For Camp Potter (Archery - write about loyalty); Fanfiction, School of Creativity and Imagination (Escher Drawings - write something that could fit into canon); the If You Dare Challenge (54. Come Back Here); the Character Diversity Bootcamp (20. Birthday); the HP Potions Competition (Doxycide); the Fantastic Beasts Challenge (Doxy) and the Legendary Gods and Goddesses Competition (Hestia)
WARNING: Angst, Alzheimer's Disease
This is rather different to what I usually write, but I'm still rather proud of this one.
Today was not a good day.
Later, the family would talk and agonise over every small moment of forgetfulness, wondering if they could have possibly caught it sooner. But the truth was that it happened out of the blue, a complete and utter shock that no one could have predicted even if they had known what to look for. And since none of them were Mind Healers, they never had any idea what they were dealing with.
At first, it was simple forgetfulness. Simply some forgotten floo powder when returning from shopping at Diagon Alley, a misplaced piece of clothing or two – nothing to be concerned about. In fact, it was nothing more than something every person went through.
And then it started to happen more and more often.
No one really worried about it. After all, as a person got older, a bit of forgetfulness was to be expected. There was no way that it could actually be something more sinister.
It was when Arthur and Molly were out for a dinner with the family that everything came to a head.
As the most well-known family in the British wizarding world, the Weasley-Potters rated a private dining room at any restaurant they went out to. It was at Snitch, the newest restaurant in London, that they got the news.
"…So I told Lysander that there was absolutely no way…" Lucy was saying to the laughter of her cousins and the hidden amusement of parents, aunts and uncles.
"Arthur? Molly?" a quiet voice interrupted the dinner party.
The heads of the family turned to face their visitor after assuring their family to continue on without them.
"Ah, Dean," Molly said warmly. "It's such a surprise to see you here! Why don't you join us?"
Dean Thomas shook his regretfully. "Unfortunately I'm here on official business, Molly."
"What happened?" Arthur asked, immediately concerned.
Dean hesitated for a moment. "The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was called in to extinguish a magical fire in Ottery St. Catchpole a few hours ago."
Immediately, Molly's hands went to her mouth. "Not.." she whispered, tears in her eyes.
"We managed to put it out before it could do any real damage," Dean rushed to reassure her. "It's just – I have to ask if either of you forgot to turn of something before you left for dinner tonight? We've determined that the cause of the fire was from inside the house, and we'd like to rule out any possibility of foul play."
"Not at all," Arthur said. "I'm certain I turned off the fireplace before we left – we were apparting to Shell Cottage before coming here, so there was no need for me to put it in stasis so that we could floo in and out of the Burrow."
"I – I-" Molly whimpered.
"What is it, Mrs Weasley?" Dean asked, turning to her in concern.
"Oh Arthur!" she wailed, throwing herself on her husband, who was looking at her with a confused and worried expression. "I forgot to turn of the kitchen fire before we left! I was getting ready to cook dinner before the children told us that they were treating us, and I just forgot to turn it off!"
"It's okay Molly," Arthur murmured, wrapping her in a comforting embrace. "These things happen sometimes. No one was hurt, it's all okay."
Only it wasn't.
The bouts of forgetfulness happened more and more often, but even then no one was truly worried or suspicious.
That was, until two weeks before Roxanne's sixteenth birthday.
It was a bright and sunny day, and Arthur had decided that he would surprise his wife with breakfast in bed. She had been under tremendous stress of late, what with her increasingly frequent forgetfulness.
He was humming cheerfully when he woke Molly up, breakfast hovering behind him.
"Hello darling," he murmured, bending down to kiss Molly as she awakened. "I have a surprise for you."
Carefully, he moved the floating breakfast to Molly's lap.
"Oh, Arthur!" Molly exclaimed happily. "You didn't have to! Oh, you must have gone through so much trouble!"
"You can worry about that later, Molly," Arthur said. "I'd assure you that it wasn't any trouble at all, but we both know you wouldn't believe that."
"Mmm," Molly agreed in between bites.
"I seem to have forgotten today's date," she said after a few moments, sounding vexed.
"It's January 3, dear," Arthur replied. "We have plans to meet Percy today, remember?"
"Oh yes!" his wife exclaimed delightedly. "And to think, our Percy is going to be father soon! Would you have ever imagined it three years ago Arthur? That Percy would be married and reconciled with the family?"
Arthur started, but then searched his wife's face for evidence of her prank, sure that this was leading to something else. But the more he searched, the more panicked he felt. There was no evidence that Molly thought she was saying anything other than the truth.
"Molly?" he asked, trying hard to keep the worry out of his voice, "What year is it?"
"Why, 2000 of course, dear. It's rather silly of you to forget that, considering the noise the muggles made a few nights ago on New Year's Eve. Can you believe they thought that something sinister would happen? Imagine that, the first day of the new millennium being the date for horrors to befall the world…"
Arthur dropped the orange juice that he was levitating towards Molly.
"Arthur dear? Are you alright?"
The diagnosis seemed impossible. This was Molly Weasley they were talking about, the woman who was like an unstoppable force of nature, the only person who had had the ability to stop the reign of Lord Voldemort's most feared lieutenant. The possibility that she was facing a slow, creeping metal disease was incomprehensible.
Hermione sobbed about it for days when she heard the news. The Healers at St Mungo's called it Tardus Oblivio, Latin for slow forgetfulness, but she knew it by another, more terrifying name.
Alzheimer's Disease.
She had researched it in depth before obiliviating her parents during the war. It had been a documented side-effect of some of the more common used Memory Charms of the time, and she had been determined not to do any more harm to her parents than necessary.
She had known the disease inside and out, and she should have been able to catch it before it became as advanced as it already was.
Ironically, it had been Molly who had comforted her, made her see that it wasn't her fault that Molly was sick. It had cured her guilt, but it did nothing to ease the sorrow she felt at knowing what her second mother was staring down.
After the news was broken, each moment of lapsed memory became a cause for concern. What would have completely overlooked earlier – a forgotten wand when leaving the room, losing the memory of asking Arthur to get a crooked stair fixed – they had all become events to obsess over.
The thought of losing Molly Weasley – of losing everything that made her the strong, independent woman that she was – was incredibly unbelievable.
Out of everyone, Harry took it the worst.
Molly had always been the only mother he had truly known. She had taken care of him in place of the woman who no longer could, and the thought of losing her, the thought of her forgetting everything they had been through together was simply inconceivable for the Saviour of the Wizarding World.
It was Albus who comforted him during the nights he spent up in tears, reminding him that the last thing his grandmother was for her family to feel sorrow and pity, that there was no better way to honour the life of Molly Weasley than to face everything that life threw at him and come out standing.
At first, it seemed like they would be spared the full horror of the disease.
After that first scare, all the things that Molly forgot were simple, everyday items, things that wouldn't have raised a red flag in anyone's mind if they didn't know the diagnosis.
But then, at the summer get-together for the family, the next major incident occurred.
Percy had come in late, held up by Kingsley at work. Audrey and the girls were already there, and no one expected his entrance to be anything other than normal.
But then Molly broke into tears at the sight of him. She rushed to pull him into a tight hug.
"I knew you'd come home," she said over and over again.
As he hugged his mother and wiped his tears' away, Percy threw the rest of his horror-struck family a worried look.
Thankfully, Molly didn't have too many bad days.
There were some days when Arthur wondered how he would deal with it. The Healers had constantly warned him that Molly's attacks would become both worse and more frequent as time went by. He had to prepare himself for the day when Molly would only rarely be able to recognise the present, they had said.
He didn't know how he would survive without Molly. He had loved her since he was barely sixteen, and they had been together for more than fifty years. The thought of facing the world without her was simultaneously ludicrous and terrifying.
Sometimes, he closed his eyes and prayed to any deity that might be listening for a miracle cure.
James knew that his parents and the rest of the elders in the family were having trouble accepting the truth.
The children though – The diagnosis had been confusing and baffling at first. It had been hard for them to wrap their heads around the idea of the disease, much less the fact that it was their beloved grandmother who was suffering from it.
But once they had, they had all rallied together. It had been Teddy who had explained it to them, the fact that the entire family was suffering with Grandma, was reliving the same memories she was when she had a bad day.
It had been then that they had all decided that it was up to them to be the strong ones now.
So Albus comforted his father, and Molly held her aunt Hermione. It was Dominique who stopped her father from drowning his sorrows in a bottle when he first heard, and Teddy and Victoire who took it upon themselves to travel to Romania to Charlie in person.
And more than any of that, it was all of them who rallied around Grandma, refusing to treat her any differently than before. They knew that sometimes she would forget who they were, but it was important that when she knew everything she shouldn't be treated as someone different, someone weak.
She would hate that, and if it was the only way for the children to help her, they would accept her illness and move on with their everyday lives.
Sometimes Molly's bad days were so much worse than simply bad.
Sometimes she forgot that she had grandchildren, or thought she was at a time where they're nothing more than a few toddlers, most of them not yet born.
Sometimes she thought that her children were still young, that there were still a few of them left at home, years away from Hogwarts.
But one of the worst happened in the middle of regular December day.
Arthur walked into the kitchen to see Molly in tears. Before he could ask her anything, she rushed up to him.
"Oh Arthur, Fabian and Gideon still haven't owled me! You don't think something bad has happened to them, to you? I know they're still alive, I just know it! But what if…"
As his wife worried away, Arthur stared down at her in sorrow and grief. Telling her the first time had been hard enough, he did not know how to break the news of her brothers' deaths to her once again.
It started as a good day.
Molly remembered everything, from what year it was to the names of all her grandchildren and extended family.
All their friends had long been advising Arthur to possibly start looking into ways to procure a permanent, private room for Molly at St Mungo's, and even though he knew that he would never betray and abandon the woman he loved like that, a good day meant that he felt vindicated over his loyalty to her.
But not even good days remained that way anymore, now that Molly's condition was visibly worsening.
When Arthur entered their bedroom, he found Molly fluttering around, getting dressed in her best robes and jewellery.
"Oh! Arthur!" she exclaimed when he entered, "You gave me such a fright!"
Before he could say anything, she continued, "Why aren't you dressed yet? We have to go for the opening of the twins' shop, remember? Oh, I never thought that the boys would actually do anything about owning a joke shop! I always thought they would abandon it and get bored of their dream like they did with everything else. And would you look at them now?"
"Molly…" Arthur started, sitting down heavily on the bed.
"Oh, look at me rambling on. You need to get dressed soon, Arthur, Fred said he would be here to pick us up, and there's only half an hour until he comes. Oh, I can't wait to see him all dressed up in formal robes!"
Yes, today was a bad day.
I hope you guys liked it! Please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)