Ronald and Donald

Ron Weasley was sitting in his favourite armchair reading the Daily Prophet. His wife Hermione sat opposite him, engrossed in a book on transfiguration. Between them, on the floor sat their one year old son Donald; playing quietly with his toys. It was absolute bliss, until Ron woke up.

Ron's dreams of peace and quiet were interrupted by the cries of his son. Donald seemed to have decided that it was time to play, at two o'clock in the morning. Hermione stirred slightly.

"Your turn dear," she murmured sleepily. Ron forced himself from beneath the covers and slipped his dressing gown and slippers on. He shuffled into Donald's room to find the one year old standing up, clutching the bars of his cot for support and bawling his eyes out. His cries stopped as Ron picked him up.

"What's wrong with you young man? Why don't you want to sleep?" Donald responded by resting his head on his father's shoulder. Ron knew what this meant, it was Donald code for 'feed me'.

Once in the kitchen, Ron tapped Donald's bottle with his wand to make it fill up with milk. Another tap heated the milk up. Donald began patting the side of his fathers head playfully. This of course, meant 'hurry up'. After Donald finished his bottle, Ron began to rub the infant's back, eventually provoking a burp. For the next few hours Ron paced back and forth, trying to persuade Donald to go to sleep.

Hermione found her husband asleep in his armchair, her son nestled comfortably in his arms. She loved to see the two of them like this, the two most important people in her life so close, so peaceful. She woke Ron gently, being careful not to disturb Donald. The two lovers leant forward, sharing a good morning kiss.

Ron took Donald upstairs and put him back in his cot. When he came back downstairs he found that Hermione had conjured a quick breakfast and was packing her school bag, a piece of toast was firmly wedged in her mouth. He half sleepily, half playfully put his arms around Hermione and kissed her neck.

"Where you off to?"

"Hogwartsh," she took the toast from her mouth, "Hogwarts of course. My maternity leave expired just before the summer holiday's started."

"But the summer hols aren't over yet, are they?" Hermione turned around and kissed him.

"You really are spectacularly dim, that's why I love you. The teachers have a lot to do before the new school year starts, and that's in a week. I'll be in Hogwarts all day." Ron's eyes widened.

"But I've got work to do as well you know. I've got to do the books for the shop and order forms and ....well, stuff!"

"Well you don't have to actually go to the shop; I mean it's a Sunday."

"You want to leave me alone with the little un'?"

"Please Ron, that 'little un' is your son and he loves you to bits."

"Because he gets away with murder! I can't stay mad at the little guy, for all I know he may be using a Confundus charm on me." Hermione smiled.

"You shouldn't have any major problems. Please Ron, they're expecting me to help sort out the timetables for next year." She gave him a pleading look. Ron caved in like an avalanche. It was bad enough that his own son had him wrapped around his little finger, his wife could get him to do anything as well.

After Hermione left, Ron assumed that Donald would sleep for another few hours, so he settled down for his breakfast. After a couple of slices of toast with marmalade he settled down to get his work done. He had barely put quill to parchment when there came the distinct call of a baby in need of a nappy change. Ron was soon upstairs lifting his tiny son onto the changing mat.

"Alright, what nasty little surprises have you got for me today?" Donald started to giggle. He loved to watch the expressions of horror on his father's face, and Ron knew it. The details of the contents of Donald's nappy shall be spared, but the nappy changing charm Ron and Hermione had learned was a life saver. Ron put a clean nappy on Donald and got him dressed.

Hermione had left a jar of baby food out for when Donald woke up.

"And on the menu today we have an orange coloured mush!" said Ron after setting Donald down in his highchair. Breakfast with Donald was always a bit of a game, the aim of course was to get as much food as possible into Donald's mouth and not everywhere else.

"Here comes the broomstick! It's heading for the goal!" Ron made swooshing noises as he brought the spoon closer to Donald's mouth. The food ended up on Ron's face when Donald batted the spoon away playfully with his hand. Donald found this hilarious.

After Donald had finished his breakfast and Ron had finished cleaning up, he set his son down on the play mat. Hoping the toys would keep Donald occupied, Ron sat down at his desk and started checking order forms. He was trying to secure a shipment of Dungbombs in anticipation of the new school year. After about five minutes he heard ripping sounds coming from behind him. He turned to see that Donald had abandoned his toys and was ripping the pages from Hermione's text books instead.

"No Donald! Naughty boy!" said Ron sternly. After managing to recover the books and the pages he repaired them magically.

"Mabic!" cried Donald gleefully as he clapped his hands.

"Yeah, magic," muttered Ron, a smile replacing his frown, "its magic how you always get away with these things."

It was obvious that Ron wasn't going to get any work done so he spent the next few hours playing with his young son. To tell the truth Ron enjoyed it a lot more than going over order forms. Nowadays he had less time to spend with Donald, this was a golden opportunity. He went through Donald's walking exercise, holding him up then letting go slightly to try and get him walking on his own. Donald had begun saying basic words from a young age, but he had been having problems keeping his balance. His confidence had been growing more and more recently.

When Hermione came home that afternoon she found Ron in the same armchair he had been in that morning. This time he was awake and reading Donald a story. As soon as he saw his mother, Donald held out his arms to her.

"Muma! Muma!" he said happily. Hermione picked him up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"How was he today?"

"Oh, you know. As good as gold," sighed Ron.