Molly stood behind a tree located on the grounds of Hogwarts, trying to summon up every little piece of Gryffindor courage she had in her. Was this really a good idea? Maybe he wouldn't like it at all. What if he became angry? She took a deep breath and thought 'Oh, sod it!', and walked from the tree down towards the lake.
As she came nearer she could see the shape of the person she was looking for, but who also was making her nervous. In the grass by the shore sat a tall young boy, same age as Molly and with just as vivid red hair as her. He was looking out over the lake and she thought he looked so sad.
Without knowing it, Molly stepped on a twig. The boy heard it crack and quickly whipped his head around to see who was there. She waved a little awkwardly at him. They were in the same year and in the same house and spoke to each other every now and then, but they didn't really hang out together out of class. Molly however, had thought that he seemed really sweet for quite a while now, and he definitely didn't deserve to be treated the way those Slytherin boys had done a few days before:
She had been out walking with her friends when she heard loud voices coming from the shore. She had moved closer to the lake and saw three older boys from Slytherin. They had ganged up on him and nne of them were holding him back with a spell, so he couldn't move. The one biggest one of them, had used his wand to remove the hat Arthur was wearing, and was now making it dance in the air in front of Arthur, taunting him. The third boy cheered them on and laughed at everything they did towards Arthur.
"Not so brave now are you, little Gryffindor blood traitor!"
"Let go of me!" Arthur yelled.
The boys just kept laughing. The boy who had taken the hat uttered a spell and suddenly the hat turned into a small ginger weasel. The small furry animal landed on the ground, nervously looked around at the boys, before quickly dashed of into the forest.
"Hey, I need that hat! It's my only one."
"Perhaps your parents shouldn't have had more children than they could afford then. Merlin knows there too many of your sort already!"
The Slytherins almost lost their breath from all the laughing now. The one holding Arthur back waved his wand and suddenly Arthur flew into the lake. Just then the voice of their potions professor was heard approaching. The three bullies disappeared more quickly than the weasel had done and when the professor reached the lake, all he saw was Arthur crawling himself up to the shore. The professor was furious and immediately deducted 50 points off Gryffindor for him being in the lake, as well as gave Arthur a week of detention.
She had felt so sorry for him then, and a little ashamed that she didn't stepped in and helped him, although he hadn't seen her that day. Perhaps this gesture would make it better though. She walked over to where he sat with even more eagerness than before.
"Hello Arthur."
"Hi Molly." Arthur looked somewhat surprised at seeing her here.
"I thought you might be here." Molly said when she sat down in the grass next to him.
"Well yeah, I like this spot."
"I know, I've seen you here a couple of times. My friends and I like to take walks down the path over there. It's very beautiful here." A gust of wind blew over them and Molly closed her robes a bit tighter over her body. She was suddenly reminded of why she was here.
"Ehm, I've got something for you." She pulled out a small package from her robes and handed it to him.
"What's this?" He asked in a surprised tone while he took the package.
"Oh, nothing special." She said while looking away. Was she blushing?
He opened the package gently and pulled out a knitted hat in different shades of blue and with a little fluffy white ball on top of it.
"Wow, this is really neat!"
"You like it?"
"Yeah, I do. Where did you get it?"
"Actually, I made it myself. But I just picked up knitting, so it might not be so good." She answered biting her lip.
"Are you kidding? This is great, and look…" He put it on and smiled at her. "It fits perfectly too!" She started laughing when he modelled the hat for her.
"That's good to hear. I saw what those Slytherin gits did to your old hat the other day, so I thought you might need a new one. It's getting colder every day you know."
"Oh, you saw that, did you?"
She nodded and could tell he was slightly embarrassed.
"Well this was really kind of you. And you made this that fast? You're really good at this knitting business."
She was definitely blushing now but wasn't going to lose her nerve now she had gotten this far. "Well, it helps if you're making something for someone special."
Now it was Arthur's time to blush. Had she just said what he thought she did? The fact that she made this hat especially for him was mindboggling. He had always thought Molly was very pretty, but that he didn't stand a chance with her. He had to swallow hard before speaking.
"Ehm, Molly?"
"Yes?"
"I would really like to thank you properly for this." Arthur said and pointed to the hat, still on his head. "Would you allow me to take you to The three broomsticks this next Hogsmeade visit? I could buy you a butterbeer."
"I'd really like that." She said and smiled.
"Great! I got to go now but I'll pick you up in the common room on Saturday then?"
"I'll be there." she said smiling and waving as he was leaving. She looked out over the lake when he'd left and thought to herself 'This really is a beautiful spot'.
