[September 1st 1991]
Ginny waved sadly with one hand, eyes fixed on her identical twin brothers's retreating smiling faces and waving arms as the Hogwarts Express chugged out of platform 9 and 3/4 in all its scarlet metallic glory.
Harry was somewhere on that train and it was to him, more than anyone else, that she waved for now. Fred and George were fun. She liked them a lot. Ron had been a prat ever since she'd stopped worshipping John. Percy mostly ignored her, and when he did say anything to her, seemed inordinately focused on how her behaviour would reflect on the family.
Harry though, Harry was her anchor. Harry gave her something to live for, something to look forward to. Before Harry, she'd attached herself to John in the hope that he'd sweep her off to a world of adventure and romance, a hope that she now knew would never have happened. She'd have died. A soulless corpse on the damp floor of the chamber of secrets, briefly mourned, quickly forgotten.
Ginny's eyes hardened slightly.
Harry wouldn't let that happen. Harry had been training her and she was doing the best she could to learn everything he could teach her. She could now do wandless magic. Wandless magic! Bill couldn't do wandless magic. No one she knew who wasn't being taught by Harry could do wandless magic. Okay, the only spells she could use were stunners, the shield charm, the stinging hex, and finite incantatem, but it still made her swell with pride whenever she thought of it.
Harry was her prince charming, knight in shining armour, and wise old wizard, all rolled into one, and right now, said time travelling hero was shooting away from her into the distance, further and further, until, finally, the last scarlet carriage passed a bend on the track and disappeared from view, leaving only the faint cloud of white smoke behind.
Ginny felt a squeeze on her non-waving hand, held in her mum's unwaveringly firm grip.
"C'mon, Ginny, time to go. We'll start on lunch as soon as we get back." She turned, looked up, and nodded forlornly. "Yes, Mum."
They both made their way over to the station floo where a queue of wizard families waited for the floo.
Eventually, it came their turn. Her mum put three knuts into the floo powder dispenser, and Ginny caught her muttering, "Outrageous pricing," before she was resolutely nudged towards the floo and sent on her way back home, quickly stepping out of the Burrow fireplace with what she hoped Harry would say was agility and sure-footedness.
When her mum joined her moments later, they immediately started preparing lunch, peeling potatoes and cutting up chicken breast for brining. Ginny knew her mum could do most of this by herself with magic, but she also knew her mum was intent on keeping her as busy as possible. It really wasn't fair. Just like the broomstick Harry gave her that her mum and dad then confiscated. Ginny knew it was somewhere in the Burrow, but she hadn't dared go look for it. She pouted. Not yet anyway.
She sat down at the table, ate lunch, and listened to her mum talk about Bill and Charlie, articles in Witch Weekly, and "I do hope Fred and George behave themselves this year, for goodness sake."
Ginny laid down her fork and knife on her now clean plate. "Mum, I don't suppose I could visit Luna this afternoon, could I?"
Her mum frowned from across the table. "No, Ginny, please stop asking. You're still grounded and that won't change until you start telling the truth."
Ginny bit down a comment she'd never lied, just refused to tell.
that
"The outside walls needs scrubbing. That should keep you until dinner."
Ginny pushed back her chair, hopped off, and made her way outside, grumbling all the way.
The soapy water flowed through her hands from the sponge while she scrubbed the wall as hard as she could — no matter how silly it was assigning her this job when she could barely reach halfway up the wall's window frame.
It wasn't always going to be like this. Harry was on the warpath. Harry was going to push Slytherin House to be the most powerful house in the country, and she was going to help him, and, maybe one day…
Words spoken long ago floated through her head.
'For better or worse, our fates are intertwined, decreed by the powers that be themselves.'
Ginny felt her cheeks heat up. She shook her head. Maybe, one day, yes, but focus now. A few hours later, she finished up her task, dumped the dirty water down the drain, and strolled down to the orchard.
She picked up a stick and thrust it out in front of her.
"Depulso!"
She ducked to the side. "Impedimenta!"
She dodged an imaginary stunner.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
She pretend stumbled backwards, and pretend fell unconscious, just like she knew she would if she'd actually tried to use such a clunky spell against Luna in a real duel. Seven syllables was far too long, and she'd still never beaten Luna once.
Not that she'd had any chance to train with Luna since John 'I-let-my-girl-friend-get-possessed-by-the-dar k-lord-and-die' Potter had ratted her out and she'd been grounded.
She play duelled for a few more minutes before her mum seemed to realise she'd finished and called her in so they could go shopping for dinner.
They walked down to the local muggle shop like they usually did, her mum keeping a careful eye on her at all times. There was a magical food shop, but her mum preferred to shop muggle for food because it, 'saved floo powder'.
They got back home and Ginny was dicing carrots, standing on a step so she could comfortably reach the kitchen counter, when her dad flooed in, leather bag bulging with loose parchments, face looking tired.
"Ah, dinner smells wonderful." He kissed her mum on the cheek before turning to her. "How was your day, Ginny?"
"Fine, Dad." The three of them sat and ate, her mum and dad trading stories and anecdotes and occasionally asking her opinion.
"So, Ginny,"—her dad put down his glass of butter beer—"are you looking forward to starting school again?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/