There were only two things Ginny Weasley knew for a fact: her best friend, Hermione, would always be there for her and that everyone else in her family would stop at nothing at all to destroy each other.

Like now, Ginny was in the middle of a fight with her mother. And this time she was not going to lose. Digging her black-painted nails into her crossed arms, she started a verbal attack.

"It's not like I expect you to come to anything I do," Ginny said. After sixteen years she knew better then to talk to her mother like that. She took a deep breath and did her best to keep her voice calm. If she lost her temper, her mother would refuse to discuss the matter any further. Period. "But I can't miss the duel," she said steadily. "It's half of my grade. And this is my last trimester. Besides, people are counting on me—I'm part of Gryffindor you know."

"Gryffindor is for students who don't have the power to get anywhere on their own," Molly Weasley replied. She didn't bother look up from her spell book. It was a ploy Ginny knew she used on people like Fred and George when she wanted to make them feel insignificant. But Molly underestimated her daughter: Ginny was tougher and smarter then your average drunken-mother's daughter.

"Or for students that don't know how to cooperate," Ginny shot back smoothly.

Molly's eyes never left her spell book, but Ginny saw her face stiffen. "I don't understand why I should let you use the broom on Friday when you're too busy to go somewhere with me on Saturday," she replied smoothly as well. "After all, the broom lesson is a good chance for us." She checked her watched and waited for Ginny to follow along with the plan as usual.

Absolutely not. At least not this time. Firstly, Ginny didn't work for her mother. Secondly, she wasn't about to miss the duel that's HALF OF HER GRADE. And thirdly, she was sick of playing the cheery daughter at her mother's never ending events.

"If you're so eager for us to look like a normal family maybe you should try looking like a normal mother."

When Molly finally looked at Ginny in the eyes, Ginny could see she was winning. Ginny braced herself its not like she enjoyed being disrespectful to her mother. What she wanted more than anything else was to live a normal life. A mother who cared for her and her brothers. A father who cared to pop up at her events. A family that got along… and didn't know half the town.

Molly was silent as she struggled behind her eyes of calmness. She didn't like being reminded that she was the only one who was to busy for Ginny. Breathing through her nose, Molly slid her glasses back on and turned back to her spell book. She was finished. Done. No more. She was doing what she called "changing the subject." It was what she did whenever she didn't want to deal with something… especially her daughter.

BAAM. Ginny won this time, even if she really hadn't won her mother's attention and time.

"So, I can take the Nimbus 2008?" Ginny drummed her nails on the marble coffee table and watched her mother turn away, as if Ginny were dragging her nails along the middle of a chalkboard. Ginny knew she could have the broom; she just wanted to hear Molly announce it.

She never would. At that moment the bell rang, following by a pounding on the perfectly painted white door. Molly turned her fixed stare toward the racket. There was no way she was going to answer it.

"One second!" she yelled.

Sighing, Ginny went to the front hall. The pounding got louder and heavier.

Then she looked through the peephole and saw what looked like the entire Azkaban police... right outside her door.