A/N: We got a leeeeeetle bit carried away with the cussing. Too sorry. But you know what, that's probably how Molly would've talked, being as she was. But don't worry – it'll get better! *pat pat on the censors*
Chapter 1: A Change for the Better
"You told him what???"
Molly rested her head back against the wall and squinted her eyes shut like she had a headache. "I told him I'd liked him ever since I saw him."
Robyn gawked at her in the mirror, her lipstick only half-applied over an otherwise plain complexion. "And you kissed him?"
"I chain-smoked about thirty cigarettes to get the taste out of my mouth afterward." She took a mighty drag on her current cigarette. "And now he's following me around like a lovesick puppy – asking to carry my books and holding open doors for me, y'know? Like I'm some helpless, pathetic damsel in distress."
Her friend laughed harshly. "'S that why you've been cutting Divination?"
"I've got to calm my nerves sometime. Besides, he's always so clingy about being my partner in classes." She lit another one and rolled her eyes. "Drives me out of my fucking mind."
"I can sure see how," Robyn said, finishing with the exhaustive process of caking on eye makeup and rouge. "Bloody cheap rubbish…when's the next Hogsmeade weekend?"
"I dunno. What's today?"
"March 16th."
"I think it's next weekend, then." She paused, looked down at her cigarette, then up at Robyn. "Hey, did you know we're flagrantly violating at least five Hogwarts school rules about now?"
"Molly! Wait up!" Arthur jogged out of his Charms class and took her books out of her arms. "Here, let me take those for you."
"I'm fine," she said rudely, grabbing them back and glancing at Robyn for help. Robyn appeared, however, to be getting some kind of sick enjoyment out of the whole thing, and did nothing.
Arthur shrugged. "Suit yourself. I was just kind of wondering what you were looking for in Hogsmeade last weekend."
"What I was looking for? What are you talking about?"
"Well, every time I saw you, you were running into another store with Robyn."
Robyn suddenly started laughing hysterically, and could only be silenced by Molly's elbow connecting sharply with her ribs. "Er…we were just looking for some lipstick. For Robyn. Right?" Molly said, glaring at her.
"Suuuurrrre. Lipstick. We were looking for lipstick in the post office, Arthur. And in Zonko's. And in Martin's Metalworks." She twisted skillfully away from Molly's elbow and ducked into the girls' bathroom. "I'll be right out – don't wait for me, you two lovebirds!"
"Robyn! Don't leave me out here with-" Molly stopped short. "God, she can be a bitch sometimes."
Arthur didn't respond to that, or even Robyn's cackles echoing out into the hall. He kept his eyes on the ground, his ears bright red.
"What class are you going to?"
He still didn't answer.
"You okay?" it was an off-the-cuff remark, just because that's what you say when someone doesn't talk to you.
"Suddenly you care?"
Molly felt an inexplicable pang of guilt. "Hey, c'mon…"
He stopped and whirled on her. "No, listen. I'm not as stupid as you must think I am – I know you only told me you liked me to get out of detention. But just after I figured that out, I figured something else out, too. You're not that bad, Molly."
"Thanks," she said, not sure of what else she could say.
"I mean you're not bad bad. As in, you're not as much of a rebel as you act. I don't know why you act it, but I'd like to. I'd like to know…you."
It was sincere. It was heartfelt. But it was, nonetheless, an insult. "How do you know I'm just acting it? Where do you get the…the…supreme psychic ability to tell me what I'm like? How could you possibly make a case for what you just said?"
"Well…" Arthur took a step onto the ladder that led up into the North Tower and smiled. "I guess it's just that you'd've bitched me out before now if you were really all that bad."
Molly strode angrily into the bathroom to where Robyn was waiting, already on her mascara. "Where've you been?"
"Arthur," she said shortly, lighting up with a vengeance.
"Ah, Prince Charming. Oh, wait…he's still a frog. Shame, that. You kissed him and everything."
"Stop," she said tersely. "I really don't feel like getting bitched out at the moment." Then, after a brief silence, she grinned. "That's what he said."
Robyn put her mascara away and took out a cigarette for herself. "What?"
Molly started laughing. "He looked straight at me and said that I would've 'bitched him out' before now if I was really all that bad."
"Eurgh! Presumptuous little shit." Robyn sat on the edge of the sink. "Acts like he knows you better than you do."
Molly looked down at the cigarette, her expression softened. She never would've said it aloud, but for the tiniest of seconds, the thought flashed in her brain that maybe he did.
She put out the cigarette.
Molly sat cross-legged in the common room three months later, a huge Defense Against the Dark Arts tome open on her lap. She stretched forward and scratched out a response to the first question on the homework page that was resting on the table in front of her. Then, as she had done a half dozen times already, she mumbled an irritated Erasing Spell at it. "Borado…why in the name of all that is holy – or unholy, for that matter – would anyone want to read about giant spiders? Even the friggen…even the little ones make my skin crawl."
"Why are you bothering to do the homework anyway? We'll just skip again tomorrow if it's that hard." Robyn had detached her face from that of Sean Thatcher to make the comment, and before Molly could respond, they were once again liplocked. Of course, it had been pretty much the same situation, only with Matthew English, the previous night. Molly couldn't help but wonder when Robyn was going to grow out of the 'slut' phase.
"What if I'm not going to skip?" Molly muttered under her breath. When there was no answer, she said a little bit louder, "And what if I can't stand that you've snogged every boy in Gryffindor Tower?" Once again, Robyn was too busy to say anything. Molly stood up, slammed her book down, and screamed at the entangled pair. "And what if I don't know how that's possible when you smell like a ruddy ashtray!!!"
Sean allowed Robyn to pull away and glare at Molly with narrowed and heavily made-up eyes. "What," she hissed, "Crawled up your ass and died?"
"Why do you always have to swear so much?" Molly yelled.
"Because I fucking like it. Oh, and same for the whole 'snogging-every-boy-in-Gryffindor-Tower' thing. And you're forgetting a few Ravenclaws." Robyn said nonchalantly, then grabbed Sean's face again. "Ignore her. She's dating a Prefect."
"What DIFFERENCE does that make??? AND I'M NOT DATING HIM!!!! AGGHH!" Molly picked up her book and sprinted up to her dormitory, realizing suddenly that she and Robyn were finally going their separate ways. And as much as that scared her, Robyn having been her best friend since before she could remember, it was also strangely calming, like when you step out of a funny movie and into the real world again.
Robyn skipped Divination again the next day. And Defense Against the Dark Arts. And Charms. All three times, she sat on the edge of the sink, dangling her high-heeled shoes just above the ground, and puffing bemusedly on a cigarette as she watched the door for Molly.
She didn't come.
She didn't plan on coming for quite a good long while.