Dedicated to s i l v e r a u r o r a, who gave me the extremely evil dare that forced me to write this. To my regular readers: If you see something that is unusual for me, then I was probably dared to write it. So please, don't give me too much crap about it.
Please Just Save Me from This Darkness
"Hi Lucy!"
"I'm Molly."
It happens so often that Molly should be used to it by now, she really should. She doesn't know why it bothers her so much that people always confuse her with her twin- Lucy doesn't seem to care much, but then Lucy takes after their mother, a Hufflepuff to the core. Maybe that's why Molly gets so annoyed when someone calls her Lucy; sure, they look alike, but hasn't anyone heard the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Can't they see how different they are? Molly and Lucy aren't like Fred and George used to be; they aren't two halves of each other, even if they look the part. They're different as can be; is it really that hard to see?
"Lucy, how are you?"
Apparently, it is.
So when Molly is ten years old [and a half, thank you very much] she writes a letter to Beauxbatons and explains that even though her closest French relation is her aunt, who she doesn't even share blood with, she'd be very much honored if they would let her go to school there. She would work very hard, she makes sure to point out; she knows that the French will be difficult, but she will learn it, she's already working on it [she even started the letter with "Chère Madame Maxime"]. Her cousin will even help her with it [not that Dominique knows it yet]!
Molly pours her heart and soul, as well as all of the logic she inherited from her father, into that letter, and her fingers are crossed as she watches the owl fly away. Just over five months later, two owls come for the Weasley twins. One drops two letters, emblazoned with a familiar crest, on the table, directly in the middle of the two sisters; the other has L'Académie Beauxbâtons de la Magie written on it in a beautiful, cursive script. Molly squeals and grabs it eagerly while her family watches her, stunned, not knowing what to say.
"Say 'Yes, Molly, you can go to Beauxbatons'," the young girl says when she notices the dilemma. It takes awhile, but on September 1, she hugs her sister goodbye at Platform 9 ¾, then her parents, and then Apparates away with Aunt Fleur and Dominique to start her new life as Molly. Just Molly.
XxxxX
Beauxbatons is more challenging than Molly could have imagined, but being Percy Weasley's daughter, it thrills her, and she more than overcomes it; she conquers it. By the time she enters her Second Year, she's fluent in French and top in all her classes. Dominique confides in her that even her grades weren't as good as Molly's when she was her age; it makes Molly glow inside, because her one-year-old cousin never compliments people.
But then again, there are always exceptions when it comes to best friends. And that's exactly what Molly and Dominique are; they're two of a kind, the only two Weasleys who wouldn't be Sorted into Gryffindor. They're just too brave for it, because even though Godric Gryffindor never hesitated to run into battle, he wouldn't have left behind everything and everyone he'd ever known, so young at the time, to become an entirely different person. That takes an entirely different kind of courage, and Dominique and Molly are the only ones they know who possesses it.
Then along comes little Scorpius, with words as venomous as the animal he's named after (even though he's really named after the constellation, but the constellation's named after the animal, so it's actually all pretty much the same). He becomes Molly's rival in the grades spectrum and, by the time Fourth Year comes around, the playboy to Dominique's playgirl. But underneath that ohsotough exterior, Molly and Dominique both know full well that he's "running away"- which really only means that he has the same type of bravery as the two Weasley girls he goes to school with.
So the twosome becomes a trio, unlikely as it may be.
XxxxX
Molly walks into the front yard of the Burrow during the summer after her Fourth Year and instantly feels herself suffocated by strong, firm arms as they wrap themselves around her.
"Get off, Teddy!" She cries, for the older boy is the only person who would dare assault her like this.
"Aw, c'mon Turtle, I haven't seen you in months!" Teddy whines, even as he lets go, grinning. Even Molly has to smile at her old nickname, which Teddy had given her ever since she, in his words, "stuck her head out of her shell and hightailed it down to the Frenchies." The name was as charming as it was ridiculous, and it stuck.
"I haven't seen the rest of my family in months, either," Molly retorts. "Including my dad. And my mom. And my sister. No offense, but I think they're a bit more important."
"But I have big news!" Teddy exclaims. As he jumps up and down in excitement, his hair changing colors quicker than the wind, Molly wonders to herself how anyone can be so disillusioned as to call this boy an adult.
She sighs in a manner very reminiscent of her namesake and gives in. "Alright. What is it?"
"Two things-"
"Then hurry up and get on with it."
"-Alright, alright!" Teddy laughs. "Well, first of all, I'm in a band. Second, Victoire and I got together."
"Oh, that's great! Congrats!" Molly beams. She means it, too; he and her cousin had been skirting around each other for much too long. In fact, she and Dominique had agreed that if Teddy didn't ask Victoire out soon or vice versa, they would just lock the two in a closet and let that be that.
"Thanks!" Teddy's face nearly splits in half, his smile is so wide. "We got together when I went to see her off at the Platform. We were talking, and then I, being me, just blurted out that I liked her, and then she said that she liked me, too, so we started snogging and-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold it right there, Tiger," Molly cut him off, chuckling lightly. "Happy as I am for the two of you, I don't need to hear all the details of your make-out sessions. I already had to endure the agonizing torture of reading Lucy's entire, in-depth letter about how she and Lorcan got together."
Teddy lets out a hearty, gleeful laugh. "So you're Turtle and I'm Tiger now, is that it?"
Molly blinks. "Is that really all you took out of my entire three sentences?"
"Yup." He pops the 'p.'
"That's impressive."
"I'm an impressive kind of guy."
"Modest, too."
"You bet."
XxxxX
Winter vacation (the one in February- ha bloody ha) is spent at Gabrielle Delacour's house, filled with makeovers and bisous and some good ol' girl bonding time. Molly finds, to her surprise, that Dominique's aunt is just as warm and pleasant to be around as Fleur; she's also just as welcoming, with a cheerful "Bienvenue!" always on the tip of her tongue.
It's exactly what she tells Victoire and Teddy when they show up out of the blue on Good Friday.
"We decided to take a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip," Victoire explains later, her silver eyes sparkling. "Some other Healers were able to take up my shifts, and Teddy… well, he's just with his band, he doesn't really have a job." She frowns. "I've told him over and over again that he has to do something with his life, even if it's just working at a grocery store or something, but he insists that he doesn't need to. He keeps saying that this band of his is great, that they're going to make it big time, but I sure haven't seen it happen yet…"
As her cousin keeps talking about this issue, Molly slips away to get herself a drink. She walks into the kitchen and sees that Teddy had the same idea. "Hey," she smiles, filling a glass with water and sitting next to him at the table.
"Hey Turtle," he nods back. He's frowning- an expression rarely seen on his face, simply because it's far too unhappy to apply to such a hyper person. But he looks deep in contemplation, his hair changing colors faster than a chameleon. "Do you think I'm lazy?" He asks suddenly, turning to Molly with that same expression; it suddenly occurs to her that he's heard Victoire's speech before.
"A bit," she shrugs, "but aren't we all?"
Teddy nods fervently. "Exactly! And my band is really good, you know; we have gigs every weekend and we practice Monday through Friday. Maybe I'm a bit off my rocker, but last I checked, that's not lazy. It's not like success is going to come immediately- for some reason, Vic thinks that if it's going to come at all, it would've already come." His eyes are a little bit pleading now. "You don't think that, do you? You think we can make it professionally?"
"I'm sure you can," Molly replies automatically, squeezing Teddy's shoulder comfortingly. His eyes dart to her hand, and then travel up and down her body. The sudden intensity of his gaze is almost… alarming.
"How old are you now, Turtle?" he asks.
"Sixteen. Why?" She furrows her eyebrows suspiciously.
"You're too young to be wearing those shorts."
Molly's jaw drops. "What?"
"They show off too much of your legs," Teddy goes on, "and guys will stare at them. You shouldn't wear tank-tops, either, especially if they're low-cut."
"Erm, where's all this sudden protectiveness coming from? You're not my dad! And what do you mean I can't wear tank-tops or shorts, I've always worn them, you didn't make a comment before!"
"It's different now. You're a girl."
"And I wasn't before?"
"You were, but now you actually have the features that girls are known for having… if you know what I mean."
"…I don't know whether to be flattered that you noticed, or insulted that you only just noticed now. I think I'll just be amused that you're not man enough to say flat-out that I have boobs."
Teddy flushes as red as Molly's hair. "Well excuse me for trying to be polite!"
"You're excused."
XxxxX
The dormitory is silent as the two girls stare each other down. Their eyes, the same shade of blue, never move. Finally, Molly states, "You were snogging him, Dominique."
The older girl rolls her eyes. "It was bound to happen eventually, Molly. He's the school playboy; I'm the school slut- oh, don't cringe like that, Molly, we both know it's true. Anyways, like I was saying, Scorpius and I have basically snogged everyone of the opposite sex in the school besides each other. It had to happen at some point."
"But this isn't the first time it's happened," the redhead points out quietly. "I saw you two in the library last week, too."
The blond shrugs. "So what? He's good at snogging. So am I. Therefore, snogging each other is enjoyable. It doesn't mean a thing."
"Maybe not to you, but how do you know it doesn't mean something to him?" He's watched you for years, she adds silently. He's always thought you were the most beautiful, the cleverest… If you treat this like a game, it'll break him, because it's not a game to him. Can't you see that, Dominique? What happened to my best friend, the one who could always read people?
"Don't be silly, Molly." Dominique waves her hand as if slapping away a mildly bothersome fly. "It's just a one-time- alright, two-time thing. Scorpius knows that." Her eyes move just a tad out of Molly's gaze as she says it.
"That doesn't mean he likes it," Molly replies quietly. "It just means that he loves you too much to make you do anything you don't want to do."
The other Weasley's eyes flash as they move back down and bore into Molly's. "Don't you dare make any of this my fault. You must've heard the saying: 'It takes two to tango.' Well, it takes two to snog, too, and I'm only one. Scorpius is as used to flings as me-"
"He's used to flings because of you!" Molly exclaims. "He only started acting like that because you did! Christ, Dominique, he's practically worshipped you for years, are you really too blind to see that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Molly. You must be the blind one, because Scorpius and I are just friends. Friends with benefits, maybe, but that's the extent of our relationship."
Shaking her head, Molly stands up. "I've watched you break hearts for years, Dominique. But Scorpius is my best friend- our best friend. If you break his heart, I'm not going to be on your side this time."
Dominique's nostrils flare. "Fine, then. Don't be on my side. Go away; this is my side of the dormitory, after all."
Molly does just that.
XxxxX
"Want to tell me why you and Dominique aren't speaking?"
"Want to tell me why you and Victoire aren't glued to the hip?"
Molly isn't in the mood to talk about her problems. Not to Teddy, not to anyone. She's gone six months without doing it- through her graduation, her first job interview, getting her first apartment- and she's perfectly fine. Just spiffy, in fact. She doesn't need to talk about the fact that she and her cousin are no longer best friends because of a boy (one who, as Uncle Ron so loves to point out, they shouldn't care about anyways).
No, she doesn't need to talk about it at all.
Nope.
Nuh-uh.
So of course, after a moment, it all comes pouring out, along with tears that soak into Teddy's T-shirt as he holds her. He lets her cry it out for a few minutes, whispering sweet nothings into her ears, before he says, "Victoire and I are… taking a break."
Molly looks up. She's struck by how, suddenly, his eyes are the most beautiful things she's ever seen, swimming with colors and emotions, so deep… "Why are you telling me that?" she asks, breaking out of her stupor.
"Because you asked me why Victoire and I aren't currently glued to the hip," he replies. "And so I can do this."
He presses his lips onto hers.
Molly has no idea where this is coming from, but she knows without a doubt that she should pull away, because this is Teddy and he's Victoire's and he's older than her and he's Teddy and he's Victoire's, he's Victoire's, he's Teddy…
He has very nice lips.
She lets her eyes close as she kisses back.
XxxxX
She later learns that he and Victoire weren't really taking a break at all, even if they had just had a fight. She tracks him down and screams at him, yells at him until her voice is hoarse, telling him what an asshole he is, that she's no whore and she's not going to let him treat her like one-
He cuts her off. They stay busy for awhile.
That's exactly what happens every time until, finally, Molly doesn't even try anymore. She just gives in to the passion and lets him into her bed.
XxxxX
"Molly?"
Young Lily Luna Potter is the epitome of innocence as she stands on tiptoes to tap on her old cousin's shoulder. Molly turns around, smiling; she just can't help smiling when it comes to the youngest of the Weasley/Potter clan.
"What is it, Lily?" she asks.
"I need your advice on something…" she bites her lip nervously, her curly red hair falling in front of her eyes. "Can we go away from the others, please? I don't want to be overheard."
Molly agrees and allows the young girl to drag her far away, by the pond at the other side of the field. They sit down on the grass, and she asks, "Okay, Lily, what do you need help with?"
"You know Lysander? Lucy's friend?"
"Yeah."
"Well… I like him," the little girl admitted, her cheeks beet red. "I don't know what to do about it, because he's older than me, and he has a girlfriend… I was wondering if you could give me some advice about how to deal with it."
Molly frowns. "Not that I have anything against giving you advice on boys, Lily, but why did you pick me specifically? You have plenty of other girl cousins. And aunts, for that matter."
"I figured you'd understand better," Lily shrugs, "since you're in the same situation."
"I am? Really? Huh. Thanks for letting me know," Molly says sarcastically.
Lily's brown eyes widen. "But you are! You like Teddy!" Ignoring the expression that overtakes her cousin's face, the young girl plows on. "You're always looking at him when you think no one's watching, and you blush whenever he touches you."
"I don't blush when he touches me, I just have rosy cheeks," Molly retorts automatically. "And I'm not looking at him, I'm looking at him and Victoire, wondering when they'll finally get married."
"Oh." Lily eyes Molly suspiciously. "Really?"
"Really."
The Potter's face fell. "Then how are you going to give me advice about Lysander?"
"Well, it's pretty basic advice. Keep being yourself, and try to hang out with him a bit; if he doesn't start liking you eventually, then he's just stupid."
Lily giggles. "Okay. Thanks, Molly." She hugs her cousin and then runs away, with all the energy of someone half her age. Molly chuckles as she watches her go before the smile slides off her face.
I don't like him, she tells herself as firmly as she can. Sure, there's some passion there, of course there is, but it's only lust. And lust fades after awhile. So I have nothing to worry about… right?
"You're a terrible liar, Molly."
The voice cuts into Molly's thoughts, and she whips around to face the speaker. "You followed us!" she accuses automatically, her eyes widening.
Dominique shakes her head. "I was already here; not my fault you didn't notice me." She pauses. "You know, I have half a mind to go tell Victoire that you're having an affair with her boyfriend."
Molly pales. "How do you- I mean, I'm not- what are you-"
"Oh, don't try to deny it, Molly. I know you better than anyone- I know you better than Lucy even. I can tell when you're hiding something, and I can tell what you're hiding." She pauses, her eyes hard. "You know, I never thought you would sink as low as to have an affair with your cousin's boyfriend… Then again, lust does strange things to a person."
"Lust goes away."
"Not if it becomes passion first," the blond shakes her head. "There are many types of passion, and there isn't even a fucking line between each of them. People can't help who they love, Molly."
"I do not love him! Besides, what would you know about it?" Molly instantly knew that she shouldn't have said that, and she inwardly braced herself for her cousin's anger; but Dominique's face just drooped, her eyes nearly sagging with sadness.
"I lived through it," she murmurs. "It's a terrible discovery to make… especially when the person you love doesn't love you anymore."
…Oh. Oh.
Molly opens her mouth to speak, but Dominique cuts her off. "I don't want to talk about Scorpius; there's nothing I can do about that now. He's with Rose… He loves her, and she loves him. They're- they're happy." Her voice cracks briefly; she takes a deep, shuddering breath before looking up into Molly's eyes. "I don't know whether or not Teddy loves you, Molly, but I know he doesn't love Victoire. He's playing you like a violin right now; do you really want that? Or do you want to tell him how you feel, so at least there's a chance that he'll love you back?"
"I don't love him."
"You do. Take my advice… please. No one deserves to go through what I have."
Dominique walks away without another word, leaving Molly to her tumultuous thoughts.
XxxxX
"Does Victoire suspect anything?"
The question startles Teddy as he puts on his pants; usually Molly, if awake while he leaves, doesn't acknowledge him except for the occasional 'Don't forget your keys.' Why she's asking this question specifically now is beyond him. "If she does, she hasn't said anything," he shrugs truthfully. He zips up his pants. "See you, Turtle-"
"Why are you doing this?"
He frowns, blinking down at Molly. "What do you mean?"
"Why are you cheating on Victoire?"
"I… Vic and I just… don't have chemistry anymore," Teddy falters.
"Then why haven't you just broken up with her?"
"I don't want to hurt her." Well, at least there was one question he could answer easily.
"It would hurt her more to find out you've been cheating on her."
"But she's not going to find out," Teddy states firmly. "And don't even try to say you might tell her; you know you won't. You don't want her to know that you're the one I've been cheating with, do you?"
"If I were the one to tell her- if I explained the whole story, about you coming on to me- then she would see how sorry I am about it. She may be angry at me, but she'd be less angry at me than she would be if she heard about it from someone else.'
"Are you sorry about it?" he asks.
"I have no idea," Molly says, and there's such truth in her eyes that it's almost overwhelming. "Are you sorry about it?"
"Sometimes."
A pause. Molly's next question is in a quiet, almost vulnerable voice: "Why me?"
Teddy thinks about this one; he knows full well that this answer is the most important of them all, and "You were there" just isn't going to cut it. Finally, he says, "I can talk to you… and you listen."
It's the best he can come up with, and he knows it's not enough. Plenty of girls in the world are good listeners; plenty would support his musical ambitions. He doesn't know why he picked Molly specifically- in fact, he didn't even pick her, it just happened. He doubts it could've happened with any other girl, though; Molly's just… Molly, and that's all there is to it.
If only he could actually express that in words.
"We have to stop this, Teddy," Molly sighs. "I… I don't want to do this anymore. I can't. If it actually meant something to you, then maybe- maybe I would stay, but it doesn't; I'm just a- a distraction to you. I'm worth more than that, I deserve better than that… and Victoire deserves better than a boyfriend who's cheating on her."
"You aren't going to tell her, are you?" Teddy asks, his voice panicked.
Molly smiles sadly. "Unfortunately, I care about you too much to do that. I'm just going to leave, and we'll pretend that this never happened. Okay?"
No, not okay, Teddy finds himself protesting inwardly, I don't want you to go, Turtle. But he nods, because there's nothing else he can do, and after an awkward, silent moment, he leaves.
He thinks that maybe he hears a small, broken whimper as he closes the bedroom door, but he tells himself that he's imagining it and keeps on walking.
XxxxX
She gets the letter two days later: I miss you. She doesn't reply; the next day, she gets another note, this one reading, I screwed up. I'm sorry. Please give me another chance.
This time, she sends back a hastily scribbled No, and hopes that that will be the end of it.
It's not. The next letter isn't even a letter, it's a Howler, and Molly can only open it and listen in dismay. He not only has the nerve to send her a Howler, but a singing Howler. That's even worse than screaming, because he's practically serenading her, and that's romantic.
He even picked a sweet song. She doesn't know the name, but the lyrics are deep: "Please don't let this turn into something it's not/I can only give you everything I've got/I can't be as sorry as you think I should/But I still love you more than anyone else could/All that I keep thinking throughout this whole flight/Is 'it could take my whole damn life to make this right'/This splintered mast I'm holding on won't save me long/Because I know fine well that what I did was wrong."
She never hears the part after that, because she leaves her apartment so the Howler can finish and burn out by itself. She can't handle this; is he really this desperate about sex? That's nothing like the Teddy she knows, but it seems to be the only possibility; the other one would be that he actually cares about her, and she knows full well that he doesn't.
He can't.
She doesn't know where to go when she leaves her apartment; on a whim, she Apparates to the first place that comes to her mind. Lucy's house is just the right size for her and Lorcan: big enough that they aren't crowded, but small enough that there isn't too much space. It is, in one word, cozy. Molly is close enough that she can see inside the window; Lorcan's family is over, and everyone is laughing, happy as clams.
For the first time, Molly wonders if going to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts might have been a mistake, because Lucy looks like she's in bliss, and Molly's never felt more depressed in her life.
She keeps standing there, watching; finally, Luna Scamander looks up and sees her. She says something to the others, stands up, and walks out of the room. A moment later, she's standing beside Molly.
"I told them I was going to the bathroom," she says in her dreamy voice. "I did, too. But then I Apparated here. So you don't have to go inside if you don't want to; no one knows you're here."
"Oh… good. Okay."
The two women are silent for a moment. Then, Luna tells Molly, her voice matter-of-fact: "He loves you, you know. He just doesn't know how to."
"How do you know?" Molly replies, startled that the older woman's counsel fits so well in the situation. "How do you even know what I'm going through?"
Luna takes on one of her famous dreamy expressions. "How could I not know?" A pause. "You want to be alone now… I won't tell anyone you're here. So you can leave if you want to."
"Alright. Thank- thank you, Luna… I think."
"Don't thank me; just imparting learned advice." Then Luna Apparates away; after a few moments, Molly sees her enter the sitting room again, where she sits beside Rolf; she rests her head on his shoulder, and he kisses her forehead while he puts one arm around her. Part of Molly takes note of how Luna very specifically said her advice was learned, and wonders if she went through something similar with Rolf, who she's so happy with now.
XxxxX
The next letter Molly receives is from Dominique; she recognizes the handwriting even after all these years and, knowing that Dominique wouldn't write to her unless it was something important, opens the envelope and reads the letter without hesitation.
Molly-
Teddy and Victoire broke up. He and his band are going on tour. I took the liberty of buying a train ticket for you, so you can find him; you can thank me later.
Write me when you come back. We should have coffee sometime. I miss you.
Good luck,
Dominique.
The ticket, a one-way, falls into Molly's hands; another piece of paper, this one with information about when and where the band was playing exactly, follows it. For a few moments, she simply looks at the two. Then, she makes up her mind.
XxxxX
Molly watches the overnight train speed away without her. Her eyes are dry, and that is enough to tell her that this was the right choice to make.
As she walks home, she starts thinking about what days she's free to have coffee.
Well, Ellie, I hope that this wasn't too horrible; I think I included all the elements you wanted, even if there was only a mention or two of Lucy/Lorcan and I didn't mention the song by name!
I'm not sure what I think of this piece... it's freakishly long, for one thing. There are some parts I like and some I don't. Thoughts? Comments? Complaints? Praise? Please tell me in a review. :) Thanks so much!
-Joelle8