PRONGSLET AND THE RETURN OF THE MARAUDERS (ON HOLD)

Chapter Thirteen

[Chapter Thirteen]

Sure that it was Molly who was crying upstairs, James travelled up the stairs to see what had caused the woman to become so upset in such a short matter of time. She seemed more than fine when it the company of the others, but James had to wonder if it was all a facade that the woman placed up for the sake of her family and the Order. Making his way to the first landing, James heard the sobbing become louder, it sounded like it was coming from the drawing room. Once again, he called out to the woman but he was met with no response. He thought about getting one of the members of the Order but decided against it. It would probably only raise more alarm if he got others involved. 

As he entered the room, James witnessed Molly, kneeling on the floor, with her wand in her shaking hand. Across from her on the floor, was the body of Ron, lying dead, bringing the mother to sob terribly as she kept her wand aim. For a moment, it caught James off guard, surely the woman didn't take to killing her own son and if he wasn't mistaken, Ron had still been downstairs enjoying the last bit of his celebration of becoming prefect. 

"R-r-riddikulus!" The woman stammered through her crying, earning a cracking sound from the end of her wand, directed at her son's body. Suddenly, James could only watch for a second as Ron's body flipped over and morphed into what appeared to be Bill, dead on his back. Each time the woman called out the Boggart-Banishing spell, it wasn't strong enough, leaving the creature to haunt the woman with clear visuals of her sons and her husband, all of them dead. And last, there was Harry, dead as well, leaving Molly to look absolutely shattered.

James stood still for a second, staring at the image of one of his sons lying dead before him. It made his heart ache, knowing that he had not been around to protect Harry, leaving his youngest open and vulnerable to the attack. Suddenly, as Molly made another attempt to rid of the Boggart, there was Milo as well and finally, James had to bring it to an end. He called out to the others, although he had already heard the sounds of people travelling up the stairs, alerted by Molly yelling previously. 

Settling himself in front of the woman, James made sure to block her vision of the Boggart so that she no longer had to witness such things. 

"Don't look at it, Molly," he urged the woman, " you know it's just a boggart. Don't look at it."

Suddenly, Remus entered the room first, his wand at the ready but before he could do anything, another shot of light brought an end to the boggart. Everyone looked over in the direction of which the light came, only to witness the goddess, Hestia taking her place to stand next to Molly. The goddess' hand came to rest on the woman's shoulder as she reassured Molly, that it was all true, it was only a Boggart, a creature that fed on the worst of fears. 

"I see them d-d-dead all the time!" Molly confessed as she peered up at Hestia. "All the t-t-time! I d-d-dream about it..."

Sirius entered, closing the door behind him as Hestia took control of the room to prevent anyone else from entering at the moment. It left Mad-Eye practically frozen in time for a moment as the goddess prevented him from discovering what was taking place.