Dragons
Charlus Potter found he couldn't move his legs. He looked down to find two thin arms wrapped around his thighs, and chubby cheeks hidden in the velvet folds of his robes. With a heavy sigh he bent down, and began to disentangle the small hands from the iron grip they had formed upon the cloth. "Jamie," he said softly, "Daddy has to go to work now."
"Don't want you to go." A voice emerged from the depths of his left pocket.
"I have to go, darling. I would take you with me if I could, but then who's going to stay here and look after Mummy?"
One hazel eye peeped out. And then blinked. "You want me to stay here so I can look after Mummy?"
"Of course," Charlus assured his son. "Otherwise, who's going to save her from the big bad dragons that come galumphing along the corridors and sneak into the kitchen by the light of the moon - er beg pardon, the sun - and steal biscuits from right under her nose, eh?"
There was a giggle, and this time Charlus was rewarded by the sight of a messy head finally emerging from his robes. "But...but I heard Mummy say she was perfeckly capabill of lookin' after herself yesterday," James said, frowning.
Charlus sighed. It had been too much to expect such a child as James to take his words at face value. "Your Mummy can protect herself from lots of things," he said, "but for those tiresome dragons, she needs you."
James nodded solemnly. "Okay, I'll stay here if you really want," he said, and turned those clear eyes on Charlus. "But what about you, Daddy? Who's going to look after you?"
Charlus cleared his throat hastily, trying to dislodge the lump that he suddenly felt there. It would not budge, so he spoke around it: "I can look after myself, Jamie. I'm not afraid of dragons. There are people - other people, who need my help more."
"Are dragons after them, too?"
"Not dragons but people...wicked people are after them."
"Why?" The small eyes shone with frank curiosity.
"Well, Jamie, there are some wizards who have Muggle parents, and these wicked people don't like it. They think magic shouldn't be used by people who have Muggles in their families."
"That's silly," James decided, after a moment's intense introspection. "They must be scared of Muggles then, an' that's stupid, because there's nothing to be scared about!"
Charlus chuckled. "I think you may have a very good point there, Jamie."
"One day I'll come with you and help to protect them too," James announced.
Charlus reached out and ran a slim-fingered hand over the wild black locks on his son's head. "I would be honoured," he said softly.