"Mom, please PLEASE let me go on the train and see him!" It wasn't like Ginny to throw a fit, but right now it felt like life and death to the girl.

"Ginny, I have told you once, and I will tell you again, you already saw him, it is rude to stare and you saw that that boy was scared and nervous, I don't think he would welcome gawkers at this very moment." Molly put her foot down.

The train began to chug away and Ginny's heart began to chug away with it. With that she saw the red mop of hair of her youngest brother Ron, as he waved good bye to her and her mother. She ran by the train, waving good bye to her brother as she glimpsed, in the compartment behind him, two brilliant emerald green eyes under a black mop of hair looking at her. At that very moment the train sped up and out raced her. Her chance was gone. She stood rooted in place as she watched the steam trail over the horizon until it was gone. She heard her mum give a slight chuckle. "I know, I'll miss the boys too, honey."

'Does she think I was chasing the train to see the boys?! ' Truth was Ginny was secretly elated to have the house to herself for awhile.

"Now let's get you home and I'll make you your favorite for lunch. After all, it's just you, me and Dad now." Ginny took her moms hand, let out a little sigh and walked toward the exit off of platform 9 ¾.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ginny stared out of the window at the autumn leaves strewn across the lawn. It had been a month since the boys had all left for Hogwarts. She quickly found that the house was not nearly as fun as she had expected as now she was the only child around and thus her mothers only extra pair of hands. Her task after breakfast was to rake all of those forsaken leaves she saw. She grudging wondered why her mum couldn't just go out and do it with magic, but she knew from experience that any mention of that would be followed by, "Doing things the muggle way will only make you stronger, and you don't want to be a weak little girl now do you?"

She took the last bite of her toast as she spotted a black dot on the horizon.

"Mum. There's an owl coming!" She yelled to her mother in the next room as she opened the window for the messenger to fly in and perch on the back of a kitchen chair. She untied the letters as the owl pecked the final crumbs from her breakfast plate and flew back out the window.

"And who are we hearing from today?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she entered, wiping sweat off of her brow.

Ginny looked at the parchment, the scribbled, obviously left handed writing meant only one person. "Looks like Ron." She stated as she handed her mum the parchment labeled 'Mum and Dad'. As she handed it to her mum she realized that it was two separate parchments, below 'Mum and Dad' was a smaller parchment labeled 'Ginny'.

"Mum look! I got one too!" It was the first time that year that any of her brothers had written to her. At the start of every year they all promised to write her weekly, if not daily. Having had brothers in Hogwarts her whole life, she knew that was a load of empty promises. It used to hurt her feelings when she was younger, but now at the ripe old age of ten she took the disappointment in stride. Any correspondence with her brothers was surprising and very welcome.

She quickly ran up the stairs two at a time, skipped into her room, her red pony tail wagging, plopped on her bed and very carefully unfolded the letter. She was so excited to read it, to hear about Hogwarts , that she was almost disappointed when another piece fell out and dropped on the floor. She ignored it and jumped into the short letter.

Dear Ginny,

How are you? I hope Mum's not treating you too bad now that her favorite son is gone. I mean I know she misses me terribly! Are you stuck with all of my chores? Do you see now why I hate being the one who's best at cleaning the soot out of the fireplace? It's not fun is it?

Hogwarts is great! If you aren't already counting the days until you come next year, you better start. I've already learned how to turn a matchstick into a needle. Okay, it took me a month to figure it out but I did it.

Fred and George are twice as bad here as they are at home. They're the best known pranksters in the school, but don't tell Mum that. Last week they made all of the silverware at the Slytherin table march like an army and when anyone who tried to use it would get attacked by flying forks. No one really got hurt, though this terrible kid named Draco Malfoy claims a fork scraped his face. Percy can't stand the fact that Fred and George are the biggest troublemakers in Gryffindor because they're the only two who won't listen when Prefect Percy yells at them.

I'm just having so much fun here. I've made friends with Hagrid the game keeper and we spend a lot of time at his hut on the edge of the forest. You remember Hagrid from that party we went to a few years ago? The giant? Yeah, him. Harry just made it on the Quidditch team!

"What?"

He's the youngest seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in a hundred years. I'd be jealous if he hadn't let me ride his new Nimbus Two Thousand. I put in a picture of me and Harry that I thought you might like--

She stopped reading as her breath caught in her chest. The parchment crinkled into her hand with the force of her shocked fist. Ron was friends with Harry? Harry who? It couldn't be. Breathing quickly, she bent over and picked up the picture with her trembling hand. She turned it over and her eyes almost fell out of her head. There in front of her was Ron with the raven haired boy from the train…and…and there, plain as day, was a lighting shape scar on his forehead! They were waving, laughing and smiling, their arms draped around each others shoulders. She squealed. She couldn't help it. It must have been loud because a second later she heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Ginny? Ginny, are you alright?" She called as she stepped into the room. Ginny just stared at her, the picture in her hand. "Honey, are you okay?"

Ginny nodded, trance like. Warily, Mrs. Weasley stepped to her daughter to see what she was holding that was causing her to freeze like that. When she saw it she let out a relieved laugh. "Now, isn't that just the sweetest thing."

"Did you know that he was friends…with Harry Potter?" Ginny sputtered.

"Well, yes, he has mentioned him from time to time in his letters honey. He says he really is a nice boy."

"Oh, okay." It was all the little red head could mutter. Mrs. Weasley sat down on the bed and turned to her daughter thoughtfully, draping an arm around her shoulder.

"You know honey, he really just is another boy, he's no fairy tale. He needs friends just like you and me and Ron do." Ginny had never thought of it that way. To her Harry, though real, was hyper real. He had no need for friends. He had all the friends in the world, everyone loved him. Suddenly Ginny became jealous, she wanted to be his friend. Why did Ron get to be his friend when she didn't.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------