Written for the 1991 Challenge (Ron Weasley, sad)

Written for the Mother's Day Competition (MollyRon)

Sniffles and Snuffles

Tapping gently on the half open bedroom door, Molly Weasley poked her head into the messy bedroom. Where she had expected to find her son, she instead found a rather large lump of blankets and covers which made noises that sounded like crying.

Smiling to herself, she moved into the room. "Ron?" she asked cautiously.

There was movement from beneath the covers and a sniffle to indicate the youngest Weasley boy's presence.

Sitting carefully on the edge of his bed, she found where his back was and placed a hand there. Affectionately, she began to rub his back. "Are you going to tell me what the matter is, Ron?"

Her only response was more sniffling.

"Ron, you must tell me the problem so we can sort it out."

She expected another sniff, but instead her four-year-old son removed the covers from his head to stare at his mother with red eyes.

"Fred and George are mean!" he accused flatly.

Molly nodded solemnly, expecting him to say something about his brothers. Poor Ron, Fred and George really did choose him as their target. She had asked them not to, but they ignored her.

"What did they do this time, dear?" she questioned with a soothing tone. The twins had left the house pretty quickly to play outside now that she thought about it.

Ron sat up to look at his mother with red, teary eyes. He sniffed again, wiping his nose with his sheets. Then from under them he extracted a teddy bear. It was rather old and worn now, but Ron loved the thing. He always kept it close by.

"They… they t-turned i-it into a-a s-sp-pider," he wailed.

"Your bear?" Molly asked.

Ron nodded. "A big, scary spider! They said they wanted to fix him, but they turned it into a spider!" Where he had once looked at the comfort toy affectionately, he now regarded it with a hint of fear.

Molly sighed. "That is very mean of them, Ron," she said. "I'll be talking to them."

Ron sniffed. "They'll be in trouble?" he asked.

"Quite a bit," Molly assured him. "They shouldn't have done what they did."

This seemed to satisfy Ron somewhat, for his eyes brightened. He passed the bear over to his mother.

"You can keep it, dear," she said.

Ron shook his head. "No, I don't want it," he informed her.

Molly accepted the offer of the bear with a feeling of sadness in her heart. It had always brought a smile to her whenever she saw her youngest son with it. Now, one incident had taken that innocence away from him.

"Well, I'll leave it in my bedroom and if you ever want it back you just need to ask."

Ron nodded.

Molly smiled. "Come here, dear." She gathered her son into her arms, stroking his red hair and removing the knots with her fingers. Without a word she kissed his forehead and held him even tighter.

"No matter what," she said, "I'll always look after you, Ron. I'll always protect you. I love you."

Ron wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face into her.

There, they both stayed for a very long time.

I've always avoided writing Ron as a little kid for some reason, so this was my first attempt. I hope I did well, and you all enjoyed reading it!