Hey everyone here's another chapter, i hope you all enjoy it, please read and review! i think there may be only one more chapter after this... i'm not sure yet because i arrived at a place in the story that would be a really good ending, but there are still some things i'd like to do, so we'll see. If you have any input let me know!
enjoy!
Its insane how fast time flies. Harry turned two about a week and a half ago and we just picked Rose up from King's Cross and now the entire Weasley and Potter family is at the Burrow for Christmas. It was amazing to see my little girl again. I can already tell how much more grown up she is. When she got off the train she was surrounded by Al and James and quite a few other Gryffindors and although she was a quiet one in the group I could tell just from staring at the 7 or so kids that they all got along very well.
When Rose saw us she quickly said goodbye to her friends and promised to owl, then ran at Ron and me with a huge grin on her face. We each gave her huge hugs and kisses and greeted James and Al as well with Harry and Gin and now here we all sit in the living room at the Burrow.
"So Rose how are your courses going?" I ask and she smiles and I see a faint blush on her cheeks. She doesn't get a chance to respond however, because Al immediately cuts in, "She's the best at EVERYTHING! She's already earned the most house points out of everyone in the school I bet." He said this proudly and I smiled at my daughter.
Ron must've expected this though because he basically stuck his chest out like a superhero or a very proud father and said, "Well I always knew you were like your mum."
I smile and kiss Ron quickly as Rose's cheeks stop blushing.
"I'm really proud of you Rose," I say quietly so I don't embarrass her and she smiles and gives me a hug. I grin more when I see her hands wander to the bump under my shirt.
"So how's this one?" she smiles up at me and I can't help but run my hands through my daughter's hair as I reply, "I think he or she is doing very well. I've already gotten permission from Hogwarts for you and James and Al to floo to St. Mungo's when this little bun arrives."
Her face lights up and I'm glad that she's so excited to meet her new sibling. I hear James talking excitedly to the rest of the family about Quidditch. He made seeker this year and plans on being just like his dad. We all laugh and smile as he recounts the match against Slytherin that he won the month before and I can see glimpses of Harry in him in a way that makes me warm inside.
Harry's face looks completely at ease and content as he watches his son and listens intently and I can tell that he couldn't be prouder.
Christmas at the Burrow this year is a full one with all of the family coming to stay, including Andromeda and Teddy. Apparently Teddy was insistent that they stay over night too which I hope for his sake had nothing to do with Victoire staying here but from the way they've been wrapped up in each other I really doubt that. It reminds me of Ron and me at a young age… never being able to leave each other alone. They bicker less, but so does everyone else on the planet. I laugh a bit and smile when Charlie walks into the room.
The squeals of joy from all his nieces and nephews makes Charlie smile and suddenly he's being tackled to the ground by all the Weasley children at once. I'm surprised when even Rose joins in on the tackle, holding little Harry's hand to help him out. We all laugh as the kids tickle Charlie and demand dragon stories.
"A little help here PARENTS?" we hear from the ground but can only see kids everywhere. I almost feel bad for the guy, he was just taken down by Louis, Molly, Lucy, James, Al, Lily, Hugo, Rose, Fred, Roxanne, Dominique, and little Harry, not that he was exactly a tough competitor. He is only two.
We all smile as the kids finally back off and Charlie makes his way around the room to say hello to all the adults. He pauses when he gets to me and then leans down and kisses me gently on the cheek.
"Where are those twin nephews of mine? I haven't seen them in a while." he says as he stands back up and swoops little Harry up into his arms and starts tickling him, eliciting a screech of laughter from the two year old boy. I smile and say the twins are upstairs in Ron's old room sleeping.
After Charlie's arrival the entire family is here so we all make our way into the kitchen which has been magically enlarged to fit the abundance of humans for dinner.
About halfway through basically the loudest meal of the century, it quiets down for a few minutes and Angelina takes the opportunity to ask Ron and me very loudly, "So have you guys found out if it's a boy or girl yet? And what you're going to name it?"
The entire family suddenly picked up noise again as they started suggesting names. A lot of "but you have to name it…" was coming at me and Ron but we just smiled and laughed.
Finally they all calmed down and Ron started talking, "Well we've named all the kids after people we love so we'll have to wait and see I guess."
"Oh really? What are all the kids middle names?" Percy's wife Audrey asks so I clear my throat and get prepared to list off our many kids.
"Well we have Rose Jane, after my mum; Hugo Remus, after Remus Lupin and the initials of those two were sort of after me and Ron as well; Elizabeth Ginerva, after Gin of course," I nod and take a deep breath, remembering my daughter for a second as the table grows quiet and I realize they're waiting for me to continue. Ron grasps my hand and gives me a wink and I continue, "Harry William, I think that one's a bit obvious; Jack Fred, and Oliver George."
Everyone is basically smiling as I finish and finally Charlie pipes up, "See mum, you don't need me to have kids with these two breaking your record." We all laugh and I reply quickly, "Well technically after this one we're just tying the record. Nothing's broken… yet!" We all laugh and Ron kisses my cheek.
"Well you know how much I love grandchildren," Molly smiles at us and as the conversation picks back up she says more privately to Ron and me, "And I really do think it's wonderful to name kids after people that have mattered in your lives. It's important to let people know how much you value them."
We smile at her and agree, then I can't help but feel a little bit relieved that the conversation is moving away from focusing on Ron and me as everyone starts giving Percy a hard time for something or other… it's always something when it comes to bugging Percy.
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Christmas break flew past much too quickly for my liking and before I know it, it's a new year and I'm back at King's Cross dropping Rose off again. It's a bit easier this time because I know how happy she is at school, but it's never going to be simple to let any of my kids get on a train and be out of my life for months at a time. Thank god she still writes a couple times a week.
When we arrive home with our four sons we're surprised when Harry and Ginny apparate right into our living room.
"What's up guys?" Ron asks casually as he puts the twins down to play.
"Our house is really empty after all the madness at the Burrow," Ginny replies and sets Lily down to join Hugo and the others, "We just thought we'd see what you guys are up to today."
I smile at Ginny and know exactly what she means, and I'm suddenly very thankful that I have four kids to look after all the time still.
"We didn't really have plans actually, you're welcome to join us of course," I reply and Ron and Harry share a grin and immediately start talking Quidditch while Ginny and I head into the kitchen to make some tea.
"I think I finally understand your desire for more kids Hermione, it's so odd to be anywhere quiet," Ginny laughs as we sit down.
I can't help but wonder what Ginny's thinking. I raise my eyebrows and she laughs and shakes her head, "No no, Mi, I'm finished birthing. I'll just take advantage of the fact that you aren't." We both laugh and start distracting each other from missing the rest of our kids.
It's late in the evening and Ron is considerably late getting home from work. I hope nothing serious is happening. It's almost the end of February now which means that my pregnancy is almost finished so I'm back on maternity leave. The twins and Harry are already down for the night so for now Hugo and I are sitting in the living room playing chess and I'm proud to say he's beating me rather seriously.
"Mum?" Hugo asks as he takes a turn and I look up from the board and encourage him to continue. I don't get a lot of time with just my oldest son, but when we are alone he tends to come out of the shyness a lot and I've learned that Hugo is an extremely aware individual. In a lot of ways he's like Ron, but he's not as insensitive as Ron was when he was young.
"Do you think I'll be okay at Hogwarts?" he pauses and looks a little unsure and then adds, "I mean, how can I do anything that's just about me. James is seeker and Rose is the top of her class… Teddy's a prefect… if all my cousins and Rose are better than me, what if I never get to be anything?" My heart aches a little when I realize just how similar Ron and Hugo are.
I take my focus off the game and move to the couch where Hugo is sitting and wrap my arm around him before looking him in the eye and replying, "Hugo you know that your dad is the youngest of six brothers right?" he nods, "When we went to Hogwarts your dad was constantly afraid of being in the shadow of those brothers. Bill and Percy were both head boys, Charlie captain of the Quidditch team, the twins with their amazing ability for pranks and laughter… he was always really scared of being the Weasley who did nothing. But what did your father end up doing?"
"You guys saved the world!" Hugo tells me excitedly and smiled into my arm.
"Exactly," I smile and give him a squeeze, "now I'm not saying that you're going to need to save the world Hugo, but what I am saying is that there's always a role for every person. You're going to be your own person. That's what matters. It doesn't matter what everyone you know does at all, who you are is what matters Hugo. And I'm telling you right now that no matter what you do in your life that your dad and I will always be proud of you and love you. And for the record, I would say it's very likely indeed that you'll be on the Quidditch team and be a prefect or head boy if you work hard."
Hugo just smiled up at me and I kissed his forehead gently.
"I love you mum," he says quietly and I smile, and reply, "I love you too sweetie."
We sit in content for a few minutes and I notice that Hugo has basically fallen asleep so despite me being nine months pregnant I gently pick him up and carry him to bed. I tuck him in and give him a goodnight kiss then go back to the living room and sit back down on the couch. I notice how late it is and now I'm starting to get a bit worried about Ron. He wouldn't ever usually be late if he could help it, and it was pretty rare, so something must've happened. I shrug and lean forward to the table and grab a photo album. I smile as I flip through the pages of pictures of our Hogwarts years.
Feeling incredibly hormonal and nostalgic, I tear up a bit when I see the picture of Ron and me on the day that I graduated from Hogwarts. It was a tough year without Ron and Harry. Ginny and I clung to each other and helped the professors clean up the school and I actually worked a lot harder when I didn't have to do to the boys work and ended up with incredible scores.
On the last page of the album there's a picture of Ron, Harry, Ginny and me standing in front of Hogwarts smiling proudly and all wrapped up in each other. A tear runs down my cheek as I look back on the people that I love so much. I smile when I hear a familiar 'pop' behind me and I look up to see Ron coming into the room from the kitchen.
"Hey baby," he says as he kisses me hello and sits next to me, "I figured you would've gone to bed by now, but now I can see that you were taking a stroll down memory lane."
I smile and lean into Ron's body as he wraps his arm around me, "Where have you been? It's late and all the kids are already in bed."
"Oh there was an incident at Azkaban earlier so Harry and I had to head out there," Ron must've picked up on my alarm because he quickly added, "don't worry, no escapes or anything. Actually, a few death eaters somehow got out of their cells and turned on each other. When we got there we found them dead."
I shifted in my seat and closed the photo album, put it on the table and turned to Ron, "Which death eaters?"
"Crabbe Snr., Travers, Runcorn and Dolohov," Ron replies and rubs my arm gently.
"I know that this is wrong, but I'm really glad that Dolohov is dead," I say before I can think about it and I'm a bit surprised at my own reaction. When I think about it though I'm not, I never really got over what he did to me at the Ministry, it was my first true brush with death during a battle and it really shook me up.
"Some people are evil, and those four were evil. It's hard to be sad about it," Ron replies softly.
I lean my head into Ron's body and can feel myself wishing to go to sleep. Ron must've felt it because he picked me up and started carrying me down the hallway without me saying a word.
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It's the night of Ron's birthday and the entire family just left aside from my parents who are staying with us now until I go into labour so that someone can be here for the kids. Ron and I are cuddling in bed and the entire house is quiet.
"Did you have a good birthday baby?" I ask and kiss Ron's chest.
He smiles down at me and replies, "a great birthday."
We lock eyes for a few seconds and I can feel myself fading into sleep when a familiar pain courses through me and I realize I'm having a contraction. I relax for a second afterwards but Ron clearly felt my body tense because he's suddenly wide awake and ready to deal with whatever is wrong.
"I just had a contraction," I say calmly and he nods and tells me to lie down on my back which I do and he calmly gets out of bed and gets dressed, then helps me get dressed as well. It's odd how this totally doesn't seem like an emergency at all this time, although my water hasn't broken yet.
"Okay, do you want to go to St. Mungo's now or do you want to wait for your water to break?" Ron asks me and I'm still surprised at his calmness although I can see the excitement in his eyes.
"Why don't you go owl Harry and Ginny and the Burrow and I'll go wake up my parents, I shouldn't have another one for at least ten minutes," I reply and he nods and turns to walk down the hall before turning back and kissing me very softly, but very passionately on the lips. I smile as he pulls away, "you ready Daddy?"
Ron's face softens and he replies, "Always baby, always."