A/N: This series of one-shots were written for the Golden Snitch Jurassic Fever Challenge, on behalf of House Mizu (Mahoutokoro). Challenge prompts will be included at the top of each story.
Man, I'm writing a lot of "you probably won't like this" stories. Because, for real, you probably won't like this.
I've been thinking for a while now: how are the Weasleys so prolific, but all other pureblood families (at least in our FF world) are struggling to conceive and only have one or two children?
The truth is, I kind of definitely can't let this concept thinking go, and I'm contemplating developing this idea into a longer, multi-chapter piece after I finish Pax Matrum. Maybe.
Diplodocus: Write about a character who would do anything for their partner or crush.
Points: 10
The Weasleys were a Light family. Arthur had been raised in that tradition, and it was one he was proud of. His family may not have the history of the Blacks or the wealth of the Malfoys—not even the political clout of the Longbottoms—but they were as Light as they came.
It's one of the reasons he was able to woo Molly Prewett. Pretty Molly Prewett, all auburn hair bright brown eyes and curves for days. Sweet Molly Prewett, who helped the first years with their homework and always bought extra Honeydukes on Hogsmeade weekends.
"You never know when someone will have a bad day and need a pick me up," she explained.
During their seventh year, they would hold hands in front of the fire in the common room and share chaste kisses and future dreams.
They both dreamed of a big family.
But two years after they married—the July after graduation, why wait when you know what you want?—Molly still hadn't become pregnant.
It broke Arthur's heart every time she revealed her monthlies had arrived. She would cry herself to sleep on those nights as he held her in his arms.
"I'm so sorry," she would whisper. "I'm so, so sorry."
He would run his hands through her hair, kiss her gently, and remind his Molly-wobbles that it wasn't her fault. Sometimes these things happened.
When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas that year, she shrugged. "What I want magic doesn't see fit to give me."
Arthur's mother, who had Healer training, confirmed what they already knew in their hearts.
Molly Weasley would never bear children.
Things were dark at the Burrow that December, and Arthur took to staying late at his office in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. One evening, a few days before Christmas, his supervisor sent him out on a clean up mission.
"The Aurors are already on site. Someone dropped a cursed book off in a library near Godric's Hallow. It targeted the Muggles inside. There was a magical couple there: researchers studying combined magical and Muggle communities. They intercepted the book, but they didn't survive."
When Arthur arrived on site, the DMLE had quarantined the area, Obliviated the Muggles, and corralled the book.
"What can I do?" Arthur asked a man who looked like he was in charge.
He gestured to another Auror, holding a small bundle.
"They had a kid. Only a few weeks old. The mother shielded him from the book. Take him to the Ministry, see if you can find the next of kin."
It turned out the researchers were perpetual nomads, and despite his best efforts, Arthur could not track down anyone responsible for the infant. No one who cared where this baby was, that he was safe, that he was loved.
It was a moment that changed Arthur's life forever, staring down at the dark haired baby boy, already crying for his next meal. In the moment, two distinct lifetimes flashed before his eyes.
He only needed that moment to make his choice.
Later, when he would hold out the bundle to Molly, he would tell her, "Magic has given us a gift, Molly-wobbles. It was a dark thing that happened, but we can bring light to this child's life."
And he thought that was that.
But the next day, Molly Weasley née Prewett sat her husband down and asked him to blood adopt the baby.
"That's Dark magic, Molly," he said scathingly.
"It will make him ours," she contested. "There will be no question that he's a Weasley."
That Christmas Eve, Arthur's mother came and performed the blood adoption. As a Black, she was more amenable to the darker magical practices; as a Healer, she could claim she'd been supervising Molly's pregnancy; as Arthur's mother, she would do anything to see her son happy and the Weasley name live on.
Three small cuts and a dark ritual later, and Arthur and Molly were holding a red-headed, blue-eyed William Arthur Weasley.
Given Molly's reclusive nature over the previous months, no one but the three of them were the wiser.
And two years later, when Arthur's mother came to them with her cousin Marius's grandson, orphaned by an automobile accident, there was no question what they would do.
They would never know if it was the Weasley adoption that awoke Charles Septimus Weasley's magic, or if the latent magic from his squib grandfather would have manifested anyway.
The arrival of Percival Ignatius Weasley signaled the onset of war: an unexceptional Muggle-born couple with low-level jobs, murdered for no other reason than their blood status. But the Death Eaters hadn't yet taken to murdering children, so Percy had somehow ended up in the Weasley fold.
At this point, Arthur took to memory-charming the children. It was for the best; the Weasleys were a Light family, and little mouths spouting off about blood adoption would bring that status into question, no matter how well-meaning his and Molly's intentions.
Two years later, while hiding out in an Order safe house, Molly's twin brothers would be murdered defending their wife, Marlene Prewett née McKinnon. Marlene, nine months pregnant with their boys, would Portkey to the Burrow, but ultimately succumb to her wounds.
Molly would name the boys after their fathers.
Ronald Bilius would come along two years later, another orphan of Muggle-born war casualties.
And despite their modest income and the threat of war just beyond the Burrow's threshold, Molly Weasley made a happy home for her family. And Molly would smile at Arthur, commenting how "our Weasley boys" were such a handful. And Arthur would smile back and watch her cluck about her children and think to himself, I would do anything for this woman. Anything to keep her just like this.
And though the Weasley boys all had the trademark red hair and Weasley hot-head, they were all so very different.
And Molly and Arthur were happy, with the family they built, until one night in the fall of 1981 Albus Dumbledore showed up on their doorstep, a tiny bundle in his hands.
And he told them of a hidden couple, hunted by the Dark Lord, and their their toddler son, and their newborn daughter. He explained that no one—not even their closest friends—knew the of the baby Lily Potter had born only a month before her death. And how Albus needed to hide Harry away, for fear of Death Eater retribution, but that the Potter girl deserved a good family.
And Albus twinkled his twinkle, and Arthur and Molly knew that he knew. He knew about the Darkness lurking in their Light family.
And the leader of the Light didn't care. In fact, he had brought them a daughter—a daughter they would adopt through a Dark blood ritual.
Though the small girl already had red enough hair to look like family—Ginevra Molly Weasley, the final Weasley baby.
Years later, after Harry Potter had been introduced to the Weasleys, befriended Ron, and defeated Voldemort again, Molly would say a silent prayer that her daughter's hero worship would be a passing fad.
And when, at the first Battle of Hogwarts anniversary, Harry Potter showed up at a cookout for the Order holding hands with Draco Malfoy, Molly Weasley was the first to envelop the proud but terrified blond boy in a great big hug.
And Arthur smiled indulgently at his wife, knowing there would be yet another Weasley sweater for her to knit come Christmas.
After all, Harry, Hermione, and now Draco were proof that his wife never really stopped adopting children.