He sat by the fire, staring moodily at the sparks burning holes into the rugs. I sat down beside him and Hermione on the three person couch. It was a typical Thursday night in the Gryffindor common room. Students doing homework, talking, and such. Not that noisy, considering Fred and George had left the previous year (a dramatic leaving, of course, they had to go out with a bang).
Hermione sighed. "they really should cover that fire, so the house elves don't have to patch up the carpet," she said reprovingly.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Still on about SPEW, eh?"
Hermione nodded, choosing to ignore the way Harry said the name of her house elf help organization. "of course. I'm even thinking about writing to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, the way some house elves are treated, it's disgusting. You'd think they'd have some kind of laws…" she trailed off at the look Harry was giving her.
"Reparo," I said quietly, pointing her wand at the carpet. It magically patched itself up, and the embers were reduced to dust.
"Thanks, Ginny," said Hermione approvingly. "if we had more people like you, the house elves would have a much easier job."
I smiled. I've always liked Hermione's way of standing up for things she believes in, like SPEW, even though her friends made fun of her.
"What's Ron doing over there with Angelina?" Hermione asked, craning her neck to see what they were up to.
"No worries, 'Hermy'," Harry smirked, "your lover isn't cheating on you."
Hermione looked offended. "lover? Since when are Ron and I lovers?" She said scathingly.
"Touched a sore spot, didn't I, Hermione?" Harry seemed to be in a particular foul mood where he got his kicks from bugging his best friends.
Hermione turned angrily away from Harry.
"Oh, he just screwed up one of our quidditch plays rather badly," I explained, "so Angelina's making him learn them by theory."
Secretly I was thinking about how rude Harry was being to Hermione. Not that Hermione's a pushover or anything, but I wouldn't take that crap from him. Everyone has bad days, so what gives Harry the right to mouth off at his friends?
Ron and Angelina were standing in an empty corner of the common room. Ron was feverishly prodding a poster with seven red X's and seven green X's. Angelina was giving him an evil glare, and whenever Ron seemed to make a mistake, he would look over to her, flustered, and get confused. The third time this happened while Ginny was watching, Ron gripped his wand so hard that his knuckles turned white and his wand shot sparks, singeing the poster and giving off a foul smell of burning plastic. Angelina crossed her arms and gave Ron a final last glare, then threw her hands up in despair and walked away, throwing a book at him that Ginny recognized as 'Quidditch Theory Through the Ages', written by the same author as 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. Ron sighed, sat down, and opened it, looking supremely bored.
"Angelina looks like she's ready to shoot sparks," Hermione replied, tearing me away from the image of my brother pretending to read.
"Well no wonder, he was incredibly stupid at practice, thicker than a fat cow," Harry spat moodily.
Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the giggling. "a fat cow?" she asked, her face red and her voice strained from trying to not to laugh aloud.
"Yeah, it's the only thing I could think of," Harry muttered, staring at the rug in front of them, which now had more holes in it due to the embers the fire was shooting.
A fat cow. Good Lord, you could tell the guy spent the first 11 years of his life with muggles.
The three of us sat quiet for a minute, gazing off and thinking in our own private worlds.
Finally Hermione broke the silence. "Harry?"
"What?" He asked irritably, still with the annoyed tone in his voice.
"Did- did- was it… did you have another fight with Cho?" Hermione asked tentatively.
Cho. Man, did I ever hate her! Mostly because she's the seeker on the Ravenclaw quidditch team, and she had once won a match against me. I also couldn't stand her because of the way she treated Harry. It was horrible! I don't understand how anyone could be that cruel to Harry. Okay, maybe I'm biased, but… whatever. She's evil.
Cho seemed to solve this problem by just ignoring Harry. But he had accidentally tripped her in the hallway, and Cho seemed to be grateful for the excuse to yell at Harry. Thank God she was graduating next year. And the year after that, so was Harry… but I don't want to think about that now.
"Yeah," Harry said quietly, running his hands up and down the sides of his jeans. "it's not my fault that she trips over her own bloody feet. I mean, what else is there to say once you trip someone, other than 'I'm sorry'?"
Hermione sighed so loudly that her bangs floated up. She shook her head. "I don't know. Just try to avoid her, or something."
"I guess," Harry nodded, still staring into the fire.
Hermione turned her head ever so slightly to glance at Ron. When she saw he was looking at her, she quickly turned away. I suppressed a giggle. Those two. When is one of them going to get up the courage to tell the other they like them? I mean, it's not that hard.
Okay, I just looked at Harry, and I changed my mind. It is that hard.
"So, you two coming to Grimmauld Place this Christmas?" Harry asked, glancing around at me and Hermione.
"Sure I am," I responded, "Mum, Bill, Charlie, Dad, Fred and George are in the Order, so it makes sense."
"Good grief, Ginny," Hermione shook her head. "it must make you so nervous, two-thirds of your family working for the Order of Phoenix? I feel sorry for your poor mother."
"Yeah, I never really thought about it, but I guess it is two-thirds of us in it. Although I would guess that Mum wouldn't object having one more person in it." I said softly.
Hermione looked sympathetic. "Percy's still not writing then?"
"Yeah." I looked away. Thinking about my brother always made me uncomfortable for some reason. I hate him so much for what he did to my Mum and Dad. In my mind, I'm not related to him, but it infuriates me to know he thinks that way about our parents.
"Well…" Harry looked determined to change the subject. "You're coming too, right Hermione?"
"Yup," said Hermione, all too cheerfully, trying to change the subject and move it to something brighter.
There was a tapping at the window, and it was getting annoying. Rather than get up and see what it was, I just sat on the couch, hoping it would go away. Finally, I had to turn around and yell to someone to quit it.
Colin Creevy was the one who figured it out. He got up to look out the window, and discovered that there was a very annoyed owl waiting there.
"Hey, Ginny Weasley?" He yelled into the common room at large while reading off the envelope that the disgruntled owl had brought.
"Yah, that's me," I dragged myself off the couch with half the common room staring at me.
"Letter for you!" Colin handed it to me
"Like I couldn't figure that one out," I said, rolling my eyes. I walked back to the couch before ripping it open. Out fell a letter in the handwriting that I recognized as my mother's, and a picture of a man in about his 30's, with brown hair and glasses.
I studied the picture for a second, then shrugged. No clue who this guy was. Oh well. Must say in the letter.
Hermione picked it up. "Who's this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
I shrugged again. "Beats me, I never seen him before in my life."
"You never saw him before in your life," Hermione corrected me.
I rolled my eyes. "Alright, alright already. At least leave me in peace to read my letter before you take it and correct the grammar in it." I teased.
Hermione went slightly pink. "Sorry, my parents are real sticklers for use of proper English, and I guess it rubbed off on me," She said sheepishly.
"No wonder they like grammar and proper English, I suppose they can't stand hearing another person talk like their patients do at the dentist's office while they're working on their teeth," Harry pointed out.
Hermione and I laughed. "True," she agreed.
I quickly read the letter, my heart beating faster and a feeling of disappointment came over me.
Hermione noticed the change in me almost immediately.
"Ginny? What's wrong? Is everything okay? Did someone get hurt?" She asked anxiously.
"No, everything's fine… but… I have to go live with a muggle!" I cried.
