July 8, 1995, 12 Grimmauld Place

Well, the morning has been rather…erm, eventful.

"Eventful" as in "full of screaming, yelling, and chucking things in the rubbish bin".

I guess I should start from the beginning, shall I?

We were all down at breakfast this morning. Fred and George were really chowing down on their food, and they said they wanted to get back upstairs to start working on their latest invention, "Skiving Snack Boxes".

Not even five seconds after those words came out of George's mouth, a huge scream echoed through the room. I thought that Mrs. Black had started on one of her rants again, but a moment later, Mum appeared in the kitchen doorway, holding up ten long, flesh-colored strings in her right hand.

The Extendable Ears!

It was very scary: Mum's face was red and her entire body was shaking from head to toe as she advanced towards the table. Fred and George hopped up from their seats, and Mum asked to see them in the pantry "for a quick little talk". Dad jumped up and followed, leaving Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Professor Lupin, and I to ourselves.

I heard everything that went on in the room. Fred and George confessed that the Extendable Ears had been used to eavesdrop on the Order meetings, and that they were still serious about opening their own joke shop. It was mostly Mum who was shouting at them. Dad jutted in some comments, but Mum really showed Fred and George.

About a half an hour later, Mum came out of the pantry and breathlessly asked that Sirius and Professor Lupin leave the room. They obeyed.

Mum chucked all of the Extendable Ears into the rubbish bin and turned on us all. She told us the dangers of leaving such eavesdropping devices around for anyone to use and spy on the Order, and that we shouldn't have been meddling in the Order's affairs in the first place. She sentenced Ron, Hermione, and I to cleaning the sitting room on the second floor. She sent Fred and George up into the attic to help Sirius clear out some of the old junk. Mum threatened them that if they came back down with any junk hidden in their pockets, they would be confined to their room for the rest of the summer.

Mum and Professor Lupin went into the living room to see about Mrs. Black's portrait, and the rest of us trudged off towards our cleaning missions.

We wished Fred and George good luck as we parted on the landing. As soon as I entered the sitting room, I just knew it would take forever to clean it. Layers and layers of dust and dirt had settled on every square inch of the room, and the carpet exhaled little clouds of dust every time someone put their foot down.

Ron said that he would clean the windows, and Hermione and I started removing the stiff old cushions from the pale green sofa in the corner. We stopped when we heard Ron start to whimper. He ran over, hid behind us, and started pointing towards the window. I went forward to investigate.

Sure enough, there was a big, black spider sitting on the window sill, scuttling around along the wood. I grabbed one of the towels that Ron had been using and I squashed the spider between my hands. I turned around, and Ron jumped up on the sofa, whimpering. I stuffed the towel containing the spider into one of the buckets that Mum had given us.

It took us about fifteen minutes to persuade Ron to come down off of the sofa, but he still refused to go anywhere near the windows. So I took up his job of wiping them clean, and Hermione and him continued cleaning the sofa. What a big baby! It was only a spider!

After I had wiped the windows free of dirt, and sunlight started to pour into the room, I felt happier than I have felt in the past few days. It's this house. It's gloomy, and just full of melancholy and depression, and Kreacher muttering insults at me isn't exactly making the situation better.

We weren't even half-done cleaning when Mum called us down for lunch. She asked us how our progress was going, but before we could answer, Kreacher burst into the kitchen, running clear across the floor. Seconds later, Sirius followed.

"Come back here, you bloody git!" Sirius roared. He withdrew his wand and went to chase after Kreacher, but Mum and Hermione stopped him. He sat down, caught his breath, and started to explain what happened.

Kreacher had apparently been hiding up in the attic, waiting to save the "precious Black relics" from being thrown out. When Fred had passed a picture of the Black family to Sirius, Kreacher had attacked Sirius, trying to pry the picture from his master's hands. The elf managed to get away, and Sirius had pursued him.

Hermione was busy, as she was trying to persuade Sirius to let Kreacher free. But he obviously can't be set free, because he knows too much about the Order, and knowing the Blacks, Kreacher would probably go off and betray all of the Order's secrets to You-Know-Who himself. Sirius used You-Know-Who's real name, causing the rest of us to flinch.

God, you don't know how much I want to be able to say You-Know-Who's real name without shuddering or flinching. I don't want to be afraid of him anymore. I just…

Okay, enough of the drama. On to a more pleasant subject.

I wrote back to Michael last night, telling him that my favorite precious stone is the ruby. I figured out why I wanted to tell him that I liked emeralds: they remind me of Harry's green eyes. But I am determined not to think too much about Harry, and I don't want to be reminded of Harry Potter every time I see Michael's gift necklace.

After lunch, Ron, Hermione, and I went back to the sitting room, but Ron went up to the attic, because he said he wanted to see what Fred and George were up to. Hermione and I didn't really clean that much. We came across an old Black family album and spent most of our time looking through it on the sofa.

I saw some old pictures of Sirius in the album. He looked so happy, and I must say, quite handsome, and nothing like the gaunt-looking man that lives in this house. Hermione told me that Azkaban can do that to a person. I shuddered just at the thought of Dementers, and that awful isle prison.

We also saw a picture of a young Lucius Malfoy, accompanied by a thin, blonde woman, who was holding a baby in her arms. They both were smiling, but Malfoy looked like he was smirking. I think that the woman is Draco Malfoy's mother, and the baby is Draco himself! Ha! I wonder what the little ferret will think if he ever finds out that we have baby pictures of him!

Lovely. Mum's calling us down. She wants to know if we're finished with the sitting room yet. As if!

Goodnight!

-Ginny


Another chapter done!

I'd like to thank my fantastic reviewers: da idoit, AureliaSea13, prongsgurl202113(so sorry I didn't include you in the last review thank you list!), RonnieKinzLuvr, Morei Sky(I most definitley will be getting HBP on time, thanks!)Kelso the Great, and Jazipan. You guys are just wonderful! Keep on making my day brighter!

I have gone past 50 REVIEWS on my story! Thanks so much! Let's make it 100 ;) LOL

:An Update On My "Vacation":

Turns out, I WILL NOT be going on vacation after all. My family's been a little tight on money ever since my father lost his job two months ago, and only two people can go. My mother opted to stay home, and she chose ME to stay home with her. So my father and my sister will be jetting off next week, while I'm here in New Jersey, so updates will be normal for the rest of the summer, unless I say otherwise.

Ah, well. The dream of a vacation lasted for a while.

But, this is not a story about my life and my "vacation"!

How do you think I did on this chapter? I'm getting a hang on longer entries! There's just so little for Ginny to write about, and my imagination's gone a bit dry.

Please, review! I've gotten over four hundred hits on this story, so I know I'm doing something right!

Review!

-Rox