AN: Please review and let me know if you're reading. Thanks

Arthur Weasley was trying his hardest to flirt with Molly Prewett. That was the problem.

"Just be natural," she told him as they walked toward the Great Hall for breakfast the morning before the Hogsmeade trip.

"But what does that mean?" he said, his arm bouncing against hers but their hands not touching.

She huffed. "For starters, no more of your clunky compliments."

Arthur scoffed in return. "How can you not like it when I tell you you're brilliant?" he said, a little too loudly.

"Not that. Your other compliments. The awful ones."

"What other ones? I have never paid you a compliment that was not completely sincere," he said as they stepped through the doors and into the hall.

During the week, Molly had got used to not looking in Malfoy's direction as she arrived for meals. He seemed to have trained himself not to watch for her either. The carefulness with which they were never caught looking spoke to how truly distracted they were. But this morning, Molly almost forgot to avoid scanning the Slytherin table as she shouted a laugh and slapped Arthur on the back.

Already sitting at the Slytherin table, Malfoy heard her voice and flinched. And seeing him do it, so did Arthur.

But Molly was still laughing. "You mean, like when you raved about how quickly I finished eating lunch on Wednesday?" she said. "Told me right in front of Reg and Mary Elizabeth that it was the fastest you'd ever seen a girl eat in your entire life."

"But it was," Arthur said, still shocked she didn't appreciate it. "And telling you so was – well, it was natural. And that's what we're after, so…"

She punched lightly at his long, lean left biceps through the sleeve of his scruffy store-bought jumper. "Fine, Arthur. Just never mention it again. Not me at any rate. Save that kind of sweet talk for Mary Elizabeth."

He stood back. "Why would I do that? If you didn't like it, and she's a girl too, then…"

Arthur had fallen silent as Molly threaded her arm through his, turned her face up to smile at him. "It's not the compliment she'd appreciate as much as WHO was paying it."

Arthur raised a finger, pointing at Molly's hand on his arm. "This. This is flirting isn't it?"

Molly let go of him, flouncing ahead. "Now you're catching on, Weasley," she said. She turned to walk backwards, watching as Arthur followed her. "We're sitting with my mates today," she said as he caught up to her.

"Oh," Arthur stammered. "But Reg – "

"Will not leave Mary Elizabeth's side for anything," Molly interrupted. "And I swear if she has to see me sitting next to you acting like I fancy you for one more meal this week she is going to scratch my eyes out."

"No, Mary would never – "

"Yes, she would," Molly said. "Because she fancies you rotten herself."

Arthur stopped in his tracks in the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, his face suddenly pink. He was still shaking his head as Molly tugged him onward by his elbow.

"No," he protested. "Reg is the one who likes Mary."

"Yes, but Mary has the good sense to prefer you, my lovely," Molly insisted. "So we're doing Reg a great favour in letting him dine with her without you for once."

"Lovely?" Arthur said, scuffing along behind her. "That was flirting again."

"Yes, and it's very natural the way you keep calling it out," she said, sarcastic. "Now come along. You're eating with me and the rest of the team. It'll be fun. You know everyone already. And just wait until you see how fast Sharlene can polish off an omelet. You'll be dazzled."

Molly shoved their way into a spot across from Kingsley and Arthur's fellow beater, a big bloke named Angelo Johnson. Kingsley was leaning over the table in a heated conversation with Sharlene.

"So, he'll be there. He's definitely coming to the Hogshead pub today. An auror on active duty at our meeting," Kingsley said, beaming with pride. "This is the kind of legitimate attention we've been waiting for. This is going to make something happen."

Angelo glanced over their shoulders, as if watching for eavesdroppers. "I hear he's quite a junior Auror though," he said. "Closer to our age than our dads'."

"Oh, yes he's quite young," Sharlene said, something eager in her voice. "I met him in person during the summer when he came to see Mum and Dad. No, he's young but rather impressive. Sharp as a whip. And the eyes on him. I've never met anyone more alert."

"Don't get her started on Alastor Moody's eyes," Molly said.

"Just wait until you've seen them for yourself," Sharlene said. "You'll be at the meeting today, of course, won't you Molly?"

Arthur felt her squirm beside him on the bench. "About that," she said. "Before you got the meeting organized, I'd already promised Arthur I'd spend the day with him."

Sharlene frowned, initiating a silent conversation with her best friend that said, "Are you joking?"

Molly cocked her head and bared her teeth in a fake smile, her silent way of saying. "Trust me."

"Oi, Weasley," Kingsley called across the table. "You can come too. You're alright. And frankly, the more decent people we can get to turn up, the better."

"We can't," Molly rushed to say before Arthur could answer. "We're sneaking past Hogsmeade and going to visit Arthur's Uncle – Uncle Philius."

"It's Bilius," Arthur corrected her. "And I don't think…"

He fell silent as she turned her face up to his again. The wheels in his head were creaking. She wanted an excuse to miss this meeting with Sharlene's alert Auror. That excuse was him. Arthur didn't understand it, but he didn't want to refuse it either.

"...And I don't think he'd like it if we were late," he finished. "Come on, Molly. Hurry and eat up and let's be off."


They were the first pair on the road to Hogsmeade that morning, walking slowly, arms still bumping together, wondering where they would hide out for the day after begging off the Hogshead meeting.

"What exactly are they meeting with an Auror about?" Arthur pressed. "Is someone in trouble?"

Molly gave a great sigh. "To hear Sharlene tell it, we're all in trouble. That pureblood Death Eater nonsense, it's really quite alarming."

Arthur hummed. "So I've heard. Mary is Muggleborn. Last week someone was creeping around in the library whispering awful names at her through the shelves and running away. Probably just some little Slytherin brats, but Reg doesn't like to let her go anywhere alone anymore."

Molly sighed again. "That's awful. Poor Mary Elizabeth. It's not like she's done anything wrong. Maybe we should go to that meeting. They're trying to organize to stop the harassment of Muggleborns and Half-bloods. Lobbying the government, providing patrols, that sort of thing."

"Patrols," Arthur grumbled.

"Yes, my brothers are already involved. Flying around London in the dark," she shook her head. "I mean, of course they are. They have a low tolerance for injustice and a high tolerance for risk."

They'd reached the edge of the village. At the end of the highstreet they could see the Hogshead pub just opening for the day. Arthur looked back at Molly to find her wringing her hands, shifting from foot to foot. The more they talked about the meeting, the more pale and jittery she became.

Arthur took one of her hands. "Maybe next time," he said. "Like you said, we've already got plans for today. Are you ready to go?"

Molly blinked. "Go? But we don't actually have plans. You know that."

"Sure we do. I've been making plans in my head this whole way," he said, his hand still holding hers as her jitters slowed.

A guilty little smile curled one side of her mouth. "Alright then."

He pulled her closer, holding her hand in both of his now. "Side along, to my Uncle Bilius's workshop."

His apparation was good, steady and quick, and in an instant they were standing in a shadowy old garden between an overgrown hedge and a large blue machine. It couldn't be right. Maybe Arthur's apparation skills weren't so good after all.

But he didn't seem bothered. "Here we are," he said, letting go of Molly's hands to pet the blue machine like a trusty hound.

"What is it?" Molly said. "It looks just like a Muggle car."

"Because it is," Arthur grinned. "A Ford Anglia. Someone abandoned it on our land so we store it here."

Molly planted both hands on her hips. "Is storing it all you do?"

Arthur shrugged. "We may have experimented with getting it to fly a bit."

"Arthur Weasley! Charming Muggle artifacts, it's – "

"Not illegal," he finished. "I checked. It's not even hard. This Anglia flies like anything. But it needs a decent invisibility booster, and that's the tricky part."

He opened the heavy steel door and sat on the seat inside. "Come on in."

"What, get right inside it?" she said as he slid across the bench seat to make room for her.

"That's what it's made for, my lovely," he said. Something about the change of scenery was loosening him up, and Molly wasn't sure whether to encourage it or not, but she climbed into the car beside him anyway.

"So this lever sends it up," he said. "But never engage it during daylight if the invisibility won't fire up. And even then, the spell only works for two hours tops before – boom – you've been spotted and violated the Statute of Secrecy."

Molly watched his hands as they darted over the dashboard. She shook her head. "No worries about me trying to take it anywhere, daytime or nighttime," she said.

Arthur sat back, his hands still holding the steering wheel. "You don't like risk. You're the opposite of those brothers of yours, aren't you?"

"There are reasons for that," she said, giving her heaviest sigh yet today. "What do you know about my parents, Weasley?"

Arthur frowned at the dusty windscreen covered in twigs and crusty brown leaves. "They have three children, and one of them has a sister named Muriel."

"Yes, my Aunt Muriel," Molly nodded. "She raised us because when I was little, years before my Hogwarts letter came, Mum and Dad died climbing in the Karakoram mountains. High altitude sickness on K2. They were too far gone before they realized they were in trouble and – and they never came home."

Arthur winced. "Stars, Molly. I'm so sorry. You never speak of it."

"It's true, I don't," she said. "I don't want pity. And it's not like I have no family left. I do. With Aunt Muriel and the boys, I hardly feel like an orphan. My Uncle Ignatius looks in on us too. But I'm terrified of losing the family I do have. So no unnecessary risks. It's," she paused, swallowing hard, "it's another good reason for me to never speak to Lucius Malfoy again. He's dangerous – his whole backward family. I can't have that. Not after what I've been through."

Arthur nodded. "Of course not," he said. "We'll spend the safest day together today, you and me. Just wait here for a moment while I run into the house to get some supplies. Unless you want to be questioned by my very nosy uncle, then come along."

He was quick, returning with a rucksack full of food and apparating them somewhere new, a large, slightly swampy meadow.

"Where is this now?" Molly said as they spun out of their apparation.

"Devon," Arthur said, widening his stance and gazing around the landscape. "Near Otterly St. Catchpole, on a plot of old Weasley land."

Molly looked around. "Old? There's nothing here."

"Right," Arthur said. "I have two elder brothers, both of whom could have claimed this place as their own. Instead, one of them moved to South Africa, and the other preferred to set up housekeeping in Canada, leaving all of this," he said, waving his arms, " to me."

"Indeed," Molly said, lifting her foot out of the ground with a squelching sound.

"Oh dear!" Arthur said. "Let's get onto the high ground."

She followed him up a slight slope, the ground getting firmer as they went. "This is the only bit of land suitable for permanent construction here," he began, taking Molly's hand and guiding her up onto an earthy hummock. "You can tell it's sound because it's got the remnants of an old fox burrow tunneled through it. Clever animals. Mind your step."

"So you're going to build a house here someday? On this old Burrow?" she said, holding his arm as she pulled off her wet shoe and sock.

"For starters," he said. "The whole site needs to be drained into that slough over there. It'll make a nice pond, I reckon. And those trees? That's an orchard. Apples, plums, cherries, apricots. All finished for the year by now but there might still be an apple or two on the highest branches."

He had opened the rucksack and pulled out a picnic blanket. Molly helped him spread the blanket smooth and they sat down. She used her wand to dry her sock as he lit a little stove, preparing to make tea, ranting on about his plans.

"We'll need a broom shed by the orchard for when we want to play quidditch over the paddock. And just outside the kitchen door will be a vegetable plot and then a chicken coop further off so it's not too smelly," he said.

Molly grinned as she opened a tin of meat. "And what about the Anglia? Where will it stay? I assume it's coming along with you."

"Oh yes," Arthur said, handing her a saltine with a morsel of crumbly orange cheese on it. "Uncle Bilius has already promised I can take it with me. We'll definitely need a barn so stow it in."

They sat chewing for a minute, Molly watching Arthur's face as he scanned his land.

"So who is this 'we' you keep talking about?" she said, eyebrows raised, teasing. "Do you mean you and the Anglia? Or you and someone else, maybe Mary Elizabeth?"

Arthur's shoulders sagged, and he swallowed his cheese and cracker as if his throat was suddenly painfully dry. "No. We is me and…" He trailed off, glancing around the meadow as if all his visions of the future had snapped out of existence for a moment. He shook his head, speaking into his chest. "We is me and my family. Whoever that turns out to be."

For a moment, he looked dejected enough for Molly to be sorry, and she laid a hand on his knee. "Whoever your family is, they don't understand how lucky they are," she said. And with that, she brushed the crumbs from her hands and lay down on her back. "Look at the blue of the sky today, Arthur. It's the same colour as the Anglia. You wouldn't need to use an invisibility booster today. It would blend right in."

Arthur turned and lay down next to her, their heads on an even level for once. He was still a little wistful, but managing to smile again. "I fetched something else from the house while we were at Uncle Bilius's," he said.

His hand was on her wrist and he was pressing a small green crystal into her palm. Molly held it in the sunlight, white light flashing through the green.

"It's not real Kryptonite," Arthur said. "But it is charmed so that if you ever feel at risk – whether it's from Malfoy or from anything else – you can use this to summon me, and I'll take care of it."

She closed her hand over the crystal, dropping her fist to her sternum. "That's darling, Arthur. But if I call you, then you'll be at risk. And I won't like that either."

"But I will," he said. "If it keeps you safe, I'll always want you to summon me."

Her face was turned toward his, watching him as he spoke to her from where he lay on his side. There was no furious blinking in his warm blue eyes, just a gentle, steady gaze. He still wasn't flirting, but this was better, sweet. Her eyes moved from freckle to freckle over the bridge of his nose, unable to meet his stare any longer.

"Thank you," she said. "For the Kryptonite, and for bringing me here."

She saw his shoulders rise and fall in a deep breath, and the gentleness in his eyes grew a little more resolute, as if he was gathering courage for something.

But this was enough for today. Molly sat up, tossing the crystal and catching it like a coin. "You know what, Arthur? I think I'm feeling bold enough to support my best friend and go to her meeting at the Hogshead after all."

"Are you?" he said, sitting up beside her.

"Yes, let's pack up and go."


The Hogshead was jammed with people when they arrived. Sharlene and the team were still at their table but Alastor Moody had already come and gone.

"Sit down and let me tell you," Sharlene said, beckoning to her. "He had so many good things to tell us. He's a brilliant strategist."

"And you fancy him," Angelo teased.

"Why shouldn't I?" Sharlene shot back.

Kingsley answered with a grim look. "We'd best not say anything more now that lot has moved in." He gestured with his chin to where Lucius Malfoy, Corban Yaxley, and Crabbe and Goyle sat glowering from a table near the door.

And then all at once Reg stuck his oar in, appearing to bawl out Arthur for ignoring him all week, and demanding they take a turn around Zonko's together. All these years at Hogwarts and they'd never missed a trip to Zonko's…

Arthur looked down at Molly.

"You don't need to ask my permission," she said, giving him a light shove. "Go on. Just be sure to look sorry and affectionate as you take your leave of me. So Malfoy remembers to keep his distance even if he's had a few beers."

"Affectionate?" Arthur echoed. "What do you mean? Like…"

"Natural," she said, her face turned up to his. "Just be natural, be darling, like you've been all day."

Arthur took a breath, his courage mounting again as he raised his thumb and held it to Molly's chin, tilting her face to a slightly higher angle as if memorizing it before leaving her. She waited for his parting goodbye but he kept speechless, still looking down at her. And then he bent forward. He smelled like the late season pear he'd plucked from the orchard and shared with her before they left the Burrow. And he was warm and somehow perfect – for just an instant he was perfect as he held her lips with his. It was a flawless latch, not too hard or soft, the sweetest seal, completely natural, and so fleeting.

For a moment, heart in her throat, Molly didn't think, and then Arthur pulled away, his fingers dropping from her face. Reg would be standing in the doorway, his mouth agape. She knew if she turned her head toward Sharlene's table she'd see the same thing. Lucius was sitting not 12 feet away. But all she could bring herself to look at was Arthur.

He sucked in a huge breath, and told her, "Bye."