A few sunny days later, the children of the Weasley family were woken early as they had planned to visit Diagon Alley that afternoon. They dressed, ate breakfast, and all watched as Harry stumbled through his first experience with Floo powder.

Fred had gone through their fireplace first, to give Harry an example. George immediately followed. Ginny stood there watching, feeling gradually anxious to start the afternoon. Harry, taking his time to listen to Ron and her mother's advice, seemed nervous as well. Although the Weasley's were used to traveling by fireplace, she had a haunting feeling it would not end up well for him.

Harry scattered the Floo powder into the fireplace, taken aback by the sudden flames. Ginny winced as he stepped inside and choked out a weak "D-Dia-gon Alley!" disappearing in a haze of green fire.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley consoled each other. "I'm sure he'll be alright," said Mr. Weasley.

Ron didn't seem as hopeful. "I'll make sure he got there. Don't wait up!" He grabbed his own pinch of powder and stepped in to leave.

"Be sure to wait for us, Ron! Don't run off with your brothers-" Mrs. Weasley called out, but he was gone before she could finish.

Ginny stepped forward. Her mother grabbed Ginny's face for a kiss on the cheek. "See you in a bit darling." She didn't fight the affection. "Thanks, mum."

For a second, she felt an excitement in her stomach. Her first trip to Diagon Alley for herself and not just her brothers was something she had been secretly celebrating for weeks. This time she would receive her own wand and books, and be able to enjoy her time walking down the alley without the occasional jealous thought. With this on her mind, she threw in the Floo powder and stepped forward, preparing for the dizzying trip she was about to take.

"Diagon Alley!"

Her vision filled with bright green. The world twisted and churned loudly around her while she tried to focus on the fireplace exits that flashed one by one. Suddenly, a group of ginger-colored heads appeared-

And gravity returned as she stepped forward into the Leaky Cauldron.

Like every trip she took to the Leaky Cauldron, she was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of ash mixed with the musty scent of old books and frequent travelers. Witches and wizards were sat at the tables, drinking in conversation, while others went in and out towards Diagon Alley. As two witches tried to cut by her, Ginny felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Didn't see Harry in there, did you?" asked Ron from behind, trying to get her attention. "No, should I have?" she replied.

"Apparently he never came out-"

With another loud burst of green flame, Mr. Weasley stepped out of the fireplace. "Your mother will be right behind me. Did everyone get here alright?"

Ron, in a worried tone, answered first. "Harry never came out. We're not sure where he's gone."

Ginny noticed the color leave her father's face. "Well," he paused. "He couldn't have gotten far. We'll go looking when your mother gets here."

Soon after, the Weasley family headed into Diagon Alley. A frantic Mrs. Weasley grabbed Ginny by the hand and locked her grip, to Ginny's displeasure. "We must find him, Arthur! You take the boys towards Gringotts and Ginny and I will look in the fireplaces down the alley. I can't believe we lost..."

Her mother's voice trailed off into background noise as Ginny was dragged away from her family.

Not long after, the Weasley's gathered on the steps of Gringotts, finding Harry in the company of a very large, bearded man. Mrs. Weasley busily dusted the soot off of Harry's clothes. "Oh, Harry-" she gasped, "-oh, my dear-you could have been anywhere-"

Harry stood uncomfortably as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley brushed his coat. The large man patted Harry on the shoulder, creating a small cloud of soot above their heads. Saying goodbye, he tightly shook Mrs. Weasley's hand before leaving. In a booming voice, he said, "Well, gotta be off. See yer at Hogwarts!" and waved to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Ginny felt dumbstruck. Whoever that was, she thought, he must have been someone important at school. She turned to Fred while the others spoke. "Who was that?"

Fred and George sniggered. "That was Hagrid. He's the groundskeeper at Hogwarts," said Fred. "You'll see him during the term, most likely. Kind of hard to miss him." Ginny looked back into the crowd and could still see Hagrid walking away through a sea of heads and pointy hats.

Suddenly her group began walking into Gringotts, so she trailed behind her mother as they separated from Hermione and her muggle parents, who appeared as lost as she felt.

Within Gringotts, Ginny felt both enchanted and uneasy by her surroundings. The floor felt hard and sleek under her worn out soles, clean enough to reflect the color of her red hair off the tile. Surrounding them were long-nosed, bumpy faced goblins, too busy to watch them pass by. Although familiar to her from past visits, she always had a difficult time looking away.

They walked up to a large, golden elevator and stepped inside its cage. She gently held her breath when the doors closed. As expected, the floor beneath her quickly dropped as they headed down, down, down into the mines below.

"Urg," she gurgled as they all stepped out of the elevator and into a large minecart waiting for them. The short goblin accompanying her family stepped behind the light fixture at the head of the minecart, pulled a few levers, and lead them down the track towards their bank vault.

They stopped first at the small door of the Weasley's vault. To be respectful of her mother and father, she stayed back in the minecart and tried to strike up a conversation with Ron. They all knew there wasn't much money to take, so the Weasley children did their best to stay distracted so they could save their parents from being more embarrassed than necessary.

Once Mrs. Weasley finished grabbing all of their savings, they gathered in the cart again to head even lower into the Gringott's cave. Ginny's hair whipped gently behind her as they sped on past damp stone walls and small, gushing waterfalls. A few minutes passed before they slowed in front of a very large, more heavily secured bank vault. Harry stepped out and hastily gathered some money for the school year. Without saying a word he closed the vault door, stepped into the minecart, and they all headed back up out of the cave.

When the Weasley family was standing in open air once again, Ginny felt her wrist being tugged by Mrs. Weasley back towards the shops. "We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," she called back to her family. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" to the twins, sniggering as they crept away.

Ginny wrestled her hand from her mother's grasp. Side-by-side, they wove between gaps in the crowd, heading towards the secondhand robe shop. There, she took all the time she could to try on the old, dusty robes that her family could barely afford. Too long or short, frayed or tattered, she settled on one with the least amount of holes. Ginny quickly folded it into her bag and led the way out, Mrs. Weasley close behind.

They spent a half hour shopping, enough time for a line of witches to form inside of Flourish and Blotts. Mrs. Weasley dragged Ginny towards the front, grabbing a few books and a new cauldron along the way. They stood close as they could to an empty table and chair in the middle of the shop, surrounded by books in tall stacks, all with the same last name gilded in silver on the binding. Looking familiar to her, she pulled the school book list from her pocket. A significant number of schoolbooks were written by the same wizard: GILDEROY LOCKHART.

"What are we here for mum?" asked Ginny, inching closer to her mother and away from other witches looking too similar in age to Mrs. Weasley.

"To get some books signed, dear." She pulled a few from one of the stacks, enough to get one copy of each title. "We'll buy these in a bit, yes?"

Ginny and her mother continued to stand for what seemed to Ginny like hours, with only floating books and pens to keep her attention. Soon enough, the crowd of witches suddenly began to gather around the lone desk in the middle of the shop; only now, sitting at this desk was an older man with golden locks of hair. Mrs. Weasley audibly gasped and began to crowd towards the middle as well. A raggedy bookshop keeper was gradually being pushed into the walls as he made for the door. "Please, please ladies…single file line...one at a time, ladies…"

The rest of the Weasley family squeezed through the crowd behind her, Mr. Weasley leading the group. "Dad," she called out, "do we really need to be here?"

Her brothers mumbled to each other, squeezing their way next to Ginny. "These women are too close for comfort-" said Fred before being bumped by a short witch with broad shoulders.

Mr. Weasley laughed, "It will only be for a bit. Your mother wants to get these books signed while Lockhart is in town." Ginny glanced back at the golden-headed man, hating him even more than before.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron suddenly came up from the front of the store. "Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley exhaustedly, fixing herself up. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Ginny waited, distracted by the books above her head sorting themselves by number, before chaos seemed to ensue. Ron stepped back and bumped into her. "Ron, please-"

A booming, excited voice cut her off. "It can't be Harry Potter?"

Lockhart lunged forward into the crowd and pulled Harry from beside her. Ginny moved aside and watched as the bright-smiled man forcibly shook Harry's hand, muttering under his breath. A photographer quickly snapped photos of the two, purple smoke falling in the Weasley's faces.

After a long, winded, and dramatic speech by the author, half of which drowned out by the large bodies beside her, Ginny's ears perked up to catch the end. "….ladies and gentlemen, I have the great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Within the cheering and applause around her, Ginny could hear the twins gag. Mrs. Weasley and Hermione clapped excitedly.

Harry, with an armful of heavy books, made a beeline towards her and the Weasleys. He quickly dropped them all into the cauldron beside her. "You have these, I'll buy my own-"

A snide voice cut him off. "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?"

Turning around, Ginny found Draco Malfoy behind her, dressed in clean-cut robes and standing on the staircase beside them. She watched as Harry stood upright, facing Draco. Her hair stood on end. "Famous Harry Potter," Malfoy snarled. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

Warmth rose in Ginny's face. Climbing her throat, she felt the sudden urge to defend Harry. "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!"

Malfoy laughed, pointing a short finger Ginny. "Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!"

Embarrassed by her outburst, Ginny slunk away from Harry and Malfoy both. Harry? Girlfriend? She shuddered at the thought.

Ron and Hermione snuck in beside her. With a few more snide remarks from Malfoy, her brother suddenly lunged across the gap between them. Harry and Hermione held him by the scruff of his jacket.

Mr. Weasley broke in from the side. "Ron! What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

A deep voice came from behind Draco, belonging to a man she couldn't see. Mr. Weasley tensed up and pushed Ginny further back into the crowd, leaving her cauldron and books at the front of the scuffle. The man, with long blonde hair, reached into her cauldron and pulled out a small, tattered book.

Ginny was left to watch everything unfold. As soon as the argument between the man and her father seemed to begin, it quickly ended when Mr. Weasley jumped towards the man, beating him against a bookshelf.

Mrs. Weasley screeched at her husband. "No, Arthur, no!"; Her brothers cheered, and the crowd stepped back, some witches gasping. The ragged wizard was back, yelling for the two to stop as they tussled into more stacks of books, sending some flying away.

The large, bearded man Ginny met earlier suddenly appeared in the shop. He immediately broke into the fight. "Break it up there, gents, break it up-"

Hagrid picked both men up, one hand each, and tore apart the two. Spellbooks stopped falling, witches quieted, and her father stood with a limp and a bloody lip.

The blonde man stood next to Draco, looking battered as well. He glared at Ginny. "Here girl-take your book-it's the best your father can give you-" he said, and threw her old, tattered book back into Ginny's cauldron. She pushed between the twins and snatched her cauldron by the handle, holding it against her chest. Draco, and what looked now like his father, pushed past the crowd gathered at the front of Flourish and Blotts, and disappeared down the street.

The Weasleys, after a short and angry talk about what had occurred, walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione said her goodbyes to the boys, gave a small hug to Ginny and left alongside her parents back to the muggle world.

Mrs. Weasley led the family and Harry up to the fireplace they came from at the start of their eventful day. With bags in hand, she threw down her Floo powder and went up in flames, back home. The twins, Percy, Ron, and Harry followed, leaving Ginny and her father behind. Before stepping into the coals, she hesitantly asked him, "Do you regret it? Standing up to Mr. Malfoy?"

Arthur laughed, "No, of course not. Why do you ask?"

Ginny felt sheepish. "Mum was really angry."

Her father handed her the Floo powder, letting her take a small pinch of the dust. "Always stand up for your family and friends, Gin," he said. "Even if your mother and that bookkeeper may not have agreed!"

Calling out the name of her home, the Leaky Cauldron zoomed past her vision, and the hearty sound of her father's laughter faded into the rush of the green flames.