This is for chasingafterstarlight who agreed to beta me. The first time I read a Molly/Lysander story, it was one of hers! So thanks for making me ship Mollysander! Check out her work everyone, especially her Mollysander and LilyTrashcan fics :D.
This is also for what stars are because she ships Molly/Lysander, too! Check out her work too!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. What you recognize belongs to JK Rowling.I used quotes by Julie de Lespinasse, Margaret Weis and Wes Bently.
A pair of deep, chocolate brown eyes had been staring at the same snow impregnated, hot chocolate stained book. The cover was slightly torn in the upper left corner. You'd think no one in their right minds would be reading a book outside when there was a whole group of people celebrating Christmas a couple of feet away from where she was sitting. Well, Molly hated crowded rooms. She also hated vacations for three reasons.
First, because her family members were always loud. One couldn't read alone without being asked a thousand questions. Victoire was, undoubtedly, the queen of awkward questions and unusual demands. After all, she had been the one to propose to her now husband Teddy in the first place.
Secondly, everyone in her family was in love. There were, of course, Lucy and Lorcan who were in denial. It was as simple as that and there was no other way to put it, at least not for Molly. The entire Weasley family(including a couple of Potters and the, though not blood-related, Scamanders and Longbottoms) was hoping those two would finally get together. For Molly, hope was purely the denial of reality.
The rest of the family was equally, if not more, in love. From her aunt Ginny and her uncle Harry to her grandmother and grandfather. But the worst, the worst of them all were Rose and Scorpius. They had that kind of horrid, stereotypical Romeo and Juliet kind of love going on between them. Molly was just waiting for the 'and they died' part of the story to confirm how stupid the whole thing was. Seriously, the Muggle who wrote that book was a fool, an utterfool.
The last reason was that she could hardly avoid him at the Burrow. He had been her rock. The only normal person in a world full of annoying cousins, school work and lovesick people. He didn't believe in anything except Nargles and those other fantastic creatures his mom used to tell them stories about. Lysander didn't believe in love in any shape or form , that Molly had been almost too certain of. He had never been one to date, kiss or even talk about girls. He had been the only one she could count on...until last summer.
She must admit that they had been drifting apart in the last five years. Between homework, classes and detentions, a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor hardly had time to see each other. It really should not have been a surprise when he and Dominique - her awfully beautiful and older cousin- announced they were dating at the last Weasley brunch of the summer.
Not that she minded one bit that Lysander had decided to become one of those lovesick puppies. She would be just fine on her own anyways. 'Me, myself and I', she had thought at that time. No awkward dates, no oh-so-cliché kisses in the rain and no roses on Valentine's Day. Onlymoi''. That excuse had gotten old after a month and she had found herself avoiding Lysander. She hoped they would break up and they would go back to what they were before. That they would try to find Umgubular Slashkilters or Gulping Plimpys like when they were kids. But Molly wasn'tstupid and, like she had tried to convince multiple people of before, ' Hope is the denial of reality'. But, somehow, she could almost hear the voice of Lysander whispering ' Never underestimate the power of denial'.
Those were the three reasons why she was spending Christmas alone in the backyard. At least, until someone sat next to her. She wished the person to be Lysander, for only a small fraction of second though. She didn't want him to see her this way. Not that she was crying or anything but she felt weak. A weakness was not a good thing to show dementors. Yes, he was like a dementor: he could make resurface her worst memories with only a simple look at her. It's in moments like those that she hated him- her best friend, the boy she loved. She hated him with a passion no one else could bring out of her except him. Because every time muddy brown would meet silvery blue, because every time he would look at her, she would feel her inner walls crumble to pieces, disintegrate as if he was using legilimency.
Sometimes, she would feel like he knew, like he knew everything that was going on in her head. Like he had heard or seen all the inner battles that went on in her head about whether or not he liked her. About whether or not she should give up on the last little fragment of love she still believed in. It drove her crazy not to know if he was really using such magic against her and, perhaps, that's why she hated him so much sometimes. Because he made her feel weak. In time like those, she would think about a Muggle quote her maternal grandmother often said to her: ' You know that when I hate you, it is because I love you to a point of passion that unhinged my soul'.
'' I knew I'd find you here. Though you're not blood-related, you resemble Hermione a lot, Molly. Maybe too much.'' He chuckled and she turned around to look at him. Brown met emerald green. Uncle Harry. '' She, too, would sit in the backyard reading. We would tease her about it, of course.''
He paused and contemplated the snow covered ground. The view was breathtaking in the winter, but she had the feeling that there was so much more to this pause than that. '' I was the one who found your aunt Hermione when one of our classmates, Lavender, kissed Ron. She never had had to face her feelings for Ron before...well not this way, at least. It pained her to see him with her.'' He snorted as if remembering some kind of joke. "She never liked Lavender that much to begin with. Hermione gave Won-Won the cold shoulder for a while, if I remember correctly.'' The ginger haired girl laughed a bit at this.
His expression changed quickly to one of those weird mixes of empathy, pain and joy that only the Great Harry Potter could pull off. '' You know, Molly. When Dean- I mean when Ginny started to date, it pained me too. I wish now that I would have said something sooner. I'm sure Hermione and Ron wished so as well. But it's all irrelevant now, isn't it? But you, Molly, you can still do something about Dom and Lysander.'' Molly looked at him with a mix confusion and weariness. '' Is it that obvious? Does Dominique know too? Does my dad know?''
'' Don't worry, Mol. It's not that obvious...Well to us, parents, anyways. You know I like Dominique, she's my niece. But she and Lysander…they're too different.''
'' Isn't that a good thing sometimes?'' She realized it was the first time she had spoke during the whole conversation.
Harry went on as if he hadn't noticed, but the expression in his eyes clearly gave him away. '' Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. They argued earlier. She said something about him being too naive. She told him he should stop believing in Nargles and, I quote, 'all that crap your mom stuffed into your head'. Lysander wasn't pleased. That's what you get when a Gryffindor dates a Slytherin. Not that I have anything against them anymore. They're not all bad...the aftermath of the War changed them for the better. '' She could only nod at this, trying not to smile.
'' It's almost time for dinner. We should head inside.'' He jumped to his feet as if he was still in his twenties and helped her to her feet. She only realised how cold she was when they entered the Burrow's dining room. The lights of a pale orange color glowed from each corners of the room. Small candles were placed on the very long table- they needed places for more than thirty people. None were as bright as Lysander's four-hundred watts smile. The one that could light up the entire castle of Hogwarts.
He waved and motioned for her to sit next to him on his right side, seeing as the seat to his left was already occupied by - beautiful- Dominique. Molly could only stare at him and join him. Because, since it was obvious that Dom and him had made up, there wasn't much Molly could do, at least for now, while she tried to deal with love, hate, denial, annoyance, want and need.
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