A/N: Sorry it's been so long, as I said a few weeks ago I lost my sister, but I realized that if anything she'd want me to continue writing cause it makes me happy. So, Carolina, this is for you big sister…eighteen is still too young to go though.
A/N: I also encourage all of you to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you, I'm not looking for sympathy, but my sister and I were arguing about Finchel and Faberry (playfully, but still) for our last conversation together. Please, just take the time to tell them you love them because you never know when they get into a car if their ever going to come back…
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter *sniffles* but that's okay I'll be okay.
Rose Molly Weasley dragged a hand over the soft tuft of grass, allowing her palm to curve around a few blades as she sighed heavily. For a seven-year-old, Rose did a lot of thinking and she mostly blamed it on her love for reading; reading always opened her mind to the world that surrounded her, both good and bad thoughts.
Books always made her feel like she was free, like she could live a life that wasn't her own and when she closed the book again she was back to being Rose. She had learned all of this from her Mummy, Hermione had taught her so much already and she always enjoyed spending time with Hermione because the older witch had so many stories to share with her and Rose just adored listening to the happy things Hermione shared with her.
Suddenly, Rose was pulled from her thoughts as a spray of dirt came showering onto her face. The brunette girl coughed furiously as tears gathered in her eyes from the burning sensation, the sound of laughter slowly breaking through her coughs as she tried to figure out who had surrounded her and decided to sink to the level of dirt kicking.
"Hey, what are you doing over there?"
Rose felt her body relax as the sound of her thirteen-year-old cousin ripped throughout the park, a warm pair of familiar hands falling on her shoulders as her body was eased from the ground and her face was wiped clean as tender words were whispering into her ears while a small, puffy hand came to rest upon her own.
The girl's vision cleared well enough that she could make out the small body of her four-year-old brother standing protectively beside her while her other cousins surrounded her suddenly with James standing guard in front of her; the boy was definitely a product of Harry Potter, James was strong and smart and was always ready to defend the ones he loved.
"Well, look who it is! It's Potter's little mistake." A snarling voice hissed, Rose instantly pinning into the Scorpius Malfoy and her blood went cold as she spat out a hunk of dirt before frowning at the blonde-headed boy standing before her. "Did you come here to protect your little gay cousin? I bet she's just like her mums, one is a traitor and the other a filthy mudblood."
"Watch your mouth, Malfoy. That's my aunt you're talking about." James replied with a glare as he stepped forward defensively and a small smirk graced his face as the blonde boy took a cautious scoot backward so there was a larger space between him and James.
"You don't scare me, Potter. My father has told me all about your arse of a father, your bloody lucky he didn't get himself murdered. And I suppose I shouldn't even bother discussing your freak mother, I heard she's a…"
No one had seen it coming, but James had drawn his wand and had cursed the blonde boy. Instantly, Scorpius was on his knees spitting out slugs and the other boys who had surrounded him had taken several paces back and curled their noses in disgust.
"You'll pay for this, using magic unsupervised! The Ministry will bring you down!" A tall sandy blonde haired kid warned as he pointed a finger in James's direction, watching as the smug teenager simply slid his wand back into his pocket and flicked his head to the side so his dirt brown locks moved out of his eyes as he rolled them.
"Oh on the contrary, my father would never allow that to happen." James replied with a bitter laugh, raising his flaming eyes to stare at the group of bullies as he wiped his shirt clean before turning his lips up into a cocky little smirk. "I warn you all to leave my cousins alone, I better not here of you speaking poorly about my aunts again."
Quickly, a few helped Scorpius up and they rushed away leaving James to turn around and assure Rose was okay. The little brunette girl had curled out her bottom lip, her eyebrow furrowed together as she stared at the retreating form of Malfoy trying to figure out what he meant and why his words had made James so angry.
The boy had been tormenting her for years, he had never given Rose a real reason why he had just always made she sure she knew what she was and what was expected of her. Apparently she wasn't considered a witch because her mother was a…mudblood.
Still, Rose had not been able to figure out what the word meant. She had even asked James, but the boy had only curled his nose and raised his chin before ordering her not to repeat it nor to say it again in any way around Hermione and of course little Rose knew better than to go spouting out a bad word to either of her mothers. It was a form a respect she learned a long time ago, but Mudblood was something she couldn't truly figure out.
That's where the little witch always got so puzzled. Why did the word bother her mother so much? Every time it was even mention Hermione would vanish into herself and frantically rub the place where the word had been etched into her skin. Ginny would always glance to her wife at the mention of the word before shooing Hugo and Rose into another room as she comforted a frantic Hermione who tugged on the diamond bracelet around her wrist.
What was her mother so desperately trying to hide?
Ginny smiled brightly as her wife came through the backdoor laughing with Ron and Harry, the three of them obviously far away in some old memory. The red-head woman stood from her stool and gave both Luna and Maria appreciative smiles, it was nice having them around to talk about all the things going on with Hermione, it made her feel like she wasn't so alone.
"Hey baby, did you have fun with the children?" Ginny teased as she approached her wife, Luna and Maria laughing as they both went to their respective husbands and gave them quick pecks on the lips.
"Very fun, Gin, but I think your forgetting who the youngest one in this room is." Ron reminded her as he playfully poked his tongue out at his little sister who only raised her eyebrow once before turning her attention back to Hermione while Ron's became devoted to his wife. "Did you have fun gossiping with my little sister?"
"We weren't gossiping, Ronald, we were merely discussing things that aren't any of your concern." Maria shot back as she narrowed her eyes at the man, watching as Ron shrunk back lightly before giving her a sheepish smile and tugging her into his side. "I'm sure you're not going to share what you, Hermione, and Harry discussed…"
"You know the rule. Whatever happens between the three of us stays between the three of us." Harry reminded them as he shrugged a shoulder, kissing the top of Luna's head lovingly as the blonde woman snuggled into his side happily. "It's been that way since first year."
"Really?" Maria asked in amusement as she sat back down on a nearby stool with Ron leaning against the counter beside her; she had always been curious about the Golden Trio's friendship, she had been so jealous of it when she had first began dating Ron, the red-head was always jetting off to spend time with Hermione and Harry.
"Are you kidding me? These three were always together, if one was in trouble the other two weren't far behind." Ginny replied as she rolled her eyes before glancing down at the caramel haired woman snuggled in her arms. "Harry was the leader, Hermione was the brains, and Ron was…well, I'm pretty sure Ron just tagged along."
Laughter spilled throughout the room at that, but deep inside they knew that Ron was an important part of the group. It had been just him and Harry at first until that night in the bathroom with the troll, after that splitting the group of three up was near impossible. Ginny smiled to herself and sighed heavily, if it wasn't for the people surrounding her the Wizarding world probably wouldn't even exist…good would have been destroyed.
"Honestly, I believe Hogwarts favored these three." Luna joked, her musical tone ringing throughout the room and bringing Ginny out of her thoughts as she glanced at the blonde. "They were constantly getting themselves in messes, but it always seemed like they could do no wrong. Rules were continuously bent for them, I use to find it to be rather unfair…that is, until I joined and found it to be quite the treat. And Harry wasn't too bad to look at either."
Harry blushed lightly and chuckled under his breathe before flickering his eyes down to Luna's; it was amazing how in love with her he was. There was time he believed Ginny was his future, but the thought of being with someone else made Harry' skin crawl; Luna had introduced him to a world he never knew existed. She brought out the good in him and forced him to be the man he never knew he could be, she was everything he had ever wanted.
"Truthfully, I've always been so jealous of you all. Ron always talks about these great times you all shared and it's always a little bittersweet, I wish I could have been there to be a part of all these memories." Maria whispered as she lowered her eyes to the floor, scuffing her toe along the edge of the floor before biting her lower lip.
"You're a huge part of our lives, Maria, those times weren't even that good. We managed to have life long friendships, but on top of that we were constantly fighting to stay alive. Every time we got on the train to go to Hogwarts we all knew that we would end up fighting to stay alive one way or another." Hermione giggled as she leaned her head back to stare up at Ginny with a half-smile. "Remember our fifth year when we had to battle all those death eaters?"
"Oh yeah, how could I forget?" Ginny smirked with a shake of head.
Suddenly, the adults were interrupted as the front door swung open and a gaggle of kids came tumbling in with dark expressions on their faces causing every set of parents to drop any contact from one another and rush to their respective children; Hermione crouched before Hugo while Ginny grabbed a hold of Rose, Maria gathered her twins in her arms and Ron stopped before Chloe and looked her over, Harry clapped James on his shoulder and Luna quickly looked into Alexis's eyes for answers.
"I'm so sick of Malfoy, he's one step away from being cursed into a pile of dung!" James warned as he angrily curled his fists, he had attempted to get a grip on his irritation the whole walk home but he just couldn't wash away the words Malfoy had spoken. "He can't just get away with bullying everyone because his father is all high and mighty."
"As much as I dislike the Malfoy family myself I would never want to hex them." Harry chuckled as he glanced at his teenaged son before narrowing his eyes in wonder. "Why do I feel like I'm missing a big part of your anger?"
"He kicked a pile of dirt into Rose's face and then started mouthing off about Auntie Mione!" Fred exclaimed as his lower lip trembled before he burrowed his face in Maria's stomach for comfort. "He was really, really mean. I don't like him very much, Mommy, why can't he be nice and say nice things about us?"
"He kicked dirt in your face?" Ginny growled, her eyes searching her daughter's and frowning as they brimmed with tears before Rose slowly nodded her head in answer.
"Don't worry, Mum, James made him puke up slugs! It was so cool, one minute he was being a meanie and the next he was all…ugh, eww, burp!" Hugo breathed out, crouching at the waist to mime the act of throwing up as Hermione watched in amusement before she clicked her tongue and Hugo stood up straight smiling as his mother ran a hand through his red locks. "But I didn't like what he was saying about mummy, it made me sad."
"What did he say about her, buddy?"
"He called her that bad word again, the one you say is too bad for me and Rosie to know." Hugo answered with a frown as he leaned further into Hermione and stared at her through his long lashes. "Mummy, he was so mean and he really scared me. I don't wanna go to the park without James there to help me out anymore, Malfoy is just too big!"
"You know what, buddy? I think we can find a new park for you and Rosie to play at, that way you don't have to worry about Malfoy being mean to you and your sister anymore. How does that sound?" Hermione softly suggested with a raised eyebrow, Hugo nodding happily as he strung his arms around her neck and allowed the brunette woman to pick him up. "Good, now take your cousins and go get washed up for supper. We're eating in ten minutes."
"Okay Mummy!" Hugo agreed before he kissed her cheek and slide of her hip, rushing off into the kitchen and when he was gone Hermione ran both her hands through her curly locks and took a deep breathe before relaxing.
"Hey, you okay?" Ginny whispered as she scooted around her daughter who was standing with her eyes narrowed and firmly locked on Hermione, but Ginny needed to know her wife was okay before she ordered her daughter away. "James handled it, the kids are okay and that's all that matters. How about you go get the pastries for the table and I'll make sure everything is set up, hmm?"
"Yeah, yeah okay." Hermione nodded before pecking Ginny's lips and moving into the other room, Rose quickly following at her heels as she looked at the back of Hermione's head. "Sweetie, I can feel your eyes on me. What do you want?"
Rose flinched at the harsh tone Hermione was using against her, but quickly she squared her shoulders and cleared her throat. The older witch nodded in recognition before turning to face her daughter who was wearing a determined expression much like her own, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossed over her chest as if to protect herself. Hermione couldn't help but quirk a grin at how she remembered herself making that stance so much when she was younger.
"You said that you'd tell me what a mudblood was and I want to know now. Why do you and Mum get so upset whenever Hugo or I say it? Why is it such a bad word and why is it carved into your arm? How come you're lying to me? You promised to never lie to me, but you won't even tell me why the word is such a bad one." Rose fired out, each question coming out harsher than the last as she found her anger boiling up inside of her.
"Rose, I've told you already, you're too young right now and I think we need to wait a few years before we talk about these kinds of things." Hermione sighed, turning her back again as she stacked the food on the tray and listened to her daughter whine. "Right now, just focus on dinner, okay?"
"Mummy, you said you'd tell me and I believe I'm old enough to know!" Rose snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest in a huff, she was really feeling the frustration of being kept out of the loop; she could see that Hermione was struggling to keep her mouth shut and Rose knew she was pushing it. "Why does Malfoy keep on calling you that?"
"Rose, I'm not up to discussing this with you right now. We have guests." Hermione snapped as she grabbed the silver tray full of pumpkin pastries, glancing down to see her daughter angrily tapping her foot with a look of fire in her eyes.
"No, tell me!" Rose ordered as she clenched her fists together, watching as Hermione shook her head before turning her back to her daughter and moving towards the family room and finally the anger that had taken over her exploded and her mouth opened before she could stop it. "You're such a…mudblood!"
As soon as the word left Rose's mouth she regretted it, the room went deathly silent as all eyes seemed to fall upon Hermione who stood at the doorway with her mouth gaping and her eyes saucer wide. Suddenly, the caramel haired witch dropped the platter in her hands as her shoulders began to heave with silent sobs and her lower lip trembled with speed.
"Baby…" Ginny began as she reached out for her wife.
"Don't touch me." Hermione hissed out in a venomous voice as she jerked away from the red-head and pushed past her, running towards the door and grabbing her coat off the hook before she vanished out the door and slammed it loudly behind her causing the remaining people inside the home to flinch before everyone went quiet.
Ginny's eyes fell upon a small caramel haired child who stared up at her with innocent eyes before they flamed up slightly, "Now will you tell me what it means?"