It was a disaster. The stove wouldn't work. Molly had tried every charm she knew, but, nothing. Now she had resorted to shaking it in a fit of temper. A deep chuckle from the doorway interrupted her muttered tirade and she spun around, making a fifty-fifty guess as to who would be standing there.
"I don't think that's going to work." Fabian said around a grin worthy of the Cheshire Cat.
"You never grow up, do you?" Molly asked through clenched teeth. Fabian laughed, Apparated into the kitchen in front of Molly and ruffled her hair playfully.
"Never," he said happily.
"Stop that!" Molly grumbled, patting her hair back into place with a few well-placed sparks from her wand. "I've got to make dinner for Arthur and the children." She gave him a pointed look. "Some of us behave like adults!" Fabian's brown eyes widened in mock hurt.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, sister dear," he cooed. "However can I make it up to you?"
"By leaving me in peace!" she snapped, prodding him hard in the chest. "And fixing my stove!" Fabian pulled a puzzled face.
"Now, what in the world would I know about that?" Just as Molly was about to hex him (an endlessly itchy rash should do the trick!) he turned to the doorway and called airily, "Gideon, do you know how to fix Molly's stove?" A shadow that had been utterly motionless outside the kitchen doorway shifted and revealed itself to be a tall, handsome wizard, the spitting image of Fabian.
"I believe I do," Gideon answered around irrepressible laughter as he came into the small kitchen. He and his twin shared a satisfied look before turning to face Molly, who was red in the face and tracing dangerous patterns in the air with the tip of her wand. Blanching slightly, Gideon delved into the pocket of his flannel trousers and pulled out a complicated-looking electrical appliance. Molly stared at it blankly.
"You can thank your beloved husband for the idea," Fabian began conversationally as Gideon levitated the stove and moved it half a foot away from the wall. "That talk he gave the other night on electricity and plugs was fascinating."
"What did you do?"
Wearing matching wide grins, her brothers subjected her to a lengthy explanation involving 'mains electricity', 'plug', 'meter', 'National Grid', and 'temporary.' Seizing onto the only word that had made sense, Molly put her wand tip inches from Fabian's nose and hissed,
"I don't care what you did -"
"But you said - " both men protested in gleeful unison.
"-just get it working or you won't be on patrol tomorrow, you'll be so busy scratching!" Grumbling, they plugged the stove back in and promised Molly that they would take her kitchen off Muggle means of operation as soon as possible - just as long as she put the wand down, nice and slowly and not facing them.
"Sorry," Gideon said contritely, clearing his messy auburn hair from his eyes. The grin on his face told Molly otherwise and her rage finally spilled over. The twins raced from the room (they could have Apparated or just shielded, but where was the enjoyable sibling interaction in that?), chased by a purple-faced Molly wielding too many hexes to count.
"You're not sorry at all, you demon rotters, get out of my house! Out! I hope I never set eyes on you again!"
"You love us really!" Fabian called over his shoulder. Molly hit him with a Jelly-Legs Jinx in response and he fell over six times before managing to cast the counter spell.
---
Molly stared at the stove. She didn't have time for this, she had food to cook, but still she stood there, fighting back tears. It was much older now - she'd needed a new one for years, actually, but she could never quite bring herself to get rid of it. It hurt her now to think she had been so stupidly angrily to ban them from the house that night. They had slept, quite unconcerned, in the oak tree that night, got up the next morning, gone off to do what was necessary for the Order - and just, never come back.
She'd never said goodbye. That was, perhaps, what hurt most of all.
Molly sighed. Opening the drawer closest to the stove, she stared miserably at the old plug, nestled in a tangle of its own wires. Maybe later, she'd ask Harry or Hermione to show her what her brothers had done all those years ago.
On the other hand, maybe she wouldn't. A small smile fought through; maybe she would listen to Arthur for once and try it herself. A goodbye present, sixteen years too late.
