Hi! This chapter is a lot shorter than the last one, but it's what I think works well with this chapter. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 3:

Red Hair, Hand-Me-Down Robes

"'First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too.'
She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose."

To Molly's surprise and slight delight, the next few days were nothing but pleasure.

Every day, Beatrix went down to the Leaky Cauldron's dining area and ordered breakfast for the eight kids. Every day, Opa would fly out the window and come back to let the children know what the weather was like. Every day, Zoë would go outside and grab a copy of the Daily Prophet, the newspaper of Diagon Alley. Every day, the children would go outside and look for either a family of red-haired kids, a girl with bushy brown hair and the same ornate book that Beatrix had bought, or a pudgy little boy with a toad and his grandmother. They didn't dare spoil Molly with the identities of the children, because, as they knew very well, Molly hadn't read the books or seen the movies.

It was one day in mid-August (somehow, the time traveling had brought the children back to July 31st instead of August 18th - the day it had been in their world) that the children finally spotted one of the groups they had been looking for for ages.

At the beginning, it seemed like any other day, if you count sitting around in a wizard pub watching for future celebrities any other day. Beatrix had come up with a name for her black-banded owl - Eclipse, she had decided. Stella had decided to name her black cat Usnavi, although the other children had no idea what that meant. Not that they could talk - they still hadn't come up with names for their owls, which they kept in cages in the corner of the room.

Molly took as quick of a shower as she could - the hot water ran out extremely quickly - and dressed herself in the same outfit she had been wearing since the first day (there really weren't many clothing stores in the area, other than Madam Malkin's). As each person got showered and dressed, Molly couldn't help but wonder how much more of this she could take. She knew the term started in a few days, but a few days seemed like forever when she was doing the same thing, over and over and over again.

"Opa!" Madison called, jerking Molly out of her thoughts. "Fly, my pretty! Fly!"

She opened the window, and the brown-feathered, amber-eyed owl flew outside. A few minutes later, she returned, her feathers disheveled from the wind.

"It's windy today, guys," Madison said. "Doesn't look like she's wet, though."

"Phew," Zoë said. "I don't want to get my clothes wet again."

"Oh my God, that rainstorm was horrible!" Stella said. "I wish we'd known we would end up in London - I would've brought my raincoat."

"It isn't actually that rainy in London," Molly said weakly, but nobody was listening to her, just like they hadn't been at Flourish and Blotts. It was a little weirder for them to not hear her this time - the room, as Molly had noticed before, was extremely small, especially compared to the textbook store.

Once everyone had gotten dressed, the children walked out of their room (Usnavi perched on Stella's shoulder) and down the crooked wooden stairs. Beatrix had brought down a few of the textbooks that they would need, and Molly sat down at a table and began to look at one of them, a rusty-colored book full of magical spells.

"Mackenzie," she called. "Can you help me with something?"

Mackenzie obliged, jogging over to the table as the rest of the group picked up the breakfast that Beatrix had ordered that morning.

"Alright," she said. "What is it?"

"You've seen the movies," Molly said. "How do people move their wands for spells and stuff like that?"

"Oh, that's easy," Mackenzie said. "Just swish and flick."

She grabbed Molly's hand and moved it in a U-shape before jerking it down.

"It's as simple as that?" Molly said. "I want to try for real!"

"Not yet," Mackenzie said firmly. "We're underage - technically."

"Oh." Molly didn't know what counted as underage here, but she understood. "Okay."

Mackenzie walked away, leaving Molly to her own devices. As she joined the other students, she heard a faint murmuring from behind her.

When she turned around, she saw Molly waving her hand as if it held a wand, her head buried in the rusty-colored textbook, whispering "Lumos" in a British accent over and over.

Mackenzie smiled and walked back to Molly.

"Are you using a British accent on purpose?" she asked playfully.

Molly nodded without shame.

"What would you rather hear?" she asked Mackenzie. "Would you rather someone say…" She turned to a random page in the book and took on a dull tone. "...Wingardium Leviosa, or hear them say…" Her voice brightened as she stood up and said, in a British accent, "Wingardium Leviosa?"

She almost seemed to shrink as she sat back down.

"You know what I mean?" she said meekly.

Mackenzie smirked. "It almost sounds more magical that way - I agree. Although," she continued, leaning down and whispering, "I wouldn't do it in front of Beatrix and Stella - I don't know them that well, and...well…"

"I understand," Molly said.

"Hey, are you going to pick up your breakfast?" Mackenzie asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll be right there."

"Okay," Mackenzie said as she walked to the counter to grab her meal. When she looked back, Molly was still reading the spells from the book, presently saying "Alohomora" many times before moving on to another spell.

Mackenzie smiled, grabbing her breakfast and walking back over to sit with Molly.

Later that day, Molly had finished browsing the textbook and was reading the day's issue of the Daily Prophet.

"They're still talking about that stupid thief on the 31st," she said. "Isn't there anything else they could write about?"

Jonah, who happened to be sitting next to her, looked over at the Prophet.

"Wow, cool picture of the goblins," he said.

Molly rolled her eyes. "But that's all they're talking about! They haven't even found out anything new!"

"I know," Zoë said from across the table. "But it's fun to look at the pictures."

"Well, that is true," Molly said, still the slightest bit annoyed. She went back to reading, but was interrupted by a bell in the front ringing.

"Oh, I wonder who's here!" Madison whispered as the door opened.

Molly looked around Jonah to see a tall boy with neat red hair and a bulky maroon sweater on. Behind him were four other boys - and two girls - all with red hair and their own defining features. The only ones who looked exactly the same were two boys just behind the one in the front - the only way Molly could tell them apart was their sweaters.

Molly's eyes widened. While she didn't know who the family was, she did know that they were one of the groups of people that the others had been looking for. She looked over at Stella, who was covering her smile with her hands.

"Whoa," the boy in the front said with a heavy British accent. Suddenly, he noticed the eight children sitting in front of him and staring at him.

"Uh, Mum, why are these people looking at me funny?" he called back to one of the women, who seemed to be older than the others.

"Do you think I know, Ron?" she asked in reply. "Hold on."

She pushed past the other red-haired children and walked up to the kids sitting at the tables.

"I don't know what kind of a prank you're pulling," she said, "but I get enough of it from my sons - I don't need it from anybody else, so...could you please, uh, stop teasing my son?"

The children were silent. Eventually, Beatrix tapped Madison, looking at her expectantly.

Madison sighed. "We're not pulling a prank, Miss," she said. "We've heard about your son - he's...well, he's a pretty cool guy."

The woman shook her head, as if trying to convince herself that something wasn't happening.

"How do you know about my son?" she said, wary.

Oh, great, Molly thought. They can't tell her about the books.

"Umm...it's a long story," Madison said. "But we seriously don't mean any harm."

The woman looked back at her son, then back at the children. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Oh, alright."

A few of the kids gasped softly. Why would she suddenly decide to believe them?

Madison smiled amiably. "Thank you," she said. "My name's Madison."

"It's nice to meet you," the woman said. "I'm Mrs. Weasley, and this is Ron."

Weasley, Molly thought. Wasn't that the name of the joke shop that was supposed to be in that empty storefront?

Madison nodded, shaking Mrs. Weasley's hand, and then Ron's.

"Uh, who are the others?" Molly asked.

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry," Mrs. Weasley said. "The twins are Fred and George."

The two boys who had been behind Ron waved. "Nice to meet you," one said.

Molly smiled and waved meekly as Mrs. Weasley continued introducing the children.

"The boy in the back is Percy - he's a prefect for Gryffindor this year, you know, very big honor - and the little girl is Ginny - she's young, she'll be joining you next year - and the man in the back is my husband, Mr. Weasley," Mrs. Weasley said. "Now what are your names?"

"Well, I'm Molly," said Molly. "And this is -"

"Wait," Mrs. Weasley said. "Your name's Molly?"

Molly nodded, unsure what Mrs. Weasley was getting at.

"So is mine!" she said with her face lifted in surprise.

Molly gasped. "Really?" she said. She hadn't realized that there was someone in the Harry Potter world who had the same name as her! In a weird way, it changed something for her.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "You can just call me Mrs. Weasley, though - to avoid confusion."

"Okay," Molly said, grinning ear to ear.

One by one, she introduced the other kids at the table, starting with Stella and ending with Ava. Almost instantaneously, the group of Weasleys began to split up and strike up conversations with the children.

Jonah struck up a conversation with Fred and George talking about the pranks they'd played on their siblings, and Madison joined in, finding the topic quite interesting. Beatrix and Ginny began to talk about Harry himself, Ginny being very interested in the story of his defeating a dark wizard (Molly only caught bits of the conversation that she heard as she was talking). Ava was talking with Percy about some of the expectations of Hogwarts. Stella, Mackenzie, and Zoë were telling Ron and his father about Muggle things, Stella rapping the praises of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Molly and Mrs. Weasley started talking to each other.

"So how many children do you have?" Molly asked. She didn't know how Mrs. Weasley would take to the question, but she hoped she took it well.

"Seven," Mrs. Weasley replied. "There's Bill and Charlie - they're away, Bill's working in Africa for Gringotts and Charlie's studying wild dragons in Romania - then Percy, the twins, Ron, and Ginny."

"Wow," Molly said. "And only one girl?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded.

"Same here," Molly said. "Well - not in my generation, I'm an only child, but in my mom's. She was the only girl in a family of six - not as big as yours, but still pretty big."

Mrs. Weasley chuckled. "It can get pretty crazy," she admitted. "But once you've raised the twins, you could raise anything."

Molly giggled. "What are they like?" she asked.

"Pranksters all the way," Mrs. Weasley said. "Once, they turned poor Ron's teddy bear into a humongous spider! Poor thing - never liked spiders since."

"Has he read Charlotte's Web?" Molly asked. She had read that book a few years ago, and it had always given her a love for arachnids.

"No," Mrs. Weasley said. "The kids don't usually read Muggle books. Arthur does, though."

"Your husband?" Molly guessed.

"Precisely," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling. "He works for the Ministry of Magic - loves anything to do with Muggles. I've caught him reading To Kill A Mockingbird more times than one."

Molly giggled. She really liked Mrs. Weasley. But there was one thing she wasn't sure about.

"Wait," she said. "What's the Ministry of Magic?"

Mrs. Weasley held in a gasp. "You don't know about the Ministry?"

Molly shook her head.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, "the Ministry of Magic is kind of like our wizard government. They hunt down people who cause mayhem in our world, and they make sure that Muggles don't see anything magical."

"Why not?" Molly asked. "Plenty of my friends at home would love to see magic."

Mrs. Weasley looked shocked. "My dear, our entire existence has been a closely guarded secret from the beginning! If Muggles knew about magic, they'd try to be a part of it, and only certain people - like us, and like you - can create magic."

Molly realized she was getting into a hotly debated subject - even the wizarding world had politics to deal with - so she stopped talking about the Ministry and asked about something else she had been confused about.

"What did you say earlier about not reading Muggle books?" she asked. "Are there other wizard stories?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "There are tons! Beedle the Bard - he wrote them all. There's 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune,' 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,' 'The Tale of the Three Brothers,' you know the rest."

"Um…" Molly said. She had only just remembered that she hadn't told Mrs. Weasley that she was Muggleborn.

"What is it, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"I'm not...um, like your family," she said. "My mom and dad aren't magic, like you and Mr. Weasley - I'm Muggleborn."

Mrs. Weasley laughed, and Molly's heart sank.

"What is it?" she said nervously.

"None of that matters to us!" she said. "The only ones who don't like Muggleborns are the servants of You-Know-Who."

"You-Know-Who?" Molly said.

"The worst Dark Wizard since Grindelwald - about 50 years ago," she said, shivering.

"And you call him You-Know-Who?" Molly asked skeptically.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, "his name isn't You-Know-Who - we just call him that, and we don't like to say his real name."

"Well," Molly said, "I'm sure you can make an exception."

She took a deep breath. "Fine then, you'll find out eventually anyway," she said. "His name's Voldemort."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "Wait...that means flight from death in French. How is that a villain name?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed, more troubled than anything. "You'll see."

"Oh," Molly said. "Okay."

"Well, it was great to meet you guys," Madison said as she shook Mrs. Weasley's hand. The others were saying their goodbyes to the other Weasleys.

"Pleasure to meet you, too," Mrs. Weasley said. "Maybe we'll see each other at the train station in a few days!"

"That sounds like a great idea," Stella said.

After each of the Weasleys had said goodbye to each of the children, they walked toward the door and waved as they walked out, with plenty of calls of "Have a good day" and "See you soon." The door closed, and the Weasleys had left as quickly as they had come, leaving an almost eerie silence in the pub.

"Well, that was crazy," Zoë said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Molly nodded, a wave of exhaustion rushing over her. "What time is it?"

"You have to stop asking that," Beatrix said as she looked at a large clock hanging from the wall of the Leaky Cauldron. "I think it's about 5...uh, 15."

"Alright," Molly said. "Let's get dinner and then head upstairs."

"That sounds like a plan!" Jonah said overenthusiastically.

And together, the kids ordered dinner and ate. After dinner, Molly was the first to head up to the children's room. Lying in her bed, she tried to imagine what kind of meaning the red-haired family had to Harry's story. Contemplating this, she slowly fell asleep, her mind oblivious to the other children walking in.

Thanks for reading this chapter! Here are this week's fun facts:

1) The inspiration for Stella suggested the name for her cat. When I wrote this chapter, I (like my character) had no idea what the name meant, but after a quick Google search and a listen to a certain soundtrack on Spotify, I completely understood.

2) This was the chapter that I watched AVPM and the sequels during the writing of. It took all of my strength to not set up a situation in which Ron entered to his name, like in the play.

3) During the conception of this chapter, I finally finished reading the books. I had written Molly's conversation with Mrs. Weasley right after reading the end of Chapter 31 of the Deathly Hallows (which I had spoiled myself about), and I used the writing as a bit of an escape, only picking up the book again to figure out the titles of the stories in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. (In other words, I wrote my way out. Yes, I just did that.)

4) I was debating including this chapter in the story, but then I decided that it served the story well, and it introduced Molly to some of the "rules" of the wizarding world. Don't worry - Hogwarts is coming up in the next chapter!

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!