Only Half-Weasley

Chapter 3

A/N: In honor of not updating in such a long time, I have blessed you with a long chapter. Well, I tried to make it long, at least. I'm sorry about the delay! School has been very demanding and I finally found this little time pocket where I felt a deep motivation to write. Amazing, huh? Thank you to all of you who reviewed my last chapter! Dauby, piratesswriter, Danny, Frodo Freak2, MiKaYGiRl, Herfathersjoy, EboniteEvans, and Anja! You all made my day when you reviewed, so I thank you all for that! I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter! Thanks again!

"Mum, do you have idea where we are?" Holly asked, dragging her feet in London for the umpteenth mile. It was a week after Holly agreed to go to Hogwarts and Ginny and Holly had been walking around London for a little over an hour. Ginny could have sworn that the little pub she was looking for was around here, but the more she walked around, the less confident she became. After all, it had been nearly twelve years since she set foot in Diagon Alley. "Where are we going, anyways?"

"I'm looking for a pub," Ginny answered shortly, coming to the end of her patience. This couldn't be happening to her. Of all the days she had been avoided magic, this was the one exception and of course, it was Murphy's Law that she wouldn't be able to find it.

Holly groaned and dragged her feet even more. "We must have passed a million by now," Holly whined.

"We're looking for a specific one, you'll see," Ginny told her one again. Another hour went by, though, and they still couldn't find the little pub. "That's it, I give up! We are going to never find this place!" Ginny cried and threw her arms up in the middle of the sidewalk. People all around her gave her unusual glances while she collapsed on a bench in front of an ice cream parlor.

Ginny gave Holly a five-pound note and sent the eleven-year-old in the store while she tried to decide what to do. She could get a taxi and take the two of them home and maybe try to floo to Diagon Ally? However, this made Ginny uncomfortable. Holly had never been exposed to magic and she was afraid that her daughter might end up elsewhere. With her luck today, she could almost count on that happening. She was at her wits end, when two familiar people walked by in muggle clothing…

"Come on, Ron," a brown-haired woman commanded the gentleman she with in a quiet, agitated tone. "Stop goggling at everything in the stores. Most Muggles don't do that. Do you want to give us all away because of your stupidity?"

Ginny could have laughed at her older brother's faults, but instead, she quickly hid in the alley next to the ice cream shop. She could have sworn that Hermione looked twice at her as she walked by, but Ginny didn't meet the other woman's glance. It had been twelve years since she had seen her brother and sister-in-law and she couldn't imagine what they would say if they saw her now. Most likely, they would be thoroughly angry with her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw the red-haired woman disappear. She had seen the woman at a distance and had been watching her as she walked by. The woman had red hair just like her husband's and could have passed as Ron's sister, but Hermione didn't get a good look at the woman's face. Even if the woman did look like Ginevra Weasley, there are so many red-heads in England that Hermione could have easily made a mistake. This had happened before in a pizza parlor where Hermione embarrassed herself and called the woman 'Ginny.' Unfortunately, the woman's name was 'Alice' and after seeing her up close, Hermione realized that the other woman hardly looked anything like the Ginny Weasley that she remembered. Still, Hermione always hoped.

"Ron, did you see that red-haired woman that was over there?" she asked her husband while they were stopped in front of the shop next the ice cream parlor.

"Over where?" Ron asked, tearing his eyes away from a display of Muggle Magazines.

"Never mind," said Hermione. "We need to get going. We're meeting Harry at the Leaky Cauldron at two, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Ron remembered and he continued to follow Hermione to the end of the block.

Ginny peeked out her hiding spot to see Ron and Hermione cross the street and Holly come out of the ice cream parlor with her ice cream and some change. "Have we given up?" Holly asked hopefully.

"Nope," Ginny replied, pulling Holly into the alley with her. Ginny grabbed her wand out from her pocket quite aggressively and nearly stabbed her head with it as she muttered an incantation under her breath. Her wavy red hair began to turn a pale yellow starting from the wand and moving throughout her hair as if she was simply pouring water over it.

Holly gasped as she watched her mother's hair change color. "Mum! Your hair!" she cried, but Ginny quickly put her hands over Holly's mouth.

"It's magic, Holly," she whispered. "And I just found our route to the pub."

Ginny began to jog down the street in search of her brother. After she ran three blocks pulling Holly the entire way, she thought that she may have lost them, but she found the two standing in a park around the corner. Hermione was holding a little girl in her arms while Ron was calling two other boys to get off the playground. Ginny laughed as the boys pelted their father with popcorn in response.

"Michael and Daniel Weasley!" Hermione shouted. "Let's go!"

The boys knocked each other down the slide and went running to their mother who began scolding them for not listening to their father. Ginny walked slowly down the block and waited for Ron and Hermione to continue their walk to Diagon Alley. Holly, who still had no idea what was going on, went along with her mother's strange behavior (since it was becoming more and more common each day) and was window shopping in every store they went by.

Finally, the Weasley family left the park in the opposite direction and Holly felt her mother pull forcefully across the street, barely missing the cars that slammed on their breaks around her. "Mum, what are you doing? Are you trying to get me killed?"

Ginny didn't answer or say a word for another fifteen minutes until she cried out in happiness when they finally reached their destination. In the narrow building between a book shop and a record shop was a little place that was hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it. Above the pub, in bronze letters read "The Leaky Cauldron."

"This is where you wanted to take me?" Holly cried in amazement. "A run-down pub?"

Ginny rolled her eyes and chased after her brother who had just disappeared into the pub. "See beyond the appearance, Holly," Ginny advised as she walked into the pub and closed the door behind her daughter. She looked around the room and felt an immediate sense of relief: they had finally reached their destination. Ginny spotted Hermione and Ron in the corner of the pub taking a table, but no Harry. Ginny breathed a whispered prayer as she walked past them that she wouldn't be recognized or that Harry wouldn't be on the other side of that door-

WHAM!

Too late.

"My nose!" Ginny cried, holding her hands up to her nose after the door had hit her. Tears ran down her face and she almost fell to the floor in pain. She could feel blood dripping down her face and splatter onto her cloths. Oh, this wasn't a good day at all!

"Mum, are you alright?" Holly asked as her mum was swaying and losing her balance.

A black-haired criminal rushed to her side and grabbed her shoulders, keeping her from falling over. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were there!" the man apologized.

"It's alright, really," Ginny answered, trying not to look at him. "It's just a broken nose. Ow!" She was very thankful that her hair was disguised because her face turned very a deep red that was associated with her Weasley features.

Hermione, who witnessed the event, stumbled over Ron and came to her side. "Harry, what did you do?" she scolded her friend. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Please excuse my friend; he's a bit clumsy. Episkey."

Ginny felt the pain in her nose stop and knew that it was no longer broken, but she was still covered in blood. "It's alright, I think I'm going to clean up," Ginny excused herself. "Come on, Holly."

"Oh let me help you!" Hermione offered and followed Ginny into the restroom. "My name is Hermione Granger. I'm a healer at St. Mungo's."

"I know," Ginny muttered.

"What?" Hermione asked, hearing Ginny mumble.

"Nothing," Ginny replied louder. "I just need to get this blood off of me."

"Oh, I know a really good spell for that!" Hermione answered and with a swish of her wand, the blood that had soaked Ginny's cloths disappeared.

Ginny looked down at herself and back up at Hermione. "Thanks," she said with a smile. "Come on, Holly, let's go." Ginny grabbed her daughter's hand and pulled her outside of the pub with Hermione in her wake. She waved the other woman away and turned to face the brick wall in the back. Three up, two across, and three taps with the wand and the mother pushed her daughter through the opening and disappeared.

"Oh Harry, I can't believe you did that!" Hermione turned to the black-haired man.

Harry shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. "I know, Hermione, I already apologized. I was just a bit distracted, that's all."

"Well, it was a bit amusing, though," Ron added with a grin. "You always have to arrive in style. Even the women crumble at your feet- or lose there noses!"

"Ha ha, Ronald," said Hermione sarcastically.

Harry looked back at the door where the accident happened and then turned to Hermione. "Did you get her name?"

Hermione shook her head. "She was pretty irritated. I wanted to ask, but decided against it. She couldn't have been a muggle, though. She used a wand to get through the barrier and she said she knew me. Well, she didn't say that she knew me, but when I introduced myself, she answered 'I know.'"

"What wizard doesn't know you, Hermione?" Ron joked. "We've been in the prophet too many times to count."

"True," Hermione admitted. "I just feel like I knew her. Maybe we went to school together. She looks to be our age and her daughter must be new. The little girl looked so clueless!"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh, what a spectacle- parents taking their children to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies! How unusual!"

Hermione hit Ron's shoulder and glared at him. Harry laughed at the pair, but couldn't help feeling that Hermione was right somehow. Of all the wizards in England, why did she seem so familiar?

"Mum, are you sure you're ok?" Holly asked as she walked next to Ginny down Diagon Alley. "You look pale. Do you want to sit down?"

"No, no, I'm fine," said Ginny quickly. "Let's just get your supplies, ok?"

In Gringotts, Ginny exchanged her muggle money to galleons and the first place they went to afterwards was the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. Among the piles of books, Holly was able to find the ones required for her new classes and in matter of minutes, the mother and daughter were out of the busy store and back out into the busier street. It seemed that every Hogwarts student was there buying supplies as Ginny and Holly bumped into quite a few anxious and aggravated parents.

"This place is amazing," Holly whispered to her mother in awe. Even as they were just walking from store to store, Holly was quietly trying to take it all in. She had never seen anything like this before! Cauldrons and broomsticks on display, funny-looking animals in some sort of a pet-shot, and a few restaurants that served some food that Holly had never heard of. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" Ginny could help letting a grin appear on her face at her daughter's amazement. Of all the horrible things to happen that day, this was a good start for Holly.

Then next place the two ventured into was 'Finnegan's Fabulous Fashion' where Lavender Finnegan started her own line of robes. After that, they visited the apothecary, bought some potions supplies and Holly's pewter cauldron, and lastly came to McLaggen's Wands. Ginny gave a small grunt as she walked into the store, but as it was the only wand shop in Diagon Alley, she had no choice.

There were a few other first years in the shop looking for wands and Cormac McLaggen himself was behind a fancy cash register. "Can I help you ladies with anything?" the man asked lazily.

Ginny looked around and watched first years going through boxes of wands. "My daughter needs to get a wand," she said uncertainly. The first years seemed to be looking for their wands by themselves- a different process than she was used to at Ollivander's.

"Oh, wonderful," he said carelessly and motioned to the shelves behind him. "Just pick a section and wave some wands. It's not too hard."

Ginny would have glared at the man if she didn't have her daughter there to witness it and instead just followed his motion to the last line of shelves towards the back of the store. "Alright, Holly, this is just like trying on shoes. Pick up a wand if it does anything, then that's the one for you."

Holly took out a thing, slender box and picked up the wand inside of it. "Yew, twelve and a half inches, and dragon heart string. What? Dragons?" Holly questioned her mother.

"Certainly we have dragons! You won't see any here in England, though. They are mostly hidden away in places like Romania," Ginny informed her. "Oh, give the wand a try!"

Holly felt a little stupid as she swished the wand in the air, but nothing happened. "What? Come on, you stupid wand, do something!" she cried, banging it on the wooden shelf.

Ginny snatched the wand away from her before the wand could break and cause Mr. McLaggen to come over and investigate. "Holly, not every wand is going to be right for you! The wand chooses the wizard. Here, try this one."

Ginny handed her daughter another wand: Beech, eight and three quarters inches, with a feather from a phoenix. However, this one did just the same as the other: nothing. The pair of them went through over two dozen wands before Holly finally found her perfect wand: Holly, nine and a half inches, and with a unicorn tail.

Nothing was more satisfying to Ginny than when the two left McLaggen's and were now completed with their shopping. In fact, she was in such a good mood that she took Holly into 'Corner's Owl Emporium' to buy the eleven-year-old an owl. A new surprise shocked her as she stepped into the door: Cho Chang.

"Welcome to the Emporium!" she greeted enthusiastically and then looked closely at Ginny. "Have we met before?"

"Possibly," Ginny said carelessly, keeping one eye on her daughter while Holly looked around the room at all the different varieties of owls. "I went to Hogwarts and I worked for the ministry afterwards. Perhaps we met somewhere in that time period."

Cho nodded in agreement. "Perhaps we did. I feel like I should know you're name, though. You are-?"

"Alex Miller," Ginny offered. Holly looked at her mother suspiciously, but fortunately for Ginny, her daughter didn't say a word. It wasn't entirely a lie, after all.

Cho looked clueless and turned her attention to the younger blonde. "Well, we have a huge variety of owls here- many of them have been imported from other nations. Pick one that you like, dear. They are all fantastic creatures."

Ginny rolled her eyes and followed Holly around the store. 'Fantastic indeed,' she thought to herself. 'Corner's? Was she married to Michael? That would explain a lot.' Ginny was very immersed in her own thinking that she didn't notice when Holly picked a spotted brown and looked to her mother to pay.

"Good-bye!" Cho waved them at the door and once again, Ginny and Holly plummeted into the busy streets again.

It was now getting late and many of the shoppers were heading home. Ginny felt too tired to try to get a cab home and instead took the Knight Bus. The ride home was alerting enough, but she did feel at peace until she as in the comfort of her own home. Holly looked pretty beat as well as the little girl dumped her school supplies, owl, books, cauldron, and all and collapsed on her bed. What an exciting day it had been…