Theme 7: Awkward
May 15, 1965

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May. Students littered the lawn around the castle, enjoying the first truly warm day of the year. Molly and Arthur lounged on a blanket. They had their school books spread all around them. Arthur was working on a chart for Astronomy, and Molly was looking over a list of new classes that she could take next year.

Arthur couldn't help but watch her. She was lying across the blanket on her stomach. Her shoes and knee socks abandoned in a nearby patch of grass. Her red curls threatened to tumble out of the loose ponytail she had gathered at the back of her neck. She had taken Arthur's quill (right out of his hand) and started drawing stars by some classes, and lines through others. Every so often she paused, biting the end of her quill, and fiddled with a locket that Arthur rarely saw her without.

"What new classes are you adding, Arthur?" she asked at last.

"I'm taking Muggle Studies-"

"Naturally," Molly interrupted.

"And Divination," Arthur finished. Molly looked at him skeptically, so he shrugged and added. "Ma thinks it's important."

Molly set down his quill, frowning at her list, and Arthur picked it back up, drawing in the proper position of Mercury.

"I can't really decide what to take," Molly said with a sigh. Arthur reached out for her paper.

"Maybe I can help," he said, studying the list. Molly had crossed out Divination and Arithmancy.

"What's the Magical Domiciles class about?" Arthur asked.

"Cleaning and laundering spells, and other things that will keep a home running," Molly said. "It was suggested to all the girls."

"You're already good at that stuff. Take Divination and Muggle Studies with me," Arthur told her, letting the paper float to the ground. Molly frowned again.

"I don't know everything, Arthur. I enjoy cooking and cleaning, and I will likely have a family one day. I think that this would be a valuable use of my time, rather than playing with tea leaves."

"It was just a suggestion," Arthur said, looking back down at his Astronomy chart.

"Well, I guess I'll just take Magical Domiciles and Muggle Studies," Molly said. Arthur felt her gaze drawn to her hand. She was rolling her locket between her thumb and forefingers again. He vaguely remembered her telling him that it had belonged to her mother.

It suddenly hit him: her short temper, her confusion, her fiddling, it all was related; Molly was missing her mom.

"How did your mother die?" he asked quietly, hoping that he was reading the situation correctly.

Molly looked startled for a moment, then she asked, "How did you know today is the anniversary of her death?"

"I didn't- not really. You just keep touching that locket of yours."

"She got sick," Molly said quietly. "It happened very slowly. It was almost like she was weaker every day. Towards the end, she would have good days, when I was allowed to go and see her, and she would have bad days. The day she died was a good day. We spent the morning together, and she read 'Beedle the Bard' tales to me. She died that evening, just after I'd gone to bed. I remember waking up because the boys were both crying. Usually my dad took care of them before they woke me up, but not that day."

Molly's eyes filled with tears. Arthur reached over and put an arm across her shoulder, hugging her and allowing her tears to soak the shoulder of his shirt.

"I miss her," she said miserably.

"You know, my uncle once told me that the people we love never really leave us. Your mom is here. You just get little glimpses of her, like when you touch that locket, or when your brothers smile."

"That was a beautiful thing to say," Molly said, looking up. Her big, brown eyes were so close. She turned her head as if to kiss his cheek, but she must have changed her mind at the last second, for she sat up abruptly. "I've stained your shirt. I'm sorry."

"It's just water," Arthur said with a shrug. "It'll dry." The heat radiating off my face with dry it out before the sun does, he thought.

He was not a fan of these awkward moments that he and Molly had begun to experience, and they were happening more and more frequently. He coughed and changed the subject. "So, you're taking Muggle Studies with me?"


AN: So some of you may have heard about the little rainstorm that battered our coast last weekend. Hurricane Irene knocked over a tree in our yard, and knocked out the power for my whole city. Ours was off from Friday of last week until Tuesday night, and it sucked. As I was unable to update sooner (as I had to play catch-up with my online classes), look for an extra update in the next few days, or next Friday I will post two chapters. Thanks for reading and reviewing.