Chapter 3
"It smells weird," Molly said distastefully as she explored the new cottage.
"It smells new," Kat corrected, dropping a box in the hallway. "Go help your dad carry the boxes in from the van."
"Weird," Molly muttered, ducking past her mum and skipping outside where Fred was attempting to carry at least four boxes in his arm.
Molly cringed as the top three wobbled and tumbled to the ground with a loud crash. Smashed plates spilt onto the driveway, chipped glasses rolled onto the street. A stray chair leg was poking out the top of one box, the rest of its body had toppled out and had joined half of their old house on the ground. Half a teapot lay sadly next to its ruined other part. A few forks had somehow managed to end up in the hedgerow a couple of feet away. One old plant pot appeared to be wearing a pair of sunglasses and another was balanced on top of a heap of books.
Fred, meanwhile, was studying the scene confusedly. "Huh," he said, "Gravity is real."
Molly burst into giggles as her dad whipped out his wand and quickly fixed and repacked everything, stacking the boxes on top of each other. He levitated the boxes and guided them carefully in through the front door, winking at Molly as he passed.
Molly began to head towards the van but Fred stopped her, shouting, "Don't worry Mol, I'll grab the rest!"
Turning on her heel Molly scanned the outside of the cottage. A cobbled path led up to the front door which was coated in chipped, dark brown paint. An old garden swing hunched next to the door, the chains rusted slightly and broken plant pots held withered flowers. The windows, while fully intact, were blanketed in grime. Moss clung tightly to crevices in the walls and there were several slates missing from worn spots on the roof. For a cottage, Molly thought it was quite grand, even though it was scruffy.
She began to head back up the path but paused when she heard her parent's angered voices from inside the hallway.
"-you wouldn't use magic while we were moving in!" Her mum was shouting.
"Well next time you want to break your back carrying however many heavy boxes up the drive just let me know and I'll leave you to it!"
"Fred, not all of us have a handy wand in or back pocket which we can just get out and save the day with!"
"You really think it's as simple as that? Kat, I was trying to help! If I just fly the boxes in, it'll take so much less time and we can unpack and settle in!"
"Fred we don't need the help! We can do it normally!"
"Normally?" Fred said, shocked.
"It's not normal, Fred! Magic isn't normal!"
"Magic isn't normal? Magic isn't normal?" Fred shouted.
"No, Fred it isn't. I'm normal, Fred. Me. No magic, no freaky backstory, just a normal 'Muggle' life!"
"So I'm not? I'm not normal? Molly isn't normal?"
Molly heard her mum gasp in realisation. "No, Fred, honey. That's not what I-"
"Do you know what? I'm going to see George. I might stay the night with him, so you can have a normal night without me. Have fun breaking your back."
Molly couldn't do anything but watch in shock as her dad left the house and began to storm down the driveway.
"Dad-" she began, but Fred had already closed the gate behind him.
Molly looked between the house and the gate helplessly, mouth gaping open. These pointless arguments seemed to be cropping up more and more frequently which meant there were gradually becoming more and more nights a week when Fred would leave to stay with George. Each time he left Molly feared he wouldn't come back, that this time, the argument had got too out of hand. But the routine stayed the same. Fred would leave, stay away for the night, and return home to Molly and Kat after work the next day. Something inside of Molly told her that her dad only came home for her, so the family would be whole for her sake. She feared what would happen when she returned to Hogwarts. Might her father leave for good?
Molly was still gawping at the closed gate when Kat came down the drive to finish unpacking the van. Her mum tried to begin a sentence but Molly interrupted, "I'm going to settle into my bedroom. Unpack a bit and start putting together my wardrobe and things. Call me down for tea." And with that, she ran into the house, grabbed one of the few boxes labelled with her name, and hauled it up the stairs.
With some difficulty and lots of effort, she managed to heave all seven of her boxes up the stairs onto the hallway. With the cottage having one master bedroom and two smaller ones, Molly had been given the choice of which room she wanted. Naturally, she chose the bigger of the remaining two. Opening each box to check, Molly selected the one which contained the pieces of her wardrobe and bed before pushing it along the hallway to her new room.
The bedroom itself was quite small, the entire back wall being covered with large windows facing the garden. The walls were a pale mint green but the ceiling was a pure white. Molly smiled; before they moved, she had feared the room would have to be painted because all her furniture was jet black. This combination of colours, however, would thankfully look lovely.
Setting the box in the middle of the floor, Molly began to unpack the pieces that made up her bed.
Just over an hour later, the bed was completely built and pushed into the corner of the room under the window. The duvet and pillow were both covered and set out neatly on the mattress. Molly herself lay on the floor, completely exhausted. The jumper she'd been wearing lay a few feet away from her, after being discarded long ago. She'd never realised that putting an entire bed together single-handedly would be such hard work. Sighing she rolled over onto her front and rubbed her hands through the soft carpet. She was lucky that the room had been left in such good condition, meaning Molly could start putting her furniture together immediately. Really, she should be helping her mum downstairs, cooking or unpacking the things they would all need soon, but when Fred and Kat argued, Molly found that keeping away from the tension helped. She knew her mum would be upset, but didn't know how to help, so staying in her room was the safest option.