Harry quickly apparated back home with Albus to leave their new purchase so as not to show up in Muggle London with a long broomstick. It was eight thirty by the time they joined their family at the Muggle steakhouse.
Naturally, James was the most excited among their family to find out which broomstick his brother had gotten, "Do tell, Albus, did you get the Nimbus 3100? If you have it, I definitely have to give it a try myself because Fred flew it once and said it could give the Firebolt a run for its money, which sounded like nonsense to me."
Despite what he had said back in the store, Albus looked unsure and appeared unwilling to disclose his broomstick model, he opted to look at Harry instead. Ginny had certainly caught the look but she did not say anything. Harry hoped Al was not having second thought about the broomstick. At least if this was the case, he would definitely be willing to have the Nimbus 2000 for himself and to buy a newer model for Albus instead.
"What? Don't tell me you didn't get your broomstick? The store will be so much more crowded during the Easter holiday for you to pick your broomstick."
Finally, Albus seemed to have found his voice as he coughed once before saying very clearly, "I got a Nimbus 2000."
"2000? Are you sure you did not mean 3000? Didn't you two go to Quality Quidditch Supplies? I don't even know they still sell a broomstick this old."
"I'm sure. And yes, it's an unused broomstick, not a second-hand one." Al did not look as assured as he tried to sound but he looked straight at his brother.
"B-But it's like… what, a thirty-year-old model? Even Lily got a 2005 from mum." James looked absolutely incredulous hearing his brother had gotten an ancient broomstick (which was not a Firebolt) when he could have gotten the latest model.
"Yes, it came out thirty years ago. I found it at the bargain corner for twenty Galleons and I think it's perfect." The boy answered matter-of-factly. Harry had a feeling that the Albus from eight months ago would probably felt too embarrassed and self-conscious to have gotten a broomstick this old and would have asked James to shut up instead, he saw Ginny looking very pleased from the corner and he felt his heart warmed with pride in his son.
"That's a very good choice, Albus. I've always thought the 3000 series is overrated, its design wasn't much improved from the 2000 series design. And I don't know what they were thinking when they first designed that foot grips for 3050 but it's crazy they're still using them with the newest model. Besides, Harry still remembers his Nimbus 2000 so fondly that he might as well be talking about his first lover whenever he reminisces about his early Quidditch years. And you know what, your father does have good tastes…" she gave her husband a wink, which provoked some fake gagging from James.
"What? I meant good tastes in broomsticks." She casually added before taking a sip of her drink. As much as he loved her for openly supporting Albus' decision, he wished she had done it in a way that did not make him flushed like a tomato and lost his dignity as a father in front of his children.
Lily placed a hand on Albus', "I think it's really cool, Al! I read a feature on Seeker Weekly a while ago on the best older broomsticks and Nimbus 2000 got one of the highest scores. Also, I've no idea why they would keep everything else in the series black after Nimbus 2001, I really wish my 2005 is of natural wood colour sometimes. At least the 3000 series is brown in colour." Lily was the only one in the family who refused to call Albus with his full name and could still get away with it. Albus could feel really annoyed with his sister at times but deep down he seemed to always have a soft spot for her. Now he was giving Lily a small grateful smile. James seemed to have gotten the clue that he stopped talking about the broomstick.
The dinner passed by easily that before he knew it, it was time for Harry to leave and return to his depressing office. Harry wished more than anything to be able to just return home to hang out with his happy family, to help Albus polish his new broomstick instead of being stuck dealing with the intimidating pile of complaints, reports, court proceedings and all sort of other tedious paperwork in front of him, which he felt like must have been charmed with a refilling spell as it seemed to remain at the same height despite him working his hardest to tackle them one by one.
He was only able to nap for two hours in the office before the start of the last working day before Easter. He got a full day of work ahead of him and by four in the afternoon, he was on his third coffee. He had to keep reminding himself that he was putting in all the extra work just so he could have the four full days off for the Easter holiday. He had meant to give his family a Floo call at dinner but all he could manage was sending a short telephone message to Ginny. It was past three in the morning on Good Friday by the time he was able to get all the more urgent work done before the holiday and arrived home.
He was so exhausted that one moment he was taking off his wrinkled and smelly work clothes he had been wearing for two days straight, which he could have changed when he had returned home briefly with the broomstick but of course he had not remembered at the time, while looking longingly at the sleeping form of his wife, the next moment he was being woken up by a very amused Ginny tenderly caressing his bare chest at five-thirty in the morning.
"It's a wonderful surprise, love… but I'm getting too old to be seduced so early in the morning. And I'd hate for you to get a cold in the holiday." He looked down and literally could not remember the last time he had felt this embarrassed in front of his wife.
As hard as he tried, Harry felt wide awake and simply could not get back to sleep after being so forcefully woken up by his humiliation and quickly putting on his boxer shorts and pajamas that he gave up by six-thirty, took a quick shower and decided to get down to prepare a full breakfast for his family despite having worked for almost forty hours and slept for only four hours in total within the last forty-eight hours. It would not matter even if they woke up naturally at ten because magic could be very effective in keeping food fresh for hours after cooking.
Because it was still quite early, Harry only had the light on in the kitchen and kept the living room unlit. He had just laid out all the ingredients on the counters when he heard light footsteps down the staircase at six-fifty. Curiously, he looked expectantly to see who was joining him this early and was greeted by the sight of messy black hair which mirrored his own.
Albus was clearly taken aback to not only find the ground floor of the house occupied, but also to find his busy father cooking so early in the morning. "Oh, dad… Hmm, good morning."
"Good morning, Albus. You're up early." Harry was trying to give his son a good-natured smile but it kind of froze halfway and his expression turned a bit stiff as he realised his son could have been woken up by his nightmares again. Typically, his children could easily sleep past ten on a holiday if they were left to wake on their own.
"I was… I'm just going to drink some milk before going back to sleep." Albus was certainly the one in his family who liked drinking milk the most. He would always have some milk if he had troubles sleeping or if he woke up in the middle of the night since he had been a toddler.
Harry did not want to make his son uncomfortable but could not resist letting out a sigh. "I'll warm some up for you." He poured some out into a mug, warmed it up magically in seconds before carefully handing it to Albus, who had moved to the front of the counter. "There you go, son."
"Thanks, dad." Albus received the mug then immediately started drinking under the watchful eye of his father. His cheeks appeared to be turning red from either the heat of the milk or the self-consciousness of being watched that Harry quickly turned back to prepare breakfast.
Harry wanted to casually ask his son how he had been sleeping but he knew there was no way he could do it without coming across as worried that he chose to keep quiet. Albus quietly moved past him to go rinse the mug himself after he had finished drinking. Harry was feeling rather awkward and had resigned for Al to leave without getting to talk with him when his son had unexpectedly come over to his side.
"You weren't home yet when I went to sleep last night. When did you come home, dad?"
"Hmm… three-fifteen."
"So how long have you slept?"
"About two hours."
"So why are you cooking breakfast when everyone is sleeping, dad? Shouldn't you be be catching up with your slee… Wait a second, you didn't come home yesterday at all, did you get to sleep yesterday?"
Harry was starting to feel nervous like he was being interrogated. "Hmm… I was able to take a nap for a few hours…" Few hours was not really that much of an exaggeration compared to two hours in his opinions.
"Oh Merlin, you should go back to sleep, dad."
"I'm feeling fine, Albus. Now that I'm done with most of the work, I'll be able to spend the full four days with you all… so I'd say it's worth it. By the way, why are you sounding more like the father than the son here, Albus?" He had meant for the question to be a joke but he instantly regretted asking it after taking one look at his son.
Albus looked hurt as he looked down and mumbled, "Because I'm worried about you, dad… You seem to be working way too hard all the times... We could always have bread or something for breakfast so there's no reason for you to be sacrificing your sleep to cook breakfast for us after having barely slept for two days, especially this early in the morning."
Albus looked like he was on the verge of crying that Harry was feeling extremely disturbed, the only times he had seen his son this affected because of him had been when he had said the unforgivable back then and after Godric's Hollow when he had broken down after witnessing his parents' death while Albus had stayed by his side all night looking extremely concerned but strangely determined. It truly did not make much sense to him that Albus would look this upset all because his forty-year-old father was not resting as much as he was supposed to.
Now that he thought about it, it might be a mistake for him to start cooking this early in the morning, but he was only doing so because he knew he had gotten past the threshold that he had stopped feeling sleepy as he should be. He knew he would pay for it later but at the moment, it would simply be a waste of time for him to lie awake on his bed not sleeping. Although Al had not said "I love you" to Harry for years, Harry's heart warmed and broke simultaneously seeing Albus' unexpectedly emotional reactions as his son's worry spoke volumes about how much he did care about him deep down but he also hated seeing Al so sad.
Harry sighed as he gently placed his hands on his son's shoulders. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, Albus, I was just trying to tell a joke. It means so much for me to see how concerned you'd feel for me. But you've no need to feel worried because I'm only cooking now as I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried that it'd be a better use of time cooking than trying but failing to sleep. I promise I'll try to take a nap later."
Albus visually relaxed but he still seemed uncertain, "Really?"
"Really, I'll probably end up sleeping for ten hours straight later in the day but I don't want to be wasting my precious holiday listening to the tick of the clock right now. And I'll try to take better care of myself because I don't want to be the kind of father who keeps my son worried." Harry gave his son a reassuring smile. "Anyway, you should go back to sleep yourself, son."
Albus bit his lip while looking down before confessing, "I just woke up from a… dream… a nightmare, so I don't really want to go back to sleep."
The smile on Harry's face was replaced by a concerned frown. "Do you have any sleeping draught left, Albus?" Remembering how little he had liked taking a draught himself, he amended, "I mean… do you want to take a sleeping draught? I can understand if you don't."
Al shook his head for a few seconds before saying, "Not really… I always feel weird after taking one even though I'd only taken half a dose, like I'd actually feel more tired after sleeping. I do have some left but I don't want to take it."
Harry could swear he felt his heart tightened a little seeing his son like this. Al was only fourteen but he had witnessed so much horror and experienced so much loneliness and sadness. "I'm so sorry, Albus… I-Is there anything I could do for you at all?"
His son shook his head again, "I don't think anyone can really do anything… it's my problem…" Harry could literally pinpoint the light-bulb moment when his son suddenly came up with the idea before he looked right into his eyes looking significantly happier, "I know what we should do."
"What is it?"
"Let me see you cook, I've never done that before… perhaps I can help you a bit and even learn a little myself."
Because Harry could never have expected Albus looking this happy at the prospect of doing anything with him in the last few years, he gave his son an affectionate smile as he said, "Of course we can."
When Ginny arrived at the foot of the stair at seven-fifteen in the morning, she was quite surprised to see her husband patiently teaching Albus how to flip a pancake while her son was completely focused on his task leaning in inspecting the batter.
"You can do this as soon as the top has started to bubble. A pancake can get burned very easily so you've to flip it real quick. It can be quite tricky to flip it in the air so I'd recommend you using a spatula first. Too bad you're not supposed to use magic outside of Hogwarts, or you can actually use Wingardium Leviosa to do the trick… "
Ginny could see his son nervously sliding the spatula onto the pan.
"There, there… slide it under all the way to the middle then quickly flip it over… There you go! This is perfect, Albus!" Harry looked like he had won the lottery while Albus was looking very pleased with himself.
"Now carefully lift it up to transfer it to the plate." Again Albus successfully completed the job. Harry happily clapped his hands.
Click. Harry was so scared by the sudden camera sound that he jumped before turning around to find his wife taking photos of them cooking.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I forgot how loud this thing could be when it takes a photo. Please ignore me and carry on … I just found my boys too adorable that I had to take a picture of this. Or should I take a Muggle video…? George said he knew a way to turn Muggle phone photo into wizard photos though… Hmm." Ginny clumsily tried to change the setting of her phone.
Harry was feeling awkward as he turned back to Albus and said, "You can try to make the next one on your own, then I can show you how I flip it with Wingardium Leviosa… Hmm, be careful that the second one could burn much easier because the pan has already been heated up."
Albus nodded then quietly get back to work. Despite the distraction that was his mum, he looked completely calm and concentrated as he made the first pancake of his own. His timing was perfect and movements precise that this one turned out even better than the last. Seeing the way his son work, Harry could tell that he was a fast learner if he really put his heart into something. When Al had first started in Hogwarts, he had struggled in Potions but now it was his best subject and seeing the way he cooked, Harry could easily imagine why.
For the next fifteen minutes, the father and son continued to make pancakes from their large bowl of batter, Harry was glad that Al did not object to his decision of making three types of pancakes, which of course had meant more work for the both of them. They did not talk much except of the occasional questions from Albus and some praises from Harry. At one point, Harry failed in trying to sound casual as he asked, "So have you given your broomstick a go, Albus?"
His son started a little before resuming his neutral expression, "Oh, not yet… I did clean it up and polish it a bit with James' cleaning kit though."
"Oh…" If it had been James, Lily or anyone else in the Potter-Weasley clan, the "new" broomstick would certainly had been flown for at least three hours on the first day alone, he supposed Al really was not that excited about his new broomstick.
"Albus wanted to wait till you're free to have his maiden flight with the Nimbus 2000." Ginny gave him a reassuring smile.
"Yea… I thought it's something you'd want to see yourself. You've been so excited about this, you spent all those time looking through the catalogue, discussing with me, pick it up with me at the store and pay for it, I think I owe you that after everything… It's not so much I want you to watch me fly but I thought… perhaps we could all fly for a bit together… just like old times." Harry pictured Al flying on his first broomstick model for the first time and realised that he was right, this was indeed something he would want to witness himself that he almost started feeling emotional thinking about it.
Ginny looked outside before saying cheerily, "The sky looks clear and the sun is out already, this looks like the perfect day to go flying."
"That's nice… Hmm, i-it's very thoughtful of you… Thank you, Albus…" He probably would have pulled his son into another impulsive hug had he not been interrupted by his other son, who had loudly walked down the stairs and had chosen to arrive at the living room at this very moment.
"I was woken up by the delicious smell of pancakes that my stomach started to grumble fiercely… this isn't fair! Who cook breakfast before eight on a holiday? I went to bed at two and was supposed to sleep in till at least ten o'clock... Why are you all up so early by the way? And Albus, are you cooking?"
A/N: I legit changed the rating of the story in order to put a certain part in there, which I don't really mind because some themes of the stories have gotten heavier than K+ and different from when I first started anyway. That part was based on someone's real life experience after not sleeping for 48 hours thanks to a long trip, some interesting movies on a flight and a stubborn fight against jet lag.
Albus' emotional reaction may be a bit too much here but it'll make more sense later in the story.
Shoutout to JennH, your review has made me really happy. FYI, I normally update every 2-3 weeks these days so this is a relatively early update. There was a time when I was able to update almost weekly but I can't do that anymore. I usually try to let my readers know in advance if I can't update the fic within 4 weeks.
I'm sorry again for my ridiculous long-windedness. Here's an example of it, all of this chapter is translated from the following of my "outline": "H cooks breakfast, A woke up early" The alternate title of this chapter is "fillers"... well, I like this myself so I hope this is interesting to you all.