Searching for Molly's New Normal

( Or How Good Meaning Friends Try To Help)

A Fan Fiction By:

SisterofSnape

Dedication

This work of fan fiction is dedicated to my daughter

DeeAnna Marie

2-24-1990

6-9-2004

These entries are regarding the contest sponsored by Scholastic to meet J. K. Rowling.

Entry from DeeAnna's diary

June 12, 2003

Dear Lily,

I didn't win. I would have found out by now. It's just not fair. I worked so hard on my entry, but it didn't 'effin win. Oh well, I guess that's life. It's filled with so many disappointments. 9 days til Harry Potter 5.

I'd better go now.

SEE YA!!!!!!!!!

Entry from DeeAnna's diary

June 15, 2003

Dear Lily,

They announced the winners of the contest. I didn't win. I'm never going to get to meet my idol. This was my one and only shot & now it's gone. I don't know why I even entered. My essay was bad. Very bad. I'll never be a famous author now. I don't know what I'll do. Writing is my life, and now

My hopes are shattered,Gone. Finished. Shot down by some stuck up officials in New York. They don't understand how much Harry Potter and writing mean to me. I try and try but it's never enough. I might as well stop writing altogether.

I better go now.

SEE YA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Preface

I was a late comer to the world of Harry Potter. I purchased the first three books for my daughter, an avid reader when she was in second grade. I thought she would enjoy the imagination of Ms J. K. Rowling, never imagining how deeply she would be drawn into Harry's world.

She read, re-read, and read again these books. Her friends were all reading them as well, discussing what would happen as the series progressed.

Her dad and I would often ask "Are you reading that AGAIN?"

Her answer was, "You find more things every time you read them!"

The movies came along and we went to see the first two, I thought OK!, they are cute, but wasn't really interested.

The books were still with her, ALWAYS! The covers began to become ragged and the pages were starting to come loose from the binding. I wanted to be a mom and yell, "You need to take better care of your books!", but I kept my mouth shut.

She was excited when "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" came out. She read it quickly, in a race with one of the boys in her class, to see who would finish first. Naturally she won.

Around the same time she discovered .net. She would spend all her spare time reading Harry Potter fan fiction. Then she began to write her own fics.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was due for release, but money was tight. We told her she had to spend her own money to but the book. It was a month before she had enough, and she managed to remain spoiler free until she could read it. As I look back now, I feel guilty for making her wait. How she survived that time frame without going crazy is amazing..

Saturday, June 5, 2004 we took her and her two best friends to see "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". On the way home she began feeling ill. The next day she wasn't any better, so I took her to the emergency room at our local hospital, fearing West Nile Virus. The doctors said it was flu and to go home, drink fluids, and take Tylenol. She felt a bit better on Monday, but Tuesday she was worse. We were back at the doctor's office, they said she was a bit dehydrated and gave her an IV with antibiotics, and sent us on to a larger clinic for scans of her leg, that began swelling. Nothing abnormal was found and we were sent home. That night we were back at the emergency room, more medications and sent home. 5:00 AM the next morning, June 9, 2004, we were on our way back to the emergency room, my beautiful, red headed,14 year old daughter never came home. She died before she could be air lifted to the major hospital in Wichita, Kansas.

Two weeks before at her 8th grade promotion, during the slide show presentation DeeAnna had said she still hoped to be an author and teacher. After the graduation, another mother came up to me and said DeeAnna was one of the few students who realistically would reach her goal.

When I began packing away her belongings I found close to 50 notebooks with fan fiction ideas she had in mind. They went into a storage bin and most still reside there.

Still I did not pick up the books. They were DeeAnna's, a part of her I couldn't face.

In May 2005 I injured my knee at work. I had to wait for surgery schedule to clear enough to fit me in. After sitting around for two weeks I was bored, there wasn't much I could do, so I picked up the books and began reading. I finished the first five books in a week, and found myself rereading them, looking for all the missing pieces.

"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" was to be released and that morning I was calling all the local stores to see if they had it in stock. I found it and was reading within half an hour. Now I wanted, NEEDED more Harry.

I searched the internet and found a whole world dedicated to the "Potterverse", and so it began. I listened to what were some of the first podcasts, found bits of music about Harry, and read fan fiction. And Waited with the rest of the world for the conclusion of the series.

I work in our high school. The kids there had grown up with the series and I had many people to discuss theories with. It was a way for me to lose myself and still keep a connection with my daughter.

After "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" , which yes I was at the midnight release, I began thinking about Molly Weasley. For the past two years I have debated with myself about how she would carry on with her life after Fred died. .

I undertook this NaNoWriMo adventure in an attempt to finally share some of the feelings and experiences I had after the sudden death of my daughter.

Molly will experience many of the things I did and still do, even though five years have passed. Some of the ideas were taken from the diary I tried to keep for the first few months, my thoughts and actions were real, as are Molly's!

I also hope to show that the world continued to move on around Molly, other people's live moved forward quite quickly, while hers simply existed.

I hope you will understand when Molly and others seems out of character, because when you Search for a New Normal, nothing is in character. Please, also excuse the time line of the fandom expansion, this time line is mine. It works for me, sorry if you don't like it.

This is a work of fan fiction

The world of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling

Warner Brothers

and

Scholastic Books

NO COPYRIGHT infringement intended

No money will be made from this work, it is solely for the benefit of the authors peace of mind!!