Lily stormed into their shared flat with a frantic look on her face, her bright ginger hair looking as wild as the feelings she felt this instant.

"What is it?" Rose asked her, looking up from the computer she was furiously typing on, in the last stages of her new article for The Quibbler.

"Dad sent a letter in, it won't be much longer…"

"Mummy, you mean?" Rose's words were just about choked out, barely audible as the grief she was already feeling kicked in. Their mother had been sick for some months now, and quite honestly it felt like something deeply unacceptable for the likes of the formidable Hermione Granger. The woman was fierce, brave, a fortress, and the idea of cancer or illness never quite felt like they could have an effect on her… Until the diagnosis a year ago. Merlin, their mother was barely in her seventies! "I reckon this means we should go home then, be with her…" Lily watched as her older sister's eyes filled with tears, as she swallowed an incoming sob, breathing in so heavily that she trembled. "I-I've got to pick up Matilda from school…"

"You know what, start packing things, I'll go." Lily volunteered.

"You just came in…"

"And I can just as easily go out again, Ro." Rose sighed and nodded, wiping the few tears that had managed to escape her eyes. The 'thank you' was implied and Lily nodded in response, turning around to leave once more, the note that had been in her hands left abandoned on the wooden table by the door.

Rose examined it, a mere two lines of hastily written words in her father's subpar scrawl. They were perhaps the most devastating words she had ever read, more so than the ones in her divorce files of two years ago, more so than the echoes of sadness of Virginia Woolf or the poems of Woodsworth.

Nothing could be more devastating than her mother's death.

…

When they arrived at their parents' cottage in the outskirts of Cambridgeshire, spring was at its prettiest. The vibrant lilac of the wisteria vines contrasted against the stone walls and the white-painted window panes. The double front door was a bright sunshine yellow, Rose remembered how Lily had chosen the color when they first moved here from Yorkshire, when their mum officially became a faculty member of the University of Cambridge. Wild poppies, daisies and marigolds grew happily along the fields and between the grass. Then there was the large shady willow tree their father had lovingly planted, at the edge of a pond, also surrounded by flowers, and sitting under the shade of it on a comfy wicker chair was their mum, peacefully reading a book, while at that exact moment Harry came out of the house carrying a tray with her favorite porcelain teacups and the freshly-brewed pot.

It was like a scene from one of those romantic BBC country movies, where the characters are all beautiful and live in cosy, bucolic houses in this idyllic version of England. They were happy, had been happy for a long time, and this was what brought a pang to Rose's heart for that happiness was soon to end.

"Grandad!" Matilda, Rose's seven-year-old daughter exclaimed happily, as she ran past the wooden gate.

"Well, if it isn't Matilda of England!" She giggled at his title for her, inspired by a medieval English princess who dared to want to crown herself queen, albeit unsuccessfully. Really it was Harry's way at poking fun at the fact that Tillie's dad was as New Yorker as those came. "Darling, won't you fetch granny a blanket inside? There's one on the sofa…" Matilda nodded, waving at her grandmother who smiled at her from under the tree before running off.

Rose felt Lily squeeze her hand reassuringly, before they both crossed the gate together, unable to feel the same carefreeness that they alway allowed themselves when at home.

"Dad…" Lily called out.

"Hey, Tigerlily, come sit for tea." He motioned for them to follow them to the tree. Matilda arrived back with the blanket which the sisters stretched out on the grass for them to sit upon.

"Hello, mummy," Lily said, kissing her mother on the cheek before plopping down at her feet, resting her head on Hermione's knee. "Forgive Rose's speechlessness, you know she isn't good with emotions…" Hermione snickered, which turned into a full-force laugh.

"Mum, how can you laugh right now?" Rose finally asked, "and how can you make jokes?" she questioned her sister, her eyebrows knit together, her lips forming a scowl. "Can we please stop pretending for one minute and acknowledge that our mother is dying?"

"Rosalind!" Hermione admonished with her lips setting in a strict straight line. "For Merlin's sake I'd like a bit of peace and good cheer with my family, thank you very much." Rose's eyes met with her mother's, brimming with tears, her lips trembling as though she were five-years-old all over again.

"Mummy, I don't want to lose you!" She let out a sob only for Harry to wrap an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm in an attempt to soothe her. Rose was too much like Hermione. She was straightforward, painstakingly detail-oriented, focused and tremendously perfectionist, but she was also very sensitive and felt things all too deeply. Like Hermione, Rose was transparent, she didn't know how to hide her feelings.

"Harry Potter, what exactly did you write on that note?" Hermione asked him, all patience gone to bust.

"I said it wouldn't be much longer and for them to come home to say goodbye."

Hermione's eyes widened and she face-palmed herself shaking her head. "You idiot." Rose and Lily both looked at one another in confusion, and then back and forth between their parents.

"Now that I said it aloud I realize it wasn't the best wording."

"Harry, you bloody wanker!" Hermione cursed him, her hand still covering her face, until a huge smile broke out and she laughed until her whole face was red. "Merlin, you made them think I was on my deathbed… No wonder Rosie's so rotten today!"

Not understanding much of what was happening but finding her grandmother's laughter contagious, Matilda also laughed, and then Harry joined in and Rose and Lily both felt like complete idiots.

"What in the name of fucking Circe is going on here?" Lily cried out, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance. "Mother, are you not dying?"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed, "not anymore anyway. The healers said the cancer's gone away."

"So that pioneering treatment at St. Mungo's miraculously worked?" Hermione nodded her head and waved her hands flamboyantly.

"I asked your father to invite you all here to give you the official news, I found out yesterday after two weeks of endless exams."

"And that whole thing about saying goodbye?"

"Right, yes! Your mum's finally been cleared and because we're both retired we decided to finally buy that jeep we always dreamt of and go traveling." Harry explained, "in fact, the jeep's in the old horse barn as we speak. We wanted to say our goodbyes before we leave on Saturday because we're only due back in September for your mum's birthday and another set of check-ups she'll need to do."

Lily dead-panned for a moment before slapping her father's arm.

"I never thought I'd day this dad, but how on earth did someone as smart as mum end up with someone as mental as you? And here I was already thinking about different types of coffins and what bloody flowers she would like… And who exactly is going to drive this jeep? Mum can't drive through all of Europe alone and you can't start a car if your life depended on it!"

"You're both going to hell for this scare today." Rose threatened them with a shake of her head, "and before mum cheekily says that she doesn't believe in hell I'll have you both know that I'll be giving you hell. I'm going with you on this little trip of yours, Matilda and I both in fact." Hermione's smile faltered and her eyes met with Harry's look of utter mortification.

One Hermione was work enough, but having two wildly different and equally bossy Hermione's was the worst.

"In that case Lily should come too, that way she can separate any potential fights between the two of you." Harry motioned to his wife and their eldest, "Merlin knows I'm too old for this and I'm completely rubbish at reading muggle maps."

"Now honestly dad, how did you manage to even get decent grades in school if you can barely properly write?" Harry chuckled.

"Your mum helped of course!"

"Harry's a lazy arse, that's what he is. Couldn't even take the time to explain things properly on paper, had to write the two most idiotic lines ever…" Hermione muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Can someone please be so kind as to finally serve this blasted tea?"

"I'm glad you're cured, love." Harry looked at her with adoring eyes.

"What you should be is thankful, Potter, you're dead without me." Though her words were as snarky as they came, no one was blind to the sheer happiness on Hermione's face, or the tenderness for him in her gaze.

"Don't I know it!"

"Ugh, quit flirting you two, it's sickening!" Lily cried out with an expression of fake-disgust.

"Mummy, are all families like ours?" Matilda asked her mother with genuine curiosity. Her paternal grandparents back in New York weren't half this mental, or fun for that matter.

"Oh, probably not, love, hard to beat all this madness."