"Wake up!"
"Why do you hate me?" Rose groaned into her pillow as Ginny and Hermione jumped on her bed at the same time. Tillie let out a hiss from where she was laying on Rose's pillow, but the cat was too lazy to move.
"You're finally sixteen!" Hermione said happily.
"Yeah, and for my present, I'd like to sleep," Rose mumbled into her pillow.
"Nope!" Ginny said as she dragged Rose up so that she was sitting. Rose groaned and moved her curly hair out of her face, glaring at the two girls.
"Maybe you wouldn't be so tired if you hadn't stayed up snogging Harry," Hermione teased.
"Maybe you wouldn't be so upset if you'd finally snog Ron," Rose teased back. Hermione went bright red as Ginny let out a roar of laughter.
"I agree," Ginny said when she finally calmed her laughter.
"I'm not going to snog Ron," Hermione huffed. "Now open your presents before I take them away."
Hermione and Ginny returned to their own beds as Rose sat on the floor to open her presents. Her parents got her some things for Tillie as well as some decorations for her room at Hogwarts. They also gave her the leather jacket she had gotten the year before. Ron had taken it from Harry after the Ministry, and had given it to Sirius and Marlene a few days before. Hermione, as always, got Rose a book about healing, but she also gave Rose some chocolate. Ron and Ginny gave her some candy and Fred and George gave her some products from their store. She got more candy and some clothes from everyone else, including a Weasley sweater.
Rose reached for the smallest present and slowly opened it, carefully ripping off the wrapping she knew Harry had done. A choking sound left her mouth as she finally opened the present.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, looking over to see Rose holding a hand over her mouth as she stared at a small box in her hand. Rose didn't answer so Hermione and Ginny shared a confused and worried look before sitting on the floor next to Rose.
"It's beautiful," Ginny gasped as she grabbed the box out of Rose's hand.
"It isn't..." Hermione said, trailing off at the end.
"It can't be," Rose said, her voice thick.
"There's a note," Ginny said as she looked at the box. Rose grabbed the box with shaky hands and read the note.
Hi, Ro
Merry Christmas!
You're probably freaking out, but don't worry. This isn't an engagement ring, just a promise ring. A promise that I'll love for forever and I'll always be with you.
Also, happy birthday.
Love, Harry
"Oh, thank Merlin," Rose gasped after she read the note. Hermione ripped the note out of Rose's hand and read it before passing it to Ginny
"Harry has good taste," Hermione complimented as she looked to the ring.
"He sure does," Rose agreed as she looked at the ring Harry had gotten her. The band was a rose gold color and the diamonds were shaped in what was similar to a branch.
"Your dad is gonna freak," Ginny said with a snort as Rose put the ring on her ring finger on her right hand.
"Probably," Hermione agreed. She frowned as she looked to Rose but couldn't read her face. "Are you freaking out, Rose?"
"A little," Rose admitted softly. "I got him some quidditch gloves, some stuff for Sandwich, and a teddy bear that smells like me...Merlin, what if he thinks the teddy bear means I'm pregnant!...wait, that's impossible."
"Ok, stop," Ginny said. Rose finally looked away from her ring and looked at the red head instead. "Why are you freaking out?"
"I'm not sure," Rose said. "I guess...I've imagined my future with Harry before, but when I opened that box from him and saw a ring, I realized that-that we could get married next year technically. We wouldn't, but we could. And I know that the prophecy says that we're soulmates, but I don't think I'm ready to get married and-and have kids. But what if that's what Harry wants?"
"You're panicking over nothing," Hermione assured Rose. "Harry is stupid, but he knows you well enough to not do anything you're not ready for. And I doubt he wants to get married and have kids anytime soon. He has his own prophecy to worry about."
Hermione immediately knew that Harry's prophecy was not the right thing to mention. Rose's bottom lip started shaking and her eyes filled with tears.
"What if he dies?" Rose asked through the tears that started to flow down her face.
"Then you bring him back to life," Ginny said with a scoff. Rose froze for a moment before bursting out laughing at her stupidity. Hermione and Ginny started laughing as well, even though it wasn't that funny.
"I'm sorry, guys," Rose said when she finally stopped laughing. "I'm just stressed, I think. And the attack a few days ago put things into perspective."
"Since we're admitting things now," Ginny said. "I'm gonna break up with Dean."
"We already knew that," Rose reminded her.
"Yeah, but I've decided to not drag it out any further. I'm gonna end it when we get back and not wait," Ginny said before taking a deep breath. "And I'm gonna start writing to Cedric."
"You like him?" Hermione gasped.
"I think so," Ginny admitted sheepishly. Rose and Hermione let out happy squeals and then tackled Ginny in a hug.
"Wow. She turns sixteen and starts killing people via hug," Sirius said with an overdramatic sigh. Rose let go of Ginny and saw her father leaning on the door frame. Marlene rolled her eyes and lightly pushed his back, making him stumble into the room.
"Hi, sweetie. Happy birthday," Marlene said softly as she wrapped Rose in a hug. Ginny and Hermione slipped out of the room as Sirius joined the hug as well. Hermione had to floo to her house to spend the day with her parents, so she waved bye to Rose as she left.
"You're old now," Sirius said when they finally released Rose from the hug. Rose knew that he was fighting back tears, but he was acting too manly to show them.
"I am," Rose said with a giggle as she started picking up her presents and putting them on her bed. She had only picked up one present before her right hand was being grabbed.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Sirius bellowed as he looked at Rose's hand. Marlene gasped loudly as she grabbed Rose's hand as well.
"What's going on?" Harry panted as he skidded to a stop in the room, panic clear on his face.
"You propsed to my daughter without my permission?" Sirius asked angrily.
"He did what?" James gasped as he entered the room as well, Lily not far behind. They were holding Arabella and Sebastian in their arms, but put them down on Rose's bed to grab her hand as well.
"That's not...that's not what happened," Harry said awkwardly. Sirius glared at Harry, who was blushing heavily.
"Well, then, what did happen?" Marlene asked, sounding much kinder than her husband.
"It's just a promise ring," Harry assured them.
"That's why it's not on my left hand," Rose spoke up. Sirius let out a sigh of relief.
"Don't scare me like that!" Sirius groaned.
"Padfoot, don't be overdramatic," James said with a scoff. "You're acting like Rose marrying my son is the worst thing in the world."
"It is," Sirius mumbled under his breath, but everyone heard it. Sirius groaned and clutched his stomach as Lily and Marlene both hit him.
"We're gonna...go," Rose muttered before quickly grabbing Harry's hand and running out of the room as Sirius started complaining as everyone else lectured him about not being so overprotective.
"So...did you freak out?" Harry asked as they sat on his bed.
"Only a little," Rose lied. Harry sent her a look and she grinned sheepishly. "Ok, kinda a lot."
"I knew you would," Harry told her. Rose pushed his shoulder with a pout on her face.
"You're mean," Rose complained.
"You love me anyways," Harry grinned at Rose, causing her to roll her eyes.
"I do," Rose mumbled. Harry connected their lips for a second before jumping off of his bed and reaching over to Ron's bed.
"Aren't you glad I didn't get you this?" Harry asked as he held up a large gold necklace with the words 'My Sweetheart' dangling from the chain.
"Is that from Lavender?" Rose asked with a laugh.
"Yeah," Harry said.
"I think I'd break up with you if you gave that to me," Rose said. Harry looked offended for a second but his expression quickly changed when Rose pulled him into another kiss.
"You better not be snogging!" Ron yelled. Rose and Harry sighed as they separated in time for Ron to enter the room.
"Do you need something?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, Mum says it's time for lunch," Ron said. Rose and Harry immediately jumped up for a famous Weasley lunch. Everyone was wearing a Weasley sweater except for Fleur, making Rose frown some. The witch looked slightly hurt and Bill was frowning at his mother's back. Rose sent Fleur a warm smile, glad that the girl had found someone who loved her for who she actually is, not just for her looks. Fleur gave Rose a warm smile as well before whispering to Bill.
Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to notice the expressions of Bill and Fleur. She was too busy showing off her new midnight blue witches hat, glittering with star like diamonds. She also had a new golden necklace that she was proudly wearing.
"Do you like them?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Fred and George got them for me."
"We appreciate you a lot more now that we do our own laundry," George said.
"Dad, why do you have a maggot in your hair?" Rose asked with a grimace. Sirius let out a shriek and started hitting his hair until the maggot fell out onto the floor. He then proceeded to jump on the maggot until it was reduced to mush. Sebastian, who was being held by Sirius, giggled happily as Sirius jumped. Arabella, who was being held by Marlene, let out a whine at being left out of the fun. James cheered Sirius on as Lily rolled her eyes. Regulus smirked at his brother, seeming enjoying watching him freak out over a little maggot.
"Kreacher decided to get him a present," Marlene explained as she used her wand to clean up the maggot mush.
"Horrible," Fleur said with a little shudder.
"Yes, isn't it?" Ron asked. "Gravy, Fleur?"
Ron was so eager to hand Fleur the gravy that he made it fall over. Bill quickly used his wand to put the gravy back in the can.
"You are as bad at that Tonks," Fleur said to Ron. "She is always knocking-"
"I invited dear Tonks to come along today," Mrs. Weasley interrupted as she glared at Fleur. "But she couldn't come. Have you talked to her lately, Remus?"
"No, I haven't had much contact with anyone lately," Remus said. "But she has her own family to spend Christmas with."
"I got the impression she was spending Christmas alone, actually," Mrs. Weasley said as she sent Remus an annoyed look.
"Moony, if you don't talk to Tonks, I'll tell everyone the story of what you did when you got drunk that one time," Rose said.
"You wouldn't," Remus said lowly as his eyes widened.
"I would," Rose said happily.
"Can you tell the story anyways?" Harry asked. Rose smirked at her godfather and turned to tell Harry the story.
"Well, he doesn't really drink, so he's a lightweight, so-"
"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley interrupted as she stood up and looked out the kitchen window. "It's Percy!"
"What?!"
Everyone quickly stood up and looked out the window to watch Percy fighting the snow to reach the house.
"The Minister is with him!" Mr. Weasley gasped. Regulus ducked under the table in record time, as the Ministry was still questioning who he really supported. Before anyone could say anything, the back door was opened and Percy and the Minister entered.
"Merry Christmas, Mother," Percy said stiffly after a painful silence.
"Oh, Percy!" Mrs. Weasley cried as she threw herself into his arms.
"You must forgive this intrusion," Rufus Scrimgeour said once Mrs. Weasley released her son. "Percy and I were in the vicinity and he couldn't resist stopping by and seeing you all."
Rose glanced at Percy and immediately knew that the Minsiter was lying. Percy was standing stiffly and refused to look at any member of his family.
"Why are you actually here?" Sirius said. Scrimgeour cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"Well, I wouldn't mind a stroll through the garden. Why don't you lead me?" Scrimgeour said as he looked to Harry.
"Sure," Harry mumbled. James and Lily both stepped forward as if they were going to follow Harry, but he sent them a discrete shake of his head and they hesitantly sat down.
"Why are you actually here, Percy?" Fred asked tensely as everyone started sitting down after at least a minute of awkward looks and silence.
"Just to say Merry Christmas," Percy sad through clenched teeth.
"Here's a new Christmas tradition I've started," Ginny said as she used her spoon to flick mashed parsnips onto Percy's glasses. "It's called hit the git with parsnips."
"I like that tradition," George said as he started flicking parsnips as well. None of the adults stopped the teens as they continued to throw parsnips at Percy, who was trying to use his wand, but to little avail.
"We're done here," Scrimgeour said as he entered the kitchen. Percy made a satisfied noise and stomped out of the kitchen, getting rid of the parsnips as he stomped away. Scrimgeour gave everyone a stiff nod before leaving as well. Regulus slowly crawled up from under the table.
"What did he want?" James asked tensely.
"He wanted me to follow the Ministry. He didn't seem too happy when I said I was going to follow Dumbledore instead," Harry said.
"It was a lovely meal, Mrs. Weasley," Rose said awkwardly, trying to break the silence that had filled the room.
"Thank you dear," Mrs. Weasley said, her voice thick with tears. "I made you a cake for your birthday. Let's go ahead and eat it."
Mrs. Weasley waved her wand and summoned a large cake that plopped down in front of Rose. Sirius and Marlene smiled as they moved around the table to stand behind her, the twins held in their arms. Remus, James, Lily and Regulus did the same as they handed Cedric a camera.
"Smile!" Cedric instructed. He took what seemed like hundreds of pictures, some with everybody and some with just Rose.
"Can we be done?" Rose finally asked.
"Fine," Cedric huffed. Rose grinned happily as everyone started singing happy birthday.
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Rose said as the woman started cutting up the cake.
"Anytime," Mrs. Weasley said. Everyone tried to forget about their visitors as they ate their cake. Mr. And Mrs. Weasley went up to their room the second they finished their cake, and everyone knew it was to talk about Percy. The room slowly became less populated until it was just Rose, Harry, Sirius, Marlene, James, Lily and Remus. As always, Cedric had the twins and was talking with Ginny.
"So, what was Harry's big present?" Rose asked as she finished her slice of cake.
"We haven't given it to him yet," Lily said slowly as she summoned a box from her room to the kitchen.
"Here you go," James said softly as he handed the box to Harry. Since the box was poorly wrapped, Harry was able to open it quickly.
"It's a key," Harry said, confusion clear on his face as he looked at his present.
"We...we got our own house so that we don't have to live at Grimmauld Place anymore," Lily explained. "It's still in London, but it's outside of the city."
"You have your own room, and Rose will have her own room because I'm her favorite godfather-" James said.
"Oi! Not even close!" Remus interrupted.
"I'm her favorite godfather," James said louder. "So she'll always want to stay with us."
"Don't worry, Moony, you're my favorite," Rose assured Remus, who stuck his tongue out at James. In retaliation, James made Remus' tongue stick to the top of his mouth, but Lily quickly reversed the spell.
"Cedric has a room too, if he wants it," Lily added, ignoring James and Remus as they started wrestling on the floor.
"And they have a guest room for us," Marlene said happily. Harry was still staring at the key as if he didn't know how to react.
"We had to fix it up some more last night," James explained as he pinned Remus to the ground, only to shriek when Remus reversed their positions and continued wrestling.
"How old are they again?" Rose asked.
"Way too old to he doing that," Marlene said. Rose noticed that she had a tight grip on Sirius' arm to keep him from joining in.
"They did this all the time at Hogwarts," Lily informed Rose. "In the middle of class, in the middle of dinner, in the middle of the common room."
"They look stupid," Rose said.
"No, we don't!" James and Remus said at the same time. James groaned and tapped the ground three times as Remus smirked proudly and stood up.
"I win," Remus said.
"Can I go see the house?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Oh...of course," Lily said with a small smile on her face. Harry nodded and gave Rose's hand a squeeze as he stood up. James and Lily started telling Harry all about their new house as they exited the Burrow to apparate away.
"What's up with you?" Sirius asked when he saw Rose pouting.
"It's my birthday and Christmas and Harry just leaves me," Rose complained.
"You guys share a common room. You see each other all the time," Remus reminded her. Rose just shrugged.
"Well, we're about to leave anyways, so it's fine," Marlene said as she stood up and started gathering all the dirty plates.
"Why? Where are we going?" Rose asked as she helped her mum.
"Well, we're gonna go give Neville a Christmas present once the kitchen is clean," Marlene said happily. Rose grinned and started rushing to clean the kitchen so that they could leave.
"You ready?" Sirius asked two minutes later when the kitchen was clean. Rose nodded happily and clenched her eyes shut as her father apparated them away.
"You good?" Remus asked when they landed in front of a modest sized house in the middle of a forest. A stream could be heard in the forest and multiple animals were moving around and frolicking in the yard. There was a large assortment of plants in the garden, making it clear that Neville lived there.
"Yep," Rose said. Marlene rubbed Rose's back as they made their way to the front door. They didn't even have to knock before Neville threw the front door open with a wide smile.
"Are you happy or something?" Rose teased.
"Happy birthday and Merry Christmas!" Neville said quickly. "Come meet my parents!"
"Be nice, Neville," Augusta Longbottom chastised as she went to the doorway.
"It's no problem. He's just excited," Sirius assured the woman.
"Would you like some tea?" Augusta asked as she let them enter the house.
"No, thank you," Remus said. Neville was practically bouncing as he grabbed Rose's wrist and guided her into the living room. Frank and Alice were sitting on the couch and staring at nothing. Everyone seemed to freeze for a second as they watched the two.
"Here goes nothing," Rose sighed as she sat on the floor and grabbed the cold hands of Frank and Alice. It took much longer than it did with her mum, but Rose was able to heal them with no problem.
"Mum?" Frank asked as he stood up. Rose started leaning back as she felt the exhaustion grab her. Sirius dived down and caught Rose right before she hit her head on the ground.
"Marlene? Remus? Is that you? What's happening?" Alice asked.
"Mum? Dad?" Neville whispered before tackling them in a hug.
"Oh, Frankie," Augusta sobbed as she joined the hug. Frank and Alice looked around in confusion and panic.
"That's nice," Rose yawned as she closed her eyes to sleep.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the ring
Also, I don't have any face claims for Alice and Frank because they're not going to be very important to the plot, but if you have suggestions let me know!
Also, I'm trying to include everyone as much as possible, but it can be hard. If there's anything you want to see for the plot and/or from a specific character, feel free to comment.