An important chapter for Ron's general characterization.
"Cat's got your tongue, Ronniekins? You should know better than to tattle-tell on us!"
He was crying, crying because oh it hurt, it hurt so much! His whole mouth was full of horrible fire and it was so painful he couldn't think, he just let his mouth wide open in a desperate hope to have something that would cool down his smouldering tongue.
"Oh come on, it's just an Acid Pop, what the hell!"
He was crying, he could feel his tears, he could hear his scream of pain broken by shuddering sobs. He couldn't even hear Fred's taunts anymore. There was only the maddening pain throbbing in his jaw and tongue, the heat in his entire mouth, the cold air over his tearful eyes.
"I can't believe it, what a sissy!"
He was crying, again. Ickle Ronnie cry-baby, as always. He couldn't stop. He hated it. He was sick of always crying. Bill had told him crying never helped. It didn't make the bad things go away. Bill knew, Bill was right, he knew so many things, and here Ron was still crying.
He gasped for breath, but he was choked by the horrible candy Fred and George had forced him to eat. Would Charlie have cried? No, he would have taken the twins by their collars and hollered at them. Charlie was brave and strong, and when you're brave and strong you don't cry.
He wanted to claw at his mouth so he could toss the candy away, but something instinctual was telling him to not do anything. No chewing, no swallowing, no spitting or everything would worsen. He was shivering, whimpering, and he remembered how Percy had told him that it was exactly the kind of thing the twins wanted, and that he should learn to just ignore it. He shouldn't cry, he should be ignoring them.
Fred and George did seem to love see him cry. He had tried, oh he had tried to ignore them so they'd go away. But now his tongue was burning, ablaze with pain, and he didn't know how to ignore that, and he cried, and he was Ickle Ronnie cry-baby.
He was vaguely aware, through the harsh veil of tears that blurred the world, that somebody was shrieking alongside him, and he realized in horror that his sister was here, witnessing him being a baby, and she was crying, but she had the right to cry, because she was a little girl and not supposed to be a big boy.
Crying made Ginny cry…
This, this was the thought that snapped him out of it.
"Fred… Fred, I think something's wrong…"
Oh, he still had the tear tracks on his cheeks, he still had the runny nose and the blotched face, but he wasn't crying anymore. His mouth was still hanging half-open as slightly corrosive saliva slowly made its way to his chin and burned it, but his fists clenched. His eyes were puffy and red, but they narrowed as a newfound spark lit his blue irises.
"Erm, Ronnie…? Show me your… mouth…"
He was angry. Furious, even.
"Fuck, Mum's gonna kill us…!"
Because it was Fred who had given him that Acid Pop and George who had done nothing to stop it and it was Fred and George who had made him cry and thus it was Fred and George that had made Ginny sad.
"Shit, shit, go get some healing potions or something!"
But as Fred began to dash towards the house, the air began to shiver and ripple with power, and his feet didn't land on the ground anymore. He was suspended in mid-air, arse-over-head, and George was, too, hanging upside-down and levitating, as a strong gust of wind made Ron's hair bristle like an angry flame.
It wasn't the first time Ron displayed accidental magic, but it was usually much more subdued than this. It was little things like a cookie flying to his palm or his scraped knee being fine the next morning. But never this.
His accusing eyes were focused on the twins, his mouth still hanging halfway open as the Acid Pop dissolved with his tongue. He might have looked funny if his entire behaviour didn't scream "I've had enough". The twins squirmed, hoping to get their own innate magic to react and free them, but it seemed that this time, Lady Luck had given up on them.
However, someone did come to their rescue, but it wasn't even Mum.
Ginny was clapping and cheering, the tear tracks on her face forgotten as she openly laughed at her brothers. And not just any of them, she was gleefully laughing at Fred and George. Fred and George, who were never laughed at, because they made it their mission to laugh at everybody else before anyone could get to them. But Ginny was laughing and bouncing and squealing "Funny Ronnie" and then Ron seemed to snap out of his trance.
He looked at Ginny. He looked at the twins. Then at Ginny again, and suddenly the wind dropped, and so did Fred and George, landing face-first on the grass. The twins fumbled to get back up, not sure whether they should run away very fast or slide away stealthily. Once their bodies finally settled on getting up, they were welcomed back by the sight of their little sister still giggling and Ron smiling, wincing with pain, snot and salt still on his face, but smiling at her.
It took a full week for the twins to stop jumping away from Ron every time he frowned and narrowed his eyes, and at the end of this week, the youngest Weasley boy had come to the very logical conclusion that being angry was much better than crying. Fred and George didn't seem to be so bold once he got mad.
So Ron thought that every time he felt like crying, he should just get angry instead. And from this moment on, that's what he did.