"You wanted to see us Boss?"
Alastor Moody bit back the urge to pass this on to someone, anyone else, he did not want to do this. Merlin knew tact had never been his strong suit.
"Sit down, the pair of you." Fabian and Gideon eyed their boss warily, he was tenser than usual today and that never boded well. Summoning up all of his courage, Alastor forced himself to look them in the eye. They deserved that much from him, at least. "I've concluded the investigation into your lass."
"How?" Fabian asked warily.
"Various methods," he sighed, "Floo logs were the starting point. Then I spoke to that muggle social worker to find out where the lass was found. I met that Nurse Granger they said found her." They nodded, "Funny thing about memories, sometimes when someone else looks they spot something that seemed inconsequential."
"What did you see?"
"There's no easy way to say this," Moody sighed, his eyes dropping to the paperwork in front of him as if it had the answers..
"So spit it out!" Gideon growled.
Forcing his head up, Alastor looked him in the eye, uttering the words that he knew were going to destroy them. "Molly was there, in that woman's memories, watching the bairn."
The twins went so pale he wondered if he should cast a cushioning charm.
"Say that again," Fabian whispered.
Alsator sighed, "The floo logs from the day the McKinnons were attacked show Marley heading to the Burrow. We know she apparated out, or we know she apparated in to help her family. The following day, Molly can be seen in the muggle nurses' memories when she was scanning the area looking for someone to connect the lass to. Molly's clearly watching the bairn."
"Show us."
He nodded, having expected it. "It's already in the pensive."
Two minutes later, he met the ashen faces of the twins. "Why?" Gideon asked, the word seemingly wrenched from him.
"I don't know lad," Moody replied with uncharacteristic gentleness, wanting to weep at the devastation on their faces.
"What happens now?"
"That rather depends on you two," he admitted. "She can be charged with kidnapping and withholding a child. It's…she made sure she was safe, it'll be a slap on the wrist and a fine. She'll be able to argue she couldn't cope with another mouth to feed, Merlin knows this place doesn't pay Arthur well and I don't imagine that her dowry lasted much beyond the twins given that they used it to add rooms to the Burrow. There was no indication you were coming back any time soon, as far as anyone was aware at the time, you were dead. I know she knew differently but we'd have to prove that. We have no record nor any way to prove what transpired when Marlene went to see her. For all we know those were her wishes." he held up his hand when they went to peak. "I know as well as you do that that's bullshit, but not everyone does."
"So she just…gets away with abandoning our daughter? Hiding her from us?" Gideon demanded.
"Unfortunately, lad, aye, she probably does."
"No." Fabian growled, "Absolutely fucking not."
"Think of the bairns, son before you go in wands blazing."
"Like she thought of mine?" he replied scathingly.
Moody hummed, "Do you want to be like her?"
"Low blow," he hissed.
"Aye, but necessary. If you go and see her now you'll be in front of the Wizengamot before you know it. Murder, however much we might understand the motivation, always results in Azkaban and where would that wee lass of yours be then?"
Fabian slumped back into the seat. "I can't just do nothing"
"And we won't," Gideon replied eerily calmly. "Arthur is going to hand the children to Aunt Muriel and we are going to have a talk. After that, I don't want to see her ever again."
Fabian swung to look at him, catching the barely contained rage on his face. "What if she…"
"There is nothing she can say that justifies this," he snarled, "She took my baby! We could have had years!" An ugly sneer took over his face, "All because Molly knows best."
Fabian nodded, "I'll owl Arthur."
Clearing his throat, Alastor debated on what to say next. Fabian arched a brow making him sigh, "It is said that the removal of someone from the family is…painful. That the feeling of disconnect, of loss never goes away."
The twins blinked before they nodded once and left his office, leaving him wondering if he'd made the right choice.
"Are you going to tell us what this is about?" Molly demanded, eyeing her brothers.
Fabian hummed, throwing a picture onto the table. It was one of his favourites of Hermione, poor Sophie cuddled around her middle, looking at the camera with resigned tolerance, Hermione beaming, looking utterly adorable in a little floral smock dress in their library.
"Whos this then?" Arthur asked, picking up the picture, "Did you…adopt?"
"No," Gideon replied shortly, his eyes on Molly. "Why don't you tell Arthur who that is Molly?"
"How would I know?" she countered," but he noticed the tremor in the hand holding her tea cup.
"Well I imagine she looked a little different when you last saw her," Fabian replied conversationally, his face hard, "Less hair. Smaller. One could almost say newborn-sized, no?"
"I don't know what you mean. I have no idea what you're up to but I do not have time for this."
"Sit down." Gideon hissed when she went to move.
"Molly?" Arthur's confused face almost made them feel guilty, "what is going on?"
"I have no…"
"Stop!" Fabian shouted, slamming his hand on the table, making the rest of them jump. "Just fucking stop!"
Molly stared at him pale-faced as Gideon spoke, his voice hard. "Tell Arthur how our wife came to you. I won't pretend I know exactly what transpired but I imagine she asked you to look after our daughter. And then of course, she died. And you, what? Didn't want to look after her? Wanted to control our lives? Decided you knew what was best? I truly don't give a fuck what one it was but you dropped our baby off like she was rubbish. We saw you in the muggle nurse's memory, watching her. I suppose even you couldn't be so fucking cruel as to leave a baby to die. And then we returned and you didn't mention it. Not once."
Arthur stared at his wife in horror. "Molly…Molly tell me you didn't?" He turned ashen in the resulting silence, standing abruptly to reach for the firewhiskey, downing it in one. He gestured to the twins who shook their heads.
"Her name is Hermione. She's five now. Adores animals, and is so fucking intelligent that it terrifies me, she's shy, scared of people leaving her. Understandable seeing as she's in her fourth foster replacement. Muggles don't tend to want to adopt babies strange things happen around, however cute they might be. And you will never see her. Nor will you see us. I wanted to look at you when you found out that we knew." Fabian stood.
"No woman would want another's child." Molly blurted, "And I didn't even know if she was yours. Even there she looks nothing like you!"
"She has our eyes. Gid's seriousness. Marley's just about bloody everything." Fabian growled. "And she is ours. Undoubtedly. It's absurdly easy to do a heritage check, as well you know."
"I'm done." Gideon suddenly announced, cutting off whatever Molly was about to say. "I won't do this anymore. Arthur, you are more than welcome to visit with the children. Molly…you are only alive because of my urge to see Hermione grow up on this side of Azkaban's walls. I will never forgive you for this. And if I have my way," he nodded to the picture, "Neither will she."
"Goodbye Molly," Fabian sighed, following his twin. "I hope whatever you used to justify it to yourself was worth it."
They pulled themselves to the floo, neither having to say it as they immediately left the house, apparating to a side street before striding towards the front door they had come to know as well as their own.
Joanna must have read something on their faces, silently opening the door, calling for Hermione.
"Daddy! Papa!" she squealed, a grin splitting her face as she ran to them, her tiny arms banding around their necks as they hugged her back, feeling some of the raw edges smooth out now she was here. Whole and with them.
"Love you, Princess," Fabian muttered into her mass of curls.
Her answering "Love you too," left him in no doubt that despite his anger, his craving to see Molly punished, that this was exactly where he needed to be.