Weasley Family Fallout

Chapter 7: Getting Better?

Molly Weasley took a deep breath as she stood in the narrow hallway, her fist hovering in front of the door.

She had to sneak out of her own house; it was quite pathetic really, sneaking out of your own house. It's not like her kids could control where she went or what she did, but they would have asked questions and if they had known what she was doing they would have never allowed her to leave.

This was the last and least likely place she could think of that could possibly have any contact with her husband. Everywhere else she had searched was a miss – all the pubs, inns, and open shops she could think of. She doubted he would have gone to a friend's house or back to the Ministry.

Well, if Arthur wasn't here she could at least make amends with her son, even though, now she thought about it, he would have come back by now if he wanted to. She had to try at least, and if everything worked out, she could get him to check on his dad at work the next day.

Finally, she knocked.

There was no answer.

She knocked again, this time a bit harder.

Now a familiar voice answered from the other side. "Who's there?"

"It's me," Molly called back, hesitating from fear of his reaction before adding, "Your mum."

It took several seconds before the door opened slowly to reveal her estranged son, tall and handsome, and so grown up. She had to resist her instinctive urge to give him one of her legendary bear hugs, not wanting to get pushed away and hurt again. Percy would have to make the first move.

"M-Mum," he said nervously, glancing at something hidden by the door. "Um. What are – What are you doing here?"

Suspecting she had interrupted something, perhaps with a girl, she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had a visitor."

"No, you didn't interrupt anything. Is everything okay? How are you?"

"Um, yes. I'm fine. Actually, I had a favor to ask you."

"Wait. There's something I need to say first." He paused. "I'm sorry. I really am. Can you ever forgive –"

Before Percy could finish, his mum enveloped him in one of the biggest hugs he had ever gotten.

"Of course, of course." She stepped back and took his cheek in her hand. "You don't know how long I've wanted this."

"You don't know how long I've wanted to come back....but, uh, anyway. You had a favor to ask?"

Molly's cheerfulness faded almost immediately. It was clear something was really bothering her, and Percy thought he knew what.

"I was wondering if you could check on your father at work tomorrow. We had a fight this afternoon and I –"

"I know," Percy interrupted.

"What?"

"I know. I ran into him outside – quite literally, I might add. But, do you not want to check on him yourself?" Percy glanced behind the door again. There was definitely something going on that Molly didn't know about, but she ignored it.

"You saw him? How is he? I've looked everywhere for him, but I haven't had any luck."

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Just then Arthur appeared in the doorway behind Percy.

"I didn't think you wanted to see me."

"I...overreacted."

"No, you didn't. That's exactly how you should've reacted."

Percy silently excused himself back into his flat in order to give his parents some privacy.

"I am truly sorry, Molly. What I did was..."

"Of course you are, and of course it won't happen again." Molly dismissed his apology. This had happened enough by now that she knew exactly what he was going to say. "Just come home. And let's work things out this time."

Arthur swallowed. "You know I'm not ready to talk about everything yet."

"We don't have to talk about everything. We can start with what you said in the shed."

Arthur turned his attention to his feet.

"I thought about what you said. We're not going to throw away thirty years, but in order to do that we have to talk." Molly lifted her husband's chin to look her in the eyes. "Whatever is bothering you is causing this. So, come home and let's fix this, once and for all."

He opened his mouth to protest but apparently thought twice about what he was going to say when Molly gave him a reassuring look. Instead, he nodded his head and agreed.

"It's too late to talk about things now, so the two of you come over after work tomorrow. I'll let the kids know what's going on, and we'll work everything out then."

"I'm not talking with them about what I said. Just you."

"We're not talking to them about that. We're going to talk about Percy," Molly lied. Their kids needed to know what was bothering their dad in order for anything to change. Maybe they even had some similar feelings about the last few weeks.

ooOoo

Whatever Molly had told her children, it worked. Although dinner was tense, everyone was civil and attempted light conversation. Percy was quickly accepted back by all his siblings, though Ron took a little longer. It was clear Ron, Charlie, and Bill did not want their father there; Ron and Charlie refused to even look at their father if they could help it.

After what felt like hours, dinner was finally over.

"Okay," Molly said as she cleared the table with the wave of her wand. "We've all had a rough go of it these last few weeks, and we've each coped with things in our own way. But it doesn't seem we've thought about how our actions affect each other."

Arthur thought he knew where this was headed....and he was right.

Molly continued. "Your father has –"

"Oh, don't go making excuses for him," Ron blurted.

Arthur leaned over to his wife and hissed in her ear, "I'm not talking to them about this. You said we wouldn't talk to them about this."

"That's the only way to fix this, Arthur," she hissed back.

"Well, you can fix it without me. I'll be upstairs." Arthur began to stand but Molly grabbed his hand.

"No, you're staying here." She gave him one of those you-have-no-choice looks. and he immediately sat back down, sinking as far into his wooden chair as possible.

She turned back to the rest of her family. "Look, I'm not making excuses for anyone. It's just about time that some sense of normalcy returned. There are several things that need to be discussed."

Opposed to other family meetings that usually lasted no more than twenty minutes, this one spanned an hour, much to Arthur's chagrin. No matter what was discussed, Arthur knew this meeting was centered around him. Charlie finally told his family that he went to help rebuild the castle every day, Bill and Fleur said they were planning on moving back to Shell Cottage within the month, and George confessed he wasn't quite ready to reopen the joke shop even though it was no secret. By the end of the meeting, everyone realized how their actions were affecting not only their father but their siblings as well, and they all agreed getting back to normal as much as possible was the best solution to these problems.

Things were finally looking up...or so it seemed.