It had been a long and tiresome day. After having stood on her feet for nearly eleven hours, Molly was exhausted. They had managed to save both the mother and the baby, but the baby was still in a critical condition. She had instructed Eva, who had the nightshift, to check on the baby every hour, and if there was even the slightest change in situation, to Floo-call Virginia straight away.

"Molly, I know what to do," Eva had said a bit irritated when Molly had come back a third time for suggestions. "I've been doing this for six years."

It wasn't that she didn't trust Eva. It was just one of those cases that had gotten under her skin. Molly had been present at the witch' first check-up, as an apprentice under Ruben's wings. Later on, she'd done the check-ups herself and had been by the woman's bedside when she went into labour, so she felt responsible for the well being of what she considered to be 'her' patient.

"Molly, I mean it. Go home. We've got this."

"I know," Molly sighed. "I'm sorry, Eva."

"I understand how you feel. I had that too with my first delivery," Eva replied. "But you have to go home now. You can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself."

"In my heart I know you're right, but…"

"No buts. This little girl is in excellent hands. Your own kid needs you as well."

Molly sighed again but stepped into the fireplace nonetheless. She glanced back one last time before she Floo'ed home.

-o0o-

Instead of the peace and quietness she had longed for, she was greeted by shouts and roars. She stared at the assembly of redheads. Fabian, Gideon, Bilius, Reginald and Arthur were all gathered around their radio, each wearing scarves in a painfully bright turquoise. She closed her eyes in exasperation and groaned. Right, it was a Quidditch night. She had completely forgotten that tonight it was their turn to host what had become a monthly tradition. It couldn't have been timed worse.

"Go on, get 'm," Reginald yelled after the radio commenter had just shouted that Maulkey and Jones, two of the Tornadoes' Chasers, had taken the Quaffle and were now speeding up towards the Catapults' goal posts.

"Damnit!" Fabian cursed when the commenter mentioned a Bludger interrupting the Tornadoes' scoring opportunity.

The men were so engrossed in the game that they hadn't even noticed her stepping out of the fireplace. She went upstairs to check on William. Miraculously, he was sleeping soundly in his cot. She didn't know how he did it, what with all the noise drifting up the stairs, but was thankful that he did. The last thing she needed after her long day was to have to sooth William because of Quidditch. She glanced longingly at the rocking chair, tempted to just hide upstairs with a book until the match was done, but she knew that if she did, the soft rocking of the chair would have her fall asleep in no time, and then she would wake up broken in the morning.

Reluctantly, she went back downstairs and poured herself some tea. Maybe if she was doing something she could stay awake. So she slipped into her favourite armchair with her needles and yarn, the mug of steaming camomile tea near at hand. She had recently gotten into knitting, and though she wasn't overly good at it yet, she liked knitting things for William.

She tried to push the noise of hers and Arthur's brothers shouting to the back of her mind, and succeeded for a whole of three minutes, but then Gideon roared as the Catapults scored. She sighed. This was fruitless. She wouldn't get a peaceful evening, not with these four around. Yet, she didn't want to interrupt. War was raging fully over Britain and if a game of Quidditch was their way of relaxing, she wouldn't be the one to stop them.

She put her knitting aside and wrapped her hands around the mug and her arms around her pulled-up knees. Scooped up like that, she studied the five men from her armchair. It was interesting to look at the difference between the two sets of brothers. Her own brothers, Fabian and Gideon, were rather daring, maybe even reckless at times. They carried their hearts on their sleeves and experienced everything, even something as simple as a Quidditch match, very intensely. Their faces were red from excitement. They resembled each other of course, being twins: They had the same nose, the same face covered in freckles, and the same shoulder length hair. The only way to tell them apart was because Gideon had a mole under his left eye. She noticed with a frown that both of them showed lines in their faces already, even though they were not even twenty-five years old. It probably had to do with their work in the Order, but it pained her to see it. If she hadn't known, she'd have thought they were closer to Bilius' age than to her own, even though Bilius was nearly ten years her senior. He was also the most serious of the Weasley brothers. Even now, while they were listening to a Quidditch match, he was the least exuberant in his cheering, instead enjoying the radio commentary with an almost serene expression on his face. Reginald was more of a carefree type, very outgoing and always blurting out exactly what he thought. This probably was the reason why he and her own brothers got along so well. Amidst the tumultuous assembly of brothers was Arthur. Being the kind of good-natured, amiable man that he was, Arthur had some of Reg's outgoing-ness combined with Bilius' calmness, and Molly couldn't help but think that he was the glue that kept the small group together.

She was pulled out of her reverie by shouts of "Yes, yes, yes!" from Reginald, and the five of them jumped up, grinning and cheering. It looked like the Tornadoes had just won.

It wasn't until after they were done shouting their approval that they noticed Molly in her armchair.
"Goodness, Molls, you startled me!" Fabian said. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Ten, fifteen minutes at most," she replied.

Arthur came over to where she was seated and kissed her. "I'm so sorry, dear, I never even saw you get home."

"It's quite alright, I didn't exactly make my presence known," she smiled. "Was it a good match?"

"It was alright," Reginald answered. "I still think Gibbon could've captured that Snitch earlier, but at least he did in the end and the Tornadoes won. It had been a while."

The others agreed with that.

"I'd better be off," Bilius said with a sigh. "Maria's home with Alfred and Robert, and I promised her it wouldn't be too late."

"Oh, sounds like someone is under their wife's thumb," Gideon teased.

"Oh, shut up, wait until you're married," Bilius grumbled good-heartedly.

"Well, I think we'd all better be off," Fabian interjected. "Looks like Molly had a bit of a rough day."

She sent him a thankful smile. Fabian always noticed these kinds of things.

The four brothers got up and said their goodbyes. Bilius was the first to Floo away, followed shortly after by Reginald.

Gideon hugged her tightly again. "Take care, Molls, will you?"

"I will," she said. "You be careful too, with the Order and all, will you?"

"Don't you worry, little sis," he said and ruffled her hair like he used to when they were children. But she had noticed the shadow passing over his face and knew there was something he wasn't telling her.

She wondered if anyone they knew had died in the line of fight, but knew better than to ask questions. The less people knew what was going on in the Order, the safer it was for all of them. Albus had been very clear on that when they had joined. "There will be meetings, but it is best if the contents to specific tasks are only known to those involved."

She and Arthur had only been part of the Order for a couple of months. Once Albus found out she was pregnant, he flat out refused the both of them to continue fighting, no matter how hard they pressed on that they could handle it and that the baby wasn't even born yet.

"You have a child to look after now," he had told them. "Children should grow up with both parents, and I will not jeopardise that by letting you fight. I'm sorry, but I just can't let you take that risk."

"Are you coming or are you gonna stand there forever?" Fabian mocked.

"Yeah, I'm coming," Gideon grinned.

The both of them stepped into the fireplace and in a whoosh of green flames they were gone too.

-o0o-

Arthur wrapped his arms around her. "Why didn't you let us know you were home?" he said in an accusing tone.

She smiled softly. "You were all so engrossed in the match. I didn't want to break the atmosphere. And besides, it's been a while since I've seen Fabian and Gideon relax like that."

He nodded knowingly. "You know, sometimes I think Quidditch is the one thing that keeps people sane these days. There's just something soothing about the fact that no matter what, there will always be Quidditch. I know that sounds a bit futile, but…"

"No it doesn't," she replied. "I get what you mean. It's the everyday things that give people hope that someday, this will all end."

They were silent and Molly knew Arthur was thinking the same thing she was thinking: When would it all end?