August 15, 1995, 12 Grimmauld Place

I finally got a reply letter from Michael this morning, but it didn't contain any pictures. All he really said was "I can't wait to see you at Hogwarts" and things like that. That must mean that he hasn't changed since that picture on the Eiffel Tower. All right. I'm okay with that.

I'm dead tired right now. Mum's started up on the cleaning again. This time, we started tackling the fourth floor.

I don't really see the importance of that, since no one but Sirius and Professor Lupin ever go up there, but Mum wants the entire house to be spotless, and she's been on a bit of a warpath ever since she accidentally picked up one of Fred and George's trick wands last night, so I dared not contradict her.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were sentenced to a bedroom down at the end of the hall, and Fred, George, and I were sent to a sitting room. Our job was to scrape mold from every surface of the room, but I honestly think that the twins and I got the easier room to clean. I nipped into the bedroom right before lunch to see how Hermione was faring, and she showed me a piece of mold that refused to come off of her index finger.

Poor Hermione. First copying pages and pages of Ministry laws, and now trying to get mold off of her fingers? What next?

Fred and George were once again conspiring together while we were cleaning the sitting room. I decided to try and tackle a sofa cushion with the special cleaning supplies that Mum dropped off for us. The twins were working on the nearby coffee table, and they were close enough that I could hear what they were speaking to each other about.

Fred reckons that the Canary Creams will be a big hit once they try and sell them at Hogwarts, but George thinks that the Canary Creams should be reserved for the joke shop only, because they're "too expensive to waste on the students, and we should wait for the joke shop".

Joke shop? I'm still very confused about this. As far as I'm concerned, Fred and George don't have enough money to even think about opening a joke shop.

Unless they're getting the money from a different source. That could be a possibility. But who? Who in their right mind would give Fred and George money for a joke shop, knowing that Mum will chop his or her head off with a butcher knife?

I have a hunch that it's Mundungus Fletcher. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, I held my tongue all through their discussion. They probably wouldn't have told me what they were really talking about, even if I asked. Those two are definitely planning something.

And I'm not entirely sure Mum is going to like it.

No, no. I'm certainly not going to tell Mum. It isn't a good thing to have Fred and George as your enemies, let me tell you that. Don't believe me? Go ask that complete prick known as Percy how it feels to be pranked on every single second of the day.

But of course, Percy deserves that, and so much more suffering a la Fred and George Weasley.

Mum let us have a break just after noon, and we had our usual lunch of sandwiches in the kitchen. Sirius didn't join us, and neither did Professor Lupin. It was just us Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione.

I'm starting to feel a little worried about Sirius and Harry. Hermione's been telling me that Harry feels guilty about making Sirius feel so horrible because he'll be going back to Hogwarts. Harry has no reason to feel guilty at all. But I can hardly blame Sirius for being so sullen about the whole ordeal. I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck in this house alone, that's for sure.

Anyway, after lunch, we went back to our mold-scraping duties. After Fred, George, and I had finished with most of the sitting room, we went to the aid of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the bedroom. Ron started slacking off, and Fred and George made some remark about how he's never going to make prefect. He blushed and told them to sod off.

Once again the subject of prefects comes up between the Golden Trio. Hermione is still ever-doubtful of her actually becoming a prefect for Gryffindor, despite my many efforts to make her see that she was born to become a prefect in the first place.

I still don't know who's going to be the other prefect. It's typically a boy and a girl, so if Hermione gets the badge (which I'm sure she will), it's got to be a boy. But who?

I was thinking that Harry would be getting the badge, because that's the obvious choice, isn't it? He's the Boy-Who-Bloody-Lived, and I don't see why Dumbledore wouldn't make him a prefect.

So, in conclusion, it's clear that Harry and Hermione will be the next Gryffindor prefects.

That's a wonderful note to end on. I'm tired, like I said before, and I just want to take a quick nap before dinner's ready.

-Ginny


I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Fred and George's Canary Creams all around!

Special thanks to my bloody fantastic reviewers: Machiavelli Jr., Harry's Kat, prongsgurl202113, Kat, Jazipan, and steele-2006-294. You guys are the best! Can't wait to read your next reviews. Love ya!

I really had fun writing this chapter. I jumped around between humor and seriousness, from Canary Creams to prefect duties.

Also, if anyone wants to know where I'm getting the exact dates for all the happenings in Book 5, please check out the Harry Potter Lexicon's day-by-day calendars, underneath the Timelines button on the main page. They're my main references for the story, so thanks to all the folks down at the HP Lexicon!

Tell me how I did with this chapter. Honestly, just tell me.

-Rox