Raising Hope {Fred Weasley}

You can't knit with us!

Hope wandered out of her room one morning to find her mother settled on the sofa, leaning against her father, the two of them laughing together about something as her mother knitted. She walked over to them and plopped onto the other end of the sofa before flashing her parents a grin.

"What did you do?" Eleanor asked her.

Hope furrowed her brow. "I..I didn't do anything!" she said to her mother but both parents gave the six year old a look.

"I didn't!" she said.

"Yet." Fred added with a smile. "So what's new, Hope? Bored of all your toys?"

"No, I just wanted to come out and hang with you two." Hope said before leaning her head against her mother's shoulder. 'Can I?'

"Of course." Eleanor smiled.

Hope nestled into her mother as she listened to the two talk about the upcoming full moon that month. Her eyes moved to watch her mother's hands that knitted with such grace, it seemed it came as easy to her as breathing did.

"Mummy...when did you learn to knit?" Hope asked.

Eleanor turned to face her.

"Oh..well...I was just a little older than you, Hope.' she answered.

"Who taught you?"

"My mother. Your grandmother, Maggie. She taught me how to start off the first stitch and the rest came with a lot of practice. A lot of practice."

"Did Grandma Maggie teach you how to knit with your wand?" Hope questioned further.

"Uh no..actually one day, I was in my room and I know I had two knitting needles on my bed. I swear to this day there was two. Well, anyways, my mother called me downstairs but when I came back one of my knitting needles was gone."

"It was gone?" Hope tilted her head to the side. "Where did it go, Mummy?'

"I don't know." Eleanor shrugged. " I never found the thing...but Mum told me she wasn't going to be able to buy me a new one for a couple of days, and I certainly didn't want to wait that long, so I thought of using my wand..."

"And the magic goes in it?" Hope looked down at the newest work that her mother was working on. It was too early to determine what it was, but it still memorized the young girl.

"That's right." Her father answered before bringing his feet up and placing them down on the coffee table to show off his knitted socks. "The best socks.." He said wiggled his toes.

"Can you teach me how to knit, Mummy?"  Hope asked sitting up abruptly.

"You want to learn?"

"Yes!"

"Well alright..." Eleanor smiled.

Fred couldn't help but laugh as he watched the excitement grow on the woman's face as she turned to face her daughter with the knitting in hand.

"Alright, so I'm going to show you how to cast on." Eleanor told her.

Hope sat patiently with her mother for nearly an hour trying to get the first stitch off with her mother's help, but unfortunately, no matter how hard the girl tried, she failed.

"Ugh!" Hope groaned dropping the knitting materials in her lap. "This is too hard!"

"It's alright, sweetheart." Eleanor said in a soft voice. "Don't get frustrated. It takes a lot of practice. I didn't learn it in one day. You just have to learn a little bit at a time. Okay? Why don't we call it a day? We're going to be heading over to the Burrow for dinner...alright?'

"Okay, Mummy."

Eleanor smoothed her daughter's hair back before standing up and heading to the bedroom to get dressed fully for the family dinner.

Hope waited as her mother closed the bedroom door over and with her father downstairs in the shop, the six year old was left alone.

She glanced around before her eyes settled on her mother's wand , the yarn and the knitting needle.

Picking up her mother's wand and the yarn, Hope looked back and forth between the two before looking up at the bedroom door.

It remained closed over, making Hope smile.

She began to wrap the yarn around her mother's wand, looping it over and over to make something as she grabbed the knitting needle after.

'I'm going to learn this is in one day.....or...or not..."

Hope's little hands made it difficult to hold both the wand and knitting needle, making it hard to start the first stitch. Completely frustrated, Hope arrived to the Burrow in a foul mood as her grandmother moved towards her quickly to greet her with hugs and kisses.

"Oh no..why the face?" Molly asked lowering herself to her granddaughter's eye level.

"I can't knit!" Hope sighed. "I can't hold the two needles, Grandma."

A smile appeared on the woman's face.

"Can't hold two, hmmm....I think I have a solution for that."

"Really?"

"Yes, yes...follow me!"

"So...I can do it with one...and it's still knitting?" Hope looked up at her grandmother.

"This, my dear, is called crocheting." Molly chuckled.

Hope looked down at the yarn and the one knitting needle. 

"I think I'm going to like this a lot more!"