Chapter 3: - A Weasley dilemma
Molly sat in the living room staring at the clock as the darkness begin to close around the burrow, she could hear the voices of the boys as they sat in the kitchen, Bill had tried his best to calm them but they still continued to argue,
"What does Dumbledore think he's doing letting underage witches and wizards sleep around?" Fred raged not even attempting to lower his voice,
"Shut up idiot!" Molly heard Bill hiss at Fred "Albus Dumbledore can no more control raging hormones then he can make Ron change his socks! And don't you think that Mum, Dad and Ginny are going through enough without you lot demanding things and saying dumb stuff!?!"
"I was just saying that-" Molly heard Fred continue but once more Bill cut him off
"Yeah, well just don't!" Bill said calmly, Molly smiled to herself and thanked Merlin that at least Bill was taking Ginny's revelation in his stride, or even if he wasn't that he wasn't reacting as bad about it as the others were.
"I still want to know who the father is!" Molly heard Charlie mumble "I mean I didn't even know she was dating!"
"She wasn't well I didn't think she was…" Ron said trailing off,
"Some brother you are!" Fred said bitterly "You should have been looking after her!-"
"Looking after her?"
"To keep her out of trouble" Fred snarled
"Trouble..?"
"This wasn't an immaculate conception!" Fred yelled as chairs scrapped across the stone kitchen floor and fists banged on the table and Molly's heart sank, never had the boys been this mean to each other, they had always been very competitive with each other as brothers always where, each trying to out do the other, but ever since Percy had departure the family had become very close and Molly didn't what her family torn apart anymore then it already was. She knew that she couldn't cope if the family was split any further.
"Sit down!" Molly heard Bill's voice snarled in a low and dangerous voice that Molly had never heard before as all the sounds in the kitchen immediately ceased "Arguing isn't going to help anyone least of all Mum, Dad and Ginny. What's done is done and its pointless blaming anyone understand?"
Molly listened as a mumble of assent issued from the kitchen and chairs scraped once more as this time the boys sat down.
"I still want to get my hands on the guy that….that violated my sister" Molly heard Charlie growl
"Violated?" George roared "Are you saying that Ginny was-?"
"No!" Bill growled once more "No he isn't, Ginny would have told us if she'd…she'd… been forced upon"
"How do you know?" Charlie snarled "No one knows!"
"Your right we don't" Bill said "And if you lot don't calm down she isn't exactly going to tell us anything is she?" Molly listened as once more as the kitchen fell silent.
"I just want to know who the father is" Fred mumbled once more "Then I'm going to string him up so fast his feet aren't going to touch the floor"
"Shut up idiot" Molly heard Bill sigh.
After that the kitchen fell silent once more and after several minutes the boys all headed upstairs to their rooms and Molly breathed a sigh releasing the breath that she hadn't even known she had held for almost twenty minutes. 'It was over' Molly thought as the last of the boys' foot steps faded and doors began to slam closed as they entered their rooms. 'Everyone now knew' Molly thought and with that knowledge the family could start to work things out. Molly prayed that they could.
After the boys had retired Molly stayed in the living room, waiting, the lights had all faded and she sat in the dark as scenarios ran through her head. Scenes that in normal circumstances would have been wild and very unrealistic but given Ginny's news these scenarios brought Molly even more pain. What if she, Molly, lost them? All of them! What if Arthur left because he couldn't cope with another baby in the home? What if the boys left because they felt ashamed? What if Ginny went because she thought that no one truly cared? And then what of the baby? What if Ginny now decided that because of the family's reaction she wanted to terminate the pregnancy? These thoughts ran through Molly's head stabbing at her heart as she sat and waited for Arthur return, but what if he didn't?
Molly knew that she couldn't think like this, Arthur was a good man. The best of men! A good husband and a loving and caring father, but even the best of men, Molly reflected, could choose to abandon all that they once held dear. Molly's darkening thoughts led her to think of her brothers, Gideon and Fabian, they had been several years younger then Molly and had been killed by Voldemort's followers during his first rising. Their loss had always left Molly feeling that a part of her had been killed alongside them. And Molly also knew that Percy's departure and his treatment to the family had taken a part of herself too. Molly didn't even want to try to imagine the gap that Arthur or any of her other children's leaving would create.
Molly still waited, her stomach churned, and her thoughts turned towards the events of that day, replaying the events over and over. Was there something that she could have done differently? Was telling the entire family the best thing to have done? Should she have taken Ginny to the local healer to have the pregnancy confirmed before telling Arthur? The only use Molly found these thoughts was to understand the saying that hindsight was better after the event.
Molly now knew that she had been a fool in thinking that telling the family everything so that things could be quickly mended. Things hadn't, and Molly couldn't help but feel that the situation within the family was beginning to build, building up and festering exactly like it had before Percy had left.
Tears stung at Molly's eyes and she quickly cuffed them away with the hem of her apron. She didn't what her family to be torn apart any further then it already was. Molly didn't know if she could cope if the scenarios that still ran through her head proved true.
It was gone midnight before the large grandfather clock signalled that Arthur was returning home and Molly waited apprehensively, Arthur's reaction wasn't anything that Molly had thought it would have been, She knew that he wouldn't have been best pleased at the thought that his only daughter and youngest child who was barely sixteen was to be a mother. But Molly hadn't expected Arthur to have been so reserved, distant and unresponsive. Shouting, screaming, blaming himself or everyone else was a reaction that Molly could have dealt with. But by Apparating to the leaky cauldron, a thing that Arthur very really did was very much out of character, and this in itself was very worrying.
Molly turned took look over her shoulder as a loud pop signalled that Arthur had Apparated into the kitchen and Molly hurried towards him, but stopped at the kitchen's door way as he husband stood in front of her
"We need to talk don't we?" Arthur asked his voice clear and normal and Molly was thankful that he wasn't drunk.
"We do" Molly agreed
"At my age I thought that I'd finished changing nappies" Arthur continued "With Bill and Charlie grown and the twins now owning a business of their own I thought that within a year or two after Ron and Ginny had left Hogwarts that I could then start planning for our retirement"
"You still can" Molly pleaded as fresh tears clouded her vision, "A baby doesn't need much, just food, warmth and love and care we can provided that, we always have!"
"I was thinking that I could convert one of the boys' rooms into a study and that I'd write journals on Muggle devices, plugs, batteries, that sort of thing" Arthur continued his voice sounding alarmingly distant
"Arthur" Molly pleaded "Please don't leave! I-I-can't do this on my own! I know I can't, I'm not strong enough to do it"
"Leave?" Arthur said his voice sounding in utter shock as he looked at Molly "Oh Molly why would I leave?" He pulled her tightly towards him and held her close as she cried, all the fears and emotions that had been bottled inside her from that days revelations spilling out in torrents of unstoppable tears.
"I could never leave you, any of you, I love you all too much" Arthur said as he kissed her on the cheeks and held her tightly. Molly felt her anguishes for that day suddenly melt as Arthur wrapped his arms around her. She felt silly for even thinking that Arthur would leave. He was a good man, Molly had always known this but now, now she knew that Arthur was the best of men.
"I won't deny the fact that I was shocked" Arthur said as he finally pulled back from Molly as he took his hanky out of his jacket pocket and dried her tears. "I'm sorry I didn't take the news well but all I could think of was that She's my little girl"
"I know but-" Molly said as Arthur headed into the living room and he sank into his chair tears forming in his eyes
"She's only a little baby herself"
"Oh Arthur" Molly cried as she knelt next to him and placed her hand on his knee "She'll always be our little girl no matter what, but she isn't a baby anymore. Whether we realised it or not she's been living her own life for a very long time now, occasionally she lets us share it with her but she been growing into a woman for a very long time"
"I know…It's just hard for me to accept that she isn't going to be my little girl anymore"
"She'll always be your little girl" Molly said softly as she smiled weakly up at her husband.
"This is really happening isn't it Molly?" He asked, his face looking tired and worn "Our baby's going to have baby, isn't she?"
"She is" Molly said softly as Arthur placed a warm and gentle hand on her cheek "But how we're feeling isn't anything compared to how that freighted little girl is feeling upstairs right now"
