The four of them were all sitting around the dining table with a mouthwatering plate of Ginny's special in front of each of them. There was another plate in front of an empty seat next to James'.
Lily was the one who voiced out the questions everyone was thinking, "Should we wait for Al to come down too? Or should we just call him?"
While it had never been an official family tradition for the family to all eat breakfast together on Easter Sunday the way they did on Christmas day before opening presents, it was something they had done every year without fail that somehow it felt wrong for them to leave Albus to eat alone when he woke up later.
"Of course we should wake him up! Remember the way he had rudely woken all of us up before eight on Christmas day just so he could get to the Malfoys' as early as possible? It's time for him to get a taste of his own potion."
James had already made to get up from his seat when Ginny stopped him. "James, don't wake your brother up."
"Why, mum? It's nine-twenty, I knew he didn't go to sleep late yesterday, he most definitely has slept enough."
"That you don't know." She replied with a frown on her forehead.
"W-What do you mean? I don't understand."
Harry and Ginny looked at each other for a moment before a silent agreement was reached. She gave him an encouraging nod.
"A-Albus… hasn't been sleeping well lately." Despite thinking it was time to tell his other kids at least a little about what Al had been experiencing lately, Harry was not sure how he should phrase it and how much he should reveal.
"You mean he can't fall asleep? Or he keeps waking up in the middle of the night?" James was looking both concerned and confused.
"Hmm… he sort of wakes up in the middle of the night..."
"You mean, he has nightmares." Surprisingly, it was Lily who spelled things out.
"You knew, Lily?" It was so rare for Ginny to be surprised by her kids.
"I-I might have heard him crying and screaming in his sleep a coup…" She trailed off but everyone understood completely.
They were all silent for an uncomfortable ten seconds despite the delicious food laid ignored. James let out a nervous laugh, "Surely it can't be too bad? I mean, My room is next to his too and I've never been woken up by h-his sounds." The others remained silent because they knew that James was such a heavy sleeper that he very well could have remained sound asleep even if Albus had been screaming his head off next door.
Harry thought this was quite a melancholic start to an Easter morning. Ginny seemed determined to turn things around as she clapped her hands once and said brightly, "We should just start eating ourselves and let Albus sleep as much as he likes. James, Lily, I'm sure you two are hungry. Albus' plate has been charmed so it'll taste as delicious as it does now by the time he comes down."
Their children started eating somewhat reluctantly after exchanging an uneasy look between themselves. Harry was both relieved and disappointed to hear uneven footsteps walking down the stairs after he had taken just one bite. His youngest son was absent-mindedly yawning with groggy and half-opened eyes while his hair was an untamed beast standing in all directions. There could be no mistake that Albus had indeed slept in instead of just staying in his room after waking up for some unknown reason. The boy took in the scene in the dining room, blinked twice, closed his eyes purposefully then opened them and looked at them blankly some more without uttering a single word.
"Oh, You're all up and eating breakfast already." Albus talked in a monotone after having been standing there in a prolonged silence. His family around the table was all looking towards each other with a dozen questions on their minds because they were not sure what Al was thinking about and what they should do next. Could Albus be thinking that his family had intentionally left him out?
"Good morning, Albus! Come over here and have breakfast with us." It was Ginny who called out as if the family had not just been discussing about the boy's secret (was it a secret?)just three minutes ago.
Albus dragged himself across the floor almost as if he was sleep-walking. "Oh, we're having Ginny's special today, why didn't you wake me up? You know I wouldn't want to miss out."
His son did not ask accusedly and he did not even know who he had meant by "you" but Harry answered immediately, "We noticed that you're still sleeping so we thought we should just let you sleep since you've been-" Albus suddenly looked wide awake with his gaping eyes as if he was daring Harry to talk about his nightmares in front of his siblings, "waking up so early every day lately."
Albus' eyes relaxed, which meant that they reverted to their groggy, half-opened "normal" state, as he let out a relieved breath, "Oh yeah, it feels quite nice to be able to sleep in once in a while. I-I don't know why I'm always waking up early a-and couldn't get back to sleep these days." He walked over to his usual seat and sat down before immediately lifting the toast up to bite on it.
"Al?" Harry could immediately felt his heart beating hearing his daughter calling her brother, dreading what she would say to him next.
"Ye-yes, w-what is it, Lily?" Albus talked while chewing his mouthful of bread, which would have irritated Ginny enough for her to call him out for it normally but she, like Harry, was looking rather preoccupied at the moment.
"Nothing… I mean, happy Easter."
The boy swallowed before answering, "Oh right, it's Easter. Happy Easter to you too Lily…" he turned to look around the table, "and to you all too."
Everyone murmured "happy Easter" in return but throughout breakfast, there was still an awkward air around despite how both he and Ginny made an effort to maintain a light conversation, which made Harry wonder if he should have held back the information about Albus' nightmares. In his defense, he had had no way to know that his son would have gotten down so soon after on his own and it had felt wrong to hide everything from his other children, not to mention they, or more accurately, James could very well have known it on his own, as Lily had already known.
At one point when Al was halfway through his toast, he turned towards his brother with a raised eyebrow, "Eat your breakfast, James! Why are you staring at me like that?" He added after a beat, "Why are you all acting so weird this morning?"
The Easter gathering at the Burrow was significantly different from the Christmas gathering even though both were rare occasions for the whole extended Weasley family to meet. One of the bigger differences was the unofficial tradition for the children to take advantage of the warmer spring weather to fly or practice Quidditch a bit at the orchard where Harry himself had played Quidditch with Ron and the twins in his Hogwarts years, during the off time after lunch when everyone was just hanging out. When this had first started back when the oldest children had just started in Hogwarts, they had been contented to use whatever ancient broomsticks the broom shrek could offer but as more of the kids had become more proficient in flying or had even gotten into the school team, they had understably become more serious in their crafts and would choose to bring their own broomsticks instead.
Gone were the days when the name Weasley would automatically associate a child with ginger hair (the half-French Weasley girls had inherited Fleur's Veela blonde hair, Bill's son Louis had strawberry blonde hair and both of George's children had black hair) and hand-me-down school supplies. All of Harry's brothers-in-law were pretty well-off financially that it pleased them to provide for their children, especially quality racing broomsticks that they could not have afforded for themselves when they had been in school, even though those among them who had played Quidditch had all been excellent players without the best broomsticks. Because of this, the Easter gathering provided the perfect opportunity for the children to showcase their broomsticks and since the start of the school year, James had been looking forward to show off his Firebolt in front of their whole family. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise for Harry to see his eldest son dressed in full gear and his red and gold Quidditch uniform with his Firebolt held high when he appeared in front of the Floo.
Albus, on the other hand, was just wearing his casual outfit without holding his broomstick, even Lily was beamingly holding her Nimbus 2005.
"Albus, don't you want to show off your new broomstick at the Burrow?" Harry had no idea what James was thinking about while asking the question because his eldest son had made it quite obvious before that he did not think too much of the thirty-year-old model but he could not detect any malicious intention or a joke in his question at all.
"No, I'm good. I told you I'm not a Quidditch player, I'll probably just stay at the house. If I go, I can just watch you all play."
"But you can't not play, it's our family tradition!"
"In that case, it's been tradition for me to not join the game."
"Come on, we never have a good Keeper among us before, it'd be so helpful for us to have a real Keeper this time instead of us Chasers and Beater taking turns to play as Keeper."
"Since when have I been a real Keeper? And didn't you say that you don't want me to join the Slytherin team? I can't guarantee I won't get tempted if I play enough time."
"If you end up joining the Slytherin team, it may be harder for our team to win but it's always much more rewarding to win a challenging game than an easy game. Besides, what do you take me for, Albus? Winning the Quidditch Cup isn't the most important thing for me, it's about the whole family having a friendly game for once in the year."
"That's really quite nice of you but honestly, I'm still a bit sore from our game two days ago." To Albus' credit, he had been remarkably patient with his brother without getting annoyed when he would have asked James to shut up basically as soon as the conversation had started in the past.
It took another ten minutes of James' nagging and some gentle persuasion in Lily's part to finally get Albus to reluctantly carry his Nimbus 2000 into the fireplace.
As expected, James was the first one to floo to the Burrow, followed by Lily, Albus, Ginny and lastly, Harry. By the time Harry arrived at the Burrow, he could immediately tell that it was his non-Quidditch player nieces and nephews, as well as Angelina and George, who paid the most attention to James' Firebolt because James' Quidditch teammates Fred and Roxanne had seen the broomstick countless times and had even tried flying on it. Charlie, the other former Quidditch captain in the house, however, was completely engrossed in Albus' Nimbus 2000.
"... never flown on a Nimbus 2000 before, but this is amazing for twenty Galleons. In my opinions, only the Seeker and Chasers really need the fastest broomsticks. But of course this is all the broomstick business' doing, to make all school kids believe that they need professional grade broomsticks and getting the best broomsticks would automatically make them good flyers." Charlie slapped on Albus' back approvingly, Harry could tell from the way Al jerked forward that he was winded by how forceful the dragon handler's slap was. "Good for you for keeping your feet on the ground, Albus."
"I-I just don't really care about playing Quidditch, so this is way more than enough for casual flying."
"I can't say I'm too happy to hear that another of our own," Charlie looked meaningfully towards Percy's daughters Molly and Lucy, who were both sitting straight listening to their father bragging to Arthur about another boring new regulation he had been working on and who had always reminded Harry of a pair of forty-year-old women trapped in the bodies of young adults, "don't care about playing Quidditch but at least I've learnt from my reliable source that it's more a personal preference than a lack of talent."
As usual, Albus looked very uncomfortable being complimented, especially by a skilled Seeker who had not seen him played himself. Luckily, everyone including Charlie was distracted by the sudden activation of the Floo.
The Granger-Weasleys was the only family who had not arrived and Rose was the first to appear at the Floo. She called out a general "Happy Easter" to everyone while looking around the whole room, before rolling her eyes at James, "Really? You seriously feel the need to dress in your uniform, captain?"
"Considering this is the first time I'll be flying the Firebolt at the Easter gathering here, absolutely."
"As if you can fly at one-twentieth, actually, more like one-hundredth its maximum speed at the orchard. Well, whatever you say, captain." At this point she turned around to see Albus' new broomstick. "So James was right, you did get a Nimbus 2000!" She walked over to Albus with her hands hovering over the broomstick after placing her own broomstick by the wall, she looked unsure as she said slowly while giving the broomstick a once-over, "T-This isn't what I expected…"
"Did you expect it to be all beaten up and broken or did you expect me to get the newest Nimbus 3100?" Albus clearly did not take her words well.
Rose was blushing as she retracted her hands, "I just didn't expect it to look so nice because I heard it was a bargain deal and knowing you, I would never think you'd have gotten the newest Nimbus at all… I suppose the most I was expecting was a Nimbus 2500 or the newest Cleansweep."
Albus' look softened and the edge of his voice disappeared when he replied, "I never thought I'd say this but… you seem to know me better than I expected." Harry knew that Al did not intend to make him feel bad but thinking about how hard he had tried to make Al get one of the newest broomsticks, he could not help feeling frustrated that he clearly did not know his son well at all.
Rose let out a sad laugh, "Well, we used to be best friends."
"Hmm… we're still good frien…"
"Happy Easter, Weasleys!" Ron cried out happily as he stepped out the fire place, he did not even wait for any response as he exclaimed, "Albus, is this a Nimbus 2000 you're holding? It looks exactly the same as Harry's from what, has it been thirty years ago?"
Albus let his excited uncle, whose excitement was reminding Harry strongly of his father-in-law's reaction whenever he saw a new Muggle product, picked his broomstick up for an inspection, while giving Rose a friendly smile.
A/N: Another chapter with not much happening but it could be fun to see a bit more of the other characters. I believe Rose was still Al's closest cousin but a part of Albus would never be able to forget their first few years in Hogwarts and would always remain a little wary of her.
Thank you Ronnie Jane, HogwartsDreamer113, AxelsFire96 and JennH for commenting again. Sorry that I've been constantly distracted that I actually ended up writing even less than normally, but it's all thanks to your support that I'd feel the motivation to write at all despite feeling so tired and disappointed in myself. I've two exams coming up within two weeks so I won't be able to update until at least mid December. Please comment.