his face, the absurdity of Clara wanting them to have so many children getting to him.
Really, who really wanted a dozen kids with the possibility for more if we felt like it."
He didn't know who she thought she married, but a dozen definitely felt like way too much responsibility to him. It didn't help that they were only children themselves either, the lack of siblings in his life, Clara's, Cora's and even Alisa's had certainly made all of them ill-prepared for anything past a couple.
Well, maybe not just a couple. Harry wouldn't mind three or four, even five children. Any of those numbers seemed far more reasonable than a dozen-plus.
"Speak, Cutie, or you're back in your room like a bad boy," Clara warned, her face scrunched up and her tone scolding as if he were a kid again.
"Sometimes, I think you think we're still in Hogwarts and that I'm smaller than you," Harry said as he easily swept aside her legs and stood up from the couch, his height and weight greater than hers thanks to the both of them having reached adulthood. "Don't forget that you're the little spoon now — I could tickle you whenever I want, and if you're a bad girl like you say I'm a bad boy, I'll do what you always try to do to me."
Clara went doe-eyed as she looked up at him. "You'd really spank me, Cutie? You're favoritest witch, girl, and person in the whole world?"
Satisfied with her seemingly innocent, startled expression, Harry nodded, resolute in his course. "Yup."
He wasn't prepared for a devious, near wanton expression to wash away her cutesie one. Her tongue sticking out to swipe across her lips wasn't exactly necessary either.
"Perfect," Clara said as she too began to stand up from her seat. "I knew you'd be a good husband out of Hogwarts. I'm so happy I was right — come here, baby, it's time for us to make one!"
Harry did the only reasonable thing he could in response to Clara's half-teasing, half-lusty attitude. In fact, it came naturally to him considering all the times they'd previously done it under different circumstances and definitely with a different end result.
He ran.
Clara, as always, chased after him; that was nothing new.
"Morgana, you're fast," Clara gasped out, her hands on her hips as she hunched over to catch her breath.
"I am," Harry said between uneven breaths, his own physical stamina far less than it'd previously been at the peak of his Quidditch career and the war.
Clara stuck out her bottom lip despite her still gasping for air. "You should've let your future wife win. Think about all the kisses I would've given you… we could've even made brownies after, we both love brownies."
"You put frosting and nuts in with them," Harry said, his eyes narrowed as he stood up from his oxygen-seeking position.
"Frosting makes everything better; cupcakes, cakes, cookies, brownies, boyfriends," Clara dove at him when she'd said her final word, and she finally achieved her goal of catching him using underhanded tactics.
She knew he couldn't resist a good baking conversation.
"Yay, I caught you," Clara cheered from her spot atop him, her body pressed completely against his on the kitchen floor.
Harry's narrowed eyes remained as his hands grabbed hold of either side of her stomach, his fingers already assuming the tickling grip. "Did you now?"
"I'll pee," Clara said simply, a victorious, goofy smile on her face.
He blinked at her.
What could he say to that when the threat was very much a real one? Should he go for it anyways and ruin the kitchen, his clothes, his dignity… and the potential brownies that she'd mentioned?
If he didn't, he'd lose. Harry wasn't rightly sure if his pride could take another hit, not when Clara's eccentric attitude took it away on a near-daily basis.
"We're gonna be here a while unless you make your move, soonish husband, so what'll it be?" Clara asked with a smug grin on her face and the tip of her tongue sticking out from between her lips.
"You win," Harry said with a sigh as he lowered his hands. "Let's bake some brownies now — only brownies too, and no, that's not some code for having our first kid."
Clara huffed, the warm air splashing across his face and filling his nostrils with the scent of chocolate-covered strawberries. "You're no fun, Cutie… at least not until we're in b—"
Harry lifted the both of them up with the strength of his triceps. As hard and painful as it was, especially with Clara's more filled out figure in comparison to Cora, it was worth it to avoid any indecency in the kitchen; the last thing either of them needed was getting caught by Alisa, Cora or Ashtyn whilst in the place where they all got their food from.
Worse yet, if little Aster Junior had found his way to the kitchen…
Merlin, Harry didn't think the old 'cuddling' explanation, or rather, the excuse would work. Aster's son was too smart for that.
"My Cutie's so strong," Clara cooed, the sound turning to giggling when they were standing and he lifted her to grab the flour rather than calling an elf or using magic.
She liked the touchy-feely stuff more than magic, so he figured he may as well grant her that wish. Maybe he didn't mind it all that much either, but it was definitely more for her than it was for him. He didn't love constant hugging and kissing, tonnes of cuddling, lazy days inside the house, baking together, going out into the Muggle world; no no, he didn't love any of that.
"What's the recipe again?" Clara asked innocently, her doe-eyed expression looking up at him as she held a couple of eggs in her hands.
"You seriously don't remember?" Harry asked with a chuckle as he reached above her to pull more ingredients from the various cabinets.
"Nope," Clara said, shrugging and tapping him on the chest to get his attention despite the fact that she already had it. "Can I lick the bowl? Pretty please with extra kisses and snuggles on top? Unless you'd want something else that only my favourite Cutie gets."
Harry couldn't help but snicker. "You can lick the bowl, but I'll have to cash in on those extra kisses whenever I want."
"Deal!" Clara said immediately, bouncing slightly from foot to foot as she watched him mix the various ingredients in a large bowl: some were Muggle, others were gathered, grown, or raised in the Magical world.
It was a good thing they could go together without repercussions.
"Devil's food cake mix," Harry said.
"Check!" Clara answered.
"Chocolate pudding mix," He said again.
"Done!" Clara said, swiping her tongue across the instant mixture with a content smile on her face.
"One cup of sour cream and one cup of vegetable oil," He said again, mixing the ingredients by hand as he did so.
"Done and done, the four eggs and half a cup of water were put in by me too, so don't add anymore!" Clara said as she grabbed at a few of the chocolate chips they'd be putting in the brownie/cake mix. "Oh, I hope you don't mind, I got butterscotch and white chocolate for us."
Harry furrowed his brow as he poured the mixture into the pan, getting a bit on his nose and finger in the process, the former because of the latter. "Why butterscotch?"
Clara shrugged and stood upon the tips of her toes to lick off the little bit of chocolate from his nose. "Cutie, 'cause why not? I know you eat anything, especially if I help you make it — we have the same taste-buds… wait a second, that's prolly why we kiss so much!"
Harry shook his head and put the dish into the oven before he turned to start washing the dishes. Before he could do that or Clara could attempt to stop him from doing so, two elves appeared in the room, one angrier than the other.
"Master Harry can't be making food with us in the house, that's why we's be here. Master Harry has to let us clean now, and we'll take care of the oven for the Master Harry and Miss Clara," Laddey said, ushering the two magicals out of the room until they were back where they'd started; the parlour room, the private one of the three in the home.
"You still have chocolate on your neck," Clara said when the two were left staring at one another.
Harry cocked his head at her. "Are you sure? I don't reme—"
Clara dove at him, knocking his hands to either side of him as she wrapped hers around him. She was in one of her loving, cuddly moods that so often happened after the two did a couple's activity. In all reality, as covered in various items as they were and with chocolate being the most prevalent, Harry didn't mind in the slightest.
He got to kiss his fiance, hold her in his arms, and occasionally find a bit of chocolate whilst doing so.
How could he ever lose in such an amazing situation?
Months Later… Again
"I knew you could do i-it!" Clara said, her voice failing for a second when he pretended to lose his grip. "Bad Cutie, bad."
Her scolding voice didn't do anything to him considering tonight was their honeymoon and they'd just gotten married.
"I can turn us around, wife," He said with a teasing edge to his voice.
"Pfft," Clara said with a roll of her eyes before those beautiful things locked onto his. "You want this honeymoon more than I do, husband. You know what happens here — I bet you can't wait to be a daddy anymore than I can wait to be a mummy."
Harry stepped through the final door, that of the bedroom, and responded as he moved the two of them closer to the goliath-sized bed. "You've wanted it bad after only a couple of months of dating. I've only recently started wanting a few children, and you're the cause of that. With how often you bring them up and all the hints you drop, you've finally broken my mind enough that I've got the urge too."
Clara started to pump her fists in victory, but when she realised how much that made her shake since those arms of hers were no longer wrapped around his neck for support, she stopped. It didn't halt the smug, happy look on her face though.
"We're gonna have kids, and then we're getting pets for them. Once we do that, we'll buy a house in France, Egypt and maybe Canada too. We could vacation wherever and whenever we want," Clara fell onto the bed when Harry let go of her, making the young woman bounce.
She enjoyed it immensely if the giggle fit was anything to go by.
"I wish our bed was as bouncy as this one," Clara said when the motion stopped.
"I reckon we could make it be," Harry said as he took off his dress robes, leaving him in his undergarments; the heat of the room had been stifling until he did so.
Clara pouted when she saw him do that. "No fair. I was supposed to undress you, and you were supposed to undress me. That's how honeymoon's work… bad Cutie."
"Bad?" He asked with raised eyebrows as he looked at his fi- wife.
Merlin, wife is a weird word.
"Bad," Clara said again, nodding emphatically as she looked at him whilst propped up on her elbows.
"I guess if I'm already being bad, I should tell you that I can see straight up your dress," Harry laughed when Clara squeaked, then he continued. "I'll be good now though."
Following those words, he reached for his robes and began putting them back on. Clara, obviously, made a sound of disapproval before she leaned forward to pull on his left arm.
'I thought you wanted to do it?" He asked teasingly, enjoying her narrowed eyes and otherwise desperate, impatient visage.
"You already ruined it for me," Clara said with a pout before she turned around. "Help me undress, I wanna cuddle before we get to the baby-making business."
He couldn't help but laugh because of her wording, but still, he obliged her request. Not one second after he did so, Clara shrugged off her dress and crawled under the covers. Being in a relationship as long as they were, Harry had seen Clara in less clothing than that, but she was always shy when it came down to it.
Really, that outgoing and bold persona of hers was all a bluff, surprisingly. Harry supposed that was why she enjoyed teasing him so much because he'd never call any of her bluffs until well after they'd been together.
"Cuddling right when we get back to the honeymoon suite in a five-star Muggle resort," Harry said in a teasing, joking manner as he crawled in beside her. "I'm sure most couples do this after, not before."
Clara shrugged and pulled at him. He started to spoon her, but she slapped at his chest until he let her go. When she crawled atop of him and rested her head under his chin, he understood what it was that she'd wanted.
"Tired," Clara said with a huff, the warm air tickling his neck and the moistness from her soft lips not helping another issue of his. One that'd been caused by her position on him. "Auntie A planned an awesome, wonderful, extravagant wedding — but eight hours was too long. Morgana, my feet are killing me, my boobs still feel squished from that dress and I can barely see my legs when I look down on account of all that food we ate."
Harry remained silent, basking in the typical Clara behaviour of over-worrying and complaining. If it were serious and not nearly as comedic as it usually was to him, he figured he would've found it bothersome.
"You're laughing at me again, huh?" Clara accused, her voice muffled since she hadn't raised her head.
In response, Harry shook his, inadvertently moving her lips back and forth across his neck. That made his southern situation a tad bit worse.
"We'll see who's laughing in the morning, my Cutie-husband," Clara said, her tone more menacing and devious than he'd heard it be in a long time; that could only mean bad things for him.
"What're you planning on doing in the morning/?" He asked, a touch of his nervousness leaking into his tone.
Clara raised her head up then, the tone matched by her frighteningly innocent smile. "In the morning? Nothing," she slithered a few inches up his body, and before he knew it, his hands were clasped together by one of hers… he knew he could break her hold, but he figured he'd let her have her fun, especially when it meant his fun too. "I have you right where I want you, Cutie."
"You've had me where you've wanted me for over a year," Harry said genuinely as he gazed into Clara's eyes.
Her teasing, playful look gave way to one of love — lust was present too, but that wasn't as important.
"I love you, Cutie… my Cutie… my husband," Clara said to him, her tone soft as her eye bores into his.
"I love you too."
Not a year after those words were said, they had their first child, a boy, and were already expecting their second.