The holidays passed without further incident (not counting the fact that the twins set off dung bombs under Charlie's chair, and put beetles in Bill's soup). The boys were getting ready to go back to Hogwarts and their jobs respectively, and Molly was mentally preparing herself to return to a mostly solitary existence.
She was deeply consumed in her thoughts as her youngest son, Ron, sat down at the kitchen table, looking uncomfortable. "What's wrong Ronnikins?" asked Molly with apparent worry. Ron turned a little pinker around the ears at being called by his childhood nickname, and squirmed a bit in his chair.
"Mum, is it true that I'll be put in Slytherin?" Ron finally managed to say.
Molly knew instantaneously where this was coming from.
"Oh my. My Ronnie, wherever you'll be put we will still always love you! Oh, don't listen to Fred. Oh Ronnie."
Ron squirmed again at the show of so much affection, and nodded. He then just muttered something under his breath, and hurried back to his room.
Molly sighed, and shook her head while checking up on the rice and chicken she was cooking. It was the last day before the boys went back to Hogwarts and their jobs, and Molly was making the most of it. Having her house full with her children just seemed so right, and before she knew it they were scrambling in the morning to get the children back to Hogwarts.
"Now, Percy, don't forget your books, I think Ginny borrowed them," Molly yelled upstairs while serving breakfast.
Percy, looking scandalized, hurried to his little sister's room, and soon shouts were heard about the location of Percy's potion book.
Ron was yawning, and kept missing his mouth with his fork of eggs. Fred was dozing off into his toast, and George was snoozing on Fred's shoulder, and would once in a while start and look around wildly before dozing off again. Molly sighed, and made her wand imitate a car horn, making all three of the boys jump and start shoveling food into their mouths. Percy finally arrived looking slightly disheveled, claiming that Ginny scribbled in his potions book.
The time seemed to fly as they all scrambled onto the Hogwarts Express, promising to be good and study for finals. After what felt like a second, Molly, Ron, and Ginny were back home. Ron half-heartedly offered to play exploding snap with Ginny, but it just wasn't the same without the rest of the family.
Bill and Charlie apparated to work, and the house that was full to the breaking point last night, became empty again. Molly cleaned up the kitchen to the sound of occasional bangs when the cards would explode, and finally not being able to stand the emptiness anymore went outside to garden.
Molly vented all her anger and misery on the poor weeds, and there was soon a huge pile of innocent weeds stacked up next to a sweaty and dirty Molly. Finally, Molly headed back into the house, where she took a quick shower and got dressed. Upon exiting her room, Molly heard a commotion, which was very unusual for when Fred and George were gone. She hurried to investigate, and found a mutinous Ginny glaring at a screaming Ronald.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL GIN, YOU CAN'T JUST-" at this point Molly thought it would be prudent to intervene, so she cleared her throat and gave the pair of them her best glares.
"Now," she said to her children who were frozen in place looking guilty, "What exactly is going on here?"
Ron cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, but Ginny just matched her mother's glare, looking defiant.
"Well," she started, "Ronald here thought he would just," but just then Ron quickly interrupted.
"Actually, what happened is Ginny here just took my broom stick, and when I attempted to get it back," but here Ginny intervened again,
"Mum, he tried to knock me off my - I mean his - broom!"
"Is this true, Ronald," asked Molly using her best McGonagall look.
"Erm," said Ronald all the while shifting under Molly's glare,
"I didn't try to knock her off per say, I simply tried to get my broom back and…" but Ron gave up all pretenses under Molly's look.
"Oh bollocks," he muttered under his breath.
"Well, Ronald, you can just go out and de-gnome the garden, and Ginny, since you have such a love for broomsticks, why don't you clean the shed and all the Quidditch gear. In addition neither of you will get desert for the next week."
Ron looked crestfallen at this last piece of news, however he knew better than to argue, and the two Weasley children trooped to do their respective punishments. Molly started trooping down the stairs, shaking her head the whole while.