Diagon Alley - Harry Potter One Shots

Ghosts From the Past

On her days off, Judith liked to spend her days relaxing, however, ever since getting into a relationship with George Weasley, the term "Relaxing" no longer seemed to exist. When she wasn't in the tea shop, she was in the joke shop on her days off, normally helping Eleanor and Verity who tried to manage the twins. With a baby on her hip, Eleanor wasn't able to do as much as she wanted, but still did quite a bit with Hope attached to her. Deciding to help her a bit, she allowed Eleanor to just sit down and knit behind the counter, while she ran around the shop assisting customers or managing the register with Verity.

When she arrived one early morning with George to open up the shop, Fred, Eleanor and Hope were already awake and in the shop. Hope was crawling about on the floor, trying to get into things, but every attempt was foiled by her mother.

"You two didn't have to come in so early, Fred and I could have managed the morning shift." Eleanor told her. "You really ought to try and enjoy your days off more, Judith. You hardly get them since taking over the shop."

Judith gave a faint shrug with a smile. "It's alright, I enjoy spending my time here because I get to see this little cutie." She crouched down to touch Hope's face, but the child lifted her hand, denying her aunt of touching her face. 

"Oh?" Judith retracted her hand listening to the others in the room laugh.

"She's not a fan of cheek pinching." Eleanor said. "Sorry."

"That's alright, I was never a fan of it either-" Judith said but she quickly grew confused as she heard laughter that didn't belong to the others in the room.

Hope began giggling wildly causing Judith to turn her attention back to the baby.

Suddenly, she gasped clutching her heart to her chest at the sight.

"Merlin's beard."

"What?" Eleanor, Fred and George said all together in a worried tone. 

"What's wrong?" Eleanor didn't like the way Judith jumped back from Hope, thinking there was something wrong with her child.

Judith didn't answer as she had to collect herself for a moment, she blinked several times as she thought she was seeing double for a moment. 

"Um, this is going to sound awfully weird..." Judith said.

"Actually, we kinda expect weird coming from you," Fred said. "So it's not so weird anymore."

"Thanks." She responded flatly. "But um...you two have those uncles that look like you right?"

Before Fred and George could respond, the two spirits in front of her decided to introduce themselves.

"Gideon."

"Fabian."

"At your service." The two said.

"Uh hi." She waved at them. 

"Didn't mean to startle you," Gideon replied. "Just came to spend some quality time with Hope."

Hope let out another squeal lifting her hands up and gesturing for Fabian to play with her.

Leaving the other three adults in the dark of the situation, Judith smiled and watched as her niece interacted with Gideon and Fabian.

"Should we be worried or...." George reached Judith's side.

"No," Judith shook her head with a smile. "Hope is just enjoying her morning with her great-uncles."

"Her great uncle is right here!" George said pointing to himself proudly.

"I mean actual great-uncle, George. Not you, Gideon and Fabian...your mother's brothers."

"They're here..." George looked around. "Where?"

"There." She pointed to Hope that laughed hysterically clapping her hands. 

"But how?" George asked. "How can she...be interacting with them? She can't see them?"

"But she can." Judith said.

"So she's like you?" Eleanor questioned.

"No, at least, not to my knowledge," Judith answered. "My grandmother told me when I was younger that most children and babies can see spirits. But as they grow older they lose the ability because they stop believing in it or they don't work on the ability.  At one point, all of you were probably able to see spirits but as you grew older it vanished. For now, Hope can enjoy her time with family that has crossed over."

The adults kept a close eye on Hope as she interacted with her great-uncles, but eventually her playdate arrived as Sirius came in with Henry. 

Henry seemed mesmerized for a moment as he looked in the direction of the two spirits as Judith watched the children with a smile.

Suddenly, another spirit appeared resembling little Henry a great deal. Henry seemed more than excited to see the man and Hope seemed quite fond of him as well.

"I never thought about them interacting with spirits so much." Eleanor said. "It's beautiful to watch."

"It certainly is." Judith said before looking over in Sirius' direction.

"Nixie isn't with you?" She asked with a slight frown.

"Oh no, I decided to give her the day off and let her relax at home. Although, I think her and Buckbeak went out for a walk or something." Sirius answered with a smile.

"What a shame, I'm sure she would be happy to see Henry interacting with his grandfather right now."