Disclaimer: Jo is awesome, I'm not worthy. :)
A/N: This story will be dark. Very dark. You have been warned. Writing is cheaper than therapy. Comments and criticisms welcome and appreciated, but all the same - be gentle. lol
The Weasleys and their friends all stood around the kitchen in shock. Well, except for Molly. And Arthur. Molly was dead, going on four days now, and Arthur had just been convicted and sent to Azkaban for the crime of murdering his wife in cold blood. The Wizengamot had not delayed - they never did, for a case such as this. Arthur had snapped, pulled out his wand, and silently cast Sectumsempra- because his breakfast was overcooked, according to him. He hit her five or six times with the same curse. By the time someone knew to summon healers, she was almost dead. She had died later that afternoon at St. Mungo's, with her kids by her side and her husband before the court.
"So... Now what?" Ron asked quietly, holding tightly to Luna. "I mean... Bloody hell, they don't teach you how to deal with this kind of thing in school."
Bill looked over at him. He had removed his earring and cut his hair in memory of his mother. He actually looked like an adult without them. "We need to take care of the estate, Ron," he said. "We see if she had a will, and we ensure that her wishes get carried out. Someone will need to take care of the house, but I've got to be honest, I don't want to be here at all right now." All around him, Weasleys and friends murmured in agreement.
"Who would be willing to stay here, knowing what happened here?" Harry had tears running down his face. Completely unashamed, he let them flow freely, not wiping them away. He looked around the room. Almost everybody was shaking their heads - they didn't want to. "Hermione?" Harry asked gently.
"I could, if you want me to." Hermione said, looking at the Weasleys each in turn. "I don't want to overstep - I know I'm not really family -"
"Of course you are, Hermione. Are you sure you'd be willing to?" Percy looked at her. "We have no idea how long it would actually take, and... Well..." He trailed off, unable to say what they were all thinking. Unspeakable acts had happened in this very room. Their mother had lain on the floor for almost four hours, the only thing keeping her alive a charmed necklace that she had been wearing. It held her in stasis for four hours - the charm had failed as they got to St. Mungo's - and the Healers couldn't get more blood into her, fast enough to keep her from bleeding out. Where she had gotten the necklace, or why she wore it - none of them had any idea. Arthur could be cruel, but only verbally. He had never harmed any of them before, including Molly, as far as anyone knew. He liked to kick the garden gnomes when they annoyed him. But he never killed them, and never was overly brutal. He was mean to his family, though. He loved to belittle them, what he called "teasing", and if they got upset, he'd say that they had no sense of humor. Little enough things that he could do it in public, and no one would think twice about it. Add it up over years, though...
The healers had asked about the necklace, a silver heart on a thin gold chain. No one could answer the questions, and no one could remember her ever not wearing it. Ginny wore it now, uncertain as to whether its magic was exhausted, huddled in the corner with Hermione, not talking at all. Hermione had her arm around her friend and was stroking her arm. Hermione looked back at Percy. " I want to make this easier on you all. I will take care of the house, if you'll let me." she looked down at Ginny, sobbing in her arms. "You don't need to deal with the house on top of everything else."
The Weasleys and Harry left not long after that, being unable to deal with being in the kitchen that their mother was brutally murdered in for any longer that night. Hermione looked at the floor for a moment, compartmentalizing everything, and started up the stairs. As she passed Molly's clock, she noticed the hands. Arthur was firmly in prison, the Weasley children were all at home, as was Harry, whose hand had been added at the same time hers was. She smiled sadly to note that she, too, was pointed at "home". Molly truly had been another mother to her. Molly's hand was gone. Suddenly angry, she took the clock off the wall and placed it facedown on the chair by the window. She took off upstairs, heading for Molly's room. She needed to find Molly's will, and anything that would give them some idea of what in the bloody hell happened four days ago.
Upon entering the room, she noticed the made bed in the middle of a comfortably cluttered room, very similar to the state of the rest of the house. There was one nightstand, one dresser. It didn't look like Molly had anywhere to put her stuff. So where would she put a will? Under the mattress seemed too obvious. She wondered about Molly's friends. Would she have given anything to them? Come to think of it, who did Molly actually talk to about everything in her life? There had to be someone, but Hermione couldn't actually think of anyone that Molly spent time with alone. She sat down on the bed, tears threatening, wondering how horrible it must have been for Molly to have no one but Arthur to talk to so much of the time. Hermione had been on the wrong end of his "teasing" more than once – to endure it constantly, with no out... What must that have been like? And who had charmed that necklace?
Hermione laid down on the bed, sobbing, and as her hand slipped down between the bed and the wall, she felt it come to rest on something. Surprised, she pulled out a copy of Witch Weekly magazine. She flipped through quickly, but found no will. She sighed tiredly. It was late, she was tired, the funeral was tomorrow, and she wasn't sure how she was going to get through it. What if Molly hadn't left a will? What if they had no way to know what she wanted? She wouldn't do that to them. So it must be here, where Arthur would least suspect, just in case... Hermione looked at the magazine again, then tapped it with her wand. "Revelio." She was holding an expensive-looking leather bound book, dark red with Molly's name engraved in the corner in gold. She looked inside and discovered that it appeared to be a journal. "With love" was handwritten on the first page. She flipped through the book again, and discovered, on the last page, a note that had been written by Molly:
"He tells me I can't survive without him, that I need him, and he doesn't know why he bothers with me. He insults his children, and mocks them when it bothers them. He tells me I am not good enough, smart enough, thin enough. And when I get upset, he tells me it's my fault. He is a terrible man now, but things used to be different. My children, including Hermione and Harry, need to know this. I tried to get them away, more than once. I'm so sorry for not being strong enough. I love my children – all nine of them – and I'm sorry I couldn't protect them better. To my children: please read this – together, if you can – know that I didn't take things as submissively as it appeared. I love you all."