Anything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling. We are just having fun playing in her world.

Please read and review.

Orange Day

(Rose Weasley)

by

hondagirl

When Rose Weasley is three years old, she decides to wear orange.

Only orange.

The first day of her decision, a Monday, finds her wearing an orange blouse underneath an orange jumper, complete with orange and white striped tights. On Tuesday she wears an orange pinafore dress embroidered with tiny white flowers, her normally disarrayed hair contained into two tame pigtails, with soft orange ribbons tied at each end. Wednesday morning she comes downstairs wearing a pair of orange shorts with an orange t-shirt and a large floppy orange hat sitting astride her head –her grandmother's old forgotten gardening hat- the large brim falling into her small face and overshadowing her eyes; causing her to run into almost everything in her path. But Rose enjoys the hat immensely and wanders around with it the whole day, never once taking it off.

Rose does not have that many orange clothes -much to her disappointment- and Thursday finds her in one of her dad's old Chudley Cannons shirts, the logo faded and worn with time and multiple washings. Rose isn't too happy with the shirt, it is far too large for her small frame; the long sleeves reach down past her elbows and the bottom of the shirt almost touches the floor.

"Muuummyy!"

"In here Rosie!"

Following the voice, Rose wanders into the kitchen, her bare feet scuffling softly on the floor as she spots her mum sitting at the table, baby Hugo asleep on her lap. Rose walks over, the long shirt dragging listlessly on the floor behind her as she climbs onto the chair next to her mum.

"My clothes dirty."

Her mum looks down at her and Rose is shocked. Her mom looks so old. She has lots of lines around her eyes, like the lines that Grandma Molly has. But Grandma Molly was allowed to have lines, she was old. Mummy wasn't old. Mummy was pretty and she always smelled good, especially when she let Rose sit in her lap as she read stories to her. Mummy always read stories to Rose. Lots and lots of stories. Her dad told her once that Mummy liked to read. But Rose hadn't heard a story from her in awhile, not since baby Hugo was born. Daddy read her stories now and though Daddy was a good storyteller –he always made funny faces that made Rose laugh- he didn't tell stories half as good as Mummy did.

Scrunching up her nose, Rose peers over at baby Hugo, surprised to see he wasn't crying. Hugo was always crying. He cried a lot. When Rose asked her dad why Hugo cried so much –Lily was a baby too but she didn't cry half as much as Hugo did- he told her that Hugo had something called 'caw-lic', and that made him cry. Daddy also said that Hugo would stop crying soon but that hadn't happened yet. He still cried. Big, loud tears that made Daddy look worried and made Mummy look tired and made Rose put her hands over her ears and wish he would stop.

"You have lots of clothes Rosebud," her mother says softly as she shifts sleeping Hugo from her lap to her shoulder. "Lots of pretty, pretty clothes."

Rose shook her head solemnly and responded quietly, she had learned fast that you make no noise when Hugo sleeps, no noise at all. "Not orange."

Her mother sighs, "You only want to wear just orange clothes? What about pink? Or blue? You've always liked the color blue."

Rose looks at her mum. It is true that blue is her favorite color; it is so pretty and soft and kind. But orange is wild and orange is fierce. And Rose feels orange.

"I like blue," she responds, "But today Orange Day."

Her mother sighs once again but doesn't say anything else. And when Rose wakes up the next morning she finds her orange clothes, all neat and clean, folded nicely in her drawers.

The next few weeks pass by quickly but Rose still wears only orange. She can hear her parents talking about her ("She's just going through a faze. It's what children do. She'll snap out of it soon"), but she doesn't mind. She likes orange. She likes the way she feels when she wears it.

"You orange blob! You a big orange blobby blob!" James taunts at her from across the Potter garden one afternoon. Rose merely scowls at him. Rose has been spending a lot of time at the Potter house lately, and at Grandma and Grandpa Granger, and Uncle George's, and Uncle Bill's and Grandma and Grandpa Weasley. Baby Hugo is still crying and even though her dad put up lots of Silencing Charms in her room, Rose can still hear him. Rose asked her mum why they couldn't give Hugo back; he doesn't do anything except cry, but her mum said it doesn't work that way. She says that one day Hugo will stop crying and then he and Rose can play together. Rose doesn't think that will ever happen.

By the end of September, all the grownups have gotten used to the fact that Rose wears only orange clothes. Her dad buys her a bunch of orange Chudley Cannons clothes to wear– jumpers, t-shirt's, jackets, hats, socks with the team's name embroidered on it ("You'll spoil her Ron…"). Her mum was a bit better; she buys Rose a few more outfits, all in various shades of orange. Grandma Granger gives Rose a new hat to wear, which is smaller then the other and doesn't get caught in her eyes. Grandma Molly knits her an orange sweater with a large 'R' on the front, even though it isn't her birthday or Christmas ("It's okay dearie. Hugo will stop crying soon."). Aunt Fleur takes her shopping one day –along with Victoire and Dominique- and Rose gets hair ribbons, headbands, scrunchies, and clips, all of them orange. And Uncle George grinns sheepishly one day when he Floos over, an orange Pygmy Puff in his hands ("Aw George, you old softie…").

But Hugo still cries. And Mummy and Daddy look more tired and more tired. And a little bit of Rose, a tiny part of her, a little itty bitty part, -the part she never shows anyone- wishes he had never been born. Then Mummy wouldn't cry and Daddy wouldn't worry. And then she feels bad because she knows he's her brother and she's supposed to love him, but it's far easier to love baby Lily who always laughs and smiles. But Rose doesn't say anything and instead continues to wear orange.

Orange makes her feels powerful. Orange makes her feel invincible. Cries are nothing against orange.

Then one day Hugo stops crying. Just like that.

It's a few days before Hallowe'en and Rose is helping Daddy hang decorations up around the house –no spiders though, Daddy hates spiders– when Mummy bursts into the room and rushes towards Daddy.

"Ron! Ron! What time is it?"

Rose watches her dad as he looks at the clock, "Er...its half past seven luv. Why, is Hugo cryi…." His voice trails off and he looks at Mummy. After a second a large smile starts to spread out across his face, "He's not crying. It's after seven and he's not crying!"

And Rose is suddenly swept up in the celebration as Mummy cries once again –but this time these are happy tears, exhausted tears (exhausted is a big word but Rose knows what it means. Teddy told her. And Teddy knows everything) -and Daddy hugs both of them tightly, his long arms steadying Mummy as she continues to sob.

And later that night -when Rose is in bed- she holds her breath and counts to ten slowly, praying, wishing, hoping that Hugo continues to sleep. She doesn't want to hear any crying tonight.

It's been three days. And not once has Hugo cried. Well, he still cries, but they are little cries, not those loud, angry, ear-hurting cries he used to do. And Mummy is smiling again and Daddy is laughing. And Rose is excited because today is Hallowe'en and Daddy promised her he'd take her trick o' treating with Albus and James.

Rose searches through her clothes, looking for the perfect outfit to wear today. She searches through layers and layers of orange clothes, happy that her mum and dad let her dress herself. For she is a big girl and big girls don't need help. Hugo needs help but that because he's a baby.

Finally, Rose spots what she's looking for and throws it on, not noticing that the blouse is on backwards and that the socks don't match. Running downstairs, she finds her parents in the kitchen. "I all ready to go trick o' treat", she announces loudly.

Her mum and dad look up at her from the table in surprise. Her mum begins to smile and her dad starts to laugh, "What are you wearing Rosebud?"

Rose looks down at her outfit, confused. "My 'alloween costume."

Mummy gets up from the table and walks over to Rose, kneeling down in front of her. She starts adjusting her socks. "But Halloween isn't until tonight sweetheart. And I thought you were going to wear that costume we picked up for you. The orange pumpkin. You love that costume. So why are you calling this your costume?"

Rose looks down at her outfit once again, a bright pink jumper with dark pink socks and a pale pink shirt on underneath. She smiles at her mum; sometimes grownups ask the silliest questions. "Because Mummy," she responds patiently as her mother start to fiddle with her hair, "It Pink Day."