July 15, 1995, 12 Grimmauld Place

Well, Hermione must have had a blast today.

Mum sent us to clean the Black library.

I have never seen so many books in my entire life.

Okay, so I have, and that's at the library in Hogwarts, but the books in the Black library are all about the Dark Arts. I was flipping through one of them, titled "101 Ways to Curse Someone Into Oblivion", and I hadn't even heard of half of the curses and jinxes that were mentioned in that book. Mum spotted me reading up on the Bat-Bogey Hex and she banned any of us from reading the other books.

On second thought, Hermione's heart must have been breaking today, because Sirius ordered us to throw out some of the old books. One of them had teeth set into the binding, and Fred got bit on his hand when he pulled the book off of the shelf. George asked Sirius if they could try and extract the teeth from the book, but Sirius said no, mostly because Mum was listening in on the conversation, thought.

Sirius told all of us that the library hadn't been used in over fifteen years, because his mother never went into the library, and after his father died, his mother locked the library door.

There was no carpet in the library, just wood flooring that was covered in dust and dirt. The wood itself was rotting, and Mum and Sirius used Scourging Charms on every inch of the floor. You could see green mold growing in the spaces between the slats of wood. It was gross. Mum caught Fred trying to scrape some of the mold into a plastic bag, and she wouldn't shut up for at least forty-five minutes.

We were cleaning right up until lunch, and then Mum left to make sandwiches(that's all we ever seem to eat for lunch these days!). While she was gone, I saw Sirius slip Fred that bag of mold that Mum made him throw out! I knew it all along! Sirius HAS been helping Fred and George with their joke inventions.

Of course, I'm not going to tell Mum. That would get Sirius in trouble, and he hasn't done anything to deserve that. At least, that's what George told me.

When Mum came back with the sandwiches, Fred had safely hidden the bag upstairs in his bedroom. He and George were exchanging smirks with Sirius for the rest of the day. I wonder why they need MOLD for their latest invention. Maybe it's some type of poison, and they're planning on sending it to Percy once they get a hold of where his new Ministry office is. Ha.

After lunch, Mum and Sirius left. They had a meeting with Mrs. Arabella Figg, who lives by Harry. I think she's reporting to them if anything strange has happened around Harry's house. Hermione and Ron look rather anxious. I wish I could say I feel the same way.

Oh, god. What am I saying? It's not like I don't care about Harry at all! I do care about his safety, and if he ever got hurt…sure, I would feel bad about it. But every since…well, I guess the Yule Ball in December…my thoughts and feelings for Harry have been gradually decreasing. Partly, it's because of Michael. I mean, he IS my boyfriend, after all. And partly, it's because I finally see that Harry doesn't see me as anything more than a friend, if that. Maybe I'm still Ron's little sister who he had to save from big bad Tom Riddle.

But I promised myself I wasn't going to worry abut that…so…moving on…

After Mum and Sirius went to meet with Mrs. Figg, Fred and George dashed upstairs to work with the mold, and Ron and Hermione resorted to talking quietly in the corner of the library, leaving me, all by myself, sitting in Mr. Black's old desk. I heard the words "Harry", "worried", "wonder", "hopefully" in their conversation, and every once in a while, Ron would look over to make sure I wasn't eavesdropping. Of course, I was, in fact, eavesdropping, but I didn't want him or Hermione knowing that!

I doubt Mum's going to tell us if anything's happened to Harry. Maybe Harry's welfare if strictly Order business, since Dumbledore is the only person who's keeping Harry with his Muggle aunt and uncle. From what Hermione's told me, his relatives would do anything to get rid of him altogether. Mum thinks that it's absolutely atrocious. Maybe that's why he's always spending the summer with us. It's not just Ron who wants him at the Burrow…and no, I don't mean that the other person is me! Well, it used to be me, but now…

Oh. My. God. I. Can. Not. Shut. Up!

Moving on…

Okay, so I spent an hour in the library, just staring around and flipping through some of the books that Sirius didn't want thrown away. After a while, no one came back to tell us to keep cleaning, so I retreated up here, to my bedroom. Ron and Hermione are somewhere in the house. Maybe they're snogging each other senseless in a closet somewhere.

I better go find them before someone else does. I'll write more tomorrow. Bye!

-Ginny


Wow. I'm getting a hang of these longer chapters!

Before I address anything else, I'd like to say that I have gotten OVER ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS! Woot Woot! Party over here! Woot Woot! Thanks so much you guys!

Special thanks to the following people for reviewing the previous chapter: Draco'sBrokenAngel, Ronniekinzluvr, IamSiriusGrl, Kelso the Great, Jazipan, Babe Bunny, and prongsgurl202113. You guys are great!

Okay, onto the addressing of important issues. Please read before reviewing. This is VERY IMPORTANT!

Tomorrow, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be finally(!) released. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I will still be updating, as I promised that I would be covering every single day from June 30 through September 1. I know, I've been called crazy over the past few days by some of my reviewers because I'll be updating while reading HBP, but I'm not only writing for the reviewers and the readers…I'm writing for myself, and that's very important to me a writer.

I will not be expecting a lot of reviews in the next few days, because most of you guys will probably be off reading HBP. But, if you do find the time to read my latest chapter, please, REVIEW! The feedback is much appreciated, and the reviews do not go unnoticed. So don't hesitate to tell me what you think, even if it's just a "that was awesome update soon".

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!

Some of you have reviewed, saying that you hope I'll change the story to fit the HBP plotline.

I WILL NOT BE ADDING SPOILERS FOR HBP IN THIS STORY!

This story takes place BEFORE the events in HBP, and therefore, I will be sticking to the OOTP Summer plotline!

That means that if Ginny and Dean get together in HBP, I will NOT write it into my story. If Ginny and Harry get together in HBP, I will NOT write it into my story. If Ron and Hermione get together in HBP, I will NOT write it into my story. Yes, as much as it pains me to do so as a die-hard RHr fan, I'm sticking to what happened in OOTP, not HBP. If anything else happens in HBP that contradicts with the events in my story, I WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTHING!

I just wanted to get that cleared up. This story does not take place in HBP, therefore, I will not conform it to fit that plotline.

I expect that I'll be losing a few(or more) reviewers by sticking with the OOTP plotline, but I'm not a fan of AU stories, and by changing my own story to fit in with HBP, I'd be technically making it into an AU story. I prefer sticking to canon facts and events as much as possible.

Please, don't flame me for what I've said. This is concerning me. I don't want any reviews saying, "You're stupid! That didn't happen in HBP! I'm never reading this story again!".

Tell me how I did with this chapter. You can tell me if you agree or disagree with my sticking to the OOTP plotline, but please, I don't want any insults, profanities, or shouts of "I hate this story! I'm never reading this again!" in my inbox tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

Please, review!

-Rox