The last few weeks of the summer holidays passed quickly for Ginny and her family. With Harry there, her mother had someone new to fawn over and feed, so Ginny was spared from being forced into second and third helpings at mealtimes. He was also a welcome distraction for her brothers. Fred, George, Ron, and Harry would spend hours on end playing Quidditch in the paddock when it was sunny outside and Exploding Snap in the house on rainy days. Percy was constantly in his room, and when she walked by, Ginny could hear the scratching of a quill on parchment. She wondered who he was writing to, but she didn't care much as long as whoever it was kept him busy. Finally, her father was occupied by work and the "absolutely preposterous" number of raids there were on any given day.
Luckily for Ginny, this left her free to write to Tom Riddle any time she wanted to. Well, almost any time.
"Ginny dear! Would you come down here?"
Sighing, Ginny quickly scrawled, "Sorry Tom, I have to go," and closed the diary. She had been discussing the Chamber of Secrets with him. He had explained what the place with the snakes and the pillars was called, telling her all about what lived there and what part he had in it. They had just been talking about the many interesting characteristics of basilisks.
Ginny got up from her chair and stretched out her limbs. She hadn't realized how long she had been sitting there, and her legs were sore from not having been used in hours. She walked over to her window and was surprised to see that it was getting dark out, and that the sun was already low over the trees. Worried that she had missed supper, she hurried out into the hall.
When Ginny arrived in the kitchen, she saw that the rest of the family was sitting at the table waiting for her. They turned when she got to the bottom of the stairs, and she felt their penetrating stares as she walked to her seat and sat down. "Er, hello," she said, unsure of herself.
"Are you alright, dear?" asked her mother, looking at her curiously with her brow furrowed.
"Yes, I'm fine," replied Ginny.
"Well then why did it take you so long to get down here?" questioned Fred, reaching for a plate of food.
"Um," said Ginny, shifting uncertainly in her seat, "I lost track of time?"
"Yeah, right," stated George. "You were probably writing in your precious diary. Telling it about Harry being so wonderful, I suppose?"
Ginny blushed dark red, and she saw Harry's face go the same way out of the corner of her eye. Fortunately, her mother seemed to forget about her offense in the shadow of George's statement, and turned her glare in his direction. She sighed with relief and loaded up her plate, making a mental note always to pay close attention to the time.
***
31 August 1992
Dear Tom,
Do you have any idea how embarrassing older brothers can be? You know Harry; he's staying at our house for the holidays. Fred and George always tease me about him, make fun of how I act around him, do impressions of how I squealed that first day. . . Oh, that's so humiliating. I'm blushing just thinking about it! I only wish they would stop. What would you do?
Ginny
***
Ginny,
I have never been in a situation quite like yours, but I think that I would make fun of them in return. They must have someone to them like Harry is to you if they're teasing you about it. You'll find that it is often the case with teasing that the person is making fun of you for experiencing something they are currently going through, and that it makes them feel better to taunt other people about it.
Good luck, and have fun.
Tom
***
After reading what Tom had written her, Ginny didn't feel completely comfortable with his advice. She knew that teasing people was wrong, but if Tom thought it was a good idea, maybe she should try it.
Bearing this thought in her mind, Ginny closed the diary with a short note of farewell to Tom and walked to Fred and George's room. The door was closed, and she could hear noises from behind it that told her that the twins were probably doing something dangerous and possibly illegal again. She sighed and knocked on the door.
Suddenly, all of the strange noises emanating from the room were silenced, and Ginny could hear scuffling sounds as Fred and George tried desperately to hide what they were doing from whomever they thought was at the door. Ginny yelled to them, "It's just me! Mum's downstairs!"
The door opened quickly and she was ushered inside by a bewildered George. "Er, excuse our mess," he said sheepishly.
"About time," Ginny said, walking into the room and sitting carefully on the bed for fear of sitting on something explosive. George was right about the room being unorganized; there were odds and ends laying around everywhere. Everything from old socks to newly bought schoolbooks were on the floor, shoved onto shelves, and just creating mess in general. Ginny felt something poke her bottom and stood up, looking at what she had sat on. It was a fireplace poker. "How did this get here?"
George looked at Fred, who said, "Um, we accidentally-"
"He means we borrowed-"
"No, we actually traded it-"
"Get to the point already!" exclaimed Ginny, exasperated with Fred and George's back and forth bickering.
"We, um," Fred started, wringing his hands together nervously. Ginny decided it must have been something really bad if Fred was this jittery.
"It was a gift!" George interjected. "Yes, a gift . . . from Lee! Lee Jordan, you know?"
"Sure," Ginny said, deciding not to argue. She had business to take care of. "Look, I'm-"
Before she could get out her apology, she felt an all-consuming urge to insult one of her brothers. She didn't know what was going on, because her plan was to apologize for her earlier behavior and offer to play Exploding Snap. She tried to control her impulse, but it became constantly harder until she could no longer bear it. "Sorry you were ever born!" She finished her sentence abruptly, and clapped her hand over her mouth.
What just happened? She thought, watching as her brothers reacted to her rash statement.
"Ginny!" exclaimed George.
"What's your problem today?" asked Fred.
"I-I don't know!" pleaded Ginny, but she felt the urge overcome her again. "What's yours?"
With a look of horror at her behavior, George pointed towards the door. She got up off the bed and walked out with her head down, ashamed that she had allowed herself to say those horrible things. What had happened back there?
***
The next day was finally the day Ginny had been waiting for as long as she could remember. It was September first, but not just any September first, where she would watch her brothers head off to school before coming home with her parents. No, this September first was different. This year, she would go with her brothers to Hogwarts.
They woke early in the morning, when the sun was just barely peeking over the clouds. Ginny yawned as she checked her trunk to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything; everything was present. The only thing she had outside of the trunk was Tom Riddle's diary, which she had been up late writing in the night before.
She had told Tom of the odd occurrence in Fred and George's bedroom, and asked him what he thought about it. His response had been unclear, and it had left her wondering what Tom's real thoughts on the subject were. He had eluded the actual topic of conversation and tried to distract her with further details of the Chamber of Secrets. Strangely, she couldn't remember much of what they had ended up talking about, but passed it off as a side effect of her tiredness.
Ginny dressed rapidly in the outfit her mother had helped her choose a few weeks prior. It had been cleaned and ironed, and was now ready for her first day of school. She pulled on the pale blue sweater and tan skirt, then made sure her hair was brushed and braided before heading downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning, dear," said her mother when she arrived. "Eat quickly; we need to leave soon."
Ginny took her plate of eggs and sausage and sat down next to her father, who seemed to be shoveling in his food in a hurry. Ginny knew he needed to get all of their trunks in the car by the time everyone else was ready to go, and therefore had to be ready soon. "Is your trunk all packed?" he asked her when he had finished eating.
"Yes," she replied, "mum helped me last night."
"Fantastic," he said, and hurried up the stairs, almost running into Fred, who was coming down from the room he shared with his twin.
"Careful, dad!" Fred yelled up the stairs, and took his plate from their mother without sparing Ginny a glance. She looked down at her own plate, still ashamed of her behavior the previous day. He was obviously still upset with her over it, and she hoped he wouldn't bring it up.
After Fred arrived, Ginny sped up her eating and finished much faster than she would have under normal circumstances. She watched as her father walked slowly down the stairs, balancing her trunk carefully in his arms. He walked it outside and to the car with Fred following close behind.
Ginny helped her mother clean up the kitchen and walked with her outside. They got into the front seat of the car and were on their way.
Unfortunately for Ginny, they didn't get to King's Cross station as soon as she had expected. They stopped twice for what she considered stupid little things, like George's Filibuster fireworks and Fred's broom. They had brooms at Hogwarts, didn't they? And fireworks could be mailed, right?
She discovered for herself how necessary it was to stop when she remembered something very important. "My diary!" she shrieked. "I've left it at home!"
With a groan, her father turned around and they drove back to the house. When they arrived, she launched herself out of the car and sprinted through the yard, up the stairs, and into her room. The diary was right where she had left it on the desk. Sighing with relief, she grabbed it and ran back to the car.
"Really, Ginny?" asked Ron. "A diary?"
"A very important one," she said, turning her back to him.
"Okay then. . ."
The rest of the ride to King's Cross was spent in silence, with just the sounds of driving to listen to. When they arrived at the station, they hurried inside and to platform nine and three-quarters. Percy went through the barrier first, followed by their father, Fred, and George. Ginny and her mother left Ron and Harry to get through and walked through the wall onto the platform.
Ginny saw the scarlet train and marveled at it as anyone would do. No matter how many years she came here with her family, she thought she would always be excited to see the steam engine. It was a truly wonderful sight, especially since she was a first-year about to board it for the first time.
They hurried through the crowd and her mother helped her into a carriage. They didn't see any of her brothers, but came across her father making sure their trunks were loaded onto the train. "Everything's set," he said, wiping sweat off his brow. "You ready?"
Ginny nodded and got onto the train. "Oh, Ginny. . ." Her mother trailed off, her hand over her heart. "My last baby, going to Hogwarts for the first time. . ."
Ginny's father moved to comfort his wife, and said to Ginny, "Go find your brothers and sit with them. Take your trunk with you."
"Have a wonderful year, dear!" her mother managed to get out before the train started moving. "Behave, don't worry about your classes, or your teachers, your house. Don't fight with your brothers-"
Before she could finish, however, the train was moving too quickly and the sounds of the platform were too loud. Ginny could no longer hear her mother, and found herself rolling away from her parents. She waved hastily and took her trunk, starting down the train, looking for her brothers.
As the train rolled down the tracks out of the station, she knew that Hogwarts was only hours away.
Her first year was about to start.
Spellbound by ravenclaw1997
Chapter Notes:Yes! I finished this chapter before the queue closed! I'm glad I was able to get this out for you guys. Enjoy!
Thanks as usual to my mom for beta'ing, even at eight o'clock at night.
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Chapter Endnotes: I'm running out of witty ways to tell you to review, so I'll just say review and let you pretend it's fancy and such. :D