Mark of the Rose
Ron and Hermione Weasley were both 26 years old when they had Rose Hermione Weasley. The date was June 24, 2006. She was their first born, a beautiful baby girl, and she very nearly didn't live to see daylight. Rose left her mother with the umbilical cord tangled around her neck, suffocating her. Ron and Ginny had been there for the birth (Harry waiting outside), had held Hermione's hand as the grave-faced Healers of St. Mungo's performed complicated spells in an attempt to save little Rose's life, had cried with relief as a beaming Healer presented a healthy and crying child to a trembling Hermione. The new mother had cradled her darling Rose in her arms, kissed her forehead, felt her heartbeat. Ron, pale and shaking, had kneeled down beside his wife and gazed awe-struck at his daughter.
"Blimey. . ." He breathed, wide-eyed, starring down at the screaming baby. Hermione mopped her streaming eyes on the sleeve of her white hospital gown, radiating happiness and smiling broadly at her red-haired husband. A tentative, disbelieving grin had crept upon his face. "She's got your nose," he whispered, "and I think I see a few red hairs."
"Oh, Hermione, she's beautiful!" Ginny had exclaimed before rushing out to fetch Harry.
"Our baby, Ron, our baby girl." The mother said, her eyes still glistening with tears. Ron leaned in to kiss his wife and child, feeling his own eyes moistening. He took his daughter into his arms and murmured to her,
"You're a fighter, aren't you? Fighting to keep hold of your life, Rosie. And we almost lost you." And then Harry, Ginny, George, Bill, and Ron's Mum and Dad all rushed in, shouting and excited, and sending the Healer into a near panic attack. Mrs. Weasley had gotten to Rose first, and holding her tenderly had sobbed,
"Oh, Ronald's first! A girl! My eighth grandchild!" And Mr. Weasley had put an arm around his wife and smiled down at Rose. Bill had clapped Ron on the back warmly and said,
"Feels good, being a father." And grinned knowingly. George had ruffeled his younger brother's hair and joked,
"Well then, let's hope she looks more like her mum than her dad!" Ginny had made her way over to Hermione and had begun to talk in earnest about her own experience with child birth, while Hermione lay there and beamed, exhausted but happy, allowing the Healer to clean her up with a swish of her wand. And Harry. Harry had stayed in the doorway, a smile spread wide from ear to ear. Ron managed to stumble free of his family and grinned, dazed, at Harry in return.
"Congratulations mate." The dark-haired man had said in a strained voice, and then gave his best friend a hug that said what words could not. After their wedding, that day may have been the happiest in Ronald and Hermione Weasley's life.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Rose truly was an answer to prayer. The young couple, her parents, had gotten married two years previous to her birth. For a year and three months they had been trying for a baby, and finally the pregnancy tests had given positive results. No sooner had they learned Hermione was pregnant when Harry had burst in, jubilant, exclaiming how Ginny was now expecting her second child and already four weeks in.
The first few weeks were full of excitement and awe, but after that the scares began. The first one was when Hermione started bleeding. Terrified that they might lose what they had worked so hard to create, the couple had rushed to St. Mungo's; hoping against hope there might be some way to save their child, to prevent a miscarriage. Rose survived this however, much to their relief. Then, about five months into the pregnancy, Hermione fell. It was dusk, and she was descending down the back deck steps. Normally it would have just been a handful of bumps and bruises, but she came down pretty hard on her stomach . . . and then at eight months she and Ron had been attacked by reformed Death Eaters. A strange, unknown curse had hit her somewhere around the stomach, and for the third time (after narrowly escaping the Death Eaters) they apparated in St. Mungo's. The Healers could detect nothing unordinary---the child's heart was still beating, and no strange growths or reductions were found. Finally, after doing a few minor counter-jinxes, they sent the couple home, and the next time Ron and Hermione went to St. Mungo's was for Rose's birth.
She was healthy and average for a baby, so the couple dismissed the curse from their minds, figuring it to be faulty or short-lived. Ron and Hermione had decided that once they became parents, they would move into a "cozier", more child-friendly house, far away from the watchful and pressuring eyes of the public. And so the small family of Weasleys left the hospital to head for their new home. They were both becoming very successful in their jobs, and they had been given a great deal of money from the ministry for majorly assisting in the defeat of Lord Voldemort; therefore they bought a huge house. The house was six stories high, with an accessible roof and a balcony protruding from a bedroom on the sixth story. It had an open porch, with white railings and red wood for the flooring, and the walls of the house were made of stone. Inside there was a huge kitchen, a luxurious dining room, a comfy living room, five bathrooms, twelve bedrooms, a parlor, a family room, a study, and a spare room Hermione made into a mini-library. Outside there were several acres surrounding the house, with woods and a lake and fields and a broom shed for quidditch. All around their property were spells to keep unwanted visitors out---only a select few could pass the spell barriers unscathed.
Naturally, Hermione would have been perfectly fine with a small, simple house somewhere in a muggle community---she'd have preferred that, actually. But Ron, he had dreamed of grandeur all his life, and now finally he had his chance, so his dedicated wife allowed him to take it. So this was the house Rose Weasley grew up in. In her early years Ginny would often come over with James and Albus to watch her while her parents were out working. If Ginny had an engagement, then she and her two cousins would be babysat by Fleur along with her own three children, or by Mrs. Tonks with Teddy. She and Albus grew up together, and they might as well have been brother and sister. She and James always got along alright, but they never had the bond she and Albus had.
Rose was a beautiful baby. She didn't get baby acne, her skin didn't blotch up, and her cheeks were always a rosy pink. As she grew older, her red hair became fluffy and wavy, but not bushy like her mother's. One evening when Rose was four, Ron commented on her appearance, saying in a slightly awed voice, "You're beautiful Hermione, but our Rosie, she looks like she's got Veela blood in her! I don't understand it." The girl looked up from her walking, talking doll (bought from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes) and smiled beautifully at her parents. Hermione simply kissed Ron on the cheek and answered with a "We just make beautiful babies."
Her parents loved her as much as any parents could; Ron would spend his evenings teaching his Rosie how to ride a broom, or sometimes supervising as she experimented with his wand. Hermione would read her bed-time stories and teach her all that could fit in her tiny mind. She made sure her daughter was homeschooled until her years at Hogwarts, thinking it only right that she get proper education in the ways of Math, Science, and English. Rose rarely ever left the property, her parents not wanting her to stray from the protection of home. At the age of five the red-head was bold enough to ask for a horse (much to Hermione's distaste), and on her eighth birthday she was granted a beautiful gypsy vanner colt, with a black coat but three white hooves, a white ear, and a white streaked down his face.
Hugo. Three years younger than Rose, he had brown hair, and took his mother's non-athletic genes and his father's poor academic skills. After time though, it was apparent he would become a very powerful wizard, for he had a knack for performing exceedingly difficult spells perfectly at a young age. Rose absolutely loved him. Ever since he was brought home from the hospital she nursed a tender spot for him, and was very protective of him. He grew up to be a quiet, shy boy who loved to draw and read. He hardly became close to anyone, even though his cousin Lily was a very dear friend of his. The only one he would ever truly open up to would be Rose, and the siblings maintained an unusually close bond as they grew older.
So then the years of Hogwarts began. Rose was, of course, top in everything except potions. That class was dominated by Slytherin's Scorpius Malfoy, a boy Rose found to be both annoying and interesting. She and Albus, in Gryffindor, became friends with a boy named Sven Corner, and a brilliantly blonde girl named Daisy Frazer, who was the daughter of their parents' friend (whom we all know to be Luna Lovegood). Throughout the years these four became the best of friends, and did nearly everything together. And it is in Rose's sixth year that we begin.