The Wrong Time

Josiah

Hermione was jolted awake by the smell of Firewhisky on the back of her neck. Ron had finally made it home. She kept still, hoping he would think she had stayed asleep. She didn’t feel like listening to any lies. She glanced at the clock. 7:15am. Well this was a new record. She lay still, waiting to hear his deep, even breaths, letting her know he was asleep before she crept silently out of bed.


He had never stayed gone all night before. She daren’t ask him where he had been. After all, she knew the true answer, not the lie he would try to feed her. She decided to go ahead and fix Josiah’s breakfast. She knew he would wake soon, and she wanted to give herself something to keep busy with.


She had a vat of polyjuice simmering in the basement, it would be complete today, and she needed to bottle and label it. She had it timed so that it would be ready when Josiah took his afternoon nap.


She placed two little sausage links and a fried egg on a little plate. She put the plate on Josiah’s little table, and washed the dishes while the food cooled. While she was drying her hands, Josiah toddled into the kitchen, rubbing his amber eyes.


He was the only of their three children to look nothing like his father. Rose had the standard Weasley hair, as did Hugo, and Rose had blue eyes like her father, while Hugo had his mother’s Amber ones. Little Josiah had a mop of brown curls on his tiny head, and deep amber colored eyes.


“Mummy!” he said excitedly when he saw her.


“Hello, baby boy,” Hermione said, bending down to hug her son tightly.


“I hungwy, Mummy,” he said sleepily.


“Well your breakfast is on your table,” she told him.


He grinned up at her before taking a seat on the miniature chair.


Hermione went down the hall to his bedroom and made his tiny bed, then pulled some miniature baby blue robes and a fresh nappy out of his wardrobe. She smiled at the stuffed dragon on the floor beside his bed. Josiah would not sleep without that dragon, which, after a few visits from Hagrid, had been lovingly dubbed “Norby”. She placed the dragon back on the bed, and walked back down the hall to the kitchen.


“Miwk, Mummy, pwease,” Josiah said in his sweet voice between bites of egg.


“Of course, Pumpkin,” Hermione said, placing the robes and nappy on the back of the sofa.


She went into the kitchen and filled his cup with some milk.


“Fank you, Mummy,” He said sweetly as she handed him the cup.


“Your welcome, my darling,” Hermione replied, touched by how polite her youngest child was.


She sat down on the sofa and waited for him to finish his breakfast before she wiped his hands and face with a wet cloth, and changed his nappy.


“We are going to have to teach you how to use a toilet, Mr.,” She commented as she snapped the front of his robes.


Josiah nodded sweetly as his mother put shoes on his feet.


“Do you want to go to the playground, Josiah?” she asked him.


He nodded enthusiastically, and Hermione placed a kiss on his rosy cheek.


“Well, Mummy needs to take a shower first. I’m going to put you in your bedroom, will you play like a good boy for Mummy?” Hermione asked him.


“Yes,” he said.


She led him to his bedroom and conjured a baby gate to place over his door. She did not want to close him in his room completely but she wanted to make sure he would be safe while she showered.


She crept down the hall and closed the bathroom door behind her. There was a bathroom in her bedroom, but she did not want to wake Ron. She summoned some clean robes and knickers and stepped under the hot spray. She thought about her latest project.


She was attempting to brew a potion that, if used early enough, could prevent lycanthropy. It was a tribute to Remus Lupin. She was hoping to create a potion that if administered within twenty-four hours of being bitten would render the saliva useless. Any later than that, and the saliva would have spread too far, making it incurable.


She knew it was a major breakthrough, but she was struggling with it. If only Severus were still alive. She was sure he would be able to help her perfect it. She resolved to go to Minerva the following afternoon and ask her if she knew anyone who might be skilled enough to assist her.


A/N: I hope any who are reading are enjoying. Please review.