Christmas Holidays 2018
"Rose?" Hermione asked as she gently knocked on her daughter's bedroom door.
"Yeah?" Came the soft voice of her daughter through the wood.
Hermione took this as confirmation she could enter and opened the door, stepping into the pale blue room which, apart from the garishly orange Chudley Canon posters, so reminded her of her own childhood bedroom. She quickly saw her daughter curled up on the window seat, a book in hand. However instead of reading it she was vacantly gazing out the window into the bright winter white sky. Hermione moved to sit down on Rose's bad, smoothing the covers as she did so.
"I was wondering if you want to help me cook up some mince pies. I thought we could make them for Auntie Minerva tomorrow."
Hermione watched as Rose jumped slightly out of her reverie and turned her head towards her. At twelve years old Rose's bushy red hair was finally just reaching her shoulders, she'd been trying to grow it since the age of nine when she realised that the longer her hair was the less is would stick outwards. A smattering of freckles fell across her nose and Hermione's own brown eyes looked back at her as she spoke.
"That sounds great, let's go!"
Rose jumped off the window seat, dropping her book down behind her sand started moving across the room, but as she passed by the bed, Hermione grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Rose," she said softly "what's wrong, you've been quiet ever since you arrived a few days ago."
Rose opened her mouth as if to speak then shut it again, looking confused.
"Nothing mum, I'm just a bit tired." She said
Hermione looked up into her daughters face and saw the lie in her eyes.
"No that's not it sweetie, tell me what's really wrong, why you've been in a daydream so much."
Rose sighed and sat down on the bed next to her mother, curling her legs up underneath her and resting her chin on her knees. There was a silence whilst Rose seemed to be gathering her thoughts. Finally she opened her mouth again.
"Mum, do you think someone can only be good at one thing. Like they can only have one thing they can do really well and everything else they have to be average or bad at?"
Hermione frowned at her daughters odd question and answered quickly,
"No of course not! Someone can be very good at lots of things if they want to be, you don't have to have one special thing!"
Rose nodded slowly and turned her head to look out of the window. There was another silence which Hermione refused to break, she could tell that Rose had something else to say.
"Well then why do people tease me for being clever in class and good at quidditch!" Rose burst out, whipping her head back around to face her mother. "Everyone laughed when I said I was doing team tryouts this year, they said that I was good at being really smart and that I couldn't do quidditch too and then I got in and everyone was so shocked and they kept saying stuff like 'it's not fair you being clever and on the quidditch team' and I don't understand why!"
Rose finally took a breath then buried her face in her knees, Hermione's jaw was slack as she listened to her daughter sniffle. Rose had never once been embarrassed by her talents, tasks she couldn't do, who her friends and family were or the way she looked but now Hermione watched in shock as her daughter's clear distress. She quickly slid an arm around her back and hugged her curled frame close, making comforting sounds until her daughters snuffles stopped.
"Rosie?"
Rose finally looked up, eyes rimmed red, angry pink blotches on her face and her hair a red mane on top of her head.
"People say those kind of things because either they want to do what you can do or they're mean people. The people who say it because they're jealous will realise one day that they're just as good at something else and stop being jealous and the mean people aren't worth your time. You know the only opinions that really matter are the ones from the people that love you, and have any of them said anything like this to you?"
Rose shook her head, wiping her face on her sleeve as she did.
"Then what other people say doesn't really matter, as long as you're happy being able to play quidditch amazingly and being very clever. Are you happy?"
Rose nodded, a watery smile blooming on her face which almost immediately wiped away her blotchy skin.
"Then you don't need to change one little bit."
Rose nodded her head once again and then threw her arms around Hermione, squeezing her into a tight hug. Hermione smiled and buried her face in her daughters hair, savouring the affection from her daughter she'd missed all the while she was at Hogwarts. Eventually Rose drew away from Hermione, bounced off the bed and grabbed her mothers hand.
"Come on then, lets make these mince pies!"