Goodnight Rosie - Christmas Fic Request 2008
This short number hopefully will fit the request made by (well, actually I bugged her to request something).
My apologies go out to exartemarte and kacie223 as I don't have their fics posted as yet. I have worked on them, but I'm not happy with what I have. I hope to post yours soon.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
The room was dark but for the fairy lights twinkling on the tree and the dim glow of candlelight from the few candles Hermione have left levitated before she’d gone to bed.
Ron had turned the wireless down low so Celestina Warbeck’s voice was barely heard. It reminded him of Christmas at home as his mother listened to her every year, usually after having consumed eggnog.
He wanted his daughter to grow up with the same warm glow of Christmas that he’d had. Yeah, okay, his family had never had much while he was growing up. But Rosie was going to have much more than Ron had had.
“See the fairy lights, Rosie? Didn’t Mummy do a lovely job of them?” He leaned back against the chair. She was asleep in his arms, every so often her tiny mouth would move in a faint sucking motion and he was in awe when she yawned, as if the normal act was a miraculous event.
“You’ll love Christmas, Rosie. Tomorrow we’ll go to the Burrow and see Grandma and Grandpa. Your Nan and Grandpa Granger will be there as well. And Uncle George… Uncle Harry and your cousin James - he’s just a few months older than you - we’ll eat, well, I mean your mum and I will eat. Mummy’ll feed you though, don’t worry. And there’ll be loads of presents for you. You have to learn about Father Christmas, and we’ll go out into the snow…” Would Hermione have a fit if he took Rosie out into the snow to play for a bit? Okay, so she wasn’t old enough to play yet, but he could tell her everything he longed to do with her when she was older.
Hermione tended to get a bit manic over things lately. He’d thought it completely mental that she had worried that she’d fail at motherhood. Like that was possible. All his parents had done was love their kids and feed them, and Ron figured he and his siblings had turned out quite well. Even Percy.
“Uncle Percy’ll be there with your new Aunt Audrey. Hopefully, she’s forgotten about little incident on Bill’s birthday. I mean, all right, but it was just a few dung bombs, the Droobles scented ones. We have to test new products, don’t we?”
Rosie sighed in her sleep.
“Exactly. She was pretty stiff about the whole thing.” Rosie moved her lips in her sleep and Ron stopped to watch his daughter for a few minutes, but other than a tiny yawn she didn’t move again.
“Right. So, everyone will be there. Just try not to spit up on Uncle Harry again. It was funny last time, but -”
“I thought you were going to put her down and come to bed?” Hermione was standing in the doorway to their sitting room, her arms akimbo. Her hair was a mass of curls over her shoulders. She’d been too busy with the birth of their daughter to cut it, not that Ron was complaining. He loved her hair.
“Well, we were just talking…” He didn’t want to set Rosie down. He loved the feel of her warm, tiny body in his arms, and he couldn’t get enough of her baby smell.
Hermione crossed the room to stand next to his chair. “Talking? Ron, she’s asleep. Never mind it’ll be some time before she talks just yet.”
“It’s very important to talk to babies - something about bonding. You read it in one of those books, remember?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, I did, but I don’t recall telling you that. Did you actually read them?”
Holding Rosie securely, Ron stood. “Is that such a shock? She’s my baby, too, you know. I wanted to be prepared.” Hermione stepped closer and went up on tiptoe to tenderly kiss her husband’s cheek.
“No, not a surprise. You’re amazing with her.”
“Eh - yeah, well I’ve always had a way with women.” They stood there, looking down at their daughter in the glow of the fairy lights, both amazed at the gift they had received just the week before.
“I love hearing you talk to her, and it’s obvious she finds it comforting to hear her daddy’s voice. Did you read that babies hear our voices before their born and recognize the ones they’ve heard the most?”
He nodded softly, his gaze remaining on Rosie. “I wish we could just stay here,” said Ron finally. “This, just the three of us, this is the best my life’s ever been. And tomorrow, going to the Burrow… God, Mum’ll be mental.”
Hermione smiled and softly touched Rosie’s petal-like cheek. “I know, but at least our parents will be happy. Your mother took mine shopping in Diagon Alley yesterday.”
“Oh, sad I missed that, really. Is there a shop still standing? Are you sure we can’t just tell them she’s sick or we’re sick or something?”
“The mothers would be over here in a second if we did that.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I reckon so.”
Ron gave himself up to the inevitable as they went upstairs to slip Rosie into her cot right next to their bed.