Over the first month of term Molly, Maeve, Shane, Arthur, Sturgis, and Alastor had become a regular group. This wasn’t much to Maeve’s liking, but as she was still keen on Shane, she put up with the others.
“Would you stop complaining, Maeve “ honestly you can be such a snob sometimes…” Molly sighed as her best friend had begun ranting, yet again, about why they all had to hang out together. Maeve stifled a laugh.
“What?” snapped Molly.
“You’re calling me a snob?” she said. “You’re the same “ you look down on people if they’re not clean-cut, goody little-two-shoes…”
“Not true!” Molly exclaimed in protest.
“What about Shane?” Maeve pointed out.
“I do like Shane…”
“Only after you realized he was friends with Arthur.”
Molly said nothing.
“Anyway,” Maeve moved on knowing full and well she had proved her point. “I don’t really mind Sturgis at all. And Arthur’s okay, really… even though he is a bit…odd. It’s Alastor “ he’s just creepy.”
“He is not…”
“Molly “ yesterday he accused me of lacing his pumpkin juice with Veritaserum. Then he went off into some rant about how there are dark wizards about “ everyone knows that there hasn’t been a real threat from any dark wizard since Dumbledore got rid of Grindelwald…He’s off his rocker, I tell you.”
“Not talking about me are you?” said voice behind them. The two girls spun around, to find Arthur standing behind him, scanning the Daily Prophet.
“No, of course not!” exclaimed Molly.
“It’s alright,” Arthur said sheepishly. “I know people find me a little strange…”
“No really “ we were actually talking about… well, Alastor…” Molly said uncomfortably.
“Ah…good old Moody,” he said, grinning. “Yeah “ I’d agree with you there “ but he’s a good friend.”
“So,” said Maeve, eyeing the newspaper Arthur was reading. “Anything in there about dark wizards?” she asked, smirking.
“No… but there is some madwoman at the Ministry who’s trying to push a law through to make Muggle Hunting legal…Araminta Meliflua, hmm… I think I might be related to her.”
“You think?” asked Maeve.
“It’s a bit hard to keep track of everyone I’m related to… especially when most of the family thinks the Weasley line is nothing but a bunch of ‘blood-traitors’…we’re quite shunned,” he said, his smile not losing any of it’s usual brightness.
“You seem to take that quite lightly…” said Maeve.
“Well, if they want nothing to do with us because we don’t think that Muggle-borns are scum and that pure-bloods are better than everyone else…I have to say, I don’t really mind.”
Molly was impressed; her opinion of Arthur was steadily growing with each day.
Spotting the look in Molly’s eye, Maeve cleared her throat loudly.
“Goodness…we should be getting to be Transfiguration, wouldn’t want to be late…”
“What are you talking about, we have twenty minutes?” said Molly.
“You never know…”
This didn’t explain much, but Maeve had already begun ushering the two upstairs to Dumbledore’s classroom. When they entered, there wasn’t a single student inside.
“Good morning,” Dumbledore said brightly from behind his desk. “You’re quite early. Excellent “ I love enthusiastic students…I suppose you couldn’t wait to start Vanishing things?”
His light blue eyes were twinkling, and behind his graying auburn beard, he seemed to be hiding a smile that told them he knew very well that they were not there early out of anticipation of the morning’s lesson. The three of them said polite good mornings through forced smiles and sat down: Arthur across the room from Maeve and Molly, in his usual seat where Alastor and Shane would be joining him soon.
“What is wrong with you,” said Molly in a deadly whisper. “Why did you insist on getting here so early?”
“No reason “ just didn’t want to be late…” Maeve asked innocently.
“You’re lying.”
“Look “ I saw the way you looked at Arthur a few minutes, ago “ all dreamy-eyed.”
“Oh, please “ I was just impressed with his way of thinking… besides, why would it matter to you?”
“Because Molly “ you’ve always let him hang around you out of pity…I don’t want you to fall for him for the same reason…You’ll just end up getting stuck in a relationship you don’t want to be in, and you’ll be too soft to end it.”
“It’s not out of pity “ and I am NOT falling for him…” she snapped.
“And he is NOT in love with me” she added after a moment.
“Okay then…” Maeve replied, rolling her eyes.
A week later, Alastor, Shane, Arthur and Molly were sitting in the Great Hall talking about the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch game that had taken place that afternoon.
“That was quite a catch,” grunted Alastor.
“Yeah, brilliant Shane,” agreed Arthur.
“The most satisfying bit was the look on Amos’s face when I got the Snitch from right under his own broom,” smirked Shane.
“Molly, can I talk to you for a moment…”
Molly turned her attention away from the boy’s discussion to Maeve “ who was standing off to the side with a tall, dark haired boy with light eyes. She got up from the table and walked over to meet them.
“You know Amos Diggory, Molly…” Maeve said, gesturing towards the boy, who was blushing a little.
“Yeah I do - good match today…” Molly said earnestly, trying not to grin.
“Thanks,” he said.
“I’ll just leave you two alone…” said Maeve, dashing off to sit with Shane.
After an awkward moment or two, Amos spoke quite shyly.
“Molly, I know you don’t really know me. But…well…I’ve fancied you for quite a while, and I talked to Maeve about it the other day “ and she said that, well that I should just ask you out. So, since there’s a Hogsmeade visit next weekend, if you’d like to go with me…”
Molly considered it for a minute. Then she decided, why not?
“All right, sure…” she said, smiling.
They talked for another minute or two, then Molly went back to sit with her fellow Gryffindors.
“What was that about?” asked Shane when she returned to the table.
“Oh…nothing. Amos asked me to Hogmseade next week?”
“What’d you say?” asked Shane, throwing a nervous glance at Arthur who had suddenly busied himself with his Transifiguration Essay.
“I said I’d go with him,” she said.
“Why?” grunted Alastor.
“Because he’s nice, and he’s attractive…why shouldn’t I say yes?”
“Because, Amos Diggory’s a moron…” said Shane.
“There’s nothing wrong with Molly going out with Amos, she can go with whoever she likes” Arthur said suddenly, his face was a bit red. With that, Shane and Alastor both went quiet and Arthur got up, mumbling dejectedly something about needing to go to the library. There was an awkard silence at the table, and Molly couldn’t help noticing that Maeve looked a little guilty, and that Arthur had seemed quite hurt.