Ron’s Best Friend
Fourth Caper: Fetch!
It was now two weeks since Cerb was added to the Weasley Family’s Ron Branch. He had since learned to Sit, Stay, and Heel. And his mistress was positively besotted with him. His basket had already been moved to the master’s bedroom. Ron had given up. It was easier than having to carry Cerb back down to the kitchen every night. Hermione just opted to teach the puppy not to climb on the bed without invitation. He was learning.
Now it was Sunday morning. Cerb’s snores and Ron’s snores was like static in the room. Hermione woke up and giggled at the sound, burrowing deeper in their summer blanket and nuzzling her face in Ron’s chest. He grumbled and rolled away. Hermione laughed outright and slapped his bum.
“Oh no, you don’t, Ron! We have to get busy! Brunch, remember? All the family and extended family coming?”
“That’s today?” Ron groused. “I hate him right now.”
“Who?”
“Harry. He should have stayed away. Not hassling us this way.”
Hermione laughed again and propped her chin on his shoulder. “You’re the one who suggested we hold their welcome back do here. You wanted to show off your house, didn’t you? Wanted to show off your dog.”
“And my wife.”
Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled onto his cheek, kissing it. “They all know me. But that was sweet, love. I admit I like to show the house, too. We haven’t been visited officially yet after our ‘official’ wedding. It’s clever to invite them all at once already. I think Molly ” oh, hello, baby!”
Cerb had woken while they were talking and was now yipping and jumping up and down by Hermione’s side of the bed. She laughed. “You know who gives the bed permission.”
Cerb automatically bolted and skidded over to Ron’s side.
“What?” Ron said in a mock snappy tone.
Cerb quieted and sat back. And then he tilted his head to starboard.
“You are a manipulative mutt,” Ron said, exchanging a grin with Hermione, who was giggling with her chin on his shoulder once more, her arm around his waist. “Up here.”
Cerb shot to the top of the bed as if on springs.
“Eew, you have to brush, boy.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“You’ll have to be punished for such comments, Mrs Weasley.”
○0○
First to arrive were Harry and Ginny. They’d help with the brunch as it was partly Harry’s birthday party and the couple’s ‘we’re back’ thing as well. Moreover, Hermione had planned it so that Cerb wouldn’t be overwhelmed with a sudden flood of new people in his territory. It was the pup’s first introduction to socializing. Enid Buffwood didn’t count because she preferred to invite Hermione for tea rather than visit for fear of ‘intruding on a newlyweds’ love nest. I wouldn’t dream of it, dear!’ (Ron had rolled his eyes upon hearing it.)
Promptly at nine, the pleasant ‘ding-dong’ of their doorbell sounded.
“Hermione!”
“Ginny!”
“Right, ignore me.”
“Don’t be stupid, Harry,” Hermione laughed, hugging him in turn. “We missed you so much.”
“I doubt that,” Harry said flippantly, embracing her back. “Where’s Ron? I thought he’d be glaring at me by now.”
“Oh, he’s giving Cerberus a bath.”
Barks and yelps sounded from within the house.
“Oh?” Ginny looked thrilled. “Oh, this is nice, Hermione.”
They were in the sitting room then. The French windows dominating one wall were open, a perfect frame to Ron and Hermione’s little garden, letting in a soft breeze and the perfect light from the north. To downplay the brightness, the walls had garnet papering, dotted with the smallest, champagne fleurs-de-lis. The fat sofas were in teal, with pillows in red and gold patchwork damask. Walnut bookshelves flanked the deep stone hearth. There were also books on the mantel, and on the walnut end tables, and under the coffee table. “A library,” Ginny added, grinning.
Hermione grinned back. “Ron doesn’t mind. As long as I don’t ignore him too much. And I’m moving the books when we finally decide which room becomes the library and which becomes the nursery.”
“Nursery. Room beside or opposite yours, of course.”
Harry sounded awed. “Are ” are you...?”
“No, not yet. Don’t scare me unnecessarily, you prat.”
“And hello to you, too, Ron.” Ginny walked over to hug her brother, who held up a hand.
“Not yet, Ginny ””
“Ugh! You smell like a wet dog.”
“I tried to warn you,” said Ron, grinning at Harry. And then they both looked down.
Cerberus stood by Ron’s feet, still damp, but mostly dry. Still adorable, but a little wary.
“Who have you got there?” said Harry cheerily. Hermione went beside him, looping an arm around his. Ron slung an arm around Ginny likewise, showing Cerberus the new people were friends.
“That’s Cerberus. Ron got him two weeks ago. We love him.”
Cerberus looked at Hermione as she spoke and she kept her voice affectionate. Ron, keeping an arm around Ginny, steered his sister to the sofa and they all sat.
“He’s so handsome. Hi, Cerberus,” said Ginny.
“Why is he so quiet, Ron?” Hermione asked, keeping her tone jovial. It was important to let Cerberus know that his masters were not under threat or even unhappy with these ‘intruders’.
“I don’t know. You’re the one who reads the books. What do you think, Harry?”
“He’s sizing us up. Is he friendly?”
“Oh, yes, very. But this is the first time someone’s staying inside the house. Our neighbour Enid usually just pops in and out.”
“Don’t worry. He’s so well-behaved he’s not even barking at us. He just looks like a shy little boy receiving his first visit from a heretofore absentee aunt and uncle.”
“Well, you are that, I reckon,” said Ron. They laughed. “And he doesn’t bark, does he, Hermione? He just yips when he’s happy.”
As if on cue, Cerberus yipped.
“I reckon I can call him now? Cerberus, here, boy!”
Cerberus pranced to Harry. Harry let him sniff. Cerberus then let him rub and scratch.
○0○
Next came, in perfect sync, the senior Weasleys and the Grangers.
“It seems forever since I last saw you, sweet pea,” said Helen. She and Logan had been in a convention when Ron and Hermione returned from honeymoon and since then hadn’t had the opportunity until that day to see their daughter. “Oh you’ve gotten a puppy! How precious! Does he bite?”
“No, Mum, just let him observe you for a bit.” Her father was already waggling his brows at Cerberus. “Dad, don’t annoy him! Puppies are very impressionable!” Hermione then swapped with Ron (who had already showered to get rid of the wet dog smell) and hugged Molly and Arthur.
“Well, how are you, dear?” Molly gushed, looking her up and down. “You do glow.”
Hermione blushed while Arthur shook his head in sympathy.
“I’m fine, but not that fine yet.”
“Honestly, Mum! If I’d known you would be in such a rush””
Molly hit Ron upside the head before he could finish that thought. Harry and Ginny emerged for their turn at being cuddled. Molly gave a small shriek. It had been a secret between the four friends that the honeymooners were back.
Cerberus gave his first true bark then, but quieted when he saw the woman falling to an armchair, where Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all embraced her.
“Oh, stop that now; I’m not delicate, just happy! You wicked things!” Kerfuffle followed and proceeded to the kitchen, where fruit juice and cheese toasties were waiting for the parents. The Grangers had brought pastries and ice cream. Molly brought cakes and her famous mince pies, along with a baked ham. Harry and Ron worked on the brochettes and fillets on the deck off the dining room. Ginny and Hermione kept an eye on the tarts in the oven, the potatoes on the pots, and tossed salads and garnished canapés, while talking a mile a minute to their mothers.
Arthur and Logan had taken to rummaging around Ron and Hermione’s tool shed in the back; no one noticed when Cerberus wandered out to the yard and jumped over the garden paling, smack into the Apparating figures of Fred and George.
The snarling on both sides sent the people in the house running.
○0○
When Neville came, Cerberus jumped on him after only a second’s hesitation. Neville had since learnt not to stand when the dog was around.
When Luna arrived, Cerberus stared at her and then followed her everywhere, yipping happily when Luna asked him if he wanted this or that from the table or the buffet.
When Bill arrived with Fleur, Cerberus was solemn, on account of the bundle in Fleur’s arms. When that bundle began to wriggle and squeak and gurgle, Cerberus yipped again and didn’t leave Fleur’s knee, seemingly not able to get enough of little Vicky’s tugging his ears.
When Professor McGonagall came, Cerberus sat stiffly, as though knowing better than to misbehave before the stately woman. Minerva was quite charmed enough with the puppy’s comportment that she patted Cerberus whenever he left her to go back to little Vicky or follow Luna again.
He was just as friendly and accommodating to everyone else... except the twins.
“He’s taken a grudge against you,” Ron said to them, happily.
“Shame. We were thinking to have a new line, dog treats, you know,” Fred enunciated loudly. Cerberus only turned up his nose and went over to Minerva, who was chatting with Helen by a hydrangea bush.
The rest of the women were all cooing over Vicky, who was eighteen months old and growing. She was a little cranky because of a tooth emerging, but seemed to forget her discomfort when there was a delicious finger available from one of her admirers.
“She disdains her teething ring. I think per’aps Fred and George should make a flesh-flavoured one,” Fleur said, making the twins choke on their tarts, in glee or revulsion, no one dared ask.
“You have to let us baby-sit now and then. For practice. I’m sure you need some time off for yourself, Fleur. Bill, too. The two of you together!” Hermione wasn’t looking at them though; she was blowing wet raspberries in Vicky’s neck. The baby was giggling loudly. Cerberus watched avidly, probably wondering at this hairless creature his mistress was cuddling.
“Well...” Bill grinned.
“Hermione just probably wants to baby-train their dog,” Fred put in.
Cerberus growled at him.
“Can dogs be baby-trained, really?” Fleur asked, taking her child away from Hermione, who wiped her saliva-slick finger on her napkin, looking put out at the loss of the baby.
“Yes. Honestly, Fred, if you knew so much about dogs, why does Cerb hate you?”
Fred placed a greasy hand over her mouth. “Don’t establish it in his mind, Hermione.”
Helen returned to the table just then. “Dears, I’m absolutely ashamed, but we do have another engagement, I’m afraid. It’s been lovely. I hope we get together again like this soon.”
“Oh yes, I’ve decided we have brunch on each of their houses every year. The rest are in ours every Sunday. You should come, Helen.”
“I don’t know, Mum, me and Fred don’t know how to execute this brunch thing ourselves yet,” George said.
“Oh, I’d love to! And I want to host a brunch myself and have you all. Just another of these engagements and your father and I could retire, Hermione.”
“Really?” Hermione asked blithely. Helen blushed. Hermione and Ron exchanged private smirks. Molly bustled up from the table and wrapped up some of the food for the couple. Logan loved Molly’s ham. Helen had long accepted defeat in that arena of baking. Both women dropped morsels to Cerberus, ignoring Ron and Hermione’s protests.
“Now, how do you baby-train a dog, exactly?” Arthur asked after the Grangers had been warmly sent off.
“I’ve heard about that one, it’s like horse whispering; only you let the baby wail in the dog’s ears instead. It teaches them not to harm the baby for dread of that wailing.”
“That’s interesting, Luna,” Ginny said with emphatic interest. The others carefully avoided catching each others’ eyes. Ron and Harry snorted into their salads. Neville coughed and mumbled about bell peppers. Minerva hummed.
“Yes, well, what I’ve read was a little different,” Hermione said. “They’re just simple things that reinforce to the dog to be gentle and tolerant to children. Like letting a child add food to the dog’s dish, so that if ever a child reaches into the bowl, the dog won’t be on the offensive, because he knows that his food is actually increased when this happens.”
“That’s clever,” Fleur said, exchanging a look with Bill.
“Watch me.” Hermione picked a piece of sausage from a kebab skewer and called Cerberus. “Gently!” Hermione intoned. Cerberus daintily picked the food from her fingers without his mouth touching her.
“Oh, what a good boy!” Arthur scratched Cerb behind the ears and patted his rump.
“It took some time to teach him that,” Ron said proudly. “We just don’t give him the treat if he leaps at it or grabs at it with his mouth. And we yelp and don’t cuddle him for a time. It shows him we don’t approve of grabbing.”
“So it’s safe for a child to give him treats. You have given this a lot of thought, dears.”
“Well, you know I married a witch organized to a fault, Mum.”
Before anyone could say a word of protest or agreement, Ron kissed Hermione.
○0○
“Taught him any tricks yet?” George asked.
“Not yet. And before you get any ideas, we’re not teaching him any until he’s fully house trained,” Hermione said in passing.
“Yeah, teach him not to jump over the garden paling, for instance.”
“Good point.”
“And to wake Ron at six in the morning on the dot.”
“Oi!”
“Call him.”
“Why?”
Fred took a velvety red ball from his pocket.
Ron grinned. “Don’t demonstrate, please. I do make Cerb fetch sometimes.”
“Do you want your dog hating your favourite brothers, huh? What if there’s an emergency and we can’t get to you or Hermione because he’s threatening us with his bad breath? Go on, call him and let us play with him.”
Cerb trotted over at Ron’s call. The puppy stubbornly kept his eyes on his master rather than the man with the ball, though his head did bob in time with the ball’s bounce.
Fred and George exchanged grins. “This dog is a Weasley, alright. Come on, Cerb, look, you like this? You like this?” Fred waved the ball before the dog’s eyes. “What a squishy, squishy ball, see? And it’s squeaky!”
At Fred’s squeeze, the ball did squeak. Cerb’s head snapped to its direction, and his tongue lolled out before his mouth closed in concentration, his eyes blinking at the ball.
“That’s a good boy, now... fetch!”
Fred rolled the ball on the grass of the yard. Cerberus reared back to streak after it, but didn’t. Instead, he turned back to Fred, followed the ball with its eyes until it rested against Neville’s loafer and looked at Fred again.
Ron was laughing. “Oh, Cerb! I’m so proud of you!”
“Are you sure you taught him how to fetch?” George asked indignantly (Fred was speechless). Cerberus looked up at him, head tilted to one side. “What? Why don’t you get it?”
“What’s going on? Why don’t Cerb get what?” Hermione was back on their corner of the yard.
“Fred... He tossed a ball, but Cerb’s not going after it...” Ron said in between hearty sniggers. But at that moment, Cerberus ran to the ball. They watched eagerly. Cerb ignored Luna’s petting and pawed the ball. He poked at it several times before he finally took it between his jaws.
“Merlin,” Fred and George were awed.
“Did you see that, Hermione?” Ron was jubilant. “It looks like Cerberus remembers the sundae.”
“The what?”
Before Ron could answer, Cerberus was back. He eyed Fred and George smugly and then delivered the ball to Ron’s lap.
Ron shared a pleased look with Hermione. “I’ll tell you later.”
Author’s Notes: I always seem to apologize now when updating this! I’m so sorry. October’s been a hectic month, what with my RL writing and stuff and a holiday with my cousins. I thought I’ll get some fanfic writing done, but what I managed to get down were just more plot bunnies and some scenes... Whew!
Anyway, doggie notes: Puppies from pet shops (like Cerb) are usually friendly, but once in a territory (which is what they consider their homes), they become protective of that territory, hence the barking and suspicion against strangers. It’s this trait we found to our advantage in taking dogs as pets and protectors.
While the dog is still young, make sure he gets used to visits from a variety of people. And encourage the visitors to bring their own pets, even. Show your puppy the visitors are friends, and he will also treat them as such. Make him learn that once a person is invited inside, he should be hospitable to that person.
Dogs that don’t get enough socializing when young become aggressive and unfriendly when older, the kind you have to lock in a cage when there are visitors around.
Cerb jumping Neville here is bad. But we’ll deal with that later on, or maybe not, hehe. Personally, I love dogs that jump at you in greeting. As long as they’re clean (muddy paws ruin clothes, of course!) and not too big to knock me over! ^_^ What about you?