What Voldemort Left Behind

Chapter 26 - Molly's Thoughts

AUTHORS NOTE: So now its easter break so idk in what way that will affect my posting, i might be online more, or less, not sure yet but here is the next chapter of this, it's the shortest chapter i've written in a long time, it's only getting past 1000 words cause this note thing. This story is seriously taking me sooooooo much longer to write than i thought, i was sure i would finish in like february but it's now April and it's still nowhere near done 😂 anyway this story keeps getting more and more depressing but this Molly Weasley storyline has been in it since the start so it had to go in 😂

Molly's hands shook as she began to knit the next row of a sweater. She had started much earlier this year than usual because everything took her a little bit longer than it had before. Arthur was across from her reading the Daily Mail, a muggle newspaper he enjoyed. Molly had decided years ago not to bother him about the silly little muggle things, it was good in these new times to celebrate all types of people and it was nice to still have interests in their 70s.
Yesterday they had received horrible news about their family, Lily and Harry had both almost died as a result of Ministry workers covering up the escape of two Death Eaters in Azkaban. Molly wished she could do something to help but she had no energy to go out and she needed to be ready for a busy summer in a few weeks. Her old age was affecting her much more than she was letting on, and she knew she was dying. Arthur knew of course, even if she could hide it from him, she wouldn't, he was the person she could confide in that would always help her through while she fussed over the rest of the family. He understood completely her decision to postpone telling the family, although he would encourage her to if he thought she would listen, because there were people in her family who needed their help much more than she did. Her two youngest children, now adults, they had been through far too much in their teenage years and had never fully been able to recover from their firsthand experiences of having Voldemort invade their minds. Yes, she knew that Harry wasn't really her child but from the moment he came to stay with them after escaping his horrible aunt and uncle, he had been a son to her as much as Ron, or Fred, or Percy. Poor Harry was constantly suffering from reminders of his terrible past, he struggled with flashbacks to the point where they were causing him actual pain. Ginny was affected in the same way although nowhere as much as Harry and the two of them, always the protectors, found it difficult to take the time to take care of themselves. Eventually when their kids were young, Molly had stepped in to help and it had been that way ever since. The kids had grown up spending half of their time at the Burrow, often for weeks, so it had become their second home, even more than Hogwarts was to them. Harry and Ginny tried very hard not to rely on anyone else, to raise their children on their own and they could have, it just would have put a lot of strain on them that they really didn't need, Molly and Arthur were more than happy to ease the burden. Always the worrier, Molly noticed that over the years, Harry had always found it very difficult to accept that he didn't need to do everything all the time, he was constantly on guard trying to protect the people he loves from harm to the extent that according to Ginny who had confided her concerns to her mother a few years back, he couldn't sleep at night, couldn't relax and be happy. He would also take on all of the household chores that weren't Kreacher's much to Ginny's protests, as well as his full time job as an Auror that he felt a responsibility to take after the war. It had taken years of persuasion and help from both Molly and Ginny to make him realize that he needed to give up the career. Molly had also invited the Potters to stay at the Burrow as much as possible, here Harry could relax more easily and he was stopped from taking on a disproportionate amount of housework.

Before the war, Molly and Arthur had little money to spare, they had always made it work in the end but it was a struggle. Afterwards, they became quite well off because Arthur was paid a lot more for doing a lot less as their family became respected war heroes and they'd put the money to good use, extending their house as their family grew so that everyone was welcome to stay if they needed to, and they had also set up a charity to help victims of the war, it made them very happy to be in a position to give, rather than need. Nowadays their problems were different, as they got older they slowed down and had less energy than in their younger days, but they still tried to care for their family in any way they could, that was what parents and grandparents were for. It wasn't a full time job like it was when her own seven children were young, but this different time came with its own struggles. Molly cried when she found out that she was unwell, not for herself but because of the impacts it would have on her husband, all of her many children and grandchildren. She would tell them soon, but not yet, there was too much going on and she didn't want to add more things that would cause upset. She was scared to die and she would do everything she could to slow it down because she sensed her family weren't ready. She knew that was impossible, and even if she managed to prolong her death for a century, it still wouldn't be long enough, no one is ever ready for these things to happen but she wished she could leave the world in a better place than it currently was. She continued her knitting.