I Can Read You Like A. . .

I Can Read You Like A. . .

Ginny's tale

It all started last summer, just before my fifth year at Hogwarts began. Harry had come to stay after his horrible aunt and uncle made his summer absolute hell. They're just pure evil, they really are. Eventually Professor Lupin and Mad Eye Moody came and took him away. He was brave to stick it out there, though. I just can't imagine what it must be like living with people who hate you.

Of course, sometimes I live with people I hate. Honestly, sometimes Fred and George are just. . . Grrrr! It's even worse when Bill's at home. I love them dearly, but put the three of them together and it's like messing about in Potions. You know it's going to end up with trouble.

That morning, of course, it was me who got it.

I swear, those brothers of mine will do anything to embarrass me. And now I'm getting older, they seem to think they have to work extra hard. Which they do, but I wish they didn't get it exactly right, every single time.

Especially when Harry's there.

We were talking about our cousin Stephanie's wedding, and what we'd all be wearing. And then George said something about who'd be the first to get married. And Fred started grinning, like he always does when him and George have the same thought at the same time. It's really spooky.

'So, who'll be the first one of us to get married?' he said. Of course, him, Bill, and George all looked at me.

'Why me?' I asked. 'What, because I'm a girl, I have to go off and get married first? Thank you very much. You know that I had my first boyfriend when I was fourteen? That was quicker then any of you boys did. And it was nice. Maybe I'll date other boys. Maybe I'll start dating men. Maybe I'll be thirty before I marry, or forty. Maybe I'll be one of those women who have a string of torrid love affairs and leaves broken hearts all over Europe.'

They didn't have to laugh quite so much. I mean, it's not that impossible.

'Ginny,' Bill managed, after laughing for about five minutes. 'The only thing that will stop you getting married is finding enough green material to make your dress match your bridegroom's eyes.'

That was almost really sweet, except Harry and Ron chose just that moment to come down for breakfast. Of course, they heard everything. If I've discovered one thing about our crazy old house over the years, it's that anything embarrassing is bound to be overheard.

I just sat there, and it was just like I was eleven all over again. I could feel myself going red - not pink. Ron says I go pink because I'm a girl. Honestly! - and I just couldn't move. Even after everything that happened last year, even though Harry and I fought side by side in the Department of Mysteries, there are still times that this happens. It's just so bloody annoying! I guess I should just be grateful it doesn't happen very much anymore.

Of course, Ron was grinning like an idiot. He can be like a dog with a scent when there's a joke to be told, and he was trying to pry the story out of Bill. Bill actually had the decency to try and keep quiet, but I could see that Fred was just bursting to tell.

Really, I think Fred is the worst of my brothers when it comes to this sort of thing Sometimes he's just completely blind to other people's feelings. George can be quite sensitive at times, but then, he is the older twin. Maybe that's it?

But I'm rambling now, aren't I? Sorry, I do that when I get talking about my family. There's so many of them, and I am pretty fond of them all.

Even Fred.

Usually.

So, Fred was on the verge of telling the joke again, which would have had all four of my brothers in hysterics. And then, of all people, Harry asked me if I wanted to go for a walk! I think he knew that Fred was going to embarrass me, and I think Harry's been hanging around Ron long enough to know a bit about chess. I mean, Fred was absolutely gobsmacked. It's like when we play Ron at chess, and we build up this huge attack, and Ron moves his knight - always his knight! You would think we'd learn! - and checkmates us. Anyway, Harry was just like that. One sentence, and Fred was completely thrown. He looked like he did that time he fell off his broom in the paddock. Completely stunned. It's a moment I'll treasure.

And the best thing, the very, very best thing, is that because Fred looked so funny, I didn't even think about what Harry had said! I just said yes, as though it were perfectly natural. Me and Harry, going for a walk, perfectly natural. Yes, I could get used to that.

Anyway, before I get carried away - and I do get carried away when I'm talking about Harry. Not as much as I used to, thank heavens - anyway, we finished breakfast, and Fred got stuck with the washing up. Serves him right. Mum made him do it without magic, too, which was wonderful.

Harry and I went out to the meadow behind the house, and we climbed a tree. Can you believe Harry Potter has never climbed a tree for fun? The simple things a person can miss out on. I used to do my best thinking in that old tree out there. Harry told me about a Devil's Snare he had to fight with Ron and Hermione once, but I told him that it doesn't count because Hermione had to save him. Still, he told it in a very funny way, and whenever he got to Ron's part, he had this sort of a funny look on his face. He made Ron sound really silly, and I was laughing so much I nearly fell out of the tree. In the end, he said that it had been Hermione and Ron who'd beaten the Snare. Still, it was very funny hearing him tell the story. Not a side many people see of Harry, I expect.

He told me all about the first year, about meeting Voldemort. He sounds so brave, and the way he was talking about Hermione and Ron, like they were the ones who got him all the way to the final confrontation. . . But then he asked me:

'Will you tell me about your first year, Ginny?'

I just froze. I've never talked to anyone about it, not really. Not Mum, not Dad, not even Charlie or Hermione. But I thought that maybe I'd been waiting, and I'd feel better for telling. Besides, Harry and Voldemort? He needs to know everything he can.

So I told him. I told him everything. About Tom, about the diary, about how he took control so slowly I didn't notice. The whole story lasted nearly two hours, and Harry didn't say anything. I was just finished, when mum called us in to lunch. As we were walking back, Harry said:

'I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about this before now'.

That was sweet of him, I think. After lunch - and Fred was still really quiet, which meant that me and Bill talked a lot. George looked a bit worried about Fred, to tell the truth. They really would be lost without each other - after lunch, Harry and I went back out to the meadow, and Harry told me things about my first year I didn't know. It's like I know the whole story now, how the whole time the three of them were working to try and find out what the monster was.

It's weird, looking back on that time. It made me who I am today. The Ginny who started Hogwarts, who was chasing off after Harry Potter and blushing and freezing whenever he looked at me. . . She wouldn't have fought in the Department of Mysteries. She wouldn't have dated Michael Corner.

A part of me died when Voldemort - let's call him Tom - possessed me, but the Ginny who came out of that, after she recovered, she wasn't that different. Same feelings, same strengths, same weaknesses. . . It's hard to put a finger on it. By the time I finished my second year, though, I knew that there was something different. My work had improved since the year before, as though I already knew some of the spells. I suppose Tom must have learnt them, years ago. With that came a new confidence, and I think that this was what led to me being able to compete on equal terms with Harry last year. He's a great guy, but you can tell that there are times when he's just not at all sure of what he's doing, or where he's going. He's very short on self-confidence at times, which is something I seem to have in abundance nowadays.

Anyway, once we were finished talking about that year, Harry took my hand. Looking back, I think it was pretty much the first time he ever touched me, apart from in the Chamber. At the time, though, I was thinking of something else and I barely noticed. He said he was sorry that he hadn't been quicker, that he hadn't been able to stop things before they got so bad, that he should have realised things were weird long before he did. It was like he was blaming himself for it all.

And then I saw it. Harry was acting like he was to blame for everything! I realised then that after all my years of Harry-watching, I can read him a star chart, and right now the shape he was making was the Morose Seeker. How could he be so stupid! So I pushed him out of the tree.

Well, really, it was the only thing to do. He was so funny! He just looked at me from down on the ground, and rubbed his bum where he landed on it. He looked really hurt, like I'd interrupted something. Which, I suppose, I had. A moment of international class brooding. Well, stuff that. So I climbed down and pointed out that if he hadn't known I was going to push him out of the tree, how could he be expected to know that I was to blame for the attacks, or that Voldemort - I said the name! - would come back or, well, anything!

'The only thing you're to blame for, Harry Potter, are your dreadful Potions marks,' I said.

'That's Snape!' he said. 'The git hates me!'

That started him off on the story of his third year, and how everything came down to him, Hermione and Ron all stunning Snape in the Shrieking Shack. That was a story I'd heard bits about from, well, Sirius the previous summer, but never all of it. When Harry told me about how all three of them used the same spell at the same time, I nearly died I was laughing so much. It was wonderful!

Anyway, just then, Ron came out with Hermione. She'd just got to the Burrow by the Floo network from Diagon Alley. It was so nice, the four of us sitting out there, talking about the adventures they'd had. Ron kept trying to beef up his part, although he did do some really brave things. Imagine facing all those spiders when you're arachnophobic! I was so proud of him!

Of course, once Ron heard what Harry was talking about, he started chipping in with his versions. Not very like Harry's at all, but very funny. I really think Ron's starting to grow up. I mean, he was the hero in his version, of course, but the way he told it was so funny that you could tell he was joking. And one other thing. . . Whenever he told us Hermione's part, you could see how proud he was about whatever she did. Except for turning herself into a cat in their second year. He had to go have a drink from the stream he was laughing so much.

Anyway, the whole rest of the holidays were wonderful. The four of us spent all of our time together, and when we went to Diagon Alley we just walked right past Draco Malfoy. He was sneering about something, but it was like it was coming from really far away. It just didn't matter.

Mind you, with his dad in Azkaban, Draco himself doesn't really matter these days.

Of course, the holidays had to end, but I didn't really mind. We all went on the Hogwarts Express, and it seemed like all of Gryffindor House was in our compartment at some point. Seamus Finnegan and Lavender Brown were about the only people we didn't see, but Colin told me that he saw them sneaking into one of the empty compartments. I suppose it was just like Percy and Penelope when I walked in on them in my first year.

And then, at last, Hogwarts. I love school so much, but this year just seemed like it was going to be extra special. Of course, it wouldn't be a normal year without Hermione and Ron bickering about something. And then Ron had to go off and get one of his trademarked stupid ideas. . . Honestly, he was only trying to impress Hermione. It's so obvious.

Just. . . Well, let's just say that Ron should never be left alone in the library again. Who knows what he'll come out of there with next?

To be continued. . .