Apologies! I had every intention of posting this some weeks ago, but life had other ideas. As some of you know, I'm going through a bit of a rough time right now and life decided to show me that just when you think you've hit rock bottom, there's a basement!
I'm slowly getting my head back together and dealing with things...and I want to post the start of this series for you now. I really hope you enjoy.
1.
"Mum...do you have a minute?" My 13, going on 21, year old daughter stood in the doorway of the home office, which was sometimes jokingly referred to as the library by her father due to all the books in here.
"One second Rosie," I held a finger up as I filled in the rest of the form I was working on. Once that was done, I looked up with a sigh, gave her a smile and placed the quill down. Truthfully I hated having to bring work home on the weekends, especially when the children were home for the summer – it seemed appalling to miss any time with them. And with this being Hugo's last summer before he too began at Hogwarts, time seemed even more precious. "What is it sweetheart?" I asked patiently.
"I was just wondering, erm...are you busy?" she asked hesitantly as she edged into the room and perched on the arm of the chair in the corner.
"A little," I admitted. "But, I always have time for you," I promised her.
She nodded and fiddled with her own fingernails. "I was...well, I was just wondering," she stumbled over her words. "I wanted to know when we were going shopping, you know, for school stuff and all that?" she finally asked.
"Oh," I sat up straight and closed the file I'd been working on. "We don't usually go until your school letters arrive, they haven't yet, have they?" I wondered, feeling bad that I might not have noticed. I know sometimes I tended to get lost in my work, something that Ron usually managed to point out and distract me from when needed.
"No, not yet," she shrugged. "Just, I was wondering," she added, in that casual pretending not to care way that teenagers had. Merlin, when had my sweet little girl become a teenager?
"I think I'd rather wait until you get your school letters. Then we can make sure we get the right books and anything else you need. And of course, with Hugo starting in September, we'll need to get his books, robes and everything too. He's so excited about finally getting his own wand," I laughed, thinking of how he hadn't stopped talking about it for months now.
"Yeah, I know, but, what about the other shopping we usually do as well?" she asked.
"Other shopping?" I asked, not following.
"Yeah, every summer you usually take us into Muggle London, to get Muggle clothes and stuff we might need. And, I just wondering because, well, I..."
"Ah! There you both are!" Ron suddenly burst through the door, holding a bowl and spatula in his hand. "Been looking for some tasters!" he grinned, holding up his spatula.
"Well, where's Hugo?" I wondered, knowing our son was usually game for tasting his dad's experiments in the kitchen.
Ron shrugged. "Outside I think, chatting to Lily on the mirror no doubt." he replied, referring to an item similar to the two way mirrors that Sirius had given Harry back in school, the one that had saved out lives once. George and Ron had created an updated version for the shop and children of the Magical community spent hours on them. Lily was starting school at the same time as Hugo and the pair of them were often found chatting about it. "Here, taste this," he added as he thrust the spatula in my face, smacking it against my lips. "Oops, sorry!" he laughed.
"That had better not be another ridiculous prototype for Wheezes you just shoved in my mouth!" I glared at him as I licked the concoction from my lips.
"Now," he looked at me, placing the spatula back in the bowl, hand on his hip, "would I really do that to you?" he asked me, "again," he mumbled the last word.
"Knowing you, yes." I shot him a look, remembering the last time he'd tricked me into tasting something. At the time he'd been working on a new product design for the shop, totally in it's experimental stages. It had worked, briefly. I had turned invisible and he'd whooped in delight that he'd cracked it. Only then, when I became visible again seconds later, my clothes had somehow disappeared, leaving me standing stark naked in the kitchen. Thank Merlin we were home alone, is all I can say!
"No, it's nothing for the shop. Just icing for the cake I was making for Neville's birthday. He and Hannah are still coming over for tea tomorrow, right?"
"Professor Longbottom is coming here?" Rose grunted. Ron nodded at her. "Oh, great, she huffed, obviously finding the idea of a teacher coming to her house for tea a complete humiliation.
"Yes, they're still coming for tea as far as I know," I answered him. "As well as Harry, Ginny and their kids. What did you put in that icing?" I asked, licking my lips again.
"A bit of coffee...read in Witch Weekly that it brings out the flavour of the chocolate more. A Muggle trick apparently," he answered proudly.
"You read Witch Weekly?" Rose laughed at her dad.
"I erm...your Gran showed it to me," he muttered, the tips of his ears going red. "So, what do you think?" he asked me again, ignoring the ridicule from his daughter.
"I think you put too much coffee in. It drowned the chocolate and that's all I can taste," I wrinkled my nose, not liking the taste much.
"Oh, I'll have to start again then," he sighed, setting the bowl down on the desk. "So, what were you two ladies chatting about?" he wondered.
"Nothing," Rose jumped in before I could reply.
I gave her a curious glance, before answering his question. "Rose was just asking when we were thinking of taking the kids shopping for Muggle supplies. New clothes and anything else they may need. I hadn't thought yet, had you?" I asked him.
He shook his head and then scratched the back of his neck. "Nope, but if you want, we can go one afternoon next week? I can get someone to cover the shop and..."
"No, it's fine dad," Rose jumped up from the arm of the chair and cut him off.
"What? I'm much better with the Muggle stuff now, right love?" he asked me.
"He really is sweetheart. He won't try and buy boys swimming trunks for you to wear as underwear again," I laughed, remembering that moment when the children had been much smaller and he'd taken them shopping by himself.
"Oi! How was I to know? Damn thing looked like underpants to me," he sulked. "So, you're just embarrassed to be seen with your old man now you're a teen, huh?" he asked Rose.
"No Dad. it's just...I wanted..." she mumbled something and then shut up, turning a little pink thanks to the Weasley family trait she had inherited. "Doesn't matter. Forget it." she snapped then and headed for the door.
"Rose! I can take you. What is it you need?" Ron asked her again.
"Dad!" she whined in that perfect way teenagers did.
"What?" he asked, looking from Rosie to me, confused.
"Eurgh, just forget it." she sighed over dramatically and stomped off upstairs.
"What was that all about?" he turned to ask me and scratched his head.
"I'm not sure. Maybe I should go and speak to her," I decided, giving a hesitant glance at the work I still had to catch up on and then glancing towards the door my daughter had just stomped through. My decision was easy, our children were always more important than any work.
"I'll speak with her, you work," he told me.
"No Ron. It seems...maybe there's something she's not comfortable speaking to you about."
"What the bloody hell..." he began.
I held my hand up to silence him. "We need to remember that our little girl is becoming a young lady and...maybe this is a feminine issue," I realised.
"Better not be about bloody boys!" Ron grunted. "No daughter of mine is dating, ever!" he decided, firmly.
"Yeah, I'd like to see you hold up that rule," I scoffed at him. "Go make your Witch Weekly cake for your friend, I'll go sort out our daughter's issues," I told him, handing him his bowl back as I left the room.
"Hey!" he called after me, sounding rather wounded.
Rose was lying on her front on the bed in her room, legs in the air as music played from her radio. Her grandfather had given it to her and had somehow tweaked it so that it managed to pick up Muggle radio stations as well as the WWN. She had a book open in front of her that she was scribbling inside of.
"Rose?" I asked, knocking on the door frame of her open room. "Can I come in?" I asked her.
She shrugged, but moved on the bed to make room for me, closing the book, which I suspected was a diary, she hid it under her pillow, thinking she was being surreptitious about it. One day I'd let her know you didn't miss much when you became a parent.
"So, what was all that about downstairs?" I asked her, taking a seat on her bed.
She shrugged again. "Dad was being annoying," she mumbled.
"You might not have noticed, but your Dad is often annoying sweetheart. I mean, we love him and he doesn't mean anything by it. That's just how he is sometimes."
"I know, but..." she huffed.
"Was there something you didn't want to discuss in front of him?" I asked, suspecting the answer.
She nodded and looked up at me, before getting up to close her bedroom door. Then, she began pacing across the carpet, chewing on her bottom lip.
"You can tell me anything you know. I won't be mad," I assured her. I had made it a point to always listen to the children before reacting to anything.
"Oh," she spun to face me, "it's nothing like that. It's just, well, erm...you know last weekend? When I went to stay with the girls?" she began.
I nodded as I wondered what had happened last weekend. Herself and all her female cousins had descended upon The Burrow for their annual girls night sleep over. It had become a tradition since they were quite young and they all looked forward to it each summer. Arthur was banished from the house, being sent to stay with one of us and Molly loved the time with her granddaughters.
"It...it was just something that Dom said, you know, when we were getting ready for bed, changing and stuff. She noticed that erm...well...she said that..." she was getting more anxious and turning redder by the second.
I began to worry about what on earth had happened. What had my niece, Dominique, noticed about my own child that I hadn't? "She said what sweetheart?" I asked, trying to be patient with her.
"Well, she said that...perhaps it was time I asked you...to," she gazed at the floor, not being able to look at me. "to...buy me a bra," she mumbled the last few words.
"A bra?" I asked, a little more high pitched than I meant to.
"Merlin Mum!" Rose gasped. "If I had wanted Dad and my nosey brother to know, I'd have announced it over breakfast."
"I'm sorry," I apologised. "It's just...you're my little girl," I sighed, feeling nostalgic and old all at the same time. Was my daughter really ready for a bra? When had she grown up so fast? I know every time she came home from school these days, she seemed to have changed. But, surely I would have noticed if she'd developed, well enough for the need of a bra.
"I'll be 14 in October, Mum," she reminded me.
"Yes. I'm aware," I sighed. "But, right..." I tried to compose myself and discuss this calmly, knowing she was already a bit embarrassed about it. "So, that's why you want to go to the Muggle shops?" I realised.
She nodded. "I mean, you're so well known and all that…I just, I really don't want me buying a bloody, bra," she whispered the word, "to make front page of the newspaper. I'd be humiliated!" she sat back on the bed.
"Yes, I can understand that." I replied, thinking back to when a photographer had followed me down Diagon Alley whilst buying personal items before our honeymoon.
"And, Vic and Dom, well they claim that Muggle ones are better and..."
"Right, well," I made a plan in my head. "I'll have to check my work diary to see what day is best. But, I think one afternoon next week I can take some time off. We can have a mother, daughter day in the city, we can have lunch and then, well...we'll get you what you need." I promised her, becoming rather excited myself by the prospect of an afternoon spent alone with my daughter doing girly things. Something I'd never really been able to do with my own Mum. "We could even pick up some things for our holiday," I added.
Rose looked up, smiling and seemed totally relieved. "Thanks mum," she gave me a brief hug.
"Well, I'm glad we got that sorted," I patted her back and kissed her forehead before standing from her bed. "Now, I'd best get on with some more work," I groaned, knowing that in order to take an entire afternoon off, I'd have to try to get more work than I had planned done this weekend. It didn't help that I was already trying to get ahead so we could take a couple of weeks off for our annual family holiday soon.
"Mum," she stopped me before I left her room.
"Yes love?" I paused.
"Please don't tell dad?" she begged me. "He'll just, he'll be..."
"It will be our secret," I promised her, smiling as I left her room.
"Catching up with your Witch Weekly reading?" I teased Ron as I climbed into bed beside him and noted he was reading a magazine.
"Oh shut it!" he closed the magazine, that was obviously Quidditch Monthly, and tossed it onto the floor as I grabbed the pot of lotion from my bedside table to moisturise my hands. "You know that I was only glancing at that when I popped in to see Mum and Dad the other day. She'd left it lying on the kitchen table and left me sat there for 20 minutes," he rolled his eyes.
"Hmm," I replied, rubbing my hands together and setting the pot down again. "It's nice that you pop in and see your parents though," I smiled at him and leant over to kiss his cheek.
"Like Mum would forgive me if I didn't," he groaned as he shuffled further under the duvet. "There are actually some interesting articles and nice recipes in there, though," he added.
"I'm sure there are, my little housewife," I patted his cheek and smiled sweetly at him.
Grimacing, he pushed my hand away in disgust. "Anyway, Rosie seemed happier over dinner," he changed the subject completely. "Sort everything out with her?" he asked, trying to be casual. Though I knew it was eating at him not knowing what she'd been upset about.
"Yes. It's all sorted out now," I nodded, giving nothing away.
"And?" he asked, raising one eyebrow as I snuggled down beside him.
"And nothing. It was personal Ron and I promised her I wouldn't tell."
"She hasn't got a boyfriend, hasn't she?" he asked, his face full of alarm. "I mean, she's only 13...far too young and..."
"She's almost 14," I reminded him. "But, no, it has nothing to do with boys. Just, girl stuff," I shrugged.
"Good, because no boy will ever be good enough for my Rosie. One of them ever hurts her and I'll jinx him with every curse I know and..."
"Ron," I placed my hand on his chest, calming him down, "like I said earlier, you're going to have to accept that our little girl is growing up. She's becoming a young woman and...there are going to be things she's not comfortable discussing with her dad anymore."
"But..." he looked sad, "she's my little Rosie. We've always shared everything."
"I know, love. But, right now Rose is at an awkward age and things might seem a little...embarrassing for her for awhile. Just, be patient with her, okay? And for the love of Merlin, no making fun of her about things!" I rolled my eyes, knowing that was something he'd do if he found out.
"I suppose," he sulked, punching his pillow into a comfy shape. "Going to be weird around here with them both gone. The pair of them all grown up," he sighed, sadly.
"It will," I agreed with him. "But, we have to let them go eventually." I snuggled up to him. "We raised them well and they'll do fine," I sighed softly, laying my head against his shoulder. "Can you get the light, love?" I asked.
There was a click as the lights in our room all went out and all was silent between us as we settled in for sleep. Until…
"So you don't fancy subscribing to Witch Weekly then?" I asked him, chuckling under my breath. "Ouch!" I yelped as he kicked my ankle. "I shall take that as a no," I muttered.
If you enjoyed this, I would be delighted to hear about it!
xC
