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“Alright, Rosie, are you going to be good for Grandmum?” Hermione asked her daughter as they walked up the path to the Burrow.
“Yes, Mother. But why can’t I go Christmas shopping with you and Aunt Ginny?”
“Rose, we’ve been over this. This is Aunt Ginny and mine’s last weekend that we can go Christmas shopping, and you agreed to help Grandmum bake cookies for everyone. Unless you changed your mind about going with your Dad-”
“No, not that. I refuse to go play full contact snowboarding ball, no matter how much Dad and Uncle Harry tease me about it. I still don’t know why Lily loves it as much as she does.”
“Then you need to stay here with Grandmum then. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”
“Is that my Rosie I hear coming up the walk?”
“Grandmum!” Rose yelled, closing the distance between her and the back door in seconds.
Hermione smiled as the elder witch reached down and picked up the curly red-head.
“Molly, she’s getting a little big to be doing that. Are you sure you-”
“Oh hush. I’ve been picking up children for almost 40 years now, and I am still quite capable of – ow!”
Hermione rolled her eyes with a grin as Molly gingerly set Rose down, but she say anything.
“Well, no matter. I can still make cookies without any issue. Take all the time you need, dearie. This house always feels more like a home whenever I can get my grandkids to visit.” Molly noticed movement and looked over to the clock. “Ah, and it seems Ginny is right on time.”
There were many more hands on it than there used to be, but Molly never seemed to have a problem distinguishing them. Almost on cue, Ginny appeared behind Hermione at the Apparition point.
“Hermione! Perfect timing. Are you ready to go?”
Hermione smiled. “Almost.”
She strolled over to Rose and kissed her on the head. “Have fun with your Grandmum. We’ll be back soon. Bye, Molly!”
“Bye, Mother! Bye Aunt Ginny!”
“Get on out of here you two so we can start baking. Shoo!” Molly encouraged.
Ginny grinned and winked at Rose. “Come on Hermione, I can tell when we aren’t wanted. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve finish, Mum.”
Hermione waved one final time to Rose before grabbing Ginny’s hand and disappearing.
Molly turned to her granddaughter and held her hands.
“Finally. I didn’t think they would ever leave. Now, what should we bake first, Rosie?”
“Gingerbread Ghosts!” Rose yelled, jumping up and down before letting go of Molly’s hands. “When can we start?”
“Right now, dear. I already have all the ingredients ready. I figured you’d want to start there.”
“Well, come on Grandmum, come on!”
Molly laughed as Rose dragged her into the kitchen. In no time at all, Rose had mixed all the ingredients together in perfect order – well rehearsed movements from previous years visible as she moved through the family kitchen.
Rose may not be able to notice it, but it warmed Molly’s heart to see the young witch move. It was long dismissed by older book learned wizards, but there was a kind of magic this time of year that permeated the homes of many families, both muggle and magical. Debates had been over where the magic came from – Saturnalia, Christmas, Yule, Winter Solstice – but Molly didn’t care about any of that.
What mattered to her was seeing her granddaughter imbuing her own magic into the cookies.
“Am I doing this right, Grandmum?” Rose asked cautiously. “I know it’s supposed to be chilled for a while before we roll it out, but it seems like it’s already the right consistency.”
“If it feels right, keep going. You know this recipe as well as I do now, Rosie. If it feels like you should change something, do so.”
“But the recipe-” Rose insisted.
“The recipe is more of a starting point. You have mastered the basics, you know what the dough needs right now. If that means rolling it out now, roll it out now.”
Rose took a deep breath and released it as she reached for the rolling pin. Only Molly seemed to notice the frost crystals radiating from Rose’s fingers as well as in the air as she exhaled, or the fact that Rose unknowingly summoned the rolling pin instead of merely picking it up. 40 years of raising children, and it never failed to bring Molly to tears watching their magical talent develop.
“Am I doing something wrong, Grandmum? You look like you’re crying.”
“Nonsense, child,” Molly assured Rose with a steadying hand on the young witch’s shoulder before heading to the far side of the kitchen. “Keep rolling out the dough and I’ll collect the cookie cutters.”
“Are we going to use Uncle Fred’s this year? Is that why you were crying?”
Molly stopped in her tracks. She thought she had prepared herself for making Gingerbread this year, but the cookie cutters always seemed to bring back more memories than she expected.
It was an old magic - not often seen anymore - that could imbue raw memories almost like charms and some families, including the Prewetts, used special cutters designed after a family member's death in their likeness. Some once believed that it could actually reunite the family with those that had departed for as long as the magic lasts, while others believed it was the baker's memories - either first hand or through stories - that could put a bit of the personality they associated with the loss into the dough - either way creating a "ghost" of them. Molly knew it was probably closer to the later - no one could actually bring back the dead - but at Christmas people could believe many things they knew throughout the year were probably false.
Fred's - especially when her granddaughter would ask for it - was one of the hardest ones for her to have to face, as even mention of him tended to still cause much more bittersweet memories for her than for Rose, and as such Rose could always create a happier cookie in his memory than Molly could.
“Yes – I think this might be the year.”
“Do you still have Great Uncle Fabian and Gideon’s, too? They’re my favorites.”
Molly had to grab the counter to hold herself up. When she was able, she forced herself to reply.
“Yes, child, I still have my brothers’ cutters. Here,” Molly pulled out the three requested and sent them flying to where Rose was working. “You can go ahead and get started with those while I find the rest. I know Muriel’s is around here somewhere…”
“Are these supposed to start waving a bit at me before I get them on the cookie sheet?” Rose questioned a moment later as Molly headed over with the rest of the cutters. “I thought the magic showed up when they were baked in your oven?”
“They move when enough magic has been put into them. You must have been thinking extra hard about your uncles as you worked. I daresay at this rate it will take longer for their magic to run out this year.”
“That’s okay. It just means we will have more time to spend with them as a family before they turn into normal cookies. Won’t Uncle George be surprised!”
Smiling, Molly thought about this a moment. “Yes, dear, I think he will. Let’s put these in the oven so we can get started on the rest of our favorite cookies. Won’t be too much longer before your mother and Aunt Ginny return.”
“Okay. Then can we make Dad’s favorite fudge after this?”
Molly stared at the almost visible magical aura radiating from her granddaughter.
“Yes, child, we can make as many of the family’s favorites as we possibly can today. Now hurry up and toss the gingerbread in the oven while I pull the ingredients for fudge.”