Graduation
As the girls grew older, they never got much closer. Although Molly and Lucy loved each other, the truth was that they were very different people. The girls' relationship became a subtle agreement. They were friendly to each other, and they kept their lives separate.
Then, suddenly, it was Molly's graduation. Neither of the girls knew how it had happened, but Molly was ready to enter the real world. Lucy found herself on the first day of her holiday standing next to Molly as people Lucy barely knew hugged Molly and congratulated her. Lucy found she didn't know how to feel about it.
Molly was brimming with excitement. She had accomplished everything she had set out to accomplish at school, and then some. She felt like royalty as she walked up to sit with her class. The event always took place on the Hogwarts grounds, and it was finally Molly's turn to participate. The people in her class stood next to each other in front of all of their parents and families, as the headmaster and all of their professors said kind words about them and rained sparks over their heads.
While Molly stood with her class, Lucy took the seat next to her parents. She had wanted to invite a friend to come with her, but none of Lucy's friends knew Molly well. Instead she watched with her parents as Molly graduated. Molly had been raving for over a month about how she was the one asked to give a speech for all of the graduating Gryffindors. As she watched Molly speak, Lucy was filled with pride. It was a fantastic speech, nowhere near as boring as the Hufflepuff one was. Every person in the audience hung onto Molly's words. Molly was a beautiful speaker, Lucy realized.
The ceremony ended with everyone surrendering their school robes, one by one, to the headmaster. In place they received ceremonial school robes, enchanted to always fit and never wear down. In place of their house emblem, these robes had the Hogwarts emblem stitched on them. Then, the graduates shot their own sparks into the air, in the colors of their house, as a final sign of house pride.
As soon as the ceremony had ended, Molly came down to her family. One by one Percy and Audrey grasped their daughter in their arms. Audrey had silent tears of joy running down her face, while Percy's smile seemed to literally lighten the sky. Molly let go of her dad, and then the two sisters looked at each other.
"Lucy, love, aren't you going to congratulate your sister?" Audrey asked, smiling through her tears.
Lucy made eye contact with her Molly. Without warning she threw her arms around her sister, careful not to get her earrings or anything else stuck in Molly's hair.
"Congrats Molly, I'm so proud of you." she said, and then suddenly Molly was hugging her back. The girls both realized what an absurdly long time it had been since they'd last hugged. They stayed like that for a while. When they pulled away they faced Molly's boyfriend, Anthony. The proud Ravenclaw smiled politely at Lucy, before putting an arm around Molly's waist.
Molly's smile grew larger instantly. After two and a half years together Anthony felt like her other half. She slipped her arm back around him, leaning in to his touch as her parents began to congratulate him on his successes too. His speech for Ravenclaw, while very different from Molly's, had been beautiful. Unsure of what to do, Lucy stood by as more people began to congratulate her sister.
Feeling awkward, she made to walk away, but something was stopping her. She looked down, to find Molly's free hand tightly clasped around her own. Molly felt Lucy tug to pull away but when she turned, she met her sister's eyes. The two stayed side by side for the rest of the day.
Right before Lucy was to go back for her seventh year, Molly moved out for good. It wasn't really a surprise to anyone except Lucy, who'd spent most of the summer bouncing between her friends' homes. Sometime in her fifth year Lucy decided she wanted to be an artist, and some of her friends lived in such beautiful places. She came back to find almost all of her sister's things packed up. One day, she woke up with a sister, and by the time she went to sleep Molly was gone. For the first time in ages the house was silent.
Molly moved into a flat she and Anthony had paid for. Both were geared up to start jobs in The Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so it was just practical for the two to move in together, along with their mutual friends Ralph and Tabitha. They were another couple, but the two women shared one room and the two men shared the other. Nobody in their quartet wanted to admit that the room arrangement was probably temporary.
When Lucy came home for Christmas, she was met with another surprise. The night before Christmas they were all invited to dine at the Leathermann home where Molly's boyfriend Anthony became Molly's fiancée Anthony. Molly had never felt so loved by any one person. Anthony was everything she'd pictured for herself: handsome, attentive, intelligent, hard-working, caring, and career oriented. He was already rising through the ranks in the Wizengamot.
Lucy congratulated Molly a lot over Christmas break, about her engagement and about her promotion in the Improper Use of Magic office. She spent more nights staying over in Molly's flat that Christmas than she did at home. While her friends stressed over NEWT exams, Lucy pressured the quartet until the two couples finally agreed to switch to having their own rooms. Out of respect for Lucy's graduation, and in order to be sure that they were ready, Molly and Anthony agreed not to get married until the following November. While they slowly began to plan their wedding, Lucy went back to school and everything stayed the same.
When it was finally time for Lucy to graduate, Audrey nearly had a nervous breakdown. Percy knew exactly how she felt. Although Lucy had no concrete plans to move out, she was still officially an adult. They met up with Molly and Anthony in the morning, and the four flooed together to arrive at Hogwarts.
Surrounded by a large group of friends, Lucy graduated. Unlike Molly, she didn't feel a large sense of accomplishment during the day. She loved the speech that Adam Hammond gave for Gryffindor, just as she loved the speeches the speakers from other houses gave. She was touched and surprised when Professor Binns commended her for her work in History of Magic by name, the first time the old ghost had gotten her name right. More than anything, Lucy longed for one more year. When she shot her red sparks up into the air, Lucy realized she was crying.
Molly had to fight her way through a throng of people to get to Lucy. Lucy made people want to protect her, still, and her friends were very protective. When she finally threw her arms around her sister, Molly couldn't be more proud. There had been times when she thought Lucy was not going to graduate. Now that it had finally happened, Molly almost couldn't contain herself. Many of the people in Lucy's year stopped by to congratulate her. As Molly noted, most of them were boys. However when everything was said and done, it was Molly that Lucy wanted to keep close on her special night.
It took Lucy almost a year after graduation to move into a small flat in Diagon Alley. Unlike Molly, Lucy had neither the grades nor the desire to work for the ministry. Instead, she had gotten a job at Flourish and Blott's and used her free time to write her first novel. She would tell anyone who would listen that she couldn't wait to finally finish a full-length story and get it published. In the meantime, Molly and Anthony got married and moved into their own two-bedroom apartment. Molly offered to help Lucy find her own place, but Lucy said she'd know it when she saw it. She did.
Two years after Lucy's graduation, Lucy received a letter from Molly announcing Molly's first pregnancy. The remaining seven months were the most the two girls owled. Lucy wanted to know everything, and every so often would drop by to check on Molly and see the baby bump. When Molly's daughter was born, Susanna, Lucy was the first other family member to hold her.