p class="MsoNormal"Everyone in town came to the funeral. Except for one person./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Ginny couldn't bring herself to get closer than a hundred yards from the grave. She had scaled a tree in the garden, her black pants torn at the knee from climbing, and was nestled in the crook of a limb, watching the procession. She had braided her hair the way Fred had liked it and had thrown on the black jacket that George had given her when he had grown out of it. But sitting there up in the tree, hearing the sniffles of the girls from town, and the muffled sobs of the rest of her family, she felt sick./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She had em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"wanted/em to go. There was nothing she wanted more in the entire world than to say goodbye. But every time she tried to will herself to get down from the tree her knees began to shake, and her stomach twisted, and her eyes welled with style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanShe had thrown up four times since she had woken up that morning. Nothing came up anymore, just a clear viscous liquid./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She saw her mother turn her head from beside their grave to look at her. And something inside her broke./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"How was she supposed to live in that house again? A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye, leaving a slick trail down her cheek. Ginny couldn't imagine walking past their bedroom without them in it. She couldn't imagine brushing her teeth every morning in the bathroom they had shared and not having them walk in on her. She couldn't imagine breakfast without having to fight George for the butter or walking home from school without Fred waiting for her outside. How could there be birthdays without them, or Christmas, or Easter? How was life supposed to go on?/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She looked over her shoulder at the Burrow and decided if Fred and George were never going to live there again, she didn't want to either./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"So, she took the only way out she could think of. She hopped out of her tree and ran away./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Molly saw her hop down and start to sprint towards the woods but didn't call out. Sometimes you have to let your children find their own way. To grow. To heal./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Ginny sprinted through the forest until she couldn't breathe. Twenty minutes later she was standing bent over by the riverbank gasping for air and sobbing. She had lost both of her shoes while she was running, and the bottoms of her feet were shredded. She could feel them bleeding into the dirt./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She clutched her ribs, and fell hard on her ass, slipping her feet into the cool water of the river./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Taking as big a breath as her aching lungs would allow, she screamed as loud as she could, coughing and spluttering through her tears./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She let out another wail. It didn't help the ache in her heart, but she didn't know what else to do./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You know, ya keep screamin like that, yer gonna scare away all my fish." Ginny started as she realized for the first time that she wasn't alone. Turning her head, she saw a massive man with arms the size of her entire body sitting a few feet down the river bank. The home-made fishing pole he was holding was bobbing in the water./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"His eyes widened in shock as he watched the tiny frame of the girl crumple to the ground, sobbing in anguish and clutching at the dirt. He planted his fishing pole in the ground, and awkwardly got up to go over to her./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I didn't mean ter scare ya." He grabbed her by the shoulders, his hands big enough to wrap around her entire arm and put her back up in sitting position. He tucked his thumb under the sleeve of his enormous shirt and tried to wipe some of the snot off her face. "My names Hagrid. Ya look like you could use a drink."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Ginny's sniffling had quieted while the old man had sat her up and wiped her tears. "I'm only eleven."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""That's neat. I'm…" He counted on his fingers, "Sixty-Eight I think." He reeled in his fishing pole, stuck it in his pocket, and started meandering off into the woods. Ginny assumed that since he hadn't seemed fazed by her age, the drink offer was still on the table. She wiped her eyes again and then scrambled off after him./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Hagrid stopped at a run down shed in the middle of the woods. There were string lights wrapped around the moldering porch and the gutters, and Ginny could hear music and laughter inside. Hagrid burst through the door, nearly taking it off it's hinges, and shouted jovially, "Barkeep! Two firewhiskeys!" Ginny stepped into the dilapidated building after him, trying to hide in his shadow as he walked over to a table and sat down, the chair disappearing beneath him./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She sat down as well, curiously looking around her. The small building was filled with people, but they didn't look like the people Ginny was used to seeing in town. There was a man only wearing one shoe, dancing with a lady wearing pants, her hair done, and her face heavily made up. A couple of hunters sulked in the corner, cleaning their guns and talking about dinner. Two women were dancing on a table together, laughing and giggling, swishing their skirts around them. Heads would have turned if any of these people walked down main street, but here not a soul batted an eye as the woman on the table dipped her dancing partner and kissed her full on the mouth. Except Ginny of course, who looked away blushing./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The barkeep, a man named Tom who looked as if he had been around to see the dinosaurs go extinct, slid their whiskeys onto the table, only looking a little startled when he saw how young Ginny was./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""What's yer name kid?" The giant sitting across the table asked her./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Ginny." She took a sip of her whiskey, immediately spitting it back into the glass. "This tastes like gasoline on fire."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Hagrid laughed. "Ya get used to it. Ya look lost. Do ya need a place ter stay?" He didn't ask her what had happened or what was wrong. Ginny was thankful for that, because she didn't know if she would ever be able to say it out loud./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She nodded. Hagrid got up slowly and walked over to Tom behind the bar. He spoke quietly, and pointed over at Ginny every so often, and eventually Tom nodded his head and slipped Hagrid a key. Hagrid sauntered back over to the table. He handed the key to Ginny. "I got ya a room. Yer to stay as long as ya like, fer free, as long as ya promise ter help with the kitchen." Ginny looked up at him wide eyed as she slipped the key in her pocket./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She'd stay for five years./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The folks down at the cabin loved her. Hagrid taught her how to play poker, and by the time she turned twelve she was cleaning out pockets night after night./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Tom soon found she was useless in the kitchen, as she couldn't cook and had low standards when it came to cleaning, so he put her to work behind the bar. The customers were quite fond of the tiny little bartender whose wit was as fiery as her hair./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She went fishing every weekend she could with a pair of boys that came end at the end of every work week. Dean and Seamus taught her how to tie better fishing knots, the spots in the river where the biggest fish were, and how to cast without getting the line stuck in a tree. Hagrid warned her that if she hung around them long enough one was bound to fall in love with her. Ginny was the only one who knew they were more interested in each other./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Slowly, Ginny began to piece herself back together over those five years. She had grown to tolerate whiskey, but only drank it on those nights she couldn't sleep, seeing her brothers' faces every time she closed her eyes./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She couldn't bring herself to go back home for good, but every so often she would walk to the edge of the forest to watch her family. If she climbed a certain tree high enough, she could look past her old tree in the garden to the porch. She liked seeing her family, counting heads, making sure they were all still there./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Molly Weasley's heart still ached from the day she lost three children, not just two. But some days, as she walked passed the window, she would see a flash of red hair past the edge of the forest, and for a moment, the pain would ease. Ginny was ok. Ginny was still out there./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"They had come up with a system, mother to daughter. If Molly needed to see her, if there was important news to be shared, she would tie a ribbon on the lowest branch of Ginny's old tree in the garden. When Ginny saw it, she would come timidly out of the forest and Molly and her family would get to see her, even if it was only for a few hours. She still couldn't stand to be in that house for too long./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Molly yearned for a way to bring her daughter back. A way to mend her broken heart. But how do you tell a child, who has stared death in the face as it stole from her, to move on?/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"You can't./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"But one day, Molly stumbled upon what she thought…what she em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"hoped/em… was a solution./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"A young school teacher was coming to town for the summer to help with the church and needed a place to stay./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Luna Lovegood/em, the advertisement said. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Please contact for more information./em/p