Yawning slightly, Ginny made her way back up the Grimmauld Place stairs, clutching Quidditch Through the Ages under her arm. She remembered leaving it in the parlour last night and thought it best to retrieve it before her mother noticed it and berated her for not being packed and ready to go. She needn't have worried though, the sun was only just risen and her mother was already flapping, terrified of missing the train. She had barely even registered Ginny entering the kitchen waving a hand, clutching her wand, vaguely in her daughter's direction as she fervently stirred porridge on the stove whilst simultaneously bewitching a knife to butter toast.
"Morning, Mum," Ginny had mumbled, collecting her book and a slice of toast from the stack, before heading back for the stairs.
"Bring your stuff down here as quick as you can, Ginny. We need to sort the luggage, and wake those brothers of yours!" Her mother called after her.
Reaching the first landing, Ron emerged from the bathroom.
"You'd better get a move on," she told him, "Mum's already on one!"
"Blimey, you'd think after all these years of going to King's Cross, she would have mellowed out a bit," Ron sighed.
"Well, you know mum. It's not September 1st without her almost giving herself a stroke. Are you packed?"
"There about," he glanced at the bedroom door, "I think I'll wait a bit longer before I start banging about. He's had another rough night."
Ginny frowned, but Ron shrugged.
"He'll talk when he's ready," Ron assured her, looking behind her as Fred and George appeared down the next flight of stairs.
"Morning!" George greeted them.
"Mum got breakfast yet?" Fred asked.
"She's just finishing up," Ginny told them, "I'd get in there now before she goes full tyrant."
"Noted, little sis!" Fred said, patting her head and continuing down the stairs, George following in his wake.
Ron headed back into his and Harry's room, quietly closing the door, and Ginny continued her climb to the attic room.
Hermione was just snapping her trunk closed when Ginny entered.
"You're ready?" Ginny asked.
"Of course, aren't you?"
"Almost" Ginny said, chucking her book into her trunk and picking odd bits up from around the room that she had overlooked the night before; mismatched socks, hair ties and other such items.
"Do you know if Ron's awake?" Hermione asked.
"He is, but Harry isn't. He's had another dodgy night's sleep again apparently. Ron didn't want to wake him just yet."
Hermione sighed and dragged her trunk to the door but, before she could leave, there was a pop and George appeared in the middle of the room.
"Mum's just checked the clock," he told them, mischief glinting in his eyes, "It's tyrant time!" He grinned at them both and disapparated.
There were muffled voices downstairs now and, considering they could hear it from the attic, whomever it was must have been talking pretty loudly.
"I'll take my trunk and go hurry the boys up," Hermione said, looking oddly nervous. Ginny wondered if her mother really was that scary to outsiders.
"I'll be right behind you." Ginny assured her.
Hermione left and Ginny did one last sweep of her room, checking under her bed and on top of the wardrobe for anything she may have missed. When she was certain she had everything, she locked her trunk and began to drag it from the room. She pulled it on the stairs as quietly as she could, determined not to startle Buckbeak, who was sharing their floor.
She made it to the next landing, which included Fred and George, and Sirius' rooms. Knowing this floor was probably all awake, she dragged the trunk a little quicker to the next flight of stairs. She was about to step from the top step when she heard it; the whooshing sound. She looked up moments too late as two, huge Hogwarts trunks barrelled into her, knocking her backwards. Ginny screamed in terror as she fell, smashing every inch of her body on each step as she tumbled down and down the stairs. She tried to stand as she reached the next landing but the trunks didn't give her a moment's pause, shoving her down the next flight too. She could feel nothing but pounding agony in every limb, as she hit the cool entrance hall tiles with a sharp smack.
Two feet spun before her eyes, and she heard a gasp and a shout of "MRS WEASLEY! COME QUICK!"
Her mother came running from the kitchen and screamed at the sight of her daughter on the floor, Hermione crouched over her. Two trunks, with the initials F.W and G.W, leaned haphazardly against the bottom steps, and crushing Ginny's legs.
Two pops signalled the trunk's owner's arrivals. Their laughter stopped immediately as they took in the scene before them.
Mrs Weasley was scanning her daughter with her wand.
"Broken ribs," she hissed, "You're lucky, boys, that I can heal that immediately. Get me the medical kit from the kitchen!"
Ginny watched, through very dazed eyes, one of her brothers' sets of legs disappearing. She thought it better to focus on other things rather than the pain. She tried focussing on the hall. There was a small hole in the skirting, where Ginny assumed mice had once congregated, before Crookshanks had moved in for the summer. Then there was the ugly troll leg umbrella stand. What a hideous shade of greyish green it was. Ginny had always liked the colour green. It was the colour of her quidditch team, The Holyhead Harpies. It was the colour of a rather pleasant apple flavoured Bertie Bott's bean. It was the colour of the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, eyes had spent nearly the whole summer stealing glances at, when nobody was looking. She smiled as she recalled the one time that he had caught her staring, while they were clearing out a drawing room. Instead of looking away embarrassed or annoyed, he had simply held her gaze, quite curiously, before her idiot brother had regained his attention.
"Why is she smiling like that?" Fred asked, concerned, "How hard did she hit her head?"
"She looks a bit loopy, mum." George added.
Ginny realised a lot of the pain was leaving her. Her mum was waving her wand above her in intricate loops, muttering all sorts of incantations, while Hermione was applying a bruise paste to her cheek. She noticed she could move again and began to sit up, the smile vacating her face as she looked around to the culprits for her fall. She scowled at them menacingly.
"Thanks guys, just what I needed!" Ginny spat, getting to her feet.
Sensing her daughter was back to her usual self, Molly Weasley rounded on her twins, who had backed into the wall looking at the woman, terrified.
"Hermione, why don't you go get Harry and Ron?" Sirius suggested. Ginny hadn't noticed him standing nearby. Hermione didn't need telling twice, thrusting the bruise cream into Ginny's hand and practically flying up the stairs.
"I think we're about to feel the wrath of both of our mothers." Sirius grinned down at Ginny who smirked back, as Mrs Weasley exploded, followed almost immediately by Mrs Black's portrait.
Molly Weasley's temper set the tone for the rest of the morning. Harry and Ron appeared not long after the incident, depositing their trunks beside the twins', Hermione's and Ginny's, which Tonks had kindly collected from the second landing, before leaving the house. Ron grabbed a stack of toast from the kitchen table, handing half to Harry, who was discussing travel arrangement with Mad- Eye Moody.
Ginny took one last look at her reflection in the mirror beside the stairs. The bruise paste had at least salvaged her from any black eyes. She still looked slightly worn; whether it was from lack of sleep or her near- death experience, she wasn't sure. She was almost knocked over for the second time that morning by the shaggy black dog who had jumped faithfully to Harry's side. He smiled, and ruffled the dogs coat.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!" her mother cried at the dog, who responded with a slight growl.
"Oh, honestly, on your own head, be it!"
She opened the front door and they filed out after her, leaving Mad-Eye shrinking their trunks.
Ginny found herself next to Harry at the bottom of the steps of Grimmauld Place. He was smiling, a rare sight, as he watched Padfoot chasing the pigeons in the road.
"Hey, I heard about the trunks," he said, turning to look at her, "Are you okay?"
She gazed back into piercing green eyes and willed herself not to get tongue tied.
"Oh yeah, I'm alright, broken ribs is nothing!" she waved her hand airily and smiled.
His eyebrows raised slightly and he chuckled. She determinedly ignored the fluttering in her stomach and forced herself to think of Michael, who she would be seeing in a few short hours.
"Well, I'm glad you're not seriously hurt." He smiled and gripped her upper arm.
She felt her heart accelerate rapidly, and she suddenly forgot how to breathe.
The bark of a dog took Harry's attention and he let go of her, moving towards his four-legged godfather and setting off up the street.
Ginny didn't move for several seconds until Hermione nudged her in the back.
"Told you!" the bushy brunette muttered softly in her ear, "He'll pay more attention if you be yourself."
"He asked if I was okay." Ginny told her, deciding that if she disclosed it to someone, then she couldn't have dreamt it.
"That's interesting" Hermione said, looking after her best friend further up the road, and pursing her lips.
"Oh? How come?"
"Because he already asked me how you were upstairs."
Ginny glanced up at her friend.
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Then why did he ask again?"
For once, Hermione didn't have an answer.