A Weasley Obligation

The twins had been talking to Charlie; or it was entirely possible that they had put two and two together on their own. Whatever case, Ginny suddenly found herself surrounded by brothers when Molly Weasley finally called the family to dinner.

Charlie followed her as she made her way to the table and sat down across from her. "Alright?" he asked as the twins dropped into the seats on either side of Ginny. She nodded and watched bemused as Hermione quickly claimed the seat next to Charlie. Ron gave his girlfriend a peculiar look, but sat beside her and Harry took the last remaining seat beside Fred.

When Fred 'accidentally' elbowed her, she furrowed her eyebrows and shot him a pointed look. "What?" he asked innocently, reaching for the rolls, "can't a bloke sit next to his favorite sister and enjoy a scrumptious home-cooked meal?"

On her other side, she could hear George snort with amusement as he helped himself to the pumpkin juice. "I'm your only sister," she said warily, taking the roll Fred offered her, "and you never sit next to me."

"We've decided to lure Ronnikins into a false sense of security," George informed her on her other side, slapping her hand away when she made to reach for the butter dish. She frowned at him, but he ignored her as Fred continued his brother's train of thought.

"This way," Fred explained, taking a zealous bite from his roll, "we figure he'll be so paranoid wondering why we're not pestering him that he'll do something spectacularly stupid in an attempt to protect himself from anything we might have up our sleeves."

"At which point, we'll laugh at him," George added. He looked thoughtful. "And possibly point as well," he concluded.

Fred looked inordinately pleased with himself. "It's brilliant," he said. "Entertainment without the extra effort."

Ginny frowned. "So," she said slowly, reaching for her pumpkin juice, "You saying that you don't have any pranks planned this year?"

George smirked. "None what-so-ever."

"Cross our hearts, hope to die," Fred said, grinning.

They were just trying to distract her and she was surprised to find that she appreciated the sentiment. Circumstances, however, made liars of her brothers as, suddenly, there was a loud pop followed closely by an indignant squawk and fits of laughter from the twins. Ginny looked over at Ron, or at least at the area where Ron should have been, and nearly choked on her juice as the garish multi-colored parrot, which had once been her youngest brother, struggled to extract itself from Ron's potato salad. Charlie was nearly doubled over in laughter and even Harry's lips were twitching in amusement. When Ginny realized she had been staring at her ex-boyfriend's lips, she quickly dropped her gaze to her own plate. Beside her, the twins were laughing so hard, tears streamed down their faces. The parrot, aided by a giggling Hermione, finally righted itself and glared at the twins, screeching loudly.

"Fred! George!" Molly Weasley cried crossly, waving her fork in the air menacingly. "Turn your brother back this instant!"

The parrot added its own choice words to Mrs. Weasley's outcry, prompting Charlie to snort loudly and fall off his chair laughing, with Bill soon following suit. Watching as her brothers suddenly dropped from sight only made Ginny laugh harder. Gasping for breath and holding her own aching sides, she looked around the table to see her father subtly wiping tears from his eyes and Percy shaking his head reprovingly, rolling his eyes. Beside him, Penny looked bored and toyed with her chicken.

"Why do you always assume we're the culprits?" George managed to ask through his laughter.

"Yes," Fred added seriously, his lips twitching, "I have it on good authority that Hermione is quite cross at him." He shook his head mockingly. "Forgetting her birthday and what have you. It's a wonder she hasn't transfigured him into a parrot sooner- or worse yet, tossed him over for Harry, here." Ginny's laughter sputtered and died, and she found herself staring at Fred incredulously. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Harry's face reddening, though from embarrassment or lack of oxygen, she didn't know. Charlie's head reappeared from below the table and he glared menacingly at Fred. "Or for Neville, at least," Fred finished weakly, looking contrite. "I hear he's become quite the catch."

4

Ron, apparently, did not like Fred's suggestion, and made to hobble across the table toward him. Hermione, once again showing uncanny perception, quickly intercepted her boyfriend and held him tightly. He struggled to free himself for a moment, but quickly ceased his efforts when she began to softly stroke his feathers. Ginny thought he looked rather dazed.

Meanwhile, her mother's fork continued to wave. "I don't care who did it," she said sternly, "return him to his proper self, or, so help me, there will be hell to pay!"

"There's no need," George said, grinning. "He'll be back to usual, git-self in a minute," -- his grin widened-- "give or take ten or so."

"Ten minutes?" her mother screeched, looking appropriately outraged.

"Well, we haven't exactly properly tested it yet," Fred explained.

Molly looked thunderous. "You gave your brother an untested..." she stopped mid-tirade, her face slowly turning magenta, apparently at a loss for words. Her grip on the fork was white-knuckled and Ginny suddenly came to the realization that she was caught in a dire situation, sitting between the twins as she was. Groaning inwardly, she shrunk into seat, trying to make herself as small as possible.

George held up his hands, as if to reflect Mrs. Weasley's anger. "Mum, it's alright," he said quickly, unfortunately unable to hide his delight. "It won't kill him or anything, though he might have a few feathers for the next day or two, but nothing serious."

There was a dangerous glint in her mother's eye that Ginny didn't care for and it was a testament to her fortitude that she didn't shriek when she felt a hand on her ankle. Instead, she calmly looked down to see Charlie's face peering up at her. She quickly glanced up at her mother, but the elder woman was too intent on the men sitting beside her to notice her daughter. Exampling her incredibly poor acting skills, Ginny casually knocked her spoon to the ground. "Oh," she said to no one in particular- not that anyone was paying attention to her at that point. "I seem to have dropped my spoon." And at that, she lowered her face to Charlie's level near her bare knees. "What?" she whispered, their nose's a hair's width apart.

"Come on," he said, tugging on her leg again. "Mum's going to go ballistic on them. If you value your life, you'll get out of the battle zone." She silently agreed and, with one last covert glance around the table, slipped out of her chair and escaped to safety beneath the table.

Crouching beneath the table felt like being in another universe. Though her family's voices were just as loud as they had been when she was sitting properly in her chair, the tabletop offered some measure of protection against the outside world, surrounded as it was by the forest of chairs and legs of her family. Peering down the length of the table, she could see her eldest brother hiding in a similar manner to her own.

"Come on," she said to Charlie, dropping to her hands and knees, "let's go cower with Bill."

Bill watched them approach, a wry smile twisting his lips. "Brave bunch of Gryffindors we are," he said when they neared.

"I don't think bravery has much to do with it, actually," Ginny said. "Any fool knows that it's suicidal to hang around Mum when she gets going like that."

Charlie grinned and settled back on his haunches. "Says the fool who didn't have enough sense to escape on her own."

Bill snorted. "So what was eating you earlier, Squirt?" he asked casually.

Ginny scowled. Bill must have spoken with Charlie as well. She shot an accusatory glare at Charlie. "That's none of your business."

Charlie rolled his eyes and plucked a handful of grass from the ground, tossing at her. "Potter did something to her," he said, answering Bill's question for her.

Bill's eyes narrowed. "What did he do?" he asked sharply.

Charlie frowned. "You know, I haven't been given the specifics yet."

Her eldest brother turned to her expectantly and her scowl deepened. "I am not going to give you a detailed account of my argument with," she paused, almost having said boyfriend. "My fight with Harry is really none of your business," she concluded primly.

Bill frowned this time. "Did you fight with him?" he asked, confused. "I'm sure everything was fine before you came storming out of the kitchen-"

"Okay, so we didn't actually exchange words," Ginny cut him off quickly, "it was more like..." she fiddled with the end of her wand where it stuck out of her pocket, struggling to find the right way to describe it, "it was more like a general realization of what an utter prat he is."

Charlie chuckled. "What did you expect?" he asked. "He is mates with Ron."

She shrugged and drew her wand, absently magicing Percy's laces together. "He didn't use to be," she said. "He was always the sensitive one of the group."

Bill undid Percy's laces before exchanging a significant look with Charlie. "Do we need to have a talk with him?"

"No," she said, quickly. If Harry didn't know why she was so upset, the last thing she wanted was for him to be told by her brothers. Merlin, that would be embarrassing. "Just let it go, please," she added desperately.

They looked doubtful. "You're sure?" Bill asked.

"Positive."

Charlie frowned. "I know you said that before, but-"

BANG

All three jumped as the table suddenly shuddered violently and Ginny reached for Charlie's hand. Above, there was a scuffle and loud cursing as the members of her family at the opposite end of the table reacted to the noise and quickly pushed themselves away from the table.

"Bloody hell!"

"Ron! Language!"

"Mum!" Ron's voice exclaimed. "They turned me into a bloody parrot!"

"Language, Ron!"

"I'm going to kill them," he said. A beat, then, "I'm going to kill you two!"

Suddenly, Fred and George's legs were no long sitting in their chairs and, instead, could be seen running around the table, followed closely by Ron's. "Stupify! Stupify!" she could hear him call.

"Ronald Weasley! Stop cursing your brothers!"

Ron's legs paused. "They started it!"

She heard one of the twins shout something, then, "You're so dead!" Ron shouted, resuming his chase. "Fred! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

"I'm Fred, you dolt!"

Ginny attempted to stifle her giggles with her hands and failed miserably.

"Where's Ginny?" she heard her mother ask.

"Come to think of it, where's Charlie?" Hermione added, confused.

"They're with Bill," Percy said. "Under the table."

Suddenly, half a dozen heads peered under the tabletop. Ginny found herself blushing and waving innocently.

"Ginny, dear," Molly said from the far end, "what in Merlin's name are you doing down there?"

"Hiding?" Charlie offered helpfully.

"Cowards," Harry accused playfully.

"We prefer to call it 'self preservation'," Bill said.

"You're being ridiculous," Mrs. Weasley said. "Come up from there and eat your dinner."

"Stupify! Aha! Got you, you mangy bugger!"

"Don't worry, Fred!" George's voice called melodramatically from the other side of the yard, "I'll avenge you! You shall not have died in vain!"

Mrs. Weasley's head disappeared. "Ron! George! Stop that this instant!" she snapped. "You're ruining the family's meal! And wake up your brother!"

---

"So, Ginny, how's your summer been?" Hermione asked cheerily after the ruckus had faded at last and the family was, once again, enjoying their meal. "I've been so busy at work, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

It felt like just another reminder that Ginny didn't have anything that even remotely resembled a life. Hermione had a well-paying job in the Ministry that kept her inordinately busy: Ginny's last employment was at old Madam Levinson's tea shop some four months prior. Hermione had a lovely flat in Muggle London which she had recently taken to sharing with Ron: Ginny still lived at home. Hermione regularly had dinner with her numerous friends: Ginny ate with her parents every night. It was tragically pathetic.

Ginny closed her eyes, feeling utterly inept. "I'm going to move out."

She hadn't meant to say it aloud; in fact, she hadn't even realized that she had been thinking it until she said it. Fear rushed to fill the space inside her the words had previously occupied. What was she thinking? She couldn't move out. She had no money, no job. Hell, she barely had any friends now that she was out of Hogwarts. Hermione looked a bit shocked at her words and Ron furrowed his brow.

"What?" he asked, around a mouthful of chicken. "I don't think I heard that right."

At the disbelieving light in her brother's eyes, Ginny's pride was pricked. She swallowed her fears and stiffened her spine. Was she, or was she not, a Gryffindor? "I'm moving out," she said again, this time with more force and volume. The hum of conversation around the table suddenly died as the faces of her family looked at her with varying degrees of shock registering on their faces.

"Moving out?" Bill echoed, his hand frozen halfway to the pitcher of pumpkin juice.

Ginny scowled inwardly. Were the people in her family suddenly hard of hearing? "Yes," she firmly. "I'm moving out."

"But why?" Ron asked, baffled. "You don't even have a job."

Ginny clenched her teeth. Leave it to Ron to be an insensitive berk. "So I'll get one," she ground out.

"At what? It's not like you're particularly good at any-" Hermione hastily stomped on his foot, earning herself a glare. "Damnit Hermione, why did you do that?"

"Because you're a great git," she said. She turned to Ginny and smiled encouragingly. "I think that's a wonderful idea Ginny. Where are you moving?"

In reality, Ginny had no idea. "London," she said impulsively. "Colin has a flat there with his brother." It was true, he had written last year, gloating about that fact. Of course, Ginny hadn't talked to Colin in nearly three months, but Hermione didn't need to know that.

There was a tense silence as her family absorbed her news before George roped a long arm around her shoulders. "That's our Ginny," he said fondly, giving her a quick squeeze. "Bravest of the bunch."

His words seemed to have cracked the tension and suddenly she was barraged with questions and smiles. Surprisingly, it was her father who was most upset by her news while Molly, on the other hand, merely smiled mistily at Ginny and murmured something about how her baby girl was all grown up at last.

Later, as dusk was falling, the twins brought out the fireworks and the family gathered around to watch. Ginny separated herself from the group and curled up in a corner of the double rocker that sat at the edge of the orchard, smiling at her brothers' antics.

"Pumpkin juice, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked coming to sit next to her and holding out a glass.

Ginny smiled at her mother and took the proffered drink. "Thanks Mum."

Molly sat down next to Ginny and settled back into the deep cushions with a contented sigh. Together, they watched the boys as they laughed and played with the fireworks. "Is your decision to move because of Harry?" her mother asked quietly.

Ginny sighed. "I don't know," she said honestly, "maybe." She took a drink from her glass, thinking. "But then again, maybe not," she concluded at length. "He certainly was the last straw, but I think that decision has been on the horizon for a while now. I just needed a shove out the door," she paused, then grinned, "no pun intended."

Molly chuckled and put her arm around Ginny, hugging her close for a moment. "No matter where you go, this will always be your home."

Ginny blinked against the sudden rush of tears her mother's words caused. She didn't realize she needed to hear her mother's support until it was said. "I love you, Mum," she said without preamble.

Her mother's smile was luminous in the dark and she kissed Ginny forehead. "Just promise that you'll come home for dinner every now and then."

"I promise."

"Good," Mrs. Weasley said, rising to her feet. "Now I should go before your brothers set fire to garden."

Ginny laughed. She watched her mother scold the twins while Ron mimicked her in the background, smiling to herself. When Hermione smacked her boyfriend upside the head, Ginny snorted indelicately into her juice and shook her head. She might want to strangle them sometimes, Ron especially when he was being particularly thick, but Ginny loved her family. Together, they formed an unshakeable solid base and she knew that any one of them would protect her at all costs. It was comforting knowing they were there, should she need them.

Of course, sometimes they took their obligation to 'protect her at all costs' above and beyond the call of duty- her brothers especially. Growing up as the only daughter, and baby to boot, had its shortcomings. Ginny still wasn't quite sure how she managed to conceal her teenage boyfriends from them for as long as she had. At least with Harry, her brothers had lain off the scare-tactics- probably in hopes of making the Boy Who Lived an official member of the family.

Harry. Her thoughts were cyclical and she was beginning to think that everything eventually came back to Harry. Ginny clenched her jaw against the tears that wanted to overflow. She was suddenly very glad of her decision to move away from home. She needed to get away from him.

"Is this seat taken?"

Ginny looked up from her reverie into Harry's bright green eyes and swallowed thickly. She shook her head and turned her attention to her drink, mentally amending her earlier thought. She desperately needed to get away from Harry.

He drew a deep breath before sitting tentatively next to her. They sat in silence for a long moment, each unwilling to broach the silence as he played with a loose string from the seat cushion and she contemplated her pumpkin juice.

"I really think it's great that you're moving out, Gin," he said at length.

I'm relieved you're finally moving on, her brain translated. She scowled into her glass. Harry sighed and shifted in his seat.

"I know you're angry with me," he said bluntly, "but I have no idea why."

Ginny ignored his comment, thinking that maybe if she gave him the cold shoulder, he'd leave her be. Harry, however, was not one to be swayed by silly, immature things like that. "What did I do, Gin?" he asked, his tone painfully sincere. When she refused to answer him still, Harry sighed again. arrH"You're being ridiculous Gin," he said, turning to face Ginny. "Tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it and we can move on."

Move on. That was the magic phrase that instantly loosened her stronghold on her Weasley temper. Yes, Ginny should move on. She didn't need Harry Potter. She was a lovely, independent woman who had no room in her life for cowardly, immature men- no boys- who couldn't even bring themselves to tell her it was over between them. She shot Harry a withering glare as she stood to her feet. "You didn't do anything," she stressed snidely. Oh, she was clever. She was wonderful. She was out of Harry Potter's league. Let him try to rattle her, she would be impervious.

Her confidence deflated minutely, however, when Harry stood as well and met her gaze unflinchingly. "Well, someone obviously did," he said, "and your brothers seem to think it was me."

"And they'd be right for once," she said muttered. Harry frowned at her for a moment before taking hold of Ginny's elbow and dragging her into the orchard where they could have some semblance of privacy. "Let go of me," she hissed, attempting to tug her arm out of his grip.

He stopped abruptly and gripped her arms in both hands. "Stop talking in riddles, Gin," he said angrily. "Either I did something, or I didn't. So what is it?"

She set her jaw stubbornly. "Both."

A tick fluttered above his right eyebrow. "Stop playing games, Ginny!"

Her eyes narrowed and she pulled herself out of his grip angrily. "Games?" she breathed in disbelief. "I'm not the one playing games, Harry. When were you going to tell me that it was over between us?" she asked.

Harry's temper vanished in an instant and he looked flabbergasted at her statement. He blinked. "What?"

"You didn't do anything!" she exclaimed, repeating her earlier statement. Why didn't he understand? "You never said anything! You just assumed I could read your bloody mind!"

He looked at her like she was a raving lunatic. "Gin, I don't understand."

She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Honestly, Harry!" At that moment, she could honestly say she wasn't angry with him- just incredibly irritated. "Do you have selective amnesia? You said after Voldemort was dead, things would go back to the way they were before."

Harry shook his head, frowning. "Ginny," he said slowly, "I never said that."

"Of course you said that," she snapped, "I didn't bloody-well make it up! I'm not a total idiot-" Ginny stopped ranting suddenly, her eyes widening. He hadn't said that, had he? Harry only said he couldn't be with her because Voldemort targeted the ones he loved. He never once implied that they would get back together afterwards. Her mind had filled in the blanks and she had jumped to conclusions. Ginny felt the blood drain from her face and her hand slowly rose to cover her mouth in horror. She was a raging, blathering idiot.

Realization dawned on Harry just as slowly. "Oh Merlin," he breathed, clenching his eyes shut and flushing bright red. "You thought..." he trailed off and his eyes flew open, "Ginny, I never meant-"

He had never meant a lot of things apparently, her brain absently whispered, sounding eerily like the long dead ghost of Tom. Ginny raised one hand quickly to cut him off and to silence the voice in her head. "Ignore me," she said tightly, turning to leave. "I'm just being 'silly little Ginny', as usual."

He made to grab her and stop her from retreating, but she moved to quickly. "Ginny," he called after her, "wait- Gin!"

Her face set in determined lines, Ginny resolutely ignored him as she stalked through the orchard, slapping the low-hanging branches out of her way. What was wrong with her? Of course Saint Harry Potter would never do something as ignoble as to lead her on for two bloody years. He probably didn't have a dishonorable bone in his body. It was all her fault. She was an idiot. Idiot, idiot, idiot!

She could hear Harry crashing through the trees as he followed her, so she quickened her steps and only flashed her family a small, strained smile as she made her way through the yard to the kitchen. Once inside, she sprinted up the stairs to her room and hastily closed the door. Ginny could hear Harry in the kitchen and she grabbed her wand from her pocket, quickly locking and hexing her door.

Satisfied that her spells would hold, she slipped her wand back into her pocket and grabbed an old rucksack from beneath the bed.

Outside in the hallway, Harry had reached her door. He tried the handle first, only to find it both locked and hexed. She smirked to herself upon hearing his muffled cursing at the jolt of electricity he'd received from the doorknob.

"Go away, Harry," she said loudly, throwing open the doors of her wardrobe.

"Ginny, open the door," he said. "We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." She waved her wand briefly and watched as the contents of her wardrobe shrunk accordingly and flew into the open bag on the bed.

"This is childish, Ginny," he said, clearly exasperated. "Let me in."

It was childish, but it was also self preservation. Ginny couldn't bear to face him again. She didn't want to see the pity that would undoubtedly shine in his eyes- pity for poor, deluded Ginny. Stupid Ginny who had been naïve enough to assume Harry Potter would actually come back to her. Moronic, freckled, silly little Ginny Weasley. She slumped ungracefully into her desk chair and let her forehead fall against the wood. Stupid, stupid Ginny. She let her head fall repeatedly against the desktop in time with her self-directed insults.

"Ginny?" Harry called, sounding vaguely worried. "Are you alright?"

She stopped her self-punishment and raised her head to glare balefully at the door. "I'm fine," she bit out, the tone of her voice making it obvious that he should clear off if he knew what was good for him.

"Just open the door, Ginny. We need to-"

Tired of hearing Harry plead with her to see reason, Ginny muttered a silencing spell and sighed with relief when his words were cut off abruptly. She let her head drop once more to the smooth wooden desktop. She had no idea what she was doing. It was all happening entirely too quickly. Less than three hours of ago she had announced her intentions of leaving the Burrow and here she was, packing already. She really was psychotic. She briefly considered penning a note to Colin explaining the situation and her desperate need to escape, but dismissed the idea. Holed up in her room as she was, she had no access to either family owl and she had no desire to go to all the trouble of fighting her way past Harry only to then be forced to wait until Colin replied.

She figured the best plan of escape would be to stun Harry and Floo to Colin's directly. If she could open the door quickly enough, she might be able to surprise Harry, or at least distract him long enough, for her to get off one good hex. Even though he was an Auror, he would never expect her to pull her wand on him and, at such a short range, she couldn't miss...

She stopped herself and banged her head against the desk again. There was something seriously wrong with her. Planning to hex her brother's best friend, just so she wouldn't have to speak to him? It was ridiculous. She was twenty years old, an adult. She shouldn't need to resort to childish tactics to get out of an embarrassing situation. After all, she had her brothers for that.

Having come to a satisfying course of action and feeling properly ashamed of her immature actions, Ginny lifted the silencing spell and waited to be barraged by Harry's ranting voice. Harry, however, appeared to have given up cajoling her out of her room, for the hallway outside her door was silent. She cocked her head and frowned. It wasn't like Harry to give up so easily. Still frowning she set her wand back upon the dresser, lest she be tempted to stun him regardless, and opened the door.

Harry had obviously been leaning against the door on the other side, because he immediately fell backwards into the room. Ginny squeaked and barely jumped out of the way in time. As it was, Harry grabbed her arm instinctively in an attempt to hold himself upright and put both of them off balance, ultimately resulting in a tangle of limbs and curses on her bedroom floor.

She landed with her elbow in his solar plexus, and, if she hadn't been involved in the difficult task of untangling her legs from his own, she might've enjoyed the painful oomph he emitted.

Harry pushed her hair out of his face. "Gin," he rasped, "get off. I can't breathe."

She glared at him and gingerly stood to her feet, making no move to help him. "What were you thinking?" she demanded, standing over him with her hands fisted at her hips. "Leaning against my door like that? Obviously I was going to open it at some point, what did you think was going to happen?"

He returned her glare and scrambled to his feet. "I thought I'd have half a chance to get out of the way first." The man's stupidity was beyond her. Rolling her eyes, she elbowed her way past him and into the hall.

"Ginny!" He grabbed her elbow. "Don't just walk away like nothing happened. We need to talk about it."

She jerked her arm from his grip. "We need to do no such thing, Harry," she said, moving for the stairs.

"Ginny-"

She wheeled on him, her expression harsh. She felt so very close to breaking down again. "Nothing happened, Harry," she said tightly before turning to leave. "It was just a brief moment of insanity, nothing more. Let it go. I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't be like that, Ginny," he said, following her down the stairs.

She scowled at him from over her shoulder. "Stop following me, Harry."

"I'll keep on following you until you talk about this with me," he said stubbornly as they tromped into the kitchen. "It affected me as well."

"What affected Harry?" Ron asked, looking up from where he sat next to Charlie at the kitchen table.

"None of your business," she said, shooting him a hard look.

"Your sister's being selfish," Harry began, glaring at her. "She won't-"

He was dangerously close to spilling her embarrassing secret and she quickly moved to intervene. "Charlie?" she asked, interrupting Harry and smiling sweetly at her older brother.

He tipped his chair back, balancing his weight on the back legs, and cocked an eyebrow inquiringly. "Yes?"

"Remember our conversation about Harry earlier this afternoon?"

"Yes," Charlie said slowly.

"I believe I've changed my mind."

It took only a second for realization to sink in and suddenly, Charlie was up and out of his chair with his thick arm around Harry's shoulders. "We need to have a talk, Potter," he said. Harry looked stunned and Ginny felt slightly guilty. The poor boy never really stood a chance.

However, Ginny steeled herself against feeling pity for her former boyfriend, ex love of her life, and turned the corner into the living room. She grabbed a pinch of Floor powder and tossed it into the fire, calling Colin's flat address before dropping to her knees and sticking her head into the green flames.

"Colin!" she called, looking around, what appeared to be, his empty living room.

A man with mousey brown hair stuck his head around a far corner, surprise on his face. "Ginny?" he asked, coming fully into view as he wiped his hands on a dish towel.

"Dennis!" she cried with relief. "Is your brother in? I really need to speak to him."

Dennis's eyebrows shot up. "Is everything alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yes... I mean, no." Ginny shook her head, grimacing. "It's complicated."