The Boy Who Lived

Just Harry

It was Harry's turn to cry. 'Why not?' he stamped his little foot and then threw himself into her arms, hugging her tightly and sobbing.

No one, she thought, no one in the world has ever hugged me like Harry does. Perhaps she needed this little boy in her life as much as he needed her.

'I want to marry you and I don't understand why I shouldn't be allowed. Who says I can't?'

She smiled softly at his little tantrum and his two-year-old logic and stroked his soft unruly hair. 'I'm afraid it's against the law for little boys to marry their mummies.'

'When I'm grown up, I shall do what I want and nobody should stop me. I shall get the law to change... Anyway, you're not my real mummy, just my new mummy. Is that different?'

'Sort of, but I don't think it's proper to marry your new mummy either.'

He looked at her solemnly, 'will you tell me about my real mummy again?'

She smiled softly, 'always, darling, shall we go and find her picture to look at?'

'No, I want to imagine her lying on the grass beside me.' He lay down flat, with his arms by his side and his feet flexed skyward. He shut his eyes tight. 'I can almost feel her next to me with her hair like fire tickling my cheek. Was she beautiful?'

'The most beautiful,' Minerva said with a little choke in her voice. 'She had amazing green eyes just like yours and little freckles on her nose...'

They often talked about Harry's parents. She would tell Harry about James and Lily being soulmates and James knowing it from the day he first saw her but Lily was having none of it because James was loud and boisterous and sometimes a bit naughty. In comparison, Lily was bright and clever and the kindest young witch Minerva had ever met. Then James finally realised he needed to change his ways and show her he was serious and that he truly loved her. How, after that, no one could hold them back. She told them about their school days and their October wedding and how in love with each other they were and how happy they were to have a little boy they called Harry nine-months after they got married. She told Harry about being asked to be Harry's godmother and swearing to protect the little boy with all her heart. She told him about their friends too, though she was very wary about talking about the self-styled Marauders whom she knew about full-well. Mostly because she didn't want to tell Harry about Sirius Black and how it had emerged that he'd betrayed poor Lily and James. She still didn't want to believe it but he'd been put in Azkaban for being a Death-Eater and leading them to their murders and for odd little Peter's death too. How do you tell a small child about that?

Later that night, as she tucked him up in bed, he whispered, 'night, night, Mummy Minnie.'

She replied, 'you don't have to call me "mummy", you can just call me Minnie.'

'Lily lives in the stars now so you're my mummy instead. And I like calling you mummy,' he said simply as he hugged his little bear.

And she felt a little choked because, she realised, if he'd stayed with Petunia Dursley, he would have had no one to call 'mummy'.

He screwed his eyes tight but pointed to his cheek to indicate he wanted a kiss.

She gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek and rolled her eyes at herself. He demanded affection and it was a learning curve for her too but they were getting better at it all or, rather, she was getting better at it all.

'Asleep now,' he said.

She smiled at his delightful logic once again. 'Night, night, Harry,' she whispered softly. 'Love you to the stars and back again.'