Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling.
Authors Note: I may have forgotten to mention, I'm pretending Half Blood Prince didn't happen here. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and thank you to all my reviewers.J I love seeing what you all think of it.
Chapter 2: At the Burrow...
"Ginevra Molly Weasley!" Ginny flinched as she heard her mother making her way up the stairs to Ginny's room. Mrs. Weasley burst through her daughter's door to find her calmly setting up a game of Wizard's chess. "Explain yourself young lady!" she yelled.
"Ron promised to play me at a game of wizards chess before Harry and Hermione show up. I was just setting up." Ginny replied innocently.
"You know very well what I am talking about!" Her mother said in a dangerous tone. "That potion you sent to your brother, it took me six counter-potions to change his face back to normal."
"Oh. That." Ginny looked away. She knew there was no getting out of this one. Fred and George would have used one of their own products, and Ron was hopeless at potions. " He was being a git." Percy Weasley had only recently been welcomed back into the family after he finally accepted that his family had been right all along about Voldemort being back. She still hadn't forgiven him for that, and neither had the majority of her family. Yet he had the nerve to blow up at her for being happy that she didn't make prefect. She didn't want to be a prefect, like the twins, she would much rather break rules than enforce them.
"No flying for 2 weeks." Her mother said before leaving the room. Ginny jumped up and ran to her door, "but mum! We only have 2 weeks left till school starts, and I've barely had a chance to break in my new broom.!" She yelled down the stairs after the departing Mrs. Weasley.
"You should have thought about that before you rearranged your brothers face to look like a Picasso painting." she heard her mother retort. Damn it! She'd really been hoping to get in some practice with Harry and Ron before school started. Well she'd just have to hope she could find some time before Quidditch trials. She was desperate to stay on as chaser, she'd made it last year, but there was some tough competition for the spot. Ginny had worked at her brothers' store, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, all summer so she could afford a new broom. She just hoped this prank wouldn't cost her the chance to stay on as chaser.
" Ready to play Gin?" Ron asked as he entered her room., a smile on his freckled face, "I'm going to crush you this time."
"Dream on!" she replied, smiling back at him. "You haven't beat me the last ten matches." She loved playing chess with Ron, he was a good challenge. They'd been improving their skills by playing each other for as long as she could remember. No one else in the family would play against either of them anymore, there was just no point. They knew they'd lose.
"So I heard you rearranged Percy's face today, quite literally." Ron said casually as he moved his pawn.
"Yeah, he was being a git. Lecturing me because I didn't make prefect, and was happy about it." Ginny replied as she moved on of her pawns as well. "Unfortunately it might cost me my Chaser position, mum banned me from flying till school starts. And I haven't broken in my new broom yet."
"Ouch. I'm sure you'll still be able to stay on as chaser, Gin, you made it an old school broom last year. But no flying for two weeks, I pity you." Ron said, a look of sympathy crossing his features.
"Dinner's ready!" Mrs. Weasley yelled up the stairs after hugging the newly arrived Harry and Hermione. Ron and Ginny jumped off her bed and headed downstairs. Ron had just barely beaten Ginny at their chess game, and they'd been sitting on her bed talking about Quidditch and wondering when their friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, were going to show up. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they were attacked by a head of wavy brown hair.
"Oh Ron! Ginny! I've missed you both so much." Hermione squealed as she hugged both Ron and Ginny at least three times each.
"We missed you too Hermione, but not as much as I miss breathing right now." Choked Ginny.
"Sorry." muttered an embarrassed Hermione Granger, as she backed away from her two red-headed friends. Ron just stood there, his face a shade of bright pink. Harry hugged Ginny and gave Ron a pat on the back, bringing him out of his state of shock.
"Sorry we're so late, had a little trouble finding some of Hermione's books. Apparently she reads in every room in her house, even a couple of the closets." Harry said with a grin.
"Sometimes it's the only place I can be alone," Hermione responded, a light blush gracing her cheeks. "My parents tend to have a lot of company over."
" I know the feeling." chimed in Ginny, grinning. They all sat down around the table to eat. Mrs. Weasley had made homemade chicken and dumplings.
"It'll just be us tonight, everybody in the order are just so busy these days." Mrs. Weasley said as everyone got into their seats.
"Where are Fred and George tonight?" Harry asked as he served himself.
"Oh, with school so close to starting, the store's been really busy. So they've been staying in the flat above the shop. They'd probably stay there all the time if they didn't miss mum's cooking so much." Ron said as he began stuffing food into his mouth. After dinner they all retreated to Ron's bedroom.
"So any news on Voldemort?" Harry finally asked, Ron and Ginny both flinching slightly at the name. They knew he'd been waiting all night to get away from Mrs. Weasley and ask that. There'd been some things in the Daily Prophet, but it had all been fairly vague.
"As usual, mum's trying to keep us out of anything order related, but the twins have been giving us snippets of information. Nothing big though, mostly just expanding on what the Prophet has said. You have been reading the Daily Prophet?" Harry and Hermione nodded, "There have been quite a few disappearances of wizards and witches, in some cases whole magical families, since the Death Eaters escaped Azkaban again. The only one's we know are the obvious, Malfoys, Parkinsons, Zabinis, Crabbes, Goyles, Notts, all the families of Death Eaters. Obviously because their parents are in hiding. Well the Malfoys haven't really disappeared, just disconnected from the floo (which is the only way people know to find Malfoy Manor) and none have them have been seen in public lately. Fred and George say that the kids of the Death Eaters will probably still show up at Hogwarts; seeing as it's their parents, not them, that are Death Eaters. Too bad, I wouldn't mind losing a few of them, especially Malfoy." Ron grinned at Harry, Ginny Rolled her eyes.
"Really, if you guys didn't react the way you do, he probably would have given up torturing you years ago. Ever notice he doesn't go looking for me to pick at." Ginny said, a little irritably.
"That's because he's been at the other end of one of your bat-bogey hexes. Who wouldn't leave you alone after that!" Ron exclaimed, shuddering at the thought.
"My brothers, for one." She grinned, "but I'm not the only one, he's let up on Hermione quite a bit ever since she stopped reacting to his insults."
"Why are you sticking up for that git for anyways?" Ron said.
"I'm not, I'm just saying you could stop this infernal feud if you wanted to." Ginny replied exasperatedly. "Anyway Harry, there've also been quite a few attacks on muggles, as well as a few very disturbing attacks on wizarding families. Nobody we know." Ginny continued.
"What do you mean? How were they 'very disturbing'? Harry asked.
"Well Harry," Hermione piped in," The only wizard families to be attacked have been the Simons', the Cratens' and the Pettigrews' (distant relations to worm tail). In every family, there was at least one red-headed young girl killed, most were around the age of 11, some older, some younger. A few were muggle families, where the daughter was attending, or would soon be attending a wizarding school. So far there have been no pure-blood families targeted, which makes sense seeing that the Death Eaters are very pro-pureblood. Plus, if they kill off too many pureblood families, they'll wipe themselves out. So far they are families who haven't chosen to fight for either side yet. Also, the killings aren't exactly "clean" deaths. They aren't just Avada Kedavra-ing. Quite a few people have been found crucio-ed into madness, or cursed by curses that create large open wounds. The girls are always found dead, as well as the most…damaged. The most recent family found lived in an almost deserted town. The father was a squib, so they had no magical protection. The mother was a muggle. Their daughter had just received her acceptance letter into Hogwarts. They also are a distant relative of Mrs. Weasleys." Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Ron looked over at Ginny with a glint of worry apparent in his blue eyes.
"Don't worry Ron. The order wouldn't let them do anything to Ginny." Harry said. "How do you know all this Hermione, it wasn't in the prophet."
"I subscribed to the Quibbler after our fifth year. There's still a lot of rubbish in it, but occasionally you can find more of what's going on that the Prophet has been kept from reporting."
The next two weeks went by fairly calmly at the Burrow, games of Quidditch when ever the twins would come by, seeing as Ginny's ban on flying was still in place. Dinner with various Order members, who adamantly refused to talk about what was happening within the order around Harry, Hermione and the younger Weasleys. At Mrs. Weasley's insistence of course. Soon the day to head off for the school train had arrived.
"Ginny, come on. You've got everything. Don't worry so much. Even if you've forgotten something, your mum can owl it to you." Harry was standing outside her door, waiting to help her bring her trunk down.
"I know, Harry, I just feel like I've forgotten something important." She said before sticking her head back into her closet.
"Well, we've still got to have breakfast before we go, maybe you'll remember then." Harry replied as he began dragging her trunk through her doorway.
"Yeah, okay." Ginny said as she followed him out her door. "Harry, why don't you just use magic to carry that, you are of age now."
"Oh yeah, I'm still not used to being able to do magic outside of school." Harry replied. As he pointed his wand at the trunk, and it began floating down the stairs in front of them. (They learned how to nonverbal magic in their sixth year)
"What took you guys so long?" said Ron through mouthfuls of eggs.
"You're lucky there's any food left with the way Ron eats." Hermione added, as she gave Rona fairly disgusted look.
"Ginny was trying to find something, she's positive she's forgotten some highly important item." responded Harry as he started piling food onto his plate.
"Oh, well Ginny, I always make a checklist of my stuff in my head. Then just go through it checking things off. It always helps me." Said Hermione in a knowing tone.
"Thanks 'Mione, I'll try that." Said Ginny as she started eating. Her mind carefully going over everything she had packed as she tried to figure out what it was she had forgotten. She came back to the present just as she heard Ron saying her name.
"I'm sure Ginny will make it back on the team. She's a great chaser, and she bought that new broom. But I'm not so sure about me, I mean…" Ron was interrupted by Ginny dropping her fork loudly on her plate as she jumped from her seat and ran out the front door. The trio just stared after her in confusion.
"Was it something I said?" asked Ron puzzled. Ginny ran around the side of the house towards the broom shed, how could she be so stupid. Forgetting her broom would have been disastrous. She wouldn't have much time before trials to break it in, and had she forgotten it, Errol surely wouldn't have been able to carry it himself. It never would have made it to Hogwarts intact. Grabbing her Nimbus 2000 she headed back into the house. She dropped her broom off with her trunk at the door, and headed back in to breakfast. But when she got back, everyone was getting up and the table had been cleared.
"Mum! I wasn't done." Ginny whined at her mother.
"Well, you shouldn't have been dilly-dallying this morning." stated Mrs. Weasley, "Hurry up everyone, grab your things, we don't want to be late. Everyone grabbed their trunks and drug them out onto the front lawn.
"Why can't we just apparate there mum, it'd be easier." Said Ron as he hauled his trunk toward the dirt road that lead to their house from the village.
"Because Ron, your sister can't yet. And with everything that's going on I'd prefer if we all traveled together. So we'll be taking the Knight bus." She held up her wand hand as everyone reached the road. Ron groaned the large purple bus screeched to a halt in front of him. The Knight bus was defiantly not his favorite way to travel.