#postarter

@edgar-j-bones

A week she had been off work for a week and she was exhausted already, it was even a half day for her. Working the night shift always drained her because- nine times out of then the female had to find things to entertain herself with. A cup in hand filled to the brim with black coffee she was barely ready to face the shift let alone half of her coworkers.

A few days later, Arthur wakes himself up with a jolt. The clock tells him it’s 3 am. The empty space beside him tells him he’s not going to be going to bed any time soon. He pulls on his dressing gown and starts the all too familiar methodical search of the rooms, continuing even after he notices the lights on in the kitchen. 

All the boys are in bed, his mother is asleep in the guest room and Arthur has a sinking suspicion he knows where his wife is.

The rug he summoned is gone, Molly is bent over a bucket of suds, scrubbing the floor with a brush. Scrubbing the blood stain with a brush. It’s just as dark as it was that horrible day he found it. Arthur doesn’t have to look at Molly’s face to know she’s been crying, but he does anyway, just so she can see some kindness, just so she can know she isn’t alone. 

Wordlessly, Arthur summons a brush of his own and joins her. They scrub in silence for a long time and finally, Arthur is starting to see a small bit of it fading away.

“Molly-”

He hears her stop scrubbing, but he doesn’t look up or stop.

“I-I have to tell you something.”

“Hi I’d-”

He stops short when he sees the woman behind the counter. Goddess behind the counter.

“Hi.” 

“I totally forgot what I was about to say.”

“Hi, I don’t know if you’re aware, but you aren’t welcome here.”

Tick, tick, tick, tick

It sounded like the clock but it was inside his head- he couldn’t really hear the ticking over the noise of the bar he was sitting in. It was owned by the O’Brien family. It was the one neutral bar in London and the young Crouch despite his alliance to the Dark Lord needed a place to think without his mates or his enemies staring him down.