Arabella got to meet her late grandparents. Well, their gravestones, actually. Harry brought her and Hermione to the cemetery to see their tombstones. Strangely enough, baby Arabella knew exactly who they were. Her Daddy had bought a bouquet of lilies for his mother and a wreath made of wooden sticks for his father. Hermione, who was holding Arabella, gave her to Harry so that she could kneel down and say a few words to them. Harry stood back and gave her some space.
"Hey, my name is Hermione Granger. I live in your house now, with Harry. He's my best friend. I also gave birth to your granddaughter, Arabella. I just wanted to say thank you for giving up your lives to save your son. I know that sounds horrible, but if you didn't, I would never have met the most amazing, caring person in the world, at least to me. I would never have had a best friend. I would never have Arabella." She wiped a tear from her eye and sniffed softly. "And I never would have fell in love." She said this last part almost inaudibly, so that Harry could not hear. And he didn't. Just the way she wanted it to be. "Thank you again." She stood up and walked over to her best friend and daughter. She smiled and he asked, "You okay?" She nodded and smiled. They headed for home.
Arabella saw her mother's tears. It made her sad to see her Mummy crying. She reached over for her. Hermione took her and held her on her left hip. The baby girl looked into her mother's eyes and with a small, tiny thumb, she brushed the tears away. Harry watched this with a heavy heart. Hermione stared at her daughter. How could she know? Arabella just smiled at her, trying to cheer her up. It worked, Hermione smiled back. Harry opened the big gate for them. They walked through and he shut it, locking it behind him.
Arabella was now almost six months old and was getting bigger. Hermione would exercise her legs a lot to get them movement and so she could start learning to stand up by herself. Hermione knew she was too young for that, but she seemed to know what she was supposed to do on her own. Arabella had grabbed onto the coffee table in the living room a few times before, but could never pull herself up.
It wasn't until Hermione had put a bottle of formula on the table to get it out of Arabella's way, did it happen. Arabella was on a mission. A mission to get her bottle. She saw it. There. Right there on the coffee table. Her mother had turned away to tidy things up a bit. She looked at her and then back to the bottle. Then she grabbed onto the coffee table and pulled herself up onto her feet. Holding the table with one hand, she reached out with her other to grab the bottle and thump! She fell back down on her back and bottom, her diaper cushioning her fall. She grunted loudly and Hermione whipped around, her motherly instincts taking over, as she thought something bad had happened to her. When she saw her daughter grinning, lying on the floor with the bottle in her hand, she sighed with relief. But then, she gasped.
"Arabella, did you just grab that bottle off of the coffee table?" she asked her. "I could've sworn I put it out of your reach." Arabella raised the nipple to her mouth and began sipping on the bottle, smiling mischieviously at her Mummy and kicking her feet innocently. Hermione noticed this. "Arabella, did you pull yourself up?"
Arabella giggled, causing a little bit of formula to come out of her mouth. Hermione wiped it off with a spit-up rag she had lying on the coffee table. Arabella still stared at Hermione, who was shocked. "Arabella, can you do it again?" The baby girl took two more sips and pulled the nipple out of her mouth and sighed cutely. She put the bottle to the side and used her hands to sit up. Then she took her hands and grabbed the side of the table. She used her legs and arms to pulled herself up to a standing position. She looked at her Mummy. Hermione widened her eyes and her jaw dropped. "HARRY! COME SEE THIS!" she yelled startling Arabella a bit. "Sorry, angel," she apologized.
Harry came bounding down the stairs and he rushed into the living room. "What? What's wrong?"
"Look at you daughter," Hermione smiled.
He did and exclaimed, "Arabella, you're standing up!" He sat down next to Hermione.
"She's too young to be doing this, Harry! She's only six months old. Not even. Ordinary babies usually start standing up on their own at about eight to ten months," Hermione cried incredulously.
Harry looked at her. "Well, Arabella's not like ordinary babies, Hermione. She's magical."
"Yeah, but even magical babies start standing up at eight to ten months. You're right. She's not ordinary, Harry." She looked at her daughter. "She's extraordinary." She smiled at her. Arabella looked back at her with a smile of her own, and then she plopped down on her bottom.
"Oops," Harry said as she fell.
Arabella looked at him, unsure of what to do. "It's okay, Arabella. You're fine. Anytime you fall, just get back up," he said. She seemed to know what he was talking about and she reached back up and grabbed onto the side of the table again; she pulled herself up with no effort this time and they clapped. Hermione kissed her cheek. "I'm so proud of you, sweetheart."
"Good work, Arabella," Harry agreed.
The not-quite-yet-six-month-old plopped back down on the floor and reached for her bottle. She put it back in her mouth and finished it off.
She still had that feeling of her purpose in the world. What was she to do? She knew it wasn't to drink formula for the rest of her life, even though it was good, but not as good as Mummy's breastmilk, that was for sure. Maybe it was something bigger than that. Something with meaning. She always questioned this. Was she supposed to collect all of the books in the world, like Mummy wanted to do? Maybe not. It did have meaning though. Books meant a lot to Mummy. She knew it would make Mummy happy if she could collect all of the books in the world for her. Just for Mummy! When she smiled at her, she never wanted it to leave her face. She figured if she could do that for her mother, she would always be smiling. That could have been her purpose for being born. To keep a smile on everyone's face. Keep them happy and never sad. Laughter made Daddy happy. She could tell. Everytime Mummy would laugh, Daddy would smile and laugh with her. It was like a chain reaction. If Mummy was smiling, then Daddy was smiling, as well. And if they both were smiling, so was she.
Mummy was planning something. She always had a paper and feather in her hand and scribbling away. Arabella was always curious as to what it was. One day, she pulled herself up against the couch and looked at what her mother was doing. She saw black writings, but had no clue what they meant. She looked at her confused. Mummy stopped writing and looked at her. "Hey, sweetheart, what are you doing?" Arabella just looked at the parchment and back at her. "Oh, it's something for Daddy's birthday. It's coming up soon. Shh," she put her finger on her lips as if telling her to keep quiet. The baby girl just smiled, silently telling her she wouldn't tell a soul. How could she? She didn't know how to talk!
Arabella loved to pull herself up. The only problem was: she didn't know how to get somewhere to pull herself up. She watched how Mummy and Daddy walked and moved their legs. She sat down on her bottom and moved her legs out and looked at them. She was supposed to do something with them, but what? She would study curiously, with a furrow in her eyebrow, like Mummy had, and watch them stand, walk, sit, run, kneel, and dance. She was studying how to be a person. A human. A...part of the family.
So, she would just sit there and stare at her legs, trying to figure out how to work them. She already mastered standing up. Now, to master at something to do with the knees. She watched Mummy and Daddy kneel down on their hands and knees and look for a toy that had fallen under the couch. She gazed at how they would move back and forth, trying to get it out. It looked easy enough.
She put herself on her stomach and then on her hands and knees. "Did you get it, Harry?" Mummy asked.
"No, not yet," he said with a grunt. He then crawled over to the other side to see if he could reach it. She watched him crawl all over the place, until Mummy gasped and said, "Oh, my God! We're stupid!"
"Why?" asked Daddy.
"Look," she grabbed her wand and waved it saying, "Accio toy!" The stuffed bunny rabbit came shooting out from under the couch and into her hands. Harry smiled and shook his head. "All that work..." They chuckled and turned to Arabella and saw what she was doing. They crawled over to her.
She began rocking back and forth, trying to imitate them. But not quite getting at it. "Arabella, what are you doing now?" Mummy asked. "Are you trying to crawl?" She looked up at Mummy. So that's what it's called. Crawling.
She stared down at her legs, trying to get them to move. How do I move you? she thought to herself. She watched as Mummy and Daddy came closer and how they would lean on their other side to lift their other leg up. And so on with the other side. She looked back down at her legs again and slowly, but surely, she began to move them. One and then the other. When she got her second leg forward, she looked up at her parents. Am I doing this right? she wanted to ask them. They said, "Come on, Arabella, you're doing it," Daddy said.
Arabella continued to move her legs, one in front of the other until she reached them. Mummy picked her up into her arms and hugged her tight. "Oh, Arabella, that was amazing!" She kissed the side of her head. Harry tickled her side, making her giggle. "Good job, princess." He kissed her forehead.
Arabella was happy her parents were proud of her. She could tell something was wrong because they would stare at her when she would do something new, like she doing something wrong. But then they would be proud of her. Was she doing something wrong? Why were they so shocked?
Mummy was getting anxious. Arabella could tell that from her emotions waving off of her. She was nervous about something. It was something about a "birthday". Was it Daddy's birthday, as she had told her a few days ago? So it was. Arabella always felt as if Mummy could tell her anything. She would listen to her and not judge her, because she wasn't sure what that word meant. Arabella loved to listen to Mummy's soothing voice. It filled her with happiness when she heard it, just like when she was in her tummy.
Harry's birthday eventually came and they had a small party. The Grangers, Remus, Tonks, Sirius, Neville, and Luna were the only ones invited. Everyone was pawing over Arabella and how she was already crawling. Harry didn't mind that they weren't paying attention to him. He could barely pay attention to himself. He was so wrapped up in his daughter. She was so intriguing. Hermione had Kit bake a cake for him. It was a plain, white cake with chocolate frosting, just the way he liked it. Hermione let Arabella have a taste of the frosting from her finger, which she loved. She moaned when she tasted it.
Hermione eventually stopped stressing over what to get Harry for his birthday. He smiled widely when he opened it. It was a frame with the picture of the three of them. The frame was silver and had his name engraved on the left side, where he was; Hermione's name on the right side, where she was; and Arabella's name was on the bottom, where she was in the middle. At the top it had "POTTER-GRANGER" engraved. He looked at her and hugged her tightly, kissing her on the side of the head. "Thank you."
Harry showed the photo to Arabella. "Look, princess, there's Daddy, and Mummy, and you." Arabella looked at the photo and pointed to herself in the picture and then to herself, as if saying, "That's me!" She smiled at the picture.
"Yeah, that's you, Arabella!" he chuckled at the seven-month-old.
Harry thought Arabella was becoming more and more like Hermione everyday, but with a few of his mannerisms. He saw the furrowing of her brow was a trait passed down from Hermione. The books. The love of their cat, Crookshanks. She was very quiet a lot. He wondered if she was thinking too much she didn't have time to make noises. That was all Hermione. However, he noticed that she would hide a lot, like he used to when he was living with the Durselys. He, however, did it to escape his cousin from pounding on him. Arabella did it to play. She was quite fast at crawling, just like him and running. She got his athleticism and speed.
"Quidditch player?" he hinted to Hermione when they saw her speed.
She just rolled her eyes and playfully pushed him.
His daughter also inherited the Marauder traits, much to Hermione's disappointment. She played small tricks on her parents. Not bad ones that made them have a heart attack. Rather, ones such as crawling away from them when they weren't looking and going around to their other side, so they're looking for her on the other side frantically. She usually gave in and giggled and they turned to find her giggling her head off. Another one would be when she magically levitated things out of their reach on accident and yet, on purpose. The levitating magically was the accident part. The getting things out of their reach was on purpose. They wouldn't yell at her though. They would scold a little, but never yell. Yelling never solved problems.
Hermione was so not happy with her tricks, but she saw that she did it out of pure humor and did not mean any harm and she always did what she was supposed to do. It was like there was a part of herself locked up in the Marauder trait that was screaming to come out. Because after she would do something "bad", and she got scolded, she would feel horrible. That was all Hermione in there.
A month later, it was August, and Arabella was almost eight months old, and it was almost time to go back to Hogwarts. All three of them were in Arabella's playroom. The parents had decided to put that room together since she was getting older now. Hermione's parents had went all out on getting toys for her. Since they couldn't get candy for her because they were dentists, they felt the only alternative was toys. She had stuffed animals, learning toys, toys that played music, toys that sang to music, toys that counted, toys of all colors, toys, toys, toys! Arabella felt as if she was in heaven with all of the toys.
They had even given her a giant teddy bear, which Harry and Hermione put in a corner of the room. Arabella ran-crawled up to it and hugged it tight, loving the feel of the fur. They were afraid she was going to be frightened of it. But they saw her reaction. She was playing with the "enemy". They knew that she had Harry's bravery, as well, which Hermione's was so happy about.
"Aww, Arabella," Hermione cried as she saw her daughter hug the bear. "Do you like the big teddy bear?" she asked her. Arabella looked at her and Hermione knew she liked it.
Harry decided to be playful, so he got on the floor and rolled over to Arabella and the bear. She giggled at him and when he stopped rolling, she crawled over to him and threw herself on top of his chest, trying to tickle him. "No! Mummy, help!" Hermione just laughed and stayed where she was. Arabella picked herself up onto her feet and lifted her foot up and tripped and fell. Harry and Hermione stopped suddenly. The floor was carpet, so there was no way she could have hurt herself badly. She began to shake and cry a little. Hermione rushed to her and held her against her. "Hey, you're okay, it was just a trip. You're fine."
Arabella lifted her head, all better now. She wiggled out of her mother's grasp. Hermione set her on the floor and shook her head. But then, Arabella went over to the big bear again and both parents watched her, knowing somehow it was coming. She arrived to the big bear and pulled herself up on her feet. "Harry, go-" Hermione didn't finish. He knew what she wanted. He rushed to her and held her tiny hands in his fingers. She took a step forward, then another step, then another. Another. Another. Harry let go of her hands and she walked a half a foot before she fell down.
Harry and Hermione were wondering how in the world could she know how to do this.
Arabella had finally mastered standing and crawling, now it was time for walking. She had used the big, cuddly animal bear as leverage to get up. She watched her Daddy run to her and gazed at his legs, knowing that this was her time to start walking. Daddy grabbed her hands and slipped his first finger in her tiny hands and helped her walk. She lifted her first foot and slapped it down onto the ground. She smiled and then did the same with the other. Another Another. Another. Another. She almost got scared when Daddy took his hands away and she was on her own, but then she saw Mummy and walked to her. She was almost to her when she fell. She wanted to stop, but then remebered what Daddy said when she started standing up, "Anytime you fall, just get back up." She stood up again and began to finish the last two feet to Mummy's arms. "Yay!" Mummy held her tight and hugged her. Daddy came up next to her. He was just as proud as he was when she started standing up. It was amazing.
Was this her purpose? To make her parents proud of her? Maybe that's what it was.
It was time to go back to Hogwarts. Remus and Tonks were on a holiday before they had to go back to their positions as aurors, so the Grangers came to pick them up. They were excited and shocked to see their granddaughter to be walking and running to their arms, giggling. Hermione and Harry came running after her, laughing as well. Charlotte lifted her granddaughter in her arms. "Hey, sweetheart, you're walking now!" She kissed her cheek and looked at her daughter. "How is this possible?"
They shrugged. "We don't know."
"This isn't ordinary," Charlotte said.
"We know. It's extraordinary. She's extraordinary!" Hermione exclaimed.
They said goodbye to Hermione's parents when they went through the barrier. When they walked right past the engine, the "five-minute-warning" whistle blew, scaring Arabella and causing her to bury her head in her mother's shoulder. Harry brought their luggage to the stationmaster and they boarded the train, many people looking at them, but smiling at Arabella.
Once they got toward the back, they found Neville and Luna in a compartment talking. They opened it and asked them, "Hey, can we sit with you two?"
"Sure!" Luna stood and hugged Hermione tightly, careful not to squish Arabella, who hugged Luna as well. Neville stood as well and hugged Hermione and Arabella, and shook Harry's hand.
"She's gotten big since we saw her in July," Neville said referring to Arabella.
"That and more. Watch," Harry sat down on the opposite side of Neville and Luna, next to Hermione, who set her daughter on the floor. "Walk, Arabella." The eight month old walked to the compartment door and back, wobbling a little, but was fine. Hermione picked her up and set her in her lap.
"Whoa!" they cried shocked at seeing an eight month old walk.
"I know! She decided when she wanted to walk. Not us!" Harry told them.
Arabella leaned back on her Mummy's chest and rested her against her breast, closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep.
Arabella didn't want to leave her home. She was safe and content there. At least Mummy and Daddy would be with her at Hogwarts. She guessed the reason she felt safe at her home was because she was with her parents. So if she went anywhere with them, she'd still feel safe.
Maybe her purpose was to follow them no matter what happened. Maybe she was to make sure they were okay. Maybe. Just maybe. How was she to know what her purpose in life was? Her toy Etch a Sketch didn't spell it out for her. No one told her.
As she sat on Mummy's lap, she thought about her dreams. Her dreams of being content and happy in a field of sunflowers with Mummy and Daddy and not having a care in the world. Her dreams of Mummy and Daddy acting like Uncle Neville and Aunt Luna. Her dreams of her perfect world with no worry. She opened her eyes, reached out and grabbed Mummy's left hand. And then the other. She placed Mummy's hands and put them around her waist, holding her. Warm. Safe.
Safe. In my arms. Safe in Mummy's arms. Like the lullaby she sang to her almost every night. Her lullaby. She was safe now. Daddy was keeping everyone safe. He was closest to the door. He wouldn't let anything happen to Uncle Neville, Aunt Luna, Mummy, or herself.
Maybe she was here to keep them safe. Her parents. When she was still in Mummy's tummy and the bad men had hurt, she tried to shield her. But her magic was underdeveloped and not strong. But what was she keeping Daddy safe from? Why was he scared? She didn't like them to be scared. It scared her. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep slumber.
Feeling safe.