Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter, those belongs to JKR. I'm not sure if I even own the plot. Oh, and the title, Life Got in the Way, comes from a Sister Hazel song. I don't own it or any other song I might refer to.

Chapter 1: Family

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Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts.
--Wayne H

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"For the last time Ron, get up! I am not doing everything myself," Ginny frantically yelled down the hall as she cleaned her room and got dressed.

Virginia Weasley was in a great hurry. It was only seven in the morning, and she had overslept. Under normal circumstances, sleeping in during the summer holidays isn't anything to worry about. However, life at the Burrow is filled with anything but normal circumstances. After all, when a girl has both parents and several brothers as members of the Order of the Phoenix, things can get rather hectic. And that's on the good days.

Given the looming war with a certain dark lord named Voldemort, Ginny and the other Weasleys should have been staying at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place since it is seemingly more secure, but sometimes there are more important things than that. This leads to the reason that young Ginny had to get up at such a profane hour. Harry Potter was going to come to the Burrow today and there were still a lot of preparations to be made. After everything that Harry had went through during his fifth year, Albus Dumbledore, in his almost infinite wisdom, recognized that Harry's already fragile psyche could not handle going to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. It would be too hard for him because of Sirius's death, at least for now.

"Ron, you know that Harry's coming today. If you want to be a good friend and let him have a decent birthday for once, you'll get up now," Ginny continued, growing impatient.

Seeing that this method was going to be unsuccessful, Ginny decided she would have to use a more puckish method to wake up her brother. By the time she reached his door, she had the perfect idea.

"Fine, have it your way. Sleep. I guess Hermione will help me get everything ready. You know, she should be here any minute now," she said in the sweetest voice she could muster.

"Huh? Hermione? She's here? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Relax Ron. She's not here yet. You don't have to worry about her seeing you in your Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle pajamas."

"What do you mean Martin Miggs pajamas? You know that I don't wear those…anymore."

"Yeah, well at least you cut the footsies off when wore them last summer."

"Funny Ginny, really funny," Ron replied as he threw his pillow at her.

"Thanks. I thought so," Ginny said, gracefully catching the pillow, "Anyway, I just did it so you would finally get up. We have to make the food, put up the decorations, and get everything else ready for Harry's party since Dad's at work, Mum and the twins are picking him up from the Dursleys' house, and Charlie is doing a little work for the Order while he's in the area. At least we can be thankful that the house was cleaned last night."

"What about Bill?  Can't he help with all of the preparations?"

"Well, unless you want some Death Eaters to crash the party, Bill is going to have his hands full making sure that all of the protective wards that Dumbledore arranged are in place. Besides, he's the one bringing Hermione here, and I know how important that is to you. "

 "Oh, okay then," Ron said sheepishly.

"Honestly Ron. Enough chitchat. If you don't get ready now, Hermione really will see your pajamas," Ginny laughed, turning to leave, "And one last thing, next time you throw a pillow at someone, don't make it so easy to catch. Here you go."

Ron sat up just in time to see his pillow flying straight towards his head.

"I swear sometimes…" Ron mumbled as he stood up, having decided that this was as good a time as any to shower and get dressed.

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About fifteen minutes later, Ron came stumbling down the stairs and into the kitchen. In reality, he did appear to be considerably more awake. He even had changed into his best jeans. Even though he was wearing a Chudley Cannons t-shirt, at least it wasn't wrinkled. He walked over to Ginny who was sitting at the table about to finish off the toast she was eating for breakfast. When he got there, he reached across the table and grabbed the last of her toast and shoved it in his mouth.

"Furanks, tis." Ron coughed as he mussed Ginny's long, vibrant hair.

"Ron, if you insist on stealing my toast, that's fine, but at least chew and swallow before you talk. Oh, and I believe I have told on several occasions, mind you, that if MESS MY HAIR UP AGAIN, I WILL HAVE TO HURT YOU!" Ginny hollered as she punched his arm.

"Awww, does someone want to make sure her hair's perfect for Harry? Come on, you can tell me," Ron teased.

"Get off it Ron. If I did feel that way, which I don't, I wouldn't bloody likely be telling you," Ginny said, while a slight blush crept onto her cheeks.

'Why do I still blush? I am not supposed to blush. He's just a friend,' Ginny said to herself, 'Plus, I don't have time for this.'

"Is that so, Ginnykins? If that's the case, please let me know, just why are you wearing the new dress the twins got you? I thought Mum didn't quite approve of it." 

Ginny considered her slightly flowing, deep indigo dress for a minute, 'It's not that bad, it's only a few inches above my knee, and it kinda' has sleeves, even if they are only a couple of inches wide. Besides, the neckline is about as high as everything else I own. Maybe it's just because the bodice is a little more form fitting.'

"Ron, as much as fun as this is, we really need to get to work. It might take a while to get everything done since we aren't supposed to do magic right now."

"Yeah, I suppose you're…"

Ron suddenly stopped mid-sentence when he heard a loud crash by the door, immediately followed by a high-pitched screech. Unsure of what it might be, he checked that his wand was with him and crept to the door. However, that might not have been the best thing to do because as soon as he got to the door, it was flung open, knocking him down in the process.

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Author's Notes: This is my first fan-fic. Actually this the first bit of creative writing that I've done in an extremely long time, unless you would count the stupid three paragraph ghost story I had to write for the Spanish class I had a couple of semesters ago. Other than that, most of my writing is for research papers and essays. With this in mind, I would greatly appreciate any feedback, both positive and negative. Even if you have a minor complaint, such as a misspelled word or something like that, I would like to know, so that I hopefully don't make the same mistake again. Also, I have noticed a lot of other authors writing about having problems with formatting showing up on ff.net in a way that it wasn't supposed to. If there's something that you don't like about my formatting please let me know. Also, I'm American, so if I have any blatant or out of place Americanisms, let me know.

Oh, and what did you all think of the length of the chapter. I originally had this as a longer chapter, but I decided at the last minute that I really wanted to end it here. I should have the next chapter up really soon.

Thanks bunches,

Paz