Weasley Family Fallout

Chapter 10: Family Dinner

Having left the kids to their shenanigans in the village, Molly climbed the grassy slope that led to her crooked home.

Arthur was sitting at the kitchen table in his worn out blue house robe when Molly entered.

"Good afternoon, love," she greeted cheerfully as she made her way to the counter.

"Today was beautiful down in the village," she began as she started pulling groceries out of her bag which had an expansion charm on it. "The weather was very nice with a light, cool breeze every once in a while. The kids were about to go meet Percy and his girlfriend in Diagon Alley when I left."

Without a word of acknowledgement, Arthur stood up with his mug, chair scratching the floor, to leave the room.

"Arthur?"

His wife's gentle voice stopped him before he could open the door to the sitting room.

Without facing her, he replied, "I want to be alone." It wasn't an angry or forceful tone he used, but more of a defeated and tired one.

"Love -"

"Goddammit, woman!" he said angrily through gritted teeth. At the same time his mug began a vertical race to the floor where the prize was destruction. It took both of them by surprise as the shattering of porcelain rang throughout the quiet house as neither had expected him to throw it. "Can I not have any fucking time to myself?"

When no words of protest came, Arthur disappeared through the door, leaving a bewildered, and somewhat upset, Molly in his wake.

Molly made her way to the shattered mug. As soon as she saw him, she was suspicious of what he was drinking. Of course there should be trust in any relationship, but with Arthur getting drunk just a few hours prior and everything else that had happened in previous weeks, she had lost almost all trust in him. Before repairing the mug, she found a piece that had a few drops of liquid still in it. Molly dipped her pinky in the brown substance. Before tasting it, she noticed that it smelled only of tea. Contrary to her nose, her mouth told her a different story. It tasted strongly of firewhiskey with only a hint of tea. It was clear Arthur had used a spell in order to disguise his drink in case something like this happened.

She pushed her worries to the back of her mind as she went back to putting up groceries. There was no time to think about what she should do or what would happen now. The kids would be back in three hours with a special guest and she still had to straighten the house and cook dinner.

OoOoO

As pops of Apparition resounded through the house, Molly knew her gaggle of kids were home and, more than likely, very hungry.

Before she knew it, her kitchen was packed full. Luckily, most of the kids were only passing through to greet her then go to the sitting room.

Percy waited for the flood of redheads to die down before bringing his girlfriend to meet his mum.

"Audrey this is my mum. Mum this is Audrey," he introduced in a professional manner.

Audrey stuck out her hand, but Molly, unsurprisingly, went in for a hug.

As she stepped back, Molly beamed and said, "It's nice to finally meet you, dear."

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Weasley," Audrey reciprocated.

"Please, call me Molly," the middle-aged woman insisted.

Audrey smiled shyly.

Looking around, Percy asked where his father was.