Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. I can only dream…

Starting Over

California Life

It had been two years since Ginny left the burrow.

The morning after the conversation she had with her father, she packed up her things, said a quick goodbye to her family, Harry, and Hermione, and left. She figured she would be home within a few months, even weeks maybe.

She had no idea how much she would love America.

She spent the first three weeks of her new vacation touring around the East Coast of America. She found it interesting, but not quite exciting enough. Traveling through the middle of America, she found it even more boring. When she reached the West Coast, she knew she had found where she belonged. Starting at Oregon, she worked her way down, visiting all the major cities and finally stopping in Long Beach.

Her new home.

She had always loved the water. She would sneak out into the lake at school whenever she could, and go for a swim. Being surrounded by beach was her new paradise.

Before she knew it, a month had flown by. She realized that she needed to make a decision, and quickly.

Stay here or go home.

It was the hardest choice she had ever had to make. She knew what was waiting for her back home: friends, family, confusion. She knew she couldn't handle the confusion and drama going on, so she decided to stay. Just a little bit longer, she told herself.

But, she was running out of money. Fast. She needed a job and an actual place to live; not the smelly hotel room she'd been staying in.

When she was walking along her favorite beach one day, she found her destiny. A "Help Wanted" ad was placed in her front of her favorite little restaurant which she would eat at at least three times a week.

She quickly went inside and greeted the owner, who she had gotten to know quite well over the past month.

"Mr. Gonzalez," she said quickly, shaking the man's hand. "I couldn't help but notice the help wanted ad in the window. Is there anyway I could apply for a position?"

"For the last time, senorita, call me Ralph." He responded, heartily. "And you want a job here, eh? What about your family back home? Won't they want you back?"

Ginny had told Ralph nothing about her past except that she was on vacation here and would be returning soon to stay with her father once again because her mother had just passed away from cancer.

Ralph pitied the girl, but greatly enjoyed her company. He had introduced her to his employees whom she got to know as well, and he never made her pay.

"They won't miss me. Trust me. My dad is the one who wanted me to get away in the first place after my mum died. He'll be happy for me."

"Well, senorita, if you're sure…We'd love to have you working here. When can you start?"

"Immediately. And, do you happen to know of any girl looking for a roommate? I sort of need somewhere to stay."

"You asked at the right moment. Jessica moved to Oregon which is the reason we need new help in the first place; leaving Carolyn in need of a new roommate. And she lives right down the street from here. She's working right now; want me to go talk to her for you?"

"No thanks, Mr. – Ralph. I'll go talk to her myself. Thank you so much for the job!"

"No problem! You'll start tomorrow, eight o'clock, okay?"

"That sounds great. Thanks!"

She then went in the back room to find Carolyn. Spotting her in the kitchen, she approached her. She and Carolyn had always gotten along very well, so she didn't think there'd be any problem.

"Hey Carolyn!"

"Hey! Ginny! How are you?"

"I'm doing great. Actually, I just got a job here! I start tomorrow! I'm taking Jessica's place."

"Wow, that's awesome!" Carolyn said a smile plastering on her face. "Wait. Do you need somewhere to live? Jessica's gone now and I need someone to help pay rent!" She laughed.

"That's what I was just coming to talk to you about. I'd love to! When can I move in?"

"Anytime. I get off work in half an hour, I can stop by your hotel and help you move out if you'd like."

"That'd be great. I'll go right now and start getting all my things together. See you then!"

"Alright, bye."

Ginny immediately went home to straighten up her hotel room. She had always left the "Do Not Disturb" sign on her door so that no one could come in, and she had carelessly left a lot of her magic stuff lying around. She quickly grabbed her wand from her beside, and began to rummage through the room, finding anything that would be considered unnatural to someone who wasn't a witch. A cauldron, spell books, witches hat, and, of course, her broomstick. She gathered it all on top of her bed and with a flick of her wand, she vanished it all back into her room at the burrow.

She suddenly felt empty without her magic. All she had left was her wand, and she knew that she would have to store that away so that nothing would happen to it and suspicion wouldn't rise. Holding back a tear, she put the wand at the bottom of her suitcase and began packing all of her clothes on top of it.

Half an hour later, Carolyn drove up and knocked on the door.

"You ready?" She asked, poking her head inside.

"Just a second. I'm just making a quick last minute search to make sure I've got everything."

"Alright. Do you want me to go check you out at the front?"

"Would you? Oh, thanks! Here's my key."

She handed her a small brass key and Carolyn left.

Ginny quickly searched through the room one last time, gathered everything in her trunk, shut it, and walked out the door towards Carolyn's jeep.

Carolyn arrived a few minutes later.

"Alright, we're all set. You ready to go?"

"Yep, I just gotta load my stuff into your car."

They both worked together to load her trunk into the car, got in, and drove to their house.

When they got there, Ginny fell in love immediately. Just a short set of stairs down from the bottom of their apartment was the ocean. They couldn't have been closer. Inside, Ginny realized that Carolyn shared her same love for the ocean. The whole house was set up beach-style. From the wicker chairs to the surfing pictures on the wall, everything was about the beach.

Over the next three months, Ginny started to become more and more…well, muggle. She had a hard month at first, when she couldn't use magic, but soon after, she learned how to do everything the slower, non-magic way, and she loved it.

Soon, Ginny had completely forgotten about magic.

Carolyn asked her a lot of questions about her past, but Ginny was quick to make up answers. She said that she grew up going to a boarding school in Britain, her dad worked for an electronic store (he was obsessed enough with muggle electronics to actually work for one) and her mom (she was losing her accent pretty quickly) didn't work. She didn't really talk about her brothers much, except Fred, George, and Ron. She told her that Fred and George owned a regular joke shop, and they did a lot of magic tricks with cards and what not, and Ron was a year older than her and went to the same school she did. Harry and Hermione were only brought up on occasion. Harry, she admitted, was the boy she had dated in school and she would always love, and Hermione was her best friend.

Carolyn didn't press too much detail out of her, and it was a good thing. When Ginny said she didn't know what the strange box in her room that made moving pictures was, all Carolyn could do was laugh at the girl's curious face and feel bad, assuming her family to be quite poor. Poor enough to not know what most electronic devises were.

Poor family, she thought, they probably couldn't afford the electricity bill!

Over time, Ginny became quite proficient at working with electrical items such as the phone, TV, computer, and all the kitchen items. Her job at the diner was going amazingly. She couldn't believe how quickly she caught onto how to do everything.

It's probably because I was at the burrow taking care of everyone for so long after mom died, she thought quietly to herself.

Ralph treated her like he was her own daughter. Whenever she thought she needed the day off, he would give it to her. She wasn't sure why he was being so nice to her, but she didn't object.

As spring turned into summer, just walking along the beach and putting her feet in the icy water wasn't good enough anymore. Ginny wanted to learn how to surf. Lucky for her, Carolyn and Ralph were both amazing surfers. She had watched them go out over the past week, catching every great wave and staying balanced.

They had offered to teach her how, but she just wanted to watch them before she tried herself. Finally, she got up the guts to try.

Early one morning, Ginny, Ralph, and Carolyn walked down to the beach, each of them carrying a surf board. Carolyn had multiple and had told Ginny she could use one of hers as much as she wanted.

Ginny caught onto the new sport very quickly. Ralph and Carolyn were great teachers. Soon, she was riding along with them, keeping up really well. Both Carolyn and Ralph were amazed. Not many people picked up on the sport that quickly! She was born to surf.

Ginny continued to wake up early at least four times a week with Carolyn and go surfing. Ralph would join them when he could, but most of the time he had to open the diner.

As June turned into July, Carolyn told her that their neighbors, the Petersons, would be moving. Both of them were so relieved. The Petersons were old and mean. They didn't like anything being too loud and when the girls got up early in the morning or stayed up late at night, the Petersons would sometimes phone the police. The police just laughed every time they arrived at the "scene of the crime", seeing that it was just Carolyn and Ginny out to surf again. They eventually stopped showing up all together.

"- Anyway," Carolyn continued, looking more and more anxious every second, "I saw the new people who were moving in. Two boys. Twenty years old. Gorgeous!"

Both girls squealed, jumped up and down, and ran towards the door, as if to check to see if they would be walking towards their door right at that moment.

Unfortunately, the Petersons weren't moving out until the next the day and the new boys weren't moving in until the next week.

Both girls waiting impatiently for their new neighbors to arrive. The day before they were supposed to move in, Carolyn thought it would be nice to bring them a welcoming present. Dinner, perhaps?

They both walked over to the diner and went to the back looking for Ralph. When they spotted him, they both approached him slowly, flashing him their best puppy dog faces. Ralph merely laughed and asked them what they wanted.

"Well, we have some new neighbors moving in tomorrow, and we were wondering if maybe we could take some food from here over to them tomorrow. You know…as a welcome to the neighborhood gift." Carolyn said in one breath.

"I would be delighted to bring some food over to your new neighbors tomorrow."

"Oh…you…erm…okay." Carolyn said, not knowing what to say.

"I'm only joking, senoritas! Don't worry. Come by tomorrow at five and I'll have dinner for four all prepared." He said, winking at them.

"Thanks Ralph! We don't know what we'd do without you" Ginny said, wrapping her arms around him, Carolyn doing the same.

They both ran out of the diner, looking happier than ever. The next day was going to be great!

The next morning as soon as they heard the sound of a car approaching, they both shot out of the rooms and over to the kitchen, which is the best place to look through a window to the front of the house, and watched two boys exiting the car. Ginny nearly fainted at the sight of them.

"Oh my gosh! You were right! They're gorgeous! I call the one with the dark brown hair."

"Good. I like the blonde better. More muscles."

"Yeah, but mine has a more handsome face."

"Hmm, maybe. But what can we tell from this window? Ooh! The morning paper! I'll get it!"

"Oh no you don't!"

They both ran out front, forgetting that they were still wearing their pajamas, which consisted of a spaghetti strap shirt for each of them; Ginny's was blue and Carolyn's red, and a pair of mesh shorts; each of them were black. When they reached the paper, Carolyn managed to grab it first.

"Ha. I win. Now you may go back inside, defeated."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at Carolyn and glanced at the boys out of the corner of her eye.

They were watching them. With interest. They had each been in the middle of carrying a large box of something in, when they stopped to see what the commotion coming from the next door was. When they realized it was two girls, about their age, coming out in pajamas, all they could do was stop and stare.

This was going to be a good move for them, they both thought.

Carolyn whacked Ginny softly on the head with the paper before turning towards the boys.

"Oh, hi. Sorry you had to see that…I take you're our new neighbors?" She said, trying to sound like it was a completely natural thing for them both to rush for the paper.

"Um, yeah. I'm Jeff, and this is my buddy Sean. We're moving her from Los Angeles. Much better surf down here." The blond said with a grin.

"So you two like surfing, then?" Ginny said, looking at them, hopeful.

"Like it? We love it. We're nothing spectacular, but if there's a beach with waves, we're there." Sean said, smiling at Ginny.

Ginny felt herself blushing and turned towards Carolyn quickly.

"Since you two are just moving in, you probably could use a good meal. We'd love to get to know you guys. We could bring some dinner over and maybe show you around."

"That sounds great. We'd love to get to know the area. What time?"

"Say…5:30?"

"Cool. We'll be ready."

That night, at 5:30 precisely, Ginny and Carolyn were knocking on their new neighbor's door, carrying large platters of food.

"Hi" Jeff said, answering the door. Sean looked very upset that Jeff had gotten there first, Ginny noticed as she walked through the door.

"Here, let me get that for you." Sean said, taking Ginny's platter from her arms and setting it on the kitchen counter.

"Wow. This looks amazing." Jeff commented, also taking the platter and setting it on the counter.

Forty minutes later, they were all sitting back, finishing off their food, laughing, and conversing with each other.

Simply upon hearing his voice, Ginny melted into her chair, thinking about Sean.

She could tell Carolyn was thinking along the same lines.

They all loaded into Carolyn's jeep (Ginny was saving up her money so that she could buy a car as well) and went off to give the boys the grand tour of the area.

After driving them around for the next hour, they stopped at the diner to say hi to Ralph and introduce him to their new friends. Ralph was very polite to them and immediately treated them like he did the girls. They seemed to fit right in.

They walked down the line of shops, stopping at an ice cream parlor, the boys paying, of course. Soon, they were walking again, each licking a double-scoop cone of their favorite flavor of ice cream.

After another half hour of touring, Carolyn brought them all back to their street. Figuring that was enough for one night, each of the girls said goodbye to their new friends and went back into the house. They were both having giggling fits as soon as the door closed.

After that night, Ginny, Carolyn, Sean, and Jeff became inseparable.

They would go surfing together all the time and Sean and Jeff would stop by the diner to get a bite to eat when they were working. It seemed to be the perfect match.

Jeff was the first one to make a move. After about a month of their living next door, Jeff asked Carolyn to walk with him on the beach. She quickly accepted and when she came back two hours later, her face was glowing.

"He kissed me!" She screamed. "I have a boyfriend! An amazing, fantastic, adorable, gorgeous boyfriend!"

Ginny jumped up and down, squealing with her. Not even bothering to keep their voices down, even though the windows were open and the boys could hear them next door.

"So when are you going to make your move?" Jeff asked Sean consistently over the next few days.

"Soon, mate. Just give me some time. You know I never went as fast as you did. You always got all the ladies and I was always stuck alone. Well, I don't want to screw this one up."

"Well, you'd better hurry up before Ginny realizes there are better guys out there." Jeff said with a smile on his face, and hitting his friend's shoulder jokingly.

A few weeks later, Ginny was going through the same treatment of screaming about getting kissed and having a boyfriend.

Life seemed to be perfect. And it was for a little over a year.

Ginny and Sean slowly became steadier, as did Carolyn and Jeff, although, they moved faster than Ginny and Sean. Both seemed to have an unspoken agreement that they wanted to take things slow.

After a year of living in paradise, Ginny had everything she wanted: a perfect boyfriend, perfect roommate, a new car; a jeep, and a great job at the diner.

Life was perfect…until one day when Ralph asked her to stay after work.

"Alright, but I can't stay for too longer. I'm meeting Carolyn, Jeff, and Sean for dinner." She said with a smile.

"You may want to call them and tell them you probably won't be there."

"What? Why? What's going on, Ralph?"

"Sit down, senorita." He said slowly. As she sat down, he began pacing, and continued speaking. "It's about Hermione."

What? Ginny thought, growing nervous. How does he know anything about Hermione?

"She's not doing well, Ginerva. The shock from you sending all of your belongings back home was hard for her. She started acting unusual after that. About two weeks ago, she fainted and has gone into a coma. Healers are working on her at St. Mungo's right now. She needs you, Ginny. Your whole family needs you."

"How…how do you know any of this?" She said slowly, wanting to scream and run out of the diner.

"I'm not exactly who you think I am. While I am the owner of this diner, and have been for quite a long time, I was put on another mission, by the Order of the Phoenix. I was sent to watch you and make sure you were alright. I'm a wizard, Ginerva."

That was the last thing she heard before she fell out of her chair and fainted.

Author's Notes:

Alright, what do we think?

Good…Bad?

REVIEW!

I enjoy your criticism. Please.

I need reviews!