"So it looks like you had a fun day after all, didn't you?" Ginny asked her three children once they were seated in the backseat of the car.
"Yeah I guess it was okay," James answered his mother. "I had fun learning about football from John, but I think I prefer playing Quidditch."
"I had a wonderful time today!" Lily squealed. Although she had been about to fall asleep a moment before, she brightened back up at the thought of the dog. "Annie is such a cute dog! Did you see the bows we put in her fur? She could have easily won one of the Muggle dog shows that Aunt Alice was talking about earlier. We don't always get to play with dogs, so I had a lovely time."
James rolled his eyes, exhausted by sister's obsession with the puppy. "Yes, yes, yes, we get it. Annie is the cutest dog ever!" he said sarcastically, imitating his younger sister's high voice.
Albus, who was quietly looking at the stars outside the window, quieted his older brother by saying, "Well you sure seemed to like her when you were tossing the ball around for her."
James stuck his tongue out at Albus but was quieted nonetheless. The family enjoyed a peaceful silence, broken only by the sound of radio playing, as the children started to fall sleep.
From the passenger seat, Ginny looked back to her dozing children and smiled. "Harry, you know they're going to be begging for a dog of their own soon."
"Do you think we'd be able to handle one? With our jobs, I don't know if we could take car of a dog very well."
"Lily and Albus would love and care for any animal, but James... I'm not so sure about him."
Harry nodded in agreement and added said, "Remember the time he almost killed the owl when he was trying to get the letter from your mum?"
"Poor bird; she couldn't fly straight for weeks. But James was only three years old at the time, so maybe he could take better care of a dog now."
"I guess that we still have time to decide. They haven't asked for one quite yet."
"So," Ginny started, not wanting to upset Harry too much with an unpleasant but necessary conversation, "did you have a nice time with your family today?"
Harry was quiet for a few moments, them said, "Well it could have been worse. No one got hurt, there wasn't too much damage to the house, and the kids liked playing with their cousins."
"And did you like seeing your cousin? I know you two aren't the closest of mates, but he's your family, so you have to love him."
"I guess I did like seeing Dudley again. I'm glad that he didn't turn out like Uncle Vernon, obsessed with destroying magic. He wasn't fond of magic after what Hagrid did to him, but he really warmed up to it, and to me, after I saved him from the Dementors. Still, I don't think I could spend the day with him more than once or twice a year."
"And it's good for the children to spend time with Muggles every now and then. They need to learn about the world outside of magic. Thanks for letting us visit your family today," Ginny said, putting her hand on his arm lovingly.
The car reached home a minute later. Harry and Ginny tried to gently wake their children up, but they were very sound sleepers.
Lily was the first to be woken up, so she aided in waking her brothers up, too. Despite her small size, Lily had inherited her mother's skill in dealing with her brothers and was able to poke and shake Albus awake in a matter of seconds.
Ginny took her youngest kids inside the house to get them ready for bed while her husband attempted to awake their eldest son. After five minutes and still no change in James' state, Harry gave up and lifted him out of the car with his arms. He took him to his room, laid him down on the bed, and pulled the sheets over him. Harry stood in the doorway of the room smiling at his son.
"Amazing," Ginny said, coming up behind Harry after she put Lily and Albus to bed, "an Erumpent horn could explode and he would still sleep through it."
Lily woke to bright sunshine streaming in through her window the next morning. Rolling over to look at her clock on the wall, she saw that it was only 6:30 in the morning. No wonder she was still so tired. A little girl such as herself was not to be awoken before 8:00, or else she would be a wreck the rest of the day, or at least until she had had her breakfast.
Sighing, she looked to the window, whose drapes were wide open, allowing more than enough light in. Her mother must have forgotten to close them last night. She groggily climbed out of her bed and made her way across the pink carpeted floor to the window, and after a wide yawn, closed the drapes, stopping the sunlight in its tracks.
As she snuggled down under her sheets a minute later intending to fall back asleep she suddenly remembered the dream she had been having before the sun so rudely interrupted it. In her dream, she was a princess, like the ones in all the Muggle fairytales her parents frequently read to her. Actually, she was a princess in many of her dreams, but this one was different because now she had a dog. It was a fluffy white poodle, or at least she thought it was - the dream was slipping through her memory every moment. They had been playing in a green field, enjoying some sunshine, but she couldn't remember anything else from it.
Lily smiled as she thought of the dream, hardly tired anymore. Jumping out of bed, she skipped out of her bedroom and hopped down the staircase. She found her father sitting at the kitchen table, reading the Daily Prophet, and ran to give him a big hug.
"Good morning, Daddy!"
"Morning, Lily. Did you have a good sleep? You're up earlier than normal," Harry said, putting the paper down to talk to his daughter.
"I slept perfectly but I was too excited to sleep anymore. I have something to ask," she said with a big smile. She held her hands behind her back, swayed side to side, fluttered her eyes, and continued smiling. The foolproof way to get anything she wanted.
"What is it that you want?" Harry asked with a sigh, although he suspected where the conversation was going. He'd thought about it all night.
"Well," Lily began, fluttering her eyelids, "we all had so much fun playing with Annie yesterday, so I was wondering if-"
"You could have a dog?" Harry finished.
"Yes! So... could we get one? We don't know many families with dogs, so it would be amazing to have one of our own."
Harry didn't have time to answer because at this moment James and Albus ran downstairs into the kitchen, followed by their mother. "Morning, everyone," Ginny said brightly.
"Good morning, mum!" Lily said, hugging her mother. "Daddy and I were just talking about getting a puppy!"
Albus, who had just been going to get a glass of milk, immediately stopped pouring and looked up excitedly. "We're getting a dog?"
"No, we're still discussing it," Harry answered his youngest son. "I'm guessing that you would like a dog, too?"
Albus nodded eagerly. "It was fun playing with Annie yesterday, and we don't know many families who have dogs as pets."
"That's exactly what I said!" Lily exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"Well James, what do you think about getting a dog?" Ginny asked.
He answered with indifference, but his parents could tell that, underneath, he wanted one.
"Well if you really want one, you have to prove that you can care for an animal," Ginny said. "Since Hagrid is our only close friend with a dog, maybe you can just help with stuff around the house for a whole month. If you can take care of that, you can get a dog."
So for the next month, the Potter children worked around the house, doing whatever chores their parents had them do. They were things that Ginny usually did with magic, but now the kids did it. "Besides," Ginny thought to herself, "these are good life skills."
"Well," Harry said one morning while they were eating breakfast, "you three have done a very good job with your housework this month. I think you can take care of a dog."
"Yay! We're going to have a puppy of our very own! Oh I'm so excited!" Lily exclaimed.
"Really? You're excited? I never would have guessed," James said sarcastically.
"I'm happy. I think it would be fun to have a dog," said Albus.
"We'll go pick one out next week," Ginny said. "Ron said last week that Luna had some newborn puppies."
Lily couldn't stop smiling as she said, "I can't wait!"
A Puppy for the Potters by Miss B
Chapter Endnotes: Thank you so much for reading, please leave a review!