“Well, isn’t that clever?”

Molly could hear Arthur fiddling with something in the sitting room but was too occupied to investigate. Fred and George had somehow managed to crawl into the pantry and upset nearly every container they could get their hands on. As a result Molly had one of the twins seated firmly in a high chair and the other wriggling under her efforts to bathe him in the sink.

Luckily for her Bilius had stopped by to take Bill, Charlie and Percy to the Quidditch match between the Wimborne Wasps and Puddlemere United. Bill and Charlie were particularly excited to see Ludo Bagman play. Molly had had her trepidations at letting the boys leave the safety of the Burrow. The war against You-Know-Who had reached a peak and there seemed to be no end in sight. Yet, she was relieved that the house was relatively quiet. Trying to manage five boys while she was eight months pregnant was a Herculean feat.

“…to think they did all this without magic,” Arthur’s voice floated into the kitchen setting Molly’s teeth on edge.

She had thought his Muggle obsession would have abated after they married. Then, she hoped it would take a backseat after Bill had been born. Now, with their sixth child almost ready to make an appearance, she was on the verge of setting fire to his shed.

A sudden splash of water down her front brought her focus back to the nearly clean toddler. Next to her George, or perhaps Fred, laughed delightedly at the new mess Fred, or was it George, was now creating. Breathing in deeply through her nose while counting to ten, Molly focused back on the task at hand.

An hour later the twins were down for their nap and the last of the molasses and flour was scraped off the kitchen floor. Despite her best efforts there was a large stain that she suspected would be there for years. It was as though Fred and George had found the best ingredients in her pantry to create a mess that would leave a mark. None of her other boys had been such handfuls; she dreaded what the future would bring from those two.

Feeling that she deserved a little rest herself, Molly eased into a chair at the kitchen table. A quick flick of her wand conjured a tall glass of iced pumpkin juice. She vaguely wished she could have something stronger but a slight nudge from her stomach quelled that idea. Before she could take a sip of her alcohol-less juice, however, she felt the baby make an even larger movement.

She groaned quietly so as not to alarm Arthur and rubbed her voluminous stomach. Despite nine generations working against her she was almost certain they were having a girl. Of course, she had thought the same thing the last three times, Bill being the exception. She hadn’t said as much to Arthur though. He would once again go through his family tree explaining the odds of a Weasley having a daughter.

“Molly, come here!” Arthur’s voice exploded from the living room.

Molly quickly glanced up towards the ceiling hoping beyond hope that the twins would stay asleep. After a few moments of silence she breathed a sigh of relief. Heaving herself from the chair she stretched her back before heading to the sitting room.

“Arthur I just got the twins down for their nap. Unless you want to wrestle them back to…” her jaw dropped open and she stopped short when she saw what Arthur had been up to.

At first she couldn’t make sense of what her eyes were seeing. All the furniture was missing and the floor was littered with numerous small gleaming things. Arthur was sitting next to a large wooden box in the middle of it all. He was grinning up at her with his wand in one hand and a book in the other.

“Look, Molly, all these pieces fit in this thing here!” He gestured first at the room at large then at the wood box.

“Arthur, what? Where is, what do you think you’re doing?” She whispered harshly.

He looked around at the mess and then turned to look at her with a sheepish grin. She could barely restrain her anger but somehow found a way.

“Where is all the furniture?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have it all back to normal when I’ve finished,” Arthur tried to assure her.

“Finished with what exactly? All I see is junk scattered around my sitting room. Bilius will be back with the boys soon and the twins won’t be asleep for much longer,” she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“It’s a Muggle clock, Molly. I bought it from a lovely man who was trying to get a few extra galleons.”

She could tell that he said it to calm her down but it had the complete opposite effect. Her eyes flew open staring at him in disbelief.

“Arthur, I cannot believe you would be so irresponsible with our family’s safety! Who’s to say the man isn’t working for a dark wizard or even You-Know-Who himself?” She knew she was being irrational but the years at war had done nothing but compound her fears, especially as their family grew. “It was hard enough letting the boys go with Bilius and then you go and do this. I’ve already lost my brothers to this horror we’re living in, I don’t need you to help things along.”

Arthur was watching her, eyes wide and mouth agape. Molly knew she was going too far and snapped her mouth shut. Tears formed in her eyes instead, as though her stopped words had found a physical outlet.

“Molly, sweetheart, I never meant…”

She cut him off with a quick gesture of her hand. She took in a deep breath, then another. The baby moved suddenly as though sensing her distress.

“I want this gone before the boys are back. Do you understand?” Molly didn’t wait for an answer. She turned and went up the stairs to the nursery, firmly closing the door behind her.

For the rest of the afternoon she remained in the nursery with the twins. Try as she might her thoughts kept circling back to Gideon and Fabian and their deaths. Alastor Moody had delivered the news himself. He mentioned some Order they had been a part of and how they had fought and died like heroes. When the twins had been born she had burst into tears, angry that her brothers weren’t alive to see them because of their heroics.

At one point she heard Bilius drop off Bill, Charlie and Percy. He tried to negotiate a dinner invitation but Arthur wisely told him no. Sounds of her children playing floated upstairs but she stubbornly refused to leave the room. As it was, keeping Fred and George under control was enough to keep her occupied.

She finally emerged with the twins on either hip to prepare dinner. Percy immediately attached himself to her apron and regaled her with a minute by minute replay of their afternoon. Bill and Charlie flitted in and out of the kitchen as she chopped and stirred, too excited from meeting Bagman to sit still. Arthur stayed well out of her way but she could hear him talking to Bill and Charlie about their day.

Dinner was a noisy affair but with an underlying tension, at least it felt that way to Molly. The boys didn’t notice, especially after Fred flung his strained peas into Charlie’s face. Molly started to share a smile with Arthur before she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him.

Mercifully the clean up from the meal was quick. Arthur had taken the boys upstairs to get them ready for bed. She could hear shrieking from the bathroom, giggling from the nursery and clanging from the ghoul simultaneously while she scrubbed down the table. She double checked that the charm washing the dishes was nearing its end before heading up the stairs to say goodnight.

Fred and George were already asleep, despite the noise coming from the bathroom on the landing above and the bedrooms on the landing below. She left the door open slightly as she made her way down to Bill’s bedroom. Arthur was starting down the stairs when she emerged on the landing but she made no move to stop him. Instead she went into the room to settle the rest of her children down.

Once Charlie joined Bill and Percy in Bill’s room Molly started telling them the tale of The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, Charlie’s favorite. She loved this time of the day. Her boys were calm enough to sit still and listen to her retell the stories her mother had once told her. When she finished she ushered a half asleep Charlie and Percy off to their own rooms and tucked them in.

Finally the house was quiet with no one clamoring for her undivided attention. Molly’s anger had disappeared but she was still hesitant to talk to Arthur. They’d had rows before but she had never gone so long without talking it out with him.

She quietly climbed down the stairs, stole through the kitchen and let herself out into the yard. The sky was clear but the moon had yet to rise, leaving parts of the yard in deep shadow. So, when Arthur cleared his throat behind her she immediately drew her wand and barely restrained the curse she was about to cast.

“Sorry love, it’s only me,” Arthur was sitting on a bench and had his hands up in surrender.

“Arthur! You gave me a fright,” Molly lowered her wand slightly before bringing it back up. “Where did you ask me to marry you?”

“In the doorway to the stairs in the astronomy tower after our N.E.W.T.s. If I remember right, the moon was full and I could see your face perfectly,” Arthur stood up from the bench and pulled her into a hug. “You looked as suspicious as you do now.”

“Oh Arthur, I’m so sorry about this afternoon. The baby has been moving around all day, Fred and George made another catastrophic mess and I was worried about Bilius handling the boys on his own.” Molly relaxed into his arms as she let out her burdens.

“Don’t worry, Mollywobbles, I’m sure my little experiment wasn’t the greatest thing to see. I’m sorry I didn’t discuss it with you first,” he murmured into her hair.

“I was being silly. So, what were you doing with that clock anyways?”

“Now don’t get mad, but I didn’t exactly get rid of it like you asked,” Arthur pulled away and had a sheepish grin on his face.

“I didn’t expect you to, really. I just figured you’d move it to the shed with the other Muggle junk you’re hiding from me.”

Arthur looked thunderstruck that she had known about the shed. She laughed at his expression and finally felt that everything was okay between them. He chuckled with her and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Well I guess that kneazle is out of the bag. And here I thought I was being sneaky,” he said ruefully.

“After having five boys and another little one on the way I don’t think anything will get past me again,” she mused. “Now, really, what were you up to?”

“I think it will be easier to understand if you see it.”

He moved his arm off her shoulders and grasped her hand. She allowed herself to be led back into the house and to the sitting room. Everything was restored to its original place but there was one thing that stood out.

A handsome grandfather clock was placed against the far wall. It had been carved from a darker wood that had been treated beautifully. Lost in admiring the details carved in the wood Molly didn’t notice the face of the clock right away.

Only when she looked up to see if the maker was just as detailed with the face did she see what Arthur had been doing. There were no longer numbers around the circumference but words instead. The hands also appeared different but Molly couldn’t figure out why.

She walked up closer to understand what Arthur had done. The hands were inscribed with his, hers and Bill's names, each one a little shorter than the one before it. What should have been numbers were places of sorts. There were ‘traveling’, ‘work’, ‘school’ and other such similar things but what had replaced the twelve was what Molly had fixed upon.

In the place where the twelve should have been were the words ‘mortal peril’. Just reading it sent a shard of ice through her heart. For reassurance she glanced at the three hands pointing to ‘home’ before turning to Arthur.

“I figured with Bill going off to Hogwarts next year and me being so busy at work you’d be going spare with worry. Perkins has a cousin who was selling the clock and I had the idea to fix it up like that,” he explained.

“But why aren’t all the kids up there and why is ‘mortal peril’ on it at all?”

“Well I intended to put them all on but I figured I should get your permission before transfiguring the rest of that awful tea set Aunt Muriel gave us,” he pointed to an end table and sure enough an incomplete tea set was sitting there.

“By all means use every last piece, at least this way we’ll be getting some use out of it. But you didn’t answer my second question.”

Arthur heaved a sigh and pulled Molly with him onto the sofa. He gently rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. When he answered his voice was quiet but steady.

“This war isn’t going away and it’s getting closer and closer to us. You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters don’t care one way or another who they attack. I saw how Gideon and Fabian’s death tore you apart. Our family is growing and growing up and we can’t keep them all encapsulated here. I wanted to give you, well us really, something to help us keep track of everyone. No matter the circumstances,” he said this all while gazing steadily in her eyes.

Silent tears were coursing their way down Molly’s cheeks. After nearly twelve years of marriage, plus their years at Hogwarts, he still managed to surprise her. She wiped clumsily at her face as Arthur enfolded her in his arms.

“I guess you should get busy putting the rest of the children up there,” she said sitting up.

Arthur grinned lopsidedly at her and went to work. While watching him she propped up her feet, relaxing fully for the first time all day. He worked in fixed silence and she found her eyes drifting shut.

“Mollywobbles, love, I’m almost done,” Arthur was gently shaking her shoulder. “I just need to put a name on the final hand.”

Molly blearily opened her eyes to see that the clock now had six hands on the face. Arthur was kneeling by her with a tea cup in his hand. She felt a moment’s hesitation before summoning a saucer.

“I know you’re going to think I’m being silly but I want to do a boy and a girl’s name. Just in case,” Molly silently willed Arthur to argue with her.

“That’s a good idea, what did you have in mind?”

His question caught her off guard. Despite believing whole heartedly that it was a girl she hadn’t put much thought into a name.

“Well, if it’s a boy how about Ronald Bilius?” She had decided on that name when she first realized she was pregnant.

Arthur smiled and transfigured the teacup without comment. Then, before she knew it, he had transfigured the saucer still in her hand. Looking down she read the name.

“Ginevra Molly. I like that, we could call her Ginny for short,” she was genuinely pleased with his choice.

“Now, no matter what we have this time around we’ll have one ready for the next baby,” Arthur said cheekily.

“Can I at least have this baby before we even think about having another?”

“Of course,” he took the two hands and placed them on top of the clock. “Now off to bed with you, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

Molly smiled, knowing that there was nothing special happening. Arthur had always been saying to her before they went to bed. She held out her hands for Arthur to help her off the couch.

As he gripped her hands he gave them a slight squeeze. They made their way up to their room still holding hands. Just another day in the Weasley household, Molly thought before closing the door behind them.