rynne | [ficlet] Salt (Molly/Arthur, G)

Molly was baking, and humming a cheery tune along with the wireless, when Arthur came home.

"Hello, dear," she said, giving him a quick kiss while keeping her floury hands away from his robes. "My brothers said they wanted to come for dinner. Is that all right with you?"

Arthur returned the kiss, though he gave her a funny look, one she couldn't interpret despite their years of marriage, as he pulled back. "Gideon and Fabian?"

"Of course Gideon and Fabian; what other brothers do I have?" She Summoned a towel and wiped the flour off her hands. That funny look was still on Arthur's face, and it wasn't going away. "Arthur?"

"Molly." He took her shoulders, rubbed his thumbs gently against them. "Molly...I don't suppose there's an easy way to say this--"

Now Molly knew what that look meant. She could hear it in his voice. "Gideon and Fabian are dead, aren't they," she said flatly. It wasn't a question. Arthur bowed his head until his forehead rested against hers, and didn't answer. She stood there for a moment, letting the warmth of her husband brush against the new empty place inside her heart where her brothers had been, then, "I need to finish cooking," she said, and stepped back.

Arthur watched her worriedly, as if she was going to break. She wouldn't break, though. She was Molly Weasley, formerly Molly Prewett, mother of six with a seventh on the way, and she couldn't break. Her family needed her. What would the children and Arthur eat if she indulged herself in the tears stinging behind her eyes, and cried until there was nothing left in her?

She turned to the pan where her casserole was almost done. She busied herself in finishing it, and hoped it wouldn't be harmed by a slight salty wetness.