Author's note: Yeah, yeah, I know, these are wonderful ::cough:: what was that I hear? Oh well, yes, I like writing these, so you have to read them! and if you read them, then you're stuck reviewing them, or else, well, I guess you could always get out of the page and... wait, what am I talking about, of course you have to review. or read and then review. What? Am? I? Saying? Huh? Maybe I should stop writing these so much. Ha, tricked you, didn't I? No need to get your hopes up. :)
A Day in the Life of Ron Weasley
Ron woke up. His head felt unusually stuffy because of the barbecue his family had last night, and they'd all stayed up late, eating, talking, eating, telling stories, eating...
"Ugh," Ron moaned, sitting up. The ghoul upstairs echoed his moan. "Shut up," Ron muttered. There came a knock at the door.
"Hey, Ron, Mum's waiting for you, you're supposed to help us comb the garden for the Hoppers, remember?" Bill's sleepy voice came through the door. Ron grimaced. That was right, he remembered. He was going to go help his brothers with the Hoppers, the dust spewing bunnies that accumulated and bred down at the edge of their property every summer.
"Coming!" he yelled back as loudly and sarcastically as he could. Still half asleep, he nearly walked into the door before he realized it was closed. He made it to the kitchen where his mother was waiting with a big platter of sausage without further mishap, though grumbling all the way.
"Ron! There you are! Do you realize that it's nearly 7:00 in the morning and the boys are waiting for you outside? And this being their vacation? Hurry up, they're going to go without you if you don't hurry up!" Mrs. Weasley's voice came, half exasperated, half shouting. Ron glanced at his watch, realized it was that ungodly hour, and was about to protest, but Mrs. Weasley forced a sausage down his throat, finished zipping his jacket up, and pushed him through the opened door.
"Have fun, dear!" she called. Ron rolled his eyes. The nippy morning air struck him in the face as soon as he'd left the warm kitchen, and he shivered. He glimpsed his brothers Bill, Fred and George at the clearing up ahead. Jogging the rest of the way, he'd barely started to feel his numb toes once again when Fred and George said in the same breath,
"Finally! Come on, Ron, we're going to the village after this to see if we can't visit that old Muggle field that's south of town for Quidditch, so come on, let's hurry up."
They set off impatiently off to the south edges of the Weasley's land. Ron wondered why they weren't going to use the paddock that they owned that stood at the north, but then remembered that the thunderstorm last week had uprooted an old willow tree and they hadn't yet gotten around to removing it yet. Ron settled in to work at the silent task of catching the dust Hoppers, which included stealthily following one, then right before it would turn around or expel a dust bunny through it's nose, they would have to grab hold of one of their legs and stick it into the sack that Bill had brought. They would release the bunnies somewhere else.
After a long, hot morning which left all four of them dirty, starving and irritable, they finally got enough bunnies to satisfy their mother, and trudged back home, hoping their Mum would let them take their broomsticks up to the village and maybe play there. There was to be no such thing, however, since they came back from the field, moaning and groaning about their aches and pains. Ron nearly shrieked when he saw what Mrs. Weasley had in mind for them. The twins and Bill were struck dumb. Then, they all began complaining at once, but Mrs. Weasley faced them, hands on hips.
"You boys know better to complain, why, you've been moaning all week about not having your Quidditch area back, so why don't you go and clear it, you really know you must, boys, please, you'll be happy when it's finally done. here." And she then handed each a large pair of pliers and a sack, and reminded the twins to never use their wands. And so they went, with a large lunch box and their tools on their shoulders. Ron was grumbling, and the others were not quite far behind him.
"Why do we have to do all this today? It's too hot, I don't know what Mum was thinking, doing this to us..." he tripped over a large tree root that stuck up in his path, and they began their ascent toward the paddock. Ron swore.
Bill grinned. "Better not let Mum hear you, Ickle Ronniekins, she wouldn't like that." The twins sniggered, for the moment their complaints forgotten. Ron's ears turned red and he muttered,
"Aw, just shut up, why don't you." He started to hack away the smallest branches possible near him, which was hard as there were only large, tough branches. Bill soon had a bulging sack of dead wood in his bag, with all the help from his wand. Ron was getting more and more frustrated.
"Dammit!" he finally exploded, wildly whacking away at the branch that just attacked him. Fred laughed. He'd just pushed the branch away from him, and it'd landed on Ron. Suddenly, Bill noticed a large piece of wood rising fast from the tree, and shouted sharply, "Ron! Careful! You're going to make it drop on-" then he winced at a large crack that came from beneath him. "never mind- you okay, Fred?"
Fred glared at Ron, while Ron stared smugly back. Then Bill sighed and went to work at the tree once again, using both his wand and himself.
Once home, Fred complained to Mrs. Weasley.
"Mum, I couldn't even see what he was doing, he just made that branch fall, I had nothing to do with it..." he pleaded. The entire family was listening to their three-sided conversation with interest at the table, shoving in large amounts of leftover barbecue and potato salad. Ron was alternating between listening, eating, and choking on food in order to speak.
"Yehar rish!" Ron tried to say while swallowing. "Yeah, right Fred, of course you didn't do anything. Seeing Fred's mouth open again, he said quickly, "I'm going to bed. Good night." He climbed the stairs alone, exhausted from the day he'd had. Maybe tomorrow wouldn't be so bad. At least there were no chores left for them to do, and Ron was planning on borrowing Fred's broomstick for the day and practicing his Quidditch with Charlie.
Lightheaded, he climbed into his bed and watched contentedly the sun set outside. Before he knew it, he was asleep.