A/N- sorry 'bout the long update peoples. Blame school and homework. And the fact that my internet crashed. Grrrrrrr… If you're wondering why the title's in French it's because I had French class today and I'm in a very French-obsessed mood. maniacal grin

Chapitre Trois: Bienvenue á California

Ginny smiled as the wind ruffled her hair. She loved flying. She sighed happily. Flying always helped take her mind off things. She looked down. Far below her she could see muggle towns and cars. They looked like toys from this distance. Ginny remembered that she wanted to get there sooner rather than later. She zoomed faster and faster. She'd never gone this fast before. The Firebolt went more than twice the speed her old Clean-sweep 7 could go.

After just ten minutes, she was soaring over the ocean. When she lost sight of land, she went into a steep dive. This was one of the things missed about being a Seeker. Some might find a dive like that less-than-thrilling (Ron and Hermione, to name two). Ginny wasn't "some." She grinned like a maniac and screamed with delight as the water sped up towards her. When she was about 2 ½ meters above the surface, she pulled to a stop. She laughed. That was fun.

Belatedly realizing she may have just terrified poor Ryan, she looked down to see if he was ok.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" he screamed, mimicking her.

"Oh, if Hermione could see me now," Ginny said to herself. "'Ginny! That was very irresponsible,'" she said, imitating Hermione, "'What if you hadn't pulled up in time? Not to mention that you're teaching Ryan bad habits.' Yup that's exactly what she would say," she told herself. She kept flying.

Twice during her fight she threw up. This confused her, because she never got airsick. Deciding it was probably a virus she'd swallowed or something, she shrugged it off.

Around 3 in the afternoon (according to her watch, at least) she finally sited land. After another half hour or so she was flying above what she guessed was northern Maine. She hovered for a few minutes looking for a safe place land. Eventually she saw a forest that looked deserted. She dived downwards, hoping that no muggles would notice her.

When she was a few feet above the treetops, she realized that she had a problem. The branches were too thick for her to squeeze through unhurt. So she sat there and thought. She desperately wanted to rest. If you sit on a broom for too long you develop "broomstick sores."

Finally, Ginny decided to use the Ruductor Curse to clear a pathway. It didn't work as well on sturdier objects like wooden branches but she figured it would do the trick. She took out her wand and pointed at a branch.

"Reducto," she said clearly. Several branches snapped and fell to the earth. It looked like a large boulder had fallen through the canopy. Satisfied with her work, Ginny slowly descended and alighted on the ground. She dismounted, lay down beneath a tree, and slept.

A little while later, Ginny woke up to the sound of a child wailing. She looked around for the source of the noise and then realized that Ryan was currently bawling his head off.

"All right, calm down little Weasly," she muttered tiredly. "Whaddaya want?" Ryan continued to wail. She sighed. "Are ya hungry? Tired? Poopy?" More wailing. "Let's see if you're poopy," Ginny said to herself. Whenever she was busy and alone, she would always talk to herself. True, Ryan was there but he didn't count. He was only one after all.

She set him down on a rock and undid his diaper. "Clean," she said and put it back on. Ryan continued to sob. "Ok, let's see if you're hungry." Ginny rummaged around in her trunk until she found a bottle.

After feeding Ryan, she realized how ravenous she was. Once again, she rummaged through her trunk until she found the bag of food her mum had packed for her. One PB&J sandwich, two apples and a bag of chips later she felt satiated.

She looked her watch. It said 5:13pm. "But here it's 12:13pm," Ginny said to herself and reset her watch to match the time zone. Then she decided that she'd better be going. She took off again.

Ginny was almost asleep on her broom by the time she finally got to California. Twice she nearly dozed/fell off. When she finally got to her apartment building in Santa Margarita, she wanted nothing more than to collapse onto a nice comfy bed. Hard to believe it was only- she glanced at the clock- 3:45pm.

Ginny walked up to the witch at the main desk. "Hello, I'm Vir- Valerie Peters," she said, correcting herself. She'd nearly given the woman her real name. "I rented an apartment here about a month ago."

The witch- her nametag said Deborah Clark- looked at a long list of names. "Let's see, Peters, Peters," she muttered to her self, looking down the list. "Ah, here you are. Level 12 room 1203. Here's your key," she said handing Ginny a key, "and a list of people to owl if there's a problem." Clark handed her a piece of paper with some names on it. "The elevators are that way," she added pointing down a hallway. Ginny thanked her and headed towards the elevator.

Her apartment was very nice looking. There were four rooms. One room was divided into 2 halves. One was a kitchen, which had already been furnished with a fridge, stove, sink, dishwasher, table and chairs, the Order having put them there when they'd rented it. The other half was a living room. It had fire place, couches, TV, and book-shelves with some books on them.

Another room was clearly the bedroom. It had a double bed, a dresser and a closet. Next to the bedroom was a bathroom with a toilet, sink, a mirror that doubled as a medicine cabinet, and a bathtub. The fourth room was completely empty, except for a closet. Ginny decided that this would be Ryan's room, though she would need to buy a crib and other baby furniture.

Ginny went back to the back to the bed room. That bed sure looked inviting… But first she needed to put Ryan somewhere. In the end she put him in her trunk with the top off, using her clothes as a mattress. Then, without bothering to take off her clothes, she crawled under the covers and went to sleep.

When Ginny awoke it was dark out. She looked at the clock. It was around 2:20am. She tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't. Eventually she gave up. She got up and wondered what she should do now. Her question was answered when Ryan started to wail again. She picked him up out of his makeshift crib and immediately saw what the problem was. Or smelled, actually.

"Eww, you stink little Weasly," Ginny said, wrinkling her nose as she changed his diaper. Ryan giggled. She sighed. He looked a lot like his parents, even at this age. He had Ron's freckles and red hair while he had Hermione's brown eyes and face.

Ginny gently bounced Ryan in her arms. He giggled again. "You're easily entertained, little Weasly," she commented. As if to prove her point he grabbed a lock of her hair and played with it, apparently fascinated. Yup," she said, "Definitely a Weasly boy."

She sat down on a couch and held Ryan in her arms. She talked to him, played with him, and when he got hungry, fed him.

"Being a Weasly boy," she said the third time she fed him, "I wouldn't expect any less."

When she could see the sun rise through the windows, she put Ryan in his "crib" and decided to make breakfast.

"Ok, what do we have," she muttered, looking through the cupboards. "Hmmm, let's see, pancake mix, cereal, and frozen waffles. Let's try the cereal." Ginny had never been much of a cook. Harry had always said he'd rather take a mystery liquid that Snape gave him than eat anything Ginny cooked. So she ate pre-prepared foods (like frozen waffles), foods that were simple to make, (like Mac n cheese or cereal), or food made by someone else (like Harry's cooking).

After breakfast, Ginny went shopping. First she changed the money she brought with her into American money. Then she bought some baby supplies for Ryan, like a real crib, a changing table, diapers, baby food, some clothes, and some toys. Then she bought some clothes for herself and some food.

When Ginny got home, she put these in their proper places. Then she changed and fed Ryan again and put him in his new crib. When she finished she collapsed on the couch and watched some TV. A little while later there was a knock on the door.

"I wonder who that could be," Ginny mused to herself as she opened the door. Standing in the hallway were two women around her age. One was African-American, who had blue eyes and her long hair in a braid. The other woman had straight shoulder length blonde hair and steel gray eyes.

The African- American woman held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Sam," she said cheerfully "My real name's Samantha Carlson but I don't like it that much so call me Sam."

Ginny shook Sam's hand firmly. "I'm Valerie Peters, and you can call me Val," she replied. Ginny turned to the blonde woman. "Who are you?" she asked curiously.

"I'm Danielle Forrester," the blonde woman answered. "Unlike Sam, I happen to like my first name," Danielle said tartly, "and I do not have a nickname, despite the fact that Sam insists on calling me 'Dani.'" She glared at Sam.

"What?" Sam asked innocently, "Dani's a much better then Danielle. Besides, Danielle make's you sound like a snob." (A/N: No offense to anyone named Danielle! That's Sam's opinion, not mine)

"Does not!" Danielle retorted.

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does!"

"Doesn't!" When it seemed like their argument would never end, Ginny decided to interrupt.

"Er," she said, "so, where do you live?"

"Oh," said Sam, "I live in 1207, down the hall." She pointed to a door to Ginny's right.

"And I live across the hall from you," Danielle added, pointing over her shoulder at room 1202.

"Take my advice," said Sam, "Don't go in there unless you're prepared to see the world's messiest apartment."

"Hey! It's not my fault I'm not a neat freak like you, Sam!" Danielle retorted.

"I'm not a neat freak, I just like things clean," Sam defended herself. Ginny stood there watching awe. It was hard to believe that these two people were close friends if they could start arguing at the drop of a hat. But when she remembered Ron and Hermione, she realized the concept wasn't so hard to believe.

"Do you argue a lot?" she asked them.

"No," they both said quickly. Ginny raised an eyebrow. She found this hard to believe.

"I'm not trying to rude, but are you from England?" Danielle asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Ginny nodded.

"Did you leave because of the trouble with, well, you know, You-Know-Who?" Danielle asked tentatively.

"Yes," Ginny sighed. In seconds the mood had gone from cheerful to somber. Sam was giving Danielle lots of death glares. For a few minutes, Ginny said nothing. She wondered how much she could trust these witches. For all she knew one or both of them could be Death Eaters, or Voldemort's spies. Could she trust them with the truth? She certainly wanted to. And one day perhaps she could, if they proved trustworthy. So for now she would give them an edited version of her story. She took a deep breath, and began her tale.

A/N- Chapter three done! Hope you like it, sorry again about the long update. sheepishgrin Hope you liked Sam and Danielle. Let me know if they start to become Mary-Sues. Review and I'll give you a cookie.