A Perfect Princess (Kathleen)

Becca sat up as soon as Mummy tucked her in. It was too early for bed. They hadn't even had dinner yet! She spied the flowers she had picked for Mummy this afternoon, still laying on her dresser. She hopped out of bed and grabbed them and gave them to Mummy, along with a picture she drew this afternoon while she was supposed to be taking a nap. Her babysitter didn't check on her while she was supposed to be taking a nap, so if she pretended to fall asleep while the babysitter told her a story and didn't make too much noise after the babysitter left, she could play.

Becca climbed into Mummy's lap. "I picked flowers for you today, and I drawed you a picture," she said, showing it to Mummy. It had a bright sun shining and flowers and grass and a tree with a hole in it for the squirrels to live in. Becca and Mummy were standing next to the tree, holding hands underneath a rainbow. On top of the page, it said, "I LOVE YOU, MUMMY!" in Becca's prettiest writing. She wished she could write as pretty as Mummy, or her babysitter, but the babysitter said she'd be able to when she grew up.

"That's you," Becca said, pointing. In the picture, Mummy was wearing a purple dress, and there was a flower in her hair. She had a big smile on her face, and her wand out, shooting a spell to make one of the flowers big. "You're making the flowers pretty. And that's me!" Becca was wearing her new blue dress, and had curly hair. She was holding the flowers Mummy was making big and pretty. "I'm picking them once you're done! And we're going to put them in a vase on the table because they're so pretty."

Becca rested her head on Mummy's shoulder. Becca's tummy growled. "Are we going to eat dinner now? I'm hungry."

Kathleen had almost forgotten about supper, and she could almost kick herself for being that upset that she would make her daughter go without. Sighing she nodded and took her baby girl's hand. Taking her out into the kitchen she helped her up into the table and took out her wand. It was very rare that Kathleen would use magic when it came to cooking, but she supposed that every once in a while wouldn't do much harm. Sighing she pulled out a large saucepan and placed it on the burners. Flicking her wand she watched pleased as water filled the saucepan and began to boil. Adding noddles she turned from them and stared back at her daughter. She hoped her baby wouldn't be too picky tonight. Mac N' Cheese was the easiest thing to do tonight, she was sure Becca would have no objections.

As soon as she heard the water behind her begin to bubble and simmer she turned back to the stove and mixed the macaroni. Adding a pinch of salt to the water she stirred it around once more before testing one of the noodles to be sure it was cooked. When they had gotten tender and yummy enough to nourish her baby she drained them and set to work on melting the cheese for over top.

"Almost done, Becca..." she hummed, pouring the gooey cheese over the pasta.

Taking a spoon she began stirring and as soon as the noodles and cheese had meshed into a golden pot of deliciousness she summoned her little one's princess bowl and scooped her a small heaping. Setting the plate in front of her she sat down and handed her a fork.

"There you go sweetheart," she smiled gently. "Sorry it's not spaghetti."

Becca went to the kitchen with Mummy, jumping down the stairs one at a time. When they got downstairs, she went to her art supplies and pulled out some yellow construction paper and markers and scissors. She was going to make King Sirius a crown! He would love it, she was sure. Maybe she could make one even prettier than the one in the store!

She sat down at the table while Mummy cooked and began cutting out the crown. She cut a raggedy line down the middle of the page, with lots of points in it like a real crown. Then she colored jewels on it in all the prettiest colors. Pink and purple and green and blue. She even made one red because that was a boy color and King Sirius was a boy. By the time she finished, she could hardly see any yellow at all, the crown was so covered in jewels. It was perfect! She wrote, "To King Sirius, from Rebecca Adelaide Rose," on the inside. She always put her full name on important things like crowns. Beneath that, she wrote, "I love you!" She'd have to get Mummy to make the ends stick together so he could wear it.

She was just finishing up when Mummy came with supper. It was macaroni cheese! That was Becca's favorite thing! "That's okay," Becca said when Mummy apologized that it wasn't pasghetti. "I like macaroni the best, even more than pasghetti!" Becca told Mummy all about her crown while she ate. "It's got pink jewels and purple jewels, and I put his name on the back so he'll know it's for him. You can make the ends stick together with your wand, and we can go give it to him."

Becca felt full, but she ate the last few bites of macaroni anyway. It was so good! Then she jumped out of her chair and took Mummy's hand, pulling her toward the floo. "Come on, Mummy! Let's go see King Sirius and give him his crown! He's going to love it! Don't you think he's going to love it?"

Kathleen was a bit tired and she really was not in the mood to run around anymore after the day they had had. She knew that her little one wanted to give her the crown, but maybe there was a way they could compromise and she could convince little Becca to give it to "King" Sirius in the morning. She just wanted to go to bed, maybe cuddle with her little one before she went to bed.

"I have a better idea, my love," she cooed. "Why don't we go to Sirius's office tomorrow and give it to him in person? We'll go during supper time and take him out for supper...that way you can get all dressed up and look pretty."

Kathleen just wanted to go to bed, she was so tired and she prayed that after the day she had her little one wouldn't give her anymore trouble. It was getting late anyway and Kathleen didn't even know if Sirius WOULD be in his office at this time. She had heard that he had gained custody of Harry Potter; she was sure he had enough to deal with with his God-son...especially if that little boy was like James Potter.

"I'm sorry baby, but mummy is so tired..." she yawned. "I promise we can go tomorrow...but tonight it's bedtime. Why don't you come with mummy into her room and we'll watch the Little Mermaid together, or Mulan?"

"But I'm not tired!" Becca protested around a yawn. "I'm not!" she said again for good measure, and she wasn't. She didn't know what that yawn was about, or why her eyelids felt so heavy. She didn't want to sleep. She wanted to play! She yawned again. Maybe watching Mulan wouldn't be so bad. Sleeping in Mummy's bed was definitely fun. Becca ended up there most nights anyway, because she liked it much better than sleeping in her own bed. A dragon lived underneath it, but he only came at night. He tried to eat Becca's ankles when she got up to go to the loo in the middle of the night. She'd never managed to see him because he hid whenever she looked, but Becca knew he was there all the same. His name was Kevin.

"We can watch Mulan," Becca said. She liked Mulan. She wondered what it would be like to be in a war. She reckoned it must be very exciting, except that people got hurt in wars, and Becca didn't want to hurt anybody.

Becca went upstairs and cuddled up next to Mummy in the bed. She realized as soon as she snuggled under the covers that she was still wearing her princess dress, but then she decided she didn't care. Maybe real princesses slept in their princess dresses all the time. Becca laid her head on Mummy's tummy and watched the movie, but she could hardly keep her eyes open. By the time it had ended, she was fast asleep and dreaming about riding Kevin through the clouds.