Baby – 1/50 for the Friendship Bootcamp Challenge
To the one who wanted to be mentioned indirectly, hi.
Also written for week five of the 52 Weeks of Writing competition with the prompts: Breakdown, 'I'm sorry, did you seriously just doubt my awesomeness?', and spiralling.
Ron's grown-out hair flopped into his eyes as he hopped around the small room. The wailing in his ear was incessant and made him want to curl up and cry himself. The heavy feeling of tiredness made his head pound.
He rocked back and forth on his heels, wincing every time his weight fell on his right ankle. Auror training was serious business… but apparently so was babysitting, which is what had landed him that particular injury. He gritted his teeth and continued doing his strange gallop-hop-step-hop because it seemed to be effective.
The room, all pastel colours and bright designs, seemed to spin and spiral before him. He was sure that the walls were swirling and changing colours, and suspected that it wasn't a good sign. He was quickly approaching a mental breakdown, but couldn't allow himself to succumb to the fatigue until the baby quieted.
Soft music was playing in the background, or maybe it was him humming tunelessly, but it seemed to be calming for both Ron and the baby; good news. He forced his eyes open when he realized that it was possible to fall asleep standing upright.
"Shhh," he whispered, yawning afterwards. His heart nearly stopped when his arms relaxed so much as to nearly drop the baby.
The fireplace flashed a bright green, and then it spit Harry out and onto the carpet.
"Hey, mate," Harry said, the stale smell of vomit and tears not enough to unnerve him. "What are you up to?"
Ron, ears ringing because of the baby's cries, glared at Harry. "I'm babysitting," he managed.
Harry just grinned. "I know. I heard from Hermione and squeezed this location from her."
"What, come to poke fun?" Ron's anger flared, and suddenly he had the urge to shout louder than the baby. He was frustrated, tired to the bone, and—
Harry took the baby out of his hands.
"Give her back to me, Harry. I'm supposed to be taking care of—" Ron started to speak, but his words were cut off by a large yawn.
"I'm sorry, did you seriously just doubt my awesomeness? I'm going to take that as a challenge." Harry grinned and began rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, baby in his arms.
Ron's eyes watered with the effort of keeping them open, and he took a seat in the rocking chair that was in the corner of the room. He was paying attention to Harry, really… He yawned again.
Just as he was going to rest his eyes for a second, he noticed that there was silence in the room. What had happened?
The baby had quieted within seconds. Harry just smirked at Ron, who was goggling in shock.
"Oh Merlin," Ron breathed, completely in awe. "How did you do that? I've been going all day, and… and…"
Harry just shrugged and winked. "Magic."