Molly Carpenter

Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter, generally called Molly, and on occasion Molls, is the daughter of Michael and Charity Carpenter. She is a human witch and first appears in Death Masks. At the end of Cold Days, she assumes the Mantle of Winter Lady.

Biography
Molly is the first child of Michael and Charity Carpenter.

In Death Masks, Molly is fourteen years old. By this time she developes a rather Goth scene look in clothes, piercings, and make-up when not at home, but changed back to conservative clothes in the treehouse before going home.

Molly first manifested her magical power about two years before the events of Proven Guilty, when she instinctively created a veil. After coming home from school she had entered the house while still wearing her Goth clothes, confident her mother was out. When Charity, who had stayed home sick, happened onto her in the living room, Molly, in a panic, unconsciously veiled herself. Shocked to discover her mother did not acknowledge her, she went to her room to change her clothes, now aware that she might have magical talent.

Molly was arrested for possession of marijuana and ecstasy, which she was caught holding during a police raid at a party, and sentenced to community service. Her father thought her apparent repentance was enough, but her mother insisted on further actions and restrictions. In the spring before Proven Guilty, the familial situation escalated, resulting in Molly leaving home and dropping out of school.

Personality
Molly is a lot like her mother. She is selfless and brave, but sometimes unable to see other points of view. However, unlike Charity, Molly seems to be outgrowing this trait. She is a loving daughter and big sister, and a hard-working, well-organized apprentice to Dresden. When Harry Dresden Soulgazes her, he sees many different possibilities in her future. It may be that the black magic she used will either affect her for the worse, or teach her better control.

Harry Dresden likes to address her as Grasshopper  and Padawan, both references to her promising apprentice status. After coming under the Doom of Damocles, she has seemingly grown to understand that mental manipulation is off limits. She volunteers to come to Chichén Itzá, despite her unsuitability for combat, and Dresden agrees to take her along, seeing that she has matured to the point where she can help. As Dresden realizes, he himself gets into plenty of dangerous situations he only gets out of with the help of friends, and realizes that Molly is no different.

Molly has a serious crush on Dresden and has unsuccessfully hit on him a number of times. She has also Soulgazed Thomas Raith, expressing a great deal of empathy for his inner pain.

Molly is severely hurt by Dresden's rather callous decision to have her help him with his suicide, which lasts until the Leanansidhe tells her that Dresden is not dead. She thinks of herself as much less capable than Dresden, but this is actually untrue. She suceeds in keeping the Svartalves and the Fomor from signing a non-aggression pact, which would have led to other nations of the Unseelie Accords to do the same, and to allow the Fomor to become a major supernatural power. Because forcemagic is not her strength she often uses quick, tricky thinking and illusion to get through dangerous situations. In this way she is exactly like Dresden. Although she thinks that she is not ready to face dangerous situations, she handles them no worse than her mentor.

Abilities
Compared to those of her mentor Harry Dresden, Molly's magical abilities are more sensitive, finely tuned and delicate, though less powerful, allowing her to easily perform many fine magical tasks, such as illusions and veils, while making much more difficult for her to perform combat magic, due to her lesser brute magical strength and greater sensitivity to magical (and emotional) energies.

In Small Favor, it is mentioned that Molly is extraordinarily sensitive when it comes to various magical energies. It's what makes her so good at psychomancy and neuromancy.

Unlike her mother Charity, Molly has been noted to possess very poor cooking skills; though she is very good at making coffee.

After training under the Leanansidhe, she has become capable of shielding, adept at using illusions, and tricking enemies into killing each other. Molly also has a sleeping spell that can safely incapacitate several people at once.

After she put a dozen or so Big Hoods to sleep way too easily—with Neru—Dresden thought that what she had done was hard and something to be expected only from a White Council wizard.

She is adept at veils, verisimilomancy, psychomancy, holomancy, neuromancy.

As of Changes, Molly Carpenter has at least one named spell, Hireki, which is used to reveal anyone under a veil. She is able to cast a "one woman rave", a display of dazzling light and sound. In Ghost Story and "Cold Case", she reveals a few more.

Death Masks
In Death Masks, Molly answers the phone when Harry Dresden calls the Carpenter home. When Dresden visits the house, Molly runs into him at the top of the tree house. She helps him out of some hand-cuffs and changes out of her "goth-scene" clothes and they discuss Dresden's relationship with Susan Rodriguez before leaving the tree house to help Charity Carpenter unload the minivan. After the Order of the Blackened Denarius is defeated, at Sanya's farewell cookout, Molly plays a practical joke on Sanya, having him call business looking for "Prince Albert in a can". They all hang up, thinking that he is the one prank calling them.

Proven Guilty
In Proven Guilty, Molly calls Harry Dresden for help from a police precinct. Her boyfriend, Nelson Lenhardt, has been arrested for reckless endangerment and aggravated assault. After Dresden bails him out, Nelson and Molly explain that there was an attack at SplatterCon!!! that Nelson witnessed, but no other suspects were found at the scene.

Dresden takes Molly back to her parents house, and she gets into an argument with her mother. According to Michael Carpenter, Molly had been arrested for possession of marijuana and ecstasy and following community service, dropped out of school and left home. Dresden and Molly head back to Splattercon!!! where there is another Phobophage attack, and Molly's other friend, Rosanna Marcella is injured. Molly explains that Rosie is pregnant and goes with her to the hospital.

After she returns to the convention, Molly is taken into questioning by Richard Boughton until Dresden rescues her. She gets cleaned up and changed in Dresden's hotel room and is shortly marched out of it after Charity comes knocking.

After being attacked by the Scarecrow, Dresden traces the phages to the Carpenter house and realizes that he sent them after Molly. Daniel Carpenter explains that the phages kidnapped Molly and Dresden eventually discovers they took her to Arctis Tor. It is also revealed that in an attempt to help cure her friends, Rosanna and Nelson, of their addiction to drugs, Molly used Black magic to scare them into sobriety.

After Molly is rescued from Arctis Tor, Dresden discusses her use of black magic, the consequences and her options moving forward. She reveals that her first use of magic was quite a decent Veil, which impresses him. He explains that she could become a member of the White Council if she desired, but first she must own up to her mistakes. They decide to admit to the council that she used black magic.

Although she is found guilty of breaking one of the Laws of Magic by the White Council, Dresden spoke in her defense and pleaded her case to the Merlin and the Gatekeeper. Before a final decision is made however, Michael appears with some other members of the Senior Council, having helped them during a Red Court attack. The Merlin has no choice but to sentence both Molly and Dresden to the Doom of Damocles. Dresden takes her as his apprentice and as such, is held responsible for her future actions.

"It's My Birthday, Too"
In "It's My Birthday, Too", Molly and Harry Dresden set out to give Thomas Raith a birthday present. He's at Woodfield Mall, playing Evernight as a favor to Sarah, one of his employees, but the game is disrupted by the arrival of Constance Bushnell, a Black Court vampire.

Small Favor
In Small Favor,

"Day Off"
In "Day Off", Molly severely damages Harry Dresden's laboratory in an attempt to work out some kinks in an invisibility potion she is having trouble with.

The Warrior
In The Warrior, she's charged with security around her father and sister.

"Last Call"
In Last Call, Molly identifies the spells cast on McAnally's beer that have caused havoc in his pub: a contagion focus and a conduct that opens the target's mind to the caster's control.

Turn Coat
In Turn Coat,

Changes
In Changes,

Ghost Story
In Ghost Story, six months after the fall of the Red Court, Molly is in her mid-twenties and has become jaded and cynical, perhaps a touch insane as well. She is potentially an official warlock and is currently wanted by the Wardens since the Doom of Damocles has fallen after Harry Dresden's death and her death sentence is now executive. After Lea's training, she became the "Ragged Lady" occasionally switching places with her, in the hope of keeping Chicago safe by creating a reputation similar to the one that Dresden once had—to make the bad guys think there was a White Council wizard still in the City. The other members of the Chicago Alliance have tried to reach for her, but she used her illusions on them and most of them are now too frightened to even be in the same room as her. Molly used illusions to trick a Fomor servitor who had kidnapped a little girl and a corrupt cop paid off in gold to look the other way into killing each other.

Two child ghosts brought Molly to Dresden by the Big Hoods and Corpsetaker's hideout. He needed her to open a way for him and the ghost army. She reacted strongly when Dresden said: "You're one hell of a woman, Molly." Corpsetaker and Molly soulgaze and do mind battle; Molly's complex mental defenses resemble the the Enterprise star ship. Dresden followed Corpsetaker into Molly's mind. Just before the battle was about to end, Dresden sent out an SOS and then reclaimed his memory of who really ordered his murder and realized how that damaged Molly. Uriel showed Dresden how Mortimer helped free Molly of the Corpsetaker.

Bombshells
In Bombshells, the Leanansidhe enjoins her to rescue Thomas Raith from the Svartalves, which have taken him prisoner; she joins Justine and Andi Macklin in the infiltration of the Svartalf stronghold, during a party thrown to celebrate the signature of a pact with the Fomors. While looking for Thomas, Molly discover a bomb the Fomors have set up to explode at the signing, and disarms it. The Svartalves owe her a favor.

Cold Days
In Cold Days, Molly has begun to get her life back together; she's a full-fledged adult and, according to Harry Dresden, as capable as any White Council member. She has a house of her own, built by the Svartalves, and is very much in love with Dresden. She teams up with him in his mission to Demonreach, accompanying him to the meeting with Donar Vadderung and gathering the Za-Lord's Guard.

Following the death of Maeve, Molly becomes the new Winter Lady.

"Cold Case"
In Cold Case, she teams up with Carlos Ramirez in order to save a group of Miksani children from the Holy Ascension of Our Lord in Unalaska. When she tries to have sex with him, her Mantle hurts him badly. While waiting for Ramirez to be examined by Winter healers, Mab informs her that the children are the tribute the Miksani owe her, and that Molly is bound to collect them for the Winter army against the Outsiders.

Skin Game
By Skin Game, Molly hasn't yet told her parents about her new position. She talks to Dresden about her new life, and mentions that she has "about one hundred and fifty years of backlog" to catch up on because Maeve neglected her duties for so long. Later, Molly helps Dresden deliver his spirit of intellect child that was stuck in his head - the parasite. She also accompanies Dresden to visit John Marcone and Mab, and convinces Marcone to take a box of diamonds as retribution for the death of one of his employees.

After Nicodemus Archleone uses mortal servants to attack her family, Molly informs Dresden that she is using her new wealth as Winter Lady to buy a house near her parents and fill it with bodyguards for them.

At the end of the novel she pulls out a cell phone, frightening Dresden; like most technology, cell phones don't work around wizards, and only nonhuman spellcasters can use them properly. He thinks of everything that Molly is hiding from her parents, and wonders what she is hiding from him, resolving to watch her closely.