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Lily sighed in exasperation and rubbed her forehead. "Harry, please come out of the cupboard."
"No!" Harry replied petulantly. He was curled in a ball in the cupboard under the kitchen sink, having shoved cleaning supplies and other such commodities out of his way and into Lily's.
"We're going to be late visiting Grandpa and Nan, Harry. Now come on out so I can help you with your shoes."
"I dun wanna go," the toddler mumbled.
"Why don't you want to see Daddy's parents?" Lily asked with a sigh. She carefully goes down onto her knees, the right still stiff from a recent injury during a mission where she'd had to partner up with Nymphadora Tonks. She peered in at Harry as this better angle. He was pouting and curled with his knees to his chin, stubbornly refusing to come out.
"Grandpa's scary," he muttered into his knees.
Lily frowned, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear. "Scary? How is he scary?"
"How is who scary?" James peeked into the kitchen, frowning in brief confusion, as from his perspective, he spied his wife talking to the cupboard door.
"Harry thinks Charlus is scary, James."
"Why?" At the mention of his small son, James' expression softened. He stepped into the kitchen and knelt behind Lily, craning his head down so he could see part of his son's balled up form.
"He's really tall and has big hands, and he talks loud!" Harry said, a little more loudly to try to emphasize how these sins were unforgivable to him.
"So is Daddy," Lily replied, ignoring her husband's squawk. "And Sirius can be really loud as well."
"But Daddy's not scary," Harry said in that inarguable four-year-old logic. "And Daddy's not as tall as Grandpa. Grandpa sounds like he has the wrath of God raining down on us!"
"Where did you hear that phrase?" James asked, laughing quietly.
"Ron has Muggle television since Uncle Arthur got more money from work," Harry chirped, eyes bright for a second.
"Grandpa can't help these things, Harry," Lily said calmly, soothingly. "You have to learn acceptance, sweetheart. Some things can't be helped. Like when someone tries to cut your hair shorter than a certain length, and it just grows longer anyway, or how Remus can't help that he's a werewolf."
"He smells funny, too," Harry muttered petulantly, obviously not wanting to agree with his mother.
"He works with metal, darling. He smells like that because of what he does for a living. Severus smells from potions work, and you never complain about that."
"Sev is different. He always shows me is ingredients and tells me what makes the smells." It pained James a great deal that Harry liked his childhood rival so much. "Grandpa's still scary, and I don't wanna go!"
"What about Nan, Harry?" James asked, trying to help Lily convince his son to at the very least emerge from his hiding space. "She'll be really sad that you didn't come to see her."
"Why can't she come to us without Grandpa?"
"Harry! I've had just about enough of this," Lily squawked, outraged with how rude her child was being; she blamed Sirius entirely for this. "We're going to visit your grandparents out of love and respect for them, and that's final. Now come out of there."
Harry squeaked and wiggled further away, making Lily sigh in frustration. James placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned forward, rubbing his thumb against her.
"Harry, what if we ask Draco to come with us? Would you be okay visiting Nan and Grandpa then?"
There was a telling moment of silence. Then Harry peaked his head around the edge of the cupboard, cobwebs in his hair. They would have to clean under the cupboard if this became a terrible habit. "If Draco goes."
Lily snatched her arms out and caught Harry, dragging him out of the cupboard and closing the door with a locking charm, although he always seemed to figure out how to weasel his way around them when no one was looking. While James triumphantly walked away to firecall the Malfoy residence, Lily huffed and fussed, cleaning her only child up.
"One day you'll have to learn to be able to visit them without Draco with you," she told him half-heartedly.
"Dun wanna. Dray makes me happy and keeps me safe."
And really, that was all the little Potter boy had to say about it.