Escape ↣ Harmione

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter 62 - The End

28th February 1998

Molly sat at the kitchen table of her home and listened to the quiet. It wasn't truly quiet. The birds sang outside, and the house timbers creaked as they were wont to do, but the sounds of her home were silent. She had born and raised seven children. The last of them at Hogwarts, the rest out in the world, making their way, and she was proud of that. Few families could boast as many sons, and if they looked down at Arthur and herself for being poor, she'd most likely point out that they were rich in the ways that mattered.

The events of the last week wearied her; Molly could admit to herself that she wanted the fighting over and she could also acknowledge that it wasn't. The newspapers spread before her were proof of that. She, like everyone else, had been caught off-guard by the article in the Prophet. She'd owled the Order members including Dumbledore. They had all come back expressing how they hadn't known or expected it. Kingsley hadn't replied, but as the Minister of Magic, she'd half expected that he would be busy, but she was also cross with him. He was the Minister of Magic. He should be reining this Skeeter woman in. Not allowing her to corrupt Harry's version of events, if that was even what the account was.

When Wednesday's edition arrived with its interview with Hermione, Molly had felt her ire rise. Molly had taken Hermione in, tried to show her and Harry both, how magical families were. How different they both were to the Muggle homes they had come from. She couldn't help but feel a wash of bitterness at the parts of the article where Hermione had praised her parents understanding and acceptance. How could they understand? They were Muggles, and poor Harry had been taken in by them as well. That boy, who'd barely known what it was to have a family had been taken from his rightful world by an act of chivalry and was forced to live with Muggles, it was shameful. Oh, they had both made mention of the kindness of the Weasley family, but to Molly, it had read like lip service.

Molly had the wherewithal to know herself enough to know she felt stung, pushed aside, that the care she had given both had been nothing to that of a pair of Muggles. That same couple of Muggles had put Harry at risk, and for that Molly could not forgive them. They might have been well-meaning but they were Muggles, and they had in their ignorance put Harry's life at risk.

It stung more to realise that the Muggles had been in her home. Had spoken to Minerva and Severus as people they were well acquainted with, and that the same Helen Granger, who had taken Harry from Molly had had the audacity to threaten Albus Dumbledore in Molly's kitchen. The more she reflected on that, the more embarrassed Molly was for the woman. She surely couldn't have known who Albus was despite her words.

Thursday and Friday's editions had shocked her to the core. It was evident from the tone of all four interviews; if you could as far as to call them interviews, that they were out for blood. Molly thought they were no more than slanderous attacks on Albus and his efforts to bring them through the dangers of the war with You-Know-Who. This Skeeter woman was once again out to paint Albus in a poor light and had dragged the name of Hogwarts through the mud to do so.

Arthur had told her about the work going on at the Ministry. How Bill volunteered to help and she was proud of her eldest son. Proud that he was a principled young man, still dedicated to fighting for the light. She was concerned that he hadn't answered her owls or confirmed that he would be home for Sunday lunch at the Burrow but he had been busy, she could accept that.

Arthur had also told her of how inside the Ministry, Skeeter's work had become accepted as the truth. How there had been mutterings and murmurings that as bad as You-Know-Who had been, Albus was as guilty of interfering and swaying policies for his purposes.

Molly scoffed to herself, Albus was working for the betterment of society. With people like Malfoy pulling strings inside the Ministry, without Albus to offer a check and balance they would have been lost.