-1REVISED Jan. 6, 2006: Thanks to daciangoddess for beta-ing this!
"Okay, everybody has everything, right? Bathroom trips done? We're not doubling back for anything or anyone; do I make my self clear?" Mrs. Weasley let her eyes sweep through her group of redheaded children, and her youngest son's two best friends, Harry and Hermione. She waited until they nodded their heads before herding them outside the door into the courtyard where a shiny black car stood waiting for them.
"Blimey, where did we get that from?" Ron's excited voice rang through the front of the Burrow. The Weasleys weren't very wealthy, and their last car now ran wild in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts.
"Arrangements at the Ministry for special transportation," Mr. Weasley answered while loading the luggage in the trunk compartment.
"Ah, nothing like a bit of mother nature to give some an artist some inspiration," Fred said as he quickly sat down in the window seat before his twin, George, could steal his spot.
"Oh no, you're not. If I catch you two making any of your absurd products, you two will be polishing the house from top to bottom once we get back!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out from the front passenger seat.
"Where are we going again? I hope owls will be able to reach it, the Ministry might need to reach me even though I'm on vacation-" Percy's uptight workingman voice started sounding the second the engine started.
"Perce." George began patting Percy's arm gently in a grandmotherly fashion. "I'm sure the owls will be telling you how the Ministry's collapsing left, right, and center without you there being important and useful."
The entire backseat rang with laughter as Mr. Weasley assured his son that owls will have no trouble finding their location.
"No need to worry. After all, Shackleberry Woods is quite a popular summer resorting spot and owls are bright animals." He took a sharp turn to avoid a speeding car. "There is a function on this car…might come in handy and we can get there a little quicker…" he trailed off, and his wife cut him off before he could use magic to control the car.
"Oh no, you're not! It's suspicious enough that all of us can fit into this car without you charming it to fly and risk Muggles seeing us! Remember what department you work in!" She shot him a warning glance and returned to reading her Witch's Weekly magazine.
"I read that there was a Wizarding battle near the area we're staying in. I'd love to take a look," Hermione suggested to Harry and Ron.
"No point. Even if you tell Binns that you just had tea with Merlin yesterday, he'll still call you Miss Greenwood in class," Ron pointed out and Harry snickered.
"That's not what I meant; I mean, there's all that history, and it's so interesting that we can stand at the same spot where such an important part of Wizarding history occurred."
"Well, if you want to go someplace where dozens of wizards snuffed it, that's fine with me. Harry and I can play Quidditch." Ron bit into a Chocolate Frog and resumed arguing with Hermione before swallowing.
Ginny sighed and looked out the window at the passing scenery. It was always like this with her family. Everything was loud, noisy, and big. This time, it wasn't even as chaotic as their trip to Egypt. She remembered how they had had to Apparate there, since flooing internationally was impossible. They couldn't travel by those Muggle 'arrow plain' devices either as Egyptian magical communities lived separately from Muggles. It had been absolute chaos, with her parents doubling back every time because none of them were old enough to Apparate yet, and they had had to travel via side-along Apparation with their parents.
She watched Fred and George play Exploding Snap in the backseat of the car and smelled burnt leather as the cards fell off the seat and exploded on the floor of the car. Sometimes, it was so lonely being the only girl in the family. Hermione was coming along on this trip, but she usually talked to Harry and Ron. Bill was still in Egypt, and Charlie was still in Romania, but they might join the rest of the family if they could take some time off.
Her father had come home from work one day announcing that his co-worker, Perkins, had recently inherited a resorting home in Shackleberry Woods from a rich bachelor uncle. Perkins didn't like living in the wild, and had offered to lend it to him and his family for a month. After a series of arrangements with the Ministry for transportation and vacationing time, a few days of her mum nagging everyone to start packing and cleaning the house before they left, (which Ron had protested was pointless, since she would make them clean it again once they get back) they were off to their vacation. Ginny was excited. According to a pamphlet she had seen, Shackleberry Woods had very beautiful scenery, and since it was a Wizarding resort, they could all play Quidditch and fly as high as they wanted on broomsticks without worrying about being seen by Muggles. On the trip, however, she would just have to amuse herself with reading a book.
Her eyes scanned faded old page, and she felt like falling asleep right from the first sentence.
'Being a Prefect in your Hogwarts career provides excellent opportunity to exercise your leadership, commitment, and communications skills.'
"What are you reading?" Percy asked Ginny.
"What? I dunno," she showed him the cover of her book.
"'Sucessful Prefects and Their Post-Hogwarts lives,' excellent choice, I loved that book." Percy turned back to the book he was reading. That would explain why the words seemed to be hypnotizing her to sleep just from being printed on the page, this was Percy's book. Ginny gave up trying to stay awake while staring at the pages, and began to nod off.
"Well, we're here! Everybody off! We can stretch our legs a little bit, that was a long ride!" Mr. Weasley's excited voice woke Ginny up and she climbed groggily out of the car.
As her eyes began to focus and clear up, she could see that the pamphlet had not been misleading. The house was perched on a dock that stretched out a little bit into the lake; she could see that there were many other little docks perched out along the shores. The lake itself was calm and smooth, like glass, and she could see the reflection of the clear, blue sky in it. At the centre of the lake, she could see what looked like a tiny little island surrounded by misty fog. The ground was slightly moist, without being muddy. They were surrounded by massive, hundred-foot tall pine and cedar trees, which filled the air with their fresh scent. Ginny turned back to the island.
That's odd, why is there fog surrounding that island when it's such a nice day today.
Her thoughts were distracted by the excited squeals coming from the comfortable looking cabin.
"Blimey! Look at the pantry!"
"Oh, it's wonderful, all these books!"
"Is that firewhisky in the cabinet?"
She walked through the open door and was relieved that it didn't smell like cats the tent, unlike the tent they had borrowed from Perkin's at the Quidditch World Cup had. In fact, it seemed to be a very nice home. The kitchen appeared to be already filled with food even though they had just arrived. The living room was comfortably furnished with plump armchairs, cherry wood coffee tables, an impressive fireplace, and a large tapestry of the woods, which hung on one wall from the ceiling to the floor. Ginny walked over to where Hermione's excited squeal had come from. It was a large room, surrounded by shelves of books; Hermione was already picking a few off the shelves and stacking them against her stomach. Ginny poked her head next door. Fred and George were stuffing bottles of firewhisky underneath their bed before Mrs. Weasley could find out and confiscate them.
"Fancy a game of Quidditch?" she asked the two of them as they rolled the bottles carefully underneath their beds.
"Careful with that one, you don't want to be rolling them too hard- what were you saying, Ginny?" Fred turned around to face her standing in the doorway.
"Just wanted to know if you guys wanted to play some Quidditch, or if you're too busy hiding alcohol from Mum." She eyed the cabinet in their room slyly.
"Give us fifteen minutes so we can get our business done." George took two more bottles out of the cabinet and passed it to Fred.
After dragging Ron away from the kitchen, the five of them headed outside with their broomsticks over their shoulders. They were the only ones out, since Hermione didn't like flying, and Percy was apparently too absorbed in his reading.
"Well, we don't have goalposts or anything so I guess we're playing 'steal'." Ron dropped the pumpkin that they were using as a Quaffle on the ground. 'Steal' was their version of mini Quidditch where there were only Chasers and Quaffles. The object of their version of the game was to pass the Quaffle to every member of your team without having the other team intercept it.
"Our number's uneven," George pointed out.
"Okay, George and I are captains," Fred suggested.
"You two look alike, it'll be too complicated," Harry said, "Ginny and I will be captains."
"Nah, Ginny will probably want to be on your team." George sent Harry an exaggerated wink.
"Shut up; Harry and I are captains!" Ginny glared at the twins.
"Okay, let's just choose the teams now." Ron stepped in between them to urge them to hurry up with the game.
"Fine, I'm choosing first, Fred." Ginny pointed at her brother.
"Uh, then I guess I'll pick George." Harry pointed at the other twin.
"No, that'll get too confusing; Fred and George should be on the same team or else we won't know whether we're passing to someone on our own team or the opposite team," Ron pointed out.
"I'll pick you, then." Harry gestured towards Ron.
"Since I chose Fred, I guess I have to get George too." Ginny shrugged.
"Our team gets the Quaffle first, we have more people," Fred quickly grabbed the pumpkin and wrapped his arms around it.
"Fine, but we still need some kind of clearing to play in," Harry looked around at the forest. If they played there, there would be a very big chance of smashing into a tree.
"We can always play above the lake," Ron suggested.
"Mum will murder us!" Ginny exclaimed.
"If we fly far away from the cabin and none of us falls into the lake, she'll never know," George reassured her and mounted his broom.
"Fine, if mum finds out, its your fault." Ginny mounted her broom and kicked off, gliding around in the air, enjoying the fresh breeze rustling through her flaming red hair.
Before Fred could respond, a green blur shot past, and Harry almost got knocked off his broom.
"Who-" Ron began; once the figure stopped moving, he saw who it was. "Ferret boy?"
"Plenty of logs to bewitch, hmm?" Draco Malfoy eyed the twins' old Cleansweeps with a smirk. Even though it was summer, he still dressed in emerald-green wizards' robes.
"Sod off! We're playing Quidditch!" Ron yelled at him angrily.
"Has your pigsty of a family finally been evicted? I must say, camping out in the wild must be luxury compared to your little hut." He turned his broom away as the four Weasleys and Harry followed him on their brooms.
"Hand me the Quaffle!" Ginny yelled at Fred, who threw the pumpkin for her to catch.
"Give it to me!" Harry yelled. Only his Firebolt could catch up in speed with Draco's Nimbus Two Thousand and One.
"Back off, I'm doing it!" Ginny yelled. Draco stopped momentarily after hearing her voice, and turned his head around, stopping just before he touched the mist surrounding the island. Ginny was too enraged to see that, even though they were so close to the island, they still couldn't see through the fog.
"Something wrong, Weaslette?" Draco taunted, before speeding off again dodging left and right on his broomstick.
"Go to hell!" she yelled, and accelerated her broom towards him with the pumpkin still in her hand. Draco moved backwards slightly, and his fingers went through the fog; the tip of Ginny's broom touched the mist just as she was about to throw the pumpkin.
Both of their brooms jerked wildly and suddenly, as if a tornado had hit the lake. A swirl of wind and water circled around the two of them and they twirled higher and higher into the tower of wind. After what seemed like an eternity of twists and spins, Draco and Ginny landed on the hard ground in a heap, Draco on top of Ginny, with his lips right against hers.