It's a mother's job. on At Home

Alice Hill

June 05, 2020 3:27 PM

It's a mother's job. by Alice Hill

OOC note:- heavy abuse of fuzzy time. This post is set during the summer before the start of SA35.

Alice was aware that ever since the accident that she had become a lot more anxious in regards to the safety of her son. Not that she had never been anxious about Malikhi. He had been such a handful as a small child, having a tendency to climb very high things and also having developed a love for Quidditch and flying. When magic had started to manifest in Malikhi, he had managed to levitate himself on to the highest shelf of a bookcase. She had soothed many of his bumps, cuts and bruises over the years as his mother but nothing had ever made her feel fearful for his life. Until the accident.

It was hard to witness how the loss of Malikhi's father had changed him from her sweet little boy into the angry, depressed teenager he was now. She knew that he still had that sweet side to him but his fury and sadness had buried it. It was a shame but Alice felt like there was very little she could do to help, no matter how much she wanted to. She could encourage Malikhi as much as she wanted but he had to make the decision to see past all of his negative emotions. She only knew that because she had to try and do the same thing.

On that particular front, it seemed that Malikhi was doing a better job than she was. She was so pleased when he had written home towards the end of the school year and read lines upon lines of his untidy chicken scratch handwriting about a girl whose name she wasn't entirely sure how to pronounce. Still, she was grateful to a girl she had never met who seemed to be bringing out the side of Malikhi that nobody had seen for a very long time.

However, despite being pleased for her son's obvious progress, when he came home declaring that he wanted to go and stay for a weekend at the girl's - Johana-Leonie, she finally learned to pronounce at that point though Malikhi insisted on calling her 'Hana' - home, Alice couldn't help but feel anxious about his safety. She had tried to satisfy this by writing more than a few letters to the girl's parents (Florian Eckhart and Agathe, who both seemed like lovely people) and had probably seemed like a rather overbearing parent with her million questions.

The truth was, even all these years after the accident, Alice still had nightmares filled with visions of her son in that hospital bed. He had looked so small, so fragile. Her normally strong and resilient boy battered and bruised and hurt. This time it was more than bumps and cuts and bruises. He carried pain that Alice didn't know how to soothe and it broke her heart. So, she tried to prevent him from experiencing more pain. When he flew on his broom in the back garden, she watched him through the kitchen window. If he went for a walk, she gave him a curfew and if he was even a few minutes late, she started to panic. When he holed himself up in his bedroom, she checked on him regularly throughout the day, often with drinks and snacks to keep him hydrated and fed. Before she went to bed at night, she checked on him again. When she couldn't sleep, she quietly tiptoed over to his bedroom and peeked in, watching his chest rise and fall.

She knew her mothering was probably spinning wildly out of control. Her sister, Delilah, had told her as much. Given that they no longer used muggle transport, it was unlikely that Malikhi was going to be involved in another car accident. Alice knew there were other kinds of accidents, though. Portkey accidents were rare but not unheard of. There was always a risk of splinching when apparating (though mercifully, Malikhi was too young to do that yet). Floo travel was pretty reliable provided you said your destination clearly but there was still a risk of ending up in the wrong fireplace. Alice was seeing risks and potential accidents where before she had seen none.

So, it wasn't all that surprising that on the day that Malikhi was supposed to be home, Alice waited for hours at the window by the front door, waiting for the portkey to deliver him home. Delilah had tutted at her several times when walking past and there had been the occasional comment but Alice ignored her. Delilah wouldn't understand. She didn't have children. While Alice knew that Delilah loved Malikhi, an Aunt's love was nothing compared with a mother's.

Alice waited by the window for hours before she was supposed to and watched the clock that hung on the wall, each second slowly ticking away. He was due back home at six. Waiting for the clock to chime six felt like an eternity. The closer it got, the more Alice held her breath.

She only let it out when she saw Malikhi appear on the pathway and she quickly flung the door open as he jogged up. She embraced him immediately, closing her eyes and trying to settle her rapidly beating heart, now reassured that he was home and safe. She still looked him over from head to toe, checking for those cuts, bumps and bruises that she often expected but found nothing.

Malikhi used to get annoyed by this treatment everytime he walked through the front door. His Mum fussed too much in his opinion but these days, he came to accept it and just let her check him over. It seemed to help her and relax her and Malikhi thought that was a good thing. She worried too much. He didn't always understand why but if it helped her, he'd put up with it.

"I'm alright, Mum," he said quietly while she was turning his hands over, inspecting his arms, wrists and fingers. This caused her to look up at him, eyes shining with worry.

Alice sniffed as she looked at her boy, realising that she was getting a little carried away and dropped his hands, instead clasping her own together. "I know you are, sweetie. Did you have a good time at your friend's?"

She smiled softly as she watched her baby boy's face light up with a bright smile before he walked past her, dumping his bag on the floor and walking into the living room, babbling away about the fun weekend he'd had. That was good. He'd had fun. He was smiling. He was fine. He was uninjured. He was safe. Delilah may think that she took her son's safety too seriously but Alice always told herself the same thing every day.

It's a mother's job.

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