Disclaimer:
All intellectual and property rights of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Book rights belong to Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Orbit Books, and any others I may have missed. The film rights belong to Warner Brothers. The world of Harry Potter is being used without permission and without the intent of infringing upon these rights. No profit is being made. If you recognize it, it belongs to JKR. If you don't recognize it, there is still a strong chance it belongs to JKR. The seldom and rare things that JKR doesn't claim as her own and could be construed as mine I release to Public Domain.
I'd like to acknowledge and give my eternal gratitude to my Beta Reader, Thoth. Thank you for making this story many orders of magnitude better. Any mistakes found are solely my own. If you, the reader, find anything in error, feel free to let me know and I will endeavor to fix it if I can. As such, thank you for making this better for the next reader.
Ginny Weasley awoke bright and early one summer morning. She ran into the bathroom, giggling and giddy the entire way. She then dragged a little stool over to the sink, for at the age of four she was too little to reach otherwise. Ginny Weasley then began to dutifully wash her hands and her face, brush her teeth, and fix her Weasley red hair. Once she was happy that her hair looked good and had it secured in many cute, pink butterfly barrettes, she ran back into her room, slamming the door along the way. She began to dress into the clothes she very carefully picked out the night before. First was the button down, pale pink, chelsea collared blouse. It was her favorite shirt. Next, Ginny put on a secondhand green dress. It was sleeveless, with wide straps and a square neckline not unlike overalls. It was an A-Line style, with no discernible waist dividing the dress into upper and lower regions. The hem of the dress was knee length, showing off her lower legs over which Ginny pulled up lacy crocheted, white, cotton knee high socks. Ginny then put on her green maryjanes. Looking into the mirror, Ginny gave herself a blazing and dazzling smile.
What made today such a special day for little Ginevra Molly Weasley? It took many long hours over the course of many, many days of constant needling, wheedling, and pouting, but Ginny finally convinced her mother to take her Harry Watching. It was not often that a witch or wizard would catch sight of The-Boy-Who-Lived, but those that did would usually boast by writing letters to Witch Weekly. It had taken a few years to pin down locations with the most chances of success, but rumors had it that certain special spots in Surrey were the best location to try and catch sight of the young hero.
'Perfect!' Ginny thought to herself as she gazed upon her reflection. 'Maybe Harry will want to be my friend,' Ginny also thought to herself as she giggled cutely into her hand.
Her mother knocked on the door before opening it. Upon seeing her only daughter and youngest child, Molly suppressed a long-suffering sigh. Molly had seen the mess in the bathroom and figured her little girl was already up. The source of the sigh was not the fact her little girl was up and bouncing around like it was Christmas in July. No, the source of the sigh was at Ginny's messy hair with disarrayed barrettes, that her dress was on backwards, her shoes were on the wrong feet, and the two visible shirt buttons were in the wrong holes. Molly suspected that some of the buttons hidden by the dress were not even buttoned. However, seeing how happy Ginny was, all Molly could do was shake her head at the sight.
"Ginny, dear, would you like some help dressing up?" Molly asked with a sigh.
"No thanks, Mum. See, I'm all done." Ginny giggled some more while she twirled around to show off her clothes to her mother.
Molly just sighed some more. "Honey, you've got your dress on backwards. Come here," Molly said as she reached for Ginny and yanked the dress up and over her head. Molly picked up Ginny and set her on her bed. Without a word, Molly began to rebutton Ginny's shirt as Ginny pouted at being fussed over. "Keep making that sour face and it will stick like that," Molly admonished the little girl. Soon, Molly had Ginny's shirt buttoned properly and pulled the dress back onto her, with the proper side facing front. Not long after, Ginny's shoes were fixed and Molly carried her over to a mirror. "Now hold still so I can brush your hair." Meanwhile, Ginny suffered through all of the attention quietly.
The breakfast table began to fill up with the Weasleys as Molly put the finishing touches on breakfast. Ginny sat at her place, all smiles and excitement in anticipation for her day. Bill sat down next to her, lightly ruffling her hair.
"All set, squirt, for your day out?"
"Hey! Don't mess my hair up, I want it to look perfect," Ginny whined.
Bill chuckled, "Don't worry, you look beautiful. Got your Harry Hunting kit?"
"Yep!" Ginny beamed up at her favorite brother. The night before, after dinner, Bill had helped her put together a little kit to go Harry Watching with. In her small, green purse, she had an old pair of cracked omniculars that Bill used to watch Quidditch games with, a couple granola bars to snack on, a Harry identification card (an old scrap parchment on which Bill had Charlie cartoon a small boy with messy hair and a lightning bolt scar on his head), and a little card with Ginny's full name and address on it, which Ginny was to give to a police officer if she found herself lost and separated from her mother. "Got it right here," Ginny told her brother while patting the purse she had in her lap.
"And, do you remember what you should say to a bobby in case you get lost?"
"Yes. That I was visiting my aunt with my mom, but I don't know how to find my aunt's house. I only got the address for my house, and I show him the piece of parchment with my name on it." Ginny proudly said all this to her brother.
Bill grinned down at his little sister. He hoped she wouldn't be too disappointed if she didn't catch a glimpse of Harry Potter. Bill hoped she would, though. "Just stick close to mum, OK?"
Ginny nodded her head enthusiastically, "Okie-Dokie!"
Meanwhile, in a different city, someone else was starting their morning routine. Today started as any other day in the Dursley household. Petunia Dursley, matriarch of number four, Privet drive, marched down the stairs. She was a thin lady, with a long face, and hair permed and worn up. Her house dress was impeccable, as was her house, with nothing out of the ordinary. For the only thing worse to a Dursley than the unordinary, the strange, the different, or the inexplicable was for them to stand out to others as strange, different, inexplicable, or out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, their nephew Harry failed them in both counts. Though not for their effort to stamp out of him any trace of freakishness; freakishness determined by their standards. The Dursleys already feared that it was only a matter of time before their neighbors discovered their secret shame.
Aunt Petunia approached the cupboard under the stairs and banged on it. "Boy, wake up. Breakfast isn't going to cook itself."
Harry groaned and opened his eyes. "Coming, coming," he called out as he sleepily rubbed his eyes with his fists. Harry quickly cast off his pajamas, which were originally Dudley's and about three sizes too big for him, and wiggled into some brown slacks and a dingy, white shirt which was also too big for his slight frame. During these summer months, Harry wished he had a decent t-shirt; unfortunately all he had to wear today was the worn out, button down, short sleeved shirt with the peter pan collar. In an attempt to hide the dismal state of his shirt, Harry took to wearing an oversize beige tank top sweater vest, even though it was itchy and uncomfortable during the summer. Pushing open his cupboard door, Harry trudged into the kitchen like a man on his way to his execution.
His Aunt Petunia snobbishly sniffed as he entered the room. "See if you can mind the bacon this time, and don't burn the toast. You know my little Dudlykins has a sensitive stomach. And don't forget the eggs, griddlecakes, hash, sausages, oatmeal, and waffles."
"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry intoned without any emotion.
"Hmmph, I should think you could show a little more respect and gratitude, boy, we did take you in at no small sacrifice," Petunia said as she turned up her nose, before leaving the kitchen to go wake up her son, Dudley.
Harry Potter just sighed as he started working on cooking breakfast. After pulling a chair over to the stove, so he could reach the top easier, Harry raided the icebox for ingredients. His stomach rumbled, for all Harry had eaten the night before was a small bowl of salad without any dressing. 'I bet Dudley'll get to sleep in some more,' Harry thought with a sigh, 'wish I could have gotten a little more sleep. I wish I could remember the dream I was having when I awoke.'
True to Harry's thoughts, Dudley did get to sleep in. However, not long after Petunia returned to the kitchen, Vernon Dursley arrived dressed for work and with the morning paper stuck under one arm.
"Good morning, dear," Vernon greeted Petunia. Turning to Harry just long enough to speak to him, Vernon looked down his nose and scolded, "The toast or the bacon better not be burned this morning, boy, or you'll be locked in that cupboard with no food for a week. That'll teach you to waste good food by burning it, you worthless good for nothing." Sitting down, Vernon buried his head into the morning paper.
The Knight Bus exploded into view with a violent bang and screeched to a halt. The conductor, an old man dressed smartly in a wingtip collared white shirt, black bow tie, blue vest, slacks, and oxfords, limped down the steps, wheezing the entire way.
"Good morning, madam. The Knight Bus is at your service, where do you wish to go today?"
"Little Whinging, Surrey, please," Molly Weasley told the conductor.
"That will be seven sickles. Here's your ticket. Come aboard, come aboard. Watch your step, now. Little Whinging, Surrey, Ernie, and step on it."
Molly carefully led Ginny through the bus to some chairs near the back. As soon as they were barely seated, the bus rocketed off. Molly fell back into her seat hard and Ginny was hanging on for dear life.
"Ginny, dear, don't go wandering off when we get there. If you leave my side, I'm taking us straight home," Molly warned her daughter.
"Don't worry, mummy," Ginny responded.
"If I had a sixpence every time the twins told me that," Molly sighed. "Ginny, what do you plan on doing once you see him?"
"I'm gonna say, 'Hi, I'm Ginny Weasley. Wanna be my friend?'" Ginny answered. "He must have a lot of friends, mum, do you think he'll want to be mine?" Ginny pleaded softly.
"I don't know, Ginny-cakes. But don't bother the poor boy. He must have people hounding him constantly."
Harry leaned his back against a tree, wheezing hard. He was out of breath from running so much on an empty stomach. Even though he had done a good job at making breakfast, especially considering he was five and couldn't even reach the stove, all he was given to eat was a piece of toast.
Piers, one of Dudley's friends, had spotted Harry. "Hey, there he is! Dudley, let's go get him."
Harry groaned and pushed off of the tree. The morning had been going well too. After what passed for breakfast, Harry had shrugged on his tank top before going out. He knew if he hung around too much, his aunt would find work for him to do, so Harry decided to go for a walk around the block. However, Dudley had celebrated his birthday a couple weeks earlier and one of his many presents had been a slingshot. It seems Dudley and his friends grew tired of trying to hit tin cans and glass bottles off of a fence. They must have decided to go Harry Hunting instead. Fortunately for Harry, Dudley may have been a decent shot, but not when it came to moving targets, and Harry had plenty of practice running, dodging, and zig-zagging away from Dudley.
'Why does Dudley always get the fun toys? Just because he has a mom and I don't. Why don't I have a mom and a dad? It's not fair! I want a slingshot too; they look like so much fun. And I wouldn't use it on people, well maybe Dudley. Ouch, those things hurt.' Harry ranted to himself as he ran on, his side burning in stitches. 'I need to find someplace to hide. Where?'
Molly huffed to herself as she walked with Ginny down the street. She didn't want to even be in Surrey, gawking at some child like he was some monkey at a zoo. However, she wasn't given much choice in the matter. Ginny had persistently pursued wearing down her mother's resolve. The deciding factor had been earlier in the week, when Bill had come to her in the kitchen to argue Ginny's case. Bill had brought up some good points; the best one being that since a lot of the sightings took place at the grocers and other sundry places, Molly could get some errands done while Ginny amused her self with looking around.
Molly unconsciously pulled her cardigan a little tighter about her. The people in this neighborhood seemed to have such nice, and new, clothing. She felt self-conscious about her plain and worn out skirt and blouse that she wore. Up ahead, Molly saw a craft store that sold fabric, yarn, and the other sundries of needlecraft. Remembering that she needed more yarn for her knitting, and that this was one of her errands she had to run, Molly stopped in front of the store.
"Come on, mum. The green grocers is just up ahead," Ginny happily informed her mother.
"Come along, Ginny. I think we should look here, first. Harry might be inside." Molly didn't feel the slightest bit guilty lying to Ginny to get her to cooperate.
"But, Witch Weekly rated Exeter's Grocery as the best place to see Harry Potter," whined Ginny. "Why would Harry be in a rag shop?"
Molly grabbed Ginny by her arm. "I said to come along. If you won't behave, we'll just go back home right now." With that, Molly turned and dragged a pouting Ginny into Fergusson's Fabrics and Quiltery.
Not far from where the two Weasley women were shopping, Harry was trying to hide. Harry found a rubbish bin that was, thankfully, not full of smelly scraps of rotting garbage. Harry tried to breathe more quietly and to get his rapidly beating heart to slow down. He now had a number of welts from the lucky shots that had hit him. Fortunately, Dudley missed much more often. Harry could hear Dudley's gang of five and six year old future hooligans nearby.
'Lucky that Dudley accidentally broke that shop window with a stray shot. The shopkeeper's yelling made it easy to get away.' Harry chanced a peek out and ducked his head back in. 'Don't find me. Don't find me. Go away, don't find me,' Harry chanted in his head.
Meanwhile, in Fergusson's, Molly was dismayed at how expensive everything was. 'Tut tut, the prices they charge for yarn is just criminal,' Molly thought to herself. 'Maybe, I can find a thrift store and buy an old knitted sweater. I could unravel it, and dye the yarn with a pigmentosa spell.' Molly once again frowned as she caught the store owner looking at her and Ginny with undisguised contempt. "Come along, Ginny. I think, maybe it is time we looked elsewhere."
Ginny brightened at hearing this, hoping it meant they would be going to Exeter's next. Fortunately for her, picking up some stuff for dinner was in her mother's plans. Unfortunately, however, Molly wasn't thinking of going grocery shopping just yet. Leaving the store, Molly stopped to think about how she could go about finding a thrift store or flea market in a city she has never been to before. 'I could try to ask for directions; perhaps one of the other shopkeepers would be more polite. There are a fair number of shops along this avenue. If I were to just ask around, that couldn't hurt.' Molly was afraid that something like a secondhand store would not be found in such an affluent neighborhood. Lost in thought, Molly did not notice that Ginny was walking away. Ginny, certain that her mother was going to go the grocer's next, did not even notice that her mother had stopped. Unluckily, Ginny was noticed by Dudley and his gang.
"Hey, look at that beggar girl," one of the boys exclaimed, drawing attention to Ginny.
"I don't think those rags were ever new," another boy quipped.
"Mum and dad would be upset to know that such freaks are walking around here. Dad says that freaks are good for nothing bums that ruin this country for the rest of us decent folks," Dudley was always parroting his dad. "I bet she's almost as big of a freak as Harry. Let's show her what we do to her kind around here." And so, two groups, with very different ideas of Harry Hunting, would collide.
Molly decided to just ask around. That was when she noticed Ginny wasn't next to her. Looking around, she could see Ginny was walking down the street while looking around. 'This was a fool's errand, coming here. I guess I could go to the grocers and ask around. I need some shopping done anyway.' Molly started to briskly walk after Ginny. "Ginevra Molly Weasley, get back here now."
Ginny, upon hearing her mother's voice, first looked up to where she thought her mother would be. Then, in confusion, she looked around behind her for her mom. "Ow," she cried as a stone bounced off her head. Ginny had failed to notice Dudley and his gang rushing towards her, distracted by her mother's call. "Hey, quit it!" Ginny yelled while turning around, as two more pebbles hit her. A look of fear crossed Ginny's face as she noticed the menacing boys approaching her.
"Ginny, come here!" Molly yelled as she began to run towards her daughter. "You leave her alone," she scolded the young boys.
Ginny panicked and turned from the boys and ran off blindly. Unfortunately, she ran into the road without paying any attention to the traffic. Ginny ran without looking both ways while her mother watched on in horror as she darted into oncoming traffic. Frozen in fear, Molly could only stand and watch as her only daughter darted in front of a car.
'Oh no! Please not my Ginny,' Molly thought to herself as a brown blur suddenly sped past where she was standing.
A loud honking noise caught Ginny's attention, causing her to stop and turn. Ginny squealed in fright as she finally noticed a car heading right for her. Suddenly, something pushed her hard and she was lying on the ground as the car skidded past her, inches from her face. The terrible sound of crunching metal and shattering glass was heard as the sounds of screeching tires and a really loud air horn blast filled the air. Suddenly, two small hands grabbed Ginny and pulled her sharply to the side and someone threw their body on top of hers. Ginny gaped as something dark and gritty slid overhead.
The car that Ginny ran in front of had not bothered to stop. However, Ginny and Harry were now lying in the next lane, and another car had to swerve to avoid hitting them. The second car collided with a parked car. A large tanker full with fuel was behind the second car and it swerved to avoid the accident, causing it to bear down onto Ginny and her savior. Seeing two small kids in the road, the driver attempted to swerve again back into his proper lane. Fortunately, Harry noticed the tires were moving to the side and started to roll while tightly clutching Ginny. The tractor, thankfully, cleared the children before it could run them over with its many tires. The double swerve, however, was too much for the fully loaded trailer and it began to tip over and slide sideways along the road. Miraculously, Harry and Ginny did not get ground into the roadway by the falling tank. However, the rupturing tank sprayed kerosene all over the accident scene, including the two small children, who sat up to survey the damage.
Ginny, still in a bit of shock, sat there gaping. 'Huh? What?' Ginny's brain was still trying to understand what had just happened as her heart pumped in her ears and the adrenaline in her system wore off. Ginny looked towards the boy that had pushed her and kept her safe, 'How'd he get here?' she wondered.
"Ow!" Harry groaned as he sat up, sore from having saved the little girl. That was the last thing Harry managed to say before the fiery whooshing sound of igniting fuel filled his world with heat and pain.
For just a moment, time stopped. To Molly it seemed as if time slowed down, watching some boy try to keep her only daughter out of the way of the automobiles that ran the streets. Wizards knew about cars, the ministry made use of them and many Wizarding families owned one for moving among the Muggles. Molly knew what a car was and what it could do if a small child got in its way. Yet, even though Molly's eyes were glued to the scene in shock and horror, even she did not see the kids disappear just as the wall of flame was to reach them. All Molly could do was scream in hysteria as she watch the flames erupt into an infernal that no one could expect children to survive in.
Harry had instinctively covered his face with his arms as the heat rose. One moment, he felt a blast of heat, and the next, Harry felt cool winds and cool grass. Harry opened his eyes and uncovered his face. He was no longer sitting in a road, covered in kerosene, in Little Whinging. Harry was sitting in a grassy field on a hillside. Sitting next to him was the girl from before. The one he noticed his cousin menacing. She was clutching her knees to her chest, her face was white with fear. He shook her gently. "Excuse me, are you all right?" Harry asked with obvious concern in his voice.
Ginny turned to look at the boy, about to say something, when her eyes fell upon the lightning bolt shaped scar on his head. Ginny gasped. "You're Harry Potter!" she breathed out in amazement.