Disclaimer: I don't own anything you may recognise. This applies to the entire fic

Blessings

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." - Unknown

Stealing

"The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child." - Joe Houldsworth

A house with seven children in it was never quiet. Ever. Which was something that Molly Weasley was very used to. Currently, thirteen-year-old Bill was somewhere upstairs with eleven-year-old Charlie discussing some of the finer points of his Transfiguration classes at Hogwarts from last year while Percy was sat in the living room reading.

The two youngest of the family, four-year-old Ron and two-year-old Ginny were both in the kitchen with Molly herself, painting at the kitchen table, though it soon became clear that there was going to be much more paint on the table itself than the parchment. Molly instinctively winced as Ginny's arm knocked over the cup of water as she reached over to get some more paint. Ron's eyes widened as his mouth opened in shock as he glanced up to his mother. Molly merely walked over to the pair, straightened the cup and hoisted Ginny back into her chair properly. With a simple 'Tergeo' she managed to get rid of most of the paint and water whilst noticing with a small smile Ron closing his mouth again and glaring over at Ginny who carried on, quite oblivious to her brother's annoyance at her.

Molly Weasley was used to mess. It came in a package with the continuous noise that was delivered after you had a child. Molly Weasley had seven.

She knew things were going to get hectic again as the twins came barrelling in from outside both clutching their toy broomsticks that Molly had tried to wean them off several years ago. They were really much too old for the things, which had seen more than their share of knocks through being passed down more than once each. After what had happened last year, (the incident which the twins nor anybody else was ever to speak of again), Molly had tried once again to get the twins to give up the toys, so, at least they could be passed down yet again to Ron and Ginny but the twins were adamant to keep them. Molly knew the obsession would carry on leading to a love of Quidditch as it currently was, which, quite secretly she was rather pleased about.

As the twins barged past Ginny's chair to the kitchen cupboards, Molly hoisted her daughter out of the seat, if only to avoid further spillages. The toddler squealed in protest and Molly turned, handing her to Bill who had just appeared in the doorway.
Bill frowned as he shifted his sister's weight so she'd sit in his arms easier.

"What's going on, mum?" Molly didn't answer straight away. She shooed Ron from his seat and proceeded to clear up the painting things.

"Just trying to get everything sorted, Bill dear. If you could take Ginny for me," Bill rolled his eyes as he tried to stop Ginny from reaching the tin of biscuits on the kitchen side that Fred and George had just unearthed.

"I've already got her mum, but thanks for asking," he said sarcastically, trying to be heard over Ginny's wails as her fingers grasped thin air.

Molly sighed as she finished with the paint things and made her way over to the twins, ignoring Ron sat on the floor next to an open cupboard with a colander on his head. Molly Weasley was used to it. As she safely placed the biscuit tin out of reach, Percy strode into the room, staring at his brothers and sisters with disdain as he made his way to sit at the table.

"Mum, do you think I could read to you later?"

Molly glanced down at her son as she pulled a large pan out of the cupboard "Of course, Percy dear. Bill, where did Charlie get to?"

Bill, still struggling with the wriggling Ginny, made his way over to the table and placed her on Percy's knee, much to his brother's annoyance.

"He'll be down in a minute. He still wants to know when you're going to take him to Diagon Alley, mum"

"I know, I know," replied Molly as she pulled the wooden spoons off the twins, who had grown bored of their swordfight and were just about ready to hit Ron on the head with them.

She set some vegetables going with her wand and weaved around the chairs and children, to pull a large cookbook from the shelf next to the door. A quick glance at the clock told her that Arthur was already on his way home, as Charlie wandered into the kitchen, hands in pockets.

"Mum, when can we - "

"Monday. Charlie pass me the colander please" Charlie walked past his brothers and sisters, grabbing the colander from Ron's head on the way, much to the four-year-old's protests.

Charlie passed Molly the colander before sitting down at the table next to the twins, who now without any toys, were trying to entertain Ginny by giving her a puppet show with their hands. Hence to say it wasn't working, and Ginny was entertaining herself by playing with Percy's shirt. Bill meanwhile, had picked Ron up so they could look out the window together as Arthur apparated into the garden and headed towards the door.

Molly, prompted by her youngest son's cry of delight turned her attention to her husband who was now entering the kitchen, grinning from ear to ear.

"Good day at work, dear?" Molly asked as she proceeded to flick the cookery book to the right page. Arthur smiled back at her from around Ron who had leapt from Bill's arms as soon as Arthur had entered the room and was now sat in his father's arms telling him everything that had happened in the day.

"It was a good day actually, Molls," Arthur replied, lowering Ron to the floor, "Managed to finally sort out my paperwork and nothing big came up. Pretty easy, I'd say."

"Lovely," Molly replied, jabbing the potatoes in the sink with her wand. She walked round the twins and hoisted Ginny off Percy's lap and dumped her back into Bill's arms.

"Take your brothers and sister outside for me will you Bill? While I get tea sorted." Bill rolled his eyes again, but didn't dare to say anything in protest – not with both his parents in the room.

He put Ginny on the floor and took her hand whilst reaching out for Ron's. Heading over to the open door, he gave Percy's chair a kick on the way past to get him moving and headed out into the garden with Ron and Ginny in tow. Percy got glumly up from his chair and followed Bill. Charlie looked back to where Molly was chivvying the twins after their siblings and followed his little brothers outside, pulling the door shut behind him.

As the door closed Molly allowed herself to relax a little, and with a quick glance to check on the dinner, wandered over to Arthur and embraced him.

"Glad you're home dear" she said happily, staring out at the children outside. Arthur followed her gaze outside. Predictably, Fred and George were charging round the garden, and were joined by Charlie. Bill was entertaining Ron and Ginny. Percy was watching them all from the side, looking rather reproachful.

"Have they been good?" Arthur asked, hanging his cloak up on the peg next to the back door.

Molly rolled her eyes in response.

"Oh, you know. The usual. I don't think I need go into details, do I?"

"Better not."

"Yes," A short silence passed between them in which they both took time to watch the children outside, "Charlie wants to go to Diagon Alley soon."

"Really, dear. I never would've guessed." Molly laughed at her husband's sarcasm and went to check on the dinner again.

"I still can't believe he's off to Hogwarts now. It seems like yesterday he was that two-year-old tearaway."

"You said that when Bill went to Hogwarts."

"Bill wasn't so much a tearaway."

"I know. But you said that you couldn't believe how quickly he'd grown up." Molly made a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a click of her tongue. Arthur continued,

"It's going to keep on happening, Molls. Five more times. Blink and you miss it. Ginny will be off at Hogwarts before we know it. It's going to go in a flash."

"I know," said Molly, obviously still a little irritated, "I'd rather not think about it thank you very much. Mainly because I know that not only will they all be off at Hogwarts sooner than I can think, but I know that once they're grown up their childhood will feel like a millisecond to me. I'm not particularly looking forward to it."

"What you mean, you'd rather keep them like this?" Arthur smiled, gesturing outside to where the children were still charging around.

"I'd like to think I don't."

"Of course you do, Molls"

"Of course I do. But I'll love them forever."

"I know you will."

Bill stared out at his brothers running round the garden. The twins were making Charlie chase them and Bill could see that Charlie loved it. He knew that Charlie doted on his younger siblings; he just hated to admit it. Ron and Ginny were a couple of yards away. Ron was showing Ginny a hole in the dirt 'where the gnomes lived', though Bill though the story highly dubious as the hole was hardly big enough to house a couple of spiders, let alone a gnome. Still, it was enough to keep them entertained. Percy was sat next to Bill, pulling at the grass and sighing noisily every so often. Bill knew it was a clear message to him that Percy wasn't enjoying being here and would much rather be inside reading. But Bill had been told to take them outside and he wasn't about to let Percy back in now. Besides, he quite liked it when they were all together.

After a particularly discontented sigh from Percy, Bill decided that he'd had enough.

"OK," he said standing up, catching Charlie and the twins' attention, "Let's do something together."

"Like what?" asked Charlie walking over, hands on hips. Bill thought for a minute as Percy stood up.

"Don't know, but it has to be something we can all play. Even Ronnie and Ginny." Out of the corner of his eye Bill could see Fred roll his eyes but ignored him and carried on.

"How about we play hide and seek? We can be in teams." Next to him, the twins jumped up, grins on their faces.

"Yeah, let's play it. I'm with George." Bill smiled at Fred's exclamation, knowing that if any of them had even attempted to split them up they wouldn't have made it back to the house in one piece.

"Of course you can," he replied, before turning to Ron and Ginny.

"Do you two want to play hide and seek with us?" Ron cast a glance to the twins before nodding his head vigorously; obviously trying to seek their approval at his similar eagerness to the idea, but the twins ignored him. Ginny didn't reply but Bill knew that she'd go along with whatever her brothers were doing. As long as she could join in she'd be happy.

"OK," Bill said, looking round to his siblings, "Who's going to look for us? Charlie, Percy?"

"I want to hide," moaned Charlie, looking at Bill with disdain, "Percy, you look for us. You never do it." Bill looked to Percy to see if he agreed. Percy shrugged,

"If I find you all really quickly, can I go inside?" Bill grinned.

"Deal." He replied, patting Percy on the shoulder. "OK. Fred and George are together and Charlie and me will take Ron and Ginny. Percy you have to count to one hundred, then you can come and find us." Percy shrugged in reply before sitting back down on the ground and beginning to count slowly and methodically. The twins gave a squeal of delight before charging off together, and next to him, Charlie hoisted Ginny up and quickly started making his way to the back of the garden. Bill glanced down at Percy before grabbing Ron's hand and setting off across the garden.

"C'mon Ronnie, let's find somewhere to hide." To be perfectly honest, Bill wasn't tremendously bothered about finding a good hiding place. He supposed he'd better make it easy for Percy to find them so he could make sure the twins hadn't strayed too far, or make sure that Percy surreptitiously left them unfound.

At this point, as Percy's counting drifted over from behind Bill found himself being dragged to the grove of trees at the back of the garden by Ron. He was perfectly happy to let his little brother pick their hiding place. He just hoped it wasn't too ambitious. Recently Ron had picked up a habit of trying to beat the twins at everything. Most of the time he didn't but it didn't stop him trying and Bill knew he'd have to watch where they were going else they could end up in the other side of the village.

They had reached the hedge at the back of the garden, next to where the pond was and Bill could hear Percy finishing up his counting. Behind the pond was a particularly overgrown section of hedge and Bill knew it would be a good enough hiding place to make it look like he'd made an effort but easy enough so Percy would find him relatively easily. Besides, it was beginning to get cold. He dragged Ron over to the hedge and pushed him in front of him. Ahead of him he could hear Ron protesting about the choice but Bill ignored his brother and looked back to see Percy standing up, ready.

"Percy's done now though, Ronnie. We've got to hide." He wriggled into the hedge behind Ron and managed to get himself settled with a view of the rest of the garden, including Percy.

They sat there for a few minutes watching Percy wander half-heartedly around the garden calling out his brothers' names. Bill had no idea where his other four siblings had gotten too and was starting to think he'd just get out and help Percy look, but he knew that Ron would protest and he wasn't quite ready to deal with that at the moment.

Underneath them, the ground was soggy. Leftovers from the pond a couple of feet away and Bill was really starting to get annoyed. Ron was becoming fidgety too, enough to start crawling around under the hedge trying to see what he could find. Bill glanced out to the garden again, but he couldn't see Percy anymore.

Turning back, he found that Ron had disappeared into the undergrowth somewhere. Bill suddenly got worried. He'd specifically gotten them to play in pairs so they didn't lose Ron and Ginny and now he'd done just that. Bill knew he'd have to get out to find Ron, so he backed out of the hedge and stood up, looking into the bushes around him. He heard a rustling behind him and whipped round, only to see Percy wandering up, a small grin on his face.

"Found you," he said, "You're not very good at this, Bill." Bill ignored the remark, looking behind Percy for any sign of his youngest brother.

"Percy, have you seen Ronnie?"

Percy frowned "He's there." He said, pointing behind Bill with a condescending look on his face.

Bill turned to see Ron waist deep in the thick mud that surrounded the pond. He walked slowly over, smiling with relief before noticing Ron losing his balance. Just before Ron fell backwards into the pond, Bill managed to grab his arm and pull him out. As he fell to the floor Ron giggled and stared down at himself.

"Ew," he said, still laughing. Bill sighed; Ron was covered in mud and weed. Behind him he heard Percy giggling.

"Mum's going to kill me," he muttered, reaching out for Ron's hand, "Percy, have you found the others yet?"

"No," Percy shook his head "But I'm bored of this game now." Bill swore only to hear Ron repeat the word from his side. Percy giggled again, "You're right, mum's going to kill you."

Bill sighed.

"Here," he said, pushing Ron's hand into Percy's, "Watch him. I'll find the others." As he set off across towards the orchard he could hear Ron trying to get away from Percy but ignored it. Percy might have found the recent events funny, but he'd look after his little brother.

It didn't take Bill long to find Charlie and Ginny who were at the top end of the orchard. Together they looked for the twins, and it took all of half an hour to find that they'd doubled back behind Percy and had hidden in the broom cupboard next to the house. When Bill finally brought his siblings back to the kitchen darkness had already set in and dinner was just about ready. When he opened the back door, the twins raced inside, eager to eat, and Charlie helped Ginny to take her shoes off. Bill stood Ron in the middle of the kitchen and told him not to touch anything before going and calling for his mum. Molly hadn't been to happy to see Ron in the state he was, but after hearing the story Bill told her was merely grateful that Ron hadn't ended up at the bottom of the pond.

Three hours later, with the children fed, washed and in bed, Molly wandered into the kitchen, where Arthur was sat with a cup of tea.

"All done?" he asked.

Molly nodded. "Just about. I was just thinking about what I said earlier. Perhaps I do look forward to seeing them grow up."

"Perhaps sometimes," Arthur replied, putting his mug in the sink, "You've got to enjoy it though, haven't you?"

"Oh yes," Molly replied, sighing contentedly, "Sometimes I like it when they get into trouble, or fall in a pond. Makes me feel like a mother."

"You're always a mother, Molls."

"I know. But as we said before. It won't last."

"Course it will. You'll always be their mother. And they'll always know it. Don't you worry."

"Of course I won't Arthur. You coming then?"

Together, they made their way up the stairs.

"Ready to do some stealing then, Molls?"

"Of course. Must make the most of it while we still can." Together, Arthur and Molly made went through each of their children's bedrooms, and gave each a kiss. Only the best things were worth stealing.

A/N: This fic has been edited since 15/04/08. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, and to my beta, spinkle22 - Elle xx