A/N: Hello everyone and welcome back to Harry Potter: Hidden Prodigy! Before we move on to this little chapter, I want to apologize if I didn't explain myself last AN. When I said that the poll for Harry's house would be open for 2 chapters, I meant that it would remain open until I wrote the second chapter after last chapter. Thus, this is the only chapter before I close the poll. I will keep the poll open for a little longer, but once I get to the point of the declaration of Harry's house, it will close.

And for those of you who are interested in the results, Gryffindor is currently in the lead with 11 votes (45%) followed by Ravenclaw at 8 votes (33%). Slytherin and Hufflepuff never really was in the race, too bad cause I like Hufflepuff.

On another note, as soon as I close the poll for Harry's house, I will open a poll where you can vote for who you want Harry to interact with and befriend during his first year at Hogwarts. Since there are ridiculusly many choices in this poll, you will have 8 votes to give. If you think there are any person I have missed that Harry could befriend, then please tell me and I will add that person to the poll.

Now, enough chit chat. Here comes Chapter Five!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Or Ginny Weasley. Or Severus Snape. Or any of the other characters in here. Those, along with all other HP franchise belong to J.K Rowling.

Chapter Five: Ginny's new life

Seeing the train disappear behind the corner, Ginny stopped running. She felt the tears run down her cheeks. They were all gone now. Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron... and even Harry. She would be all alone now. She knew Harry would write of course. He had promised her he would and she couldn't see him break a promise like that. But aside from the occassional letter from Harry, there wouldn't be anything to do.

"Ginny? Come on, let's go home." her mother said as she walked up to her.

Ginny just hung her head and went with her mother. She didn't even bother to wipe away her tears.

Molly Weasley studied her daughter with worry. She rememered how lonely she herself had felt when her brothers had left for Hogwarts. It pained her to see Ginny go through the same thing, but she also remembered that when she had been sad at the beginning of her lonely year, she had snapped at her mother when she tried to be of comfort. The following row had been one she did not want to repeat and certainly did not want to subject her own daughter to. Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that Molly brought Ginny home that day.

As soon as they got back inside the Burrow, Ginny began walking towards the stairs. Her mother watched her go with a sad look on her face. She understood just how Ginny must be feeling right now.

"Ginny?"

At the mention of her name, Ginny turned around to look at her mother. The tears had stopped streaming down her face but the ones that had already fallen had dried on her cheeks, leaving tear marks.

"I know you might not want to be comforted right now, but when you do don't hesitate to talk to me. Ok?"

Ginny looked at her mother for a moment, her face unreadable. Molly didn't move. She wanted to make sure her daughter understood that she would be here for her, whenever she might need her.

"Thanks mom." she said at last before turning to walk up the stairs to her room.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Ginny rushed over to her bed and threw herself down into it. She hugged the pillow as the emotions she had bottled up during the ride home came down on her. Loneliness. She would be alone for almost a year. Her brothers were gone and she really didn't have many friends nearby. Well, Luna didn't live to far away, but that would be asking for trouble. Not that Luna wasn't nice, but you could not have a normal conversation with her and her mother thought the blonde girl was a bad influence on her. So ultimately, she was alone.

After a few minutes, she felt the tears come back. Her eyes were already red from crying at the station so the new tears left a stinging feeling in her eyes. Why? Why was she always the one left behind? Why did she have to be the youngest?

She didn't know how long she just lay there, letting her heart out, but sometime a while after she had stopped crying she was alerted by a knocking on her window. Drying her tears with her sleeve, she looked up and thought her might jump out of her chest. Hedwig?

Seeing Harry's owl outside her window, Ginny was quickly on her feet and darted across the room to let Hedwig inside. The snow white owl flew inside and landed in her usual spot, at the back of the chair by Ginny's desk. Ginny frowned when she noticed that there were 2 notes attached to Hedwig's leg, along with a small package of some sort. Making her way over and detaching the package and notes, Ginny recognized the barely readable handwriting on one of the notes. Why would her brother be writing to her?

Hey Ginny

I'm sorry about earlier this summer. I didn't realize that I was pushing you away. I guess I kind of got caught up in all of the excitement about going to Hogwarts and didn't stop to think how it might be affecting you. Don't ask me how, but Harry managed to knock some sense into me. I hope you can fogive me and that we'll be alright when I get home?

Ron

Reading it over a second time, Ginny frowned. Harry had managed to knock some sense into Ron? And she wasn't even angry with Ron anymore. He had been alright the last month of summer. Sure it had not been like it used to be, but at least he hadn't been a git. She idly felt herself wondering what Harry could have said or done to get him to understand. Not even their parents had managed to get him to understand.

Her sorrow from being left alone temporarily forgotten, Ginny reached over to the second note, which held a by now all too familiar handwriting. The note was short and simple as it only consisted of a single sentance:

Try some of my lunch! /Harry

Frowning over the note, Ginny reached over and opened the small box. Without looking, she reached inside and felt a much smaller package of some sort. Once she pulled it out, she saw that it was a pack of Chocolate frogs. Her eyes widening, she turned the bigger box upside down and emptied it all out. There were 4 more chocolate frog packs inside and 2 packs of "Bertie Botts beans in every flavour". Looking at the sweets Harry had sent her, she felt the sadness in her heart wear off a little. He still thought of her at all times. Even now, when he had left for Hogwarts, something he had been dreaming of since he was born, he still thought about her, cared for her.

Ginny felt her eyes grow wet again, but this time it wasn't the sadness from earlier that filled her up. She wasn't forgotten. Harry still did everything he could to cheer her up, just like he had done during the summer. And like Harry had said during the summer, for every day that passed, the closer the day when she got to go with him to Hogwarts came. She was closer to Hogwarts than she had ever been before. For every day that passed, the closer Harry and her brothers came to coming home.

Feeling remarkably better than she had just a few mintues earlier, Ginny stood up and looked at the clock. It was lunchtime. Giving Hedwig a pat on the head and recieving an appreciative hoot in return, Ginny made her way down to the kitchen to get something to eat. When she entered, her mother was standing by the sink, peeling some carrots.

"Hey mom, what's for lunch?" she asked as she sat down by the table.

Not having noticed when Ginny entered, Molly jumed when she heard her daughter's voice.

"Ginny! I didn't hear you come in." she said as she spun around on her heels to face the small redhaired girl.

Ginny grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. Her mother looked shocked at the change in her daughter's behavior, compared to just a few hours ago. Well, perhaps that wasn't so strange. There was quite a bit of difference in her behavior after all.

"Oh, and do we still have some of those owl treats? I think Hedwig is hungry."

Molly frowned at the mention of Harry's owl. She had been sure Hedwig had been with Harry at the station.

"Harry's already sent you a letter?"

"Mmhm!" Ginny said with a content smile. She went on to tell her mother about the notes Harry and Ron had sent her. She conviniently forgot to mention the package with wizarding sweets. When she was done, her mother had an approving look on her face.

"Well, I find myself liking Harry more and more for every day that passes. Perhaps we should invite him over for summer next year?"

Ginny nodded her head enthusiastically. That sounded like an awesome plan!

"Why not over christmas too?" Ginny asked excitedly. Come to think of it, all her brothers could come home during christmas break if someone could just persuade them. Why didn't she think of that before?

"I'm afraid that won't work out." her mother said, a hint of nervousity in her voice for her daughter's reaction to these news. "I got an owl from Charlie yesterday when you had all gone to bed. He is inviting us all to Romania over christmas."

It took a few seconds for Ginny to process what her mother had said. She had opened her mouth to whine about Harry not being able to come over when the words "Charlie", "Invite" and "Romania" had registered in her mind and her angry glare turned into a look of happiness.

"We get to go see Charlie? Yay! Do I get to pat the dragons?" she squeled and jumped out of her seat. Suddenly, all thoughts of lunch were forgotten. She had to tell this to Harry! She would get to see real dragons!

Without waiting for her mother to answer, she sprinted back up to her room. Left behind was a stunned Molly Weasley. After getting over her shock at Ginny's enthusiastic respons, she stood up and went back to the kitchen sink. She smiled as she thought about the change in her daughter over the last month. Before she had met Harry, Ginny had become withdrawn from the rest of the family, no doubt because she felt left out. Somehow, Harry had managed to get her out of the shell she had hid inside. Now, Ginny appeared to be almost back to her normal, cheery self. Harry seemed to bring out the best in Ginny and for that she was grateful, but at the same time it was starting to get a little worrying. Girls at Ginny's age... well, they tended to have some really idealized fantasies about certain boys. She knew that first hand. She had been dreaming of fairy tale princes at that age too. The problem was... Harry was a fairy tale, litterally! And on top of that, one that Ginny was particularly fascinated by. Seeing as she now knew Harry personally... it wouldn't sound too farfetched for her daughter to start to dream about a very idealized future with her "prince".

And if it came to that, Molly feared that Harry would not return Ginny's feelings. Harry was an 11 year old boy, he didn't have any interest in things like that. And Ginny, well while she might think it was true love she was way too young to have real feelings like that. But real or not, if Harry didn't return her feelings, there was a risk that their friendship might be ruined and if that happened... well, she really didn't want to think about what it would do to Ginny.

-:-:-:-

While Molly Weasley was worrying about her daughter and Ginny was writing her reply to Harry about her trip to Romania, Harry was doing his best to avoid drawing attention to himself as he made his way back from a visit to the train's lavatory. He had noticed on the way to the lavatory that once people got a look at the scar on his forehead, they began staring at him and whispering. Despite being jealous of Dudley for being a popular kid, Harry had never been one to like unnescesary attention. The relief when he had reached the door to the lavatory had been enourmous. Now he just needed to make it back to his and Ron's compartment. He was just outside when he heard voices from inside his compartment, Ron's voice and a girl's.

"I already told him that I haven't seen his bloody toad!" Ron's voice sounded.

"Well, you could still try and talk to other people in a civil way!" the girl's voice sounded accusingly.

Shaking his head and sighing, Harry walked over to his door and opened it fully, wondering if Ron always managed to get himself into arguments.

"What's going on here?" he asked as he entered.

Ron was sitting at his place, apparently half way through opening another pack of Chocolate frogs. Standing in the middle of the compartment was a girl with bushy brown hair who was glaring at Ron intently. When Harry entered, she looked up at him.

"Oh, nothing. I was just trying to teach this prat some manners." she said with an annoyed nod in Ron's direction.

The red haired boy looked offended and lifted his hands in an effort to look innocent.

"She came busting in here and asked for Neville's toad and I just said we already told Neville we hadn't seen his bloody toad!" Ron exclaimed while glaring at the girl.

Groaning inwardly at Ron's stubborness, Harry felt the need to break this up before it got any worse. It didn't help that the girl had once again opened her mouth to bite down on Ron.

"You know Ron, when you use the word "bloody", it's no wonder people might take it in an insulting way." he said.

Looking at Ron's angry face when he turned away from him, Harry couldn't help but think about just how different Ron was from his sister. Sure, from what he knew and what she had told him in her letters, Ginny too could have quite a nasty temper when provoked but he couldn't imagine Ginny's innocent face taking on such an sulky look like Ron's just did. Meanwhile, the girl was smiling and look in Ron's direction with a look of superiority.

"See? Even..." she said before turning to Harry with a questioning look. Picking up on what she wanted, Harry answered:

"Harry. My name is Harry."

He was very careful not to mention his last name. The name Harry wasn't that unusual among boys his age so as long as he didn't say "Potter" in the same sentence, he could probably pass off as a nomal boy here.

"Right. Even Harry agrees with me! Perhaps you should listen to your friend." the bushy haired girl said as she looked back at Ron who was still stubbornly looking out the window.

When Ron didn't give an answer, Harry took that as a sign it was calming down and took his seat again. The girl however, didn't move and kept on glaring at Ron. Harry groaned as he realized she was waiting for an apology. And if it taken Ron an entire summer and a nasty argument to apologize to his own sister for something he obviously had done wrong, then there wasn't much hope that he would apologize to a complete stranger when he didn't feel he had done anything wrong. Just when he was about to suggest to the girl that she sit down to wait for the apology, the door to their compartment slid open once again.

"Uhm, Hermione. I found Trevor. Thanks for helping me looking, but you can go back to your own compartment now." said the boy in the doorway, who had introduced himself as Neville Longbottom when he had visited here earlier looking for his toad.

However the girl, who had now been identified as Hermione, didn't budge from her spot. She briefly cast a glance at Neville and gave him a smile before turning back to Ron.

"Good that you found him, but I won't leave this compartment until this git apologizes." she said firmly, her eyes narrowed to watch for Ron's reaction. She was obviuosly trying to provoke him. And what was worse, it seemed to have worked.

Without warning, Ron flew out of his seat and waved his arms in a frustrated gesture, causing a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to fall over and spread its content over the floor.

"What am I supposed to apologize for? I didn't do anything!" he bit off.

Hermione bit her jaws tightly together to keep herself from screaming out her frustration. Behind her, Neville looked terrified at the mess he had found himself in. Feeling like he already got enough attention as it was without people coming by their compartment to check why there was screaming going on in here, Harry motioned for Neville to enter and close the door behind him.

Looking from Harry, to the two people bickering in rising voices, then back to Harry again, Neville closed the door and managed to sneak by Hermione to sit in the seat just beside Harry's. After several mintues of arguing back and forth between the two standing people in the compartment, Harry jumped to his feet as well, intending to end it.

"Enough! Ron, I don't know exactly what you said when Hermione came asking for Trevor, but it clearly upset her and you should apologize. And Hermione, if you only wanted an apology, then why in the world did you push to challenge him?"

Taking a moment to let his words sink in, both Ron and Hermione tore their looks away from each other with angry scowls plastered upon their faces. After a few moments, Harry felt fairly certain they wouldn't start arguing again if not one of them tempted the other. Satisfied that he at least had managed to shut them up, he sat back down and turned towards the round faced boy holding a toad.

"So Neville, what house do you think you will get sorted into?"

Upon being spoken to, Neville seemed to jump in his seat, almost losing Trevor in the process. After he settled down again, the boy began to fumble with the toad in his hands before finally getting a grip on it and answering.

"Um, well I'm not really sure. I'm kind of surprised I even got picked to come. I didn't really show any signs of magic, except one time when my uncle..." he trailed off and Harry got the impression that he felt uncomfortable talking about it. Not wanting to push him into something he didn't want to talk about, Harry was just about to ask Ron the same question when Hermione blurted out:

"Well, I hope I will get sorted into Gryffindor! It sounds like the best among the houses and rumor has it that Professor Dumbledore himself once went to Hogwarts and was sorted into Gryffindor! What about you, Harry?"

She said this very fast and it took Harry a moment to fully make out all she had said. While he thought about how to answer her, he noticed Ron, despite still looking to be in a bad mood, had peeked up when Hermione had asked what house Harry wanted to be sorted into.

"Well, I'm not really sure. Uncle Sev told me that my parents were in Gryffindor but he himself was in Slytherin so I guess neither of those two would be a disappointment." he said as he tried to think up what he knew about the houses.

From what he had read in Hogwarts, A History and what Uncle Sev had told him, each of the four houses were named after one of the school's four founders and all four of the founders had one trait that personified them specifically. These traits were usually what was taken into account when the sorting was done and the student being sorted often, if not always, had the same trait as the founder of their house. Gryffindor represented courage and bravery, Hufflepuff represented loyalty, Ravenclaw represented intelligence and cleverness and Slytherin represented ambition.

"You will be satisfied being placed in Slytherin?" Ron said with shock evident in his voice. He even forgot to be angry. "Everyone knows that what makes a Slytherin is nastiness and temptation of dark magic!"

Harry shook his head.

"However, that's not true Ron. Uncle Al told me that the trait that makes a Slytherin is ambition, not dark magic. However, being overly ambitious is an easy road to be tempted by dark magic. That's why so many dark wizards have been in Slytherin." he said. Then, for good meassure, he added: "Voldemort was in Slytherin."

Upon the mention of the dark lord, Neville hiccupped beside him and Ron flinched. Hermione didn't flinch or hiccupp, but her face took on a serious look and she stared at Harry as if he had just grown a second head. Harry sighed at the other's reaction to the name. He had never really understood why wizards were afraid to speak his name. It's not like ti would summon him here, back in full power and besides, Uncle Al told him not to fear the name.

"You mean... You-Know-Who have gone to Hogwarts? There was no mention of that in the books I read about him." Hermione whispered, still a little shocked at hearing his name being used so casually. She had read a lot about him, fascinated by the mystery surrounding his rise to power. He had seemed to come out of nowhere. Until he showed up, Dumbledore had been the strongest wizard alive, no one questioned it. Grindewald had been a contender but after Dumbledore defeated him, there was no doubt that he was the strongest. But then Voldemort showed up, seemingly out of nowhere, with power that could rival Dumbledore's or perhaps even outmatch him. The things he had done was terrible of course, but it didn't make his mysterious background any less intriguing to someone like Hermione.

"Yes he has, a long time ago. Uncle Al apparently taught him personally in Transfiguration."

Hearing this, Hermione's eyes widened. Ron looked at him as if he had gone barking mad and Neville seemed to be too shocked to even give off any kind of reaction. For a few minutes, the four occupants in the compartment didn't say a word and Harry began to grow uncomfortable under the others' gazes. When he felt he had enough, Harry decided to break the silence.

"Alright, let's leave that topic. I don't really know much about him, I grew up in a muggle household so I really am as good as a muggle born." Harry said, desperately wanting the try and drive the conversation onto more comfortable grounds.

Seeing that his friend was growing a bit uncomfortable and remembering that Harry had helped him at least apologize to his sister for being a rude git, Ron decided to provide Harry with a lifeline.

"Well, all Weasleys have been in Gryffindor for several generations so I guess that's where I'll be going. I wouldn't even want to think about the awkwardness if I was placed in another house." he was about to add "least of all Slytherin", but thought better of it as Slytherin had been the reason they had slipped into uncomfortable waters for Harry in the first place.

Meeting his friend's eyes, Harry gave Ron a grateful look. Ron just gave him a smile and a look that said "Now we're even". Grinning, Harry turned back to Hermione and Neville. Hermione was glancing at Ron with a curious look.

"Oh, so you are from an old wizarding family then?" she asked with interest.

Ron's ears reddened a little at being the center of attention, but he immediately went on to tell Hermione about his family and their history. Hermione listened with interest and would ask questions once in a while if there was something she didn't understand. Harry caught Neville eye and both boys shared a silent agreement about the weirdness of their two new friends. The way they were now discussing Ron's family and old wizarding families in general, one would think their argument just a few minutes back had never happened. Casting a sideway glance at them, Harry smirked. Whenether they all ended up in different houses or not, this was going to be one interesting year.

-:-:-:-

Back at The Burrow, Ginny had just finished her lunch. After she had written her reply to Harry, she had ultimately decided that Hedwig deserved some rest and held off on sending the letter. It wouldn't hurt to wait a few hours and give Hedwig time to recover from what must have been a hasty travel as she had made it here from the train in record time. With nothing else to do, Ginny headed out into the garden to take a walk. It was a beautiful day outside after all. There was a small pond in one corner of the garden, adjacent to an oak tree that was nicely standing over the pond and covering it in shadows. Feeling the hot late summer air warm her skin, Ginny decided to head over to the pond.

Relaxing in the cool sensation from entering the shadowed area, Ginny sat down and looked out over the small pond. When she was younger, she used to run over here to sit and watch the frogs and other amphibians play in the water. She remembered the time when Fred ang George had tricked her into believing that if she tied planks to her feet, she would be able to walk on the water. It hadn't worked of course and she had fallen straight through the surface when she tried.

Thinking about those times made a slight feeling of sadness rise in her chest again, but it she managed to not let it bother her. It was like Harry had said, soon she would be going too. For every day that passed, she got closer to Hogwarts than she had ever been before. She was certain she would get her letter. After all, she had already performed magic with her brother's wand (though her mother really didn't need to know that) and during that meal when she had blown up at Ron, she had felt a strange rush of energy run through her body when the stew exploded. It wasn't like when she just got angry. Of course, she would feel a rush of energy then as well, but this had been different. No doubt, the exploding stew had been the work of her accidental magic.

Speaking of underage magic... how could she have forgotten Harry could use his underage magic at will? Thinking back to the train station, she felt really stupid that she had forgotten. She hadn't really thought that much about it since they had first met in Diagon Alley, but still it shouldn't have slipped her mind like that. It wasn't like it was casual for young wizards to be able to control their underage magic.

"...but I wonder if that many have actually tried?" Harry's voice came floating to her.

She frowned as she looked out over the pond with a thoughtful look on her face. She knew for certain she hadn't tried to use her magic at will. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps the reason so few had ever learnt to control their underage magic was because no one gave it a serious try. After all, there must have been a time before wands were invented, how did people perform magic back then?

"Does that mean I can do it too if I just try hard enough?" she thought.

Harry had never told her how long it had taken him to learn to control his underage magic, they hadn't really talked about it since that first day. But well, it's not like she had anything else to do anyway. Even if she failed, it would still make time pass. And god knew she needed to pass her time. So without further ado, Ginny got up and walked back towards the house. She needed to make up plans for how to do this. How had Harry done it? He had said he had trained... So he probably practiced lifting things without touching them. Levitation was the only underage magic she had seen him do and so, that was the logical choice for her to try as she knew it was possible to control somehow. So if that was the case, she needed something to try and lift. Did it matter how heavy the object was? She ahd seen Harry lift an ice cream cone, a cup filled with plastic spoons and a Hogwarts trunk filled with stuff. There was quite some difference in weight between the first two and the last one.

Just as she reached the house, she noticed her mother was outside feeding the chickens. Perhaps she would know how to go at this?

"Mom?" Ginny tried to ger her attention.

Her mother looked up from her current duty and smiled when she saw her daughter walking towards her.

"Ginny, what's up?" she asked as she dropped the last piece of bread she had been using to feed the chickens.

Immediately after the bread touched the ground, the small yellow featherballs came flying at it, competing for domintation and the biggest piece they could get. Ginny chuckled as she eyed them for a moment, before turning to her mom.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked, already knowing the answer but still, it never hurt to be polite in these situations.

"Of course sweetie." her mother answered.

Ginny felt the urge to pull a grimace at the term "sweetie", but fought down the urge as she didn't want to start arguing with her mother about it. Especially not now when she needed her help. She was just about to ask, when she realized she wasn't even sure what it was she needed help for. Well, it felt obvious what she wanted help to do, but what was it she was asking for, really?

"Uhm, well I was just thinking about something. You see, Harry can control his underage magic so I was wondering if maybe I could learn it too?" as soon as she said it, Ginny felt her cheeks heat up. What kind of quesiton was that? It didn't even reflect on what she needed help with!

However, her mother seemed to have only picked up certain parts of it anyway. As Ginny waited for an answer, her mother frowned and a look of utter surprise got plastered on her face.

"Harry can control his underage magic? But that's not possible!" she said, clearly shocked at this revelation.

Ginny felt a little hurt that her mother didn't believe her, but she let it slip. After all, she hadn't believed her own eyes the first time she had seen it either.

"But it's true! I've seen it! He can move things without touching them! He even lifted his Hogwarts trunk without touching it!" she said, her voice raised. She hadn't meant to shout but denial and disbelief of her claim had began pushing her temper, which had already been slightly moved by the term "sweetie".

Her mother looked down on her with a mixed look. She seemed to want to defuse her belief that it was possible to control underage magic, but didn't know how to do it without hurting her or making her angry. And if Ginny had seen Harry perform it, then how could she deny that it was possible? And it didn't help that Ginny was giving her the pleading puppy eyes. That trick, along with Ginny's brown, curious and innocent eyes, were deadly. Finally, she gave in and sighed.

"Well, I guess if you have seen Harry do it,then it's possible. But do you really think you can do it? Harry probably trained for very long before he learned." she said, hoping the promise of a big workload would scare off her daughter. Unfortunately for her, it had the opposite effect.

Ginny felt her chest bubbling with excitement at her mother's words. Of course it had taken Harry a great deal of effort and time to learn, otherwise all wizarding children would be able to do it without fail. She had already decided that no matter what, she wanted to learn how to control her underage magic. Surely, Harry would be so proud, not to mention her parents once they found out she could do it.

"I'm sure it took him lots of hours to practice, but I got time to do that too! It's not like I got anything else important to do right now, is there?" she squeled out in excitement.

Her mother looked down on her with a scowl on her face. Suddenly, Ginny froze up and looked up at her mother hesistantly. Had she said something wrong?

"So, when I try to teach you about magical household, then you have these really important things to do and have to run of to who knows where, but when Harry shows off his underage magic, you suddenly have all the time in the world to practice?" she said with a firm look on her face.

Ginny finally gave in a let a grimace run over her face. The mention of housework didn't sit well with her. Her mother had tried to teach her about how to run a magical household and have her watch while she performed cooking spells and cleaning spells. Of course, she never got to actually try any of the spells and that made it even more boring. If she had gotten to actually try the spells, it might have been another story, but just watching and learning the theory was so boring Ginny always tried to find an excuse to sneak away.

"Ehm, well..." she tried but her mother cut her off with a friendly smile, showing she meant no harm.

"How about this? You try to take my lectures about household magic seriously and I try to help you with your underage magic?"

Hearing her mother willngly compromise about something made Ginny stop and frown. Her mother never offered a compromise in any matter, not even with her dad. Why would she offer it now of all times? Was it really that important to her that she learnt these household spells?

"Uhm, that sounds fair enough. I guess. But mom?" she asked as she got an idea.

Her mother gave her a nod, to show that she was listening. Ginny tried to look innocent but it was a losing battle.

"Does this mean I get to actually try the household spells? I mean, if you are already going to help me with using magic, then why can't I learn how to use the spells you're trying to teach me?" she asked.

Her mother gave a look of uncertainty and seemed to stumble on her words. She had obviously already figured this might be a reaction and from the looks of it, it wasn't one she had been hoping for. Ginny had to bite her jaws tightly together to keep from laughing at her mother's expression. She looked like a caged animal.

"Well, it's not that simple Ginny. You see, underage magic isn't forbidden by the law while the teaching of real magic is strictly illegal."

It was a fair enough argument for her mother's case, but Ginny wasn't going to back down.

"Oh please. No one will know. And if I use your wand, then they can't prove it was me who did it, can they? Even if they try to investigate it, the ministry can only find out what spell have been used, not who the caster is. And you use those spells all the time anyway so it's really suspicious in any way." she said, fixing her mother with the best imitation of her own stern look she could.

Her mother seemed to be at a loss of words. She stared at Ginny as if she had suddenly turned blue or her hair had suddenly been set on fire.

"...You... how?...who told you this?" she managed to get out in her shocked stated.

Ginny tried to look as innocent as she could when she answered.

"Fred ang George mentioned it once and Percy explained it to me in detail when I asked. He seemed very happy that I was showing interest in some kind of ministry business."

Taking in what her daughter had said, Mrs Weasley's face turned into a scowl and she began mumbling about "irresposnible brothers" and "3 howlers". Ginny waited patiently, feeling a little nervous about her mother's reaction. She wasn't so sure if that last part had been so smart to say, it had just slipped out of her before she had the chance to think it over properly.

Upon realizing that her daughter still waited for an answer, Mrs Weasley turned back towards Ginny with a serious look on her face.

"If you do well in learning about the spells, I might let you try them once in a while, ok?"

Feeling relieved that they had come to an agreement, Ginny nodded her head excitedly. Not wanting to waste any time, she went inside the house to try and find something to levitate. Her mother looked after her with mixed emotions. Her daughter was growing up. Ginny had actually accepted a compromise, which was unusual in itself. But on top of that, she had really negotiated the matter to try and find a solution that suited them both. Once again, she found herself thinking about the effect Harry seemed to have on the youngest of her children. It truly was... wonderful to see Ginny so lively again.

As the days past at The Burrow, the mother and daughter settled into a routine. At 10 o'clock, Molly would wake Ginny up if she wasn't already awake and they would have breakfast together. Ginny would then spend the time up until lunch doing whatever she felt like, sometimes throwing in some extra training on her underage magic and sometimes just take the time to relax. When it was nearing lunchtime, Ginny would go help her mother with lunch and learn about the cooking spells in the process. After lunch, Molly spent one hour helping ehr daughter in whatever way she could when it came to the underage magic before returning to her household and leaving Ginny to practice in her own way. Ginny would alter between reading about basic magic and underage magic and try to get a feel for how it was to use underage magic, sometimes trying to force it out by doing something she really shouldn't. It was a tiring routine, but Ginny didn't give up or even falter a bit. Harry's letters would be the sole thing that could distract her from her work on trying to control her magic. And after a while, she realized she didn't miss her brothers as much a she thought she would. Because it really was like Harry had said: for each day that passed, the closer she got to Hogwarts.

A/N: So there we have another chapter! Not very exciting but I find I actually enjoyed writing this chapter. Not that I usually don't but it just made me happy imagining the scenes with Ginny at the end. She would look so cute!

And here we go with some reviews:

MaeSilverspaws1: Yup, Draco is a spoiled prat. But that doesn't mean he will be all junior Death Eater. I'm still not entirerly sure what I wanna do with him, but I don't think I will make him the school junior Voldemort like some stories I've read.

marinka and RebeccaRoy: Yeah, I decided to introduce Cedric early on here because he gave me the impression of being one to look out for younger students and was also one of the few who didn't think anything of Harry's fame. And yes, the doors to all houses are open for Harry. Just because a person possesses the trait of a specific house doesn't mean it is the most dominant trait for him. I mean, then Hermione would be in Ravenclaw, Harry would be in Hufflepuff and Ron... well I don't know about him but the point is that you can still have traits from all houses.

emarald777: As was mentioned in the chapter, Harry won't feel bad for being placed in Slytherin, however Snape have told him to try and stay away from there if he can. Also, since he is a different person to a certain extent this time, chances are that he wont even be considered for Slytherin since his trait of being ambitios might get overshadowed by other traits that wasn't as accurate in canon.

mdauben: I'm glad you came across my story! Always nice with reviews and readers. I'm glad I didn't make Harry too different from canon. I try to at least keep the outlinings from canon, though Harry and probably other main characters will be a little different. The differences will mainly be due to events that happens in different ways or an event that didn't occur in canon.

Thanks to all who reads and enjoys my story! And an extra big thanks to all who reviews! If you got anything you are curious about or just want to tell me I'm doing good with the story, don't feel shy to review or PM me! Now, the next chapter will contain the sorting ceremony! Hope you guys look forward to it as much as I do! This is , signing out for now! =)