♥️ 𝒥𝒾𝓁𝓎 ♥️

【Lily doesn't mind that the tea goes cold...】

(If They Lived AU)

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Lily had only just boiled the kettle when Harry found his way into the kitchen, bounding his way in with his unusual gait that could only come with a blind child that grew up without glasses (until very recently, when the running into walls became too frequent to monitor).

"Mummy!"

The tea bags were barely in the cups when she turned around to see her three-year-old with his arms outstretched, tumbling towards her. She picked him up and placed him on the counter, skilfully avoiding putting him anywhere in reach of sharp or mildly interesting artefacts.

"Mummy I'm bored!"

Lily sighed, pulling the milk out the fridge and placing it next to the two cups so she could add it once the water had boiled.

"Are you now? Why don't you talk to daddy he's usually bored too," Lily went on trivially, speaking to her son in a manner considered much too serious for a child but she had always addressed him the same way as she did most people.

"Daddy is busy, busy, busy!" Harry replied angrily, his little hands were in adorable fists that made his mother chuckle.

"Okay, why don't you bother him anyway? He always has time for you, Harry dear."
Boiling water flounced into the two mugs, avidly turning a translucent brown due to the tea bag placed in both. Confident that Harry wasn't about to jump off the counter and splat onto the floor out of protest, she made the adventure over to the other end of the honey painted kitchen to retrieve a teaspoon which she used pick the tea bags out the mugs and then to stir in the milk.

"Mummy I'm still bored!"

"Pass me the sugar then, darling?" Quite distracted, Lily hadn't noticed that her son had taken hostage of her wand and was moments away from plunging it up his nose (if it would fit).

"Oh my Merlin, Harry!" She snatched her wand off him and summoned the sugar herself with a simple flick; distracted from his tears of protest, Harry made a grab for the sugar but missed completely, almost falling off the counter only to be caught by his newly arrived father.

"Daddy! Are you still busy, busy?" Harry exclaimed with excitement at the prospect that James might have been finished with his work and now ready to play with him.

"No, sunshine, I'm not busy, busy."

"Really?"

Lily turned to watch him over her shoulder while stirring the sugar into the second cup of tea.
"Really?"

"Really." James replied in an only slightly acerbic tone.

"Then please take your son outside because the poor boy has got your gene of being unfathomably bored when not entertained for more than five minutes!" She handed him a mug and he smiled warmly.

"Why do you ask?" James asked, putting down the mug so he could place a grinning Harry on his shoulders.

"Because I'm bored!" He cried pulling on the curls atop his father's head, making him screw up his face at the inconvenience of the pain.

"Well we can sort that can't we?" James grinned, jumping in the air and sending Harry flying up almost to the ceiling, squealing in hilarity and holding on to James' hair like his life depended on it (and as far Lily was concerned it did).

"James!" She cried, swatting his chest curtly, "you're a danger to society!"

"I know. Don't you love it?" And as swift as that he was bolting out the room and into the garden, Harry still on his shoulders and his mug of tea still on the counter. Lily set her own down and followed them -promising to come back to it- lest any major injuries take place.

When she got to the door of the back garden she saw James was already chasing Harry round the house on his toy broom and laughing hysterically as he zipped between James' legs and around his waist. Whenever he got too close he would grab him and throw him in the air, only screaming louder, with much disregard for the rest of the street.

The eventuality of Lily joining in was inexorable and so seconds later she was chasing after the both of them; a blur of auburn fans and laughter. It was quite a sight to the outside eye but Lily and James hardly noticed, Harry was the cynosure of their attention; the world would end and they might not have noticed.

The sun was low in the sky, resembling a Van Gogh painting, when they eventually stumbled back in the door, still giggling and beaming.

Their mugs of tea were still on the counter where they had left them earlier that day, cold now of course. But neither Lily or James found themselves caring; the mild disappointment was cancelled out by the rather copious amounts of fun!

It happened to them almost habitually but nothing was more important that the time they got to spend with Harry while the tea went cold...

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I can't remember where I got this idea but the title sparked from a book my mum read called (something like) 'while the coffee gets cold'. Hope you liked it (: