"I don't mean to be cheeky," Harry Potter assured his hostess as she barricaded them inside her room. "But wouldn't it be easier just to give me my present?"

Ginny pursed her lips at the pile of items blockading her doorway. "Well, that'll hold them up for a little while."

Harry's attention was already on that fact. He was about to say something, but Ginny spoke too soon.

"What time is it, Harry?"

Harry fished into his pocket and pulled Fabian Prewett's battered watch out.

"Just after 9.00."

"Gives us just under three hours." Ginny looked up and her eyes blazed past Harry as she swore an oath to a play-worn old plush unicorn. "Harry is going to get his birthday present. And no one, not Voldemort and his monochromatic minions or over-protective family members are going to stop it!" Ginny declared dramatically.

Seemingly agreeing with this sentiment, the unicorn keeled over.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

"Who is it?" Ginny asked gingerly.

"Geeny, I think someone wants you." Gabrielle Delacour told her through the door.

"Who does?" Ginny challenged, her temper fuse short after all the constant interruptions she and Harry had suffered through the day.

"Err..." Gabrielle paused. "…Charlie?"

Ginny was just about to furiously deny Gabrielle's words as an attempt to split her and Harry, but Charlie rather rudely interjected with a squeal for assistance.

Harry pulled out his wand to defend Charlie against whatever terrible villainry he may encounter. Harry knew that he had a battle on his hands as he heard Charlie Weasley, handler-of-class-five-dangerous-creatures known as fire-breathing flying menaces called Dragons screaming like a toddler in a tantrum.

But the unicorn led a defiantly still blockade against him. Luckily, Ginny had a back-up plan.

She pulled a sheet away from the wall to reveal her battered broom in the corner.

"Well, it's not a Firebolt, Harry, but it'll have to do."

Ginny jumped onto the broom and Harry swung himself on behind Ginny, holding on with one hand as she shot out the window – well, shot out as fast as a Comet 180 could. Arnold the purple Pygmy Puff bounced to his human's aid, but being a Pygmy Puff, fell from the window-sill as he tried to leap onto the tail-twigs of the broom. He was saved when Harry lost his grip when Ginny pulled the broom up to point at the sky, at which point the up-side-down Harry who was holding onto the broom with his legs, saw a flash of fluffy purple in his eyes and scooped it up. Arnold gave his hand a grateful lick before scurrying up his jeans and onto the comfort of Ginny.

"At something has retained his senses." Harry muttered as he righted himself.

Ginny steered the trio up the outside of the Burrow, and Harry charmed open Bill and Charlie's window. Charlie let out another scream as they closed in.

"Harry, secure my weeping brother!" Ginny commanded and Harry obliged, leaping off the broom and pulling Charlie behind him, shouting "Protego!" as he did so.

Ginny saw a flash of steel glint in her eyes. Recognising the threat, she spiralled her broom into a dark area roundabout, causing someone to gasp as the wind was knocked out of it. Ginny's eye caught the metallic flash again, and she tackled the threat over, seizing the deadly weapon out of her opponent's hands as Arnold slapped the foe's cheek with his tongue.

"What have you got to say for yourself, you knife-wielding infiltrator?" Ginny demanded as Harry cast his Lumos spell.

"Ginny, get off your mother." A throughly battered and unimpressed Molly Weasley told her intensely blushing daughter while Harry and Charlie and Arnold looked on, lost for words.