The Most Memorable Snowfall
The sun filtered in through the frost-covered window and woke the seven-year-old sleeping soundly in her bed. Rose Weasley opened her eyes, stretched, and then looked out the window. She let out a loud gasp and jumped out of bed.
She quickly wrapped her robe around her and opened her bedroom door. As soon as she opened it, she lost her confidence. Even though it was getting lighter out, the hallway was still dark and scary in Rose's opinion.
Remembering what she saw outside, she took a deep breath and ran into the bedroom across from hers. "Hugo! Get up!"
Much like his father, Hugo took forever to wake up. It took Rose nearly ten minutes, but she refused to give up. "I promise you'll love it!"
The young boy sat up, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and frowned at his older sister, "It better be good, Rosie."
"It is!" She smiled at him. She crawled onto his bed and whispered into his ear, "It snowed!"
She watched satisfactorily as his eyes lit up and he let out a gasp, much like she had fifteen minutes previously. "Did you wake Mum and Dad?"
Rose shook her head. "No, did you want to come with me?"
The happiness left Hugo's eyes and he shook his head. "I'll wait here. My – err – bed is very comfy."
Rose merely nodded, knowing that her brother was absolutely petrified of the dark. Rose was scared, but she wasn't anywhere near as scared as Hugo was; Hugo's fear of the dark was parallel to her dad's fear of spiders.
She bravely made her way back into the hall and followed it down to the end where her parents' bedroom was. She opened the door and tiptoed up to the bed. She knew that her mum would already be awake and starting breakfast downstairs, so she climbed up on her side.
For a moment, she simply lay down on her mum's pillow and listened to the comforting – although very loud – snores of her dad. She turned onto her side and looked into his face as she gently took hold of his hand. Her dad always made her feel safe and she loved him very much.
Not enough to let him sleep late, though.
Rose sat up on her knees and began to prod his side, "Daddy! Wake up!"
Her dad grumbled in his sleep and shifted slightly. Lucky for Rose, she was gifted with her mother's determination, and so she didn't give up. Almost twenty minutes later, Ron Weasley finally mumbled some semi-unintelligible words and opened his eyes.
"Rosie? What's wrong, sweetheart?" His voice sounded so hoarse that Rose laughed.
"Nothing, Daddy. It's morning! Mum and Hugo are already up."
Ron glanced at the clock on the bedside table to see that it wasn't even eight in the morning yet. He groaned again and looked at his daughter, who smiled brilliantly at him. "You're lucky I love you," he told her with a wink.
"Does this mean you'll get up?"
Ron nodded and Rose clapped her hands in her excitement. "Good! See you downstairs, Daddy."
Rose bounced herself off the bed, took one last look at her dad to make sure he was actually getting up – he liked to trick her, sometimes – and then went back to Hugo's room.
"Hugo?" she called out. Rose saw that his bed was empty, which meant that her mother had come upstairs to get him.
She went carefully down the stairs like her mum told her to, careful not to trip on her nightgown. At the bottom of the stairs, she picked up the skirt of her nightgown and ran into the kitchen.
Hugo was sitting at the table, staring dreamily outside and ignoring the oatmeal Hermione Weasley had given him. Rose walked over to where her mum was leaning against the counter and gave her a big hug, "Morning, Mum."
"Good morning my sweet," her mother said to her. Rose giggled as she walked to her chair at the table. Her mum was always calling her and Hugo silly little names like that.
As Hermione set the oatmeal down in front of her, Rose made a face. "Mum, I want to go outside!"
"After you eat," Hermione told her.
"Did you hear that, Hugo? We need to eat first!" Rose picked up her spoon and tried to eat as fast as she could.
"Slow down, love, you'll choke," her dad said as he entered the kitchen. Rose nodded absent-mindedly as she watched him. He walked to her mum, pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss.
"Eww," Rose commented, looking across the table at Hugo. He had suddenly found a great interest in his oatmeal.
The adults soon joined the children at the table, and they all finished their breakfast together. Rose was the first done – as usual – and she immediately ran upstairs to get dressed.
She was completely done in less than five minutes, and was very disappointed to see that no one else had finished when she went back downstairs. It took another half an hour, but the entire family was eventually bundled up and headed out the door.
Rose and Hugo ran ahead, playing merrily in the snow, eager to be out in the first snowfall of the season. The snow was already up to Hugo's knees, indicating that it had snowed throughout the night. Ron and Hermione, who weren't nearly as thrilled as their children to be outside, walked a bit slower, gazing across the fields that surrounded their home. Unlike Harry and Ginny, they had preferred not to live in Godric's Hollow, but instead lived just outside of it. As a result, they had a wide open field surrounding them along with a small pond and two lovely willow trees.
Ron was walking alongside Hermione in silence when he felt her slip her hand in his. He glanced down at her and then quickly leaned over to kiss her forehead. She laughed lightly and smiled up at him, "Our children have a fondness for snow, Ron."
They both looked ahead to where their children were kneeling in the snow making a snowman. Rose was trying to create perfectly round snowballs to use, while Hugo was simply slapping together any snow that would stick.
Ron looked from Rose and Hugo to Hermione once again, "Would you like to know what the first day of snowfall always reminds me of?"
Hermione stopped walking and turned to face him, "Yes."
"It reminds me of a few different times, actually." Ron admitted. "The one it reminds me of most is the first time that you and I went to Hogsmeade alone. I didn't want to say anything at the time, but in a way I was glad that Harry wasn't there. As awful as it is – him being my best mate, and all – I had just come to terms with the fact that I liked you, and maybe even loved you."
Ron smiled as Hermione twined her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly, "That really is the sweetest thing, Ron."
Ron slowly rubbed his hands up and down her back, "There's one other day it makes me think of. It was during our sixth year, and you, Harry, Ginny and I were sitting beside the common room fire. I've no idea what season it was, but the fire was lit, so I guess it was winter. Anyway," Ron took a breath, "I don't even remember what Ginny said, but you were laughing, and I can't seem to forget the look of pure joy on your face. I guess the full force of my emotions struck me then, because from that moment on, I knew that I wanted to be with you for the rest of my life."
Ron felt Hermione lean up on her tip toes to kiss him, and he helped by leaning his head down toward hers. Their lips met in the perfect snowy-day kiss, and Ron couldn't help but appreciate the real magic behind their kiss.
When they pulled apart, they saw that it was beginning to snow again. They looked up and admired the snow for a moment, and just as Hermione was about to respond to Ron's shared memory, the voices of the kids reached them. The kids were arguing rather loudly; Hugo was accusing Rose of throwing a snowball in his face, while Rose was firmly denying having done so.
Ron rolled his eyes, "Let's go break this up."
But any aggravation and arguments that had been shared were instantly forgotten as the family of four built their likenesses out of snow. It was only once Rose began asking them to build snowmen versions of the Potters that Ron and Hermione decided it was time to go inside.
Hermione made a nice dinner and four mugs of hot chocolate as Ron picked up the wet outdoor clothing that Rose and Hugo had discarded everywhere. Hugo immediately went in to sit in the kitchen with his mother, while Rose stayed behind with her father. "Dad," she said slowly.
"Yes, Rosie?"
"Will you tell me a story about when you and Mummy went to Hogwarts?" Rose asked sweetly. Thinking to ensure that he would tell her a story, she bent down, scooped up her soaking wet hat and passed it to him.
"Err – thanks," her dad said with a half-laugh. "I think I could tell you a tale or two. Wait until we get back to the kitchen where our hot chocolate is waiting."
Rose felt like Christmas had come early as she and her dad made their way out to the kitchen. She climbed up onto one of the chairs and began to drink her hot chocolate. Hugo was already halfway done his, although he kept requesting new marshmallows.
"A story from my Hogwarts years, hmm?" Ron said thoughtfully. His eyes lit up as he selected the perfect story to tell them. "Back in my first year, Uncle Harry, your mum and I found a passageway that we weren't supposed to be in–"
"Did Uncle George show it to you?" Rose interrupted.
Hermione laughed and nearly spat out her hot chocolate, "No, Rosie. Not even your uncles figured out this passageway."
Ron shushed everyone back to silence as he continued, "To get to the end of where the passageway lead, there were numerous rooms we had to get through. The first contained a plant that tried to strangle you. As Uncle Harry said, it was lucky that your mum paid attention in Herbology, because she was brilliant enough to know how to fight it." Ron glanced at Hermione and tried not to smile at the fact that she was blushing. Even after all their years together, specific things he said to her could still make her blush. "Listen closely, while I tell you this: your mum is the smartest person I've ever known and likely will ever know."
Rose and Hugo both nodded their heads, mesmerized into silence. Ron continued, "Two rooms later, there was a giant chessboard. Since I was – and still am, of course – the best chess player, I was the one who got to command the pieces. I chose a knight for myself, because it is my favorite chess piece. A knight is loyal, brave, and always fights with honor. And fight we did. We battled it out fiercely and both sides suffered great losses. Of course, as the game drew to a close, I knew what had to happen."
Ron kept his children in suspense, their forgotten hot chocolate growing colder as he finally said, "I had to sacrifice myself." Both Rose and Hugo let out a loud gasp, even though neither child knew what the word meant.
"It means," Hermione clarified immediately, "that he had to give himself up and let himself be injured in order for us to win the game."
"Oh," Rose nodded. "I understand. What happened next?"
"Well," Ron continued, "I calculated the move precisely, ignored the worries of my two comrades, and moved forward. The queen came at me and with a single blow of her arm, sent me flying off the horse."
Rose gasped again and grabbed her mum's hand. "Then what happened?"
"Your mum and Uncle Harry continued on towards the end – they had to, you see. Next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake by your mum. She continuously told me how brave and noble I had been, which, I admit, made me quite pleased." Both Rose and Hugo giggled.
Hermione laughed, "There isn't really anything left to tell, although it was very hard to wake your father up. Even then, he always slept rather heavily, and since he had been knocked out, it was even more of a challenge. But, as I always tell you two," she looked pointedly at Rose and Hugo "perseverance can be quite the handy tool."
Hugo nodded, hanging on his mother's every word. Rose nodded too, but hers was a slower nod. "Mum?" Hugo said quietly.
"Yes, love?"
"Will you read me a story?"
Hermione smiled and stood up, lifting her son into her arms shortly after. "Certainly. We can all go sit near the fire." She began to hum a lullaby as she carried him into the other room.
"As long as it's not Hogwarts, A History, then I'm fine with whatever you read, Hermione," Ron told her with a wink.
"Honestly, Ronald," Hermione said. Ron found that it was the exact same tone she had always used when saying his name like that. She's still the same, he thought with a warm smile. She still looked at him with the same expressions that she used to, still said his name the same way she'd said it the first time, and – most importantly of all – she still loved him as much as she did since the first day she'd realized it.
Rose followed her father into the living room, and watched quietly as her mum grabbed a book from the shelf and her father lit a fire. As soon as he was finished, Rose tugged on his hand and looked fleetingly at the chessboard. "Will you teach me?"
Ron nodded and smiled, "Of course."
He pulled up two chairs and Rose sat on the black side of the table. She looked down as her father pointed, "This is a mahogany chessboard, hand-made by your Grandpa Granger. It turns out that he likes me after all, and made this as a birthday gift for me one year."
Both Rose and Hermione laughed, and Ron favored his wife with one last loving look before she began to read to Hugo. Ron turned back to the chessboard and gave his daughter his full attention. "Now, these small ones in front are called pawns. Don't let their small stature trick you – they can be quite key players in this game. The two on the ends are called rooks or castles…."
Rose listened as he introduced each piece, and then again as he told her how they moved. He also showed her how to command them and how to properly set up the board. Their first game lasted merely five minutes, after which Rose realized that her father was a very talented chess player. She tried much harder the next few games, and before she knew it, an hour had passed, and she was able to make moves on her own.
Rose looked up from the game and glanced at her family. Her brother was asleep in her mum's arms, her mum was staring at her dad with a soft smile on her face, and her dad was eagerly commanding his bishop to move. Rose felt blessed to have such a wonderful family, and she silently thanked the snow for giving her such a wonderful day to realize this.
She gazed quickly out the window to see that the snowflakes were still floating down gently from the sky, and guessed it must be her Uncle Fred's way of sending them a message. Her dad drew her back to the present when he said, "Rosie, it's your turn."
Rose met his eyes for a moment before making the crucial move to the game, "Checkmate," she announced proudly. Her dad seemed startled, but then broke into a wide grin.
"Well done, Rosie. Would you like to play again?" And so they played late into the evening, with the first snow falling lightly outside and the warm fire crackling inside. As Rose once again looked at her family, she knew that from now on, when anyone asked her what memory the first snowfall brought to mind, this day would be foremost in her thoughts.