One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to Harry Potter.

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 2: The Burrow

It was very nearly supper-time when Ginny heard the Family car, the Ford Anglia that her father had 'modified' slightly, coming down the road.

When she saw Harry getting out of the car, she ran out of the Kitchen door yelling, "Harry!," nearly forcing him to the ground as she ran into him and hugged him. As she ended the hug, she noticed that the Twins looked amused.

"Don't you dare!" she threatened them. "If you make fun of us and Hermione, I'll give you a good Hexing once we get back to school."

It feels so good to be around Harry again, thought Ginny, right as she 'heard' nearly the same thing from Harry.

Ginny looked confused as she said, "Harry, did you say something?"

"No, I didn't say anything," replied Harry. He then whispered in her ear, "I think that our bond is accelerating."

\\/

"Harry, dear," said Molly as she was putting the finishing touches on supper. "You are much too thin, Harry. Dinner will be in a couple of minutes, so why don't you take your things up to Ron's room."

"Which one is that?" asked Harry.

"I'll show you," said Ginny. "Basically, you go all the way up. It's just below the attic."

Harry started to take his things up the stairs. As he was going up one of the flights of stairs, Percy opened his door and came out.

"Could you keep it down?!" he said. "I'm trying to work here! Hello, Harry."

"Hello, Percy" greeted Harry. "How's your summer going?"

"It is very well, thank-you," said Percy the Prefect. "But could you keep it down, I'm trying to work."

That was strange, thought Ginny. What's he working on? Certainly he hasn't left his summer work this long.

She looked at Harry, and could tell he was thinking the same thing.

\\/

A couple of more flights of stairs later, and they were at Ron's room. Harry knocked, and Ron called him in.

At first, when Harry went in, he thought that there was something wrong with his vision—more wrong than usual, anyway. The whole room was a bright orange, and as he looked at it, he noticed that it was the same exact shade of orange.

Then Harry noticed that everything in the room was not only orange, but featured the same seven players holding broomsticks. The bedsheets, the walls, the carpets were all orange and had the Cannons players on them.

"Is this your Quidditch team?" asked Harry.

"Yes," replied Ron. "The Chudley Cannons—15th in the league."

It was a testament to how much Ron liked this team if he was willing to boast that they were 15th in the league. While it sounded impressive, there were two things that would naturally dispel this notion: there were only fifteen teams in the league, and the Cannons had a losing streak that dated back to 1969. Before that, they hadn't won since Kennedy won the American Presidential Election. Naturally, they were in Guinness' Book of Wizard Records, but for completely the wrong reasons.

"Your mum mentioned that supper is almost ready," said Harry.

Ron got up, passed his bookshelves that had The Adventures of the Mad Muggle comic books on them, and went down the stairs. It was at this point that Harry saw there was a camp bed set up for him.

It's a visual nightmare in there, isn't it, thought Ginny. Harry just nodded his head as they descended the stairs.

They had a nice dinner of onion soup and bread. After they finished, Mrs Weasley went into the other room for a minute, and returned with a giant chocolate-frosted cake. The family sang "Happy Birthday" to him (a tradition that started in the Wizard World hundreds of years ago before being exported into the Muggle world by two Squibs. The Squibs, in a rare case of Squibs that were Siblings, still tried to get rights to the song).

Harry blew out the candles, only because he'd seen Dudley do it before. "I think that this is the first time anyone's ever celebrated my birthday." he said. Percy looked disbelieving, while Harry continued. "Last year, Hagrid rescued me from the Muggles, and we went to Diagon Alley, but we didn't really do anything to celebrate my birthday. Thank you, Mrs Weasley."

At this point Ginny could tell that Harry was holding back tears. So also was her mother, but Molly also had a dark look. For the rest of the night, Ginny could hear her mum muttering about "Dursleys, don't care Azkaban" "want to kill Dursleys" and some language not usually heard from the Matriarch of the family.

Later on that night, Ginny heard her mum tell Harry not to call her Mrs Weasley.

"I know about your bond with Ginny. You can call me 'Molly' or 'mum'." she told him.

\\/

The next morning, a post owl came addressed to Ginny and Harry. There was a French postmark on it, and it was labelled, "par hibou" which Ginny and Harry supposed must mean "by owl."

The address was written in Hermione's neat handwriting.

Dear Ginny (and Harry, if the Weasleys managed to rescue you successfully),

I hope that you are all right. I'm having a great time here in France. I hope that the Muggles didn't give you any problems when you went to retrieve Harry. Otherwise, we can send in my parents—they're dentists (a type of tooth-healer), and must Muggles are afraid of them.

I finished my school-work weeks ago, and my family will be back in London Wednesday to pick up my books. We should meet in Diagon Alley. Let me know what's happening—either by Post or by Our method.

Love to you both, and to all of the Weasleys,

Hermione Granger.

"Well, that's good," said Molly. "I figure that the letters should be here any day now."

Just as she said that, Ginny saw a speck getting closer. Soon, she could identify it as a barn owl. Then, the bird crashed into the window, and fell to the ground unconscious. Percy went over to retrieve the letters, and gave them to his mum.

"It's your Hogwarts letters," said Mrs Weasley handing them around.

"This lot's not going to come cheap" commented a Twin.

Ginny looked down at her list, and saw that most of the books were written by Gilderoy Lockhart.

\\/

The next Wednesday, the Weasley family huddled around the fireplace to head to Diagon Alley.

"I hate the Floo!" Harry complained before tossing the Powder into the Fire and yelling, "Diagon Alley!" Ginny followed him a couple seconds later.

Once they got to Diagon Alley, they met up with Hermione, and the children did their shopping until it was time to get their books. As they were approaching the bookshop, there was a large queue. At that point, they noticed the sign.

Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography Magical Me today 12:30-16:30

"Merlin's beard," exclaimed Hermione. "He's written nearly the entire book-list!"

A photographer pushed past Ginny, so she yelled, "You could say sorry" at him. This caused Lockhart to look at the crowd from his podium. It was at this point he noticed Ginny, or more specifically, who was standing next to her.

"Harry Potter?" he asked, as the rude Daily Prophet photographer manhandled Harry to where he was standing next to Lockhart.

"When Mr Potter entered this shop today, he was going to purchase my autobiography, Magical Me, currently in its 25th printing. He had no idea that besides getting my entire collection of books (free of charge for the Saviour of the World), he was going to get the real Magical Me. That's right, witches and wizards! This September, I will be the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Harry wanted to vomit. So did Ginny. It was clear to her that the writer was more interested in publicity. He wasn't like Harry—a quiet Hero.

\\/

After Harry (quite unwillingly) had his photo taken with Lockhart, Malfoy taunted Ginny and Harry, causing Hermione to step in.

"Are you really letting a Mudblood talk for you?" asked Draco. "I thought the Potters used to be pure-blood, until your father sullied his line with a Muggle. And you, associating with Mudbloods and Weasleys—not a good combination."

"Now, now, Draco" said a man, who walked up to Draco, and put his ornate ornamental cane on the boy's shoulder. Ginny could immediately tell who this man was, as he looked like a larger version of Draco. Her hypothesis was confirmed when her dad stepped next to Ron and said in a very cool voice, "Lucius."

"Arthur" sneered Lucius Malfoy. "I hear that it's a rather busy time at the Ministry. Extra raids. I do hope that they pay you overtime..."

Lucius took a book from a cauldron near Ginny. "Obviously not" he said as he pushed the cauldron over, and started to fight with Arthur. The fight was only ended when Hagrid pried the two men apart.

"You should have ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid. "They're all rotten to the core, the whole family."

Meanwhile, Molly was beside herself with rage, "Getting into a fight in Diagon Alley? Oh, what Lockhart must think of us now! This is a fine example to set for your children, Arthur!"

One of the Twins spoke up, "Lockhart loved it. He was trying to get the reporter to include it in the story. 'Two Men Brawl over Lockhart Books'."

\\/

During the days at the Burrow, they could play Quidditch, as long as they didn't fly too high (there was a Muggle town in the vicinity). Her brothers finally gave Ginny the respect she deserved and let her play with them (the fact she had caught the Snitch to win the Quidditch Cup really didn't hurt her).

The family had great fun until the last day of August, when they had to start getting ready for school. As she was putting her schoolbooks (most of which Harry had bought) into her bag, she noticed something extra. A diary belonging to a Tom Marvolo Riddle.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message. Also, if my translation of "by owl" as "par hibou" is wrong, please send me a message

I am taking down the word count stats for book one

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word:

7500th word:

10000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes