Ron Weasley (ron_weasley) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2020-01-15 21:41:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !log/thread, hermione granger, ron weasley |
WHO: Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
WHAT: Ron and Hermione find themselves the unwitting parents of a three-year-old. Good thing they're in it together.
WHEN: Sunday, January 12, 2020
WHERE: Hermione's Flat
WARNINGS: None.
STATUS: Complete
There was absolutely no doubt in Hermione’s mind that this day would forever be the strangest day she had ever had. Since coming to Tumbleweed, she had expected the unexpected, but this was beyond that. This had to be some sort of joke. Maybe it would be like everything else and would be gone in the morning. Things like that had happened before and she hadn’t totally ruled that out. Mostly because there was no possible way that the portal was actually going to give them a child. It all still felt like a dream as she quietly closed the door that now held a sleeping toddler. Their sleeping toddler. Her thoughts hadn’t stopped since the moment they had received word that Rosie was waiting for them. Her first inclination had been to lock up the shop and not leave the back room until it was all over. But Hermione knew that wasn’t fair to anyone - especially not to a small child. Hermione knew it was bound to be terrifying to wake up in a strange place and have parents that didn’t look like you remembered. It had been terrifying enough as an adult. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like for a toddler. Her attention, now that Rosie was settled into bed, turned to Ron. She tilted her head a bit, letting him know she wanted him to follow her into the living room. Waking Rosie was the last thing they needed. For a moment, she just stood and stared at him. While the words were rattling around in her head, they refused to come out of her mouth. There was too much that she wanted to say all at once and she was doing her best to process everything that had just happened to them. “This is happening, right? This isn’t some weird portal induced dream I’m having, is it?” Ron always knew he would be a father. George and Angelina had seen fit to fill him in on his future children. But he always figured he would have time to adjust to impending fatherhood. Months to worry and dote on his wife and prepare. Instead, he received a group text from someone at the Bureau with the news that Surprise! He and his girlfriend (fiancee?) were the parents of a bouncing, baby three year old, and would he be so good as to come in and pick her up? From the pause in reply from Hermione, Ron assumed she was having just as much trouble processing the information as he was. They had, of course, raced to the Bureau and fumbled through the rest of the day with what they had picked up on a quick run to a chain store, and second-guessing everything that they did. Now that it was finally just the two of them again, he exhaled deeply, as if he had been holding his breath all day. “I can’t be sure it’s not some weird dream I’m having.” He collapsed onto the sofa dramatically. He was quiet for a moment before looking up at Hermione. “We’ve skipped a few steps, haven’t we.” Hermione wasn’t entirely sure how he could sit. She was currently pacing the room, wringing her hands as she moved back and forth. It was an understatement to say that they had skipped a few steps. They had only just started talking about the promise of a future. For her, at least, this was much further in their future. Pausing briefly in her pacing she glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, a few, I would say. We’re parents,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “How can we be parents?” Hermione resumes her pacing after that, trying to work out how they were going to make it work. It wasn’t that she didn’t want children. She just wanted to do that much later in life. “What are we going to do? We know nothing about being parents. Let alone being parents of a child that already has parents that are us. Do you know how confusing that must be?” This was why they worked well together, here on this side of Hogwarts, now that all their cards were on the table. Ron could be chill when she wasn't and Hermione could settle him down when he went off the rails. That wasn't to say he was feeling at ease about this situation. But he was more likely to burst into hysterical laughter over the absurdity of the whole thing rather than become a pacing bundle of nervous energy like Hermione. "Well you see, Hermione. When a witch and a wizard love each other very much…" And here came the laughter. After a moment, he wiped his eyes and sat up straighter, trying his best to present a serious front. "I guess we'll just have to tackle it like we tackled everything else life threw at us." He shrugged, "We wing it. And when that fails, we call in some reenforcements." “Ronald Weasley!” She huffed, putting her hands on her hips as she abruptly stopped pacing. But despite how much she tried, she couldn’t help the little smile that tugged at her lips. Hermione wanted to be upset at the joke, but she just couldn’t manage it. “I know very well how babies are made, thank you very much.” Her cheeks were flushed, but she did her best to ignore it. Hermione sighed and sat down next to him on the couch. “That hardly seems like a way to handle this. She’s a person. We really should be prepared. I know the library has plenty of books about raising children. Maybe I ought to start there.” It was her usual answer for anything, but it gave her a sense of comfort in a situation like this. “There’s so much to consider. How are we both going to work? Who would we leave her with? Should we leave her with someone?” Hermione had a list a mile long. Ron reached for Hermione’s hand when she sat down beside him and interlaced their fingers. It had a calming effect for him, knowing that they were in this together. He shuddered to think what he would have done if this had happened to him before she became one of the Displaced. “The library. Why didn’t I think of that?” And he winked at her. It was actually a good idea. Something they would no doubt have done if they were doing parenthood the old fashioned way. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Don’t suppose the joke shop is any place for a toddler. Unless we want a fainting, puking one with a nosebleed.” He gave it some thought for a moment. “We could always ask my dad? Merlin knows he’s got loads of experience with kiddies. I mean, Ginny still is one.” Hermione smiled weakly at him, and squeezed his hand when he took hers. The mere thought of having to raise a child on her own made her stomach knot. Even now, with him, her stomach felt a bit uneasy. It was one thing to plan to have children, and she would have planned, but it was another thing to have your future child dropped in your lap unexpectedly. “The antique shop is definitely not a place to bring a toddler.” Toddlers and breakable things were a nightmare. It was already making her sweaty just picturing what could happen. Hermione picked her legs up and tucked them under herself. “Your brother wouldn’t try and test products on her, right? You wouldn’t let that happen, so it’s really a moot point but it’s probably best to keep her out of there. Too much to get into.” She leaned her head against his shoulder and stayed quiet for a moment. His dad was probably the best option at this point. At least he had some experience. “We could ask him. But it’s probably smart for us to write out some sort of schedule and such for her. That way we know what we are supposed to do and when we should do it. I could make it. I wouldn’t mind.” It also helped to keep her busy. “We also should really make a list of things she will need.” Ron groaned a little at the mention of schedules and lists. It was so much like school. But other than that, he didn’t protest. “Think the internet can do that stuff for us?” It’s not that he wasn’t taking this seriously, but really, what the hell did he know about what a toddler would need? He was still practically one himself when Ginny was that age. And here, well, he hadn’t been much of a good older brother. It was still so weird to have a baby baby sister. So was his daughter showing up, but he couldn’t use that excuse with her. “I would feel better if we did it the old fashioned way, but I suppose we could use the Internet a little bit.” It wasn’t that she didn’t like the Internet, but she needed something that was normal. At least more normal for her. It was something that made sense to her in this mess of things that didn’t make sense. Hermione was quiet for awhile, just idly running her fingers over his arm. Her bigger fear in this whole situation was that she wouldn’t measure up. It was a feeling that she had dealt with when she had first shown up. What if she wasn’t good at this? “What if she doesn’t like me?” She asked quietly. Ron closed his eyes as Hermione ran her fingers over his arm. “I like you,” he stated absent-mindedly. He opened one eye and then the other. “You’re her mum. Of course she’ll like you. We made her. Well, will do. One day. But she’s you and me together.” He smiled while he said it, like it had occurred to him just then how insane but brilliant the concept of a child was. They had made a tiny witch and she was asleep in their bed. Hermione peeked up at him and smiled. “Now you like me. It took some convincing.” Like a troll. She bit down on her lip, and nervously chewed her bottom lip. “But I’m not the mum she’s used to. Don’t you worry about that? On top of everything else we have to worry about, I can’t help but think I won’t measure up to myself. Again.” But there was truth in what he said and she knew that. “And it’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that she’s ours. It’s like the portal likes to make people as uncomfortable as possible. Our age difference. My wedding ring. Now this.” Her head tilted up some to look at him again. “There isn’t anything else I should know about, is there?” It occurred to Ron that he was probably just about the age Rose would remember, but given Hermione’s anxieties over their age difference, he said nothing. “Come on. We can’t be that different in a couple years.” Ron looked down at Hermione. “I wasn’t so different from what you knew when you got here, right?” It had been strange for him, sure. He had been ready to marry Hermione back home, and yet there she was, fresh from the portal and barely used to dating him. He’d had to pump the brakes a little, but after an awkward couple of weeks, they’d hit their stride again. It had been almost two years, and they were still together. That had to count for something. Anything else to know about… “Like what? I don’t know the future. Just a few things future family members let slip.” “You were very much still you,” she agreed. “But when I came through it was all still so new to me. “This,” she said as she raised their hands to show him. “This was still new to me, and back home I sometimes felt like I had to pinch myself that we had finally made it to that point.” That’s what she worried about with Rosie. This life was infinitely different than the one she had just left. And while they were still her parents, they were minutely different than the parents she was accustomed to. This place was different, and maybe that was an even bigger issue. “She’s just so little.” Hermione shrugged. “Honestly, at this point, it could be anything. Next thing you know, the portal will start throwing our past love interests at us,” she teased. Not that there were many, but it honestly wouldn’t have surprised her. “I spent a lot of time worrying about that too when you turned up. Harry got sick of hearing about it. But it all worked out.” Ron leaned down to press a kiss to the back of her hand. “This will too.” A beat. “Probably.” Another. “I’m optimistic because she’s in the other room. Asleep. When she wakes up, it’ll probably be a different story.” He was doing his best to boost her confidence because he knew he was going to be relying on her strength again as soon as their daughter woke up again. Ron’s eyes widened comically. “Why would you even joke about that?” he hissed, looking over his shoulders as if he expected to see Viktor Krum or Lavender Brown behind him. As usual, he felt a small twinge of guilt over Lavender. He had been careless with her affections, which maybe wouldn’t bother him like it did if she hadn’t had such a grisly run-in with Fenrir Greyback at the Battle of Hogwarts. It wasn’t his fault, but he still felt bad about it. Hermione gave him a skeptical look, but she did appreciate what he was trying to do. It was one of the many reasons that she loved him. “She’s not quite as terrifying now that she’s not in front of you, is she?” Rosie had actually been pretty well behaved since she had arrived. It was almost a little unsettling. Sort of like they should have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the moment, though, she would just worry about how they were going to do this. She did her best to stifle the smile and giggle that really wanted to escape after seeing the look on his face. “They aren’t here, you know,” she said as she watched him look over his shoulder. “You liked Viktor at one point. He was Quidditch royalty to you.” And this time she didn’t stop herself from giggling at him. “You know just as well as I do that it’s entirely possible, and at this point very probable that at least one of them will show up. I suppose we can be grateful there isn’t a really long list.” She paused. “We could also have our adult children show up. I’m not sure which situation would be worse.” Ron shook his head. “Nope. So much easier to think, ‘yeah, we got this’ when it’s just you and me sitting on the sofa.” He didn’t want to think about tomorrow, when there would be an entire day of keeping the tiny human alive, fed, clean, and entertained. It seemed like work for more than two people. “Yeah, well that was before he stuck his big curved nose where it didn’t belong,” Ron mumbled. He should have had a softer spot for the Bulgarian. It was his interest in Hermione that made Ron confront his own growing attraction to his friend. But teenage jealousy was a difficult thing to let go of. Even after he had won the heart of Hermione Granger. “Well sure, but you don’t have to go around saying it. That’s like daring the portal to make it happen!” Hermione couldn’t help but think about tomorrow. She knew she would be up late making lists and reading what she could until she could get to the library. She had to do the best that she could for Rosie. And she needed to figure out the best way to still work and raise a toddler. “Honestly,” she said with a laugh. She couldn’t help it. It was all so silly to her. Even if she had dated Krum, her heart had always been his. “You only had to ask me. I was already yours,” she said before kissing his cheek. But she knew that that was easier said than done. They had been friends first, and it was scary to try and change that. “I won’t take the blame if it happens. I think this is better this way. Now we are prepared.” Hermione knee it was bound to happen at some point. “Do you think she’s a good sleeper?” Hermione needed her to sleep to get through everything. “I certainly hope she stays asleep. I have a lot of lists to make.” Ron shrugged sheepishly as she kissed his cheek. He’d have done lots of things differently if he had the chance to do them over again. But the regrets just meant that he had grown since then. “Quietening Charm?” he suggested, just to be sure. “It probably wouldn’t hurt. I don’t want to disturb her either. She probably needs the sleep after the day she’s had.” It was a weird feeling being absolutely terrified but also incredibly concerned over the well-being of a child she didn’t know. This sort of thing made her head hurt. “You’ll stay up with me, then?” Hermione knew that she already had her lists started, but she didn’t exactly want to do it alone. Not this time. Ron slipped his hand out of hers and rose from the sofa, a knowing grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I’ll put the kettle on.” |