August 10, 1995, 12 Grimmauld Place

Well, today was rather interesting.

We started cleaning the ground floor dining room this morning. Mum managed to blast the cobwebs away with her wand, but there were still plenty hanging on the walls when we first walked in.

Fred opened one of the cupboards and announced to everyone that there were spiders larger than plates lurking in the drawers. Ron sped out of the room to make a cup of tea and didn't come back until two hours later.

Wimp. He's afraid of spiders, in case I haven't mentioned it to you before.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it?

There was a beautifully-shaped serpent candelabra on the long dining room table, and Mum considered keeping it because it was still in good shape. But Sirius outright refused to let her allow the candelabra to remain on wooden table. It was one of the first things to go into the rubbish sack.

Hundreds of framed photographs lined the walls and shelves in the dining room, and Sirius demanded that they all be thrown away. When I shattered the glass of a photograph of a heavily-lidded woman, she screeched at me loudly. Mum informed me that it was Bellatrix Lestrange, the convicted Death Eater who's in Azkaban with her husband, Rodolphus.

Once again, Kreacher tried to halt our cleaning plans by attempting to drag the rubbish sack from the room. Sirius caught him in time though, and ordered the house elf to leave. When Kreacher refused to move, Sirius grabbed him by the back of his dirty loincloth and bodily tossed him out into the hallway. Hermione looked close to shedding angry tears.

"You shouldn't treat him like that!" She had cried to Sirius. "Now he'll be upset with you!"

But Sirius wisely waved off Hermione's comments and went back to his work. I saw Hermione glaring at him as she brushed her hair out of her eyes.

We cleared out the cupboards and dusted the table off until I could see my reflection clearly in the shining wood. My arms are aching from scrubbing the walls. But I think we did a bloody good job.

I'm so tired that I can barely write here, but I must. I promise way back in June that I wouldn't miss a beat, so here I am, still writing.

And do you want to know what I just realized?

Tomorrow is my fourteenth birthday.

I feel a little, well, stupid for forgetting that tomorrow's my birthday, but with everything from cleaning to the dementor attack…I guess it just slipped my mind, I suppose.

I wonder if I'll get any gifts tomorrow. From Hermione, I suppose, I'll get something, like a package of ink bottles or something like that. Fred and George? Hmm…maybe a sample of one of their new Skiving Snackboxes? Bill…I don't really know. And Harry? Ha. I didn't even consider him until now.

In fact, I'm not even sure if I want gifts this year. There's just too much going on.

Maybe everyone will forget that it's my birthday. What then? Do I mention to someone that I'm finally fourteen, or do I just let it slide and pretend that my birthday will never come? Do I…?

Okay, Ginny, just breathe.

No one's going to forget it's my birthday. Everything will go perfectly fine.

I hope.

Okay, off the subject of my birthday. Hermione's informed me that Harry's hearing at the Ministry is on the 12th, at 9 in the morning. She said that he hasn't really spoken about it, but it's pretty obvious that he's very nervous about the outcome of the hearing.

I mean, who wouldn't be nervous? The fate of your education at Hogwarts would be in the Wizengamot's hands? I would be positively shaking! But, then again, I am not Harry Potter, so I don't know how he's feeling right now, but I can just imagine that he's feeling very edgy at the moment, even if the hearing is two days away.

Oh, god. I can barely even keep my eyes open.

Good night!

-Ginny


Guess what? My fever's gone!

Cheers to my reviewers. I love you guys so much! Let's make my review count 400, savvy?

Thanks to everyone who's read this chapter. I really hoped you enjoyed it. Expect a Puddlemere update in the coming days!

REVIEW!

-Rox