HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope it's already turning into a good one. Sounds nuts, but the updates really will be more frequent now that I'm going back to school and getting back into my regular routine- plus, I finally managed to wrap up my Christmas special. Here's Chapter 25.

The details of the next day are a little sketchy. At the time, I didn't really want to remember what went on that day, and apparently I was fairly successful. One thing I do remember is that the tense atmosphere didn't go away overnight. It was still nearly silent throughout the house during the entire day. We went back to our normal lives and didn't always have to be in the same room, but our family lunch in the kitchen took considerably longer than usual even without the chatter.

If there had been any shred of "it-can't-happen-to-me" foolishness stuck deep inside any of us, it had just been shattered. Not that there had been a lot of that going around the Burrow, all the people living in it being the friends of Harry Potter and the family of one of Harry's best friends.

It was good that we all had a good grip on reality, though. We had learned early on in the war that Voldemort could, would, and did hurt just about anybody. We'd accepted it and we'd learned to protect ourselves and be careful around people we didn't know. This goes way beyond Stranger Danger, I'm telling you.

One thing about being hom was really, really weird. No Order. Once we had started being watched, they'd stopped writing and visiting, just like Harry had done and just like we told everyone to do. I wasn't used to having such a small group at my house on Christmas and around the holidays. I got pretty bored with no one to talk to. I missed Tonks in particular. We'd always been good friends, but I hadn't been able to talk to her in almost five months now. I spent my time writing more unsendable letters. My first one was to Tonks.

"Dear Tonks," I wrote.

"How are you?

"It doesn't seem right here at the Burrow during the Christmas holiday without all the Order members parading in and out of the place. I miss you all, and you in particular.

"Remember how you used to make your nose change, especially into a pig snout, to amuse Hermione and I during dinner while the Order headquarters was 12 Grimmauld Place? I miss those days. Voldemort's got much more of an impact now- clearly, considering I can't even send this stupid letter.

"I worry about you guys all the time. When you can't write, it's so hard to know if you're okay. Well, no, it's not just hard, it's impossible. I don't know if you're okay even while I write this. That's the hardest thing in the world.

"Mom told me you were pregnant. Congratulations! I hope you and the baby are doing okay. I feel shut out of the whole world here. I probably won't even be able to find out when your baby's born. And Death Eaters invaded our home yesterday. The only reason they left was that my dad made them leave with a promise to come back another time. So I might not even live to know what gender it is or actually see the baby. I know it sounds depressing, but anyone with a good grip on reality sounds like a pessimist in times like these.

"I honestly didn't write to try and depress you, but, looking at this letter, it sure seems like that's the only thing it'll do. Just one more reason not to try and send it, along with the fact that the Death Eaters would burn it without giving it to you, but not before reading it and finding out where we had headquarters and where someone might be hiding right now, for all we know- oh, plus, let's not forget the good laugh they'll have over how sentimental I'm being.

"Anyway, I wrote to say that, if anything happens, Tonks, you know that I love you. We all do. And I really hope that I get to tell you that, because I realized I have never told any of you Order members that, but I love you all.

"Congratulations again, and I really hope that I was just being paranoid to write this letter. Don't worry about me or the rest of my family. We're all okay.

"Love,

"Ginny."

If you want to know the truth, I wrote to Tonks first because I had a funny feeling that I needed to. I had a weird gut instinct that I might not get to see her again or tell her in person how much I loved her and all the Order members who were like extra parents to me. It made me sick to think that if my gut instinct was right, she would never know, because I couldn't actually send the letter.

I walked into the kitchen to talk to my mom.

"Mom," I began nervously, and she whirled around, startled at the sudden break of the silence, "have you heard from- from Tonks and- and Lupin lately?"

"Very little," she answered, turning around to supervise the magical chopping of carrots and whirling her wand to place them in the pot that she had set on the stove next to the cutting board. "Last I heard," she said cautiously, not looking at me as she made her wand clean the cutting board and begin to chop celery, "Lupin was regretting marrying Tonks because he didn't want to-to put their child or any other being through what he's going through and has gone through ever since he was bitten as a child. He left."

I was shocked into silence. My mother had never told me anything like that before. She had just let things like this blow over without telling me and then not mentioned that it had happened at all. Tonks and Lupin were having problems already? And my mom had explained them to me in detail that easily?

She turned around and saw my puzzled expression.

"You're old enough to know about these things now," she said, tears in her eyes. She blew her nose and wiped her eyes. "Mind you," she added tearily, "I got this information a reasonable amount of time ago and it could easily be as out-of-date as that rotten month-old tomato I was trying to cut up earlier by now without me ever having heard a word of updated news. It's so hard to safely communicate with the rest of the Order anymore, and I haven't heard from any of them in weeks. It's one of the hardest things about this war, just not knowing in general. Not knowing how everyone is … not knowing when you'll know how everyone is … not knowing if you'll live to see tomorrow."

I just stared at my mother like a baby while she made her speech. She had obviously finally gotten the message that I wasn't a baby, and how did I respond? I froze. Absolutely froze. Well, wasn't this just fantastic.

My mother continued to dab at her eyes and blow her nose for several minutes before I finally regained control of my body. I put my arm around her.

"It's okay, Mum," I said, trying to be comforting. "Everything has to end sometime, even the war. It can't go on forever, especially not with great people like Harry, Ron, and Hermione out there fighting against it. Mum, if anyone can do it, it's them. Harry's got the nerve, Ron's got his back and helps him no matter what, and Hermione's got the brains to teach them anything they need to know. They can do it. The war is going to end, and soon. And it's going to be … because of them"

I was very emphatic, and by the end of the speech, I believed myself.

And right around when I was being so proud of myself for showing my mother that I deserved to be treated like a grownup, plus for cheering myself and my mother up, is when the Death Eaters charged in.

There were five of them, wands aimed, who charged into the kitchen. You could practically already hear the words "Avada Kadavra" on their lips. Their every movement whispered it, their every glance suggested it. These were no mindless and skill-lacking yesmen. These were the real thing. Devoted to Voldemort. Convinced Purebloods should rule the world. Trained with skills beyond any of my family's in Dark Magic. And determined to kill my family.

"How sweet," spat one of them. "A little final mother-daughter session before they get slaughtered. How d'ya like that?"

He was a brutal, highly muscled young man in ripped robes that blatantly showed off the Dark Mark branded on his upper left arm who had greasy, jet black hair reminiscent of Snape's. He was accompanied by a brunette who couldn't have been five years older than me and who would've been really pretty if she wasn't caked in dirt and if she had spent a moment of time on her hair anytime after she was five, as well as two middle-aged men and one woman their age, who had been sensible enough to put on masks, but whose voices weren't disguised as they taunted us.

At the sound of the aforementioned voices, my family rushed in.

"Stop it," growled my father.

"Get away from them," Fred commanded.

"Or we'll get our wands out too," finished George.

"You're just lucky Charlie and Bill already left," scoffed Fred.

"They wouldn't like you getting near the women of the house," George helped.

"Neither do I," added Dad.

After he spoke, there was an awkward pause.

"I don't know about you," said the ringleader, the one with Snape hair, after about a minute, "but I'm just waiting for someone to give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now. Because those weren't good enough, you blood traitors."

"How about the fact that the only reason the Dark Lord-er- Minister sent us was to check and see if the kid was really sick in bed with spattergroit, and he threatened to kill us if we didn't do exactly what he told us to do and nothing else until Potter's killed?" suggested the woman, examining her filthy fingernails as she spoke.

"Good reason," agreed the ringleader, paling. "Let's just get down to business, shall we, then?"

This time, there was nothing we could do to stop them. We ran up behind them to the door and we all stood panting around it once we arrived in record time, Death Eaters and blood traitors alike.

"Let's just have a look-see," Ringleader suggested in between loud pants coming from his maniacally grinning mouth.

"First let's-let's see if he's up to visitors?" requested my mother, bent double, standing up, but with her hands on her knees and looking imploringly up at Ringleader as she tried desperately to catch her breath.

"None of that crap," replied the middle-aged, masked woman, and promptly walked up to the door and, with a silent spell, blasted it into millions of pieces. The Ringleader glared at her for taking his job.

"Gwarghhhh," groaned the ghoul inside the now-exposed room. "Ooooahhhwergen," it added as it took in the scene and we all rushed through the doorway.

"And this is," sneered the younger woman, the first to arrive at the ghoul's bedside, "your youngest son?"

She watched him closely with an ice-cold glare.

"They might not be lying," she sneered with a laugh, earning a chuckle from her cohorts.

I leapt at her.

"DON'T-YOU-DARE-SUGGEST-THAT-MY-BROTHER-REALLY-LOOKS-LIKE-THAT!" I shrieked as I tried to escape the hold of my father and brothers.

"Hmm," replied the Death Eater, clearly delighted. "Struck a nerve, have I? Now don't worry, you didn't give anything away, we already knew this wasn't him. But … your temper seems to be your weakness, sweet little baby thing … this is interesting … quite interesting indeed …"

She watched me being tortured, pacing around me as I wrestled against the strong grasps of my family. Finally, Ringleader stepped in.

"That's quite enough, Tring," he said calmly. Tring stopped pacing around in front of me. My brothers released me, but my father kept a firm hold on my shoulders. She stuck her tongue out at me, and I lunged again, but my father held me.

"That's quite enough out of you, Ginevra. You're only making this harder," he muttered in my ear.

"Telling secrets, are we?" cooed Ringleader. "None of that." He hit us both with the Cruciatus Curse. The entire time, my father didn't let go of my shoulders. It was a full minute of pain beyond pain as I thrashed and twitched.

"Now," continued Ringleader casually when he had lifted his wand. "You will be being watched very, very closely from now on. If I were you, I'd watch what you say … do …" he walked through the room, placing his fingertips on Ron's things and making us all cringe, "and even …" he paused, looking at me, "think."

The Death Eaters enunciated and spat out their words. They were big on italics type of talking. I'm pretty sure they thought it made them sound cool.

"That will be all," finished the Ringleader.

He and his ringleaders whirled their robes around them and hurried out the room. Moments later, we heard the door slam.

"I'll-I'll get the duster," fussed my mother. "I don't want all his grease covering Ron's room when he gets back, no, I'll just have to clean it- Ginny, help me, two wands are better than one, hmm? Yes, yes …"

She babbled on and on the entire time we were cleaning- and that's saying something. We did a full scrub down. I don't think the room had looked this clean when it was first built, let alone since Ron'd been living in it.

Finally, we sat down to a late dinner of sandwiches from leftover meatloaf. Dad and my brothers had had to find their own food while we had been cleaning.

"Ginny …" began my mother, putting down her sandwich, "I have to discuss this with your father, but …" she sighed. "I think it's best if you don't go back to school. I just don't think it's in your best interests to go back there right now. It's dangerous, especially for you. You'll probably be staying home until the war ends. Next year at the earliest, and that's if God and luck are with us twenty-four-seven for the rest of the year, sweetheart." She gave me a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I know you love Hogwarts."

I sighed.

"Yes, I do," I replied, "but better alive at home than dead at school, right?"

My mom nodded.

"That's the spirit, sweetheart," she whispered, rubbing my hand.

Guess I could remember more than I thought after all.

I know, I know, it's so long that it's basically two chapters rolled into one. But I just couldn't stop!!