Taking After

"Rose, wait a second, dear."

Rose Weasley struggled not to make a face as her mother called her back. She took a deep breath and, exchanging a glance with her younger brother, turned around.

"Do work hard this term," Hermione Weasley said, smoothing down Rose's collar. Rose, having developed with perfection the ability to stand still while her mother fussed over her, said nothing. "Don't let your Arithmancy marks slip; they were getting rather low last spring. I worry about you, darling. You're not getting distracted, are you?"

"No, Mum," Rose assured her. "I'm not getting distracted."

"You have O.W.L.s this year, remember. You'll have to put extra effort in," Hermione reminded her. Rose suppressed a sigh and forced as smile to her face.

"Yes, Mum."

Hermione tucked a stray strand of hair behind her daughter's ear. She scrutinized the lanky fifteen-year-old with a practiced eye for a long moment before pulling her close for a hug. Rose wrapped her arms around her mother and rolled her eyes fondly.

"I love you, Mum," she said with a sincere smile this time as she pulled back. Hermione swallowed and blinked rapidly for a moment before smiling as well.

"And I love you, Rose. Do well. Be careful. Stay out of trouble. Study hard. Don't forget to–"

"Mum," Hugo interrupted in exasperation. Rather than looking abashed for her excessive chiding, Hermione grabbed him and smothered him in a hug as well.

"Hermione, let the boy breathe," Ron said, looking alarmed when he noticed his son's face starting to turn purple. "It's not as though you'll never see them again; they'll be home for Christmas."

"Let me say goodbye to my children," Hermione snapped, planting a kiss on Hugo's cheek. Rose was proud of him for taking it all in stride, managing not to look the least bit embarrassed by their mother's behavior.

"It's fine, Dad," Hugo said with a wry grin. Over Hermione's head, Ron nodded at them both approvingly.

They went through this every September and every January when they said goodbye for the term. Rose and Hugo had learned long ago that it was easier on everyone if they just put up with their mother's mollycoddling and over-emotional displays; if they tried to resist it was only harder on their mother, which usually involved tears and more kisses and lectures than necessary.

Rose knew it wasn't because Hermione was naturally an overly emotional person – indeed, she was usually the least likely person to have an emotional crisis and normally the most level-headed one in the entire Weasley family – but she worried for them a lot. When she was younger, Rose thought it was just because being away from her children made her nervous. Now that she'd had four years of History of Magic and a few rounds of story-telling from her uncles, she knew it was because her mother remembered all too clearly the kinds of trouble she'd once gotten into at school and was terrified her children were going to find themselves in equally bizarre and life-threatening situations.

So, twice a year Rose patiently underwent public humiliation for her mother's peace of mind.

"Study hard," Hermione repeated, smoothing Hugo's mussed hair for the third time. He nodded agreeably, though Rose knew all too well how little time he actually put into his schoolwork. Not that she was much better. She was smart enough, sure, and she got her work done just fine, but she didn't spend hours slaving over it like she was sure her mother once had. She got it out of the way as quickly as possible, not caring much if it was the best possible quality as long as it was thorough and complete.

Hugo sometimes didn't do his schoolwork at all.

"Have some fun too, yeah?" Ron murmured, giving Rose a briefer, less bone-crushing hug. She grinned up at him, even going so far as to stand up on tip-toe and kiss his cheek. Ron's ears turned red, which amused his daughter to no end.

"Love you, Dad," she said, squeezing his hand. He squeezed back, smiling at her tenderly. Rose and Ron had always shared a special bond; in the last few years a lot of it had come from mutual exasperation with Hermione, but it was on a deeper level as well. They were both the quiet ones in the house, taking a back seat to Hermione and Hugo's more demanding and dominant personalities, and they'd grown closer still since Rose had started Hogwarts.

Even in looks, Rose took more after Ron than Hermione. She had her Mum's brown eyes, as did Hugo, and she'd inherited a mad mess of curly hair, but there the similarities ended. She didn't consider herself beautiful – she was too rugged, a little too boyish in figure, too used to getting dirty with the boys, hands a bit too calloused from playing Quidditch, hair a little too bushy, nose a little too long, and muscles much too lean to be considered beautiful in a feminine way. But she was alright with that. She had long ago come to terms with the fact that she'd never be traditionally beautiful like Auntie Fleur or Aunt Ginny.

Hugo took more after Hermione with his darker hair – still red, but with more of a brown tinge – his high cheekbones and small nose. He was quite attractive really, Rose supposed; she'd heard a few of the girls in his year muttering about him once or twice, and over the summer he had grown rather a lot.

Maybe that was the reason Rose put up with her mother's cossetting. She'd often wondered if she wasn't a disappointment to Hermione. Surely the woman had expected a daughter more like herself – bookish, brainy, opinionated, strong. Rose was smart, sure, but she was as far from bookish as her cousin James was. She'd much rather be out playing Quidditch than reading a textbook, and as far as opinionated went, she preferred to go with the flow. Far be it from her to create waves where they weren't needed.

So, because she hated to disappoint her mother in yet another way, Rose smiled and agreed – again – to work harder at Arithmancy (which she'd be dropping the minute O.W.L.s were finished) and to keep out of trouble.

Ron smiled at both of his children sympathetically as Hermione managed to fit in one last lecture.

"Don't go wandering about after hours. Follow the rules. I don't any more letters saying you've been in detention either," she added, mostly to Hugo, whose eyes widened innocently. Rose hid a smirk; he wasn't fooling anybody.

The whistle blew then, and Ron and Hermione stepped back and let their children clamor onto the train yet again. Hermione clutched Ron's hand.

"They'll be fine, Hermione. They always are," he assured her.

"I know, I know," she said. "I'm being silly."

"Just a bit," he murmured, not unkindly. She shot him a glare.

"We almost got ourselves killed more times than I can count when we were their ages. Do you remember how our fifth year went, Ronald?"

Ron grimaced. She only called him Ronald when she was annoyed with him. "All too well," he conceded.

"Exactly. Chasing after a man in a dream on flying horses we couldn't even see, breaking into the Department of Mysteries, battling Death Eaters, smashing priceless possessions of the Ministry of Magic…it was madness!"

"It was bloody fun though, wasn't it?" he asked, unable to completely hide a grin. He always relished memories of the adventures he and Harry and Hermione had had. They were times that would probably never come again – and good thing too, he knew – and he enjoyed remembering just how incredibly foolish and rash they'd been back then.

"No!" Hermione answered shrilly, ripping her hand out of his and crossing her arms. "It certainly was not fun. You were nearly sent to St. Mungo's Spell Damage ward, I got hit with nastiest curse I'd ever encountered, Harry nearly got himself killed, Sirius did get killed, Neville broke his nose, the entire Order of the Phoenix had to come save our stupid hides…"

"Relax, Hermione," Ron said gently, taking her hands in his again. "None of that is going to happen to Rose and Hugo. Hogwarts is downright boring now compared to when we went there. No crazy Umbridges–" Hermione made a very unpleasant sound at the mention of their former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor "–no more Death Eaters, no more prophecies, no more Voldemort. They're safe."

Hermione huffed. They went through this every year: Hermione would dredge up old memories, usually involving all the ways they'd almost lost their lives while at Hogwarts, and Ron would comfort her, reminding her that those times were far, far behind them, and nothing was going to harm their children.

She knew it was illogical. She always felt foolish later for behaving so irrationally. Ron was right. Nothing was going to happen to Rose and Hugo.

-o-

"She's off her rocker, that woman," Hugo complained.

"She worries about us," Rose defended. "She and Dad went through hell when they went to school; she just wants us to stay safe."

"She's nutters if she thinks we're going to go chasing after dark wizards and run around dueling and stuff like they did. I don't even like scavenger hunts; I'm not about to go off following clues for some doomed adventure," Hugo muttered.

Rose grinned at her brother and ruffled his hair before heading off in search of her friends. After sticking his tongue out at her – "Very mature." – Hugo set off to find Lily and their group of mutual friends as well.

Rose shook her head. She and her brother would never quite understand each other, just as their parents would never entirely comprehend one another. They were too different. But in the end, Rose knew it didn't matter which parent she took after most or which parent Hugo took after. It didn't matter that she and her mother never saw eye to eye, or that she and Hugo had the silliest arguments known to man. They loved each other, and that was all that really mattered.

Wow, it's been awhile since I updated this, hasn't it? Well, here you are. I've gotten a few requests for Rose, and I've been trying to figure out her personality for awhile. I've written countless different snippets of her interactions with other characters, and none of them were quite satisfactory for me. She was either too abrasive, too whiny, or just plain too mean, and I didn't think that would work at all. I quite like this version of her, and it seems far more likely to me than to have her as a mini Hermione.

Anyway, please review. Review if you hated it if that's the case. Reviews are welcome in all forms. Please and thank you.

Always,
Megan