Upset of a Future

A hand petting her head waked Molly. Annoyed, she pushed it away and turned over in her bed. It wasn't morning, she knew. In the mornings she could see the sunlight streaming in from her window through her eyelids even before she opened them. Why someone was trying to wake her when it was still dark was beyond her and she'd rather not, too. That was because she'd been having quite a nice dream where there was a blue-green ocean and pink butterflies that could swim with her in the water!

The hand that had woken her moved on to shaking her shoulder.

"Noo…" Molly whined as she curled up around her dolly, Mathilda.

A chuckle filled the room, and Molly knew instantly that it was her daddy who'd been trying to wake her. Flopping over to her other side so she could face her daddy, she squinted up at him.

"What, Daddy?" she demanded.

Molly could tell even in the darkness that he was smiling as he reached down and gently pulled her up. "Mummy had the baby, little girl, I know it's a bit early, but I thought you might like to come and meet them."

"What? Really!" she shrilled in pure, blissful joy. She'd been waiting so long for the baby! For forever and then some! Nearly falling out of bed in her eagerness, she asked, "Is it a boy or a girl, Daddy? Please say it's a girl. I wanna have someone to play dress-up and tea with!"

Gently catching her as she got tripped up on her quilt for the third time in as many seconds, her father swept her into his arms and kissed her cheek with his scratchy mustache, making her skin itch. "Sorry, little girl, it's a boy."

"Aw," Molly pouted. But even that couldn't keep her down long. She knew from playing with boy-cousins from Mummy's side of the family that they could be just as fun–especially if you knew they had done something they weren't supposed to. Like Rupert, he'd cussed in front of her when he knew he wasn't supposed to and promised to play whatever she wanted when he realized she'd heard him and could tell his Mummy and Daddy.

Little arms winding around her daddy's neck, Molly asked, "What's his name?"

"Your Mummy's still deciding," the man told her as they left her bedroom for her parents' down the hall. Walking into her daddy and mummy's bedroom, Molly's view of her mother and brother were blocked by Daddy as he shifted her down lower on his hip before setting her down in the dressing chair Mummy kept by the wardrobe.

The room lit dimly by yellow lamps, her father's twinkling eyes looked all the more joyous as he said, "Close your eyes, won't you little girl?"

"Why, Daddy?" She frowned.

His smile widened a centimeter as he told her, "There's a surprise along with your new brother."

Very curious then, Molly did so. She listened with rapt attention as Daddy moved away to Mummy, Granny, and Aunt Tessie who were all huddled by the bed.

"–got him?" Mummy spoke.

"Yes," Daddy replied.

A minute later, she felt somebody–probably Granny from the smell of flour and daisies–arrange her arms so it would be easy for Daddy to put her baby brother in them.

A moment later, Molly felt a warm little body be settled in her right arm and in her left she felt–!

Eyes popping open, she gasped. "Two babies!"

All the adults were giggling quietly at her reaction. Mummy, looking quite tired from where she was in bed holding Aunt Tessie's hand, smiled at Molly. "I hope you don't mind that you have two little brothers instead of a little sister."

Shaking her head at her mummy, Molly beamed at the babies. "I love them," she declared.

It was true too. Looking into their pig-pink faces that were all wrinkly and mushed, she loved them. Just holding them she could imagine all the amazing things to come–the first time they opened their eyes for her, the first time they cooed, gurgled, laughed, and smiled. The first time they spoke with her, walked with her, played with her…

The future seemed like an endless stream of happy days and new discoveries.

But the best part? Molly would get to help them do all those great, great things just like her parents had done for her.

Cuddling them close to her cheeks, she kissed each of their heads and said, "Someday I want babies just like these."

The adults all laughed some more and Daddy crouched down and pressed a quick peck to her forehead. "You're going to be their little mummy, eh?"

"Uh-huh!" Molly promised with a big smile.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Staring up at the underside of her canopy in the late darkness of night, Molly was stricken with a very sudden and real revelation. She'd never experienced a time so quiet at Hogwarts – especially not in her dorm room. All her yearmates, Mabel Ollivander, Catherine Killick, and Noel Tuft liked to talk. Together, they could chat and gab and spin yarns for hours upon hours in the room they all shared. In fact, they could talk so much they'd more than once forgotten to sleep from all the gossiping they did.

Around Hogwarts, they were known for this feat. So well known, in fact, that several Slytherins along with a Ravenclaw or two, took cruel pleasure in casting silencing charms on them when they crossed any of their tight group. It was annoying and hurtful, but Molly had long since learned the counter for the spell. These days, she strived to not let it bother her and only made a fuss about it when with or near her boyfriend, Arthur, the Head Boy, who could dock them points for it.

Molly's heart gave a sudden, loud thud at the thought of her boyfriend and all the heat in her body rushed to her face. She was so ashamed, so guilty, so upset that she could cry, but…

Her hand trailed down to her stomach.

She couldn't even feel it.

Letting her hand rest on her abdomen for a time, Molly mused that it was almost like it didn't exist at all. If she hadn't missed her last two periods she probably wouldn't have even thought it possible either. But she had and now she was afraid of what was going to happen if this carried on too much longer.

If it grew and it became obvious, she would have to drop out. Her parents wouldn't want her going to school when she had a baby to take care of–Merlin, Molly wouldn't even want to go to school with a baby to take care of! She didn't want to miss a minute of any of her children's lives if she could. But she was so close to finishing school. It was only November and she so badly wanted to finish along with all her friends and Arthur.

Turning on her side, Molly thought of the potion she'd bought from a Hufflepuff girl the other day. All she had to do was take it and the baby would be gone. It'd be like it'd never existed and no one would have to know. Bringing her hands together, she twisted the promise ring Arthur had given her at the start of the school year.

If she had the baby, would Arthur marry her? If he did, would he feel cheated or robbed of choice? If Molly left school, would Arthur follow? She didn't want him to. It'd be better if at least one of them had a Hogwarts education over neither.

Frowning into the darkness of her room, Molly strained her ears. Noel sometimes talked in her sleep, but not tonight and no one was a snorer. Heart heavy, she was made to realize it was now or never. She had to choose right now what she was going to do about the baby growing inside of her.

Was it better that she let this baby, one she wasn't ready for and half-believed wasn't real, go or did she let it continue to flourish and become a reality?

Kissing her fingers, she pressed them on her stomach and whispered, "I'm sorry, love. But we just aren't ready for you yet."

It hurt to admit it, but Molly wanted to be the best mother possible for her children. How could she if she wasn't even ready for them? She'd heard that others found a way and made it work, but that's not what she wanted. No, Molly wanted everything to be perfect for her baby. She wanted it to be born to her and Arthur as a married couple who wanted them, she wanted it to be born into a house that it could live its whole childhood in, she wanted it to be born into a life where people wouldn't be whispering about their mother and how she'd dropped out of school to have them.

She never, ever wanted her baby to think it was a mistake or unwanted, not even for a second.

Sitting up, Molly reached beneath her bed and pulled up the vile with the concoction that was supposed to expel it from her body. Uncorking it, she wrinkled her nose at the poignant, acidic smell and downed it all in one large gulp.

"Ugh," she grunted as she stuffed her pajama sleeve in her mouth to get rid of the taste of the potion. Re-corking the vial, she pushed back under her bed and settled back down beneath her covers. The Hufflepuff had promised she'd know if it worked in a few hours time when she started bleeding heavily. Seeing as morning was only four away, she figured it was best she catch a little sleep between then and now.

Closing her eyes, Molly fell into an exhausted sleep within a matter of minutes.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"–ly?"

Blinking open tired, sleep-swollen eyes, Molly made a low humming noise as she gazed up at the fuzzy, twisty image of a person. They reached down and touched her face; it was so nice and cold - like the water of the brook near her home on her skin in the hottest days of summer. Clumsily, she brought her hand over to clamp down on the fingers on her face.

She felt the person attached to the hand jolt. "Molly?" they asked.

Molly squinted at the person above her. She could vaguely make out a frame of brown hair around a squarish face. "Noel?" she inquired.

The hand on her face relaxed some and even began to pet her cheek. "That's right, Molly," the person said in a tinny, faraway voice. "Now, keep talking to me, alright? Mabel and Catherine went to get a professor."

A feeling of panic overwhelmed Molly. A professor? That was the last thing she wanted! If one came in, they'd know. They'd know what she'd done and they'd tell her Mum and Dad and then Arthur would find out and–

"Nooo!" she sobbed, struggling to sit up through her fever daze. "Nooo!"

Noel pushed down on Molly's shoulder. "Don't get up, please, Molly," she begged. "You're all bloody."

"'Course I am," she sniffed as she lay back down. "That's how you lose a baby."

The girl's eyes went wide and shocked. "Oh, you didn't!" Noel bemoaned.

"Wasn't ready to be a proper Mum. Don't even know what I'd have named it," Molly muttered as she curled up around her middle as her body was wracked with a sudden, engulfing pain.

Starting to scream as it intensified, Molly just barely saw her other dormmates come in with Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey before she passed out into the comforting arms of oblivion.

-v-v-v-v-v-

The next time Molly woke up, there was no hovering person, no familiar colors, smells or materials. Everything was white and the room was sharp with the scents of the medicinal and everything from the pillow casing she has her head laid out on to the socks on her feet are scratchy and uncomfortable. What made it all the worse, though, was the quiet sound of someone whimpering. Turning her head, Molly saw that it was her mother sniffling into her handkerchief in a chair beside her.

"Mum?" she croaked.

Big, doe-like eyes caught her gaze and mist over with a new wave of tears.

Reaching over, Molly weakly gripped the fabric of her mother's skirt and asked, "What happened?"

Her mother, a woman who's best know for her laughter and smiles, did not give either and instead began to sob loudly and painfully. Terrified by her mother's odd behavior, the teenager asked again, "What happened, Mum?"

Shaking her head, Molly's mother buried her face in her handkerchief and with her fears now spiked to a level akin to a rodent about to be caught by a cat, Molly started to breath frantically. "Mum?" she begged as the woman gave another wheezy wail. "Mum? Mum! Mum what happened! Mum what's wrong? What's wrong!"

A couple aides ran into the room at the sound of Molly screaming and when they saw she was sitting up, heaving hard as she shouted herself silly. The duo came to her side and took her arms in constrictor-like grips.

"Calm down, Miss," one, a fairly burly fellow, ordered in a low grumble.

Still yelling as she fought against the hands of the aides, Molly attempted to get her mother to give her an answer one last time by screaming, "Mum! Mummy, what happened to me?"

From the corner of her eye, she could see the two aids passing something between them as she looked to her mother who'd turned fully in her chair to face away from Molly. Suddenly, she was sputtering as the non-burly aid pressed a vial against her lips and made her start to gulp down its contents.

Almost instantaneously, Molly started to calm down. Within a couple of minutes, her heart began to slow down to a normal pace and the feeling of fear that had spurred her fit was overtaken with one of tranquility.

It was sort of like the feeling she got when she and Arthur laid together on the ground and watched the clouds change shape above them. However, it was different, too, as there was something forceful about this calm, it just covered the fear that she knew was still there - lurking in the back of her mind waiting for the peace that had implanted itself in her to leave.

Even so, she still asked, "What happened to me?"

"Just wait a minute, Miss Prewett, we'll get the healer," the one that fed her the Calming Draught said.

Nodding easily, Molly gave them a beatific grin and settled her hands in her lap. "Oh, yes, please do."

The pair smiled back at her and left her room, only to be replaced by a rather old and balding healer a minute or more later as her mother shifted back to face Molly and continue her incessant sniveling.

Coming over, the healer gave her his hand. "Hello there, Miss Prewett, I'm Healer Jones," he told her.

Shaking the hand, the teenager nodded. "Nice to meet you, sir," she said. His hand was warm and his fingers calloused, very much like her father's. Mind drifting, she wondered where her father was and if he was at St. Mungo's, was he just getting something to eat or outside smoking?

Healer Jones cleared his throat. "Now," he warbled, "I was told you wanted to know why you are here, is that right?

Snapped back to her ever less pressing problem, she nodded. "Yes, would you mind explaining, Healer Jones?" she asked.

The balding man's face took on a look of regret as he took a seat gingerly on the edge of her bed. "What I'm about to tell you will likely be quite upsetting, dear. It's not a happy thing in the slightest," he told the teenager.

"I'll be alright," Molly replied confidently as she carefully maneuvered herself to be on level with the sitting man. She would be too, she believed. The Calming Draught the aides had given her was in full affect and had left her with a vague feeling of optimism.

Nodding along, Healer Jones replied, "Right. Well, to put it simply, that concoction you took to expel the fetus was several doses higher than it should have been and in the process of getting rid of your pregnancy, also damaged your uterus so severely that it can no longer carry a baby."

"So, I'm sterile?" Molly asked for conformation.

Healer Jones patted her hand. "That you are, Miss Prewett. But don't think this means anything else. You can still have sex, you can still raise children and do all the other things women do with their lives. You just can't carry a baby anymore."

"That's too bad, I always wanted to have one." Molly sighed, the slightest niggling of sadness making itself known through the hazy feeling of peace that kept her calm.

Getting up, the balding man told the teenager, "You still can, dear, adoption is always an option."

"You're quite right, I suppose."

Standing straight up and ready to leave then, Healer Jones concluded his discussion with, "I'll have an aide bring in a few pamphlets on adoption and sterility for you–just so you can get an idea of what things will be like."

"Thank you, sir," she called after his retreating body.

Then, moving her gaze onto her mother, Molly remarked from her cloud of calm, "That wasn't so hard, was it, Mum? I can't have any babies, what's so difficult about that?"

Her mother's eyes, hard, blue jewels of pain, stare at her. "Molly, you've always wanted to be a mother," she murmured softly.

"Well, I guess I'll have to find something else to be," she declared as she turned away from her mother.

Settling her head down on her pillow, Molly didn't mind its itchiness nearly as much as she had in the beginning. The feeling of peace having lulled her into a state of sleepiness, she muttered, "I'm tired, wake me in an hour."

And with that, Molly let the haze of the Calming Draught help her back into slumber.

Remember how I said at the end of Andromeda Lestrange this would be a one-shot or two-shot? Yeah, we're going to aim for three-shot instead and if that fails, hopefully four chapters will do it.

As for this first chapter itself, did you enjoy it? Is it an interesting AU? Have you read anything similar?

Thanks for reading and please review :)

EDITED: 2/14/16