Beautiful Boy
By Poppy P
Just a little songfic to John Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy’, a
heartbreaking song if ever there was one. This was inspired by a theory about
Harry’s hair which I came up with during the reading of OotP. There’s a
slight, melancholy air to this. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing plenty
of angst in the coming year of fanfiction. (Why JK? Why?????!!!) The One
True Way has always intrigued me, but I’ve never attempted to write
it. This short fic hints at it vaguely. Having never written anything of this
nature, I hope I did it justice. Thanks to Soupytwist and Z for the beta and
kind words….
…then he realized that Mrs. Weasley was attacking his
hair with a wet comb. She pressed hard on the top of his head.
Harry shook his head.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, ch 7,
page 123, US edition
Close your eyes,
Have no fear,
The monster’s gone,
He’s on the run and your daddy’s here,
Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,
Lily decided that James
and Sirius had been alone with Harry for far too long. James had gone upstairs
over half an hour ago to put their nine-month-old son down for a nap with
Sirius at his heels and she hadn’t heard from them since. It was Lily’s
experience that extended periods of silence from those two usually meant
trouble. Taking her wand in hand, she crept very slowly up the stairs.
Sure enough, just as
she reached the landing, she saw a telltale burst of soft colored light flash
under the door of the nursery. This was immediately followed by a whimper of
protest from her son and the sound of James and Sirius anxiously trying to
quiet him.
Before you go to sleep,
Say a little prayer,
Every day, in every way,
It’s getting better and better,
Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful Boy…
Lily walked the length
of the dimly lit hall quickly but silently and paused outside the door. She
peeked inside through narrowed eyes and watched as her husband paced the room,
jiggling their son frantically in one arm and waving a teddy bear over him with
the other.
“Shush, or we’ll catch
it from your mum,” said James with urgency.
Sirius was leaning
against the crib, smirking with amusement. “Oh someone’s going to catch it all
right, but I doubt it’s Harry.”
Lily stepped back as
James shifted a guilty glance towards the door. “Maybe she won’t notice,” he
said hopefully.
Lily tensed. From her
spot at the door she could not see her son, as James had his back to her.
Sirius gave a short,
bark-like laugh. “I doubt it. She notices everything.”
“Yeah, well,” said
James with a touch of defiance, “it was worth it.” He looked down at his son
with tenderness. “You’ll thank me for this someday, son. The witches will
love it!” He rubbed Harry’s cheek with the back of his hand. “Worked for your
mum.”
Sirius collapsed
against the crib, shaking with mirth. “Really? Because I distinctly remember
Lily saying she thought you were a great, fat-headed prat with hair like a
mop…”
“Oi!” James flipped
the teddy bear at Sirius’ face. “You best shut it before I tell her that you
were the one who made the charm permanent.” The stuffed animal bounced off
Sirius’ nose.
Permanent? Lily
stifled a gasp but James didn’t hear it over Harry’s giggle.
Sirius pulled a grim
face. “Look at that, laughing at his godfather’s predicament.” He pulled
Harry out of James’ arms and brought him up to his face. “More respect out of
you, young man,” said Sirius sternly as he rubbed their noses together, causing
Harry to shriek with delight.
With Sirius holding the
baby up, Lily finally deduced what had been done to her son and was now torn
between irritation and amusement. She finally settled on amusement, especially
when she remembered that they thought the charm on Harry’s hair was permanent.
Honestly, men!
Out on the ocean, sailing away
I can hardly wait,
To see you come of age,
But I guess we’ll both
Just have to be patient,
Yes it’s a long way to go,
A hard row to hoe
But in the meantime…
James clapped Sirius on
the shoulder, both of them smiling at Harry now. “You know, Padfoot, you’re
really good at this, and Harry’ll need some fellow Marauders when he gets to
Hogwarts. Ever think about it? Becoming a father, I mean…”
James stopped suddenly
as Sirius tensed, his eyes wary. From the hallway Lily closed her eyes
tightly, wondering how her husband could be so tactless.
“I…er…sorry,” James
stammered, “but, well…you can always adopt, right?”
Sirius smiled, the
awkward moment disrupted by Harry’s joyful gurgling.
“Yeah, we’ve
thought about it actually, but there’s no hurry, right? Plenty of time to
produce some little Marauders. All the time in the world.” They both smiled
fondly at the baby, each lost in their private musings for the moment.
Suddenly Sirius shook his head, as though remembering something. “Speaking of
repopulating the British wizarding population, did I tell you about my cousin
Arthur?”
James scrunched his
brow, trying to recall the name. “Weasley?”
“Yeah. His wife’s
pregnant with their seventh,” said Sirius incredulously, his blue eyes wide.
“Molly swears it’s a girl this time.”
“He’s the one with all
those red-haired kids, right?” asked James. Sirius nodded. A calculating look
came over James. “So if it is a girl, perhaps Harry will have his own little,
red-headed lass to chase at Hogwarts.”
“I hope she appreciates
the hair better than Lily did.” Sirius sidestepped the elbow that James aimed
for his ribs.
“Shut it!”
Before you cross the street
Take my hand,
Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy making other plans…
Lily pressed her
knuckles against her mouth to suppress a snort of laughter.
James looked quickly at
the door, fearing that they’d been caught, but Lily pulled back just in time.
Nevertheless he took the baby from Sirius’ arms and set him down in the crib.
“We’d better let
Harry have his nap, or Lily’ll have our heads. Besides,” he added heavily, “we
have to go over that report from Dumbledore. They got the Bones family last
week. Killed the whole lot of them, kids and everything.”
The two friends shared
a moment of silence. Sirius finally broke it, attempting to capture their
previous lighthearted tone. “I’m surprised Lily hasn’t come up to see what
we’re up to,” said Sirius, with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“She’s losing her touch.”
Lily frowned,
indignant.
A slightly apprehensive
expression crossed James’ face. “You’re right. We’d better Apparate out to
the garden so that she’ll think we’ve been there all along. She’s going to go
mad about the hair anyway, so let’s delay it as long as possible.”
As soon as she heard
them Disapparate, Lily crossed the threshold of the nursery and went up to her
son who was now babbling contentedly in his crib.
“There’s my little
wizard,” she cooed, smoothing the rumpled hair on the back of his head.
“What’ve those idiots done to my little lamb, eh?”
Harry, oblivious to the
condition of his hair, returned his mother’s smile.
“Muh!”
Lily swooped down and
covered his little face with kisses stopping only when her son gave a small,
warning cry of objection.
“All right. All
right. You just look so adorable in your Quidditich rumpled hair.” Lily
snorted. “Permanent my arse,” she muttered.
She took up her
wand and aimed it at her son, intent on returning it to its normal, soft, silky
state. Something stayed her hand, however. She had a sharp, sudden vision of
another young man with black hair that stuck up at all angles, surrounded by
his three close friends. In her vision he was laughing, carefree. His only
worry was winning the House cup and trying to impress a certain red-haired
Gryffindor girl. The current times made Lily feel painfully removed from that
young girl.
“Perhaps we don’t need
to change this just yet,” she murmured softly, running a hand gently, but futilely
through Harry’s wayward hair. She picked up her son, settled him against her
shoulder and echoed Sirius’ words, “Plenty of time for that later.”
Beautiful,
Beautiful, Beautiful,
Beautiful Boy…
