Surviving in Harmony

ChapterThirty-Five | Ivy House, November 2012

"We're having another baby?" he took her tiny hands in his, kissing them.

"Is that okay?" she asked nervously.

"Of course." He hugged her tightly, closing his eyes. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged. "Sort of – I wasn't expecting it. But we weren't expecting Max either, and that turned out okay."

"Max!" Charlie practically shouted. "Should we wait until he gets home to tell him?"

"I think so, yeah. It is a bit shocking." Admitted Sonia, thinking of her fourteen year old son. "That's a really big age gap, do you think he'll mind?"

"No, I bet he'll be very excited." Charlie reassured her, holding her tight. "This will put a hold on our adventures though Sonia."

Sonia had thought of that already. She'd cried about it, been mad – and decided...it was okay. "I can wait." She said. "By the time this one is at Hogwarts you'll have that time off and I'll have been writing at the paper for a while."

Sonia loved her job at the paper, had never regretted doing it. Every other week she would write a column on whatever she was thinking about, and the other week she would write a short chapter of an ongoing story. She had found that writing fiction was a calling she had never thought of before, but quite enjoyed. All that reading Hazel had encouraged had paid off.

The couple crawled under the covers together, warm with their news. They missed their son, couldn't wait to have him home again. Cuddled close, they read Max's letter together and dreamt.

            Sonia knew she was dreaming from the flowers. They spilled over onto the front porch of Hester House, large and colourful. The porch swing was the one from when she and Andrew were little, with ragged cushions and a hole at one end.

The air was heavy with the smell of lilacs and something brushed her arm; looking over, Sonia wasn't surprised to see Hazel sitting on the steps with her.

"Hi honey," Hazel said softly, smiling as if she were tired. Hazel had always looked tired.

"Mamma...I've missed you." Sonia almost couldn't get the words out. Her mother looked young, like she had when Sonia was quite little.

Hazel took her hand, holding it in both of hers. "And I've missed you." She rubbed gentle circles into the palm of Sonia's hand. "Max is becoming a wonderful boy."

"He's a great kid. I don't know how I did it." Sonia admitted, relishing in her mothers touch. The last few years Hazel had been alive there hadn't been much touching between them, though it had gotten better when Sonia was pregnant.

"Oh hush, you are a very good mother. You have done a fantastic job with him." Hazel was warm beside Sonia, the soft fabric of her long dress blowing in the slight early evening breeze.

Looking at their bare feet on the wooden steps, Sonia realized they had the same crooked third toe. She'd always know it, always passed it off – what else had they had in common that she never took time to notice?

"What about the new baby?" she asked nervously. "What if Max doesn't want a sibling, what of he's mad? What if he resents me?"

Hazel sighed and kissed her daughters hand, staring ahead at the woods. "He won't Sonia, but if he ever does resent you for something – even the tiniest of things – you just have to remember what it was like the first time you held him, when he told you he loved you for the first time. That makes all the resentment, all the hurt go away."

"I'm sorry I wasn't kind to you, Mamma." Sonia was not embarrassed by the tears running down her cheeks, plopping onto her jeans. "I would take it all back."

Hazel took her daughters face in her hands, wiping the tears with her thumb. "I know honey, and I forgive you."

"You do?" Sonia sobbed, falling into Hazel's touch; she shook in her mothers arms, cried harder than she had in a long time.

"Yes Sunny." Sonia smelled her mother's perfume, felt the unpainted wood of the steps, a small flutter within that was her new baby. "I forgive you."

A/N: Happy 2015? Okay it's been almost exactly a month since 2015 began but whatever. I've had a rough month guys, so I'm sorry that it's been a while. I did something a little drastic today - I cut off over a foot of my hair. I went to a salon obviously, because every time I try to do it myself it's a disaster. Anyway, I haven't been feeling quite myself and I thought cutting a lot of it off would jolt something, but I feel even more alien in my own skin. We'll see where this new Baby Weasley takes Sonia and this haircut takes me. 

Question: Thoughts on the BABY? Boy or girl, and what sort of names? I don't know, you tell me ;)

Happy New year I guess.

Rose