Ch 105: Falling In Love

When his eyes landed on the two perfect bundles cradled in the arms of Matthew and Fatima, his heart soared and he seemed to forget to breathe. Hermione quickly ushered them all inside to get the babies out of the cold October evening. Ron found his feet moving towards the sitting room without any conscious thought as his eyes could not leave the little faces peeking out from the blankets.

As he sat, Fatima grinned and said, "Ron, meet your daughter," as she placed the baby in his arms. Hermione began to tear up and Matthew placed the other bundle in her arms, "and your son," he grinned.

Ron had tuned Matthew and Fatima out instantly, focused only on his babies and wife. And neither of them noticed when Fatima began taking some pictures with her phone to give them later. Eventually Hermione came out of the baby fog and began asking questions to Fatima about when they had last eaten, any issues the foster family had noted and different things about their routine so far. Ron could hear her talking, but couldn't make the words stick to his brain. He was drowning in the gaze of the little face in front of him, hypnotized by the delicate eyelashes and tiny fingers. But, he suddenly found that Hermione was handing him a second baby so she could take notes. With one tucked in each arm, he looked down at the two faces staring up at him. While he knew one was a girl and one was a boy, they looked rather identical to him at the moment. And, he was amazed at how their brown eyes looked so much like Hermione's eyes with small golden flecks among swirling chocolate brown.

"Hi," he said softly. "I'm your dad. I know you've had a really hard week, so I hope you both know you're home now. It's all going to be alright from here on out. Your mummy and I love you so much and are so thrilled you are here." He softly kissed each of them, again oblivious to the camera click from when Hermione snapped a picture.

Fatima grinned at him. "Ok you two, we need you to sign a few documents today, and then Monday we will have them before the muggle judge to make it all official. I'll finish up these home study reports and file them with the documents from today, and that should be all we need. We'll bring you copies of all of those documents after that. And all the Ministry of Magic requires is sworn affidavits from Matthew, myself and McGonagall as well as copies of the muggle documents. We'll file that on Monday as well, and bring you copies of everything. You don't have to attend any of those appointments. Hermione, I know you mentioned wanting to go 'round the flat, and I'll call you in a few days to see what day and time would work best for you. As for now, all you four have to do is settle into being a family."

"We can never thank you enough," Hermione said.

"Tell me that again in a few weeks when you haven't slept," Fatima laughed. "Enjoy tonight. I know you woke up this morning not knowing any of this would happen today. You are both amazing at how well you've adapted and made it happen. For now, we won't say anything to anyone, but please let us know when you've told the family."

"Promise," agreed Hermione, and Ron nodded beside her, arms brimming with babies.

Matthew and Fatima left, leaving Ron and Hermione alone with the infants for the first time.

"I can't believe this all just happened," Hermione said quietly as she came back to where Ron was holding both children. "Here, let me hold the little girl."

Ron handed the little one over and chuckled quietly. "We should probably think about names so we don't have to keep calling them 'the boy' or 'the girl,' don't you think?"

"Right," she smiled. "Good thing you bought me that name book. Could you summon it from upstairs? We can start to brainstorm a bit."

As the evening went on, they got used to their new additions, feeding them, burping them, changing them, but mostly just holding and snuggling them. They bounced name ideas back and forth, had a few things they liked and jotted down but hadn't reached any final conclusions. Then they talked about how and when to share their news.

"We need to tell Rose and Hugo first. Probably tomorrow," Hermione said.

"Yeah," Ron agreed, mesmerized by the tiny hand gripping his pinky.

"How about we ask McGonagall to have them in her office late morning and then we can floo through and meet them?"

"No warning? They just walk in and see babies?"

"Got a better idea?"

"No. Just a bit of a shock, I suppose."

"Like we had today?"

"Right."

"Ok. What about everyone else? Most specifically – our parents and the Potters."

"Is it – hey – is today still Saturday? I'm so disoriented. Why not tell everyone at The Burrow tomorrow. They are kind of used to surprises from us at those things."

Hermione laughed. "You're right. One time a wedding, another time twins. What about my parents?"

"They can be at The Burrow. I can call Harry and ask him to floo them over. I'll tell everyone we have a surprise to share at dinner so they'll all be on time. Then I can pop over at that time, make sure everyone is there, and tell them to be quiet. I'll come back home, we'll get the kiddos, who will hopefully have names by then, and we'll pop through the floo and watch all hell break loose."

"You don't think it will be too much for them? They are just over a week old."

"Nah, most of the kids are at Hogwarts anyway. It will just be my siblings and their spouses, Louis and Rox."

"Ok. But then we need to delay going to Hogwarts until just before then because Rose and Hugo will immediately tell Al and Lily, and we don't want their owls telling Harry and Gin before we get to tell them ourselves."

"Brilliant you are," he grinned. "All settled."

"Well, all settled except for that tiny little issue of naming them," Hermione teased.

They got the babies settled into their temporary bassinets in their room, lining them up next to their own bed. And they found that all they wanted to do was watch them sleep. But that honeymoon was short lived. Both Ron and Hermione had finally dozed off only to be awoken by the cry of a hungry newborn less than two hours later. And, it was soon painfully clear that the babies didn't like to wake up and eat at the same time. As soon as one was settled, the other would wake up. By 5 am, Hermione and Ron both looked ragged, but the babies seemed to be awake and ready for their day.

"What have we done?" whimpered Hermione.

"Gotten the crash course in twins," groaned Ron as both babies started crying. "Here. Let me get them and go downstairs. I'll keep them for a while, and you rest. Then you come down late morning and we'll switch off. That way we should each at least get a few hours of straight sleep."

"You sure?" Hermione asked, but she was rolling over and curling her head under her pillow as she said it.

"Yeah," chuckled Ron. "I'm sure." He kissed her shoulder, rolled out of bed and managed to hold a baby in each arm as he headed down to the kitchen.

Ron managed to get each baby settled into the car seat carrier things that they had bought the day before. This allowed him to make tea and breakfast before he changed their nappies and fed them their next bottles. Finally they fell asleep again, which allowed him to doze off for a bit on the couch. By lunchtime, both Ron and Hermione had been able to get some sleep and a shower, as well as a lot of caffeine, which helped them both feel a lot better about the adventure they'd just embarked upon. Hermione had joined Ron in the kitchen and was making them some sandwiches for lunch while he fed their daughter while their son slept in his carrier.

"We need to name them before we introduce them I think," she said gently. "Have you had time to think more about names?"

"A bit," he said. "If you wouldn't mind, I would really love it if we could include my dad's name. Maybe as a middle name or something?"

"That sounds good to me."

"You don't think your dad would be upset?"

"No," she smiled. "Not at all."

"What about you? Any ideas?"

"I've played with a million combinations, but I keep coming back to wanting their names to start with R and H just like Rose and Hugo and our names and Rory Rune's name."

"Oh, that's brilliant," smiled Ron. "Let's definitely do that."

"But, I also like the idea of a flower name, like Rose has."

"Any flower names that start with R or H?" Ron asked.

"You mean besides Rose?" Hermione laughed.

"Ha ha."

"Well, actually, I was looking at some options. I've come up with Heather, Hyancinth, Holly," she giggled at his nose wrinkling disapprovingly at the choices. "OR the one I like best. What do you think of Hazel?"

Ron turned to his daughter in his arm as she sucked on the bottle. "Well, I think we just found your name, little one. Are you my little Witch Hazel? Oh, look you know your name. Hermione – I think she smiled at me!"

Hermione beamed at them, and then her eyes darted to their son. "So, that leaves us needing a boy name that starts with R. Ideas?"

"Not Ronniekins."

"Now who is being clever?"

"Well, I don't want anything boring or stuffy sounding."

"Ok. Not sure exactly what that means, but hard to argue with the sentiment."

"How open are you to an unusual name?"

"Depends. How unusual?"

"Like from chess."

"You want to name our son Rook?"

"No. Not Rook. What about Reti?"

"Reti? That's a chess name?"

"It's the name of an opening strategy that allows you to protect the center of the board, keeping multiple options open as the game unfolds."

"It is becoming increasingly clearer to me that I will never beat you at chess."

"Very true. But what do you think? Too weird? Or really cool?"

"Hmm. Reti Arthur Weasley. He'd definitely be the only Reti I knew."

"Do you hate it?"

"No. Not hating. But not yet loving. Let me think on it. Are there other R options?"

"Roger, Richard, Robert, Ryan, Rupert, Reginald?"

"Wait a second, go back. Ryan. Hmm. Ryan Arthur Weasley. Reti Arthur Weasley. Need to think on that a minute. Did I see somewhere in that book that Ryan was a name with an Arabic base?"

"Uh –no idea. What about Hazel's middle name? Do you want Jean?"

"Not really," she admitted. "Not that I don't want to honor my mother. Just never really loved the name Jean. And maybe we should think about an Arabic part of her name. Or something from her birth family's heritage like Rose's middle name."

"I am not sure that is making this easier."

"Wasn't aiming for easy. I was aiming for right."

"We would not have gotten along well if I had known you at Hogwarts."

"Probably true," she said flipping through the name book until she placed her finger on a page she'd been looking for. "Here it is!"

"What?"

"Well, I thought I remembered seeing an Arabic name that meant wisdom, and here it is. Akila. And then it's an 'A' middle name like her brother. How does Hazel Akila Weasley sound?"

"I love it," he grinned. "Do you love it, Hazel? Are you going to be full of wisdom like your mummy?"

Hermione continued to look at the name book she was reading and added, "Ryan does have an Arabic root as well. Looks like Rayaan is the name of a gate of paradise and it also means one who does not thirst. Huh. I kind of like that. Sort of says he is blessed with contentment. That's a wonderful quality."

"That's lovely, actually. And way better than Reti. Wow. So, Hazel Akila and Ryan Arthur?"

"Perfect," she grinned.

Shortly after 6 that evening, Ron stepped through the floo into his childhood home, yawning but grinning ear to ear. He was greeted by his father in law who was chatting with Bill.

"Ron! We wondered what happened to you two. Where is Hermione? What is this surprise you talked about?"

"Hi, Michael, thanks for coming tonight." he said. "Hermione will be here in just a moment. But, I wanted to get everyone together first. Can you and Bill help me gather everyone? In the kitchen maybe?"

They all nodded, but Bill shot him a questioning glance, but Ron just grinned back at him. A few minutes later, Ron had packed his mum's kitchen full of his large family, and they were starting to complain about the arrangements when he finally spoke up.

"Oy! Can everyone hear me? Good. Now – I know you are used to Hermione and I surprising you at these dinners, and we have another one tonight. Actually a double doozy, if I do say so myself. But, I need you all to stay in here, and then when I bring the surprise through the floo, you have to promise me you will be quiet and not cause a ruckus, alright?"

"Ron, since when do we cause a ruckus? The kids are off at school!" Ginny complained.

"Seriously, Gin? You've been causing a ruckus since the day you were born. Now, all of you shut it. Give me about 4 minutes. Percy – you can keep everyone in here until then, right? And then bring them in very quietly."

"Ok, Ron. Time tables and order are definitely more my thing than Ginerva's. Four minutes starting now."

Ron grinned and popped back out of the kitchen, through the floo and back to his house where Hermione waited with the babies. They had just been to Hogwarts, but the little ones seemed to be perfectly at ease with the floo. So, Ron took the nappy bag and the two empty carriers through the floo back to The Burrow first, and then he came back and fetched Hazel, followed shortly by Hermione with Ryan. Both of the infants were awake, but not fussing. Hermione had dressed them in simple green and yellow pajamas, which she had quickly customized with a spell that monogramed one with an H and the other with an R. He flicked his wand to remove the soot from all four of them, and then he kissed his beaming wife. And then only a moment later he heard Percy announce, "Ok, four minutes. Remember everyone, Ronald requested we all remain very quiet."

Bill was the first through the door, and he broke into a large grin. He was followed by Fleur and Angelina, who both stifled squeals with hands over their mouths. Percy and Audrey soon followed, as did Harry. Harry looked utterly confused, but Ron saw the moment it all clicked for him. Next were the four grandparents. Molly burst into tears, and Jean gasped, clutching her hand to her mouth as well. Arthur and Michael were simply stunned. Finally, George, Ginny, Rox and Louis came in, with Rox and Louis squealing loudly, George laughing out loud and Ginny cursing, "Bloody hell, you two! Enough with the surprises already!"

"Ginny!" Molly scolded. "Ron, Hermione?"

"Mum, everyone, we want you to meet Hazel Akila Weasley and Ryan Arthur Weasley. They are 9 days old, but we only found out about them yesterday. But, yeah, we completed the adoption last night. Quite the surprise - for all of us this time," he laughed.

The family started moving towards them, but Ron said, "Maybe just the grandparents first? We don't want to overwhelm them too much. They've had a whirlwind of a 24 hours."

Jean and Molly immediately descended on the babies, each taking one in their arms. Ron and Hermione told the story of what had happened, and everyone peppered them with questions.

"What about Rose and Hugo? When will you tell them?"

"We were there just before coming here," Hermione said. "They were shocked, of course, but they were also thrilled. It was hard to convince them they couldn't come home with us. But, they did get to snuggle with their little brother and sister for a little while before we headed home."

A little later as the chaos was calming down, Ron saw Hermione, her mum and his mum all together in the corner dabbing tears from their eyes as they passed Hazel between them, and his heart overflowed yet again for the hundredth time that day. Fleur had taken Ryan and settled on the sofa, and Harry came up and hugged Ron.

"I had no idea the case yesterday was you two!"

"I know. Sorry 'bout that. We wanted to keep it just us until we knew for sure what was going to happen."

"No, no, of course. I am just thrilled for you. Not really jealous – but definitely thrilled. But, Ron, twins? Did Fred and George teach you nothing?"

"Well, to be fair, they were number four and five of seven. With Hazel and Ryan we will have one adult per kid in the house, so maybe our odds are a little better than Mum and Dad's were."

"You keep telling yourself that," Harry laughed.

Arthur came over next, and Ron went to take Ryan back from Fleur. "Dad, do you want to hold Ryan Arthur?"

"You didn't have to do that, Ron."

"We wanted him to have a name to live up to. And there is no one I know who is a better man than you, Dad. You have stayed true to your beliefs, lived life on your own terms, and there is no better role model for my son."

Arthur had tears streaming down his face as he nodded and took the infant in his arms. Sensing the need to lighten the mood, Ron added, "And Dad you have got to come with me to this muggle shop Hermione dragged me to yesterday to get all this baby stuff. There were muggle contraptions there I couldn't figure out what they were for. Maybe you could come with us when we get the cribs?"

"Oh I would love that," he agreed. "And tell me more about these contraptions you saw."

Ron grinned and started sharing the details of the adventure he'd had the previous afternoon as his father rocked his son to sleep in his arms.

Later that night after dinner, Ginny and Fleur had each claimed a baby and were visiting with a beaming Hermione in the corner of the sitting room. Ron was watching contentedly from the doorway when he felt his mum behind him.

"Come sit with me a bit?" his mum said as she gestured back to the quiet kitchen.

Ron nodded and followed, pouring them each a steaming mug of tea, dumping spoonfulls of sugar into his.

Molly chuckled, "I guess the more things change the more some things stay the same then."

"Yeah. S'pose I'll never break my sweet tooth even if my in-laws are tooth healers," he joked.

"Some things are just meant to be. Your sweet tooth. Your lovely witch. Rose, Hugo, and now your lovely babies too! Oh, Ron. I am so thrilled for you. But," she hesitated, "but I am one of the few people who really understands the monumental task you just took on. Twins at any age is exhausting. But, well, you and Hermione are not twenty. You're not even thirty. It will be hard, and you will need a lot of help. Please, let us help you, alright?"

"Oh, yes, Mum, of course. This has all happened so fast we haven't had even a minute to think about the details. Well, I guess they aren't exactly small details, but really, we didn't even settle on names until lunch time today."

"And, Ron, you have no idea how much it means to your father that you named him Ryan Arthur. He'll down play it, of course, but he is so, so touched. Thank you for doing that."

Ron nodded. "It was important to me too," he said quietly.

"Well, now I know Hermione is not a new mum, but she has never had the benefit of magic before, or twins for that matter. Can I pop by tomorrow and show you both some small things that could help you out? There are some simple charms to sterilize the bottles, or listening charms, to alert you when a nappy needs changing, those kind of things. They don't make it easy, but they do make it a little less hard."

"Yeah, mum, I'm sure that would be good. We really hadn't managed to think past telling everyone tonight, so I have no idea what tomorrow's plans are. I'm assuming we're both staying home from work, but we haven't had a chance to talk about it yet. Blimey, guess we haven't even thought about child care and such. Her work is quite flexible, so I know she'll be able to be off. Well, my work is quite flexible too, but there are a few commitments I have to keep in the next few weeks, but I am sure we will make it all work out."

"Well, I am happy to help out. I am not sure I can offer full time care like I could when I was younger, but I would love to have them from time to time, or even a few days a week and definitely anytime you are in a pinch."

"Thanks, Mum. I really appreciate that. It has all been such a whirlwind that I know reality will set in soon. But right now we are both still in that honeymoon phase where all we want to do is hold them and watch them sleep."

"Enjoy every second of it. Before you know it, they'll be bringing home grandchildren," she said softly as she reached for his cheek and gently held his face in her time worn hand.

Ron smiled at her, held his hand in hers and then kissed it softly. "I love you, Mum."

When Ron and Hermione made it home, they were beat but happy. Once they had the babies bathed and changed, they sat together on the bed with Ron feeding Hazel and Hermione feeding Ryan.

"They look almost identical, don't they?" Hermione whispered.

"Yeah. But I think I've found a way to tell them apart. Hazel has this tiny little faint freckle on her temple. See? Well, that and she fusses more," he acknowledged.

"I can't believe that yesterday morning we didn't even know they existed and now they feel like our whole world," she mused.

"I know. Mum offered to help with some things, but I told her we hadn't even had time to think of what we needed help with yet. She said she'd pop 'round tomorrow to show us some baby care spells and charms that might be helpful."

"Good. My mom said she would come by as well. We may need help, but I also don't want us to always have people here getting in the way either. Ron, what are we going to do? We haven't even talked about work or child care? I mean, I know they weren't reasons to not do this, but I can't believe we didn't even think of it until just now! Well, I can be out all this week, but there are a few things I really need to do next week to keep projects moving forward. I mean, I know my job is theoretically made up since I work for, well, us. But, it is important to me. I have to keep doing that or I will go mad and be of no use to you or the babies. Maybe I can figure out how to do more from home or something."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out. George will be understanding, obviously. And right now they are so little I can even take them with me if I have to go to the shop to work on the books or something. Don't have to worry about them there until they are crawling. Not a good place for a toddler to get into mischief. It is a light week at the academy this coming week, but I'll work with them and figure things out. I do need to go up to Hogwarts twice this week, though."

"Ok. I'll make out a schedule in the morning and we can figure out where the gaps are and see what we need to find help with. Between our mothers alone I am guessing we will be ok for the first few weeks, and then we will just figure things out and adjust as we go."

"We can do this, Hermione. I know we can."

"I know. I know. You're right. I think I am just letting myself get a bit overwhelmed. We'll be alright. I know I am just tired and emotional, which makes everything worse."

"Let's take tonight in shifts. Why don't you sleep in Hugo's bed for now, and then we can switch out in six hours? Then you have them early morning and then can nap when I get up. Think that would work?"

She looked torn, and finally admitted, "I don't want to leave them. Or you."

Chuckling, he leaned over to kiss her head. "I love you, you barmy woman."

She gave him a guilty shrug and then reacted as Ryan started fussing and spitting out his bottle. "Oh, sweet baby, don't fuss. Mummy is right here, darling. You just need to sit up a bit and let all that milk get to your tummy while I pat your back, don't you." And with that, she eased her minute bundle upright against her chest and cloth covered shoulder as she began gently rubbing his back."

"You are such a natural," Ron observed. "How did you know to do that?"

"Not a natural, Ron. Just more experienced. And you are doing amazingly well. Hazel already adores you. See how her eyes are locked on yours?"

"I don't know how, but they have your eyes, you know?" he said to Hermione while staring at his daughter with a smile.

"Really?" she asked in a surprised voice.

"Oh, definitely," he replied. "It's uncanny actually."

"There is much about this that defies all logic. But, I am just going with it."

"Agreed."

"But you know what we need to go get tomorrow at that store? Some great rocking chairs. Two for up here, and maybe for downstairs too. Oh, and one of those double stroller things."

"Can we take my dad with us?"

She laughed, but nodded. Ron was in heaven.