Chapter 15: That Which We Call Rose
Authors Note: 2013-11-04 – Hello! As you can see I am writing this about five to six days before it is actually published online but if I don't start now I won't get it up on Sunday. Thank you to those who have already reviewed the last chapter. You may have noticed in the last chapter that I mentioned Hermione suggesting the name Holly, but Ron disagreed for several reasons. As you know my name is Holly and I have basically said my thoughts on my name through Ron's speech. I was born on Christmas Eve 1998 and although my parents deny it I have always wondered if my name is linked to my date of birth – I also did get nicknamed tinsel because of this like Ron suggested anyway... here is chapter 15!
19th September 2005
"Hermione, wake up."Ron whispered, brushing the brown bushy hair out of his wife's face gently. Although it was not a frequent circumstance, he loved waking up before Hermione did so. He particularly did now more than ever. She would still be asleep with her somewhat mane of hair spreading out wildly on her pillow, and ninety nine percent of the time, on his pillow as well. There had been one occasion before this day that he had woken up earlier than Hermione and the way he had been lying when he was asleep meant that his hand was resting upon his wife's stomach – instinct perhaps now that there was a baby daughter involved as well as it just being the two of them – and he had felt their daughter kick inside of Hermione. It was a weird feeling, he was sure that it was weirder for Hermione, given that it was coming from inside of her but in spite of the fact that they had heard the heartbeat of the baby and had also seen sonogram pictures and images, that was one of the things that kept them fixed into reality and told them that after so very long of waiting, this was all becoming real.
"What time is it?"Hermione mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"It is eight in the morning, I know you have been sleeping in a bit more lately but I know that you like to be up earlier on this day." He replied
"This day, what is today?" She returned, clearly puzzled in her dozy state of consciousness and Ron chuckled at her lack of intelligence when she was this tired.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart." Ron beamed and her eyes widened, clearly remembering the day. Ron smiled as he looked on as she realised what was going on. He had spent every one of her birthdays with her since they were eleven years old. 15 years worth of September 19th's did not feel like anywhere near as many. When he watched he realised how much she had changed since they had first met and yet in some ways she never changed at all apart from as the years had gone by, they had slowly become more and more like one another than themselves. They still had the same personalities, but they had learnt the qualities and features that they had needed to learn in good time. He would happily spend a million September 19th's with Hermione, as long as they were with her.
"Thank you, Ron. Wow, I am twenty six aren't I?" Hermione laughed
"And do not worry, no more wrinkles than you had when you were twenty five." Ron joked and Hermione moved a hand to her face, almost scanning her face following on from what he had just said.
"Do I have wrinkles?" Hermione asked suddenly worried and Ron reached for her hand and moved it away from her face slowly before placing his other hand on top of hers, encompassing her left hand.
"No, no not at all. It was something my mum used to say to me when I was little. She said that when it turned from the previous day to your birthday, you would have more wrinkles than you did the day before as you gained a year. I believed it until I was about eight and so did Ginny. You have never had wrinkles." Ron told her wisely.
"But I will one day, and so will you." Hermione trailed
"And I will love you as much as I do now if not even more." Ron promised and Hermione grinned as he reached for something in the draw of his bedside table. "I have your present here by the way. Would you like it now or later on?" He questioned and Hermione thought about it.
"Can you just wait until I have gotten dressed? If I stay in my pyjamas much longer I will begin to feel like an invalid and you know that..."Hermione spoke before Ron cut her off.
"I know that you are not an invalid, I know that you are just pregnant. Do not worry, I know Hermione." Ron laughed as he watched Hermione before throwing some clothes towards her that she requested as he passed by the wardrobe. Over the past couple of months they had spent more time that Hermione would have liked in changing rooms at muggle shops trying on maternity clothes as slowly she grew out of the clothes she normally would have fitted into. By no surprise at all, it had been a great deal more fun for Ron than it had been for his wife as he sat there whilst she tried things on endlessly. They had eventually worked as a team in the end once Ron had stopped laughing, he passed clothes to her and she tried them on before they were sorted into piles of what they would buy and what they would put back but the day had been considerably less enjoyable for Hermione out of the two of them.
"Okay, then - I no longer feel like an invalid or critically ill patient at St Mungos or a muggle hospital. In answer to your question, please could I have it now?" Hermione said sitting down on top of the now neatly made bed that Hermione had simply sorted with a quick wave of her wand. She had now sorted herself out so that her hair was slightly tamer and she wore light, faded denim jeans and a blue flowing top that she knew would probably fit her for the next few months before the baby was born as it was slightly larger on her than had been originally expected when they had bought it a few weeks before.
"Here is your present." Ron said handing her a small rectangular, cylindrical object that certainly did not look like a usual, conventional gift that she had received before this day.
"What is it?" Hermione enquired as smile creeping onto the corner of her mouth as she raised her right eyebrow making Ron laugh.
"Ah, well as per usual, you will have to open it to find out." Ron replied mysteriously and with humour. Hermione carefully and delicately unwrapped the tiny, compact package slowly to reveal a tiny glass vial. She rolled it with extreme care between her thumbs and index fingers until a tiny piece of parchment neatly stuck to the side with muggle cello tape caught her eye. Upon it was letters in Ron's gradually becoming neater handwriting that read To My Dearest Hermione, 1st September 1991 – 19th September 2005.
Hermione was speechless. If this was what she believed it to be never had she thought that anyone could present another being with such a sweet and moving gift that literally had so many memories attached to it.
"Memories?" Hermione whispered, feeling her eyes sting as she looked towards her husband and he smiled gently.
"From the day we met up until about an hour ago – the best ones that I mean..." He trailed softly before Hermione leaned over and kissed him as she broke away Ron noticed a single tear spill onto her cheeks and fall at incredible speed.
"Sorry..." Hermione sniffed chuckling as she wiped the tear away. "It is just the sweetest present you could have ever given me... or anyone for that matter."
"You always end up crying at my presents, this time seems to be different though." Ron wondered aloud "Hormones?" at which Hermione laughed
"Hormones." She replied confirming his suggestion. "But what made you come up with this?"
"To show you how much you mean to me, you have always been there for me, even when I was a complete and utter arse and I will always be grateful for that. Always." He told her and she grinned.
"I would say that I love you but right now that does not even begin to describe how I feel about you." Hermione sniffed as she rested her head on Ron's shoulder before he reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly.
"You know, you might want to stop crying before your parents come over you know. At the rate we have gone at in the past year and a bit, they will think you have gone round the bend." Ron told her jokingly.
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"How is twenty six turning out to be so far?" Helena asked and Hermione smiled as they sat in the living room of 26 Snowberry Road. The sound of something simmering in the next room, the kitchen was apparent as she sat and listened to the silence whilst thinking of an answer. Ron had agreed to make lunch as the reality was that not only did he love cooking, but he was actually quite good at it too. Unbelievably, on top of all of the many birthday surprises – her Dad had offered to help. She remembered her Dad cooking when she was a lot younger but he had always admitted that Helena was a lot better at it than him so although they took turns, it was more frequently her than him.
"Not bad at all actually. We went to see Harry and Ginny earlier this morning and George and Angelina turned up as well with their children. It feels weird though, twenty six." Hermione sighed
"Trust me, it feels a lot weirder when it is the other way round and you realise that it is twenty six years since you gave birth to them. You will know what I mean when your daughter turns the same age." Helena laughed and Hermione shivered unintentionally. "This is a weird question but are you shivering at the thought of me giving birth or the thought of you giving birth?"
"I was thinking about me giving birth. But now I have another image in my head... ugh." Hermione shook her head and her mother laughed once again.
"You will be fine Hermione, honestly. Besides once you get that out of the way it is ultimately up to you whether you ever want to do it again and have any more children." Helena said and Hermione drummed her fingers around the glass of lemonade that she was holding tightly in one of her hands. It was not too close to the date that their daughter was supposedly going to be born – the 5th of January, but it was not particularly far away either, and as they slowly got closer and closer to that date, that month, that year, Hermione began to worry more than she would have really liked to. The only thing that concerned her was that things could go wrong. Anything could go wrong with a bit of bad luck and given what they had already been told, she was more anxious than she had been in quite a long time.
"I know, it is just a bit frightening that is all."Hermione informed her mother and she nodded.
"That is understandable and it does hurt, but you forget it soon after." Helena responded. "But on the Brightside, you seem to be having a good birthday so far. What did you get from Ron?" She added inquisitively and Hermione laughed at her mother's curiosity, knowing that if Ron had been in the same room as them – or her Dad had for that matter, both of them would of commented on how much Hermione was like her mother, making her wonder if their daughter would be more like herself or her husband.
"He got me a vial of memories." Hermione said sprightly, much to the confusion of her mother who's eyebrows were now firmly knitted in a line.
"I am sorry, did you just say a vial of memories?" Helena asked looking extremely puzzled – Hermione had never really explained the memories in a pensive system to her parents. Although she had told them many things throughout the years about the Wizarding World, this just was not one of them.
"Hold on." Hermione said before getting her wand off the coffee table a little in front of them, and muttering, "Accio birthday present!" The vial came flying towards her and she then passed it onto her mother carefully who like Hermione had a few hours previously, rolled the cylindrical glass bottle between her fingers before she then came across the writing that had earlier made Hermione's heart leap into her mouth.
"That is so sweet." Helena whispered at the kindness of her son in law towards her daughter, his wife. "Wait so it is all the memories between the day you met and today?"
"This morning to be precise. And it is only the best ones according to Ron." Hermione informed her and her mother nodded in reply.
"But how do you see them, presenting you with memories is really heart warming but you obviously can't see them, so what does it mean overall?" Helena questioned
"It is magic." Hermione said
"Magic."Helena whispered.
"Magic is how we do things like that Mum." Hermione laughed "It is just one of the things that I have never got round to mentioning to you. We have a pensive that we bought after we got married, and all you go is pour the memories into the water, and you look into it. By doing that, you actually, as weird as it may sound, you actually fall into the memory. The participants in the memory, so eleven year old or twenty five year old – past versions of Ron and I cannot see ourselves as we are now, so the memory cannot be interrupted but we can see them and it is not like you jump out after each memory, you just stand and watch and the scene, the past world around you changes completely."
"If you pour the memories in, does that mean that once they are gone, they are gone though?" Helena enquired
"No, Ron put a spell on it meaning that it only takes one drop each time instead of pouring the entire thing out. And then we can essentially charm them back into the vial. Besides, we will always have the memories anyway." Hermione replied
"Your husband is a genius you know." Helena said looking flabbergasted and Hermione laughed hard.
"Yeah, he really is..." Hermione trailed realising how correct that really was.
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"Ready?" Ron asked
"Ready." Hermione confirmed, reaching for his hand and squeezed it as with his free other one, he poured a single drop from the vial of memories into the pensive. It was a floating one, very similar to the one that Dumbledore had had, McGonagall had given it to them as a wedding present, saying in the wedding card that came along with it that "Now that you are married, you really will have time to reflect on your past, present and future." Both of them knew exactly what that meant, it meant that they had time to reflect on how much they loved each other, because everyone could see it for years at times when they could not do so for themselves. The card that that was wrote in and had came with the pensive was sat on the desk in their bedroom now, remaining their proudly for nearly five years and reminding them every day of how much they truly loved one another. Every so often it would be picked up and read, handled with care, but most of the time it sat their contently.
"Are you sure you want me to join you? After all, it is your birthday present." Ron questioned and Hermione chuckled
"Ron, they are your memories. Memories of us both together, of course you can if you want to." Hermione replied and he nodded in reassurance.
"Okay then..." He trailed
"Okay." She replied as they both lent into the pensive and they tumbled, endlessly into the memories. As soon as they landed on their feet, Hermione felt Ron's grip on her hand immediately increase.
The memories then began to slowly unravel, starting off with the moment that Hermione entered the carriage on the Hogwarts Express and for the very first time their eyes met. Things then began to change rapidly, going from some of the memories of their earlier years at Hogwarts like when she was petrified and the unfortunate events of the Yule Ball in their fourth year and what happened after. As they unfolded before her and Ron's eyes, Hermione realised although Ron had said it to her multiple times throughout the years since they had gotten together she had never quite believed it. The way he looked at her in nearly all of those moments showed her one very now obvious thing. He had loved her all along.
"Do you remember this day?" Ron asked and Hermione nodded as they watched the sixteen year old versions of themselves in the past lie in neighbouring beds in the hospital wing at Hogwarts at the end of their fifth year. They were both turned on their sides, facing one another and talking. She could not remember what exactly had been said that night, but clearly, Ron could...
"Do you think that Harry will be okay?" She whispered, although not noticing that they were quite literally the only ones in the hospital wing. Even Madam Pomfrey had gone to bed a couple of hours ago. The time approached one o'clock and Hermione glanced up at the ticking of the clock on the wall opposite them, anxiety consuming her in case anyone entered to check on them and realised that they were both still awake.
"If you mean physically... then sure. Psychologically...we both know that might take longer. But then again, has lost more people than many people do in a lifetime and he is only fifteen." Ron told her
"I know but this is Sirius. Sirius Black as in his godfather. When they departed at Christmas one of the last things I heard him say was when the war was eventually over they would be a proper family. He will remember that, and he now knows that it will never happen. How can you get over something like that?" Hermione sighed, feeling sorry for their friend who she knew was probably also sleepless up in Ron, Harry, Neville, Dean and Seamus' dormitory. If not then he would be sat exhaustedly in the Gryffindor Common Room. Neither of them ever wanted to see him like that, but they already had and knew they probably would once again.
"I really do not know. He will pull through eventually. Everyone will too. But you will not if you do not stop worrying so much." Ron responded and Hermione chuckled as he smiled – knowing what he had set out to do seconds before; to make her laugh, had been successful.
"I can't help but worry, he is our best friend what do you expect me to do? We literally are the closest thing to family he has got." Hermione retorted and Ron shook his head.
"I know we are, that is why in a good way you are like his mum sometimes."Ron said softly, "And if we all survive this war then you will be an actual great mum then." Hermione's heart stopped at his words, knowing that that was a very farfetched concept and a heart warming compliment from Ronald Weasley but had he really just said "we"? She thought he had said it but was he thinking the same thing has her? For the first time ever were they on the same line as one another instead of going round in circles?
"Thank you." Hermione said, rather uncertain of how to reply.
The memory then vanished before their eyes and Hermione instantly recalled how she had felt in that moment. The memories continued to flash in front of them, quickly passing through the darker times when they were on the run, when she had been unconscious at Shell Cottage at the Battle of Hogwarts. There were then leaps in time, their first kiss, the day they moved in together, Hermione leaving for and coming home from Hogwarts. Some other moments that made them both go red at the thought of. Then the night that Ron had proposed in their back garden, kneeling on the snow under the warm glow of fairy lights in the freezing air – the trousers Ron had worn that night had been ruined at the knees, but he had kept them to remind them both of what happened that night. Their wedding - from Ron's point of view and Hermione slowly felt tears sting her eyes. After that the memories were not as frequent, apart from one or two holidays they had taken, and then, the night that Hermione told Ron that she was pregnant and Hermione felt her husband wrap an arm around her waist.
The next and final memory was very different, as it was only fifteen hours earlier, at seven in the morning...
Ron woke quickly on this morning. Probably a lot quicker than normal, in remembering that it were Hermione's birthday. He turned over and saw that she was fast asleep before quickly glancing at the clock and hoping out of bed. Without even considering changing out of his pyjamas, he pulled on shoes and a warm waterproof coat before heading out of the door and disapparating to nearby Bloomsbury. Although the city of London appeared to never sleep on the morning of the nineteenth of September, it was relatively quiet and only one person passed by as Ron approached the florist's at the end of the street, not even caring about his blue plaid pyjama bottoms. He pushed the door open and slowly walked in, as he scanned the room he knew he wanted to find something perfect, to show how much he loved her in a sweetly stereotypical way. Love. Roses. A bouquet of red roses were visible right in front of him and slowly he gathered the plastic wrapping around the stems and thorns and brought them towards the paying desk where the last customer was just departing.
"Morning." Ron smiled
"Morning." The woman behind the counter smiled as he handed her the bouquet. As she was passed them, she cocked her head to the side and her smile grew wider.
"What is with the pyjama bottoms? Long night?" She questioned and Ron laughed.
"Something like that..." Ron chuckled "No...It is my wife's birthday so I thought I would get something extra."
"And you were not too sure of what to get?"The florist asked
"I have known her since we were eleven. We met on our first day of... high school." Ron paused thinking of the right word. "We did not become friends until a couple of months later and by the time one of you gets to twenty six – her obviously being the first one of the two of us, we have essentially given each other birthday cards and presents nearly fourteen times, it gets even more difficult as you get older too."
"Well, Roses are a very good choice." She nodded, "What else did you get her?" Ron did not mind the curiosity, he understood and knew that in most situations with muggles, he was just like the florist.
"It is... difficult to explain, I was going to get some stuff in preparation for our daughter being born, but I think she has had enough of that already... put it this way though, a lot of thought went into it." Ron informed her.
"Congratulations." The florist said "oh, and that will be £5.50 please." She added as Ron handed her the five pound note and fifty pence coin. "I hope your wife has a great birthday."
"Thank you very much." Ron beamed departing back home.
The final memory drew to a close and they both pulled out of the pensive. Hermione glanced over to her left to unexpected find that Ron was also doing exactly the same thing and looking over at her. As they held their gaze Hermione felt tears fall down her face endlessly and she watched Ron or two appeared from Ron's eyes as well. Before she had gotten pregnant, they hardly ever cried about the simplest of things. But this was something completely different this time; these were pure, heart-warming and literally love in a bottle.
"You did all of that, all this time..." Hermione trailed sniffing, "You have loved me all that time?"She questioned and Ron nodded
"Yeah, I really have, and I know that I have said that to you a gazillion times and you have said the same to me but this one time I wanted to show you with something that whenever we feel like we are drifting apart, we always have that to fall back on."Ron told and Hermione choked on her tears, quickly wiping them away.
"Thank you." She whispered
"That reminds me..." He pondered before conjuring the bouquet of red roses that he had bought earlier in the day and beaming he handed them to Hermione. "I know that we have bought these a lot in the past few years, there was one there on the night we got engaged, and they were the flowers but they truly are beautiful and I remember how much they have always reminded you of."
"Rose." Hermione said after a moment's silence looking back up at Ron, her eyes bright and alight. "Rose."
"What about them?" Ron questioned puzzled.
"I mean for a name for the baby Ron." Hermione said and Ron listened to her, "Rose, we could call her Rose." Ron heard the name as she spoke and played it over and over in his head, this was ultimately a joint decision but in this task Hermione had just made the best choice they truly could have.
"Rose, Rose Weasley." Ron repeated to himself and beamed, "That is perfect, and beautiful. Why Rose though?"
"Roses are the symbol of love and beauty? I do not think it is for that reason although it is a coincidental contribution but I think it just fits, don't you." Hermione suggested
"It really does. If you chose a first name do you mind if I choose a middle name, as that is what we agreed on, because I know one?" Ron asked and Hermione nodded before Ron spoke once again, "Hermione. I think her middle name should be Hermione." At this Hermione's eyes widened.
"You want part of her name to be Hermione." Hermione asked almost speechlessly.
"I want her in some way to be named after you." Ron said softly, "Because although we have been through this together you have gone through so much more, and I am so, so proud of you. I have always thought that, but now more than ever."
"I love you, you know?" Hermione said and Ron kissed her gently adding , "I love you too."
"Rose it is." Hermione smiled
"Rose Hermione Weasley."
Authors Note: I'm so, so sorry that it has taken so long for this to be up. As you know I had the English assessment for part of my GCSE – after an extra class where some of us added a little more to it, I think it went pretty well, but I just have to wait and see. I have always thought that Rose's middle name would be Hermione, given that J.K Rowling often does use parents names in their child's name but anyway, that is just my opinion. Thank you for the wait and PLEASE REVIEW!