Chapter Four

Ginny was late. For the first time in her life she would be travelling on the Hogwarts Express without any of her older brothers, but it appeared that she could hold up proceedings just as well as any of them would have done. Her school robes needed ironing, she hadn't fed the chickens, she had no clean Muggle jeans left to wear to the train station and her copy of The Standard Book of Spells; Grade Six seemed to have disappeared completely.

It was very tempting to swear. Ron would have done it, she knew, probably Bill, too. Fred and George would have laughed, not worried, and Charlie would simply have smiled. Percy… Percy wouldn't have let things get into this state. The only thing that stopped Ginny was the knowledge that if Mrs. Weasley entered Ginny's bedroom to hear her daughter using impolite language, Ginny would be tasting soap bubbles for a week at the very least.

Ginny, still dressed in an old shirt of Harry's and the underwear that she had slept in, made her way downstairs, where she grabbed a bacon sandwich on her way through the kitchen. She hurried across the yard to the chicken shed, opened the door to let the birds out for the day and took a scoopful of feed from the bin by the shed door. She scattered the feed quickly, picked up another bacon sandwich on her way back through the kitchen and paused in the living room, where her mother was waiting.

"Thanks, Mum," Ginny said, between mouthfuls, as Mrs. Weasley piled freshly ironed jeans and school robes into her arms.

"Next time, you make sure you pick these up before we're due to leave," Mrs. Weasley reprimanded her daughter. "And don't you dare get bacon grease on your clean clothes!" she added, but Ginny was already halfway up the stairs.

Ginny dressed and packed quickly, thinking of her first year at Hogwarts, when Harry and Ron had missed the train. The idea of flying a car to Hogwarts was insane, but she thought it would be fun, just once, to give her dad's Ford Anglia a go. It was, as far as she knew, still roaming the Forbidden Forest. How would she get to school, if she wasn't fast enough to catch the train?

It didn't seem to matter much. Ginny had come to the conclusion over the last few weeks that she didn't really care about going back to school. It wouldn't be the same without Harry, her brothers, Hermione, without Dumbledore. Two things only prevented her from leaving, and neither of them was the law now in place stating that all school age witches and wizards must attend. The first was her other friends; the girls in her dorm, the rest of Gryffindor house, Luna and everybody from the DA. The other thing that Ginny had considered was her mother's reaction if yet another of the Weasley children abandoned their education.

Soon Ginny was almost ready. All that was left to do was find her missing textbook; even after sorting through everything in her room, it had still not appeared. Sighing, she made her way back downstairs, where she found her father sipping a mug of tea in the kitchen.

"Morning, Dad," Ginny said, and Mr. Weasley smiled at her. Before he could return the greeting, she asked, "Have you seen my Standard Book of Spells?" Mr. Weasley shook his head, his mouth now full of bacon sandwich, and Ginny continued. "Could you Summon it for me? Please? If you'd only let me do magic…"

Mr. Weasley found his voice. "You are not to do magic outside of school until you're seventeen. I know the Ministry wouldn't know it wasn't your mother or I, but it's still against the law." He picked up his wand, and a moment later the textbook flew through the door and into his waiting hand.

Ginny heard footsteps on the stairs, and knew her mother was about to ask if she was prepared to go. She hurried back to her room, passing Mrs. Weasley but not giving her a chance to speak, and shoved The Standard Book of Spells: Grade Six into her trunk. Her wand went into her jeans pocket, and she turned to shout out of her bedroom door. "Mum? Dad? Are you ready to leave?"

Mrs. Weasley appeared almost instantly. Framed in the doorway, she pointed her wand at the trunk, which floated up into the air. She stepped aside and it made its own way down the stairs. Ginny caught up a moment later to find it hovering in the yard, her father shooing away a chicken that had landed on one end and was settling down to stay there.

"How are we getting to the station?" Ginny asked. There would be no Ministry car this year, and Kings Cross was not connected to the Floo network. They were far too far away to walk, her parents did not ride brooms, and the train would be leaving in less than half an hour.

"We have no choice but to Apparate," Mr. Weasley said. "We could have used Floo powder to get to London and then walked, but I couldn't think where the best chimney would be, and we're running low on powder. All you need to do is grasp my hand."

"I'll be taking your trunk," Ginny's mother added. "I'll see you two there," she said, and she gripped one of the trunk's handles. Mrs. Weasley turned on the spot, and vanished.

"Let's go," Mr. Weasley said. "Your mother won't like being at the station alone. Let's not keep her waiting."

Ginny reached out and took her father's hand, suddenly apprehensive. She knew she would soon have Apparition lessons, but being asked to do it with no warning was an entirely different matter. "I just hold tight?" she confirmed, and her father nodded. The next thing Ginny knew, they were twisting together through crushing darkness. She couldn't breathe; her chest didn't seem able to expand.

Almost as soon as it had started, it was over. Ginny and her father were standing in a shabby alley, deserted apart from Mrs. Weasley and the trunk, which now rested on the ground. The sound of trains told Ginny that they had arrived somewhere close to the station as they had intended, and she let go of her father's hand.