The two women were sitting comfortably in the shade among the picnic blankets spread out under the large oak tree. A petite brunette was sitting at the base of the tree reading a book on runes while running her other hand across the chest of a small child sleeping on her lap in a soothing rhythm. The woman's hair fell around her face in voluminous messy curls. A small amount of sunlight fell across her face illuminating her well defined bone structure in a deep golden brown. Her deep brown eyes sparkled in excitement at the contents of the page, her face contorted in deep contemplation as she made calculations in her head.
Resting beside her, a woman lay at the base of the tree with her hands behind her head, her hair thrown carelessly above her head. The pockets of light, filtered through the leaves of tree set the woman's hair ablaze with hues of red and orange and radiated against the golden freckles littering her frame.
The brown haired woman lifted her hand off her child to turn the page when through the corner of her eye she noticed three children climbing on top of the old tire swing by the lake. Two boys were rolling around in the grass arguing about who would get to ride the tire, while a red haired girl had gripped onto the scratchy rope and had firmly planted her feet on the rubber and began swinging wildly.
"Rosie don't you dare! Rose Granger-Weasley you get down from that tire swing right this minute!" Hermione reprimanded, putting her book down to yell at the dark skinned girl.
Ignoring her mother's reprimand, Rose look down at her cousins still wrestling on the ground and stuck her tongue out, before turning to face the women by the tree with a triumphant "Look Auntie Ginny, Al and Jamie lost to a girl!"
"Atta Girl! Those boys have nothing on us Weasley women, Rosie!" came the reply from the red haired woman who still had her eyes closed.
"Don't encourage her Ginny! That tire swing is at least twenty years old!" squeaked Hermione.
Next to Hermione, the red haired woman cracked open one eye to look at Hermione, confusione evident on her face.
"You know it's perfectly safe don't you 'Mione? That swing has been magically reinforced since the twins and I decided to try alternative ways of climbing up that tree when I was six." she replied.
"I know that Ginny, but I swear Rose tries to climb up something everywhere she goes. Last week I found her on standing on the fourth shelf on her bookcase trying to reach her toy broom." Hermione admonished, "Sometimes I wonder-"
Hermione cut off lost in her own thoughts. Ginny genuinely intrigued sat up quickly and turned to face the other woman.
"Sometimes you wonder what?" Ginny asked, curious.
"I mean look at Lily," Hermione replied nodding towards the small green-eyed girl a little ways away from the tire swing, "she is just quietly reading her book with her feet in the water. Meanwhile Rose is sneaking off with Albus and James galavanting in their dangerous mischief."
"Well there isn't anything wrong with that, thank Merlin she isn't as bad as James. There isn't a moment's rest with that boy. He dropped a red sock with the wash last month. Harry had to wear pink shirts under his Auror robes for a week."
"Oh, of course, there is nothing wrong with that Ginny. Merlin knows how much trouble Harry, Ron, and I used to get into at Hogwarts, but Lily and Rose are the only girls between the three boys, yet they could not be more different from each other."
"That is true, Lily is only four and can barely read, yet she goes through more books in a day than you did at Hogwarts," Ginny laughed.
"And Rose is so much like Albus and James is quite scary at time." Hermione said, "Rose is so unlike me and Ronald that I sometimes-"
"-wonder if she is really my child or yours" Ginny finished, catching on to Hermione's intent.
The two women just looked at each other and then turned to look at the two girls once more before Ginny shrugged in defeat and lay back down mumbling something about Weasley women cursed to be brazen.
Rose had now gotten off the swing and walked over to Lily, leaving the two quarrelling brothers behind. The two girls sat in silence with the occasional splash of water as Rose kicked at the water in boredom. The girls were silent until Rose suddenly leaned into her cousin's ear and began whispering plans of pranks and misdeeds. Lily immediately rolled her eyes in exasperation and began berated her cousin for even suggesting such a foolish idea.
"If Ron thought I was tetchy as a child, he hasn't met his niece," Hermione thought as she took one last look at the two girls, shaking her head in amusement her hand returning to the still sleeping Hugo on her lap.
"Well at least I can count on you to sleep like the dead, just like your father," she cooed at him, before picking up her book and her brown eyes once again lit up in interest at its contents.
