A/N – Sorry about the lack of update yesterday, but I'm not very well and I really didn't have the energy to post a chapter. Hopefully now I've been to the doctor and have some antibiotics, I should start feeling better and updates won't be an issue, but if I do miss another update in the next few days, it'll just be because I'm still not well.
Monsters.
"More," Four year old Lyra begged her big brother, Scorpius.
The two children were sitting in Scorpius's bedroom in a blanket fort the six year old had made. On the floor beside them were glasses of milk and a bowl of fruit pieces. For a while the two children had been playing with board games, but Scorpius had gotten bored and had decided to regale of his sister with stories he'd made up. However, the longer the stories went on the more mischievous Scorpius became and he soon began entertaining his little sister with tales of monsters and ghosts. Lyra giggled and laughed her way through the stories, never once getting frightened because she had her big brother to protect her.
However, it was a different story a few hours later once Lyra was tucked up bed, all alone in her room. As usual her parents had read her a story and left her night light on, but as she lay in bed her little mind went back to the stories Scorpius had told her earlier. Warily she eyed her wardrobe, wondering what sort of monster was lying in wait for her. Lyra was so jumpy at the thoughts of monsters in her wardrobe that she knocked her favourite cuddly dragon to the floor.
"Holly," Lyra whispered, carefully peering over the side of the bed and finding her dragon lying on the floor.
Normally Lyra would have just picked her dragon up, but now she was worried about monsters under her bed. She didn't want to get grabbed and yanked under the bed like Scorpius had described earlier. Thoughts of her brother, suddenly gave Lyra an idea.
"Scorpius!" She cried at the top of her voice. She knew her brother was in his room, but their parents were still downstairs.
When Scorpius didn't immediately appear in her room, Lyra kept calling for him. Eventually a moody looking Scorpius pushed open the door to his sister's room.
"What?" He demanded snappishly.
"I'm scared," Lyra said with a tremor in her voice. "There's monsters under my bed and Holly is on the floor."
"There's no monsters, Lyra," Scorpius sighed as he entered the room and walked over to his sister's bed. Picking up Holly, he handed her the stuffed dragon, which his sister immediately clutched to her chest.
"But you said the bed monsters lived under the bed," Lyra said. "And you said they took little girls when they weren't looking."
"It was just a story, Lyra," Scorpius said, feeling slightly guilty that he'd scared his sister. "It's not true. It's like the stories Mum and Dad tell you before bed, it's just make believe."
"I don't like the stories," Lyra sniffed. "I'm scared Scorp."
"I promise that I won't let any monsters get you," Scorpius vowed to his little sister. "Watch." Making sure Lyra was watching him, Scorpius got down on his hands and knees and peered under the bed. "See, no monsters,"
Slowly Lyra leant out of bed and looked underneath it. As Scorpius had said, there was no monsters under the bed.
"See, you're safe," Scorpius said. "Now go to sleep before Mum and Dad find out you're still awake."
"Okay," Lyra said quietly as she settled back under the covers.
"Night, Lyra," Scorpius said, smiling at his little sister before heading back to his own bed.
After Scorpius left, Lyra tried her hardest to go to sleep, but she was still scared of the monsters. She knew there were no monsters under her bed, but she'd forgotten to get Scorpius to check the wardrobe.
"Come on Holly," Lyra whispered to the dragon as she pushed back the covers and got out of bed. "Let's go somewhere safe."
Quickly she ran out onto the landing, and paused as she tried to figure out where to go. She first looked at Scorpius's room, but she wasn't sure her brother would let her stay with him. Most of the time Scorpius was really nice to her, but he'd already checked for bed monsters so he might not by happy that she was scared again. Turning her attention away from her brother's room she made her way down towards her parents' bedroom. Even if her parents weren't in their room she knew she wouldn't have to worry about monsters in their room. No monsters would dare try and scare her Daddy.
Entering her parents' room, Lyra found the big king size bed empty. Clambering up onto the bed, Lyra crawled under the covers and settled down right in the middle of the bed. Clutching Holly to her chest the four year old fell asleep, and remained asleep until her parents entered their room and found their daughter surprisingly curled up in their bed a few hours later.
"Lyra, why are in our bed?" Draco asked gently as his daughter's eyes flicked open.
"There's monsters in my room," Lyra replied sleepily.
"There's no monsters darling," Hermione said soothingly.
"There is," Lyra said with more force. "Big ones that eat little girls."
"We can't have that," Draco said in fake outrage. "I need to go and kick those monsters out of your room."
"'Morrow," Lyra muttered sleepily. "I want to stay here now."
Draco looked up at Hermione, who quietly agreed they could let their daughter sleep with them for the one night. Getting ready for bed, the couple settled down on either side of their daughter. With her parents snuggled in bed with her, Lyra wasn't scared of monsters any longer and she had a good night's sleep.
The next day, Draco made a big display of chasing the monsters from Lyra's bedroom with his wand. With a promise from her father that the monsters would never return, Lyra settled back into her own room and was never again scared of monsters in the middle of the night.