A/N: For any of you who were holding out hope that this was the start of my post-war Ron/Hermione aftermath story, I'm terribly sorry. I am working on it, but since I don't know quite when that will be up and this one has just been sitting in my documents, I decided I'd get this going in the meantime.
The idea behind "Moments" is just that it's going to be miscellaneous snapshots from across J.K. Rowling's timeline. This means that it could be something from the Marauders era, to within the course of the series, to next generation, and everything in between! So basically just a series of one shots that I was inspired to write but didn't want to post as stand alones. I will (in accordance to my own preference) keep everything roughly canon compliant, and canon pairings as always! Also, the story is tagged with Ron, Hermione, and Harry because those are the characters that I personally enjoy writing about most, and as such will probably appear in a lot of these...but expect many more characters, they're all fair game here.
As to this first moment, enjoy a casual Sunday with the Weasley/Potter clan! And please please please leave me a review, or a favorite, or whatever, to let me know if you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
"Don't eat all of that at once!" Hermione shouted after the kids as they tore through the kitchen into the sitting room, laden with bags of treats. They had just returned from Sunday brunch at The Burrow, only this week Charlie had been home as well, and had brought all of his nieces and nephews an overflowing bag of sweets each. Ron toppled out of the floo behind her, shaking his head with laughter as they watched little Lily bend down to pick up a fallen sugar quill, only to spill the rest of the contents of her bag out as well. The Potter kids had been left with them for the day, since Ginny was reporting a match across the country that afternoon, and Harry had decided to go meet her.
"Do you think Harry contacts Charlie ahead of time to conveniently plan just which matches he should want to 'surprise Ginny' at?" said Hermione, turning to her husband.
"Wouldn't put it past him...git," Ron muttered, bending down to retrieve a flyaway acid pop from beneath the counter.
"You better go give that to Lily," Hermione warned, "or she'll think she got one less than everyone else again. You know they're counting in there."
Sure enough, when they rounded the corner into the sitting room, all five children were sat cross legged on the carpet, their individual stashes dumped out before them, sorting and counting out the contents of their bags. Ron dropped the pop into Lily's pile just as she exchanged one of her fudge flies for Hugo's peppermint toad.
"Yes!" Rose exclaimed excitedly, yanking a wrapper from the bottom of her pile as if it were a gold coin rather than a piece of candy, "A chocolate frog!"
Immediately, the others began rifling through their own treats for theirs. The chocolate frog was the glimmering apex of Honeydukes' sweets, not only because it was excellent chocolate, but also because of the surprise inside. As soon as James had begun his own card collection a few years back, the others had latched on immediately, and now all of them together were well on their way to collecting the full set. Each chocolate frog was like a prize.
James found his almost immediately, and without waiting for the others, tore the wrapper off, the contained card fluttering down onto the rest of his stash. "Just another Dumbledore," he groaned disappointedly, barely glancing at it before tossing it aside into the center of the little circle they'd formed, and taking a bite of his chocolate. Rose was close behind, ripping open her own frog and grabbing the card out neatly from within. She made a face and tossed her card on top of James'.
"I got Uncle Harry again. We must have about fifty of those..."
"This one's Dad too," Albus groaned, adding it to the stack.
Hugo's face lit up as he opened his, "I got a new one!" Everyone's head popped up. "Oswald Beamish!" The grins turned to snorts.
"We already have him, Hue," said James gently, reaching over to clap him on the back regardless.
"No we don't!"
"Yes we do," Rose shot back, "I found him three months ago."
"Oh," Hugo murmured defeatedly, adding it to the stack.
All four of them turned to Lily expectantly, the last to open her frog. She was staring at the card bemusedly. "I-I got you, Uncle Ron!" She piped up, her voice raising in excitement.
"No way!" James yelped, grabbing it out of her hand and pulling it away before she could snatch it back, "This is just what we needed! Way to go, Lily!"
Rose was examining it over James' shoulder, "I never thought we'd actually find it. I was beginning to think Dad had just forged the one he has framed in his office..."
Hermione cringed, staring at the pile of forgotten cards in the center of the children. Harry's card was as frequent as Dumbledore's nowadays, both now lying discarded together. All over the world, wizarding children were opening up their chocolate frogs to a card about Harry Potter. Meanwhile, Ron's was so under-printed that his own daughter was beginning to question its very existence. This would crush him. He had always considered making it onto a chocolate frog card his crowning achievement. She had rarely seen him happier than when he'd received his card in the post, along with a handwritten note from the head of the company. And now to find out that hardly anyone got to enjoy it…. Forcing herself to crack open her eyes, bracing herself for his devastation, she turned to him. He wasn't there. He had bounded over to where the kids had gathered round, peering down at his card in James' hand and looking...well, nothing short of elated.
"Can you believe it, Hermione?" He said gleefully, looking up to meet her dumbfounded expression, "I'm a rare card! Me!"
She shook her head. Looking at him, she thought she even detected a tear grazing the corner of his eye. He would never fail to amaze her.
"Lemme see it!" Hugo was demanding, struggling to peer around James' outstretched arm. His cousin passed it over, albeit reluctantly.
"Make sure you don't bend it! It'll lose it's value and it'd take us ages to find another…." James yammered on. Hugo just rolled his eyes.
Ron had reappeared at her side, beaming. "So this is a good thing, then? You're not disappointed?" Hermione asked. She was so taken aback that she needed the confirmation.
"Disappointed? Hermione, Albus said they'd been looking for mine for ages! Ages! I never thought I'd see the day…. Oh I can't wait to let Harry know that his own son threw him aside without so much as a second glance. That's what he gets for disappearing on a candy day…hah!"
Hermione had to smile a little at the look of pure euphoria on her husband's face. "I'm sure he'll be devastated, dear…."