Flutter

Molly had finally gotten the garden just the way she wanted. The flowers were blooming in all the window boxes, and by the path up from the road. She had a large vegetable patch by the back door, where it would get plenty of early summer sunlight, and there was still plenty of room for entertaining should they ever feel the need to invite both of their families over at once.

Everything was finally coming together.

Until the bloody gnomes invaded.

"Arthur, it's been three days! My vegetable patch is nearly ruined now," Molly whined, staring out the kitchen window at the little buggers pulling up flowers and digging into the freshly-planted seeds. If only they could be trained to pull up weeds. She might actually have a use for them.

"I know, love, but there's nothing I can do. There's too many for me to handle on my own," he replied from the table. "And I'm working overtime all this week. Maybe you should see if your brothers can stop by and help out."

Molly sighed, resting a hand on her small baby bump. If she weren't pregnant she'd be out there dealing with the pests herself. She'd tried to go ahead anyway, but Arthur had put his first foot down immediately.

As soon as he was off to work, Molly floo'd her parents' house, where her brothers still resided.

"Is there something I can do for you, honey?" her mother asked, hair still in curlers.

"I need some help with a garden gnome infestation. I was hoping Fab' and Gid' could come over."

"Of course. I'll tell them to head over just as soon as they're finished with their chores."

:-:

The boys popped in her living room twenty minutes later, red curls flattened with sweat and shirts soaked through.

"Mum said you had a job for us?" Gideon prompted.

"We accept payment in galleons or sweets," Fabian informed her.

Molly rolled her eyes. "You're nineteen – you're aurors, for Merlin's sake – and you're demanding sweets as payment like children?"

"We're still in training, technically."

"And all our pay goes to … other things."

"So, do we have an agreement?"

"I've a better idea. How about you help your poor pregnant big sister get rid of some garden gnomes as payment for all the years she cleaned up after the two of you, hmm? Maybe then I won't have to tell Mum that you two are completely mental and joined the Order."

"That's none of Mum's business," Fabian insisted.

"I don't think she's going to see it that way, do you?"

"Where are the gnomes?" Gideon relented.

"Right this way." She led them to the back door but didn't go out, keeping her promise to Arthur to not overexert herself.

Still, Molly couldn't help but feel a little jealous as she watched the two strong younger men flinging gnomes over her garden fence. Perhaps not a jealousy to be doing manual labor. Merlin knew she'd done enough for all three of them when they were growing up. But she envied their commitment to the Order.

Hadn't she always said she wanted to do something important in her life? And then the war started and she'd been afraid and gotten sidetracked. She'd opted to elope with Arthur than take a stand. Now it was too late. She was pregnant. She couldn't – wouldn't – risk her family.

As she thought about it, she felt a fluttery feeling in her stomach. She smiled, petting the bump.

"You're going to be a fighter too, aren't you, baby?"