Chapter 2

The hours before dinner were spent playing with Ron and making sandcastles with moats and towers. The only argument that had broken out was on how to decorate all of it. She had wanted to find shells and he had wanted to leave it the way it was and not be so 'girly'. Ginny gave her brother a glare and push, then did not talk to him through most of dinner. Their second to oldest brother, Charlie, was putting her in a much happier mood with his jokes and she forgot all about the disagreement that had given her a stale mood earlier. She was in such a good mood that even before everyone was finished, she declared she was going to play on the beach once more, rushing out the door and down the steps, only hearing half of what her mum had said about someone going with her. She soon heard footsteps following her and turned to find Ronald with her favorite blue bucket in hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a tilt of her head to the right.

"Coming with you. Mum said. Where are you going?"

"On a walk." She said simply and turned to continue on her way.

"Why?"

"Because I want to."

"Well, how long are we walking? How far?"

"Till I get tired. Do you have to ask a bazillon questions?"

"No," he looked at her like a whipped puppy, begging not the be struck again, "I was just wondering is all. We got some fireworks for later, remember? I wanna see them."

"Well, you can still come with me too, you know?"

"I know."

"Then stop looking at me like that." Ginny turned back around and started to walk again.

Ron only had to take a few big steps with his longer legs to get back to her side once again. "I brought a bucket for us to put the shells in."

Ginny remembered the disagreement they had about the sandcastle towers and knew this was his way of apologizing for fighting with her. He offered her part of the bucket handle to her to hold with him and smiled brightly as her hand clasped around it knowing he had been forgiven and that she was sorry too. They didn't talk during the walk away from the house. Their eyes scouted for the best shells and each one was placed safe inside the bucket waiting for more to join. From time to time one or both of them would stop to pick up a shell, being careful not to get to far into the water. Their mother would be unhappy if they came back soaking wet in their clothes.

"Oh look at this, Gin!" Ron exclaimed as the waves rolled out again. He gave no notice to it coming in once again walking into the water until it was about ankle deep, holding the bucket in his left hand. "It's a huge sand dollar!" He set the bucket to his right as the waves rolled out once more and began to dig in the sand to pull the rest of the treasure from its place.

"Ronnie look out!" Ginny cried.

He jumped back just in time as a large wave came in, but the bucket and shells were as good as lost, being carried out into deeper water. Ginny screwed her face up to fight the tears that wanted to come from the loss of the shells and the hard work they had done to collect them.

"Ron how could you!" Her eyes started to mist more. Her brother however just stood there dumbfounded, staring at her trying to come up with a reply to her question.

She turned from the wordless wonder that was her brother and ran down the shore away from him. She ran and ran until she couldn't see him or the house anymore. Feeling wetness on her cheeks, she wiped the tears she hadn't realized had fallen and crouched on the edge of the shore letting the water lap at her feet as she sniffed her tears further away. It was then she felt something hard poke her leg. Ginny reached into the pocket of her dress and found a few shells that had been hidden there.

Pulling them from her pocket she started to throw them one by one into the sea as far as she could. She thought, "why should I have these if I can't have the others to go with them?" One by one, they left her hand and plopped back into the sea they had come from. After about the fourth shell, Ginny felt a hard poke in between her shoulders.

"Go away, I don't want to talk to you!" Another jab, harder this time. Annoyed that she had gotten no answer, Ginny turned around quickly to see a boy that was most certainly not her brother.

"What do you think you are doing?" came a snotty drawl that made her cringe and feel angry at the same time. This boy couldn't talk to her like that! She hadn't done anything to him. These weren't even his shells! Then again, she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, so she thought it better just be silent, clutching the remaining shells in her hand.

"Well... what are you doing on my beach?" He spoke again more impatiently.

"Your beach? This isn't your beach." Ginny snapped, forgetting he was a stranger and she was not to talk to him. "You can't own the beach."

The boy thrust his little pointed noise into the air and motioned to a very large house looming off down the beach with a pale finger. "Yes. I. Can." He grinned triumphantly. "That is my house, and this is my beach. My Daddy owns it."

"Well it's your Daddy's beach then and not yours." she retorted smartly and crossed her arms after throwing the last of the shells into the ocean with a show of frustration.

The boy's eyebrows furrowed, and Ginny thought such a pale blonde boy seemed out of place at the beach. "Why do you keep throwing things?" He asked, changing the subject. He looked as if her were growing more bored by the second and thinking of leaving.

She shrugged, "I didn't want them anymore." Her brown eyes looked at his face and she tilted her head. "Why do you care?"

"I don't." He answered in that snotty tone again as he tugging at the sleeve of his shirt.

After a time of silence and eyeing one another she spoke up, "Do you want to play?"

"I don't play tea party."

"I don't either, you git." Her face went pink with irritation as she crossed her arms and glared. He returned her glare and stood there silent.

"We can play over there." He pointed to a bend in the beach while his grey eyes where still glaring at her.

"Fine." She tossed her ginger braid over her shoulder and stomped in that direction.

He followed her, but soon strode past to lead the way with his nose in the air like he had practiced it in a mirror. Looking out of the corner of his eyes to make sure she was watching. After a short walk they found the small cove he had pointed to. It was nothing extravagant but for Ginny it was wonderful. Rocks came up out of the sand and began to make a natural shelter. An inlet had been created by years of waves beating against the shore. Crabs and other small fish swam and lived in several pools of water. She bent down in front of one of the pools and stuck a couple of fingers in, creating small ripples.

"What's your name?" There was a silence as if he meant not to answer her or had not heard at all. Perhaps he had forgotten it. Or maybe it was a stupid name. At any rate he seemed to be thinking very hard.

"Lucas," he said giving her hand a smack. "You're going to hurt them if you stick your hand in there."

She stood up again making a face at him for slapping her hand. "My name's Ginny."

"Ginny?" His face screwed up like something smelly had just been placed under it. "I don't like that. Don't you have another name?"

Instead of being offended she thought for a moment. No one had ever asked her that question. "My middle name is Marie." She looked at Lucas who seemed to be considering this new name's worth.

"Ok Mia, how about we go play over there?" He took her hand and pulled her over to the far side of the cove careful, not to fall in the pools of water. There they played in the sand, with seashells and starfish for hours until they heard a woman's voice calling her son in. They hadn't even realized the time had passed so quickly. They left the hidden cove, and Ginny could see a tall wispy form of a blonde woman at the railing on the back patio of Lucas' house. Her hair shimmered in the setting sun and flowed down her back like sparkling water. She was the kind of beautiful Ginny had never seen before. The blonde woman called again in a light voice that rang like bells restrained with proper manners.

Lucas ran for the house even though the woman had not been calling his name, but turned around. "Will you come play again tomorrow?"

"Sure." She smiled and ran in the direction of her own house as he ran in the direction of his. She hadn't noticed how the beautiful woman had watched her go or how she had ushered Lucas inside like he had done something wrong.

Once she got home, her mum fussed over her for an hour. Ginny had tried to explain she had only been playing. She was sternly told that if she wanted to play alone or farther from the house she should tell someone so they would know where she was. Ginny hung her head and agreed, though she was quickly trying to think of ways to get around this new rule.

A/N: I have changed Ginny's middle name to a variant of Molly to keep it more canon. Somehow little Draco calling Ginny Mol is not as cute as him calling her Mia, which is a nickname for Marie. Also, those curious about Draco's middle name can assume he lied about it. As usual, I don't own anything HP. But wouldn't that money be nice. Comments are great!