Breakfast at the Burrow the next morning was a hectic business. Mrs. Weasley was bustling around the kitchen getting the bangers and mash out on the table and enough bacon to feed a small army- which, a few years ago, had been the case, but as of late, the Weasley's breakfast table was seriously depleted of its usual occupants. Today, just Ginny, Fred, and their parents were at the table. Ginny spread some orange marmalade onto a roll and took a bite as her mother continued rambling.
"... and remember, Ginny dear, that this is N.E.W.T.'s year. So study hard. Try not to...," Mrs. Weasley continued as Ginny tuned her out and rolled her eyes in Fred's direction. Her brother cracked a smile and stuffed his mouth with mash so as to not laugh out loud. Ginny sighed, actually wishing he would. It had been a long time since her brother had done more than crack a weak smile. Ginny set her mind to cheering him up before she boarded that train today.
After eating, Ginny gave her mom a peck on the cheek and headed upstairs to her room. Sitting down at her writing desk, Ginny pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill.
Hermione,
Well, it's the first day of classes. I'm at the same time looking forward to it and dreading it. The first day of classes always brings an excitement, and I had a hard time sleeping last night. I wish you and Ron and Harry would be around this year as you were in past years. I miss you.
How's Ox College? How are classes? Anything fun?
Write me soon.
Love,
Ginny
Ginny tied the letter around Pigwidgeon's leg and sent the owl off to Hermione. Reluctantly leaving her room, Ginny dragged her trunk down the stairs and out to the car waiting for her to take her to her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Ginny walked alongside her brother, Fred, as they headed to Platform 9 ¾. She smiled as she noticed a young boy confusedly looking between the signs for nine and ten. He was terribly thin, wearing clothes that were a couple sizes too big for him, and a cricket cap. Ginny smiled, remembering the first time she ever saw Harry. Her mother had bent over and warmly offered to help him when Harry was looking for the way onto the platform.
Mrs. Weasley smiled as she saw the young boy and stopped to help him. Ginny smiled, reminded so long ago as her mother had bent over and warmly offered to help Harry when he was looking for the way onto the platform.
"Are you lost, young man?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Y-yes ma'am. I'm… looking for…," he stopped and took off the cricket cap from his head and pulled out a piece of paper from inside it. "Platform nine… and three-quarters?"
Mrs. Weasley smiled warmly and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Right this way," she said and showed the young boy how to get onto the platform. As they came to the train, Fred loaded Ginny's trunk onboard while she hugged her parents and said her goodbyes. Ginny turned and hugged her brother tightly as he exited the train.
"You take care, Fred. Write me, okay?"
"Don't do anything w… I wouldn't do," he said with a slight smile, and Ginny forced a smile on her face. There was a pang in her heart at a fleeting reminder of their mutual loss and Ginny squeezed his hand.
"So… don't burn down the school?" she asked sarcastically, and Fred grinned, giving his sister a hug again as the train whistle blew. Ginny turned and kissed him on the cheek, evoking the magic she'd placed on herself that morning before leaving. She grinned as she saw the stain of lipstick appear on his cheek as if Fred had been kissed by some scarlet woman.
"Ginevra Weasley!" her mom howled. "What is that on your face?" Mrs. Weasley scowled and started trying to wipe something off Ginny's cheek. Looking over at Fred, she saw a sly smile on his face.
"Never prank a prankster, Gin."
Ginny forced a sigh as her mother wiped the lipstick of her daughter's face that resulted from Fred's countercurse. Ginny waved goodbye and boarded the train, looking out the window and grinning widely as she saw more kisses appear on Fred's face. God, sometimes her brother was so predictable. Blowing him a kiss as Mrs. Weasley scowled and tried to wipe the kisses off her son's face now, Ginny took a compartment to herself. Ginny had heard that everyone except her friend, Heather, wasn't returning this year. Ginny had owled them back insisting that they just had to come to Hogwarts this year. That it wouldn't be the same without them. But with Dumbledore's death a couple years ago, the school had suffered a severe drop in attendance. It was as if the school spirit had left with Dumbledore when he passed on in search of the next great adventure.
She had written to her friends with threats of violence if they didn't come back to school, but their parents were adamant. This year, Ginny was, with the exception of Heather, alone and, apparently, destined to be lonely. Ginny sighed and pulled out Arnold, her Pygmy Puff, and smiled as it purred softly. She looked up as the door to her compartment opened, and the young boy from the platform looked in at her shyly.
"Uh… every… everything's taken. C-can I sit here?"
Ginny nodded and smiled at him kindly. Truth be told, she was in a mood to be alone right now, but she didn't want to be rude. By the looks of it, he was a first year and wouldn't know anyone yet. However, having not gotten any sleep yet, Ginny made a mental note to talk to him after taking a short nap.
Ginny awoke some time later. Ginny stretched and started to yawn and then started as she found she was making no noise. She turned to talk to her compartment companion but froze when she saw the young boy's unblinking gaze staring straight ahead, his mouth open in shock and his arms hanging lifelessly at his side. Ginny's mouth opened in a silent scream and she tried to scramble away from the body. Ginny stared at the poor boy for a long moment in a pained horror before the shock and fear was consumed in a fire of righteous anger.
Ginny jumped up and threw the compartment door open, looking around, but she saw no one in the hall. Ginny noticed as she stepped into the hall that she was able to hear the sounds of the train now, so the Silencing Charm must have been placed on the compartment. Pulling out her wand, Ginny pointed it at the room she just vacated.
"Finite Incantatem," she recited and stepped back in, now able to hear the noises of talking in the nearby compartments and the rolling of the train over the tracks. She looked at the unfortunate boy staring lifelessly at her- the boy whose name she never learned. Purposefully, Ginny went to find an adult. She went up a couple cars before she noticed the witch pushing the teacart.
"Ma'am," Ginny said, rushing up to her. "I… need you to come with me. There's been… a murder," Ginny finished in a whisper. "You need to come quickly."
The witch paled at Ginny's news and mutely nodded her head, following the seventh year Gryffindor back to her compartment. The witch gasped when she saw the body of the young boy, and when a student poked her head out to ask about the tray, the witch hissed for her to get back in her compartment.
"Oh… oh, this is not good. Oh… oh… I can hear the owls now!" the witch cried plaintively, and Ginny looked at her incredulously.
"Pull yourself together!" Ginny growled, grabbing the witch's robes. "The students shouldn't have to see this, and the teachers at Hogwarts need to be notified. Go!"
Ginny's authoritative tone seemed to bring the train witch out of her despair, and she nodded, heading to the front of the train. Ginny sighed, knowing that this was probably the first time that witch had ever seen death before. She most likely served her entire life on this train, and the worse thing she ever saw was a bully like Draco Malfoy picking on the other students. A death on the Hogwarts train was… unheard of.
Ginny looked out into the hall and, seeing that their conversation hadn't brought any unwanted attention, closed the blinds and looked at the body. Not really knowing why, Ginny lay the body down, thinking he'd feel more comfortable that way. When she did, the boy's cricket cap fell off onto the floor. Kneeling to pick it up, Ginny noticed a scrap of paper fall out of the hat from where it had been hidden between his cap and his head. She remembered that he had kept a piece of paper with the name of the platform he was looking for under it, but there was a piece of parchment. Like something torn out of a book. Looking at it curiously, Ginny unfolded the parchment and read what looked like a copy of a prophecy with the boy's own handwritten notes along the margins.
When there is an eclipse of the Sun (Harry Potter?)
The monster will be seen at noon (You-Know-Who)
It will be interpreted otherwise
Unfortunate, for none will foresee it (?)
In the isles of the Sun under the eye of the seventh (England/Scotland, Ginny Weasley?)
The seer is murdered before his vision is realized (?)
She will find love in the temple of the Sun
Into darkness she must walk if the Sun is to live (Harry Potter will return?)
Ginny Weasley gasped, and clutched the parchment to her chest.
"Harry?"