Chapter 25: A Red Rose

Authors Note: Thank you so, so much for everyone who reviewed Rose's birth. It was a difficult chapter to right (you have no idea) and hopefully this won't be as challenging. I'm so glad there was an all round positive response. I've also heard about another story that does something similar with Rose's birth but my reasons for doing it this way are that 24th December is my birthday (and now Rose's) and I wanted an intimate situation which they had been thrown into. Anyway here is chapter 25!

24th December 2005 16:20pm

"She looks so much like you!" Ron said smiling as he looked between his wife and newborn daughter.

"Are you sure? I can't see it. If anything she looks like you."Hermione said, brushing a hand over Rose's small sprinkling of ginger hair. "She has your hair and your eyes. Then again, we all knew that was going to happen." She giggled

"She has your nose," Ron said as he reached for Hermione's free hand. He guided it over Rose's tiny nose, the little girl looked between her parents with blue shining eyes. "And she has the same shape eyes as you." He added smiling.

"Perhaps we'll notice more things as she gets older. " Hermione replied. Their daughter had only been born ten minutes and yet already they were ridiculously in love with her. This hadn't been the way they had imagined Rose arriving into the world, but it had gone well, and everyone was okay. And that was all that mattered now.

There was a tapping on the bedroom window and Ron turned his head. To the right he saw Pigwidgeon perched outside on the snow covered window sill. "You have got to be kidding." Ron chuckled and he walked over to the window which he had opened to let the owl in. There was no message in its talons, but it looked ready to fly once again. "The one time we need to send an owl, we don't have one. And once the panic is over, Pig arrives."

"Send an owl to Harry and Ginny, letting them know what's going on." Hermione said

"How about we tell them not to tell anyone else yet? Then we can do one thing like we always planned – telling people ourselves." Ron said and Hermione nodded, lifting her gaze from Rose with what seemed like difficulty.

"That's not a bad idea." Hermione replied. Ron attached the note to Pigwidgeon and opened the window. The owl to flew away before Hermione suddenly blurted out a word that they hadn't thought of. "Patronus!"

"Sorry?" Ron exclaimed

"We never thought to send a patronus. I mean there is no way that we could have given the states we were in but we could send a patronus to Lily." Hermione told him and Ron realised that a patronus would be the perfect plan due to being on cloud nine. He cast the patronus and soon the Jack Russell dispersed into the snowy scene of London. Not even a minute later there was a knock on the front door. For the first time since Rose had been born, Ron left their bedroom and headed down the stairs to open the front door. Lily was stood on the doorstep, with a rucksack in hand, having clearly just been on a shift at St. Mungo's when she they had contacted her.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked as she stepped inside the house and followed Ron up the stairs.

"Tired. Hermione's exhausted, the baby's beautiful. They both seem to be doing well." Ron said, "Listen, thanks for getting here so quickly.

"No problem at all. It's my job." Healer Moon smiled as she headed into the bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed she smiled at Hermione happily. Her eyes landed on the child that Lily had intended to deliver when the time came. "Congratulations. How are you feeling?"

"Sore to say the least. Tired. I feel alright otherwise." Hermione smiled

"Do you mind if I give her a check up?" Lily said and Hermione passed Rose over gently, "So, does this little one have a name yet?" She added, smiling down at Rose, as she reached for her medical equipment.

"We've called her Rose." Ron answered and Lily nodded.

"Well, she seems to be doing well."Healer Moon responded before handing Rose back to Ron so that she could check Hermione. Afterwards she went on to ask more questions. "So, everything seems fine, and I've got to hand it to you both, you did great in an unexpected situation. " She smiled before adding that she'd check up on them the next day .

"Have you tried feeding Rose yet, Hermione?" Lily asked

"No," Hermione started off, "I guess I was waiting for a sign that she was hungry..." She trailed off

"Well it looks like she is now, if you want me to show you how." Lily said and Hermione nodded, before Healer Moon guided her as Ron turned red in uncomfortableness. Within a few minutes after Hermione had finished feeding Rose, the healer had packed up her stuff and left the quiet London house.

There was then a second knock, one that was far, far closer. One that definitely wasn't the front door to the house, but was the door to their bedroom instead. A head popped around the door, smiling and whispered with a smile on their face, "Can we come in?" Ginny.

Ron nodded, and stood up as his sister and Harry walked into the room, indicating that they had received the owl from him. James wasn't with them either, suggesting that they had left him with Arthur and Molly for a while. Both of them had large smiles on their faces, as they both embraced Ron, one after the other. Ron conjured a chair for Ginny as Harry sat on the side of the bed near his wife.

"Harry, Ginny, meet your niece." Ron said as he joined Hermione, but didn't get under the covers like she was.

"Does she have a name yet? I know you wouldn't tell me when I asked, Hermione but surely now that she's born you're going to tell us." Harry chuckled and Hermione laughed

"Her name is Rose. Rose Hermione Weasley." Hermione smiled, passing Rose to Harry for the first time. He beamed on proud as he held his niece, and looked between his two best friends with tears in his eyes.

"She's lovely." Harry sniffed, "She really is. Now listen here Rose, they might not seem like it at first, but you have two pretty cool parents. Your Dad can be a bit of an idiot, but he has the heart of a lion. And your mum, well... what can we say about your mum. She is really, really smart, and got us out of trouble more times than I can count. They are going to be amazing parents, they already are, and they've only had you about half an hour." He added before carefully passing their niece onto Ginny.

"Wow. She's beautiful. Well don't you look just like your Dad..." Ginny trailed as a few stray tears fell down her face. With her free hand she quickly wiped them away with her thumb, and beamed at the small baby.

"Listen, we know James is only little and you'll have another one here soon. But we've been meaning to ask you this for a while and never got round to it. Would you like to be Rose's Godparents?" Ron asked, "Neither of us believe in that sort of thing like you two don't, but we thought it only made sense to ask you two. And it's nice to know that if anything ever happened to us, you'd be there for her."

"Of course we will."Harry smiled and Ginny nodded, before hugging Hermione with gentle force.

They left not long after that, leaving Ron, Hermione and Rose discovering the little family they now finally had. Ron had sent an owl to Hermione's parents, Robert and Helena, telling them what was going on. Within a matter of 10 minutes, they arrived too. They had arrived quickly considering that they lived double that amount of time away by car. It was clear that by a miracle there was no traffic on Christmas Eve or they hadn't been able to contain their excitement for long enough.

"She's wonderful." Helena beamed looking between her daughter and son in law as she held her Granddaughter. "You are, aren't you Rosie." She added looking down at the tiny baby.

Helena passed baby Rose carefully onto her husband. There was a nervous look upon Robert's face that reflected the fact that this was their first grandchild. He looked up at his daughter, appearing choked up, perhaps a little more than her mother was and it warmed Hermione's heart to see that. Her mother had always been better at concealing her emotions as oppose to her father, and Hermione liked that in a way.

Helena and Robert shared a look of happiness before looking down at Rose, who was now being cradled in her grandfather's arms. She remembered the day that they had told her parents she was pregnant. At first her Dad was speechless and then he hugged her as if to never let go. She was so happy to see them so happy with their first grandchild – a sight she wondered if she would ever see at times. Hermione glanced over at Ron who was sat next to her on the bed whilst her parents acquired two chairs. He smiled softly, reaching for her hand and squeezing it. She knew it was the perfect moment so picked up her wand, muttered a spell and summoned her camera before photographing the sight.

"Is there anything you want us to do whilst we're here?" Helena suggested, "We wouldn't mind."

"Actually, please could one of you help me move Rose's cot into here? We never got round to it before, well, before this happened." Ron asked and Robert started to get up to help before Helena reached for his arm.

"Oh no you don't," Helena laughed, "You've only just started holding her; I'm not taking that away from you. I'll help you Ron." She added and Ron smiled before she followed her son in law out of the room. A silence filled the room before Robert looked up at Hermione from where he was sat and smiled. Before he could open his mouth Hermione smiled back and patted the space next to her where Ron would normally sleep. His smile grew wider as he sat down next his daughter on the bed, Rose still in his arms.

"She looks so much like Ron." Robert told her, "And you too, but more like Ron."

"I know. But her features will become clearer as she gets older; right now all you can see is the blue eyes and ginger hair, just like Ron's." Hermione replied.

"I'm so proud of you. I really am. I always have been and always will." Robert told Hermione and Hermione laughed before shaking her head.

"Really, Dad? Really?" Hermione exclaimed

"Of course I have. I'll admit that the magic and the whole fact that you're a witch was a bit of a surprise, but I've always been so incredibly proud of you. And you ought to know that." Robert answered. "Besides, if you weren't a witch, then you wouldn't have met Ron and we wouldn't have such a wonderful son in law. And if you hadn't met Ron then you wouldn't have Rose, and we wouldn't have our amazing granddaughter." Within nanoseconds of Robert finishing speaking Hermione had embraced him in a hug, careful as to mind Rose.

"I love you, Dad." Hermione said with a cracking in her voice.

Her father sounded equally chocked up, "I love you too, sweetheart."

Ron and Helena entered the room a few seconds later carrying the cot for Rose between them. It was positioned closer to Hermione's side of the bed than Ron's, due to the fact that there were some things that she would have to do which Ron couldn't for obvious reasons.

"What are you going to do tomorrow?" Helena asked once she and Ron had finished with the cot. "Don't you normally go to the Burrow in the evening on Christmas day?"

"I don't think we're in any state to go. Maybe if she was a little older, but not when she's not even a day old, it'll be too much for all of us." Hermione said

"I guess we'll just stay here. I don't think everyone was going to the Burrow this year anyway."Ron sighed. "It's not exactly the ideal first Christmas."

"Well, it's entirely up to you, but what if we came over in the evening instead of you coming over in the morning like you normally do. Then at least you'd have some company." Robert suggested.

"And you wouldn't mind doing that?" Hermione asked

"Of course we wouldn't mind. It'd be nice for us as well to spend the evening with you." Helena said, Hermione and Ron shared a look before Ron spoke.

"We'd love that. Thank you." Ron smiled.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next few hours passed rather quickly. A while later, Robert and Helena left, embracing both Ron and Hermione tightly before departing into the snow. By the time they had left it was already nine o'clock and Rose was going through infrequent sleeping, drifting off and waking up every so often, never staying asleep for more than forty five minutes at a time. As it gradually got darker and talker, as night descended, Ron and Hermione sat and watched their daughter in pure amazement as she looked between them quietly.

"Do you know what?" Ron said

"What?"

"I reckon she'll be the quiet one out of us all." Ron smiled and Hermione turned her head to the side to look at him, feeling surprised.

"What makes you say that?" Hermione said, "Neither of us has ever been particularly quiet."

"I know but I, I guess I just have a feeling. Everyone is different, and none of any of our nieces or nephews are particularly quiet, I just have a feeling that she will be the one." Ron said

"Well, I've got a feeling that you're right." Hermione replied, "Besides she's hardly cried."

A comfortable silence fell between them again as they just watched on as their daughter got to know them. Ron was right, Rose was quiet. And in ways that was good, because it meant that she was unique, different from the rest of her cousins in more than just the fact that Ron and Hermione were her parents. Gradually Rose started to fall asleep and her parents simply continued to watch her happily. That was until Ron broke the silence.

"We haven't eaten all day." Ron said and Hermione laughed.

"We could order a pizza?" Hermione suggested and her husband smiled in response.

"I'll go and order one and bring it up when it arrives. Can't be too long can it? They're only a few roads away." Ron smiled kissing Hermione before getting up and heading away.

Ron didn't need to wait too long and soon the pizza arrived, it was late at night but better late than never in Ron's eyes. By the time he came back up the stairs, Hermione was drifting off to sleep. Ron grinned at the sight of both his wife and daughter sleeping as he went over to Hermione and gently shook her awake. "Pizza delivery." He said smirking and Hermione laughed.

They placed Rose in her cot and watched her as they ate the pizza. Eventually they vanished the box and Ron joined Hermione in their bed. "Well, that was an interesting day." He sighed chuckling as Hermione smiled in the darkness.

"It really was." Hermione replied. "I think congratulations is in store."
"Congratulations?" Ron said

"Congratulations Ron Weasley, you're officially a Dad." Nothing could have ended Ron's Christmas Eve more perfectly than that.

Authors Note: This is a pretty short chapter, I know, and I apologise. It has been a month since I last posted a chapter (which I feel terrible about!) I've just been dragging myself through GCSE exams, and I still have another one to go tomorrow so that is the reason for my absence. I've still got to come up with some ideas for the next chapter, but it will probably be Christmas Day – because I love Christmas... Anyway thank you very much and PLEASE REVIEW!