Chapter 8
“You’re sure?” Ron asked. “You don’t have to tell them, you know.”
Harry shook his head. “I think Bill is right. We won’t tell the whole Order, but our closest people – they deserve to know. They’ll be helpful.”
“Even Fred and George?” Ron asked incredulously.
Harry frowned. “Especially Fred and George.”
Hermione nodded emphatically. “They are incredibly clever, Ron. I’ve been working with them on protean charms that work over long distances and their minds are just incredible.”
Ron sighed. “I guess I really am the dunce Weasley then.”
“No,” Ginny disagreed, entering the living room and giving Harry a quick kiss. “That’s Percy.” Ron grinned appreciatively. “What are we discussing?”
Harry swallowed. “Telling the others about the horcruxes.” Ginny stiffened. He’d not wanted to bring this up today. She’d come to find him in the middle of the night and they’d shared a pint of ice cream in the kitchen, sharing their nightmares. Ginny’s had been about the diary, again.
“Oh,” Ginny said softly. “Who – who are the others?”
“Your parents, Fred, George, Charlie. Kingsley, Tonks, Fleur.” Ginny nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
“You don’t have to be there.”
“I want to be.”
“No, honestly, Gin, you can just-”
“Harry,” she cut off firmly. He looked at her helplessly. “I’m not some damsel-in-distress you have to save.”
“I want to protect you from the unnecessary,” he clarified.
Ginny sighed. “The more I face it, the better I’ll be,” she said. Harry hoped it was true. He searched her eyes for any worry and found lots. He placed a butterfly kiss on her nose. “When are we doing it?”
“Tonks and Kingsley will be here soon,” he told her. “Your mum is making shepherd’s pie.” Harry looked up and found Hermione and Ron had averted their eyes. “Gin, I don’t want to ruin your birthday by-”
“Harry,” she said more strongly than earlier and he held his hands up.
“Okay,” he agreed.
Tonks arrived halfway through dinner, Kingsley slightly later. Ginny was getting progressively stiffer and part of Harry wished he’d not even told her what was happening. By the time they’d all eaten and were ready to talk, Ginny’s leg was literally jumping up and down.
Harry gave her parents a tight smile as he took her hand and squeezed it, forcing her to meet his eyes. She glared at him so viciously that Harry knew not to ask her whether she was sure.
“What’s all this about, Harry?” Molly asked him, her eyes on Ginny.
Harry sighed. “We need to tell you something.” Harry briefly explained what a horcrux was and how Voldemort had made them. He told them that Dumbledore had destroyed one, at the Gaunt Shack, when Ginny burst in with, “And Harry destroyed another one in the Chamber of Secrets.”
Silence reigned in the room. “Was that why you went to Hogwarts?” Arthur asked. Harry sighed and shook his head.
“No. Well, yes and no. I destroyed the horcrux in the Chamber, when Ginny was there too, after Voldemort possessed her. The horcrux was the-”
Ginny jumped up and left the room. Harry gave Ron a meaningful look and he ran out of the room after his girlfriend.
XXX
Ron watched as Harry ran out of the room, after Ginny. He swallowed, looking at Hermione. She gave him a confident nod and his stomach settled, despite all of his family looking to him. Why couldn’t Harry have looked at Bill or Hermione or Remus? Ron shook himself and said, “Er, right, as Harry was saying, the horcrux was the diary that Ginny had been writing to, which, er, is why she’s so upset.
“Harry destroyed that one with a basilisk fang, from the basilisk he killed. Erm, we went and got more of those from the Chamber a few days ago, so that we can destroy the future horcruxes.” Ron swallowed a lump in his throat. “Dumbledore reckoned that Hufflepuff had a cup of some sort that You-Know-Who had made a horcrux and maybe something of Ravenclaw’s, too. He was obsessed with the founders, apparently.
“And, then, there’s the snake. You-Know-Who’s snake,” Ron clarified. “He has that with him, so Harry reckons we’re best leaving that one till last.” Hermione gave him an encouraging smile and Ron wondered if she did that for Harry. Harry probably didn’t bloody need an encouraging smile. “Is that all of them?” Ron checked with Hermione, who mouthed ‘locket’.
“Oh, shit, yeah,” he said, ignoring his father’s disappointment and his mother’s glare at his cursing. Harry didn’t have to deal with this shit. “Okay, so the final one is a locket, Slytherin’s locket. And it was actually at Grimmauld Place the summer before fifth year but things happened and Mundungus had it.”
“Obviously,” Fred chipped in with an eyeroll.
“Exactly,” Ron agreed, falling into the role. “So, because this involves Harry, things continued to go wrong and now Umbridge has it.”
Fred and George let out noises that Ron was not sure he’d have heard them use to describe Voldemort. “Dolores Umbridge?” George clarified.
“What other Umbridge do you know, Fred?” Fred asked George.
George shrugged. “Wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few trolls out there with the name.” Ron snorted.
“Dolores Umbridge works in the Ministry building,” Kingsley said, sharing a glance with Ron’s dad. Ron furrowed his brow. “This could be a job for those of us who work at the Ministry.”
Ron rubbed the back of his neck, craning it to see if Harry was coming back. “Erm – well, I’m sure Harry has a pla-”
“Harry’s current plan is Ginny,” Charlie cut off, his full focus on Kingsley. “What’s the plan, King?”
XXX
“You better not have come to tell me I told you so,” Ginny snapped at Harry as soon as he entered her bedroom. Harry gave her a withering look and her anger retreated, pulling her knees to her chest. Ginny sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t,” Harry said, climbing onto the bed and wrapping his arms around her. He pressed a kiss to her head. “Don’t be sorry, Gin.”
“I just – I thought I could talk about it, but I just – I remembered my dad saying not to trust things with brains I couldn’t see, you know, after the Chamber. I just couldn’t face them looking at me like a stupid little girl all over again.” She finished in a whisper.
Harry shook his head. “You weren’t a stupid little girl.” Ginny scoffed. “You didn’t know what you were up against. You were eleven and you fought him for a year. You’re spectacular,” he breathed in her ear. Ginny let out a wet giggle.
“You faced Voldemort at 11,” she reminded him. Harry laughed.
“With Ron and Hermione! I couldn’t have got past the logic bit or the Devil’s Snare or the chess set without them. And, in the end, it wasn’t really any skill. It was my mum’s love that burned Quirrell.”
Ginny let out a sigh. “Okay, I guess I’m better than you then.”
“I’m glad you’ve finally caught on.” Ginny laughed.
“We should go back down,” Ginny suggested, even as she leaned back comfortably against Harry. Harry shook his head.
“Ron and Bill can handle it. I want to be here, making you feel better.” He kissed her temple. “You’re my priority.”
XXX
When Harry did eventually head downstairs, it was with Ginny’s hand firmly in his. She gave her mum and dad a tremulous smile but didn’t leave Harry for a moment. Harry briefly caught up with Ron, who he praised and clapped on the shoulder. “Erm, they made a plan,” Ron added as Harry turned to speak to Bill. Harry turned back and narrowed his eyes, listening to the plan that Charlie, Arthur and Kingsley were planning on enacting.
Harry cocked his head. “Better than anything I could come up with.” Ron’s eyes widened.
“I would’ve thought you…” Ron shrugged. “Sound.” Harry grinned. “Fred and George want you, by the way.”
Harry raised his brows and Ron only shrugged again. “Maybe they’ve finished that thing you got them to do.”
Shaking his head, Harry said, “Nah, Hermione would’ve told me.”
Harry and Ginny entered the kitchen, where Fred and George were in deep conversation at one end and Charlie and Kingsley were talking through the plan with Bill, Fleur, Remus and Tonks on the other.
“Ah, just the people,” Fred cried as he saw Harry and Ginny.
“Do take a seat,” George said, gesturing to the seats in front of them. Harry narrowed his eyes, holding a seat out for Ginny and then taking one himself.
“We have a proposition,” Fred said, drawing the attention of the others at the other side of the table.
“I’d say it’s more than a proposition, Fred,” George said, “given we’ve made the products.”
Fred gave them a charming smile and Harry glanced at Ginny, pleased to see her smiling. “Okay, well, you may have heard there’s a bit of buzz around you two.” George plonked various copies of the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly on the table in front of them, all featuring the two of them together.
“That’s a nice one,” Harry commented, pointing at a Witch Weekly cover of Ginny gazing adoringly at Harry. Ginny gave him a severe look.
“We thought we’d capitalise on this, being that we are the business who are closest in relationship with both of you,” George said smoothly. “Fred, if you will.”
Fred brought a box from under the table. “These are our brand new line of Hinny clothing.”
“Hinny,” Harry repeated.
George gave him a look as though he were thick. “Harry and Ginny. It makes Hinny.”
One by one, they pulled things out of the box – a jumper with Harry’s name on, t-shirts with both of their names and sickly sayings on them, socks with one name on each. “You can’t tell me this will sell,” Harry said incredulously.
“Market research says it will be very popular,” Fred said seriously. Harry’s mouth fell open. “And that’s not even the best bit.”
Fred and George each pulled one last thing from the box. In each of their hands was a doll, one a girl with ginger hair and one with black hair and a prominent lightning scar. Harry scowled, even as the rest of the room began to laugh. Ginny reached over to grab her doll.
“Now, Harry, you may be aware that, in the 80s, Harry Potter dolls were rather popular. In fact, they were consistently what Ginny here requested for her birthdays.” Harry snorted, meeting a flushed Ginny’s eye. “We thought we’d renew the trend.”
“But better,” George added. He handed Harry his doll. “Ginny, squeeze your hand.” Ginny grinned as she did so.
“I’m coming for you, Death Eaters,” the little doll said, her face coming out in a scowl very reminiscent of Ginny’s. Harry’s jaw dropped. Ginny squeezed the doll’s hand again. “I may be small but I am mighty.” The whole room echoed with laughter.
“Now,” Fred started, “our market research suggested that Ginny saying ‘I love you, Harry’ would be the most saleable.”
“And we thought about it…” George continued.
“And decided fuck that,” Fred finished. “Harry, squeeze your doll’s hand.”
“I love you, Ginny,” Harry’s doll announced. Harry had to grin at that. Ginny’s face was flushed with pleasure.
“Brilliant,” she declared.
“You’re not really going to sell these?” Harry asked.
Fred and George shared a look and then looked back to Harry. “Oh, ye of little faith. These are going to make our shop.”
“It’s already…”
“Oh, Harry,” Fred interrupted. “You have no idea how people are crying out for these.” Harry looked between the twins and sighed, handing back his doll. “Oh no, you two can keep those.”
“It’ll replace the one you wore out, Ginny,” George teased.
XXX
Ginny’s eyes flicked open suddenly. It was her birthday. It was 11th August, the best day in the year. Her birthday. She swung her legs out of her bed, the air caressing her bare legs.
Rushing along the corridor, Ginny opened Harry’s door without knocking and ran in, jumping on his bed, where he thankfully still was. She grinned and jumped again, swinging the door closed with a wave of magic.
Harry’s eyes opened blearily and Ginny passed him his glasses, pressing her face close to his. “Can you see me now, Potter?”
“I can,” he grumbled. “Happy Birthday, Gin.”
“Why, thank you,” she said, swinging her leg over Harry so that she was straddling him. “I’m sure I was promised a special birthday present.”
“It’s on my bedside table,” Harry teased, even as she kissed him.
“Not what I want.”
“Oh, it is,” he promised. Ginny drew back and looked at him warily. He grabbed the envelope from his bedside table. “I’ve got you something to open in front of everyone as well, because I don’t want them to see this. But I thought you’d like this.”
He was nervous, which made Ginny grin and kiss him, as she took the envelope from him. He’d written Ginny across the front. She unsealed the envelope quickly and pulled out two pieces of card. Frowning, she flipped them over.
“Leeds,” she read. “The city? Are we going on a trip?”
Harry tutted. “Keep reading.”
“Festival. Like – like a fair?”
Harry grinned. “No, not like a fair.” Ginny grinned back at him. “It’s a music festival. They play music there. Bands come and perform.” Harry took the envelope back and pulled out some pictures. He showed her a big stage, with lights, and girls sitting on shoulders with drinks in their hands.
“And we’re going?”
Harry nodded. “Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you like it?”
Ginny grinned. “I love it. I can’t wait.” She leaned down again and kissed him.
XXX
Harry slipped into the kitchen, blanching when he realised that the rest of the Weasleys were already in there. He got a raised brow look from Hermione, not unlike the way she’d looked at him when she’d first asked him about Ginny, almost a year ago. “What time is it?” Harry asked, running his hand through his hair as he took a seat beside Fred, who was also watching him with raised brows.
“Half nine,” Mrs Weasley said shortly. Harry swallowed and trained his eyes on the table, wishing for Ginny to appear presently. Harry helped himself to breakfast and turned to Bill.
“Did you bring the…” he asked, trailing off. Bill nodded and picked up the broomstick shaped parcel from under the table. He passed it to Harry and Harry smiled as George made a comment about what the parcel could possibly contain. When he heard footsteps thundering down the stairs, Harry’s stomach turned and he glanced at Mrs Weasley. She wasn’t looking at him still.
Ginny entered the kitchen and Harry managed a smile as she came to kiss him on the cheek and sit on his knee, amidst cries of “happy birthday!” from around the room. Harry met her eyes and sent her his understanding of why everyone seemed cross. Ginny’s smile tightened and she settled more firmly on his lap. Harry nearly groaned – he should’ve realised telling her would strengthen her resolve.
Ignoring her parents’ looking at them, Harry gestured that Ginny should open her presents. She immediately reached for the broomstick, which Harry snatched away. “Nope,” he said, laughing at her attempts to get it. “You can have that last!” Ginny pouted and he rolled his eyes, nodding his head at the other presents. Her eyes lit up and she reached over.
She opened clothes from the twins and Hermione, dragon hide boots from Bill and Fleur and a pretty bracelet from her parents. Ron bought her a bottle of perfume that Harry saw Ginny imperceptibly turn her nose up at, before thanking Ron and calling it beautiful. Finally, she turned to Harry with her brows raised.
“Present,” she demanded.
“Is she blackmailing you to stay in this relationship, Harry?” George asked, faux-seriously.
“Because we can get you away,” Fred promised, brushing his hand over Harry’s arm. Harry only smiled and passed Ginny the parcel.
“Happy birthday, Gin,” he murmured. She gave him a questioning look, reminding him mentally that she’d already opened his present. Harry shrugged and nodded to the broomstick. She stood up and took it away from him.
“It’s a quaffle,” Fred cried.
“No, it’s clearly a snitch, Forge!” George protested.
Ginny grinned and ripped off the wrappings. When she saw what it was, she dropped it. Harry’s seeker tendencies saved the day and he caught it. He passed it back to her.
“A Firebolt,” she whispered.
Harry shrugged again. “You always nick mine.”
“A Firebolt,” she whispered again. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the broomstick. Harry glanced up and saw that Ron’s mouth had dropped open. He gave him a sheepish grin.
“Ginny, you have to let me have a go,” Charlie begged, his eyes as wide as gold coins.
“You can go on Harry’s. This one is brand new,” she said in awe, stroking the wood. She placed it down carefully on the table and turned to Harry. “Thank you,” she whispered before kissing him soundly on the lips. Harry pressed his forehead to hers when she pulled away. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Anything for you,” he promised. She kissed him again and then pulled away with a big grin.
“Go and get your broom,” she hurried. “Let’s go flying.”
Harry nodded and stood up, leaving Ginny admiring the broom. He climbed the stairs slowly, his stomach churning. He hated how Mr and Mrs Weasley had looked at him. If they all lived together for the next few years, was this how it was going to be?
When he reached his bedroom, he sank down on the bed with a sigh and his head in his hands for a moment. “That was a big present,” a voice noted from the door. Looking up, Harry gave Ron a smile.
“Yeah, I know,” Harry said honestly. He shrugged. “I just – I wanted to get her something special.”
“I’ll be careful to start totting up the times you piss me off, then, so I can get a Firebol one of these days.” Harry grinned and nearly offered to buy him one, then and there. Ron cleared his throat and looked away. “Ginny wasn’t in her bed this morning. Everyone’s a bit fuming with you.”
Harry groaned and lay back on his bed. “I figured that one out. She didn’t stay here,” he clarified. “She just came to see me this morning.” Harry glanced up to see Ron shrug uncomfortably. Harry cringed. “I’m sorry, mate, I know it’s awkward.”
Ron shook his head. “I always wanted you and Ginny together. I just never thought about these parts of it.”
Harry grinned as he took in what Ron said. “You always wanted us together?”
Ron rolled his eyes and headed over to Harry’s trunk. “Yes. Now come on, Gin’ll be waiting. I want a go on your firebolt and hers, see whose is better.” Ron opened Harry’s trunk and a noise came out like a hissing. Ron jumped backwards.
Spiders were scuttling all over the floor. Harry’s eyes widened. They were growing, in size and in number. One by one, large spider legs were emerging from the top of his trunk, until a full acromantula was in front of them. Harry stood, wand out and shot off a stunner, which did absolutely nothing. It bounced right off.
Relief settled in Harry’s chest. “Ron – it’s a boggart.”
Ron was staring at the spider, his eyes round. Harry remembered going into the forest, when they were 12, and seeing the colony there. Even he’d been petrified. “Ron!” Harry shouted. It was no use him trying – it wasn’t his fear. The spiders were getting closer to Ron. The Acromantula opened its mouth.
“You are weak, Ron Weasley,” it hissed. “You are useless and weak. Nobody wants-”
Harry jumped in front of the boggart and waited for the dementor. He was prepared with his good memory of Ginny. She’d given him a plenty good one that morning. The dementor did not appear, however.
Instead, lying on the floor of Harry’s bedroom was Ginny’s body. Harry’s lips parted as he stared at her, her brown eyes staring at him lifelessly.
Her hair was splayed out beneath her, red tendrils caressing the plush blue carpet. Harry fell to his knees to touch it. The ringing in his ears intensified as he scooped her up onto his lap, caressing her cheek, her hair falling against his legs. Her lips were slightly parted, still pink, but dry when he touched her bottom one.
She was wearing Harry’s shorts, he noticed. His jogger shorts that he worn to run in. She’d stolen them when they were still at Grimmauld. Her top was just an old t-shirt with a unicorn sewn on a small pocket. It was slightly too small but she’d told Harry once that it was her favourite to sleep in at Hogwarts, that it reminded her of home, that Charlie had sent it to her when he’d first left to go to Romania.
It was the hand on his shoulder that pulled him away. Harry looked up, realised he’d been crying and shook Bill’s hand off immediately. All of the Weasleys were behind him, including Ginny, who was white as a sheet. Harry looked back at her dead body in front of him.
“It’s a boggart,” Ron said quietly. Harry nodded dumbly, still staring at her.
“She feels real.” Harry couldn’t look away from her, even when Bill was shaking his shoulder to make him look away. In his head, Harry knew that if he moved, the boggart would change to Bill’s and Ginny’s body would go. But he couldn’t move. He rocked Ginny’s body closer, his heart aching with the weight of this fear.
He felt a soft hand touch his cheek and he turned to see Ginny. As he leaned into her hand and met her alive eyes, she said, “I’m right here, Harry.” Harry barely noticed as Bill pulled Ginny’s body off him and banished the boggart. “I’m right here,” Ginny whispered as Harry felt his shoulders start to shake with sobs.
XXX
The atmosphere at the table was tense. Bill and Fleur had insisted they all come back downstairs and leave Harry with Ginny, even after the events of that morning. Hermione had found it very awkward as Mrs Weasley had demanded to know where Ginny was, if she wasn’t in her bed. It was only them realising that Harry wasn’t there that had stopped her calling for the Order to find her. Mrs Weasley had not been happy at all at Ginny being in Harry’s room and Hermione had seen her pursing her lips at leaving them in there again.
But she did not voice her complaint. Hermione did not know how anyone could, after seeing Harry silently weeping over a dead Ginny boggart. After the events of recent weeks, Hermione was sure her boggart would be something similar. She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer to Malfoy, that he was safe despite the lack of word from him.
“Cup of tea,” Ron whispered, passing her the mug. Hermione smiled. Their friendship had grown over the course of the summer, since she’d moved in with them, since she had starting leaving her room more frequently. “You okay?” he asked. Hermione nodded. “I thought it might make you think of your parents.”
“It did,” Hermione said simply, “but that isn’t a fear anymore.”
Because it had happened. Her parents’ bodies couldn’t be her boggart because she wasn’t scared of them dying.
You couldn’t be scared of what had already happened.
Hermione blinked away her memories and glanced around the room. It had already been tense this morning but, now, even the twins were quiet. “Are you okay?” Hermione whispered to Ron. He frowned at her and she shrugged. “It can’t have been easy to see Ginny like that, never mind the way Harry reacted.”
Ron swallowed. “It was… I’ve never seen him like that. We barely saw him after Cedric and Sirius. I – He knew she was alive.” Ron sounded utterly bewildered but then he shook his head. “But I couldn’t cope with a spider, never mind…” He trailed off.
“Never mind the love of your life dead at your feet,” George finished from Ron’s other side. Hermione swallowed. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing them for a while.”
Ron shook his head. “They’ll go flying in a bit,” he said. Hermione nodded in agreement. Ron’s eyes went to his mother and Hermione swallowed as she saw Mrs Weasley staring at the teapot, eyes unmoving. Mr Weasley was stroking her arm slowly.
XXX
Bill’s eyes flickered open slowly. “Fleur?” he slurred. She hushed him.
“’Urry up,” she ordered. She was already stood up, her dressing gown tied tightly. Bill’s eyes went wide as he realised why she was up. Screaming and shouting was coming from down the corridor.
“Is that…”
“’Arry,” Fleur finished. “’Urry up, Guillaume.”
Nodding, Bill jumped up out of bed and grabbed his own dressing gown. Harry’s rooms were on the same floor as theirs, so they arrived at the room before anyone else. Fleur knelt next to Harry, brushing back hair from his face and murmuring to him to wake him up. Bill helped, holding one of his writhing hands down while he reacclimatised. Harry’s emerald eyes blinked open, noting who was around him. He was crying already.
Fleur pulled herself up onto the bed and put her arms around Harry, pressing his face into her shoulder. The sobs coming from him were similar to those they’d heard while he was holding Ginny earlier. Bill watched on helplessly. Charlie and their parents arrived blearily a few minutes later.
“Is everything okay?” Bill’s dad asked. Bill shook his head firmly, jaw clenched. Harry was seventeen years old.
Fleur looked at Bill. “Where is Ginny?”
Bill frowned and looked at Charlie, who nodded, leaving to find her. It was odd not to find her already here. She was a light sleeper who easily woke when others were noisy. Even when they were little, Ginny had always been the one to hear them if they sneaked in or out of the house.
Bill stepped out of the room, closing the door. “Fleur will look after him until Ginny gets here,” he said when his mother went to make an affronted noise. Bill leaned his head against the wall. When Charlie returned, it was with a Ginny who was fully dressed in exercise gear. She did not look bleary, only tired but clearly awake. Bill furrowed his brow at Charlie as Ginny rushed past into the bedroom, leaving the door open behind her.
“She was running outside,” Charlie said quietly to the three of them. “She had a nightmare.”
Bill stood, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “Enough is enough,” he declared, looking at his parents. “I know they’re young, but this is cruel.”
“Bill,” his dad sighed, though Bill could see that his father couldn’t take his eyes off Harry and Ginny through the doorframe. Harry had pressed his face into Ginny’s neck and she was pressing kisses to his forehead.
“Bill’s right,” Charlie agreed, wincing at their mother’s red face. “They need to be together.”
Their mum let out a cry of disapproval. “It’s too much responsibility!” she whispered loudly, her voice thick with tears. “For both of them, they’re already too dependent on each other! Look at them.” Bill looked again at Harry and Ginny, who were clinging to each other. Bill shared a sad look with his brother, who was pale. He’d not seen Harry like this as often as Bill had.
“They’ve both been through a lot,” Bill said. His mum went to open her mouth. “And it’s not even nearly over yet. You have to let them stay together.” She shook her head rapidly.
“And if she ends up pregnant?” she hissed at Bill, who cringed. “Where will we be then? I love Harry like my own. This isn’t that I only want to protect Ginny! I want to protect them both. They both have enough – enough to think of already, individually.”
Charlie glanced at Fleur as she came out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind her. “To be honest, Mum, I don’t think not sharing a bed is going to stop Ginny getting pregnant. Not that I think she will,” he corrected quickly, holding his hands up as his mother rounded on him. “I just… Well, this morning showed that they’re finding their ways around that.”
“By disobeying us!” their mother shot back.
Bill glanced at his father, who nodded wearily. “You’re right, all three of you,” his dad said, putting his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “They are young, Molly, but so old in so many ways. And they’re suffering for lack of this.”
His mother closed her eyes and pursed her lips, looking away. With one final glance at the closed door, the five of them headed back to their own beds.