Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything you recognize from the franchise.

Rose giggled as she sat on the floor attempting to catch the bubbles Ron was conjuring with his wand. Today was his day off and Hermione was currently attending a meeting at the Ministry regarding the proposal of a new law requiring all house-elf owners to pay their house-elves regularly. She'd promised to be home by dinnertime, but until then Ron had looked forward to spending some alone time with his baby girl.

"Daddy! Wook!" Rose suddenly cried, pointing. Ron followed her gaze - and saw a huge spider crawling on the mantelpiece opposite them. Immediately his palms began to sweat and his heart started pounding fast. All right, keep it together, Ron, he told himself. You've faced a lot worse than this. Remember Aragog?

Slowly Ron got up from his chair, walked over to the window, and opened it a crack. He then turned to the spider, took a few deep, calming breaths, and said, "Depulso!" Rose watched with fascination as the spider zoomed out of the window. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ron closed the window and went back to conjuring bubbles with his wand for his daughter to catch.

Later, Ron had stepped into Rose's room and was just about to put her into her cot for her nap when the fifteen-month-old crawled over to a corner before turning to her father, sitting on her knees with her hands clasped together.

"What's that you've got there, Rosie?" Rose unclasped her hands and Ron immediately recoiled. Oh no, not another one! Where did that come from?! "Put it down, Rosie," he said gently. Rose shook her head.

Ron sighed, wondering if maybe it would've been easier if Rose actually shared his fear of spiders. I wish Hermione were here, he thought. She'd know what to do. "Rosie, please put that thing down." Again the little girl shook her head.

Okay, Ron, don't break down. You're a Gryffindor! And you got rid of one spider today; you can get rid of this one too. Ron then remembered something he'd seen Hermione do once when she wanted to divert Rose's attention; he picked up Rose's stuffed otter, which Hermione had bought for her when she was born, and held it out in front of her. As soon as Rose reached out for it, her father pulled out his wand and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa," aiming the spider toward the window where it sailed out of sight.

Ron quickly changed Rose's nappy and put her in her cot, where he kissed her on the forehead. As soon as the little girl was asleep, Ron went to check the house for any more spiders. Fortunately, there were no more spiders about, so Ron settled down in his chair to relax a while and read the sports section of the Daily Prophet.

A while later, Ron was on his way to check on Rose when the front door opened to reveal Hermione. "You're home early," Ron said with a grin.

"Well, the meeting didn't take as long as I expected. So how'd your day go?"

"'Mione, you're not gonna believe this, but..." He quickly filled her in on everything that had happened with the spiders. "Wow," said Hermione softly. "I can't believe you were able to keep your head the whole time."

"Well, I had to stay strong for Rose, didn't I? Besides, I faced Aragog."

"That's true. In any case, I'm proud of you for conquering your fear," said Hermione with a smile, kissing Ron on the cheek. They then heard soft sighs coming from upstairs, indicating Rose had just woken up.

"Hi, Mummy," gurgled Rose as Hermione stepped into the room.

"Hi, Rosie. Did you have a nice nap?" Rose simply smiled as Hermione scooped her out of the cot, checked her nappy to make sure it was clean, and placed her in her playpen in the sitting room with several of her favorite toys.

That night Ron had a strange dream. It started with Aragog holding Rose in his two front legs, and Ron was powerless to save her as he'd been tied to a tree without his wand. Suddenly he found himself on the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts with his old Gryffindor Quidditch team, playing against Aragog and six of his children. One of the large spiders hurled the Quaffle towards him, and he kicked it hard (albeit nearly falling off his broom in the process), causing it to fly straight through the center goal on the opposite side. "GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!" the crowd cheered.

The next morning Ron did his best to put the dream out of his mind as he got ready for his shift at the Auror Office.

A/N: Well done, Ron! :) Overcoming his fear of spiders can't have been easy for him, especially when it turns out Rose is more curious than scared of the creatures.