Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and its various affiliates. Not me.
Molly sighed as she put Bill, Charlie and Percy to bed. It had taken longer than she had expected, but that wasn't a big surprise - everything seemed to be taking longer these days, now that she was five months pregnant. She was bigger than she remembered being with the first three, too, and she wondered if that meant a girl was on the way. Probably not. With her luck it would be twin boys.
Charlie had insisted that she read Babbity Rabbity, but Bill had told her that he was getting much too old for stories like that, and would she please bring him his Martian Miggs comic? Percy had just giggled and said, "Stowy!" And then she had to climb the stairs three separate times, and she was sorely tempted to put a locking charm on Charlie's door so he didn't creep out again while she was putting Percy to bed.
So it was with swollen feet and quite the temper when she finally collapsed in the sitting room to tie off the ends of Percy's jumper. She flicked her wand at the fireplace, and toward the wireless, where Christmas carols were playing, and summoned the tray she had saved for Arthur, applying another Warming Charm to it before setting it on the table next to her. She sighed. She didn't have many presents this year, hence the homemade jumpers, a tradition she had started when Bill was only three years old. Each of the kids had a jumper and some homemade fudge as a present, although she was a little hesitant about feeding a one year old chocolate.
She started when she heard Arthur Apparate into the yard. She waited a moment, but when he didn't come inside just yet, Molly assumed that he had acquired another trinket to add to his collection of Muggle items. It was growing quite extensive, something they had rowed about more than once. Although, to be fair, it couldn't really be called rowing when she was the only one yelling. Arthur stood there and took it, his face making her think of the children when they had to swallow a particularly unpleasant potion.
"Mollywobbles, I'm home!" she heard him shout from the vicinity of the garage. "I'll be inside in just a moment, just going to drop some rubbish in the shed!" Molly smiled despite herself - she may hate those Muggle artifacts, but there was no doubt that she loved Arthur. Some days she found it hard to believe they had been married going on ten years now. She started to push herself out of the sagging armchair, her stomach preventing the ease of movement she would've liked. She lifted the Warming Charm from his steak and potatoes and made her way slowly to the kitchen, where Arthur was taking off his boots in the scullery.
"Here you are, dear, I've just lifted the warming charm."
"Thanks, Molly. Sorry I was so late, we found some pillows charmed to turn to lead anyone touched them in Barnscombe we needed to confiscate them - there were almost four hundred there, can you believe it?" he said, gesticulating wildly for emphasis.
"Why in the world would anyone charm four hundred pillows? It seems rather pointless to me. Of course, if it were possible to charm pillows to put kids to sleep, I would've done that tonight - they were absolutely mad after dinner..."
She drifted off as she heard an old Celestina Warbeck song on the wireless - All I Want for Christmas is Your Love. She and Arthur had danced to this song after their wedding - they'd eloped the December after they'd graduated, and when they went to The Three Broomsticks as man and wife, this song was playing. Arthur must have noticed her sentimental mood, because all of the sudden he was standing next to her offering his arm.
They'd never really learned how to dance properly, so they just swayed in time with the music, but with Arthur's arms around her - pregnant belly and all - Molly felt better than she had in a long time.
