Chapter 29
Molly Weasley knew nothing about Elle, but the little time that they spent together while Elle was in hiding assured her that the young mother was different. She may be the child of her enemy, but she definitely wasn't anything like them. And Molly had no doubt in her mind that Harry was in love with her, and she him. Molly saw the looks on their faces when they held their children and knew that they had something nobody could take away from them. Something she and Arthur might never have felt. Something muggles wouldn't comprehend. And something not even Voldermort, Molly believed, could understand.
In the midst of all that thinking, an odd feeling in her gut erupted unexpectedly. A thing that often happened to her whenever something wasn't happening right. She halted from knitting and looked around as if waiting for a sound. When it didn't come, she resumed to knitting. The feeling would pass, she thought. But thinking ahead, she stopped and dropped her knitting on the seat as she stood, and headed for the front door. She stopped midway when the feeling pulled her away. To the back door, she felt. So she hurried there.
Molly pulled the door open, and her eyes widened at what she saw. There was Harry and Elle and one of the girls clutched in a robe in Harry's arms. Molly could tell they traveled through invisibility because she recognized the famous cloak Elle was holding. When Harry spotted her from afar, he waved, and Molly waved back. Elle smiled.
They were all inside and sitting the dining within minutes after greeting each other. Molly didn't miss the looks of apprehension on their faces while they said nothing for a while, and was quick to kill the uncomfortable silence.
"What's going on, dears?"
Harry and Elle exchanged sorry looks. Looks Molly recognized much on Fred and George's faces when they had a hard time admitting a fault. But this wasn't something she expected from either of them. Harry shifted Lily in his arms. She never stirred. Elle looked away and pressed her closed fist to her lips while her elbow rested on the table. Molly noticed how her face began turning red.
"Elle?" Molly looked at them with nervous curiosity. And then she noticed why it had been such an odd sight since their arrival. "Where are the other two?"
Harry looked into Molly's eyes with quiet sadness, and Elle began to sob.
"He took Torch, Molly." Harry said. "He took him. We have to find him. Elle and I, we have to find him."
Molly already had a hand over her mouth, astonished, and tears too began to form in her eyes. Instinctively, she hurried to Elle and threw her arms around her.
Harry looked away, fighting tears of his own. "We need this one favor, Molly."
Molly looked up and through blurred vision, gaped at Harry.
"We need you to take care of her." Elle said with difficulty, sniffling. Molly sort of jumped back and stared at them with wide eyes. Harry and Elle looked back at her pleadingly.
"How can you ask me to do something like that?" Molly whispered.
"There is no one else." said Elle.
"We don't know what could happen, Molly. We have to do this." Harry added.
"And Harry and I trust you and your whole family."
Molly continued gaping without movement. The only thing that seemed mobile were her eyes flashing at them back and forth.
"If anything should happen. Give her to Ron and Hermoine. They'll do this for us... They'll do this for me." Harry said quietly, stealing a look of his daughter. She was still fast asleep.
The tears in Molly's eyes continued to flow, but she nodded without complaint.
They were in Ron's room with a single cradle Molly had summoned out from storage. The same cradle Lily had slept in just a year ago. Harry put Lily down carefully. She stirred a little but did not wake. Elle stood beside Harry watching over with her face wet and red as she cried. She gave lily a peck on the head and smoothened out her hair gently. Harry pulled Elle in his arms to comfort her, but Elle only cried harder. Molly watched with silent pity.
"Thank you for doing this, Molly." Harry said when they once outside the front door.
"Not a problem at all, Harry. You two do what you have to do. I assure you Lily will be safe here. Don't worry about her."
Harry gave her a weak smile of gratitude and stepped back beside Elle who stood quiet the entire time. She refused to look up at Molly and instead kept her eyes on the ground. Although she had stopped crying, the gloom never left her face. Molly gave her a quick embrace before Harry took Elle's hand to apparate.
Draco Malfoy sat in his study with his head in his hands. His head ached and breathing somehow grew harder ever since he left Hogwarts. That night the Potter boy was to be kidnapped, Draco knew he would be the first on Harry's list, but that wasn't what scared him. It was what might happen to Elle. Being as passionate as he knew she was about her children, Draco knew her heart would break. He knew how mad she could get, how devastated. As he waited for the signal, the signal to run, his hands trembled in the cold night mixed with fright. He and six other Slytherins, destined Death Eaters, were mounted on their brooms deep in the forest, far enough to see the Hogwarts towers peeking out from a safe distance above the trees.
A red flare shot up somewhere west. Instinctively, they kicked off the ground and disappeared into the night. Draco, with his breaths raging, looked back to make sure they weren't being followed. Ahead of him, he heard one of the boys call a warning, but as he turned, it was a little too late. The Owlery shot into view and Draco went speeding through one of the large windows and he quickly dodged away from the pillars then went bursting out through the opposite end with feathers filling the air for a brief moment. In surprise, a ruckus inside the Owlery broke out causing some of them to fly out into the dark. Draco never looked back again.
