AN: Ok, so this is my first fan fiction EVER, so it would be SO helpful to me if I could get as many reviews as possible. And please, don't hold back, I want your 100% honest opinion of the story. Thanks in advance! Also, this is a chapter fic, but I may not be able to update as frequently as I'd like, with school starting this week and all. =/
"Molly?… MOLLY?" Arthur called as he paced around the burrow looking for his wife. He had meant to tell her before going to the train station to pick up their kids. Their 5 children were on their way home from Hogwarts for Christmas and their other two grown boys were visiting also. Not to mention Harry Potter and Hermione Granger as well. LORD, why couldn't Ron make friends that had their own homes?
The Weasley's didn't mind though, not in the slightest. Both Molly and Arthur had grown up in large families, and being as they themselves had 7 children, hell, what was two more around for the holidays?
However, though they were used to all the company, that didn't mean that Molly Weasley was different than any other mother when it came to having guests. She had spent the entirety of the last fortnight alternating between obsessively cleaning the house and yelling at Arthur to straighten up as well. Arthur understood his wife's angle, but he'd drawn the line at a particular incident a couple nights ago.
"ARRRRTHUUUUUUUR! ARTHUR WEASLEY!" He'd heard her screaming from somewhere above their bedroom.
"Molly?" Arthur called back. "Molly, dear, are you alright? MOLLY WHERE ARE YOU?" Receiving no answer, Arthur had run in the direction her voice appeared to be coming from. When he reached the bedroom, it was not Molly he found. Instead, it was his brand new muggle contraption called a ladder, and it was propped up haphazardly against a bookshelf. Arthur followed the line of the ladder and saw with dismay that it led up to the hole in the ceiling leading to the attic. The Weasley's used to used their attic quite frequently, but one year there had been a bad situation with some bats, and since then no one had been up there. It wasn't that they couldn't pre vent the bats from coming back(simple defense charm), but it was simply the "principle of the matter"(Molly's words, not his). Arthur could only imagine the kinds of dust and mold that had been collecting up there. Not to mention spiders. He shuddered.
He breathed in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. Approaching the ladder, he called out, "Molly, dear… What are you doing up in the attic?"
He listened but once again did not get a response from his wife. Instead, he was greeted by the strained sounds of something large and heavy scraping across the floor, a loud crashing noise, and then an earsplitting scream.
"Molly?" Arthur called out again, worried now. Without another moment of hesitation, he bolted forward and raced up the ladder. He climbed through the small hole in the ceiling, and then sprang to his feet, breathless. As his eyes adjusted, he frantically looked around for his wife and the source of the scream. As he suspected, he found them both in the same place, in the form of a woman sitting on the dusty attic floor rubbing her head.
"Molly, are you alright?" Arthur asked anxiously, still out of breath from the ladder.
"Oh' I'm fine, I'm fine…" Molly said, but her brow was furrowed in frustration nonetheless.
Arthur looked from his wife, to the giant antique wardrobe (presumably the source of the scraping noise), to the giant wooden board on the floor (probably a shelf from the wardrobe, Arthur assumed, which now sported a giant crack due to the crash he'd heard from below), and finally to the nest of giant spiders, which were still in the process of scattering in different directions, after their "house" had been moved.
Arthur knew his wife, so it didn't take him long to deduce what had happened. Unable to use magic (since the wardrobe was clearly antique, and therefore most likely very powerful, probably under all sorts of anti-magic charms and spells), Molly had been too stubborn and impatient to wait for Arthur to come up and help her move the relic. So she'd attempted to push it herself, and in doing so, she had accidentally tipped it, the doors had fallen open, and a shelf had fallen out and cracked. It appeared that Molly had also unintentionally uncovered a colony of giant spiders, and Arthur highly suspected that this (rather than the colossal shelf falling and nearly shattering Molly's foot) had been the cause to emit such a panic-rising, bloodcurdling scream.
There was only one thing that Arthur could not comprehend, no matter how he looked at it, was… WHY?
Arthur closed his eyes for just a moment and took another deep breath. He opened them up and spoke as quietly and calmly as he could. "Molly… please… just… WHY? Just, why?"
"Oh Arthur, please, don't look so surprised!" Molly snapped. She continued on with growing agitation. "You know I've been saying for months that it's really time we cleaned out this god-forsaken attic. And it was obvious that you weren't going to help me, being as you grumbled when I so much as asked you to sweep the floor, so-"
She was gathering steam fast and Arthur recognized this as his opportunity to stop her before it escalated. He held his hand up very calmly. He was definitely not one to overreact or become so flustered like Molly. They truly balanced each other out nicely, even other people commented on that fact.
Seeing his hand, she signed and petered out slowly. Arthur waited a moment and then spoke in a very soft and even voice. "Molly, darling. What I meant was, why do we need to clean out the attic? Do you expect the guests are going to go up here?" He chuckled softly, but stopped suddenly when he noticed the deep crimson flush creeping up the back of her neck and coloring her face. "Molly… ? Molly. What do you have planned?"
Molly stopped blushing immediately and snapped back into to usual blustery demeanor. But she spoke too quickly and did not meet his eyes. Plus, they had been married for over 20 years now. He'd have to be a blundering idiot not to know that she had something up her sleeve. But she made excuses anyway. "Oh., Arthur, stop being ridiculous! Of course the children and their guests are not coming up here, its an attic for gods sake! And I'm not cleaning it, as in scrubbing floors and washing windows- or window for that matter. I'm simply… going through some old things. Merlin, I didn't know you needed written permission to do that around here!"
Arthur just smiled knowingly. "Of course, dear, you're right. I am sorry. How about we call it a night for now, and I'll help you with the rest in the morning?"
Mrs. Weasley hesitated a moment too long, then very quickly smiled unconvincingly. "U-uh, sure. No, great, that sounds… that sounds wonderful dear. Although you don't need to help me clean the attic really."
Arthur raised his eyebrows
"Because, you'll be very busy cleaning the guest room. I mean Harry Potter is going to be sleeping there, and for the love of Merlin, I will not have that room looking like a cast off pigsty! I mean, the mere thought of that mess…"
Molly continued on all the way down the ladder, straight into the washroom. Arthur hadn't stopped her this time, or even said a word for that matter. He let her vent, only half paying attention. The majority of his focus right now had been allocated to his wife's plan. What crazy scheme could she possibly be cooking up that involved the guests going up into the attic?
As Arthur thought about it now, a few days later, he mused that he still had no idea what Molly's plot could involve. I mean, the attic?
"Oh!" Arthur exclaimed aloud, finally knowing where Molly was. He ascended the stairs swiftly, and when he entered the bedroom, his ladder and the hole in the ceiling confirmed his suspicions. He knew that there were several ways to handle this so he chose to pretend that it was normal.
"Are you up there, Mollywobbles?" He called, trying to sound casual.
"Oh, yes, Arthur. Just um, doing some, uh…"
He cut it short, figuring it best that he didn't know anyway. "Alright, darling, well, I'm going to King's Cross to pick up the children. See you in a bit!"
"Oh, wonderful, Arthur, perfect! Hurry home!"
One last shake of the head and a small smile, and he was on his way, pushing the attic to the back of his mind for now. He was going to pick up his children.