SHMILY

"What does it mean?" she breathed into his ear as her eyes swept across the crisp piece of paper in her hand. He laughed, a symphony of happiness, and placed his hand atop hers. His fingertips lightly grazed each of the letters spelled in all capitals on the scroll.

"S-H-M-I-L-Y. See How Much I Love You..." Immediately, her eyes snapped up to meet his, her breath stopped short. But he kept his steady. A smile crept its way onto her face before she could stop it - a glimmer of light at daybreak after a long night of fog.

He had never admitted he loved her, but she had always known. It was one of those things everyone joked about, but secretly wished would happen. But then, in that onrush of six letters smashed together, he confided his secret to her. "I Love You..." she repeated, half to be sure he wouldn't object, and half to confide in him as he had in her.

"It's a game, you see," he explained carefully. "You hide it. And the other player has to find it. As soon as they do, they hide it again. It's all fun, you know," he continued when her face showed the slightest bit of indifference. "And no matter what, every time you find it, you remember the person who hid it." Then, he had to stop, his words cracking wide open in his mouth. Her palm graced his cheek to calm him before he could continue, tears welling in his eyes. He clutched to her hands and took in her beauty. "No matter how long it's been since they hid it. And you remember they love you. You remember that you are so special that this one person has hidden for you a message that can convey in six letters what a thousands words could not."

She cut short the rest of his monologue with a kiss that deepened until they were lying in the grass, one on top of the other with stars as their blanket. They both knew at any time, the peaceful calm would be swept away like a tidal wave. It was a dark time, a time where wizards went missing overnight, and hundreds appeared dead by morning. It was a time of Voldemort. Not knowing whether you would see tomorrow, people lived like there was none. That's why there was no surprise when he slipped a ring of daisies onto her finger. "Marry me," he asked, so softly it might have been the wind stirring up her dreams.

"Only if you take this message"- she tucked the scroll into his pocket- "and hide another one for me to find." Her sweet voice rolled over him like the ocean. She had said yes.

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Her voluminous hair got in her eyes while she held down the screaming twins. "Shh, my darlings," she pleaded as if they could understand. "Mummy is very tired and it appears Daddy doesn't care." The bitterness she tried to hide with a motherly grin landed in the form of twin dirty diapers for her twin boys.

After she persuaded her second eldest, a six-year-old named Charlie, to keep Fred from falling, she lifted George's legs to remove the nappy. Scrawled in bright red letters on the bottom of George's wet nappy were the letters SHMILY. She couldn't help but smile, something that astounded the six-year-old.

"Mummy... what's that? What're you doing? He's going to get wet again!" Charlie yelled after her as she tore into the kitchen. Arthur would be home very soon, which didn't leave her much time. She scratched hurriedly onto a napkin the famous letters, and then flipped it upside down beside her husband's plate.

Returning from her blissful state, Molly was aware that the twins, fully naked, had soiled themselves again. But even returning to the mundane was easier as she remembered her husband's love.

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As she gained a daughter, even though it WAS Fleur... Molly couldn't help but smile. She had done her job. She had raised five children, and the other two were quick to catch up. She had survived the Dark Times and was almost through this.

Ginny had tears running down her face, and as Molly saw this, she was surprised to feel her own cheeks wet. Arthur grasped her hand. They had never felt prouder, she was sure. But when he slipped away to congratulate his eldest son, Molly felt something he left behind. Looking down, she saw his handkerchief coiled tightly in her hold. She was about to return it, when she saw the letters, hiding in the corner of the fabric.

After so many years of marriage, there were few places that were new to leave the message. Getting it at all was a wake-up call back into their love. Knowing that he thought enough to find a new hiding spot only made her love him all the more.

Instead of writing the letters down elsewhere, she wrote them in a letter, along with an explanation of the game, and gave it to her new daughter-in-law. "Congratulations. I hope you'll be so happy," she softly cried as the game was passed to the next generation. Her son lifted his champagne glass to her before taking his wife in his arms. Happiness.

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"...Not only Hermione, but Ron too. I'm sorry, Molly." Remus Lupin, having delivered his bad news, strode from the room so as not to see her reaction.

Ron? Little Ron? Ron who used to smile when he thought the moon was a piece of pie left hanging in the sky? Ron whose hand used to fit into her's so perfectly, it was like he was carved by angels just for her? Ron who used to fantasize about his best friend, Hermione, and think no one knew? Ron who loved Hermione? And Hermione... Hermione who loved her son back?

Molly prided herself in staying strong no matter the news. Everyone needed a role model, and she wanted everyone to have hope. If she could have faith, so could they. But the thought of her baby boy's lifeless corpse lying near a laughing Death Eater made her blood boil. It made the tears- hot and with purpose- fall clean to the floor. It even forced the strongest female there, as she SO wanted to be, to her knees.

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Harry returned triumphantly. They had won! For good... Yet, in his eyes, one could see the battles, constantly replaying. He had lost so much, including his only real friends in the entire world and his childhood. He had lost Ginny. He had lost Remus. Almost everyone was gone. Molly held her surrogate son close to her chest, thanking God for keeping him safe - for delivering him from evil.

"Molly..."

"Mum," she corrected him automatically, not noticing his shoulders tense.

"Mum... I have to tell you something." His eyes seemed so desperate; it was no surprise Molly held up her hand to silence him.

"Wait until Arthur gets here, love. Then we'll discuss it together." She didn't notice the tensing again. She just kept keeping a watch out the window for the husband she was sure would return. She knew that tonight he would get her back in the SHMILY game. It was the perfect time. They had won, after all. She had gotten him over two weeks ago, but all in due time.

"Arthur's dead!" Harry blurted, regretting it the moment he saw the woman he half considered his mother freeze. Her rather large frame seemed to shrink into itself. She slowly turned to face him again, ready to listen. "He was protecting me from Nott. I'm sorry, Mum... Molly. I truly am.

But Molly couldn't hear him. The first two words just kept reverberating through her skull so harshly, she wondered how her thoughts didn't spill onto the table and swallow them both whole. Dead. The man she'd loved for decades. The man she'd raised her entire family with. The man who held her close the night her world began to unravel, string by string, as another of her children was taken away by the damn war. The man who had sworn to love her until the stars cascaded upon them and the sun became nothing more than a fairy's glow.

Surely there was some mistake.

But she knew. She KNEW. There would be no more hidden messages. No more games. No more laughter. No more sneaking to the grounds around their house and falling asleep watching the night come alive. No more love, filling her as they met, their bodies entwined together. No more Arthur.

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She passed through the next few weeks in a daze. Of her family, only George, Charlie, and Bill were left. True, Percy was alive, but he had fled to America the moment Dumbledore had died. He had abandoned them, so they had abandoned him from their thoughts.

Once, George had caught her standing up on the roof, determined to fly. They all pushed the incident from their minds as soon as she was inside and asleep. They didn't need to think she had lost her mind. Yet, it wasn't long before she began to scream in her sleep. She yelled for each child by name. Finally, she'd scream her husband's name, until one of her remaining kin would hold her tight. They didn't know what to do. She kept slipping further and further away...

On a Tuesday morning in late April, Tonks came by the house. She didn't stay long; just enough for tea, before she departed as swiftly as she'd arrived. Yet, the short visit kept Molly aloft from the sea of no return just below her. It left her to hope that there may yet be good in the world.

With a sudden urge, Molly stripped all the rooms in the house and began her deep cleaning. Whether she was just cleaning or trying to rid them all of the dirtiness they felt under their skin, no one was sure. But she sure felt she had to. Every piece of furniture-every diary-every box was carefully looked through and sorted.

Until she stumbled over the floor. Molly looked behind her in shock at what had tripped her. The floor in her and Arthur's room had always been even, but one floorboard was loose. She hesitated before dropping down to look. Her step must have pushed up an end of it. Her eyes scanned the room, and seeing no one, she lifted the board out of the way, revealing an empty space. Inside the tiny cavern the board's absence made were several things. Some she recognized; others were new. A dusty teddy bear that had been missing since Ron was four occupied one end of the concealed slot. Some photos from Bill and Fleur's wedding littered the bottom. And in the other end, Molly spotted a box she'd never seen.

The box called to her in its mystery, but still she paused, unsure whether to invade her husband's trust so soon after... so soon after... so soon After. But the fact that she had always trusted him intrigued her and she felt her fingers working the lid free of its base.

Opening the old box caused dust to fly into her eyes. At first, she thought it might be perhaps a sign to stop, but continued anyway. Inside, carefully folded and stacked, was every single SHMILY she had hidden for her husband. Anything that could be taken from the scene, as in on a piece of toilet paper she had unrolled the entire roll to write on or the postage stamp she had added to an Owl for him, he had saved.

It took her a moment to realize what this meant. It wasn't just a game to him. He meant every word of what he said about the 'game'. It was truly to prove their love. Tucked into the top lid of the box was something new: a gold locket. Creaking it open slowly, she saw the letters SHMILY engraved into the center along with the message 'Remember it always. Love Arthur.'

So he knew that one day, she would have to find this; that he would be dead and his stash would be discovered. As she clasped the locket that must have cost him a month's earnings, she did something she had not done for weeks. All the sadness inside her compiled itself into something so tiny; it was like a pill on her tongue. It was amazing to her that something so small--something that had filled her for so long - could be made out like that. She looked at her new locket and let it out in a simple laugh.