Ron

"Hold on Ginny." With that we were being sucked through a tube and landed on the street of Diagon Alley, just outside the joke shop. Ginny took a few seconds to regain herself, but then we marched up the steps and knocked on the front door. We heard feet flying down the stairs and a friendly face opened up the door. "Ginny!" George gapped as he showed us through the door. As soon as we stepped inside, George took ahold of Ginny and looked as though he was never going to let go. She buried her face in his chest and he cradled her reassuringly as if to tell her everything would be alright.

They stayed like this for a long time, until Ginny gave George a tap on the back to signal that she would be okay. George finally got a good look at the both of us and said, "You two look terrible and I'm the one with one ear."

Ginny laughed and joked, "I've been sick and in the rain, so what's Ron's excuse?" George joined in the laughter, but I was just happy to know that Ginny was safe and sound.

After turning on the light I could see how badly Ginny had been affected. She certainly didn't look much like my sister: her face was death white, her eyes were bloodshot, and she was soaked from the top of her head to the bottom of her shoes. There were three ways that I could recognize my sister standing in front of me: her hair, her freckles, and her smile.

"Let's get you both some dry clothes and something to eat. You must be starving Ginny." George hurriedly pushed us up the stairs and into his apartment that he shared with Angelina, "Angelina is with her parents in Spain. So I'm glad to have company over." He scrounged through his drawers to try and find something small enough to fit Ginny and something tall enough to fit me. Finally he found Ginny something and handed me one of his larger t-shirts "Don't stretch it out, or I'll have to get you back."

Ginny ran and took the bathroom, so I was forced to go in the corner to change.

Ginny

George always knew how to make me smile and even when it seemed like everything was going wrong, he would tell me everything that was going right. I changed into my brother's oversized clothes, but I didn't mind because they were extremely comfortable. I came out in George's dry oversized clothes and both of my brothers started smiling at me. "I'm only doing this just for you."

"It's brilliant" Ron piped, admiring the Chuddley Canons shirt that I was sporting.

"Cruel and unusual punishment is more like it," I teased. I didn't feel like I was being punished, but I did feel a little bit like I was being babysat.

"C'mon Ginny, I've got stew heating up and some bread reheating." I looked at George surprised, was he making a 'bun in the oven' joke or was he really reheating bread?

"I don't know if I can eat. I mean, I'm hungry enough, but I haven't been able to keep anything down lately." I ignored the side glance from Ron and looked directly at George. He paused for a moment and held a finger to me to say, "Wait a minute." After a few seconds of searching George cheerily put a sealed bottle on the table.

"What's that?" I asked, looking at it curiously.

"It's an anti-nausea potion. I've found it comes in handy if you've eaten half a puking pastille and can't find the purple half." George said, "It happens all too often that people start and then they can't manage to stop."

"So this means I won't throw up?" I asked incredulously, looking the bottle over for side effects.

"Precisely, at least not if you take it with your meal. It doesn't help much after you've spilled your guts out." George was always a poet when it came to vomit.

We began and finished our meal with a rather lengthy conversation about Quidditch and the joke shop. I felt full, content, and overly exhausted from the day I had. I felt that I owed it to George to tell him. I had wanted to tell mum and dad first, but it only seemed right to tell him.

"Alright Ginny, off to bed. We all need to get some rest before the big day tomorrow." I wanted nothing to do with any day that was big and George was not going to get me to go along with his plan.

"I'll just sleep on the couch…"

"No, no, no." George fussed, "my sister is going to take the big bed. You're exhausted and Ron and I can take the pullout couch."

I was too tired to argue with him so I told him thanks and climbed into the bed. He turned out the lights, but the door was left slightly open. Closed enough to be comfortable, but open enough for Ron and George to poke their heads in once or twice.

I closed my eyes and heard the pounding of numbers onto a phone. George's voice said, "She's here and so is Ron."

Apparently someone liked to keep tabs on me. I couldn't tell if I was offended or touched that someone cared enough to be called at one o clock in the morning for me.

"Yeah, I know, we were all worried Hermione." He told her in a patient tone, "She's sleeping right now Hermione; she had a really tough day."

"I know you want to talk to her, but you can't right now, it looks like she hasn't slept in years and she got her soul sucked out by a dementor. She's in good hands Hermione. I promise." George tried reassuring her.

"Harry found her," his voice broke for a second, "with Fred."

I could hear Ron fidget nervously in his seat, "No, I didn't ask her any questions." George told her rather flatly.

"Because Hermione, you didn't see how miserable she looked, I want her to know that she at least has some family behind her on this. I only have got one baby sister and I'm not letting her go."

George stopped to wait for Hermione to stop talking, "I don't know that much about the situation, but when Ginny wants to tell me, she will, but right now she isn't and I'm not going to push her for answers."

I didn't have the heart to listen to the rest of the conversation, but he was right, and it felt really good to know that I at least had one person to lean back on; even if it isn't Neville.

It hadn't occurred to me until just now how tired I really was. I had to remember to thank George for sticking up for me, and he was close on my favorite brother chart. I loved them all sure, but some were just not as tolerable as others. Percy. But I slowly closed my eyes, opened them again, and then shut them tightly. I mumbled to myself "You have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow, but you don't have to deal with that till tomorrow, right now, you can sleep."

My whole body relaxed and eased into a wonderful sleep.

(A/N: 7/30/13- The chapters from now on will be more original writing, as opposed to edits from the earlier edition. Thanks much!)