AN: I'd like to say that I hope the first few sections of this story were done correctly, and if not, please let me know so I can fix it.
I also feel the need to warn you all that the next chapter will be the last. I will have an epilogue of sorts after that, but the next chapter will be the official end of this story.
Also, while I will try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible, tomorrow is my birthday (we today, technicallly, as it is after midnight), and the last chapter is going to be very difficult for me to write, so I can't promise it'll be up tomorrow. Hopefully, sometime this weekend.
Finally I'd like to thank you all again for your support of this story. It really means a lot to me.
Chapter 55 – The Changing Children
"I want a purple one!"
"No I want a purple one!"
"I said it first!"
"No fair!"
"You can both have a purple dress, girls. Calm down." Clothes shopping with four-year-olds was exhausting. Hermione was starting to wonder why she brought them to the store at all, but since they were getting ready to go to preschool, she wanted to allow them at least some choice in what they wore.
After the girls were at least, partially happy with their choices, Fred started to steer the cart towards the boys section, while Hermione started to corral the kids that way as well.
"Do you have Hawthorne?" Hermione said to Fred.
"He's sitting right- He was there a second ago."
Hermione sighed. Hawthorne was exceptionally good at disappearing. "Hawthorne!" She called. He appeared a few moments later, carrying a blue dress.
"Can I have this one?" He asked, looking up at her.
It surprised her for a moment, but she agreed. "Of course dear, just let me check to see if it's the right size." His hair was currently the exact same color. How could she tell him no?
"Okay." Her little boy beamed, handing the dress over to her. He had in fact, grabbed the right size.
"Are you ready to go over to the boys section, Hawthorne?" Hermione asked.
Her paused for a moment. "Do I have to choose boy clothes?"
"Of course not." Fred said, before Hermione could. "You're allowed to wear anything you want."
"Can we wear boy clothes if we want to, Daddy?" Thalia asked.
"You can if you want too."
"I want a shirt with dragons on it!" Thalia said excitedly.
"Me too!" Sophie added.
"I said it first!"
"No fair!"
"Girls, stop it."
Eventually, they made it out of the store with minimal tantrums.
In the days following the clothes shopping adventure, Fred noticed his son looking more and more like his sisters. At first, he started making his hair longer, and after that, it was just small changes like that, until one day, he couldn't tell Hawthorne apart from the girls. He assumed that spending time looking like other people was just part of being a metamorphmagus, but part of him was also afraid that it was a self-esteem issue, that he didn't like being the non-identical triplet.
He decided to bring it up in the nicest way possible. "Hey 'Thorne, what did you do with your freckles?" He asked while they were picking up toys in the living room.
"I don't want them right now. I might tomorrow." Hawthorne replied, dropping a doll into the toybox.
Why Fred thought he'd get a good answer out of a four year old, he wasn't sure.
"I have a question." Hawthorne said, dropping onto the couch beside Fred once they were done cleaning up.
"What is it?"
"Is Hawthorne more of a girl name, or a boy name?" His son was very serious.
"I think it can be both. Why do you ask?"
"I don't like it." He replied. "Can you and mom give me a new one?"
He wasn't sure how to respond to that. "How about we sit down with you mom and talk about this?"
Hawthorne smiled. "Thanks, dad."
"Why do you want a new name, Hawthorne?" Hermione asked her son. "Are you getting made fun of by the other kids for it?" She hadn't heard him say anything about being bullied before, but if he was, there were a lot of school officials and parents that were about to feel her wrath.
He shook his head. "I just don't like it."
"Why not, dear?" She asked.
"It's a boy name." He complained.
"Well, you are a boy." Fred said.
"But why am I a boy?" Big questions from such a little guy.
"Do you not want to be a boy?" Hermione asked.
He shook his head.
Hermione looked at Fred. From her studying of child development, she knew that children developed their gender identity around this age, but hadn't really expected Hawthorne to be anything other than a boy. "What do you want to be?" She asked.
"I want to be a girl." He paused. "I am a girl. Can I please have a girl name?"
"Well, if you're a girl, you need to have a girl name, don't you?" Fred said.
Hawthorne beamed. "So what's my new name?"
"Hmmm…" Hermione said. "Well, you were originally named by Luna. Fred, what kind of name would Luna pick?"
"Who's Luna?" Her son, or rather, daughter, asked. This was going to take some getting used to.
"Luna is Lucky's mom." Fred replied.
"Oh. Where is she?"
"She died when Serendipity was little." Hermione told him gently.
"Oh. Luna is a pretty name."
"It is, isn't it?" Hermione smiled. "Would you like something like that?"
Hawthorne nodded. Hermione couldn't give her the name Luna. She couldn't do that to Harry. "How about Stella?"
Hawthorne was pensive, but shook their head no. "It's not as pretty."
"Cosmos?" Fred offered.
"That's a boy name." Hawthorne complained.
Eventually, Hawthorne insisted that she really wanted the name Luna, and Fred and Hermione grudgingly agreed. She was going to have to talk to Harry.
Harry was surprisingly understanding about the whole thing. "Luna wouldn't have minded sharing her name. Who am I to say he can't have it?"
"She." Hermione corrected. It had only been a day, but she was getting better at it. "And thank you. She is really excited about her new name."
"I'm sure. It's a beautiful name." Harry smiled.
Lucky toddled into the room, having awoken from her nap. "'Mione!" She ran into Hermione's arms. "Where's Lia, Sophie, and 'Thorne?"
"They're at home. And 'Thorne goes by Luna now." Hermione replied, tussling the little girl's hair.
"Luna was my mommy's name." Lucky laughed. "Why does 'Thorne have a new name? Do I need a new name?" She looked at her father. "I want to be called Fred. I like Fred."
"You don't need a new name, you silly goose." Harry replied. "'Thorne needs a new name cause his mommy gave him the wrong kind of name."
"Oh. Why did you give him the wrong name, 'Mione?"
"Well, it's because I thought they were a boy, but she's a girl."
"That's silly." Lucky laughed. "But I like having more girls to play with."
"Girls, it's time for supper." Fred called. As time went by, it was easier to see Luna as the girl she was, and while he had been a little sad at the loss of his only son, he cared more about her happiness than his desire for a boy.
"I see you've got your freckles today." Fred noted to Luna, as she washed her hands. Some days she looked just like her sisters, but more and more, she looked like herself. Bluish blond hair, brown eyes, and more freckles than his aunts and uncles combined.
"I like my freckles. They make me look like you, dad." Luna grinned.
"How do I get more freckles?" Sophie asked. She and Thalia had a small handful, mostly across their noses and cheeks.
"You have to spend more time in the sun." Hermione replied, handing Sophie a pile of plates so she could help set the table.
"But it's winter." Thalia complained. "The sun is hiding."
"Could you make us a freckle potion?" Sophie asked.
"Please?" Thalia begged, and her sister chimed in.
"What if you get older and you don't like your freckles anymore?" Fred asked them. He knew Ginny wasn't the biggest fan of hers.
"Then you make us a potion to get rid of the freckles." Thalia said, matter-of-factly.
"It's not fair that Luna gets to choose if she has hers or not."
"We'll look through mommy's books after supper and see if we can find a freckle potion." Fred said, and the girls cheered.
"Fred." Hermione said, giving him a look.
"It's just freckles." He defended.
His wife begrudgingly agreed, and after supper, they searched Hermione's books for a freckle potion. It was rather slow going, as the girls were beginner readers, and Hermione had few books on cosmetic potions.
"We're never going to have freckles." Thalia whined.
"Have patience, if we don't find you one tonight we will soon." Fred soothed.
"How do you spell freckles, Mum?" Sophia asked.
"Have you found something?" Hermione asked, leaning over to see what she was looking at. "She found one."
"Yay!" Thalia tackled her sister in a hug. "We're going to have freckles!"
Fred took the book from Sophie and read over the ingredient list. "I think we have everything we need for it in the store room of the shop."
The girls cheered again.
Fred returned from his ingredient run to see that Hermione and the girls had already set up a cauldron. The triplets had on safety goggles, and were sitting about a foot back. It appeared that Hermione had already given them the safety course that Snape had never given anyone. Despite how she felt about it, she did make a great teacher.
"I peeled the Flitterbloom!" Thalia said excitedly.
"And I measured the powdered moondaisies." Sophie added.
"And I counted the ginger seeds." Luna beamed.
"Look at you little potion makers." Fred said proudly.
It was almost bedtime before the potion was done, and the girls were nodding off as they waited.
"Maybe one of us should test it first." Hermione said quietly.
"It would have to be you, I already have too many freckles that it probably wouldn't work on me." He looked at the recipe again. "All you have to do is add a drop of morning dew to the potion to reverse the effects."
"Okay girls, mommy is going to test it first, okay?" Hermione said, and the girls perked right up.
"Mommy is going to have freckles like Daddy!" Thalia said excitedly, and her sisters burst into giggles.
"It's time for the moment of truth." Fred said dramatically, ladling her out some of the potion.
"Are you ready?" Hermione asked, and the girls nodded. Then, she drank it down.
"How do you feel?" Fred asked.
"My cheeks are really warm." His wife replied. Tiny red spots were erupting all over her face, and soon she had a full set of freckles. The triplets fell over laughing.
"You look funny, mommy." Luna giggled.
Hermione grabbed the mirror. "That is a lot of freckles. Is there any way to tone down the effects?"
Fred looked over the potion recipe again. "Three tablespoons of rose oil will tone down the effects."
After they tested it again, Hermione decided it was safe for the girls, and then the girls had the freckles they so desired.
"Can we dye our hair next?" Thalia asked, beaming with a freckled face to rival her father's.
Hermione laughed. "That one has to wait until you're older."
"Mom!" A shrill voice met Hermione's ears. "Thalia is wearing my shirt!"
"It's my shirt!" Luna defended loudly. "The green one is yours."
Hermione walked into the girl's room, finding a mess of clothes on the floor. "How can you tell anyone's clothes apart in this mess? And that's Sophie's shirt. Yours is the blue one, Luna."
"Oh." Luna said, and carried the shirt over to Sophie, who was reading on her bed.
"Maybe it's time the three of you had your own rooms." Hermione said. While currently the girls shared two rooms, a bedroom and a play room, maybe it was time to get them their own rooms. They were getting older, after all.
"No!" The screeched in response.
"Are you sure?" Your clothes wouldn't get all mixed up that way."
"But we like sharing a room." Thalia insisted.
Sophie, however, looked pensive. "Could the rooms be connected, like this one and the playroom is?"
"I like that idea." Luna said.
"Maybe. We'll have to see." Hermione replied.
In the end, the girls did get their connecting rooms, as well as an extra bathroom. They didn't really need it yet, but they would become teenagers eventually, even if Hermione didn't want to admit it.
I hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to review and tell me what you think :)
- Zen and Sirius
