Certainly Mab picked Molly to be Winter Lady. She had Lea prep her in Ghost Story. She could do that because she was Harry's apprentice. Molly couldn't say no since she was cut off from everybody else. She endured exactly the same kind of things Harry and Sarissa endured in the beginning of Cold Days.
Not exactly, page 499 Cold Days
"Why?" I demanded. "Why did you do it to her?"
"It was not my intention for her to replace Maeve," Mab said. "Frankly, I would have considered her a better candidate for Summer."
"You still haven't told me why,"I said.
"I meant for Sarissa to take Maeve's place," Mab said. "But one does not place all one's hopes with any one place,person, or plan. Like chess, the superior player does nor plan to accomplish a single gambit, a particular entrapment. She establishes her pieces so that regardless of what her enemy does, she has forces ready to respond, to adapt, and to destroy,
Molly was made ready as a contingency." [b/]
Molly was a back up plan.
The story arc that ended with Molly as Winter Lady and Harry as Winter Knight started in Grave Peril. In Death Masks Molly, who is way too young, gives love advice to Harry that will end with Susan pregnant. Jim had to have this in mind. In Proven Guilty Harry binds her to him as his apprentice to avoid a beheading. In Turn Coat he spends a lot of time telling Molly not to do exactly what he'll ask her to do in Changes. Where he then proceeds to throw her under the bus by taking the cowards way out. Since he left her under a sentence of death when he has himself killed, Mab sent Lea in to get her ready.
I could go along with all of that except, Molly knew perfectly well why Harry asked her to wipe his memory. She knew of the suicide and why it was necessary for his mind to be wiped. She could have objected, she was of age, she isn't stupid, she understood and went along. Perhaps out of love for Harry, perhaps because she didn't want to see him as the slave of Mab as Winter Knight,either. She could rationalize, but that won't stop the human mind from feeling guilt after the fact which hers did. Now is that why she became the rag lady? Or is the simply rationalization because as we saw in Turn Coat, Molly didn't have any problem using her mental magical abilities if she thought she was right, even if the consequences of that would mean not just her head but Harry's head as well. Assisting a suicide isn't a simple matter... Also suicide isn't a simple matter, to call it a coward's way out is offensive.
“Is it not?” Mab asked. “Have I misunderstood? First you captured her imagination and affection as an associate of her father’s. You made her curious about what you could do, and nurtured that curiosity with silence. Then when she went to explore the Art, you elected not to interfere until such time as she found herself in dire straits—at which point your aid placed her deep within your obligation. You used that and her emotional attachment to you to plant and reap a follower who was talented, loyal, and in your debt. It was actually very well-done.”
Mab is so good at twisting, that is why you don't bargain with the Fae...
1] Should Harry not have become friends with Michael?
2] Harry has never kept secret what he is, Molly has always known what he is, she also knows what her parents think of him. Did Harry make himself out as a hero to her? I really don't think so, Molly's own imagination filled in those blanks just as most pre-teen and teenage girls will do upon whom she has a crush.. Which usually is on someone unattainable and not that person's fault.
3] Harry had no clue she was exploring magic or had talent, he had no reason to. Until Proven Guilty Charity told him nothing of her own talent. Molly never told him she thought she had talent, nor did she openly demonstrate that talent.
4] Harry was able to keep her head on her shoulders.. Yes, it reaped him a talented follower in his debt.. So? I mean should he have allowed the Merlin to lop off her head? Did any other wizard step up to share the Doom with her? No, this is how Mab can be telling the absolute truth, but at the same time not because it is only half truths..
Mab leaned closer to me and said, “That is precisely what you did,” she said. “The only thing you did not do is admit to yourself that you were doing it. Which is why you never availed yourself of her charms. You told yourself lovely, idealistic lies, and you had a powerful, talented, loyal girl willing to give her life for yours who also had nowhere else to turn for help. As far as your career as a mentor goes, you grew into much the same image as DuMorne.”
Harry was right, that isn't what he did, but he didn't stand his ground, as always taking blame where there is little or none. Mab came at him from an emotional sore spot, comparing him to DuMorne...
Mab accuses him of being smug because he didn't take sexual advantage of her. Well, another word for it is, "professional.." Also from that soul gaze, he knew very well how easily it would have been to take advantage of her in that way.
Molly did have people to turn to for help, though not wizards she had two caring and intelligent
parents. Not at all like young Harry and DuMorne, Harry had Elaine, but she had been enthralled that morning which DuMorne then attempted to do to Harry.
