Chapter 7: Late Night Escapades.
“Molly, come on, through the platform or we’ll miss the train…”
“I’m coming, Gideon.”
“Where’s Fabian?”
“He’s in already gone through the platform, Mum.”
“Alright then… have a good year, both of you. Gideon, look after your sister, won’t you?”
“Of course, Mum. See you and Dad at Christmas!”
Molly and Gideon melted through the platform, and quickly boarded the Hogwarts Express.
“I’ve got to go the Prefect’s coach, Molly “ you find a compartment to sit in…”
Molly nodded and headed down the train, looking for a somewhat empty compartment. She came across one with only one student in it, a young red-headed boy.
“Mind if I join you?” Molly asked.
The boy looked up, he looked stunned for a moment, but then beamed at her.
“Yes, of course!” he said.
Molly took a seat across from him.
“I’m Molly Prewett,” she said, sticking her hand out for him to shake. “This is my first year at Hogwarts.”
“Arthur Weasley,” the boy said sheepishly. “My first year, too…”
“You have siblings here?” Molly asked.
“Two brothers. Gryffindor.”
“Me, too. One of my brothers, Gideon, is the Head Boy…” she said proudly.
“That’s great.”
There was a small silence. Arthur looked up at Molly a few times and back down at his feet. He then opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a new addition to the compartment.
“Molly!”
“Maeve”
A young girl with long, loosely-curled, brown hair greeted Molly with a hug.
“What are you doing in here all alone?” Maeve asked. “Come on to my compartment?”
“Oh, alright…”
Molly turned to Arthur and smiled.
“It was nice meeting you Arthur…”
“You too, Molly.”
And then she left.
---
Molly hadn’t ever thought much about that first meeting with Arthur, but she’d never really had much reason to think about Arthur at all. Until now.
Though the two had never been true friends until fifth year, Molly had always made allowances for Arthur. Despite the fact that most people at Hogwarts didn’t pay too much attention to him, Molly was always nice to him, and tried her best to listen when he talked about Muggles. Not only that, but she always gave more credit to people that were nice to Arthur, or were associated with him. She had never thought much of why Arthur was so special, she had just assumed it was because she had met him that day on the train, the first friend she had made on her first day at Hogwarts; now, however, she was thinking that the special place she’d always had for Arthur had always been in her heart.
“A sickle for your thoughts?”
Molly snapped out of her thoughts to find Maeve sitting next to her with a huge smile on her face.
“I think they’re worth more than that, at the moment,” Molly sighed.
“I reckoned as much “ you were very deep in thought there. What was going on in there? Trying to remember something about the Goblin Rebellions?”
“No.”
“Or maybe you were thinking about Arthur…”
“Be quiet!” Molly hissed, throwing a nervous glance around the common room.
“So, how was patrolling last night?” Maeve continued casually.
“It was…interesting…”
“Has he told you how he feels, yet?” Maeve asked, as though they were discussing the weather.
“Kind of.”
“What do you mean, ‘kind of’? Has he told you or not?”
“Well, he told me how he feels about me. He just didn’t mention that it was me he was talking about…”
Maeve let out an exasperated sigh.
“And I told him he should tell me how he feels “ except he didn’t know I was talking about me either…”
Maeve slid out of her chair, onto the ground, and slapped her hand against her forehead.
“But he said he’d think about telling me. Well he said he’d think about telling her “ but he was talking about me. He just doesn’t know that I know that…”
“Well, I’m glad you achieved so much progress,” Maeve said sardonically.
“Well “ I think I’ve made a lot of progress, actually…” Molly told her tentatively.
“What does that mean?” Maeve asked, eyes brightly eager.
“I know now. I want him to tell me. Maeve, I want him to tell me so much…” Molly said.
“So that means you feel the same?”
Molly hesitated for a second, but then nodded.
Maeve stood up and clapped her hands together.
“You’re right, that is excellent progress!” she exclaimed. “Now all that’s left is to get the two of you together… be right back.”
“Where are you going?” Molly called after her as she left, heading for the exit of the common room.
“You’ll find out soon enough!”
“You better not tell Shane anything!”
But Maeve was already gone.
---
“Hello, Molly…”
“Arthur…”
“I was wondering “ would you like to go for a walk. It’s really nice out this evening, and I fancied a stroll. It would be nice to have some company “ of course, if you don’t want to, it’s fine “ I just thought I’d ask-”
“I’d love to…”
“Oh, alright then…shall we?” Arthur said a little nervously, gesturing with his arms towards the portrait hole.
It was a few hours after Maeve had set off on her mysterious business. She had come back and not said a word to Molly about where she had been or what she had done, only that she thought it was the perfect day to be ‘encouraging to others.’
Now Molly understood.
She and Arthur walked through the castle and from the Entrance Hall onto the grounds rather quietly. When they had gotten outside, Molly finally broke the silence.
“It really is nice out this evening,” she said.
“Yeah “ actually, the sun should be setting in about a half an hour, and there’s this great place on the lake that just has the loveliest view…”
“Lead the way…” Molly said.
Arthur brought Molly over to a nice spot under a tree next to the lake. She went to sit down, but he stopped her “ taking off his cloak and laying it on the grass for her to sit on.
“Wouldn’t want to get your clothes all dirty,” he said timidly.
“Thanks,” Molly said as she sat down.
They sat quietly for a minute or two, watching the light of the setting sun glittering on the ripples in the lake.
“We’ve known each other for a long time, Arthur…” Molly said.
“Yeah, you’re right. But we’ve never really been more than acquaintances…”
“I’m really glad that I’m getting to know you better this year,” she said.
“Me, too…”
“So, now that we’re friends… are you going to tell me who you’re mystery girl is?” Molly said slyly, though she felt a bit nervous. Arthur blushed.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that, quite yet…”
“Is she someone I know?” Molly asked.
“Yeah “ you know her,” Arthur said. “But I’m not telling you any more than that.”
“Fine, have it your way, Arthur Weasley. I don’t much care, anyway,” she said playfully.
“For someone who doesn’t care, you sure ask a lot of questions…” he replied.
“Well, perhaps I’m jealous,” she said.
“Believe me, there’s no reason to be jealous…”
“Why not?”
“Trust me.”
There conversation was silent again, and then the sun began to set, casting prisms of light across the lake. The two of them watched it in quiet awe, before the red sun finally melted away beneath the cool black of the lake, leaving the sky dark and revealing the hundreds of sparkling stars above them.
“It’s magnificent,” Molly sighed.
“Simply beautiful,” Arthur said, gazing at her “ but turning away just as she looked at him. “So, I suppose you want to go back to the castle now.”
“No, I’d actually rather stay out. We were supposed to be going for a walk, anyway…”
“Oh, alright!” Arthur said, pleasantly surprised. “Excellent, off we go then…”
They stood up and headed around the edge of the lake, talking and laughing. After a few lengths of the lake shore, they sat down again under the tree for a while before getting up again and taking a long walk around the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. Then they traveled down onto the Quidditch pitch, where Arthur stole Molly’s cloak from her and ran towards the far goal, providing commentary for his makeshift game of Quidditch.
“Chaser Arthur Weasley has the Quaffle “ enemy Chaser, Molly Prewett, is steadily gaining on him, she seems to be using the Banshee Technique, an infamous Quidditch strategy in which a defending player emits high pitched shrieks to distract their opponent,” Arthur shouted over at Molly, as he ran with her cloak balled up in his arms. “It is most often employed by…female players… but there was an incident…in a World Cup Final in which… an English Beater Sheldon McShrieky… used his unnaturally high… voice to use the technique, securing a strategic… victory over Portugal. And WEASLEY SCORES!”
Arthur reached the goal post, just as Molly caught him and brought him crashing to the ground.
“Give it back, Weasley!” she said.
“You only had to ask,” he laughed, handing her back her cloak.
“And I do not have a high pitched voice!” she said.
Arthur just gave her a patronizing look and the two burst into fits of laughter. After recovering, Molly looked at her watch for the time.
“Goodness! It’s almost four o’clock in the morning!” she exclaimed.
“Have we really been out that long?” Arthur asked.
“Must have. Oh, Arthur, we better get back to our dormitory “ and hope Pringle doesn’t catch us!”
They both quickly ran back to the castle and crept inside as quietly as possible. Mr. Buttons, the caretaker’s cat swept past their feet, and they hurried even more quickly up the marble staircase. They were just rounding the Fat Lady’s corridor when the heard Pringle. He was waiting outside the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Buttons “ we’ll get ‘em. Don’t you worry.”
“Oh no!” whispered Molly. “What are we going to do?”
Arthur thought quickly.
“You stay here, Molly “ hide. I’ll distract Pringle..”
“Arthur, don’t!”
“Don’t worry about me, Molly “ I’m used to getting in trouble,” he said, smiling fondly at her. Then he walked casually from where they stood crouched out of sight, towards the Fat Lady’s portrait.
“There you are! Knew there were students about! What exactly do you think you’re doing out of bed at this hour, young man?” Pringle asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” Arthur replied, trying to sound surprised. “I just woke up, and here I am.”
“The cheek! You, come with me to my office now!”
“If you insist…” Arthur sighed sadly. He and Pringle turned the corner, Arthur winking at Molly just as they left.
Molly crept out of her hiding spot and walked softly over to the Fat Lady, who was snoring softly.
“Excuse me…” Molly said. “Excuse me; I need to get into my dormitory…”
The Fat Lady jerked out of her sleep.
“Wha “ what time is it?”
“It’s four in the morning…” Molly said quietly.
“Goodness! Ms. Prewett, is that you? What on earth are you doing out of your dormitory at this hour? I expected better of you!”
“I know, I’m sorry. Time just passed very quickly…”
“Indeed! And a prefect, nonetheless! You should know better! What kind of example are you setting for your peers!”
“They needn’t know. Now can I please go inside?”
“Fine, just give me the password, and I suppose I’ll have to let you through…”
“Nitwits.”
The portrait swung open, and Molly quickly scurried inside. Before the portrait closed, however, she heard the Fat Lady speak to her once more.
“I do hope you and Mr. Weasley had a nice time, Ms. Prewett “ and that Pringle will let him off easily…”
Molly smiled quite girlishly and practically skipped upstairs to her dormitory.