Disclaimer--If you like it, assume I don't own it. The Potterverse belongs to JKR, Steve Klowes, Scholastic and WB. Fanon belongs to the multitude...I'm simply paying homage with the sincerest form of flattery. Most of this scene is from GoF by JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made.

Author's Notes-- For those of you who know my posting habits, a warning progress may be a lot slower in this work. I really hope you'll make the effort to stick with me anyway. As you all know, I may not own it, but I work hard, and I love it, so if you read it and enjoy it, please review it!

Dolphingirl79--Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I am trying to write the series from Ginny's POV. I currently have Ginny's POV for CoS and PoA posted on Fanfic.net if you haven't seen them yet. Hope to hear from you again.

Raiining--It is a bit odd that Ron's family didn't know about Pig, but how could he explain the real story without explaining everything else he knew about Sirius Black? He could tell his parents "a friend" gave him Pig, or simply that he got him as a replacement when Scabbers "died"--they didn't know he didn't have him when he got on the train, so they might not think to ask many questions. As for why Ginny and the twins don't...call it sibling solidarity. *winks* I imagine she'll find out as soon as her Mum knows about Sirius Black, if not before. *grins* I totally agree...all those little details Harry doesn't notice about other characters ARE fanfiction...AND a lot of fun! :-D We'll have to wait and see if I finish book 5 before book 6 comes out...I rather hope we don't have to wait long...whether I write originals or just wait to continue Ginny's POV depends on Real Life and the Muse, both of which are highly variable! Great questions!

Ranting Idiot--Molly is smoke in a bottle, don't you think? *winks* I don't think the Weasleys (on the whole) know about Sirius Black and/or Peter Pettigrew yet...hopefully I will get to write a scene where they find out in the future. I, like you, have always found that a fairly interesting prospect. Ginny does know something is up, but not what...and as to when she does figure it out, I don't know that! *laughs sheepishly* You're right...that should a fun scene as well! *winks* I like Ginny curious and a little more observant than people think...it's nice to know I'm not the only one...so I don't think you're rambling at all...I'm glad you told us! *hugs*

J.Rhaye--I hope the inner dialogue seemed smooth and didn't leave people wondering where it came from since it's never really been a major part of the stories before. I have to admit, I really enjoy it! ;-) Yes...I like the way Ron and Harry both protect Ginny without thinking--they don't even notice! True, if Ginny had just let loose and acted on impulse, she'd probably have Harry's attention 5 year instead of Cho...but...true love is best grown into...we must make that our mantra...Glad to have your company! *hugs*

EEDOE--Oh, I agree...a sensitive, high-strung little girl is much more likely to notice the change in a brother-sister relationship than her sweet but somewhat oblivious--and, in his defense, very busy--older brother. *sigh* Exactly! You've gotta love the instinct! *winks* Boy, have you ever nailed my idea of Percy! *giggles* I'm loving Ginny's inner dialogue myself! *winks* And the cat chasing gnomes...makes me wish I was one! Now...I'm back to your favorite piece of eye candy, myself! *winks* Thanks! *hugs*

Bill--I'm a great fan of dry, cynical and/or sarcastic humor...and no one does it like the British. Too few fanfics captalize on that. *winks* Oh...I love it when you point out little stylistic devices you like! *beams* Your comment about the Burrow nearly had me in gales of laughter...so true, so true! I suspect Ginny and the twins never mentioned the fact Ron didn't have the owl when he left school...so Molly is willing to accept whatever vague explanation she's given...after all, Dumbledore would know if anything TOO weird had occurred...*winks* But...I'll try to be more careful about pointing out such nagging little questions in the future. *snickers and winks* *hugs*

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"Percy's enjoying work, then?"



"Enjoying it?" repeated Ron. "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch...as I was saying to Mr. Crouch...Mr. Crouch is of the opinion...Mr. Crouch was telling me...They'll be announcing their engagement any day now."



"Have you had a good summer, Harry?" Hermione interjected. "Did you get our food parcels and everything?"



Ginny had been wondering about that too-a couple of weeks into the summer, Ron had gotten a letter from Harry announcing his cousin-Dud?-had to go on a diet and he wasn't sure he'd survive without supplies. Ginny herself had helped Mum with a batch of meat pies...as much as she hated to admit, she'd spent a lot of her summer picturing Harry enjoying them. Not to mention the birthday cake she'd helped to bake.



"Yeah, thanks a lot," Harry said fervently. "They saved my life, those cakes." Ginny knew the remark wasn't directed at her, she felt her face heat just the same. She couldn't help feeling as if everything about Harry somehow belonged to her...She broke off abruptly in the middle of her reverie, her blush deepening.



Perhaps because she was embarrassed, she felt more than usually aware of Ron's next question "And have you heard from--"



Hermione was looking at him with a warning expression, Harry looked tense and very conscious of something, and the tops of Ron's ears were reddening. All for what Ginny would have considered to be a fairly innocuous question...after all, Ron could have been asking about any of a dozen classmates...none of whom he should hesitate to name in front of Ginny. Ron was definitely hiding something more than his owl's origin-Ginny had suspected as much ever since he'd somehow ended up in the hospital wing with a broken leg the day after Professor Lupin had somehow discovered Sirius Black was innocent...She even wondered if Lupin hadn't nearly mentioned Harry's involvement-Harry certainly hadn't seemed worried about Black supposedly being after him since then-and now, studying the look the inseparable trio exchanged, Ginny wondered if this didn't have something to do with that...Could Harry be in contact with his godfather, Sirius Black?



She opened her mouth to ask, hardly stopping to wonder how she was going to explain how she knew about Black-"I think they've stopped arguing," Hermione said. "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?" Ginny scowled in her direction, a bit disgruntled at loosing her chance to catch Harry and Ron's attention, but already thinking better of it.



"Yeah, all right," Ron agreed with a last look at Harry.



Mum was, indeed, starting dinner, wearing an annoyed expression Ginny found relatively mild. "We're eating out in the garden," she said shortly. "There's just not room for eleven people in here. Could you take the plates outside, girls? Bill and Charlie are setting up the tables. Knives and forks, please, you two," she added to Ron and Harry, shooting potatoes from their skins so they ricocheted around the kitchen, forcing Ginny to duck in order to keep her head.



"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Mum waved her wand with a violent flourish, and the dustpan and broom skidded into service, sweeping up the debris. "Thos two!" Pots and pans banged loud punctuation as Mum slammed them on the counter. "I don't know what's going to happen to them, I really don't."



Ginny did. They were going to open a joke shop and be a huge success. Somehow, though, she didn't think Mum wanted to hear that.



"No ambition, unless you count making as much trouble as they possibly can..."



But Mum hadn't seen their business plan.



She slammed a pan onto the table and began to conjure sauce inside. "It's not as though they haven't got brains," she transferred the pot to the stove, and jabbed the burner to life. "But they're wasting them, and unless they pull themselves together soon, they'll be in real trouble." Ginny might have agreed, if she hadn't known the twins were pulled together already...they knew exactly where they wanted to be, and had a pretty good idea of how they were going to get there...if only Mum would listen...Mum meant well, but she just liked what worked, and she didn't want to consider anything else...it was as if she thought the less things changed, the safer they were. But the twins, like a lot of artists, had very little use for doing things predictably or feeling safe.



"I don't know what went wrong with them," Mum muttered violently, shaking her head. "It's been the same thing for years, one thing after another, and they won't listen to--"

//Runs in the family//, Ginny thought, her lips twisting wryly, as she followed Hermione out the back door. "OH NO-NOT AGAIN!" she heard Mum shout as the door swung shut behind her.

She wondered what she had missed, but the garden was hardly short on entertainment. Crookshanks was indeed still chasing gnomes, who darted past, kicking their feet outrageously high, giggling madly, as Crookshanks bounded behind, emitting little cackling purrs. As if that weren't enough, Bill and George had just enchanted each of their tables to fly and were holding a demolition derby several feet in the air, competing to knock them out of the air. "That can't be a good idea," Hermione protested primly, "the muggles in the village are sure to hear something-what if they see?"

"They won't," Bill assured her with a shrug, "we're hidden by the trees." He pointed at the ancient stand of old and very bushy fir trees bordering the garden on that side.

Hermione glanced that direction and subsided, but she was pale as she glanced up at the tables dueling in the air. Clearly, she thought it was dangerous and inadvisable just the same.

Ginny had to admit she was probably right, but Bill and Charlie had been doing this sort of thing for years, and no one had ever been seriously hurt. Fred and George, free of all such concerns, were cheering wildly, making up the most outrageous and disgusting chants they could, and Ginny couldn't help laughing at some of the lyrics.

Bill's table knocked the leg off Charlie's with a loud bang, prompting a new burst of whistles and cheers from Fred and George, and handwringing from Hermione. A window clattered open, and Percy's head thrust into view, wearing a peeved expression that made him look unsettlingly like Mum. "Will you keep it down!"

"Sorry, Perce," Bill grinned, sounding not sorry at all. Ginny grinned too. "How are the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," Percy snapped, slamming the window shut.

Bill and Charlie both chuckled, but guided their tables to land just the same. Bill reattached the broken leg and conjured tablecloths, and Ginny and Hermione walked around them setting down plates, followed by Harry and Ron with the silverware. Charlie and the twins had already gone in to carry out the first of Mum's dishes, so the tables were packed in no time at all.

Ginny sat on the long, low bench between Bill and Hermione, passing dishes for what seemed like ages, as everyone took helpings of chicken and ham pie, boiled potatoes, and salad. Ginny watched the sky darken from a bright, almost unrealistic blue, to a deep rich shade of velvety blue-violet, drinking in the summer air that drifted balmily about them. She was vaguely aware of Percy at the head of the other bench, giving Dad his usual speech about cauldron bottoms.

Bill was talking to Charlie-who sat across from him-about ways Gringotts could make the use of dragons more feasible. Ginny wasn't exactly sure how or when Mum got involved...the next thing she knew, Mum was eyeing Bill's hair-which looked quite sleek and dangerous in its shoulder-length ponytail-with a dangerous gleam in her eye. "I wish you'd let me give it a trim..."

"I like it," Ginny said pertly. "You're so old-fashioned Mum." She nearly added, but didn't, that she was sure it was the result of the fashion article she'd sent Bill from "Witch Weekly" a few weeks before...it had suggested witches found an edge sexy and exciting. "Anyway, it's nowhere near as long as Dumbledore's," she added, with a wink at Bill.

Charlie had been sidetracked into Fred and George's conversation about the upcoming Quidditch Cup. Every time she thought about it, Ginny's skin tingled. "'Sgot to be Ireland," Charlie asserted through his potatoes.

"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," Fred said, exchanging a speculative look with George that made Ginny slightly nervous. She glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed, but it didn't look as though they had.

"Krum's one decent player," Charlie said. "Ireland has seven. I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."

"What happened?" Harry demanded, and the eager excitement in his voice made Ginny's stomach soar up into her throat so the backs of her eyes stung.

"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," Charlie informed him. "Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."

Mum waved candles like clouds of tame fireflies to light the garden, as they had their strawberry ice cream. Ron glanced up the table. Ginny, curiousity piqued, pretended to be absorbed in the advice Mum was giving Charlie in the care of the burns still-healing on his hands, ears perked in his direction.

"So...heard...Sirius...tly?" she heard Ron whisper.

She felt a tingle of vindication surge along her spine.

"...ice," Harry murmured. "...ounds...ay...I...ote...yesterday...he...back...here..."

Ginny froze, frowning slightly. Was Sirius back in the area? That wasn't a good idea-the whole ministry was looking for him. Somehow, she would have to write and warn Lupin ...but didn't he already know his friend had to be careful?

"Look at the time," Mum said. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you-you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the cup." Ginny winced. She hated mornings. "Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There may not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."

"Wow-hope it does this time!" Harry enthused. Ginny grinned.

"Well, I certainly don't," Percy sniffed. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."

Ginny rolled her eyes and went to bed.