Stopping just outside the kitchen, Molly listened closely. She could hear the sound of her mother humming below her breath and the clatter of glasses being put in the cupboard, but she couldn't pick out anything in the familiar din that indicated her father was in the room too. She didn't hear the rustle of The Daily Prophet nor did she smell the rich, woody scent of his favorite cigarettes which he always liked to smoke before he left for work.

Sighing, Molly stepped in hoping still she'd find her father sitting at the kitchen table. When he wasn't there, she asked, "Mum? Where's Dad?"

"Your father's gone to work already, Molly," her mother said as she turned around with a couple of mugs in hand. "Come have a seat, I'll put the kettle on."

Wavering in the doorway, she almost considered refusing and just going back to bed to cry. Molly hadn't seen her dad since she came home from St. Mungo's and it hurt. Nearly as much as her ruined dreams of being a Mum.

"Dad… He's doing this on purpose, isn't he?" Molly questioned as she took a seat at the table.

Sitting down across from her, Molly's mum pushed one mug – her favorite pink striped yellow one – her way. "He's ashamed, Molly," the woman sighed. "What do you expect him to do? Would you rather he be here and yell at you?"

Swallowing down the sharp lump in the back of her throat, Molly let her eyes drop to the tabletop and said nothing in response. After all, what could she say? He had all rights to be embarrassed by her. She'd gotten herself into trouble and then into even more while trying to get herself out of the first bit of it.

"But, even so, he loves you," her mum said as she gently brought Molly's eyes up to meet hers.

Looking around the kitchen, at the open window letting in the last bit of the year's decent weather and the fireplace that was as empty of warmth as her heart, Molly let her gaze return to her mother's eyes. "Then why is he not here for breakfast? I made sure to wake up early just to see him off. Ashamed or not, it's been a week of this and I've not seen hide nor hair of him since I've come home from St. Mungo's! Even yelling would be better than being treated like I don't exist!"

Her mother's eyes fell away and she began to wring her hands together. "You have to understand how hard this is for him… He thought you were a good girl–"

"I am!" Molly argued.

The woman's face turned into a frown. "Good girls don't get pregnant and then abort the baby, Molly," she rebuked.

"Good mothers save their children from undue suffering." Molly argued.

"Good mothers don't kill their children!" her mother yelled.

Setting her jaw, Molly forced herself to narrow her eyes even as she wanted to let them go wide and mist over with tears. "I'm going back to my room," she hissed. "I have work that Professor McGonagall sent me to do."

"Molly!" her mother shouted after her, but she didn't turn around. No, Molly picked up her pace and all but ran into her room before slamming the door close.

Collapsing in a heap against the door, she buried her face in her arms and cried.

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Among all the other students about to board the Hogwarts Express, Molly felt unusually nervous. She was a seventh year going back to Hogwarts to finish the last stretch of her schooling – just like several others that she had spied on the platform. But, unlike those others, she has been gone from school much longer than just for Christmas Holidays.

"Are you sure you want to go, love?" her mother asked as she reached out to push back Molly's red hair. "There's no shame in saying no."

Molly shook her head at the middle-aged woman. "No, Mum," she said. "I have to go back. I want to finish school with all of my friends and be like everyone else again."

"But you aren't–"

"Pearl," her father broke in hard and fast. "Molly's made her choice. If she wants to go back, we can't tell her no. She's a grown woman and can make her own choices." Then, the man pointed his finger in her face and ordered, "But I don't want to hear about any more trouble, understand me? I will not tolerate any more shame brought on our family by you."

Molly felt her heart twist at his demand. He never had a kind word for her anymore. Every bit of conversation between them was brisk and rough, he did not hug or kiss her anymore, and her father wouldn't so much as be alone in a room with her since she came home from St. Mungo's. Lowering her eyes, Molly whispered, "Yes, Dad."

Sandy-blond brows lifting with satisfaction, Molly's father gestured for Fabian and Gideon to come to his side. "Yeah, Dad?" Gideon questioned, his eyes unusually solemn.

"You boys sit with your sister on the way back to Hogwarts and keep her company, understand?" he ordered.

Fabian bobbed his head in agreement. "We will, Dad."

And together, Molly flanked by her younger brothers on either side of her, the trio say goodbye to their parents before heading off to the train. Once on the Hogwarts Express, Molly looked down at the oddly stern faces of her impish brothers. "You two don't have to sit with me. If you prefer to go sit with friends, I won't mind."

Gideon shook his head. "You're our sister, we're staying with you," he declared.

Flattered by their dedication, Molly leaned in and pressed a kiss each to their foreheads (another thing she'd never get to do now that she couldn't have children…). "You two are so sweet to me." She sighed. "But you know what I'd like best? I'd like to have my jesters back, please."

Some of the tension left the pair and they gave her sort of sheepish smiles. "We haven't felt much like playing jokes when everything's been so..so–"

"–rough lately," Fabian finished for Gideon.

Molly understood what they meant. The last month and a half had been awfully trying for everybody. For Molly, their mother, father and even the twins. Coming to terms with what Molly had done and the complications that had risen from it had made everything very difficult and sometimes, awfully bleak.

"Well, we're on our way back to normal – or as close as we're going to get – so, this is the only time I'm ever going to say this, but I demand you play a grand prank on someone when we get back to Hogwarts, alright?"

"Sure, whatever you want, Molly," Fabian said as he grinned widely at Gideon.

Gideon smiled back for a moment before he pointed to an open compartment as they began to walk down the lane. "There's one!" he cried.

Hurrying over, the trio walked into the compartment and to her surprise, Molly saw her dormmate Catherine already sitting in the small room doing her nails.

Glancing up at their entrance, Catherine returned to her nails only to do a double-take a second later. "Molly!" the girl yelped.

Hesitantly, Molly went over and smiled at her dormmate. "Nice to see you again, Catherine."

Standing up then, Catherine wavered for all of a moment before she took Molly into an all-encompassing hug. "It's good to see you too! How are you? We heard… Well, we heard a lot of things, but it's nice to see you're coming back to Hogwarts!" Pulling away then, Catherine commented, "We didn't think you'd be coming back after you missed so much school. I guess we should have expected more of you, huh? You always were the bravest of us."

Molly felt hollow as her friend talked. "The Headmistress sent me assignments."

"That's good, so I guess you won't be all that much behind," Catherine said.

Nodding, Molly agreed. "Yes, I should be on the same level as the rest of you. Catherine… Did the others go home for holidays?"

"No, Mabel and Noel stayed at Hogwarts. I would have too, but Mother insisted I return home since my uncle had just come home from France."

Molly nodded, quite relieved that she wouldn't have to make nice with anyone else. "You don't mind if Fabian and Gideon sit with us, do you?"

The girl shot the two boys a quick glance and smiled. "No, not at all!" Sitting back down, Catherine gave the seat beside her a pat and told Molly, "Sit down! Sit down! We have so much to catch up on!"

Reluctantly, the siblings all took a seat; Molly took the one beside Catherine and her brothers the ones across from the girls.

"Now, where do I start?" Catherine said with a pleased grin.

Neither Molly nor her brothers offered any opinions, so after a moment, the girl just started to babble about Divination and as she went along, her tale became a coherent storyline that Molly knew, if she were in any mood for it, would have enjoyed immensely. After all, Catherine was always the best at telling stories; she had a way of using her hands and facial expression to make it truly entrapping.

She'd be a good mother someday, capable of entertaining her children for endless hours alone with her gift of gab. Molly liked to talk too, but she wasn't much of a storyteller. Maybe it was better she wasn't able to have children, surely she wouldn't be able to keep them still for fifteen minutes–let alone hours by just talking to them. However, even as Molly mused on her friend's abilities instead of listening to her epic story, she knew she had to at least attempt to look like she was listening or Catherine might notice and ask what's wrong.

And that question would just be too much for Molly because how would she answer? How could she possibly give an answer to her friend when all the things that were wrong could never be fixed? The helplessness she felt was bad enough. She had no interest in spreading it to others. Especially to others like Catherine, who did not deserve to feel useless.

So, even as her inner thoughts deafened her ears, Molly did her best to keep her friend talking by humming and nodding her head with the occasional smile as her brothers so helpfully posed a question or added in their own bit every once in a while. And it was thanks to her small acts, and the help of her brothers, that Molly could think of all the people back at Hogwarts, all of her friends, housemates, professors, and even the other students.

How would they look at Molly? Did they know what had happened to her? She really, really hoped not, but somehow, she just knew she wouldn't be so lucky.

And what of Arthur? She'd tried writing him a thousand times over while recovering at home, yet she hadn't managed to send him a single letter, and he hadn't sent her one either. Did that mean they were through? Part of her hoped so, but, mostly, she clung to the fact there'd been no break up letters as a sign that when she returned to Hogwarts, they could go on and be the happy couple they'd always been.

Unlike Arthur, Catherine and Mabel had sent her a few at the beginning, but when Molly had failed to respond, they'd stopped. Noel hadn't sent anything and it made Molly very fearful for what the other girl might have said to their housemates and non-housemates alike about her. Did she tell everyone what had happened? Had she denounced Molly as a vile girl and murderer?

She hoped Noel hadn't. After all, Catherine seemed quite happy to see her and even though she seemed a little surprised by Molly's return to Hogwarts, she looked quite excited at the prospect of having her back at school. Molly was suddenly startled from her reverie when she felt a warm hand wrap around hers.

Meeting her friend's gaze, Molly was awed by the tenderness she saw in Catherine's silver eyes.

"Molly, I'm so happy you're okay. When we found you that morning… I was scared – we all were – that we'd never see you again. You're one of our best mates and it's just so–" Catherine dried her eyes with the sleeve of her robe and smiled. "I don't care what happened then or if what they say is true about you doing it on purpose. I know you, Molly; you wouldn't have done something so terrible unless you thought you absolutely had to. So, no matter what happens, I'm standing by you. All of us will, me, Mabel and Noel."

"Thank you," Molly replied in barely more of a whisper as she blinked back tears of her own. "Thank you for thinking so well of me and trusting my reasoning for doing what I did. It means so much to me. Thank you for being such a good friend when I know I've been a rotten one for not writing you or anything."

Catherine offered Molly a handkerchief. "It's no trouble, Molly. What are friends for?"

Reaching out, Molly ignored the handkerchief in favor of hugging Catherine. The other did not hesitate to return the embrace and Molly knew if nothing else, Catherine would be a best mate for life and that as long as she had her and her brothers by her side at Hogwarts, she'd make it to graduation.

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

Her return to Hogwarts, as she'd expected, was met with a great deal of staring and whispers and while Catherine stood steady beside her through it all, the same could not be said for Noel or Mabel. When she'd come into their dorm that first evening, the brunette had given her a look of pure disgust.

"They let you come back?" Noel sneered.

Molly had gone stiff, face burning with embarrassment as she considered running out of the dorm altogether. She probably would have, if Catherine hadn't fulfilled her promise by taking her hand and saying, "Of course she did, Noel! She deserves an education just like everyone else!"

This had not appeased the brunette in the slightest. Crossing her arms, Noel scoffed. "I thought you were just trying to be polite before, but I can see now that you truly are daft, Catherine! She murdered her baby, she doesn't deserve anything besides a one-way trip to Azkaban!"

Molly flinched. She couldn't say she hadn't thought the same a few times while recuperating at home, but she'd also made sure to remind herself she'd done it all with a reason in mind. Molly hadn't been ready to be a mum to any baby and to have it would have been terribly unfair to the little one. Who knew what kind of life it would have led?

It would have suffered from her mistakes and ineptitude, and that was something she'd wanted to spare her children of more than anything else.

"That's a cruel thing to say, Noel," Mabel spoke up. "Maybe we don't like what she did, and I don't – sorry, Molly – but I'm sure there was a reason for it. "

The look Molly's pixie-nosed friend sent her was hopeful and begging her to give reason so she could be proven right, but Molly couldn't do that. It hurt enough to keep acknowledging it like she was. The best she could do, she thought, was to leave the lost child in the past and think instead of what she wanted to do instead of being a mother.

"There was," Catherine agreed for Molly. "And she doesn't have to say what it was, because it's Molly's business!"

Noel flipped a lock of her brown hair and turned her back. "Fine, whatever, if you two want to be friends with a killer, so be it! But I won't be!"

Mabel sent Catherine a hurt expression before turning her back on them in favor of standing by Noel. Blinking, Molly eventually moved forward and put her trunk down in front of her bed. It seemed they weren't a cozy quartet anymore, but two opposing pairs.

"That's fine, we don't need either of you, do we, Molly?" Catherine declared.

Shaking her head at her best mate, she sent her a tired, relieved smile. "No, all we need is each other."

Nodding, Catherine offered, "How about we change and head down for dinner?"

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

It was that row, Molly believed, that had led her to the situation she was in now. After her friendship with Mabel and Noel fell apart, she'd actively began to avoid her boyfriend, simply so she could put off what seemed like an impending break-up. But that had turned him desperate. It was also why she was now alone with Arthur in an empty classroom, him nervously hovering in front of the doorway, blocking her escape. Molly bet, if she really wanted to, she could push past him without consequence, but she also felt if she did so, their relationship would be done.

Molly was tired of losing things. First it'd been the baby, then the ability to have any more babies, next her father's warmth and mother's approval, followed by her friendships with Noel and Mabel. Adding Arthur to the list was the last thing she wanted and she knew she was in the precarious situation of that happening if she didn't proceed with care in how she spoke with him.

"You've been avoiding me," he told her in a cracking, uncertain voice.

Arthur was right, of course. Fleetingly, she wondered if she'd come clean right away, would she feel so horribly close to losing the one boy she loved most in the entire world?

Her fingers were going to twist the promise ring from Arthur she still wore, despite the turbulence her heart was in, Molly whispered, "I'm sorry."

"They've been saying a lot of things, Molly. How much of it is true?" Arthur asked.

Hesitantly, Molly looked up. The hardness in his sapphire blue eyes was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It scared her. "I was pregnant," she confessed. "I… I aborted it when I found out."

"Why?" Arthur demanded, his face crumpling right before her very eyes. "Why would you do such an awful thing? Why didn't you tell me first? I would have married you, Molly. I would have taken care of you and the baby!" he finished in a shout, hands balled into fists from his fury.

Molly took a step toward the distraught boy, hoping to get him to understand before he was too angry to see reason. "I'll admit, it might have been a bit of selfishness on my part," she explained. "I knew I wasn't ready to be a mum. I wasn't ready to put the baby through a lifetime of whispers that would have made them question their very existence and I wasn't ready to ruin your life, either, Arthur." When he opened his mouth to say something, Molly channeled her own rage into shrill scream, "Don't you dare say anything, Arthur Weasley! I'm not done!"

The boy clamped his mouth shut, a flash of fear coming to the blue eyes that were so lovely to stare in. Covering her face in shame, Molly whimpered, "You can tell me over and over that it wouldn't have ruined your life, but I know it would have. You have dreams, Arthur. Don't you remember, Arthur? You told me enough times that I remember, anyway.

"You said you wanted to visit the muggle world and figure out how a car worked and what a tell-a-vishan was. You wanted to get a little bit ahead in the Ministry before we got married, so we could live in a nice house and not some mish-mash shack like your family does because they rushed into marriage and children…"

Curling into herself, Molly just cried. Arthur would get to do almost all of those things now that there would be no baby, but for them, there wouldn't be any more children. Not unless they adopted and Molly greatly feared they wouldn't even get a chance to do that if they did a thorough background check. How would it look to an agency or even a pair of parents giving up their baby if they knew she'd aborted her own?

It would seem quite unsavoury, she imagined.

The sound of footsteps on the stone floors of the classroom meant little to Molly as she imagined they were heading for the door. But, when she felt a pair of loving, warm arms wrap around her, the girl wailed even louder.

"You remember all that, huh?" Arthur whispered as he stroked her hair. "I always thought you were the girl for me, but, Merlin, if I ever needed anymore proof…"

Looking up from her hands, Molly sniffed, "There's one more thing. It'll probably change your mind about me being the one for you, but I won't lie to you or keep anything from you anymore. It was bloody disgusting what I did, and I learned my lesson. Arthur, when I aborted the baby, it damaged me to the point that I can't carry any more children. So, even if we do get past this as a couple, we won't ever be able to have any more babies together."

The stricken look that overcame the boy's face made her try and pull away. Surely, it meant he didn't want her anymore. After all, what man wanted a barren, lying, baby-killer woman for a girlfriend – let alone a wife?

"Hey, hey," Arthur murmured as he strengthened his embrace and kissed her forehead. "Merlin, it's terrible news. But you know what? We can make do. Maybe we won't have a baby, but that doesn't mean we won't ever have any little ones to love. My older brother, he's got a tyke already and is expecting another. My sister's just married too, so I bet she'll be having a baby soon enough too. We can be the fun uncle and aunt they want to come and spend their weekends at. That'll be great, don't you think? And what about my little brother Billius and your brothers? Someday, they'll have children too. We're going to have a real ball with all those lads and lasses. And you know the best part? We'll always get to return them to their parents after supper."

Molly touched his cheek. "Merlin, I don't deserve you," she said. "You're too good for me. I've lied, killed your baby, and even told you we can't ever have any more and you still want to be with me? You must be a real angel, Arthur Weasley."

"You still love me, don't you? Even though I got you up the duff and that's what put you in this mess."

Kissing him, Molly agreed, "I do love you. I love you so much, but you deserve better than m–"

Arthur crashed his mouth into hers and effectively stopped her from insulting herself once again. When he finally pulled away, the set of his features was as serious as she'd ever seen them. "Molly, you're the girl for me. I don't want you to try and change my mind, okay? I know you are, and that's why–" He pulled away then, hand disappearing into his robe.

Gasping, Molly shook her head. "No! Oh Arthur!"

A simple gold eternity knot ring shined against the red velvet box it resided in.

"Marry me, Molly," the boy pleaded. "I love you, and I swear I always will – no matter what."

Hesitantly, Molly took the ring from its box and slipped it on the hand with her promise ring. Staring at the contrasting gold and silver bands, she lunged forward and brought her fiancé into a deep embrace.

This was better than she could have ever hoped for. Not only could Arthur see past her vile act but he could still imagine a future for them as a couple. Molly knew even now that they were engaged, everything would not be easy, but because they'd made it past this, Molly was certain they could make it through everything else as well.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please vote and comment!