Ginny sneaked out of her room and down the stairs. It was early in the morning, the rest of the family wouldn't wake up for another hour and the six-year-old had to be quiet; she couldn't risk one of her brothers catching her. Percy, Charlie and Bill were all off at Hogwarts, so she didn't have to worry about making noise outside their rooms, but there were quite a few creeky floorboards on the landing outside her parents' room.
Having successfully navigated the landing and stairs, Ginny tiptoed out of the back door in the kitchen and made her way quietly towards the small, cobwebby cupboard containing the family broomsticks. Ginny didn't mind the spiders; she'd grown up with six older brothers and was somewhat toughened up by this fact, and besides which she enjoyed having something over Ron.
Ginny carefully selected the closest broomstick to the door (which happened to be an old Cleansweep One that Fred had claimed as his own) and took it out into the back garden. She mounted it, remembering how her brothers grasped the handle and rested their right foot on the metal footrest, pushing off from their left.
It wasn't the first time Ginny had flown, she had inherited George's old toy broomstick when Ron had outgrown it, but it was her first time riding a proper broom that would take her more than a couple of feet off the ground. Despite this fact, Ginny soared confidently across the garden, swooping low over a bush full of gnomes and then ascending as high as the tallest apple tree before performing a miniature dive, pulling out of it about four feet off the ground.
Ginny continued performing simple tricks, copying her elder brothers for a while, before she spotted her parents' bedroom curtains being opened. Ginny held very still, hoping she wouldn't be spotted, but sure enough she saw the face of her dad looking out, winking at her.
Realising she was safe, she touched down lightly on the patio, put the broomstick away and creeped back into the house, up the stairs and back into her bed. Maybe she hadn't had much time to fly now, but she certainly intended to keep on teaching herself in the mornings before her family woke up.
