"I couldn't believe it when I first saw her, I thought I was hallucinating, but then she came up to me. Her name was Nelly, I guess, but I've never seen her before. Her hair, her mouth, her smile, her eyes. Mum, everything was the same as I remembered. Even the birth marks that dotted her face. She's still just as perfect..."
"Ron, it wasn't her."
"I'll get her to come here for dinner, then you can see for yourself. Oh, your jaw will be on the floor mother, the floor..."
"It isn't her, Hermione died eleven years ago. You were there."
"Mum, her voice was even Hermione's! I've never heard of reincarnatin being true, never believed it could be, actually, but I know that was her. I just know it. She said that I looked familiar. How could she know who I was if she weren't her?" Ron explained. His mother looked at him dumbfounded. Her son was a raving lunatic, not that she hadn't already suspected it.
"Ronald, I will not say it again. You have to get over her for the sake of Abigale. She can't go through life in the shadow of her mother. How can she live up to your perfect deceased wife? Ron, this is all too much, I think that you need some sleep," she said, rubbing her temples in frustration, "We all need some sleep."
Ron had brought up Hermione everyday lately, and the entire Weasley family just wanted to move on. Her presence seemed more of a nuisance than anything, now. At first, she was brought up only in secret, in order to allow Abby to have a normal childhood, but Ron wouldn't let his daughter go through life without knowing her. So, against Molly's better judgement, she reluctantly told her grandaughter all about her adored mother.
Suddenly, as if she was being chased through the yard by a pack of ravonous wolves, Abby came to a screeching halt in front of her grandmother, holding a squiggling, dirty garden gnome, who, like George and Fred had taught it, was swearing like a sailor. "Nana, can I keep this gnome. He really does like me, and Pappap, Uncle George, and Uncle Fred said that I could as long as it was okay with you. Please, Nana, please?" She gave her grandmother the famous pouty lip, the one no one could resist. Except, of course, Molly.
"Abigale Corynn Weasley, you march right out to that garden and you put that gnome back. Then you scramble your little butt on in here and help me peel some potatos for dinner."
"But Nana-"
"No 'but Nana' to me. I know all of your tricks young lady, and unfortunatly for you, I am not a boy. Now, scatter!"
As Abby ran off, Ron looked to his mother in frustration, "She's my daughter you know. And what I say goes, and I think that she should be allowed to keep the critter if she wants to so bad."
"Oh, honestly, the only time you want to play a role in her life is when it doesn't involve making a life altering decision. I've taken care of her her whole life, and now all of a sudden you choose to be her father? I don't think it's going to work that way," she said, hands placed on her hips in a matter-of-fact way.
Ron's face gave a look of pure hatred. It seemed he had reached his boiling point with her. First she didn't believe that he had seen his wife, and now he was being told he was a terrible parent. Well this was it.
"You have always run my life! You ruined everything I could have had with Abby, and you've never allowed me to be her father. How am I supposed to grow up and be a man when you've always been there, making sure I do every little thing right? And, you never believe me. I told you this girl is Hermione, and all I hear is that I'm dragging everyone through the mud with this! Well, mother dearest, I will prove you wrong," Ron screamed, breathing heavily in frustration and fury. Just as he reached the peak of anger, the family, along with some key members of the Order began to file in, as well as Abigale, "You can't see Abby anymore, you can't control me as a parent, and you can't tell me that I'm wrong all the time. I'm taking my daughter, and I'm finding a place of my own, tonight!" He whipped around, and with a ferocious look on his face, simply pointed to Abby, and then up the stairs to her room.
She quickly got the point, and with tears in her eyes, she bolted up the stairs. Everyone in the room stood with mouths wide open. Ron had never raised his voice towards his mother, let alone full on scream at her. Why the sudden change? But Molly, who was trying to maintain her composure, motioned for everyone to sit. And with one last fleeting glance up the stairs towards her youngest son, she turned and continued to prepare the meal.
Upstairs, a much calmer Ron decided to explain to his daughter why they had to leave the only home she had known. But as he glanced in the doorway, he saw her slumped over her desk chair, speaking to a portrait of Hermione that Ron had had done only weeks before her passing.
"Mum, I know that Dad is lonely without you, but he's not like you told me he was. He's always frustrated or upset. And he never does things with me when he says he will."
"Your father has always been a bit pig-headed about things, and now, he's just a little lost."
"Yeah, but, why is he taking me away from my family. Nana, and Pappap, Fred and Harry, George, Ginny, James, Noah, Lily. I love them all so much, and I can never see them."
"You'll see them. The one thing about Ron is he can't live too long without seeing or talking to his family, they're to closely knit, like one of Nana's sweaters."
They both laughed, but Abby still had tears in her eyes.
"Mum, I just want so badly for you to be here for Daddy. He misses you. I can hear him cry in his sleep. He needs you, Mum, he needs you."
"I know that. Why do you think I reincarnated myself. I knew that I wouldn't be alive much longer before you were born, so when your father wanted to get our pictures painted, I did a little bit of magic in order to be there for him when he needed me the most."
"You're alive! Why aren't you here with me then? How come you haven't found Daddy yet?"
"Baby, that's the thing. The new me doesn't remember a thing about my past life. She has to relearn everything. That means that you have to find her, and help her to become a part of the family. When she does that, she will be like me again. Actually, she will be me again. But you need to help her."
"Where is she?"
"She could be anywhere, I don't know specifically."
"Well then I have to search for her, I have to go now!"
"Darling, there's more. You have to get your father to marry her before the new year. This is your eleventh year alive, is it not?"
"Yeah, but why the end of this year, why don't we have more time?"
"The spell only works for eleven years, then she will find another true love, and I'll never come back."
"I'll find you, Mum. I'll find you, and then we can be a family again, we can be a family, like before I was born. When you were happy."
"We are happy, Abigale. Don't ever think that we weren't happy having you."
"I love you.
"I love you to, but you have to go now, you're father is waiting."
"Alright."
Abigale turned around, and jumped. Ron stood in the doorway. He looked at her with the largest, stupidest grin she had ever seen on her face.
"She's alive, Dad."
"I know baby. I've already found her."