Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not writing these stories for profit.
"I just don't get it, Hermione!" Ron was saying as the two of them made their way to the Potter cottage. "Why do they call them hot dogs? I'm telling you, Muggles are bloody insane!"
"Just because Muggles are a bit different doesn't mean they're insane, Ron!" Hermione replied. A few minutes later she knocked on the front door, which opened to reveal Ginny Potter. "Hey, guys," she said as she led them over to the playpen in the sitting room where Rose was playing with little Albus and three-year-old James was zooming around on his toy broomstick.
"Mummy, Daddy!" cried Rose happily, holding out her arms to be picked up.
"Hi, Rosie," said Hermione, hoisting the infant from the playpen. Turning to Ginny, she added, "Thanks for looking after Rose for us."
"Hey, it was no problem. You know she's always welcome here."
After the Granger-Weasleys had Flooed back home, Hermione asked Rose, "Did you have a good time with Jamie and Al?"
"Yeah!" squealed Rose, kicking her little legs. The little girl had already been fed, so all Ron and Hermione had to do was bathe her and get her ready for bed.
Five minutes later found Rose sitting in the tub happily splashing and playing with her favorite bath toy, a miniature moving replica of the giant squid that lived in the Black Lake at Hogwarts. Before long Ron was completely soaked.
"Easy there Rosie-Posie, you're getting Daddy all wet," he said with a chuckle. Rose just giggled and splashed harder. "You little demon, you!" laughed Ron. He let her play a few minutes longer before announcing that the bath was over, and as usual, Rose was very reluctant to get out of the water.
"No, Daddy, no!" she screamed as Ron made to lift her out of the tub. The redheaded wizard thought for a moment, then hurried out of the bathroom and returned seconds later with Rose's stuffed otter.
"Oddie! Wan' Oddie!" yelled Rose, making grabbing motions with her hands.
"Not till you get out of the water," Ron told her firmly. Rose pouted for a moment before holding out her hands, and Ron scooped her out before proceeding to dry her off and get her into her pajamas.
Once Rose was tucked into her cot, Ron said, "How about a bedtime story before you go to sleep?" The fifteen-month-old beamed and clapped her hands; Ron then sat down next to the cot.
"Right then...Once there was a little girl who looked a lot like you, and she had a mummy and a daddy who loved her very much. She also had lots of cousins she loved to play with sometimes. But she wished she could have a friend she could play with all the time.
"So then," Ron continued, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head, "the little girl's mummy and daddy decided to go out and get her a dog."
"Yeah, yeah! Doggie, doggie, doggie!" shrieked Rose.
Ron chuckled. "That's right! This girl had lots of fun with her doggie; they would play fetch and chase balls and do all sorts of fun things together, and her mummy and daddy were happy 'cos she was happy. The end."
Rose sighed contentedly and slowly drifted off to sleep.
As Ron climbed into bed with Hermione a few minutes later, he asked, "'Mione, what do you think of us getting a dog for Rosie?"
"Are you sure we can handle a new dog and a new baby?" Hermione asked, massaging her belly.
"Oh, come on, the baby's still a few months away. Besides, it'll be nice for Rosie to have a dog. Remember yesterday when we were all at the park and she wanted to pet that Yorkshire terrier?"
"Well..." said Hermione slowly, "if it will make Rose happy, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. By the way, we need to come up with a name for our new baby."
Ron and Hermione hadn't agreed on whether to find out the baby's sex ahead of time. Ron had wanted to keep it a surprise, but Hermione had insisted on finding out ahead of time so they could decide what color to paint the nursery and what toys to give the baby. Besides, as she'd pointed out, they didn't want to make the same mistake Harry and Ginny had made when James was born.
When Ginny had been pregnant with her first child, she'd gone on about how much she hoped for a girl, and she and Harry had painted the nursery pink and bought some dolls, dresses, and various other things for little girls as they'd assumed the baby would be a girl. When their baby had been born and they'd realized it was a boy, they'd had to repaint the room and buy a whole new set of toys and clothes. Ergo, after several hours of bickering, Ron and Hermione had gone with Hermione's plan and cast a Gender-Revealing Charm, which told them they were having a boy.
"How about Arthur?" Ron suggested. "You know, in case he turns out to be a Muggle lover like Dad?"
"I thought we'd decided against naming him after someone else in the family? We didn't name Rose after anyone we know."
"Oh yeah..."
Hermione then left the room and came back a minute later with a large book of baby names. "Let's see what we can find in here..."
Ron rolled his eyes. Leave it to Hermione to use books as her answer for everything.
"Simon? No, that one won't do...Michael? No...Abelard? No, that would sound terrible next to Granger-Weasley..."
"What about Tom?" piped up Ron. "There're a million Toms."
"Yes, and one of them grew up to be the most powerful Dark wizard of all time, in case you've forgotten," said Hermione coolly.
"Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion!"
Turning back to her book, Hermione muttered, "Patrick? Hmmm, maybe..."
"I know! Let's name him Xenophilius!"
"All right, now you're just being ridiculous, Ronald."
"I was only joking!"
Hermione flipped through the pages a bit longer before saying, "Aha! Here's a good one: Hugo!"
"Hugo?" repeated Ron, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes! According to this" - Hermione pointed to a page in the book - "the name means 'bright in mind and spirit.'"
"Maybe, but it sounds a bit out of place in this family. I mean, how many redheads do you know with the name Hugo?"
"You don't even know if he'll turn out to be a redhead, Ron! And anyway, what does it matter what his hair color is?"
"I'm just saying, it just doesn't seem like a good name for a Granger-Weasley to me."
"Well, let's sleep on it," said Hermione, yawning. "If neither of us can come up with anything better, we're sticking with Hugo. And perhaps we'll get a dog for Rosie tomorrow, too." The two of them settled down in their bed and were soon fast asleep.