Gideon Prewett glared past his older sister at the tall man standing behind her. The dim wand-light caused shadows to play across his rugged face giving it an unworldly, ghost-like appearance. The husky rasp of his voice made Molly take a step back as he almost croaked at a solemn Arthur, “You were suppose to come alone! You were supposed to keep her out of this!” Gideon, who was pointing toward Molly, continued to glare at his brother-in-law as his wand-carrying hand snatched the small, wicker basket out of his sister’s grasp. He placed the basket on the chair less wooden table in the empty, ransacked kitchen. His hands, while holding his wand, fumbled in the basket until they found what they had been looking for.
Uttering a sigh, Gideon pulled out of the basket a small bottle with a stopper in it. He pulled the cork out, turned, bent down and handed it to the man sitting behind him on the floor with his back against the wall, who had been almost totally hidden from view.
“Thanks, bro,” said Fabian Prewett. His voice was weak, barely audible. The man on the floor took a deep, rasping breath and added in a stronger voice, “Arthur, get her the hell back to the Burrow. They are on our tracks. We may only have minutes.” Fabian made a small gasp as he dripped something out of the bottle he was holding and a gash in his side hissed, smoked and began to mend itself.
Molly ran forward. She attempted to wrestle the bottle out of her brother’s bloody hand. As he pushed her away, Arthur spoke with a sorrowful quaver in his voice. “Fabian, Marlene McKinnon and her entire family were killed yesterday. Black, Evans, Pettigrew, and Potter tried to rescue them, but they were too late. According to Lily, Marlene begged to be spared because of the baby. Travers and that Bellatrix Lestrange tortured her while her Muggle family was killed one at a time in front of her. I’m so sorry.”
Fabian banged his head against the wall behind him and began to sob. “Bastards! Travers and the Lestrange bitch, huh! If I ever see them, they are both dead!”
Molly looked from her husband and back to her brother. She was confused. “Marlene didn’t have a baby…?” Molly said before her brain caught up. “Fabian, what did the baby have to do with you?”
Fabian looked up at her out of a well of a tortured soul. The tears flowing from his eyes were enough to be her answer. She took half a step to comfort her brother, when a gong sounded. Molly jumped as the gong sounded again around the room, and then again and again and again and again. Gideon pushed Molly back into Arthur’s arms.
“They’ve found us. Go, while you still can!” he shouted at the Weasleys.
Arthur, holding Molly, spun. They both stumbled as if they had hit a brick wall. Arthur gave his brothers-in-law a horrified look. Are all four of us going to die here?
Gideon, without missing a beat answered Arthur, saying, “Under the basement there is an old-fashion Muggle sewer. Fabian and I will hold them off while you two make it into the sewer. I bet they didn’t think to cast their spell to cover below the ground. You can walk beyond the house and escape back to your children.”
“If we can escape, you can come with us!” Molly pleaded, as she reached out her arms toward her little brothers.
“We can’t. They’ve got a blood trace on us. And Fabian barely survived Apparating to get here. Now go!” shouted Gideon.
Out of the corner of her eye, Molly saw Gideon nodding to someone behind her. Suddenly, she saw the floor rushing up to meet her as she lost consciousness.
Molly awoke looking up at her husband’s sad and concerned face. She rubbed her forehead, trying to clear the fog from her mind. Her hand touched the corner of her eyes and found moisture there.
Suddenly, she remembered. She sat up, pushed Arthur to the side. She brushed past Lorelei Lovegood, who had been babysitting little Bill, Charlie, and Percy, stepped over the two older boys, who were playing on the floor, and fled to the mantle that held her mother’s clock. On the face of the clock, five hands were where they were supposed to be, one each for: herself, Arthur, Bill, Charlie and Percy. However, the two hands for Fabian and Gideon were missing.
Molly fell onto her knees, her heart breaking. Her little brothers, who she had mothered as her own, were gone. There was no way anything could ever bring her more pain than she felt now.
Molly had never felt such pain as she did now. She looked down at the smiling face of her son, Fred. His sightless eyes stared up at her and she leaned down and repeatedly kissed his still face. Using the moisture from her kisses and tears, Molly used her long red and grey strands of hair to wash the grime and dust off his beloved face. As she concentrated on her task, she realized people were running and screaming. The floor shook and it was as if she was a ghost.
Molly’s tears were interrupted by her body gasping for air; it was as if her grief and some part of her brain were fighting for control of her worthless body. Molly raised her head toward the heavens. Please, take me instead of him! I’m old. My children are grown. Bring him back, and I’ll go wherever you want. I’ll be a servant or a victim for eternity. Please, just bring him back!
When nothing happened, she collapsed again across his still chest. Barely able to speak, she stroked his hair and said, “Remember, the morning after Percy got his Head Boy badge in the mail, and he woke up in the chicken coop without a stitch of clothes on.” Molly let a small laugh out through the sobbing and the tears. “We knew it was you two, but I also knew that Percy had stepped over the line with the haughty way he acted toward you. We had to punish you, but we understood why.” Molly broke into tears and returned to kissing his forehead.
“And the joke shop -- I never told you how proud both your father and I were of the two of you. The way all of those people looked to you for leadership and you handled it like you’d done it all of your life. Who would have thought, you two had such a keen business sense?”
“And George - what will he do without you? I think that’s why your Uncle Gideon stayed with Fabian. He couldn’t imagine life without his twin.”
Molly lifted his cold hand kissed and stroked it.
Suddenly a blast of red light shot past her head causing her hair to blow like in a hot wind. Molly looked up from her beloved son and tried to focus on what unimportant thing had interrupted her talk with Fred. Her eyes fell upon a girl with long dishwater blonde hair; it was the Lovegood girl, Luna. She was using a shield spell to deflect a curse. Molly turned to the right and there was Hermione. A small trickle of blood was coming from her forehead. The sight of Hermione - the girl who everyone, except Ron and Hermione knew would one day be her daughter-in-law - battling for her life made Molly stand. And then, she saw her daughter. Her precious little GInevra. She had just dodged a green killing curse coming from a lone female figure.
The one who had tried to take another one of her children away from her was Bellatrix Lestrange.
Fabian’s voice rang in her head. Travers and the Lestrange bitch, huh! If I ever see them, they are both dead. The woman who had denied Molly a chance of being an aunt and had ripped the heart of her sainted brother was now attacking her Ginny.
Come to me Lestrange. I’m ending this here and now. One of us is not leaving this school alive.
She stumbled into something as she ran to protect the girls, but she didn’t even look to see what it was she had run into. Protecting her family and revenging her brother were all that filled her soul. You’re dead, bitch. I just haven’t figured out how I’m going to kill you yet!
Molly stood in front of the mantle adjacent to the kitchen. Today should be one of the happiest days of her life. Today, Arthur would walk Ginevra down the aisle. And at Harry’s request, she would represent Lily as the mother of the groom. Yet, she was for some reason drawn to this place. She looked up at the crowded clock face. It was full of her five sons, their wives and a half dozen grandchildren. And in a few hours, Harry Potter’s hand would be added next to Ginny’s, yet the full clock face somehow seemed empty. There should be more hands visible. Gideon and his family, Fabian and Marlene and their children, and Fred and his family - they should all be present. Molly heard Ron calling out to her to come out of the house and into the garden for the wedding. Yet before she would move, she had to do what she always did as she stared at the clock. She extended the index and middle finger of her right hand, kissed them and touched the fly wheel that held the arms. Once for Gideon, once for Fabian, and the last time for Fred.
Molly took her son Ron’s arm and walked toward the back door of the Burrow. As she stepped into the warm afternoon sun and walked toward the canopy that held the wedding party, she smiled, wondering what the three of them were doing right now as they waited for her beyond the veil.
“Are you okay, Mum?” asked Ron. “You look a bit sad.”
She patted her youngest son on the arm and replied, “How can I be sad when I’ve got all those I love with me, always.”