“Um, hello… (clears throat) Merry Christmas to you, all. My name is Molly Weasley, and as most of you may know, I lost one of my sons during the Second Wizarding War.
“Today will be the first Christmas I spend without my son, Fred; and trust me, I know how saddening this must be for all of you. To walk through the candy stores, wondering what kind of chocolate your kid would like for Christmas when, suddenly, you remember he or she is gone; to shop for presents and buy one for him without realising you have; to see all of those other kids, their lives yet unharmed, squeal over the beauty of their new toys and think about how many times you’ve seen your kid do that before they were gone. . .
“I…uh… (clears throat again) The loss of a son is something that no mother is prepared to go through. There are words, in English, after all, that describe those people who have suffered a loss. There’s widow, for a person who has lost the one they wanted to spend their entire life with. There’s orphan, for a child whose parents are no longer alive. And yet, there is no term for a mother who has lost her child. It is not right, not natural; and yet, we are all here.
“We are all tied together here by a bond: a bond of grief, one that we all can relate to. One or more of our children. . . died during the war, either in the Battle of Hogwarts or somewhere else. You may think it is not fair to have lost them in such a horrible and unfair way.
“But they are all heroes. They all helped, in a way, to make our world a better place, to get rid of the unjust, evil people who were ruling us. They all saved many other people’s lives, and they spared many others from torture. . . . They really are heroes. But they are not only heroes because of that.
“They all take a very special place in our hearts; they always have, and they always will. They changed all of us in a way, and that’s why they are heroes. They changed our lives and our families. . . I know that we will always feel that hole in our hearts; that feeling that something is missing will always be there. But I think that this is a challenge: a challenge to make us all stronger, a challenge that will make us help our other children, to set our example, to change the world and everyone we can just like they did. But, most of all, this is our chance to make them proud. I know that all of them are watching, and I am sure that none of them would want to see their mothers spending all their time grieving over their loss. They would want us to be . . . happy.
“One thing that Fred valued when he was alive was the power of a smile, of a giggle, of a laugh. I came to realise how important that power was when he was gone and my entire family was never smiling”and when they did, they felt guilty. The house was quiet, never the same as before, because, usually, it would have been filled with laughter, giggles and explosions”don’t ask me what those were, I honestly never knew. (laughs softly) It was around a month after the war when my son, George, was spending his birthday without his twin. While he was cutting the cake, he said: ‘Stop poking my ear, Ginny,’ swatting an invisible hand from the hole where his ear had used to be before he lost it. Ginny was sitting at the other end of the table, frowning at her brother. Then, George looked up with the hugest smile on his face and started laughing. Ginny claimed it was the lamest joke ever and that it was not funny at all”and it wasn’t, not really. But George’s laugh was contagious and suddenly, everyone in the room was laughing along with him, enjoying that beautiful, warm feeling of laughter, of happiness.
“And, that day, George made me see that, even with Fred gone, we all need the warm glow of a smile in the darkest of times. He told me that he knew that Fred wouldn’t want any of us feeling down because he was gone. He told me that Fred was in a better place, one full of all the things he wanted, but he wouldn’t be able to enjoy them because he would be worried about us instead.
“We need to understand that our children sacrificed themselves for us. And, like I said before, they would want us to be happy without them. So, smile. Smile for your children; smile for the dead; smile for the ones who made you happy, and the ones who will. Thank you.”
The Power of a Smile by IckleRonnieX
Chapter Endnotes: see that little box below this? It seems a bit lonely, don't you think? You should leave a review and make it (and me) happy :p