A//N: This is a Harry/Hermione ficlet. If you haven't read "Constance Vigilance" from "Sink or Swim" you may be a bit confused, but even if you haven't, it should still be ok. This is also un-beta'd so any mistakes or Americanisms are my own. I'm working on a prequel for Lessons, but I want to have a couple chapters written (so I have some idea of where it'll be going) before a post it. I hope the little drabbles posted here will make due in the mean time. And before you say it, I know the name Lily's been done about a gagillion times. I have no excuse.
Lily Potter, four and three quarters years old as she liked to tell anyone and everyone who could hear, sat straight up in bed, her heart beating a million miles a minute. At first she was confused as to what had woken her until the room lit up in stark black and white relief followed closely by a bladder quivering sharp retort.
She hated thunderstorms. They were loud, fierce, violent and most of all unpredictable, but one thing she did like about thunderstorms was that they were a perfect excuse to bug her older brother.
Hastily she slipped out of bed with her stuffed dragon and scurried on her tip toes away from her bed in case a yunohoo came after her. She wasn't sure what, precisely, a yunohoo was, but with the way some of the adults spoke about it in whispers with tinges of fear and awe, she figured it had to be big and slimy with at least a thousand tentacles, green, and had a mouth full of teeth. She didn't know where yunohoo's lived, but under her bed or in a closet were as good places as any. At any rate, she wasn't about to find out any time soon. Thunderstorms might be the perfect cover for them to abduct little girls as they snuck out to find their brothers.
Like a little wraith clad in bright pink pajama bottoms and a yellow pajama top, she skittered down the hall still on her tippy toes.
"Psst."
Lily paused just outside her brother's room and stood very still. That definitely wasn't Crookshanks or her kitten Droobles. Did yunohoo's hiss?
"Psst. Lily." A slightly translucent face of a girl appeared through the wall down the hall behind her.
"Connie! You scared me," Lily said clutching her dragon closer to her and stomping her foot indignantly.
"Sorry," the little eight year old ghost girl whispered. She slid through the wall wearing her customary frilly white dress and big bow and hovered near her. "I hate thunderstorms."
"How come you're not with your daddy?"
"He's in the garden," Constance replied with a roll of her eyes. "He keeps trying to teach me about electricity and ions and other stuff, but as soon as there's a bolt of lightening, I get scared and run back inside. You would think after a hundred and fifteen years I would stop being scared of storms and he'd stop trying to drag me out to watch them."
Lily giggled softly. "I'm going into Sirius's room. D'you wanna come with?"
"Yes, please," Constance replied with no amount of relief.
Constance slid through the wall and Lily crept through the door, peeking her head around the door jamb.
Her five and eleven twelfths year old brother lay in bed with his butt straight in the air, his head buried under his pillow and the blankets in a pile down around his feet. He seemed completely oblivious to the bright flashes and thunderous claps invading his room.
"Connie?" Lily whispered. "Could you check under the bed for a yunohoo?"
Constance dove under the bed and came back moments later. "It's all clear. Nothing but dust, some socks, and that Quidditch figurine Sirius lost last month."
Lily scampered over to her brother's bed and climbed up, sitting at the foot. "Sirius . . . Sirius!" She poked the bare underside of his foot.
He started and muttered something like, "No peas" before settling back into sleep.
If she were like his best friends, the twins Cat and James, she'd jump on his bed until he woke up or if she were sneaky like Ronnie or Cissy, also Sirius's best friends, she'd get a quill and tickle his ear or nose. But they didn't have to live with him or their parents, so she was content to run her finger up and down the tender underside of his foot, poking the arch until he woke with a groan and flipped over. He gave her a bleary eyed squint and groaned again, curling up with his pillow. "Whaaaat?"
"Can Connie and me sleep with you?"
"It's Connie and I and no."
"Please? I don't like the thunder and Connie doesn't like the lightening. And I think there're yunohoo's under my bed."
"You know whats?" Sirius asked blearily.
"Can we please please please sleep in here?"
Sirius sighed and scooted over. "Ok, but Connie can't sleep in my bed. She's too cold."
"Can I just stay in the room?"
"Yeah, ok."
Lily pulled up the sheet and duvet cover and snuggled in close next to her brother's scrawny chest finally feeling safe.
"Ok, now what in the world are yunohoos?" Sirius mumbled into his pillow.
"I'm not sure exactly, but I think they have a billion teeth and they're green and slimy and have a billion tentacles and I think they come out in thunderstorms to steal kids from their beds."
Harry woke with a frown. What in the world? He glanced over at the clock and barely made out the words If you're awake, it's probably because your kids are staring at you. And sure enough his kids and Constance were standing right next to his bed staring down at him. Spooned behind him, Hermione stirred, draping her arm over his waist. "Hey," he mumbled muzzily. "What're you doing up?"
"The thunderstorm woke Lily up so she came to my room with Connie then Lily told me about the yunohoos and so, we came here," Sirius whispered. "Can we sleep you and mum?"
Harry yawned and nodded. "Yeah, climb on in."
"Harry - what -?" Hermione mumbled waking when two little bodies climbed up into bed and insinuated themselves between her husband and herself, pushing her away from his warmth. "Sirius, Lily, what's wrong?"
She slid over then wrapped her arms around her baby girl while Sirius explained why Lily and Constance were there and why he was there.
Hermione met Harry's eyes over their children's heads torn between drowsy amusement and something else.
"Oh, I do beg your pardon," Sir Geoffrey, Constance's father popped his head through the floor just beyond their open door. "Constance, I'm finished watching the storm. Come back downstairs and let them sleep."
"Thank you for letting me stay here," Constance smiled.
"Any time," Harry replied.
When Constance and Sir Geoffrey had left, Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Lily all snuggled under the covers. "Let me tell you a story about where You Know Who came from and why you should never be afraid," Hermione murmured, Lily snuggled up to her side with her head on her chest and Hermione's hand comfortingly running her fingers through Sirius's messy black hair. Harry curled on his side and stretched his arm across Lily and Sirius to rub Hermione's slightly swollen stomach.
-----------------
Lily, as usual, woke up before everyone else. Sirius was sprawled out on their dad's chest while their mum had her wrapped securely in her arms. Lily squirmed gently away from the arms wrapped around her, giving her baby sister (at least she hoped it was a sister), in her mummy's belly a kiss before crawling over her mummy's legs and off the bed.
She walked to the open window and stood in the soft breeze and bright sunlight. She was glad her mum had told her that story about Voldey-mort and how he was the first and last yunohoo. She still didn't like thunderstorms, she felt as though she was going to end up like Constance, a hundred years old and still afraid of them, but at least she felt safe knowing that she didn't have to worry about monsters under her bed.
-->