A/N: The second installment of HOMS! Nothing much to say. R&R. Thanks! -Mac
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (or Ginny) but I do own Valerie Hart, and the entire Hart Family.
Chapter Two
Dread On Arrival
I hadn't even left yet and I was already dreading our arrival. Ginny's only words of comfort: get over it. They were followed by 'I've been getting ready for this for weeks, I'm traveling by muggle means, and my bags are heavier that they've ever been. You'll get on the plane, if I have to drag you by the ear.' Too much like her mother, I will say it again. I will admit it, Ginny scares me sometimes. I find doing as she say, lessens the fear a little. So I did as she said. I boarded our plane without complaint and was soon on my way back to the States. It was going to be a bumpy ride--and I wasn't talking about the flight. Oddly enough, Ginny was amazed by the plane and the flight. I had expected her to be a little scared by the idea. I was scared on my first plane ride. But then I rethought my expectation. Ginny had spent much of her school days on a broomstick, suspended in mid-air. The plane couldn't be much different for her, fear-wise.
We were traveling by air plane because both floo powder and apparation were out of the question. Not because of laws or blocks or anything of that nature. They just got me to my destination too quickly for my liking. A plane ride was the slowest way I could think of, short of renting a row boat and crossing the Atlantic using just my upper body strength. Plus I've flown many times before. It may be classified as a muggle transportation, in the States something classified as muggle isn't necessarily unknown to us wizarding folk. Not like in Europ where purebloods--like Ginny and her family--don't know what telephones are.
Our magical culture and muggle culture is all mixed in together. Besides the fact that I can do magic, I own an owl as a pet, and fly on a broomstick, I live like a muggle. That was easy enough for Harry and Hermione to understand because they've grown up in muggle homes, but Ron's only comment was 'Why would you want to live like that?' Ginny just rolled her eyes at her brother's clueless behavior. If you've noticed I spend most of my time with Ginny and Ginny spends most of her time with her brother and his friends. So my exposure to people in Europe is limited to basically the four of them and the rest of the Weasley clan.
Despite the length of the flight--seven hours, gasp--I still arrived far sooner than I wanted. I would just have to deal. I took a deep breath as I stepped off the plane, just to get myself ready. After we had retrieved our luggage from baggage claim and proceeded to the exit of the airport, we were greeted by a nice man in a driver's uniform--suit and driving hat--with a little sign that read 'Valerie Hart and friend.' He took us by limo from the airport to my mother's house--no matter who she married she would never move out. Don't you just love the effects of New York society on people? She sent a limo to pick us up. She's lived in the same mansion probably a majority of her natural born life. She is definitely a New York socialite.
When we arrived at the above mentioned mansion, we were greeted at the door by mother's favorite man servant--also known as James the family butler. We were shown to the "living room"--a room that is far too gigantic to be classified as just a living room--where not only my mother and new husband but my entire family, including my father and Sharon, were waiting. The first thing I did was laugh and turn to Ginny, pointing something out on a piece of paper I had pulled from my pocket.
"See I told you she planned everything." I scoffed, pointing to the line that read: 'Greet Valerie and friend with entire family.' And that was all I got to say before we were bombarded by mother.
"Valerie, Darling, Honey! Oh how I've missed you! It's been too long! If you insist on living an ocean away, you must visit more often! Everyone, come on, say hello to Valerie!" Yes she does talk like that. Every sentence that leaves her mouth demands an exclamation point.
"Mom, hello. Hello everyone." I turned to view the room.
"Come on Valerie, come in! Sit down! You must be Valerie's friend! I'm Jennifer Donald! It's wonderful to meet you!"
"Ginny Weasley." Ginny replied timidly as my mother shook her head vigorously.
"Hey Mom, let me introduce her to everyone else, okay?" I said, catching Ginny by the shoulders and pulling her out of range of my mother.
She whispered to me as we headed into the room, "Your mother scares me."
"I tried to tell you." I whispered back.
"I'm still glad I came." Ginny shot with a smile, "Even if your mother's crazy."
"Ha ha." I rolled my eyes.
I led Ginny first in the direction of my father and Sharon, who were surrounded by their three kids on one of our couches. My sister Madeline, Maddie for short, was sitting on one of the love seats with a man I had never seen who I took to be her fiance. Apparantly my mother grandly approves of him, even though his four years older than her at thirty. Matthew and Cameron were holded up in the corner. When I looked their way they gave me a short wave before turning back to each other. I swear those two will never change. Even at twenty-four they act like a bunch of sex-deprived sixteen year olds. William and Christine--or Will and Chrissy--my two siblings that share the exact same parents as I have, were sitting together on the window seat. Will, my favorite of all my siblings, is only a year older than me. My mother had returned to her seat with her current husband--of four months--whom I had never met before. I missed the wedding. As we ended up right in front of my father, I turned my attention back to him.
"Hi dad." I smiled. My dad is nice, I like my dad.
"Val, honey. It's been too long." He replied standing to hug me.
Quietly I responded, "At least you can say that without putting an exclamation point at the end."
"Well you mother was excited to see you."
"No, she's just always like that." I corrected and he chuckled. "Ginny this is my dad, Robert Hart, and this lovely woman here is Sharon, his wife."
"Nice to meet you." Ginny replied as she shook both their hands.
I turned to the two boys that sat on one side of my father. The twins, my brothers. They were already squirming. At nine years old, sitting still was no on of their favorite pasttimes. "These ar the twins, Tyler and Trevor.
I pointed each out individually. Like Ginny's brothers, Fred and George, Ty and Trev were identical, save for their style of haircut. Ty had his hair short and spiked, while Trev had his shaggy and long. That's how I kept track of them. Ty is the shorter nickname, he has the shorter hair. Trev is the longer nickname, he has the long hair.
Next to Sharon, on the far side of the couch from the boys was our little sister. She looked nothing like my father, she was like an exact replica of her mother: white blonde hair and blue eyes. She is four, and counting. I squatted down so I was at her level and she smiled.
"And this is Cecil, she's going to be five soon. She only has about three more weeks." I introduced her. "Do you want to say hi to my friend Ginny?"
She nodded, "Hi."
"Hi Cecil, my you're gorgeous aren't you?" Ginny replied, and Cecil only giggled in response. Compliments make her shy, and she's shy most of the time.
We moved on to Matt and Cameron as they were closest. I instantly recognized the look on their faces as they viewed Ginny. I would have to put a stop to that. That being the schemes running through their heads. They would try to pick up on her if I didn't stop the idea right in it's tracks.
"Ginny Weasely, Matthew Wilson, and Cameron Hart. My brothers, but to each other bear no relation." I explained.
"Ah, the Golden Boys." Ginny nodded, "I've heard a lot about your escapades."
"So our reputation proceeds us?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.
"More than you know." I cut in.
"And, Ginny..." Cam began.
"No, no, no. Hands off, okay? Don't even think about it." I shook my head.
"Why, Val? You're the little sister. We don't need to take orders from you." Cam replied and Matt chuckled.
"Yeah, that's funny. But I know enough hexes to turn you into something so unattractive, you'd dislike yourself, before you could even utter the first syllablle of any of your infamous pick up lines."
"Right." Matt nodded. "Hands off the friend, got it."
With that I dragged Ginny over to Maddie and the fiancee. The man's name is Drake Nickels. Maddie had been seeing him for almost eight months before he proposed. I didn't even know she was seeing anybody, let alone someone who was serious enough to consider marrying. You really get out of the loop when you move out of the country.
On my way toward Will and Chrissy, I got sidetracked by my mother. She wanted me to finally, formally meet the new husband. As my mother railed us into a conversation with the new hubby, not caring that I still had two family members to introduce, I had my back to where Will and Chrissy were. Ginny did her best to have some input in the conversation, even as my mother dominated. I flat out ignored it. I sort of spaced, just a little. Then I heard it.
"Long time, no see Chick-a-Dee."
I whipped around to find Will standing right behind me. I grinned and hugged him tightly. Hmm. Chick-a-Dee, Will was the only one that called me that. He kind of borrowed it off our father. From the day I was born my dad had always called me his little chick--because I was his first biological daughter. He wouldn't have Chrissy for six more years. Well it caught on, and Will had forever since called me Chick-a-Dee. I let him because he was the person I was closest to in my family. And I hadn't heard that in so long.
"Ginny, I want you to meet my favorite brother, Will." I said once I released him, pulling her away from my mother. "Will, my best friend Ginny Weasley."
"Nice to meet you." Ginny smiled.
"A pleasure." Will reciprocated.
Ginny reached out her hand to shake hsi and he took it, but instead of shaking it he kissed it. Society manners, my mother taught him formality with women. I noticed. I also noticed the way Ginny looked at Will when she first saw him. I would have to talk to her about that.
"So where'd Chrissy run off to?" I replied looking around Will to see an empty window seat.
"Said she had to call somebody and that she'd talk to you later, which means..." Will began.
"She won't." We finished together.
"That's all right." I said. "She's a teenager, I know how it is."
"Probably a boy, huh Val?" Ginny smirked, nudging me.
"It's better not be." Will shook his head. "Ironically, Us Harts don't have good track records when it comes to affairs of the heart."
"Funny, Will." I rolled my eyes.
"It's true. Dad is on his third wife, while Sharon seems to be the real deal, he still had to go through two other women to get to her, including Mom. Which means he had to be just the tinsiest bit desperate to stay with her what was it nine years, and have three kids." Will began his explanation. "Then there's Cameron. He's gone through more girls than we can count..."
"That's true." I interrupted, "We tried."
"Yes, and then I admit, I have not had much luck when it comes to the ladies," Will sighed dramatically, "Then there's Val here with..."
"Her want to not talk about it." I cut him off, and sent him a look that shut him up.
"What about Val?" Ginny inquired.
"Oh Val, and her utter lack of romantic experience." Will responded watching my face the whole time.
It wasn't the truth, but I didn't want the truth spread, especially not to Ginny. The truth just drudged up too many bad memories of a past better left forgotten. So lies were better. Lies were good. In my situation, lies protevted me. In an attempt to draw the attention from me, Will addressed Ginny with a question instead.
"So what about you Ginny Weasley? We just spilled the love troubles of our entire paternal line, surely you can share some of your romantic adventures." Will asked, looking directly at Ginny.
"Well, I dated three different guys in two years, while I was in school. None ended the way I wanted. And since then I have been happily single." Ginny gave the condensed version of her love life, and I noticed how she left out that one of those three was the famous Harry Potter. That was usually the first things she said, it was intimidating to some people--the kind of people Ginny wouldn't date. This time she didn't even mention it. That was a change.
I smiled, "She's the only one in her family, besides her brother Ron--who's the same age as you--who has love problems."
"Really, because you don't seem like a person who would have love troubles." Will replied.
I rolled my eyes and before Will could drop some cliched line about Ginny being 'too beautiful to not have a boyfriend,' I started to pull Ginny away. "We're going to go get set up into our rooms, come on Ginny."
"Night Sis, Ginny." Will nodded to us.
"See you in the morning, Will." I responded.
"Yeah, you know...the big family breakfast." Will chuckled, "Should be fun. Mom and Joshua can be hilarious together in the morning."
"Joshua?" I frowned.
"The new husband." Will clarified.
"Oh. See you in the morning." I nodded.
"Night Will." Ginny said before I gently began to push her from the room.
I said a short goodnight to the rest of my family. I then led Ginny up a flight of stairs and down one of the wings of the house to where are rooms were located. I was going to stay in my old room with Ginny in one of the ones next to me. The two rooms, on either side of mine, were now guest rooms. The one Ginny would be staying in used to be Maddie's, but since her fiancee is now staying with her my mother set them up in one of the larger guest rooms in the other wing of the house. I pointed the right room to Ginny and followed her in. Her luggage was already stacked up at the foot of her bed.
Ginny looked around the room in amazement. "Wow, this room has to be bigger than my entire house."
"Not quite, but almost." I joked.
"That's funny, Val. So, what's up?" Ginny replied.
"What do you mean what's up? Nothing's up."
"Something's up, or you'd be in your room already."
"I've been in here maybe two minutes."
"Still...tell me what's going on." Ginny's tone turned commanding--just a little.
"You like my brother." I finally said simply, watching the reaction that appeared on her face. Surprised and...embarrassment. I had so caught her.
"You're being silly. I just met him. I mean Will's cute and all, but..."
"I didn't say it was Will." I suppressed a smile.
"Well, I doubt you meant one of the nine year olds." Ginny replied sarcastically.
"I could have meant Matt or Cameron."
"Yes, but you told them to leave me alone." Ginny argued.
"That I did, but I said you liked him, not the other way around." I looked her directly in the eye as I added, "And you so totally do."
"Fine maybe I do, but nothing will come of it. I promise. I'll leave him alone." Ginny put her hands up in mock surrender.
"No, you misunderstood. Will, you can have. He deserves someone like you. And, hell, you deserve someone like him." I shook my head. "It was Matt and Cameron you needed to steer clear of. They're just more trouble than they're worth."
"Oh." Ginny responded, then shrugged. "I don't know."
"Well, the door's open when you find you're ready to walk through it."
I punctuated my point by turning the knob to her door and walking backwards out of her room, as I pushed it open. Ginny just rolled her eyes and turned away from me. I closed the door behind me and went to my own room. Once I was inside I let out a silent chuckle.
The more I thought about it, the more I thought Will and Ginny would be good together. They deserved good people. If things worked out the way they looked like they were going to work out, there was going to be romance in the air.
Little did I know that Will and Ginny weren't the only people who would be experiencing romance these next couple weeks.