Ron tells Hugo about the time he threw up slugs for Hermione. "Because we do very dumb things for the women we love."
Ron had absolutely nothing against Muggles—except their public education system. After he ended the phone call with Hugo's fourth grade teacher, he sighed an exhausted sigh, which could've been the result of any number of things, such as the fact that he had missed Rose's fifth ballet recital, or that he had not been home for bedtime in a few weeks, or that his son's teacher had called him at his job and told him that he needed to come to the school immediately.
Hugo, his sweet eight year old, had bloodied a kid's nose. And then some.
After packing up his brief case and stowing his wand away in his pocket, Ron prepared to Apparate to Hugo and Rose's school.
Ron tapped on the Headmistress' door and without waiting for a response, he entered. Sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the headmistress' desk and looking extraordinarily guilty was Hugo, his red hair tousled and his white school shirt stained with blood. Ron's eyebrows raised at the blood stain, but he said nothing.
With a very affronted glare on her face, Mrs. Appleby, the head of the school, sat at her desk, hands folded. "Ah, Mr. Weasley, thank you for joining us," She spoke in a falsely cheery voice and extended her hand for Ron to shake. "I believe that it is important for parents to be involved in matters such as these."
Still glaring at his son, Ron gingerly shook the elderly lady's hand and nodded. "Of course," He agreed in a forced tone of politeness. "What's the problem?"
"The problem? The problem is that your son is covered in someone else's blood," Mrs. Appleby countered quickly and sassily. Her eyes narrowed as she observed Ron's unaffected gaze. "Perhaps, these things occur normally in your house…but here at Birchwood we do not tolerate bullying. Your son broke another child's nose."
"I'm not a bully!" Hugo finally spoke and turned to his dad for backup, only Ron was still staring at the lady that was now accusing his son of being violent. "That kid was—"
Mrs. Appleby held up a hand. "Silence, Weasley. Do you and your wife…argue a lot?"
Not your business, Ron thought. "Look, Mrs…" Ron looked quickly at the label on her desk and looked back at her again. "Appleby. He's got a lot of baby cousins, he's always very careful with them and he's a good kid whether or not he's covered in blood."
Hugo smirked and leaned back victoriously in his chair.
"That doesn't mean you get off, Weasley" Mrs. Appleby reminded Hugo stiffly. "Well, Mr. Weasley, whether or not you decide to punish your son is entirely up to you, but his punishment here lay with me and I am suspending him. Two weeks."
"Suspension," Ron repeated reflectively, his eyebrows nearly touching his hairline. "That's a bit excessive, don't you think? What's he supposed to at home for two weeks, apart from drive his mother mad?" The thirty four year old wizard snapped.
"He will have to time to think about his actions. Also, I'm dismissing him from school for the remainder of the day," Mrs. Appleby said coldly and at Ron's confused look, she added, "May I remind you that Birchwood—"
Ron stood up and sighed. "Yeah, yeah…does not tolerate bullying. But my kid's not a bully. Come on Hugo, let's go. And don't look so relieved, we're not through talking about this," Ron stated and grabbed Hugo's hand.
Without worrying of the consequences of Apparating in front a Muggle, Ron thought of his home in Godric's Hollow as hard as he could and along with Hugo, disappeared into a wormhole in space.
"Tell me what happened, son. I know that you are a good kid," Ron affirmed and placed a cup of hot cocoa in front of his son. It always made him talk. "But if you don't tell me exactly what happened, I'm going to have to take Mrs. Appleby's side on this."
Hugo looked hesitant at that threat. "He called Rose a bad name," The eight year old spoke, his eyes lowered to the floor.
"And what name was that?" Ron pressed a little further. Any possibility of punishing his son was off the table. Hugo only did what Ron would have done. And it would be hypocritical of Ron to punish Hugo for something that he, too, had done.
"I'm not allowed to say it. It starts with the letter b," Hugo explained and looked away from his father, who had started to chuckle. "Dad, this isn't funny! I've been suspended! Mum is going to kill me, she is going to hang me from the oak tree in the yard!"
Ron's laughter ceased and he finally calmed down. "Hugo, it's funny because you've done it, I've done it and Granddad Arthur has done it—however, I do have a story that you may find particularly interesting. It's about slugs."
"Ew," Hugo's response came.
"Back in Hogwarts, Mum was a bit of a know-it-all and people resented her for that," Ron started to explain. "So when this kid—who shall remain nameless—started bragging about the new brooms his father bought for Slytherin, your Mum insinuated that he bought his way onto the team."
Hugo laughed. "That sounds like Mum."
"It does and you know what that kid said to her? He called her a filthy, little, mudblood…as if she were something on the bottom of his shoes," Ron said with a faint trace of reminiscent disgust.
The younger Weasley gasped at the nonchalant use of the word. His parents had always made it perfectly that the word was strictly forbidden. "And what did you do, Dad?" Hugo asked, his interest now sparked.
Ron scoffed and rolled his eyes. "My original intent was to make sure the only thing he could taste for a week was slug slime. But at the time, I had a broken wand and the curse backfired so I ended up puking slugs instead," He finished and gave a little chuckle at the end. "Funny, isn't it?"
Hugo didn't say anything, but smiled.
"Even though Rose is completely capable of holding her own, I always want you to look out for your sister, just as I expect her to look out for you. I'd never punish you for standing up for your sister," Ron said and ruffled his son's hair.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm not being punished, but I still don't get why," Hugo admitted and hung his head. "I hurt someone."
Ron sighed. "Because, son, at some point, we all do very dumb things for the women we love."