Family-induced phobias (was Other Weasleys (Percy, Fred))

[Amanda Lewanski]

I moved this over from the main post.

catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk wrote:

> 2) Didn't Fred turn Ron's teddy into a spider because Ron had broken
> his toy broom?  I can't for the life of me find the quote, but I am
> sure it's in CoS somewhere.  I actually side with Ron on this one. My
> evil younger brother used to take great delight in collecting the
> largest, hairiest spiders he could find in our out buildings, in a
> bucket, and throwing at them.  I am very phobic of spiders as a
> result, and have never truly forgiven him for it.

This reminded me. For many years I was unable to go to sleep with my
back to the room (as opposed to the wall), because once my oldest
brother hid under the bed and when I got up on it, he reached up from
underneath to grab me. Scared the you-know-what out of me. [Made worse
by the other brother pointing out, when I said I was safe by the wall,
that some monsters had lots of arms like octopuses, and they could come
up from any side. I was still betting on the wall being the safest,
though.] It wasn't until my teen years, when my bed was box springs and
a mattress on the floor, that my subconscious got the message that there
was no "under the bed" there, and I could sleep facing away from the
room. [Due to this incident *and* a scary short story I read in college,
I *still* won't sleep with anything dangling over the side.....]

Ah, family. What fun.

--Amanda
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