Independance Year

Chapter One:

Of Secret meetings and powers.

The door slammed behind Ginny as she stumbled out onto the landing. She had just been kicked out of her room by Ron and Hermione, who, along with Harry, were having a special meeting of the Dream Team, which, according to Ron, "does not involve you Ginny".

She slid down to the floor with her back against the door, but was only in this position for half a second, because, no sooner than her bottom had touched the floor, Hermione opened the door and made her fall backwards.

"Uh, Ginny, you wouldn't mind going and sitting in Ron's room, would you? This conversation is private." And without waiting for an answer she said, "Thanks". Hermione closed the door again, through which Ginny could hear Harry's protests.

"Come on Hermione, you really didn't need to be that awful."

"She's too young to understand." That was Ron.

"But Harry, there are...things...things we can't talk about when Ginny's here..."

Too young?

For Merlin's sake! She was only a year younger than them! Fine, if they wanted to be like that, so be it.

Ginny got up, brushed off the dust that had stuck to her clothes and went to Harry and Ron's room. She flung herself on one of the unmade beds to unwind.

Ginny was in her fifth year at Hogwarts and was no longer the naïve, impressionable youth that she used to be. She hated how they said that she was too young to be included in their important conversations. They treated her like a little kid and she despised it! And there was that rubbish with Ron and Michael Corner...Michael was sweet, but very prone to jealousy. Not to forget, of course, the look on Ron's face when she told him that fib about Dean Thomas. What a laugh!

It was time for a change. Ginny was determined for this year to be the one for her. Ginny's independence. She'd make her own proper friends; there were some nice girls in her year.
Ginny frowned to herself. Making friends with the girls in her year might be tough. They assumed she was friends with the Dream Team, and had consequently left her alone. Ginny didn't mind that at the time. In her first few years at Hogwarts she was just happy to be allowed to hang around the Harry Potter, because she had a bit of a crush on him. Okay, a big one. Unfortunately for Ginny, the girls in Gryffindor had sorted themselves into closely-knit groups and they wouldn't want an extra girl hanging around them, especially not one who had been giving them the cold shoulder for four years.

Changing her position on the bed, Ginny looked over at Harry's things, just dumped on the floor after he had been released from the adults' queries about the holidays so far, so he could be rushed away to have a 'secret update' on the Voldemort situation.

Of course they couldn't wait until after tea to have their little talk, so out Ginny had gone. Well, actually, she had been steered out of there by Ron, despite the fact it was her room.

Ginny could have maybe an hour to herself while Harry was filled in on all the juicy details of the Order's work. She couldn't understand why Ron and Hermione had even bothered to listen in on the adults' conversations; nothing had happened since they left school. It seemed that Voldemort had actually got a clue and hidden himself a bit more cleverly this time. Although, what did Ginny know? She had been keeping to herself these holidays, avoiding everyone, and not eavesdropping on the conversations that were going on all the time.

To idle away the hours Ginny had brought a wireless radio with her from the Burrow, so she had been in her room for most of the holidays, catching up on the Weird Sisters' latest tunes.

The amount of people that had been coming in and out of Grimmauld Place was endless, and Ginny liked to stay in her room rather than wander out to meet all of the different people who were coming in out of the door. It seemed that Professor Dumbledore had been busy recruiting new people for the Order, because there had been a few unfamiliar faces amongst the original people; Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody were regulars at the dinner table of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

To add to the list of people were Fred and George, Ginny's twin brothers. Ginny didn't mind it when the twins came, she was closer to them than any of her other brothers, although people assumed she was closer to Ron. Of course, Fred and George were busy with their flourishing business in the confectionary industry, so they'd only dropped by a few times.

Ginny, Ron, and their mother and father were temporary guardians of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Ginny and Ron had only been at the Burrow for a week when their mum had announced that they would be staying at Grimmauld Place for the rest of the holidays.

Hermione had arrived at Grimmauld Place a week ago, tanned, sporting a new haircut, and with a new demeanour that could rival a pack of chattering budgerigars. She had been to Australia for most of the holidays, and had come to spend the remainder of them with the Weasleys and Harry when he arrived. She had been talking of nothing but her trip, so conversations with Hermione had been mostly one-sided. Ginny avoided them whenever possible.

Once, when Hermione had managed to corner Ginny and get talking, Hermione started talking about her new haircut. "Well, you see, my mum said that it was truly awful that my hair covered my face and decided that I needed a change. Mum took me off to the hairdressers and sat me down. The hair dresser came out and nearly had a heart attack!" Hermione giggled. She was obviously very proud of herself for making that joke up. Ginny sort of fell into a bored-no-concentrating-phase after this part, but she knew how the rest of it went, who wouldn't? Anyone could see that Hermione had got her hair straightened. All you had to do was open your eyes and realise that when you were around Hermione, there were no bush-like objects obscuring your vision.

Harry had turned up on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place today and, since Hermione and Ron had abducted him, Ginny hadn't even had the chance to say hello to him. But this didn't matter; he was probably still getting over the fact that she didn't have a crush on him, because, before she was marched out of the room by Ron, Harry's eyes barely wandered from her face. Ginny was still puzzled about this behaviour. She was under the impression that Harry still liked Cho Chang, but Ginny didn't blame Harry for not going through with the relationship. Cho was plainly only going with Harry as a rebound thing.

Ginny remembered last year, when she was going out with Michael Corner Harry had been fine! So, she wondered, why was he starting to be interested?

Perhaps Harry was still grieving for Sirius, and this was the way he showed it. Ginny understood Harry needed to mourn, but that didn't necessarily include toying with her emotions.

Ginny still didn't understand what was happening about Grimmauld Place; now Sirius was gone...of course, the house might go to Harry, but more likely to a member of the order, Lupin perhaps.

Lupin had been looking very subdued lately, because his closest friends had gone. Ginny couldn't imagine how awful he must feel, with James and Sirius d...gone and his other "best friend" turning out to be a no-good lying rat.

Ginny sighed again and got off the bed. Everything was so confusing these days, not that she wasn't used to being confused.

There was another reason that Ginny wanted to be away from everyone these holidays. She had a secret. Ginny had discovered that she didn't actually need a wand to do many spells. She hadn't just discovered this talent; it had been with her for a long time. She always felt empowered with some magic hidden inside her. From the moment she stepped inside the Great Hall at Hogwarts, Ginny knew that extraordinary things would happen to her there. Her theory was proven, that year there was the fiasco with Tom Riddle, who, although terrifyingly spooky, had been good-looking and attractive. It was quite hard to connect the handsome sixteen year old prefect with the ugly monster that he was now; Lord Voldemort.

After she emerged from the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny had felt strange. Not just strange from the experience of nearly dying, or being controlled by the evillest sorcerer to date, but from the actual trance she was in, but the connection between her and Riddle.

For some reason, after she'd come out of the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny had no desire to call this person she'd come up against "you-know-who" or "He-who-must-not-be-named", because she'd met him. And so she'd begun to think of him as Lord Voldemort...unlike the rest of her family, and even Hermione!

But Ginny never, ever, ever called him Lord Voldemort out loud, although she had thought about it in her third year, when she still liked Harry...but he was chasing Cho then.

At the start of her second year, extraordinary things began to happen to her. Ginny only had to think about what she wanted to do, and she could make a hundred people drop dead without a word leaving her lips- not that she had tried. Oh it wasn't that she didn't use her wand, she used that in class all the time. But Ginny didn't have to wave it in complicated patterns like the rest of the class did, or even say the silly words that were needed, but she did. After all, she didn't want anyone to know her little secret. It would be terrible if someone found out. Dumbledore would be sure to hear, and he'd send her off to a little training camp for witches and wizards who could do wandless magic. Did she want to go anywhere near on of those things? No way.

Ginny had thought that maybe she could tell someone about her secret, someone who she could trust, so she chose one of her family members. She asked Percy about people doing magic without wands, and he said that only the greatest witches and wizards could do magic of this kind, and that they were called Wanderers.

"Oh, not the kind of people who walk around, doing nothing," Percy said with a little laugh, as he saw her shocked face, "It's just a name. They don't walk everywhere, doing naught but walking. They do wandless magic." He looked at Ginny's face again and quickly excused himself.

After this conversation, Ginny had run to her room, to store this knowledge away. So she was a Wanderer. It didn't mean anything to her at the time, but any little titbit of information was helpful. Ginny wasn't sure whether she really believed what he'd said now, because he'd done a runner on the whole family. Percy hadn't even owled them after the Ministry of Magic officially announced Voldemort's return.

A few years later, as Ginny's powers were growing stronger and stronger, she had once overheard one of the Dream Team's little talks, and Harry was telling the other two about his magic without a wand.

"It was when the Dementors were in Privet Drive, remember?" said Harry, "I needed light, so I just called out Lumos, yeah? And then my wand just lit up. Just like that."

"Cool," said Ron.

"Yes, I suppose," said Hermione pensively, "But weren't you worried? You know, about the consequences of doing magic outside school?"

"Hermione," Ron said, in a 'duh' voice, "don't be so thick! There were Dementors outside the magical world, d'you think Harry was worried about getting in trouble?"

"No," interjected Harry, "I was just worried about Dudley getting his soul sucked out. Wait a second, I meant me. Dudley getting his soul sucked out would be an improvement..." Then the conversation sort of drifted off to less important things.

The little information that Ginny had about her powers, was, in her opinion, not enough. She wanted to know more, so that she could learn how to control them properly. Unfortunately for her, Ginny's powers seemed to malfunction, or backfire on her when she was highly strung or emotional, so, you could see why she wanted to know how to control them. She had been to the library at school, just to check if there were any books on Wanderers.

None. Not even a paragraph on it. She took a gamble, and asked Madam Pince, the librarian, if there were any books on wandless magic in the Restricted Section.

Zilch.

Zero.

Nothing.

So, in the end, Ginny had gone for about four years without knowing anything about her powers, excepting the information Percy had given her.

Lately she had been having strange dreams. Not about people she knew, but about animals and weather. Last night she dreamt she was riding on an eagle in the rain and wind. Her dream self stood up on the back of the eagle, raised her arms out, yelled out something incoherent and the rain and wind stopped. Since these dreams had started her power had been getting stronger, and it was freaking her out. Plus, she had absolutely no idea what they were about. She couldn't control the wind and rain! The only spells Ginny could successfully do without her wand, were easy ones like the Bat Bogey Hex and Jelly legs-you know, mock hexes, which, although useful, were nowhere near as complex as the spell she had done in her dream.

She looked at her watch. It had been more than an hour since Hermione had shoved her out of their room, and by now the Dream Team's mothers club meeting should have been well over.

Ginny got to her feet and went down stairs. She plastered her ear against the door and heard hushed whispers that she couldn't make out into words. With a devilish grin, Ginny turned the doorknob quietly and flung the door open.

"Hello there," she said, much too cheerfully for the situation at hand. Ron and Hermione were looking daggers at them. Harry threw a searching look at Ginny. He was so pining for her!

"Do you mind?!" Ron said grumpily.

"Oh you know I do big brother, somewhere deep down in my heart...very deep," she smiled cheerfully.

Hermione got off her bed, walked over to Ginny and put a hand on her shoulder. "Gin, you knew we were having a talk, can't you wait for a bit longer? Maybe ten minutes?"

Behind her, Ginny could see Ron putting two thumbs up at Hermione; quite obviously they were certain she'd agree.

"Hermione, dear," she drawled-surprising herself-as she reached up and took Hermione's ink-stained hand off her shoulder, "this is my room as much as it is yours, and, if you go downstairs, I think you'll find that you three are wanted in the kitchen."

Hermione looked shocked for a second, but quickly recovered as she said to the other two thirds of the Dream Team, "Harry, Ron...let's go see what they want in the kitchen."

Ron scowled at Ginny and walked out of the room, brushing past her with so much force that she nearly fell over. Hermione merely strutted out of the room. Meanwhile, Harry got halfway to the door and opened his mouth to speak.

"Just try me," she said bitchily. "I'm on a roll."

"No, Ginny, I..." But Harry was cut off by Hermione's call.

"Harry, get a move on!"

"Yeah," added Ron, "It'll be Christmas by the time you get here."

Angry at his friends' comments, Harry strode out of the room, leaving Ginny alone, but not before looking at her with those gorgeous green puppy-dog eyes of his. She sighed before flopping onto her bed. That Harry!