Hello again! This is one of my favorite chapters so far, because I feel like it's the most accurate to real life. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 17:

So You Deserve Some Applause

"Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough it was Professor McGonagall who accompanied him. Harry had seen Professor McGonagall angry on several occasions, but either he had forgotten just how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry before."

The flying horseless carriages were amazing. Molly could feel the wind flying through her hair. Stella was sitting next to her, clutching to Molly for dear life, making sure that none of the course books fell out of the carriage.

"Is this what flying is like?" she said to Hermione.

"I dunno," she said. "You should ask Harry."

"I should," Molly said. Then she thought about something. "Hey, Hermione, where is Harry, anyway?"

She shrugged. "I didn't see him on the train."

Suddenly, as if on cue, the whining of a faulty car engine lit up the sky. Molly looked up to see a bright blue car flying in midair, beginning to lose altitude.

She looked into the car window. "Is that...Harry?" she asked.

Hermione looked up. "It looks like him...but no, it can't be...he'd never be that irresponsible…"

The car began to fall even further, almost hitting the castle before it swerved out of the way, hitting a large tree. As if activated by the car even touching it, the tree's branches blew back and then hit the car with extreme force in any direction possible.

Before Molly could see any more of the horrifying spectacle, the carriage dipped down, landing gently next to the door to Hogwarts. She sighed with relief - if that was Harry, she didn't want to see him committing such a blatant violation of the rules.

Instead, she turned her focus to the more important part of her narrative at that moment.

"I'm back," she whispered, a smile creeping across her face. She opened the carriage door and ran out, the first person to make it into the Great Hall. The ceiling/sky was a beautiful navy blue, with hints of purple.

"Molly!" she heard a voice call. She turned her head to see the entirety of Gryffindor House waving at her.

"Hey, guys!" she said, running over to the table where the House was sitting and giving everyone a big hug.

The last person she got to was Fred (or was it George? She honestly couldn't tell yet). As soon as she hugged him, she heard a noise, as though she had farted.

She broke the hug and looked at the twin - okay, yeah, that was definitely Fred.

"Whoopee cushion shirt," he said. "George and I invented it over the summer."

Molly started laughing, shaking her head gently. "You two…"

"Good to see you, too, Molly," Fred said.

Molly, still laughing, sat down at the table in between Fred and Hermione, who had entered the Great Hall right after her.

"I wonder when the Sorting's going to start!" she said.

"That'll be cool," Hermione said. "Y'know, Ginny's a part of it this year."

"Really!" Molly exclaimed. "Oh, that'll be really cool! I hope she's in Gryffindor."

"She better be," Fred said. "Our entire generation has been in Gryffindor - and so were our parents - and I'd never want to compete with my sister for House points."

"Yeah, she's great," George said, leaning over Fred.

Suddenly, Molly heard someone clearing her throat. She looked toward the front of the room to see Professor McGonagall standing in the front of the room.

"We will now commence the Sorting," she said. She took out a list of students and began to read from it.

Many of the names weren't ones that Molly recognized. One boy, called as "Creevey, Colin," jumped off of the chair with a shout after being Sorted into Gryffindor. Molly noticed that he had a piece of paper in his hand - what looked like a picture of a baby. She recognized his name - wasn't that the person that was able to use a camera in the school, according to Madison?

Another girl had a name that Molly recognized - Luna Lovegood, who was Sorted into Ravenclaw. "I've heard about her," she told Hermione. "Have you met her?"

Hermione shrugged. "I hope Beatrix likes her."

"Oh, I have a feeling she's going to," Molly said.

Finally, after ages of waiting, "Weasley, Ginny" was called up to be Sorted. She sat on the stool for just a few seconds before the Hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Molly looked over at Fred and George, who were cheering, "GINNY! GINNY! GINNY!" as though she was a famous Quidditch player entering the field. She giggled as she stood up to say hi to Ginny.

"How's it going, Molly?" Ginny said as they hugged hello.

"It's going great," Molly said. "Ya know where Harry and Ron are?"

Ginny shrugged. "I didn't see them on the train."

Molly shrugged. "They're bound to show up sooner or later - maybe they just got lost in the crowd - although, I did see this big flying blue car flying into this tree that started smacking it like it was a plaything -"

"Wait…" Ginny said. "Did you say that it was a blue car?

Molly nodded.

"Was it a Ford Anglia?" she asked.

Molly shrugged. "I dunno, it looked pretty old-fashioned, kinda boxy, and it was a bright sky blue…"

Ginny's eyes widened.

"Oh, no," she said. "That's…" She lowered her voice. "That's Dad's flying car."

Molly's eyes widened in response.

"Oh, God…" she said. "That is not good."

Ginny nodded. Suddenly, a large throat-clearing quieted the room. Molly turned toward the front of the room to see Professor Snape, the Potions teacher, whispering something in Professor McGonagall's ear. Her face paled, and she left the table, motioning to Professor Dumbledore to follow her.

"Definitely not good," Molly and Ginny said in unison.

Once the feast was done, Molly headed up to her dormitory. Percy told her the new password - which, for some reason, was "wattlebird." The Fat Lady's painting opened instantly, and when it opened, Molly saw the entirety of Gryffindor House jumping up and cheering.

"Whoa, whoa, what's going on?" she said.

As quickly as they had started, the Gryffindors stopped cheering. "Where's Harry?" Seamus said.

Molly shrugged. "Probably in trouble," she said. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for him," Dean said.

"We're going to surprise him -" Fred began.

"- to say thanks for finally making the first day fun!" George finished.

"Guys, I don't think that's the best idea -" Molly started, but before she could finish, the Fat Lady's painting opened again, to reveal Ron and Harry standing together, Hermione a foot or so away from them.

Behind Molly, the Gryffindors started cheering again.

"People'll be talking about that for years -"

"- second years flying a car into the Whomping Willow -"

"Why couldn't we have come in the car, too, eh?"

"SILENCIO!" Molly cried defiantly. The entire room fell silent.

"What are you thinking?" she said. "You're worshipping a guy who has broken the rules! Everyone's supposed to come on the train, and you two -" she turned and looked at Harry and Ron - "have made a show of doing exactly the opposite!"

"Well, actually…" Ron began, but Molly cut him off.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR ACTUALLIES!" she screamed. "You two shouldn't have flown in on a flying car - you should've come on the train - that's what everyone does. I assume you think 'Oh, I'm the famous Harry Potter, I can do whatever I want, the train is for losers -' well, guess what? Everyone else would've had a chance of being the best had you not been their age! Everyone else is just as good as you, so you can just zip it about being famous!"

"I didn't want to be -" Harry said.

"Oh, of course you're going to say that!" Molly said. "You're going to do anything to put yourself in the right - that's just how you are! Well, I won't stand for it! You're doing whatever you want - and you're disgracing Gryffindor House in the process."

Nobody was able to stop her rant, due to them being forced silent.

"And ya know what? I don't want to be associated with people who try to do everything for attention!"

Finally satisfied, she ran upstairs to her dormitory. She breathed in the fresh air, where Mackenzie was sitting.

"Ya know, I could hear you from down there," Mackenzie said. "They didn't mean to do that."

Molly sighed. "Not you, too," she said. "Those kids need to learn that there are consequences in life."

Mackenzie shrugged. "21 Chump Street?" she asked.

Molly nodded. "I watched it on YouTube over the summer. Justin totally deserved better."

Mackenzie giggled. "Did you know that the actor who played him is in that Hamilton show that Stella and Ava saw?"

Molly's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked.

"Really," Mackenzie said. "But he dies in it. Twice."

Molly cringed. "Poor guy," she said, sitting down on her bed. "Have a good night."

"You, too," Mackenzie said, lying down on the bed.

Molly smiled. Maybe she was upset with Ron and Harry, but there were other days to come. This would still be a good year.

Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:

1) The chapter title is based on the Taylor Swift song "Better than Revenge." I love a lot of her older music, and while I'm not the biggest fan of some of her newer things, I still think she's a good songwriter.

2) I'm not good with car models, so that's why I had to explain how the car looked to Ginny. The only car models I know are the ones we own. And the Santa Fe, because I'm that big of a Newsies fan.

3) The actor that Mackenzie is talking about is Anthony Ramos, who played Justin in 21 Chump Street and Laurens/Philip in Hamilton. He's currently at the Kennedy Center as Usnavi in In the Heights, which is so perfect considering Stella's cat's name. (And that was entirely a coincidence: I wrote this chapter a while ago, back before Anthony announced he would be in the show.)

4) Now, you might be asking, "Why is this similar to real life?" It's because I, ladies and gentlemen, am a perfectionist to an annoying degree. I hate it when people break the rules, and I've been known to burst at people just like I did to Harry and Ron in the story. This argument will become a major part of second year, so stay tuned.

5) The twins are some of my favorite characters, and I loved the way the Marauder's Map scene was done in the books, with Fred and George finishing each other's sentences, so I thought that would be a neat detail to add to the lead-up to the argument. (By the way, to any of you who have seen Coco...are Oscar and Felipe Fred and George or are Oscar and Felipe Fred and George? It's the perfect comparison, yet I haven't seen anyone make it yet.)

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