So, here I am again, with yet another chapter - well, an epilogue, to be more precise. A peek in the life of Ron and Hermione, 10 years after he showed up at her doorstep with the white roses. It is fluffy and romantic, you are warned - but you guys know how I am. ;) I hope you like it! Enjoy! :D
The warm early September afternoon is wonderfully sunny, the air crisp as an apple; autumn has arrived exceptionally early this year, but the sun is still warm enough for us all to ignore the unseasonable chilly breeze that sweeps over the fields.
It is hard to believe ten years have actually passed, and yet it has been just over a decade since I found that single white rose on my doorstep in Seattle. Little has changed since then - and yet, at the same time, so much is different.
We walk down the hill, Ron's arm carefully supporting me - he's probably afraid that I'll trip and just roll down the slope, giving how much my pregnant stomach has grown lately, and I don't mind, for even though I would never admit it out loud, I kind of think he may be right.
The students swarm around us, chatting and laughing, eager to leave to be out and about with their friends; their red, blue, yellow and green sweaters and scarves form colourful bubbles of colour against the bright sky, seemingly daring the cool wind to bring along the clouds and chill that will soon arrive.
"Bye, Professor Granger, Professor Weasley!" many of them say cheerfully as they pass us, nodding their heads in our direction before running off again. Today, the first of September – the first day of the new autumn term – it has been exactly five years since Ron and I first walked through the tall main doors of Hogwarts not as students, but as Professor Granger, English teacher and Head of Gryffindor, and Professor Weasley, PE teacher and football coach.
"Hey, wait for us!"
I smile as Emma - my little Emma, who isn't so little anymore at sixteen and a half - comes bouncing towards us, proudly sporting her Gryffindor scarf around her neck and holding the hand of a tall bespectacled boy dressed in the colours of Ravenclaw.
"How was your first day of term, Em?" I ask with a grin as she slides her free arm around my shoulders, helping Ron support me - even though there is no need to, as I am barely six months into the pregnancy. A few more weeks, and they won't even allow me to leave bed; I'm ready to bet on that.
"Snape threatened to to kick her out ten minutes into the lesson, so everything is going just as usual," Tommy - or Tom, as he now prefers to be called - answers for her, grinning mischievously. When he graduated from eighth grade, he somehow managed to convince his parents that studying abroad was an extremely educative experience for a fifteen-year-old boy, especially considering how much better English schools were compared to American ones, and so we had made arrangements for him to come and stay with us to study at Hogwarts with Emma for a term – a term that had been extended to a semester, then to a year, and that was still being extended now, two years after he had arrived in England. Needless to say, Emma was overjoyed when she knew that he would be going to Hogwarts with her - and I had the confirmation of the reason for such joy when I first saw them holding hands, a couple of weeks after his arrival. Never, in sixteen years, have I seen my sister so radiant - and all thanks to young Tom.
I look at them walking by our side, fingers entwined, him so tall and gangly, her with the unruly hair and a spring in her step, and I can't help of thinking of when it was Ron and I who used to walk down that path every day, looking remarkably like they do right now.
He will make her happy - I know he will. After all, it's never been a mystery that little Tom was completely enamoured with my Emma, right from the very first day they met, when he was barely a year old and she had just arrived home from the hospital. Even then, I remember he looked at the tiny pink bundle that was my baby sister in utter wonder, like he had never seen anything more beautiful that the grumpy, crinkly baby that she was at three days of age.
"Mione, you might want to hurry up a little bit, or Rosie will think that we have forgotten that we have to pick her up. You know the first day of Year One is even more important than birthday and Christmas put together," Emma reminds me, only half-joking, and I roll my eyes - I'm not that slow. And besides, I do have a right to be slow, since I have to carry around not only myself, but also a round six-month-pregnant stomach of the size of a small watermelon.
In spite of Emma's teasing, we get to the school minutes before the bell, and we join the crowd of parents and relatives waiting just outside the large glass doors of P. Hogsmeade Primary School. There are many familiar faces around - mostly relatives of ours, as the whole Weasley-Potter clan seems to be there.
There is Ginny, sporting a pregnant belly almost as big as mine, with Harry holding her in the same way that Ron is supporting me, as though he is afraid that she would suddenly fall over. Even though this is her third pregnancy, she told me he is still as fussy as he was the first time. There are Fred and George, respectively holding hands with Katie and Angelina, and both Molly Weasley and Lily Potter, who are now Grandma Molly and Nana Lily to their endless swarm of nephews and nieces - most of whom are about to come out of the doors in front of us.
Then there are Neville and Luna, the Creevey brothers with their wives, Dean Thomas, Lee Jordan, Hannah Abbot...Even, a little way away, Draco Malfoy and his wife Astoria - a nice and incredibly smart Ravenclaw girl who used to be in the year below ours in our time at Hogwarts; she was taking several advanced classes, so we happened to work together from time to time in our English or Calculus. How such a kind and lively girl has married such an unpleasant man, I will never understand, but she seems to have tamed him...as far as anyone can see, at least.
The bell goes, and shortly after the doors open, letting out the children; laughter and loud, infantile chatter bubble in the air as they swarm out, running to their families with huge grins on their faces.
"Mommy!"
"Rosie!"
I crouch down and open my arms as my Rose, my beautiful little Rose, runs to me and hugs me tightly, winding her tiny arms around my neck. I hug her back, until she wiggles away, giggling. I smile at her, pushing one of her bushy auburn curls back behind her ear. She has Ron's colours, with her dark red hair and blue eyes, but she looks like me, with her bushy curls, upturned nose and high cheekbones.
"Hi Daddy!" she says happily, waving at Ron with a big grin. Then, as an afterthought, "Hi, little brother," she adds, kissing my stomach through my jumper in such an adorable way that I can't resist enveloping her in another bear hug.
"How was school, my love?" I ask her, tapping her nose with the tip of my index finge. "Did you make any friends? I want to know everything - Aunt Elspeth has invited us all over for tea and brownies, so that you children can tell us all that you have done today." Even at eighty-one, Aunt Elspeth hasn't lost her touch in the kitchen, though she now spends just as much time snoozing in her favourite armchair as she does baking in the kitchen.
"Brownies!" Rose squeals happily, clapping her hands together and jumping up – a reaction that she had taken from Emma. "Can Al come too?" she asks excitedly, pointing at her favourite cousin Albus, who is currently cackling like mad as Harry hoists him on his shoulders and twirls around once.
"We are all going, honey - all your cousins, Uncles and Aunties, and Granny and Nana too. We are all going to take our tea together while you tell us everything that you have learned today," I assure her, and she squeals again, jumping up and down like a cute redheaded bunny.
Suddenly, she widens her eyes, like she has remembered something really important all of a sudden.
"Mommy, Mommy," she says, tugging at my jumper urgently. "Mommy, can Scorp come, too? And his Mommy and Daddy?"
"Who is Scorp, sweetie?" Ron asks, lifting our daughter in his arms and kissing her cheek soundly, grinning the goofy, dopey smile that only our daughter can bring out.
"He is my bestest friend. We sit together in class and he's soo nice...and smart! He already knows how to write! And he promised me that he will teach me, too!" she exclaims, her eyes shining brightly with excitement. "Can he come, too, Daddy? Pleeeeease..."
She knows perfectly well that she has Ron wrapped around her little finger, and I have to suppress a laugh - there is no way he is going to refuse her anything when she makes those adorable puppy eyes.
"Well, I don't see why he shouldn't come, Pumpkin" Ron says in fact punctually, smiling and putting Rose back on the ground. "Why don't you go and bring him here then? And his parents?"
Rose nods eagerly, smiling widely, and she runs off into the crowd of children, her pink Rapunzel backpack bouncing on her shoulders.
"Is Scorp really coming, too?" Albus, Harry's youngest, asks then from his perch on his father's shoulders, grinning as he pushes his round glasses up his nose. "Cool! I like him, and Rosie does too - he's fun and really smart! And he likes Rosie a lot - this morning he said that he wants to marry her when we're all grown-up!" he says, giggling and bouncing up and down.
"Marry, huh?" Ron asks with a grin as we exchange an amused glance. "Five years old, and she already has boys going after her...Well, let's see this young suitor, then -"
"Mommy, Daddy, he is Scorp!" Rose squeals then, smiling widely as she pulls a little boy by the hand - a pale little boy with white-blond hair, an upturned nose and big steel-grey eyes.
Such pranks Destiny likes to pull on us sometimes...
"...and these are his Mommy and Daddy!" she adds happily, nodding towards the couple following them closely.
I find myself staring right at Astoria and Draco Malfoy, who, to be honest, look just as surprised and embarrassed as Ron and I.
Surprisingly, it is Draco who breaks the awkward silence, extending his hand above the children's heads.
"Mr and Mrs Weasley, I presume," he says with a tight smile, and Ron shakes his hand, his eyes tight with suspicion. It looks like they are trying to shatter each other's fingers.
"Then you must be Mr and Mrs Malfoy," he replies in a slightly menacing tone that makes me roll my eyes - seriously? How can he still hold a grudge against Malfoy after a decade?
"Your lovely daughter was talking about inviting us to tea with your family," Astoria said, smiling at me knowingly and patting Rose's head. "We would be delighted to come, if the offer still stands."
Finally, someone who has more sense than our husbands!
"Of course it still stands!" I reply immediately, ruffling little Scorp's hair in an affectionate manner. "If our children are bestest friends already, then we are practically family!"
"Dear Hermione, you literally read my thoughts," Astoria says with a smile that makes her look like she is sixteen again. "And there's nothing better than a cup of tea to catch up on all that has happened since we left Hogwarts."
"Let's get going, then - Gin, Harry, will you gather the rest of the family?" I ask, and Ginny nods with a smile, gesturing for us to go.
"I'll see you at Aunt Elspeth's in a few minutes!" she calls, waving and ruffling her eldest son's hair - something which seven-year-old James seems to find rather embarrassing, as he quickly wiggles away from his mother.
So we start walking, cutting across a grassy field walking alongside with the Malfoys, while Rose and little Scorp - which is short for Scorpius, Astoria tells me, an unfortunate consequence of Draco's passion for astronomy - run ahead, laughing and chatting together like they have known each other their whole lives. And I notice, as they play, that little Scorpius has the same expression that young Tom used to have when he looked at Emma - and that he still has, actually, almost all the time. It is pure, utter wonder and adoration, like my daughter is the sun that he sees for the first time. And it warms my heart.
Draco tries to say something - I'm surprised that he's trying to make conversation, and I appreciate it, for he really seems to be trying to get along with us, at least for the children's sake - and Ron replies with an unintelligible grumble, burying his hands in his pockets like the brooding teenager that, deep down, he still is.
"Be nice," I remind him in a whisper, lightly poking him in the ribs with my elbow, and he sighs, running a hand through his hair.
"Fine," he huffs, looking every bit like a petulant child. "But there's no way - I say, no way," he half-growls, emphasising the last two words, "That that little Scorpion is marrying our baby. No. Way. Our Rosie with a Slytherin? I'll french kiss Snape before that day comes!"
I look at the children again, than back to Ron's slightly scowling expression, and I can't suppress a giggle - for the image of Snape's disgusted and outraged face is extremely hilarious.
Later that day, as we adults chat the afternoon away while the children run and play in the yard, I see little Scorpius carefully pick a flower from Aunt Elspeth's flourishing plants to shyly offer it to my Rosie, his cheeks tinted of an adorable pink as she hugs him in thank you.
Among all the beautiful, brightly coloured flowers that surround us, he has chosen the simplest - just an English rose, barely blooming.
A white rose.
As my daughter runs to me to show me the flower, I catch Ron's eyes, and I see a river of emotions crossing his face in the span of a few seconds: surprise, anger, jealousy, dislike, doubt, and finally…resignation.
For we all know what can start from one single white rose.
So, this is the very end of the story - at least, how I see it should end. I have always had a love for the idea of Rose and Scorpius together...I think they would be the cutest couple, driving their families mad with their Romeo and Juliet relationship. What did you think? loved it? Hated it? Let me know, and as always...review, review, review! :D And thanks for putting up with me till the end of the story!
By the way, if you enjoyed the idea of little Scorp and Rose, go check my new story, Little Rose Weasley! And maybe my other stories too...Thanks guys! Hugs and cookies to you all! ;D
Jez