Friends

Ginny never went to kindergarten or primary school, so she had no classmates. Mum and sometimes her sister taught her literacy and numeracy. At such time Ginny just felt that true happiness is becoming illiterate. No one willingly succumbed to their little sister, but for the sake of surviving, Ginny pretended that she is the rare one.

The Burrow is isolated on a hillside, the nearest neighbor is in a town miles away, even a wizard mother would not let her little girl go that far by herself. Of course, "little girl" means those ordinary ones.

Ginny had no friends, but she has six elder brothers and one younger sister. However, siblings are just siblings sometimes, they cannot take place as good friends.

If there is a universal theorem that everyone has at least one friend somehow, then Ginny does have two good friends. The ghoul upstairs and a small rural dog in the neighboring town.

The ghoul lives in the attic of the Burrow, who moved in at some time unknown, above Ginny and her sister's bedroom. It hardly settles, always knocking and tapping, refuses to be quiet for even a minute.

Aquamarine annoys it, dislikes it, even hates it a little. Ginny likes it, the reason is Aquamarine hates it.

During the nights when the nightmares come, Ginny would sit in her bed and listen to the ghoul banging and thumping on the floor, leaving a faint monotonous rhythm repeating in dark. Ginny got out of bed and find a broom to poke at the ceiling.

"Stop knocking, upstairs, it's already hard to fall asleep."

After prodding, the upstairs changes its knocking rhythm. Ginny thinks the neighbor is rivaling, so she thrills accompanied with it by knocking. It took her a short while to find out it would stop after each beat, wait until she finishing her knocks. These two voices come and go, forming a conversation, one word by one word.

If Aquamarine didn't throw her slipper to Ginny, she will spend all night knocking.

She retreated to her bed, thinking there is someone who can't sleep like herself. It felt intimate, Ginny started to imagine what does a ghoul looks like.

A stubborn old man comes to her mind, quite lovely actually.

Ginny thought her friend upstairs is quite old, judging by how chatty he was. Thud-thud-thump-thud, he would use knocks to speak to people downstairs.

Speak?!

This thought lingered on Ginny's mind, she thought about it day and night and was attempted by it. How fun it is to talk with a ghoul.

One drizzly night, Ginny sneaked up to the attic, leaned over the edge of the door, and whispered, "Ghogho, Ghogho, can you understand me?" Then she heard a commotion behind the door, with a low growl of purring.

Of course, I couldn't possibly understand what you are saying.

"If you understand me then knock on the door, otherwise just forget it." Ginny waited quietly in the dark for a while, then she heard a thud.

Ginny was so thrilled that she forgot mother's warning, she leaned closer to the door, "So you're banging on the floor to talk with us? Yes for one knock."

Another thud.

"Shall we be friends?"

Thudthudthudthudthudthudthud.

Ginny went to bed with satisfaction. Later in her life, whenever she talks about friends, she would recall the thuds.

From that day on, Ginny would climb into the attic whenever no one is watching to visit her old friend.

Ginny learnt Ghogho's special tapping language by guessing and recording, along with asking verbally. Since she got her own room, every day she would talk to her old friend by using the broom to tap the ceiling.

The other friend of Ginny's is a little rural dog. It has the most important trait of all the good dogs: loyalty. It's the only thing in the world, at least in Ginny's world, that likes her whilst hates Aquamarine.

At the age of seven, one day Ginny saw the twin brothers sneaking onto the road behind the hill, so she went along to figure out what they were doing.

"Mind your own business, don't follow us around."

Because of that, Ginny followed them. It's a sibling thing, you never do what your sibling says.

They were actually not doing anything in particular. Fred and George just wanted to go to the neighboring town for some Muggle magic tricks. Ginny could hardly keep up with their speed. After she arrived at the town, she was too exhausted to take another step no matter what her brother said. She promised them to wait under the tree behaving herself if they only buy her ice cream.

The twins bought her a lemon ice pop. She sat underneath the tree, licking it very carefully, slowing down the process so she could enjoy the flavor just a little longer.

A puppy came to her and stared at her. More precisely, at her popsicle.

"You feeling hot?"

Woof!

"You want the popsicle?"

Woof!

"In your dreams."

Ginny shoved the whole popsicle into her mouth, smirking at the puppy. She kept the whole thing in her mouth until it got too icy. But the moment Ginny pulled it out, the top half of it broke off and fell onto the ground. Well, lucky for the puppy then.

Watching how pleased the puppy was, Ginny changed her mind.

"Alright, you ate what's mine, you'd be mine. Starting from now you have to listen to your boss, which is me, deal?"

Woof!

The puppy proved to be very trustworthy. After that popsicle, it became Ginny's sidekick who would never betray her. Ginny spent the whole afternoon playing a game called "I throw the shoe you go get it" with the puppy until her brothers came back to pick her up.

Ginny found one shoe of hers was missing the day after. Therefore she went to the town behind her mother for the first time. She spotted the puppy under that tree, alongside her shoe.

Woof! The puppy said.

What the… Ginny said.

They became friends. Ginny wanted to keep him at the Burrow but her sister doesn't like dogs. Nevertheless, she would still bring the puppy a few pieces of ham or sometimes can meat every time she went playing with him. She calls him Luffy Cerberus. He calls her Woof.

What Ginny likes best about Luffy, is that one time her sister went to the town and tried to play catch with him, but Luffy gave her the cold shoulder.

Whenever Aquamarine did something earth-shattering, Ginny would tell herself that her sister might be able to do anything, but Luffy wouldn't go get her ball. Luffy only plays with me.

In Ginny's world, friends mean Thud and Woof.