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Rose sat next to Kenny’s bed. He was sleeping and looked so peaceful that she didn’t dare try and wake him up. She had allowed the nurses to mend her broken ribs and her left arm was now safely in a sling. Her cursed shoulder had gone a little too long without treatment, and they told her that it was going to take longer now to heal. She would probably even have a scar where it hit her. What the nurses failed to realize was that curse scars made you a cool kid in her family.
She leaned back and rested her head on the back of the stiff, wooden chair. She felt guilty, horribly, terribly guilty. It was entirely her fault that Kenny was in this state. If she hadn’t been so damn nosey, none of this would have happened. The Healers had told her that he would make a full recovery. A full physical recovery, sure, Rose thought. The poor boy had found out about the existence of the magical world, discovered that his girlfriend was part of it, and that her family pretty much ran it, traveled in a fireplace, been attacked by a book, and been kidnapped and tortured (by magical means) by a nutcase with a crazy vendetta against said girlfriend’s family, all within the last two weeks. If that wasn’t a recipe for some serious mental scarring, she didn’t know what was, and she was sure that she was as good as dumped. She could think of no scenario where she was worth all that. This last thought made her sad. She loved Kenny. She loved him so much she surprised herself sometimes. She had been just as scared when she found out he had been kidnapped as she had been when she found out her mother had been attacked. But, she had also been surprised lately about how much she actually loved her mother too, so…
Rose sighed and looked at her boyfriend, so happy looking when he slept. He took a sharp breath and his hand on top of the blankets twitched. Rose reached out and took it in her own. His eyes fluttered open and when they landed on her, a smile spread across his face. “Good morning, beautiful,” his voice was much clearer than Hermione’s had been when she woke up. But, Rose reminded herself, he had only been asleep for a few hours.
“Are you alright?” was all Rose could manage before her voice cracked and a tear escaped her eye.
“I don’t know, am I?” Kenny asked, “You’re acting like I’m going to die. I don’t feel like I’m going to die,”
“No!” Rose couldn’t help but laugh a little through her sobs, “Not at all. They said you’ll be fine,”
“Then why the tears?” he paused for a moment, “Ahhh, you were hoping I was going to die so you could get more serious with your guy on the side,”
Rose was shocked by this, “No! Of course not, I mean…”
Kenny started to laugh, “Rosie, I was joking. Calm down,”
“Right,” Rose sighed, “Of course you were. I’m sorry,”
Kenny hoisted himself into a sitting position on his bed. Rose couldn’t help but notice that he was doing it with a lot less pain and effort than her and her mother had done a few hours ago. He looked at her with a warm smile, “So, why are you crying then?”
“Oh!” she quickly wiped her face with her good arm, “Nothing, just tired I guess. It’s been quite a day,”
“Yes, yes it has. Did you get to see your mom?” This was not the question she was expecting. She was all ready to tell him about what happened to him, why he woke up in the hospital, and he asked about her. Damn, she was really going to miss him when he left her.
“Yeah,” she nodded, eyes intent on her knees because she felt like she was going to start crying again, “We talked for a little bit…wait I never told you she was awake,”
“She’s only right down the hall. I woke up a little bit when the doctors…Healers?… whatever…were in here. I didn’t feel like having to talk to them right away so I pretended to still be asleep. Plus, they were talking about you,” he flashed her a sly smile, “They were saying that ‘that stubborn daughter of the Minister’s’ that’s you, was ‘refusing treatment’ until she got to talk to her. So you got to talk to her?”
Rose rolled her eyes, “You would pretend to be asleep to eavesdrop on Healers. Were you fake sleeping when I came in too?”
“Hey! You didn’t answer my question yet. How did it go with your mom?”
“Alright, we apologized. That was good I guess. I told her about all these weird dreams I’ve been having. She thinks we had the same dreams at the same time. I don’t know if she knows why because she said she couldn’t tell me,”
“Because of that spell thingy?”
“Right,” Rose laughed, “Because of that spell thingy. She said she needed to talk to my dad and my Uncle Harry. She said she’d tell me everything when she could,”
“That’s what you wanted right?” Kenny squeezed her hand, “That’s a good thing,”
“Do you think she will? Actually tell me everything,” she looked at him with tears swimming in her eyes again. ‘When this is all over,’ she thought, ‘I am never going to cry again,’
“Well,” Kenny looked thoughtful, “I haven’t actually met your mother yet. But, taking into account that she’s your mother and she’s just had some sort of crazy near death experience, yeah I think she will,” Rose wiped her eyes again and nodded. Kenny moved over to make room on his bed, “Come here,”
Rose lifted herself off the wooden chair next to the bed and climbed up next to Kenny. It was much easier without the broken ribs. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into a comfortable position with her head resting on his chest. It was then she noticed the cuts and bruises that covered his arms; the first sign she had seen of the ordeal he had been through. She lightly brushed her hands up and down his bare arm, “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. I’m fine. I was more beat up after that bar fight Drew got us into last year,”
“But if it wasn’t for me…”
“If it wasn’t for you,” he interrupted her, “I wouldn’t have had the most exciting adventure I’ve ever had in my life. This world, these people are amazing Rose. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and be back in my crappy campus apartment, with my crazy roommates pretending they know how to play the guitar, and none of this has really happened.”
“You’re kidding me,” Rose looked at him in disbelief, “You’re having fun?”
“Rose! I just found out that magic and witches and wizards and all the stuff I thought was made up is actually real and I got to be a part of it!” he was looking as excited as a little kid who is convinced that the department store Santa was real, “I was in one place and then a second later I was somewhere else. You can make shit fly and turn people into animals. It’s like I’m in the coolest movie ever,” he kissed her on the top of the head, “and my girlfriend is the hero,”
“Heroine, sweetheart,”
“What?”
“Heroine, a female hero is a heroine,” she shook her head, “Never mind,” she snuggled more into his chest and closed her eyes. She finally felt content and safe, and she realized how exhausted she was.
“I would like to meet your mom one of these days,” Kenny said into her hair, “She sounds like a pretty cool lady,” he rested his chin on the top of her head.
Already falling asleep, Rose just sighed and gave him an ‘umm hmm’ of assent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little ways down the hall from where Kenny and Rose were sleeping, Healers were noticing a faint buzzing noise. As they walked the noise would get louder, but then, as they continued to walk, it would go away. A few stopped and tried to figure out where it was coming from, but none were successful. Most passed it off as regular hospital white noise or their brains going wonky because of overwork. Right at the spot where the buzzing was the most audible sat the door to the private room of the Minister of Magic. No one dared go in there to investigate the source of the noise.
Inside the room, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny were deep in discussion.
“I dunno about this,” Ron looked at his wife with concern, “Don’t you think maybe you’re just reacting to the near death experience or something?”
“Yes, Ron, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I almost died! And what if I had?”
Ron shuddered at the thought, “But you didn’t,” he replied fiercely.
Hermione thought for a moment, suppressing her urge to snap back at Ron. He had been scared; she knew this. Ginny had told her how he wouldn’t leave her side without being dragged. “Ron, this whole…” she searched for the word, “ordeal has made me realize that maybe we … I …. haven’t handled things as well as I could have, especially when it comes to Rose, and Hugo for that matter. Keeping it from them when they were kids was one thing; they were young. But they’re not kids anymore, as much as none of us want to admit it. I think they deserve to know the truth,” she smiled, “Like you’ve said, it’s a really good story,”
All four of them laughed, Hermione clutching her side and stopping quickly. Harry spoke from his perch on the chair next to the bed, “I agree with Hermione. They aren’t children anymore. I think we should tell all of them. Especially if Rose is having the visions she told you she was,”
Hermione looked concerned again, “I’ve been thinking about that. I can’t think of how that happened. It’s kind of scaring me. The way she talked about them reminded me of you, Harry. About how you would tell us about those dreams you would have about Voldemort, how they were so real,”
Harry put a comforting hand on Hermione’s shoulder, “Don’t worry so much about that. No one ever tried to kill Rose when she was a baby, and the connection she has seems to be with you, not the most evil wizard of all time, unless there’s something you want to tell us…” Hermione’s fear dissipated a little while she laughed lightly with the others. “So,” Harry continued, “We’ll tell them then, Ginny?” he glanced at his wife sitting in the corner.
Ginny put her hands up in front of her, “Your story, not mine,”
“Yeah,” Hermione protested, “But some of them are your kids,”
“And,” Harry added, “If we’re going to tell them everything, I say we tell them everything. From our first of Hogwarts on, and if I remember correctly, at least one of those is actually your story,”
“Right,” Ginny replied slowly. She seemed all of a sudden uneasy, wringing her hands in front of her.
“We’ll all do it together Ginny,” Hermione comforted her, “We all have parts that are hard for us to tell,”
Ginny glanced up from her hands, “You’re right, it’s been a long time,”
Harry smiled at Ginny as Hermione looked up at Ron, “Ron?”
He ran his hands nervously through his hair, “I don’t know, maybe we should wait until you’re feeling better. I mean that’s a lot of stuff to dig up and you’re still so…” Hermione shot him a murderous look.
“I’m still so what, Ronald,” she shot at him, daring him to finish his sentence. He knew immediately he had said the wrong thing. Both Harry and Ginny had leaned back in their chairs, eager to see how Ron was going to get himself out of this one.
“T-that’s not what I meant,” he stuttered, “I mean you just woke up from a coma. I was just saying maybe you should give yourself a little time to heal…or something…” he ended quite feebly, and Hermione just continued to glare at him, “Or maybe not,” he half-heartedly threw his hands up in defeat, “Fine, let’s just tell them,”
Hermione’s glare morphed into a smile, “I knew you’d come around,”
Ron bent down and kissed her on the forehead, on his way down he past Harry’s ear and muttered, “What choice do I have?” Harry gave a burst of laughter that made both Hermione and Ginny look at him oddly, he quickly turned it into a coughing fit and excused himself to get a glass of water, to which Ginny simply rolled her eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the Weasley/Potter cousins, save for Rose, sat in the tearoom two floors below Hermione’s and Kenny’s rooms. They had come in hopes of seeing Hermione awake and hearing what had happened at Malfoy Manor. They had left their parents in the upstairs waiting room when Healer Parcell had informed them that Hugo was sitting downstairs, alone and slightly confused.
Al and Lily had not gone home after they were discharged. They wanted to make sure Rose and Kenny were alright. Parcell had told them about her refusal of treatment, but that she would be fine. They now sat in the tearoom with their cousins, reliving the events of the night before.
“Wow, hero complex much baby brother,” James had teased his siblings through most of their story, at least until Victoire told him to shut up or she’d make him.
“Rose was the one who wanted to go,” Lily shot back at James. She suspected that he was jealous that they had gone and fought the Malfoys and he didn’t.
“She certainly has gotten reckless since we saw her last,” Roxie added, sounding thoughtful, “She usually analyzes things to death. Our Rose wouldn’t go running off into danger like that,”
“They had Kenny,” Lily defended, “She might try and deny it, but she loves that boy,”
“But still, she didn’t even tell anyone,” Fred added, “And she has been weird,”
“Our mother almost died, in case you forgot,” Hugo chimed in, his head resting in his hands.
“Yeah, I know that, but like when you guys came to the shop,” Fred turned to Roxie, “She wanted Dad to tell her about something, she kept yelling at him. What was that about?”
Hugo lifted his head up in interest, “She has been disappearing a lot too,” Lily quickly looked up, trying to be very interested in the spots on the ceiling. “With Lily,”
Every eye at the table turned to Lily. She took a moment and feigned surprise when she realized they were staring at her, “What?” she glanced around in interest.
Hugo caught her eyes and refused to let go, “What have you two been doing?”
“Who are we talking about again?” Lily tried desperately to change the subject.
“Lily,” Teddy, in all his big-brother-ness, said warningly.
Lily sighed, “Ok, fine, but you can’t give her a hard time about it,” she pleaded with them.
“Of course we’re going to give her a hard time about it,” James replied.
Victoire, who was sitting next to him, slapped him on the back of the head, “We won’t,”
Everyone at the table leaned toward Lily, eager for the explanation.
“She started out trying to find out more about her mom. She felt really guilty about, well, everything. But she ended up finding out stuff about her parents, well our parents too,” she looked at her brothers, “stuff about the war. She got kind of obsessed with it, like if she figured it out, her and her mom would be ok,”
“Poor kid,” Teddy sighed from the other end of the table.
“And then Kenny was kidnapped…” Lily continued.
“And two people she loved were in trouble,” Dom finished for her, “Merlin, and all we did was take her out and get her drunk,”
“What were we supposed to do about it?” Molly added icily, “It’s not our fault her relationship with her mom is screwed up,”
“We’re her family Molly,” Lucy spat back at her sister, “It doesn’t matter if its our fault or not,”
Hugo had his head wrapped in his arms now, clearly distressed, “I never thought about it like that,” he cried, “And I got mad at her about it. I never tried to help her or anything. I was so concerned about how upset I was, I never thought about how upset she was. I mean she’s Rose, she always makes it better!”
“I think we’re all just so used to Rose being the one that helps everyone else and fixes everyone else’s problems, it never occurred to us that she might be the one who needed us,” Roxie sighed. They sat in silence for a while, thinking.
The door suddenly opened to reveal a small, timid looking nurse with large eyes, “Excuse me,” the whole table turned to look at her, “I’m looking for Hugo Weasley and James, Albus, and Lily Potter,”
“That’s us,” Hugo replied and pointed to his cousins.
“I’m supposed to tell you your parents would like to see you,”
The four of them looked at each other quizzically. Albus shrugged and stood up. The other three followed suit and they made their way out of the room.
She leaned back and rested her head on the back of the stiff, wooden chair. She felt guilty, horribly, terribly guilty. It was entirely her fault that Kenny was in this state. If she hadn’t been so damn nosey, none of this would have happened. The Healers had told her that he would make a full recovery. A full physical recovery, sure, Rose thought. The poor boy had found out about the existence of the magical world, discovered that his girlfriend was part of it, and that her family pretty much ran it, traveled in a fireplace, been attacked by a book, and been kidnapped and tortured (by magical means) by a nutcase with a crazy vendetta against said girlfriend’s family, all within the last two weeks. If that wasn’t a recipe for some serious mental scarring, she didn’t know what was, and she was sure that she was as good as dumped. She could think of no scenario where she was worth all that. This last thought made her sad. She loved Kenny. She loved him so much she surprised herself sometimes. She had been just as scared when she found out he had been kidnapped as she had been when she found out her mother had been attacked. But, she had also been surprised lately about how much she actually loved her mother too, so…
Rose sighed and looked at her boyfriend, so happy looking when he slept. He took a sharp breath and his hand on top of the blankets twitched. Rose reached out and took it in her own. His eyes fluttered open and when they landed on her, a smile spread across his face. “Good morning, beautiful,” his voice was much clearer than Hermione’s had been when she woke up. But, Rose reminded herself, he had only been asleep for a few hours.
“Are you alright?” was all Rose could manage before her voice cracked and a tear escaped her eye.
“I don’t know, am I?” Kenny asked, “You’re acting like I’m going to die. I don’t feel like I’m going to die,”
“No!” Rose couldn’t help but laugh a little through her sobs, “Not at all. They said you’ll be fine,”
“Then why the tears?” he paused for a moment, “Ahhh, you were hoping I was going to die so you could get more serious with your guy on the side,”
Rose was shocked by this, “No! Of course not, I mean…”
Kenny started to laugh, “Rosie, I was joking. Calm down,”
“Right,” Rose sighed, “Of course you were. I’m sorry,”
Kenny hoisted himself into a sitting position on his bed. Rose couldn’t help but notice that he was doing it with a lot less pain and effort than her and her mother had done a few hours ago. He looked at her with a warm smile, “So, why are you crying then?”
“Oh!” she quickly wiped her face with her good arm, “Nothing, just tired I guess. It’s been quite a day,”
“Yes, yes it has. Did you get to see your mom?” This was not the question she was expecting. She was all ready to tell him about what happened to him, why he woke up in the hospital, and he asked about her. Damn, she was really going to miss him when he left her.
“Yeah,” she nodded, eyes intent on her knees because she felt like she was going to start crying again, “We talked for a little bit…wait I never told you she was awake,”
“She’s only right down the hall. I woke up a little bit when the doctors…Healers?… whatever…were in here. I didn’t feel like having to talk to them right away so I pretended to still be asleep. Plus, they were talking about you,” he flashed her a sly smile, “They were saying that ‘that stubborn daughter of the Minister’s’ that’s you, was ‘refusing treatment’ until she got to talk to her. So you got to talk to her?”
Rose rolled her eyes, “You would pretend to be asleep to eavesdrop on Healers. Were you fake sleeping when I came in too?”
“Hey! You didn’t answer my question yet. How did it go with your mom?”
“Alright, we apologized. That was good I guess. I told her about all these weird dreams I’ve been having. She thinks we had the same dreams at the same time. I don’t know if she knows why because she said she couldn’t tell me,”
“Because of that spell thingy?”
“Right,” Rose laughed, “Because of that spell thingy. She said she needed to talk to my dad and my Uncle Harry. She said she’d tell me everything when she could,”
“That’s what you wanted right?” Kenny squeezed her hand, “That’s a good thing,”
“Do you think she will? Actually tell me everything,” she looked at him with tears swimming in her eyes again. ‘When this is all over,’ she thought, ‘I am never going to cry again,’
“Well,” Kenny looked thoughtful, “I haven’t actually met your mother yet. But, taking into account that she’s your mother and she’s just had some sort of crazy near death experience, yeah I think she will,” Rose wiped her eyes again and nodded. Kenny moved over to make room on his bed, “Come here,”
Rose lifted herself off the wooden chair next to the bed and climbed up next to Kenny. It was much easier without the broken ribs. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into a comfortable position with her head resting on his chest. It was then she noticed the cuts and bruises that covered his arms; the first sign she had seen of the ordeal he had been through. She lightly brushed her hands up and down his bare arm, “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. I’m fine. I was more beat up after that bar fight Drew got us into last year,”
“But if it wasn’t for me…”
“If it wasn’t for you,” he interrupted her, “I wouldn’t have had the most exciting adventure I’ve ever had in my life. This world, these people are amazing Rose. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and be back in my crappy campus apartment, with my crazy roommates pretending they know how to play the guitar, and none of this has really happened.”
“You’re kidding me,” Rose looked at him in disbelief, “You’re having fun?”
“Rose! I just found out that magic and witches and wizards and all the stuff I thought was made up is actually real and I got to be a part of it!” he was looking as excited as a little kid who is convinced that the department store Santa was real, “I was in one place and then a second later I was somewhere else. You can make shit fly and turn people into animals. It’s like I’m in the coolest movie ever,” he kissed her on the top of the head, “and my girlfriend is the hero,”
“Heroine, sweetheart,”
“What?”
“Heroine, a female hero is a heroine,” she shook her head, “Never mind,” she snuggled more into his chest and closed her eyes. She finally felt content and safe, and she realized how exhausted she was.
“I would like to meet your mom one of these days,” Kenny said into her hair, “She sounds like a pretty cool lady,” he rested his chin on the top of her head.
Already falling asleep, Rose just sighed and gave him an ‘umm hmm’ of assent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little ways down the hall from where Kenny and Rose were sleeping, Healers were noticing a faint buzzing noise. As they walked the noise would get louder, but then, as they continued to walk, it would go away. A few stopped and tried to figure out where it was coming from, but none were successful. Most passed it off as regular hospital white noise or their brains going wonky because of overwork. Right at the spot where the buzzing was the most audible sat the door to the private room of the Minister of Magic. No one dared go in there to investigate the source of the noise.
Inside the room, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny were deep in discussion.
“I dunno about this,” Ron looked at his wife with concern, “Don’t you think maybe you’re just reacting to the near death experience or something?”
“Yes, Ron, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I almost died! And what if I had?”
Ron shuddered at the thought, “But you didn’t,” he replied fiercely.
Hermione thought for a moment, suppressing her urge to snap back at Ron. He had been scared; she knew this. Ginny had told her how he wouldn’t leave her side without being dragged. “Ron, this whole…” she searched for the word, “ordeal has made me realize that maybe we … I …. haven’t handled things as well as I could have, especially when it comes to Rose, and Hugo for that matter. Keeping it from them when they were kids was one thing; they were young. But they’re not kids anymore, as much as none of us want to admit it. I think they deserve to know the truth,” she smiled, “Like you’ve said, it’s a really good story,”
All four of them laughed, Hermione clutching her side and stopping quickly. Harry spoke from his perch on the chair next to the bed, “I agree with Hermione. They aren’t children anymore. I think we should tell all of them. Especially if Rose is having the visions she told you she was,”
Hermione looked concerned again, “I’ve been thinking about that. I can’t think of how that happened. It’s kind of scaring me. The way she talked about them reminded me of you, Harry. About how you would tell us about those dreams you would have about Voldemort, how they were so real,”
Harry put a comforting hand on Hermione’s shoulder, “Don’t worry so much about that. No one ever tried to kill Rose when she was a baby, and the connection she has seems to be with you, not the most evil wizard of all time, unless there’s something you want to tell us…” Hermione’s fear dissipated a little while she laughed lightly with the others. “So,” Harry continued, “We’ll tell them then, Ginny?” he glanced at his wife sitting in the corner.
Ginny put her hands up in front of her, “Your story, not mine,”
“Yeah,” Hermione protested, “But some of them are your kids,”
“And,” Harry added, “If we’re going to tell them everything, I say we tell them everything. From our first of Hogwarts on, and if I remember correctly, at least one of those is actually your story,”
“Right,” Ginny replied slowly. She seemed all of a sudden uneasy, wringing her hands in front of her.
“We’ll all do it together Ginny,” Hermione comforted her, “We all have parts that are hard for us to tell,”
Ginny glanced up from her hands, “You’re right, it’s been a long time,”
Harry smiled at Ginny as Hermione looked up at Ron, “Ron?”
He ran his hands nervously through his hair, “I don’t know, maybe we should wait until you’re feeling better. I mean that’s a lot of stuff to dig up and you’re still so…” Hermione shot him a murderous look.
“I’m still so what, Ronald,” she shot at him, daring him to finish his sentence. He knew immediately he had said the wrong thing. Both Harry and Ginny had leaned back in their chairs, eager to see how Ron was going to get himself out of this one.
“T-that’s not what I meant,” he stuttered, “I mean you just woke up from a coma. I was just saying maybe you should give yourself a little time to heal…or something…” he ended quite feebly, and Hermione just continued to glare at him, “Or maybe not,” he half-heartedly threw his hands up in defeat, “Fine, let’s just tell them,”
Hermione’s glare morphed into a smile, “I knew you’d come around,”
Ron bent down and kissed her on the forehead, on his way down he past Harry’s ear and muttered, “What choice do I have?” Harry gave a burst of laughter that made both Hermione and Ginny look at him oddly, he quickly turned it into a coughing fit and excused himself to get a glass of water, to which Ginny simply rolled her eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the Weasley/Potter cousins, save for Rose, sat in the tearoom two floors below Hermione’s and Kenny’s rooms. They had come in hopes of seeing Hermione awake and hearing what had happened at Malfoy Manor. They had left their parents in the upstairs waiting room when Healer Parcell had informed them that Hugo was sitting downstairs, alone and slightly confused.
Al and Lily had not gone home after they were discharged. They wanted to make sure Rose and Kenny were alright. Parcell had told them about her refusal of treatment, but that she would be fine. They now sat in the tearoom with their cousins, reliving the events of the night before.
“Wow, hero complex much baby brother,” James had teased his siblings through most of their story, at least until Victoire told him to shut up or she’d make him.
“Rose was the one who wanted to go,” Lily shot back at James. She suspected that he was jealous that they had gone and fought the Malfoys and he didn’t.
“She certainly has gotten reckless since we saw her last,” Roxie added, sounding thoughtful, “She usually analyzes things to death. Our Rose wouldn’t go running off into danger like that,”
“They had Kenny,” Lily defended, “She might try and deny it, but she loves that boy,”
“But still, she didn’t even tell anyone,” Fred added, “And she has been weird,”
“Our mother almost died, in case you forgot,” Hugo chimed in, his head resting in his hands.
“Yeah, I know that, but like when you guys came to the shop,” Fred turned to Roxie, “She wanted Dad to tell her about something, she kept yelling at him. What was that about?”
Hugo lifted his head up in interest, “She has been disappearing a lot too,” Lily quickly looked up, trying to be very interested in the spots on the ceiling. “With Lily,”
Every eye at the table turned to Lily. She took a moment and feigned surprise when she realized they were staring at her, “What?” she glanced around in interest.
Hugo caught her eyes and refused to let go, “What have you two been doing?”
“Who are we talking about again?” Lily tried desperately to change the subject.
“Lily,” Teddy, in all his big-brother-ness, said warningly.
Lily sighed, “Ok, fine, but you can’t give her a hard time about it,” she pleaded with them.
“Of course we’re going to give her a hard time about it,” James replied.
Victoire, who was sitting next to him, slapped him on the back of the head, “We won’t,”
Everyone at the table leaned toward Lily, eager for the explanation.
“She started out trying to find out more about her mom. She felt really guilty about, well, everything. But she ended up finding out stuff about her parents, well our parents too,” she looked at her brothers, “stuff about the war. She got kind of obsessed with it, like if she figured it out, her and her mom would be ok,”
“Poor kid,” Teddy sighed from the other end of the table.
“And then Kenny was kidnapped…” Lily continued.
“And two people she loved were in trouble,” Dom finished for her, “Merlin, and all we did was take her out and get her drunk,”
“What were we supposed to do about it?” Molly added icily, “It’s not our fault her relationship with her mom is screwed up,”
“We’re her family Molly,” Lucy spat back at her sister, “It doesn’t matter if its our fault or not,”
Hugo had his head wrapped in his arms now, clearly distressed, “I never thought about it like that,” he cried, “And I got mad at her about it. I never tried to help her or anything. I was so concerned about how upset I was, I never thought about how upset she was. I mean she’s Rose, she always makes it better!”
“I think we’re all just so used to Rose being the one that helps everyone else and fixes everyone else’s problems, it never occurred to us that she might be the one who needed us,” Roxie sighed. They sat in silence for a while, thinking.
The door suddenly opened to reveal a small, timid looking nurse with large eyes, “Excuse me,” the whole table turned to look at her, “I’m looking for Hugo Weasley and James, Albus, and Lily Potter,”
“That’s us,” Hugo replied and pointed to his cousins.
“I’m supposed to tell you your parents would like to see you,”
The four of them looked at each other quizzically. Albus shrugged and stood up. The other three followed suit and they made their way out of the room.
