More Than Enough
Arthur gazed at Molly adoringly.
He knew that he had always been more sentimental than his wife and more nostalgic. He was prone to looking back on the old days when they played around at Hogwarts like children unafraid of the future. He remembered the very first time he'd seen her and the way her red hair gleamed in the candlelight of the Great Hall as she walked down through the tables for her sorting.
He was a Gryffindor third year student, watching with some amount of disinterest as the first years filed down between the other students with fear in their cherubic faces. He noticed one face that stuck out among all of them. Her features were sweet and round, the hair flaming brilliantly in soft waves around her face.
He knew at that moment that they were bound together by more than just red hair. His heart had been stolen out of his chest and pinned to this girl's cloak the moment she walked through the door. When she was announced as a Gryffindor as well and ushered down to the table he nearly shouted for joy. He offered her a seat next to him, pushing his best friend John out of the way.
John would joke years later that shoving him out of that seat was the best decision Arthur had ever made. Molly, John would say, was the perfect wife for Arthur. He could see that neither of them could be paired with anyone else. They were made for each other, flaming hair and all.
It had been difficult in the early years, what with no money and Bill and Charlie's futures to worry about. But they never squabbled over money because there was none to squabble over. It seemed useless to worry about finances when they had love so good and so pure. They made the best of what they had and tried to instill the same values in their children. There were things more important than knuts and sickles.
Of course it was not so easy when Percy was born, and then the twins, Fred and George. Add two more after that, Ron and finally Ginny and you had a family of seven children, one more than the Brady Bunch.
It's not so easy to have time together when you have a child. Multiply that by seven and imagine the difficulty one would have scheduling face time with his wife, or her husband. Somehow, Arthur and Molly managed.
Arthur looked back to their friendship at Hogwarts, slowly blossoming to affection and turning into love. He smiled at his wife as she worked on obliviously, orchestrating knitting needles with her wand and reading up on garden care. She was as beautiful now as she was the day he'd first seen her.
Molly looked up; finding her husband's eyes focused on her. She smiled at the deep interest laying there, pools of brown filled with desire and trust. She could remember clearly the moment that she had fallen in love with him.
It was during her third year at Hogwarts. Arthur was passing her in the hallway on they way to Muggle Studies. She was heading towards charms when Lucius Malfoy fired a jinx at her. He was constantly teasing her and bullying the other students. She half suspected that he had a crush on her, but he was such a bastard that she wouldn't give him the time of day.
Perhaps that was why he had shot the jinx at her. For her sake however, Arthur jumped in front of her and took the full force of the spell in her place. He fell forward, his legs stuck together like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth. That sweet and selfless act of her good friend cemented her feelings for him. The smile on his face, having defeated Malfoy, even though his legs were useless spoke volumes about his feelings for Molly.
She never doubted his love from that moment on and she knew that were she ever in danger he would take any spell for her, even the Unforgivable ones.
She returned her husband's gaze with as much love as she had ever possessed for him. She didn't know it just then, but she stole his heart anytime she looked at him like that. She set her book aside and crossed the room to him.
He beamed as she sunk into his lap, her hands in his hair. After all these years and all the problems they had faced together. After all the times they had both wanted to walk out, all the frustrations. After all the challenges life had thrown at them. Here they were still together and standing taller because of each other.
She kissed him, putting all of herself into this kiss and thankful that the kids were at school.