We intended to go to visit Luna the next day, but at the last minute, she owled all 3 of us to let us know that she would be going abroad for the rest of the holidays with her father. They had heard of numerous "Obbsgurg" sightings in Greenland, and they were desperate to see one for themselves. That left me without much of a plan for the summer going forwards.

An unfortunate incident occurred that morning, when Ron tried to call the telephone number Harry had given him. It was Harry's Uncle Vernon who answered, and to say he wasn't polite would be the understatement of the millennium. The things he said to Ron were absolutely disgusting, and for once I will actually commend Joanne for not including them in her retelling. I'm not even going to include them here, you'll just have to use your imagination. What I will say though is that Ron was pretty damn scarred after he put the phone down. He immediately wrote to Hermione and warned her not to call, and I don't blame him in the slightest.

He was very much cheered up, along with the rest of us, by what Dad revealed when he got home from work.

"You won't believe the news I have" he said to us at dinner, and he looked like he'd never been happier in his life.

"What" we all said at once

"This years winner of the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw, is none other than yours truly, Arthur Weasley!"

There was silence for a moment

"NO WAY!" the twins yelled suddenly.

"Boys, voices down" admonished Mum

"You're joking Dad" Ron said.

"I am not joking, I would never joke about something like this. We have won seven hundred galleons!"

I couldn't think of any wizarding family who deserved a pile of gold like this more than us, we've struggled for funds our entire existence, this is exactly what we needed!

"What are we going to do with it then Dad?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking, we've never been able to do a whole family trip abroad, it's always been too expensive, but not anymore! We'll be visiting Egypt for the rest of the summer!"

"Yes!" said Ron

"That'll be amazing!" said Percy, "it's such a fascinating, historic place, will be wonderful to see it in person"

"Think of all the new Egyptian joke materials we could get Fred" said George

"Yes indeed, no one would be able to recognise them here" Fred replied

"You will not do anything of the sort" said Mum "I will search you both before we leave and before we return"

"Don't worry, I'll help you" I whispered, winking to them.

"It will be lovely to see Bill again too, it's been a few years" Mum added

"Will Charlie go?" I said

"I will owl him today to give him the news, so yes I would expect him to come" said Dad "But let me give you all a warning. The Prophet isn't publishing this until we're there, because they want to have a picture of us there for the story, so please don't tell anyone else until then"

"I think that makes it even better" I said "It'll be one hell of a surprise for Demelza, Amy and Luna when they see that picture!"

"Harry too!" said Ron. "Will we be there already on the 31st, Dad?"

"We should be, yes"

"Right that settles it, I'm getting him his birthday present out there, and will send him the picture too, I'm sure he'll love that"

"Great idea, I think I might do the same" I said

"How much will the trip cost Arthur?" asked Mum

"I have looked into it, and for all of us to stay there until about a week until term restarts, it would be around 500 of the 700 galleons. I think we should use the remaining 200 for school supplies and a share for each of us to spend personally".

"Yes!" I said "I'd love a broom of my own for once, I'm sick of having to drag those school brooms to speeds they shouldn't really be able to achieve. I also really want my own owl."

"No one can deny you'd deserve those, Gin", said Dad, ruffling my hair "we'll see exactly how much we have left over after we get back and then we can buy them in Diagon Alley".

I went upstairs to my room and got out my Which Broomstick annual, which Amy had given me as a Christmas present. I started looking through it to decide on a broom I could realistically buy. As much as I would have loved a Nimbus, I would never be able to get one, even with my share of the prize money. The cheapest Nimbus's started at 180 galleons each, so far beyond the budget I would have.

The Cleansweeps were a bit more realistic, though still on the pricier side. The Comets, while easily affordable for the share of the winnings I was going to get, really weren't at the performance level I was hoping for. I wanted a broom that at least somewhat matched my talent in Quidditch, one that I wouldn't have to push to the limit to be effective. In the end, I decided on a Cleansweep Eleven, the middle range model. It was 55 galleons, and as far as I was aware, none of us needed anything else which was even close to as expensive as that. I knew that if I made the first team, my talent would outmatch the performance of the broom, so I'd be able to keep up with the Sytherins on their Nimbus 2001's pretty effectively. I wouldn't have to drag it around quite as much as the school brooms though.

I also looked at our Owl encyclopedia to decide which type suited me most. I thought snowy's were beautiful, but Harry already had one and I wanted to go with something different to everyone else. That left tawny's and screeches out of the question, and in the end I decided on a barn owl. I saw that they were commonly bred in North Wales, so that helped my decision.

I told Dad all of this, and he said he imagined we would just about have enough money left over for them if we were all sensible while out in Egypt.