Disclaimer: Going to college is expensive. If I owned the rights to this, which I don't, I wouldn't owe the bank so much. This is written simply for stress relief and reader enjoyment.
Chapter 2
Hate and Chocolate Cake
Where did she put those candles? The cake was baked, the icing was whipped, and all Molly Weasley needed were five tiny pink candles. The only problem was she couldn't find them. She could just conjure up some new ones, but she already had pink candles from Vic's birthday. If the girls were more than six months apart she would consider it. But loosing them in less than six weeks, this was just silly. She didn't need more pink candles.
"Ginny, do you know what I did with the pink candles? I made the cake, cleaned the house, decorated, and invited the family. You could at least help find five pink candles!"
Molly turned back to the cake to see five pink candles and Grace Elizabeth appear magically on the chocolate wonder. Molly sighed and did what any mother in this situation would do. She opened the last cabinet in the kitchen and found the pack of pink candles. Apparently, someone found this amusing. Molly pretended to ignore Arthur's laughter from the other room. Any mother would want to have a party for her five year old. It was a stepping stone that everyone passed in life. Molly just wished her daughter would get passed her sadness and enjoy the day. Grace needed to see her mother smile.
"Ginny, it's just the family. Bill said to tell you he's bringing Teddy to play with the girls. Ginny?" Molly paused to listen for her daughter. "Ginny, why don't you come into the kitchen? Everyone will be here soon."
"Everyone is not coming." Ginny plainly stated as she walked into the kitchen twenty minutes later. Molly had almost forgotten what she was referring to. "He won't be here."
"I know that these things are hard without Fred. But, love, he so enjoyed birthday parties. It would break his heart if you stayed away from your own daughter's fifth." Molly started carrying everything to the dinner table. Everyone really would be arriving soon. Bill and Fleur would have Vic and Teddy in tow. Charlie had a port key to deliver him to the outer edge of the burrow grounds. Percy was coming straight after work from the ministry. George was bringing a date. And, there was always Ron and Hermione.
"That's not who I meant and you know it, mum. It's been five years. He's not coming back." Ginny spoke softly as she looked down at her hands. Molly wondered if her daughter would ever regain the fire in her eyes. She found it sad that the glow had dulled and gone out. It left an imposter in place of her daughter.
"We know he's not coming back, Gin. You don't have to rub it in. However, Fred is missing out on a perfectly good chocolate cake." George had walked straight into the kitchen pulling a slightly worried looking Angelina behind him. Molly smacked his fingers away from swiping at the icing while delivering a quick greeting to the poor girl.
"George, you know perfectly well that I didn't mean Fred. I don't hate Fred. HIM on the other hand, I hate." Ginny slammed the set of mismatched silverware down on the table. Angelina hurried over to take over the job of setting the table in order to save the family from eating dinner with their fingers.
"Hate is a strong word don't you think?" Molly realized she had been holding her breath as Hermione entered the kitchen with Ron close behind. She would know exactly what to say to calm Ginny down. "Ginny, it's alright that you miss him. We all miss him. What you are feeling is perfectly normal. You feel hurt and your body is trying to mentally protect you, so you are using projection as a defense mechanism. Your hurt is being projected as anger. You're mad at him. You don't hate him." Then again, it could just set her to yelling again. At least she was expressing herself.
"It's been five bloody damn years! You know what a year is right? It has 365 days, and every 4 years we have an extra day. It's called leap year. Maybe you've heard of it? So it's been a grand total of 1,826 days." Bill and Fleur walked in each holding a youngster right at that moment. Ginny paused long enough for them to walk through to the other room before she continued. Her thumb and index finger pinching the bridge of her nose. Molly could feel the tears coming. "I'm not sad. The sad part is that I didn't have to do the math. I counted." Arthur and Percy walked silently into the kitchen. Ginny's voice grew softer. "I marked off every day on that damn calendar. It kept magically adding more pages, and I kept counting. I kept counting and counting because I thought that if I kept counting he would come back. Well guess what? I'm not going to count on his sorry ass anymore."
"Count on what, Gin?" Ginny Weasley gave Charlie her dull stare. "What I miss?" Molly gave her son an apologetic smile.
"Ginny, I don't think it's all about that." Molly calmly walked over to her daughter and engulfed her in a hug. "I think what it really is all about is grace." Ginny pulled out of the embrace.
"I know it's all about Grace. That's why I'm doing this, I mean stopping this! I can't go on dreaming and wishing for something that is never going to happen!" A single tear spilled over and ran down Ginny's cheek. It was the first time in five years that Ginny had looked her mother in the eye.
"Ginny, you know that's not what I meant. It's not what I meant now, last month, or five years ago the first time I said it. He's going to come back. Whether you want him to or not, Ginny, he is going to come back. And when he does come back, it is going to be your choice alone on whether or not you show him grace." Molly had had just about all she could take. She hoped that Bill and Fleur had managed to keep the children out of ear shot.
"I know what you meant, mum. I also know what I meant." Ginny pointed to her heart with her last statement. She turned when she heard a small voice behind her.
"It's all about me! I'm Grace! I'm the birthday girl! Right mummy?" The small dark headed, green eyed child went from strong confidence to strongly questioning herself. Ginny rushed over and picked up the girl into her arms.
"Of course, Grace! You're mummy's big birthday girl! Let's go find Teddy and Vic so we can eat your special birthday dinner grand-mum made you. Then," Ginny paused for affect, "we can have chocolate cake and presents!" The small girl made a sound that was between a squeal and a giggle. It was a perfectly good chocolate cake.