Chapter Text
The Burrow had been quiet and empty ever since Molly Weasley’s youngest child, Ginny, left the house to live with her husband, Harry Potter, in London. She could still count the years since the chatters had gone with the wind; all the kids were grown up and gone, venturing out into the world towards the unlimited opportunities waiting for them out there… Just like how birds would leave the nest to spread their wings and fly towards the open, blue sky. Molly knew she should feel proud of her children, each armed with the talent, knowledge, and skills that would help them to succeed in their respective areas. However, she’d be lying if a part of her didn’t want to let them go, forever seeing them as her little tykes whom she would smother with all the motherly love she could ever give.
Now, only the enchanted family clock was left behind with her, showing the current status of her loved ones at all times… except for one. Fred’s clock-hand has been permanently stuck at ‘lost’ since his death at the Battle of Hogwarts many years ago, and she couldn’t bring herself to remove his portrait from the clock. It was a loss she could never come to terms with, even after such a long time; the hand was the only thing left in the house to remind her of Fred, that he was never really gone.
Fred’s clock-hand wasn’t the only thing that left a gaping hole in Molly’s chest. Her eyes glanced at another portrait that would shatter her fragile heart into a million pieces. People would die one day, she knew that, but logic did nothing to calm the despair eddying inside her trembling body. She wasn’t sure if she could go on like this to watch someone dying in front of her again, especially when the person was someone she loved so deeply.
Closing her eyes to fight back her tears, she finally turned her back on the clock—at the clock-hand of her husband, Arthur, pointing at ‘mortal peril’.