Puddles

Puddles

Ginny Weasley was confused.

At five years old it is very easy to get confused, but this was a different kind of confusion. This time she was confused as to what she was feeling. So far it seemed a cross between angry, annoyed, lonely, jealous, and gleeful, but more feelings kept popping up and making her head spin, so she stopped thinking about it.

And now she was just bored. Bill had gone back to Hogwarts and this year Charlie had gone with him. Percy and the twins were still having lessons with Mum and this year Ron had to have them too. He had moaned and whined and told Ginny how lucky she was that she didn't have them, but Ginny almost wished she did. It turned out that games that were fascinating with Ron and could keep them occupied for hours were boring when it was just her.

Finally her mother grew tired of her moping around the house, bundled her up against the chilly September winds and sent her outside to play in the shrubbery. Ginny had no intention of playing in the shrubbery. The shrubbery was where the gnomes lived, and the gnomes didn't like her. They called her Speckle Face and Spindly and pulled her hair.

So she set off down the garden path instead, kicking at tufts of grass and mumbling to herself.

"Stupid gnomes...spindly...Mum and her study...wish I was six...silly lessons...don't need them...Bill...Ron..."

Finally, she got tired of walking and threw herself down onto the grass in front of a nice puddle. She thought about what she'd like to do as she idly blew at the puddle to create rings.

Luna Lovegood from down in the village was coming over to play later, and so was Susannah Fawcett from across Stoatshead Hill. Ginny enjoyed playing with them. Luna was even better at imagining games than Ron and Susannah was happy to play any parts Luna and Ginny didn't want, but Ginny didn't want Luna and Susannah's sort of play right now. She just wanted Ron's play. True, it always revolved around either the Chudley Cannons or Auror versus You-Know-Who, and Ginny always had to be You-Know-Who, but then Ron was there, not in the study with the others away from her.

Ginny lay down on her stomach and studied her reflection in the puddle. This was one of Ron's and her favourite games, the "Skying Game" they called it. They would look into a puddle and pretend they could see the future like Bill said he could. They never really saw anything, but it was still fun to imagine. Sometimes they could almost see the pictures they said they could, Ron in Chudley Cannons robes and Ginny on a horse in a long pink dress, like a princess.

Well, she had exhausted all the other games she normally enjoyed, so she thought she might as well try the Skying Game, even if it wouldn't work without Ron.

Ginny wished hard...harder than she had ever wished before for what she might see today.

"I wish - I wish I will see my very best friend in the puddle." Because of course, Ron was her very best friend and if she did see him, that meant he would come and play with her. Her biggest fear since he started lessons was that he would go off with Fred and George and leave her alone.

She screwed her eyes up tight, wishing all the time, and finally opened one and peeked into the puddle.

But...she didn't see her brother's familiar freckled face grinning up at her. Instead she saw a strange boy...a boy she didn't know. He had the sort of black hair that her Mum called "the dragged through a bush backwards look" and bright green eyes and glasses a bit like Percy's. There was a funny shaped cut on his forehead, but she couldn't see it properly because of his hair. He was smiling and laughing at her, and it made her smile too. She tried to touch him, but the moment her fingers skimmed the surface of the water he was gone, and she could just see the mud and silt at the bottom of the puddle again.

~~~~~

Harry Potter woke up with a jolt, almost hitting his head on the roof of his cupboard.

He hadn't had any of those strange dreams for a while. After the last one, when Uncle Vernon had first shut him in the cupboard after he'd told the Dursleys about his dream at breakfast, he had mostly dreamt about living in a palace...with a bedroom so wide he couldn't see the other end of it. He had never dreamt about a girl before, but she had looked friendly...with bright red hair like Dudley's friend Gordon and she had had a huge grin on her face. And a grin was a rare thing for him to see these days at Privet Drive. The Dursleys only scowled at him, people at his new school didn't even look at him, and the only person that talked to him without sneering was Mrs Figg.

Harry turned over and drifted back to sleep. He hoped he dreamt about that girl again.