Harry

Today was the day. The day in which the final child of ours would go to school. At last, I thought, I'll arrive home to three kids who are all as exhausted as me.

A glance at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock informed me that it was time to wake them up. I went through to Lily's room first, creeping in. Wincing as the door creaked loudly, I tip-toed in.

It turned out, however, that I needn't have been so precautious - her eyes were already wide open, and upon seeing me she jumped up.

"Daddy, is it time to get up yet? I'm starting school today."

"Yes, it is. And I know. That's because you're a big girl, isn't it?"

She nodded her head importantly.

"Why am I going to muggle school?"

"Because to go to Hogwarts you have to be a really big girl. You have to be eleven. And you're not eleven yet, are you?"

"No," she shook her head sadly. "I'm four. But that's big girl age, too!"

"It is." I agreed. "But do you want to go to school with big girls your age, or big, tall, scary girls and boys?"

"My age please."

"Good. The people in your class at your new muggle school will be the same age as you. So they'll all be four, too."

"Does tha' mean I won't have to play with James and Albus anymore?"

"That's right. Now, speaking of your brothers, I need to go and wake them up. Do you want to go to mummy with your uniform and get her to help you get dressed?"

"No. I'm starting school, so I can get dressed myself now."

"Okay. If you need help though, tell mummy, yeah?"

"I won't need help though-"

"I know, but if you find that you do-"

"I won't." She insisted, "bye Daddy."

With that, I was gracefully pushed from her room, and the door was closed in my face.

It was then that I realised that her teenage years would be an absolute delight to deal with... note the sarcasm there.

After waking the boys up and insisting that they did need to get up and go to school, I myself got ready for work. When I got downstairs, I found the rest of the family sat around the table.

"Have you nearly finished your breakfast?" Ginny asked them, "Because you can't forget that it's a muggle school, so we can't apperate. Which means that if you forget anything, we'll have to drive back home to collect it, so you'll be late. And we don't want to be late on Lily's first day of school, do we?"

"We can't be late!" Lily exclaimed, eyes going wide and frantic.

"Calm down. We won't be late. Will we, Albus and James?"

"We won't be late." They repeated together. "Hey, stop copying me! Mum, dad, tell him to stop!"

"You're the one who was copying me." James told Albus.

"James, be quiet." Ginny told him.

"Yeah, James, be quiet." Albus stick his tongue out.

"You too, Albus." I added.

"Yeah, Albus."

"Both of you shut up and check that you've got everything. We can't be late on my first day." Lily silenced them both.

The two boys looked at each other, nodded, then chorused
"Be quiet, Lily." before running away, each leaving a half-eaten bowl of soggy cornflakes.

I sat down, helping myself to a piece if toast from the plate that was filled with food.

Or at the very least, I tried to, before it was rudely snatched from my hand.

"Hey! I was about to eat that!"

"Oh, sorry dear. I was under the impression that I was the one who made that plate of breakfast, and that it was mine to eat. Apparently I got it very wrong."

"... I thought it was for me."

"You thought wrong. Make your own food, you lazy gi-" she stopped, probably because she remembered that a four-year-old was in the room. "You lazy gibbon." She semi-saved.

"What's a gibbon?" The said four-year-old asked curiously.

"A type of monkey."

"Actually it's a type of ape, not a monkey." I informed her.

"Don't be so pedantic, please. Instead, I advise that you make yourself some breakfast, because this here plate of food is mine."

"But I'll be late for work-"

"You better get a move on then. After all, I'm dropping the kids off."

I knew at this point in life that reasons for arguing amounted to nil; no matter what I said, the outcome would remain the same.

After making and eating my breakfast, I went to the living room to try and get the kids out of the house in time.

As I was about to enter though, I heard them talking. More specifically, I heard Albus talking.

"-and don't forget, Lily, that mum and dad don't want you to know this." My attention had been caught and reeled in. "All of the teachers are actually giants with shrinking charms. They pretend to be nice, but if you make them angry... they'll kill you! Mrs Roberts once told off a girl called Sally for not answering the register properly. Sally was never seen again."

I could tell by the stunned silence that Lily had believed her brother, so took it as my cue to step in.

"Hey, Lils, look at me. It's okay. Mrs Roberts doesn't work at your school anymore because she moved to Japan. None of the teachers are giants with shrinking spells, they are all very nice muggles. Albus was trying to scare you, weren't you?"

"... Yes... None of it was true Lily." He grumbled, annoyed at me for ruining the fun, no doubt.

"Don't get cross with him Dad," James demanded, as he patted Albus on the back. "This is a proud moment, and proof of the fact that I have taught him well."

"You- wait, what? It wasn't a nice thing to do, was it? You shouldn't be proud of that."

"No, you think that I shouldn't be proud of him. That little trick and quick-thinking has proven that our young Albus here has potential. And potential is good. We now know that we can help and guide him to the doorway of a new world; a world of wonder and joy-"

"Your pranking is no joy to anyone."

"You do wonder how Fred and I manage it though."

"Look, that's beside the point. You lot need to go now, or you can say bye bye to daddy forever."

"Why would it be forever?" Albus asked ever so innocently.

"He's saying mummy will kill him." James informed him, taking a superior stance for understanding more than his brother.

"Come on Lily, James. We should go. I dot want daddy to die."

Lily and Albus left the room.

"James, you too."

"Erm... actually dad, I wanted a word with you. Could you lock the door and do the silence room thingy spell so that the others can't hear us?"

"Is it super important? You know everyone needs to leave-" I checked my watch "-sorry, everyone should have left five minutes ago."

"It's really important, dad."

For probably the first time in his life, James wasn't looking confident. He looked shy and nervous and in all honesty it tugged at my heart. So I cast the spell, and locked the door.

"They can't hear us? Definitely?"

"Definitely. What it is?" I asked in my gentlest tone.

"I-I'm scared."

"Scared? About what?"

"I'm starting in the junior school today. There's lots more people there. Last year I was tallest in the while year, so I was tallest in the whole of the infants school. Now I won't be. The year 6's are like trees!"

"Do you know what?"

"What?"

"I think it will be fine. You'll see. I remember being the same when I was your age, but I couldn't confess to my Aunt and Uncle because back then they were a bit mean to me. You've told someone, and I think that will make you feel a lot better already. Did you know that I was one of the shortest boys in my class?"

"Really?"

"Yep. So it seemed to me like they were even taller. But they were all really nice and friendly. It's a different building now, but if you get lost I think that I can guarantee that if anyone sees you wandering around they'll show you the right way."

"Thanks dad." I went to un-cast the spell, when he stopped me. "There's one more thing... I... my magic sometimes looses control. Accidental magic. It happed at school last year, and that's why Sally went missing for a few lessons - she was making a snowman one minute and I swear I didn't mean to, but the next second the snowman was talking to her. She was so amazed that she didn't hear the bell for everyone to go inside and spent the lessons talking to her snowman."

"I guess you're worried about something like that happening again?"

He nodded.

"I also don't want it to happen to any of the big kids, or they might beat me up."

"I think that if they tried to beat you up, either your friends would gang up on them until they back down, or you instinct will mean that a bit of magic will be used on them. And then they wouldn't try it again."

"But using magic on them could make or worse."

"James, I want you to listen to me very carefully. If anyone tried to beat you up, or bullies you, I want you to promise me that you'll tell me or your mum, okay? They'll say that if you tell someone it will be worse, but it won't be. It will be worse for them."

"Why will it be worse for them?"

"Because all of the teachers in the playground will watch them each day to make sure it doesn't happen again. So they won't be able to get away with it." I paused. "Also, I might turn them into a toad."

He laughed.
"Thanks dad. That's helped."

"No problem. If you need to talk to me again lile this, don't hesitate, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Now let's go, or your mum will kill both of us."

"Let's go." He agreed.

***

"What took you two so long? We've been waiting for you!"

"Gin, calm down. You'll get there on time."

"But what were you doing?"

"James and I... had a little chat. I'll talk to you about it later, it was a chat that needed to be had. We want to encourage him to talk to us when he needs to, don't we?"

"Yes..."

"For that reason, don't get cross at him. Instead, get in the car."

"Okay then, Mr Bossy-pants. James, let's go."

They all left the house, leaving me with a few minutes of peace and quiet to process the conversation with James. I thought I gave him the right advice, but the problem with this parenting lark is that you don't know if what you said is right until it's put into action.

I hoped more than anything that it was the right advice to give.

It wasn't long, however, before I has to get to work myself. So after casting the necessary spells and setting the alarm, I left and appeared away, to the long day of work that was waiting for me.

The day stretched on - with the exchanging and adding to paperwork, having a meeting, being assigned roles in a new case, and then researching for said case - so it was a relief when I got home and was able to take my tie off, and sit down for a moment.

Soon, Lily came running up to me.
"Daddy, guess what?"

"What, sweetheart?"

"I went to school today!"

Of course you did. I was there when you left, I've been here when you've been telling me about your excitement for the past few weeks - sorry, months. I was there when we purchased your school uniform and paraded around happily, delighted by the prospect of going to school. Sorry, was I supposed to be surprised?

"Really? How did it go, darling?"

"It was a lot better than I thought! First of all, we went into the hall for an assem- assembly, and then we were told who our teachers were. Next we had to follow our teachers to our classrooms, and sit down on the carpet. Then we had to say who we were, our likes and dislikes, and then we had to turn to the person next to us and talk, and try to make friends with lots of people. Then-"

Was I really about to get the run-through of a four-year-old's day?

"-and I became friends with a girl called Susie. She's really nice-" apparently so. "-we both like cats, and dogs, and hamsters, and the colour red. We had breaktime and lunch and we played some games. The teacher said that they want us to settle in before we properly start learning."

"That's nice. And good."

"Yeah. How was your day?"

"Erm... not as fun yours. We didn't play any games. It was lots of paperwork, research and we a meeting, so nothing that exciting."

"Oh... By the way, Mummy said to tell you to go to her in the kitchen."

"Okay."

Sighing, as I'd just gotten comfortable on the sofa, I stood up and made my way through to the other room.
"You called?"

"Yeah. Shut the door, will you?" I proceeded to do so, then sat down and waited for her to initiate the conversation. "Look, Harry, we need to have a talk."

We need to have a talk. The fatal six words that have cost many a man dearly. I knew how to handle this; I needed to be calm, persuasive, and focused. I could not react badly.

"Yes?"

"It's nothing personal, and I'm not trying to take anything away, but-"

"-you're breaking up with me?"

"-I think we should move house."

Those are two sentences that shouldn't be said at the same time. The atmosphere it creates... from firsthand experience, I can assure you that it will not go down well.

"Harry, you utter thick-head. Why on Earth would you jump to the conclusion that I'm breaking up with you?"

"I... You said the words."

She gave me a blank stare.
"Really? I hadn't noticed that I said any words at all. When I spoke, it wasn't apparent at all that I said words."

"No, not just words. The words."

"So specific. How did I get landed with such an articulate man, who was so clear when communicating?"

"You said that we need to talk, Ginny. Everyone knows that unless you want to give your partner a heart-attack, you must never say those words to them."

"We need to have a talk."

"I said unless you want them to have a heart-attack, don't say them?"

"I know."

"I'm so confused right now. One moment you're saying to move house, the next questioning why we'd break up, and now you're saying you want me to have a heart-attack. What's going on?"

"What's going on, Harry, is you being daft. I'm not breaking up with you. I'm suggesting we move house. I know how much it means to you, but I just think that the place isn't quite right. It's not an awful distance, but still fairly far from school; the kids have friends they want to invite round, but can't because of having to read the address and watching the entire house form; this place is getting old, and the staircase looks like it could break at any time-"

"Ginny, stop. I understand. I completely and utterly understand, and I'm in agreement."

"I know, but- wait, what?"

"I've erm... well, I've been having similar thoughts. When I first entered, the last thing I thought I'd ever say was that I like the place, but we need to be practical. This place was his, it's odd to think he grew up here. But as I say, practicality is essential. We can't live here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I think it's time really. Let's keep an eye out before saying anything to the kids. If we can't find anywhere then there's not much that will come out of telling them."

"Okay." She smiled at me softly. "Oh, and taking of the kids... what was all that about earlier with James?"

"Right, sorry. Erm, well... he was just feeling a little nervous about going back, to be honest. Worried about bullying and any accidental magic incidents. He mentioned how much taller the kids would be, so I think he was a little intimidated. But it was good."

"It was good that your son felt intimidated?"

"No I mean that was bad, obviously. But it was good that he talked about it. I've let him know that he can talk to either of us if he has any more worries."

"That is good. I mean it would be awful if he didn't think he could talk to us, but you're right... it's good that he knows he can approach us with problems. Maybe we've done okay as parents."

"Hold on, back up a second, what did you just say?"

"Maybe we've done okay-"

"Before that."

"It's good he knows he can approach us-"

"Before that. Something about me being right...?"

"I'm not saying again."

"But it's such a rare thing to hear you say."

"When directed at you, maybe."

"You just don't recognise my greatness."

I said this as James walked in.

"You? Great? Understand this thing call "reality", dad."

I turned to Ginny.
"It's your fault he's like that. I fully blame you."

"I'd gladly take responsibility for raising my son to recognise what people are and are not like. It will take him far in life."

I'm sorry (as ever) for the delay in getting this update up. To try and make up for it, it's extra long (over 3000 words).

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Alice