A/n: As y'all know from the first chapter, this was meant to be a one-shot but then I fell in love with them and had to make it a mini series.

This was written for Round 13 of QLFC as a reserve story in place of my team's Beater 2, katibee, who couldn't submit because she's very ill. Here's to hoping you get well soon, Kati.

Her Beater's prompts were: (restriction) no spell can be cast or mentioned, and (word) hairbrush.

An Ordinary Family Life

"Uwaaaah!"

He groaned as his daughter's shrill cries pierced the quiet night, forcing him out of his already restless sleep. His wife shifted beside him, mumbling against his shoulder, and he sighed. Yes, it was his turn to check on Molly, he knew.

With an almighty sigh, he rolled out from under the duvet and trudged into the adjoining bedroom. Although it had initially seemed like a good idea to leave the doorway without a door, both him and Audrey had quickly come to regret that decision. Their daughter may be tiny, but her voice was loud enough to be heard all the way across Britain.

Suppressing another yawn, he picked Molly up from her cot and bounced her in his arms. After a quick look, it was clear that a dirty nappy wasn't the cause for her incessant bawling, so he crooked a finger and placed it against her lips. She instantly simmered down and started sucking on it, and he sighed again. Looked like he'd have to wake his wife up after all.

"She's hungry, giver her here."

He turned around to see Audrey in the doorway, looking like she would fall asleep on her feet.

"How'd you know?" he muttered as he walked up to her and placed the child in his wife's arms.

"How do you not know? She cries differently for different things," Audrey replied as she walked back into the bedroom. "You've been home most of the time this past month. Although you are cooped up in your study all day long."

He groaned as he got under the sheets and watched Audrey feed Molly. "How can you even tell something like that? There's a pattern to the madness?"

She chuckled as she made herself comfortable. "If you can't tell what one baby's crying means, imagine having to figure out what a dozen of them want."

"Still can't believe you quit your job as Division Head to baby-sit random people's children," he grumbled as his eyes slipped shut.

He could feel the annoyed look she shot his way even if he couldn't see it. "I'm not having this discussion in the middle of the night with you falling asleep on me."

He murmured something unintelligible as he let himself slip into the glorious nothingness of slumber, but he still managed to crack a smile when he felt her warm fingers gently run through his hair.

-oOo-

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

He threw his quill down on his desk and grit his teeth. "Molly!" he yelled over the loud banging, "Daddy's working right now!"

The banging stopped, and he heard his daughter's muffled voice from the other side of the door say, "You're always working."

He sighed and felt his anger ebb away. She was right. He had been working all the time, of late. When Molly was a few months old, he had decided to go back to working from his office at the Ministry, but for the past two days, he'd been working from home because Lucy had fallen ill, and Audrey had decided to stay at her parents' house to prevent Molly from catching it, too. Although he had decided to keep most of the tedious work out of the house, there was simply too much to do, and having to look after his three-year-old daughter simultaneously was just not working.

It had barely been two afternoons, but he was already at his wit's end.

He looked up as the door opened gently and Molly poked her head in, as though waiting for permission to enter. He felt guilt well up inside him and he rose from his chair, walking over to her with a smile. Squatting down, he held his arms out, and with a delighted giggle, she ran into his embrace.

He laughed as he picked her up and hoisted her on his hip. Kissing her hair, he walked out of the room and pulled the door shut behind him.

"Work?" Molly asked, looking at him with wide, innocent brown eyes that were so much like her mother's.

He touched her nose and said, "What, and miss the chance to play with my baby girl?"

He tickled her, and she squealed, swatting away his hand. "Daddy, no!"

"Why not?" he asked with a grin as he waggled his fingers.

"No means no!" Molly said in her sternest voice, holding up a finger in a perfect imitation of her mother.

"But Daddy doesn't want to listen." He started to tickle her again, but she shrieked and struggled in his grasp, slipping out of his arms and sliding to the floor.

"You can't catch me!" she sang as she raced into the living room, and he followed after her with a laugh.

As he chased his little girl around the house, the sound of her delighted giggles and his own laughter made him realise that a few delayed documents weren't worth anything compared to these precious moments.

-oOo-

"Girls, stop it!"

He walked into the living room to find Lucy all but hanging from one of Audrey's arms, and Molly clinging to her leg.

"She started it!" his daughters chorused, pointing a finger at the other.

"She stole my hairbrush!"

"It's my hairbrush!"

His wife looked at him desperately.

He shot her a confident I've got this smile as he pulled Lucy off Audrey and set her down. That probably wasn't the right decision, because his youngest immediately launched herself at her sister, throwing them both to the ground.

"Oh, for the love of—" Audrey exclaimed as she proceeded to extricate their daughters from each other. "I just pulled them apart, and you had to go and—"

"My bad," he apologised as he grabbed a shrieking Molly and dragged her to one end of the room while Audrey carried a struggling Lucy to the other. His wife then proceeded to sit Lucy down on the arm of the sofa and held up a finger, giving her the classic I'm warning you, look. Lucy crossed her arms and sat sulking as Audrey glanced towards him with a sigh. He looked down at Molly's red head and said, "Mol, how 'bout you and I go read one of your storybooks?"

After eight years, he had come to learn that he was best at handling Molly while Audrey was the only one who could handle Lucy's tantrums. His oldest was much like him; the only times she actually lost her temper was when Lucy stole her storybooks or dirtied them or something. And as he looked down into her wide, shining eyes, he knew she had all but forgotten about the fight with her sister.

"Really?" she gasped, bouncing on the spot.

"If you want to—"

"Yes, please!" she said quickly, grabbing his hand and dragging him out the room. He shot his wife a triumphant smile, and she rolled her eyes as she turned back to a pouting Lucy. As he followed an excited Molly up the stairs, he couldn't help but be thankful that he didn't have to be the one to handle Lucy's prolonged bouts of sulking.

-oOo-

"Daddy, you're not gonna cry, are you?"

He ruffled Lucy's hair with a little too much force as he put on a brave smile. He had promised himself that he wouldn't cry, but seeing his little Molly in her black, Hogwarts robes, standing beside her trunk, really wasn't helping his case.

"If you cry, I'll cry, then Mum'll cry, then Lucy'll cry, then we're all just gonna be standing here crying and people will stare at us," Molly said all in one breath. She looked around, as though to make sure that people weren't already staring. His oldest was self-conscious about the silliest things—a trait he admitted to having passed on.

"I won't cry," Lucy retorted, crossing her arms and looking adamant.

"I can't promise the same," Audrey added, her eyes already shining with unshed tears.

"Mum," Lucy whined. "You're supposed to on my side!"

Audrey cocked and eyebrow. "When have I ever taken sides?"

"But Dad's always on my side and you're always on Lu's side," Molly explained as she absent-mindedly braided a bit of her hair.

"No we're not," he piped up, seeing his wife's eyes go round. "We're on both your sides."

"That's right. We're fair parents." Audrey nodded with finality, but she added a quick, "And you better not go around telling your cousins any of this nonsense about taking sides, you hear?"

Both girls looked away, innocent expressions on their faces. Audrey leaned close to him and said in a low voice so only he could hear, "Angie sent me a letter the other day about how Freddie's been saying she can't force him to eat his vegetables because you don't force Molly to eat hers."

He scoffed at that and replied, "That's because I don't need to force her to do anything. She does them all on her own."

He watched as his daughters broke into an argument about how Lucy was going to get a bigger, better owl than Molly's when it was her turn to go to Hogwarts, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride well up within him. Audrey rolled her eyes, but he noticed her quickly swipe her sleeve across her cheek. Whatever they said or did, he could never disagree when his siblings accused them of doting on their children a little too much—although he always made sure to put forth a very good argument each time.

His girls were his world, and one of them was about to leave home for the very first time, so he couldn't help but have mixed feelings about that.

"I now understand how Mum and Dad felt when they were seeing us off," he said as he wrapped an arm around his wife. "I still remember yelling at Mum because she was being so embarrassing."

He chuckled at the memory, and as if on cue, a familiar voice called out to them, and his mother appeared amidst the crowd on the platform, waving one hand furiously and pointing to herself with the other. Feeling his cheeks grow hot as other families turned to look at what all the commotion was about, he grumbled, "I'm not the one losing my eyesight."

"Oh, come on, Perce," Audrey chided in a gentle voice as they watched their girls run over to their oncoming troop of cousins.

He saw Lucy shoot a rather guilty look his way before disappearing into the sea of redheads. Several minutes later he found out exactly what his daughter was guilty of when Ron came up to him and said, "What's this I hear about you taking sides, then?"

He rolled his eyes as Audrey burst out laughing, leaving him to handle the mess Lucy had created, as she and the rest of the mothers huddled around their oldest kids, giving them last minute advice. But even as he caught Lucy as she ran past and made her apologise to her uncle, he couldn't help the sense of pride and joy that settled within him. It was only now, so many years later, that he was coming to appreciate all the things that his parents had done that he had never thought twice about before.

-oOo-

"Absolutely not."

He didn't even have to look up to guess the sort of expression that was on his daughter's face. Lucy stomped her foot and yelled, "Why not? You let Molly bring a boy over last Christmas!"

Sighing, he pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. It was nearly midnight, he still had a lot of end-of-the-year paperwork to look over, and he really didn't have the energy to argue with his thirteen-year-old daughter over whether or not she could call a boy home for Christmas.

"Lu, Julian has been Molly's best friend for five years. Where as I have never once heard you talk about this Randall character," he reasoned. His daughter seemed to agree, too, because she immediately put on her trademark pout.

"I have talked about him," she argued.

He raised his eyebrows. "How come I don't remember, then?"

She looked away and muttered, "Maybe you're getting old."

He just stared at her. She finally gave in with an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, I won't call him over."

She began to stalk out, but he stopped her before she reached the door. "Sweetheart, it's not that I'm against you calling boys home, that's not something I would be against at all, it's just that I've never heard you talk about this boy so I was a little surprised."

She shrugged a shoulder and said, "Maybe that's because I haven't talked about him as much?"

He frowned. "And why not?"

She stared at the floor as she followed the patterns along the carpet with her toe. "…Because he's a Slytherin."

He sighed before he could stop himself, and she misunderstood it as a negative reaction, because her cheeks turned red and she said angrily, "See? This is why I didn't tell you!"

Before she could leave, he rose to his feet quickly, pushing back his chair with a loud scraping sound. "Lucy, wait."

She glowered at him, hand still on the doorknob.

"Lucy," he continued in an even voice, "please calm down and hear me out."

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because I've listened to what you had to say, and I only think it fair that you do the same for me."

She deliberated for a moment, and finally conceded with a sigh. Stalking over to the small sofa, she flopped down on it and crossed her legs. Throwing a final glance at his abandoned paperwork, he walked around his desk and sat down beside his daughter. He put an arm around her and pulled her close, and she only resisted for a moment before relenting.

"Sweetheart, I don't care whether you're friends with a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff or even a Muggle, for that matter."

She glanced up at him. "Really?"

"Well, OK, maybe a Muggle friend would be a little more complicated," he said awkwardly, and she giggled.

Smiling, he stroked her arm. "I would like it if you invited Randall over for Christmas."

She looked up at him, her surprise clear in her shimmering brown eyes. "Really?" she gasped.

"Really."

"Oh, thank you, Daddy! You're the best!"

She pecked him on the cheek and raced to the door. Fumbling with the lock, she pulled the door open after a moment and skipped out, throwing a careless, "And I'm sorry for listening to Uncle George and Uncle Ron! I won't do it again!" over her shoulder.

He stared at the door with his mouth hanging open and cursed under his breath. So that's why she had reacted that way. No matter how many years passed, it seemed like his brothers simply couldn't give it a rest with the practical jokes. As he strode over to his desk, he wondered what he would do if Randall ended up being Lucy's boyfriend. One hurdle at a time, he told himself as he picked up a new piece of parchment.

But first things first, he had a few things he wanted to say to two of his favourite brothers.

-oOo-

"Did you hear? Molly's Head Girl!"

He looked around at his siblings, beaming. George and Ron simply eyed him for a moment before turning back to the conversation they had been having before he'd interrupted them with his arrival and his big announcement. Unperturbed by their display of disinterest, he walked over to his mother and sister in the kitchen and kissed them each on the cheek.

"Oh my, someone's in a good mood," his mother said, hugging him.

"Of course! After all, Molly's—"

"—Head Girl," Ginny interrupted with a roll of her eyes. "Yes, we heard you the first dozen times."

He grinned and hugged her before taking off his coat and hanging it up. "Speaking of," Ginny continued. "Where is your little Head Girl?"

Before he could answer, there was the sound of the Floo, and Molly stepped out, followed by Lucy and Audrey. His youngest made a beeline for the backdoor and yelled, "Everyone, quick, hide! The Head Girl's here!"

Molly rolled her eyes as she handed over the box in her hands to her aunt and said, "Lucy's still mad that she wasn't made Prefect and you aren't walking around announcing it to the world."

He let the little side-remark slide as he hugged his daughter and wife. He was much too proud and overjoyed to trifle over trivial things.

"If it isn't my most favourite Head Girl in all of Britain!"

They turned to the door as Louis strode in, arms wide open, and Molly stepped into his embrace with a laugh.

"Never thought I'd live to see the day when two Weasleys became Head Boy and Girl."

His father walked into the room, followed by Bill and Harry. George scoffed as he shifted to the armrest to make room on the sofa. "I can just see good ol' Snape rolling in his grave."

They laughed at that, and he settled down on a stool at the kitchen counter with a mug of soup in his hands. A moment later Audrey sat on the stool beside him, and Lucy perched on top of the counter. She reached for his mug, but before she could take it from him, Molly came up to them and grabbed it out of his hand. She took a long swig, and grinned at her sister. Sensing the beginning of another pointless argument, he took the mug from his daughter's hand and held it to the side—only to have it stolen from him, again, by his wife, who finished the entire thing and placed it on the counter with a happy sigh. He pursed his lips at the grin she shot him, but didn't move away when she looped her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder.

Molly and Lucy were still arguing, the Burrow was bursting at the seams with the rest of his family, and he had nothing to complain about. He sat back with a smile, content and happy.

*~To be continued~*

A/n: Yup, that's right, this is gonna have a part three! Like I said, I just love them too much. They are just too adorable.

Comments and views and opinions and concrit are welcome as always, reviews are my life I breathe and live for them (I am not exaggerating).

Thanks for reading!

Lots of love~

Arty xx