Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
A Spider's Hug
A scream of terror erupted through the Weasley home, followed by two out bursts of identical laughter. The second to youngest Weasley child sat on the floor of the family room, his open in a huge, long lasting scream, tears of shock were beginning to run down his face. The two twins were dancing around him, holding hand each others hand and pointing at the large hairy spider squirming in their brother's arms. Their giggles of joy and amusement got louder and louder with every scream their brother gave.
The spider continued to struggle in the tight grip of the red haired child, named Ronald Weasley. Ron didn't know why he just didn't let the spider go. He'd been giving his teddy bear a hug when all of a sudden the twins had turned it into a horrible squirming mass of legs, eyes and hair. Ron cried louder and louder, hoping a nicer member of his big family would come to his rescue.
Finally his savior turned up in the form of the woman he feared and loved the most. The plump Mrs. Weasley had heard his screams and dropped every thing she had been holding with a loud clang, breaking several cups and plates in the process. She ran out of the kitchen and into the family room, staring in horror at the seen before her.
When the twins saw her, their identical eyes widened and they broke their hold on each others hands. 'Uh oh,' Fred whispered to his brother, backing away from the screaming toddler.
'Should we run?' George, his twin asked. Fred nodded, and they both turned tail and fled up the loud creaking stairs and disappeared into the room they shared, slamming the door loudly.
Mrs. Weasley how ever, had much more important things to focus on other than the escape of her twins. She grimaced and pried the spider from her son's arms; she flung the thing onto the ground and shuddered as its legs kicked hopelessly through the air. Ron was crying louder than ever, and clutching at his mothers apron, begging for a more human hug than the one he'd just received. Mrs. Weasley fumbled around for her wand, and finally found it behind her ear.
She pointed her old wand, that looked like it had been through a fair lot judging by the scraps on the sides, and cried, 'Confundo!' at the spider. Its legs immediately stopped clawing at the air in the fast and furious pace they had been before and slowed down a great deal; like it was trying to swim through thick jelly. Mrs. Weasley smiled with content, the spider didn't look so menacing now that it had the expression of a very thick mountain troll on its face.
A short, racking sob brought her attention back to her son, who was clutching onto her apron for dear life. She bent down and scooped Ron up in her arms giving him a tight hug and a comforting pat on the back. Ron sobbed into Mrs. Weasley's red hair and his small hands tightened around her shoulders. He said something through his heavy loud sobs, but she couldn't understand a word of it. She waited a little longer, patting his back sympathetically while she waited for him to calm down. Finally a little snivel told her he relaxing.
She put him down on the ground before and blinked in surprise at the state of his face. Ron's face a shocking red, and glistening from all the tears and he had a long string of snot trailing down from his noise and onto his Weasley jersey. Mrs. Weasley sighed and whipped out her handkerchief whipping her son's face and instructing him to blow into it; she repeated her instruction because his first attempt was fairly useless.
'Now, Ron,' she said smiling at him. 'Tell me what happened?'
Ron looked at the confunded spider, his eyes widened and he stepped away from it so quickly he nearly toppled over the couch. 'I was cuddling my teddy, and the-then they turned him into that.'His voice came out as barely audible squeak.
'Who are they?' Mrs. Weasley asked patiently, even though she already knew the answer.
'Fred and George, mum.'
Mrs. Weasley nodded gravely; those boys were in for it now. 'It's all right Ron, I'll call Dad and he'll get you some ice cream.'
Ron perked up a bit at the mention of ice cream. He nodded, putting on a brave face and trying to avoid looking at the spider.
'Arthur!?' she called looking towards the clock. The hand with Arthur's face on was pointing to at work. 'Blast and bother it,' Mrs. Weasley snapped, putting her head in her hands and thinking. Who else was at home who could and would look after Ron while she told the twins off?
Ron coughed; Mrs. Weasley looked down into his expectant face. He blinked his eyes, put his hands on his hips and asked, 'Ice cream, mum?'
'In a minute, love,' she assured him, patting his ginger head.
Mrs. Weasley looked towards the clock again and noticed that Percy and Bill were both home, and Charlie was on his way home from a friend's house. 'Bill!' she called loudly, stamping her foot.
'WHAT?!' came the loud and obviously aggravated reply. Bill, their oldest, had come home for the holidays during the middle of his second year at Hogwarts. He had told his parents and siblings he had large amounts of homework he needed to get done, and asked if they would please leave him alone, though Mr. and Mrs. Weasley suspected he was up to other things rather then studying.
'Please come and look after Ron!' she yelled back.
'NO.'
'I'll give you a sickle,' Mrs. Weasley promised.
There was silence for some time as Bill pondered this decision. 'Fine,' he answered.
Mrs. Weasley picked Ron up again and dumped him gently into the arms of his brother who'd walked down the stairs loudly, and said something under his breathe, but was silenced by a cautionary glare from his mother.
'Thank you Bill, thank you,' Mrs. Weasley said as she turned around and walked up the stairs towards the twins rooms. "FRED AND GEORGE, YOU'D BETTER HAVE A REASONABLE EXPLANTION FOR ALL OF THIS.'
Bill and Ron could hear squawks of terror and the sounds of furniture being moved around in the room above them, when Mrs. Weasley reached the door she turned to push it open, but the furniture has barricading the door.
'Mum promised me ice cream,' Ron said, soon losing interesting in the verbal warnings Mrs. Weasley was yelling at her children.
'Oh, did she now?' Bill said eyeing Ron, who nodded eagerly. Bill sighed and carried Ron off to the kitchen and dove into the refrigerator, hunting for the ice cream.
'Why don't you just say "Ako ice cream" like mum always does?' Ron asked, watching Bill from his seat at the table.
'It's Accio, Ron not ako,' he said. 'And because, I'm not allowed.'
Ron looked disappointed, and slumped down in his chair, playing with his small thumbs.
Bill banged the ice cream down on the table and pulled two bowls and some spoons out of the cupboards below. 'What did Fred and George do?' he asked, while he scooped the chocolate ice cream out into the separate bowls.
Ron shuddered again, and looked nervous. 'Turned my teddy into a spider,' he screwed up his eyes in horror and disgust as the memory hurtled back, but it didn't last long as Bill had put his bowl in front of Ron. Ron looked down at the ice cream, across at Bill's bowl and then looked Bill in the eyes. 'More please.'
Bill shook his head, 'It's all gone,' he said quickly as he began to devour his ice cream.
'But you got heaps more than me!'
A loud explosion that issued from the twin's room distracted the siblings from starting a fight. Ron's mouth was hanging open and ice cream was dripping down his chin as he listening to Mrs. Weasley telling Fred and George off. She could be heard reasonable loudly shouting, 'I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH YOU TWO! ALWAYS CAUSING TROUBLE, DON'T LAUGH FRED. I'M SERIOUS!'
There was a pause in between her words, and then George could be heard saying. 'Mum, I'm not Fred,' and then there was more yelling.
Ron swallowed his ice cream and said in a very serious tone. 'Those two are very bad, turning Mr. Teddy into a spider!' he shook his head in almost an identical way to Mrs. Weasley. Bill nearly spat out his mouthful of ice cream in laughter and reached over and ruffled Ron's hair.