The door to the Hogshead pub banged shut behind Arthur Weasley as he fled into the street. He could still taste Molly Prewett on his lips. Or maybe it was just that she tasted like his own mouth, like the pear she'd taken bites of as he held it for her, while they took a turn around the orchard at the Burrow before coming back to Hogsmeade. The fruit was slightly over-ripe, so the juice ran from it and she'd wiped it away with her hand, laughing at herself.
In his favourite place on earth, she'd been happy and beautiful, sunny and rosy, like they'd always belonged there together.
He gave his head a single hard shake. That didn't explain why he – did what he just did to her in that gloomy, noisy, shabby pub.
And she'd let him do it. She'd held still and parted her lips the tiniest bit and she might have even closed her eyes. Molly Prewett stood still as he went completely mad and she let him kiss her.
But that wasn't the same thing as her wanting him to do it – not necessarily.
What had he done?
Arthur was walking fast, veering off the highstreet and into a lane between two shops.
Reg was following him, grabbing at his sleeve so he wouldn't simply disapparate and maybe never come back. "Bloody hell, Arthur, what was that? Since when are you and Molly – and in front of a whole pub full of people. The pair of you must have been snogging in private for days to be as comfortable as all that. And you hadn't said a word about it to me, your best mate."
"No, it's new. Brand new," Arthur said, pacing up and down between the stone walls. "That was the first time I'd ever done – that – to her."
Reg pulled at his own hair. "That was the first time you'd kissed anyone since Marguerite at the holiday village last summer?"
"Yeah," Arthur said. "I've really made a mess of it, haven't I?"
Reg shrugged. "Looked decent from where I was standing. No visible saliva. No slap on the face."
"That is not what I mean," Arthur said, no longer pacing but holding his head as if he'd made himself dizzy. "We'd just had a lovely day together. A picnic and a stroll, but nothing that would have made it appropriate for me to…"
"What were you thinking then?" Reg asked, not rhetorically but with genuine curiosity.
"Nothing," Arthur said. "I was thinking nothing at all. She told me to take my leave of her affectionately and naturally, and as I went to do it – I don't know, Reg. It felt like I'd said goodbye to her a thousand times before and THIS was how I do it. Like there was no other way TO do it."
"It wasn't divination, was it?" Reg asked.
Arthur dropped his hands from his head. "How do you mean?"
"You know," Reg insisted. "It was in our textbook in fifth year. When your life's got a certain destiny, something really big, it can slip out of sequence in the timeline and just – involuntarily manifest in confusing little flashes. Maybe just like this."
Arthur gave his head another shake. "No, I can't excuse myself that way. I need to take responsibility. Destiny's not beyond my self-control – not beyond violating Molly in front of half our year in a public place."
Reg gave a sigh. "Look, Mary's waiting at Zonko's. I can't leave her hanging much longer. Especially since Malfoy stormed out of the pub right after we did. I've just seen him go by and he and that gang of his might take to bothering Mary about her parents. And besides that," he hung his head, "frankly, I'd rather she not hear more gossip about you and Molly from anyone not as careful with her feelings as I am."
It was another part of the situation Arthur hadn't thought of. "Yeah, go to her," he said. "You're a good man, Reg. And Mary had better know it."
Reg stood in the mouth of the lane, blocking out much of the light. "Go back to the school, Arthur. Have a lie down, brush your teeth, and get set to apologize to Molly, if it will make you feel better."
Arthur nodded, swiping his lip with his thumb.
"And for what it's worth, mate," Reg said. "Standing there with her, you looked like a hero in one of those big screen Muggle films Mary likes."
Arthur made a huffing sound that was almost a laugh. "Cheers."
As soon as Arthur Weasley bolted out the door, and Lucius Malfoy stood sneering at his table, Sharlene McKinnon was on her feet, snagging a still stunned Molly Prewett by the hand, and pulling her into the seat Alastor Moody had vacated less than an hour before.
Kingsley gave a low whistle and Angelo Johnson laughed. "Nothing like a big public announcement, isn't that right Molly?" he said.
Sharlene hushed him, scowling toward Lucius Malfoy as he summoned his coat and bossed the rest of his table to finish their drinks quick so they could go.
Kingsley was offering Molly his congratulations. "I'm for it. I told you, Arthur is alright. He's a decent beater, he can fix anything, and I heard he once charmed a Muggle broom to fly almost as well as a bottom-of-the-line Cleansweep. Loads of tactical reasons we might need a man like that."
At this, Molly groaned and let her head fall onto the table.
Lucius and his friends were gone and so was Reg Cattermole. But everything still felt tense and chaotic. Molly's heart was racing, her face flushed. Sharlene was signaling the barman for some tea.
"So you've come around to Arthur," Sharlene said, pressing Molly's teacup into her hand.
"Have I? Do you think he meant it?" Molly said.
Angelo burst with laughter again. "I'd say so."
"Look, can you give us a minute, please?" Sharlene said, waving the boys to another table. She fixed her large brown eyes on Molly as the boys left the pub altogether. "I thought you two were just flirting to keep your Mr. Lips from coming 'round."
"We were," Molly said, rather miserably.
"Well, I think you may have taken it a bit too far then," Sharlene said. "Looks like Weasley already knows his way around kissing you."
Hearing it said out loud had Molly whimpering again. "He doesn't. That was the first time. Completely unexpected."
Sharlene cocked her head. "Come now, Molly. You didn't look shocked in the moment. You closed your eyes and everything."
"Did I?" Molly said almost in a wail. "I was afraid I might have."
"Afraid of what?" Sharlene said. "Go ahead and enjoy it."
"I did enjoy it," Molly said. "That's what scares me. How can Arthur kiss me like that – so tenderly and sweetly and perfectly – when he doesn't mean it? It's not fair. A kiss like that wasted here in this stupid pub in front of Lucius bloody Malfoy – "
"I knew it," Sharlene pounced. "Malfoy is Mr. Lips."
Molly hushed her. "Yes, actually."
"Molly, really?"
"I know!" she said. "It started last year. Before Narcissa Black and this Death Eater nightmare. Only, ending it was harder than I thought. Arthur knew it too, that's why he behaved like that just now. His kissing me was not about us. It's about Lucius. Arthur didn't mean it. But – but how could he not?" Molly slumped forward on the table next to her steaming teacup.
Sharlene rubbed her back. "I'm sorry you're confused," she said. "But you did the right thing in the end. The noble thing. Breaking your heart over Arthur Weasley is well worth it if it gets Lucius Malfoy out of our business. Alastor would approve, I'm sure. No sacrifice too small or too big."
Molly sat up, her face still drawn with pain. "You don't believe that. I can think of plenty of sacrifices too big."
"That's because you weren't here when Alastor was telling us about this leader of the Death Eaters, this Riddle character," she leaned into Molly's ear. "Terrifying. He's trying to get them to call him Lord something-or-other. It's end-of-the-world as we know it stuff, Molly. He's promising them eternal life."
Molly sat back. "No magic can do that."
Sharlene shook her head, in full righteous indignation, staring straight ahead at her cause. "No good magic WOULD do that. But Riddle's magic is not good. And to make sure no one else who follows him stays good either, he's poisoning and hardening their souls with this blood purity lie."
Molly's flush had gone, replaced with a pallor. It was more dangerous than she'd feared. The worst of magic and the worst of human nature, all combined in one. "You've got to be careful then, Sharlene. You can't just – "
"I have to," Sharlene said. "If they're not stopped soon, people are going to die. Alastor believes some might have been killed in secret already."
Molly hung her head. "Fabian and Gideon…"
"Are brilliant," Sharlene rushed to say, squeezing Molly's hand in both of hers. "Their patrols are making sure Muggleborns can get around London safely after dark. And that's just the beginning of their service, according to Alastor." Sharlene was beaming with pride, as if they were her own brothers.
"Everyone knows the Prewetts are a brilliant family," she went on. "Vital to this movement. You've done them proud, doing what you had to in order to get clear of Malfoy. So has Arthur. I'm sure his Muggleborn Mary Elizabeth is extremely grateful to both of you."
Molly was speechless, replying with nothing but a heavy sigh as Sharlene stood to get her coat and pay her tab. Everything was awful. Sharlene was willing to put herself in danger. Fabian and Gideon were off in London already in danger. Lucius and his family were lost to this evil. And Arthur – was Sharlene right? Now that Molly had told him just that morning that Mary Elizabeth was in love with him, was he simply protecting her? Could he kiss Molly like that, almost out of nowhere, because he was thinking of someone else?
Sharlene was tugging Molly toward the door. "Come on, let's head back."
Sunday was quiet. Molly wasn't feeling well in the morning and had Kingsley run quidditch practice for her. She skipped lunch and spent most of the day trying to study quietly in the library, hidden deep in the stacks, and mostly staring out a window.
It wasn't so much that she was avoiding Arthur, but that she wasn't sure what might happen if she caught him avoiding her. Better to see nothing of him, not yet.
For the first time in months, she wasn't thinking of Lucius at all.
She did catch sight of Mary Elizabeth as they passed in the doorway to the girls' loo, but she didn't seem anything as grateful as Sharlene thought she might. In fact, she grinned at Molly, a coy, secretive look of someone who had wound up with what she wanted.
It was late in the afternoon, almost dinner time, when Arthur appeared at last. Molly heard him before she saw him. It was his voice, too loud for a whisper, arguing with a girl between the next shelves over. The words were spoken too low to be understood, but the emotion was clear. The girl was pushing, demanding.
Arthur was still sighing as he rounded the end of the shelf and sat across the table from Molly.
"Hey," he said as he set an unpeeled orange on the table next to her books.
She raised one pale eyebrow. "Hey?"
"Yeah. Um." He scanned the tabletop, as if reading the titles of her textbooks. "You didn't turn up for lunch so I thought you might be hungry – or sick. Either way – oranges."
And in no way another pear, she thought. Oh, I see. I understand you completely, Arthur Weasley.
He flicked the pages of the book nearest himself. "Divination. How is that? That's Reg's favourite class."
"Brilliant," she said dully, getting to her feet, stuffing everything on the table but the orange into her bag.
He huffed a sigh, glancing at the shelves he's stepped out of, as if addressing someone else. "Didn't I say you'd be mad?"
She stopped, her shoulders sagging. "I am not mad."
"Really?" he said, standing up. "Do you want me to apologize anyway? You seem like you want me to say sorry but – "
She cut him off with a short, bitter laugh far too loud for the library. "That is the last thing I want to hear."
Arthur almost staggered backward. "What is it you want then?"
"What I want," she said, through gritted teeth, "is for you to remember that for as long as you live, you should never, EVER again kiss someone like that when you don't mean it."
Arthur's eyes were wide, his mouth open. "Don't mean it?"
"Yes," Molly said, barely keeping from shouting. From across the table, she turned her face up to his, meeting him eye to eye. His posture tilted toward her, like the earth on its axis. For an instant she looked at his mouth, set in an angry line but still so…
She hung her head, eyes clenched shut for a moment. "You can't go around doing that, Arthur. I admit I have done some extremely ill-advised kissing in my day. I am in no position to lecture anyone. But even I would NEVER kiss someone as – as earnestly as that if I didn't mean it. It's not right."
Arthur shook his head as if warding off stupefication. "Oh, I agree," he said. "And if you're so sure you would never kiss someone like that without meaning it, then you must know," he paused for breath, "that neither would I."
With that Arthur spun around and strode away. In the blur of his movements, the orange he'd brought rolled off the table and onto the floor. It was somehow precious enough for Molly to duck under the table and go crawling after it. And when she reemerged, Arthur was gone from sight.
He didn't get away on his own though. He avoided Mary and Reg, who had been waiting for him behind the shelves, and burst into the corridor alone. He didn't know where to go. The tower was too chaotic and he needed to calm down and think. Had he just confessed to Molly Prewett? Was it too soon or too late, or just too ridiculous for someone like him to be imagining himself with her?
There was a racket sounding to Arthur's left, followed by very urgent shushing. He looked in time to see Sirius Black and James Potter holding a large sheet of parchment and bracing themselves as they stepped through what looked like a solid stone wall. That kind of disappearance was just what he needed, and Arthur broke through the illusion after them.
