21 July 2002
Hermione was already at the Burrow, having spent a blissful night off from her mothering duties since Arty had spend the night with Ginny and Harry, when her little boy appeared with his auntie in the floo and sprinted straight for her, jumping onto her lap and throwing his arms around her neck.
"Hello my little love!" Hermione laughed, squeezing him tightly, "did you have a super fun time at auntie Ginny and uncle Harry's?"
"Yesh," the boy said, not quite making his letter sounds properly yet, "Mished you mama."
"Aw, I missed you too!" She smiled, hugging him once more and setting him onto the floor, "Victoire is in the garden annoying the gnomes if you want to go and play?"
He nodded and ran outside grinning. Hermione got up from her seat and watched from the window to make sure they were playing safely, relieved when Bill appeared around the side of the house and called his hello to the little boy, who waved back but was clearly distracted by his gnome hunting. Turning back to Ginny, who she knew was desperate for a baby of her own with Harry, she smiled.
"How was he?" She asked and Ginny nodded with a smile.
"He needed four stories before he fell asleep, but that isn't a big deal," Harry informed, "thanks for letting us have him last night, I know it must have been tough, being away from him for the first time."
"It wasn't as bad as I thought," she shrugged and grinned when Ginny rose her eyebrow in surprise, "it would have been worse if I'd left him with George, but with you guys I know he's well looked after."
"George is great with little Fred, though," Ginny said, referring to his and Angelina's newborn son.
"Yeah, but all Fred does is cry and eat and poop." Harry laughed, "and he stays in one place when you put him down!"
"Precisely," Hermione grinned, "I'll admit it was nice to not have to worry for the night."
Just as she said this, the floo roared and a tired Angelina stepped out holding three week old Fred in her arms. Hermione, whom Angelina and George had asked to be godmother, squealed and held her arms out for the little boy and Angelina grinned as she passed him over. He really was gorgeous, with Angelina's dark skin and George's bright blue eyes, he was going to be a proper heartbreaker as he grew up. Just holding him left Hermione feeling the desire to hold another newborn of her own, but she quashed that feeling very quickly as she recalled the pain of childbirth.
"How are you guys?" She asked Angelina, who looked very tired.
"I'm exhausted!" Angelina admitted, "he sleeps two hours at a time and every time he's awake it's for about an hour."
"Ouch." Hermione winced, remembering the days that Arty had been the same, "it passes fairly quickly, it that's any consolation… I think Arty was just over a month old when he suddenly jumped to four hours at a time."
"I hope so," grumbled George, "I'm so tired I accidentally drank a love potion instead of my coffee at the shop this morning. I spent five minutes making for eyes at Lee before he realised there might be something slightly wrong with the situation."
Hermione laughed so hard she had to pass Fred on to his auntie Ginny for fear that she might drop him. Just the image of a loved up George mooning over the dreadlocked Lee was hilarious enough, but the disgust on George's face as he described the scene was priceless.
"How's the birthday boy?" Angelina asked, grinning, as Hermione calmed down.
"He is currently gnome hunting with Victoire," she chuckled, pointing out the window, "he seems happy enough after his first night away from home."
"How did you manage?" Angelina asked, gazing at her little boy, "I can't imagine being away from him."
"That's what I thought, but it was very relaxing. Not having to worry about him for once was nice." She smiled.
As more and more people started to trickle into the Burrow, Arty put on his entertainers hat and was soon showing off with his presents from his aunties and uncles. He was especially pleased with the full sized set of quidditch balls from Ron and Harry, who it seemed had set their theme early in his life. It was a child friendly set, which could be charmed so that the bludgers were squishy and the snitch flew low to the ground at quarter speed. Hermione laughed as he immediately dragged her two male best friends off to the makeshift quidditch pitch at the bottom, made all the more funny by the fact that with them being so tall and him being so small, they had to stoop as he held both of their hands.
"He really is an amazing kid," Neville said as he appeared next to her at the window, "you've done an incredible job, considering… well…"
"I'm not really doing it alone, as I'm sure you were going to say," she smiled kindly, bumping her shoulder against his, "look at this lot. He's surrounded by love and family."
"Don't you wish his dad could see him grow up?" Neville asked, frowning and she shrugged sadly.
"Of course I do," she murumered, "if he showed up today and told me he wanted to get to know his son I wouldn't hesitate for a second."
"But?" He pushed and she sighed, turning to watch as Arty flew between his two uncles.
"But I wrote to him before I even knew Arty was going to be a boy, and I haven't heard from him at all in that time." She said, shrugging, "if he wanted anything to do with us he would be here, right? I mean what would you do if… oh I don't know… Luna wrote to you one day and said she was having your baby? Hypothetically speaking, if course."
"I wouldn't ignore it, that's for sure," he shrugged, "I can't imagine knowing there's a kid out there without a father, just because I was too selfish to care."
"Exactly." She nodded, smiling tightly.
"Are you ever going to tell us who his dad is? Or him?" He asked, moving to stand opposite her, his bottom perched on the edge of the table and she shrugged.
"As for telling anyone else, that's mine and his dad's secret." She said, "but if Arty asks, I'll never lie to him. I'll tell him that his dad was never the kind of man who wanted to settle down and was dedicated to his work. There isn't a lie in that sentence."