Sleeping Harry Part 2
Hermione, Ginny, and Luna set to work as soon as Cherub was out of sight. The three fairy women began bustling about the cottage gathering cloth, baking supplies, and other odds and ends to give their teenage prince the kind of birthday he deserved.
"This is going to be wonderful." Hermione exclaimed as she rummaged through an oaken chest gathering up bolsters of fine cloth.
"A real birthday party." Ginny joined in.
"With a real birthday cake." Luna added.
"And vestments that a prince can be proud of." Hermione finished.
A brilliant idea popped into Ginny's head at that moment and she began making her way toward the staircase that would lead her to the attic of the cottage. "I'll get the wands." She stated.
"Yes, you get...the wands!" Hermione exclaimed as she realized what Ginny had said.
"Oh no." Luna called out causing Ginny to stop in her tracks.
Ginny turned to face her two companions with a disappointed expression. Hermione retained her take-charge tone of voice. "No magic." She instructed.
"But the eighteen years are almost over!" Ginny protested.
"I don't care, we're taking no chances." Hermione insisted.
Ginny huffed. "But, I've never baked a fancy cake." She said trying to convince Hermione that magic was the only way to give Cherub the kind of birthday they were envisioning.
"Oh you won't have to dear." Hermione clarified.
"I'm going to bake the cake!" Luna exclaimed cheerfully as she waved at Ginny, her arms laden with mixing bowls and measuring cups.
"You!" Ginny retorted. "But..."
"She's always wanted to dear." Hermione interjected giving Ginny's shoulder a pat. "And this is her last chance.
"Well..." Ginny began again before Luna launched into a diatribe.
"I'm going to make it fifteen layers with red and blue forget-me-nots..." She sing-songed to herself.
"And, I'm making the garments." Hermione announced finishing for Luna.
Ginny suddenly felt her stomach turn. The idea of Hermione making Cherub's royal garments and Luna baking the cake was just too bizarre for her to understand. "Wait a minute." She said. "You can't sew, and she's never cooked."
"Oh how hard can it be?" Hermione said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"All you have to do is follow the book." Luna added with a dopey smile.
"Ginny, how about you stand right here." Hermione said gesturing to a spot on the floor. "You can be the dummy."
Ginny sighed heavily and took her place on the spot Hermione had pointed out. She wasn't a bit happy with the way the party planning was progressing. But, what choice did she have? Hermione was going to dictate everything whether she liked it or not. Still she felt she had to put her two cents in.
"Well I still think we ought to use magic." She grumbled as Hermione began draping yards of fabric over her. Hermione pulled the fabric this way and that causing Ginny to be jerked to and fro in the effort. By the time Ginny was able to see what Hermione was doing in the shaping of the garments she also realized they were a rich red in color. "It's red!" She exclaimed.
"Lovely shade isn't it." Hermione replied not paying the slightest attention to Ginny's discomfort. "I would have liked pink of course, but you did point out that pink was inappropriate so red it was."
"But I wanted it blue." Ginny whined.
"Now dear." Hermione chided as she covered Ginny's face with more fabric. "We decided red was his color."
"You mean you decided." Ginny retorted snidely, before her voice was muffled by the linen.
In the mean time Luna was busying herself reading from the recipe book for baking the cake. "Now let's see, three cups of flour." She said to herself. "Cups cups cups cups." She dolled on searching around for measuring cups. When she located them she took out three cups of different sizes and began pouring the flour into them and then dumping them into the mixing bowl.
Then after adding water she returned her gaze to the book. "Add two eggs, fold in gently." She read aloud. "Fold?" She pondered the meaning of the instructions for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and adding the two eggs to the mix whole and still in their shells. She draped the batter over them and pushed down to crush the eggs into the mix.
Ginny felt her already short temper flaring as Hermione kept pulling and piling fabric over. Then there was the sound of cutting and ripping as Hermione pulled the linen down and Ginny saw that she was clad in crudely fashioned tunic. She inspected Hermione's handy work thus far. "It looks awful." She said with a grimace.
"That's because it's on you dear." Hermione replied, ignoring the insult entirely and busying herself pinning the fabric into the shape she desired.
Luna had stopped mixing ingredients when she came across a direction she didn't understand. "Add yeast one tsp." She read aloud. "Tsp?"
"One teaspoon!" Ginny corrected shortly.
Luna blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Oh one teaspoon of course." She said laughing it off.
While Luna returned to preparing the cake, Hermione pulled out a tape measure and tried to determine how much fabric to use. She knew that Cherub was taller than Ginny, but how tall she couldn't be sure so she just guessed. "My how that child has grown." She remarked rolling back up the tape measure.
"It seems like only yesterday we brought him here." Ginny said wistfully.
"Just a tiny baby." Luna added as she began mixing the contents of her bowl with a spoon.
Hermione was going to add to the reminiscing when she noticed tears streaming down Ginny's face. "Why Ginny dear, what's the matter?" She asked sympathetically.
Ginny sniffled a bit and wiped at the tears. "After today he'll be a prince. And, we won't have our Cherub anymore." She said between sniffles.
Luna found herself tearing up at Ginny's statement. She stopped stirring the batter to wipe at her own tears. "Oh Hermione she's right." She sobbed.
"Now now, we all knew this day had to come." Hermione stated trying to calm her companions and hold back her own emotions.
"But why did it have to come so soon?" Luna asked sadly.
"After all we've had him for eighteen years." Hermione replied wiping a single tear that had spilled down her cheek.
"Eighteen wonderful years." Ginny interjected.
Hermione shook off the feeling of sadness. There was no time to sit around pining for the past. "For God's sake we're acting like a bunch of ninnies!" She said. "Come one, he'll be back before we get started."
And with that the three fairies returned to their work. Each of them felt bittersweet memories flood them as they worked. But, all were resolute in the knowledge that by sunset; Harry would be married to Draco, and the entire kingdom would be rejoicing. And, more importantly Harry would finally be safe from Bellatrix's evil.
OoooOooooOoooOoooOooo
Elsewhere deep in the forest the young prince was tending to the task his aunts had set him to. He wandered through dense trees, soft meadows, and sunlit clearings; though he was only gathering small bits of kindling here and there. He knew the task was only given to him to keep him out of the cottage. So, he mostly just wandered thinking to himself. Half way through his peregrination he began singing to himself.
He'd always had a good singing voice. It was a clear and strong baritone, and all throughout his childhood his aunts had sang to him, encouraging him to join in. They had taught him simple songs, and lullabies; but there was always a particular song he'd enjoyed best. He'd wandered through the forest many times singing out to the trees, the sky, the birds, and anything in natures realm that would listen.
"Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries."
His singing stirred a small creature from it's sleep in the hollow of a fallen tree. Its pointy ears perked up at the familiar voice and it quickly stretched and bounded from the darkness of the hollow log. Its reddish fur glinted in the sunlight as it bounded toward Cherub. Quicker than a flash it scurried up onto Cherub's shoulders and draped itself across the nape of his neck. Cherub smiled and reached up to scratch the little fox behind it's ears. He paused his song to acknowledge his friend. "Hello Lilly." He said before continuing.
"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
High above in the tree-tops another curious animal was leaping from the limbs of an ancient oak to land on the soft green grass and began trailing behind Cherub. Its beady eyes stared out from a black and gray face, while its large busy tail wagged behind it. The raccoon trotted up along side him brushing his head against Cherubs legs.
"Hello James, I knew you wouldn't be far behind Lilly." Cherub said glancing down. Since he was a child these two little companions had followed him wherever he ventured through the forest. He wasn't sure when or why he had given them their names; but they were names he'd always been fond of. So the three of them made their own trio wandering through the woods; Lilly on his shoulders, James at his feet, and Cherub still singing.
"Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
OoooOoooOoooOoooOoooOooo
Unbeknownst to Harry, in a not to distant meadow, another prince was riding through the forest at the same time. Prince Draco, astride on his white horse Endymion, was on his way to King Jame's castle. It was the eve of not only Prince Harry's eighteenth birthday, but also the eve of his wedding. And, in stark contrast to the rest of the kingdom, Draco was not happy about the pending nuptials.
It wasn't having to be wed to another prince that bothered him. Draco had known long ago that he preferred the rugged and majestic form of a man, to the delicate grace of a woman. What annoyed him was his lack of choice in the matter. No one had ever asked him what he wanted.
He understood that being born to privilege came with certain responsibilities, but being forced to spend the rest of his impending reign with a man he hadn't seen since he was five years old was more than he could tolerate.
He sighed heavily as the dense woods cleared and the gleaming towers of King Jame's castle could be seen beyond a meadow thick with wild flowers. The flags flying high on the ramparts were brightly colored in preparation for the celebration that evening. Draco wished he could feel happy at the site. But it looked more like a prison to him.
Though, maybe he could make the best of it. He hoped at least that Prince Harry would be interesting enough to keep his attentions from wandering to stable boys and servants. He was about to signal his steed to continue on, when a beautiful and mysterious sound drifted to his ears on a gentle breeze.
He pulled the reigns to bring the horse about and headed back into the thick trees. He strained to make out what the sound was over the snapping of twigs and the clop of his steeds hooves. The deeper he went into the woods the more the sound became clear. It was singing, a man was singing somewhere in the forest.
Draco couldn't yet make out the words to the song, but the timbre and clarity of the baritone voice was entrancing him, calling him to journey deeper into the verdant woods.
"Do you hear that Endymion?" Draco asked the horse who's back he was astride. Of course the animal couldn't answer back, but it whinnied in a manner that seemed to Draco as a reply.
"It's too beautiful to be real." Draco continued, now speaking to himself. In the back of his mind he knew he needed to turn around the head for the castle but his curiosity was far to enthralled. "Come one." He said giving his horse a gentle nudge with his feet in the stirrups. "Let's find out what it is."
