"RONALD WHATEVER-THE-HELL-YOUR-MIDDLE-NAME-IS WEASLEY, YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"

Harry winced at the barrage of sound that greeted him when he opened the door of the waiting room. Hermione's screams and curses, and occasional soothing noises from Ginny, could be clearly heard from the room next door. Ron, however, didn't seem to be around.

"I wonder where he got to?" Harry wondered aloud.

"I'm down here, mate," came a small voice. Harry turned to see Ron crouched behind a chair in the corner, looking scared out of his wits. It was when Harry noticed that Ron had not even spotted the large black spider crawling up his leg that he realised that things must be desperate.

"How have you been?" Harry asked innocently as he sat down.

Ron turned an ashen, terrified face towards him. "Awful," he croaked. "It's killing me! Make it stop, Harry! Make it stop!"

Ron fell silent, burying his face in his arms. Harry took the opportunity to scoot his chair a bit further away from his obviously demented best friend.

Suddenly, there came a torrent of particularly loud and violent curses from the other room, and Ginny stuck her head around the door.

"Ron, if I were you, I'd get my ass in here right now."

Ron looked like he'd been sentenced to death at this announcement, but got up and went without a word. This left Harry sitting on his own in the waiting room, torn somewhere between being shocked and being impressed at Hermione's extensive vocabulary of curses.

……………………………………………………………………………………………...

"Your daughter, Mr. Weasley," said the midwife with a smile, holding out the tiny bundle for him to take.

He took it, gingerly, and stared at it.

"A girl," he said eventually.

"Yep," said Hermione from the bed. She was lying back against the pillows, her hair wilder than Ron had ever seen it (and that was saying something), and managing to look exhausted and thrilled at the same time.

"She needs a name," she told him as he handed over the baby and sat down beside her.

"Oh yeah."

"How about Juliet?"

"Too posh."

"Annabelle?"

"Too lah-di-dah."

"Fine then, you come up with something."

"Jake?"

"She's a girl, Ronald."

"So?"

"Jake's a boys' name."

"Oh. Right."

"Any more ideas?"

"Ben?"

"Same problem."

"Molly?"

"That's your mother's name."

"Really? Maybe that's why it sounded familiar."

"No more ideas?"

"Nope. I'm all out. Your turn 'Mione."

"Emily?"

A nose wrinkled.

"Suzanne?"

An eyebrow was raised.

"Michelle?"

A mouth twisted downwards.

"Rachel?"

An eye twitched.

"Olivia?"

A crease appeared between a pair of red eyebrows.

"Rose?"

"Is that a yes?"

Ron's supply of derogatory expressions had run out. He sighed.

"Oh all right then."

And that was how Rose Weasley came into the world.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

This story is for my friend Caoimhe, for reminding me how good R/H can be and also for writing the cutest bit of B/H ever for me, so this is my present in return. Hope you enjoyed it! But good and all as R/H can be, there's nothing like BZ/HG for a good fanfic. And I see what you mean, it really does kill to betray your ship, lol!