Ch 73: Summer Day at The Burrow
Ron couldn't remember the last time it had been this hot. He was incredibly grateful that Dennis and FI had decided to install muggle air conditioner units in a few rooms of the house so they had all been able to sleep ok at night. But, somehow on the hottest day in July that England had probably seen in a million years, he found himself up in his old bedroom at The Burrow. He had forgotten how stifling that room could be in the summer heat, though he really didn't think it had ever been that hot before. Hermione kept muttering about global warming, but he didn't really understand what she was on about.
Wiping sweat from his forehead he tried to remember what his mum had sent him up here to find in the first place. Oh yeah, he thought, she'd said the inner tubes for the kids to take down to the pond were up in the attic. Crawling up to the storage space, he crinkled his nose, realizing the predictably bad smell was only magnified by the oppressive heat. Finally he managed to accio the swim floats he'd been sent searching for and headed back down the many flights of stairs to rejoin everyone else.
"Blimey, Ron," Ginny laughed, "did you go swimming with the kids?"
"Very funny," he scoffed. "It is so hot upstairs I bet you could fry an egg in my old bedroom just by cracking the eggs on the floor. But, being the wonderful, amazing, bloke that I am, I brought down the inner tube floats for everyone to use in the pond to cool off. I think I just may have to join them to cool off for a bit."
"This has to be the hottest Sunday dinner at The Burrow we've ever had," said Harry.
"I think it's the hottest anything that England has ever had," Hermione said. She started talking about global warming, but soon everyone except Ron's dad had found reason to excuse themselves from the conversation having no idea what she was talking about. Ron just smiled looking at how enraptured his father was hearing Hermione discuss muggle scientific research.
"Hermione, I'm going to run these down to the kids. Wanna come down?"
"No thank you. I'm enjoying talking to your father," she said as Arthur beamed.
Grinning, Ron chuckled, "Crikey, we haven't even been married six months and she's already choosing my dad over me!"
She laughed and blew him a kiss as he headed out the back door to the pond. The heat outside was just as stifling as the inside, but there was an occasional breeze that helped provide some relief. Levitating most of the inner tubes, Ron walked slowly across the grass enjoying the opportunity to be a bit lazy. He smiled as he heard the sound of kids' laughter roll up from the pond. He'd always liked that sound, but knowing his kids' giggles were mixed in made it even sweeter.
They'd loved having Rose home for the summer. It had felt remarkably easy to shift into being a family of four again. He's noticed that all three of them seemed to more relaxed with her around – kind of like his mum was when all her children were under one roof. It had been a delightfully relaxing month with lots of family dinners, lots of time for the kids playing quidditch at The Burrow and lots of card games with Mrs. Carrington. They'd seen lot of Scorp Malfoy as well, with Al and Rose bringing him to The Burrow every weekend they could. So, Ron wasn't at all surprised to hear Scorp's voice drift to his ears on the wind.
"Rose, please don't. It's fine. I love coming here. We can all have so much more fun here than we ever could at my stuffy old manor."
"It's just so unfair," he heard Rose sniff through some tears. "I'm not saying we would have more fun at your house. But it's not right to make you always be the one to have to leave your family and your home."
"Rose, you ninny, I like leaving my family and my home to come here."
"Scorp, I know perfectly well you want to have us all to your house for your birthday. But I can't even ask Ron that, you know. I can't."
"I would never, ever want you to ask him, Rose. He has been so gracious and forgiving to my father and to welcome me into your family events. I would never ever do anything to upset him. Please tell me you won't say anything?"
"OK," Rose sniffed. "Not this year. But maybe next, ok?"
"You think that much can change in a year?"
"Um, you do realize how much my life changed in less than a year, right?"
"Ok, Ok. I know," Scorp laughed. "But, please, don't rock that boat, ok? I don't want to do anything to disrespect your father."
"He is my father, isn't he?" he heard Rose muse. "I'm pretty lucky. But I don't know how to switch from calling him Ron to calling him Dad or something. Doesn't really roll off my tongue yet. And I don't know if he would think it's weird or anything."
"Why would he think it's weird? You guys did the adoption vows and spells and everything. I got to witness it myself. And didn't you say he said he thought of you as his daughter even before that?"
"I know. Just a weird conversation to bring up, you know?"
"Yeah. We seem to have a lot of those with our families, don't we?"
"Yeah," Rose agreed. "Last one to the water has to eat one of Hagrid's cakes?"
Then Ron heard them hop down from what he presumed was a low tree branch and race down to the pond laughing.
Ron stood there quietly for a moment. He felt a mix of guilt and gratitude for having overheard the conversation between Rose and Scorp. He had a dawning realization that Rose really wanted to be able to visit Scorp at his home, and he had no idea how he could ever be ok with that. But at the same time, his heart was melting at the idea that she wanted to call him Dad but couldn't figure out how to start. Running his hand through his sweaty hair, he realized he would have to tackle both issues. But not today. Today he was going to go play with his kids, nieces and nephews. Levitating the inner tubes down to the pier, he greeted the gaggle of kids with a wave.
"Thanks for bringing these, Ron," called James.
"Sure thing," he said.
"Are you going to join us?" asked Hugo.
"Thought you'd never ask, little man," he grinned. With that, he took a running leap into the water and landed on an inner tube, splashing half of the kids in the process.
"Oh, Merlin, that feels so much better!" he laughed.
Scorp smiled from the back of the group and said quietly to Rose, "you have the coolest dad."
"I know," she nodded. "I'm really lucky."
