I do not own Harry Potter...etc

Molly smoothed her green dress down in a nervous gesture and examined herself closer in the mirror. After a year of dating he could still make her nervous so she tried extra hard before each of their dates. Her family was not overly pleased with her choice, they had their hearts set on Arthur Weasley, but Arthur was her best friend not the love of her life. Molly gave a final twirl and giggled again. She loved the feeling he gave her, showering her with gifts and attention.

Molly made her way to their meeting place and smiled brightly when she saw him waiting. "Beautiful." He said in a low voice in her ear and Molly shivered.

"Handsome." She teased running her hand down his tasteful black robe.

"Come, I have a surprise." He said taking her out to the lake. He sat down by a tree and tugged her down to sit between his knees. Together they watched the sunset and it wasn't until the final rays were spilling across the water and reflecting off it bathing the two of them in orange light, "I love you." He whispered in her ear.

"I love you too." She whispered back.

"Marry Me?" She looked down to see a small square box, which lay open in his hand, containing a silver ring encrusted with diamonds in the filigree of his family crest. It must have been worth a fortune.

"Yes." She could feel the tears slipping down her eyes, turning she threw her arms around his neck, "Oh Merlin Yes!"

He chuckled again and held her tight, "Good." He said before kissing her neck.

Molly pulled back and kissed him on the lips closing her eyes blissfully as their kisses intensified. When his thumb caressed her hem, Molly closed her eyes and gave in.

The sun rising behind them awoke Molly as the rays hit her closed eyes. She giggled and rolled over under his cloak, which he spread over them the night before. His hair shone in the sun and he looked so peaceful sleeping. She started to wiggle away but he grabbed her and pulled her back sleepily. "No." he demanded. "Stay."

Molly lay back down and snuggled into him as he draped his arm over her. It was then she saw it and felt as though her whole world had just come apart. The ugly black mark marred his pale smooth skin. She shot up like a rocket causing him to raise also a wary look on his face, "Oh Merlin." She sobbed.

"Molly?" he asked tensely.

"They killed my cousins in Ireland for not joining. You held me at their funeral. You knew…you knew that…" Molly's voice broke.

"No one knows anything," he said guardedly, "Nothing was proven."

"Were you there? Have you…Have you killed people?" she asked pulling her dress over her head.

"No!" his voice was sharp. "Molly, stop this nonsense."

"No!" she stood and screamed at him, "Do you know what people say they do?"

"Of course, I'm not daft." He said calmly, "You're being unreasonable."

Molly yanked the ring he had given her off her finger, "I wouldn't marry a Deatheater like you if you were the last man on earth." She hissed throwing the ring at him and running toward the castle.

Molly cried for two weeks straight in Arthur's arms refusing to tell him why they had broken up, only that she and her lover had indeed broken up. 'He' walked around the castle as cool as ever, seemingly unaffected by the events of that night.

At the end of that two weeks Molly sat in the prefect bathrooms rocking back and forth disbelievingly. This couldn't be happening to her, this was from a bad muggle movie not real life in the wizarding world. So caught up in her own thoughts Molly never heard the door to the bathroom open.

"Molly?" Arthur knelt down next to her, "Come on don't start crying again." He whispered gathering her in his arms.

Molly looked up at the sweet kind man that had been her best friend for years and a plan formed in her mind. She wouldn't have to live with the shame; Arthur would not let that happen. Molly guiltily thought of Amelia Bones, Arthur's girlfriend, but shoving the thought aside, she began to spin the tale that would set their course in life.

"He left me; he said I was just a fling. Now I'm going to have his baby and he never cared." She was surprised how easily the lie flowed from her lips; she must have spent far too much time around 'him'. "He never cared about me."

"Oh Molly!" Arthur rocked her back in forth as she burst into tears once more.

"I'll be ruined Arthur." Molly sobbed, "They'll say horrible things about me, and he'll deny it's his. How am I going to raise this child by myself?"

"You won't have to do it by yourself." Arthur soothed.

Molly looked up at him her face assuming a hopeful expression, "You'd do that for me?" she whispered in contrived awe, "You'd marry me and say it's yours?"

Arthur looked awkward, "Oh, uh Molly that's not what…"

Molly let her face fall and began to cry again, "Of course not, how could I ask you to do that. I…I'll…I'll just…do something." She finished miserably.

"No." Arthur whispered, "No, yes I'll do it. You're my best friend Molly; I'd be honored to marry you."

Molly only felt the tiniest bit guilty when she saw Amelia crying a few days later when they walked into the Great Hall holding hands.

A year later with an infant son and a simple marriage band that matched Arthur's, Molly held back tears once again as they lowered the identical caskets of Fabian and Gideon Prewett into the ground. Rumors abounded that 'he' had been there at her brother's house that night and Molly knew with certainty that she had done the right thing. What child would want to know that they were the bastard child of a Deatheater? Arthur did not need to know that 'he' never knew they had created this little life. She'd even charmed little Bill's hair to be strawberry blond and his eyes brown so that no one would ever know. No one but herself that was; and her knowing was the hardest part. Every day Bill's features gradually smoothed from the pudgy face of an infant into the debonair look that ran in 'his' family and Molly hated it.

A few months later Molly approached Arthur about having one of their own. Bill was a toddler now but Molly spent most of her time cleaning their house leaving the small boy to his own devices. It was too hard to look at him and not think of his real father. She desperately wanted to be a mother however and felt it was time she and Arthur became a real family.

A real child of their own, Charlie, was born of the two of them a year later looking just like Arthur. Molly threw everything she had into raising Arthur's son. She was desperate to prove she'd be a good wife and mother; desperate to prove she had done the right thing. What she was most desperate to prove to herself was that she only distanced herself from her first born because he was 'his' child.