Author's Note:
I don't know what year this is, but James is already at Hogwarts. Enjoy this one!
I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.
Chapter 4:
…you never, ever, let your husband tell your kids about the bogeyman.
The bogeyman is an entirely muggle convention. It was thought up to scare kids, for some reason that I cannot identify. Harry learned it through his cousin, who had thought it would be funny to scare him. Harry, needless to say, didn't worry because he didn't think that the bogeyman could fit in his cupboard. He did, however, remember the story, and thought that it was a good idea to tell our little daughter the tale.
I was sleeping in bed, next to my husband, when I heard a sniffle. I opened my eyes and turned over to see Lily standing there.
"Mummy," she whispered. "Mummy, I'm scared." I sat up and gave her a hug.
"What's wrong, sweetie? Did you have a nightmare?" I asked her.
To my surprise, she burst into startlingly loud tears. "Mummy, the bogeyman. It's in my room!" she wailed. I glanced at Harry, who was surprisingly still asleep, and tried to comfort her. She eventually calmed down.
"Lily, would you like to sleep with us tonight?" I asked her.
"Oh yes!" she cried and jumped into our bed between us, pulling the covers up to her chin.
"What about Al? What if the bogeyman goes into his room?" Harry said in a sleepy voice. So he had been awake!
"Mummy, can Al sleep with us too? I want him to be safe," Lily said earnestly. I nodded wearily, and she jumped out of bed and ran out of the room.
"Harry, are you awake?" I asked, leaning over to him. He nodded, keeping his eyes closed against the light that Lily had turned on in the hallway. "What on earth possessed you to tell her about the bogeyman, of all things?" I said, in a forced calm voice.
He shrugged meekly. "Dunno…she said she wanted a bedtime story," he mumbled.
"Harry James Potter, you are a dead man," I hissed as Lily came trudging back into the room with a half asleep Albus. She let go of his hand, and he slumped over onto the floor, curling up into a ball and falling asleep again. That's my boy-both of us hate mornings and love our sleep. Lily climbed into bed next to me and promptly passed out. Harry muttered something about snakes and started snoring gently. I settled in to go to bed too, but no. Oh no.
Lily is a kicker. She kicked when I was pregnant, and she kicks now. So I had to endure her kicks in my side. And then Albus started up. He breathes though his mouth when he sleeps, so that makes him the loudest breather on the planet. And then Harry started muttering. Again. After listening to this cacophony of sounds, and feeling all of these kicks, I simply gave up. I got up, grabbed my wand from the bedside table, made my way around a sleeping Albus on the floor, and walked into Lily's room.
After all, I am a grown witch. I can defend myself against a bogeyman. If there even is one. With this thought, I settled myself into Lily's too-small bed and started to drift off to sleep.
The lesson of the day is: In my house, you never, ever, let your husband tell your kids about the bogeyman.