"Come here you little rascal," Harry growled playfully. The girl Harry was chasing ran behind the couch, giggling and screeching as she ran.
"Gotcha!" Harry said as he picked up his daughter, Helen Potter. "Come on, it's time for you to get in bed."
"But I don't wanna," Helen whined as her dad set her down on her bed. "Tell me a bedtime story."
Harry tried, he really did, but he was a sucker for those dark pleading eyes.
"Okay, *one* story." Helen cheered and put Mr. Snuggles close.
"Once upon a time, in a land far far away. There was a princess."
"Was the princess mum?" Helen asked. Harry paused for a moment then nodded. He pulled out his wand and summoned one of Helen's dolls and transfigured it to look like Hermione.
"Now, the princess was the most beautiful person in the whole kingdom. Unfortunately, the princess had an *evil-stepmother*. Harry pulled another doll and made this one walk around and look evil and haughty.
"The evil-stepmother was jealous of the princess' beauty and made the princess dress in ugly clothes and made her do all the chores around the castle." Harry transfigured the Hermione doll's clothes into ugly rags and made her walk around Helen's bed sweeping and washing and doing other chores.
"However, even this did not make the Evil Queen happy. She wanted to be the most beautiful person in the kingdom. So she called her huntsman and told him to take the princess into the woods and kill her!" Helen squealed and pulled the covers up over her eyes. It was only a second before her eyes peaked back out to see the next part of the story.
Helen watched as the doll Hermione walked along the bed with a doll huntsman, worry showing in her eyes.
"Hey, don't worry sweetie. You see, the huntsman couldn't kill her. He took pity on the princess and let her go." Harry got up on the bed and pulled Helen into his side to snuggle together.
"And the princess ran. She ran through the forest and over rivers and past meadows. Eventually the princess ran into a clearing and found a small cabin." Harry made the Hermione doll walk into a miniature cabin illusion he made.
"Having nothing else to do, the princess walked into the cabin. Inside she found a little kitchen and a little sitting area and a little table with seven little chairs. The princess then went upstairs and found a bedroom with seven little beds. When she saw the beds she got so tired that she laid down and went straight to sleep.
The little Hermione doll yawned and fell down and went to sleep. Helen also gave a yawn and snuggled in closer to her father.
"Soon, the owners of the house came home." Harry then transfigured a couple of animal figurines into a group of seven small people with red hair.
"Weasels," Helen said sleepily.
"Yes sweetie, Weasleys." Harry had the seven Weasleys walk up to the doll Hermione, still laying on the beds.
"The princess then told them her story and the seven Weasley let the princess live with them to hide from the Evil-Queen." Harry looked down at his daughter to see her asleep.
"Soon a handsome prince found his way to the cabin of the seven Weasleys and soon he and the princess fell in love and got married and had two beautiful kids."
Harry looked up from Helen and saw Hermione standing in the doorway smiling at them. Harry gently extracted himself from the bed as Hermione put the dolls away. She turned to Harry and held up the Evil-Queen doll.
"Any reason this one looks like Malfoy?" she whispered. Harry just shrugged and gave Helen a kiss on the forehead.
The couple quietly left the room and walked into the living room.
They sat and read for a while before heading to bed themselves. As they finished their routines and crawled into bed, Hermione leaned in and kissed Harry.
"Goodnight Harry."
"Goodnight Hermione."