Princess of the Night

The little Weasley Princess

Ginny Weasley walked into her favourite brother's room. Bill was sitting cross-legged on his bed, reading a book. It was Sunday and he had the day off from work.

'Bill...'

'Hi Ginny!' Ginny sat next to him on his bed. 'What's up? Why that sad look on your face?'

'Mum said that you were going to Egypt. Is that true?'

'Yup. I'm going to be working there from now on.'

'You're so bad! I'm NOT letting you go!'

'Hey, is that why you're so down?' He hugged her. 'Don't worry, it's not like I'll be away forever! I promise I'll owl you every week, and I'll send you loads of presents, okay?'

'Yeah, okay... But this is so unfair! You're going to Egypt, and Charlie and Percy are going to Hogwarts, and so are Fred and George, and dad will be away at work, and mum is always busy with her work! Ron and I will be the only one's stuck here, and we are going to be really bored!'

'Well, if you ask me, two people are more than enough to have loads of fun.'

'Yeah, that's true!' Charlie walked in and plopped himself onto a chair, facing his siblings. 'You two can do loads of things while we're away. You can play Gobstones, and exploding snap, and Wizards' Chess and -'

'But I don't know how to play Wizards' Chess!'

'Why don't you ask Ron to teach you? He's really good at it you know...'

'Yeah, I know. He beat me five times in a row last night, and he's only eight!' said Charlie.

'Well, then I don't want to learn Wizards' Chess at all if Ronnie is always going to be winning!' Her brothers laughed. They really adored Ginny; she was so small and nice. All six of the Weasley boys were very loving and protective about their little sister. Their special little sister.

And Ginny liked them all too. She liked all of them very much, but Bill was always special. He was the oldest, and she was somehow more comfortable around him than the others. Maybe because he was so big, and cool, and had long hair. Mum had, of course, never liked his hair so long. She was always trying to persuade him to cut it, but Bill would have none of that. He was very smart too, he was Head Boy in his final year at Hogwarts. He was the horribly perfect older brother, and Ginny loved him for being so. She wanted to be like him. But she also wanted to be like the twins, they were so hilarious! They always did something which made her laugh like she was a hyena. And they stole their mother's wand often and tried to do magic. They once tried to wake up Percy's rat, Scabbers, who was always sleeping, and ended up inflating his head to twice it's normal size. Percy was so mad!

But that really wasn't surprising as Percy was always mad. He was a bit annoying, and always wanted everything to be perfect. But he was also very sweet when it came to Ginny. Somehow, he had managed to get mad at everyone else in the house, even mum and dad, but he had always managed to be good to her, or as good as Percy could ever be!

And Charlie took her flying on his broom, and told her everything about Quidditch. One thing Ginny had learned from Charlie was to always keep smiling. He never lost his temper, and could charm anyone by just smiling at them.

But Ron was the odd one in the lot. Ron liked to sit up in his room most of the time, but may be that was because the others really didn't have time for him. And Fred and George were always pulling his leg, turning his teddy-bear into a spider and putting gnomes into his room... But Ron was always sulking, and Ginny had noticed that he seemed jealous of everyone a lot. He was nice otherwise; he tried his best to help everyone. But there was some part of him which he showed no one. He was an introvert.

All in all, Ginny Weasley lived the life of a princess...

***

"Mum! I want to go to Hogwarts as well!"

It was the first of September, and the Burrow was exploding with all sorts of activities. Arthur and Molly Weasley were trying to get all the kids ready to the station. Bill was getting ready to go to Gringotts. Charlie and Percy Weasley were trying to get all their school things into their trunks. The twins, Fred and George, were the eager first years, and couldn't wait to get out of the house and into the train to Hogwarts.

"Mum!"

"What is it, Ginny?"

"Mum, I want to go to Hogwarts as well!"

"No, Ginny dear, you're too young!"

"But I'm older than Ginny! Why can't I go?" Ron started wailing as well.

"That, little Ronniekins, is because you're not yet Eleven!" Fred puffed up his chest in pride, like he had actually achieved something by turning Eleven.

"Exactly!" Said George, with an identical air about him.

"Fred, George! Stop sitting around like you have nothing better to do, and get your trunks out into the garden! Those Muggle taxes that I've called for might be here any moment!"

"They're 'taxis', Molly dear, not 'taxes'"

"Mum, have you seen my new robes?"

"I left them in your room just last night, Percy, what did you do with them?"

"I can't find them anywhere!"

"I saw Fred and George smuggling them into their room last night when you were not around, Perc." said Ron.

"Hey! Why would we do that!" the twins chorused, giving Ron a nasty look.

"Give them back to me now!"

"Yeah, alright! Stop screaming!"

"Mum! I want to go to Hogwarts as well!"

"Stop wailing Ginny! Get out into the garden, all of you!"

The Weasleys reached the station with just a few minutes left for the train to leave. They passed through the magical barrier to platform 9¾ , where the scarlet steam engine was waiting to take the students to the magical school. Mrs Weasley hugged Charlie, who had just seen some of his friends.

"Be good Charlie, and win the Quidditch cup this year too!"

"Yes mum. Bye. Bye dad, Ron, Ginny." He hugged his mother and Ginny lightly, and strode off to where two boys his age were standing.

"Percy, Fred, George, be good at school, won't you?"

"Yes Mother. I need to leave now; Penelope and Oliver wanted to discuss the Potions home work."

"Of course dear..." She kissed him on the cheek, and he left after saying his goodbyes to everyone.

"Fred, George, I don't want any complaints from school, ok?"

"Complaints? Of course not mum!"

"Yeah! We'll be angels!"

And their looks were anything but convincing. The train was about to leave...

"Mum! I want to go too!!!" Ginny started wailing.

"Oh, don't cry Ginny! We'll send you loads of owls -"

"- and chocolate frogs -"

"- and acid pops - "

"- and bogey flavoured Bertie Botts' Beans!"

Ginny smiled slightly. Molly scowled. Arthur smiled exasperatedly. He would honestly be surprised if there were less than a dozen owls regarding Fred and George from school this year...

'*'