"Who's turn is it?" Arthur's voice rang out in the bedroom.

"Mm," Molly mumbled, pulling the blanket tight over her head.

"I'll go," Arthur sighed, throwing the covers off his body, a low hiss escaping his lips as the cold air hit him. He pushed his feet into an old pair of slippers that sat on the side of the bed and pulled his dressing gown tightly around his body, stifling a yawn.

Blindly, Arthur reached out for the door knob, closing the bedroom door tightly behind him, so as Molly would not be woken again by their son's cries. He crossed the landing and leant against William's bedroom door, opening it slightly and squeezing through the gap, so as not allow too much light to spill into his son's room.

"William," He whispered, stepping to the cot and scooping his son into his arms. "Are you hungry?"

When William continued to cry, Arthur sighed and reached over to the table next to the cot, where he had placed a bottle of milk earlier. He settled himself in the chair in the corner of the room and prised open William's mouth, easing the bottle between his lips.

Arthur looked around the dark room, trying to make out shapes. They had had neither the time or money to furnish William's room properly, but Molly had allowed him to splash out on a couple of decorative items. The furniture, on the other hand, was all second hand. The cot, for example, had belonged to Arthur when he was younger; the changing table used to be Molly's; the table next to the cot was given to Arthur by his oldest brother, Bilius, and Arthur had handcrafted the cupboard on the other side of the room.

After a while, Arthur noticed William's eyes closing and automatically withdrew the bottle from his son's mouth, sitting William up and eventually placing him back in the cot.

He opened the door to William's room, once again grateful that he had placed a charm on it to stop it from creaking, and padded back across to the room he and Molly shared.

Arthur crept around the bed, taking care to keep his footfalls light so as not to wake Molly. As he pulled the covers around him, he stole a glance at the clock, mindful of the fact that Molly had nagged him to note down when William woke up.

"Oh," He let out a noise of surprise.

"What?" Molly mumbled.

Inwardly cursing himself for waking his wife, Arthur turned to face Molly.

"It's past midnight," He breathed. He smiled at her through the darkness and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Molly echoed. Her eyes remained close but she smiled slightly.

XXXXX

Molly groaned in frustration as she padded down the stairs, jiggling William in her arms in an attempt to silence his cries.

It just didn't feel like Christmas, she thought to herself. There was no tree, no family gathering and no fancy dinner, just a screaming baby.

Molly let out a loud sigh as she pushed her weight against the living room door. Her breath caught in her throat as the door swung open.

"Blimey," She breathed.

The small living room was largely taken up by a huge, green Christmas tree. It was decorated with lights, baubles and a manner of other decorations.

Molly laughed in amazement as William stopped crying.

"Do you like it?" Arthur stepped out of the kitchen, smiling widely.

Molly laughed again. "I love it," She told him. "When did you..." She guestured around the living room.

Arthur checked his watch. "I snuck down here about half an hour ago."

"You did this all by yourself?" Molly asked incredulously.

"Hey," Arthur said, mock-offended, "Give me some credit."

"Sorry," Molly grinned. "But seriously, you did all this in half an hour?"

Arthur smiled bashfully. "Not quite..."

Arthur stepped aside as two men moved out from where they had been standing previously, concealed by the kitchen wall.

Molly clapped a hand to her mouth, almost forgetting William was in her arms.

"Why don't I take William?" Arthur said hastily, snatching his son out of Molly's arms.

Molly, who didn't seem to have noticed, was still staring at the two men who stood in her kitchen. They were identical twins, just over three years older than her. They both had red hair, long noses and freckles on their nose and cheeks.

"F-Fabian," Molly breathed. "Gideon."

"Hi, Sis," Gideon grinned, stepping forwards and enveloping Molly in a hug.

"What are you doing here?" Molly squealed, turning to hug Fabian.

"Thought we'd drop in and see our little sister," Fabian offered. "And our new nephew!"

"But I thought you were in Italy with Mum and Dad," Molly said, her brow furrowing.

"We were," Gideon nodded. "Then we got an owl from Arthur saying that you two were in for a pretty lame Christmas, so we decided to stay with you for a couple of days."

Molly's eyes widened and she turned to Arthur.

"I love you, I love you, I love you!" She told him, throwing her arms around his neck and taking care not to squash William.

"So, this is our nephew?" Fabian asked, wandering over to where Molly and Arthur now stood.

"Yep," Arthur said, his voice full of pride. "Do you want to hold him?"

"Eesh, no," Fabian said. He stepped back, startled. "Nah, babies kind of freak me out a bit..."

Arthur snorted, and turned to the man he knew to be Gideon, purely by the clothes he was wearing. "Gideon?"

"Yeah, I'll have a go," Gideon shrugged, stepping forwards and holding out his arms.

Aware of Gideon's track record of clumsiness and childhood nickname of 'Butter fingers', Arthur handed William over to Gideon with great care.

"Careful with his head," Molly said before she could stop herself.

Gideon laughed. "Mols, I've held a few babies in my time. Remember I'm a healer? It's part of my job. Relax!"

"Sorry," Molly said, smoothing the front of her dress.

The four of them sat in silence for a moment, all gazing at William.

"Blimey!" Molly exclaimed after a few seconds.

"What?" Arthur, Fabian and Gideon asked together.

"I haven't got any food in!" Molly cried. "I wasn't expecting guests, Arthur and I were just going to have sandwiche-"

"Mols," Fabian rolled his eyes, putting out a hand to silence her. "We've got it covered."

"What do you mean?"

Gideon shook his head. "Just trust your big brothers for once, alright?"

XXXXX

A few hours later, Fabian and Arthur were standing by the front door, Arthur holding William in his carrier, waiting for Gideon and Molly to emerge from the living room.

"So, how are your parents?" Arthur asked.

Fabian sighed. "They're not too bad," He reasoned. "Mum's back's getting worse. Dad seems pretty jolly though. Then again, he always was just a big kid, it's probably the Christmas spirit."

Arthur laughed. "But they're well?"

Fabian paused, keeping his voice low so as Molly wouldn't hear them. "Mum went into hospital last month," He confided. "It was nothing serious, and it was never going to be fatal, so we didn't bother telling Molly. We didn't want to worry her, it was around the time William was born – two days before, actually."

"What was it?" Arthur asked, his eyes wide with concern.

"She had a bit of trouble ... breathing," Fabian said slowly. "She's in a bad way, in general. But we always knew that was happening, I suppose. Just... we've got a date now."

Arthur's voice caught in his throat. He coughed, embarrassed. "How long?"

"A year, tops," Fabian muttered, keeping a watchful eye on the living room door.

"You've got to tell Molly," Arthur said immediately.

"Shh!" Fabian hushed. "We will, I promise. Just... after the holidays. We know how stressed she's been with William and you working longer hours... Not that we blame you," He added hesitantly. "I know you've got to work overtime if you're going to support Molly and William, it's just... We didn't want to burden her."

Arthur nodded. "I can't tell her," He said. "You know what Molly's like; she'll have a fit if she knew I found out before her."

"Yeah," Fabian agreed. "Don't worry, Gideon and I were planning on staying a couple of nights. We'll tell her tomorrow."

XXXXX

Arthur had difficulty concentrating as the four of them plus William ate out at Molly's favourite Muggle restaurant for Christmas dinner. He knew Molly was closer to her father than her mother, but he had always got on best with Martha Prewett.

He recalled fond memories of when he and Molly had first started dating, and how Martha had been the only one of the Prewett family to accept Molly's odd choice in boyfriends. She had even seemed interested in his job and his fascination of Muggles, unlike anybody else Arthur knew.

Arthur had very little recollection of the weeks following his parents' deaths, though he remembered clearly sitting at the kitchen table in Molly's family home and being approached by Martha, who he had only met on two previous occasions.

On that day, Martha had talked to Arthur, who was almost a stranger to her, and told him that she was always here if he needed somebody, and that he was always welcome in her home.

It was the kind of promise Arthur would not forget in a hurry.

For now, though, he pushed the thoughts of Martha to the back of his mind and tried to enjoy his first Christmas as a father, with the people he loved most.

A/N: I'm not entirely happy with the ending of this chapter, but I kind of just wanted to get it published. Hopefully I'll have time to get all ten chapters in by Christmas. If not, I don't know what I'll do... But anyway, the chapters might be a bit dodgy at the moment, but I'll probably go back and edit them after Christmas, once I've finished writing it :) Please review, they mean a lot!