Title: Ginny Weasley, The Sorcerers Stone, and The Chamber of Secrets

by: ginnyismyname at yahoo dot com

Author's Note: Hello. Nice to see you all, again.


Chapter 2: A Slow Year


Weeks went slowly by and Ginny wondered if she would ever make it to Christmas with all of the boredom she was feeling. Some excitement did come, eventually. A few days after Halloween, Ginny was sent a wonderful letter from Fred and George that had a detailed story of Ron and Harry fighting a mountain troll. Although Ginny seriously doubted this, she still was glad to receive a correspondence from her brothers and was extremely excited to be informed that Ron had become best friends with THE Harry Potter.

Then, about month or so later Ginny started getting ready Christmas. She was excited about the holidays. About a week before Christmas Ginny and her parents went to visit her older brother, Charlie, in Romania. He looked wonderful, except for all the burns and scars he received from the dragons he took care of, but he still looked very happy.

Charlie, like his sister Ginny and the rest of their family, was cursed with the recessive gene of being a redhead, which meant that he could not tan. Yet, when Ginny saw her brother when they reached Romania, she thought the impossible happened, then she realized he wasn't tan, he was just one large freckle.

Ginny helped her mother make the fudge that would be sent to her brothers and Ron's best friend, Harry Potter, at school for Christmas. She sent Ron an owl telling him to invite Harry over for the summer but he never wrote back. He probably never even read it, she told herself.

When Christmas was over they traveled back to the Burrow for several more long and lonely months until one day in early June when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley received an owl from the school explaining that Ron, Harry, and a girl name Hermione Granger had trespassed in a forbidden part of the school and helped in the prevention of bringing You-Know-Who back to power.

Ginny felt like she was going to start crying. "Are they all right? Ron? That girl? Harry Potter?"

Mrs. Weasley kept reading. "Dumbledore says that Ron was hit in the head by a giant chess piece."

Ginny snorted, "It wouldn't cause any harm." She received a glare from her mother and corrected herself, "I -- I mean, was there any harm done?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed, "No, there was no harm done. Hermione Granger is just fine and poor Harry is still out cold."

Ginny couldn't believe it. You-Know-Who was around and they didn't even know it. Harry Potter had defeated him for a second time. What a guy! But this time he had help from her older brother. Maybe Ron wasn't a total waste after all.

A couple of weeks later, on June 20th, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley were at the train station again waiting for the boys to return from Hogwarts. The station was packed with people. Most were oblivious muggles but a few were other wizards and witches or muggle parents of wizards and witches in training.

They were all whispering to each other about the happenings at the school. How THE Harry Potter got away from You-Know-Who with the help of two other first years.

Suddenly, through the masses of people, students began filtering out from the brick column between platforms nine and ten. Ginny was waiting watching people exit. A tall twelve year old black boy and a shorter sandy haired boy walked passed her talking about their summer plans. A large girl covered in pimples was sulking towards her parents.

Ginny jumped up and down looking through all the people trying to see which students were coming next. All of a sudden she saw bright red-orange hair that belonged to her brother and looked at the dark haired boy next to him. "There he is, Mom, there he is, look!" She yelled, pointing to Harry. "Harry Potter!" Ginny squealed. "Look, Mom!" Ginny's eyes moved from his eyes to his forehead, "I can see --"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point." Mrs. Weasley pinned her daughter's arm to her side and took short strides up to Ron and Harry. "Busy year?" she asked with a smile.

"Very," said Harry. Ginny couldn't speak. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

Ginny was sure there was a goofy look plastered on her face. "Oh, it was nothing, dear," Mrs. Weasley said graciously. Ginny's cheeks grew very pink but the next moment a very large man walked up behind Harry.

"Ready, are you?" He grunted.

Ginny watched him from a moment but the twins showed up suddenly and apologized for not sending the toilet seat.

The Weasleys arrived to the Burrow and life was back to normal, well, back to "Weasley Normal." Ginny ran around the house with her brothers making jokes and laughing for days on end. After dinner one day in early August, Ginny got Ron to tell her all about the day he went on the adventure.

Ron had been holding it back only because he got dirty looks from their parents every time he tried to tell his sister the story. They didn't want him frightening Ginny with tales of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. "Come on!" Ginny moaned.

"Fine!" Ron said, making sure Mrs. Weasley was out of ear shot. "Well, we had been putting the clues together all year. Hagrid," Ron said sitting on the edge of his seat, "oh, you don't know who Hagrid is. He is the Hogwarts gamekeeper, he is great. He lives in a hut on the grounds, you can't miss it. Harry introduced me to him."

Ginny's ears perked up. "They are good friends?"

"Yeah." Ron continued, "Anyway, Hagrid kept letting things slip all year about Nicolas Flamel, the only known maker of the sorcerer's stone and about Hagrid's three-headed dog, Fluffy!"

"Fluffy?" Ginny snorted.

"Yeah," Ron shuttered, "three vicious heads...Fluffy was in the third floor corridor which was forbidden. We just happened to end up there one day and Hermione could tell that Fluffy was standing on a trap door and we assumed it must be guarding something very important -- the stone!"

Ginny tilted her head to one side and asked, "Who is Hermione?"

Ron's ears turned a light pink. "Oh she is a friend of mine and Harry's. We saved her from the mountain troll during last Halloween."

"So that story was true?"

"Yeah."

"So, it's also true that you LOCKED the girl in there?" Ginny crossed her arms.

"Number one," Ron said with an angry voice, "it was an accident, we didn't know she was in there and number two -- it was Harry who locked her in." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Back to my story! Where was I?"

"Harry and Hermione put all the clues together and you want the credit for it," Ginny suggested.

"Oh yeah," Ron went on, "well, we finished our finals and when we decided that it was the night that Quirrell and You-Know-Who would go after the stone so we had to go stop him!"

"Quirrell?" Ginny asked, "Yeah right, Fred said that you thought it was Snape the whole time."

Ron glared at her, "Am I telling the story or are you?"

"Sorry."

"Are you through?"

"You won't hear another peep out of me until you are through." Ginny promised, her fingers crossed in her lap.

Ron sighed, "All right, so went into the Forbidden Corridor and there was Fluffy. Hagrid had told us that music put him to sleep so Harry played this little flute-thing. It made Fluffy fall asleep right away." Ron stood up and acted like he was picking up an extremely heavy something. "Then we had to pick up his enormous paw and move and we opened the trap door. It was very dark and creepy but I was brave." Ron adopted a very deep macho voice and said, "I said that I would drop down first."

Ginny snorted.

"But," Ron said loudly, interrupting Ginny's skeptical noises, "we all decided that Harry would go first and Hermione and I would follow. I jumped down second and landed on a very soft plant." Ron sat down on the ground facing Ginny. "Then Hermione landed and ran, because the plant started wrapping itself around Harry and I." Ron made violent gestures to his legs chest and neck.

"Hermione said it was devils snare and I suggested she light it on fire. Which she did and it solved the problem." Ron stood up like it was nothing. Then he walked around the sofa and started up his story again after a quick check from all the rooms. "Then, we went into the next chamber which was full of winged keys and there was a large door on the other side." Ron straddled the sofa leg. "We got on brooms and flew into the air trying to find the right key."

Ron acted like he was grabbing at birds. "We dived and soared and finally I spotted the key, I dove and barely missed the floor, but Harry was behind me and caught the key in one hand."

Ginny fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Then Harry put the key in the door and it unlocked." Ron stood up. "Then, the next room we entered," he said slowly, "was a giant chess set."

"No!" Ginny gasped.

"Yes!" Ron said, pulling out a chess set and taking out two sets of men. He began setting them up. "I immediately took charge. I commanded my troops into battle." He began explaining his many moves and where Harry and Hermione were and how he directed them out of trouble and how, when it got down to it, something horrible needed to happen. "Then I noticed that if I got the queen out of Harry's way, he could check the king and he would win. So I moved into position," Ron stood up and walked into a giant L shape and stopped. "Then the 20 foot tall, solid marble queen glided toward me, raised her heavy stone arm," he raised his arm and made a violent hitting motion. "And she knocked me out!"

Ginny stood up. "And!"

"Hermione woke me up a while later and we went to get Dumbledore, who went and got Harry out from the clutches of Quirrell and You-Know-Who."

Ginny, who had already heard a more interesting version of this where Ron cries like a baby, had a thought enter her head. She want to slip it in to conversation but didn't know just how to put it in so she just said it. "Is -- erm -- is Harry going to stay with us this summer?"

Ron sighed, "Well, he would be staying with ME!" He rolled his eyes at his sister, then added, "That is, if he ever writes back."

Ginny had a horrible idea flying around in her head, what if Harry Potter was ignoring Ron's letters. What if Ron was lying about being Harry's BEST friend. Maybe Ron was just a tag-a-long. When she was done talking with Ron, she ran to Fred and George's room on the second floor to ask them about the friendship.

"Yeah, their besties," George said.

"Oh yes," Fred added, "you never saw one without the other. We asked Ron where they are registered but I don't think he understood what we meant."

"Is he really not answering Ron's letters?"

Fred's head snapped up, "Isn't he?"

"I guess he isn't," George said, exchanging glances with Fred. "Um, Gin, why don't you get some sleep you look tired."

"Yeah, all right." Ginny leaned over and kissed George on the cheek. "G'night," she pecked Fred on the cheek and headed upstairs to her room.

She slept very soundly, dreaming peacefully of a certain boy with glasses and a scar on his forehead. Ginny was awaken by the faint light entering her room and the sound of yelling three floors below outside the house. Ginny recognized it as her mother's voice. "Mmmm...Breakfast," She said to herself.

Ginny slipped out of bed, her bare feet touching her hard wood floors, she look down at them sticking out from under her floor length nightgown. She walked slowly down the steps and entered the hallway, she crossed the floor and flung open the kitchen door. She quickly glanced at the kitchen table, shocked because usually not this many people were up at the crack of dawn.

Fred and George were sitting at the table eating breakfast with Ron and...HARRY POTTER. Ginny couldn't control a sudden small squeal. She turned around, so horrified of her first impression that she ran out to the kitchen, down the hall, up three flights of stairs and into her bedroom, she slammed the door behind her and sank to the floor.

She imagined seeing Harry for the first time this summer so many different ways and in different scenarios. She knew she would be at least be wearing some presentable clothes, not her horrible, old, to-big nightgown. She even had her outfit planned out in her closet. She starting picking at her nightgown with her fingers. Why did he have tocome tonight! Why did she have to be in her nightgown! Why did they not get her enough time to do her hair! Why did they not warn her!

AND why, oh why, did she have to squeal?

Then she heard two pairs of foot-steps coming up the stairs. She was sure it was Fred and George coming either to torture her or comfort her so she stood up and opened the door the slightest crack.

It wasn't Fred and George. It was Ron and Harry. She locked eyes with Harry and shut the door quickly. She faintly heard Ron mumble her name and she started blushing. She ran to her bed and curled up in a little ball.


Author's Note: Well? Does it sound like it fits in with the books?