Chapter 5

After arriving home Arthur sent the children up to their rooms telling them that he would call them down in a few hours, by lunch time at the latest. Setting his shoulders the Weasley head realized that the time had come to have a word with his wife about her actions and the way she had run the household for the last few years.

Molly Weasley was in the kitchen checking the stock of the pantry, with five of her children home unexpectedly she needed to make a run to the market in order to be sure she had enough so that her children, especially her little Ronnie, didn't go hungry. So focused on her task, Molly didn't hear her husband come up behind her.

"Molly, given the way things stand as of late it is obvious that some changes will have to be made around here in order for our family to survive. As it stands now it doesn't look like I will be able to get hired in the wizarding world in any meaningful capacity. What with my firing from the ministry and the fact that people like Lucius Malfoy, not to mention the Prophet have been spreading the story of what Ron's done to Hogwarts." Holding his hand up to forestall Molly's defense of Ron's action, Arthur continued, "I will be trying to get a job in the muggle world at least temporarily, until I can be re-employed in the wizarding world."

Molly frowned as she listened to her husband, while she could sympathies with the difficulties that her husband was facing, a good part of her thought that he was using the tragedy that they were currently in as a way to mess around in the muggle world. The Weasley matriarch's attentions was brought back to her husband when he said something that she thought she misheard, which greatly displeased her.

"Arthur, dear, could you repeat that please." Molly requested in a dangerous tone of voice. Arthur rolled his eyes and responded to his wife.

"As I said before, given the fact that what our son did has seemed to have made me unemployable right now, you will have to go out and get a job so that we can feed our family and keep a roof over our head." Before Molly could respond Arthur continued.

"I know we agreed that you would stay at home and take care of the children while I went to work and provided for our family, but things are a bit different now. We don't know how much my presumed inability to be gainfully employed at the ministry might branch out and keep me from being employed in any meaningful way in the British wizarding world proper. What this might mean is that I would have to either get a job in a neighboring country or try my luck in the muggle world." Having stated his case, Arthur stayed silent, hoping that his face didn't give away how much he was looking forward to going out into the muggle world to try to find a job.

Molly sat in her seat fuming, this was all Arthur's fault. If he hadn't started fiddling around with enchanting muggle junk, that car in particular, then none of this would have happened. With that thought still percolating in her mind, Molly got out of the chair she was in and, ignoring her husband's questions about where she was going marched out to the back of The Burrow.

Coming upon Arthur's shed, filled with all of his muggle rubbish, Molly raised her wand and cast Fiendfire. As the semi-living flame jump from her wand Arthur rushed past her casting all sorts of water, wind, and freezing spells but it was all for naught. As the married couple stood and watched, one with a look of mingled disbelief and horror the other with a look of triumph and satisfaction on their faces the shed which Arthur kept all of his 'interesting' objects in, including his plug collection was soon a sooty ruin. As he came to grips with the horrific action that happened, Arthur turned to his wife.

Standing in the back of the Burrow, feeling the something was finally going right, Molly was shock when she was hit with a Petrificus Totalus (Full Body-Bind) and her whole body seized up, with her legs together and her arms forced down at her sizes. As she lied fuming, on the ground Arthur came up to her. Bending over her form he began to speak.

"Allow me to add one addition to your necessary responsibilities; when you are not out looking for a job your wand will be stored in a warded box that you will have access to twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You've grown too complacent and seem to think yourself the head of this family. Now admittedly some of the fault rests on my shoulders as I've let you get away with much more then you should in regards to your actions and way you speak, both to me and to our child for the sake of a relatively peaceful, happy life. However, if letting you raise our children without my input leads to what Ron cause to happen to Hogwarts and our family, it would appear that I need to step in and make sure all of the children are treated equally with tolerance and understanding of their differences not your habit of screaming your head off while you try to browbeat our children into becoming duplicates of Percy." Arthur stopped to take a breath, because for the first time ever he wanted to hex his wife, worse than the Petrificus Totalus.

Even if she had the capacity for speech, Molly would have been shocked silent as she laid there and listened to what her husband was saying. Percy, he was the only one of her sons that behaved properly and wanted a job in the ministry when he got out of Hogwarts, why wouldn't she want to make her other children behave like him. Molly made herself calm down, sure that she would have time to get back at Arthur for his actions today. As she laid there, contemplating her revenge, Molly heard Arthur call for their children to come down. Shortly after that his shadow fell over her as he bent down to talk to her.

"In a few minutes I will remove the body bind I placed you in, however, you will keep a civil tongue in your head or I will call upon the head of house magics to enforce my will on you in front of our children. From what I remember of my childhood the Weasley Head of House magics are not pleasant when you're the recipient of them as a punishment." Here Arthur swished his wand and Molly was able to move her limbs again.

Molly got up off of the floor, casting a glare at Arthur. She did not try anything, however as Arthur had his wand out and casually pointed in her direction with the tip glowing in a show of his power and emotion.

As Molly led the way into The Burrow the main sensation she was felling was shock and rage, she couldn't believe that Arthur was treating her in this manner. One of the main reasons that she had chosen him as her husband back when they were both at Hogwarts was that Arthur seem to be a more pliable man than any of her other prospects. His actions to her today was still something that Molly was having trouble wrapping her head around, with how out of character they were.

As he crossed the threshold of the Burrow, Arthur was running the last twenty-seven years in his head, he didn't like what he had come up with. He had let Molly get away with far too much in the interest of familial harmony. Upon reaching the threshold of the Burrow, Arthur had a flash of memory of him telling his dearly departed mother, Cerella Weasley nee Black, about his planed wedding to Molly. Cerella had warned Arthur about proposing to Molly, stating how 'Molly was too headstrong and impertinent to be a proper Weasley wife. Thinking about it now, Arthur had to admit that his mum may have had it right, what with how Molly seemingly could not keep quiet and would inject her opinion in whether it was warranted or not.

Shaking his head free from troubling thoughts Arthur used a Sticking charm to affix Molly to her chair at the kitchen table and went up the stairs. Stopping in front of Percy's door, Arthur went over his plan for explaining the future of the Weasley family to his children one more time and realize that he need to get Percy on board before bring them down stair or he would have a much rougher go of it. Centering himself, Arthur knocked on his son's door a waited to be granted entrance.

Percy was sitting at his desk writing to his presumptive girlfriend in Ravenclaw, Penelope Clearwater. The two of them had gotten along quite well on a cross house project for their charm class last year, and had made an effort to stay in touch over the summer. On the Hogwarts Express this year, the two of them, during their rounds had agreed to go to the first Hogsmead's weekend together with their friends. Penny wanted to go separately, just them, but Percy was somewhat nervous what Fred and George's reactions would be and hoped to ease them into slowly with a group date so that by the time the twins realize that Percy was dating someone the significant would be lessened. Actually Percy hoped that when F & G found out about the relationship it would have been progressing for so long that it wouldn't make sense for the twins to react to the situation and had pushed for them going to Hogwarts with friends from both houses. In any cases, recent events had put any sort of dating on hold for the future.

As he called Hermes over, Percy felt certain that Penelope would abide by his wishes and not mention anything about their burgeoning relationship to anyone at Hogwarts. As Hermes alighted on his desk, Percy tied the letter to his owl's leg. Carrying Hermes over to the window, Percy gave the owl its instructions.

"Fly as fast as you can to Hogwarts and deliver this to Penelope, Hermes. If she wants to send a response that wait for it, otherwise come back home immediately." As Percy watched his owl fly away he heard a knock on his door, bidding the person entrance he was shocked to see his father with a very serious look on his face.

"Family meeting in the sitting room, Percy." Arthur told his son. Percy was about to protest, given what had happened throughout the day he felt he deserved time to reflect and consider his options in the wizarding world going forward. As he looked up to do that, Percy noticed that his father was no longer there. Shrugging his shoulders, the middle son of Arthur and Molly got up and started for the sitting room.

As Percy walked down the stairs he realize that with this disruption of his sixth year at Hogwarts he would have a hard time getting any job at the ministry, save perhaps working in the Misuse of Muggle Artifact Office under his father's old co-worker Perkins. Percy shuddered at the thought of having to work at such a low thought of position. He planned to be Minister of Magic someday, how could he do that if he didn't even finish his sixth year at Hogwarts. As he got to the kitchen, Percy swore to himself then and there to do whatever it took to redeem himself and his family in the eyes of the British wizarding world.

As he thought about it some more, Percy realized that it wasn't just his immediate employment that he need to worry about. Percy had just started courting Penelope Clearwater, sixth year Ravenclaw, Half-blood, whose father was high in the Ministry in the International Magical Trading Standing Body. This was a sub-division of The Department of International Magical Cooperation, admittedly not the most glamorous position but better than The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts were his dad worked, and more importantly a decent stepping stone to his grand plan of lifting the Weasley family out of poverty and shame by becoming Minister of Magic.

Courting the daughter of a midlevel ministry employee, such as Penelope, was a perfect step towards his goal of becoming Minister. After he graduates Hogwarts and payed his dues in the Ministry, by working in some low level, yet still prestigious position, Percy would be realize for his work ethic and pureblood background and promoted to a better more meaningful position. This would be the time to break up with Penelope and find a pureblood daughter of a higher ranking minister member to start courting. After a few more years, after having been promoted to a position either in the Minister's staff or at least Amelia Bones' staff Percy would work to become the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. Working as an Undersecretary, Percy would be able to observe the working of the Ministry at the right hand of the Minister himself, gaining experience that he would be able to use when he finally launched his own bid for Minister. At least that was his plan, Percy couldn't see it working out now that he'd been removed from Hogwarts and most likely had his prefectship stripped.

Realizing how all of his plans for the future were now ruined, Percy couldn't decide with whom he was more angry with; his father for illegally enchanting the muggle vehicle to begin with or his brother Ron for stealing the auto and then not only be so careless as to reveal the auto to so many people, both magical and muggle but to use it to destroy part of Hogwart as well.

As he entered the kitchen, Percy saw Ron and without even thinking about it, his wand was in his hand and a spell was on his tongue. Before he was able to completely pronounce the curse his wand was summoned out of his hand, following the wand's trajectory, Percy observed it flying into his mother hand after which she stuffed in the pocket of her apron along with her own wand. Dutifully chastised for the time being, but vowing revenge on Ron, Percy took a seat besides Ginny and look towards the head of the table where his mother moved to stand with his father. Seeing that all of his children's eyes were upon him, Arthur Weasley opened up his mouth and spoke.

"I realize that this is a trying time for all of us, however we can't give into our anger and let our baser instincts take over. It an unfortunate fact that Ron stole my Ford Anglia and used it to try to get to Hogwarts calmly and safely. Instead, Ron crashed through the ceiling of Hogwarts' Great Hall, something your mother and I are dutifully required to pay for. Also, as a result of Ron's actions I've been fired from the ministry and the muggles will be spending the next few month's trying to figure out what to believe about Ronald's flying the car to Hogwarts." Arthur had to momentarily pause his explanation in order to calm his wife, who had started to glare at Ron over his foolishness.

"Given what has happened to our family as a result of what has transpired at Hogwarts, I will begin to look in the muggle world for employment, until things have calmed down and I can get a job in the wizarding world again. That being said, we don't know how long it will take for me to get suitable employment, in either world, so your mother will begin looking for a job in the wizarding world." Here Arthur pause to take a sip of water that he had produced from his wand into a glass that he had summoned from the kitchen cabinet.

If one were to ask the children of Molly and Arthur how they were feeling after hearing their father's pronouncement, the prevailing response would be a combination of shock and fear. Those children that were feeling fearful were looking at their mum, as their dad was taking a drink and wasn't up to talking at the time.

Molly was ignoring her children in favor of glaring at her husband, with a darkening face and storm clouds surrounding her. She'd spent all of the last night in their silenced bedroom trying to get Arthur to see the mistake he was making to no avail. How was she supposed to make sure that her children were growing up right when she was being forced to work. It just wasn't proper, husbands work while wives stayed home and looked after the children and the house. She would be having words with Arthur when this was all over.

Arthur felt the weight of his wife's glare, but this wasn't the time to address it. Continuing with his speech he turned to the eldest of his son's that was in the room.

"Percy", Arthur started, ignoring the boy's frown at being address with a diminutive of his first name, "you're going to have to step up while your mother and I are out looking for employment. I was hoping you still had your notes from your pervious school years and would be willing to, if not actually set lessons, then do reviews over the basic principles and lessons that were discussed for your first, second and fourth years of education while I get in contact with Minerva and Albus to try to get information on what you would be taught this year, so that if we have to go the route of having all of you tested at the ministry the five of you should be able to do a good job at the end of the year."

Percy was annoyed by the fact that he had been pulled out of Hogwarts the year before his seventh and last year; how was he suppose the gain the position of Head Boy if he could show his mettle at Hogwarts. One might think that Percy's head would also be filled with thoughts of his new girlfriend Penelope Clearwater, but Percy had only started courting her in order to gain the attention of some better pureblood girls and show that he was in fact a prospective datable wizard after hearing the rumor that his was 'a wizard's wizard' with how he never looked at a witch, unless it was for academic reasons. Being taken out of school and forced to look after his siblings could be just the thing to get some of the witches from the better pureblood families to notice him, after all his mother was always going on about how women appreciate wizards who understand and can sympathize with their hardships. Coming out of his ruminations to notice that his father was waiting for an answer, Percy responded.

"Yes father, I would be more than happy to help my siblings make sure that they are still on task for when we go in for our end of the year tests." Percy stated with his head held high and his chest puffed out.

Seeing that being given some authority and responsibility of his younger siblings had lighten his middle son's expression, Arthur turn to his troublesome twins.

"Fred, George; I'm well aware of how much the two of you enjoy creating your own pranks and I hope to see you partnered with Zonko after you graduate from Hogwarts." Noticing the shocked look on nearly everyone in the kitchen, Arthur chuckled under his breath for a beat. While most everyone thought that Molly 'held the wand' so to speak, in regards to their marriage, the contract that she and Arthur signed when they got married was a traditional pureblood marriage contract. Meaning that Arthur was the head of the house by magical right and what he said, was the law of the land; it was just that he honestly and truly loved Molly and, with him being at the Ministry working, he felt it was easier for all that Molly be giving the right to have her say as far as the household went.

Looking at where they were now, Arthur realized that he was probably in the wrong, but people do strange things when they're in love. Feeling that he had given his family enough time to get their heads around what he had said, Arthur continued.

"After this meeting is concluded, I will make a firecall to the Headmaster to see what needs to be done in order to get you re-enrolled and back in school." Percy and Ginny started to feel more hopeful as their father spoke, what he said next caused them to sink back into depression. "For now you will be home schooled by me after lunch, in the mornings I will be out looking for a job in the muggle world to support our family. If I manage to get the five of you re-enrolled at Hogwarts, I expect you to be on your best behavior, any step out of line will see you home schooled, with your Aunt Muriel." Nodding at the horrified look on all of his children's faces, even Percy, Arthur was convince that while his children may have previously been the terrors of Hogwarts they would now be, if not perfect students, at least not ones that would get owls sent home roughly every three day. Having said everything he needed to, Arthur smiled gently and got up, decided to say one more thing before he left them to their thoughts.

"I've always been of the opinion the get times of struggle and difficulty brings out the best in any of us. I hope that you will use this time to reflect on yourself and your behavior and think about what you need to change to better yourself, not for societies sake, or your mother and I's but for yourself." Seeing that his children, especially Percy, seemed to have gone through just about as much shock as they can take, Arthur reached out, while getting up, clasped Percy on the shoulder and walked out of the room, leaving his children to their thoughts.

A/N: This is the chapter i had written and forgotten i'd written during the holidays. Having given it a brief polish and making it work with the narrative that i've currently wrote and posted.

A/N 2: Please review.