The Path from Darkness to Fire
Chapter 2: Following Through
Ginny had finished her essays by the end of the week. Three more weeks had passed, and she was partway through the sixteenth chapter in The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. When she went to put Ron's copy of the Herbology text away, she'd picked up A Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2. Some of the spells in that might be useful for self-defense. She'd also been revisiting material from the other classes; The Dark Forces frequently referred to magical creatures, potions, and spells which the other books discussed in more depth.
Chapter sixteen was starting to discuss material she hadn't seen in her other classes. The section on recognizing objects which had been transfigured was incredibly confusing until she read ahead in the Transfiguration textbook, and they certainly hadn't discussed the charm to detect them yet in Charms. The discussion on potions ingredients commonly used in Dark potions had also been interesting; the author had pointed out that several of the common mind control potions could be negated by drinking an elixir of moonflower and goldenrod.
Molly had finally stopped worrying about Ginny as soon as she left her sight, and Ginny was allowed to sit out on the porch reading as long as her brothers were out playing Quidditch, or de-gnoming the yard. With any luck, after the trip to Egypt she would even be allowed to sit out in the yard instead of staying on the porch.
"Ginny! It's almost dinnertime! Come inside and set the table!"
"Coming, Mum."
Ginny marked her place in The Dark Forces, and got up to head inside. After dinner, she'd be able to finish the chapter, and she wanted to read more about countering mind control potions. Magical Drafts and Potions didn't cover the Dark ones which The Dark Forces discussed, but it looked like some of the potions in second year would influence a person's behavior.
A little over two weeks later
In Egypt, Ginny finally got to spend more time outdoors. Her mother insisted on applying spells to protect her from sunburns at least three times a day, but it was nice to walk around. Of course, she would have been able to see more of Egypt if her brothers had stopped surrounding her whenever they went anywhere interesting. They seemed to have decided that the best way to protect her was to keep her physically surrounded at all times.
Her mother insisted on holding her hand as if she was three, and Ron did his best to take her other hand. Percy hovered, trying to take her hand if Ron ever let go. Fred and George found this vastly amusing, and would stand in front of her and behind her. Her father just trailed along unless they were in a Muggle area, when he would watch all the tourists, and try to figure out their cameras. Bill was normally at the head of the group, pointing out interesting sites.
Today, they were spending a couple of hours in the bazaar at Abydos, on their way from Cairo to the Valley of the Kings and Thebes. Arthur was off in the Muggle section, examining a red toy which showed pictures of the temples. Fred and George had abandoned them at the sight of Ishaq's Toys and Treasures. Percy was examining a table of old books, while Bill was bargaining with the owner of the books for a grey book with some sort of green mold growing on the binding. Ron was two booths down, admiring the posters of Egypt's National Quidditch Team. And Ginny was stuck with Molly at Zahra's Linens, where she had been digging through sale bins for new curtains.
Molly finally let go of Ginny's hand to move a pile of towels in the bins, and Ginny used the opportunity to step out of Molly's reach. A black cat was sleeping in the shade a couple feet away from the sale bins, and it yawned and looked up as she walked over.
"Hello kitty. I bet you've been having a nice day. Wandering around the market wherever you want, and curling up to sleep when you're tired." Ginny said, as she reached out a hand.
The cat didn't respond to anything she said, but it stretched up to rub against her hand. She stroked its back gently, and the cat lay back down, purring.
"You probably have a couple of brothers or sisters somewhere, but they don't seem to be following you around all the time. Mine weren't bad last year, but as soon as I got out of the hospital wing, they started following me around. I know they care about me, but it would be nice if they trusted me to take care of myself. I've been reading a really good defense book, and I'm at least part of the way through the second year curriculum. I started reading the other textbooks straight through, since they kept on assuming that I understood things I'd never seen before when I was only reading the bits and pieces that the defense textbook talked about. I wonder why they don't just "
Suddenly, someone jerked her hand away from the cat.
"GINNY! WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING! HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED NOT TO TOUCH THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW!" Ron bellowed at her.
"RONALD WEASLEY! What on earth are you yelling at Ginny for!" Her mother snapped, having finally looked up from the sale bins.
"She was petting a strange cat! Who knows what sort of curses might have been on it!"
"Ronald, yelling at your sister and grabbing her is not appropriate behavior for the middle of the street. I know that you're worried she'll get hurt, and I'll make sure she stays next to me the entire time. Now come along, Bill was going to take us up to the Valley of the Kings and show us the first tomb he worked on." With that, Molly grabbed Ginny's hand, and set out to round up the rest of her boys.