Chocolate Frog Card: (Bronze) Everard: Challenge: Write about a celebrated act.

March Event: Molly/Harry - 15 points

Gringotts: Harry/Molly [Harry - Pairings]

Word Count: 1026

The Burrow was abuzz with activities and Molly was running around, barely keeping it together as she tried to make everything perfect.

Bill and Charlie were sitting in the garden, talking to Arthur with a butterbeer in hand as they told stories and laughed and had a jolly good time. Percy was standing aside with Kingsley, his arm around his girlfriend, Audrey, as they discussed something to do with the Ministry. To everyone's expectations, Audrey was just as boring as the ginger Ministy worker.

Andromeda and Fleur were playing with Teddy, the latter rubbing her large, portruding stomach as she sat down in her chair. The baby was due to pop out any day now.

Ginny was sitting at a round table, talking with members of the DA and having a laugh, tears trickling from their eyes as they doubled over with laughter and tried to keep silent, though failing terribly.

George was sat by the orchard, alone and with a bottle of firewhiskey which was glamoured to look like a bottle of pumpkin juice. There was no way the lone twin was going to be sober for the whole day. Not with the constant reminder.

Ron was in the air, on his broom, alone. He'd refused to play Quidditch with everyone else earlier, though he'd sat on his broom and watched the clouds passed by. It was his way of secluding himself from everyone else and their happiness. Hermione had had a similar idea and had drunk a sleeping potion, claiming that it was a pain potion for a headache she'd been sporting and had walked up the stairs to Ron's room where she'd collapsed in his bed and gone to sleep. Nobody had disturbed her, majority thinking she was asleep and recovering from a cold she'd had the other week, though the few who didn't believe her, knew that was what she needed to do.

Harry, in the meanwhile, sat in the living room, staring at the fireplace and wishing to Merlin and every other God or deity there was, that he could go home and drink himself into a dreamless slumber. He could easily do what Hermione had done but she'd beat him to it and it would be slightly suspicious for both of them to be out cold. He wanted her to rest anyway.

"Harry, dear?" Molly called, walking into the room as she wiped her hands on her apron. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Molly," he answered, smiling at her. The smile didn't reach his eyes and he wasn't surprised when she sat down next to him, resting a comforting hand on his forearm.

"Harry, you can't lie to me. I've known you since you were eleven. I think I can tell when one of my children are lying." Harry didn't answer, but did look down at his shoes in shame. "I know George is drinking himself into an alcoholic haze where it makes this day bearable and I know Hermione is sleeping it off so she doesn't have to pretend. Ron is up on his broom because he believes that this time last year, the one time he helped anyone was when he managed to fly one of those Slytherins out of that funny room you used."

"Room of Requirement," he croaked, his mind flashing back to that memory. Despite what Harry and Hermione had told their friend, he'd always believed that he'd failed them and he'd only started redeeming himself at that point. He made one bad decision and believed it covered all of his other better ones.

"Yes, that." Molly smiled sadly. "Many of us are struggling with today but we have to cope somehow."

Harry nodded, swallowing thickly so he didn't have to deal with speaking.

"I find myself not thinking about that day by worrying about all of my children. It makes my life seem normal and I have a purpose. Harry, dear, you're not alone. You know that, don't you?"

Harry nodded again, pulling off his glasses to rub at his eyes.

"I'm incredibly proud of what you did last year, and this day will be bad for everyone for a long time, but soon enough, good things will start to spring up and we'll look back at this day and hold a memory for it that doesn't control our lives."

"You think so?" he asked, twiddling with a top that had just started to fit him properly. He'd lost a lot of weight and muscle mass over the last year and with eating hardly any food, it had taken the trio a while to manage half a plate of food, let alone a full one or extras. Ron had cried when he left food on his plate the first time.

"No," she answered honestly. "I lost my son on this day last year; the day you vanquished the Dark Lord, I killed people, I watched people die, I watched children kill people to protect themselves from a battle that shouldn't have happened. I watched a child lose the last of his innocence when he barely had any in the first place because of a blasted prophecy that had been thrown on him in the first place!" Her voice rose with every word before she was almost shouting. She quietened down with a guilty look to the stairs, worried she'd disturbed Hermione, whilst she wiped the furious tears from her face.

"Molly-"

"Harry, eventually you will have a family and children of your own and they will be raised to see this day as a day to celebrate. It will probably become a national holiday, as much as we'd hate the reminder, it's also a reminder we should cherish. You saved the world; saved us. One day, you'll be able to see that."

"Molly," a voice interrupted, and the two turned to see a red faced Fleur. "I beleeve I 'ave gone eento labour." Her face scrunched in pain as she cradled her stomach. "A child! On Victory Day?!" She seemed almost panicked at the thought.

Harry and Molly exchanged a quick smile, before the older witch pointed to the panting veela. "That is the beginning."