Chapter one: New Beginning

She was running. A beautiful woman had told her to, but why? Where was she going? What was she running from? The woman and the man she had been with screamed, and with a flash of light, everything was silent. This young girl ran until she felt sick, she fainted on an unfamiliar hill.

She awoke with a start. Her eyes burned from the bright sunlight streaming through the window, and her muscles ached all over. She looked around the room she had awoken to, it was unfamiliar, and confused her. It was a small, but bright room. There was a desk that faced a window and two posters, one of a group and one of a lone woman. Nothing here was familiar to her and she became worried. Then she noticed a second bed, someone was sleeping there. And by the look of things it was a girl, with long flaming red hair.

She didn't know why she wasn't worried, or even scared. She walked up to the girl and lightly shook her awake.

"Go away Mum," she paused to yawn quickly and continued,"I'll do it later," she announced groggily.

"Um, I'm not your mum?" she replied to the sleepy red head.

The red head turned and looked into the confused girl's eyes. Ten seconds later she opened her mouth, presumably to speak, but instead she screamed, and she screamed loudly! It had startled the girl so much, she screamed too, and if possible, even louder.

"What in the world is going on here?" screamed a small, plump woman with matching red hair. At first she looked angry, but then she caught the second girl's eye. She quickly started to rant questions. "Oh dear! How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Do you need anything? Do you need more rest? Oh, and what is your name?"

The last question caught her off guard, but she said suddenly, "Willow Noxa Bryden." She was shocked, her memory was completely blank; she hadn't remembered her name until she spoke it. But now she had her own questions," Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here? Why can't I remember anything? How long have I been here?

The woman, to her surprise, was completely honest with Willow. "My name is Molly Weasley, and you are at our home, The Burrow. I haven't the faintest why or how you got here. My husband found you unconscious on a nearby hill a month ago; you've been asleep ever since."

Willow sat down on the bed, and rubbed her eyes, why did they sting so much? She looked into Mrs. Weasley's concerned eyes, and muttered, "Thank you, for everything. You've been very kind." Mrs Weasley smiled and merely shook her head.

"It was no trouble at all, glad we could help. Well dear I have spoken to Dumbledore, who seemed to have a good idea of who you were, and he says to give you an option. You can go to an orphanage if you prefer, but we are more than happy to have you stay here as a permanent resident."

Willow stood up, "Thank you! I would love to stay here," and hugged Mrs Weasley, who soothed her, for she had started to cry. Willow couldn't believe there was a person kinder, or more motherly than Mrs Weasley. Wait, motherly? "Wait, what happened to my parents?" Willow's voice had become very small.

"We can only guess I'm afraid. Dumbledore says you greatly resemble your mother, he had remembered meeting you. He knew who you were and went to see your parents. They were gone. No sign of anything, even your home had seemed to evaporate," she finished with a distinct air of sadness. Willow was shocked, and continued to cry. The other girl had come and sat next to her. Mrs Weasley held one of Willow's hands and her daughter held the other. As sad as she was, she was even more frustrated. Why couldn't she remember anything?

After a while, Mrs Weasley hugged Willow, and said " I'll go make us some breakfast, okay?" Willow had nodded, and then she promised herself she had to stop crying, because no matter how sad she was, she wasn't alone.

"Sorry," she seemed to have confused the girl," you know for making you share your room."

"No problem, I'm Ginny by the way. I'm glad you woke up, we were starting to worry." Willow was glad to have people who cared, it made her situation more bearable.

"So do you remember about magic? You know, like that you are a witch?"

Willow's first instinct was no, but once again her voice acted on its own and said, "Yes, I have small bits of memory, or at least I think I do. I remember a man and I presume a younger me making my toy fly across the room." Willow smiled to herself, because she presumed the man was her father. "So what day is it?" Willow now realized she had been out of it for a whole month!

"Hm, today is June 5th, we found you at about midnight on May 3rd," Ginny informed her.

"Wow! I'm eleven now, my birthday was May 4th. So how old are you?" Willow wanted to learn all about her new friend, her only friend.

"I'll be eleven in July. That's good, we'll go into Hogwarts together in September, that's where we go to learn all about magic! I'm so excited, all my brothers say it is wonderful!"

"You have brothers?" Willow wasn't quite sure why this surprised her. "Where are they?"

"Well Ron, Fred, George, and Percy are all in Hogwarts, they should be home the day after tomorrow. Then there's Charlie who is in Romania studying dragons and Bill who works for Gringotts in Egypt, that's the wizard bank."

"Wow, that's a lot of kids, and you're the only girl? I think I'd die of boredom," Willow was glad she and Ginny could talk like two normal girls, like someone who didn't just wake up from a month long sleep or lose her parents.

"Girls! Breakfast is ready!" called Mrs Weasley from down stairs. The two girls exited Ginny's room, and headed for the kitchen.