Scars

Monkeys, Uncoordinated Babies and Overgrown Carrots

"Yes now slowly- ah hell."

"I don't know why you're even trying to teach me this, Molly." Zella snorted, dropping the mangled pile of yarn into her lap. "I can't freaking knit!"

"Don't use that tone with me, Zella Langley!" Molly Weasley chided her with a playful tone, shaking her head. She met the younger girls gaze with a disapproving look, her hands moving wildly as she made quick work of a ball of yarn. "You're just not trying."

"Or maybe I just can't knit." Zella smirked as Molly took a deep breath.

"Why-"

"Mom, its like trying to teach an uncoordinated baby to ride a dragon." Ginny smirked in passing. "It can't happen."

"Well, Charlie proves it can!" Zella yelled after her, grinning as the thirteen year old Ginny laughed.

"I also apparently taught two monkeys how to choose friends well." Molly shook her head, amusement on her face.

"Monkeys?"

"Us?"

"Now that's just rude." The familiar voices of Zella's best friends caused her to sigh in relief. With a wink towards Molly, she shoved her horrible attempt at knitting off her lap and clambered over the sofa.

"Frederick! Georgene!" The two had recently returned from their punishment-cleaning out the attic- and looked positively haggard. Despite their unflattering dusting of soot, they both grinned at her.

"Have you two finished in the attic?" Molly stood up, raising an eyebrow at she stared at her sons. Zella was now leaning on George, brushing some suspicious black powder off of his shirt. Molly couldn't help but smile. She had known Adrienne Langley briefly in school, but as the woman was a few years younger than her, they had never really bonded. Of course, she had heard of her valiant fighting during the first wizarding war, as well as the woman's fathers large role in the battle. But she had never expected her two least well behaving sons to come home with Adriennes daughter in tow. The girl, mutilated from an incident that was unspeakably cruel, first met Molly when she was 11, a year younger than the twins. She was quiet, gorgeous, unassuming and extremely self conscious. It warmed Mollys heart to see Zella grow into her skin and become the confident, powerful young witch that stood before her today.

Fred and George exchanged quick smirks as they noticed their mothers doting gaze on Zella. They knew Molly could never be angry with them when she was around.

"No." They chorused.

"I- ugh." Molly shook her head. "I should've known you two didn't finish. No quidditch for you." Her glare softened as Zella sent her a pouty look, complete with the jutted lip and large eyes. The milky white eye, blinded in the attack had once made Molly uncomfortable but know was as normal as the other eggshell blue eye. "Oh, bloody hell. Just be back in time for dinner."

The three teenagers burst out of the house, running through the fields that surrounded it. A visit to the Burrow was just what Zella needed. With her mother becoming more and more evasive and the lack of friends in her town, she felt ecstatic. The Weasleys were practically her second family, especially so the twins. The three had quickly bonded, along with their fourth member, Lee Jordan in her first year of Hogwarts. Despite them being a year older than her, they had become attached at the hip almost immediately. 

Her mother wasn't completely overjoyed with the idea, more so because of the many, many detentions Zella had received in the company of the Weasleys. But one visit with Molly and Adrienne Langley was head over heels for the new friendship. Thus, Zella had become accustomed to spending parts of her summers with the Weasleys, but this year something was different.