The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 6 / Round 9

Position: Captain

Team: Kenmare Kestrels

Prompt - Molly Weasley

I tried to the show the comfort that even a small gesture can mean by someone we love. Which is one of the factors of Molly Weasley's whole character. With this story, I tried to show a relationship she had with her family and how it would encourage her to do something similiar with her children as she grew older. I hope I succeeded. :)

Many thanks to my beta, Ky-chan (ValkryieAce) for helping me so much. :))

Ever since Molly Prewett was a little girl, she was strangely attached to her grandmother. An elderly woman who would regale her with tales of dragons and strong witches as Molly leaned over the arms of the chair, hooked onto every single word.

One thing that had always fascinated her though, were the long pair of knitting needles that had earned a permanent spot on the ground by her feet. For as long as she could remember, those thin needles were decorated with multi-coloured thread. For a while, they had laid on the ground, only half used, almost like they had been forgotten by her grandparents.

Until one day, she saw her grandmother clicking away at them dutifully.

Molly asked her grandmother. "What are you knitting?"

Her grandmother gave her a wink. "That's a secret, m'dear."

She pouted and tugged at the armrest. It was her secret trick of always getting the answers she needed. However, this time it failed to work. Her grandmother returned to knitting the bright burgundy threads and Molly had no answers.

"I love the colour red," Molly mused out loud.

Her grandmother stopped her work to smile. "Yes, I know."

Molly let out an extremely long and dramatic sigh to show her displeasure at the vague answer. Once again, no answer. Her family only fell for her trick for a couple weeks before they became immune to it.

She settled her chin on the armrest and watched the pretty art of clicking needles and tangling thread.

Molly really did love that colour.

A few months since them, Molly experienced several new and strange events. She was a quiet girl who came from a close tight-knit family, who was on a train that was bustling with children that were either her age and older. It was new.

And strangely nerve-wracking.

She had followed one of her older brothers almost constantly, like a newborn foal to his mother. That is, until he had jokingly told her that it was impossible to survive without friends in this school. Immediately after, he had gently pushed her to find her own friends, commenting that it would be best to snatch up someone strong looking. Whether he was teasing her or being serious, she didn't know. But Molly took it to heart and scrambled away to find someone who didn't look as lost or confused as she felt.

Amelia Bones matched both of those requirements to her relief. They were both girls and wanted to be Sorted in Gryffindor. Molly, because her brothers were there, and Amelia, because she claimed that the red and gold house was the best house of them all."

Out of nervousness, Molly almost bought everything on the trolley to snack on. However, she sheepishly restrained her appetite. She didn't think she was ready to handle the stares from the older kids, especially if it was about her bottomless stomach when it came to food.

Already, she felt like she was frozen in fear.

Then... Molly traveled over the lake on a boat. She had been on a boat before with her brothers, but never on one that felt so unbalanced as all the kids scrambled to adjust their seating position. Inwardly, she hoped that the boat wouldn't fall into the water. She was shaking enough as it was.

Her fears were distracted by the magical sight up ahead. One that made her catch her breath and grip the sides of the rocky boat. The grand castle illuminated by the moonlight and the flames that lit every pathway within the school.

Breathtaking.

The moment was broken by the high-pitched yelp from a boy who had leaned too far over the edge of the boat and falling into the lake. The young gamekeeper helped him back into their boat, whose name Molly struggled to remember — Hag? Hans? Probably Hans.

The poor red-haired boy was shivering so much and Molly couldn't help feel a strong sense of compassion for him. When she was younger, she had fallen into the lake too. Not accidentally, with her brothers around, but it certainly wasn't a pleasant experience. She shrugged off her coat and wrapped it around the boy.

He muttered a small thanks and she relaxed.

From that moment forward, everything sped forward, and she could hardly keep track of were ushered off the boats and into the castle. Her name was called and a curious hat was placed on her head. Molly almost suffered a small heart attack at the mere age of eleven when the Sorting Hat suggested she might be best suited for Slytherin.

She got her wish in the end and she was greeted by an embarrasing amount of cheers and yelps from her older brothers in the house of red and gold. The scrutiny she faced afterwards made her want to slink and hide under the table. The Prewett brothers were well-known, it seemed.

The night slowly died down with her collapsing on her newly-chosen bed in the Gryffindor dorms. Amelia Bones had chosen the bed next to hers. To be honest, it had looked like Amelia had chosen that one with no care in the world. But Molly was very happy that she had chosen that one. Amelia was the only girl that she knew.

It was probably best to start unpacking.

When Molly lifted her head, she noticed a rather large package sitting on the pillow. Instantly, she was alert and scrambled away.

It didn't move.

Then... it probably didn't have snakes in it. That was good. Molly couldn't handle snakes and her brothers knew it. Was this from them?

Warily, she tugged it towards her. The bow was wrapped perfectly and the wrapping looked strangely familiar. Molly was perplexed.

She looked around and all the other girls were chatting on their beds or had fallen asleep already. Molly was alone for the moment so she started to unwrap it. When she lifted the lid of the box underneath was a piece of paper with her name carefully written in a familiar cursive scroll.

Grandmother?

Molly smiled and eagerly started to dig into the box. She encountered one thing — soft fabric. Tugging it out, she stretched the burgundy fabric on the bed to look at it properly and laughed.

It looked like the warmest sweater ever. With a large gold flower decorating the front.

This was what her grandmother had been knitting back then.

After traveling, being around so many strange people she had never seen before, and the scrutiny from everyone in Hogwarts... the stress started to overwhelm Molly and she began to cry softly. She wasn't used to this and it had been driving her crazy since she had left the embrace of her grandparents at the train station.

Wiping away her tears, she tugged the sweater on and breathed in the comforting scent of her grandmother's living room while sitting miles away at Hogwarts.

It was truly magic.