Using the prompt 'commute'
Chapter Fifteen
Rose woke to a surprisingly sunny morning. The sunlight from the open window was shining in her eyes, causing her to groan. And she had actually been sleeping for once...
She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes from the deep, dreamless sleep she had been in. There had been no nightmares of a faceless woman coming into her bedroom and killing her on the spot; no images of her parents' or Hugo's bodies lying at the door of her bedroom. It had been a while since she hadn't seen that and it felt good.
There were many voices coming from downstairs and for a moment, she thought her cousins had returned from school. But it was only May... May sixteenth...
She gasped. Hugo's birthday! How had she forgotten about it? She hadn't even gotten him anything and she doubted anyone else had remembered either. And Hugo being Hugo wasn't going to remind them. He would just sit there and hope that someone would wish him a happy birthday.
Climbing out of bed, she made her way quickly down the stairs and into the kitchen to the sound of voices. She was greeted with laughter and the sight of Harry, Ginny, Molly and Arthur. There were presents sitting on the table beside Hugo, who looked partly overjoyed and partly embarrassed from all the attention.
The sight also sent a wave of guilt rushing through her. It seemed she had been the only one to forget.
"Happy birthday, Hu," she said, kissing his cheek. He wiped it away with a look of disgust, but thanked her anyway.
Everyone was now watching her expectantly, as if waiting for her to magically conjure a present from behind her back.
"I... er..." She bit her lip, thinking fast. "So, my present to you is... today we'll do whatever you want to do!" She grinned at him, only to see the hint of disappointment on her brother's face.
"You forgot, didn't you?"
"Hugo, I'm sorry... I remembered the moment I woke up..." There was no point in lying to him. Hugo was quiet, but he was observant. Not much escaped him. "But I do mean it. We can do anything you want to do. Anything at all."
Hugo seemed to think about it for a few moments, his eyes darting around the room to everyone. No one said a word. Rose had promised him anything and they all knew he was probably thinking of anything.
Eventually, he turned back to her. "I was thinking," he began slowly, "I really want to see our house."
Rose swallowed. She had been afraid he would say something like that. "O-okay," she answered. "Is that possible, Uncle Harry?"
Harry seemed to be slightly surprised at what Hugo had just said, but nodded anyway. "If that's what the two of you want to do... they've finally cleared your house of a crime scene, so it shouldn't be a problem. The Aurors on the case have been altering your neighbour's memories over the past few days – they now only recognise your faces, but don't know you."
That saddened Rose slightly. She had been quite close to some of her neighbours, but she also understood why it had been done. If they knew her parents had been killed, they'd start asking questions, and that wasn't good. Her neighbours were Muggles.
Harry looked at the two of them with great concern. "Are you sure you're both ready?"
Rose wanted to shake her head and scream that she wasn't at all ready to see the place her parents had been killed, but for Hugo's sake, she didn't. From the moment Harry and Ginny had come to Hogwarts to tell them what had happened, he had dealt with the news differently than she had. He wanted to be close, where as she was more than happy to be as far away as possible from the reminder of what she had lost.
"There's a lot of stuff I want to take back here," Hugo replied calmly. "And... I just want to see the house again." He shrugged.
"Who would you like to go with you?" Ginny asked.
"Uncle Harry," Rose and Hugo answered in unison. He had been the one to find their parents, it was only right that he come back with them.
"But, you all can come if you want," Hugo added.
Ginny and Molly both turned away, but Arthur nodded. "If you don't mind?"
Hugo shook his head. "You can see the house too," he said.
"I just have one request," Rose interrupted. "Can we... can we drive there?" she asked. "I know it takes a long time, but... I'll need that time."
Harry looked at Hugo, who nodded. "Yeah, okay."
The rest of the morning went by quickly. Rose ate little breakfast, while she watched Hugo open his presents. Harry and Ginny had given him – much to Hugo's absolute delight – another broomstick that had once been Ginny's. It wasn't the very latest model, but it was better than the one Hugo currently had, and brand new. As an ex Quidditch player, she was handed broomsticks all the time, but she no longer had much use to them. Most of the time, she gave them to her own children, making them the subject of envy at Hogwarts. Hugo had always been jealous, so Rose was pleased that finally, he had his own.
Molly and Arthur gave him a book of advanced charms (because if there was any subject Hugo excelled at, it was Charms) and George had sent some old stock from his shop.
It seemed that even some of their cousins had remembered his birthday, as Lily and James had even sent presents. It was no surprise to anyone that nothing came from Albus. He did have a reputation for having a really bad memory.
"I hope all goes well," Ginny said just as they were ready to leave. She whispered something into Harry's ear that Rose couldn't hear and he nodded. The next thing she knew, she was in the car with her brother, uncle and grandfather and they were on their way to Huddersfield.
It was a pretty dull trip, and if it had been any other occasion, she would have been more than happy to travel via the Floo Network. She couldn't even remember the last time she had used the car to get from Grimmauld Place to her own house. It seemed unnecessary to use some slow, Muggle invention when a wizard could get there in a few seconds by simply using a fireplace.
But this time, she enjoyed that it took around four hours. She simply sat, staring out the window, watching other cars drive past and then the meadows and paddocks as Harry drove further into the country.
No one spoke, except for the few attempts Harry tried to make at idle conversation.
What was she going to do there? What was her house going to look like? She knew it wouldn't be the case, but part of her was terrified she would see her parents' bodies. It was stupid, she knew that, but it was a fear she had.
And what about all her things? She only took the essentials to Hogwarts, and that was what she had been living off of at Grimmauld Place. She still had so many things in her room at home. She missed her books and her clothes and the posters she had put up. She missed waking up in a bed that she knew and having breakfast in a kitchen that was familiar to her. Hogwarts had always been school and Grimmauld Place had always been a holiday.
She'd always felt the most comfortable in Huddersfield.
In what seemed like no time at all, Harry turned into the driveway she knew all so well. Their car was still there. It was sitting there as if it was waiting for someone to get in and start driving. She hadn't expected that; hadn't Harry said the neighbours' memories had been altered so they didn't recognise them? Didn't they find it strange that a car sat in a driveway of an unoccupied house?
Still, something comforting settled inside her at the sight of it. They only ever used the car to drive to and from King's Cross and, on the occasion, to their grandparent's house in Sunbury.
"You ready?" Harry turned around from the front seat to look at them. Hugo was the first to respond, opening the car door and climbing out. Rose followed, more reluctant than her brother appeared to be. Would there be blood? Would there be any marks to show where it had happened?
She hoped not.
They walked up to the front door, where Harry took out his wand and removed the charms that kept their house locked up. It was just as she remembered it. They had kept the car and the spells. The only thing missing were her mum and dad.
As soon as Harry opened the door, she was greeted with the familiar smell of her house. Hugo was the first to enter, pushing the door wider. There was the staircase leading to her room, the living room in front of her and the archway that led through to the kitchen and the backyard.
It all seemed so normal and undisturbed. It was as if nothing had happened.
Hugo walked across the living room and entered the kitchen. Everyone followed him, curious as to what he was looking for. He found it straight away; a photo.
"I realised a few weeks after we left that I left it behind and forgot to get that frame thing I was going to get and Mum said in her last letter that she had put it there to remind her to do it for me. She was going to do it... that day." He looked down at the photo, saddened.
Rose took it from him. It was a photo of Hugo and Lily that had been taken over the Easter break. "I'll get it framed for you, Hu," she said. "It's my real present to you."
Hugo looked up at her. "Really?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, I'll do it tomorrow in Diagon Alley." She put the photo into the bag she had been carrying. "I promise."
Hugo smiled. "Thanks," he said.
Harry had returned to the living room with Arthur, and Rose and Hugo joined them. He was looking around the room as if he had never seen the place before. His eyes were sad and Rose wondered if he was going to cry. It hadn't been the first time she had wondered that.
What was it about guys and not crying?
"W-was it in here?" she asked him softly. She had never asked him where he had found them, nor had he willingly given them the answer. It seemed to be a mutual understanding between all of them that they really didn't need to know.
But now that she was there, standing in the place her mum and dad had been murdered in, she might as well know. She would find out eventually, anyway, wouldn't she?
Harry turned to her, his expression blank, and shook his head. "No, it was upstairs... near their room."
So, they hadn't even made it past the top landing.
"Can you show me?" she asked.
For a moment, Harry seemed set to argue with her, but apparently thought better of it. He nodded bleakly and headed for the stairs. Rose followed, tailed by her brother and grandfather. There was nothing unusual that she saw as she followed her uncle along the hallway towards her parents' bedroom. There was definitely no blood, or anything else that indicated someone had died there. No, she had used the Killing Curse.
Rose hoped it had been painless.
Three feet from the bedroom door, Harry stopped and faced the wall. "It was here," he said miserably. "They..." He visibly swallowed. "They were slumped against this wall... it looked as if they had been sleeping, actually."
"How did you know then?" Rose questioned, her voice a whisper.
"I just knew," was Harry's only response.
All four of them stared at the spot for a long time. A few tears trickled down Rose's cheeks and she didn't care to wipe them away. This had been the spot it had happened. They deserved all the tears she had.
Harry was the first to break the silence. "I... I think your mum was... was the first," he said. "And, I think she tried to protect your dad... that was how it looked, anyway. Only three people know what happened that morning and two of them aren't here to tell us."
"Three aren't, actually." They were the first words Rose had heard her grandfather speak since entering the house. He looked as miserable as Harry and Hugo did, and as upset as Rose felt. Just like she had lost her parents and Harry had lost his best friends, Arthur had lost his son.
Harry nodded. "They're working on it," he promised. He looked back at the empty space in front of him and shook his head. "Excuse me," he said, and vanished into the bathroom opposite them.
Rose turned in the other direction and headed for her own bedroom. No one followed, so she presumed Hugo had gone to his as well.
The door was completely open, her bed made... it looked exactly as she had left it.
For a while, she just sat on the bed, taking in everything. To her left was her poster of Oliver Wood. She wasn't that much of a Quidditch fan, but... he was nice to look at every night before falling asleep. The perch Quinn normally slept on was in the corner opposite her, empty. He was probably still at Grimmauld Place. He had no need to return here.
Many summers she had spent there, writing letters to her friends, crying over something that had happened, or telling her parents to leave her alone. For the first two days of the Easter holidays, she had refused to speak to either of them. She couldn't even remember what her reason was anymore, but no doubt it had been something stupid. Their fights were always stupid.
She's just being a teenager, she would hear people say over and over again. And she had been the absolute worst teenager and daughter imaginable at times. What happened to the times when she had stepped off that train and thrown herself into her mum's arms and told her how much she had missed her? She hadn't done that since Christmas of her third year.
After a while, she decided she should probably start packing. She found a spare suitcase stuffed under her bed and as quickly as possible she began filling it with everything she could find. Her clothes were first and after it filled, she cast an Undetectable Extension Charm to fit more. She didn't care what the Ministry said, if they said anything at all. It was a simple spell, which as of five years ago, underaged wizards were allowed to do in their own home.
She threw in her books, things she hadn't even looked at since she had been seven; old birthday presents... everything she could find; everything that reminded her of home. Once she had basically cleared her room (though there was still plenty more left), she dragged the heavy bag into the hallway. No one was around, so she decided to wander to her parents' room.
It surprised her when she found her brother also in there. He was crouched down, looking at something in the wardrobe that wasn't visible to her from where she was standing.
"What is it?" she asked, startling him.
He looked up at her, his eyes red and watery. He was crying. Finally!
"I-I can't be sure," he said. "But, I think it was their birthday present... to me."
Rose joined him, putting an arm across his shoulders. He was shaking as he tried not to cry anymore. She crouched down beside him and Hugo opened a box to show her.
"They-they knew us so well," he said, choking on his words. Inside the box was a Create-Your-Own-Spell kit. Hugo enjoyed creating spells and he was rather good at it too. They weren't anything that would be written into spell books, but the ones he had showed Rose, she had used occasionally. He was only twelve – no, thirteen now – so they were simple ones, but she still admired him for it. She was good at the ones she was taught at school, but she would never be able to come up with new ones like Hugo could.
"Take it," she said. "It's yours."
"You don't know that."
"Who else do you know that likes to create and modify spells? They got it for you, Hu. They wanted you to have it."
Hugo stared at the box. "I didn't even know something like this existed."
Rose pointed to the symbol down the bottom.
"Uncle George," Hugo said. "Of course."
"Many people like to try their hand at making up their own spells," Rose told him. "It's just... most people aren't all that good at it. You're an exception." She lifted the box up and placed it in her brother's hands. "It's yours," she said. "And I know you'll make good use of it."
Hugo accepted it, looking at her intently. It was as if he wanted to say something else, but couldn't seem to find the words.
"What?" she questioned.
"I..." Hugo seemed to come to himself in that moment and shook his head. "Nothing. I just thought of something, but it doesn't matter. You wouldn't care."
"Try me."
Hugo shook his head stubbornly. "You really wouldn't care."
If they had been at Hogwarts, or at home after a normal school year, Rose would have forced it out of him. But over the past few weeks, she had come to understand that Hugo would talk in his own time. There was a lot more to her little brother than being annoying. It was a shame she was only coming to realise that now.
There was a shuffle at the door that distracted both of them. Harry was standing there, his eyes red. It was weird to see him crying. She'd never seen him cry before – her Uncle Harry who had faced a lot more than most people in their lives and he was crying.
"Are the two of you hungry?" he asked miserably.
Rose looked at her brother, who shrugged. She turned back to her uncle. "Yeah, a little," she said.
Harry nodded. "You know this area better than me... are there any good places to eat?"
Rose thought about it and as she did, she realised she didn't actually know Huddersfield all that well. She knew her street and a few of the parks nearby, but that was about it. It was predominantly a Muggle town, so whenever they needed to go somewhere, they went to Diagon Alley.
"There's this cool cafe not far from here," Hugo interrupted. "I went there once with Mum. I'm not really sure of anywhere else, though."
Harry smiled weakly. "It sounds good," he said. "Whenever you're ready."
Rose climbed to her feet and dragged Hugo with her, who was holding the box close to his chest. "We're ready now," she said.
Hugo nodded. "As ready as we'll ever be."
This is probably one of my favourite chapters. I hope you're liking it. I'd love to hear what you all have to say about it. Please don't leave without reviewing :) And thank you to Jo for beta-ing once more :D