In Molly's defence!

A/N:
19-01-2016
L.S.
Dear loyal readers whom I treasure, this isn't a real update. I've been shuffling my chapters around so they'll match the order in which I'll upload them on my AO3 account under the same name. However, I do hope my next real update will be soon.
With much love,

Molly felt happy, content. The way only mothers could feel, she supposed. Even with the usual stress she had long since come to associate with September the first, she couldn't be happier with the life she had.

A happy, unstressed husband who found true joy in his day job, Two successful oldest sons, who, after graduating Hogwarts with grades she could only hope the rest of her brood would manage as well, had spread their wings and broadened their horizons with jobs out of the country.

Not to mention her darling Percival; while Percy, as everyone would endearingly call him, who had just earned his first Prefect badge. Not that she would have expected anything else from him, he always was such an obedient child.

And while her twins Fred and George were rowdy enough to never hold any dreams of them being Prefects, whenever they weren't pranking they showed they both had a remarkably good head on their shoulders. They truly started to grow up.

Time went far too –

She had to grab Fred at his collar in order to make sure he wouldn't collide with some poor Muggle.
No, she really didn't like those masses of Muggles. While she understood the appeal of having some bonding time for the children before they were sorted into their houses, and and equal transport system for the purebloods and Muggleborns, why a train from Kings Cross? The place was always so busy at rush hour.

" – packed with Muggles, of course – " she said absently while trying to steer her Ronald clear of what might have been a collision with yet another Muggle. All the luggage they had to take with them didn't make it any easier. But the children were happily chattering amongst each other. Well, it was better than fighting she supposed.

Letting go of Ronald's shoulder she sighed. That was her youngest son that was leaving the nest for Hogwarts. Time truly went far too fast.

Well, at least her darling Ginny would let herself be coddled, bless her youngest. She still responded truly like a child woud. And for her she would repeat the sentence she had repeated each and every year, ever since she brought her dearest William to the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.

Ah, there they were.

"Now, what's the platform number?" she asked, smiling at the knowing smirks of Percy, Fred and George.

"Nine and three-quarters!" piped her youngest.

"Mum, can't I go..."

Molly suppressed a groan. She and Arthur had been hearing this the entire summer, ever since Ron got his letter, and she realized she wouldn't have anybody left to play with.

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first"

Percy, who clearly seemed to enjoy the idea of being the oldest Weasley sibling at Hogwarts, marched through the fake wall. The boy did so well when he was handed some responsibility. It was delightful.

"Fred, you next," she said.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. Molly had to hold in a snort. They still thought she didn't see the difference. Probably they wouldn't recognize the parenting artifice of pretending not to notice whatever the child did, and making the child think they pulled their mischief off without the strict parent noticing and punishing them for it until they'd be fathers themselves.

"Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George." Fred, the dear child, seemed for all his growing up he had done these last few years, not to realize the two of them were predictable in that he almost always instigated their twin charade.

"Sorry, George, dear." She said, not really wanting to set him straight right now.

In the mean time, the real George was almost through the barrier.

"Hurry up!" those two would never be a patient lot, she thought fondly.

As Fred hurried after his twin and they went through the barrier, she started to turn to Ron – she really didn't like the idea of sending him off already – but was surprised to see a small, shy child in front of her.

Startling green eyes, and black hair, that could do with a comb, she thought absently as she looked better at the boy.

"Excuse me," he said timidly.

"Hullo, dear; first time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons.

And where was whomever was responsible for this child? Young children like these shouldn't be left unattended.

"Yes," the child said. "The thing is – the thing is, I don't know how to – "

"How to get onto the platform?" she asked kindly, realizing the dear child was here all by himself, as he nodded.

"Not to worry, all you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Er – OK" said the lonely child.

He pushed his trolley and stared at the barrier with a determined look in his eyes. He started to walk at it, and clearly decided running was indeed a better idea. And just like that, the boy was through.

Molly squeezed the shoulder of her youngest son softly.

"Your turn, Ron."

A/N: the Weasley bashing stories where Hagrid's failure to tell Harry how he should get to platform Nine Three Quarters is used as one of the most condemning pieces of evidence of how Harry's friendship with the Weasley family was all carefully orchestrated by that one sentence that Molly utters..? Please, imho, Hagrid is always portrayed as scatter-brained, and Molly asked that question purely for Ginny's benefit, and no-one else's!

What do you readers think of Weasley bashing? And the usage of this scene in fanfiction? I'd love to read your opinion!