Hello! Helena here- here despite being an ocean away now,, oh and, happy July everyone!

Here's your new chapter- actually one that Ermory really likes- it wasn't easy to get the feel of the storyline right, hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: We don't own this- the characters and plot belong to JK Rowling, and the original story is written by EmPotter. We just translate and edit.

The original story is on EFPfanfic, called 'Sono Ginny Weasley, e questa è la mia storia'

Finding a friend is finding a treasure

To Ginny's great misfortune, Alice and Rose were Harry's next visitors to enter the hospital wing, and they were quick to understand who had given the boy that little card. Adding to the bad luck, he also had chosen that particular moment to open the card, making it sing noisily with a kind of shrilling melody: Ginny was then forced to immediately leave the hospital wing, running off with her friends at her heels. From then on whenever she sees Alice and Rose she would jump and hide behind Vicky and Demelza.

The days passed and talks of a strange little singing card given to Harry by an admirer was still spreading… and Ginny thought that was the worst thing that could have happened, since there was no doubt about who could have given it to the boy.

"And don't say I didn't warn you!" Demelza protested, determined to sulk her two friends. It was the day before departure for the Christmas holidays, and she sat down to lunch in the Great Hall flipping through One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

"Come on, Demelza, it was not so bad ..." Vicky said softly, glancing sideways at Ginny sitting next to her, "Now at least Harry knows she's still cooked about him, and he will will thinking about it"

"The problem is that he always knew!" Ginny exclaimed, tapping her fork on the table. Her eyes were now shining with tears.

"It's not the end of the world, redhead," Vicky resumed, hoping to give her courage, "you endured far worse things last year, didn't you?" she added, and Demelza gave her a dirty look. "I mean, I meant ... the nursery rhyme ..." she corrected quickly.

But Ginny knew that Vicky was not referring to the nursery rhyme.

"Yeah," she was determined to not think about the previous year, "but this second year I wanted to be different… "

"But no, If only you had listened to me-" Demelza began, but Vicky interrupted her angrily:

"Don't you be doing it too!" she snapped.

"I-I didn't mean-"

"Well, stop it, don't you see someone here might be suffering, or are you too busy preaching us about it?" She was almost shouting.

"It's already too much that I bear the arrows shot at me, and it's on top the fact that Harry Potter will never notice the small and helpless little sister of his best friend!" Ginny snapped desperately, talking more to herself than anyone else. But she quickly realized it was a big mistake, because that was the drop that made the vase overflow: Demelza's eyes, already pooling and shining at the words of Vicky, completely cracked at that moment; she burst into tears, and stormed away.

Ginny looked endlessly guilty.

"You would have regretted the lecture she was about to guve us ..." Vicky tried to justify, sending another bite down.

The bell rang, signifying the last lessons before the Christmas holidays. The second year Griffindors left the hall in a stream to walk down to Herbology. Ginny and Vicky walked together, without saying a word on any subject. Not even a word was muttered about trivial topics like school, nothing. Both were immersed in their thoughts: Ginny kept thinking about Demelza's words about Harry, about the fact that she should have long stopped with nursery rhymes and notes, about the fact that the boy needed to accepted her as she was and not because she filled him with gifts.

"Where were you guys? Were you eating like snails?" Colin asked as soon as he saw Ginny and Vicky come in: he shared a table with Demelza, William and Ritchie, and seemed to know nothing about what had happened at lunch.

The two girls walked past. Temporarily, their face lighted with a small smile when they saw Christopher, who was trying to fix a button for a Hufflepuff on their work table: Juliette Collins was a very thin girl with big hazel eyes, and brown, almost coppery hair. Together they passed a rather enjoyable lesson, but the lack of tension didn't last long. After developing more confidence and notes of friendship, Juliette turned to Ginny.

"Was it you who make the note for Harry Potter, Ginny?" she asked, while shredding her pot of knot grass.

The girl looked at Vicky, who immediately bore an alarmed expression.

Christopher had stopped trying to ask Juliette questions, and was now quietly following the lesson. The curiosity he had for her was not quite returned by the beautiful girl.

"Yes," the redhead sighed, "it was me"

"Johanna told me that she went to see him ... You know, last year she had a crush on Harry, only this year she started dating a Ravenclaw," Juliette informed her cheerfully, "but I I think she still likes him a little bit ... Harry, I mean ... " she added, lowering her voice into a whisper.

"Well, Harry Potter is very famous," Vicky said, almost mischievously.

"I don't like him just because he's famous!" Ginny hissed in anger, picking up a glare and already knowing, from the bottom of her heart, that she really did not like that Johanna Roberts at all.

It's all true: a crush on a famous boy could not last long, you would begin to have feelings for someone else... for someone closer, a boy who was not just the famous guy, right? It had happened to Johanna and indeed now she's seeing someone, though still feeling that attraction for the famous Harry Potter. But it's not like that Ginny. Quite unlike Johanna, it had not happened, because she had liked him since the first day seeing him at the station, not even knowing who he is.

"I didn't mean to offend you," Vicky apologised quickly, "but what is it with all of them today?" she added angrily.

By the end of the lesson Ginny had endured the most boring conversation ever made, the topic always him, Harry Potter, as if it's never enough: Johanna Roberts and Bonnie Lewis did not stop talking about the boy, obviously without malice, but with the hope of being able to help Ginny somehow. All they seemed to do was ask nagging questions about how she jumped into doing this, or repeat the same things Demelza had been saying for days. As soon as the bell rang, Ginny mumbled something like 'bathroom' and ran away for the other afternoon lessons, which were torments no less than Herbology.

She could not wait to go to bed, as soon as her head slammed on the pillow, she fell asleep, ignoring Vicky trying to learn more about chess, or Demelza reading in her bed.

The next morning Ginny packed in the dorm with a painful knot in her throat: how was she supposed to act with her friends now? Was she supposed to warmly bid them farewall as if nothing had happened? Or could she just murmur a goodbye and run away from it all? Running away ... did not sound much like a Gryffindor thing, but at that moment the girl did not feel like being with them a moment longer.

"See you after holiday!" she said quickly, and suck downstairs straight away, before quite hearing Delmelza and Vicky's replies. Fortunately, Ginny thought, that she had already said goodbyes to the boys last night.

Halfway down the path to the carriages she met Alice and Rose, and climbed into the carriage with them with her greatest disappointment. However, at that moment, Alice and Rose were the last of her problems, for she was starting a long and rather painful journey towards what's called 'adolescence'- Ginny thought sourly.

"What's wrong with you there, Genevra?" Alice asked curiously.

"Nothing," said the red head promptly, trying to shove away the storm inside her head.

"Oh, is it for that little singer card? Obviously we know you gave it to Harry Potter," Alice informed her, looking towards Rose with a muschievous smile, "but we can help you, you know. There are some tricks we don't use anymore, you take them and use it when you're in front of Harry Potter!"

Rose stared at her, then suddenly inhaled, and nodded vigorously.

"Tricks? Magic Tricks?" Ginny asked naively.

"Makeup for the face, Genevra!" Rose exclaimed, sounding scandalized yet amused.

Alice then placed Ginny in the lap a black pencil, a red eye shadow and a mascara- things she had always seen on their bedside table. She was amazed, and somewhat skeptical, that they would give her something to help her, but if it was true that they really don't use them anymore, giving them away was better than chucking them straight in the bin, even if that someone had to be their childish, naive and utterly clumsy class and dorm-mate.

"I'll… try them on the train ... thanks." the girl said while leaving the carriage for the train, and they gave her a small smile.

"Hey Ginny! Over here!"

"There's always a place for our little sister, of course!"

"Especially when our Ronnie's not here-"

So the girl went to join Fred and George, with the handful of cosmetics held close to her chest and ready to use.

"Come on now, honey ... give me your trunk," said Arthur Weasley, looking at her thoughtfully.

Ginny's eyes were bright with tears. She hadn't a chance of using the cosmetics Alice and Rose gave her. When she stood up to fetch her trunk, the little tubes had fallen from her robes, and were immediately picked up by Fred and George. From their expressions, they must have thought terrible of her: as if Ginny had tried to distance from herself, as if she denied herself by trying to look different, as if she wanted to be different from who she was. But it was not like that, she just wanted to be appreciated a little more by the girls and boys at school, she wanted to be appreciated by her brother's best friend ...

It's not about her wanting to change herself … it's about… about being herself…

"Ginny"

"Eh?"

"Leave the trunk handle."

... but who was Ginny Weasley?

Fred and George were right to be angry with her. They were right- Ginny thought- she had promised herself that this year would be different, that she would shake herself up, but it had gone just like the previous year, except for the part of risking death. Her second year must have been an opportunity for the girl to show herself up, instead of the sullen and wicked side she owned last year.

It was a little like betraying Dumbledore's trust.

"What do you want to eat tonight?" Molly Weasley asked fondly, immediately starting to buzz around the kitchen.

"Same as the others, mum, I'm going upstairs!" the eldest son in the house announced impatiently.

"That prat ..." Fred mumbled between his teeth.

"I really want to make the joke that concerns dragon poop ..." George added.

Fred chuckled, and with a grin, the twins disappeared, before Molly had time to open her mouth and ask the exact way in which those two would get dragon poop into their joke.

Mr. Weasley sank onto the couch, looking tired.

"I'll go up to my room too ..." Ginny announced melancholy, who was till then still stunned at the door, and climbed upstairs feeling the eyes of her parents on the back of hee neck, until reacting her messy bedroom ...

The days raced by imperceiveably, along with a Christmas that wasn't anything like a carefree and cheerful day Ginny had hoped for. Rather, she had spent entire days locked inside her room, dozing on her bed, to think… to torment her soul.

She was not like anyone, she had thought: she was not as pretty as Vicky, who was appreciated even by other equally beautiful girls; she was not intelligent, brilliant, always having good grades like Demelza, who succeeds in everything, but brushes it off in front of her friends; she was not spontaneous and always excited like Colin; she was not as funny as Christopher; she was not as mature as William; she was not sweet and so willing to help others like Ritchie. She was… nothing.

She was not like them.

Ginny teared up, on the day of departing for Hogwarts at the end of the holiday, to see a photograph Colin had sent, just developed from his camera. A letter is also attatched- for some reason unexplainable by Ginny, the only friend Ginny kept in contact with was Colin Creevey.

Dear Ginny,

My Christmas holidays were the absolute best, and the New Year's Day was especially fantastic: the Muggle fireworks are not so different from those your brother set off in the Common Room the other day. The only difference is that with those Muggle ones you can actually hurt yourself; you know, my uncle had lost two fingers when he got too close, and a lot of blood came out. It was really scary… I had been so little!

I developed the group photo of us on the night Sirius Black came into the castle, I hope you like it!

Ps: note Ritchie's face.

The girl burst out laughing: in the photograph, on the left side, there she was her, with her red hair tied in two disheveled pigtails, sitting beside a giggling Demelza. Ginny remembered that day nostalgically; in the center of the picture was Christopher tormenting Ritchie's hair, whose mouth was half open; on the right Vicky and William laughed, Vicky wiping her eyes while Colin pointed to Ritchie's hair with a grimace.

Ginny tucked the photograph in the side pocket of her trunk: they were leaving in a few hours, and she had to hurry up, because she had no intention of continuing to endure Percy.

Toc toc toc.

"What's is it?" Ginny asked irritably, quickly closing the letter as both her parents entered. Both of them.

"Are you finished with the trunk, honey?" her mother asked softly.

"Mum!" called George from the landing.

"What's up, we want to know too!" Fred echoed curiously, but Mrs. Weasley glared at him and closed the door.

Ginny was sure the twins did not want to miss a moment of conversation, because it was rather strange that both parents would visit their daughter's messy abode on the day of returning to Hogwarts, after a holiday of having her locked in the room.

"I'm finished, anyway," the girl answered, looking at the trunk, "not as perfect as it could be though ..."

"It doesn't matter" she was cut off kindly by her father, sitting on the bed with his wife, "it's heavy this year, isn't it?"

The girl nodded absently, staring at the floor.

"Er ... it must be like it's all new to you, in a way," Mr. Weasley mumbled uncomfortably.

"You're just growing up, honey, and the phase you're going through is ... a transit phase, isn't it?" the mother continue, now taking up the heart of the situation. Ginny wondered where her parents were going: was is because how detached she had acted these days? Probably. "A phase where ... well ... when you form your character, personality and …"

"I know" she interrupted, "I know what you mean"

"Yes, but Ginny ... we have all noticed that there is something that's bothering you"

She didn't answer, tears threatening to fall.

"We understand that, what you've been through was ... bad," Mrs. Weasley cautioned, "but you don't have to make choices that are not your own, just to be in part of a group. It just happens that-"

"Yes, honey... We do not want you to become something you are not "

At that point the girl burst into tears and the mother immediately took her tightly into arms, looking pained.

"But everyone is better than me!" she shouted, looking at the faces of her parents through a veil of sadness. "Everyone! The girls are all nicer and smarter… And I ...nobody likes me! Because I'm stupid!"

"No, you're not ..." Mr. Weasley began more uncomfortably but Ginny interrupted angrily.

"Yes, yes, you would say that because you did not see what happened last year ... you do not know what happened and how I felt ... I did not talk to anyone ... only with Albus Dumbledore because- because I had to. What do you think they would have thought of me? I was just s-s-stupid!"

And here was the painful point in this incredible situation: the events of the Chamber of Secrets in which she was the main character. Ginny had never talked about it with anyone, only with Albus Dumbledore, because in those conditions only with her Headmaster she had the urge to talk about it. Even with her family, she had always tried to pretend that it had never happened, but maybe ... that was the problem. It wasn't right to pretend that it had never happened before- she had to talk to those who loved her, she can't ignore everything, as if she had not risked dying at all.

"My friends don't know it, nobody knows…" the girl sobbed, now thinking of those geese Alice and Rose trying to make her do things she didnt want. "My Boggart is Tom Riddle, and for that they laughed at me for a whole week. I don't know what to do anymore... it seems that whatever I try it never goes well!"

"You do not have to be influenced by anyone anymore. The choices are yours now, Ginny," the father severely, whose eyes were bright, "we know how difficult it was last year, and, well, you have to try talking to your friends, with others", about when it happened. This experience should not be a taboo, a reason for painted even now, understood?"

"We just want you to be yourself ..." Molly Weasley whispered, still sniffling.

They were right, and how right they are.

Ginny had to be absolutely herself, she did not have to be stupid to get noticed by her brother's best friend, she did not have to wear makeup just to make the boys consider her more, she did not have to behave like she did bad things, because she had not been herself- she should not behave as if inferior to the others.

She had to grow up and be Ginny Weasley.

Suddenly the door jerked open, Molly Weasley jumped up, hands on her hips: Fred and George had forcefully pulled open the door (supposedly by mistake) and found themselves on the floor. Arthur also stood up.

"Ready, little sis?" Fred asked innocently, pulling himself up.

"And what were you doing behind the door?" Mrs. Weasley frowned, but Ginny was smiling, despite being in tears.

"Ugh, can we escort our sister away from home or do we still need permission?" George threw an eloquent smile, and the girl went ahead to join the twins, thinking about how damn wrong she was about them.

Or about everyone.

Glad to have finally spilled out everything she had managed and needed to spill out- with her parents at least- Ginny trotted through the train looking for the compartment where, she was sure, her friends would be found, leaving the twins in a compartment with Lee Jordan in their combined havok, their usual doings. She checked into every compartment, even scandalously discovering a couple kissing, (convinced that the blonde girl was Vicky) and finally found all her friends: they were sitting together in the compartment at the end of the train and chatting cheerfully.

"Hello guys!" Ginny greeted them as she opened the compartment door. Shouts, excited shrieks and greetings arose in response: Colin almost flew into her in a tight embrace. Vicky, forgotten all hostility, printed a noisy kiss on her cheek. "Can I sit with you?" the redhead asked sarcastically.

"Join us!" Christopher replied with a big smile, while Demelza made room for her on the seat.

"How had you spend Christmas?" asked the latter.

She and Vicky sat close together and it seemed that they had made peace.

"We are all listening to you, Red Head, do not worry," William reassured her, though engaged in a game of chess with Ritchie-ready to beat him as usual, "but just that ... well, chess is chess"

"Squash it, it's just a pawn!" Ritchie hissed hysterically. "I'm listening to you too, eh ..." he added, smiling.

Ginny chuckled and, with the help of the others, hoisted the trunk on the rack. She casually put her hair into a messy bundle, made a long yawn and sank into the small space next to Demelza.

"How come you're not playing?" Ginny asked Christopher, who was dozing.

"Sun rising from the west… it can happen ..." Vicky grumbled, starting to giggle and Christopher snorted loudly, "Come on Chris! We can tell Ginny! Basically, Juliette Collins likes a certain Jeremy Stretton from Ravenclaw in our year... And Chris ... well, Chris liked Juliette!"

"You must not break down!" Ginny encouraged him even though she was the last person in the world who could give such suggestions. "There are people even more ruined than you ..." she added, pointing to herself, this brought a smile to Christopher.

William and Ritchie giggled slightly.

"So how was your Christmas? My brother can't wait for this year to finish, so he can join us here at Hogwarts next year," he began talking raudly, enthusiastic as ever, "he can't wait to start studying here, because he can't control his magic, you know?"

"Will your brother come?"

"I really think so: he has so much magic!"

Demelza, as Ginny noticed, watched her without speaking to her.

"Are you still angry with me?" asked the latter with melancholy.

Vicky mumbled something that sounded like 'her and I had made up…'

"Of course not, I'm not angry!" exclaimed Demelza.

"You should, I treated you badly!" Ginny protested, red in the face, "I was angry too, you know, not at you, but at myself, because I thought I could never be good enough for anyone, because I doubted you all ... because I thought I was useless."

Demelza's eyes widened; Colin, who was still talking in bursts with Christopher, stopped instantly and looked at his friend; William, Ritchie, and Vicky all turned to be a part of this conversation.

"I didn't know how to act, I treated you all badly ... I felt horrible ..." Ginny continued sadly, "then I talked to my parents: be yourself, they told me, they said what you wanted me to understand but, I never did for how ignorant I was."

Then she started-

She told her friends what had happened at her house, about the conversation with her parents, about the horrible last weeks of school, Alice and Rose with their ugly methods, and about the Chamber of Secrets. She also told them about the Headmaster talking to her in the hoslital wing… but omitted the details of Tom Riddle, because those details would always take her to the darkest corner of her heart. It was right to leave it this way.

"Craz- wow!" Christopher quickly corrected, catching the look of reproach from Demelza, who was tearfulat the same time. By the end of the story, no one breathed in the compartment, and Chris had broken the silence with his gentle exclamation. "I-I'm so sorry ..." and he was sincere.

"Yeah, well ... you had to know if you guys are my friends," Ginny muttered, embarrassed, "My Boggart is Tom Riddle, you know, that handsome boy you saw on the first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts"

"He was You-Know-Who?" asked Vicky, sounding scandalized.

The chess board sat untouched, and neither William nor Ritchie had said a single word. Ginny stared at the chess pieces, a knight clicked his knife against the board.

"It's him," she confirmed.

Suddenly, she did not know how it happened, she found herself in the arms of everyone, all ready to hold her in a big hug, all ready to show her that they loved her. Demelza burst into tears, apologizing again and again for being hard on her with the matter of Harry. But she was right about what to do with Harry, if only she had followed her advice… Because Harry really was one of the girl's many problems.

But at this moment all the problems did not matter: Ginny was with her friends.

That's your chapter today, please tell us if you liked it,,, and until we next upload, byee

~Helena H. (editor)

translator and owner of this account: Ermory

ps: I don't know who took that picture either

Next: New subjects and scary victories