A/N: Newly edited chapter… honestly, I don't know how anyone made it to the better writing in POA… please bear with me, I am trying to clean this up while still writing book 4!

It was a few days before her birthday when Ginny returned a little earlier than normal from her morning flying because she noticed their ancient owl, Errol, barely flying towards the house. Curious, Ginny had landed, returned the broom to its closet, and then headed to the house. Good thing she had too, for Errol lay on top of, what looked like, Harry's birthday present on the ground. Ginny stared at him for a moment and then sighed in relief as she finally saw the exhausted owl take a deep breath. She had thought it dead for a moment, but it was merely asleep. Ginny gently picked up the sleeping owl and the package it was attached to and entered the kitchen.

"Oh please tell me he's dead! Mum can I pick the next owl please?" her brother exclaimed, barely containing his glee, "Wait, is that Harry's birthday present?" Ginny held the owl carefully so as not to wake it as Fred deftly untied the package.

"Ronald! What an awful thing to say...," Molly scolded him; "He's not? Is he Ginny?" A small bit of hope creeping into her voice. They really should have let the poor thing retire years ago, but as they barely needed him to deliver anything and never very far he was just as good as. Besides, owls were expensive… but if the poor thing died...well then they wouldn't have a choice would they?

"No mum, just passed out," Ginny replied as she gently placed him in his cage. Errol sleepily opened his eyes, hooted a quite thanks, and fell back to sleep.

"Yeah...it's Harry's birthday present. Mum? You don't think they did something did you?" Fred asked somewhat anxiously. While Ron may be Harry's best friend they all worried about him. If nothing else, Harry kept Ron out of his and his twin George's hair so they could plan and pull their pranks in peace, but they also felt grateful to Harry for keeping Ron safe. And by "they" it was understood by all that he meant Harry's horrible aunt, uncle and fat nasty cousin.

"No Fred, I'm sure Errol didn't even make it there. He probably tired out halfway there and turned around and came back. Why did you send him with such a heavy parcel anyway? I told you the letters were okay but you know he's..."

"Pathetic?" offered George.

"We were worried Mum," Fred explained before his mother scold him as well. He chanced a glance at his mother's face before continuing; "We haven't heard from Harry since he got back and Ron's sent him at least three letters before this." Molly glared at Ron, but before she could scold him again, George continued on where Fred had left off.

"We think they're not letting Harry get his letters, mum, but we thought even they couldn't deny him his birthday gift."

"And the letter I got from Hermione said she hadn't heard from him either," Ron added.

Molly was exasperated with the boys but she had to admit she was worried as well. At the mention of Hermione's name Ginny looked up to and saw the worry cross her mother's face. The boys hadn't noticed, they didn't notice anything, she thought, but she thought she'd try to get them out of trouble anyways. Or maybe delay it.

"Mum, maybe they're right? What if something is wrong?" Molly turned to her daughter and tried to smile. Maybe they were right.

"I'll talk it over with your Dad when he gets home and we'll try to figure something out, okay?" s asked as she looked at the three boys and Ginny, trying to reassure them with a smile. "And Ronald...don't think you're getting away with this," she added, looking at Ron, then turned quickly to watch the grins slip off the twins face, "Don't think you're off scot-free you two...you should know better. All three of you...I want your rooms spotless by the time your father gets home." She turned to Ginny and winked, "Why don't you go a quick bite and then head back out in the sunshine dear?" Molly knew she had just given Ginny the chance to go fly some more and remind the boys what they were missing for misbehaving. Two birds, one stone, she thought. She couldn't do much while they were at school, but she hoped if she could rein in the twins while they were at home, well maybe she'd finally get a few less owls from Minerva this year about them. She wasn't hopeful. The second stone was that she knew that Ginny wouldn't be doing any unsupervised flying in her first year and how much she would sorely miss it.

Ginny lit up as it dawned it on her what had her mother had done. She grinned, leaned over Fred and grabbed the last sandwich from lunch, "Thanks Mum, I think I'll go for a walk and eat this..."

"Okay. Don't wander too far and be back for dinner," she watched her daughter leave then turned back to the boys, "You three… upstairs…now. I do not want to see or hear you until dinner. Understood?"

They nodded and quietly got up from the table.

"What's Ginny look so happy about? 'Going for a walk'" Ron snorted when he thought Molly couldn't hear him, "what's so fun about that?"

Molly shook her head. "Boys," she thought, "they really are blind sometimes."

She nodded to her daughter waiting at the broom closet to let her know the boys were gone. She sighed as she watched Ginny walk away with a broom on her shoulder and eating her sandwich with the other hand. She was secretly both dreading the school year and looking forward to it. The house would be even emptier this year but at least she'd finally have a little peace, quiet and alone time with her husband. She blushed slightly before remembering her real reason for getting the kids away from the kitchen. As much as she cherished time with her daughter she needed to contact Arthur to see if he could find out anything about Harry.

She was worried about Harry and had been since the end of the school year after his "adventure". Actually, truth be told, she'd worried about the boy since the night his parents died. She had personally written to Dumbledore and the ministry offering to adopt him but Dumbledore had simply replied that it was in the boy's interest to be raised by his Muggle relatives. Molly shook her head slightly at the memory as she watched the tiny speck she knew to be Ginny perform some truly astonishing aerial maneuvers. Molly smiled in spite herself and turned to the fire place. She reached up to the mantel and took the lid off an old box that sat there. Her fingers almost scrapped the bottom as she pinched the floo powder. "Great, we'll need more soon," she thought and sighed.

Ginny couldn't believe her luck as she happily munched on her sandwich and walked towards the broom shed… she tried to help them but got to fly some more instead. She turned and watched the kitchen window. She could just see that her mother was still talking to the boys. She grinned and took another bite.

When she saw her mother's nod she quickly opened the broom closet. She badly wanted to take one of the twins' brooms, as they were newest, relatively speaking, but she was worried they might start to notice. She sighed and grabbed the one Charlie had left behind. It wasn't very fast, but it was somewhat agile. She grinned as she remembered the move she'd seen in one of Ron's Quidditch books. She'd been working up the nerve to try it for weeks, but as she also really loved flying as fast as possible too, she wasn't overly eager to try it. Once she'd gotten to the orchard where the boys had set up their practice Quidditch pitch she gracefully mounted the broom and rose into the air.

"Ah freedom," she thought, as the wind hit her face for the second time that day as she flew high

Ginny headed down to the kitchen a little early the next morning and was still in her pajamas and was surprised when Ron, Fred and George passed her on the stairs heading to their rooms. She looked at their happy, yet scared faces, as they passed her and wondered what was going on. As she reached the kitchen she heard an unfamiliar voice added to that of her parents. Quietly she entered the kitchen and looked at the boy sitting at the table.

"Harry," she thought.

He looked up from the table, noticed her and smiled warmly. She blushed scarlet realizing this relative stranger was seeing her in pajamas and quickly ran from the room.

As she climbed the stairs a weird thought crossed her mind. If Harry was here, did that mean Hermione might be here soon too? For some reason she felt herself blushing again at the thought and wondered why...slowly a small grin came to her lips as she entered her bedroom to change.

"Wouldn't have been so bad if it had been Hermione at the table..." she thought, her blush deepening; "Cause she's a girl... I don't care if a girl sees me," she reasoned as she tried to dismiss her blush.