Chapter four
Rose heard from Hermione two days later, so Rose was going to join Hermione at her home. Rose just hoped this wasn't a big mistake. But what if Ron turned up, what if some other friends did? but no, Hermione said she never saw anyone and Ron worked a lot.
She stepped outside her home, apparated away. When she looked up she saw a nice, but very small cottage. It had no front yard and from what she could see of the fence, the back garden was small as well. Rose took a couple of deep breaths then knocked on the door. She heard footsteps so she smiled as Hermione opened the door.
'Rose, welcome, come in, please,' Hermione smiled as she stepped back to allow Rose entry.
Rose stepped inside, 'I thought this would be nice to have with dinner,' she held up a bottle of wine.
'Oh thank you that was very thoughtful. Follow me into the kitchen, I'm just finishing up.'
'You have a nice home Hermione, very cosy.'
'Thank you, some of the furniture belonged to my parents,' Hermione went back to her meal but she waved Rose towards the table.
'If you don't mind me asking, why use your parents furniture?'
'Oh, you see, they died, so I kept some of their stuff, most I sold, it would not have fit in this house. I kept my favourite pieces along with their pictures and a few personal items.'
'Oh I'm sorry, my parents died a long time ago, it's not easy is it?'
'No, mine died due to death eaters. How did yours die, if you don't mind me asking?'
'The war, that's why I wasn't here to go to Hogwarts. They died when I was very young, I was raised with relatives,' Rose thought at least part of that was true.
'Do you have any siblings?'
'No, it's just me, what about you?'
'It's just me, but my husband has five brothers and a sister, they're all married as well.'
'So a very large family, how did you cope with that being an only child?'
'It was daunting at first, but they are very nice people.'
'You said you don't get on with you're husbands sister, is she your age?'
'A year younger. She married one of our friends, they have two children, two boys.'
'So you're in-laws have a lot of grandchildren?'
'Yes, ten,' Hermione waved her hand to the picture on the wall.
'So are the red head's the Weasley family?'
'Yes, they all have red hair, lighter than yours as you can see. The oldest, Bill, he married Fleur who's french, she's the blond, they have two girls and a boy. Then charlie who is gay, he and his partner adopted a little girl. Percy and Audrey have a boy and a girl, then George and Angelina have a boy and girl. Ginny and Dean have two boys.'
'So the one near you, that's your husband?'
'Yes, Ron, he's an auror. Originally it was our friend Harry's idea to become an auror, but Ron kind of liked the idea. He spent the first year after the war helping his brother George, who owns a shop. George was a twin and Fred died during the war. So he needed help, Ron offered, stayed for a year before joining the aurors. Even though he is trained he is still a junior auror.'
'Do you work?'
'Yes, I work in the department for control of magical creatures.'
'Oh, that's surprising, you don't seem the creature type.'
'I'm trying to change laws to protect magical beings such as house elves. They are basically slaves and I know that is all they know, but to me, it's not right.'
'I feel the same about house elves, I met a few over the years. It does seem to be what they like, but since they do not know any other life, to them, that is how they should be.'
'Yes, but I am not having much luck changing that law,' Hermione turned and placed two plates on the table, then opened the wine, 'I hope you enjoy this Rose.'
'I'm sure I will, I'm not the best cook, so I usually go out to eat, or just have something like a salad sandwich. You know, I should give you a basket of my fruit and vegetables, I grow everything.'
'That would be nice, thank you,' Hermione smiled then the two women started eating, taking an occasional sip of wine.
'That was wonderful Hermione, thank you.'
'You're welcome, but I have desert, if you want some. I know some woman do not want to eat anything that might put on weight. I normally don't, but I thought we could treat ourselves.'
'Since it has been a while, I would love some.'
Hermione smiled again then dished up two lots of desert, 'It's treacle tart, seeing you the other day, how you reminded me of my friend, I had to make this as it was he's favourite.'
Rose smiled trying not to show how nervous she was, then took a small forkful of tart, 'Oh that is very nice and very sweet.'
Hermione chuckled, 'Yes, it is, Harry said that was why he liked it.'
'You said he suffered, then he left, why would he leave his friends?'
'Even though Ron and I were his best friends, Harry spent a lot of time alone, it was how he was raised. He was never a big talker, kept his feelings hidden. When he lost his godfather he seemed to withdraw from everyone. My belief is that he was scared to get close to anyone.'
'So he lost his godfather, what about a godmother?'
'He lost his parents when he was a baby, then his godfather. Harry saw him die but also blames himself for his death. We never heard anything about a godmother, Harry did ask a friend of his godfather, Remus, but we got interrupted, so Harry never got an answer. I spoke with Professor Snape, since he knew Lily Potter as a child, I thought he might know. He said the godmother died when Harry was only a month old, again due to the war, but he didn't know details. Harry also lost his mentor, Albus Dumbledore then Remus died the night of the battle of Hogwarts. I think and I'm sure I'm right that Harry felt if he got close to anyone again they would die, that's why he left, or the main reason he left. I'm sure there were other reasons. I just wish he would write so I know he's okay. My husband and I spoke a lot about Harry when he first left. We were concerned that Harry might take his own life. We did receive two letters from him, but that was in the first few months after he left. It's been seven years, or almost seven years.'
'Maybe he just started a new life that had nothing to do with his old one. If he did lose all these people then maybe he wanted to start fresh. If you and your husband were his closest friends then both of you were also a reminder of who he lost.'
'Yes, that's what Ron's dad told us. Anyway, I am sorry I keep going on about him. Tell me about you Rose and how you came to work with potions?'
'When I was young I never thought I was very good at potions, but one year I found myself enjoying it and my potions turned out perfect. I was travelling, but at the same time I wanted to find out if there was a way for me to have my own children one day. I started learning under an old potion master but he said I will never be able to conceive. He told me not to give up, that new potions get invented all the time. After I finished my training I decided to open my shop but it would also give me time to experiment and I came up with quite a few new potions. That potion you have, it was tested quite extensively before being passed, so even though it will not help me it will help people like you. I figured since I am good enough I would try to help people. I get students visiting a lot, some who could easily make the potions they buy but they are not allowed. Some are just too embarrassed to speak with the healer from the school.'
'So you would students who want a prevention potion to stop themselves getting pregnant?'
'Yes, I check their age, if they are over seventeen then I let them have it. Severus did ask me one day, he said it seems that the teachers are catching a lot more older students in compromising potions.'
Hermione laughed making Rose laughed. Rose wondered if she was thinking about what it would have been like if she got caught by a teacher, like Dumbledore or Snape. Maybe she realised that the students today had a completely different life than they did so having sex around Hogwarts was a right of passage. Rose remembered Sirius saying that to Harry, most of the older students wanted to have sex, at least once at Hogwarts before the left. Times did change.
Over the next few weeks, Rose had dined with Hermione three more times, they had also gone shopping together one day. She was again heading to dinner with Hermione that evening but this time she was going to take a large basket of her vegetables.
Rose knocked on the door and heard footsteps approach, but it wasn't Hermione that opened the door, it was Ron. So Rose had to quickly pull herself together.
'You must be Rose, my wife talks about you all the time. Come in please.'
'Thank you.'
'I'm Ron by the way,' Ron shook Rose's hand after he shut the door, 'It's nice to meet you Rose.'
'It's nice to meet you too Ron. I picked all these from my garden; I thought Hermione would like some.'
'That is very nice of you, here, let me take that and we can go see my wife,' Ron took the large basket then walked into the kitchen with Rose, 'Rose brought these for you Mione.'
'Oh Rose, thank you,' Hermione hugged her new friend, 'Please sit, Ron can you pour us some wine?'
'I've got it.'
'Hermione mentioned you're an auror Ron; that is dangerous work.'
'It can be, but over the last couple of years our office mainly helps with ordinary crimes instead of dark crimes. We finally caught the last of Voldemort's supporters so we very rarely find ourselves in that type of situation anymore.'
'I did read up on Voldemort and his death eaters, how some stayed hidden for a long time before he returned.'
'Yes, they did, but even if we were suspicious, we needed proof they were a death eater or supporter before we could use something like a truth serum. There was this one death eater, we all knew it, but he seemed to be able to fight off veritaserum. It wasn't until one of my colleagues got very upset that caused the death eater to try choking him and we got to see his dark mark. We could never get approval to just pull their sleeves up to check.'
'Then I'm glad you found them. But if you would like to test it, I have made a better truth serum, no one will be able to fight it off.'
'Hermione said you were good, so I'll mention it to my boss. But my wife was right, you do resemble our friend, it's your eyes. We never saw him very often without his glasses, mainly when he was hurt, but yes, they are the same shape and colour.'
'Yes, apart from Hermione, Severus and a few people I know from Hogsmeade have all mentioned my eyes. So this Harry wore glasses?'
'Yes, really old and ugly, but his muggle relatives never gave him anything, he actually found them in a bin at the school he went to. Hermione used to fix them all the time. How many times did Harry's glasses get broken Mione?'
'I repaired them seven times. They were broken the night he killed Voldemort so he probably got new ones the moment he went into a muggle town.'
'So he knows the muggle world?'
'Yes, raised with muggles.'
'Then he might have gone for contact lenses, they seems to be very popular in the muggle world.'
'Hermione told me about those, I don't think I could wear something right over my eyeball.'
Rose smiled, 'No, but you do not wear glasses. I have finally developed a new potion to help with that. It won't heal eyesight completely, but enough that someone will only need glasses to read very small print if they have very bad eyesight. If they use glasses only to read then my potion will fix that. I want to keep going with that until I develop one that will completely heal bad eyesight.'
'My mum would love the one you've got. She's wearing glasses now, but only to read.'
'Let her know so she come see me,' Rose noticed Ron looked a little uncomfortable, 'It's very cheap, only seven sickles, but as you are now my friends I will cut it down to four sickles, that's what it cost me to make.'
'Thanks, but how did you know I was thinking about money?'
'I've seen a few looks from people when they look at the prices of my potions. I don't make a lot of profit, just enough to replace everything especially with price increases on a lot of items. It was like the potion Hermione got, that has a lot of rare and had to get ingredients, so I only made fifteen galleons on that and that's really because of how long it takes me to make. It's a very complicated potion that needs constant attention, so can't leave it once I start and it takes about three hours of constant stirring before I can let it rest.'
'So you stand for three hours stirring one potion, doesn't your back get sore doing that?' Ron asked.
'It did at first, the master who taught me showed me an old ointment that helps. But he did tell me that if I have a proper stool, I can sit for part of the time, I would rather stand.'
Hermione floated three plates onto the table, 'You have a red mark on your arm, did you get hurt Rose?'
'Swiped by devil's snare, I don't normally go near them until I need a leaf or some sap, I usually immobilise it. But I was bending down picking up one of the pots that blew off in that big storm that hit a couple of days ago. The ointment I use will clear it up in the next day or two.'
'I've only had one dealing with devil's snare; I thought I was going to die, but Hermione cast a fire charm. We were only eleven at the time; Harry was with us as well.'
'Yes, one of our little adventures,' Hermione smiled sadly, 'I do wish he would write.'
'Maybe he thinks about it then decides if he's started a new life, then associating with is old life will bring back painful memories, you did say he suffered.'
'That's what Ron and I believe, if…' Hermione never finished.
'I'm sure he's fine Hermione, Harry's not stupid, he wouldn't kill himself.'
'I'm not so sure, not after his life.'
'Maybe try writing him again, just asked him to write back so we know he's alive,' Ron squeezed his wife's hand.
'I think Ron has a good idea Hermione. If you don't ask anything about his life or where he is, it might make him relax enough to let you know he's okay.'
'Alright, you both make sense, but eat Ron, you have to get back to work.'
'Yeah, I do, Gawain will kill me if I'm late. We're working on a secret mission; sorry I can't say more Rose.'
'You do not have to explain, I read a lot about what went on over here. Just know Hermione and I keep ourselves entertained when you're working.'
'I'm glad she found a good friend, she needed to. She can also talk to you about stuff that just goes over my head,' Ron grinned at his wife before he finished eating, 'I have to go, see you in the morning sweetheart,' Ron kissed his wife then turned to Rose, shaking her hand, 'It was nice to finally meet you and I will let my mother know about the potion. Hopefully I will see you soon.'
'It was nice meeting you Ron,' Rose smiled then waited until Ron left, 'Let me help you clean up.'
'Oh you don't have to help Rose, I'll just let magic take care of it tonight,' Hermione flicked her wand and all the dishes ended up in the sink being washed by magic, 'I did want to ask, now even though I am not a big drinker, just a glass or two of wine with dinner. This potion I'm taking, will alcohol or other potions affect it?'
'Strong alcohol will and only if you have too much. The only potion I know that could cause problems with alcohol is skele-grow, everything else is fine.'
'Thank you, I've been meaning to ask you for a while about that.'
'I should have mentioned it myself, I usually do. But I want to ask and sorry if I'm stepping over the line here, but Ron seemed very concerned when you were talking about Harry.'
'I sometimes slip into depression, it started when my parents were killed, it seemed to get worse when I realise I might not see Harry again. Every time I think of him, that he might have taken his own life, it sets in again. I try to imagine that he's married, has kids and is living in a beautiful country town. But sometimes I see him in a run down shack, drinking himself to death. I hate those types of dreams.'
Rose sighed, 'I can't keep this up Hermione, you deserve to know the truth. I just ask that you never reveal my secret to anyone.'
'I would never betray your trust Rose, but I'm not sure what you mean, the truth about what?'
Rose stared into Hermione's sad eyes, 'I'm Harry.'
