"We'll only be gone for a few hours," said Bill, letting a young, two year old Victoire run up to her Uncle Ron and hug his leg while Fleur handed Ron an infant, Dominique.
Ron never usually trusted himself with kids, but he was determined to spend time with his nieces, even if it killed him. Thankfully, he knew how to at least hold Dominique, and whenever Christmas came around, he saw Teddy and observed how Andromeda and Harry took care of him.
When Bill and Fleur left, Victoire immediately ran towards the back of the house where the garden was. Ron quickly set Dominique down on a blanket he had laid out on the floor earlier and followed Victoire.
"Where're you going?" said Ron, looking a little scared that Victoire was so fast. Victoire looked up at her uncle from under her long blonde hair.
"Dig!" she said, pointing at a patch of dirt that she was trying to displace. She picked up a rock and began scratching the patch of earth with it.
"You'll need a spade for that, Victoire," said Ron. Ron thought for a moment. Didn't he have a cheap plastic spade somewhere that could be safe for Victoire to use? He hurried to his shed to see if he had such an object.
Looking into the small space, he knocked over a couple tools to find the little bucket of plastic tools. These were normally used for digging sand at the beach, which Ron admittedly liked doing. Especially when he was helping to bury Harry, Hermione or one of his siblings in the sand with only their heads sticking out. It was a lot more fun than doing it with magic.
He closed his shed, not bothering to put the tools he knocked over upright again. Then, he went over to his niece and showed her the tool. "This is a spade."
"Spade?" she asked simply, analyzing the little garden tool as Ron handed it to her. "Dig?" she said, putting the two ideas together. She stabbed the earth with the plastic spade, and jerked it up, sending some dirt into the air and away from her. She let go of the tool and applauded. She continued digging.
"Stay there," said Ron awkwardly, hurrying back inside the house. He figured it would be a good time to start cooking dinner. It was almost six in the evening, and they were probably very hungry.
He flicked his wand towards the stove, and it lit to full heat as he also commanded a pot to fill with water. He tried to get the pot of water to sit on top of the burner, but it was already shaking and spilling water on the floor, so he set his wand down and helped the pot onto the stove by hand.
He got all of the ingredients for tea, and he mentally wondered what kind of food Victoire would eat while he also magically warmed the milk that Fleur had left for Dominique. Ron figured that since she lived with Fleur (who probably fed her only French dishes), she would at least like bread.
He also looked in his refrigerator and remembered that he had planned to serve steak that evening. He cursed himself for not leaving a reminder somewhere in the kitchen. He was very close to cooking something else!
When the milk was warmed up, he walked into the front room, ready to serve it to Dominique. He flinched. Where was she? She was on the blanket the last time I saw her! Fear stroke in his heart when he realized that he had lost Dominique.
"Dominique!" he said, looking behind the couch and under the tables. He heard a little squeak from behind him, and he looked up to see Dominique on the top shelf of his bookshelf (which held very few books).
"How'd you get up there?" said Ron, reaching his arms up for her. "Amazing, you can't walk, but you can get all the way up there. Muggle children must be very easy to babysit." Dominique yawned.
"I don't want to do this, but I think I'll have to put some enchantments on that blanket so I don't lose you again!" said Ron, thankful that she was safe. He set her back down on the blanket and cast a spell that made it so Dominique could only travel a metre away from the blanket.
He forgot that he was about to feed Dominique, but she seemed a little more sleepy than she seemed hungry.
He began cooking the steak in the oven, while he prepared the tea and made sure that his spell around Dominique was still working. When he felt confident with his spell, he walked outside, and didn't see Victoire. But this time, he knew exactly where she was.
"How did you dig that so fast?" Ron bellowed, seeing not Victoire, but a large hole where she used to be. He looked down into the hole to see Victoire nearly two metres underground. She looked up.
"'cle Won!" she cried happily, reaching her arms up for her uncle. Ron knew that it was two deep to reach her by hand.
"That's dangerous Victoire! What if this caved in on you when I wasn't here?" said Ron scoldingly. Victoire looked slightly reproachful. Ron took his wand out and levitated her out of the hole. "Be a little more careful, okay?"
Victoire nodded slowly and hurried across the yard to find another place to dig. Ron took the pile of dirt that was crushing the lawn and with his wand, moved it back into the deep hole.
About an hour later, he decided that dinner was about done. He called Victoire in, putting a cleaning charm on her clothing as she came inside. With dinner and tea prepared, he served her the food, along with oven toasted bread several minutes later.
Ron heard cries from the living room as he ate, so he stood up mid-meal and saw Dominique looking very hungry. Ron reheated the milk, slightly unnerved by Dominique's persistent cries.
"Finite Incantatem," said Ron, disabling the charm and scooping Dominique in his arms. He sat on the couch as he fed her with the bottle, and was surprised at how quiet it was. It was almost silent, if you didn't count the tinkling of silverware that was coming from the dining room and the gurgling of Dominique consuming the milk.
After about ten minutes, it was becoming too quiet when there were no more silverware noises in the dining room. Ron, with Dominique and her bottle still in his hands, walked in there, and he discovered that Victoire was no longer in the room.
"Victoire?" he said, looking around worriedly. He looked at her plate. Well at least she ate her dinner. He looked at his own plate. Wait… she ate my dinner too! What the-?
He felt liquid running down the arm that he held Dominique with. She had stopped drinking the milk and let some of it run out of her mouth.
Ron cringed and removed the bottle and set it on the counter. He heard the phone begin to ring. He hurried towards it, with Dominique still giggling in hand.
"Hello?"
"Hey Ron," said Hermione's voice. "I saw a nice restaurant and I'd thought you'd might like to go to it with me-"
"Thanks, but I'm a mum today."
"What?"
"I'm a mum today… I'm babysitting Victoire and Dominique. And… I sort of lost Victoire…"
"You lost Victoire?"
"It sounds a lot worse when you say it," said Ron, his stomach turning. "I'll call you back okay?" He said his goodbyes and put the phone down and put Dominique back on the blanket. He went outside again to make sure Victoire wasn't just digging another hole. He looked in the shed and down at all of the holes that Victoire dug with no luck.
He went back inside the house, and when he walked into the family room to search some more, Dominique was missing again!
"Oh no," said Ron, beginning to hypervenilate. "I lost both of them…"
It was the following hour of searching every corner of his home that was on the top twenty scariest thing that has ever happened to him, and he helped Harry defeat Voldemort for Merlin's sakes! Soon, he heard the doorbell ring, and his whole body lurched in fear.
He shamefully made his way downstairs, suddenly feeling itchy and a little tired too. He didn't want to have to search the entire neighbourhood and be looked down on by his brother, and later, his entire family.
He opened the door.
"Hello~!" said Fleur, "where are my leetle girls?"
"Well, actually…"
"Maman!" said Victoire, suddenly appearing from behind the couch. Ron's jaw dropped when he saw Dominique crawl out from under the blanket that Ron had laid out.
"Ooh, there zey are!" she said, holding Victoire in her arms as Bill motioned to pick up Dominique and her bottle. "Deed you two have fun? Say 'au revoir' to Ron!"
Victoire waved goodbye to her uncle.
"Wow, you did well taking care of them," said Bill. "Do you think you could take care of them next week on Thursday?" Victoire looked to Ron with pleading eyes. Ron didn't really want to lose either of them again, but maybe this time he could coax Harry or Hermione to come along next time, and maybe they could take partial blame if they lost one of the kids.
"Er- well, okay," said Ron, failing to resist his niece's pleading look. Victoire grinned.
"Merci!" said Fleur. "We'll see you at three zhen!"
They said their goodbyes and left Ron all alone again. Ron backed himself against the door and wretched. "What have I done?"
A/N: Which means, Ron is really afraid he'll accidentally lose one of his nieces. ^-^ People may say that Ron was an older brother of Ginny, so he should be used to this kind of stuff, but I think he was way too young to remember her being a baby.