Author's Note: Just a little one-shot that came to me at three in the morning, so it's probably not my best work.
"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." -Marc Brown
Comfort:
The little boy clutched the sleeve of his mother's shirt fearfully, "Mummy, please don't make me go to sleep. Please." His eyes were wide in his small face, pale and scared. Ginny looked in concern at her youngest son, who was trying to jump out of her arms to escape being put to bed.
"Al, honey, what's wrong," she asked him gently, putting him on the floor. She kept one hand on his arm to prevent him from running out the door and kneeled on the floor, gazing softly at the messy haired four year old.
"He'll get me," he cried, emerald eyes wide behind his round glasses. Ginny raised an eyebrow, wondering who on earth her son was talking about. Who was he?
"Who's going to get you honey," she asked in a soothing voice, running one of her hands through his hair to calm him down.
He leaned closer to her as if to whisper some huge secret that only she could know, "You-know-who." As soon as he managed to get the words out he retreated into himself, still scared, and clutching his stuffed hippogriff as if it were a lifeline.
Ginny sighed, "Honey, that's not going to happen. You-know-who isn't going to come and get you."
"I'm scared," Al whispered, wrapping one arm around his mother and clutching her to him.
"I know honey, but I promise you, nothing is going to happen," she reassure him, hugging him. She picked him up, rubbing his back when he stiffened and placed him in his bed. He looked up at her with big eyes as she tucked him in.
"You'll get to sleep sooner than you know," she told him, smiling softly, and kissed his forehead. He closed his eyes tightly as she left the room, turning the lights off and plunging it into darkness.
The little boy laid in the bed, and flinched at the sounds of the wind whipping against the trees outside. An owl hooted and he shot up, clutching Dingy, his hippogriff. He whimpered as a shadow passed across his wall, and his eyes shot frantically around the room. A loud bang sounded outside from the thunder and Al yelped, leaping from the bed.
He walked slowly towards the door, the light from the hallway through the sliver of the open door beckoning him. He pushed at it, and looked around. Seeing no one, he sighed in relief, and ran quickly down the hall, careful not to be to loud so as not to alert his parents.
His brother's room was as dark as his own had been, and Al ventured in nervously. He clambered to get to his brother's bed, dropping Dingy in the process.
"Jaime," he whispered quietly, but his older brother didn't stir, "Jaime." The second time he called louder and the brunette boy in the bed groaned, flopping around. Brown eyes opened to look blearily at Al.
"What," he asked, frowning at his brother. Al whimpered and held out his arms. Jaime rolled his eyes but managed to pick his little brother up and put him on the bed. Al crawled to one side and laid down next to him.
"I can't sleep," he muttered, tears in his eyes, "He's going to get me and eat me, just like you said." Jaime groaned.
"It's not going to happen Al," Jaime told him. He wrapped one arm around his little brother, pulling him into a hug. "You-know-who can't come and get you."
His brother's lower lip trembled, "But…but you said so." Al believed everything his brother told him, because Jaime was his hero. He was the best brother in the whole world.
"Well, this time I was wrong," Jaime said and Al gasped, "He can't touch you."
"But you said so," Al stubbornly muttered. Jaime kissed his forehead, in the same spot their mother had kissed him earlier.
"Yeah, I know. But I shouldn't have," he replied. Seeing that Al wasn't going to go to sleep anytime soon, he sighed. He pulled the blankets down, letting his little brother out of the hug and beckoned him under the covers.
"Come on, I'll protect you," he smiled at his little brother. Al looked at him hopefully and scampered under the covers, eager to be next to his brother. He flinched when the thunder outside sounded again, but Jaime just wrapped his arms around him, holding him closer.
"Go to sleep, everything's gonna be fine," Jaime whispered. Al nodded, feeling safe in his older brother's arms. There was no way that you-know-who was going to get him know, Jaime could protect him. A few minutes later Al drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that nothing could happen to him now.
Ginny smiled, closing the door to Lily's room. Her only daughter was sleeping soundly, not even phased by the thunder and lightning happening outside her window. She stared at Al's door, noticing that it was open. A tingle of worry shot up her spine and she hurried to his room.
Panic filled her when she noticed his bed was empty. What if her little boy had been right and you-know-who had come to get him? As soon as the thought passed through her mind she dismissed it, she had seen the wretched man vanquished herself, he husband had defeated him. But what had happened to her son?
She ran down the hallway again, and opened her older son's door, the panic that he wasn't there filling her head as well. An audible sigh of relief and a small laugh escaped her when she saw Al curled into his brother, and James arms wrapped protectively around his brother. She clutched her hand to her chest as her heart beat started to slow down. She walked over, smoothing their black hair back from their foreheads, and wrapping the snitch blanket more securely around their bodies.
"Goodnight my angels," she whispered, leaving the room and closing the door softly.