For Fire The Canon (Ash) who turns 21 today! Happy Birthday Ashy and may you have many more!

i'll always be here for you

Ron shielded his eyes against the light as it pushed its way through the curtains and pried his eyes open. He turned over with a grunt to look at the alarm clock on his bedside table. 9:34AM. He turned back over onto his back and glanced sideways at the cold empty spot that Hermione occupied. It had only been three days since Hermione had bade Ron, Rose and Hugo farewell and headed off to visit her parents in Sydney. Ron wished that he could've gone with her, but there was a reason why Ron didn't go to Australia every summer and that reason was aeroplanes. He hated the damn things. They were small, cramped and Ron couldn't find anything scarier than a big, chunky metal thing that flew without any aid of magic. It could crash any second!

His wife and children found his fear of the things amusing but Ron was genuinely scared of them… even the immense fatigue that followed international apparition would be better than getting on an aeroplane.

Ron sighed and sat up in bed, thinking that he should probably go downstairs and eat something before his stomach ate itself as his normal breakfast time was sometime around the ungodly hour of four thirty in the morning when he had to leave for work.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed his feet were met with a sticky substance. Ron made a disgusted noise as he looked down to see his feet covered in honey.

"Damnit Hugo!" Ron cursed, wondering to himself for the fifth time since Hugo's boyfriend Daniel had arrived to sleep over why he had decided to say yes. He knew what mischief the two of them would get up to. He could only hope that Rosie didn't wake up with honey smeared through her hair, but knowing Hugo and Daniel that was probably the case.

Ron reached for his wand, careful not to get any honey on his pyjama bottoms, and cleared away the honey with one wave of his wand. Checking the rest of the room to make sure that Hugo and Daniel hadn't rigged up any more booby traps while he was sleeping, he deemed it safe to walk downstairs and eat breakfast.

Arriving in the kitchen, he could see that someone had been there before him, and that someone definitely wasn't Rose. Rose actually knew how to make pancakes and she most certainly wouldn't have left the kitchen in the state it was in. Ron shook his head at the spilled packet of flour and the eggshell on the bench with the yolk slowly dripping onto the floor. He waved his wand at it and watched as the kitchen ordered itself once more. He sometimes wished that his children could use magic outside of school, because it would make his job tidying up after them a hell of a lot easier.

He had just started making himself some tea – a rarity since he normally had to have a coffee to even wake him up even slightly in the mornings when Rose walked into the kitchen, looking very tired and very grumpy.

"Did the boys get to you as well last night Rosie?" Ron asked with a bemused smile, looking for any traces of honey in Rose's bushy hair, which stuck out to ten times its normal width in the mornings.

"What?" Rose snapped, "No they tried to but I was awake. Hugo will probably have a bruise the size of a golf ball on his cheek this morning; I got quite a good hit in."

"Rose!" Ron said, half amused, half disapproving, "You know I don't approve of you hitting your brother even if he does deserve it."

A smile broke through Rose's irritated expression, "He really does deserve it most of the time doesn't he."

Ron pretended to ponder this statement, "Some of the time," he said, "Tea?"

"Thanks," Rose said as Ron waved his wand at the kettle, boiling another cup of tea for Rose as she set about pulling out bread and jam to make her toast.

"So," Ron said as he leant against the bench and observed his daughter, there was something off about her. She wasn't a morning person, just like him, but she was always very gentle and when she slammed the jam jar down on the kitchen bench, Ron started to worry, "What's up?"`

"Nothing," Rose said and Ron noticed that her teeth were clenched together, almost as if she was refraining from punching in a wall.

"Rosie," he said, raising an eyebrow at her, "You can talk to me about anything, you know."

"It's nothing Dad, really, I didn't sleep well last night."

"Really?" Ron inquired, "then why do you look like you want to punch someone's lights out, and why in the name of merlin do your knuckles bruised, you can't have punched Hugo that hard."

Rose started spreading her jam more viciously as Ron said these words.

"Rosie – "

"He broke up with me!" Rose yelled, "That's why I'm pissed off. He. Broke. Up. With. Me," she said, enunciating every word through her teeth. Ron felt his mouth drop open as Rose stood in front of him, seething angrily.

"What?" Ron said in disbelief, "Scorpius broke up with you?"

"Yes," Rose said angrily, starting to spread jam on her second piece of toast and Ron saw angry tears spring to her eyes, "He wrote to me last night and told me that he didn't think it could work because his parents didn't like me and that they were threatening to kick him out for and I told him that he could come here, I told him a million times but he kept making excuses so I told him to go and think on whether he really wanted to be in a relationship with me and he wrote back at like three in the morning and told me that he fucking didn't!" Before Ron knew what was happening, Rose had picked up the plate on which she was making her toast and hurled it at the wall opposite, where it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

"That's it," Ron said, turning around and storming out into the hall towards the front door, grabbing his coat as he went, "I'm going to go and beat the shit out of that little arse."

"Dad, no!" Rose yelled after him, "You'll just make it worse."

"Rosie, he's been treating you like shit for the past three months and now he's gone and broken up with you by letter at three in the morning!" Ron protested, "I am going to that bloody mansion and I'm going to beat the living daylights out of that kid who dared to call himself your boyfriend and anyone who stands in my way."

"Dad will you just think about what you're doing?!" Rose yelled as Hugo and Daniel came down the stairs, wondering what all of the yelling was about."

"What's happening?" Hugo asked with a bemused expression on his face.

"Fuck off Hugo!" Rose yelled, turning around and giving her brother the finger.

"Shit, sorry," Hugo said, taking a step back and putting his hands up in the air in surrender.

"Scorpius just broke up with Rosie," Ron seethed, "I'm going to go and kill him," he tried to make for the door a second time but Rose grabbed his arm again.

"Dad just stop! You do this and he'll know that I'm upset, I can't have him knowing that!"

"Yeah, Dad you should probably take a second to cool off," Hugo said apprehensively. Ron looked from his son to his daughter and back again before his eyes landed on Daniel who shrugged.

"Fine," he said, shrugging off his coat and walking back into the kitchen. He heard Hugo tell Rose and Daniel to wait outside and he heard his son's footsteps follow him into the kitchen.

"Dad," Hugo said, "You can't just fly off the handle like that and threaten to kill Rose's boyfriends every time they break up with her. It doesn't help at all."

"When you have children, you'll understand that when someone hurts your child, you want to hurt them just as much back," Ron said, blue eyes boring into chocolate brown.

"Yeah Dad, I get all that, I want to kill him too, but killing Scorpius isn't going to help Rose feel better. Just sit her down and make her hot chocolate and comfort her," Hugo said.

"Hugo can you stop," Ron said.

"I'm just trying to help you to help her," Hugo said defensively

"Because you're reminding me a little too much of your mother," Ron said.

Hugo grinned, "Well at least I'm not adopted."

Ron rolled his eyes and clapped his son on the back, "I'd make you food but I saw that you and Dan decided that you'd have your own little feast."

Hugo blushed as Ron left the kitchen.

"Where's Rose?" Ron asked Daniel as they passed each other in the hall.

"She ran up to her room," Daniel said. Ron thanked him and hurried up the stairs, wondering where he would be now if Hugo hadn't talked some sense into him. Merlin he was rubbish without Hermione there to guide him. Hermione would've known what to do in this situation.

"Rosie?" he said, knocking lightly on Rose's bedroom door. The sniffling from inside stopped abruptly and Ron heard footsteps as the door swung open in front of him to reveal a puffy eyed Rose.

"You okay?" he asked as Rose walked back over to her bed and threw herself back onto it face first. It was a stupid question, he knew that, but what else was he supposed to ask? He sat down on the side of Rose's bed and rubbed her back, just like he used to do when she was little and had hurt herself falling over.

"I know you're upset Rosie," Ron said, "But it'll be okay eventually."

"No it won't," Rose sobbed into her pillow, "It won't Dad, because I have to see him every single day at Hogwarts after the holidays," she sat up, tears spilling down her cheeks, "he is in literally every single one of my classes! I can't escape it!"

Ron pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around him and cried into his shoulder. Ron stroked her hair as she cried and couldn't help but notice a screwed up piece of parchment that was thrown away in the bin beside Rose's desk and he felt a rush of hate towards Scorpius Malfoy, the boy who had dared to break Rose's heart.

"I really loved him Dad," Rose said, pulling back from the hug, "But I guess he didn't love me."

Ron looked at his daughter sympathetically, "Oh Rosie," he said, taking her hand in his, "I'm sure he did love you, but things change, friends leave and you know what, life doesn't stop for anybody. He wasn't the one you were destined to be with but there are plenty of fish in the sea Rosie, you'll find someone."

"But I wanted it to be him," Rose said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"I know," Ron said, "I know."

"Sorry about this Dad," Rose said, sniffling slightly, "I'm a mess."

"Rosie," Ron said with a soft smile, "You're allowed to be a mess sometimes."

A slight smile broke through her face and Ron was overjoyed to see the corners of her mouth turn upwards, "Thank you," she said, pulling him into a hug.

"It's okay," Ron said, "Shall I go and make you some tea, or would you like something stronger?"

Rose laughed, "Something stronger please," she joked.

Ron grinned and put on his best barman voice, "Sorry miss, we seem to be out of the firewhiskey, would you like a cup of tea?"

Rose giggled, "Yes please."

"Coming right up," Ron said, standing up and making for the door.

"Dad," Rose said from behind him and Ron turned around.

"Yeah sweetie?"

"Thanks… for being there for me," she said, blushing slightly.

"I'm your Dad, Rosie, I'll always be there for you, remember that." Ron smiled back at her before turning and walking out of the room.

AN: I hope you enjoyed it Ash! Happy birthday again and I hope you have a great day!

DFTBA,
Best Wishes

~The Original Horcrux~