Silence
Rating: PG
Summary: It's never quiet in the Weasley household.
Characters: All Weasley children, Molly Weasley.
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
A/N: Myeh, this isn't my best work but I thought it was quite sweet. I should really pluck at it but this was only supposed to be a collection of oneshots to quash my own boredom and nitpicking it just doesn't seem appealing. However it is spellchecked and grammar checked, but Microsoft Word is kinda crap so excuse me for any mistakes.
The noise rattled the windows, shook the ceilings and disconcerted the chickens pecking around in the flowerbeds outside the house, causing them flap around clucking incessantly. The creature wailed and screamed and bellowed.
Molly Weasley was at the end of her tether. You'd think after six boys one little infant girl would have been a cinch. But Merlin's beard did that baby have a set of lungs on her. And Molly could not, for the life of her, figure out what was wrong.
Feeding, changing, burping, rocking, singing, hugging and playing had all failed and Molly was quickly running out of solutions. She scooped up the wailing child and hurried downstairs to the kitchen where she found five filthy little boys. Four of them had huge, cheeky grins spread across grubby, freckled faces but the fifth looked furious, struggling to hold a hysterically giggling mud ball. On closer inspection the mud ball was in fact Molly's youngest son.
"What!" she shrieked "Have you been doing to your brother!"
"We were rolling down the hill and Percy and Ron wanted to join in." said the eldest, Bill, matter-of-factly.
"I did not!" cried the bespectacled boy, Percy, still trying to hold his squirming baby brother. "They pushed us down."
The grins promptly vanished from the other boys faces.
Molly felt the beginnings of a migraine.
"Okay, that's it!" she cried, whipping out her wand and siphoning the worst of the mud off her filthy sons, whilst balancing the screaming baby girl on her left arm. "All of you are taking a bath!" The baby let out a particularly loud shriek causing the children to grimace and stuff their filthy digits into their ears, excluding Percy who was still battling with his hysterically giggling one-year-old brother. "I'm going to go and run the bath!" Molly roared over the screaming, complaining and giggling.
Unfortunately "Running the bath" in the Weasley household consisted of plonking the two eldest boys, Charlie and Bill, of eight and ten in the bath, finding the biggest basin she could for the twin toddlers, Fred and George and that usually meant popping Percy in the nearest, suitable cooking pot and Ron, the infant, wherever he would fit. Goodness knows where she was going to bathe her only daughter.
"Here, hold Ginny!" She thrust the screaming baby into the hands of Bill, and whipped out of the room, wand in hand, she paused poking her head around the door, briefly. "Don't." she pointed a single threatening finger at them and with that, disappeared up the crooked stairs.
Bill held his bellowing sister at arms length and grimaced. His brothers all looked on with a mixture of curiosity and distain.
"No!" cried Ron proudly.
His brother's ignored this.
"Bill, get her to shut up!" cried Charlie, his hands clamped over his ears, his nose wrinkled.
"Sshhh, Ginny!" whispered Bill. And to the small boys' utter astonishment the screaming stopped. They stared at the suddenly silent baby and she stared back through huge, shimmering blue eyes. Bill poked her gently in the stomach and she laughed waving her chubby arms around, desperately trying to reach her brother's face.
Bill's arms relaxed and he gathered her into his arms properly, rocking her slightly, a smug look on his face.
"She likes me best." He grinned.
"Let me hold her!" demanded Charlie. Bill reluctantly handed over the giggling baby. Charlie took her tenderly and smiled at her. "She's really cute when she's not screaming."
The twins stood on their tip-toes trying to see their baby sister properly, as soon as the infant saw their inquisitive faces she screamed with laughter. Two identical grins spread over the twins faces.
"She thinks we're funny." Grinned Fred triumphantly. "Told you me and George are funny, Percy."
"You two aren't funny, you're stupid." Retorted Percy as if it was common knowledge.
"Bill, hold Ron, I want to hold Ginny."
"Ew, he's all wet."
"S'your fault!"
Ron chuckled.
Molly stood back, hands on hips and counted the array of water filled basins, bowls, baths and pots around her. Heating the water just right was always trying, but at least the sound of running liquid was relaxing and drowned out the sound of…Molly flinched. There was total silence. There had not been total silence in the Weasley household for ten years. A series of horrible images flitted through her head. Panic gripped her as she flew down the stairs and skidded into the kitchen, heart thundering in her chest, only to find Ginny sound asleep in the arms of Percy, surrounded by the rest of her boys who all had their grubby fingers pressed to their lips motioning for her to keep silent.
It was honestly the weirdest moment Molly had ever witnessed.
She shook her head slightly and softly approached the children, scooping the snoozing infant from Percy's arms.
"Good boys." She whispered, smiling. "Now go and have your baths, you're all filthy. Bill, give me Ron and I'll bathe him in the sink, off you go." The children trekked upstairs obediently, trailing dark brown mud over the carpet.
Molly smiled proudly after them.
"No!" bellowed Ron.
There was a short silence and then Ginny started screaming.