A/N: Enjoy!


THC – Round 8

House: Gryffindor

Class: Astronomy

Category: Drabble

Prompt: [Object] Knitting needles

WC: 677

Betas: CoppersMama, MomoDesu


~~ an early start ~~

Once upon a time, Molly started at the beginning of December.

Now, as soon as she's done wishing her large family good luck for the new year on September first on Platform 9 and ¾, she sets off to her favourite yarn shop to get ready for Christmas.

"Do you have any more left?" Molly asks.

"Only this one, I'm afraid," the lady at the till replies, a regrettable tone in her voice. "Not a lot of people buy it, which is a shame. It's a really nice colour."

Molly sniffs at the yarn the lady is presenting. As much as she loves yellow, this colour is particularly ugly. It kinda looks like dog vomit. But Molly's not too picky at this point. "Eh, it'll do for Fleur."

The lady then spends a painstaking amount of time counting all of her balls of yarn, kind of overwhelmed. Clearly, she must be new, because most of the sellers in the shop know her quite well, and appreciate her visits.

As she waits for 'Janine' to finish tallying up all of her purchases, Molly looks around at the books on display at the till. New and advanced Knitting Techniques. Hmph, why have new ones when the old are perfectly fine? 'Revolutionise your knitting', promises another one. She quickly overlooks it. She's been using the same pattern for over fifty years and nothing has ever gone wrong with it.

"Can I get you anything else?" Janine asks, exhausted.

"No, thank y-" Molly pauses. "Wait. I'll take two pairs of 6 mm straight needles, please."

She leaves the shop with 450 galleons worth of yarn, feeling pretty pleased with herself.

As soon as she gets home, Molly tasks herself with finding all of her needles. She keeps them in a corner of the attic, for when she's not using them the rest of the time. The truth is, who really needs nine pairs of 6 mm needles during the rest of the year? Certainly not her.

The ghoul growls at her when she opens the door.

"Oh, shut it," she tells it, "I promise I'll make you one too."

Turns out, pretending the ghoul was part of the family even for a small amount of time meant that even now, thirty years later, it still feels entitled to one of her jumpers. Thankfully, the ghoul shuts up and Molly finds her knitting needles under a thick layer of dust. Just like every year, she promises herself that come spring, she'll clean up that attic.

Molly bustles back downstairs to her seven bursting bags of yarn. Already, one of them is spilling onto the floor, a waterfall of cheerful colours, with some dazzling oranges and bright greens.

Finally, she sets upon the long task of casting on all of her jumpers, one by one.

Molly knows her knitting magic off by heart. Once upon a time she also had to find her very own knitting spell book in the attic to magick her needles to life, but now she casts it so often she knows it off by heart. She's an absolute master at it.

The only thing she now wishes is that the magic was also able to cast on those tiresome stitches for her.

But, soon enough, she's got three pairs of knitting needles all clicking in rhythm, starting on her Christmas jumpers. Molly only has to give them a little bit of thought every now and then, to check that they're still following the pattern and decreasing at the right places.

Shortly after, the front door creaks open.

"Careful of the needles, darling!" Molly calls, instinctively knowing it's her husband.

"Already?" Arthur asks.

"Got to start them early!"

"I'll try not to have one poke my eye out then," he jokes and she smiles to herself.

Yes, those knitting needles might sometimes be a little bit of a hazard, but Molly does make an effort to keep them in a corner.

Besides, she needs them all clicking regularly if she ever wants to be finished by Christmas...