WHO: Molly C and Harry D WHAT: Harry goes to help Molly during the Power Swap weirdness WHEN: During the plot WARNINGS: PGish STATUS: Closed and Complete
Harry drove, fast, pushing the old motorcycle as hard as he dared, his magic pulled in as close to himself as he could manage. Something was wrong with Molly, and he was not going to fail her. By the time he got to her place, the cycle had stopped four times, and he coasted the last block on a wish and a prayer.
He hurried to her door, one hand holding his staff as he moved with haste. He knocked gently.
He hoped she was okay. The whole city seemed to be going a little nuts. Which meant, fun fun, time for something crazy again. Of course, on his birthday. Oh joy.
He sighed as he waited.
***
It was gone. Molly’s magic was gone! Where and how, she had no idea and now had no way to find out. That had been enough to throw her into a panic. And without her magics her splintered mind and the nightmares went out of control. She’d spent the first day shivering in a corner as she flinched away from monsters her damaged psyche kept throwing at her. Exhaustion took her to unconsciousness...and then she’d called Harry.
She had no sense of time while she paced her apartment, chewing on her thumbnail waiting for her former teacher to arrive. Molly about fainted from relief when the knock came. With a whimper she bolted to open it then Harry found himself with his once pupil glommed onto him and babbling.
***
That was a surprise! Harry groaned as he was glomped and he carefully pulled them inside her rooms, and closed the door. touching it and intoning Words, to shut the threshold, adding a touch of Soulfire to the mix, and felt it flare to life. The magic created a temporary circle, until he could reinforce it with her, or even by himself, with more work.
Centered, he took a breath, and smiled at Molly, who was still ahold of him. He hugged Molly, close and firmly, and didn’t let go for awhile. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay, Molly. It’ll be okay.” These and other things he murmured as he held her and gently pet her back, and her hair, doing his best to soothe her.
***
Molly would have felt all of what Harry had done like salt over road rash. She didn’t even flinch from the magic being worked. It was a sure sign that her magics were well and truly gone.
Eventually his soothing words and touch calmed her enough that her arms loosened and she pulled back with an indelicate sniffle. A dainty cryer Molly was not. Baby blue eyes looked up at Harry with panic still dancing in their depths.
“It’s gone,” she said in a shaky voice. “All gone and everything’s a mess in there again.” Her hand went to her head, her fingers clutching at her messed up hair. “It’s bad, Harry. Real bad. Not Rag Lady bad but near to.”
***
Harry nodded. The shock of her being without magic showed in his face and then he nodded again.
“It’s this place. It’s all over the network. Another little event.” He said the word with anger but he drew it back.
“I could...try to lay a veil, in, or a shield, across your mind. It wouldn’t hold for a long time, because this is not my best area… not even close, really.” Not to mention it was prohibited, oops. “But I studied it a little, after I first met you.”
He blew out a long breath. “For now, will you come stay with me? I can shield you better there until either this ends, or we can find a way to… restore you.”
He was angry. Someone had hurt those he cared about, and someone, somewhere, was going to pay.
***
Molly gave Harry an odd look. Mind magic was forbidden. It was what had gotten her in trouble to begin with all those years ago. There were no Wardens here...well, except for Harry...but still. It would be a HUGE risk for him since he’d used the Black once in his life already AND he was under the influence of the Winter Knight mantle.
She shook her head as she pushed away from him. “No. I dealt with it before. I can do it again.” Oh sure, Lea had been there to help, and Molly had had her magic, but she’d rather go slowly insane than have Harry damn himself for her sake.
“You have naked girl running around your place,” she said as she picked at a hang nail. “You don’t need another temptation.”
***
“Damn it, Molly. Let me help.” He hated to see her suffer when he might be able to help her. “And the naked woman is not as much of a temptation as it used to be. I think I might be getting desensitized. To her.”
He eyed Molly, sighing. They were both entirely too stubborn for their own good.
Damn it.
***
Brows just a shade darker than her natural hair color of blonde came down over those blue eyes as she looked solidly at Harry. She could do that. They’d had their soulgaze long ago. But with that expression and the panic in her eyes she looked more like the Rag Lady again.
“And when you’re tired from shielding me? Working veils and other magics you aren’t used to? What then?” She took a bold step back toward Harry. “I’m a sitting duck against the mantle and it knows it. Doesn’t it. So when you’re on your last thread of energy what will Winter do?”
***
“I’ve got a plan for that.” And suddenly, he did, as he stared at her. But it was a bad plan. Oh man was it a bad plan.
The Winter Mantle could be transferred from one to another by willing choice, and by blood. And it had healed his ailments, his physical ills. It could, or so it was said, heal any ill.
And if he had too, he would do what he had to do.
But for now…
“I have several plans, actually. What is your plan? I can’t just let you suffer. I care too much.”
***
Molly was suspicious of that. Harry Dresden could easily be call Captain Bad Plan, except somehow he always made them work. It was one thing that had annoyed the hell out of her mom. Harry was reckless, but usually people around him only got hurt or worse from their own actions.
“Do what you taught me to do,” she answered with a lift of her chin. “Survive.” Then she smirked. “And play it by ear.”
***
Harry grinned and reached out to poke her nose. “Just try to remember, if you can, that you are not alone here. And you have friends who will walk through fires for you, and with you.” She knew what he would do for others he cared about.
“And hey, we should give out candy on Halloween together.”
***
Molly wrinkled her nose as she rubbed at it, her smirk turning into more of a smile, though there was still that edge of unease about her. “I’ll do my best,” she said, but she couldn’t promise. If one of her panic attacks hit she didn’t remember much even with her magics.
The Halloween suggestion reminded her. “Oh!” Molly bolted to her feet then for the kitchen. “I have a birthday present for you.”
***
“I know.” He smiled a little, arching an eyebrow, and nearly falling over when she darted away. “What the--- you didn’t have to do that!” He yelled it after her, facepalming.
That girl had way too much energy.
***
“Did too!” Molly called back with a slightly wild sounding laugh. She came back, dropping next to Harry with a thump of her knees. A long, slender box was thrust out at him as Molly smiled. “Happy birthday.”
Inside the box was, of all things, a Harry Potter wand. Molly’s blue eyes were twinkling with amusement but also pride.
***
Harry laughed, but winced a little, then grinned as she came to him and thumped on her knees. He eyed her on her knees before him, pushing away the not-even-Winter-needed-to-inspire-them thoughts that move created in his head, and found himself grinning. “Nice moves.”
he looked at the present, then whistled. “Wait… why is there a wand?”
He eyed her, then it, and almost hesitated before reaching for it, then shrugged. He trusted her, and he reached out to take up the wand.
***
Molly didn’t even think about how the mantle would react to her on her knees. She was just getting comfortable.
She smirked at Harry then jerked her chin at the wand. “Take a closer look.”
Runes and warding symbols were etched into the plastic wand, making it a real blasting rod. Someone hadn’t forgotten her lessons.
***
Harry did, and his mouth opened in soundless admiration. “That is… this is… wow, Molly. I… thank you.” And she would find herself hugged by the tall wizard, on their knees and all. After a kiss on her cheek, he pulled back slowly, looking at the wand again.
It had been a long time since someone had done something so very… him, for him. This was cool!
“Now I just have to make sure I remember your birthday and do something equally cool.”
***
Molly smiled for the hug and the kiss to the cheek...even if there was a bit of relief that the mantle behaved and the kiss was left to the cheek. She knew what part of her anatomy got noticed first when hugged. That could have been worse.
Suddenly she hunched in on herself, her smile went a bit awkward and she looked at the floor as she pushed her hair back. “Well if you remember when my birthday is can you tell me?” Because that was one of the memories she hadn’t pieced back in place after Chichen Itza as being non-essential.
***
Harry blinked, and his mouth opened wide, and blinked. “Ah. Uhm, Molly? I know your birthday. I was joking.” He reached out to her and took her hands, turning them upward. “Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter, you were born on Nov 25, 1989. And you are wonderful.” he blew softly toward her, and his breath held the touch of magic. “I know you, and I remember you.”
***
“Oh,” she said, bewildered. A thoughtful frown settled on her face as she did some quick math. “That means I’m going to be twenty seven.” Then she grimaced. “I thought I was twenty five.”
She huffed in exasperation as she put her hand through her hair. “I’ve never even had a regular boyfriend and I’m already almost thirty! No wonder Mom’s disappointed in me.”
***
Harry grinned at her, and chuckled. Then he frowned. “Your mother was disappointed because she has her own issues that she’s never dealt with. The longer I know her, the more I know it has little to do with the people she meets, and all to do with what is inside her.” He tapped Molly’s shoulder gently.
“You are a strong, smart, and growing woman. You are finding your own way, with a little help from friends.” And he refused to let her down. Whatever it took.
***
Molly missed her family. Her dad was out of the game thanks to getting injured, but her mother and her brother still gave her the hairy eyeballs for her life choices. So mostly she missed her dad.
“I’m a little behind on the finding my way curve,” she said with a sad little smile. Chichen Itza saw to that.
***
“Maybe so. But that doesn’t mean you won’t make it. You’ve helped me through some of the worst times of my lives, and paid for it.” He held up a hand. “I know, it’s your choice, and I respect that. But I also value your friendship, and have seen and felt how much you care. I’ll be here for you, whatever happens.”
***
Molly had opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut when Harry gestured for her to shut up. She ended up smiling for what he said and hunched up her shoulders. “I always knew you’d be there, but I figured you had your head firmly and decidedly in the sand about the rest.”
***
“Eh, it took a few kicks in the butt, a few concussions, and God knows how many moments of realization, but I did eventually wake up. To lots of things. The big thing right now is to keep you well until this passes… and I hope it passes fast.”
***
“And dying,” she said in a mock helpful and perky voice. “Don’t forget the dying.” Because she’d been a big part of that plan, as bad as it had been.
Then she sighed, pushing her hair out of her face with a rake of her fingers. “I’ve been in worse situations, but I do miss my magic.”
***
Harry facepalmed. “And dying. Yes. And lots of other, near dying moments.”
And meeting beings he never should.
“I can imagine so. And I know how that feels.” He had been without it a couple of times.
“You will get through this, and you won’t be alone, in the doing.” He lay a gentle hand on her arm, and smiled.
***
Molly looked back when Harry touched her arm and smile before she lurched forward to hug him. “Thanks, Harry.”
***
“You’re welcome. I’ll always be there to take care of you, or to help you, just like you help me.” He smiled and kissed her forehead.