On the morning of August 1st, 1992, I was awoken by my mother shouting at the top of her lungs!

"Beds empty, no note, car gone! You could have died, you could have been seen-"

"They were starving him mum, they had bars on his window"

"You best hope I don't put bars on your window Ronald Weasley"

I jumped up out of bed, what on earth was going on? It surely couldn't be what I thought it was, right?

Ever since Ron had returned home from Hogwarts, I had been talking non stop about Harry Potter, I had begged him to tell me everything he possibly could about him. Ron said that he was just a nice, normal guy who wasn't someone to be worshipped, and I should reserve that for Gwenog Jones, despite the fact that I talked about her and the Harpies just as much, and literally had a huge poster of her on my bedroom wall, which shows his selective memory.

When I pointed out his selective memory to him, he just scowled and told me to go away. I did however, hear a conversation that he'd had with Fred and George, by standing in secret outside his bedroom door when he'd pulled them in for a private word. Eavesdropping I know, but I don't care.

"I've been trying to talk to Harry all summer, but he won't reply to any of my letters, I don't know what's going on" said Ron.

"Maybe Errol dropped them, he is an old owl"

"I've sent about 10, he can't have dropped them all"

"I reckon we should go to his house and get him, something's clearly going on"

That was all I needed to hear. I crept downstairs.

That was the previous afternoon, and I didn't think they really could have been THAT reckless and stupid to actually have gone to Harry's house overnight. I got dressed and then realised it was strangely cold for an August morning. I looked around for my jumper, but couldn't find it. Maybe it was in the wash. I went downstairs.

"Mum, have you seen my jumper-

I was interrupted by what I saw at my kitchen table, which made my eyes widen and my mouth hang open mid sentence. It was true. None other than the Harry Potter was sat there, next to Ron. The most famous wizard of the modern era, the boy who's story had been told to me at bedtimes, was here in my house, eating breakfast with my family as if this was something normal.

Here's where I will now emphasise who I truly am. I did NOT, as Joanne claimed, turn red and run away like a coward to my bedroom. I instead took this opportunity to try and befriend him straight away.

I confidently strode across to him and held out my fist.

"Hello, I'm Ginny, Ron's sister, pleasure to meet you" I said

"Thanks, nice to meet you too" he replied, bumping my fist with his.

I sat down at the table. That was a good start. I knew that if I was to have any chance of becoming his girlfriend eventually, i'd need to make friends with him first and make him see that I was the best girl in the world.

"So how come you're here?" I said.

"Oh well, i'm best friends with Ron, see-

"I know that, but I had heard the most ridiculous conversation between Ron, Fred and George here yesterday. They didn't actually come and get you overnight, did they?"

"You heard that, how?" said Ron angrily, but before any of us could speak again, our dad entered the room. (Yes he did arrive before the de-gnoming, don't know why Joanne switched it to afterwards)

After we all said good morning to him and he started talking about his work overnight, he suddenly stopped mid sentence just like I had, and said:

"Good lord, is it really Harry Potter? How can this be-"

"Your sons flew that car of yours to Harry's house and back overnight" came Mum's voice.

"Really, did it go alright-" but then seeing the look on mum's face, instead said "that was very wrong boys, very wrong indeed."

I couldn't help but laugh. Harry looked slightly embarrassed.

"I can find my way back if its a problem-"

"Oh no Harry dear, don't worry, you're perfectly welcome here, the only problem I have at the moment is with my sons."

Dad turned to Harry, and said "So, tell me, what exactly, is the function, of a rubber duck?"

I laughed, as did my brothers, at the very confused look on Harry's face. After he had explained, Ron said:

"Dad's obsessed with Muggles and all their stuff, finds them fascinating for some reason"..

"For good reason Ron, they're our fellow humans and they've done so many incredible things without magic, it's truly remarkable, if only you'd open your mind to-"

"yeah maybe I will" said Ron unseriously. Dad just rolled his eyes.

"Right then" said Fred, standing up, I think i'll go to bed and-

"Oh no you're not, you're going to de gnome the garden for me" interrupted Mum

"Honestly, you guys didn't actually think you'd get away with no punishment did you?" I added.

They can be so unintelligent sometimes, you know. We have the strictest mother in the world, and they had flown the car across the country and back in the night without permission, how could they possibly have expected that there would be no consequences? I hope they never change though, because it is hilarious, even today.

"Yeah have your little moment of fun Ginny, trust me it won't last" snarled George after Mum had forced them to do it despite their protests.

I raised my eyebrows

"Oh really, I would think that with the Harpies playing the Kestrals later today, i'm about to have a lot more fun."

The Kestrals were 8th in the league that day, and the Harpies 3rd, so George had no response to that, which was even more satisfying.

I was surprised when Harry agreed to join them in the de-gnoming, but when Mum attempted to dissuade him from this, I rashly said something that I immediately regretted.

"Yeah Harry, come up to my room with me".

I didn't mean it like THAT, honest! Still though I knew i'd gone a step too far, too soon. Harry simply raised an eyebrow and gave me a strange look, which was great, it could have been a lot worse! I was just so bloody relieved that everyone apart from Mum and Harry had left the room at that point. If Fred, George or Ron had heard me say that, they'd have never let me hear the end of it!

I retreated back upstairs and watched the de-gnoming from the safety of my room. I shut my eyes and banged my fist against my forehead.

"Ah Ginny you really fucked that up!" I thought to myself. "You were doing great and then you had to say something so idiotic! Slow down, honestly, slow down for god's sake!

A few hours later, I was finally able to take my mind off my embarrassing mistake, when I turned on my wireless to listen to the Harpies game. Each of the 12 Premier Quidditch League clubs have their own wireless station, which broadcast all their games, with some games also being covered on the national wireless stations.

Today I was tuned into the Harpies channel, as the national channels were covering the much bigger Tornadoes and Falcons games today. Therefore, the commentary was biased in favour of Holyhead, which of course I didn't mind.

"Welcome everyone, back to the Holyhead Arena, i'm Amy Adamson, your resident Harpies commentator. Today we take on the Kenmere Kestrals, who sit in 8th place coming into this one. Nothing is ever certain in Quidditch as we all know, but we should feel confident of getting a win here, as we sit 3rd and got off to a great start to the season 3 weeks ago when we beat Cataphilly 420-260. (Professional Quidditch seasons run from July to April, except during World Cup years, in which they end in March, so games are played in a tighter timeframe). The Kestrals drew their opener against Pride of Portree, so they've not the had the best of starts.

Our manager Resa Raymond names an unchanged starting XI from our victory last time out, and it's good to see that Gwenog has made a swift recovery from the nasty looking fall that she had towards the end of that match, we would be at a huge disadvantage without our talismanic captain."

I was very happy to hear that too, and I smiled up at my Gwenog Jones poster, which turned it's head and smiled back at me. That's one of the best things about this world, how posters and paintings can interact with you. This poster wasn't capable of full on conversation, but it could recognise when people were looking at it. It did occasionally speak, with famous quotes from Gwenog or facts about the team.

"The Kestrals make one change to their starting XI, and what a story this will be, with young Arthur Raymond, only 17, and the son of none other than our very own Resa, coming in to replace their ill chaser Matthew Summerby. He is a signing from last season's division two champions the Newcastle Natives, who this season compete in the Premier Quidditch League for the first time in their history. Raymond showed his superb talent last year in the second tier, scoring 65 goals as the Natives stormed their way to the title. It will be interesting to see if he can handle the pressure of top flight Quidditch now, making his debut against the team his mother manages!

Wow, what a plotline for this game! Whatever the result, their next family gathering would be very spicy indeed!

"And they're off, and it's a decent start here for Kenmere, they're passing the Quaffle around comfortably so far, Raymond to McKenzie, back to Raymond, who ducks not one, but two Bludgers, brilliant reflexes there, he swerves past our chaser Megan Renalds and oh dear it's 10-0 to the Kestrals. Brilliant goal I must say, but we're now losing, damn it!"

"We take the restart then, but oh my god we've lost it immediately, and Raymond is in again here, and he's scored again, what a disaster of a start! Come on Harpies, you're better than this!"

I had to agree, we were much better than this, what was going on!

We quickly clawed back the deficit to be level at 20-20, and for the next couple hours the game ebbed and flowed, with both sides gaining the advantage and being pegged back. Gwenog unseated 4 of the Kestrals players, including two in one hit, but their substitutes were proving equally effective, and in the third hour, our seeker was hit and forced off.

At that point, I had to go downstairs for dinner, so I missed a good chunk of the game. At dinner, I saw that Mum was continuing with her habit of complaining about Harry's hand me down clothes (forgetting the fact that Ron and I have our entire wardrobes full of them) and about how thin he was, so she gave him extra food, despite his protests that it wasn't necessary, meanwhile Dad kept obsessively asking him about Muggles. I came back upstairs expecting it to be over, but it wasn't.

It was turning out to be by far the longest Quidditch game I had ever listened to, and I found myself wishing I was there in person. Eventually I had to go to sleep, and I was certain that by the morning it would be finished. But it still wasn't, and I woke up to find that we were tied at 260-260.

"You join us now for the second day of this match between the Harpies and the Kestrals" said Amy Adamson "we are tied at 260 apiece, still nothing to separate the teams who I must say have both performed excellently so far. I hope we get a winner soon though!"

So did I, as much as I loved Quidditch, I feared for the players health if they had to keep playing for much longer. Sure, they'd used substitutes and all but still, it was many hours each! I just hoped it was our reserve seeker who could get the snitch, but I wasn't too confident, as she had never managed to before, in her limited appearances.

Just as I was thinking this though, my fears were confirmed, as the Kestrals seeker caught the Snitch. We had lost. We had lost to a team much lower than us in the League and my cockiness to George yesterday had come back to bite me in the arse. I just hoped I could avoid him and Fred as much as possible that day.

Just as I was getting up to go downstairs for breakfast, I saw an Owl approach my window. I opened it up to let it inside and recognised it as that of my friend Demelza Robins. I'd known Demelza for a few months, first meeting her when she had visited the Burrow with her father one day. Her father Steven Robins worked alongside my dad in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, and had come over for dinner, bringing Demelza with him as her mother was away in Greece with some of her friends. They lived on the other side of Ottery St. Catchpole. She was a fellow Quidditch and Harpies fan like me, and would also be starting at Hogwarts this year. (Yes, she's my age, not 3 years younger like Joanne said. I can't understand how that woman's mind works).

Here is the letter she sent:

Dear Ginny,

I hope you're doing well. It's been some time since we last met, so would you like to come over to my house today? Your parents were ever so kind in inviting us around back in March, so we'd like to repay the favour. It would be great to see you again and catch up! If your parents say yes, floo over as soon as you can! If not, i'm sure i'll see you either in Diagon Alley or on the Hogwarts Express, I can't wait to get started there, and I know you can't either! Send your answer back with Placy! If you do floo here, say "Robins Residence".

Best wishes, Demelza.

Placy, huh, so that was the name of the owl. I'd never been to Demelza's before, so this would be an exciting experience!

I immediately went downstairs and asked Mum over breakfast if I could go to see Demelza, and thankfully, she agreed. I wouldn't have to suffer the twins teasing me over the game result all day. They weren't present at the breakfast table, neither were Ron or Harry, I assumed that was because they were sleeping in after being up all night and then all day yesterday.

I scribbled back a reply "Yes, see you in half an hour or so!", then sent Placy back off. I showered, dressed, and today, decided to tie my hair up into a ponytail, then went downstairs to the fireplace. I took a pinch of Floo Powder and said "Robins Residence!"

I emerged into a living room bigger than ours, with blue painted walls and carpet. There was also a strange square object on a stand in one of the corners. I went over to examine this, but before I could get a good look in, I heard a noise behind me. Demelza had walked into the room. She was slightly round faced, with long light brown hair she'd tied back in plaits, and had black eyes.

"Ginny, how are you!"

"Great overall, thanks, though i'm disappointed by the Harpies result. Did you see it?"

"Yeah, that's a real shame, we should be beating teams like the Kestrals. Their new chaser Raymond was amazing I heard"

"Yeah he was, I listened to it on my wireless, and you know something else? He's the son of Resa!"

"Resa? You mean our manager? No way, that makes it even worse, those family bragging rights he has now!"

"I know, let's hope we can get revenge when we play them away"

"Yeah, you're right. So! Want me to show you around?"

"Lead the way!" I replied.

We walked straight ahead out into the kitchen, which was painted white and contained, to my surprise, a muggle Oven.

"Yeah, my mum's a muggle" Demelza said when I pointed this out. "Insisted they live in a muggle house when they got together, even after he told her he was a wizard. So we've got electricity, and that thing you seemed confused by in the living room, that's called a television. It shows programmes that consist of lots of moving pictures one after the other to form a story."

"Mate, I need to get my dad over here eventually, he'd have the time of his life!" was my answer, and we both laughed.

We passed the front doors and then headed up a flight of stairs into Demelza's room next. It was painted forest green and had Harpies logos all over the walls. She also had Harpies bedsheets.

"Wow you've been spoilt somewhat" I said, a hint of jealousy in my voice.

"Yeah well, being an only child does have some benefits I guess. Though you shouldn't be jealous, i'd trade all this for even one brother in a heartbeat. It gets pretty boring on my own sometimes you know."

I thought that was a fair point, seeing how bored i'd been at home with only mum and dad for the last year.

"Sit down, I have a surprise for you" she said suddenly.

I was very intrigued. What could this possibly be?

She opened a drawer in her bedside table, and I couldn't believe my eyes. She pulled out 3 slips of paper and placed them on the bed in front of me. It was tickets, for the AWAY end no less, for the upcoming Harpies match against Puddlemere United. As i've said before, Puddlemere are our biggest rivals, so it's a huge match every year.

"From my dad, for us and him" she proudly said.

I picked up one of the tickets and examined it closely "I- what, how" I started, almost lost for words.

"Dad knows someone at work who's on the Harpies away scheme, but she and her friends can't attend the game. Urgent work business for their department on that day, so she gave us these. Pretty cool, eh?"

"Mate" I said, still struggling to comprehend what was in front of me "it's more than cool. It's fucking incredible." (I didn't care about swearing at the time, and I still don't now, I do it fairly often, deal with it!)

"He knows we're massive Harpies fans, and even though Quidditch isn't really his thing, he wanted to treat me, and hopefully you if your parents agree."

"It will be better than any treat my parents have ever given me" I said truthfully.

"I would imagine so. Fancy a game outside? You can borrow one of our brooms if you want"

"Oh would I? I'm not allowed to play at home!" I said enthusiastically

"Really? Why not?"

"Oh the usual rubbish, i'm a girl so it's too dangerous, i'm too precious" I said in a mocking tone, doing quotation marks in the air with my fingers.

"Ah I see, that can be a problem sometimes. Oh well, you're here now so they don't need to know about it"

"Too right they won't"

We walked past the bathroom and Demelza's parent's room ("I'm not allowed in there under any circumstances") and back down the stairs, then we turned left and went into the back garden through a set of sliding glass doors.

Outside sat a man and a woman, at a sort of picnic table. The man was tall, thin and bald, with brown eyes. He was wearing a set of long black robes and had brown shoes. The woman couldn't have looked any more different, she was short, and fatter, but she had the same colour hair and a very similar looking face to Demelza. With Demelza being skinny herself, she'd clearly taken on traits from both her parents.

"My parents" said Demelza. I'd met her father already of course.

"Ginny, it's lovely to see you again" said Mr. Robins, smiling at me. Alexa, this is Ginny Weasley, she's the daughter of my colleague, Arthur"

"Pleasure" she said, extending her hand, and I shook it.

"Thanks for having me, Mr and Ms Robins" I said.

"Please, call us Steve and Alexa" he replied.

I took this moment to have a good look around their garden. It was smaller than ours, but still had more than enough room for a small sided Quidditch game, and it had multiple high walls on all sides to stop Muggles seeing in, and the balls escaping. There was a set of goal hoops at either end, though not at as big of a height as they would be on an actual pitch. There was a small shed in the bottom right hand corner, presumably for storing brooms and Quidditch balls.

"So, what's your favourite Quidditch position?" I asked Demelza.

"Chaser. You?"

"Same! Hopefully we can be teammates at Hogwarts one day"

"Definitely. So what do you say, 10 shots each, the most scored is the winner?"

"Sounds like a plan".

We took out the Quaffle and I borrowed Demelza's dad's broom, which was a Comet Two Sixty, far superior to any of the brooms we had at home. Demelza had a Cleansweep Five, 2 models back from the latest Cleansweep.

"Bet your mum still thinks that's for tidying the floors" I joked.

"Shut up!" replied Demelza, but she had a smile on her face all the same.

We mounted the brooms and kicked off. It felt wonderful to be able to fly in proper daylight, and especially on a lovely sunny day such as this!

Demelza acted as keeper first, and I took up a shooting position.

I drove towards the hoops and feinted left, which completely fooled Demelza into moving that way, and I quickly threw it straight through the right hand hoop.

"Yes! That's one straight away!"

"Sneaky, well done. You won't be able to do that to me again!" she confidently replied.

But I did, 6 more times in fact. Demelza was at a loss as to how I was already so good.

"Come on, you didn't think me officially being banned from playing was gonna stop me did you? I've been practising at night for years. We have a big field 5 minutes behind our house, i've been using that!"

"I reckon you could make the house team already if first years were allowed you know" Demelza told me.

"Yeah, well, sadly they aren't, and I doubt my brothers would approve anyway. Come on, let's see what your shooting is like"

Demelza was able to beat me 4 times out of the 10, so she wasn't bad, but obviously not as good as me.

"Hey, don't look so downbeat" I said as we landed. "I'll help you improve if you want".

"I'd like that"

I had lunch with the Robins after that.

"So Ginny, what do you think of Demelza's ticket proposal?" Steve asked

"It's wonderful, thank you so much Mr Rob- I mean Steve. I just pray my parents let me come"

"Don't worry. I spoke to your father yesterday. He's already given you permission. He was going to surprise you with the ticket later today, had you not come over."

"Oh wow, that's amazing, I can't wait!." I turned to Alexa.

"Demelza's told me you're a Muggle. How did you find out about our world?"

"We met at a nightclub. Steve had been sent there to guard the place during the first war, when the Auror department was stretched. We got talking and really hit it off. Steve got drunk and showed me some of his magic. He was supposed to wipe my memory but secretly didn't, and we started dating shortly afterwards. Moved here 12 years ago after we married, decided to have Demelza, and the rest is history. That's also why we're connected to the floo network see, just makes it easier for your kind, and we know Arthur will keep it quiet for us".

"Interesting. Does your um... family know Steve's a wizard and that Demelza is a witch?" I asked tentatively, biting my lip.

"Some of them do. My parents and sister do, they come here regularly, there was no point hiding it from them, it was going to become obvious anyway at some point. I know it's technically against your laws but I couldn't avoid it to be honest. I didn't want Steve to wipe their memories every time, it just felt immoral."

"Yeah, I was doing accidental magic all the time. Once, I accidentally removed all of my aunt's hair" Demelza added, giggling.

Her parents laughed.

"We'd forgotten about that!" said Steve, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Yeah, she has to wear a wig now. It's very realistic though, looks almost exactly like her original hair, so it's easy to forget sometimes!" continued Alexa.

"The worst accidental magic i've done by comparison is break a plate" I said. "Even that was only when I was really angry with one of my brothers."

That prompted a conversation about my home life, so I told them everything, and then the discussion got to the Quidditch me and Demelza had just played.

"Ginny here is seriously talented, she got 7 shots past me in a row on the first time she'd played against me! She can do a lot of trick shots too. If she doesn't make the house team at Hogwarts at some point i'll eat a Hipogriff".

I blushed at Demelza's praise.

"Demelza isn't bad though, she got a few shots past me too. She can be just as good with some practice".

"Look, mate, I appreciate what you're saying, and i'll take all the help you can give me, but i'll never be on your level. Modesty is a great personality trait but i'd rather you just spoke the truth."

"Your father has told me all about how much his children love Quidditch. I can't say i'm surprised at your impressive ability Ginny" remarked Steve. "I'm guessing it comes from years of practice with your brothers?"

I bit my lip.

"Oh um... no actually"

Seeing his confused look, I told him about how I had to practise in secret. But instead of criticising me for going behind my family's back, he instead directed his frustration towards my mother and brothers.

"That's ridiculous, them not letting you play! I shall speak to your mother and see if I can change her mind!"

I had to warn him that this was a bad idea "No please don't, she'll kill me if she finds out I was out at night, and she never loses an argument either!"

"Ginny, don't worry, i'm not going to tell them about that, i'm just going to emphasise the unfairness of it all."

This I massively appreciated. There was a small chance it could work, I guess.

I then decided to give them a return surprise, by suddenly declaring that Harry Potter was staying at my house this summer.

Demelza actually jumped to her feet from the shock of this.

"Bloody hell, Ginny, you kept that quiet!"

"Language, Demelza!" scolded her mother.

"I'm sorry Mum, but you can't just expect me to brush aside the fact that the most famous wizard of modern times is staying with my best friend! Ginny, please, let me come to yours and meet him, you have to!

"Look, Demelza, he's not a zoo animal, he hates the attention, and plus, you'll see him at Hogwarts anyway." I said firmly.

"That's right" continued Steve. "You'll have plenty of chances to meet him at school."

I stood up.

"Well guys, I best be off home, it's been a pleasure, thanks so much for the Harpies ticket and for having me".

"You're welcome Ginny, and you can come back any day you like for the rest of this summer".

Demelza handed me my ticket and I gave her a final fist bump goodbye.

"See you later, mate"

"Bye Gin"

And with that, I walked to their fireplace, dropped some Floo Powder, yelled "The Burrow", and I was gone in a burst of green flames.