Recklessness
Molly Weasley wrung her hands in her apron. She knew she had to have this conversation but she was dreading it. She and Athur had agreed though… If Fred and George had been able to get their hands on an Ageing Potion, then she saw no reason why two resourceful girls like Ginny and Hermione couldn’t. Even so she just hated the thought of having to tell the girls that. She sighed to herself, lost in her memories.
Molly jumped at the sound of her kitchen timer. She hurried over to the stove and rescued her shortbread before it was cinder. She supposed that there wasn’t much left to do except prepare the hot chocolate. It didn’t seem the right sort of talk for kelpie marshmallows. Kelpie marshmallows were for moments of child-like wonder, not for brutal reality. She carefully took her time, measuring half white chocolate and half milk chocolate, just as her Granny Prewett had taught her so many years ago. Granny Prewett would have been able to have this discussion. She had never been deterred by anything. Then again, she hadn’t much to be ashamed of either.
Molly took a deep breath and called out, “Ginny! Hermione! Could you come down here please?”
She half-hoped that the girls would have some excuse of being busy. Then she firmly reminded herself that she was a Gryffindor and that part of bravery is having the courage to admit one’s mistakes.
Ginny and Hermione walked into the kitchen. When Molly gestured for them to sit at the table, Hermione looked surprised, although Ginny looked somewhat hesitant.
“I thought we could have a little chat,” explained Molly, forcing a smile.
Ginny eyes darted towards the door but her face revealed that she already knew it was too late to escape. Hermione still looked puzzled but sat in the offered chair anyway and began sipping out of one of the mugs.
“Mmm, this is really good hot chocolate! What did you want to talk about Mrs Weasley?”
“Thank you dear.” Molly took another deep breath before continuing. “I wanted to tell you about a mistake I made many years ago.”
Molly noticed Ginny begin to mouth the word “Percy” to Hermione and quickly interrupted.
“About thirty years ago, I was in my third year at Hogwarts. I was fourteen and thought I was in love, with a boy named Benjy. Well, I found out that Benjy didn’t feel the same way, on Valentine’s Day, of all days. For a while I was pretty upset about it. Two of my roommates and two of my Ravenclaw friends felt that we all needed an adventure over the Easter Holidays to cheer us up, me particularly. We ended up deciding to sneak into a Muggle club called the Twisted Wheel.”
Ginny stopped tracing the wood grain pattern of the table and looked up in surprise. “You what?”
Molly looked at her daughter. “Are you surprised that anyone thought to do it, or that I did it?”
Ginny flushed a bit at her mother’s question. “I always thought you followed the school rules very closely,” she mumbled into her mug.
“Which is a nice way of saying you thought me a goody-goody,” replied Molly tartly, “Well, I certainly wasn’t and neither were my friends. We each had more than our fair share of detentions, let me tell you.
We had realized that a Muggle club couldn’t detect an Ageing Potion. We thought it would be hard to obtain but as luck would have it we were overheard by a Slytherin girl. She wanted to come too and offered us the potion in exchange.”
“You brought a Slytherin with you?” exclaimed Ginny in disgust.
This time Hermione looked surprised too but continued to nibble on her shortbread.
“We weren’t thrilled at the idea either. However, she had overheard us and we did need that potion. We gave her a test to see if we could trust her and she passed. Anyway, we knew some boys from Hogwarts were going too and disguising themselves as well. We snuck out of my friend’s house, and took the Knight Bus to the club.
Once we got there we danced with several men and were bought drinks too. I wish I could tell you that I wasn’t so foolish, but I was.”
“Mrs Weasley, why are you telling us this?” asked Hermione, looking confused and a bit embarrassed.
“I don’t want you girls making the same mistakes my friends and I did. We were extremely reckless that night. I accepted drinks from strange men. No one except the six of us knew where we’d gone, anything could have happened to us.”
“But Mum, nothing happened right?” asked Ginny, her eyes searched her mother’s for reassurance.
Molly sighed. “No, we were extremely lucky though.”
Ginny was beginning to get annoyed. “So, you went to a bar, had a smashing good time and nothing bad happened, so the moral of your story is not to do it?”
Molly’s voice had an edge to it this time. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy myself that night. However, even if I didn’t pay for my mistake, someone else did years later. I had four roommates, but only two of them came with me. We bragged about our exploits to Moria and Alice when we were in our final year at Hogwarts. After having heard about our adventure they secretly decided to have one of their own.
However, they found the Ageing Potion much more difficult to get a hold of than we did and by the time they had managed it, my older roommates and I had already left Hogwarts.”
The anger left Molly’s voice; instead it was tinged with regret. “They were a group of four. A young man approached one of them and offered her a drink. Flattered, she accepted. The man had put something in the drink… it wasn’t a potion but it was the Muggle equivalent…”
Molly’s voice trembled as tears began to run down her cheeks. “She was never the same afterwards.”
Hermione reached for Molly’s hand, and Ginny patted her back. The two young women looked at each other, horror-struck.
Molly’s voice strengthened again and she continued through her tears. “I don’t want anything like that to ever happen to either of you girls. It would kill me. I know I can’t stop you from sneaking into clubs, I can’t stop you from flirting with older men, I can’t stop you from accepting drinks from strangers, but I beg you not to!”
The three of them sat in silence for a while, as their hot chocolate went cold. After a while, Ginny nodded. “Don’t worry Mum, I promise I won’t.”
“Me either,” echoed Hermione, still clearly shaken by Mrs Weasley’s story.
“It wasn’t your fault, Mum,” reminded Ginny soothingly, while squeezing her mother’s hand.
Molly thought a few moments before replying. “No and it wasn’t hers either.”
Recklessness by Hypatia
Chapter Notes: This is a companion piece to Shadows of the Past, particularly chapter 16, The Twisted Wheel, however it can also be read alone. Thanks to Sara for betaing!