July 14, 1995, 12 Grimmauld Place

Well, I found out why we had a "day off" yesterday from cleaning. Dad surprised Mum with an entire day out in London, just the two of them. I don't think they've been alone together since Bill was born! Mum and Dad came home very late last night, all happy and smiling…I'm glad they had a good time.

But, unfortunately, today, we made up for yesterday's non-cleaning activities…meaning, we did double the work today. Ron, Fred, and George were assigned to clean the third floor hallway, and Hermione and I took the second floor hallway. Mum said that she and Sirius were going to find Kreacher, and see if he can help with some of the cleaning.

Hermione was furious; she wants Kreacher to "relax". Yep. S.P.E.W. rages on in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place…but whenever Ron tells her to stop talking about it, she shuts up…whenever I ask her to stop talking about it, she keeps going.

Hmmmm…are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Of course you are.

I never realized how thoroughly…DIRTY…a hallway can be. I mean, I knew that it was going to be more "contaminated" than the rest of the house, because this hallway is the only way to the upper floors of the house, where everyone else is staying, so it wasn't like I was expecting a sparkling clean floor.

But what I found was just…nauseating.

The carpet is matted down with dirt, dust, crumbs, unidentifiable liquid…you name it, and we found it there. Mum gave us scrubbing brushes and we had to SCRUB all of that crap out of the carpet. I was sneezing so hard I could barely see in front of me! And the molding that runs along the wall was covered with a solid layer of dust. I don't know WHAT that house elf has been doing for all of these years, but he certainly hasn't been cleaning!

By the time lunchtime came around, Hermione and I had only gotten a quarter of the hallway scrubbed. Ron, Fred, and George came down to see how we were doing, and they had dirt all over their faces! Mum wasn't too happy about that. She made all of us wash up before lunch.

Fred and George looked a little too happy to get back to cleaning. Something tells me that they've found something that will aid in their newest invention. Mum noticed it, too; later on, I heard her ask Fred and George to empty their pockets of everything they had in them.

About an hour and a half after lunch, when Hermione and I were taking a break by slumping against the clean (thanks to us) wall, we heard someone come into the house downstairs. We rushed over to the banister just in time to see Professor Snape rush down the hallway to the kitchen. He was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet, and Hermione whispered to me that it probably has something to do with the Order.

Hermione sent me upstairs to see if Fred and George could get out their Extendable Ears so we could hear what was going on in the kitchen. They came right down, Ron at their heels. Hermione rushed over to him and started to explain what was going on. She was whispering awfully close to him…poor old Ron's ears were turning redder by the second. Ah…true love in its finest…

We didn't find out much through the Extendable Ears, but we did hear Mum, Dad, Professor Lupin, Sirius, and Snape talking about Harry. The Prophet is reporting that any day now, "the Boy-Who-Lived should be getting into even more trouble", and that's got Dumbledore very worried. He wants Sirius, Ron, and Hermione to continuously tell Harry to keep his nose clean, and not to do anything rash that might expose himself to You-Know-Who or any Death Eaters.

Mum said that she would go right upstairs and tell Ron and Hermione of the news, so we had to quickly scatter and pretend that we had been cleaning all along. Mum took Hermione over to a corner to tell her the news, which I don't really understand. I mean, I don't write to Harry…I don't think I ever have but come on! I deserve to know some things around here, even if I already know them prior. Okay, that didn't make any sense. Moving on…

I'm sitting here in bed, writing in this journal, obviously. I'm wearing the necklace that Michael gave me, and suddenly, I'm glad that I didn't ask him for an emerald necklace. I'm not going to be wasting my time pining after Harry, and the emeralds would just be a constant reminder of him. Besides, I've taken a liking to rubies…

Hermione's asking me where I got the necklace. I told her it was from Michael. Her eyes went wide and she started shooting questions at me. I told her that Michael's uncle in France makes custom jewelry, and that's where the necklace came from. She looks a little jealous…maybe she wishes Ron would get her a necklace from France.

Hah! Hermione Granger, jealous of Ginny Weasley? Who would have guessed?

All right. I'm just going to finish up a Potions essay and then go to sleep.

Good night!

-Ginny


Another longer chapter! You guys are so lucky! Okay, okay…I'll stop.

I'd like to thank all of my amazing reviewers! Sorry, I can't list names today. Hotmail is going CRAZY, as usual, and I can't get to my e-mail alerts. So sorry! But keep it up, you guys! I love reading reviews!

Only two more days until HBP! Actually, less than that. I'm going to try and finish the entire book in one day. I finished OotP in two days…I'm sure I could do it in less than that this time around!

:Breaking News:

A lot of you have been asking me if I'm going to stop updating when HBP come out. Here's my answer:

NO WAY!

This story has nothing to do with HBP. It takes place in an entire different year. I'll be reading the book, of course, but I will still continue daily updates on this story. So don't worry you guys!

Also, people have been asking about Ginny's ruby necklace. It's NOT supposed to be emeralds! She didn't ask for emeralds! She felt compelled to ask Michael for them, but because they reminded her of Harry, she opted for rubies instead. I hope that clears everything up!

So…how did I do with this chapter? I think it was a little rushed…please don't flame me!

Please, please, PLEASE review!

-Rox