Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling et al. Any characters or locations you recognise are the intellectual property of these individuals and corporations. I make no money from the writing of this story.
This story is written for Round 10 of the Quidditch League Fan Fiction Competition. The team had to choose a mascot and then each member was given a time of life to write about. As Keeper, my prompt was: Write about your mascot towards the end of his/her life. I hope you like it.
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The sound of delicate chimes rang through the old cottage in Ottery St Catchpole, Devon one Friday evening in late April. The old witch who resided in the cosy abode slowly made her way to the front door to answer it. Her wards had alerted her to the presence of a visitor about a minute before the bell rang but she had always insisted on the nicety of her family and friends ringing her doorbell to announce their arrival.
Kelly Parker waited patiently for her great-grandmother to open the door. She could see her as she made her way from the kitchen to the front room. Happiness radiated through her body at the moment her Nanna recognised her through the glass panel beside the door. Without fail the old witch's face would simply light up as soon as she saw whoever was visiting. No one came to the door without being made feel welcome.
"Kelly!" she was greeted with enthusiastically as the door was pulled open. Light from inside spilled out onto the porch and drew Kelly in. She gave her great-grandmother a kiss on the cheek and a gentle hug.
"Hi, Nanna Weasley, how are you?" she asked.
"Oh, I am as well as can be expected, dear," Hermione Weasley said stoically. She was feeling every day of her one hundred and eighteen years these days. She linked arms with her great-granddaughter and walked back to the kitchen with her.
"Hello, Rebecca!" a cheerful voice came from the portrait of her great-grandfather.
"Hello, Grandad," Kelly replied not bothering to correct him.
Hermione did not stand on such politeness though. "This is Kelly, Ronald, not Rebecca. Rebecca is taller with brown hair, remember?"
"Oh, there are just so many of them," the portrait of Ron Weasley said proudly. "What number are you again, dear?"
"Number Seventeen, Grandad," Kelly said with a smile.
"Number seventeen… would you have ever thought it, Hermione? We had only two children yet they managed to produce enough children to give us nineteen great-grandchildren!" he said.
"I think Louisa might be pregnant again, too," Kelly gossiped. "She has that 'look' about her again."
"Marvellous," a new voice from the wall drawled. "We really are becoming overrun with Weasleys, aren't we?"
"Push off, Malfoy," Ron called from his frame. "Hermione, tell me again why we have to have that git's portrait up on the wall?" he whined.
"Because Lucius banished Draco's portrait from Malfoy Manor when he refused to deride Rose and Scorpius's marriage and Draco's grandchildren and great-grandchildren deserve to have him as part of their lives. It's not his fault he did not live to see them in life, at least this way the children have some knowledge of their heritage from that side of the family," Hermione lectured firmly.
Ron's portrait mumbled something unintelligible. Hermione sought to placate her late husband. "Don't worry, dear, your portrait is bigger than his," she said soothingly. Kelly giggled. She could be entertained for hours simply by sitting on the couch and listening to her great-grandfathers snipe and bite at each other while her great-grandmother tried to keep the peace between them.
Hermione drew Kelly away from the portraits and into the kitchen. Kelly insisted that Hermione sit down while she made tea for them both. She followed her Nanna's instructions carefully as she undertook the ritual that was preparing tea for Hermione Weasley. Setting the two cups and a plate of shortbread biscuits on the table, she took a seat and smiled when Hermione gave her seal of approval.
"I was sorry to hear about Mrs Scamander, Nanna," Kelly said sympathetically.
"Yes, Luna will be sadly missed," Hermione said, her eyes downcast. The former Ravenclaw had passed away peacefully three days prior. "I am officially the last of the veterans left."
"I know," Kelly commiserated. "Grandma wanted me to tell you she is happy to represent you at the Ministry next week if you don't feel up to going."
Hermione bristled defensively. "You tell your grandmother that when I need her to do something she may rest assured I will ask her myself! I may be one hundred and eighteen but I can still best her at the Arithmancy puzzle in The Daily Prophet every morning and I manage to keep this house running perfectly well! I was thirty nine and a half weeks pregnant with her and that did not stop me from going to the anniversary ball. This year is the one hundredth one and if she thinks I am going to miss it simply because my last and one of my dearest friends has passed away then she can think again!"
"I'll tell her, Nanna," Kelly said with a small smile. No one was feisty like her Nanna! Grandma Rose often complained to anyone in the family who would listen, that Hermione really needed to slow down and be mindful of her advanced years. The entire family failed to pass that memo onto Hermione.
Muffled shouting and cursing could suddenly be heard from the sitting room. "Oh, those two!" Hermione huffed. She stood up and stalked into the sitting room, shouting at Ron and Malfoy's portraits before she had even left the kitchen. Kelly picked up her tea cup and followed her. She reached the doorway and leant against it, listening as her two favourite portraits continued to hurl insults and accusations at each other. Hermione finally gagged both of them and drew curtains across them. "Time out!" she shouted. She turned to see a giggling Kelly still gracing the doorway. "I really should move those two to separate rooms," a sheepish look stole over her wrinkled face, "but I do love being entertained by them. The other portraits are always so polite to each other and to me, but Ron and Draco do not observe any niceties toward each other and neither of them are shy in getting into me if they think I need it."
"I like being entertained by them too, Nanna," Kelly said as she re-took her seat at the table.
"Did I ever tell you about the time that Grandad tried to defend my honour to Draco only to have his spell backfire?" Hermione asked with a reminiscent look in her eye.
Kelly thought back on all the stories she had ever heard her great-grandmother tell. "No, I don't think you did," she said interestedly.
"It was back in our second year of Hogwarts. Draco was a fair little shit back then. Oh, don't look at me like that, young lady, your old Nan knows swear words," Hermione gave Kelly a little tap with her foot under the table when the younger witch gave her an astonished look. "Your great-great-grandfather Lucius was on the Board of Governors of the school and Draco seemed to think that gave him license to strut around the place as though he owned it. Things were still very prejudicial back then as well and being a Muggleborn carried a stigma to it. One day I accused Draco of buying his way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team and in retaliation he called me a Mudblood."
Kelly gasped in horror. To call someone a Mudblood in this day and age was to earn a criminal charge and a substantial, means-tested fine from the Wizengamot. "He really called you that?" she asked.
"Yes, he did," Hermione confirmed. "It is all water under the bridge now, and once the war was over he never called me that again, nor has his portrait. But back then it was his favourite way to insult me. I tried not to let it bother me but…" she trailed off, caught up in the memories of long ago. After a few moments she waved off whatever recollection she was caught up in. "Anyway, your Grandad took umbrage at his insult and told him to 'eat slugs'! Poor Ron was persisting with a broken wand at the time, one that was not actually his to begin with, and the spell he cast just propelled him backwards and ended up affecting him! That was the moment I started to fall in love with him."
"That's really sweet, Nanna," Kelly said with a wide grin.
A lot of people said that her great-grandparents were ill-suited, that they were a mismatch headed for disaster. Two people more in love would be difficult to find. Even her Uncle Harry and Aunty Ginny, who were purported to be true soul mates, did not seem to share the closeness she had observed between her great-grandparents.
Grandad used to light up whenever Nanna walked into the room. He would fetch and carry for her and she in turn would make sure there was a full plate of food or a fresh drink ready for him when he wanted it. He would patiently listen while she lectured about the latest Potions development or Charms research and she would sit through his play-by-play analysis of the Quidditch game of the day. She secretly studied the strategies and moves of Muggle chess masters for years while still playing an inept game every night until one day in their mid-eighties, she was finally able to solidly trounce him. From then until the day he died, their chess games were evenly matched. The last game they ever played was still sitting on the chess board, unfinished. It was the only thing that Nanna refused to pack up of his.
"When did Grandad fall in love with you?" she asked.
"Not for a long while after that," Hermione said with a quiet laugh. "We had enough teenage angst between us to write a series of novels! I think he started to notice me around the time of the Yule Ball in our fourth year, but it wasn't until the Final Battle of the War that he acted upon his feelings."
"The Final Battle?" Kelly asked. "Was that really the right time for something like that?"
Hermione cackled. "That is exactly what Harry said at the time!" she choked out through her laughter. "Oh dear… now that I think about it, it was me that acted, Ron just enthusiastically reciprocated. After everything was over he pulled me aside and officially asked me to be his girlfriend. He said he wanted to court me properly, like they used to do so we could get to know each other properly and not rush into anything. It was every young witch's dream to be treated as I was. He was so thoughtful and giving, I wondered for a while if he had been cursed during the Battle," she confided. "But my Ron that defended me when I was just thirteen was there the whole time, just finally grown up. Then we married and had Rose and Hugo, and then your mother and your aunts and uncles and cousins came along before we were blessed with all of you. I look around now and know that everything I endured as a child and during the war was completely worth it so you can all live now."
Kelly swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat. "We will never forget what you did for us, Nanna," she promised. "Our children and our children's children will know it too."
Hermione patted Kelly's hand kindly. "Do you have time for a game of cards, dear?" she asked, changing the subject. Kelly nodded and picked up the deck from the middle of the table. The pair spent the next couple of hours talking, drinking tea, eating a light dinner and playing cards. At close to ten o'clock, Kelly took her leave and left through the Floo to her own home.
Hermione set the wards and locked up the house for the night. As she passed through the sitting room, she opened the curtain in front of Ron's portrait and removed the gag she had placed there earlier.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Ron apologised. "He just gets me so riled up and I can't help but give it back."
"I know, Ron, and I don't blame you for it," she said. "I do miss you," Hermione said wistfully.
"I'm waiting for you, Love," Ron said.
"I know; it won't be long now. I'm tired, so very tired."
"We can terrorise Rose together for the remainder of her days," Ron promised.
"I look forward to that," Hermione said with a grin. "I want to get through the memorial next week, and then I think I will go to sleep. I might even let Rose take care of me for a little while."
"She would like that," Ron said.
"I will see you soon, my love."
"I'll be there to welcome you," he said.
With a last, sad smile, Hermione Noxed the lights in the sitting room and made her way to bed. She had lived a long and happy life, one filled with love and laughter after the war and she was grateful for everything. With the passing of Luna she had been left truly alone of her generation. She thought it was ironic that one supposed inferior Muggleborn had outlasted all the 'superior' pure bloods. Once she crossed over she thought she might seek one or two of them out to gloat. As she slipped between the cool sheets she thought about what she should do for her remaining time. She thought back over the evening and how happy she had been simply eating and drinking and playing cards with Kelly. She resolved to see each of her descendants at least once before she decided it was time, starting tomorrow with her daughter Rose. When her final sleep came, she wanted to be able to tell Ron everything about their family which he had missed in the last twenty years.
It had been a long time to spend without her love. This adventure was almost over; it was time for the next great adventure to start.
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This is loosely based off a night I spent with my own Nanna before she died (at a considerably younger age than 118 and without all the magic lol). We ate a leftover dinner and played cards while she told stories of her childhood and her life. I hope you enjoyed this little slice of life.