"But Mum, I don't want to visit Uncle Dudley!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs, while her mother was tying the ribbon on her hat around her head.
"Don't worry, sweetie, we'll only be there for a few hours," Ginny consoled her seven year old daughter. "Besides, it might not be too bad. You had fun playing with your cousins last time."
Once her clothes had been fixed by her mother, she ran outside to play with her brothers, ripping of her hat as she went. She found them kneeling on the ground, huddled around a hole.
"What's in there?" she asked her brothers.
"A rabbit," Albus replied. "We saw it dive in the hole a few minutes ago, and we're waiting for it to come back up."
"James, Albus, Lily! It's time to go!" Harry called out to his kids, who were now all peering into the rabbit's hole.
Lily and James popped right up and started skipping back into the house, but Albus stayed where he was for a few moments. When his mom yelled for him to come inside, he reluctantly trudged back to the house.
"Oh, your clothes are covered in dirt now!" Ginny said exasperatedly, attempting to dust her children off. "Lily, where did your hat go?"
After a few minutes of extra grooming, the family piled into the car, which they were borrowing from Ron's dad. Dudley's wife, Alice, and children, Mary and John, didn't know that they were all wizards, so they had to act like Muggles around them, and that meant driving there in a Muggle car.
Due to the magic the car was enhanced with, they reached Dudley Dursley's house in just half an hour. When they reached his house, which was located in a quiet and respectable Muggle neighbourhood, Harry and Ginny quietly got out of the car, not wanting to disturb the neighbours too much. Their children, however, pushed and yelled their way out of the car.
"James shoved me!" Lily yelled to her mother, her hat slightly askew.
"I did not!" James defended, but the mischievous look on his face gave him away.
Still arguing, the three children ran up the walkway to the door, with their parents in tail. Albus was the first to reach it, so he was the one to ring the doorbell. After he had pressed it at least ten times, Alice Dursley opened the door.
"Hello everyone," she greeted, doing her best to smile, unsure of how the day would turn out. Visits with her husband's cousin's family were always strange, for various reasons that she couldn't quite figure out. Dudley appeared at her side, and they ushered the Potters into the sitting room.
John and Mary came into the room afterwards, with a small dog following them. The grey puppy immediately caught the attention of the Potter children, who ran over to it and started petting it.
"What's its name?" James asked, ruffling the dogs ears.
"Her name is Annie. We just got here two months ago," John replied. "She's a toy poodle, so she won't get very large."
"She's adorable!" Lily gushed, picking the puppy up in her arms. "Aren't you just the cutest dog ever?"
"She can do tricks, too. Do you want to see them?" Mary asked them.
Then they all ran outside, leaving their parents to talk by themselves inside.
"That's good that they're getting along. Where did you get the dog?" Ginny asked Alice.
"Our neighbour, Mrs. Wilde, was selling some puppies a few months ago. We wanted to get one from the pet store, but Mary and John fell in love with Annie."
Back outside, Annie was jumping up and down trying to reach the bone that John was holding high. James, Albus, and Lily sat on the ground, watching in awe. Not many of their wizard friends kept dogs as pets, favouring animals like cats instead, so this was a rare and fun opportunity to play with one.
"What else can she do?" Albus asked, as the dog was chasing a bird around the yard.
"Annie," Mary called to the dog, "sit." Hearing the command, Annie stopped the chase and sat down on the grass.
They spent the next hour like this, until they were called in for supper. They went back inside and sat down at the table. Alice had prepared sandwiches and soup for their meal.
"This is really good tomato soup, Alice. What's in it?" Ginny asked, trying to make conversation.
Alice was about to answer, when Annie jumped up on the table and knocked over a plate of chopped vegetables.
"Oh no!" Alice squealed, jumping out of her seat and running to get some towels to clean up the mess.
Annie stood on the table, oblivious to the trouble she had caused. Mary reached over the table and picked her up, taking care not to knock anything else over, then she put her in her bed in the other room.
The kids scarfed down their food quickly so they could go and play with Annie, who was now chewing on a small bone. Once they were allowed to leave the table, they all went back outside to play with the dog.
"Do you have any ribbons we can put in her hair?" Lily asked Mary.
"Yeah, I can go get them, and we can brush her, too!" Mary exclaimed, then ran inside to get the supplies.
Lily brushed Annie's fur, and Mary smoothed out a ribbon to place on her ear. Then they tied it on her, and admired her beauty.
"Annie, you are the best dog ever!" Mary said, and then she picked her up and carefully hugged her, so her fur wouldn't get messy.
John kicked a football with James and Albus while the girls groomed the dog. James and Albus had never really played football before, much to John's dismay, but they quickly learned the basics of the sport.
"So we just kick the quaffle through the net?" Albus asked.
"Quaffle?" John asked confusedly. "It's a football."
"Oh, a quaffle is just the name of the ball in a game we made up," James hastily replied, hoping John wouldn't press the subject.
Lily and Mary joined the game after they had finished making the dog beautiful. Annie tried to grab the ball a few times, and she nearly ripped it when she pounced on it once. Her ribbons fell off, but the girls didn't care. They enjoyed seeing her run around the yard.
"Come inside now, James, Albus, and Lily! It's almost time to go!" Harry yelled for his children, happy for an excuse to leave the conversation about the newest television shows that neither he nor his wife knew anything about.
"I'm not ready to go yet!" James answered his father. "We're still playing with Annie!"
"Now, it's getting late." Harry did not want to stay with cousin much longer. The day had turned out okay, but it was still a little awkward to be with Dudley.
"Fine."
The children, who were by now all covered in grass and dirt, slowly walked back inside. Alice was very like her mother-in-law and was concerned about all the mud they were tracking on the floor. She did her best to hide the pained look on her face, but Ginny noticed it, and rushed over to clean her children a bit.
"Well, goodbye Dudley," Harry said to his cousin, shaking his hand.
"Yeah, see you later."
The children hugged each other goodbye, and with a final pet for the dog, the Potter family left the house.
A Puppy for the Potters by Miss B
Story Notes:
This is my first chaptered story, so I hope you like it!
Chapter Endnotes: Thank you for reading, and now please leave a review!