~*Author's Note*~
I'm terribly sorry for the looong wait.But don't worry I'll try and make it up with this part. ;)
And, thanks again to everyone who's reviewed parts 1 to 3 ! You do not know how happy you guys make me! Anyway, here we go!
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Two days passed since Emily arrived at the Burrow.
Aunt Rebecca had already left the Weasley's to go back to her own home, leaving everyone quite busy, looking after Emily.
At first, getting used to changing diapers and feeding Emily was rather hard, since none of the Weasley's (except Mrs.Weasley,of course), or Harry and Hermione, had ever taken care of a baby before.
Thus, every job was done rather awkwardly.
But there really is something about taking care of a smiling baby that makes people a little bit more cheerful and less grouchy about things, and Harry found that as each hour passed of having Emily with them in the Burrow, everyone seemed to be grinning or smiling a lot more.
Although, there were still some minor squabbles and arguments that would break out every once in a while, most of which were due to Ron and Hermione's tempers.
And as Harry looked up from polishing his firebolt, he could see that Ron and Hermione were arguing (again), a little bit more heatedly than usual, on the other side of the room
"What are they arguing about now?" Harry asked Ginny, who was seating close by reading a book.
"Oh the usual...," answered Ginny, as she put her book down, "I think they're arguing about which bowl to use for Emily's food."
"Which bowl to use?" repeated Harry incredulously, while Ginny smiled,"don't they have anything better to argue about?"
"Oh let them be Harry," said Ginny, "they look awfully cute when they argue about silly things, and besides its really funny."
"Well...that is true...," concluded Harry,grinning, as he turned his head to the corner where Ron and Hermione were having their disagreements, and listened amusedly to what they were saying.
"Why did you put her food in that one!?" said Ron, pointing to the pink bowl with the cute dragon patterns on it.
"And what exactly is wrong with this one?" said Hermione, looking annoyed.
"Its just so..so...pink!" announced Ron, while Hermione looked like she was torn between laughing or getting angry with him.
"I'm glad to see that you know your colors,Ron." said Hermione trying to frown.
Harry and Ginny who were still watching the two couldn't help but hide their laughter, and at that very same moment, Fred and George came bounding down the stairs.
"What's going on?" asked Fred, looking around.
"Ron and Hermione were just having their daily argument, about bowls." explained Harry automatically,
"Really? Those two, again? Well then move over! We want to watch them too!" exclaimed George, and he and Fred squished themselves into Harry's chair knocking him out of it. Harry sent the twins a glare, but was easily dismissed by the twins as they stared intently at Ron and Hermione.
"I still say it should you should use this blue one," came Ron's voice,
"But that's for boys, Ron! And Emily's a girl!" said Hermione, eyeing the blue bowl with patterns of gold snitches all around it, that Ron was holding up in front of her.
"Who says this is only for boys? Its definitely better than that pink one of yours...!"
"Excuse me? This pink one looks a whole lot better than that plain blue one!"
"Oh, so thats what you think eh? Well, if you don't know, Emily happens to like the color blue!"
"No, she does not!"
"How do you know?"
"How do YOU know?"
Ron and Hermione's argument went on and on like this for a record of twenty minutes.
Fred and George, who were listening to every word of their argument turned to face Harry and Ginny, and whispered,
"I think we should all treasure this moment..."
"Why?" asked Harry, barely being able to hear George's whisper over all the snapping and sniping Ron and Hermione were doing.
"Don't you see?," explained Fred, in a very misty voice, which reminded Harry of professor Trelawney,
"We are all witnessing a very rare sight, at this very moment....for this could possibly be a glimpse into their future!"
Harry and Ginny burst out laughing,
"So thats how, it'd be like if they got married!" said Ginny laughing, "Its scary to think that they're already acting like an old married couple!"
Harry couldn't have said it better, and laughed along while they watched Ron and Hermione argue even more, completely oblivious to the fact that four people were laughing and snickering all the way at every word they said.
~*~
An hour later,after being called down by Mrs.Weasley for dinner, Harry entered the kitchen with Hermione.
"Where's Ron?" said Harry grinning, as he recalled the argument Ron and Hermione had an hour before.
"He's feeding Emily tonight in the living room." answered Hermione flatly.
Ron and Hermoine's argument had come to an end when both of them were arguing so loudly that Emily woke up from her sleep and started crying incessantly.Mrs.Weasley came running into the living room after that, and scolded them for waking Emily up and since then both Ron and Hermione were
walking around the house in a rather bad mood, desperately ignoring each other.
And as for which bowl they were going to use to put Emily's baby food in, it was decided, by Fred, that they should just use a completely different one to avoid any more warfare.
"Ginny...hurry up now, dinner's about to start..." called Mrs.Weasley again and Ginny thumped down the stairs, taking her seat beside Hermione.
"Your father says he's going to be late tonight...so I guess we should just eat ahead, before the food gets cold. How is Ron doing with Emily?" inquired Mrs.Weasley, as she ladled everyone some piping hot soup.
"Oh,he looked like he was doing a good job of feeding her.." said Ginny.
Mrs.Weasley looked quite pleased with this and everyone began to eat their dinner, discussing all sorts of things, like what they would do once school started, or what they would get once they were able to go to Hogsmeade....
Fred and George who had already graduated, were now apprenticing at Zonko's, trying to learn the tricks of the trade from the owner himself; Zurich Zonko.
And Harry remembered the time Fred and George came back from Zonko's almost a week ago happily grinning.And when he asked what happened they told him everything that happened while they were with Mr.Zonko.
"-the first thing he did after we introduced ourselves was gave us shrinking tea...of course,we didn't know it was shrinking tea, so when we drank it, and began shrinking, we were thinking how big Mr.Zonko's table was getting and how small our voices seemed to be..."
After everyone had eaten their fill of Mrs.Weasley's excellent cooking, and had cleaned up the table, they left Mrs.Weasley in the kitchen,while they wandered into the living room, where Ron was just about to clean up after Emily.
"Aren't you done yet?" said Fred yawning,
"No...Emily didn't really like banana, so she decided to spill it all over herself...." said Ron, wiping Emily's mouth, as she grinned at him and tried to playfully swat away the cloth.
Hermione,who was sitting next to Ginny whispered to her quietly,
"You know, I've never seen Ron that patient with anybody...If he were the same Ron I knew,I'd think he'd be all angry by now.But he seems to be more caring and patient when he's with Emily don't you think?"
"Well..come to think of it,that is true. Although Ron was caring even before...," whispered Ginny back.
Hermione raised her eye-brows, at Ginny.
"Its true! When we were small, and I had this terrible fever, and mum and dad had to go off with Fred and George to get their stuff from Diagon alley, Ron took care of me all day long, till they got back.He'd stay in my room and watch me sleep and check my temperature and all...really, by the way he took care of me, you'd think he was the one with a fever."
Hermione glanced sideways to where Ron was now laughing along with Emily,and for a moment caught his eye. Both of them quickly turned away,although this time both of them didn't look as peeved with each other as before.
Then, just as Harry was about to stand up and help Ron clear up, a flash of bright light flooded the entire room with a loud BOOM, and Harry stumbled over with one hand to his scar.
"Let go of her!" bellowed a voice a few paces away from Harry,
"Stay away boy...," boomed back a thick voice.
The next thing Harry knew, was that the the entire room was spinning before him and that the bright light had vanished instantly, and he along with the others, were lying on the floor, as though hit by a stunning charm..Harry wobbled up on his feet and shook the closest person to him on the floor.
"George, George...wake up.Are you alright?"
"Ugh...yeah.." said George sitting up and rubbing his head, "What happened?"
"I dunno...," said Harry walking to Hermione and managing to shake her awake,then doing the same with Ginny and Fred.
Finally, when everyone was on their feet, they looked around the room,and to their horror saw that Emily was
no longer in her chair,while Ron was lying by an open window with blood steadily trickling down the side of his face.
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Disclaimer: I own noooooooooooooothing!!!!
A/N: Would you believe? that was actually my first feeble attempt at a cliffhanger.And YES! I actually made *someone* hurt Ron bad enough to make him bleed.....ooh, I never thought I'd see the day I'd write a fic like that! Well anyway, this was the easiest part to write so far, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it...;)
And! three cheers to *isolemnlysweariamup2nogood*, for figuring out part of the plot.
My, you know how my mind works now don't you?? Oh and Ron's voice is all yours! (LOL).
Thanks for everything! :)
And to everyone else, thank soo much for reading my stories this far.
Cheers to all of you!