Ginny cursed silently as she exited The Leaky Cauldron. The sixteen-year-old girl had just celebrated one of her most precious birthdays alone, and she'd gotten herself plum drunk to ease the pain of being left alone. Halfway through her bottle of Ogden's Old Fire Whiskey, she realized what a stupid thing she was doing, and she muttered a sobering spell under her breath, before she got too far gone to remember it, and then stormed out of the near deserted pub.
Now wandering about London alone, a very stupid thing to do for a muggle, but not for a wand-armed witch, she stopped dead in her tracks as she heard a group of girls talking about arthimancy. Surprised that they would be speaking so loud as to where any passing muggle could hear, she walked over to them, and tapped the tallest one on the shoulder.
Her long mousy brown hair almost hit Ginny in the face as the girl swung towards her, oblivious to the assault her locks had almost committed.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
"I was just warning you not to talk so loud! The muggles might hear you," Ginny warned.
Her tone was grave, for by Ginny's sixth year at Hogwarts, Voldemort had taken the Wizarding world by storm. He'd managed to corrupt a few muggles' minds, and even the most trained of wizards could not spot the zombie muggles from the normal ones, not that many of them knew enough about muggles to tell.
However, the meaning was lost on the girl, as she and her comrades asked, "What's a muggle?"
Ginny blinked, obviously not expecting this turn of events, and blushed in embarrassment and confusion.
"Er . . . never mind. I'm Ginny."
The brunette smiled, and held out her hand, "I'm Brigit."
The three girls with her smiled politely, and held their hands out also, introducing themselves as Micole, Amira, and Roweni.
"Merry meet," they chorused.
Ginny turned to Brigit, who seemed to be the leader of the foursome, and asked, "Merry meet?"
However, it was the other red head of the group, Amira, who answered her.
"It's a Wiccan thing," she said, as if that explained it all.
"Wiccan? What's Wiccan?" Ginny asked, becoming more and more confused by the minute.
"It's a religion," Brigit answered her, "It's a form of witchcraft."
Ginny was dumbfounded, "REAL witchcraft? But you're muggles!"
This time, the raven haired girl answered, in an accent that Ginny recognized as Italian, "What is that word you keep using?"
Ginny looked around, before answering them, "I think we'll need to be sitting down for this one."
Something about these girls told Ginny that she could trust them . . . If not, it was as great a time as any to practice her memory charms.
It was several hours later before they emerged from the bookshop Ginny had ducked into, each of them now adjusting to the new information they'd received from each other's worlds.
Ginny had learned that many muggles had their own forms of magic, and that Wicca was just one of many religions that utilized magic, though Wicca was one of the fairly newer introductions.
The muggle girls had learned that there were people born with the fantasy magic they had read about in story books as children, that, aside from Amira, who was raised in her religion, had led them to believe the way they did.
Surprisingly, it wasn't too much of a culture shock for either of them, or Ginny just might have had to try to charm away the girl's memories, along with her own.
Ginny looked at the sky and noted how dark it had gotten. The others noticed it too, and began to say their farewells.
"Merry part Ginny! And happy birthday!"
Roweni smiled at Ginny, as she fumbled around in her bag for something. With an 'a-ha!' she plucked out a large amethyst crystal, and laid it in Ginny's hands.
"It's a birthday gift," she explained, "it can help you with the divination homework problems you've been having. It's very good for visions into unknown realms and stuff."
Following suit, the other girls reached into their purses, and pulled out birthday trinkets for Ginny.
Amira had given her a piece of green quartz on a string, saying that it was good for increasing money, Micole had given her a small bottle filled with copal, saying it smelt really good, and it was great for love. Brigit's gift was a small thick book, which she said talked a lot about Wicca.
"I used it all the time, but now I practically have it memorized."
Ginny smile gratefully, before collecting their addresses so she could owl them.
"Bye Ginny! I can't wait to see you next time, so you can meet Kerri!"
Kerri, Ginny had learned, was the fifth, and final member of their studying group, who, like Amira and Ginny, was native to England. She'd been sick that day, and the girls had gone out to pick up some Advil for her, until they'd noticed a small occult shop, and then had their run in with Ginny.
She waved happily before making her way back to The Leaky Cauldron to floo her way back home.
Ginny came in through the fireplace just as her family walked in the front door. Each of them equally surprised to see the other, Ginny tripped a bit coming out of the hearth, and landed on her face at the feet she knew instantly to belong to Harry Potter, her old crush. Resisting the urge to start thwapping herself on the head like a house elf, if only to keep Hermione, who Ginny noted was also present, quiet, Ginny pulled herself up and smiled at her family.
"What are you guys doing home early? I thought you wouldn't be back until tomorrow afternoon."
"And is that why you were traipsing about this late at night?" her mother asked, one hand on her hip, and the other moving wildly in the air.
Ginny sniffed delicately, before stating, "I was not traipsing, mother, I don't think you know what that word means. I merely met some nice people while I was out celebrating my birthday, which, by the way, you guys weren't here for."
She prepared to turn on her heel and start up the stairs, but her mother's softened voice stopped her.
"Oh Ginnybug, we're sorry!"
Her entire family, Harry and Hermione included, offered their apologies.
As Ginny made her way upstairs after dinner, she couldn't help but note that not one of them had said happy birthday.
The next morning, the sun beams poked through the window and into Ginny's eyes and she awoke to another gorgeous country day at Ottery St. Catchpole. She unwound the necklace cord that Amira had given her, that had tangled itself around her neck, and fumbled around for her wand to close the curtains and go back to bed.
Before she could mutter the spell to do so, however, energy invaded her senses, and she swore loudly. Her body had woken up already, but her mind still wanted to sleep.
Deciding to kick her mind in gear, she swung her legs over her bed, and stifled a gasp of surprise as she nearly stepped on Hermione, who, as Ginny had forgotten, was sleeping her room. The noise woke Hermione however, and Ginny resisted the urge to swear again, not liking to do it in front of people.
"Good morning Ginny!" Hermione said, as she stretched happily and looked out the window brightly.
"You're not such a morning person at school," Ginny commented, remembering the one time she'd been chosen to wake the girl up early from her sleep, and shuddering.
"Oh, but it's different here! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and there's not a whole house full of girls rushing to the showers and spraying their perfume on so thick that by time I walk out, I smell of it."
Ginny nodded in agreement, which caused Hermione's line of vision to go towards the necklace lightly swaying.
"Where'd you get that?"
Ginny looked down, almost thinking she was asking about the pair of breasts that had grown over the last summer, and answered, "Oh, it was a birthday gift from one of the new friends I made last night. Wanna see what else they gave me?"
Hermione clucked her tongue and said, "Ginny, you really shouldn't accept things from strangers. Especially now, with You-Know -Who-"
Ginny cut her off, answering, "First off, they were muggles. Second off, you know I'm top in my class in Ailuromancy, and Crookshanks was perfectly fine when he was around them."
Hermione reluctantly nodded, before saying, "Well, what else did you get?"
Ginny happily showed her the small items she'd received, but for some reason, she left the book, and the fact that these muggles knew magic, out of what she told Hermione.
They'd be her secrets, she decided, these muggles and their magic.