Still don't own Harry Potter.
It was a crackling but high pitched cry that woke him up in the morning and Ron got out of bed quickly, hoping Hermione would sleep a little bit more. Squirming at the foot of the bed in a tiny bassinette was a little pink creature, secured in blankets. "Come here, Rose," Ron whispered, picking her up in his arms where she kept fussing. Hermione moved in her sleep, a few seconds away from waking up and Ron took the baby out of the room, closing the door gently behind him.
"What's got you awake?" Ron asked her in the hallway as he walked along to what would be Rose's room. They hadn't wanted to have her alone last night. She was so new, so tiny. Ron moved her to just one arm and let her little hand curl around his finger again. She was so perfect.
He set her down on the changing table and cleaned her up, glancing out the window. There was frost glistening over everything but no snow. Rose kept up her fussing until Ron had her in a clean nappy with her clothes on again. Then she stared at him. She had his eyes, blue eyes staring up at him.
"Do you know what day it is Rose?" he asked her. Then he reached down and picked her up again. "You haven't got a clue at all. You don't know one day from another. But I'll let you know. It's your first Christmas. And your grandmother Molly doesn't know yet. Actually, nobody from my family knows about you yet except Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny.
"Don't get me wrong," he told his daughter, moving downstairs, "I wanted to tell them. But your mum was pretty worn out and she didn't want to have my whole family all around. And her family is all muggle so we told them over the telephone because they can't come rushing over. But my family's all wizards and they'd come right over, wouldn't they?" he asked.
"Your Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny though, they understand. Harry's my best mate, even after he married my little sister and she's one of your mum's best friends." Ron settled down on the couch. "You're not allowed to get married though, Rose. I'm saying that right now. Except you'll probably be a whole lot like Ginny and you'll get married anyway, even though she had six older brothers. And you're a girl," he told her. "A perfect little girl and our first so you don't have any older brothers. You've just got me. And obviously I'm not too great at it. My little sister married my best friend," he told her. He tugged his wand out from behind his ear and pointed it at the fireplace.
"You'll probably meet Uncle Harry first though. He's your mum's best mate too. I know, it's a little weird, but he's like a brother to both of us. If you'd been through what we'd been through you'd be like a sister to him too. But you're not going to," he told her. "No, no, no. You're going to be good and stay away from Dark-Lord-fighting-noble-nutcases like your uncle Harry because all three of us nearly died too many times and I'm going to keep you safe, have you got that?" he asked her. He stretched out his legs onto the coffee table, leaning back against the couch.
"Your Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny already have a little boy, your cousin James. He's about a year old so you probably won't like him right away because he won't really know what to think about you. And then Ginny's going to have another baby in June so you'll have him or her too," he said. Rose yawned wide, her pink tongue and gums showing. Ron smiled.
"Your uncle Bill is the oldest and he's married to Fleur and they already have three kids. Victoire's six and she's going to love you. She's going to try and boss you around once you get old enough to crawl, but she's going to love you. Nique's four and she probably won't think very much of you until you can walk but that's okay. She's seen quite a few babies go through already," Ron told Rose, studying the small amount of hair at the top of her head, a few coppery strands. "Then there's Louis who's two. He's going to get into loads of trouble with your cousin Fred, I just know it," Ron told her.
"Fred is your Uncle George and Aunt Angelina's son. He's named after my other brother Fred but we're not going to talk about that right now," Ron told her seriously. "It's a little to sombre of topic for a newborn, especially a newborn on Christmas. But just know that we love him and miss him very much, especially Uncle George." Rose's eyes moved back to him for a second and Ron could almost swear she had understood him.
"Now, between Bill and George there are two of your uncles. Uncle Charlie isn't married and you probably won't see him until next year because he lives in Romania. So we'll just leave him out for now. And Uncle Percy is no fun at all, most of the time. He's married to a muggle though, named Audrey, who can be just as boring as he is but somehow they make each other laugh so we're all pretty happy for him. And they've got identical twin girls, your cousins Molly and Lucy. Percy didn't really want twins at all so we're all pretty sure Fred sent them as a final prank on Percy. Although he loves the two of them to pieces, don't get me wrong. They're a very loved pair of three-year-olds, I can tell you that. They're starting to have pretty different personalities though," he informed Rose. "Molly's the sweeter one. Lucy's the one who actually acts a whole lot more like your Grandmother Molly. We're not really sure what happened there. Audrey said her mother Lucy is more like your cousin Lucy than your cousin Molly too."
Rose's tiny feet curled as he ran a finger against the bottom of them. "That's about all for now. I won't tell you about Neville and Teddy and Luna today. That starts getting even more complicated. But they're all going to want to see you sometime too. Teddy maybe later than Neville and Luna. But see, here's the important thing, Rose. Everyone's going to love you. Most of them already love you and they don't even know you're here yet. And you don't know how brilliant that is. We won't let your Uncle Harry rant at you about the power of love until you're older as long as you know it's pretty important. But want to know something? I'm going to love you the most. You have no idea how long it took to get you here. So many fights with your mum while we were in Hogwarts because neither of us wanted to say we fancied the other. But we love each other. No matter if we do fight. It's fun fighting with your mother, but don't tell her I said that," Ron informed her. "Although she probably already knows. Your mother is just shy of knowing everything."
"I'll let you in on something I know though, Rose. You are the best Christmas present I ever got. Because you came just yesterday, did you know? On Christmas Eve. And you're beautiful and perfect Rose. That's something you should always know, even if you forget everything else, alright? You're beautiful and perfect, just like your mum. Even if you do have me in you, which I'm sorry about." He smiled down at the baby who had dozed off again and then looked up when he heard a creak on the floor and saw Hermione creeping towards him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked her. She smiled at him.
"Happy," she answered as she came up to the couch. Ron scooted to make room for her and she leaned against him. "I got a good Christmas gift this year. The best I've every gotten."