Turn Back the Clock

Chapter 6: Apologies

As the day dragged on with more unanswered questions, Ron Weasley was starting to get antsy. Hermione had been bugging him all day about making up with Rose, but after witnessing the moment between her and Satan's sperm yesterday, he wasn't that keen on talking to her. It weirded him out seeing his daughter so happy. It weirded him out seeing his daughter period. Still he knew he needed to apologize, otherwise Hermione was going to kill him. 

Dropping the rag he was using for dusting Ron quickly exits the cramped bedroom and begins roaming the halls in search of Rose. After everyone had finished breakfast that morning, Molly Weasley insisted they keep things normal and sent everyone off to clean. Figures only his mother would meet her future grandchildren and make them clean. If he remembered correctly Rose was assigned the room where Sirius's blackened family tree was displayed. 

Sighing heavily to himself, Ron began making his way towards the room. If he was being honest the room gave him the creeps. It wasn't uncommon for wizarding families to have their family trees visible, especially if they are a pure-blood family. It is hard keeping track of every member of your family, but still it was so easy for Sirius's mother to erase him from the tree. It simply rubbed him the wrong way to see families abandon each other. He may rag on his family, but he couldn't imagine them not being there for him. It just wasn't imaginable.

The door creaks as Ron opens it. Sticking his head into the dusty room he smiles upon spotting Rose, standing on a chair trying to dust the top of an antique mirror. Not wanting to scare her and risk making her fall, he moves further into the room and into her view. Her eyes snap up at the sudden movement and harden into a glare that Ron's spine shiver. She may have his eyes, but she had a combination of the Weasley-Granger, glare and it was down-right terrifying. 

Rose Weasley knew that she was a hot head girl. It simply wasn't in her nature to take things calmly. She blew up over the smallest of things and could hold grudges for years. She was still holding a grudge against Albus, for when he accidentally broke her toy broom when they were eight. She still held a grudge against Scorpius for breaking her heart all those months ago. She may as well be called the grudge queen. Yet the one person she could never hold a grudge against was her father. Perhaps it was how his eyes always conveyed what he was feeling and Rose could not stay mad at him when his eyes showed her how truly sorry he was. 

Softening her glare, Rose gives her young father a small smile and hops of the chair. 

"Rose I-" Ron starts, but stops. The speech he had been practicing all day seemed to have disappeared from his mind, leaving him scrabbling for the right words to say. "I'm sorry." He finally says, rubbing the back of his neck, sheepishly staring at his toe, which were peeking out from a hole in his shoes. 

"I forgive you." Rose says, taking a step forward to wrap her father in a hug. He stiffens at her actions, but slowly wraps his gangly arms around her small frame. At this time Rose was two years older than him, but still he towered over her, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. 

Rose sniffs in her younger father's scent and frowns. He smelt like dust and sweat, not his usual chocolate smell. A longing fills in the bottom of her stomach. They had only been away from home for a day, but she really missed home. She missed her normal aged parents. Their cottage on the beach. The sound of her parents bickering. Her Dad's hugs. She misses home. 

Clearing her head of these thoughts she steps out of his embrace and gives him one of her softer smiles. He returns one, still not believe that he is going to have a daughter. Or that he marries Hermione. 

"Do I really marry Hermione?" He finds himself asking. It seemed ridiculous to him, Hermione wanting to marry him. She fancied Viktor Krum and still wrote him letters every week. He'd caught her doing so a few days ago and they'd gotten into a big row about it.