Wordless

>From all over Britain they came, as though the house was a magnet. This scarred, ragged war weary group had won a war and saved the wizarding world.

What was ironic, thought Molly Weasley, as she sat in her domain, the kitchen, and waited for her family, was that these were some of the most disparaged, underestimated and even despised members of the wizarding world. The Order of the Phoenix could attribute its success, in varying degrees, to giants and half-giants, house elves, a werewolf, Squibs, Muggle-borns, a convicted murderer, a common crook, and people who were barely out of school. It was fitting really that it should have been these who won a war fought for race and blood and status.

Two years ago Voldemort had been destroyed, but the war against the Death Eaters had continued. Every time they thought the end was near, it turned out it wasn't, and ever more weary they had turned again to the fight. They had been tortured, they had been scared, they had seen friends and family die, and still they had continued to fight. Molly didn't know how she'd fought on after Charlie's death, seeing the way death hit her children, watching from the sidelines as Percy still refused to approach the family.

But they had fought, and they had won. The battle was over; the core group of Death Eaters had been killed or imprisoned. The concept of peace equalled relief now, more than anything else. There need be no more deaths.

Some of those who came to the house that evening went to the conference room, to talk solemnly, to debrief each other. Some gathered on the stairs, working up the energy to celebrate. Molly knew her family would come to the kitchen.

Neville Longbottom came first. There was infinite room in Molly's heart for parentless children like him. Ever since he had joined the Order on leaving school she had watched his quiet strength, and remembered the boy he had been. The war had been hard for Neville, but he would face the future with the same determination with which he had faced the war.

"Mrs Weasley."

Molly rose to meet him and gave him a quick hug. "Neville, dear, I'm so pleased to see you. Especially in these circumstances."

"I went to St Mungo's before. To tell my parents. I wanted them to know it was all over." Neville told this to the floor, but Molly understood. There was no response to this, and she didn't try to make one.

Neville took a seat at the table and they waited in silence, listening to people arrive at the house.

"I'm glad it's over," said Neville suddenly.

"So am I, dear. So am I."

Ron and Ginny were next, with Hermione and Harry, all four wrapped in travelling cloaks and obviously straight from seeing the last of the Death Eaters securely imprisoned in Azkaban. Molly made no distinctions with these four: they were all her children. She tried to gather them all to her at once, with little success, but it was enough that they were here and together in peacetime.

Neville greeted them too, with shining eyes. "We made it," he said, and Molly knew he meant it from the bottom of his heart.

"We did," Hermione whispered, her voice choked. Everyone looked away for a minute as Ron wrapped her in a hug. After all they had been through together, they knew that not everything needed to be shared.

Fred came in, Angelina following close behind. There was no-one Molly would have wanted more for Fred's constant companion following George's sudden marriage. Oh, she had her hopes for Fred and Angelina, but now, as with the others, it was enough that they were here, and alive. "There's a party at Lee Jordan's," Angelina said, "but we knew we had to come here, and be with you all." Another voice that cracked. Molly looked at Angelina, and knew that now the girl would have time to grieve for her mother.

*I'll love her, too,* Molly thought. *When she lets me. And she will. They all do.*

The pain in the room was almost palpable. Everyone had lost someone, and found, not a subsitute, but a surrogate. Something that could fill, but not plug the hole. Some losses would never be healed completely, but now, with peace, maybe they could begin to heal each other.

George arrived then, with Katie, who was glowing perhaps more than she should have been. Molly eyed her daughter-in-law's swelling stomach as she greeted the couple, and remembered that her first grandchild would be born in peace. Katie was a wonderful girl, and if her marriage to George had been something sudden that no one had found out about till afterwards and had almost broken Fred's heart, well, Molly thought she could understand now. She knew all about the desperation of war, and how close the Death Eaters had come to taking Katie from them all.

There were no words, Molly realised, no words for this evening, for what it meant to be alive and at peace. It wasn't a time for dragging up family pain, but a time for quietness and peace. The family would regenerate; hurts and deaths would never be forgotten, but they would live with that as they had lived with so much worse.

Bill and Arthur came together, with Fleur, who was probably the one of her children's partners that Molly had found it hardest to accept. She had always felt there was something trivial about the way Fleur dealt with life, but the war had wiped that away as it had demolished so many false impressions. She would welcome Fleur into the family circle, and gratefully.

Silence reigned in the kitchen; hugs and whispers conveyed what a ten minute monologue couldn't. Voices sounded from the rest of the house and footsteps echoed above their heads, but for now they were here in this world of their own, finally insulated from war and pain.

There had been so many losses: Charlie, Luna, Dumbledore - to recite them all was to recite a litany of the world's losses. There were people who had fought with them who weren't here now, but right at the moment just knowing they were alive was all that counted. There would be another day, another chance, to see those people. There would be a tomorrow.

Molly looked around from face to face, all of them familiar, all of them loved. They were so young, all of these but her and Arthur. There was hope, when tomorrow was in the hands of people like this.

"It's Christmas soon. I hope - I hope you'll all come to the Burrow," was all she said. It was all that needed to be said.

THE END