A/N – This fic will follow Molly and Arthur from their first meeting to past the OotP, to their grandchildren. This story was written before the release of Half-Blood Prince and before we learned that Molly's maiden name was Prewett.
Disclaimer – Harry Potter, et all belong to JK Rowling. I make no money from this. Promise. However, I do own the MacKenzie clan. They are mine!
Chapter One – Hogwarts, Year One"Maddox, Marvin, Matthew, Marcus, Magnus, Malcolm and Margaret get down stairs this instant!" cried Mrs. MacKenzie from the landing of the stairs.
Margaret MacKenzie sat on her bed and sighed. Margaret, known to the rest of the world as Molly, stroked her doll's hair. "We get to go to Hogwarts today, Dolly," she whispered.
"Why aren't you lot downstairs yet?" Molly heard her mum cry.
Slowly, Molly got off her bed. She had dreamed about this day for as long as she could remember. Today was the day that she would join her six older brothers on the Hogwarts Express.
There was a knock on the door. Molly turned and saw her oldest brother, Maddox standing in the doorway. "Do you need help with your trunk, Miss Molly?" he asked.
Molly nodded. Maddox was the only brother that really paid her any attention. The rest politely ignored her. But Maddox always made her feel special.
Maddox picked up her trunk with ease. "You haven't forgotten anything, have you, Miss Molly? Mum's not likely to be willing to send you anything you forgot," he said.
As Maddox went downstairs, Molly took one last look around her room. She had the smallest room in the house. Her brothers all shared a room; three sets of bunk beds. With a cry she realized that she had forgotten to pack Mister Bear. She was quite glad she remembered. Dolly would have been lonely.
She picked up her ratty looking teddy bear with love. She was going to share a room for the first time in her life; she desperately hoped that the girls would be nice. Molly was small for her age, and an easy target to teasers, since she was sensitive. She was also only ten years old, her birthday being in three weeks.
"Margaret, why are you holding us up?" her mum cried.
Molly ran downstairs holding Dolly and Mister Bear. Her brothers saw what she was holding and started snickering. Molly held her two friends to her closer. Her brothers liked to take them from her.
"Margaret," her mother scolded, "The bear or the doll. Not both." Molly's eyes widened at the thought of having to choose. She could never make a decision like that!
Molly stared at her mum, disbelieving, when there was a loud crash in the kitchen. Her mother hurried away to investigate. "Don't you lot move a muscle!" she yelled.
"Miss Molly, give me Dolly," Maddox whispered putting his wand back in his robe. Gratefully, Molly handed Maddox her doll and he hastily put Dolly in her trunk.
"Poor baby, can't go a day without her doll," teased Malcolm, Molly's least eldest brother.
Marvin added in a singsong voice, "Betcha Molly won't make any friends!"
"Baby Molly, baby Molly," Magnus started chanting, with Matthew and Marcus joining in.
"That's enough, you dolts, leave her alone," Maddox warned. "You pick on Molly anymore today and you'll deal with me, understood?"
Maddox had to come to Molly's defense quite often. Molly was different from the rest of her siblings in more ways than one. First she was the only girl, but she was also the only one with red hair. Her brothers all had dark brown hair. This caused her brothers to tease her and say she was adopted more times than Molly could count. Molly never paid any attention to that. She knew she was her mother's daughter. She and her mother shared the same color hair.
"Sorry, Molly," her brothers muttered under their breath. Her brothers knew not to cross Maddox. He was the biggest of all of them, being the oldest, but now that he was of age, he could do magic outside of school.
"The ghost must have done something," Molly's mother said. "Allright, we're flooing to King's station. Let's get started. First Maddox, followed by Molly, then the rest of you boys, in birth order."
The boys groaned. Everything had to be done in birth order. Half the time, Mum didn't call them by their names, it was "first born" or "fourth born."
A few minutes later, they were all at the station. Molly felt a tingle of anticipation go down her spine. For six years she had watched her brothers go through the wall to platform nine and three quarters. She could hardly believe that she was going to join them today.
"All right, Margaret, your turn to run," her mother said sternly.
Molly stared at the wall. Could she really just go through?
"Margaret, now! You're holding up the line!"
Molly took a deep breath, tightened her grip on Mister Bear, who was under her arm and started walking briskly with her trolley. As she came closer to the wall, she closed her eyes, convinced she was going to run into the brick. A second or two later, she opened them and saw the Hogwarts Express.
Standing where she was, her brothers passed through the wall one by one saying "See ya, Molly," or "Have a good trip." She looked around, unsure of what to do next. She saw Maddox talking to his friends Sam and Nigel. Cautiously she pushed her trolley to an area where there were plenty of other trolleys.
"Let's go sit down, Mister Bear," she said gently, looking around to see if there were other first years that had their own Mister Bear. There were none that she saw.
Without any ceremony, Molly MacKenzie walked up the steps of the Hogwarts Express. Having no one to sit with, she found an empty compartment near the end of the train. After a few minutes, in which she and Mister Bear wondered whether Dolly was getting enough air in the trunk, she felt a lurch and the train started moving.
She watched the landscape as it went from city to country. After about fifteen minutes there was a knock on the compartment door, it was Maddox.
"Miss Molly, you don't want to be sitting here all by yourself, do you?" he asked kindly.
She shook her head. "At least I have Mister Bear," she said softly.
Maddox took her hand and stood her up. "Let's find you a friend."
They walked slowly through the train hallway. "What about that group?" Maddox asked.
"They'd make fun of Mister Bear," she answered back.
They kept walking, "This group might be nice. Wait, they look like they'll all be in Slytherin. Just wait Miss Molly, you'll be in Gryffindor, just like the rest of us."
Finally, they reached a compartment near the front of the train. There was only one young boy, staring out the window. "He looks promising, Miss Molly. He even has the same color hair as you."
Molly nodded and let go of Maddox' hand. "Here's a galleon, Miss Molly. Buy something good off of the trolley," he told her, reaching down and giving her a hug. He then turned around and walked down the corridor.
Molly opened up the compartment door and looked at the skinny boy sitting there. "Hi," she whispered.
He looked at her curiously. "Hi yourself," he replied.
"May I sit here?" she asked.
"Please do, I didn't want to take the trip all by myself. What's you name?" he asked eagerly.
"Margaret MacKenzie. But everyone calls me Molly."
He grinned at her. "What's your bear's name?"
Molly tried to see if there was any teasing in the question. She decided he was just trying to be nice. "This is Mister Bear," she said proudly, "Who are you?"
"I'm Arthur Weasley."
88888
"Here comes the mail!" Emma Rookwood cried. It was three weeks later. As Maddox predicted, Molly had been placed in Gryffindor. Molly had been pleased with Hogwarts so far. She liked her classes, except for Transfiguration, which was very hard. But Professor Dumbledore, the professor, was very, very nice.
Molly had gathered a little circle of friends that suited her quite nicely. After being ignored by most of her brothers over the years, she wasn't sure if she would make many friends.
There was Emma Rookwood. Emma was quite a tomboy. She was tall for her age and her ultimate goal at Hogwarts was to be on the quidditch team. Blonde and very outspoken, she was a good match for Molly's quietness.
Aelecia Thorn was quieter, just like Molly. Aelecia was quite smart, but never was a show-off. She came from a long line of Healers, and knew that she would be one herself some day. Being not only smart, Aelecia was the beauty of the group, with long black hair and bright blue eyes.
At first Molly was worried about having a friend whose name started with the letter "M." But Michael Amada was as different as her brothers as could be. He was the class clown of Gryffindor; he loved playing jokes. He was also good looking, his dark skin reminded her of midnight.
Then there was Arthur Weasley. Molly and Arthur became instant friends on the Hogwarts Express. Arthur wasn't the best looking boy, but in Molly's opinion, he was the nicest. Arthur had been very worried about being in Gryffindor. Most of his family members were put in Hufflepuff, with an occasional Ravenclaw; Arthur was the first Gryffindor in the Weasley family.
Molly looked up at the owls expectantly. Today was her eleventh birthday. She was sure to get a great deal of cards. She hadn't told anyone in the group about her birthday yet.
After five minutes of owls constantly dropping off cards and packages, Arthur said brightly, "You're very popular today, Molly!"
She blushed and looked at her friends, "It's my birthday today," she said shyly. "I'm eleven."
There was a moment of silence between the group and then a chorus of "Happy Birthday!" "Why didn't you tell us?" Arthur asked.
"I didn't want anyone to make a fuss," Molly whispered.
"Molly, we'd want to make a fuss over you, that's what we're here for!" Aelecia scolded her.
"Don't worry, we'll make a fuss over you now!" Michael chided.
The rest of the day was quite nice. Maddox found her after breakfast and gave her a sash to wear for the day. It was pink, Molly's favorite color, and flashed "Birthday Girl" in many different colors. Molly proudly wore it over her school robes for the rest of the day. Her other brothers even came over through out the day and wished her a happy birthday.
At dinner, her friends all had last minute gifts for her. Michael had a house elf make a birthday cake. Emma gave her a coupon for a free tutorial flying lesson (Molly wasn't very good at flying). From Aelecia came a book that she always told Molly she had to borrow, "Will Wendy Whistle?" Arthur gave Molly her present last.
The package was soft and wrapped in parchment. She was about to rip the package open when she saw that Arthur had drawn pictures all over the parchment. Molly and Arthur on the Hogwarts Express. Molly with the sorting hat on her head. Molly learning how to hold her wand. "These are beautiful, Arthur!" she cried, opening the package as delicately as she could.
"Thanks," Arthur said, blushing. "I like to draw."
Wrapped inside the parchment was what looked to be a tiny cardigan. It was a dark green and had brown buttons. She looked at it curiously. "It's a sweater for Mister Bear, Molly. I took one of my sweaters and shrunk it," Arthur said proudly.
"You were able to shrink something?" Michael asked. "We haven't learned that yet!"
"I asked Professor Flitwick, he showed me what to do," Arthur said easily.
Molly looked at the sweater and threw her arms around Arthur, who was sitting next to her. "Thank you so much! This was the best birthday ever!"
88888
"I hate exams!" Arthur Weasley said. The end of the school year was rapidly approaching. Molly and her friends were studying for potions in the library.
The librarian, Madam Sonora glared at their table. Sheepishly, Arthur mouthed, "Sorry," to her. Emma giggled, "You're gonna get in trouble!"
"Can we please get back to work?" Aelecia said sternly. "Professor Birch won't be pleased if we fail her final."
"Aelecia, you're just worried in case you, gasp, don't get good enough grades to become a Healer," Michael teased.
"Say what you will, Michael. I will be the ninth generation of female Healers in my family. Can you even begin to imagine the pressure I'm under?" Aelecia shot back.
"I think we all need a break," Molly said as Aelecia started to open her mouth in protest. "We've been studying for three hours."
Everyone but Aelecia nodded enthusiastically, and started to place their books in their bags. There was indecision on what to do next. Aelecia announced that it bothered her that they would fail exams, but she was going up to the common room to study.
Emma and Michael decided to go to the quidditch pitch and see if someone would look the other way if they flew for a bit.
That left Arthur and Molly on their own. "Let's go outside," Molly said. "I need fresh air."
Arthur simply followed her outside. They walked to the lagoon and sat down. "Am I bossy?" Molly spurted out suddenly.
"Bossy?" Arthur asked.
"Emma told me the other day that I was getting too bossy for my own good. I was never bossy at home, I guess that's what happens when I'm away from my brothers," Molly pouted.
"Some people like to be bossed around, Molly," Arthur said. "Isn't that the whole point of work? Someone has to tell the people what to do."
Molly grinned and lay down on her stomach. "That's true. I bet I'll be a great boss someday!"
"I'll miss you over break," Arthur said quietly. "I really like having lots of people around. I'm an only child, and that can get boring after a while."
"Really? You're the only child?" Molly asked curiously. "I can't even imagine what that's like. Try living with six brothers."
"I'd love to have that many brothers," Arthur said wistfully.
"Well, I'd love to have that many sisters," Molly said. "I don't like being the only girl. I have no one to talk to. My brother Maddox is great, but the rest ignore me. I don't know what I'm going to do when Maddox leaves home."
"It was funny having a MacKenzie in every grade level this year," Arthur laughed. "Too bad there aren't more of you too continue the tradition!"
"Don't say that! Seven of us are plenty," Molly said, looking up at him. "I'll miss you too, Arthur."