Harry's Impossible Choice

Harry could see by the way she was looking at him that this was something she needed, it was almost like a confirmation that she wasn't going dark. The question he had to ask himself was could he trade Ron's death for Molly's life, whatever that life was now. When she looked at him like that, he could deny her nothing. "Ok love, I can live with that if you can."

A repeat of their earlier kiss told him she could, sometimes it was good to be Harry Potter.

Harry could see the determination back in her eyes and was greatly relieved, he would have hated to go behind her back to deal with Ron. He would still have done it though, that image of him standing over a bruised and battered Hermione was burned into his brain. Only Ron's death had any chance of allowing it to fade.

"Oh Harry, we've been such terrible hosts. Luna and Ginny must be wondering where we are?"

"Don't worry love, your mother was leading them away to watch the Little Mermaid. We better get some Gillyweed in for Australia!"

They happy couple walked hand in hand down the stairs to rejoin their friends.

.....

Molly Weasley thought her new life sucked! She was irritable, sweating buckets from working in the intense heat and starting to get really pissed-off at the way the local men ogled her as if she was the tastiest thing on the menu. Molly would be the first to admit she had never been what traditionally could be considered beautiful, even as a teenager her most flattering description had been that 'pleasantly plump' girl. Unused to the attention, the stares of these men annoyed her even more, it was as if they were calculating how many camels she was worth. What really had her worried was that things were so bad between her and Arthur, the head of the Weasley family might accept if the offer was high enough.

Bill's contacts had led them to a bar in Cairo, a bar that the owner was considering selling. It had a three bedroom flat above the bar and plenty of room for an extension out the back. They had haggled for hours before reaching a compromise, they would run the bar for six weeks with the option to buy at the end of it.

Molly was now working wherever she was needed, be it in the kitchen or behind the bar. All three Weasleys could see this was a terrific opportunity to earn a living, with accommodation already available. Financially it would take all they had and require a massive effort from the entire family but here was their way back to being able to hold their heads up again. Owning your own business was not to be sneezed at, even if it was just a bar in downtown Cairo.

The owl that arrived from Muriel highlighted exactly how tenuous their position was.

"But Arthur, we have to go back or at least I do! How can we sleep at night not knowing what happened to our son?"

Arthur was not for moving, "Our son who chose to run away over a stupid badge and a girl he hadn't even spoken to! We're barely managing here with the three of us working flat out. When you take in the expense of a trip home and hiring someone to replace you then I have to say no."

Molly was now crying as Arthur further explained his decision, "The future of our whole family now rests on this venture. We need to save enough gold to bring them all here for the summer and pay their next year's tuition at Hogwarts, a year that will see Ginny joining the boys. I'm really sorry Molly but it has to be this way, I'll write to Charlie and see if he can get a couple of days off, he's much closer anyway."

Bill gave his opinion, it actually matched his father's, "If there was something we could do to help, you know this decision would be different. There's nothing we can do that the ministry and Dumbledore won't already be doing. Muriel's there and if Charlie can get over for a few days then that's the best we can accomplish for now. Percy acting like a love lost teen is certainly unexpected but it's always the quiet ones."

Arthur understood this was extremely hard for Molly, it was not an easy decision for him to make either. "By the time we got there, Percy could even have been found. If not, we know he's a resourceful young man who knows how to look after himself." With his first display of kindness since this situation blew up on them, Arthur placed his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"He's run away from home Molly, young men have been doing that since the beginning of time. Britain is a much safer place now and he knows how to use his wand. He'll be fine."

Molly could see their point of view, the mother in her didn't agree with it for a second but she could still see it. One of her babies was lost and she wouldn't be happy until she was crushing him in her arms again, closely followed by the rollicking of his life! She asked her husband for the only thing she knew that could bring her some comfort.

"Arthur, could we ask Muriel to ship my clock out to us. We can tinker with it and try to get it working properly again. I would feel much better if I could at least see their hands on the clock."

Arthur understood how much it was costing Molly not to be racing back to Britain, he had been quite hard on her recently and this was a perfectly reasonable request.

"Ok Molly, I'll write to Charlie first. If he's going to Britain, he could collect it from Muriel. It'll get here quicker if he ships it from Romania."

With a quick letter penned and sent to Charlie, the three Weasleys got back to work.

.....

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