Lily's Author's Notes: Once again, we owe it all to the all-powerful J.K
Rowling, who would probably be appalled if she saw this pathetic story.
This story will probably be one or two more chapters at the most, and we
thank you so much for reading. As you know, "time is galleons!" so thanks
for spending your precious galleons on us!!! Also, the mention of superman
and ketchup is merely a stewpod inside joke that has nothing to do with the
story and was put there mainly for the entertainment of the authors.
Emmeline's Author's Notes: WE. LOVE. REVIEWS!!! Even if you thought it was the absolute worst story you have ever read, then click the "submit review" button and SAY SO!! If you don't really feel that strongly about it, then please, just leave a quick note saying "liked it" or "didn't like it" or if you want just "I read it". IT MAKES US HAPPY (and you want happy authors!). If you reviewed, thanks a million. An if you didn't, PLEASE REVIEW NOW!!
A free tea cozy to everyone who reviewed, and one blue sock with the logo "I don't have a life, I have a dragon." For everyone who actually liked it!!
CHAPTER FOUR That night, Ginny lay awake for a long time, the days events running through her head. All the people, the lights, the festivities, made her feel as though she didn't miss her family too much. And the computer- it was the most amazing thing that Ginny had ever seen, including the time when George accidentally transfigured Fred's arms into octopus tentacles. Hermione had showed her many strange things- but the two that Ginny really thought were cool was something that let you send letters even faster than owls could, making them seemingly magically appear in someone else's computer, and the- what was it called again?- program that displayed pictures. Ginny recognized a few of them as the same ones from the album, but to her disappointment, the computer did not make them move in the normal way. Unfortunately they had to go to bed before she could take a look at the inner-net thing. It seemed the most remarkable that even though muggles did not have magic, wizards and witches still had to pour over books for hours looking for one fact of information, while muggles pressed a few keys and had their answer immediately! She made a mental note to ask her father if there was something like that in the wizarding world. Perhaps he could combine his knowledge of magic and muggles to create something like a computer, except even better! Ginny drifted off to sleep imagining all the wonderful things you could find out in seconds....you could find out anything...everything..
She was soon to discover that there are some things you are better off NOT knowing....
***
She awoke to a bright light shining through the window onto her face. Looking at her new alarm clock sitting on the table beside her, she realized that it was nearly eleven. She sat up quickly and looked around. Hermione was still asleep as well. Relived that she was not the only one who was exhausted, she got up. She walked to the bathroom and quickly splashed some cold water on her face and brushed her teeth.
She threw on some jeans and a ratty old tee shirt (a hand-me-down from Charlie, with a logo on the back that said "I don't have a life. I have a dragon.", and a picture of a fiery red Hungarian horntail.) and flopped down again on her bed. She was well rested and wide awake. But it seemed as if she was the only one. There were no sounds coming from the kitchen, which meant the Grangers were still asleep, and no Lord of the Rings reruns from the TV room which meant Harry and Ron too were having a lie-in that morning. She glanced around at her Christmas presents. They were all great, but nothing she could really fiddle with or read. Then, suddenly, she remembered. Her gaze fell on the "box" on the desk in the corner of Hermione's room. The computer! She walked over and sat down in the squishy chair and pressed the "on" button. The noise it made when it started up no longer startled her, but she still marveled at the ingenious design of the machine in front of her. Once it was finished loading she clicked on the little "E" icon that stood for the internet explorer program. The colorful GOOGLE homepage came onto the screen, and Ginny mentally quizzed herself on her internet vocabulary ("homepage", "search engine", etc.) for a second before grabbing the mouse. What should she search for? She could look at most anything she wanted with the computer. Was there anything in the muggle world she wanted to know about? No, Ginny decided, there really wasn't anything she couldn't just ask Hermione about.
Oh, why not? Ginny thought to herself. Feeling slightly daring she slowly typed "Ginny Weasley" into the white box and pressed the "GOOGLE search" button on the left side.
Ginny blinked. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. At the top, in bold white print on a background of blue said the words "Results 1- 10 of 49,000".
Ginny stared. And stared. And stared. There were headings saying things like " FATE: the Ginny Weasley fanlisting." As the title and a summary that said " The Wizard Folk Ginny Weasley. 'the thing about growing up with Fred and George for brothers'. Ginny: baby sister, best friend."
But there was more. Lots more. People kept saying stuff about fanfiction. There was stuff about Ron. And Harry. And Hermione. And Draco. Stuff that made her cringe, things that made her blush (I mean REALLY blush), and things that made her want to throw up on the spot. (She found herself thinking "Eeeew..me and Draco?") But mostly she was just confused. Dumbfounded. Completely, completely, terrified at what she had just found.
Something was wrong; terribly, terribly wrong. People.people seemed to know about her. About her life. About the magical world itself. And it was all here. all of it, and more, on this- this- MUGGLE -whatchamacallit- WEBSITE!!!! 49,000 results!!! Her first reaction was to run away, out of the room, and forget she had ever learned about computers. Her second was to scream. But she did neither of those things. She couldn't speak and she felt as if she were glued to the spot. Maybe- maybe it wasn't her. Maybe there was some famous Ginny Weasley in the magical world. But how would they know about Harry? And Ron? And Hermione. HOW could this be a coincidence? But what if it wasn't? She did the only thing it made sense for her to do. She regained her ability to move, leapt from the chair, and sprinted across the room towards Hermione's bed. "Hermione! HERMIONE!" Ginny could barely keep her voice down to a whisper. She pulled the covers off of her friend to find that Hermione had a book lying on her face. Ginny could only hope that she had gotten enough sleep to actually wake up. "HERMIONE WAKE UP!" she said, not bothering to whisper anymore. "AAAAI!" Hermione suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, consequently banging her head very hard against Ginny's skull. "Ow," Hermione muttered groggily, coming to her senses. "Sorry, I was having this crazy dream that bottles of ketchup were squirting at me from all directions, and then Snape showed up in a superman suit and- Ginny, are you all right?" Hermione gave a large yawn. "Wha-ahhhh-ts the matter?" Ginny fought to stay calm. "You are never going to believe this. Never. Never. Oh my god. I mean, how did they find out? They're muggles- how- how in the world- Hermione- they know about me. I mean, not just that I exist, but ALL ABOUT ME! All over the Internet, you too and everyone else almost everyone else at Hogwarts" "Ginny. Stop. You're going to hyperventilate. What's wrong? What's all this about being on the Internet?" Ginny took a deep breath, but her head still felt like it was spinning. "Okay. I woke up, and I really wanted to try out your computer. So I got up and went on the Inter-net. I'm sorry I didn't ask your permission," she added hastily. "I don't care. You can use it whenever you want. Go on." "No way. I never want to use it again. Well, not the Inter-net, anyway. I went to Google, and then I did a search engine thingy, except I couldn't think of what to look for." Ginny couldn't take the time to remember the proper names for things. "So I just typed in my name. I dunno, I thought maybe I would read about other people with the same name as me or something, I really wasn't thinking about it, and then I looked and there were thousands of results, I'm not exaggerating, Hermione there were thousands, and there were things about you and Harry and Ron and Mum and Dad and Fred and George and Bill and Charlie and Percy and Malfoy and it wasn't good either, most of it, but never mind that! The point is that EVERYONE can go and see everything about us, even muggles, and everyone is going to find out about magic if we don't do something! Not to mention that there is STUFF about me! On the Netthingy!" "Hold on. Slow down. Are you telling me that we are on the Internet?"
"YES! Haven't you heard a THING I said!?" "I'm just trying to take this step by step," Hermione said irritably. "Panicking isn't going to do anything. So, on the World Wide Web, there is accessible information about you and those around you. And what sort of information is it again?" "Well- I only looked at a bit, but it's all there- my family members, where I live, and stuff about things at Hogwarts that happened to me but there was also some things that WERE NOT TRUE AT ALL. I mean, really! I have no clue what is going on, but I do know that I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER let Malfoy the supreme prat of the universe come NEAR me again!"
"Ginny- are you saying that some things on the web suggested ,er, a relationship between you and.MALFOY? Ew." "I know! But come see for yourself it's crazy." Hermione dragged herself out of bed and walked over to the computer, squinting at the screen in front of her. After a few minutes, Ginny ceased her muttering of, "How did they know? How did they know? How did they know? How did they know?" to ask, "Hermione, are you all right?" Hermione was still staring at the screen, her mouth hanging open. It was probably the closest to stupid anyone would ever see her look. "Oh my god," she said. "Oh my god."
************ During breakfast, Ginny and Hermione had tried to seem as normal as possible. Since everyone had stayed up extremely late last night, they were too tired to notice anything different. The soonest chance they got, they dashed upstairs to decide what to do. "We definitely shouldn't tell anyone yet," Hermione said as soon as they closed the door. "It's insane enough already. Besides, Harry and Ron are having fun, and I don't want to ruin their holiday." Ginny snorted. "All they're doing is watching the special features of 'The Lord of the Rings." But I think you're right. What're we going to do though? We have to tell somebody!" "Yes, who though? The obvious person would be Dumbledore, but I don't know how to contact him" "Just ask Harry to borrow Hedwig. She's so smart, I borrowed her to send a letter to my friends, and she found them even though she'd never been to their house! Don't even bother trying Pig, he's smart enough I guess, but whenever he sees a new place he won't leave." "Well, we could give it a try but that means we somehow have to pry Harry's attention away from "The Lord of the Rings" to ask him." "Oh no. That's impossible then, better think of another idea." Hermione managed to give a little laugh, but they were both feeling so confused that Ginny didn't think her heart was really in it. It seemed that Hermione wasn't confused enough to let up on Harry and Ron though. After thanking Harry for agreeing to let them use Hedwig, she frowned and looked at Ron, who was staring open mouthed at the screen. Currently there seemed to be large amounts of blood streaming from "Sam's" foot. "I am going to make you two read the book." She declared firmly. "And DON'T tell me it's too long, Ron, if you are this obsessed with it you won't mind."
Emmeline's Author's Notes: WE. LOVE. REVIEWS!!! Even if you thought it was the absolute worst story you have ever read, then click the "submit review" button and SAY SO!! If you don't really feel that strongly about it, then please, just leave a quick note saying "liked it" or "didn't like it" or if you want just "I read it". IT MAKES US HAPPY (and you want happy authors!). If you reviewed, thanks a million. An if you didn't, PLEASE REVIEW NOW!!
A free tea cozy to everyone who reviewed, and one blue sock with the logo "I don't have a life, I have a dragon." For everyone who actually liked it!!
CHAPTER FOUR That night, Ginny lay awake for a long time, the days events running through her head. All the people, the lights, the festivities, made her feel as though she didn't miss her family too much. And the computer- it was the most amazing thing that Ginny had ever seen, including the time when George accidentally transfigured Fred's arms into octopus tentacles. Hermione had showed her many strange things- but the two that Ginny really thought were cool was something that let you send letters even faster than owls could, making them seemingly magically appear in someone else's computer, and the- what was it called again?- program that displayed pictures. Ginny recognized a few of them as the same ones from the album, but to her disappointment, the computer did not make them move in the normal way. Unfortunately they had to go to bed before she could take a look at the inner-net thing. It seemed the most remarkable that even though muggles did not have magic, wizards and witches still had to pour over books for hours looking for one fact of information, while muggles pressed a few keys and had their answer immediately! She made a mental note to ask her father if there was something like that in the wizarding world. Perhaps he could combine his knowledge of magic and muggles to create something like a computer, except even better! Ginny drifted off to sleep imagining all the wonderful things you could find out in seconds....you could find out anything...everything..
She was soon to discover that there are some things you are better off NOT knowing....
***
She awoke to a bright light shining through the window onto her face. Looking at her new alarm clock sitting on the table beside her, she realized that it was nearly eleven. She sat up quickly and looked around. Hermione was still asleep as well. Relived that she was not the only one who was exhausted, she got up. She walked to the bathroom and quickly splashed some cold water on her face and brushed her teeth.
She threw on some jeans and a ratty old tee shirt (a hand-me-down from Charlie, with a logo on the back that said "I don't have a life. I have a dragon.", and a picture of a fiery red Hungarian horntail.) and flopped down again on her bed. She was well rested and wide awake. But it seemed as if she was the only one. There were no sounds coming from the kitchen, which meant the Grangers were still asleep, and no Lord of the Rings reruns from the TV room which meant Harry and Ron too were having a lie-in that morning. She glanced around at her Christmas presents. They were all great, but nothing she could really fiddle with or read. Then, suddenly, she remembered. Her gaze fell on the "box" on the desk in the corner of Hermione's room. The computer! She walked over and sat down in the squishy chair and pressed the "on" button. The noise it made when it started up no longer startled her, but she still marveled at the ingenious design of the machine in front of her. Once it was finished loading she clicked on the little "E" icon that stood for the internet explorer program. The colorful GOOGLE homepage came onto the screen, and Ginny mentally quizzed herself on her internet vocabulary ("homepage", "search engine", etc.) for a second before grabbing the mouse. What should she search for? She could look at most anything she wanted with the computer. Was there anything in the muggle world she wanted to know about? No, Ginny decided, there really wasn't anything she couldn't just ask Hermione about.
Oh, why not? Ginny thought to herself. Feeling slightly daring she slowly typed "Ginny Weasley" into the white box and pressed the "GOOGLE search" button on the left side.
Ginny blinked. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. At the top, in bold white print on a background of blue said the words "Results 1- 10 of 49,000".
Ginny stared. And stared. And stared. There were headings saying things like " FATE: the Ginny Weasley fanlisting." As the title and a summary that said " The Wizard Folk Ginny Weasley. 'the thing about growing up with Fred and George for brothers'. Ginny: baby sister, best friend."
But there was more. Lots more. People kept saying stuff about fanfiction. There was stuff about Ron. And Harry. And Hermione. And Draco. Stuff that made her cringe, things that made her blush (I mean REALLY blush), and things that made her want to throw up on the spot. (She found herself thinking "Eeeew..me and Draco?") But mostly she was just confused. Dumbfounded. Completely, completely, terrified at what she had just found.
Something was wrong; terribly, terribly wrong. People.people seemed to know about her. About her life. About the magical world itself. And it was all here. all of it, and more, on this- this- MUGGLE -whatchamacallit- WEBSITE!!!! 49,000 results!!! Her first reaction was to run away, out of the room, and forget she had ever learned about computers. Her second was to scream. But she did neither of those things. She couldn't speak and she felt as if she were glued to the spot. Maybe- maybe it wasn't her. Maybe there was some famous Ginny Weasley in the magical world. But how would they know about Harry? And Ron? And Hermione. HOW could this be a coincidence? But what if it wasn't? She did the only thing it made sense for her to do. She regained her ability to move, leapt from the chair, and sprinted across the room towards Hermione's bed. "Hermione! HERMIONE!" Ginny could barely keep her voice down to a whisper. She pulled the covers off of her friend to find that Hermione had a book lying on her face. Ginny could only hope that she had gotten enough sleep to actually wake up. "HERMIONE WAKE UP!" she said, not bothering to whisper anymore. "AAAAI!" Hermione suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, consequently banging her head very hard against Ginny's skull. "Ow," Hermione muttered groggily, coming to her senses. "Sorry, I was having this crazy dream that bottles of ketchup were squirting at me from all directions, and then Snape showed up in a superman suit and- Ginny, are you all right?" Hermione gave a large yawn. "Wha-ahhhh-ts the matter?" Ginny fought to stay calm. "You are never going to believe this. Never. Never. Oh my god. I mean, how did they find out? They're muggles- how- how in the world- Hermione- they know about me. I mean, not just that I exist, but ALL ABOUT ME! All over the Internet, you too and everyone else almost everyone else at Hogwarts" "Ginny. Stop. You're going to hyperventilate. What's wrong? What's all this about being on the Internet?" Ginny took a deep breath, but her head still felt like it was spinning. "Okay. I woke up, and I really wanted to try out your computer. So I got up and went on the Inter-net. I'm sorry I didn't ask your permission," she added hastily. "I don't care. You can use it whenever you want. Go on." "No way. I never want to use it again. Well, not the Inter-net, anyway. I went to Google, and then I did a search engine thingy, except I couldn't think of what to look for." Ginny couldn't take the time to remember the proper names for things. "So I just typed in my name. I dunno, I thought maybe I would read about other people with the same name as me or something, I really wasn't thinking about it, and then I looked and there were thousands of results, I'm not exaggerating, Hermione there were thousands, and there were things about you and Harry and Ron and Mum and Dad and Fred and George and Bill and Charlie and Percy and Malfoy and it wasn't good either, most of it, but never mind that! The point is that EVERYONE can go and see everything about us, even muggles, and everyone is going to find out about magic if we don't do something! Not to mention that there is STUFF about me! On the Netthingy!" "Hold on. Slow down. Are you telling me that we are on the Internet?"
"YES! Haven't you heard a THING I said!?" "I'm just trying to take this step by step," Hermione said irritably. "Panicking isn't going to do anything. So, on the World Wide Web, there is accessible information about you and those around you. And what sort of information is it again?" "Well- I only looked at a bit, but it's all there- my family members, where I live, and stuff about things at Hogwarts that happened to me but there was also some things that WERE NOT TRUE AT ALL. I mean, really! I have no clue what is going on, but I do know that I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER let Malfoy the supreme prat of the universe come NEAR me again!"
"Ginny- are you saying that some things on the web suggested ,er, a relationship between you and.MALFOY? Ew." "I know! But come see for yourself it's crazy." Hermione dragged herself out of bed and walked over to the computer, squinting at the screen in front of her. After a few minutes, Ginny ceased her muttering of, "How did they know? How did they know? How did they know? How did they know?" to ask, "Hermione, are you all right?" Hermione was still staring at the screen, her mouth hanging open. It was probably the closest to stupid anyone would ever see her look. "Oh my god," she said. "Oh my god."
************ During breakfast, Ginny and Hermione had tried to seem as normal as possible. Since everyone had stayed up extremely late last night, they were too tired to notice anything different. The soonest chance they got, they dashed upstairs to decide what to do. "We definitely shouldn't tell anyone yet," Hermione said as soon as they closed the door. "It's insane enough already. Besides, Harry and Ron are having fun, and I don't want to ruin their holiday." Ginny snorted. "All they're doing is watching the special features of 'The Lord of the Rings." But I think you're right. What're we going to do though? We have to tell somebody!" "Yes, who though? The obvious person would be Dumbledore, but I don't know how to contact him" "Just ask Harry to borrow Hedwig. She's so smart, I borrowed her to send a letter to my friends, and she found them even though she'd never been to their house! Don't even bother trying Pig, he's smart enough I guess, but whenever he sees a new place he won't leave." "Well, we could give it a try but that means we somehow have to pry Harry's attention away from "The Lord of the Rings" to ask him." "Oh no. That's impossible then, better think of another idea." Hermione managed to give a little laugh, but they were both feeling so confused that Ginny didn't think her heart was really in it. It seemed that Hermione wasn't confused enough to let up on Harry and Ron though. After thanking Harry for agreeing to let them use Hedwig, she frowned and looked at Ron, who was staring open mouthed at the screen. Currently there seemed to be large amounts of blood streaming from "Sam's" foot. "I am going to make you two read the book." She declared firmly. "And DON'T tell me it's too long, Ron, if you are this obsessed with it you won't mind."