Chapter 10: Small Steps
Authors Note: Hello again. Here we are. The final chapter. This is a story where you can only write so many chapters before it becomes a little bit of a joke and I think that this is a good stopping point and sort of brings the story full circle. This once again is set a few years into the future and I really hope that you enjoy it. Anyway thank you and here is chapter 10!
3 years later...
Hermione Weasley sat on the large sofa at twenty six Snowberry Road watching as the fire in front of her slowly crackled. It was early winter and Christmas was only but a few days away. She vividly remembered how when Rose and Hugo were little children, they would be so excited and happy when Christmas started to get nearer and nearer in time. There would always have been four stockings hung up on the fire place labelled Ron, Hermione, Rose and Hugo. Now there were two more Scorpius and Lydia – Rose's husband Scorpius Malfoy and Hugo's wife Lydia Longbottom. However, there was one more stocking that was unlabelled and was the last in the line of seven. Given such short notice before Christmas, neither Ron nor Hermione had had the chance to simply wave their wand and fix a name onto it.
The name belonged to the small little baby lying in Hermione's arms who had only arrived into the world a week previously. Rose and Scorpius' daughter. In spite of Scorpius unusually taking Rose's surname, this baby was the first girl born into the Malfoy family in over a century where as the general pattern of having mainly boys in the Weasley family had died out a couple of decades previously. She looked exactly like Rose; soft ginger hair and almond shaped eyes. But her eyes were not blue like Rose's or Ron's nor Scorpius' grey ones. They were Hermione's brown eyes, something she thought she would never see. And for the very first time, today the tiny child had smiled, making everyone's day just that little bit happier.
As the snow fell and the day gradually drew into the evening with the sun starting to set, Hermione sighed happily as she sat in the comfort of her own home. She and Ron had agreed to look after the new baby for the evening while Rose and Scorpius went out for a while and took a break from all of the chaos that had happened since the little bundle of joy entered the world seven days before. It was quiet and peaceful as the babies eyes darted around the room, looking around in excitement.
"Hello, sweetheart. I am your Grandma. To be honest I am really glad you are not old enough to call me that yet. I am not really old enough to be a Grandma yet you see." Hermione chuckled and she did have a point. The age at which people were having children was getting both younger and older. When Ron and Hermione had had Rose, they were only twenty five and twenty six, slap bang in the middle of the age to have children. Rose and Scorpius on the other hand, were only twenty four. A lot of people at the age of fifty and forty nine had teenage children that were leaving school, but Grandchildren.
She did not really feel old enough to be a grandparent; she was still lively, active and fully capable of running up the stairs. Grandparents were not supposed to be like that. Grandparents were supposed to be tea lovers, enjoy knitting and television programmes about antiques. They would also make a huge fuss about your health and often use the phrase "When I was your age..." Hermione was not ready to be like that. As far as her and Ron's grandchildren would ever be able to see was that perhaps Ron and Hermione were constantly high on coca cola and blue smarties. The reality was that they were just young.
"I know that you cannot talk back, but I felt like telling you probably one of your first stories yet." Hermione started as the small girl gazed back at her, she was sort of waiting for Ron to walk in at some point and think that she was going mad by forgetting that the baby was there. "Hmm, how about when your mum and dad met?" Hermione thought about it carefully. There were so many good stories to tell but that one was by far one of the best choices for a very first story of the past.
"So it was your mum's first day at Hogwarts, you will get told all about that school at some point. Your Granddad will probably bet that you get sorted into Gryffindor. Anyway, we knew that we would not see her until Christmas, and were quite sad because that was the longest amount of time we would have been without her. She had everything sorted, her wand – the same wand she has got now, a new owl, and all of her books for her first year at Hogwarts. She was really happy to be going to school with your cousin, Albus. We met Harry and Ginny on the platform and somebody caught your Granddad's eye. A boy called Scorpius – your Dad." Hermione smiled recalling that day just over thirteen years previously. Despite them all being a fair bit older now, it still only felt like yesterday that they had arrived on platform nine and three quarters.
"There is a lot more detail to this story than meets the eye, but I am sure someone will get to that part some time when you are older. When I say a lot more, I really do mean a lot more information. But your Granddad was very uncertain of Scorpius Malfoy and told your Mum to stay away from him. Just to be on the safe side. But from what we know, your Dad was told the same thing by his parents. And so being the lovely, good natured, obedient person your Mum is, she went and spoke to him whilst on the train. I do not really know the full details but that is how your Mum and Dad met." Hermione beamed as the baby reached for her little finger. "Just wait until one day, your Granddad Ron tells you his version of that story." She laughed
"Did someone say Granddad?" A cheerful voice enquired and Hermione turned her head to see Ron pacing towards her, a large smile spread across his face as he sat down next to her.
"I was telling her the story of when we took Rose to Hogwarts for the first time and she met Scorpius." Hermione beamed and she carefully handed the tiny baby over to Ron, whose face lit up when he held her.
"Yeah, well I am bloody glad Rose ignored me that day, otherwise this one would not be here would she?" Ron grinned as he tickled the little girl's stomach gently. "I bet you will be in Gryffindor, I am sure of it munchkin." Hermione smiled at the pet name he had chosen for their granddaughter and for the first time, the baby emitted a small laugh in happiness. "Hey, she laughed." Ron announced proudly as he held the baby.
Hermione looked at the picture that lay before her. Ron Weasley holding his granddaughter. If she went back a few decades, she never thought that she would have seen this. What made her smile even more was that it reminded her of just fewer than twenty five years ago when they had taken Rose to Harry and Ginny's house for the very first time. Nothing had changed and she was thankful for that.
There was then a knock on the door and in stepped Rose and Hugo, both giggling and smiling joyfully. They then immediately assumed that Scorpius and Lydia had both gone back to the houses that they shared with their children. It felt weird that there was now another person in their small branch of the Weasley family. It felt like their children had actually grown up.
"Hi, Mum. Hi Dad. There is my favourite niece!" Hugo said cheerfully planting a kiss on her forehead.
"She is also your only niece, Hugo." Ron laughed as he handed Rose her daughter.
"How has she been?" Rose asked beaming at the child.
"Good as gold. Oh and she had her first laugh. It was like yours when you were a baby." Hermione smiled as she hugged Rose and Hugo before Ron did the same thing merrily.
"Dad, did you manage to find out how to work the car seat that you bought us?" Rose laughed, they had been given several things, including a babies car seat. Unfortunately, none of them had quite worked out how to strap the baby into the seat yet.
"Actually I did, I will help you put her in it if you want." Ron informed her kindly and strapped the baby into the baby seat.
"Well, we best get going; I said I would drop Hugo off at home. See you tomorrow." Rose smiled and a few minutes later drove away. Finally, an exhausted Ron and Hermione were able to flop down on the sofa in sheer tiredness. Right then, they would rather nothing more than to go to sleep.
"We are getting to old for all of this you know." Ron sighed jokily and Hermione hit in gently on the arm.
"We are only fifty Ron. We are not that old yet." Hermione laughed "Can you believe that next year it will have been forty years since we met on the Hogwarts Express?"
"No, it has gone so quickly. I mean, we actually realised that we had feelings for each other, we got married, Rosie, Hugo and now we have a granddaughter. And I could not love you any more than I do now, Hermione Granger." Ron leaned in to kiss her on the lips, forgetting for a minute that when they had got married she had taken his name.
"I love you too, Ron Weasley." Hermione smiled kissing him back.
Authors Note: So that is the end of the story. This was the first story that I published on and I really hope you liked it. Also sorry it has taken so long to complete (Hey, exactly one year!) I call that coincidental. You may have noticed that the name of Rose and Scorpius' daughter was never mentioned, expect that in a future story and then, all will be revealed. Anyway, thank you so much to anyone who has been reading this for the past year and PLEASE REVIEW!