Alice sat at the window, watching the sun disappearing behind the trees as night approached. She hugged her arms tightly to herself, trying to hide the full body trembling that had begun after dinner. None of the children knew who the beast was coming for next. They didn't know if the beast actually had a schedule or if it was selecting its victims at random.

Every movement outside the window made Alice jump. She was trying so hard to be strong and brave for Sophie, but was having very little success.

She jumped and nearly fell to the floor as a doe and her fawn scurried out of the darkened forest and raced passed the house.

"Is it coming?" Sophie whimpered from her spot on the floor by the fire. The book she had been reading had fallen to the floor and she quickly gathered it back into her lap. She scrambled to her feet and raced over to the window.

"Not yet," Alice replied in barely a whisper. "I fear it won't be long now though. The sun is almost gone for the day."

"Grab your wand, Alice," David instructed as he entered the room from the bedroom. "I have a plan."

"What is it then?" Alice asked hopefully as she raced to the bedroom to retrieve her wand.

"We're going to try to take that thing by surprise," David replied. Alice's face fell, suddenly losing the confidence she had felt only moments before. "I know, it's not a great plan, but it's really the only thing I've been able to come up with," he sighed after reading Alice's expression. "But I think if we time it right we may be able to throw it off long enough to escape."

Sophie timidly curled her fingers around David's and looked worriedly up at her brother.

"What am I to do, David?" she asked softly.

"Stay by my side," David replied confidently. "I'll get you out safely."

He looked over at Alice and nodded. Alice tried to smile, but quickly looked away and clutched her wand tightly as David quickly tried to teach her the easiest stunning spell he could think of.

They stopped suddenly as the forest outside became silent. Sophie held her breath and tightened her grip on David's hand. There were footsteps just outside the door now. Alice tucked herself out of view behind the cupboard door while David and Sophie backed tightly against the wall beside the door.

The door suddenly burst open, followed by a blast of green light. David and Sophie were thrown across the room before anyone could even begin to cast any spells. The beast grabbed Alice her hair and pulled her back as she tried to run. It grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall. Alice dropped her wand and clawed at the beast's hand in a vain attempt to remove the pressure preventing her from breathing.

David tried to scramble to his feet to retrieve his wand, which lay only a few feet away, but the beast threw out its free hand and sent David flying across the room. With one swift movement, the beast closed both hands around Alice's throat and tore her head away from her shoulders.

The forest was filled with Sophie's screams as the beast removed Alice's magic and dragged both her head and her body back into the darkness, locking David and Sophie in the house once more.

-o-o-

"C – A – T," Ginny read as Bill pointed to each letter in her book.

"Well done, Gin," Bill smiled. "You're going to be reading like Percy in no time."

Ginny scrunched up her nose and looked at Bill with disgust. Bill couldn't help but laugh as she shook her head, refusing to be a book-worm like her brother. He ruffled her hair and turned the page in her book.

"All right, then," he chuckled. "Let's read two more pages and take a break. How are you doing over there Ronnie?"

Ron looked up from his work and shrugged. Bill leaned over to look at Ron's printing and pat his little brother on the back.

"Looks good," he encouraged, "Mum's going to be really happy with your printing. You're going to have the neatest printing at Hogwarts by your first year."

Ron tried to suppress a grin and dipped the tip of his quill back into the bottle of ink.

"Bill, dear," Molly called from the door, "how are the three of you making out in there?"

"We're doing just fine, mum," Bill replied. "We're just finishing up now."

Molly stepped inside, holding a bucket full of vegetables and wearing a pair of muddy, rubber boots. She smiled as she took in the sight of her eldest son tutoring her two youngest children.

"Thank you so much for all of your help, Bill," Molly sighed. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem, mum," Bill smiled. "I like getting to hang out with these two."

Molly nodded and stepped back outside to continue working in the garden. With seven children and only one income coming in, gardening was the only way to keep enough healthy food on the table.

As Ginny began sounding out the next word in her book, Bill glanced over at Ron who seemed to have started daydreaming. A large blob of ink was spreading through the parchment from Ron's motionless quill. Charlie frowned and gently placed his hand on Ron's shoulder.

Ron slowly looked up and faced Charlie, but his expression didn't change. Bill frowned and pulled his hand away as Ron seemed to look right through him. There was no indication that Ron was even registering that he was there. Looking closer, he noticed that Ron's irises looked slightly red.

Ron slid out of his chair and walked over to the kitchen cupboard. He opened one of the drawers and began rummaging through the cooking utensils.

"You OK, Ron?" Bill asked. He motioned for Ginny to stop reading and they both watched Ron curiously.

Ron turned around and looked at Bill and Ginny. He was holding his mother's good steak knife tightly in one hand and had it dangling at his side.

"The child will be sacrificed," Ron announced without emotion. His eyes moved from Bill to Ginny. Bill quickly stood up and shielded Ginny with his body. "The blood of the innocent will be spilled to sustain my power. Your magic will be mine."

"Ron?" he asked, reaching for his wand. Before he could pull his wand from his back pocket, Ron flashed Bill a sinister grin and jabbed the steak knife into his own stomach, just below his ribcage. Without so much as flinching, he let go of the handle and looked down at the knife with a smile. He looked back up at Bill and chuckled.

Ginny's let out a cry of surprise and the colour drained from her face. She stared at the knife before looking up at Ron's face with disbelief.

Ron gripped the handle of the knife and ripped it out of his stomach. He was about to thrust the knife into himself a second time, but Bill quickly overcame the shock of seeing his seven year old brother stab himself and flicked his wand, sending the knife flying to the floor.

"Mum!" Ginny screamed. She leaped from her chair and raced for the door as Bill made his way over to Ron. The smile faded from Ron's face and was replaced with the blank stare he'd had previously and his arms dropped to his sides.

"Bloody hell, Ron," Bill gasped. He grabbed Ron by the shoulders and tried to get Ron to look him in the eye, but Ron's expression was completely blank. Bill grabbed a flannel and pressed it firmly against Ron's stomach to slow the steady flow of blood seeping through Ron's t-shirt.

Molly and Ginny raced back into the house. Molly took one look at Ron and Bill and dropped the bucket of vegetables before running over to her two sons.

"What happened?" Molly gasped, taking the flannel from Bill and cupping Ron's chin in her free hand. "Oh, Ronnie. Not again," She looked into Ron's eyes and shook her head. Ginny timidly picked the knife off of the floor and silently passed it to Bill.

"He just walked over here and stabbed himself, mum," Bill explained softly as he set the knife in the sink. "I didn't have a chance to stop him. I didn't know what he was going to do."

"It's all right, Bill," said Molly. "Run to the fireplace and Floo for a healer, please." She lifted Ron off of his feet and set him on his back on the kitchen floor to look at his wound. Ron blinked and rubbed his eyes with his hands before looking at his mother and frowning.

"Oh, don't come back yet, sweetheart," Molly pleaded sadly.

Ron frowned and looked up at his mum before moving his hand down to his stomach. Molly quickly stopped him, gathering Ron's hands tightly between her own. Ron began to pant, working himself up as the pain began to register in his abdomen. His chin wobbled and he burst into tears.

"She's on her way," Bill announced as he rushed back into the kitchen. "Is he OK?"

"He'll be fine," Molly replied, not sounding as convincing as she had hoped. She continued to hold Ron's hands as Bill knelt next to them and put pressure on the flannel covering Ron's wound. Ron screamed between sobs and tried to pull his hands away from his mother's grasp.

He coughed suddenly and spat out a mixture of spit and blood. Bill quickly turned him onto his side, keeping the pressure against the flannel. Ron's sobbing began to subside as he choked and blood began trickling out of the corner of his mouth and into a pool on the floor beneath his head. Molly gently brushed her hand against Ron's cheek, speaking as calmly as she could as the colour drained from her baby boy's face and he began losing consciousness.

"Stay with me, Ronnie," she coaxed tearfully, "just a few more minutes and we'll get you fixed up as good as new."

There was a flash of green light from the sitting room as the healer arrived at the Burrow. She followed the sounds coming from the kitchen and rushed over to Ron, Molly, and Bill.

"Looks like he's nicked his stomach," the healer explained as she noticed the blood on the floor near Ron's face. "Let's get this all fixed up, shall we?" She removed the flannel and gently lifted Ron's shirt up to look at the damage he had caused. With a few intricate waves of her wand, Ron's skin began fusing back together and the angry red colour of his skin faded back to a light, ivory tone. She had Molly prop Ron up and forced the entire contents of the small vial she had brought with her into Ron's mouth.

"Swallow it all down, Ron," the healer instructed. "Every last drop."

Ron swallowed lazily, grimacing at the taste of the potion. The healer smiled and gently wiped the blood away from Ron's cheek with the flannel she had tossed aside earlier.

"That should do it," the healer affirmed with a smile. "How on earth did this happen?"

"This was another one of his episodes," Molly replied, choking back a sob as she gently rubbed Ron's back. Ron looked tiredly up at his mum and placed his bloodied hand timidly on her knee.

"I'm sorry, mum," Ron whispered, struggling to get the words out as his body willed him to sleep. Molly cupped her hands over her mouth and tried to stifle her sobs. She took Ron's hand and watched as his eyelids slid closed and sleep overcame her little boy.

"Molly, I'm going to bump up Ron's evaluation to tomorrow morning," the healer explained. "I'll put him on the high priority list and we'll get to the bottom of this as soon as we can, all right?"

Molly nodded, still looking down at Ron and letting the tears flow in streams down her cheeks.

The healer gathered Ron into her arms and instructed Molly to work out a sitter for the remaining Weasley children so that she could accompany Ron to St. Mungo's. As Molly began putting Bill in charge, the healer stepped into the fireplace with Ron and disappeared.

Molly quickly packed herself an overnight bag and a few things for Ron before kissing her remaining children goodbye and following the healer to St. Mungo's.

-o-o-

Ron sat back against the psychiatric healer's sofa with his knees to his chest and rested his chin in his palms. He let out an audible sigh and looked over at the closed door where healer Moore had gone to speak with his parents.

There was a chess set directly in front of Ron with the remains of the chess pieces scattered across the board. He and healer Moore had played a few games of chess while she asked Ron a number of questions about his family and his interests. She'd asked him to call her Jenny once Ron had become more comfortable talking with her.

He had done his best to answer all of Jenny's questions, just as his mum had told him to. Every once in a while she would write something down on a piece of parchment. She'd always smile at him afterward.

Ron could tell that some of the healers were getting frustrated with him. They started running tests from the moment Ron had woken up that morning without any success. Unable to find a physical cause for Ron's recent behaviour, he had been scheduled for a psychological examination with Jenny. From her body language and tone when she dismissed herself following the examination, Ron guessed she hadn't been able to find anything either.

This had been the first time in a few weeks that Ron had not had an episode. He'd been up to four or five a day before being admitted to St. Mungo's. Ron closed his eyes, willing himself to have another episode so the healers could figure out what was wrong and send him back home. They'd already told his parents that he would need to spend another night under observation.

"He really doesn't seem like the type of boy that would act out like you've described, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," Jenny explained. She, Molly, and Arthur were sitting in a private little room containing nothing more than a few sofas, a coffee table, and a few potted plants. "Obviously I can't tell for sure in the short time I've spent with Ron, but as far as I can tell he's a happy, seven year old boy, with an extraordinary talent when it comes to playing chess, that wants nothing more than to please those around him. Being the youngest boy of seven children he does have a bit of an inferiority complex, but nothing that worries me at this point."

Molly nodded silently. She had always guessed that Ron had felt inferior to his siblings, but hearing a stranger say it out loud suddenly made her feel terrible.

"You don't think he's acting out because he thinks he goes unnoticed then?" Arthur inquired.

Jenny smiled and shook her head.

"I really don't," she replied. "I honestly don't think Ron's recent behaviour is something he is in control of."

"So, where does this leave us?" Arthur asked, gripping Molly's hand for support.

Jenny sighed and sat back against the plush sofa cushions. She crossed her legs and clasped her hands in her lap.

"There is a growing condition in young children, mostly boys, that can affect behaviour, attention spans, and cause hyperactivity," Jenny replied. "It's not easily diagnosed because each child displays symptoms differently, but there is a potion that I can prescribe that will help alleviate the symptoms."

Molly looked up at Arthur with concern etched on her face. Arthur placed his hand supportively on her shoulder as she gripped the material of her skirt in her lap and waited for Jenny to continue.

"There are common side effects that can last up to two weeks such as a change in sleeping patterns, hyperactivity, or lethargy. It really depends on the child, but the positive effects of the potion will show up within the first two weeks," Jenny explained. "If you don't see any change in Ron's episodes within a month, we can take him off the potion and try something else."

"So, basically we're going to pump Ron full of potions until we find one that works?" Arthur asked, not pleased with the lack of answers they'd received from the healers.

"Right now, the best we can do is hope Ron has an episode while under observation tonight," replied Jenny. "Unfortunately I'm not really familiar with the work medical healers do, but I think witnessing an episode for themselves may help them come to a conclusion."

Molly and Arthur smiled politely and followed Jenny out of the little room and into Jenny's office where Ron was still waiting.

"Hey, Ron," Arthur greeted. "You ready to get something to eat?"

Ron smiled up at his dad and nodded enthusiastically. He pulled himself up off of the floor and followed his parents out of the office and toward the canteen, saying goodbye to Jenny as he passed her.

Jenny smiled at the Weasleys and leaned against the door frame, watching the family disappear around a corner before closing herself in her office to finish the written report of her observations of Ron.

-o-o-

A/N: Another long chapter. Sorry, I didn't know where to cut this one. But you made it to the end! Congrats! There's still more. Enjoy and don't forget to review and let me know what you're thinking.