Molly Weasley was in Diagon Alley, getting a few items needed for the Burrow. Truthfully, not much was actually needed. She just hadn't much to do while her husband was at work.
She was also visiting.
She contemplated her current home life. While in the last few years she had been entirely too worried about her children while at Hogwarts, she had also suffered from being – quite frankly – bored. You could only clean the floors and wash the laundry so many times.
It didn't help that her whole family, including herself, had fallen in love with Harry Potter. Merlin she loved the boy as if he was one of her own, but there was no denying that he was a trouble magnet of the first degree. If any dark element wanted to make trouble, they went straight toward him. And her family was not the type to get themselves out of the way.
When her daughter was young she and had fallen in love with the idea of Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, she had even courted the idea that such a match would be a wonderful thing.
And then she had seen what kind of challenges being involved with such a boy would be and she worried about that too.
That had changed this year.
Another girl who had been adopted by her family, Hermione Granger, had somehow – she really didn't understand all the details – gotten rid of the big Dark problem and life was now far less worrisome. She knew that her father had been upset about her injuries from that fiasco at the Ministry and had taken steps, but that was about as far she wanted to know.
She was just happy that it was over.
And now, Hermione had started working on starting an organization which quite laughably was considered Dark by those who didn't understand and even by some of those who were involved. Molly, however, knew Hermione. And she knew Harry. Neither one was particularly likely to "go Dark" in any real sense.
The fact that these two seemed to be running the two major arms of the organization had reassured her that the Dark rumours were just that: Rumours only.
In fact that the only major initiatives that she had been aware of so far were killing Dementors and shopping for clothes for its members … well, she would laugh to herself whenever she heard the rumours.
Besides, one of those initiatives had brought a little zing back to her life at the Burrow. She had never really needed any tools to keep her husband interested – the seven children she had demonstrated that – but the change in certain aspects of her wardrobe DID give her a bit more confidence.
Suddenly, she saw her husband waving to her from the end of the Alley and her eyes lit up. She patted her pockets to ensure everything was there and made her way over. "Arthur! What are you doing?"
Her husband smiled and said, "Well, you said you'd be in the Alley today and I had some time for lunch and thought I'd see if my beautiful wife wanted a lunch companion."
Molly smiled in delight. She didn't get to see her husband during the day usually. "Floo back to the Burrow?"
Arthur smiled and shook his head. "Tom's got a private sitting room set aside for us."
She was curious, "Why spend the extra money?"
He looked at his wife with a certain fondness. "I just think it's time to realize that money isn't quite as much of an issue as it used to be. We've got only two at Hogwarts now. I know when we had five going at once our vault was almost empty all the time, but with only two? We've started to build it up again. I just paid for Ginny's final two years, and Ron's was fully paid last year. We've got three months before we have to buy supplies. A few Galleons here and there to treat my wife? Not a problem."
Molly considered that. She knew when she had last visited the vault earlier in the year, there had been a larger stack of Galleons then she was used to seeing, but hadn't really considered that all of them wouldn't be going toward the children's tuition for the next year. Finally she smiled, "Well, as long as it's not everyday."
The two made their way to the Cauldron.
When lunch was done, Arthur escorted his wife to her next stop, Gertrude's via Madam Malkins. Apparently, or so he was told, a few of the mothers of Hermione's group got together there regularly and talked of issues.
On the way, the couple was surprised to see another couple coming out of the Magical Health Clinic. The almost perfect looking Lucius Malfoy was no more. He was looking slightly more … distinguished … than he had in the past. However, he no longer looked quite so superior in his demeanor. He was leading his radiantly smiling wife, Narcissa, who was – to the Weasleys' surprise – holding her slightly distended abdomen almost protectively.
Molly recognized the circumstance immediately and made a bee-line – Malfoy or no. There was a new baby coming and her motherly instincts just took over. Arthur followed a bit more slowly.
"Narcissa!" Molly called out. The WiBeT mothers were less formal now than they had been in the past. "You are looking quite lovely! Dare I ask, are you …?"
Narcissa knew what she was asking and why she didn't finish – it wasn't polite to actually say it until you were told. "Yes, I'm pregnant. Four months. I was just on my way to Gertrude's to tell the rest." She said this without losing her brilliant smile.
"Congratulations!" Molly gave a brief notice to Lucius and then dismissed him as unimportant. She took Narcissa's arm and started leading her toward the Ladies' shop. Arthur and Lucius gave each other a small polite nod and followed to two chattering women.
The got the idea that they would be ignored for the rest of the way. The four made their way inside of Madam Malkins, which was the entrance for those witches who came with husbands – so they weren't forgotten completely. As soon as they were inside, both women turned and said their goodbyes to their husbands and made their way to the interconnecting door.
Arthur watched with a smile, Lucius with a perplexed look. Arthur caught one of Madam Malkin's assistants attention. "Can I speak to Gertrude for a moment?"
The sales lady nodded. The two men stood casually, carefully keeping a polite distance.
The sales assistant entered the large sitting room at the back of Gertrude's, the room where the ladies met and talked. The women in the room were cheerfully gathered around the newly arrived Narcissa and each was hugging her in turn.
The associate cleared her throat, "Madam Bulstrode?" The group, interrupted, looked over.
"Yes, Candace?" the lady in question asked.
"Mr. Weasley asked to speak to you for a moment."
Gertrude looked over at Molly, who shrugged her shoulders. Gertrude made her way to the door and out as Molly said, "I wonder what that's about."
Madam Malkin, who was a welcome guest in the women's meeting being Gertrude's partner, said, "Let's find out."
She walked over and touched a Rune on a mirror on the wall. Suddenly, the image of what was happening in the other storefront appeared in the mirror with full sound.
Arthur was talking and handing over a small bag to Gertrude. "… is for anything Molly might like. It's a hundred Galleons."
Gertrude asked, "You aren't asking for anything in particular?"
"No. Whatever Molly might wish to spend it on is fine with me. Whatever makes her happy." The women saw Lucius' curiosity at the exchange.
Gertrude nodded. "Okay. Let me go get a receipt for you." Arthur nodded happily as Gertrude made her way back over to their side. The group continued to watch the two wizards.
Finally overcome with curiosity, Lucius asked his fellow wizard, "How do you do it?"
Arthur was surprised, "What do you mean?"
"How do you make your wife happy? I just don't understand. You don't make Galleons hand over fist, your home is not in the least stately, you work in a middle-management position in the Ministry and are not likely to progress to Senior management, and yet you have, perhaps, the most famously solid and happy marriage in all of Wizarding Britain. How do you do it?" Lucius looked absolutely perplexed. "My son has recently started asking me how to keep women happy and I have come to realize that I really don't know."
Arthur laughed at the question, even as all of the women around Molly looked over to her and saw her smiling at her husband's image. They were just as curious.
Arthur looked at Lucius and said, "Well, I'm almost sad – almost but not really – to have to be the one to tell you, but you've gotten it all wrong."
Lucius still looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Everything you just said about me is, to be sure, a hundred percent true. And, it's a hundred percent unimportant without a few more items at the top of the list," Arthur explained with a smile.
"If these things are unimportant, what IS important?"
"One: Are the children happy? Two: Are the children safe? And it's a hard bet as to which is more important. Merlin knows Molly hates that her two oldest work such possibly dangerous jobs as they do. The only thing that keeps her from tearing her hair out is that they are happy with what they do. If they could be happy in a safer position – she would be working night and day to make that happen." Arthur took a breath.
"Next: Are you, their husband, happy? Are they safe? Are you safe? And you can interchange the last two because, in their mind, it's the same thing. They'll accept being unsafe to a degree if it makes you safer. My wife doesn't understand my Muggle collection and why I enjoy it so much – but it makes me happy, so she accepts it. After all of that – then you can worry about money and home and all the rest."
Arthur paused and continued almost delicately, "I would bet … and I don't bet easily because of what happened with my father … I would bet a good number of Galleons that if you really talked to her, Narcissa would admit that she wasn't all that fond of you-know-who, for the simple fact that if he was still around, your son Draco and you would be in quite a bit of danger as a matter of course. The reason she is likely involved with Hermione Granger's group is: If Hermione is successful, Draco will be safe. And you will be safe. And she will be safe."
Arthur laughed. "After that? I have no idea. Trying to understand what a woman is thinking is quite beyond the scope of what I can do. So I don't try. I know the hundred Galleons I just spent would make her quite unhappy if the children were wanting. Having assured her that I've arranged my children's tuition for the remaining part of their Hogwarts education, she'll accept it and might quite like it. But I'm just guessing here. It's an even chance I'll get yelled at later about it. But what's life without a little risk? I just want to do something nice for the wife."
Arthur grinned. "I've got a lovely wife, who loves me, has given me seven healthy children, and who cooks better than anyone else I know of. I've got nothing to complain about. And if I'm confused at times about just what she's thinking? It's all part of the package."
Gertrude quickly returned to the other room and gave the receipt before the two wizards began wondering what was taking too long. The women watched as the two wizards left the shop and went in different directions. To be truthful, a number of the women were just a bit jealous of how well Molly's husband treated her and why.
Molly was smiling even as she withdrew an item from her pocket. She tapped it with her wand and it expanded to a covered plate. "Okay. I've got biscuits for everyone. Narcissa is first if she wants any – she's got more than herself she's eating for."