A 'bundle of joy'.

By PotterFan500

Chapter 1

Ron Weasley was fast asleep, something he'd found it hard to do recently. He was dreaming.

He was dreaming that he was playing Quidditch. He was a chaser. The Quaffle was in his hands and he was speeding towards the goalposts, when suddenly, he heard a loud cry. Then the wind started to shake him about. He was going to fall off his broom!

'Ron! RON!'. He heard a familiar voice shouting from the watching crowd. The wind was still shaking him. Then he realised that someone was shaking him, and the crying was real.

'I'm going to score!!' he shouted.

He woke up.

'What is it?!!' he moaned. He opened his eyes.

He was not on a broomstick, he was in bed.

Hermione was shaking him awake vigorously. Ron could hear loud and terrible crying.

'It's your turn!' Hermione instructed him.

'I was just about to score a goal Hermione!' he grumbled.

'I don't care Ron! She's crying and she needs you!' Hermione snapped back at him.

'Hmph!' Ron pulled the duvet cover over his head. He put his head onto the sheet. It was wet.

'Oh now look what's happened! Ron, look what you've made her do. Ron for crying out loud, sit up!!'

Ron didn't need telling twice. That wet patch smelt!

'For heaven's sake, what's the matter with her NOW?!!' he groaned.

'She needs changing! Look she's leaked all over the sheets because you wouldn't wake up!'

'Well hand her over then!' Ron moaned, sitting up in bed.

'No you pick her up! I'm going to have a bath!'. Hermione got out of bed, walked out the bedroom and slammed the door.

Ron rubbed his eyes. Both he and Hermione had got minimal amounts of sleep since their baby daughter Lucy had arrived. He picked her up, smelt her bottom and crawled out of bed to change her. Before leaving the room, he got his wand out. He waved it once, and the wet patch on the bed dried itself. He wished he could just lay Lucy down, wave his wand and her nappy would change itself. He hadn't fully appreciated the fact that you couldn't use magic on babies. He'd been unprepared for the time and effort needed in looking after a newborn. Hermione had read many books on baby care and was determined to give their baby the best start in life by following advice from the experts both Wizarding and Muggle. All were united in their belief that human body contact with babies was essential. The Wizarding books all warned against using wands and incantations on babies and children. Although Hermione had read aloud to him endlessly during her pregnancy whilst lying in bed at night, Ron had paid little attention, absorbed in his own thoughts of what he would rather have been doing with Hermione in bed!

After changing Lucy's nappy, Ron put her head over his shoulder and started to pat her back gently. He walked up and down the bedroom with her. 'I wish she'd stop crying!' he thought. It had been like this for 10 weeks now, and it was starting to become unbearable. Ron thought the first two weeks had been absolute bliss; a new baby, people visiting every day and he had been completely in love with both Hermione and Lucy.

He thought this over as he paced up and down the bedroom. How could things have changed so quickly and so completely? Now 8 weeks later, every time Hermione communicated with him, it was either to tell him to go away, stop what he was doing or telling him to tend to Lucy. Lucy's crying had subsided and she was making snuffly noises. He gently lowered her from his shoulder and cradled her in his large, outstretched hands, gazing at her pale little face. She had a tiny snubbed nose, a little like his own nose. Her eyes were bright blue but her most distinctive feature was her flaming red hair. She had inherited all three of these features from him, he thought, with a tinge of pride. But the shape of her face was exactly like Hermione's. She was staring at him as if to say "you've done something wrong, Daddy!" He shook his head. "No, that's nonsense!" he thought. She couldn't possibly realise that he'd made her leak over the bed. She put her hand in her mouth, gave a tiny yawn and continued staring. Ron began to walk up and down again, singing a lullaby. 'I'm not the best singer in the world', he thought. But he watched his baby daughter's eyes slowly closing as his song ended.

He smiled at her, kissed her forehead and laid her, lying on her left side on the bed.

'Ron!' Hermione cried when she came back in a minute later.

Ron was clueless as to what he'd done now.

'Oh for goodness sake Ron, you know that you should never lay babies on their sides!'

'Well what's so bad about it?!!' Ron shouted back at her.

'What's so bad about it?!! Ron, if she rolls on to her front and suffocates, she could die!' Hermione replied, looking daggers at Ron.

'Well I'm so tired, I can't even remember my name, let alone all the instructions you keep barking at me!'. Ron's face had gone red, but Hermione still spoke.

'Ron, we need to talk! We can't go on together like this. We need to discuss things properly.' She said these words calmly, but could feel tears coming on. 'But not now,' she continued. 'You need to go to work now and I need to get dressed. Come on, you'll be late otherwise.'

'You don't need to tell me twice! Anywhere's better than here, with you shouting at me to go and get nappies, change sheets and run baths!'. Ron's face looked like it had been set alight by his hair.

'If you actually gave an ounce of notice about anything Ronald, you would notice that it's me doing most of that! And what do you do all day? Sit and watch the Quidditch, go to work and generally be lazy!'

'You go to work then!' Ron shouted back at her 'Go and earn money at the ministry. Go and see how it is to be away from me and Lucy for hours on end!'.

'Well, Ron this is what I wanted to talk to you about.'

Hermione picked Lucy up and Ron followed them downstairs for breakfast.

A quick wave of the wand and two seconds later, they had breakfast on the table.

'Ron,' Hermione started, as she poured coffee on her cornflakes and milk into her teacup 'I know that we're both feeling absolutely knackered, but we need to discuss work.' She swore loudly when she realized what she'd done to her breakfast.

'Hermione you can't work. That would mean leaving Lucy here alone. I can't even leave for work some mornings now without missing you two, but I have to bring the bacon home!'. Ron felt uncomfortable saying this, but it was true.

'Well, what about swapping roles for a bit.' Hermione asked him. 'You know, I go to work and you stay at home with her. My ministry job is much better paid after all.'

'My job's paid too!'. He tried to keep his voice calm, but there was still a hint of anger in his voice.

'Yes, but what exactly do you do at work Ronald? Remind me' she said sarcastically.

'You know very well what I do! I promote big Quidditch matches. And I have to go to work, especially today. Harry told me they're giving out free World Cup tickets to all employees this afternoon!' He loved the idea of another Quidditch World Cup!

'But I'm not talking about Quidditch Ron! I'm talking about the actual real world here! You need to grow up and sort out your priorities!'. Hermione was getting impatient. She looked at her watch. Ron needed to eat and go to work. 'Excuse me if I think that our daughter is more important than whether Italy beat France! Besides, all you ever do these days apart from sleeping and eating is watch Quidditch on TV!' She felt that this was, however, a bit of an overstatement. Ron did do things around the house. But recently she just couldn't help herself snapping at him and saying hurtful things. The work issue was an important one which she'd been thinking about for days now. She realised if she wanted to convince Ron to stay home and give up the job he really loved he had to feel positive about it. She knew her constant criticism was affecting his self-esteem and that he was feeling less and less adequate in his fathering role. She had to control her temper. Lack of sleep was affecting her ability to be rational and to function well. Ron seemed to think she had it easy being at home but the truth was she was really struggling to cope. Many days she didn't manage to get dressed till the afternoon. Though she loved her little girl, unreservedly, Lucy's demands were endless: a cycle of feeding, comforting, changing nappies, washing clothes, then back to feeding. She'd had no idea how much their lives would be changed. She missed her job where she had to make important decisions and have intelligent conversations. She missed the stimulation of ideas and problems to solve. She even missed the smell of her office. The house seemed to be filled with the aroma of talcum powder and milk. Ron interrupted her train of thought.

"Right, I'm off to work now" he said stiffly. He was taken aback when Hermione rushed over and gave him a big hug and kissed his cheek, warmly. Most mornings she barely acknowledged his departure. He put his arms round her and hugged her tight.

"I'm sorry I've been so snappy. Come home early tonight and I'll cook your favourite meal. We'll sit down and have a proper talk…Lucy permitting!" she said with a smile. Ron felt a warm rush of affection such as he hadn't felt in weeks, with just a tinge of apprehension. Hermione's "talks" could sometimes mirror the lectures he and Harry had had to endure through long hours of revision at Hogwarts.

"Ooh, I think I could manage to come home early then!" He smiled and kissed Hermione on the cheek. Then he felt a small hand closing on bottom of his shirt. He leant forward, took Lucy and gave her a quick cuddle and a kiss.

He got into his car. Like every morning, he wished that it could fly.

***