Something was bound to happen, sooner or later, she knew.
In fact, a lot of something had already happened. It was just that Ginny Weasley was afraid of what could possibly still happen. There were many possibilities, but many of the possibilities that had made themselves clear to Ginny seemed frightening, terrifying, disturbing, all those things. The world, at the moment, was choosing to be very unpredictable.
Ginny had chosen by her own free will to go with Harry the previous month when they had traveled by thestral to the Ministry of Magic. So had Luna and Neville. There wasn't really a choice in the matter. They couldn't have let them go alone. The battle at the Ministry had been Ginny's first real battle and her first real encounter with Death Eaters. The name made her shudder.
You Know Who-- Voldemort could be anywhere at that exact moment, planning his next attack. That's what Ginny was afraid of. You Know---Voldemort disappeared off the face of the Earth for an entire year before he came out with the attack on the ministry. He could be planning something even bigger this time.
Ginny sat by the river in Ottery St. Catchpole mulling over all these thoughts. Of course, she couldn't talk to anyone about her fears, lest she be treated as the child she was so frequently considered. She threw a stone into the wide river and watched the water splash up.
She sighed. They were always treating her like a child, all six of her brothers and both of her parents, all of them. Ron had nearly had a fit a few months back when he found out she was going out with Michael Corner. Ginny had no idea why Ron thought he had a say in Ginny's personal life. She was fifteen years old, after all. She didn't really care that Ron was right about Michael either. Michael was a prat when it came to quidditch. But Ron really shouldn't have made such a scene when she said that she'd chosen Dean Thomas. Of course, Ginny was being sarcastic, but Dean wasn't even really bad looking. She sighed again. Ginny wondered if she would always be treated as the child.
The sun was beginning to get low in the sky and Ginny supposed that she should probably go back home before her family tore apart England to find her.
xxxxxxx
Ginny walked through the gate leading to her home, the Burrow. She spotted a few garden gnomes sneaking in over the fence on the other side of the yard. Suddenly a large ginger-haired cat with a bushy tail zoomed through the garden, heading straight for the intruding gnomes. The gnomes, upon seeing the ginger cat, abruptly turned and went back over the fence as quickly as possible.
She had to look twice as the ginger cat, swishing his tail with pride, slinked back toward the Burrow. It couldn't be, could it? Was that Crookshanks?
Ginny sped toward the door. If her suspicions were correct, Hermione Granger had arrived sometime that afternoon without her knowledge. She wasn't expecting Hermione until next week. Maybe they had changed plans and no one had bothered to tell her. Ginny huffed indignantly. Hermione was her friend too. She wasn't only Ron's best friend.
She was half expecting Ron and Hermione and Fred and George (who only really lived at the Burrow on weekends) to be having a happy little party without her because she was just too little to be partying and setting off some Filibusters Fireworks. If Ron really hadn't told her about Hermione coming early because he thought she was just his little sister and not an actual person who made friends, she was going to have to give him a piece of her mind.
Ginny barged loudly into the kitchen, sure to make the door bang as she opened it, and opened her mouth to yell at Ron, wherever he may have been in the house, when she noticed someone with messy black hair sitting at the worn out table that was neither Ron nor Hermione.
Ginny was looking at Harry Potter.
She was vaguely aware that her mouth was hanging open, caught in a midway yell. After Ginny got over the initial shock of finding Harry so unexpectedly in her kitchen she had the sense enough to close her mouth and chirp a greeting to him.
"Harry!" Ginny said in a surprised manner. "When did you get here?" She slid into a chair next to him and threw her book down onto the table.
He gave her a small smile back and replied. "Only twenty minutes ago." In reply to Ginny's unvoiced question he said, "Dumbledore said it was okay for me to come by a little bit early this year. I really don't think I could stand my cousin always skirting around me for much longer anyway." Harry grinned and looked at Ginny with his brilliant green eyes.
She tried to imagine Harry's cousin Dudley. As Fred and George had described him, he largely resembled a baby elephant in a blonde wig. Ginny's mouth curled into a smile as she imagined an elephant in a blonde wig, twice Harry's size, screaming in terror then running away. It was quite a comical thought.
"So," Ginny began. She had to fill the silence that suddenly overpowered the kitchen. "So, how's your summer been?" The moment the words left her mouth she froze. Ginny couldn't believe how tactless and stupid she had just been. Harry's aunt and uncle weren't pleasant people at all from what she knew of them. Ginny couldn't believe she had been so insensitive as well, because Harry's godfather, Sirius Black had just been killed little more than a month ago. Her body tensed up and she held her breath, watching Harry for his reaction.
Harry, as soon as what Ginny had said had registered, had also tensed up visibly. His normally bright green eyes clouded over and stared into a corner. As if making up his mind, he suddenly shook his head and gave Ginny a slight smile. "Well," he began quietly. "For the last twenty minutes it's been great."
Ginny slowly let out the breath she had been holding and before she could utter an apology or anything, Ron stampeded down the stairs. "There you are!" He said, annoyed. "Mum checked in an hour ago from Diagon Alley and nearly blew up the fireplace when I said you went outside alone. She told me to go look for you but I was expecting Harry around that time so I sent out Crookshanks."
"I had my wand," Ginny said exasperatedly. She rolled her eyes. It was always like this, despite the fact that she was fifteen. Voldemort or not, Ginny was always treated like a baby. "Anyway, since when has Crookshanks been here? And since when have we been expecting Harry?"
"Well, Crookshanks got here this morning. I'm watching him for Hermione while she goes to Wales or somewhere to see some relatives or something...and we've been expecting Harry since last week, you know that."
"I did not know that," Ginny huffed and shot daggers at Ron. "Nice of you to tell me, really."
Ron's ears turned slightly pinker than normal. "Well...well, that still doesn't mean you can go around wherever you want and disappear all day! You know mum goes bonkers when you do that." Ron suddenly saw Harry at the table, and Ginny beside him. He gave them both an odd look. "Just don't disappear again. Mum might get mad at me and send me another Howler..."
"Fine, just fine then." Ginny stood violently from her place beside Harry at the table. "Well, I suppose Harry is going to want to unpack, and so I'll just disappear into my room then, shall I?" With that, Ginny marched up the narrow stairs to her bedroom and slammed the door, leaving a very amused Harry and a very bewildered Ron in her quake.
xxxxxxx
Later that day, Harry and Ron sat in the den playing chess and the smell of a home-cooked meal could be smelled throughout the rickety house. Ginny hadn't been seen or heard from since she had stormed up the stairs earlier that afternoon. Mr. Weasley was still at the Ministry pulling long hours and Mrs. Weasley was cooking the food that was filling the house with a delicious aroma.
When the smell of cooking food had finally reached Ginny's bedroom she decided that she had been cold toward Ron for long enough and that she didn't really need to lock herself up and starve herself to demonstrate that she was angry. No, that was just stupid. She could glare at Ron and act angry while she was eating. Anger wasn't worth locking oneself up and starving. Ginny emerged from her lair and padded down to the kitchen, toward the smell of cooking food.
Ron had just smashed Harry's queen, and the knights and pawns were screaming orders at him, when he heard Ginny's voice softly coming from the kitchen. He had been wondering where she had disappeared to all afternoon. Somehow, Harry figured that she wasn't as angry as she had acted.
Another one of Harry's pawns had been annihilated when Ginny wandered into the room. She stood at his left shoulder, surveying the checkered board on which there was a miniscule amount of white pieces and a decidedly larger army of black pieces.
Ron, who had just noticed Ginny, watched her silently observe the board, and kept quiet himself. Her temper from earlier that afternoon was still fresh in his mind. Ron watched as his little sister stand there quietly for a few more seconds, and then she leaned down and whispered something into Harry's ear.
Harry looked at her quizzically and all she did was give him a very pointed look. He then shrugged his shoulders and ordered his castle across the board. Ron could tell that Harry really didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it.
Ron looked at the board and concluded that whatever his sister had told Harry to do, it wasn't much better than Harry himself could do. The castle was wide open and could easily be destroyed by his queen. Harry's castle was the fifth last piece he had left. Ron ordered his queen, and she knocked the castle off the board.
She gave a mischievous smile. Harry looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. All Ginny did was nod her head. Harry shrugged his shoulders and ordered his bishop, his fourth last piece, across the board. Harry and Ron stared at the board for a few moments, before Harry finally said, "Checkmate...?"
Ginny turned on her heel, satisfied that she had gotten back at Ron on her own terms, leaving two surprised boys and a small army of very angry chess pieces that were not used to losing.
Hermione arrived at the Burrow a week later. By that time, everyone had settled in and was anticipating the rest of the summer. Ginny was expected her summers to be slow, lazy, long, and hot, just how she liked them. Doing absolutely nothing was what she liked best, and she was expecting an entire month of it.
However, Ginny knew that her mother, one way or another, would find something for her to do, be it de-gnoming the garden or pulling weeds in the vegetable patch or helping to keep up with the multitudes of laundry...the many different types of chores made her head spin.
The only problem, thus far, with Ginny's summer was that it had rained the previous two days and it still hadn't stopped. It was quite depressing.
At the moment, Ginny was sitting in her room gazing dully out the window at the sheet of silver rain, her mind in a blank boredom- induced haze. Maybe doing absolutely nothing was a bit dull. Maybe it wasn't relaxing at all. Maybe, she thought, I should go find something to do.
So, consequently, Ginny spent the afternoon helping her mother tackle the multitudes of laundry that had accumulated over the week. It seemed that six people in one household made an inhuman amount of dirty clothes. It just couldn't be possible to make that much laundry, she thought to herself. But, apparently, it was possible and when suppertime decided to roll around, Ginny had made a considerable dent in the mountain of laundry.
Ginny dragged herself into the kitchen and found Ron, Harry and Hermione seated around the table. They were talking quietly and stopped talking when Ginny made her presence known by sitting down at the table. She really didn't care what they were talking about, or that they had decided that whatever it was they were talking about was not for her to hear. Ginny wasn't a snoop...although, she was a bit curious as to what they were talking about.
"Hey, Ginny," Hermione said just a bit too enthusiastically. "What have you been up to all day?" Ginny noticed that Hermione was tearing up a piece of paper. She's nervous about something, Ginny thought to herself curiously. She wondered what it was that Hermione was nervous about. Maybe she thought that Ginny had heard whatever the three had been talking about before she had come into the kitchen.
"Oh, you know..." Ginny replied, drawing out her answer, hoping to observe Hermione's nervous behaviour more closely without being noticed. She peered at Hermione's face, and noticed that Hermione was biting the inside of her cheek, a habit that she had only when she was extremely worried about something, like exams, for example. But it was the middle of the summer, so she shouldn't be worried about exams... "I was doing some laundry, enjoying some quality time with Ron's dirty old tighty whiteys, the usual."
"Ginny! That was completely uncalled for!"
She simply shrugged and walked away, happy with her tiny piece of information. She would go back into the kitchen when supper was ready.
Ginny was certain that something was up. Maybe it had to do with the Order, and no one was telling her anything, and she was the only one who didn't know anything? But no, that just made her sound paranoid and insecure, which she probably was.
She stepped onto the back porch and gazed at the sky. Dark, stormy clouds were once again gathering in the distance, but the sky, for the most part, had cleared up and was a deep blue, and the sun was low in the western sky. The beauty of the sky did not betray the turmoil that stirred the entire wizarding world.
Stepping off the porch and crossing the lush, wet grass in her bare feet, Ginny headed toward the tire swing that hung from a particularly large, old oak tree. She jumped through the tire and sat in the O, swinging back and forth, gaining height each time. Ginny closed her eyes and tipped her head back, letting it feel as if she were falling through nothingness and no one could stop her.
"Hey, Ginny!"
Someone called her from the back porch. The red headed teenager opened her eyes to the setting sun and looked up to see Harry standing just inside the door, calling her.
"Dinner's ready," He gave her a bemused smile. Ginny swinging on that tire swing...it made him smile, for some reason. Truthfully, he had been watching her for several minutes, watching her just swing back and forth, with her head thrown back and her eyes closed, imagining a different world, no doubt, almost like what he himself did so often.
She hopped down lithely from the still-rocking tire swing and followed Harry into the kitchen, relishing the peacefulness that she felt right now. It was pure innocence, just swinging on a tire swing, then walking back into the burrow for dinner over the soft, wet grass that tickled the in between your toes...perfect was the only way Ginny could possibly describe everything at that exact moment. And she wanted everything to be this way forever. Ginny knew that it was a lost cause, dreaming that things could always be perfect, but she also knew that walking to her house in her bare feet, following Harry, that was they way things were meant to be, and somehow it would turn out like this in the end.
OMFG I have no idea what this is...I have a plot in mind, but what I have planned is pretty general and I have no idea where I'm going with this...You could actually just very well ignore this chapter...its really just a prologue, but then again, its not, because I wrote nothing about the actual plot...so, right now I'm just setting the scene. That's what I'm doing. Okay? Okay. REVIEW THIS STORY! IT'S MY VERY FIRST PIECE OF POSTED FANFICTION! BE NICE! .