Full Summary: Hugo and Rose had come to clean out the attic of their parents' house. They expected to find old toys and discarded inventions. What they found instead was their parents' love story
Prologue: Hidden Treasures
Characters: Hugo, Rose, Ron x Hermione
Rating: T to M to E and back again (for the whole story)
Chapter Summary: The attic had always been a fun place to play but, Rose and Hugo had no idea of the treasures that had been hidden in plain sight. Two battered trunks will open up a whole new story about their famous parents, Ron and Hermione (Granger) Weasely.
Rose was not looking forward to this task. Losing Dad last year had been hard, but losing Mum, ten months later, had been devastating. She and Hugo had been putting off going up in the attic. Rose knew Dad had stored old inventions and retired items from the shop there, but she had no idea what Mum had put up there over the years. Hugo was supposed to be here in an hour. They had decided to tackle the attic together. Rose could almost hear Mum saying, "Better to face the beast you fear than let it grow bigger in your mind."
Hugo stood like a statue on the doorstep to his parents' home. He did not want to be here. He had taken over most of the running of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes when Uncle George had retired, and Dad had officially handed the keys over to him when he retired a few years later. The last year had been a test for the whole family and this was the final task. All he had to do was open the door and walk into his parents' house. Rose was waiting for him and so was the attic. If he didn't go inside, then it did not have to be real. He could still hear Dad and Uncle Harry laughing in the sitting room as Mum and Aunt Ginny tried to stop crying long enough to find and stop the Aviatomobile that was chasing Crookshanks IV. Turning the knob, Hugo stepped into the sitting room. He could almost hear Dad whispering, "Chin up, son. We don't always have a choice in what we have to do, but we always have a choice in how we do it."
"Hello, Rosie," Hugo called as he walked to the back stairs. "Where are you? I can always come back tomorrow."
"Up here, Huggie," Rose answered. "I'm trying to find some light up here. EWWWW … spider webs!"
"I'm going to get the broom and rags from the kitchen and then I'll be right up," Hugo hollered up the stairs as he headed for the linen closet under the stairs to the attic. "Just like Dad, she can't stand anything that has to do with spiders."
"Hurry up! I think I found Mum's trunk," Rose yelled down the stairs. "You will not believe some of the stuff that is up here. I think I even found Teddy's remember-all."
"On my way," Hugo started to climb the stairs to the attic. "Let me run spider patrol before you get any deeper into the abyss."
Hugo and Rose spent the next two hours sorting through stacks of boxes and making decisions. Four stacks began to take shape in the attic, one for Hugo, one for Rose, one for donation and one full of items to discuss. They had laughed when they found Rose's first invention and cried when they found Dad's favorite scarf on a coat rack tucked in the back corner of the attic. The two biggest items in the "To be discussed" pile were a pair of school trunks with their parents' initials on them. Dad's looked just like he had, a little beat up on the edges, but sturdy where it mattered. Mum's was a reflection of her, carefully repaired scratches that were hard to see unless you were looking for them.
"Let's take a break, little brother," Rose said as she stretched and stood up. " I need food and drink before I fall over. I put some stuff in the fridge when I first got here."
"Sounds good to me, big sister," Hugo joined her in stretching out his body from their sorting positions. "How about I float the trunks down while you fix us something. I'm sure the sitting room will be a better place to explore what they left for us in can deal with the rest of this stuff tomorrow."
"I'm on it. How many sandwiches?" Rose asked as she headed down the stairs. "Or do you want a Weasley Special?"
"Weasley Special," Hugo answered as he started to float the his dad's trunk down to the sitting room. "Dad always out did Mum when it came to sandwiches."
Rose and Hugo settled around the coffee table in the sitting room as they ate their "Weasley Specials" and drank some lemonade. They talked about Saturday mornings at the Burrow and Friday nights playing chess by the fire. They laughed about adventures with their cousins and cried about the family they had slowly been losing. They talked about how life goes on and how the new members of the family shared traits of the ones who had gone before them. "This is what family is about," Rose sighed. "We need to do this more often."
"I am not getting dusty and battling spiders like this again," Hugo shuttered as he gathered up the plates to take to the kitchen sink. "But, getting together to remember and make new memories, I could go for that."
"That sounds like a plan," Rose joined her brother at the sink. "Why don't you float down Mum's trunk while I finish up n here."
"I'm on it," Hugo headed up the stairs to the attic. "See you in the sitting room in a few."
Twenty minutes later, Hugo and Rose sat around their parents' trunks and tried to decide whose trunk to open first. It felt almost like an invasion of privacy to peek into the trunks, but it also felt like a chance to get to know their parents all over again. "Open them at the same time?" Rose asked as she held her wand up to the lock of her mother's trunk.
"Sure,I just hope Dad didn't let Uncle George help him secure his trunk," Hugo closed his eyes as he placed his wand on the lock to his dad's trunk.
"1… 2… 3… Alohomora" Rose and Hugo cast the unlocking spell at the same time. The locks on the trunks opened without a bang or bump. "Time to see our parents' treasures," Rose whispered as she reached for the lid of her mum's trunk.
"Time to hope that our dad was not as big a jokester as his brothers." Hugo replied as he opened the lid of his dad's trunk.
Rose and Hugo breathed sighs of relief when the trunks opened without the appearance of a Fanged Flyer or Portable Swamp. "What's this?" Rose asked as she picked up an envelope from the top of the items in Hermione's trunk. "It's addressed to us."
"There is one in Dad's trunk, too" Hugo voice floated from beneath the lid of Ron's trunk. "I guess we should read them before we dig any deeper in the trunks."
Hugo and Rose took the letters with them and sat beside each other on the couch. "Ladies first …" Hugo pointed to the letter Rose was holding. Rose broke the seal on the back of the envelope and pulled out the letter. She quietly began to read.
"My darling children,
If you are reading this, I am no longer with you and you are having to make some difficult decisions. I want you both to know how much you were both loved by your father and myself. We are so proud of the paths you chose to take and the journeys you have completed. But, looking to the future must also include looking at the past. This is my Hogwarts trunk. I have kept letters and mementos from my life here, as a time capsule, to be explored after I am gone. Hugo, go get a tissue for your sister. Rose, my tender hearted one, don't let the sadness of the occasion overwhelm the joy of the yourselves get to know us not as your parents but as a witch and a wizard that lived an adventure and found their better halves along the way. We will always be watching from the other side of the Veil.
Love, Mum"
"She certainly knew how to write a letter," Hugo sighed as he handed Rose his handkerchief. "I miss her owls … even her Howlers were proper and perfect."
"Your turn," Rose sniffed as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "What did Dad have to say?"
Hugo pulled the crumpled paper from his unsealed envelope and began to read.
"My dearest Prickle Pants and Little Terror,
Your mum said I need to put a few thoughts on paper, before we sealed these trunks, to explain why they exist. She is the one that is good with words, not me. But, I will give it a go. I have loved you both since before I knew you existed. The idea of children to carry on our story carried me through some of the darkest times of our Mum and I are so very proud of the paths you have chosen to follow, and we want you to know why we fought so hard for you to choose the path you wanted. We have filled these trunks with pieces of our past. Time to dive in and discover just how human your parents were. Please don't let our mistakes and misadventures change the course of your lives. I promise to keep watch over you even when you cannot see me.
Always, Dad"
"Sounds just like he was in the room with us," Hugo settled back into the couch as he folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. "What exactly did they put in those trunks?"
"I guess it is time to find out," Rose stood up and walked toward Hermione's trunk. "Do we do one trunk at a time or both at the same time?"
"Both," Hugo said thoughtfully. "Mum and Dad wrote the letters together. Knowing her, she meant for them to be gone through together,"
"Let's get to work then," Rose said as she reached for the first bundle of letters. "No time like the present to discover their past …"
It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
Vladimir Nabokov