A/N: This was for the On This Day competition. I've had this mostly written for a while, but I waited to upload it for today because, as you can see, my day is May 21, and it is May 21. A very, very special day.

So thanks to Lara for hosting that comp, and happy birthday to me.

Prompts

Day: May 21st;

Characters: Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Armando Dippet;

Genre: hurt/comfort;

Song: valley of angels- Bo bice;

Prompts: honey, new, photo, empty

21 May, 1954

Little Molly Prewett couldn't sleep again, so she tiptoed into her mummy's room and curled up next to her.

"Mummy, I can't thleep again," she whispered, curling up next to the lone figure in the bed. Molly's mum slept alone. Molly didn't know why her mummy slept alone, because all the other children at the day care she went to seemed to have two parents. They said they had a 'mummy' and a 'daddy'. Molly didn't have a daddy. Fabian and Gideon thought she was silly and told her that of course she did, but Molly didn't believe them. They were always trying to tease her, so this must be one of their jokes. Besides, she couldn't find any proof she had a daddy. She must just not have one.

But still, she did wonder. So, she decided to ask.

"Mummy, why ith your bed empty?" Molly felt her mum stiffen next to her, then she softly whispered a response.

"Why do you ask that, honey? It isn't empty. I'm in it, and you're in it."

"But there'th no daddy in it. Everyone thay there should be both a 'mummy' and a 'daddy' in a bed. Everyone thay they have a daddy. But I don't. Tho how come your bed ith empty? How come I don't have a daddy?" Her questions were getting quicker now that she knew her mum wasn't going to stop her.

She felt her mum sit up beside her, and soon she had been lifted into her mummy's lap. "Oh honey, you do have a daddy. But sometimes, daddy's don't stay. Sometimes they go away, and they have to find their way back. That can take a while. Sometimes they're scared, so they run away and never choose to come back. Sometimes, they get surprised and get stuck somewhere else, yearning to come back but never being able to do so." She said the last bit with a sigh, as if she knew what it was like to be stuck somewhere and not be able to come back.

"Did my daddy get thtuck? Where ith he?" Molly whispered.

"He did get stuck, honey. He got stuck in the Valley of Angels. He can't come back," she whispered even softer.

Molly leaned into her mummy, curled up safely in her arms. She was sad her mummy was empty, but she didn't mind not having a daddy. She sat in silence for a moment, then spoke again as another question popped into her head.

"What did my daddy look like?"

"You're daddy was tall, and he had fair skin. His hair was as red as yours and your brothers. He had your button nose and your brother's chocolate eyes, and he had their mischievous look, too. He also had the Prewett curly hair. You and your brothers get that from him, you know," her mum said, smiling. Her eyes were sad and the laugh wrinkles seemed to droop as she frowned. Then she brightened. "I have a picture of him, honey. Would you like to see it?" Molly nodded, her ringlets bouncing, and sat patiently while her mummy fetched the photograph.

When she returned, Molly sat on her mummy's lap, staring into the laughing chocolate brown eyes of her daddy.

21 May, 1962

Molly was sitting quietly in the dorms, her dorm mates chatting around her. They had turned the conversation to what their parents did, and she didn't like talking about that.

"Hey, hey Molly!" Martha Tobbins said. Molly jolted from her daze. "What does your dad do for work? I'm sure he does something interesting; he's a Prewett." All the girls turned expectantly to Molly. It was important to them, what their parents did. Their family's jobs set them apart from the others, depending on whose father made the most money.

"My father doesn't work," she said quietly.

"Oh, he's one of those wizards, hmm?" said Catherine Figg, tittering with the other girls.

"No, he is not!" Molly whirled on her friends, her eyes flashing dangerously. "My father doesn't work, yes, but it's not because he's just some bum off the streets," she hissed.

"Oh? So then what is he? The goddamned king of England?" Cat shot back, always ready to rise to a challenge.

"He's dead," Molly said bitterly. "I don't have a father." Then she turned and stalked from the room, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

21 May, 1966

"Hey, Mols, where did you say your dad was again?" Molly sighed as she turned and walked back over to her boyfriend.

"Armando, once again, I was a child. My mum told me that when I was four so I would stop asking where my father was!" She huffed in indignation.

"I know, babe, I know, but it's funny!" Armando said, starting to laugh. "C'mon, tell the story."

"No, Armando," she said, but he pulled her into his lap and squeezed her tightly.

"I won't let you go until you do," he whispered, in what she assumed was supposed to be a seductive voice, but all she felt was hot and sticky and too close and so scared, because Armando laughed too much and didn't know when to stop or when he was causing too much pain.

So she gave in and told the story anyway. "I believed my father lived in the Valley of Angels," she sighed, but prickled when all of his mates guffawed. "I was a child then! And really, it's just another name for Heaven..." she trailed off, blushing. It didn't make a difference. They still wouldn't understand why Armando was dating a girl like Molly Prewett, and honestly, he never would either.

She slipped off his lap, trying to escape, and he slapped her bottom and let her go.

And Molly slipped away, ashamed that he would allow her to feel this way.

But soon, her shame was replaced with Gryffindor courage, and she wouldn't let him treat her this way. No. More.

~Later that day~

"Aw, Mols, you know I was only joking!" Armando Dippet stood in front of his petite girlfriend, hands shoved in his pockets.

"But it still hurt, Armando! Yes, you were joking, but you don't know when to stop. Ever. I'm sick of always being put down and degraded by your friends, and I'm sick of you spreading that story around, because you don't realize how much it hurts me. That's personal, Armando. It's about my father. Who-"

"Hey, you never knew him! What's the problem?" He raised his hands in defense, scared of her rising voice.

Molly felt the sea of anger rise in a tide, making her see red, and she screamed at him.

"HE WAS STILL MY BLOODY FATHER! I NEVER KNEW HIM! I GREW UP, DAY AFTER DAY, HEARING OTHER CHILDREN SPEAK OF THEIR FATHERS, BUT I NEVER HAD ONE! AND I COULDN'T ASK MY MUM, BECAUSE EVERY TIME I ASKED WHERE MY FATHER WAS SHE WOULD START TO CRY!" Molly took a deep breath, calming herself down. She slitted her eyes at her now shellshocked boyfriend, and hissed, "Do you even know what that does to a little girl? It. Was. Hell," she whispered, deadly calm.

"I-I'm sorry, Mols. I won't do it again," he whispered, completely ashamed.

"You're right," she responded, head held high, voice as cold and as cutting as a blade. "You won't. Because we're through, Dippet. We. Are. Through," she finished forcefully, then turned on the frozen Armando Dippet and flounced in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

21 May, 1967

Molly loved that Arthur was still careful around her. It wasn't an intimidated careful, but even after dating for six months, he was still extremely respectful of her. She thought she had found a true gentleman.

She was in love.

Now, he was walking around the castle with her, holding her hand and just talking. It was one in the morning, they were both giggling with exhaustion, and curfew had long since been broken.

"Ok... Truth," Molly said, giggling. She was enjoying this Muggle game Arthur's cousin had introduced to him.

"What happened with you and Armando Dippet?" And there it was. The jackpot question. The Valley of Angels had risen again.

"I... I told him a story, about my father. And he thought it was funny, and started telling everyone about it. But it was personal, and I had trusted him with it. And he broke that trust. So I had to break up with him, but... He didn't take it very well," she said, shrugging. Maybe he would take that answer.

"Molly, I feel like there's something you aren't telling me. You can trust me, you know. I would never tell anyone your story if you didn't want me to," he said, staring deeply into her eyes.

She looked down. Molly wanted to trust him, but... "I thought I could trust him, too. And look what happened there. He told everyone."

Arthur looked at her seriously, then grinned a bit. "Molly, who would listen to a muggle-loving, nerdy Weasley like me? I have no one to tell. You're story is safe with me, because no one would believe it if I said anything."

Molly laughed, realizing she could trust him.

"Ok, I'll tell you. My mum used to tell me that my father had gotten stuck in the Valley of Angels and couldn't come back, and that's why he was gone. So as a little kid, I believed it so much that whenever people would tell me my father was dead or gone or not coming back, I would insist upon the story being true and promise them he would come. But.. he never did. Now I realize she was trying to tell me he was in Heaven, but at the time I truly believed it. When she finally sat me down and told me he would never come back, I was so believing of it, it broke me. I felt like I had just lost my safety line, and I was lost in a sea... It was a bad time for me," she laughed, hollowly.

Arthur came and put his arms around her, holding her close. "What does the Valley of Angels look like, Mollywobbles?"

Molly shifted, surprised, before answering. "Mummy said that the Valley stretched far into the distance, and it was filled with luscious green plants and trees and flowers. She said that the flowers bloomed in wild, sweet tangles of bushes, all along the valley. 'The air thrums with magic,' she would tell me, 'because the Valley is the very birth place of magic.' And the magical would stay there, in the Valley, waiting until they had earned their wings and become Angels. And then they would fly on, farther into the Valley, where a hidden sea lay, only accessible by the wings of an Angel. She told me the sea was deep, and blue, and that all the angels swam in it, surrounded by the faith and glory of all that made magic. And she said that when each Angel had bathed and had it's fill of the faith, it would swim deep, deep, deep down into the sea and be reborn onto the earth. I guess my four year old mind interpreted that to mean that eventually, daddy would come back to us as my daddy... reincarnation is a bit difficult to explain to a tot." She trailed off, still wrapped in his arms, the two simply holding each other and leaning against a wall.

"I hope that someday, you and I can go to the Valley of Angels together," Arthur whispered, and Molly's heart broke with love and gratitude for him, for he understood.

21 May, 1970

"I take you, in sickness and in health, in life and death. I promise to be by your side forever, and walk hand in hand with you into the Valley of Angels when all is over." Arthur read his vows, eyes shining as he gazed at the sparkling young woman before him. She was shining through and through with love for him, him, and they were really to be together. They would be starting a new life together, and it would be perfect.

"Do you, Molly Anne Prewett, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The minister said.

"I do."

"And do you, Arthur Bilius Weasley, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" he spoke again.

"I do."

"I now pronounce you man and wife. Mr. Weasley, you may kiss the bride," the minister said, and smiled as the young couple kissed in their new life happily.

21 May, 2050

Molly woke to the feeling of her husband's hand in hers and sunlight upon her face. It was so different than the Hospital Bed in St. Mungo's she remembered falling asleep in that she believed she must be dreaming.

Opening her eyes, Molly stared around, hardly believing what she was seeing.

"It's paradise," she whispered, in complete awe of the beauty.

"It's not paradise," he whispered back. "It's the Valley of Angels."

"It's real," Molly spoke softly, reverently, her brain still processing what her brain was taking in.

"Of course it's real, mum!" a voice said from behind her.

Molly and Arthur both turned, tears brimming in their eyes. "Fred! Oh Fred!" Molly yelled as she ran into her son's arms.

"Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad. I was going to prank you guys, but I figured the afterlife was a long time for you to be mad at me, so I decided against it. You'll have to help me prank Percy, though. He's going to need it." Fred grinned, his eyes twinkling.

Molly sighed, tears spilling over her cheeks.

"Molly?" Arthur asked at the same time as Fred asked, "Mum?" They both stared at her in concern. "What's wrong?"

She smiled, looking around at her new surroundings. "I don't feel empty anymore."