Ch 71: Mothering Sunday

The following week was an odd one. Between recovering from the emotional roller coaster of the anniversary and missing Rose on her birthday, everyone was glad to see the weekend come again. Rose had sent a package midweek of the various clippings and photographs from different papers. She'd said she knew they all ignored the papers, so she wanted them to see the nice articles they'd run since it was so rare. Everyone had raved about her dress, and Rose was quite disappointed she hadn't been able to see it herself. Hermione just laughed it all off.

"If I can't let myself get worked up about the bad articles, then I should let myself get chuffed up about the nice ones!" she'd insisted

Ron had felt tired all week, still a bit of an emotional hangover he supposed. But he was glad to have Mother's Day to focus on as a positive thing coming up. He was also beginning to worry he had set too high of a bar in his speech at the memorial, and wondered if he could meet it himself. He didn't regret saying it, but he did wonder if he had set himself up for failure.

That Sunday morning, Ron woke to the sound of an owl pecking on their bedroom window. Internally groaning, he pulled his arms from around his sleeping wife to let in the owl.

"Why didn't you go downstairs?" he admonished the little bird who hooted at him with impatience. Once the window was open, it flew directly to Hermione and stood in front of her, pecking gently at her arm as she awoke.

"What in the world?" she muttered.

"Sorry!" Ron exclaimed trying to get the bird off the bed. "I don't know why it didn't go to the kitchen window. I tried to get it before it woke you."

"It's alright," she said laughing. "Come here little one, let me see what is on your leg." She reached for the scroll and laughed as she unrolled it.

"Hah! It's from Rose. Listen it says 'Sorry for the intrusion, but I have always woken you up on Mothering Sunday, and I wasn't ready to give that up just because I happen to be in Scotland and you're not. I love you so much Mum, and I will be thinking of you today. I look forward to having breakfast together when you are up here next week. I hope Ron and Hugo can give you a wonderful day. You deserve it. I love you always, Rose.'"

"That was sweet. Weird. But sweet," Ron laughed.

"Yeah. It was. She would always go down to the kitchen and make me breakfast to have in bed. And it was usually awful. I mean truly, truly awful. Under-cooked runny eggs, almost raw bacon. Rough to get down, but it was so sweet every year. And then every year there would be so many crumbs in the bed I'd have to wash all the sheets that day. So, yeah – woken by a bird is a step up."

"Hmm, I see your point," smiled Ron. "How about I make you a fully cooked breakfast in the kitchen today and we start a new tradition?"

"Brilliant. But I have a suggestion. Why don't you go down and get some food for this poor little guy and then once he's settled, you come back up here and we just lay in bed until at least 7."

"Even more brilliant," grinned Ron.

Later that morning, Ron was cleaning up the dishes from their breakfast. Hugo and Hermione were snuggled on the sofa reading together while he finished up in the kitchen. Hermione had loved the card from Hugo, and they had decided they would work together to plant the wild flowers for Fi in the back yard once the rains let up. Ron was pleased with what he had come up with, even if it was more of an IOU than an actual present. He had talked to the art center and got them a "gift certificate" for an art class once Rose came home where they would make something building on their four handprints. They'd had dinner with Hermione's parents the night before and were due at The Burrow later in the afternoon.

"What should we do with the rainy day?" asked Ron as he came in from the kitchen. "Do you want to stay in and read or head out and do something for a few hours?"

Hugo shrugged, but Hermione said, "Actually, I have an idea. Let's go pick up sandwiches or pastries or something and take them over to go visit that Mrs. Carrington at the Care Home. Something about that woman has just stuck with me. She has no one celebrating her today, and I would think it is hard to watch all the other old ladies at the home get flowers and visitors on a special day when you get nothing."

Ron walked up behind the sofa, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. "You are an amazing person. I think that is a brilliantly wonderful thing to do."

Soon they had picked up some sandwiches at a local shop as well as some flowers from the market before heading over to the home. Hugo had created a quick card that they all signed, and they found their way to her room.

"Mrs. Carrington? Hello, Mrs. Carrington? It's Hermione and Ron and our son Hugo. We came to visit you," Hermione announced loudly and clearly from the door as she knocked gently before sticking her head in the room. She saw the older woman had dozed off in her wheel chair in front of the tele where golf was showing. She smiled and held her finger up to Ron and Hugo to give her a minute. She gently went closer to the woman and said, "Mrs. Carrington?" much louder, and the woman's eyes fluttered open.

After a brief look of confusion, she saw Hermione's face and broke into a wide smile. "Well, hello! What a surprise!"

"Hello, Mrs. Carrington," said Hermione. "I'm Hermione. We met a few months ago. I brought Ron and Hugo with me and we were hoping you would be up for a quick visit. Would that be alright with you?"

"Yes, yes. More than alright! Come in, come in."

"Hello, Mrs. Carrington," nodded Ron. "We brought some take away for lunch. While I am sure what the care home makes is lovely, we thought you might enjoy something a little different today. We brought an array of sandwiches, pasties and sausage rolls and a few different tarts and biscuits for good measure."

"Yeah," laughed Hugo. "For good measure or because you insisted on extra biscuits," he teased.

"I am so touched," Mrs. Carrington said earnestly. "Here lad, fetch those chairs over in the corner, we can eat here at this table."

"Do you follow golf?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, not really," the old woman admitted. "My Charlie liked it, but it was never my sport. But it does make for good background noise for a kip, eh?"

"I knew I liked you," Ron beamed. "I'll have to remember that tip. Though, it doesn't take much to let me doze off."

Hermione distributed sandwiches and the four of them visited over lunch.

"It's quite kind of you to come visit me on Mothering Sunday," said the woman.

"Well, I quite like you," said Hermione. "And I remembered you said your son had died last year, so I thought it must be a difficult day."

"You have a good memory," smiled Mrs. Carrington. "Yes, my Aldie died last year. But, it had been quite a few years since he had remembered Mothering Sunday. He was never the same after he became an alcoholic, you know. My Aldie was in there somewhere, but the alcohol ruined him. He just didn't care about anyone anymore, least of all me or even himself."

"I'm sorry," said Ron. "I know how hard that can be to watch. My brother started drinking after his twin died. Luckily we were able to turn him around after a few years, but we weren't sure there for a long time. It is hard to watch someone you love in that kind of spiral."

"Yes. Yes it is," she agreed. "And I am so glad your brother was able to beat it. But how awful to lose a twin. How long ago was that?"

"20 years," said Ron sadly. "20 years this month actually."

"My uncle died then too," announced Hugo.

"Yes, your dad's brother would be your uncle," nodded the old woman.

"Well, yes, but I mean my real uncle. Or birth uncle? I guess they're both my uncles. Or, oh I don't know what you call what anymore," said Hugo shaking his head. "See Ron and Hermione are my parents, but only recently. They were each friends with my parents-parents. Birthparents? First parents? Dunno. I gotta work on that. Anyway, Ron was my godfather and best friends with my mummy and Hermione was like my daddy's older sister. But then after my parents died, Hermione and Ron fell in love and now they're married and they adopted me so they're my parents too."

"Wow. You have a very complicated and very special family," said the old woman, a bit bewildered.

"Very true," nodded Hermione. "And we have a daughter as well who is away at boarding school. She was already mine though."

"Yeah Hermione adopted Rose as a baby."

"Well, that is quite wonderful. I love families who come together by choice. They are a special gift."

"We think so," said Ron, take Hermione's hand to squeeze it affectionately.

"Oh! I just put it together! You sent your mum with flowers after your wedding!"

"Yes, yes I did. I'm so glad you got them."

"Well, now I understand. She kept telling me that you knew me. And honestly you were the only person I thought of, but I thought you two were already married. That was very thoughtful of you. And such lovely flowers. They stayed fresh for almost two weeks. I've never seen that before!"

Hermione suppressed a giggle, knowing she had charmed them to last several weeks. "Yes, we had dinner with my mum and dad last night."

"And what about you," Mrs. Carrington asked Ron. "Have you talked to your mum today?"

"We're headed there in a few hours," he said. "The whole family gets together every Sunday. And it is loads of people as there were seven of us before Fred died. But, there are six of us, and each of us now has a spouse and kids, so it can get crazy. But Mum loves it and cooks up a storm every single weekend."

"What a lucky woman."

"You know, everyone else I have talked to says something like 'poor woman cooking for so many,' but you called her lucky."

"Well, you must remember I am an old lady with no remaining family. Having a houseful of family sounds like a wonderful blessing."

"Well," said Hermione, "as you can tell we are not ones for letting biology get in the way of being family. And there is just something that keeps drawing me to you. I think we will just have to bring you in to our crazy little bunch."

"Well, that is just about the most perfect thing I could hear. I would love it if you came to visit every now and then."

"We'd love that too," said Ron, shoving another pasty into his mouth.

Hermione stared at him in disgust of his manners, tutting in disapproval.

"What?" he shrugged with a full mouth. "I was the sixth of seventh children. If you were polite, you were hungry!"

Mrs. Carrington laughed, and soon they were all laughing.

"My Charlie," she said looking at the picture of her late husband dressed in his WWII uniform, "he was the youngest of five. He used to have the same kind of manners as you, Ron. Just awful! But he used to tell me the same as you – if he didn't eat quickly his older brothers would snag all of the food."

"Did you keep in touch with his family after you lost him in the War?" Hermione inquired.

"Well, I kept up with his mum and sister for a few years but then lost track of them. But two of his brothers were killed in France, and his other brother and his father were killed in the Blitz. Those were hard, hard times for England, Love. I pray none of you will ever know the horror of war."

Ron paled, and Hugo looked up to see him have a flash of pain across his face before regaining his composure. Hermione jumped in, "Thank you. I hope you are right."

"Ok, enough morose talk. I am here all day every day with sad old people. Let's have some fun. Do you lot play cards?"

"Fun!" squealed Hugo. Soon Mrs. Carrington and Hermione had taught Hugo and Ron to play hearts and they were deep into competition.

Hugo nattered away about his school and his art classes, much to the delight of Mrs. Carrington. Ron was the first to hit fifty, throwing his hand down in disgust at losing.

"Brilliant game. Rubbish luck," he sighed.

Mrs. Carrington won, resulting in Ron declaring that he might just have to refer to her as Ringer or Shark instead of Mrs. Carrington, which caused the elderly muggle woman to blush furiously in delight. They soon had to say their goodbyes, but they promised to make the hearts competition a regular occurrence.

"That was really fun," Hugo announced as they made their way back home. "I'm glad we went to go see her. We need to definitely do that more often. For all of us."

"I agree," concurred Hermione. "There is just something about her that keeps drawing me in. Is it just me, or do you two feel it as well?" She looked back and forth between the two wizards.

Hugo shrugged. "I dunno. I like her. She just fits. Kinda feels like she's part of the family."

"Yeah. There is something about her," agreed Ron. "I can't quite figure out what it is."

"Ok. Good. Glad it isn't just me. We will definitely make this a regular visit."

Within an hour they had flooed to The Burrow for dinner with the extended Weasley clan. Ron had brought flowers and a framed magical photo of the whole entire family from the wedding as well as one of his parents with just him, his new wife and children. They both made Molly tear up before she hugged him tightly.

"I'm just so happy you finally have your family, Ron. You are the happiest I have ever seen you. Makes your mum's heart so full."

"Thanks, Mum. I love you. And I'm pretty darn happy to have found them too."

She patted his cheek and then got distracted by Fleur arriving with spring vegetables from their garden to be chopped for dinner. Harry waved Ron over from across the room. The two grabbed butterbeers and headed out to the back porch to escape the chaos inside.

"Other than the anniversary nonsense I haven't seen you much since your trip. You guys all settled into married life now?"

Ron laughed. "Yeah, I suppose so. Living together for all that time before the wedding helps with that transition I guess. But, she's starting to transition her work a bit, which is bloody brilliant and way overdue if you ask me."

"Yeah. She mentioned that briefly. Sounded like an ideal situation."

"I hope so. Seems a perfect fit, but I suppose time will tell."

"She wouldn't spill the name of the mysteriously wealthy backers. Do you know who it is?"

"Yeah," laughed Ron. "I do. But I am sworn to secrecy, so don't even try it."

"Ok, ok. So, just answer me this – were you surprised by who it was?"

"Was I surprised? Um. Well, I can honestly tell you that I was not surprised at who it was."

"Would I be surprised?"

"I don't know, Harry. But you won't be surprised, because I am not telling you. Come on. It's her new job."

"Alright," said Harry, putting his hands up as a sign of defeat. "So, what did you do today?"

"Well, we had dinner with her folks last night, so I just made a big breakfast for the three of us this morning. We had planned to plant all these wildflower seeds that Hugo had bought to make a little area in the back garden for Fi, but with the rain being so bad we put that off for a drier day."

"Good idea though."

"Yeah, I thought so. We came up with it together. Quite proud of it really. And I think Fi would have loved it."

"Definitely. Did he do something for Hermione?"

"Yeah, he had done a nice card, and the four of us are going to do this fun art activity thing as a family when Rose is home next month. So today we went over to this muggle care home we've sort of stumbled onto and visited with this old lady who has more or less become an adopted great grandparent or something."

"How in the world did you get matched up with an elderly muggle woman in a care home?"

"Good question. No good answer. Well, no, that's not totally true. After Fi and Dennis' funeral we ended up taking all the flowers from the ceremony and such to a care home at Hermione's insistence. And as it turned out, Hugo really liked it. Well, we all did, I suppose. But Hugo mentioned it to his art teacher-"

"The one you like so much?"

"Yeah. Her. Anyway, the two of them concocted this plan where the kids at his school made handmade Valentines for all of the seniors who live at this home, and then on Valentines we all went with his teacher to hand them out. Hermione and I were going room to room and most of the people didn't react much, but the last room had this one woman. And she was so happy to see us so we started visiting with her and heard her whole story. She has no family, husband died decades ago and her loser son died a few years ago. So, long story short, she has no family and Hermione just took a liking to her. She had her mum take the flowers from the wedding back to her too. Today we took her lunch and played cards with her for a few hours. She kicked my arse."

Harry was laughing at his ginger friend. "You are hanging out at a muggle care home and an old muggle woman beat you at cards?"

"Yes. Yes she did. Of course if I could play her at some non-muggle game I am sure I could win. I need to find out if she plays chess."

"Muggle chess."

"Well, yeah. I can play muggle chess too. I mean, you just have to move the pieces yourself and there's less excitement, but the rules are the same. And I am CONFIDENT I could beat her at that."

"Ron, I can honestly say I have never, ever, ever in all our years together pictured you spending your free time at a muggle care home playing cards and muggle chess. I guess it just goes to show you can never assume you know all there is to know about someone."

Ron smirked a bit, taking a sip of his butterbeer. "Well, let's be honest, there is very little of my life today that I could have pictured two years ago."

"True. Very true."

"There is something about this muggle woman, though. She is really vivacious but seems to have no family. I am tempted to dig around a bit and see what I can track down to see if I can find any family that might be out there and not know where she is."

"Yeah? The old auror urges still get to you, huh?"

"Well, I don't think she's a witch or a squib or anything. But there is something about her that, well, I don't know. Something. Hermione definitely feels it too. I just like her and want to help her out, so if I can poke around some old muggle records then maybe we could find an old nephew or in law or something."

"What's her name?"

"Edwina Carrington. Probably in her early to mid 90s I would guess. Her husband died in WWII, and she never remarried. Loser son, think she called him Aldie, was a drunk and died last year, but she said he had more or less dropped out of the picture before that since he'd found his way to the bottom of the bottle. Her brother's siblings seemed to have died either as soldiers in WWII or in the blitz. Pretty sad really."

"Carrington you said? There is something familiar about that name. I'll poke around and see what I can find from our muggle police liaisons. It's at least a place to start. And if you come up with nothing, then she is still no worse off than she is today."

"Right. And glad it is familiar to you too. I thought it was, but I couldn't place it either. Feel like I've heard it somewhere, but I have absolutely no idea where."

"Appreciate your help. Nothing urgent. Would just be great to connect her to family if she has any left out there."

Across the room Hermione was chatting with Fleur and Ginny. Fleur was sharing tales of surviving a daughter's adolescence, but admitted it was not easy.

"Honestly, I am still happy when she asks for more tampons," admitted the oldest of the witches. "Look, I know she and Teddy will end up together. But the longer they can put off starting a family, the happier I will be."

"We're in that hope together," laughed Ginny. "Teddy is basically a son to me, and I know they love each other. That said, I am absolutely not ready to be a grandmother. I was barely ready to admit we were done with three."

"I was done," announced Fleur. "I have no idea how Molly managed to have seven. I love each of you, but I cannot imagine doing it myself!"

"Me either!" agreed Ginny.

"What about you, Hermione," asked Fleur gently. "May I be so bold to ask if there will there be more little Weasley babies of this generation, or are you ok with the two you have?"

"Oh," Hermione said a bit caught off guard. She blushed and took a sip of her drink before responding. "Well-"

"I'm sorry," apologized Fleur. "I didn't mean to pry or make you uncomfortable. It just seemed a natural question since your wedding."

"I'm not sorry. I'm all for prying," said Ginny. "So Hermione? Will there be little red heads running around here any time soon?"

Hermione laughed at her blunt sister in law. "Well, we're not trying to get pregnant if that's what you're asking. My cycles are so unpredictable these days I don't even think I could get pregnant at this point," she said. "But, we did agree to be open to adoption if the right situation arose. But we also agreed it would need to be two, as it seems unfair to have just one child who would be so much younger than all of their cousins. That said, it isn't something we are seeking out – just staying open to the fact that unexpected family has been the route for us so far, so why expect it to change?"

"Unexpected is certainly one word for it," laughed Fleur. "You two are amazing parents, so it would be great to see you with more children. But I have to admit, the thought of it for myself is utterly exhausting!"

"I know!" agreed Hermione. "When I think about Molly having Ginny at my age I am rather ready to pass out. And she already had six boys! Six! Just can't imagine."

"Well, they only stopped when they finally got perfection," teased Ginny. "But, seriously, the thing about Mum is that while seven kids is a lot, they were also there to help. So, while she did have two still in diapers at 40, she also had an army of little helpers she would make do tons of chores. I almost wonder if it would be harder to have just one or two at 40 than what she did. However – I never plan to find that out!"