Author's Note: Quick Quotes Quest Prompt #2: "Oh God. You gave it a name."
Post-war. Harry and Hermione's young daughter comes home one day with a little (monstrous) surprise...
Originally posted: Aug. 3, 2024
Words: 283
Rated: K
Lily's Little Friend
It was to be expected that James Sirius Potter would live up to his predecessor's names, but few expected the same from his younger sister.
"LILY LUNA POTTER! WHAT ARE YOU HOLDING?!"
Harry came bolting down the stairs at the sound of his wife's shriek. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that beheld him.
Six-year-old Lily, soaking wet, covered in head to foot with mud, weeds, and a single lilypad sitting atop her head, was grinning from ear to ear, clutching in her chubby arms a large, slimy, and rather disgruntled-looking—
"Mummy, Daddy! Isn't he cute? Can I keep Fluffy? Can I? Can I?"
"Oh God. You gave it a name," Harry murmured in horror, gazing upon the monstrosity currently clasped in his daughter's arms.
"HARRY, DO SOMETHING!" Hermione looked quite beside herself, staring at Lily as if she was seeing her daughter for the first time.
"Er, right," Harry said, quickly removing his wand from his pocket. With a swish and flick, the grindylow slipped out Lily's grasp and floated midair, looking confused but resigned to its fate.
Lily's eyes filled with tears. "Daddy, he doesn't like heights! Put him down!"
"You handle the waterworks," Harry said back to his wife, who was looking considerably calmer now that her daughter was out of direct danger, but now with a twitching mouth that looked fit to burst. "I'll take care of…. Fluffy."
It became a running joke thereafter in the Potter household that Lily was the long-lost relative to a certain Gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Hermione did not find it particularly amusing, but Harry once caught her writing to Hagrid that he'll be expecting a star pupil in a few years…