By the time Hermione got back downstairs, Rose and Albus had fallen asleep in her playhouse. She waved Harry over and they peaked in on them. They had piled a bunch of blankets on the floor of the playhouse and fell asleep. Rose and Albus shared a special bond from birth. When they were tiny, they had their own language that only they could understand. They were only a few hours apart, both born prematurely. Mr. Weasley remarked that they just couldn't wait to meet each other.
"That is just too sweet." Hermione said looking at the children.
"I'm so glad they have each other. Truly, Hermione. They all have each other." Harry said looking across the room at the boys.
"You have us, Harry. Don't forget that." Hermione said linking her arm with his to pull him into the kitchen.
"I'm going to go see my Aunt." Harry said decisively. "Will you and Ron come with me? I'd just feel better if you were there."
"You don't even need to ask, Harry. 'The Golden Trio' sticks together." She said with a wink.
Harry smirked. The Daily Prophet nicknamed them that and it always made him roll his eyes but Hermione was right, they were always stronger together.
Ron had finished making the hot chocolate and Ginny was adding marshmallows. Hermione put three mugs on a tray and started to carry them out to the boys.
"Hermione, wait!" Ginny said urgently. She hurried over to her carrying a mug in her hand. She swapped it for one on the tray and winked at Hermione.
"What's that all about?" Hermione asked her.
Ginny took a sip from the mug she'd removed from the tray and showed Hermione the bottle of brandy in her hand.
"I want them to sleep but they're too young for this." She joked and added a touch more brandy to the mug.
"Here you are, loves." Hermione said as she lowered the tray so the boys could reach.
"Thanks, Aunt Hermione!" They each said. A scream erupted from the television and James jumped spilling some of his hot chocolate in his lap.
Hermione turned with concern to look at the screen.
"What are you watching?" She asked them. She watched the tall masked killer smashing his powerful arms through the walls as the screaming girl hid from him. She'd seen this film before.
"It's scary!" James said with glee.
"I've seen scarier!" Louis said.
"You're going to have nightmares." She warned.
"Mum said we could watch!" James said. Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Is that true, Jamie?"
James opened his eyes wide and nodded. Hermione narrowed her stare and James sighed and shook his head. "No. But we're not scared!"
"You can watch until you finish your hot chocolate but then it's time for bed, understand?
They nodded, each vowing to drink slowly.
"You're the best, Aunt Hermione!" Louis said, James and Fred nodded their agreement.
Hermione winked and went back to the kitchen.
Harry, Ginny and Ron were sitting on the stools around the butcher block island, sipping hot chocolate and laughing quietly.
"Triple Trouble getting sleepy yet?" Ron asked. She positioned herself in between his legs with her back against his chest. He kissed her neck and put his arm around her, hooking his thumb in her belt loop.
"Getting ready for number three?" Ginny teased. Ron froze and looked up from his wife's neck at his sister.
"Um…no." Ron said. "We're all set with two. Don't tell me you're thinking about a fourth…"
Ginny and Harry exchanged a look. "We're not actively preventing it, if that's what you mean." Harry said.
"That would be incredible!" Hermione said. "Not for us though. Two is great for us." She turned her head and kissed Ron. She tasted the chocolate and brandy on his lips. He dipped his tongue into her mouth and she ran her fingers through his hair.
Hermione turned back to Harry and Ginny. They were intensely looking into each other's eyes and Ginny was biting her lower lip. Hermione took a long sip of her hot chocolate. The drink itself and the brandy made her feel warm all over.
The little girl's scream from the living room broke up adult time.
"Rose?!" Ron yelled, rushing into the living room. Rose had her face buried in a sofa pillow. James, Fred and Louis all looked very guilty. He scooped her up in his arms and rubbed her back.
"What did you do?" Ginny said looking at James sternly.
"Rosie? Daddy where's Rosie?" Albus was rubbing his eyes as he stepped out of the playhouse.
"I don't like that clown!" Rose cried in Ron's arms. Hermione glared at the boys.
"You let her watch the movie?" She asked. James nodded.
"What movie?" Ginny asked and looked at the screen. "You let Rose watch this rubbish? James Sirius Potter…"
"She woke up and came over here, we didn't know she'd be too scared!" Fred said.
"I let them watch it, Gin. It's my fault. Switch it off, Louis." Hermione said. He changed the channel.
Ron got Rose to calm down and she sniffled. He knelt down and she put her feet on the floor. James stood up and gave Rose a hug.
"I'm sorry, Rosie. Don't be scared. It's not real, ok? It's all make believe." He smiled Harry's smile at her and she nodded.
"Yeah, Rosie, it's all fake. Besides, you don't think we'd let anything happen to you, do you?" Louis said from the sofa.
"Right! We're here to keep you safe when the killer breaks in the door and – OW! What'd you pinch me for, Louis?!" Fred said.
"Ok, I'd say it's about time for you all to be in bed, eh?" Harry said. Albus was almost sleeping on his shoulder.
"Come on, Rosie Posey." Hermione said extending her hand.
Harry and Hermione got Rose and Albus changed into pyjamas and into bed. Albus fell asleep almost instantly.
"Uncle Harry? Can you leave my light on?" Rose asked quietly.
"Of course, darling." He said with a wink. He turned and flicked his wand at Rose's moon-shaped nightlight. He kissed his fingertips and waved good night to Rose before heading downstairs.
"Mummy? Where's Jackie-dog?" Rose asked. Hermione puzzled a second, looking for Rose's toy. Ron had given it to her before he left on a Mission when she was three and she hadn't slept a single night without it. Hermione knelt and peaked under the bed and saw the stuffed Jack Russell terrier. She pulled it out and handed it to Rose.
"Thank you." Rose said sleepily "Mummy, what if the clown comes back?"
Hermione took Rose's hand and kissed it. "Rosie that was all make-believe, darling. You shouldn't have been watching it." Rose nodded but clearly wasn't convinced.
"But…what if, Mummy?"
"Rosie, my love, what did Daddy tell you about Jackie-dog?" She lovingly stroked Rose's bright red hair.
"That he'd keep me safe when Daddy's not here."
Hermione smiled. "Right. So you have Jackie-dog and Daddy is here. There's no safer place in the whole wide world."
"And Uncle Harry…and Aunt Ginny and you, Mummy." Rose yawned and closed her eyes, squeezing her toy.
"Have sweet dreams." Hermione whispered before she closed the door behind her.
Ron, Harry and Ginny were helping the boys spread out the sofa cushions and blankets on the floor. Ron used his wand to hang a large blanket over the sleeping area like a tent. Hermione took the three empty mugs and brought them into the kitchen. Rinsing them quickly in the sink she left them for the morning.
"You three behave tonight." Ginny said, wobbling a little. The effects of the extra brandy in her hot chocolate was taking its toll.
"We will, Mum!" James said with a smile. Louis and Fred smiled innocently.
Ginny waved James over to her. She put her hands on her knees and looked him in the eyes. "I love you, Jamie."
"Love you too, Mum." She hugged him and ruffled his hair.
"We'll be just upstairs if you need anything, guys. Goodnight." Ron said waving to the boys.
The adults headed upstairs and turned the lights out.
"You know where the towels are, right Gin?" Ron asked, gesturing towards the cupboard outside the loo.
"Yeah, thanks." She said. Harry switched the light on in the guest bedroom and pulled Ginny in with an arm around her waist.
"Good night!" Harry waved his free hand before shutting the door behind them.
Hermione smiled and looked at Ron, who was grimacing.
"Oh, get over it already, Ron!" she laughed. "They're married - they have three kids, you know..."
He turned and went into the master bedroom. He flopped face down on the bed and felt the cool, smooth fabric of the bedclothes against his skin.
"I'm bloody knackered." He said softly.
"Not too knackered, I hope." She replied. She tossed her shirt onto the bed before stepping into the loo.
James, Louis and Fred all lay next to each other. They turned the television back on but nothing was holding their attention.
"So, where d'you reckon Uncle Ron keeps his lifetime supply of Chocolate Frogs?" Fred said after a silence.
"Uncle Ron doesn't have a lifetime supply of Chocolate Frogs..." Louis said.
"Sure he does, my dad does." James offered. "When they put you on the Chocolate Frog cards, you get a lifetime supply. My dad has this wooden box in his study, it's always full of them."
"So somewhere in this house is two lifetime supplies?" Louis concluded.
"Must be. Aunt Hermione is on a card, too." Fred said.
"We know there aren't any in the cupboard under the stairs;" James said "how about the pantry?"
And thus began the search. James and Louis checked the pantry and all the cupboards they could reach in the kitchen. Fred climbed up on the counter and checked the cupboards out of reach. They stood in the kitchen and pondered.
"They wouldn't be in the loo..." Louis said, pointing at the bathroom door.
They came to the same conclusion at about the same time. They had to be upstairs in their Aunt and Uncle's study.
"Follow me and shhh..." Fred said, beginning to sneak up the stairs. James and Louis followed.
"Wait!" James whispered and ran back to the kitchen. He returned moments later holding the small torch he saw in a drawer in the kitchen.
"Good thinking, Jamie." Louis said. James handed the torch to Fred who continued to lead them up the stairs.
"Which door is it?" Fred asked when they made it silently to the second floor.
"That one, maybe?" James said pointing.
A sudden banging noise on the first floor made Fred stop as he reached for the doorknob.
"What was that?" He said with wide eyes, turning to his cousins.
Louis shrugged and James looked back down the stairs. "It came from the kitchen, I reckon." he said.
A second bang echoed louder. The three boys scrambled back down the stairs and huddled around the doorway leading to the kitchen. Fred shone the torch into the room and it gleamed off the perfectly polished hardwood floor. A third bang was clearly coming from the back door. Fred concentrated the torch light on the door and they heard a plaintive meow coming from the other side of the cat flap Ron had installed.
They sighed with relief. "Oh, it's just Skimble!" Louis said.
"Bloody cat." Fred said.
James approached the cat flap cautiously and flipped the lock open. Victoire and Dominique had dreadful allergies to cats so Hermione locked him out whenever they visited. Skimbleshanks meowed his thanks and indifference (as only a cat can) to James as he crept inside and trotted to his bed next to the piano in the living room.
When Hermione's cat Crookshanks fell asleep and didn't wake up, she cried for days. Rose was just a toddler and Ron was hours away from leaving for a mission to Wales. He left to buy her some flowers. He took a shortcut back to their flat by some railroad tracks and passed a wet cardboard box. He knocked it a little when he stepped over it and it meowed pathetically. Ron squatted down next to it and lifted the wet cardboard revealing an equally wet, tiny grey kitten. It didn't have Crookshanks squashed face or bright yellow eyes but Ron felt compelled to bring him home to Hermione.
He wrapped the kitten in his coat and walked home carefully. When he presented Hermione with the flowers and crying furball she clapped her hands to her mouth. When Ron told her where he'd found the kitten, Hermione picked him up and nuzzled his nose with her own.
"A railway cat, eh? Well I'll just have to call you Skimbleshanks then, won't I?" She kissed Ron lovingly and took the kitten to the kitchen sink where she gave him a bath. Hermione dried his fur with a tea towel and let him loose on the floor. She cuddled into Ron's chest and watched the new member of their family explore their flat. Ron cringed when the kitten immediately began dragging his nails into the berber carpet, but Hermione was so happy he pushed from his mind all thoughts of the potentially lost security deposit.
"Jamie, lock the flap so he can't get back out." Louis instructed.
They snuck back by Skimbleshanks to get the staircase and he watched them with his bright green eyes.