Chapter 27: My Only Sunshine

Author's Note: So here we are, the final chapter. I want to make this brief so that you can get on with reading the last bit of the story but I'll leave any thank you's I have until the end. Hopefully as right now it is 25/7/2014, maybe it won't take me as long to upload this chapter as the way it happened on chapter 26. Anyway, hope you enjoy and here is chapter 27!

31st December 2005

Once again, that time of year had arrived where there was only a matter of hours left. Then, things would change. Some people considered it a new start, time to change things, time to change their lives. Others would just stick with things the way they were. For Ron, Hermione and Rose, their change had already happened, and would continue to happen for the rest of their lives.

"How are you finding it?" Helena Granger said as she walked alongside Ron, pushing a week old Rose in her pram. For Rose's first outing, outside of going to the Burrow, Hermione had suggested that they take their daughter to a place where they had shared so many moments over the past few years – Hyde Park. Being just over a 20 minute walk away, they had invited Hermione's parents to come along with them. At this point, Hermione, who was still adjusting to walking around again, was pacing a little ahead of them with Robert, and it was obvious that they were having an animated conversation, laughing and smiling.

"You mean being a parent?" Ron asked, to which Helena nodded, "Weird. I love it, but it just seems so weird. Suddenly there is this life that we're responsible for, and it just feels so odd. She's amazing though." Ron grinned

"She is isn't she. How's Hermione been?" Helena added. Hermione had been fine, constantly exhausted, but so was he and there wasn't anything they could do about that. But suddenly they had become so much more responsible, knowing that they couldn't allow things to go wrong.

"She's been great. We're both tired all the time, but nothing's gone wrong so far." Ron replied.

"I bet your parents love it, another child in the family." She responded and Ron grinned

"They do. They always do. Rose is grandchild number nine as well, so I don't know how they keep up with the excitement. By now though it's nothing new though is it? We are the last ones to have children, so it's not the same as it would have been earlier." There was an air of sorrow in his voice as he spoke, and it appeared that just like that, Helena knew what he meant.

No questions were needed, no wondering. Helena just knew. That's one of the things Ron liked about Hermione's parents; Robert and Helena got it. Unlike his parents, who had had seven children, they had had one – Hermione, and so they understood to an extent what Ron and Hermione had been through. That was another one of those reasons that only Robert, Helena, Harry and Ginny were the only people who knew, because whilst Harry and Ginny hadn't had similar problems, apart from Hermione, they were his best friends. Additionally, none of his other siblings had had problems either. It was just them. Whatever expression came across Ron's face, caused Helena to reach for his hand, currently pushing the pram, and squeeze it in reassurance. Ron smiled at her kindness.

"You got there in the end." Helena whispered, before Ron could reply to thank her, Hermione turned and spoke to them.

"Where should we go?" She called

"How about the lake?" Ron suggested before they carried on walking.

It was a place where they had spent so much time over the past few years. So much had happened, so many memories in such a beautiful place. Their first Valentine's Day together, the child that they kept coming across over the years, so many things had happened in this place, and now they were bringing their daughter here for her first day out.

It didn't make sense, but it was perfect.

XXXXXXXXXX

As it drew closer and closer to midnight, the start of a new year, Rose drifted off to sleep. Her sleeping was patchy, drifting off and waking up every few hours. This happened throughout the day and throughout the night, neither of them minded though because they knew that was to be expected. Right now they had decided to let her sleep upstairs whilst they sat waiting for the new year to happen, only half an hour to go, and it would be 2006.

There was a cry from upstairs and Hermione sighed. Whilst they were both getting up at night to calm Rose, Hermione was the one that due to Rose needing to be fed sometimes in the night, got up more often. It was gradually taking its toll on both of them and they knew this would continue for the next few months.

"I'll go, you need the break." Ron said, standing up and looking at the tiredness in Hermione's eyes.

"Are you sure?" Hermione said, exhaustion in her face.

"Of course I'm sure. We'll be fine." Ron replied before heading up the stairs.

When he reached the top, Ron first headed into his and Hermione's room. After moving Rose's cot into their room, they had decided to keep it like this for the first month at least, whilst she was waking up the most frequently in the night and then they would move her to her own room. Right now, Rose lay on her back, fists bundled in the blanket and face reddened. As soon as he saw her, Ron felt his heart melt; it did every time he cast his eyes on his daughter, and he reckoned it would be like that for the rest of his life.

"Hello, Rosie." Ron said gently scooping the week old baby into him arms. Slowly the crying subsided and Rose stared up at him as she quietly hiccupped. "Come on, let's take you into your room."

He carried the little girl into her bedroom and sat down in the rocking chair. The chair had been placed by a window where moonlight happened to be streaming in. Apparently, they had left the curtains open and so from where he was sat, the moonlight filled the bedroom, and light cast down onto the thick snow outside. Soon enough, they would be able to see the fireworks from the embankment and the London eye. Normally they spent the new year with family, but one year they had decided to stay at home, and had discovered this beautiful fact. Now they were sharing this world of theirs with their daughter too.

Ron looked down at the little baby in his arms. Already she looked so much like both of them, right now in particularly himself. He imagined that as she grew she'd have so many qualities of her mother. She'd love books, be hardworking, intelligent and have a massive heart. But she'd also be like him, with a great sense of humour, clumsiness and courage. Of course she'd have faults like every other human being but those wouldn't matter, because to them, Rose was completely and utterly perfect.

She gurgled a little like she had started to do when she was upset and a thought immediately came to Ron's mind. When Rose got upset, Hermione sung to her, he had yet to try this but he remembered something that he'd said to Hermione the day they had decided to have a baby. "You are my sunshine."

It was true, Hermione brought light and life to his day, she was his everything and would be for eternity. But Rose brought light to both of their lives, not just his – she was their sunshine.

"You are my sunshine,

my only sunshine,

you make me happy,

when skies are grey –" he sang. He knew he couldn't really sing, but it seemed to bring some sort of comfort to Rose.

Hermione came up the stairs. She had heard him talking to Rose and thought she'd come up and listen in too. It was only when he started singing that she stopped in her tracks, muttered "Accio camera" and from the doorframe where Ron couldn't see her, took a photograph of the two of them together before watching him carry on singing

Flash forward.

26th December 2030

As dusk settled on Boxing Day, another Christmas came to a close, Rose and Hugo had come by for the evening. There was someone else with them too, someone very tiny and young; Rose's daughter. At only two weeks old, she already looked so much like Rose with vivid red hair and blue eye, but se had some qualities of her father as well - Scorpius. The four adults, there small family of four, where all laughing and smiling in each other's company; well, except for Hugo, who had only just got back from his honeymoon with his wife – Lydia. It was only when the girls face turned red and she began to cry that Rose carried her up stairs to be changed.

"Ron will you go up and tell her dinner is ready?" Hermione called 10 minutes later; Rose had been a while, longer than it normally took to change a baby, and dinner was about to be put out.

"I'll be back in a minute love." Ron called getting up and heading to the stairs, leaving Hugo to go and help in the kitchen.

He could see the light at the end of the hallway, flooding through from inside Rose's old bedroom, so immediately it was obvious that the door was open. As he was about to knock on the door and poke his head around the corner, Ron heard singing, the same song he had sung to Rose when she was a baby herself.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,

You make me happy, when skies are grey,

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away."

She continued to sing the rest of the song, and like Hermione had done so many years before, he summoned a camera and from the doorway photographed his daughter sat on her old bed rocking her own daughter gently. Ron hadn't heard Rose sing in a long, long time, not probably since Albus' wedding when there had been karaoke and she and Scorpius had done it together. They had both been tipsy if not slightly drunk at the time but they still sounded great, she always had.

Finally he decided to knock and Rose's head darted up from where she was smiling at her daughter. As she glanced upwards, her vibrant, waving ginger hair bounced, framing her face – it was completely obvious that she was his and Hermione's daughter. The second Rose saw Ron; a smile grew on her face.

"Hey, dinner's almost ready, love." Ron said coming into the room.

"Sorry, sometimes it takes a while to calm her down." Rose sighed and Ron nodded remembering Rose as a baby. "Hence singing to her, Scorp found that when he sung to her it helped her get calmer, so we've both been giving it a go."

"You know; I sung that to you when you were a baby as well." Ron added, sitting on the bed next to his daughter and granddaughter.

"Really?" Rose raised an eyebrow.

"It was New Years Eve and I remember coming in here to calm you down. Your mum always used to sing to you so I gave it a go. That's where this photo is from." He said reaching for a photo on the desk. It was of him cradling a tiny Rose as she gazed up at him. He could barely believe that was twenty four years ago.

"We're both so proud of you, you know." Ron said, "With everything that's happened, you and Scorpius have been through a lot in the past few years. And look at you now, you've got Scorpius and you've got this little one too."Ron trailed, reaching for the hand of his granddaughter.

"Thank you, Dad." Rose replied, "Come on, let's go for dinner."

The photograph was placed back on the desk, where soon another one, one of the next generation would join.

Flash forward ends.

"You'll never know dear, how much I love you,

Please don't take my sunshine away."

"You know there's only about a minute until 2006?" Hermione said and Ron smiling as he saw his wife.

"She's awake, but at least she's settled now." Ron beamed, "I tried singing, and I guess it worked."

"Clearly," Hermione replied, "I got a photo of the two of you together. Listen though, there's something I need to say." Ron got up and handed Rose to Hermione carefully.

"I love you Ron Weasley. I love you more and more every single day, and my love for you will continue to grow throughout the rest of my life. This year, this year has been such a rocky journey and this time last year I never thought we'd be here right now. But we are, and I love you." Hermione professed.

"I love you too." Ron grinned, leaning over to kiss her strongly. As the sound of a distant Big Ben struck Hermione smiled against Ron's lips, stepping back and whispering to him.

"Happy New Year." She beamed as they watched the far away fireworks from Rose's bedroom window. First there were two, and now there were three. Finally, they had something that united them completely – their own family

Author's Note: So that's it! That's the end of Red Rose! This has taken a lot longer than I ever thought it would – if you've stuck with me from the very beginning you'll know that prior to published this story I wrote 7 chapters, then after posting the first one, my laptop's hard drive died so overall, this has taken much longer than planned, but we got there in the end. It's been a long year and I really want to thank you all for bearing with me, and sticking with me throughout all of this. I'm going to take a break for a few weeks, and then I'll be back with another story; this time about Hugo. I've got some ideas but I want to ask this question to you – what month do you think Hugo is born in – I can't decide and ideally I need to decide before I start writing. So please let me know in your reviews. Anyway PLEASE REVIEW and thank you so so much for reading Red Rose –

Holly (hermionerose1998)