When she finally felt herself slowing down, Rose threw out her hands to prevent herself from falling face forward out of the living room fireplace at Primrose Cottage. Her hands hit the ice cold stone floor and she winced at the pain that shot through her arms at the impact. A long mane of curly brown hair, that seemed almost alive, loomed above her. A hand brushed it away to reveal Hermione Granger's concerned face. The bushy haired witch reached out her hand to help her daughter to her feet, and then, once Rose was upright, Hermione enveloped her in a hug. The embrace took Rose by surprise, but she soon relaxed into her mother's arms and began to breathe more slowly, her body melting into Hermione's as every muscle in her body lost its tension to the air. She hadn't realised that her heart had been racing until she felt it race alongside her mother's.
Rose gently pulled away and met Hermione's eyes. "We saw him." Her voice came out much more steady than she expected it to. She didn't need to clarify who she was talking about. "I know." Hermione's voice quivered slightly on the last syllable. "I received a message from the Ministry."
A sudden surge of warm air erupted from the fireplace, and a second later, Ron and Hugo were ejected from the firebox alongside a cloud of soot. Coughing up the smoke, Ron brushed off the dust from his jeans, and subsequently cast a spell to clear away the fumes. Hermione rushed over to Hugo and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing his shoulders. When she finally released him, all eyes turned to Ron.
Hermione was visibly shaking when she asked - rhetorically, almost as if she was speaking to herself, barely above a whisper -, "What was Garfantell doing at Diagon Alley?"
"Some shopping?" Ron offered jokingly, but he too was evidently unsettled.
Rose and Hugo giggled nervously, but Hermione had a distant look in her eyes, as if her mind was far, far away. Her forehead creased with worry and she knitted her eyebrows together in deep concentration, patently cogitating potential motivations for Garfantell's sudden appearance. Her parents' discernible anxiety tightened the knot in Rose's stomach. She clasped her hands behind her back to stop them from trembling. Drawing in a long, deep breath, she plastered a fake smile on her face, and said, "He could have shown up for another reason...Not necessarily just to find the child mentioned in the prophecy, right?" She already knew the answer to her own question before the words even emerged from her mouth, but she was desperate to convince her family - as well as herself - that everything was alright, even though she knew that her attempt to achieve this was futile.
She steeled herself for the response. "I don't think so." Hermione's face was unreadable, but her gaze was steady when her deep brown eyes met her daughter's.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Harry Potter series - all credit for creating this remarkable universe goes to J.K. Rowling!
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Rose Granger-Weasley and the Unleashing of Power
FanfictionFollowing Voldemort's death during the Battle of Hogwarts, it seemed as though peace had been restored to the world, and that nothing bad could transpire ever again... until a new dark wizard rose to power and instilled fear in the hearts of witches...
