| Mooncalf
Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Boston
Posts: 6,674
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Hazel Martin-Pryce
First Year
Diagon Alley Proprietor:
Scout MacIntyre
Daily Prophet Reporter  x4
|  Granddaddy Ravenclaw | | Jermione Granger
Hi again. Thanks for the comments. I do enjoy knowing that you're reading and what you think.
And as always, most recognizable things are JK Rowling's and I'm just happy to play in her world a little.
Chapter Two: Family
Susan closed the laptop with a click as she peered over her glasses at her son. “Tiberius Reginald Pryce,” she chuckled softly, removing her glasses and resting them on the closed computer. “You know I can't fix that toy for you.”
Pudgy baby legs bouncing to an imaginary beat, Tiberius had once again pulled himself up in his playpen and, one hand on the wall to steady himself, was using his free hand to swat at the enchanted toys circling above his head. Snitches and dragons and figures on brooms whirled there, just barely out of reach. Well, almost. With a squeal and a giggle, Tiberius swung his hand at the same moment he extended his knees, making contact with a miniature Chinese Fireball and sending it flying across the room. Placing both hands on the edge of the pen, Tiberius bounced faster, laughing.
With a smile, Susan bent down to retrieve the toy that had landed at her feet. Placing it on the table next to her, Susan made a mental note to ask Tirion to move them just a little higher next time. Rubbing the tips of her fingers along the soft leather of a photo album, Susan watched her son bounce. It was just as she'd imagined it would be. Well, not counting the magic. That she'd never imagined in her wildest dreams. Letting her mind wander, Susan thought back to the moment she'd met Tirion, but her reminiscing was cut short as she heard a soft cry that then built into a full wail.
Tiberius, emboldened by his dragon-swatting success, had bounced once more after a snitch. But, even as he wrapped his fingers around a wing, he'd lost his balance and fallen backwards. Despite it being a rather squishy landing on his diapered bottom, further cushioned by numerous stuffed animals, the tears gathered in the corners of his eyes, and he'd begun to cry.
Cooing at him as she stood, Susan made her way over to the playpen and scooped him up into her arms. Bouncing him a little, she rested her head against his. “It's okay baby boy. Shhhh.” Walking back over to the table, she used her free hand to grab the photo album. “Let's look at pictures, okay Tibi?” She made more cooey shushing noises at him as she settled into the rocking chair in the corner of the room. Tiberius, for his part, continued with staggered whimpers, but he'd become fascinated by the snitch that he was still holding on to.
Susan flipped the book open as Tiberius chewed on the wing of the snitch. The pictures themselves were woefully out of order, having been randomly placed there. Susan smiled, the first picture having been taken by a muggle tourist at a rest area off some tiny highway in the States. In it, Susan leaned against the green car, her pregnant belly jutting out obviously as Tirion stood next to her. “That's the day you were born, little man,” Susan whispered, resting a finger on the image. She chose to remember that trip for what it had become, not what it had started out as. But it hadn't been a vacation, that was for sure. She wasn't even sure why they'd had to go, but Tirion had said they had to, and so go she went.
Flipping the page, Susan face settled into a frown. “And those are your grandparents,” she said a little more coldly. Tiberius paid no attention, happily gnawing on the snitch. Susan had not seen her parents since the day before her wedding. They'd been opposed to Tirion from the start, and while they'd refused to have anything to do with her after they became engaged, they'd shown up to try to persuade her, one last time.
They did not know that they were grandparents.
Susan's thoughts were interrupted as Tiberius flailed the snitch around and placed his free hand on the page and pushed it. “Okay, a new picture,” Susan chuckled, moving her son's hand and turning the page. Wedding pictures. Tiberius giggled and flapped his arms at the pictures, slapping one with his hand. “Muma.”
“Yes, that's your mummy,” Susan chuckled. And then picking up his hand and placing it over a picture of Tirion, she smiled looking at her son. “And that's your daddy.” Tiberius giggled and squealed and flapped, the snitch still in his hand. Susan closed the album as it had clearly done the trick. She knew the rest of the pictures by heart. Small ceremony. Just them and Tirion's closest friend as a witness, no family on either side, and a 'just-married' broom ride that had simultaneously thrilled and terrified her. It was just them, then. And it was just them, now.
Placing the book on the side table, Susan held her squirming son. Who needed extended family, anyway? They were perfect, just the three of them. “You are the most loved little boy in the whole wide world,” she baby-talked at him, making kissy faces. “Yes, you...” But her words were cut off by the unmistakable sound of the floo. Tiberius had come to recognize it, and so let out a burbley baby squeal as Susan smiled and rose from the chair. “Daddy's home!”
“I could use some hands,” he called in from the other room.
Susan simply shook her head and placed Tiberius back in the playpen. “Let's see what daddy brought home this time,” she whispered as she straightened up. Tiberius bopped on his diapered bottom, both hands now furiously trying to jam the entire snitch in his mouth.
Tiberius watched the doorway through which Susan exited, happily gumming the toy. One might even have described it as watching expectantly.
“There's my big man,” Tirion chuckled, entering the room and setting some packages on the table before heading over to the playpen. Scooping up his son and hoisting him up over his head, he chortled as he noticed the drool covered toy still in Tiberius' hand. “You're supposed to catch the snitch, big guy, not eat it.”
“He did catch it,” Susan said matter-of-factly, leaning against the door frame as she reentered the room. “You need to move those toys higher.”
Leaning the boy against his chest, Tirion turned to his wife, eyes glimmering and full of pride. “He did?” Tapping Tiberius playfully on the nose, he turned his attention back to the boy. “That's my little seeker. Soon as your mother lets me, I'm going to teach you to fly.” He shot Susan a mischievous look.
“Fie,” Tiberius mimicked, flapping his arms. He let out a squeal as Tirion held him up high again and spun, the man's traveling cloak fluttering behind him.
“You know how I feel about the brooms, Tirion,” Susan said rather plainly, not having moved from the doorway. Though, watching her husband and her son, a small smile had crept onto her face. “I don't want him getting spoiled with easy magic thi--”
The shrill ring of the telephone in the other room interrupted her, and caught them both by surprise. It never rang unless it was Susan's boss, which was the only reason they even had it, and he'd already called that morning. Exiting the room quickly to go answer it, Susan left them to their playing.
Having stopped his spin at the ring, Tirion had Tiberius on his shoulder, the boy's head resting in the curve of his neck. Moving over to the packages, Tirion lightly bounced Tiberius as the boy sucked happily on his fingers, having finally abandoned the snitch.
“Now, I know Mummy said no more toys, but this one will be our little secret, okay?” Tirion whispered to the child as he unwrapped one of the packages with his free hand. “If she asks, it was in your pen all the time.” Tirion smiled at the thought of the two of them conspiring. Susan would notice, after all, but really, what harm was there in another toy.
Out of the package, Tirion lifted a simple brown teddy bear, notable only for the sweater it wore. Emblazoned on the front of the tan shirt was a Hogwarts crest. There were no charms or enchantments. Just a simple teddy bear with an embroidered sweater.
Sitting in the chair, then, Tirion rested Tiberius on his lap and handed him the bear. He spoke to him like he would to any other person, explaining things as if the child would understand. “I have a new friend for you, Tibi. He's a very special friend. That's a Hogwarts shirt he's wearing and one day, you'll go to school there. And you'll be a Gryffindor, like I was. And like my father was. And like his father was. And like...”
But as he held his boy and the bear, he'd looked up and saw Susan in the doorway, her face a mixture of confusion and worry, her hand clamped over the receiver.
“Susan, what's...”
“Tirion. The phone. It's for you.”
__________________
Has anyone ever sung you a lullaby?
You can fly above the rain clouds
Close your eyes
Let the melody carry you
Leave all your fears behind You can float across a rainbow sky
to once upon a time |