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QLFC / Round 8: Captain - The Wonderful World of Headcanons: As an adult, Ron's Boggart changes from that of spiders to living life without his kids.

Monthly Oneshot Exchange / September: for Fire the Canon. Prompts used: Ron Weasley, Ron/Rose (platonic), (word) longing, (genre) Family

Word Count: 1,753

"Dad."

Ron turned his head to the sound of the familiar voice, but it still seemed miles away. He was trapped in a narrow acre of darkness, unable to see anything around him. All he knew was that he was alone—completely and utterly alone.

"Dad."

The voice was louder now, and something was jerking his arm. He looked down, and saw a small, pale white hand clenched around his bicep. "Open your eyes!"

Ron's eyes fluttered open suddenly, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Rose's heart-shaped face loomed into view, her brown eyes flickering across his face worriedly. "Rosie," he murmured, struggling to sit up. "What are you doing up?" He looked over at the clock beside the bed, the hands of which pointed to three in the morning.

"I could hear you shouting in your sleep again," Rose said quietly. Her big eyes were watery, as though she was on the brink of tears. "You were crying for me, and Hugo, and...Mum."

Ron looked down at Rose's hand, which was still clasped over his arm, and patted it gently. "It was just a nightmare, love. I have them sometimes."

"What was it about this time?"

"I'm not sure," Ron lied. He remembered being alone more than anything. "I don't always remember my dreams."

"Mum says you're having nightmares because of the Boggart in the cabinet downstairs," Rose said, confirming that she had been talking to Hermione about his sleep troubles. "She said that if it's a strong one, it will be feeding off your fear and causing you bad dreams."

Ron resisted the urge to chastise Rose for telling his ex-wife all about his nightmares. Even though he knew that Hermione was probably just trying to help, he couldn't help but imagine her sniggering to herself about his bad dreams.

"Can you get rid of it in the morning, Dad?" Rose pressed, her face beginning to glow through the darkness. "Hugo hasn't come around for the last few weeks because he gets scared when he hears it rattling."

The thought of his son not coming home to see him because of something Ron was failing to get rid of made his heart hurt. He nodded and gave Rose another pat on the arm. "I'll make sure I do it straight after breakfast, Rosie," he promised. "Now, get back to bed and try and get another few hours of sleep."

oOo

Apparently, Rose didn't sleep much, as by six o'clock, Ron was awoken by the sound of dishes clattering deliberately loud, and his daughter whistling a tune as loud as her lungs would allow her. He recognised this tactic to get him out of bed—it was a trick that she had learned from her mother.

He climbed out of bed, groaning inwardly, and pulled his dressing gown around him, leaving his bed unmade as he headed downstairs. Rose was eating a bowl of cornflakes at the table, and she pulled a false shocked face. "You're up early, Dad."

"Well, I wasn't going to sleep through that racket you were making." Ron elbowed Rose playfully as he walked past her and looked at the box of cereal on the kitchen counter. Just as he was about to reach for a clean bowl and pour his own breakfast, an angry rattling echoed from the living room. Rose flinched, spilling milk down her chin.

Ron rolled his eyes. He'd been putting off getting rid of the Boggart for weeks, mainly because the thought of the giant, hairy legs that were guaranteed to slip out of the cabinet made him cringe. It had been many years since he last saw an Acromantula, but Boggarts always took that form around him.

His wand slipped from his dressing gown sleeve and landed in his palm, and Rose eyed it nervously. "You're going to get rid of it now?" she said, surprised. "You really should have breakfast first."

"I'd rather get it over and done with," Ron replied grimly.

"Can I watch?" Rose asked, her eyes suddenly lighting up. "Oh, please, Dad—I've been dying to see one."

"You know you won't actually see what it looks like, don't you?" Ron told her. "The Boggart will just show up as a massive spider when I open the cabinet door."

"Well, I've never seen one of those either," said Rose with a grin.

"Fine," Ron sighed, defeated. "Let's go."

oOo

Ron glanced back at Rose as he gripped the cabinet handle. "Stay out of the way now, Rosie," he said. "Hopefully, I can get this over and done with quickly." His stomach growled suddenly. "Then, I can actually eat some breakfast."

Rose stood obediently by the door, watching eagerly.

Taking a deep breath, Ron pulled the door of the cabinet open quickly and backed away, holding his wand out defensively. The cabinet creaked and groaned in answer and started to rattle dully. He waited for the inevitable hairy, spidery leg to creep around the edge of the door...

But it never came. Instead, a set of long, pale fingers stretched and curled around the cabinet. Ron furrowed his brow, feeling confusion rise like bile in his throat.

A denim-clad leg stepped out next, followed by the torso of a tall figure with a mop of red hair. He lifted his head, and Ron was suddenly looking back into his own eyes.

Boggart-Ron closed the cabinet door and reached behind him, pulling out a flat, wooden object. He unfolded it, revealing a battered old chessboard, and set it down on the floor, sitting on one side of it.

The black pieces appeared one by one on Boggart-Ron's side of the board, but no white pieces. He stared back at Ron silently and unmoving.

"R...ridi…" Ron started, but he was still in shock. Where was the spider?

"I don't understand," Rose whispered from behind him. "You're afraid of playing chess?"

"No, Rosie," Ron replied. He understood. Ron rarely played Wizard's Chess nowadays, unless he was playing with Rose or Hugo. His Boggart had taken the form of him playing chess alone. "R-riddikulus!"

The Boggart-Ron burst into a plume of black smoke as Ron's spell hit it in the chest, and Ron waited for it to take on a more ridiculous appearance. However, the smoke began to stretch and take form once again, becoming more humanoid.

The figure was smaller and thinner this time, taking on womanly curves and a thick mane of hair. Features of a familiar face slid across the blank, smokey figure.

"Mum," Rose's voice was barely a whisper.

Hermione didn't look like Hermione at all. Her face was stern and cruel, her brown eyes glittering with a menace that Ron had never seen before. Her lips were twisted into a smirk, and she held out her hands either side of her. Two more smaller figures sprang from her palms, and each took the shape of Rose and Hugo, holding hands with their mother.

"I'm leaving you, Ronald." Boggart-Hermione's voice was ethereal and echoey. "I'm taking Rose and Hugo with me. You'll never see your children again."

"No…" Ron murmured, staring back into the eyes of his wife.

"We don't love you, Dad," Boggart-Rose continued. "We only pretended to for Mum's sake."

"We'll be glad when we don't have to spend anymore time with you," said Boggart-Hugo.

"See, Ronald?" Boggart-Hermione sneered. "They hate you, and you won't see them ever again. Goodbye, Ron."

Ron's eyes prickled with tears. The spell was on the edge of his tongue, but he couldn't seem to get it past his lips.

Suddenly, Boggart-Hermione opened her mouth as wide as she could, and a giant, ugly brown bug began to slither out. Ron recoiled in disgust and watched as the image of Hermione and his children transformed into that of a huge, twitching cockroach.

"RIDDIKULUS!" Rose screamed, from right beside him. She had burst onto the scene, her wand outstretched. The cockroach grew bigger and shinier, its skin shifting from brown to a bright, translucent green. It had turned into a huge, cockroach-shaped balloon. Rose reached forward and stabbed the end of her wand through the body of the balloon.

It burst with a shriek, the pieces of balloon evaporating into small trails of smoke and vanishing into the air. Ron crumpled to the floor and Rose fell to her knees beside him.

"Dad," she murmured, wrapping her arms around her father's shoulders. "You're scared that Mum is going to take me and Hugo away from you?"

"I didn't think I was afraid of losing you," Ron replied quietly. "But that's what the Boggart does; it turns into your deepest, darkest fears."

Rose leaned back and thumped Ron on the arm playfully. "You're stupid, you know?" she exclaimed. "Even though you're not together anymore, Mum still loves you. She'd never stop you from seeing us. And that Boggart was just trying to stop you from getting rid of it—surely you don't really think we don't love you?"

Ron smiled weakly. "Of course not, Rosie." He looked back at the cabinet, the door of which was still hanging open. "At least the Boggart is gone now." He glanced down at his watch. "And just in time for breakfast."

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