Not Just Any Jumper
The Weasley Jumpers had become a tradition at Yule. Every member of the Weasley family whether they liked it or not received a Christmas jumper.
Not many knew the real story behind the jumpers or the purpose and reason behind why they became a Weasley Tradition..
Molly Weasley loved to knit. She knitted because she could and because she loved her family and wanted to keep them safe, no matter where they were. This also extended to those outside her family she felt were important to keep safe too.
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“Here Molly, I saved this gift especially for you to open now that the festivities are over and we are alone.”
Molly and her mum sat close together having shared a quiet cup of tea with their feet up, now that all the washing up had been done and everything put away.
They glanced over at the big couch filled with men in various states of repose but all asleep, full of food and some filled with the extra spirit of Yule.
Molly’s mother handed over the rather bulky gift with the magical hare design paper and a red sparkly bow.
“Oh mum, I thought I had got all of my gifts earlier.” She lifted it, finding it much lighter than expected. She carefully unwrapped the gift. She kept the paper to reuse later with its scurrying hares. This wrapping had been new unlike her other wrapped gifts
The red head gazed across to her mother with love and happiness. She clutched at the circular basket and gasped.
“Oh mum, it reminds me of Grans’ knitting basket!”
“It was hers, it now belongs to you Molly.” The knitting basket had been repaired, relined and cleaned up.
The basket contained knitting needles, balls of wool in a variety of colours and most especially a magical knitting pattern book as well as other odds and ends she would need when knitting.
“I just love it mum, I can think of Gran every time I use it.” She reached over and kissed her mother. “Thank you!”
Molly thought of how her mother knitted using the magical needles but had been told first she needed to learn how to knit without magic.
Her mother showed her how to cast on some stitches and how to knit a plain row. Molly concentrated hard in order to get it right, tongue between her teeth that broke out into a wide smile when successful.
“Well done my love, that is so good for your first attempt. Later I will teach you how to use magic in the items you make. Each stitch you knit can keep your family safe.” ”
Her mother tapped at the side of her own nose and winked. “When you grow up and become a mother yourself you will know and understand.”
The young Molly did not know or care because she was just seven years old and had watched her mother knit beautiful clothes and she just wanted to be like her mum.
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Fabian and Gideon, Molly’s two big brothers teased her mercilessly about the unrecognisable items they got for their birthday. She knew the small blankets were not perfect but had been knitted with love.
She had run away in tears but later her brothers found her and shared the leftover birthday cake with her as an apology.
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Molly practised her knitting and with her mothers advice and help she improved.
She was in her first year at Hogwarts when she knitted her first jumper that actually looked like a jumper. She had been chilled and knitted a jumper to keep herselfwarm. One sleeve was slightly longer than the other but as she learned new magical spells she was able to alter her completed knitting to look perfect.
Over the next few years she learned how to add magic to her knitting projects as she created them.
Each stitch in a shawl for her mum’s Yule gift had a spell woven into each colour. The red was to keep her warm in cold weather and the blue was to keep her cool in hot weather. Her mother was on her own since her father had died and had not been keeping well.
Her brothers had often rolled her eyes at their little sister who was growing up into a red haired beauty and who was already engaged to Arthur Weasley. They felt she was too young at 16 to be engaged but their mother had approved and the matter was closed.
A year later Molly had left school and got married to Arthur and six months later William her first son was born.
The years passed and other children were born. And the burrow began to be extended upwards.
Money was always short even though Arthur had a good job and her two brothers helped when they could. Her knitting helped clothe her children and she always had lots of blue wool to hand to rip out and reknit into a new item.
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A Wizarding war was coming and Molly wanted her family kept safe.. She was pregnant again but her young family kept her busy and her knitting kept her focussed. Her youngest, twins Fred and George, were a handful but her big brothers loved having twin nephews.
Molly had a plan and had brewed her own potions to dip the new wool she had bought with her birthday money and as she knitted more spells were added. She wanted her family kept safe at all costs.
“Have you got your jumper on?” She would ask Arthur, Gideonor Fabian as they left the Burrow. The men knew Molly loved them but could not fathom why she insisted they wear their jumpers or the scarfs she had knitted for them before going outside. On the main they complied as it was easier than getting an ear tug,, a mouth lashing, or worse a howler..
Molly gave birth to another son. Gideon had teased her stating that the next would be the seventh son of a seventh son. She had dismissed it hoping this would be her last child although she secretly longed for a daughter.
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Molly had not told her family that her jumpers contained magic to keep them safe. She also ensured her children always wore her special knits.
Molly rubbed her swollen belly. This baby felt different from her previous pregnancies and she groaned as it moved around unsettling her and making her giddy. Arthur had teased her stating it would be another Quidditch player.
Gideon and Fabian had kissed her goodbye and patted her tummy on the way out. She was about to ask them about the vests she had knitted to keep them cool as well as safe but the child had rolled around inside her making her reach for her chair to sit.
She never got a chance to double check before the twins exited theBurrow just as Arthurs mum arrived to help care for the youngest children. Molly had her hands full.
Molly could not sit still for long. She was uncomfortable but that was nothing new to her. She ensured the coast was clear and snuck into the kitchen to finish up the dish washing while her mother in law was upstairs making the beds.
The kitchen was clean as a new pin and the kettle had just boiled to make a pot of tea when Arthur’s mum walked in.
“Fancy a cuppa….” Molly started to say when a wave of pain hit her that left her gasping.
“Ahaha!” Cooed her Mum in law with delight, “looks like this one is on its way my duck.”
“Hmmm.” Molly moaned then smiled. “I am secretly sure this one is a girl. I refused to have anyone cast a charm to check and I even cast a protection charm to stop anyone else from double checking, I think this is a girl Mum!”
“Oh der, looks like this little one will be having lots of blue clothing but we can change it to pink.”
“Look in my knitting basket mum. She said standing up straight as she rubbed at her aching back.”
Her mother in law found it locked and Molly laughed, then cast a charm to unlock the basket.
“Oh,” Cooed Arthur’s mum.”This is Beautiful and in pink!”
“I have knitted that shawl for months in secret. No one has seen it not even the children. No one can keep a secret in this place.”
Upstairs in the Burrow later that afternoon Molly with the assistance from her mother in law gave birth to Molly Ginevra Weasley.
Arthur Weasley had just arrived back at the burrow with the tragic news to give to his wife that both Gideon and Fabian, her brothers, had just been murdered, unaware he had a daughter.
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Ginny’s birthday always brought some sadness to Molly and as another war approached she vowed no one would die under her watch - never again!
Jumpers were knitted, given as gifts, scarfs, hats and gloves too. She even knitted small items to be pinned into bags and on jackets and coats. Her protection charms had been improved over the years. She had honed her brewing skills with a little help from a friend.
Molly Weasley was not as silly as some people in the Order assumed. She was smart and her knitting went under the radar of most magical folk - even her family. She had been happy to receive the abandoned wool left by Hermione Granger. The witch had realised that Molly liked knitting so regularly dropped off bags of wool to her. It was Muggle wool but that worked perfectly as it often went unnoticed.
Fred looked at the latest birthday gift he had got from his mum. It was not another jumper but it was a little flower. He liked it and noticed that his twin had got a similar flower as his gift.
“She’s at it again Forge.”
“I know Gred.”
They wore their magical flowers on the lapels of their suits when at work and received many compliments.
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Severus Snape sat alone, friendless and unloved. He had done what he had promised and killed Dumbledore and had hated himself for it. He had taken on the role he had never wanted. He was headmaster and sat alone on his birthday as the school lay trussed up like an old turkey. Yule had been dreadful. Death Eaters had been all over the castle frollicking around and upsetting everyone including him.
Severus drank a gin and tonic he had asked his House Elf to get. He rarely drank alcohol but today he imbibed It was his birthday after all and he had got sod all, just like as a child in spinner’s end.
A tap tap tapping came to his window. He listened to the peep peep of the tiny owl and rolled his eyes as he knew who owned it.
The smallest of owls struggled inside with a package. If it had contained anything harmful it would have been blown to smithereens by now. It bore no ill will charms. Only one person in the magical world could wrap a package like this.
He carefully opened the package to find a wrapped gift inside. It had a blank label
“Clever witch!” He admitted to himself and picked up his wand and made a flame. He had shown the children after a Order meeting a muggle trick. Molly Weasley had remembered.
“Happy birthday.
The green coloured paper had come from a magical knitting magazine. He saved it to read later. Molly was a smart witch and she would have used this paper for a reason.
He opened the paper to reveal a Weasley jumper.
He looked at the beautifully knitted jumper in the darkest of greens with black lettering. It had the large initials S S emblazoned on the front.
He popped the jumper on and it magically adjusted to fit. He smiled and felt the magic flow over him. This was protective magic
A piece of paper fluttered to the floor. He used the flame to reveal another message.
“I know who and what you are. This could save your life.”
Severus blinked rapidly. He felt his breath hitch. A memory flashed to the fore. He had been friends with her twin brothers and had remembered her urging them to put on their knitwear before going out. He also remembered her urging her family much more recently to do the same. She wanted him to keep safe too.
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George Weasley let out a scream of utter despair as his twin was hit by a magical blast and disappeared into nothing in front of his eyes.
Many witnessed the deaths of the lupins as they were blasted from all sides by Death Eaters, their bodies could not be found.
Hermione Granger swore that Severus Snape was dead lying in the Shrieking Shack but on their return to retrieve his body they discovered that Death Eaters must have got to him first.
Molly Weasley was grieving at the losses on both sides of this dreadful war. She had nodded to the Malfoy’s in passing and knew why they had acknowledged her with a bow in return. She gathered her family together and headed for home.
Inside the Burrow she broke down in floods of tears when she saw seated in her lounge a bunch of witches and wizards who were all assumed dead. They included her son Fred and the Lupins’.
Her family ran up behind her and stood in shock at first then broke into laughter and lots of tears of utter joy as hugs and much back slapping was exchanged.
Molly was acknowledged for her magical knitting as it had saved many lives. She knew that many more witches and wizards would have survived and would have been returned to their own homes or places of safety. Glasses were raised and a toast made to the fallen.
She was missing one wizard. She sniffed as the talk turned to that of Severus Snape. She weeped in private as she was sure that Severus would have worn her gift of the jumper. She had been wrong.
During the night a loud knocking came at the burrow’s door.
Arthur got up and headed downstairs a little worse for wear due to the fact he had been celebrating the. Lives saved. He stood in shock at the sight of a wizard he assumed dead standing on his doorstep.
“Arthur, may I come in? Croaked the very much alive Severus Snape.”
Severus was seated by the time Molly arrived downstairs
“Severus, is that you?”
“Yes,” he said rather huskily, “Bloody snake bit my neck, ended up in Mungoes for an hour or two until they realised I was immune to the snakes bite but had not been immune to the glass that smashed when I dropped the lantern I had been holding at the time it attacked me. Lots better now.”
“Oh we are so happy you are alive, Severus.” Arthur beamed.
“I am unsure yet if I am happy or not. It is thanks to that jumper you knitted Molly, thank you.” He lifted up a torn robe to reveal the jumper still intact underneath.
“Perhaps I should have knitted a scarf -“ Molly said with a smile..
Severus started to laugh, it was infectious and soon the three of them were laughing together and woke up the whole house.
Breakfast was made and Severus tucked into the best meal he had had in nearly a year. He relaxed feeling safe and drifted to sleep sitting upright. He had been hugged and kissed by many and they thanked him for keeping them safe. Especially Harry, Ron and Hermione.
“Poor man has no home to go too, “ Hermione Granger said in a whisper. “He said he had gone there first before coming here.”
Molly shared a knowing look with Arthur and he nodded.
Severus Snape stayed at the Burrow knowing he was safe there and no one would think to look for him as all thought him dead apart from their immediate family and the closest of friends.
In Severus and many other eyes it was Molly Weasley who was the heroine of the war, she had saved lives on both sides.