A/N Hi people, I'm back! This is my new series, Lions. I have 60 planned chapters, yes, 60. However, there is no semblence of a regular update system. I will write when the muse comes to me. If chapters are short, they're short. If updates take three months, they take three months. (Though I really aim to publish once a week, on Saturdays.) I am warning you now, please don't moan at me :) (Reviews will shorten that time, not a bribe, a fact.) Thanks for reading :)

To those reading my other series, A Conflict of Interests, the next chapter will be up in the next week. Thank you to my long-suffering proofee, HidingBehindASmile for her work on this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Weasleys or the Burrow or anything.


Mrs Weasley scanned around the room, doing a mental headcount whilst trying to contain the many limbs of her wailing two-year-old. She counted three of her boys; Charlie was trailing mud all over the kitchen floor whilst eight-year-old Percy had his head in a book. Fred- or was it George?- sat quietly in the corner, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Shh now, Ginny, dear. Charlie, take your mud out of my kitchen! Go and wash yourself up! Fred, where's your brother?" she demanded sternly, knowing all too well that a missing twin was never a good thing.

Hoisting the screaming toddler onto her hip, Molly hurried further into the house to search for her little toerag, completely overlooking her other missing child.

Ron shuffled into the room, sucking his thumb and clasping his teddy bear tightly, completely ignored by his brothers. He sat on the floor and began to push the teddy around nervously.

"Hey Ronnie," said Charlie, upon seeing his brother. He advanced upon him in a friendly way, seeming to leer above tiny Ron. Charlie ruffled Ron's hair patronisingly. Instantly, Ron attempted to flatten it back, sulkily.

The smallest Weasley backed away in horror as Fred noticed him and an eerie smile set on his face. He snatched up the teddy and squeezed it tightly, muttering to it.

"Ickle Ronniekins," five-year-old Fred teased.

Percy also caught Fred's tone and quickly left, having been on its receiving end once too often.

Mrs Weasley called loudly, "Charlie!" to which the boy in question flinched and hurried up the stairs.

Fred and Ron were left alone.

"It was you who broke my broomstick," Fred said to his brother, with a hint of anger boiling below the surface.

Ron shook his head vigorously, lip trembling, but even this young version of Ron was a terrible liar when faced with the eyes of Molly Weasley, all too present in his older brother.

"You don't have to be scared, Ronnie, I just want you to say you're sorry. Mummy always says we should say sorry when we do bad things," the elder redhead chided in an angelic voice.

After that it all happened rather fast. Fred lashed out, attempting to steal the teddy bear away from his brother. Ron recoiled but clung fast to the bear.

"No! My bear!" he yelled, upset.

The two wrestled for the bear all the way around the kitchen; Fred clearly having an advantage due to his superior size and weight, not to mention slightly advanced years.

However, Ron held his own for such a small child until suddenly it became clear that they were no longer fighting over a small fluffy toy but an extremely large arachnid.

Ron's screams of terror finally alerted their frazzled mother to the dispute and she came running, George in tow, while Ginny's screams added to her brother's. By the time Molly reached them, Fred had scrambled back towards the wall, away from the creature, and Charlie had reached the bottom of the stairs, still dripping mud.

The poor three-year-old was writhing around in the middle of the floor with the huge spider attacking his face, screaming blue murder at his evidently perturbed brother. Mrs Weasley sprang into action but before she could reach her youngest son, the spider was blasted to the ceiling by a sudden jet of air which flew her son onto the top of the kitchen cupboard.

There was a momentary reprieve in the noises filling the air which Molly used to her advantage to turn the offending creature back into Ron's unassuming bear. She turned to glare angrily at Fred.

"Fred Weasley, what have I said to you about tormenting your poor brother? You are supposed to look after him, not terrorise him!"

Fred began to look genuinely afraid.

"Mum, he broke my broomstick," he whined.

"I do not care what he did. Your broomstick broke by accident. No sweets for a month, mister," Molly told him.

"But Muuuum..."

"No buts and don't you start either, George."

Finally the shock had worn off and Ron began to whimper at his current location.

"It's okay, Ronnie. Look, your teddy is fine," Molly began to coax. "Now, just shuffle forwards and put your legs over the edge and I can get you down."

However, even the returned bear could not get Ron to move. He sat there, curled up, for the next fifteen minutes, despite all of his mother's best efforts.

Conditions finally changed when Arthur, completely oblivious, walked through the door.

"Evening, Weasleys," he called loudly, as he was prone to.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Molly called him into the kitchen. "Arthur! I could use a hand here. Now!"

Arthur Weasley thought parenting their seven kids was extremely difficult when he was home but Molly knew that in comparison to her crazy days, Arthur had it easy.

It was much later, when Charlie had finally been convinced to sleep, that the two Weasley parents finally got a chance to talk. As Molly put her feet up, she began to grin to herself.

"Ron showed his magic today," she smiled.

Arthur's eyes widened in shock. "Did he really? What did he do?" he asked enthusiastically.

Slowly Molly explained the day's exciting events.

"... the thing is, Arthur, it was much more powerful than either of the twins or even Charlie, and Percy didn't show his magic until he was five."

"Our Ron is going to be a wizard to watch out for," Arthur nodded in agreement.

Ron Weasley would go on to look back at that day as a time when he was weak. He would assume that, because there hadn't been much fuss about it, his parents hadn't really registered his first use of magic; that they never really saw him as much as his brothers but, from the excitement in Molly's eyes as she thought about her youngest son's future, he couldn't be more wrong.