A Day At the Beach
It was the last weekend before the end of term, Stefan would be coming home from school in only a week. It was a warm June day, and the sun was shining brightly, so Remus was going to take Harry and Ophelia out for the day wherever they wanted. They had a car so they could drive if they needed to.
‘Ok kids,’ said Remus at the breakfast table before they all got dressed, ‘where do we want to go today?’
‘Flying!’ beamed Harry. Harry loved flying, being on his broomstick felt like the most natural thing in the world.
‘You can go flying anytime,’ said Ophelia.
‘Ophelia’s right Harry,’ said Hope fairly, ‘you go flying nearly ever day.’
‘What do you want to do Ophelia?’ asked Remus.
‘Beach,’ said Ophelia smiling widely. The beach was very special, and even if it was only at the end of the garden, the children couldn’t go every day. Most of the time it was raining, or when it wasn’t raining then Harry was busy in school.
The main problem about the beach though was that they needed a lot of adult supervision. They didn’t want any of the children getting hurt, and there were usually quite a few children round. Even if it was only Ophelia and Harry’s best friends, that was still six people which is quite a lot if Ron was the eldest, and he was only five.
As they didn’t want any of the children getting washed out to sea, or getting hurt climbing on rocks, Remus had made a rule that there had to be one adult for every child.
‘You can go to the beach anytime you like,’ grumbled Harry.
‘Tell you what Harry,’ said Lyall putting down his newspaper.
‘Why don’t we go rock climbing with your old Grandpa.’
‘Besides,’ he whispered conspiratorially, ‘if you bring your broomstick, we can go flying at the beach.’
‘Thank you, Grandpa!’ said Harry giving Lyall a hug, and spilling his pumpkin juice all the way down Lyall’s newspaper.
‘Well, if we’re going to the beach, we should really get dressed then,’ said Hope clearing away the breakfast things.
Ophelia skipped all the way up to her bedroom and got out her best sundress. It was pink with white stripes and matched her favourite swimming costume which was light pink with flowers.
Ophelia felt very grown up that day, and got herself dressed in her swimming costume, and then pulled her dress over the top.
By the time that Remus came in to help Ophelia get up, Ophelia was trying to do her little plaits.
‘Aren’t you a big girl!’ said Remus hugging her.
‘I’m nearly four,’ she said proudly as she tried to undo her plaits from the night before.
‘Come here princess,’ laughed Remus getting out Ophelia’s hairbrush and redoing her hair.
Remus brushed her thick strawberry blonde waves that she had inherited from Marlene into two plaits, and tied them off at the top and the bottom so she could play without her hair getting in the way.
‘What are we going today then?’ asked Remus patiently as he gently brushed her hair.
‘I’m going to build a sandcastle,’ said Ophelia, ‘and find seashells.’
‘Anything else?’
‘I’m going to look for mermaids,’ said Ophelia, ‘my book says they live far below the sea. Mrs Lovegood says they come out one night a year and sing to each other on the rocks.’
‘Well, I don’t know if our little beach has any mermaids little one,’ said Remus, ‘but we’ll have to wait and see hmmm?’
‘Ok Daddy,’ said Ophelia, kissing Remus once he had finished her hair, and then rushed off to go and find her bucket and spade.
Before they went out of the house, Hope made sure that everyone was wearing enough sunburn protection potion. Sunburn protection potion worked like Muggle sun cream, but it was much more effective, also it didn’t hurt if you got it in your eyes, so it was much easier to use than sun cream especially with the children.
Remus usually sometimes Lyall on the second floor of the stable’s during the weekend. They had a small potions lab there and made all their simple potions that they needed every day like sunburn protection potion, pain relief potions, bruise salve. They bought any more complicated potions at Diagon Alley.
Once Hope had assured herself that nobody was going to get burnt, they walked down the garden path to the cave. It was very dark in the cave, which actually formed a short tunnel to the beach.
Harry and Ophelia always got slightly scared in the dark tunnel, so Lyall and Remus always lit their wands so everyone could see properly. But after a minute of walking through the tunnel, the light always appeared at the end.
Once Harry started to see the daylight, he ran to the end of the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry him. Lyall followed him making sure that Harry was alright.
At the end of the tunnel, was the beach. It wasn’t a very beach, there was a steep path that you had to climb down from the cave, which Ophelia always held tightly onto her Daddy’s hand for. There were huge rocks all the way down the path, that Harry loved to climb with help from Lyall.
The beach itself was a sandy beach rather than pebbles, so the children could build sandcastles. And of course, there was the sea which according to Remus, if they kept swimming for long enough, they would reach France.
Ophelia was only just learning how to swim, and she loved swimming, but the very idea of swimming all the way to France seemed impossible.
Harry was already clamouring over the rocks, Lyall close behind him to catch Harry if he fell and taking hundreds of photos on his camera.
‘Can I go swimming Daddy?’ asked Ophelia.
‘Alright my little water baby,’ chuckled Remus getting out Ophelia’s armbands.
Remus blew up Ophelia’s little armbands whilst Ophelia took off her sundress. Remus put them on her arms and took off his shirt, so all Remus was wearing were his swimming trunks.
Ophelia ran to the sea the second her Daddy had put on her armbands and laughed with glee as the waves tickled her little toes.
‘Wait for me sweetheart!’ called Remus running over to her.
‘Do you want to do some wave chasing first?’ asked Remus.
‘Yes!’ beamed Ophelia.
Remus took Ophelia’s hand, and they ran away from the sea, and went rushing in as the waves crashed on the sea. The water would splash them as it landed on the beach, and make Ophelia laugh with shrieks of laughter.
Once they had chased the waves for a while, Remus gave Ophelia a swimming lesson.
As Ophelia wasn’t four for another week, she was actually quite a good swimmer already. She could do a good doggy paddle, and now Remus was teaching her how to do the front crawl, and the backstroke.
Once Ophelia and Remus were both tired, they came back in soaking wet but beaming like mad. Hope held them both out bottles of water. Whenever Remus and Ophelia went swimming, they swallowed salt water without meaning to, and they needed to get rid of the taste in their mouths.
‘Thanks Mam,’ sighed Remus having taking a large gulp of water.
‘Did you two have fun out there?’ chuckled Hope who had been watching her son teaching his daughter how to swim.
‘Yes Granny!’ said Ophelia, ‘I saw a mermaid!’
‘Did you now?’ asked Hope, ‘what did they look like?’
‘They had long straggly hair like seaweed,’ said Remus, ‘but it wasn’t green, it was jet black. And she was wearing a beautiful top made of seashells, and her tail was made from rainbow fish scales. She rides on the waves, and her laugh echoes across the wind.’
‘I wish I had your imagination Remi,’ muttered Hope shaking her head.
‘Did you really see her Daddy?’ asked Ophelia climbing onto Remus’ lap.
‘Would I ever lie to you little one?’ asked Remus.
‘I love you Daddy!’ said Ophelia giving Remus a slightly salty kiss on the forehead.
Harry and Lyall came down from the rocks at this point, as it was time for lunch. Hope had brought a basket of food down from the house with her for lunch. Everyone chatted away in the sunshine as they ate their sandwiches and fruit.
When they had finished their lunch, Hope closed her eyes and basked in the warm rays of the sun, whilst Harry and Lyall went flying on their broomsticks at a low height so Harry couldn’t hurt himself too much.
Ophelia built a sandcastle covered with hundreds of tiny seashells with Remus. Remus told her that they were building a palace for the friendly mermaid that he had seen earlier. He knew so much about this mermaid, that he had Ophelia completely convinced that their beach had a mermaid.
By the end of the day it wasn’t just the children who were tired, but they all looked back on that day fondly for the rest of their lives.