Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long, been busy starting back at Uni. Here's Arthur and Ron's heart to heart, enjoy :)
Molly had told him, when he got angry at the fact that the children listened to him better than their mother, that it often happened when a father worked while a mother looked after the children.
You see when Molly was there all day telling them 'not to do that' and to 'please for once in your life just behave' her children gained, what she liked to call 'selective hearing'.
Once they realised that they were going to be given any kind of warning or even just advice they turned on their selective hearing and refused to take in any of what was said. While when Arthur walked through the door of an evening he was greeted as a hero, he hadn't been there all day to tell them off, therefore they only associated Arthur with bedtime cuddles and funny work stories. Which, inevitably, meant that Arthur was always the one that the kids listened to when it came to being truly told off or when it came for a serious conversation with a child. The most famous account of which had been the great spider-teddy bear incident of '83 (he could still remember the terror and shock on his poor sons' faces).
Anyhow, this all meant that Arthur had been forced into the task of convicing his lovestruck teenager to spend nearly a year uninterrupted apart from his emotionally scarred other half. A task which Arthur truly thought was destined to fail at miserably.
He found Ron's bedroom door ajar and, upon further inspection, saw him to be reading a book. This alone was enough to convince Arthur it was going to be a tough conversation - he hadn't seen Ron pick up a book of his own accord since he was six or seven.
Arthur knocked on the open door regardless.
Ron flinched slightly before relaxing at the realisation that it was his father. He gave a small smile and placed the book down strategically behind him before Arthur could catch the title.
"What are you reading?" Arthur asked, acting as though he had no idea that Ron was hiding the book from him for some reason.
"Er, nothing. Well, I mean it is a book but, I mean it's just some muggle book I picked up when Hermione took me to the library, did you know they had them too? Except they have these computing things that tell you where your book is, it's pretty cool." Ron babbled nervously.
Arthur, as always playing the clueless parent, asked in the most innocent voice he could, "Wow! A real muggle book, could I see it?"
Ron went red almost instantly, Arthur could see his brain running at a million miles an hour trying to figure out a way in which he could get out of doing so. Finally after apparently exhausting all his options - one of which Arthur was sure involved throwing the book out of the window , at least if the way his eyes darted towards it meant anything - Ron sighed picking the book up and handing it to his father.
Arthur smiled encouragingly before glancing down at the book. At first he thought Ron was embarrassed because the cover was rather feminine, however when he saw the title, he fell into confusion.
'Loving your long-distance relationship'
Arthur realised that maybe this conversation wouldn't be so hard after all. He looked down at his son, who was fiddling with his hands.
"Is she going back then?" Arthur queried, sitting next to Ron on the bed.
It took him a few moments to answer.
"I - I think, I mean..." he sighed, "It's not that I want her to go so much as, I need her to finish school, I mean she should have that at least. After all they took from us I can't let them take that. She loved school, it's such a big part of her and I'll miss her so much but I need her to do this, she needs it to heal I think. I don't really know, she says she doesn't want to because it'll bring back memories and she doesn't think she can do it without us but... I mean, she's amazing, she can do anything."
He paused for a while and Arthur let him think.
"I'd go with her, regardless of how much I would hate it, but I think she needs to do it alone, and I guess I'm not really strong enough to. I don't think I would handle it very well.
Arthur was shocked to say the least. He couldn't believe how much his volatile son, who was sometimes not always the most selfless of people, had matured into such an amazing young man. His eyes started to water at the sight of him there, looking all hopeless.
"Ronnie. Your mum told me to convince you to let Hermione go back, but... You constantly amaze me you know that?"
Ron looked really rather confused, and Arthur almost laughed.
"You have managed to become everything we hoped you would and more. I don't really know how we don't expect this level of maturity and thoughtfulness by now." Arthur found that he couldn't express himself, so he reached out and hugged his son.
Ron squeezed him tight and by the time they pulled away they were both fighting tears.
"You'll be fine you know?" Arthur said, "You and Hermione I mean."
Ron looked back to the book.
"You don't need that, although I am impressed by the dedication, but Hermione has waited four years for you, I'm pretty sure you can handle a year apart. What with all of the re-building needing to be done, it'll go fairly quickly."
"I s'pose." Ron mumbled.
"Trust me." Arthur couldn't help himself adding, "I'm willing to bet she'll be a Weasley in a couple of years."
"DAD!" Ron was obviously shocked at hearing something like that come out of his father and not his mother's mouth.
Arthur laughed all the way down to the kitchen where his wife was waiting, hands on hips.
"Well?" She sounded frantic.
"I think they'll be just fine." Arthur smiled as out of the window he saw the future Hermione Weasley walk down the path.
Hope you liked it! As always thank you for the patience and lovely reviews. The next one will see the Weasley's perspective on an argument between the pair. I'm sure you can guess what it's about from this chapter :)