Thanks to those of you who have reviewed!

This is my first fanfic, so I hope it's going alright. Disclaimer: If I owned these characters, I'd be millionare right now, and seeing as I'm not...then only the ones you HAVEN'T heard of are mine.

Chapter 5- The Putnams

Harry left the Burrow, leaving Brian to deal with the pain he had brought upon himself. He went to the first place he thought she might go, Hermione's house. Hermione still lived at home with her parents, so the first inhabitant Harry saw was a very shocked looking Kathryn Granger, Hemione's mum.

"Oh, sorry," Harry realized that the Grangers, being muggles, weren't used to apparation. "Is Hermione around? I really need to speak with her."

"Uh, yes, dear, she's in her room," Kathryn was able to get out, and just hoped this wasn't a life-threatening situation. The Grangers weren't told of the situation with the death eaters and Voldermort until after the threat had passed. They were shocked, to say the least, but she trusted her daughter and Hermione's friends could all handle themselves by now.

Harry ran and knocked on the door, but before getting any response shouted, "Hermione, have you seen Ginny? Is she in there with you?" He was desperate to find her, and seeing as she had a suitcase, the best-case scenario would be that Ginny was spending a few days at a friend's house.

Hermione opened the door, shocked to see Harry looking so flustered. "No, Harry, I haven't seen Ginny for almost a week. Why, what's happening?"

Harry didn't know where to start. "We have to find her Hermione."

"Come in here, and tell me what happened. Accio chair."

Harry entered the orderly bedroom that had walls lined with bookshelves. He sat down in the chair Hermione summoned for him, and explained it all. "... And now, I have no idea where she's gone. I hoped that she would have come here, but I guess I was wrong."

Hermione sighed, "I hate to say this Harry, but I don't think we're going to find her."

"What? But we have to Hermione, think of the Weasleys, think of Ron, and what about-"

"I don't think you're thinking of them, first. Second, think of Ginny."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know why she left? Maybe she has good reason."

"She left because her stupid git of a boyfriend was only dating her to get a good job working with Charlie. That's a pretty lame reason to leave." But as he finished he noticed a look of understanding on Hermione's face. "What? What is it?"

"Harry, she didn't leave because of Brian."

"What do you mean? I saw her hit the guy, and run out on him!"

"That wasn't the reason, though. Brian was just the last straw."

"Could you please explain this to me, because I'm completely lost."

"Ginny's been upset because she hasn't been recognized for herself lately, she's been recognized for her last name. If I was to wager a guess, I'd say she went off to live where that name doesn't mean anything to anyone."

"That could be anywhere!"

"Then we'll just have to wait for her to contact us." Hermione said this with a finality, which made Harry understand that this was truly upsetting Hermione as well. He decided to go wait at the Burrow so he could at least explain all of this to Molly and Arthur.

Ginny arrived by portkey to Salem, Massachusetts. She had to exchange her money, once again, from United Kingdom muggle money to American muggle money. Why they couldn't be the same she just didn't understand. Ginny thought she was told that she had 3,569 of these things called dollars, and 59 sense. This was all confusing to her, but she had set up an account the first morning she was there, and happened to find an American witch that helped her figure out how much to give the hotel cashier to rent a room for the night.

This witch was working as a maid for the hotel, and heard Ginny muttering in frustration about 'bloody muggle currency'. She showed Ginny up to her room and locked the door behind them.

"You're a witch, aren't you," the strange girl said. Ginny was in shock.

"How do you know that?"

"You were letting wizarding words slip. Careful not to talk about stuff like that, the witch trials may be over, but they'll think you're crazy, talking to yourself like that. My name is Jasmine Putnam, pleased to meet you."

"Ginny, Ginny Weasley. Thank you for helping me out down there, I couldn't make head or tails of the money." Jasmine let out a small giggle. "What's so funny?"

So Jasmine explained that in the muggle world, the sides of coins were either known as 'head' or 'tail'. She went on to find out about why Ginny was here, Brian (who Jasmine didn't care for in the least), Ginny's family, and how scared Ginny actually was to be here, in a country she'd never been to, all alone.

"Well, you could stay with my family for a while. I'll ask mom when I go home tonight. You'd have to put up with my annoying little brother, but other than that I can promise you it'd be better than being here all by yourself. Mom might even be able to help you get a job, or something."

This was all a great relief to Ginny. This was just what she needed. People whom she had to tell about her past, instead of everyone knowing and assuming things based on her surname.

One month later

"I can't believe it! I finally have a job!" Ginny came into the room Jasmine had graciously shared with her making the announcement as loud as possible. Mrs. Putnam had been training Ginny how to use muggle devices, like the telephone, and a computer, and such so that Ginny might be able to get another secretarial position, since that was the only past job experience she had.

"Good job Gin!" Jasmine got up and started jumping up and down with her. "What job is it?"

"This interior designer needed a secretary, and she's hired me! Her name is Sophie Stevens. I start at twelve dollars an hour. Wait," Ginny started thinking ", is that good?"

Jasmine's eyes had gone wide. "That's great! You'll be earning enough to buy an apartment some day! Not that I want you to move out." She stated as an afterthought. "I always did want a sister."

They started dancing around the room again until Jasmine's mom came in to see what the fuss was all about.

Not long later, they were eating out in celebration of Ginny's new job. Ginny hadn't expected finding a job to be so hard to find. Before, all she had to do was go to the interview, but now, now her last name wasn't such an advantage. Instead of feeling upset, or discouraged about this, though, she felt all the more proud for finding herself a job.

"I insist on paying you rent, Mrs. Putnam."

"For the last time, Ginny, you can call me Angela, or, seeing as my children have already adopted you, you may call me mom. And you don't have to pay me a dime. I always have the rule that as long as my children are going to school or working productively, they can live at home for free."

It was true. Ginny really had become a part of the family. The Putnams had shown her around the infamous Salem. They even had family that had been there during the trials. It was Jasmine's great-great-great-great aunt, or something (could have been one or two more 'greats' in there) that was one of the condemners. They laugh at what Ann Putnam would think if she knew that some of her ancestors were real witches.

Jasmine was a third generation witch. Her grandfather was a muggle-born. Her father had died when Jasmine was ten and her brother, Tyler, was four. Jasmine was now 16 years old, and worked after school for the hotel. Their father's death seemed a sore spot, which Ginny never touched.

"Ginny, have you written your family lately?" Angela asked before taking a bite of her burger. Ginny was just getting used to burgers and French fries being such a big thing here in America.

"Not since I first came here. Jasmine took me to the local owl post, but international rates are so outrageous, and I've wanted to save my money until I knew I had a means of earning more."

"You could have used my owl," this coming from the ten-year-old Tyler.

"Thanks, buddy, but that's a little far for Ruddy to fly."

"Well, then I think we ought to be getting you an owl that will be able to fly that far," Angela said with a grin of satisfaction. "You know, we still need to give you a gift for getting the job."

That next Sunday- at the Burrow

"Ronald, can't you help Hermione put away the dishes?" Molly was exasperated by her son's laziness, and couldn't help but think of how Ginny would be so willing to do the dishes with her. Ron got up and went into the kitchen, with Harry following feeling as though he should participate in the cleaning as well.

Molly sat down and had just barely put her feet up when a medium sized reddish brown owl came through the open window. She figured it must be Fred and George sending their excuses to why they didn't come to family dinner tonight with one of their many delivery owls. She went to grab a owl treat, exchanged it for the letter, before ever noticing that the handwriting was too neat to be either Fred or George's.

Molly ripped the letter open, and upon seeing who it was from let out a wail of joy. "Arthur! Arthur! Ginny wrote to us! ARTHUR!" Everyone came running into the living room after hearing her scream this out. Bill and Charlie stood by the fireplace, Hermione took a seat in the rocking chair with Ron standing behind, his hands on her shoulders. Harry didn't know where to place himself. He was so shocked by the letter that he just stood in the door way to the kitchen. Percy found his way to the couch and Arthur took the letter from Molly's shaking hands. Her eyes were tearing so badly that she would have never been able to read it.

"Dear Mum, Dad, Ron, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Hermione, and Harry," Arthur began. Harry smiled at the fact that she at least remembered him in her address. "Sorry it's taken so long for me to write to you. The family I've been staying with has an owl that's worse than Errol. Well, it's really just retired to being a family pet, instead of a reliable source of communication. Mrs. Putnam got me one of my own that would be able to travel across seas as a congratulations on my new job! Yes, I finally got a job! I didn't realize that it would be so difficult here, but I am working for an Interior Designer. She's a muggle, but she seems nice enough. I know how to use a telephone and everything now, so I'll be able to show dad sometime. The Putnams have become like a second family to me, but this time, I'm the oldest sibling. You don't have to worry though, I would never torture them the way I was. Hope everything is going well at the Burrow. I send everyone my love. Ginny."

When Arthur finished reading this, there was silence for the next few minutes. Bill was the first to say anything. "Ginny sounds like she's happy."