Ginny paced the floor meticulously, scouring back and forth along the single bench that ran the length of the locker room. It was the first Quidditch game of the year, and as tradition went, it was Gryffindor against Slytherin. But, not only was it the first game of the year, it was also the first game she would be playing in since two years ago now since Gryffindor was not allowed to have a team during the Death Eater's reign. Plus, it was her first game as captain. Maybe that would explain the bundle of butterflies making a home in her stomach or why she refused to stop her pacing for too long, lest her legs begin to tremble even more.
As promised, her six teammates filed into the locker room on time, all chatting amicably with various levels of nerves and excitement. Ginny watched them like a hawk as they pulled their Quidditch robes and pads over their clothing while impatiently continuing her unremitting pacing. Once all were changed and settled, Ginny stood in front of them, her feet planted firmly shoulder width apart.
"Okay, guys," she said, feigning a confidence she did not have. "Our first match. We know we're not the favorites to win since Slytherin played all last year, but we've been practicing hard." She slammed a fist into her hand and her eyes glinted with steel. "If we all play like we practice, then we can win this!" She saw members of her team nod, clearly as determined as her. Almost. The shrill shriek of a whistle broke through the clatter of footsteps around them of lagging students rushing to find seats and the anticipatory cheers filling the stands.
"That's the signal. Let's go." She turned on her heel and led her team out of the locker room, broomsticks in hand, and kept her gaze on the Slytherin captain, ignoring the loud incoherent mess of sound erupting from the stands surrounding them. After shaking hands, the Slytherin's inveterate attempt to crush her hand, and Madam Hooch's second whistle, they were off into the sky. Her hair whipped around her as she rose, following the red quaffle high into the air and plucking it out from under a Slytherin chaser's nose, tucking it under her arm. She ducked low to her broom and sped off towards the far end of the pitch, deftly tossing it to the chaser on her left while dodging a bludger that flew dangerously close.
"Be back soon, Mum!" Charlie called over his shoulder as he closed the kitchen door behind him. He jogged lightly to catch up to the three other redheads walking ahead of him, chatting with wild hand gestures and nearly identical grins.
"Wait up!" Ginny pushed the door open and ran behind them, sprinting desperately to catch up. But, her ten-year-old legs were too short for her to reach Charlie's nineteen-year-old strides. Out of breath, she reached the doors to the broom shed just as they emerged from its depths, each holding a broomstick in one hand and the twins carrying a case of balls between them.
"We really have to fix that window latch. Every time we come in, it's fallen in again," Bill was saying to Charlie who nodded in agreement.
"I want to play!" Ginny exclaimed eagerly, clasping her hands together in front of her and interrupting Charlie from his imminent reply. Her four elder brothers exchanged a look and with a sigh, Charlie stepped forward and crouched in front of her so that they were eye-to-eye.
"Sorry, Ginny. We already have an even number to play," he said, wearing a sympathetic expression. He patted her shoulder gently then made to stand again.
"So I can switch out with one of you!" she pleaded, her ecstatic grin starting to fade.
Charlie glanced back at his brothers and when he saw no offer to help, he replied, "Er… Ginny… it's just that… well, you're still really young and it would be dangerous for you to-"
"You let Ron play with you and he's only a year older than me!" Ginny crossed her thin arms haughtily and stared defiantly at her brother, the fiery gaze alight behind her eyes that could rival that of their mother's. Ron was currently still at Hogwarts, but had decided to stay at school for the holiday break to keep his new friend company.
"Ron's… well… it's completely different!" George said, his head cocked to the side in a look of utter exasperation.
"You mean because I'm a girl!" Ginny shouted, tears threatening to run down her face. But that wouldn't help. No, that would make her just seem weaker.
"No!" Fred answered immediately, even if that is what they had been thinking.
"Ginny," Bill said placatingly, stepping forward and saving the twins. "They have to practice for the Hogwarts team," he gestured vaguely at his younger brothers. "And between you and me, they need all the practice they can get." He raised a hand to his mouth as if he were whispering a secret to her, trying to appease her. But she knew the trick.
"Well you're not a student anymore! You're not on the team! So you sit down here and I'll take your place!"
"She's got you there, Bill," George said cheerfully. Bill waved impatiently at them and the two twins shrugged before following his gesture and continuing towards their makeshift field to set up.
"Tell you what. After we play a game, we'll stay and practice with you! We can give you some pointers!" Charlie said, leaning casually against his broom.
"You said that last time… and the time before that," Ginny accused, refusing to back down.
"Well, we mean it this time," Bill said firmly, quickly attaching to the idea. "The game will be over before you know it!"
"You don't mean it. You always… Come back here!" They had both simultaneously kicked off from the ground, flying to where Fred and George were waiting and pretended not to hear her shouts.
"ARGHHHHH!" She screamed loudly, stomping her foot into the ground with frustration. She turned on her heel and stomped in the opposite direction towards the few trees just outside the fence.
Mrs. Weasley's head poked out of the kitchen window as she passed."Ginevra! Quit your shouting! It's very unbecoming," she admonished.
Ginny held her arms stiffly by her sides, fists clenched, and responded by sticking her tongue out and running away before her mother could say another word.
"Where is she going?" Bill asked with a hint of worry and guilt nagging at him.
"Oh, there's a tree she likes to climb over there. She's fine," George said, waving her aside. With Bill's last backward glance at the dark shadows of the trees where their younger sister had disappeared into, the game began and any sense of apprehension drifted away as their focus was directed fully on the game at hand.
From her vantage point in her tree just before they grew close together, Ginny could easily see the Quidditch pitch through the swaying and rustling leaves. She knew that they couldn't see her since between them was a maze of constantly moving branches and the disrupting shade, so here, she allowed a few small tears fall from her bright brown eyes before sniffing and silently commanding herself to stop.
She waited with her back leaning against the tree bark, and scrutinized both the birds flitting around her tree and the game that she was kept from, studying Bill and Charlie's careful movements. Ginny noticed the way they tucked the large ball under their arm securely and how they brought it to their palm just before firing it at the hoops. How the ball rolled off their fingertips and soared towards the ring. How they bent low over the broom while flying to the other end of the pitch. How George missed a shot when he brought his arm too far back. How Charlie fumbled when he lost focused ever so slightly to watch Fred coming up on his side.
When at long last their game ended, Ginny watched from her perch as they walked back in a clump and stored the family brooms away in their shed before heading back for the Burrow. She waited until the voices faded far in doors before scrambling down the tree trunk, vaulting over the picket fence, and sprinting towards the shed, hoping that no one happened to look out their windows at the wrong time.
Mercifully, she reached the shed doors and tugged lightly on the handle. But it didn't budge. With a quick look around, she placed her small foot on top of the immobile door handle and pressed herself up so that her fingertips were gripping the edge of the doorframe that barely jutted out to create a handhold. She scrambled onto the slanted roof and slid down the center with one leg balanced over both edges towards the two identical small windows on either side of her. Cautiously reaching down, she undid the latch on one and kicked it in. Her hands deftly gripped the side of the new opening and, with seasoned skill, she swung into the shed, landing catlike on her feet.
With a satisfied grin, she tugged Charlie's broom from out of the pile (it was the most recent model) and opened the faded chest. With a quaffle under her arm and a broom that was much too large for her slight frame dragging behind her, she undid the lock from the inside, kicked open the door, and marched to their field.
"I'll show them," she said to herself bitterly. "I'll be the best chaser that darn school has ever seen." And with that, she kicked off the ground with her hands gripping the broomstick in front of her tightly. While staying behind the cover of the trees so that none of her family could see her, she practiced leaning forward and accelerating before pulling back and kicking the broom out so she stopped just before a tree trunk stopped her rather forcefully instead. Then she flew to the ground, careful not to press the broomstick into too tight of a dive where she lost control, and snatched the quaffle up from the grass.
"You can do this," she told herself, staring down at the hoops in front of her. She edged the broomstick forward slightly and sat in front of the middle ring. Ginny placed the ball in the center of her palm, struggling to wrap her small fingers around it, and repeated the motion she saw her brothers do. She led with her elbow and snapped her wrist, letting her fingers flick it towards the center of the hoop.
The quaffle soared in slow motion in front of her, flying in a graceful arc towards the hoop, hit the side of the ring, and knocked its way through the center.
"Yes!" she said giddily while fistpumping. She soared to the ground and scooped it up again before returning to her position and repeating the motion, slowly fixing her own form and eventually getting the ball through the center almost every time.
Ginny soared through the air, laying so low that her chest was just barely above her broomstick, and shot through the opposing team like an arrow. She rolled midair, avoiding a bludger smacked her way, and flicked the quaffle from under her arm onto the palm of her hand while sitting up slightly on her broom.
You can do this, she told herself. And like clockwork, her arm seeming to act of its own volition, she flicked the dusty red ball at the far left hoop and pulled away just before she crashed into the keeper who stretched out his hand just a second too late. The ball soared into the ring, past his gloved hand, and the Gryffindor stands erupted into a sea of red and gold banners and cheers.
She ignored the commentator and the crowds (even though that was the twelfth goal she had scored so far), and flew into formation with her two other chasers. Now, if only that blasted seeker of theirs could catch the snitch. But, she wished too soon.
While she was pursuing the Slytherin chaser who had the quaffle, she saw a blur of green as their seeker sped towards one end of the pitch with a red blur a broomstick's length behind. Before she knew it, their seeker grabbed the golden ball out of the air and held it up victoriously for all to see.
"You IDIOT!" the Slytherin captain roared before the stands could appreciate what had happened.
The chaser faltered and lowered his hand slowly, clearly confused as to why his captain wasn't celebrating.
"They were a hundred and sixty points ahead!" he screamed, threatening to use his beater's bat on his own teammate.
"What? I thought they were just a hundred and forty points ahead…"
"No, Weasley just scored two goals in a row you daft twat!"
Ginny grinned despite herself and soared towards the clump forming in the middle of the pitch made of her team. A cold rush of relief flooded into her body, followed closely behind a giddy satisfaction that erupted in her chest.
"And Gryffindor wins the match, even though the Slytherin seeker catches the snitch! What a turn of events!" the commentator roared into the stands. "As you can see, the Slytherin seeker is still being berated by their team captain while captain Ginny Weasley is flying over to celebrate with her team. Excellent match and we will be back in a few weeks!" With the commentator silenced, the cheers somehow seemed louder than before.
Ginny jumped off her broom a few feet off the ground and clapped her keeper on the back happily, not bothering to try and talk with them considering the Gryffindor students who were swarming the field made it hard to hear anything at all at the moment.
Eventually, her team was carried away by the wave of red and gold, but she purposefully stayed behind still beaming contentedly at the crowd. She gazed around at the now empty pitch happily and shook her head to herself. They had won their first game. She was the captain and they had won their first game.
She turned and strode back into the locker room, eager to change out of her sweaty Quidditch gear, but a voice stopped her.
"Ginny! That was amazing!" Hermione cried and ran up to her. She hugged Ginny tighty, her own smile evident from beneath her hair.
"Thanks, Hermione!" When Hermione pulled away, she saw Harry and Ron walking up to them, both wearing ecstatic grins.
"Congrats!" Harry exclaimed. "You made up for that terrible seeker of yours."
"I warned you I wasn't kidding. The spot is still yours if you want it," she said with a roll of her eyes, but the smile couldn't seem to fade from her face.
"You did great, Ginny," Ron said kindly.
"And I know I'm supposed to be impartial and all that, but I am so glad you won," Harry added.
"Hang on. I'm going to go change, and then we can head up to the castle together," Ginny said, already turning to the door.
"Wait! Wait! Miss Weasley!" a new voice called loudly. All four turned simultaneously to see a tall woman jogging towards them, a clipboard in hand.
"Miss Weasley!" She said again once she reached them, not even the slightest bit out of breath. "Can I have a word?"
"Er… sure?" Ginny shrugged, trying to remember who she is and having no idea whatsoever.
"In private, please," she added with an obvious emphasis before turning towards her three companions and recognizing who they were. "Oh! I'm so sorry… I didn't mean… I didn't see…"
"No worries," Harry replied lightly, cutting into her embarrassed rambling. "We'll wait up by the road," he said to Ginny and walked off beside his two friends.
"What do you need?" Ginny asked, drawing the flustered witch's attention back to her.
"Oh! Right, sorry," she said, shaking her long dark brown hair out of her face. "I'm Wanda Morgans, nice to meet you." She held out a hand and Ginny shook it cautiously, before leaning against her broom with a thousand questions still swirling in her mind.
"That was quite some flying you did there, Miss Weasley-"
"Call me Ginny. And thanks."
"Well, your flying was really quite impressive, Ginny. You must be one of the best chasers this school has ever seen."
Ginny's face lit up even more at her honest compliment. "Thank you so much!"
"Now, I'm guessing you're still confused on who I am and what I'm doing here," Ginny nodded, "I'm the talent scout and manager for the Quidditch team, the Holyhead Harpies."
Ginny's jaw dropped and her eyes opened wider than she thought possible. Wanda Morgans smiled at her reaction, but continued with her prepared speech.
"And we would be honored to have you come to our training facilities next summer to train as a chaser. Two of our current chasers are planning on retiring after this next season, so we want to start training some possible replacements. Please note that this is not a guaranteed spot on the team. This training session will be a test run to see how you do with the other members before we make our official decision." She paused and cocked her head at Ginny who had only just started recovering from her shock. "Does… would you be interested in attending this summer?"
Ginny laughed aloud. "Are you kidding!?"
"No, I am not," she replied with a hearty chuckle.
"I would love to! This… this is amazing! Thank you so much!"
"It's our pleasure. Since I take it that this would interest you, here is some information." She held out a small stack of papers to Ginny. "The dates, location, details, everything about the training session is in there as well as how to contact us if you have any questions."
Ginny nodded, her smile returning to her shocked face. "I'll leave you to it now, since I'm guessing you have a party waiting for you somewhere. At least… that was the tradition when I was a hufflepuff." Ginny gripped onto her stack of papers as if it were her lifeline and somehow her smile grew wider.
"Thank you so much. This is… incredible… I don't even know what to say!"
Wanda smiled back at her warmly and clutched her remaining notes to her chest. "I'll see you in a few months then. It was a pleasure to meet you." She inclined her head towards the shorter girl still leaning on her broomstick, turned on her heel, and marched away, leaving Ginny standing alone in the empty pitch, her hands desperately clutching onto the pages as if afraid they might disappear.
Recovering from blatant shock, Ginny shuffled in a daze into the locker room, withdrew her wand, and cast a quick silencing spell on the walls. She dropped her broom and laid down her new pages carefully onto the bench beside her.
And then she screamed. At the top of her lungs. She jumped up and down and pounded the air with her fists, her cheeks hurting from holding her smile for so long.
With a heaving chest, Ginny collapsed onto the bench and pulled the papers back into her arms and lifted the silencing charm. She read through the top sheet and then reread each line five times, tracing her finger over the words to make sure it was real. She flipped the page and read the next, examining the pictures of the training center which she quickly determined was the most beautiful place in the country without even having been there. Yet. With that thought, she grinned again.
"Ginny?" Hermione's voice called into the locker room. "Are you okay? You've been in there a while."
"I'll be right out," Ginny called back. She heard her footsteps fade away again and Ginny forced herself to stand and grabbed her pile of clothes from her locker before marching out, not bothering to change yet. Now, she never wanted to take these clothes off. No matter how dirty and sweaty they were, these were the clothes when she was invited to play at the Holyhead Harpies center.
Still grinning madly, she left the locker rooms and in a mixture of a jog and a skip, she approached the three Gryffindors waiting further up the hill.
"What did she want?" Hermione asked, turning towards her with her arms crossed, pulling her jacket closer to herself for warmth.
"Well…," Ginny started, drawing the word out in excited suspense. "That was Wanda Morgans. And she is the talent scout and manager for the Holyhead Harpies." She tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear and waited for her words to sink in.
"Did… are… did she…?" Ron stuttered incoherently.
"She invited me to come to the training center this summer to try out as a chaser!" She squealed excitedly, hardly able to contain herself.
"What!" Hermione said, immediately pulling her friend into a tight hug. Ginny laughed giddily and squeezed her back, rocking from left to right. "Congratulations! That's amazing!"
"Thanks, Hermione!"
"Wow!" Harry said, running a surprised hand through his hair. "That's incredible! Congratulations!"
"That's… wow… that's… congrats!" Ron finally managed and wrapped an arm protectively around his sister.
"You truly have a way with words, Ron," Ginny laughed. "I'm going to run to the Owlrey and write to Mum and Dad. I'll see you guys later?" And without waiting for their answers, she sprinted, suddenly full of energy, towards the tower in the distance.
The following Monday, Ginny was still happier than she could remember being for a long time (the only other moment in the competition was in her fifth year when Harry had kissed her after the Quidditch match). Her lips were constantly curled into a smile and her face was constantly glowing and radiating excitement. When Hermione nudged her awake, she didn't even groan or tug the blankets closer around her like usual. Instead, she threw them off and jumped to her feet.
Hermione chuckled lightly but said nothing. She turned away from Ginny and started getting ready for school herself, leaving Ginny to her own giddiness. Ginny pulled on her uniform with insurmountable speed before going to their shared Head Girl bathroom and opening her drawer, reaching blindly for a brush. She hummed along to herself while pulling two strands of hair from the sides of her face and tying them back behind her head and applied her usual mascara and eyeliner before hesitating, and ultimately adding a layer of shimmering lip gloss and putting in small earrings.
"Well, don't you look cute," Hermione commented with a smile and stepped in front of the mirror beside her.
"Thanks!" Ginny grinned. She blinked at herself in the mirror, nodded once to note her satisfaction with her appearance, and went to her bed to collect the books she would need for today's classes.
Ginny waited at the bottom of the staircase in the Burrow, arms crossed to emphasize her pout.
"It's not fair! I want to go this year!"
"Ginny! We've been over this," Mrs. Weasley said on the brink of losing her carefully strung patience. "You're not old enough to go to Hogwarts this year, but you can go next year."
"But-"
"If you complain one more time, young lady, you are not going to come with us to Diagon Alley!"
Ginny stomped her foot against the floor, but kept her mouth shut. With a satisfied nod to herself, Mrs. Weasley turned around again and shoved her sons' school lists into her purse.
"BOYS! We are leaving NOW!" She shouted up the staircase and waited for the thundering of four pairs of feet on the steps. Percy came first, dignified as ever, followed by Ron wearing an ecstatic grin and lastly the twins, murmuring quietly to themselves.
"Hey, sis!" George said as he jumped down the last step. He ruffled her hair affectionately.
"HEY!" she screeched indignantly. "You messed up my hair!" She feverishly began to pat her hair back into place and run her fingers through it, trying to make it lay flat again.
"Relax, don't be so girly," George said off-handedly. Ginny opened her mouth angrily, but was interrupted by her mother.
"George! Quit it!" He raised his hands in surrender. "And Ginny, don't make such a big deal out of things!" But it was one time too many.
"I'm sick of it!" she shouted with her fists clenched by her side. "I don't want to be the youngest and I don't want to be a girl!" Her face was scrunched up and she stared truculently at her family gathered in the room before her, all raising eyebrows at each other.
"Ginerva Weasley!" Her mother berated with her hands resting on her hips. "No Diagon Alley for you! I did warn you."
"Fine!" Ginny screamed and pounded up the stairs into her room, slamming the door as hard as she possibly could behind her.
Ginny clutched her stack of textbooks protectively against her chest and walked down the hall, looking at the groups of friends surrounding her with jealousy. After her first year of school and the trauma that accompanied it, she had still not managed to make a secure group of friends.
She opened the door to her dorm room just up the circular stairway and dropped her pile of homework onto her bed inconspicuously. She cautiously glanced at one of her roommates across the room and took a deep breath before plastering on a smile.
"Hey… Cassandra," Ginny attempted warmly.
"Hi Ginny!" she replied with a certain alacrity. "Look! My Mom sent me some gifts for my birthday!"
"Ooo!" she cooed duly, letting the excitement fill her chest at the thought of slowly being enveloped into her circle rather than the gifts themselves. "Let's see it, then." Cass held up a new top and a golden necklace with a flower charm.
"You know… if… if you want, you can borrow some of my clothes," Cass said, letting her hands fall slightly and eyeing Ginny's baggy jeans that she assumed were hand-me-downs.
"Oh!" said Ginny, following her gaze to her own clothes. "Er… thanks!" Ginny smiled and let her new friend pull her by the hands towards her chest of clothes, unwilling to tell her that she picked out her own oversized jeans because they made her seem less girly to her older brothers.
But when she saw Cass's perfectly fitting clothes and allowed her new friend to wrap a deep purple sweater over her plain t-shirt, Ginny couldn't help but feel her confidence bubbling that had nothing to do with her burgeoning friendship.
When the school year finished and Cass and Hailey were well and truly her friends, she begged her mom to take her shopping to buy new clothes under the impression her old ones were much too small. Through the years, she grew to enjoy the slight weight of mascara on her eyelashes and grew confident in her form-fitting clothes. She begged Charlie to risk their mother's rath and use his wand to paint her bedroom walls pink. She asked for jewelry for her birthday without shame and the next time one of her brothers called her 'girly' she took it as a compliment.
At the Hufflepuff table of the Great Hall that now housed a mélange of students from all houses enjoying their breakfasts, Ginny sat eyeing the eddies of owls now swarming the room. Naturally, her parents would not have had time to write back yet. But still, she couldn't help but hope to receive a letter brimming with their elation and pride. Not for the first time, she found herself feeling a twang of jealousy that Hermione had managed to make her phone work well enough to talk to her parents as often as she liked.
Repressing a dramatic sigh, she drew herself back into the conversation surrounding her and attempted to get caught up on the latest details of Cass's date. After reliving the moment with her for what felt like a small eternity, Ginny graciously accepted Hermione's eager pleas to get moving to their first class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts, despite the fact that the warning bell had yet to ring.
They strode through the Hogwarts halls, carelessly chatting about meaningless things, letting both of their well-trained feet carry them to their destination while their concentrations dallied. It therefore came as a shock to Ginny when her feet stopped on their own accord and she felt Hermione's always attentive hand on her arm telling her to stop.
She swung around at the sound of voices and saw Shawn Parkinson, walking beside two of his friends.
"You're going to lose us more points!" one friend said. "We're already on the verge of coming in last!"
"Well tell that to Potter!" Parkinson replied angrily. "He keeps taking points away at detention and other professors keep taking points away 'cause I don't have my wand!"
"Just do the detentions and get it over with, Shawn!" the third said peremptorily.
"I'll get my wand back, don't worry about-"
"But you can't lose any more points in the process-"
"Why do you care so much about points! Honestly, you're worse than a first year!" Parkinson said with exasperation. His friend clamped his mouth shut and his eyes were cast balefully upon his defiant friend.
"Even so, Shawn-"
"Quit pestering me! Go talk to Potter if you're so bothered. Or better yet, go hex him for me." His two friends shared an incredulous glance with each other. Neither of them had any urge to hex a professor, let alone one that is notorious for his dueling talents and had already defeated the most powerful wizard before he had graduated school.
"Why do you want your friends to commit suicide?" Ginny said loudly, drawing their attention up to the two girls at the end of the corridor.
"Move along, Weasley. This doesn't concern you," Parkinson replied scathingly with a scowl after recovering from a moment of shock.
"I rather think it does," Hermione responded coolly. "You threatened a professor and as Head Girls, we really must report this." Parkinson itched for his wand that he knew was somewhere within Potter's possession. But the thought was quickly tossed from his mind considering the two who he would be dueling against.
"Relax," he said with a mock roll of his eyes and decided to bluff his way through. "I was joking."
"That's quite the joke, Parkinson." Ginny said sarcastically, an eyebrow raised.
"Please. Your nothing but a lousy blood traitor," he spat.
"Even his insults are unoriginal," she said conversationally to Hermione, clearly uncowed by his threats. He scowled again and walked briskly forward, purposefully shouldering her as they crossed paths.
A few minutes later with Bill at the front of the classroom, Ginny sat slouched next to Hermione eyeing Parkinson with a look of intense hatred and Hermione couldn't help herself but grin at the familiarity of her current situation. A close friend was distracted in class because of their animosity towards a particular Slytherin.
"Everyone take out your wands, please," Bill instructed. Ginny's was already firmly grasped in her hand and was pressed against her forearm crossed in front of her chest.
"Parkinson. Still no wand I see?" Bill asked, just barely containing his own surreptitious grin. He would really have to file away Harry's ingenious detention idea for future use.
"No," Parkinson answered through gritted teeth.
"Another ten points from Slytherin for being unprepared, then." Bill turned abruptly, careful to ignore Parkinson's friends' furious glances and began the instructions for the day.
I hope you guys liked my Ginny chapter! She's definitely one of my favorite characters, so I wanted to do a whole chapter from her perspective. The next chapter will have some of Neville's perspective, so stay tuned for that! As always, thanks for reading and any comments are always appreciated!