one shot: Molly/Arthur and their grandchildren
Title: A Day with the Dozen
Author: mollywheezy
Prompt:
Pairing: Gen
Maximum Rating: G to PG-13
Prompt: Cheaper by the dozen. A day in the life of Grandma Molly and Granddad Arthur during the summer holidays when 12 grand-kids + Teddy are home from school and their parents all dump them at the Burrow. Andromeda can swing by to give them a hand..
Likes: Children between the age of 15 (Teddy) to 5 (Lily). All sorts of shenanigans amongst the cousins. Awesome Grandma Molly being awesome.
Dislikes: Unhappy endings. by ely_baby
Pairing(s): Molly/Arthur with all of their grandchildren
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2800
Content/Warnings: None
Summary: All of Molly and Arthur's grandchildren spend the day with them at the Burrow, with only a few small problems.
Author's Notes: Thanks to ely_baby for a great prompt, to the mods for all of their hard work running this fest, and especially to my super-awesome beta!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and associates. No copyright infringement intended.
Molly opened her eyes sleepily. She glanced out the gap in the curtains and could just see the sun rising over the horizon. She snuggled back into Arthur's chest. She still had some time to cuddle before they had to be up for their grandchildren's arrival.
"You up?" Arthur mumbled.
"Yes, but I'm comfortable."
"Mmm. Me, too." Arthur pulled Molly more snugly against him. "So who's coming over today?"
"James, Al, Lily, Rose and Hugo as always. I think this is the week Percy's family is traveling . . .
"No, they're here this week. They'll be gone next week and the week after."
"Oh that's right. Silly me."
"This is the week George and Angelina have their second honeymoon. Roxie is staying over with Lucy, and Fred is with James."
"Wait, if George and Angelina are gone . . . This is the week George closed the shop, so the older ones aren't working. . . Sweet Merlin, Arthur! We have all of them for all of this week! And this is also the week Andromeda's on holiday. We need to get up now." Molly quickly kissed Arthur, hopped out of bed, grabbed her dressing gown and hurried from the room.
Arthur grabbed his own dressing gown and quickly followed his wife. "Love, it will be fine. Teddy, Victoire, and Molly are always helpful with the younger children. They can play outside and swim, so we won't have to do much to entertain them. I can keep an eye on them outside while you make lunch. It will be OK."
"You're right, Arthur. Of course, you're right. I just didn't realize it was this week all of them are here, and Andromeda isn't. I guess Teddy is with Harry and Ginny, too. Merlin help them. Next summer, all of our children and friends will have to clear their holidays through me to make sure there isn't any conflict." Molly nodded decisively.
"There's a plan, dear," said Arthur as he kissed her forehead. "Now what can I do to help with breakfast?"
~*~
After the herd of grandchildren arrived in a frenzy of chaos and greetings and hugs for them and their parents, and they had all been fed a huge breakfast, Louis asked, "Grandmere, may we play Quidditch?" This caused cheers from the rest of the assembled horde.
"Of course, dear. All of you know you are always welcome to play Quidditch, but no bludgers! And I don't want Lily and Hugo flying by themselves."
"I'll take Lily!" the younger Molly volunteered.
"I'll take Hugo!" Teddy replied.
Amidst the scrape of chairs and scrambling children, Molly whispered to Arthur, "You go watch them, love. I can clean up here and join you in a bit." Arthur kissed her cheek and followed the children outside.
On the way out the door, Molly and Teddy were elected as team captains, since they were the oldest grandchildren who played on their house teams. They divided themselves up without any issue. Molly, Lily, Lucy, Louis, Rose, and Al, against Teddy, Hugo, Victoire, Dominique, James and Fred.
Roxie announced, "I don't particularly care to play Quidditch. I'll fly around on the sidelines to referee."
They were passing out brooms and setting up the hoops, and finding the quaffle in the mess of the broom shed, when Rose asked, "Grandma said we couldn't use bludgers, but she didn't say we couldn't have Beaters, right?"
"What else will we hit?" Molly asked.
"How about these?" Rose emerged from the broom shed carrying two brightly colored Muggle playground balls.
Arthur responded, "I think those would be fine with your grandma. I'll just charm them to fly, shall I?" The grandchildren chorused, "Thank you, Grandpa!"
Lucy said, "I don't think any of us on school teams should play the positions we play at school in order to be fair. So Molly and I won't be Beaters, and Louis and Teddy can't be Chasers."
"How about if Teddy and I are Keepers?" Louis suggested.
Hugo whined, "But I'm flying with Teddy, and I want to be a Beater!"
Victoire said, "Hugo, you can fly with me if you want and be a Beater."
"OK!" Hugo agreed happily.
Roxie, flying around above everyone stated loudly, "OK! We have Victoire and Hugo as Beaters on Teddy's team and Rose and . . .
"AL!" Al shouted.
" . . . Al for Beaters on Molly's team. Teddy and Louis are the Keepers, and that leaves Molly, Lily and Lucy as Molly's Chasers and Dominique, James, and Fred as the Chasers for Teddy's team. Where's the quaffle? I'll throw it up!"
Arthur handed Roxie the quaffle, and she took it. "I need a whistle!"
"I don’t have a whistle, but I can whistle for you," Arthur offered.
"OK. I'm the referee, and Grandpa's the whistle!" Roxie threw the quaffle high into the air, and Arthur whistled.
Lucy caught the Quaffle and zoomed off towards Teddy's end of the field. She made the goal easily, and nobody was able to catch up to her to even try to stop her.
With his job as the whistle not being terribly taxing, Arthur stood back and watched his grandchildren fly. Merlin's beard could they fly! Well, at least most of them could. Victoire was the worst of the lot, but she took after her mother more than her father, and Arthur knew perfectly well she was only out there because Teddy was. Plus, with Hugo on the broom with her, that did make flying rather more difficult. Honestly, Arthur thought Hugo would be fine on a broom by himself-he knew Ron let Hugo fly alone when Hermione wasn't looking-but he valued the peace of his home too much to start an argument unnecessarily. Besides, Hugo seemed to be having a perfectly good time. Molly and Lucy were amazing on brooms. Even though they weren't twins, they reminded him of how Fred and George had flown together. He knew Teddy and Louis were good flyers, but weren't quite as good at being Keepers. He really hoped he and his lovely bride could make the trip to Beauxbatons this year to see Louis play in a match. Maybe they could even have a proper holiday alone together afterwards. He had always wanted to see Switzerland . . . Arthur watched as Dominique scored a goal. She was a much better flyer than her sister, even though she had not succeeded in securing a place on the Hufflepuff team when she tried out last year, but maybe she'd make it this year. She was only going to be a third year, after all. Roxie flew well enough, but didn't particularly like Quidditch, to George and Angelina's horror. She did like to be in charge, though, and was doing a good job as a referee. Arthur would never tell anyone this, but Roxie reminded him of Percy at her age. James, Fred, Rose, and Al were absolutely amazing flyers, especially for eight and seven-year-olds. Charlie had been the best flyer at the earliest age of his children, and all four of his grandchildren outstripped him.
"It's fun to watch them, isn't it?" Arthur had not noticed when his wife joined him. He put his arm around her and nodded, still keeping his eyes on the sky. They watched together as the younger Molly very graciously was teaching Lily how to make a goal. He thought Teddy was probably allowing her to make the goal, too. Lily threw the quaffle as hard as she could and cheered so exuberantly when it went in, she bounced off the end of the broom. Her cousins tried to catch her but missed.
In unison, Arthur and Molly had their wands raised and stopped their granddaughter's fall mid-air. They hurried over to right underneath her and gently lowered her until Arthur could take her in his arms. Lily started to sob and all of the other children landed to make sure she was OK.
The younger Molly was almost in tears, too. "I'm so sorry, Lily! Grandma, I tried to catch her . . ." Molly's voice caught.
Molly hugged her distraught granddaughter. "It's fine, love. Lily's OK, just scared. And you were doing everything right. Accidents happen sometimes, but your grandpa and I were able to stop her fall, so no harm done." After a tight squeeze, Molly turned to her other grandchildren, "All of you have played Quidditch most of the morning, and I think it's time for Lily and Hugo to have a nap."
Lily had her head on Arthur's shoulder and did not argue as he began to carry her to the house, but stuck her thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes.
Hugo protested, "Lily might need a nap since she's the baby, but I don't!" He crossed his arms and pouted.
Molly looked to see that Arthur was out of earshot and knelt down to speak directly to Hugo. "How about if you just help me out and pretend like you are going to take a nap with Lily so she doesn't feel alone and left out? I'll read the two of you a story, and once Lily falls asleep, you can get up."
Hugo contemplated this suggestion for a moment. "OK, I guess I can pretend to nap if it will help Lily."
"Thank you, Hugo! There's my big boy!" Hugo beamed as he followed his grandma into the house.
The rest of the children worked on putting everything away from their Quidditch match.
Molly and Arthur got Hugo and Lily settled in the twin beds in Ginny's old room and while Arthur went to supervise the Quidditch clean-up, Molly began reading "Babbity Rabbity and The Cackling Stump," Hugo's favorite. Both Lily and Hugo were sound asleep before she was half-way finished.
When Molly went downstairs, Dominique, Victoire, and Roxie were sitting in front of the wireless glued to "Once Upon a Time in St. Mungo's" on the WWN. Molly and Lucy were starting a game of chess; Fred, James, Rose, and Al were playing exploding snap, and Teddy and Louis were reading "The Daily Prophet" and pretending they weren't listening to the wireless.
Molly went into the kitchen and found Arthur already starting on lunch.
~*~
After lunch, all of the grandchildren wanted to go swimming. And with their grandparents' blessing ran to get changed into swimsuits. All of them were changed and downstairs within five minutes except for Victoire. Molly waited in the kitchen while Arthur went to the pond with the rest.
Molly watched her oldest granddaughter come down the stairs wearing Molly did not know what. The "swimsuit" (Molly used that term loosely) Victoire wore was comprised of less fabric than Molly's bra and knickers! There were bows on the neck and in the back and on the side of each hip-thin strings were all that held the suit up. In all honesty, Molly had to admit Victoire was covered, just not as covered as she would like her to be. And sweet Merlin! Teddy already spent all of his waking hours staring at Victoire's chest when she was fully clothed. The boy would have a heart attack if he saw her like this!
"Young lady! You go right back upstairs and put on a proper bathing costume!"
"But Grandmere!" Victoire whined. "Maman bought this for me!"
Molly thought quickly. "And it's lovely, but I don't think you want your younger cousins pulling those strings and having your suit fall off in front of Teddy, do you?"
Victoire rolled her eyes and huffed, but she went upstairs without a word.
Molly breathed a sigh of relief. Victoire was a good girl. She just wanted to get a bit ahead of her years.
~*~
Arthur swam with the children for a while, but then came in to use the loo, have some pumpkin juice and cool off a bit. It was exhausting trying to keep up with them! When he returned to check on them, he began his usual count. He saw Dominique and Louis-Victoire was missing, Molly and Lucy, Roxanne-Fred was missing, Rose and Hugo, Al and Lily-James was missing, and Teddy was missing. He was pretty sure what Teddy and Victoire were doing if not exactly where they were. But the whereabouts of James and Fred concerned him.
"Molly!" Arthur called out. She currently had Lily on her shoulders in the water, and Dominique had Hugo on hers. It looked like they were playing "Rampaging Hippogriffs" if that's what children still called it.
"Yes, Grandpa?" She did not put Lily down but turned to address her grandfather.
"Where are James and Fred?"
"They went for a walk with Victoire and Teddy!"
"OK! Thank you! Tea time is soon so all of you lot start heading in please!" Molly gave a wave indicating she understood.
Arthur hurried off in the direction Molly had pointed for the walk. There was no way Teddy and Victoire took James and Fred with them. Teddy or Victoire probably announced "they" meaning the two of them were going for a walk, and James and Fred stood nearby to make the others think that included them so they could go off somewhere unsupervised.
Having raised seven children, Arthur knew most of the areas in which children could get into trouble around the Burrow, and once out of sight of his other grandchildren, he took off at a run towards the most dangerous.
He got there just in time. Fred and James were in the pen with the neighbor's bull which was charging at them. They were holding hands and not moving, apparently petrified with terror. Arthur concentrated, and Apparated directly behind his grandsons, concentrated again and side-along Apparated them out of the pen. The bull had only been about six feet away when Arthur got them out. He took a moment to breathe heavily, took stock of himself and the boys-a miracle they hadn't splinched-and then yelled, "What is the ONE THING I told you NEVER to do?!"
James and Fred burst into tears.
"Do you understand why we have rules? Do you understand why I told you never to go near that bull? You could have both been killed! Nobody knew where you were! If I hadn't guessed correctly . . ." Arthur tightly hugged his crying grandsons.
When they had collected themselves a bit, he walked them back to the house for tea, with an arm around each of their shoulders. He passed them off to Molly to get cleaned up, and went in search of Victoire and Teddy. He guessed correctly where they were, too-in a tightly knit grove of poplar trees, snogging. Arthur came up near them and cleared his throat loudly. They jumped apart as if they had been shocked by eckeltricity. Arthur cheerily sing-songed, "Tea time!" And turned back to the Burrow leaving the startled teenagers to follow him.
~*~
Molly cuddled up to Arthur in bed. "So the day went pretty well, didn't it?"
"Other than James and Fred almost getting themselves killed, yes, it was a rather nice day."
"Speaking of James and Fred, Arthur you are too soft on the grandchildren! When you had to rescue Charlie from that bull, you gave him the spanking of his life."
"I didn't rescue Charlie from the same bull as Fred and James, Molly. I'm sure it was different. Bulls don't live that long, do they?"
"Honestly, Arthur. You know what I meant."
"Ah, Mollywobbles. That's the beauty of being a grandparent rather than a parent. I sent Ginny a Patronus."
"Oh, well, that's all right, then. Ginny will sort them out. I think she's turned out to be an even stricter mother than me."
"True. And speaking of being soft on the grandchildren, what about that swim suit of Victoire's? I would have confiscated it since she does have a proper one."
"I owled Bill and said I hoped Victoire wasn't too upset about my not letting her wear the lovely swimsuit Fleur bought her, and I explained my fears of the younger children taking advantage."
Arthur chuckled, "And you wondered from whom the twins inherited their penchant for mischief."
"Ah well. It was a mostly nice day, and only four more of them to go. They are all good children. Usually. We can do pretty much the same things the rest of the week, but I don't think we'll leave them alone outside again."
"Except that I heard on the WWN . . . it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week."
Molly sighed, turned over and put her head on Arthur's chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
Author: mollywheezy
Prompt:
Pairing: Gen
Maximum Rating: G to PG-13
Prompt: Cheaper by the dozen. A day in the life of Grandma Molly and Granddad Arthur during the summer holidays when 12 grand-kids + Teddy are home from school and their parents all dump them at the Burrow. Andromeda can swing by to give them a hand..
Likes: Children between the age of 15 (Teddy) to 5 (Lily). All sorts of shenanigans amongst the cousins. Awesome Grandma Molly being awesome.
Dislikes: Unhappy endings. by ely_baby
Pairing(s): Molly/Arthur with all of their grandchildren
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2800
Content/Warnings: None
Summary: All of Molly and Arthur's grandchildren spend the day with them at the Burrow, with only a few small problems.
Author's Notes: Thanks to ely_baby for a great prompt, to the mods for all of their hard work running this fest, and especially to my super-awesome beta!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and associates. No copyright infringement intended.
Molly opened her eyes sleepily. She glanced out the gap in the curtains and could just see the sun rising over the horizon. She snuggled back into Arthur's chest. She still had some time to cuddle before they had to be up for their grandchildren's arrival.
"You up?" Arthur mumbled.
"Yes, but I'm comfortable."
"Mmm. Me, too." Arthur pulled Molly more snugly against him. "So who's coming over today?"
"James, Al, Lily, Rose and Hugo as always. I think this is the week Percy's family is traveling . . .
"No, they're here this week. They'll be gone next week and the week after."
"Oh that's right. Silly me."
"This is the week George and Angelina have their second honeymoon. Roxie is staying over with Lucy, and Fred is with James."
"Wait, if George and Angelina are gone . . . This is the week George closed the shop, so the older ones aren't working. . . Sweet Merlin, Arthur! We have all of them for all of this week! And this is also the week Andromeda's on holiday. We need to get up now." Molly quickly kissed Arthur, hopped out of bed, grabbed her dressing gown and hurried from the room.
Arthur grabbed his own dressing gown and quickly followed his wife. "Love, it will be fine. Teddy, Victoire, and Molly are always helpful with the younger children. They can play outside and swim, so we won't have to do much to entertain them. I can keep an eye on them outside while you make lunch. It will be OK."
"You're right, Arthur. Of course, you're right. I just didn't realize it was this week all of them are here, and Andromeda isn't. I guess Teddy is with Harry and Ginny, too. Merlin help them. Next summer, all of our children and friends will have to clear their holidays through me to make sure there isn't any conflict." Molly nodded decisively.
"There's a plan, dear," said Arthur as he kissed her forehead. "Now what can I do to help with breakfast?"
~*~
After the herd of grandchildren arrived in a frenzy of chaos and greetings and hugs for them and their parents, and they had all been fed a huge breakfast, Louis asked, "Grandmere, may we play Quidditch?" This caused cheers from the rest of the assembled horde.
"Of course, dear. All of you know you are always welcome to play Quidditch, but no bludgers! And I don't want Lily and Hugo flying by themselves."
"I'll take Lily!" the younger Molly volunteered.
"I'll take Hugo!" Teddy replied.
Amidst the scrape of chairs and scrambling children, Molly whispered to Arthur, "You go watch them, love. I can clean up here and join you in a bit." Arthur kissed her cheek and followed the children outside.
On the way out the door, Molly and Teddy were elected as team captains, since they were the oldest grandchildren who played on their house teams. They divided themselves up without any issue. Molly, Lily, Lucy, Louis, Rose, and Al, against Teddy, Hugo, Victoire, Dominique, James and Fred.
Roxie announced, "I don't particularly care to play Quidditch. I'll fly around on the sidelines to referee."
They were passing out brooms and setting up the hoops, and finding the quaffle in the mess of the broom shed, when Rose asked, "Grandma said we couldn't use bludgers, but she didn't say we couldn't have Beaters, right?"
"What else will we hit?" Molly asked.
"How about these?" Rose emerged from the broom shed carrying two brightly colored Muggle playground balls.
Arthur responded, "I think those would be fine with your grandma. I'll just charm them to fly, shall I?" The grandchildren chorused, "Thank you, Grandpa!"
Lucy said, "I don't think any of us on school teams should play the positions we play at school in order to be fair. So Molly and I won't be Beaters, and Louis and Teddy can't be Chasers."
"How about if Teddy and I are Keepers?" Louis suggested.
Hugo whined, "But I'm flying with Teddy, and I want to be a Beater!"
Victoire said, "Hugo, you can fly with me if you want and be a Beater."
"OK!" Hugo agreed happily.
Roxie, flying around above everyone stated loudly, "OK! We have Victoire and Hugo as Beaters on Teddy's team and Rose and . . .
"AL!" Al shouted.
" . . . Al for Beaters on Molly's team. Teddy and Louis are the Keepers, and that leaves Molly, Lily and Lucy as Molly's Chasers and Dominique, James, and Fred as the Chasers for Teddy's team. Where's the quaffle? I'll throw it up!"
Arthur handed Roxie the quaffle, and she took it. "I need a whistle!"
"I don’t have a whistle, but I can whistle for you," Arthur offered.
"OK. I'm the referee, and Grandpa's the whistle!" Roxie threw the quaffle high into the air, and Arthur whistled.
Lucy caught the Quaffle and zoomed off towards Teddy's end of the field. She made the goal easily, and nobody was able to catch up to her to even try to stop her.
With his job as the whistle not being terribly taxing, Arthur stood back and watched his grandchildren fly. Merlin's beard could they fly! Well, at least most of them could. Victoire was the worst of the lot, but she took after her mother more than her father, and Arthur knew perfectly well she was only out there because Teddy was. Plus, with Hugo on the broom with her, that did make flying rather more difficult. Honestly, Arthur thought Hugo would be fine on a broom by himself-he knew Ron let Hugo fly alone when Hermione wasn't looking-but he valued the peace of his home too much to start an argument unnecessarily. Besides, Hugo seemed to be having a perfectly good time. Molly and Lucy were amazing on brooms. Even though they weren't twins, they reminded him of how Fred and George had flown together. He knew Teddy and Louis were good flyers, but weren't quite as good at being Keepers. He really hoped he and his lovely bride could make the trip to Beauxbatons this year to see Louis play in a match. Maybe they could even have a proper holiday alone together afterwards. He had always wanted to see Switzerland . . . Arthur watched as Dominique scored a goal. She was a much better flyer than her sister, even though she had not succeeded in securing a place on the Hufflepuff team when she tried out last year, but maybe she'd make it this year. She was only going to be a third year, after all. Roxie flew well enough, but didn't particularly like Quidditch, to George and Angelina's horror. She did like to be in charge, though, and was doing a good job as a referee. Arthur would never tell anyone this, but Roxie reminded him of Percy at her age. James, Fred, Rose, and Al were absolutely amazing flyers, especially for eight and seven-year-olds. Charlie had been the best flyer at the earliest age of his children, and all four of his grandchildren outstripped him.
"It's fun to watch them, isn't it?" Arthur had not noticed when his wife joined him. He put his arm around her and nodded, still keeping his eyes on the sky. They watched together as the younger Molly very graciously was teaching Lily how to make a goal. He thought Teddy was probably allowing her to make the goal, too. Lily threw the quaffle as hard as she could and cheered so exuberantly when it went in, she bounced off the end of the broom. Her cousins tried to catch her but missed.
In unison, Arthur and Molly had their wands raised and stopped their granddaughter's fall mid-air. They hurried over to right underneath her and gently lowered her until Arthur could take her in his arms. Lily started to sob and all of the other children landed to make sure she was OK.
The younger Molly was almost in tears, too. "I'm so sorry, Lily! Grandma, I tried to catch her . . ." Molly's voice caught.
Molly hugged her distraught granddaughter. "It's fine, love. Lily's OK, just scared. And you were doing everything right. Accidents happen sometimes, but your grandpa and I were able to stop her fall, so no harm done." After a tight squeeze, Molly turned to her other grandchildren, "All of you have played Quidditch most of the morning, and I think it's time for Lily and Hugo to have a nap."
Lily had her head on Arthur's shoulder and did not argue as he began to carry her to the house, but stuck her thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes.
Hugo protested, "Lily might need a nap since she's the baby, but I don't!" He crossed his arms and pouted.
Molly looked to see that Arthur was out of earshot and knelt down to speak directly to Hugo. "How about if you just help me out and pretend like you are going to take a nap with Lily so she doesn't feel alone and left out? I'll read the two of you a story, and once Lily falls asleep, you can get up."
Hugo contemplated this suggestion for a moment. "OK, I guess I can pretend to nap if it will help Lily."
"Thank you, Hugo! There's my big boy!" Hugo beamed as he followed his grandma into the house.
The rest of the children worked on putting everything away from their Quidditch match.
Molly and Arthur got Hugo and Lily settled in the twin beds in Ginny's old room and while Arthur went to supervise the Quidditch clean-up, Molly began reading "Babbity Rabbity and The Cackling Stump," Hugo's favorite. Both Lily and Hugo were sound asleep before she was half-way finished.
When Molly went downstairs, Dominique, Victoire, and Roxie were sitting in front of the wireless glued to "Once Upon a Time in St. Mungo's" on the WWN. Molly and Lucy were starting a game of chess; Fred, James, Rose, and Al were playing exploding snap, and Teddy and Louis were reading "The Daily Prophet" and pretending they weren't listening to the wireless.
Molly went into the kitchen and found Arthur already starting on lunch.
~*~
After lunch, all of the grandchildren wanted to go swimming. And with their grandparents' blessing ran to get changed into swimsuits. All of them were changed and downstairs within five minutes except for Victoire. Molly waited in the kitchen while Arthur went to the pond with the rest.
Molly watched her oldest granddaughter come down the stairs wearing Molly did not know what. The "swimsuit" (Molly used that term loosely) Victoire wore was comprised of less fabric than Molly's bra and knickers! There were bows on the neck and in the back and on the side of each hip-thin strings were all that held the suit up. In all honesty, Molly had to admit Victoire was covered, just not as covered as she would like her to be. And sweet Merlin! Teddy already spent all of his waking hours staring at Victoire's chest when she was fully clothed. The boy would have a heart attack if he saw her like this!
"Young lady! You go right back upstairs and put on a proper bathing costume!"
"But Grandmere!" Victoire whined. "Maman bought this for me!"
Molly thought quickly. "And it's lovely, but I don't think you want your younger cousins pulling those strings and having your suit fall off in front of Teddy, do you?"
Victoire rolled her eyes and huffed, but she went upstairs without a word.
Molly breathed a sigh of relief. Victoire was a good girl. She just wanted to get a bit ahead of her years.
~*~
Arthur swam with the children for a while, but then came in to use the loo, have some pumpkin juice and cool off a bit. It was exhausting trying to keep up with them! When he returned to check on them, he began his usual count. He saw Dominique and Louis-Victoire was missing, Molly and Lucy, Roxanne-Fred was missing, Rose and Hugo, Al and Lily-James was missing, and Teddy was missing. He was pretty sure what Teddy and Victoire were doing if not exactly where they were. But the whereabouts of James and Fred concerned him.
"Molly!" Arthur called out. She currently had Lily on her shoulders in the water, and Dominique had Hugo on hers. It looked like they were playing "Rampaging Hippogriffs" if that's what children still called it.
"Yes, Grandpa?" She did not put Lily down but turned to address her grandfather.
"Where are James and Fred?"
"They went for a walk with Victoire and Teddy!"
"OK! Thank you! Tea time is soon so all of you lot start heading in please!" Molly gave a wave indicating she understood.
Arthur hurried off in the direction Molly had pointed for the walk. There was no way Teddy and Victoire took James and Fred with them. Teddy or Victoire probably announced "they" meaning the two of them were going for a walk, and James and Fred stood nearby to make the others think that included them so they could go off somewhere unsupervised.
Having raised seven children, Arthur knew most of the areas in which children could get into trouble around the Burrow, and once out of sight of his other grandchildren, he took off at a run towards the most dangerous.
He got there just in time. Fred and James were in the pen with the neighbor's bull which was charging at them. They were holding hands and not moving, apparently petrified with terror. Arthur concentrated, and Apparated directly behind his grandsons, concentrated again and side-along Apparated them out of the pen. The bull had only been about six feet away when Arthur got them out. He took a moment to breathe heavily, took stock of himself and the boys-a miracle they hadn't splinched-and then yelled, "What is the ONE THING I told you NEVER to do?!"
James and Fred burst into tears.
"Do you understand why we have rules? Do you understand why I told you never to go near that bull? You could have both been killed! Nobody knew where you were! If I hadn't guessed correctly . . ." Arthur tightly hugged his crying grandsons.
When they had collected themselves a bit, he walked them back to the house for tea, with an arm around each of their shoulders. He passed them off to Molly to get cleaned up, and went in search of Victoire and Teddy. He guessed correctly where they were, too-in a tightly knit grove of poplar trees, snogging. Arthur came up near them and cleared his throat loudly. They jumped apart as if they had been shocked by eckeltricity. Arthur cheerily sing-songed, "Tea time!" And turned back to the Burrow leaving the startled teenagers to follow him.
~*~
Molly cuddled up to Arthur in bed. "So the day went pretty well, didn't it?"
"Other than James and Fred almost getting themselves killed, yes, it was a rather nice day."
"Speaking of James and Fred, Arthur you are too soft on the grandchildren! When you had to rescue Charlie from that bull, you gave him the spanking of his life."
"I didn't rescue Charlie from the same bull as Fred and James, Molly. I'm sure it was different. Bulls don't live that long, do they?"
"Honestly, Arthur. You know what I meant."
"Ah, Mollywobbles. That's the beauty of being a grandparent rather than a parent. I sent Ginny a Patronus."
"Oh, well, that's all right, then. Ginny will sort them out. I think she's turned out to be an even stricter mother than me."
"True. And speaking of being soft on the grandchildren, what about that swim suit of Victoire's? I would have confiscated it since she does have a proper one."
"I owled Bill and said I hoped Victoire wasn't too upset about my not letting her wear the lovely swimsuit Fleur bought her, and I explained my fears of the younger children taking advantage."
Arthur chuckled, "And you wondered from whom the twins inherited their penchant for mischief."
"Ah well. It was a mostly nice day, and only four more of them to go. They are all good children. Usually. We can do pretty much the same things the rest of the week, but I don't think we'll leave them alone outside again."
"Except that I heard on the WWN . . . it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week."
Molly sighed, turned over and put her head on Arthur's chest as he wrapped his arms around her.