Proving a point
A./N.: Hi there, guys! How are you all? Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's important to me if you get the message at the end. If not, please don't hesitate and write me. I'll rewrite this one then. I had to learn this bit of wisdom myself but I had no loving husband to hold me later on.
Molly had been pale before, clearly frightened what the results would be. Now all colour drained from her face. Her eyes rolled up and she slumped to the floor ... she fell rather gracefully.
It was only a faint. Her eyelids were beginning to flutter by the time Poppy knelt beside her and loosened the buttons of her blouse at her throat. Her normal healthy colour was returning. Poppy sat cross-legged on the floor and hoisted Molly's head onto her thighs. Her hair felt thick and soft beneath her touch as Poppy stroked Molly's hair over and over.
"Molly, wake up, darling. It's okay. Come on wake up."
Molly's eyes opened. For a moment she stared into the faces of her friends but then her eyes filled with tears and she sobbed uncontrollably. Turning her head to the side, she buried her face into Poppy's lap, shoulders heaving with great sobs.
Minerva's eyes were fixed on her friend's form on the floor. She felt awful and ... guilty. She should have protected her former student, she should have been there to fight for her, make sure she was in one piece. But then Tom had separated them and had given Lucius the chance to destroy Molly. Much in the same way as Tom had destroyed her. At night she woke up, screaming and thrashing, from nightmares. Tom was in them, tormenting her again, making her his plaything and breaking her will to survive.
Now Molly was in an even worse situation. She was pregnant from the man who had raped and tortured her.
"Oh, Molly, I'm so sorry. I should have protected you. It should have been me ..."
"STOP IT! Just stop it. It's not your fault. You didn't rape me. And how the hell could you have protected me? If you have forgotten, you were raped and tortured yourself. You couldn't even protect yourself!"
Molly was unfair and unreasonable and she knew it, had she been thinking clearly. But as it was she vented her anger at the only person she felt close to at the moment.
Minerva's eyes took on a hurt expression and she turned away. Suddenly Molly's anger at her friend evaporated. She had finally managed to get a reaction from Minerva. It was so different from her blank and vacant expression, that Molly had not recognised it at first.
"Mina, I'm sorry. I didn't want to yell at you. Please come back."
Minerva stopped dead in her tracks and walked back over to a friend, kneeling on the floor beside her. She wrapped her arms around the other woman and snuggled close, reassuring both herself and Molly that they were fine and their fight was over.
But Molly disagreed. Minerva was trusting in no one except Molly. She didn't talk to anyone except Molly, especially not with her husband, something she really had to do at some point or their marriage wouldn't stand the pressure. And worst of all, Minerva starved herself. She wasn't eating or sleeping. The once formidable Hogwarts Professor was now only skin and bones with a low heart rate and considerate problems breathing.
Molly hoped that she had made her point clear to Minerva and her friend would take the hint and piece her life back together. but poppy interrupted her flow of thoughts.
"Come on, let's get you to the couch. that's a lot more comfortable than the floor."
Both Minerva and Poppy helped Molly stand up and led her to the couch. Molly nearly retched again when she saw the food on the table in front of the couch. Poppy smiled and vanished the remains of their breakfast with a swish of her wand.
They had barely sat down together when the door opened and admitted Albus and Arthur into the room. Minerva seemed to shrink away and slid closer to Molly. Molly slung one arm around her friend and drew as much comfort from her as Minerva did.
Albus stopped dead where he was and didn't come any further. But Arthur moved into the room and towards his wife. He was blind to the change in her posture. When he wanted to reach out a hand, she jerked away and almost on top of Minerva.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Arthur stopped with his hand still outstretched. He had suddenly gone very pale.
"Why, darling? Did you have a nightmare? It's fine, I'm right here. Nothing can harm you."
"No, it's not that. Just don't touch me and leave."
"Molly, I thought we discussed that. You can tell me everything. I won't get mad or …"
"NO! JUST GO! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND! I'M PREGNANT!"
Arthur starred at her and Molly clamped her hands over her mouth. That was definitely not the way she wanted Arthur to find out.
"I'm sorry ..."
"I TOLD YOU: DON'T BE!"
Molly ran out. It was the first time since her ordeal that he had yelled at her and been anything but understanding.
----
Later that day Molly returned to their room in Gryffindor Tower.
"Where is Malfoy? Did you killed him?"
Arthur whirled around and faced Molly. She stood in the door to their room, stock-still.
"Whatever gives you that idea? No, we didn't kill him. He's alive and in a cell in the dungeons. Why do you ask?"
"I need to know whether it will help. I want to kill ... him. The man who ..." She made a vague gesture at her belly, and swallowed hard. "But if I do and it doesn't help ..." She couldn't go on.
He didn't seem shocked, rather abstracted.
"Molly, you have never killed before. Killing a man is ... difficult. You really have to mean it, want it with all your heart."
"But do you think it will help?"
"Why don't you ask your son?"
"WHAT?"
"Ron nearly killed Malfoy the night of your rescue."
Suddenly Arthur lost his calm demeanour. Instead he became very angry with his wife. "Do you really think that your children would stand idly by and watch you been tortured, raped and beaten. Molly, you are very much mistaken! And no, I don't think it helps if you kill him. That is the same I told Ron. But perhaps you want to kill Malfoy only to prove you don't belong to him. And neither does your child."
Molly was enraged. How could her husband, the man she trusted most, stand there in front of her and accuse her of selfish reasons to murder? Furious, she swung a hand at him but he caught her by the wrist.
"An, now", he said reprovingly. "You're not really mad at me."
He caught the other wrist as she struck at him again and pulled them both up sharply.
"You don't need to make such a fuss."
"You bastard! I want revenge! I want my honour and my life back! I loathe him!"
She swivelled in his grip, used her weight to swing aside, brought her knee up hard. Arthur turned only slightly and her knee collided with his thigh, not the vulnerable flesh between his legs she had been aiming for.
The blow must have bruised him but didn't lessen his grip on her wrists in the least. She twisted, kicking, cursing and screaming. She hit his shin dead-on at least twice but he only chuckled, as though finding her struggles funny.
"Is that all you can do, darling?"
Never before had his voice sounded more taunting. Arthur broke his grip then, but only to shift both her wrists to one hand. The other prodded her playfully in the ribs. With each repetition, he dug a thumb heart between her ribs.
"You fucking bastard!" she screamed. Molly braced her feet and yanked down on his arm as hard as she could, bringing it into biting range. She lunged at his wrist, but before she could sink her teeth in his flesh, she found herself jerked off her feet and whirled through the air.
She ended hard on her knees, one arm twisted up behind her back so tightly that her shoulder joint cracked. The strain on her elbow hurt. She writhed, trying to turn into the hold, but couldn't budge. An arm like an iron bar clamped across her shoulders, forcing her head down. And further down.
Her chin drove into her chest. She couldn't breathe. And still he forced her head down. Her knees slid apart, her thighs forced wide by the downward pressure.
"Stop!" she grunted. It hurt to force a sound through her constricted windpipe.
"I could break your neck", he said, very quietly. The weight of his arm left her shoulders, though the twisted arm still held her bent forward, hair loose and tumbled, nearly touching the floor. A hand settled on her neck. She could feel thumb and index fingers on either side, pressing lightly on her arteries. He squeezed and black spots danced before her eyes.
"I could kill you."
The hand left her neck and touched her, deliberately, on knee and shoulder, cheek and chin, emphasizing her helplessness. She jerked her head away, not letting him touch the wetness, not wanting him to feel her tears of rage. Then the hand pressed sudden and brutal on the small of her back. She made a small, choked sound and arched her back to keep her arm from breaking, thrusting out her hips backward, legs spread to keep her balance.
"I could use you as I would", he said and for the first time there was a coldness in his voice. "Could you stop me, Molly?"
She felt as though she would suffocate with rage and shame.
"Answer me!"
"No!"
She was free. So suddenly released, she pitched forward onto her face. She lay on the floor, panting and sobbing.
"Damn you!" she gasped. She slammed the hand down on the floor. "God, I want to kill you!"
Arthur stood quite still, looking down at her with his arms folded.
"Yes, but you can't, can you?"
And suddenly realization came, flooding down her aching arms to her bruising fists.
"Oh, God", she said. "No. I can't. I couldn't. Even if I had fought him stronger ... I couldn't."
Arthur knelt down on the floor next to her wife and cradled her in his arms.
"I love you, Molly. More than anything in the world ... Well, perhaps our children are up there on the top one place with you", he tried to joke a bit and lighten the mood at last. Molly smiled weakly. The twins definitely had their wicked humour from their father. "We have seven wonderful children together. One more shouldn't be a problem."
"But ..."
"Molly, think. The night after we rescued you and Minerva."
And Molly understood. The benefit of the doubt.
A./N.: The next chapter will be ADMM-centric (finally!!) and I promise things start to get better. Bye guys and thank you all so much for your reviews. Any ideas what you want to see in this story?