Disclaimer * Ginny, her family, Harry, etc., all belong to J.K. Rowling.

A/N * This is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from Ginny's perspective.
 
 
 

r. and Mrs. Weasley, of the Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.  They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything dark or dangerous because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Weasley worked for the the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.  He was a tall, thin man with horn-rimmed spectacles and red hair, although it had started to grow thin.  Mrs. Weasley was short and plump and had copious amounts of curly red hair.  Her figure was understandably round as she had several children and spent so much of her time caring for them and trying to keep them in line.  In fact, the Weasleys had six boys and one daughter and in their opinion there was no finer family anywhere.

The gangly Weasley boys were well known for excelling at whatever they put their mind to, whether it was cursebreaking, taming dragons, following rules, or breaking them.  The Weasleys had everything they needed, but this did not mean they had everything they wanted.  The oldest three always wanted more books:  tomes on curses, dragons, and politics.  Books were expensive, but Mr. Weasley obliged them whenever he could.  The Twins, on the other hand, were forever trying to come up with new pranks.  Their desire for the tools to aid them in these attempts and the resources to improve upon said tools was insatiable.  The youngest boy was the simplest of them all:  all he wanted was third helpings, chess every day, and the chance to go to every Cannons' match there was to attend (even those in spring training).

Ginevra was not only the youngest Weasley child but she had a secret and it was her greatest fear that somebody would discover it.  She just didn't think she could bear it if anyone found out about her crush on the Boy Who Lived.  Harry Potter was her closest brother Ron's best friend, but she had not even properly met his mate; in fact, the only time Ginny had ever seen Harry was when she and her mother had been seeing her brothers off to Hogwarts the last start of term.

Ginny's world had always been sheltered; the trouble was that, while in the past there had always been boys at home to play with or tag along behind, she was about to be left home alone with her parents for an entire year.  While normally Ginny would have visited with the Lovegoods for the morning or gone to work with her father, this year such arrangements could not be made.  The therefore necessary excursion to King's Cross was simultaneously salt in the wound and overwhelmingly exciting:  she was so close to freedom and yet so far away!  Why should Ron get to go to school without her just because he's a year and a half older?  What on earth was she ever going to do for the next year, stuck at the Burrow all alone?  She knew just as much about wandwork and going to Hogwarts as Ron did (maybe more), why must she forever be waiting for a chance to prove herself?

Mrs. Weasley was immune to her only daughter's petitions to go with her brothers.  Mr. Weasley for his part had merely said, "Your mother's right."  Ginny was not about to throw a fit or otherwise act like a baby, but as they arrived at the station she still couldn't resist asking her mother one more time, please oh please could she go?  But of course the answer was no.  The Twins were sympathetic to her cause and trying to cheer her up, "Only joking, I am Fred," and then she had seen him.

At first, all she could see of the boy was his face over the trolley.  He was patiently waiting his turn, his dark hair nearly in his eyes, asking ever so politely how to get through the barrier.  She realized this with a start:  didn't everyone know how to get to the train?  Even though she had never been to King's Cross she knew how to get onto the platform because her brothers had told her what it was like.  The boy looked lonely and lost.  She had never seen anyone so very thin and badly dressed, had only overheard her parents worrying about money before (when they knew no one would be listening), but this poor boy looked as if his situation was infinitely worse than their own.  He was alone and his obviously hand-me-down clothes were far too big for him.  Didn't his family care to make sure that he got away all right?  Such concepts were completely foreign to Ginny, for she had never before doubted that every child in their world--Wizard or Muggle--was well loved, cared for, and happy... until now.

The boy wasn't looking at her, his eyes were first on Ron, then back on her mother, and, oh my, weren't his eyes the most brilliant green she had ever seen!  Come to think of it, she hadn't ever seen green eyes before:  her family had brown eyes mostly, sometimes blue.  All of her relatives had flaming red hair and millions of freckles, too.  She wished the boy luck before she watched him disappear from her world just as quickly as he had entered it.

It only took a few moments for Ron to follow, then Ginny with her mother's hand on her arm like a vice.  A scan of the crowd told her that the boy was really and truly gone, but at last her brothers were standing before her again, come to say their goodbyes.  It was Fred and George who bore the news that would change her life.  "Hey, Mum, guess what?" one asked. "Guess who we just met on the train?" supplied the other.  They continued:  "You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station?"  "Know who he is?"

"Harry Potter!" the twins pronounced in unison.  Ginny trembled for a moment; out of the recesses of her mind came images of horror and death.  And suddenly she knew, she just knew, that this was the boy she had been waiting for.  She wanted to be the one to take his hand and show him the way, to tell him that he was safe and nothing could hurt him ever again, to learn everything about him and never leave his side ever again.

She immedietely begged her mother to let her go see the boy, but her mother was not to be deterred.  Of course she would not let her youngest out of her sight in a madhouse like this with such an opportunity to slip away and hide until it was too late to be found.  Ginny was, of course, simultaneously offended that she would think (rightly so) that she'd not get off the train until it was in Hogsmeade and crushed that she would not be able to really, truly, meet the boy who just happened to be styled the Boy Who Lived.  Most of all she was angry with herself that she had wasted time gawking at him when she could have been showing him that she was smart and funny and a good friend to have.  "Good luck":  what a lame and uninteresting thing to say!  She wanted him to see the real her, the vulnerable and strong and undomitable Ginevra that she had kept hidden away for so long, for fear of being discovered and despised by her perfect brothers.

Suddenly her brothers were really leaving her alone and she knew that it would be ever so horrible without them.  She could not bear it.  As the Hogwarts Express began its departure her mother's grip eased just enough for her to escape.  She chased the train weeping, hoping her brothers could see her waving goodbye, hoping that Harry Potter had noticed her and would remember her, laughing with the hope that Fred and George would somehow find a way to send her a piece of her future, even a piece from a loo.  Next year she would be at school, next year Harry would notice her, next year she would be more worthy of him.  Next year took forever to come... but it came just the same.