Ron was waken up by screams, coming from Rose's bedroom,

He jumped out of the bed, grabbed his wand from the nightstand and ran towards her bedroom.

Ron slowly opened the door, lit his wand and saw Rose sitting in her bed, tears flowing down her cheeks. Her eyes were big, and it seemed, she had lost her ability to speak. "Rosie-darling? Is everything alright?"

She looked completely terrified, and half-asleep, so Ron automatically assumed she had had a nightmare. Ron went to her bed, and sat on it, hugging Rose gently. "schhh... Don't worry. It was just a dream..." He said in a soothing voice, which he hoped, would calm his daughter. Ron felt Rose literally trembling, so he looked at her little form.

She was holding a dragon, which he had given her for her 7th birthday, tightly.

Ron was worried, but thought it would probably be better, if he'd just put her to bed again. "Rosie? There is nothing to worry about, try to get some sleep now, darling." and he stood up from the bed and tried to tuck her in.

Rose started crying again. "Spiders! Noo! Get 'em out of here! Please!!!"

Ron was startled, but picked her daughter up from her bed. Rose clung to him as her life would depend on it. He left the room, and went to the kitchen. "Don't worry, there are no spiders here, Rosie."

Ronald waved his wand and a glass of milk appeared. "Rosie-darling, you have to let go of me now... I promise I wont let anyone do anything to you, ok?" He could feel Rose nodding against his neck, and he put her on a chair. Rose still looked frightened. Ron handed her a glass of milk, "Here you go darling"

Merlin, he wished Hermione'd been here. Something was obviously wrong with Rose.

"Rosie?" He asked in a soft voice. "What happened?"

Rose didn't answer for a long time, then whispered "Spiders...

They were everywhere. I could see them, I swear some of them were in my bed too, I could feel them..."

She looked really haunted, when saying it, that Ron didn't press the question anymore.

When Rose had finished her milk, Ron asked. "Do you want to sleep in our bed tonight, Rosie?"

Rose nodded and put her glass on the kitchen table. Ron picked her up quite easily, used his wand to turn off the lights and carried his little daughter to his and Hermione's bedroom.

"Here you go." he said, as he lowered Rose on the bed and tucked her in. Ron crawled under the sheets, put his arm around Rose and whispered, just before dosing off. "I'll protect you."

******************

When Hermione arrived home several hours later, in the early morning, she found her husband and daughter both sleeping soundly.

She coughed softly, to wake Ron.

Ron opened his eyes sleepily, and saw her wife standing in the doorway. He slowly got out of bed, careful not to wake Rose and followed Hermione to the kitchen.

"Hi." Ron said, before kissing her. Hermione chuckled softly "I take it that Rose didn't have any hallucinations yesterday then?"

Ron looked at her, shocked.

"What? Why didn't you tell me, she was having hallucinations?"

Hermione sighed. It was so typical of Ron. "I DID tell you Ronald, yesterday, when you came home from work. I told you

Rose was ill, and she is having hallucinations at nights, because of it. Honestly Ronald do you EVER listen?"

Ron only mumbled something about 'distracting me' and 'shouldn't be wearing that skirt at home'.