Harry Potter. She had actually seen the real Harry Potter! But she hadn't even recognized him at the time. He hadn't looked anything like she had expected. Sure, he'd had the black hair, and she was pretty sure she'd seen green eyes, but beyond the most superficial details, Harry Potter did not look as the Boy Who Lived was supposed to look. He was scrawny, not strong and handsome, he had seemed shy and afraid, rather than confident and heroic, and instead of showing off some impressive magical creature or artifact, he hadn't even known how to get onto Platform 9 3/4. But, if the twins were to be believed, and Ginny was good enough at recognizing their pranks to be pretty sure this wasn't one of them, the boy had the scar that definitively marked him as the real Harry Potter. Ginny wasn't sure what to think.
Learning that her idol was a whole lot more ordinary than she had previously been told could have made Ginny feel disappointed. But she found that her brief glimpse of the real Harry Potter had, if anything, left her more interested than ever in this famous first year. And now that she had the Burrow almost to herself, she had a lot of time to think about Harry Potter.
Now, more than ever, Ginny wanted to know what Harry Potter had been doing for the past ten years since his parents deaths. Who had he lived with? Why had he been alone at the platform? Why hadn't he known how to get to the Hogwarts Express? Why did he look like he hadn't been properly fed in weeks? What was he afraid of?
She tried to tell herself to just forget about Harry Potter. She supposed that she would see Harry Potter next year when she started at Hogwarts herself, but until then she still wasn't going to be able to answer her questions, and continuing to speculate would be a waste of time. She was ten now; she was going to start learning to be a real witch soon; she was too old for a childish crush on a boy she had only glimpsed once.
She tried to devote herself to other pursuits. She did her best to be a good girl and help her mother with the housework as much as she could, even though it was dreadfully dull. Her good behavior caused Mrs. Weasley to watch her a little less closely, giving her more freedom to practice flying and quidditch on stolen brooms. She went over the hill to visit her eccentric friend Luna Lovegood, and spent hours listening to her prattle about Crumple-Horned Snorlaks and other non-existent creatures.
But ultimately, none of these distractions could take her mind away from Harry Potter. Every night, alone in her room, Ginny's thoughts would stray back to the mysterious boy on Platform 9 3/4. She herself couldn't be sure why. Sometimes she was sure that it was just a silly crush of the sort that every girl would have on a boy as famous as the Boy Who Lived. Other times she felt that her attraction to him was really just curiosity; life could be so boring in the burrow, surely the mysterious childhood of Harry Potter was full of exciting adventures, and it would be thrilling to be one of the few people to know the true story. And sometimes, when she thought back to her brief glimpse of Harry Potter at King's Cross Station, she couldn't help but think that he looked like a boy who needed help, and all she wanted was to be able to help him.
She received her first owl from the twins on Wednesday. Fred told her that Ron had been sorted into Gryffindor—she was glad for him, she knew he had been afraid of getting Hufflepuff—and Harry Potter was in Gryffindor as well. Apparently he and Ron were already shaping up to be best mates. Ginny felt a bit jealous of her brother. What she wouldn't give for the chance to be best friends with Harry Potter!
Ginny wrote back to the twins quickly, sending a reply with the same school owl they had used. She wanted to thank them for keeping their promise to write, of course, but she also asked them for more details about Harry Potter, although she tried not to seem too eager. She hated giving the Fred and George any more potential reasons to laugh at her, but they already knew she'd had a crush on him, and the potential to learn more about Harry was worth the small risk of embarrassment.
A reply from George arrived the very next day, but instead of the answers Ginny sought, it threw her thoughts back into turmoil.
Good to hear from you, Ginny, glad you're holding up alright. As for Harry Potter, we've decided that we've told you more than enough already. We refuse to become your spies at Hogwarts. Or anywhere else for that matter. If you're so curious about Harry, why are you using us as middlemen? Just write a letter to him directly! I'm sure he wouldn't mind another friend. He doesn't seem to have made any besides Ron. If you really want him to fall for you, you've got to catch him before any of the girls in his year do!
Ginny couldn't tell if George was being serious. Her older brothers had always been overprotective of her, told her she was far too young to think about boys. She knew they were wrong about how ready she was to play quidditch, so she was pretty sure they were wrong about this too. But here was her brother encouraging her to write to a boy she had a crush on!
She wondered if it was a prank somehow. Surely Harry couldn't really be nearly friendless at Hogwarts. Ron wouldn't be the only one interested in being pals with a celebrity. The twins were just trying to get her to embarrass herself as she made a terrible first impression and Harry laughed at her letter. Maybe Harry already had a girlfriend, and the goal was to embarrass Harry as well as Ginny. Maybe the twins had secretly planted vanishing ink in her room and her letter would be a blank sheet of paper by the time it arrived at Hogwarts.
There were a million reasons not to trust the twins. Clearly the right thing to do was what she had been telling herself all week—just forget about Harry Potter and her silly crush. But just as before, Ginny couldn't be satisfied with telling herself that. She couldn't evade a question: What if this wasn't a prank? What if Harry really was having trouble making friends at Hogwarts. What if he was just as lonely as she was. If that was the case, it seemed like writing him a letter would indeed be a very good idea.
Just thinking about writing a letter to Harry Potter was both exciting and terrifying. The more she thought about it, the more Ginny was sure she couldn't really do it. She was usually a pretty spunky girl, but today she was feeling quite shy and timid. Imagine if Harry did laugh at her letter. All her brothers would see. The story would be told for years. Fred and George would be triumphant. She would never live it down. The twins had embarrassed her enough times already.
But then, she had another thought. What if this wasn't the prank she thought it was? The twins didn't know everything about her, but they still knew her pretty well. Better than Ron or Percy. They knew how embarrassed talking about Harry Potter made her. What if they were trying to get her not to write? Maybe they weren't pulling a prank, but trying to get her to stop thinking about Harry, to stop thinking about boys, just like her brothers had all always wanted. Maybe they were counting on her to be a coward.
As soon as she settled on this thought, Ginny's mind was made up. She was not a coward. She wasn't yet a Gryffindor, but she knew she was going to be one next year. She wouldn't let shyness about Harry Potter be an exception to her characteristic Gryffindor bravery. At this point, she didn't care whether it was the foolish recklessness of someone walking into a prank or the unexpected fearlessness of a chivalrous hero: She was going to write to Harry Potter.
As she sat down at her desk in her room and got out paper and a quill, she felt a little silly for being so dramatic and making such a big deal about this. It wasn't as if a single letter was so hard to write or would make a big difference in the grand scheme of her life. She couldn't get nervous now!
And so, in one burst of adrenaline, Ginny dashed out her first letter to Harry Potter:
Dear Harry,
You don't know me yet, but I know you. We saw each other on Sunday at King's Cross Station. I wanted to get on the train and meet you then, but mum wouldn't let me. My name's Ginny. Ron might have told you I'm his little sister. I am his sister, but I'm not a little girl. I'm only a year younger than he is, and just as tall, not to mention better at Quidditch (even though he never wants to let me play). I'm sorry if I sound whiny. My brothers never take me seriously, because I'm the youngest, and I don't want them to give you a wrong impression of me.
I'm writing to you now because I'm really curious. I suppose you probably get too much of that, so I'm sorry if I'm bothering you by asking questions, but I've heard stories about you ever since I was actually a little girl, and nobody can agree on what happened to you after you killed You-Know-Who as a baby. So since my brothers never tell me anything, I want to hear it right from the source: What have you been doing for the past ten years? Why didn't you know how to get onto platform 9 3/4? Do you remember killing You-Know-Who?
You don't have to answer all those questions if I'm annoying you. I would be really happy if you just wrote back. Now that Ron's at school with the rest of my brothers, I'm kind of lonely here. I can't talk to Mum and Dad like I can to someone my age.
Sorry again for bothering you. I hope that you're enjoying Hogwarts.
Your curious admirer,
Ginny Weasley
Reading over the hastily written text, Ginny hated it. She was sure it sounded hopelessly rude and immature, and that it would only make Harry Potter annoyed at her. She was very tempted to crumple up the letter and forget the whole thing.
But she knew she couldn't do that. She couldn't let her brothers, let her fears, beat her. Before she had the chance to second guess herself anymore, Ginny rolled up the letter, addressed it, and took it down to Errol to deliver. She was thankful that her mother was busy preparing dinner in the kitchen and therefore didn't overhear her talking to the family owl.
"Take this to Harry Potter. Try to give it to him when Ron's not around, if you can." she whispered. Nodding his head in what she hoped was understanding, Errol flew off. Ginny felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest. She still wasn't sure whether she had made the right decision, but the matter was now out of her hands, it was too late to take back the letter now. And maybe, just maybe, knowing that she'd actually done something would be enough to let her get her mind off of Harry Potter for a while. With genuine cheerfulness, she went and asked her mother if she needed any help preparing dinner.
