A/N: Hey everybody!

So here's my first attempt at writing fanfiction. I actually started this way back in 2007, back when I was a 12-year-old little shrimp, and I recently discovered it and have given it a makeover. Hope you enjoy! I've tried making it stick as much to canon as possible!

Chapter I - Harry's Arrival

BUMP.

Ugh. Shut up, you ruddy ghoul, thought a little girl, who was sleeping.

BUMP.

Poor Ron, he's got to sleep in the room right under it.

VROOM.

What on Earth could that be?

"Ugh, what is going on with this thing?"

That certainly wasn't the ghoul.

"Fred, George, what are you doing here?"

What?

Following the voices, Ginny Weasley quietly crept into the kitchen. She saw three people huddled together, whispering unintelligibly outside the house. She tiptoed out.

"What're you three doing out here?" she whispered. Her voice, albeit soft, sounded strangely loud in the silent night.

Fred, George and Ron Weasley, three of her older brothers, gave strangled yells and jumped around.

"Ginny...Ginny, where are—what are you doing here?"

She crossed her arms and looked straight at them. "Ron, I could ask you the same thing."

Ron stuttered, "Uh—I…I woke up be-because G-Gred and Forge threw—no, I mean the ghoul woke me up and…it woke up…Fred and G-George too, and—"

"And who on earth are Gred and Forge?" asked Ginny. Ron flushed.

"Us, you see, in Ickle Ronnie's first year one of his friends named us that—" said one of the twins.

"You're horrible liars."

Fred sighed. "All right, I'll tell you. Ron was going to rescue Harry from his awful cousin's place, and George and I decided we'd go along with him to help."

Oh. For a moment, Ginny was left speechless. She had only actually seen the Boy Who Lived once, but her fascination with Ron's best friend had only strengthened when her brother told Ginny all about the adventures they had shared his first year.

Ron had taken Ginny's moment of astonished silence to growl at the twins, "You're not coming!"

"Oh yes, we are, Ronnie, and that's our final word," said Fred. Ron sent the twins a furious look, but did not argue.

Finally regaining her vocal abilities, Ginny clasped her hands together and said, "Oh, please let me come, too? I won't be a bother!"

"There isn't enough room for you after me, Fred, Ron, Harry and his trunk," snarled George.

"But I saw Dad put that extension charm on it," she protested.

Fred sighed. "Ginny, you're not even wearing the right clothes. You can't go in your nightdress!"

"I can change," she whispered fiercely.

"No!" shouted George.

"Shh…" hushed Ron. "You'll wake Mum! And Ginny, you're not coming. You can stay up and wait for us, but you're not coming, okay? If mum found out that we went, we'd get in trouble, but if she found out that you came along too, you'd get in trouble too, got it? So I don't want you to come, you'll get into trouble if you do."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Okay," she said, "but I'm staying up for you."

Ron said, "Not here—go to my room and wait up there."

"Nice one, Ron," whispered Fred.

Ginny bit back a retort and stormed back upstairs. She hesitated at her bedroom door, but then decided against it. She went up another flight of stairs to Ron's bedroom, where Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived, would sleep the following night.

She sat down on Ron's unmade bed and glanced around. His room was violently orange, covered from wall to ceiling to bedspread with Chudley Cannons posters. The one moving picture that was not orange featured Ron and two other people, smiling and waving at the photographer.

From Ron's letters, she knew the girl with the bushy brown hair, buck teeth, and very pretty eyes was Hermione Granger. But it was neither Ron nor Hermione that Ginny's eyes were focused on.

It was the boy in the middle, the boy who looked startlingly normal despite his otherworldly fame. It was Harry Potter's crooked little smile, his lightning bolt scar, and his sad emerald-green eyes. It was the fact that he was merely one year older than her but had done so much more in his life than she ever would.

True, Ginny had never officially met Harry Potter, but she had dreamed about it many times before. Somehow, it always ended up with him proclaiming his undying love and affection for her and them riding a broomstick into the moonlight.

And only when that image crossed her mind did Ginny Weasley realize that she had fallen asleep.

When she next woke up, it was barely past dawn and Ginny heard her mother shouting at someone. Still not completely awake, Ginny shuffled downstairs and into the kitchen.

When she saw Harry, her entire world stopped. The only thought she could articulate in her brain was: You're wearing your nightgown, you idiot.

Not knowing whether or not the noise she had made was actually human, Ginny rushed back upstairs—to her room this time—mortified because aside from being seen in her embarrassing, too-short-to-be-full-length blue nightdress, she had heard Ron introduce Ginny to Harry in a way that made Ginny sound rather mental. "Ginny—my sister. She's been talking about you all summer. Bit annoying really."

She slowly walked to her closet, trying to ignore the fact that her entire body was still burning with embarrassment. Quickly throwing on some of her least worn-out and shabby clothes, she waited in her room until she could be certain that Harry had left. She heard Percy go down for breakfast, and she heard her father return from work. Finally, she saw Harry, Ron, and the twins traipse outside to the garden, so it was deemed safe by her to go downstairs to eat breakfast.

Only her mother was left in the kitchen when she finally arrived.

"Good morning, Ginny!" said her mother, cheerily. "Sleep well?"

"I heard voices and so I came down. Everyone hasn't eaten already?"

"Yes, but there's plenty of sausages and toast left for you, dear."

Ginny piled three sausages on her plate and grabbed a slice of toast, then asked innocently, "How did Harry Potter get here?" It was better that her mother assumed that Ginny had no clue of what had transpired the night before.

Mrs Weasley shook her head furiously. "Those boys! I heard some noises in the night, and then I went up to the twins' room. It was empty. Then I went up to Ron's room, and you were there, fast asleep. I knew that sometimes when you got nightmares when you were younger you'd snuggle up next to him in bed—one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, by far—but that did not explain where he went. Just to make sure, I checked your bedroom, but it was empty! I stayed up for the rest of the night, and then—honestly, they could have been killed, or seen, or they could have lost your father his job! I heard the flying car pulling up on the driveway, and who arrives but Harry Potter."

Ginny giggled. "Where is he now?" she asked, through a mouthful of toast and sausage.

"He insisted on de-gnoming the garden with Fred, George and Ron. I told him to go upstairs and sleep, because he must have been tired out from that trip in the flying car."

"Mum, can I help de-gnome the garden?" asked Ginny eagerly.

"Between you and me," Mrs Weasley smiled, "de-gnoming the garden was a punishment for the twins and Ron. So you don't have to bother, Ginny."

Ginny grinned at her mother and then asked her, "I heard Dad's voice. What was he talking about?"

Her mum sighed. "Nine raids tonight. And Mundungus Fletcher tried hexing your father when his back was turned. I don't see why they don't just arrest that man! One of those raids was at Lucius Malfoy's house, but they didn't find anything. And then your father finally noticed poor Harry, and then asked him what the function of a rubber duck was, whatever a rubber duck is."

Mystified, Ginny asked, "How can a duck be rubber?"

Her mother shook her head bemusedly. "Harry seemed to understand, and began explaining it patiently, the dear boy. Something to do with a bathtub, he said."

After Ginny finished eating her breakfast and helping her mother with the dishes, she went back upstairs to her room, which had a window looking out over the orchard. But if she sat just so, she could catch a glimpse of the garden, where Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were.

Evidently Harry Potter had been taught how to de-gnome a garden by Ron or one of the twins, because he had one in his hand and was spinning it around his head. He was laughing, and when he let go, the gnome flew far over the fence. She heard the twins' muffled admiration, and Ginny couldn't help but feel a little admiration herself. She couldn't even throw it as far as that stump over there.

Some hours passed, and she tired of staying at her post by the window. She picked up a Holyhead Harpies pamphlet from her desk and flipped through its pages. Now Recruiting New Fliers! She giggled to herself, wondering what Ron would say if she ever told him she was enlisting for the Holyhead Harpies. "Ginny, you can't even fly! And the Harpies? Really, Ginny? If you must try out for a Quidditch team, it should be the Cannons! Honestly, I'm ashamed to admit you're my sister…"

Ginny's room was painted pink—not bright neon pink, but a soft roseate shade. While Ron's walls and ceiling were nothing but a Chudley Cannons advertising booth, Ginny's featured Gwenog Jones, beater and captain of the Holyhead Harpies. There was also a poster of the Weird Sisters, one of the most popular bands in the Wizarding World.

She tossed the pamphlet back onto her desk and sighed. In the room right above hers was a silence to which she was unaccustomed. Growing up with Fred and George, she had become used to hearing all sorts of bangs and booms emanating from their bedroom.

Suddenly, Ginny's stomach growled loudly. Rather frustrated, she frowned at her stomach and said sternly to it, "I just had three sausages!" Then she realized what she had just done. She had spoken to her stomach. Blimey, she was mental. She needed to get out of her room.

Just as she opened the door, she saw Harry and Ron coming up the stairs. When she saw Harry looking at her, she gasped and closed the door quickly. She heard Ron say, "Ginny. You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally—"

Ginny became bright red. Had she really been so obvious of her fascination with Harry Potter? Evidently she must have been. That made two embarrassing occurrences in one day.

However, everything automatically was forgiven when she heard Harry from the room above hers say, "This is the best house I've ever been in!"

She could hardly contain her excitement, even though she knew she must. Harry Potter likes our house! Harry Potter LIKES our house! HARRY POTTER likes our house! Harry Potter likes OUR house! Harry POTTER likes our HOUSE!

A/N: This chapter was so much fun to write. I absolutely adore Ginny's character! You'll have a little more of Harry in the next chapter, but Ginny is also going to Diagon Alley to buy her own schoolbooks and wand for the first time. Hopefully the next chapter will be up within the next month!

Reviews are to me as the Chudley Cannons are to Ron.

Cheers,

Shanthi