Molly's cheeks grew very hot and she knew she must look as red as a tomato.
"I w-would love t-t-to Arthur" she stuttered, looking up finally and finding Arthur looking pleased and also red himself.
"Great," he exclaimed and jumped up, nearly knocking the table over. He was grinning like, in Molly's opinion, a Cheshire cat. She laughed at the expression on his face. Had he asked her out?
"Do we need anything?" She asked him after she could breath again.
"No, I'll pay," he smiled at her and grabbed her by the shoulders guiding her out the common room door before she could protest.
As soon as they were out, she did the Molly-ish thing that he knew she would. She worried. She asked if he was sure about the money and that she'd pay him back if he wanted her to. He wanted nothing better than just to spend time with her and if that meant he had to pay for a few butter beers as well, he didn't mind one bit. So he denied all her efforts to let her pay him, even the tiniest knut.
"Molly, you know I want to do this right?" Arthur smiled at her, he wasn't mad, he had expected her to do it and he liked the way she was so caring and thoughtful to others.
"You do?" She murmured, slightly taken aback "Does this mean we're like going on a date?" She asked him with a blush creeping on her cheeks again. He laughed and held the door of the Three Broomsticks open.
"Only if you want it to be" Arthur answered sheepishly. "Molly, I really like you and you were so kind to me on the first day. Infact, I've liked you ever since I met you," he told her seriously now. Molly blushed in reply.
"So what do you say? Is this a date or not?" he asked her audaciously. She smiled at him weakly.
"It will be if I can get a drink," she ordered subtly. He nodded, grinning and rushed to the counter while she went to sit down in a corner booth.
"Here you go Madam, the finest butter beer the Three Broomsticks has to offer" Arthur came back acting like a house elf, a towel thrown around his arm. She chuckled.
"Sit down, now, or I'll have to throw one of those fine butter beers all over you," she proclaimed, giggling.
"Fair enough my fine lady," and he plonked himself beside her heavily. "It's nice isn't it," he said after handing her her drink, suddenly going all quiet, "nice to feel like this." She nodded, surprising herself, she knew what he was talking about, before he had even said as much.
"It is nice," she confirmed, worried that she'd scare him away.
"I know and I feel good with you, like you'll be the only one who can understand that I'm not just a clown," he said tracing his finger over the rim of the butter beer bottle.
"Yeah," she said "like the chess game in the common room or the potions lesson," she giggled at the memory.
"That's right" he laughed "wow, I looked so stupid, nearly blew up the whole school when you talked to me," he grinned.
"Nearly?" she choked back a bit of butter beer, "your so over dramatic Arthur Weasley!" She smiled at him, none-the-less, showing she wasn't serious.
"Okay, okay," he joked, "it made a horrible smell and gave off a little steam." She raised her eyebrows and then tilted her head to the side.
"Close enough," she replied, still wearing a grin.
"Perfect actually," he looked at her, making her blush. She coughed, trying to break the awkward silence.
"Um, would you like to go shopping or something?" Molly asked, hoping that he'd confirm and the cold would become an excuse for her rosy red cheeks.
"Well," he started to say, "I don't know if I have enough money for too much shopping, but I'll get some Honeyduke's chocolate and then I'll share it with you, okay?" She must think him as poor and selfish, Arthur thought guiltily. He knew for a fact that she'd seen him play with a bag of dung bombs only the week before, he paid for them himself and hadn't had a lot of money to spare now.
"That sounds really good," she told him and then she said she'd wait for him outside, so she sat on an old wooden bench and collected her thoughts. 'Maybe he's lying or doing it all so his friends and him can make fun of me,' her doubts came and lingered. 'I'll pay him back for the chocolate' she thought dismissively, then again, she knew he wouldn't take it and Arthur had always been honest before this. She trusted him.
"Here you go" he gasped, it looked like he'd ran all the way back to her.
"Oh thank you," she took what was in his hand, one thing was for sure, it wasn't the bar of chocolate he said he would get.
"I'm sorry for being so long," he sat down beside her "but I thought chocolate was so impersonal and you deserve so much more." She looked at what he had bought for her.
"You deserve the world," he said softly and that's what he had got her. It was a miniature gobstopper that had the same markings as the earth. He explained that when you sucked on it, it would become any flavour in the world you wanted it to be and never ended. "Like how much I really like you, Molly," he said, "it never ends."