Harry groaned and rolled over. Never in his life had his four-poster been so uncomfortable, he could've sworn he was sleeping on rocks. Cracking one eye open, Harry gave a start in surprise. Rocks, indeed! He was in some kind of cave, lit by only thin, watery light coming from a hole in the ceiling.
Everything came back to Harry in a rush- desert, lamp, and Ron. Ron! Harry glanced around and sure enough, Ron was snoring about three feet away. Stretching out his leg, Harry just managed to poke the redhead with his foot.
"Gerroff Fred… I dun wanna kiss a spider," he grunted then flopped onto his other side. Harry snorted and kicked him harder. Ron shot up.
"Fred, I told you—"
"I know, I know, no kissing spiders!" Harry laughed at his friend's bewildered expression.
"Harry, what's going…?" Ron started, then broke off as he too remembered what happened. "Aw man, I thought it was a dream."
Harry nodded, and felt something brush his head. Glancing up, he saw the magic carpet hovering above him.
"How're we going to get out of here? Even Carpet couldn't fit through that hole," Harry said, jerking his head up to where the light came in. Ron looked lost a moment, then he smiled.
"Harry, we can do anything! We've got the lamp!" He stood and felt his pockets. "Where'd it go?" Carpet jumped in excitement and pointed to where it stood perfectly on a nearby rock. Ron gave a relieved sigh and picked it up. Harry stood as well, nervously bracing for anything unexpected. Ron rubbed the lamp.
At first nothing happened, then suddenly the lamp shot out of his hands. The boys ducked, watching in awe. Billowing gold smoke emerged from it, and a vague outline appeared in it.
"It's about time you guys got here!" a familiar voice chimed. A very familiar voice. Harry blinked in astonishment.
"Ginny?" The smoke cleared, revealing long red hair and a mischievous grin.
"The one and only!" she laughed.
"You're the genie?" Ron managed.
"Semi phenomenal, nearly cosmic genie, yes." She rolled her eyes in exasperation at Ron's still gaping face. "Honestly, Ron, when did you think I'd show up?" Ron stuttered a moment, but Harry had stopped listening, for the smoke cleared, revealing exactly what she was wearing. Ginny's hair was pulled into a high ponytail and large gold hoops hung in her ears. A red, stomach-baring top lined with gold trim revealed a tiny ruby stone set in her belly button. Her pants were also red, long, and loose, held up with a gold sash tied around her hips. On her feet were golden shoes with curled-up toes. Harry blinked. Ginny looked so… exotic.
He blushed and scrambled to catch up with the conversation. Ron had also overcome his shock. So what if Ginny was sitting cross-legged in mid air? …The boys were going to have a hard time getting used to this.
Ginny clapped her hands together briskly.
"Now, Ron, what're you going to do about Hermione?"
"How do you know about that?" he sputtered. Ginny sighed and snapped her fingers. A heavily gilded book appeared in her hands. "Wandless magic," she said at Ron and Harry's startled expressions, "isn't it great?" She licked her finger, then rifled through the book, her expression so studious that Harry fought back a laugh.
"Aladdin and Abu get arrested…. escape with the help of Jafar who is disguised as a crazy old man…. Get trapped in the cave with the genie… Wow, Hermione thinks your dead," she said, puzzled.
Ron grabbed the book from her hands and Ginny gave an angry huff. Ron didn't notice, and Harry saw his eyes widened.
"Whoa…" he choked out, and his ears turned an impressive shade of red. Harry glanced over his shoulder. Hermione was sobbing into a pillow. She looked pretty, wearing some kind of purple dress that also bared her stomach. Harry smirked at Ron, who couldn't take his eyes off her.
"Why does she think we're dead?" Harry asked. Ginny snatched back the book and skimmed the page.
"The princess hurries to confront Jafar, blah, blah, blah… Here we go, Jafar said he had you were executed for 'kidnapping the princess'." She shrugged and closed the book which promptly disappeared. "Oh yea, Ron, you have three wishes."
This seemed to wake him up. Harry looked warily at Ron's suddenly gleeful face.
"So you have to call me master, right?" Ron looked as if Christmas had come early. Ginny winced.
"How about I call you nothing and you can keep your arms?" Ron shrugged then looked thoughtful. Then he put on a mocking grin.
"Semi phenomenal, nearly cosmic? Sounds terribly powerful." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What do you think Harry?" Harry sputtered as Ginny began looking murderous, but Ron didn't stop. "I mean, she's a girl. Ginny I bet you couldn't even get us out of this cave!" Harry saw where this was going and was both amazed at Ron's cleverness, and in dread of what Ginny would do to him.
Ginny, who was steadily turning red, snapped.
"Oh yea! Watch this!" And with that she grabbed both boys by the collars and exploded up and out of the cave, the carpet tailing behind.