HSWW, Asst 12 | Gryffindor | Muggle History, Task 3 | Write about someone devoted to their family.
Camp Hogwarts | [emotion] stressed
IPC #87 - [object] clock
365 #148 - house
Summer Seasonal Prompts
Days of the Year | Vishwakarma Puja | Write about building something.
Unlucky Month for Weddings | 7. [object] wedding/engagement ring
National Ice Cream Month | 12. Salted Caramel | Frustrated
Romance Awareness Month | 3. MollyArthur
Colours | 3. Golden Brown
Flowers | 14. Tulip | [dialogue] "Where do you think you're going?"
Locations | 3. The Burrow
Crystals & Gemstones | 15. Poppy Jasper | [emotion] stressed
Gryffindor Characters | 34. Arthur Weasley
WC: 633
o . o . o
The Clock
Arthur twisted his wedding band around his finger, thinking carefully. He knew exactly what he wanted the blasted clock to look like, but he couldn't figure out how to make it work. He was sprawled out across the floor of the sitting room, and had been for the past two hours, fiddling with the gears of the little clock. It's golden brown face seemed to taunt him with every failed charm that he tried.
Stress and worry seized him every time an idea failed in its execution, nightmare scenarios running through his mind. With Bill and Charlie old enough to go to the Muggle school in town now, little Percy always hiding in some secluded corner with his books, and Molly expecting twins too… their family was rapidly growing, and with each new Weasley it was getting harder and harder to keep track of them all. Half the time Arthur had no idea where his sons were and he was sure Molly was struggling just as much.
The war seemed to have escalated tenfold, and every day Arthur worried what he might come home to. He and Molly had decided that it was too risky for them to take an active part in the fight right now - what would happen if the worst befell either of them? He could never manage five little children and work, and Molly… well, Molly had the mothering down to a T, but she'd always been a housewife and he wasn't sure where she would even start for a job. Their children simply needed them more than the wizarding world right now, and that was that. Both of them had brothers who were fighting with the Order, however, and Arthur worried that his family might be targeted as a means of getting to any of them. He simply had to keep his wife and his children safe.
The idea had come to him while he was playing with Bill in the sitting room a few nights earlier. He had spotted their decorative little clock on the mantle and had simply become inspired. But now, as he tried to transform the everyday object into the vision in his mind, he was becoming increasingly frustrated.
"What in Merlin's name do you want from me!?" he swore, after another failed attempt to get the makeshift hands to move.
He was tempted to throw the little device across the room, but resisted, not wanting to undo his progress so far.
"You must work," he insisted, muttering to the clock.
Suddenly, he had an idea, and Arthur felt he knew just the combination of charms that would make the clock work as he wanted it to. With careful swishes of his wand, Arthur executed four spells in quick succession. Excitement mounted in him as he watched the seven spoons spin around the face of the clock rapidly before they all came to a stop beneath the golden script that read 'Home'.
Unable to contain his enthusiasm, Arthur jumped up and grabbed the clock, racing through the house.
"Where do you think you're going?" Molly exclaimed from the kitchen as he sped past her. "Dinner is nearly done!"
"I have to test it!" Arthur called over his shoulder in reply, already out in the garden.
He watched the spoon with his image on it spin round to the station that read 'Garden', before apparating to the Ministry quickly. Once there, the clock immediately displayed him as at work, and Arthur let out a whoop of celebration. He had done it!
His little clock might not keep Death Eaters out, but at least Molly would always know where her family was, and being able to reassure her in that way meant the world to him. It was a small protection, but it was there nonetheless.