Ch 77: Family New and Old
They had decided to wait for the upcoming weekend to reunite the women over dinner that Saturday night. While they did pop in to see Mrs. Carrington briefly on Tuesday, they didn't share the surprise. But, they did share with her that they had visited Mr. Carrington's grave to take him some flowers. They gave her the picture of them at his grave, and then they showed her the picture of her son's grave and the note that was there. She cried, which made Hermione cry as well. But, she was incredibly grateful for the pictures and that they had done that for her. After Ron beat her in a quick game of chess, they left her with a promise that they would be back that weekend and to plan on seeing them for lunch Saturday.
The week had gone by in a blur. Hermione had been throwing herself into her new work with gusto, but had been letting her hours get longer and longer each day. Ron had started back up at both the Academy and at Hogwarts so was stretched thin as well. By Friday night, the three of them were a combination of exhausted from their week and excited for the 'family reunion' the next day. Ron had brought home sandwiches for dinner, but while he and Hugo devoured them, Hermione just nibbled at hers.
"Do you feel ok, Love?" Ron asked.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just tired I suppose. Just haven't had much of an appetite this week. Maybe I'll just have a banana. You two can fight over who gets my sandwich and crisps."
"I get 'em!" yelped Hugo as he grabbed for her plate. Ron chuckled, but watched Hermione with concern.
"Are you up for this party tomorrow?" he asked.
"I told you I was fine," she said with a yawn. "I have just been doing so much reading and prep work for this visit on Monday to that other foundation I told you about. I so appreciate them taking the time to show me the ropes that I really wanted to be prepared. So I have just overdone it this week. Between that, being anxious about tomorrow and helping Nicola out on the side I am just way past tired. However, I would not miss this reunion tomorrow for absolutely anything."
"Well, if you are really only going to eat that banana, why don't you go soak in the bath for a bit and turn in? Hugo and I have everything under control here."
"It's only half past 7," she said with another yawn.
"That was a horrible argument, Mum," Hugo said with a mouth full of crisps. "He's right. If it were me that was that tired, you would absolutely make me go to bed."
"Chew and swallow, Hugo. Like I say every single day. Chew and swallow," she mumbled. "But, I give in. I will declare surrender to this week, soak in a tub and then call it a night." With that she kissed them both goodnight and headed up.
When Ron woke up the next morning at 8, he was surprised to find Hermione still asleep in the bed next to him. She was almost always up first, and he couldn't recall a time she had slept past 7. Worried she was getting sick, he managed to roll quietly out of bed and headed downstairs to fix breakfast. When Hugo came down the stairs about half an hour later, he came yawning into the kitchen.
"Where's Mum?"
"Still sleeping."
"Really? I don't think I have ever seen her sleep this late."
"Yeah. I wonder if she is getting sick or something. She's been working so much at her new job, so it is easy to get run down when you overdo it."
"We'll just have to be extra helpful getting everything ready for the party then," Hugo said with a mouthful of toast.
Chuckling, Ron grabbed Hugo's toast and took a large bite and mumbled with a full mouth, "Yes we will, little man. Yes we will."
His antics had Hugo laughing so hard he was almost spitting out his orange juice. And Hugo's struggle was causing Ron to laugh harder. In the midst of this commotion, Hermione came down the steps and into the kitchen.
"What in the world?" she said.
Finally swallowing the juice, Hugo gasped for breath before talking. "Good morning, Mum. Dad here was just try to get me to remember to chew and swallow. But I don't think it worked," he said as he started giggling again.
Grinning, Ron got up from the table to kiss his wife. "How are you feeling this morning? I was worried you might be getting sick when I found you still asleep when I woke up."
"I'm fine," she yawned. "Just a busy week. I don't have a fever or anything."
"Want some breakfast? I made bacon and toast."
She crinkled her nose thinking of that breakfast. "No thank you. Just tea for me," she said as she grabbed the muggle newspaper.
They had called ahead to the care home and reserved the family room so they could arrange a nice luncheon and a quiet place for the women to get reacquainted. Hermione had made an array of tea sandwiches and brought a fruit salad while Mrs. Rupesmith was going to take care of the tea and biscuits. When Hermione's mum had heard about the event, she insisted on making several flower arrangements for the women that they could have at the lunch and then take back to their rooms later.
They met Mrs. Rupesmith at the room where lunch would be and set everything up. Taking one last glance at everything, Hermione took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
"I am surprised by how nervous I am," she admitted.
"Me too," agreed the art teacher. "I hope they remember each other. I am 99% confident it will be amazing. But there is this little bit of me that is nervous it will be too much and overwhelm them."
"Well, I have never met your gran," said Ron. "But it would take a hell of a lot to overwhelm Mrs. Carrington. I think it will be great. You'll see."
"Well, I guess we're about to find out," said Hermione. And with that, they each set out to find their respective women, inform them about the discovery, and bring them back to lunch.
Hugo practically skipped down the hall on the way to Mrs. Carrington's room. By the time Hermione and Ron caught up with him, he had already gone into visit with the woman.
"Hello, Hermione! Hello, Ron! This is so lovely to have you all here for lunch. Hugo was just telling me about his favorite art teacher again."
Hermione smiled at the boy who was practically bouncing on his tip toes with excitement.
"Well, I am glad to see you too. But, seeing us is most assuredly not the most exciting part of today. We have a very big, and hopefully very good, surprise for you."
"Well, you are the dearest friends. You coming to visit me is lovely enough. Fancy a game of chess, Ron? Is the surprise that I will beat you today?" she said with a wink.
"Not today, Mrs. Carrington," he said as he took a seat in the chair across from her wheel chair. "We were hoping to tell you a bit more about our surprise. Is that alright?"
"Well, yes, I suppose. I am never one to turn down a surprise from a handsome man," she teased.
Ron smiled at her and then reached over to her picture of her late husband. "Do you remember when we first met and you told me about your late husband?"
"Yes, of course. I was so happy to have visitors. And I always love any excuse to talk about my Charlie," she said wistfully. "But what has that got to do with anything?"
Ron glanced at Hermione, but she just smiled at him and nodded her head encouraging him to continue, so he did. "Well, ever since you told me about your family, something about your story just stuck with me. And I would often find myself thinking about how sad it was that Charlie's mum and baby sister never got to know you after the war. I know how much we have enjoyed having you in our lives, and I wanted to be sure that if you had any extended family out there that they would have a chance to enjoy you as much as we have. So, Hermione and me, well, I hope you don't mind, but we started trying to research your family's history a bit to see what we could find."
"You would do all that work for me?" she said as tears filled her eyes.
"But of course we would," said Hermione as she reached for her hand. "We love you!"
"Yes, we do," grinned Ron. "And the exciting thing is we discovered some family that you have, and they are very excited to meet you."
"No! You're teasing."
"We would never tease about something like this," Hermione assured her. "And, as it turns out, we live in a very, very small world. Not only did it turn out that we already knew one of your relatives, but another one lives very nearby."
"Really? Who? And here in London?"
"Not just in London," grinned Hugo, unable to take the suspense anymore. "She's here."
"Who? What? I am afraid you have lost me. Can you start again?"
"Sure," said Ron. "Well, when we started trying to see if we could discover anything about your Charlie's family, we discovered that his little sister Elisabeth was still alive."
"Really?" she said as she took the hankie from Hermione.
"Oh yes," said Ron. "And not only is she alive, but her granddaughter – as it turns out – is none other than Hugo's favorite art teacher-"
"Mrs. Rupesmith is your great niece!" squealed Hugo in glee to the utter amazement of the older woman.
"I don't understand…"
"Well, our friend Melissa Rupesmith, who is Hugo's teacher, is the granddaughter of Elisabeth Carrington Eldwin," said Ron as the woman continued to stare at them all in a mixture of delight and disbelief.
"And you were able to find her? Did she remember me? Does she live in London? Do you think I could call her?" she said rapidly, peppering the family with questions.
"I'll do you one better," said Ron with a beaming grin. "As it turns out, we only met you the first time because we were helping Melissa Rupesmith pass out those Valentines cards. And she chose this care home for that because it is where her gran lives."
It took a moment, and then Mrs. Carrington's expression morphed into utter shock. She covered her gaping mouth with one hand and squeezed Hermione's with the other.
"No! Are you saying Elisabeth is – she can't be – she's really?"
"Really," said Hermione gently. "She lives on another wing so I don't suppose you have had much chance to cross paths. Now, Melissa is off telling her this same news as we speak. And once you dry those tears, we are going to go meet her in the family room and all have a lovely lunch together."
Several hours later, the two elderly women were still sitting next to each other holding hands tightly while listening to the comfortable conversation in the room. Ron watched the scene with a contended smile. The luncheon had been a tremendous success, and the only thing Hermione had forgotten to arrange was to bring extra hankies for all of the happy tears that were shed. Hugo had tried to offer everyone more tea, but all of the ladies declared they were beyond satisfied. And, when Hermione noticed the two older women beginning to yawn, she motioned to her boys that it was probably time to call it a day before they wore the guests of honor out any further.
The two elderly women embraced again promising to have supper together later that evening after some rest. Hugo went with his art teacher to escort her gran back to her room while Hermione took Mrs. Carrington back to her room and Ron tidied up the remnants of the luncheon.
"Do you need anything before I head out?" Hermione asked as she lay the afghan across Mrs. Carrington's lap.
"Do I…" stuttered Mrs. Carrington. "Hermione, you have given me more than I could have ever hoped to dream of. I can never thank you enough, my dear. What a blessing you have been to me," she said as she patted her hand against Hermione's cheek.
"We are so very happy to have found you, and to have found them too," Hermione said earnestly. "Now you should rest a bit and then you can meet up again with her for dinner."
"You should rest too, my dear, you look a bit pale. Are you coming down with something?"
"Oh, no, I've just worked too many hours this week. I'm fine. I promise."
"Alright. If you're sure."
"I'm sure. Now, you have a wonderful rest and then a delightful evening. I'll pop 'round in a few days and check in on you both."
Hermione yawned as she pulled the car into their driveway bringing them all home.
"That was a smashing success," declared Ron.
"I agree," nodded Hugo. "They were all so happy!"
"You are right. It was brilliant," smiled Hermione.
"Don't take this wrong," said Ron, "but you look beat, love. Why don't you go upstairs and rest a while? Hugo and I will hold down the fort and maybe even pick up some takeaway for later."
"Well, I must look a fright today, even Mrs. Carrington said I looked tired," Hermione said with a bit of a scoff in her voice. "It was just a long week is all. But I really have a lot of preparation to do before my meeting on Monday. I should really read for a bit."
Hugo and Ron shared a look before Ron said, "Well, why don't you go up and read in bed for a while? Then at least it will be quiet and we won't interrupt."
"Alright," she sighed. "Maybe that is a good idea after all."
It was almost dark when Hermione woke up to the feel of Ron's hand on her cheek and a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"What time is it?" she asked groggily.
"Half seven," Ron said.
"I slept all afternoon?" she yelped as she sat up.
"Yeah. Are you sure you feel ok? I've never seen you like this."
Hermione considered for a moment. "Really I feel fine now. I must have just been tired from the week. I am so excited about this meeting Monday that maybe I have put too much into getting prepared for it."
"Wasn't part of the idea that this job would help you work less hours?"
"Well, I like it better, and I have an old habit of throwing myself into things possibly a bit too much."
"But you really feel alright?"
"Yes. Hungry actually."
"Good. Hugo and I picked up some curry take away from that new place that opened off the High Street."
After a jovial supper together, the three played exploding snap for a while before Ron and Hugo settled in to read before tucking him in. Hermione took a long shower before heading to bed herself. And, when Ron crawled in bed and snuggled up to her, she was sleeping peacefully.
But around 1 am Ron woke up knowing something was wrong. His mouth was completely dry, his stomach was churning, and his skin was suddenly covered in a cold sweat. He didn't remember having any nightmares, but he got up to pace a bit hoping he could settle and go back to sleep. That is when he heard Hugo's footsteps running to the hallway loo. At the sound of the little boy retching, Ron felt his stomach demanding the same release and sprinted to the toilet. He was still crouched over the toilet bowl when Hermione ran in. Seeing the toilet occupied, she spilled her stomach into the bathtub. Gasping, Ron settled enough to hold back his wife's hair and rub her back gently as she finished being ill. Shaking, Hermione slunk back against the cold tile as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Better?" he asked after rinsing his mouth out in the sink.
"Not sure," she said.
"I thought I heard Hugo too. You alright enough for me to go check on him?"
"Oh, God, of course," she said. "You should have-" but her words were cut short as she turned back over the bathtub to vomit again. But she waved Ron off to check on their son.
It was several hours of misery for all three of them, but by 5 am Ron thought that they had to have been through the worst of it. Cursing the clearly bad take away that had caused them all to suffer such food poisoning, Ron managed to stumble down to the kitchen before sunup to get gingerale for all the three of them and rummage through the potions Ginny had left to see what could be useful. He was looking through the potions drawer when a shaky looking Hugo came down the stairs.
"You alright little man?"
"Yeah. It just smells like sick upstairs. Can I lay on the sofa and watch the tele? I'll keep a bucket close by just in case."
"Of course. Here – let's set you up with some gingerale too."
"Thanks, Dad," Hugo muttered weakly as he tossed his pillow onto the edge of the sofa.
Ron got a damp flannel and took that and the drink over to his son, and then he flicked on the tele and found a show to keep him entertained.
"I'm going to go up and take this to Hermione, alright? Just yell and I'll come right back down. I think I'm alright now, so don't hesitate."
Hugo just nodded, snuggled up to his bear, Simon, and tried a sip of the drink. Ron went on up the stairs to check on his wife. Scrunching his nose as the stench of the night's vomiting hit him, he felt a momentary gag reflex, but was able to settle it. Heading straight for the lavatory, he found Hermione curled up on her side on the tile floor.
"Oh Hermione, what can I do?" he said as he knelt beside her.
She simply shook her head as a small tear rolled out of her eye. He got a damp flannel and put it on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes in a moment of relief, but then quickly was on her knees again with her head over the toilet basin as her stomach lurched again. Ron held back her hair and kept slowly rubbing her back again.
"It must be almost over. Hugo and I seem to be past it now, and you ate less of that cursed curry than either of us did."
"Don't mention that blasted food," she muttered as she retched again.
"Sorry," he winced. "But the end should be in sight anyway."
"I hope so," she said weakly.
"I'm going to work on cleaning all of this up a bit," he said. "Just the stink alone is enough to make any of us sick. I'm going to pop into Hugo's loo first, but I will be right back."
She nodded and attempted a feeble smile as he stepped out. After he had vanished the remnants of Hugo's night, he used all the cleaning charms he could remember on both his bedroom and the lavatory. He sent the dirty linens and towels to be washed and made the bed with clean sheets from the linen closet. After that he opened the windows slightly to let the smell of fresh air come in. Satisfied with his efforts, he went back to try and work on the room Hermione was still stuck in. Vanishing the sick, scorgifying the toilet and bathtub, cracking the windows and changing the sheets on their bed as well. It was beginning to smell better, but then Hermione was sick again. Once finished, she was crying softly, and he picked her up on the floor like an empty sack of flour and held her on his lap.
"Sorry," she sniffed. "Not sure why I'm crying."
He chuckled lightly as he stroked her hair and said, "Do you know that is exactly what Rose said to me that first day you had me stay with her when she was sick and you had to be in court? And I'll tell you exactly what I told her. When you get sick, all of that pressure makes you cry. It isn't a sign of weakness at all."
She smiled against his chest and let his strong arms hold her up. "I'm just worn out after all this nonsense all night long. So ready for it to be over."
"I know. If I could fix it, I would."
"I know you would. Just glad you're here."
"Always," he sighed, but then she leapt up again to grasp the toilet as her stomach rebelled again.
Ron was quicker to clean up the mess this time, handing her the mouthwash to help rid her of the lingering taste.
It wasn't until early afternoon when Hermione finally stopped retching. And it wasn't until much later that evening that she was able to tolerate some sports drink and a few bland biscuits.
"I'm sorry you have to re-schedule your appointment tomorrow," Ron said. "I know how much you've been looking forward to it."
"What are you talking about?" said a suddenly alert Hermione. "I'm not cancelling. I haven't been sick in almost 7 or 8 hours now. There is no reason to change the appointment."
"You're not serious," Ron scoffed.
"I most certainly am serious," Hermione said, straightening up to her full height while her eyes seemed to suddenly fill with fury.
Noticing the building tension in the room, Hugo managed to mumble an excuse and quickly retreated up the stairs. Ron watched his wife carefully, realizing she was coiling up and ready to burst with fury if he played his next move incorrectly.
"Hermione," he said cautiously, "do you honestly think you are healthy and strong enough to go tomorrow? I know you wouldn't want to have these new, uh, colleagues, to not see you at your best."
"I see what you're playing at, Ron, and it isn't going to work."
"What do you mean?"
"You, Mr. Chess Master, are trying to corner me, but it won't work. I am feeling much stronger. And while you are correct that I would never want to waste their time, I also don't want to have to reschedule as it took over a month to set the meeting up for tomorrow. I am set to see the legal team, the Director of the Foundation and learn all about the in's and out's of establishing a foundation. It's invaluable. I have to be there."
"Hermione I am sure you can reschedule all of that. I am really worried about you."
"Look, I'll make you a deal. If I vomit again between now and breakfast, I will cancel. But if I don't, then I am going."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "But you have to eat and drink. You can't just let yourself get weaker. You are utterly dehydrated and need to get some fluids and whatnot back. I don't want you to not eat or drink just so you won't be sick so you won't have to cancel."
"Honestly, Ron," she said in an exasperated tone. "What do you take me for?"
"A brilliant, stubborn witch," he said honestly. After a brief moment, they both laughed, breaking the tension.
"This is really important to me. I promise – I will be good. You can even make me some rice or chicken soup or something if it would make you feel better."
"It would, actually. So, if you promise to sit here and sip on this tea, then I will go off and whip up some magnificently healing nourishment for my magnificently brilliant wife," he said as he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek.
"I love you, you know?"
"I do. And the feeling quite mutual."
