The Birth of Ronald Weasley

Molly Weasley awoke before her husband on a beautiful morning feeling angry at everyone and everything. She needed muffins, blueberry to be exact, but her muffing tin was nowhere to be seen. Her Magirise muffin mix would not work without the charmed baking tin. Everything in the kitchen cabinets was flying as she wildly waved her wand in search of the elusive muffin tin. Crash! A jar of olives dropped on the floor and was now laying in shattered pieces all over the floor. Molly sat down and put her face in her hands and started crying rather loudly. Arthur Weasley came down the stairs as quickly as is possible with a fussing toddler in his arms. "Molly, what's wrong?"

Molly looked up still sobbing, "I wanted blueberry muffins and I can't find the baking tin."

Arthur shook his head, "Um, Molly, you might not be aware of this, but it's 4 o'clock in the morning."

Molly shot him an angry look, "Well, I couldn't sleep."

Arthur looked at her tear streaked cheek, "Molly, dear, why are you crying?"

"My magic is all haywire. I dropped the jar of olives," she said and pointed to the mess on the floor."

Arthur picked up the wand lying on the table and with a swish the broken glass was gone. "There-there, Molly, you know that your magic will be just fine after you have the baby."

Molly sniffled, "I know. It's just so hard to do anything in this condition."

Arthur smiled, "You know you're beautiful when you're pregnant. Lets go back to bed, and when the bakeries open I'll go get you some blueberry muffins."

Molly took his hand and they went back upstairs and put a sleeping George back in bed. They went back to bed as well, but found something better to do than sleep for at least a little while.

Molly could not sleep no matter how much she needed to. Her midsection started some gentle flutters, and she smiled at them. Today would most likely bring an end to this pregnancy. Knowing he would be just a fireplace away, she let Arthur go to work without telling him.

By mid-afternoon the fluttery feelings deep within her midsection had finally become impossible for her to ignore. She was trying to decide if she would bother Arthur at work or not. After all, she well knew that the early phase of labor could last for many more hours than this. Then a contraction hit her so hard that she had to grab a hold of the coat rack to keep from falling. It was definitely time to waddle over to the fireplace and Floo Arthur. She threw the powder in and stuck her head through the flames.

"Misuse of Muggle Artifacts," she said clearly. Arthur was quietly sitting at his desk with his quill in hand studying a piece of parchment. Since he was oblivious to the presence of her head in the fireplace, she yelled loudly, "Arthur!"

He didn't even look up as he spoke, "Yes, Molly, dear?" He paused for a moment to quickly scratch out the final sentence on his parchment, "Are we out of ice cream again?"

"No, Arthur, Love, I'm in labor," she said with her usual calm cheer.

He replied in his calmest tone, "Right then. It's about time. What, is this almost three weeks past the due date now? I'll just take this report up to the Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee and come home. They'll have to come up with a good one. You won't believe-."

Molly suddenly lost her composure and spoke through heavy breaths. "You. Will. Come. Home. This. Instant!" Arthur dropped his quill, grabbed his jacket, charmed the report to take itself upstairs, and headed for the fireplace.

The Burrow was in quite a state when he arrived. Toys were strewn about the living room and dishes were piled up in the sink. Arthur set about doing the cleaning spells Molly had neglected. Within a few minutes, pots and pans were washing themselves and toys were flying upstairs to the children's bedrooms. Molly was nowhere to be seen. Arthur walked outside and saw her in the garden yelling at gnomes and having no luck convincing them that they weren't supposed to be digging up her potatoes.

"Alright, Molly, mustn't catch chill out here." Arthur shook his head and smiled as he watched her waddle into the house. He was thinking how cute she was with her belly, large and round. He noted, however, it was not as large as it was two years ago when she had the twins. They were both thankful for that small miracle.

Arthur paused in his thoughts as he took the time to steal another glance of his wife as she began to feel the onset of a contraction. He tried to speak a few words of comfort, "At least it's not twins." Molly looked up at him with wide eyes as she was still trying to cope with the pain. "Arthur Weasley, I think that is the most asinine comment you've ever made! I think you remember that one baby can be more painful than two."

Yes, he remembered well the birth of their first child. There was no excuse for his mistake, but he decided he would apologize once again. "Molly, I'm so sorry for that. I only wanted to make it easier for you."

She shot him an angry look. "You were far more worried about yourself than anyone else. The spell could have harmed the baby."

Arthur looked at her in disbelief. "Have you really spent all this time thinking I used a spell on my wife and baby that I had not researched? The book I read said that Profundus Quiesco is powerful enough to keep someone in severe pain fast asleep, but safe enough to use in an emergency in childbirth."

Molly glared at him again. "But there was no emergency. I was handling it quite well, just sitting in my rocking chair with my knitting on my lap. You didn't even know the side effects."

Arthur looked at her as if begging forgiveness. "Had I known that it would leave you disoriented and make your pain worse I wouldn't have done it."

Molly breathed heavily with her eyes shut. Arthur couldn't imagine what she must be going through. He reached out and pulled her towards him in a loving embrace. A tear streamed down her face as she said, "As much as this hurts, I wouldn't have it any other way."

Arthur said, "I love you so much. You have no idea how hard it is to see you in pain. At that time I thought if I put you under a sleeping spell you could avoid this terrible pain. I was wrong. I violated your trust by using magic on you without your consent. It was horrible to have you wake up screaming and not knowing that you were about to give birth. It's beyond my imagination what that must have been like for you. I felt helpless. There was nothing even a healer could do to counteract the spell's side effects. You were so out of it you punched and kicked me when I tried to hold you. My promise still stands. I will never interfere with the birth process ever again. I'll leave it up to you and nature.

Molly looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity there. "I forgive you. There's nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. I was angry for a while, but we finally made up."

Arthur smiled, "You were stubborn. It took well over a year for you to be my lover again. As I recall, that would be the night we conceived Charlie. " Molly laughed and gave him a big grin that said she remembered that night very well.

He turned on the old radio and as luck would have it, one of her favorite songs was playing. He bowed to her and asked his question without the apprehension he had the first time he had asked it, "May I have this dance?" Molly smiled and held out her hand. They danced until the song was over. He turned the radio off to avoid hearing the DJ talk about some new cream or ointment. Molly sat down in her rocking chair for a few minutes and decided that wouldn't do, so she got up and paced alongside her husband.

He suddenly noticed that the house was quiet. "Did you send the children to your brother's house?"

"Where else would they be?" Molly hissed as she grabbed the back of the couch for some stability while dealing with the increasing intensity of the contractions.

"Anywhere out of the line of fire," Arthur muttered under his breath. Molly was normally a bit temperamental, but labor magnified her temper to a dangerous degree.

Then Molly drew him near and buried her face in his shoulder. He hugged her and gently stroked her back. For now, she wanted him close. He knew it wouldn't last. She would lose her ability to handle herself in a civil manner and start lashing out at him with her magic. Luckily, he was prepared with his wand in his pocket within easy reach.

Molly suddenly pointed her wand at the pots and pans, which were now clean and hanging over the stove. She yelled "Waddiwasi" and all of them dutifully shot towards Arthur. He ducked as the pots and pans hit the wall and fell to the ground. Looking at the pile of pots and pans on the floor, he said "Hey there's your muffin tin!" He stood up and realized she wasn't listening to him. Molly was pointing her wand at his abdomen.

He tried to talk her out of it while trying to move out the way. "Molly, you really shouldn't-" She spoke the incantation, "Sentio Meus Poena." He didn't move fast enough and the blue light hit him. For several seconds nothing happened and he was sure whatever hex she had used went amiss. Once the next contraction hit he was proven wrong. She once again had her eyes closed and was holding her midsection tightly, but now so was Arthur.

He was yelling "Damn it" and many other expletives she'd never heard him use before. When the minute of torture ended she pointed her wand at him again and broke the hex that had given him the ability to truly feel her pain.

"Now you know how I feel," she said smugly.

Arthur could barely reply. "Bloody hell, that was painful. It felt like my whole midsection was in vice grip. I don't know if I will be losing my lunch or not."

Molly agreed with his description. "Yeah, and it gets even worse than this."

After barely three minutes had passed, she was having another contraction which held her even more tightly in its grip, and she once again pointed her wand at his abdomen.

Arthur pointed his wand at her hand and said, "Oh, no you don't! Expelliarmus! Accio wand!" She fell slightly back into her chair and her wand came flying at Arthur. He took it and put it in his pocket with his own saying, "Now that we've had our little fun and games, I think we can wait for our baby without going into a full fledged duel."

Without her wand Molly had limited hexing capacity, but still managed a few. Arthur's hair was shifting between its current deep shade of purple and the light shade of blue it had turned an hour ago. He had worn a pink dress earlier; however, he was now wearing his Un-hexable robe, no magic could transform its faded black hue. He had bought it because his toddlers, Fred and George, were making him late to work with their newfound magic. They were frequently changing his robes into horrible plaids or even making his robes disappear completely leaving him standing in his kitchen wearing only polka dot boxer shorts!

Day turned into night and Mrs. Weasley was still yelling at her tired husband. She was in considerable pain and quite tired, but still quite capable of speaking her mind. Tomorrow she would be apologizing to him, but for now she was mad at him. To hear her side of the story, he was the worst man on earth. He could understand why she would use every curse word in the English language during a contraction, but why she felt the need to hurl pointless insults at him between them was beyond him. "Arthur Weasley, did you tell your baby to face the wrong way just to make things harder for me?"

Mr. Weasley, who was usually the most calm and easygoing man you could ever hope to meet, was finally losing his patience. "Yes, Molly dear, whatever you say. Like I told the twins to turn upside down and be born bum first. Sure, I wanted an engorgement charm to make my stomach grow so big I couldn't even get my wand out of my pocket. I wanted my hand crushed."

Molly burst into tears. "I'm sorry. My back hurts so bad it feels like a knife being twisted into it. It hurts so much. I can't stand it."

Arthur looked at her apologetically and said, "I'm so sorry. I have no excuse to be harsh with you no matter what you say. I'll try rubbing your back. That seemed to help with the twin's birth."

His touch felt so heavenly she moaned in pleasure. He helped her through several contractions this way. Then she wanted her belly rubbed. He obliged happily. Suddenly, his touch was more annoying than fingers being dragged down a chalkboard. She pushed him away and yelled at him, "Go away and leave me alone."

Arthur knew it was best just to do what she said than to argue with her. He went into the kitchen listening carefully for her in case she might want or need him. She would be hungry when this was all over. He summoned a large pot from the living room floor, as well as some vegetables from the garden. He then started to make a hearty vegetable soup. He figured it was the least he could do for his wife. The soup was soon simmering with a flip of his wand.

He decided to make some chamomile tea in the hopes it would bring her a slight bit of calm. The teapot broke at her scream before it got anywhere near her. That was a sure sign the time was drawing near. Molly had finally stopped shouting obscenities at him, but he still approached warily. She was sitting on the floor on one of their children's beanbag chairs. He sat down beside her and took her hand in his. With his other hand he wiped her forehead with a washcloth. His thoughts overtook him as he smiled at his wife. The beauty of her letting her body completely take over was overwhelming. He knelt down, just in time, to see the tiniest tuft of ginger hair emerging.

This is a miracle. My wife is so strong. Even if I were a woman, I could never do this.

Molly kept pushing slowly and gently, enjoying the powerful, and sometimes pleasurable, sensations of giving birth. The newest member of their family was born into his father's outstretched hands. He placed the baby gently on her stomach and pulled a blanket over them. Molly took a long look at her new baby.

"The next boy's name on my list is Ronald. Somehow, it seems right for him."

Ron nursed heartily and fell asleep. As soon as mother and baby were in bed Arthur went to the fireplace to Floo his brother-in-law. Despite the late hour, nobody cared about being awakened for the good news. Two minutes later, all the rest of the children came running out of the fireplace and up the stairs to greet their new little brother.