Green. Just simple, sparkling, emerald green pools. Suddenly, these startlingly green EYES, they seemed to be, contorted. Now, they were black, black as coal… An endless abyss of darkness. Tom Riddle’s eyes.
Ginevra Weasley woke with a start in her small room. Pushing her dark red hair out of her pale blue eyes, Ginny stood from her single bed at the Burrow, and went to the window. A full, circular moon stood out vividly from the pitch black sky.
Turning slightly from the window, the red-haired young woman glanced at the alarm clock to the side of her bed. It was one o’clock in the morning. Ginny stared back through the crack in the curtains, and her mind wandered to Harry Potter.
How was he doing, by himself, down at the Dursleys? Despite her mother, Molly Weasley’s desperate attempts to persuade Professor McGonagall to allow Harry to stay with them for that summer, she had insisted that Harry should be at his aunt and uncle’s home as usual, where he belonged, where he was safe. There was where Dumbledore had wished him to be, before… He was murdered.
Ginny wondered how Harry was taking everything that had happened. Dumbledore’s death, Snape’s betrayal, Draco Malfoy the Death Eater. Their break-up. She herself had found it hard to cope with the fact that she had liked Harry for so long, and, it seemed, barely five minutes after they got together that they broke up. He had insisted that being with her would cause her too much danger, that Voldemort would use her to get to Harry. Of course, she had insisted that she didn’t care, although inside, she knew that he was right. It would be better for them both if they stopped before feelings developed even more.
Ginny knew that Harry would be arriving at the Burrow sometime in the next couple of weeks, as it was Bill and Fleur’s wedding near the end of the holiday. It would be one of the last times she’d see him, and Hermione, and probably her brother Ron, too, for quite a while.
You see, Harry had decided that he was not going back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. That he was going to search for the remaining Horcruxes, the pieces of Voldemort’s soul. Then, when they were destroyed, Harry was going to track down Voldemort himself, and destroy him, too.
The worst thing was, her brother, Ronald, and one of her best friends, Hermione Granger, had (of course!) hurriedly decided to sneak off with him on the Horcrux hunt as well.
She would go, but, first of all, Harry would never in a million years allow it. Second, she couldn’t do it to her mother. Ginny was the only Weasley girl, and her mother went crazy with worry for her all the time. Ginny couldn’t understand how Ron could do it, either. He was Molly Weasley’s little ‘Ronniekins’.
She left the window, walking slowly back to her patchwork-covered bed. It was late, and she needed to get some sleep. Crawling back under her covers, Ginny Weasley was asleep within minutes.
Just five hours after Ginny went back to sleep, she was woken by three loud knocks on her bedroom door. Grabbing her dressing gown from the bed post and pulling it on, she sat up, calling softly, and rather sleepily,
“Come in…”
The door opened, and in strode Hermione.
“You’re finally here!” Ginny cried, as Hermione swept her into a friendly hug, before seating herself on the bed next to her.
Nervously, Ginny asked, “Have you- Have you heard from Harry?”
Hermione smiled slightly sympathetically.
“Yes, Gin, we- I- Well, we’ve been sending each other letters all summer, Ron, Harry and me. Harry… Didn’t send you one?” When Ginny shook her head sadly, Hermione continued. “He said he would! I told him to! He’s been troubled over your break-up all holiday.”
Ginny looked up, surprised, muttering,
“He has? I thought it was only me…”
“Are you kidding me?” Hermione laughed. “He’s being going on about you all the time, swamping Ron with queries on you, and asking me how you’ve been when we’ve chatted on the ‘felly-tone’.”
Ginny, slightly pleased by this, said in a more cheerful voice,
“So, shall we wake up Ronniekins and head down to breakfast?”
“Sounds good to me! I haven’t seen him since the fu-” Hermione’s face dropped, and her voice became sadder. “Since… Dumbledore’s funeral.”
“Oh, Herms. What am I going to do at Hogwarts, all by myself? Without you! Without Harry! Without Ron! Even without Dumbledore…”
Hermione put her arm around her friend. “It’ll be alright, Gin’. Come on, get dressed and we’ll go and get Ron for breakfast. You do that; I’ll go fetch dear Ronald.”
Leaving the room, Hermione climbed the stairs to Ron’s attic room, and, instead of bursting in like she normally would, knocked on the hard door. She heard a deep grunt of a snore, and knocked harder. No response. She banged on the door with her fist. Still no response. Rather frustrated now, Hermione tucked a strand of curly brown hair behind her left ear, before slamming into the room, yelling,
“Argh, RONALD!”
Ron jumped from his bed like a jack-in-the-box, yanking his bedclothes up to his chin.
“HERMIONE!”
“What, are you self-conscious?” Hermione asked, smirking. “Ha, look at you, all embarrassed!”
Ron's ears flushed to a deep red.
“Anyway, breakfast is ready, and you’re going to be busy today.”
“I am?” Ron asked, dismayed. “Doing what?”
“Getting your room ready!” When Ron’s face continued to stay blank, Hermione said, “Harry arrives tomorrow, remember?”
“Oh yeah!” Comprehension dawned on his face.
“Well, I’m going down to breakfast, so get dressed at meet us down there, ‘kay?” Hermione smiled leaving the room and closing the door behind her. Halfway down the stairs, she met Ginny, dressed in a plain pink T-shirt and faded dark blue jeans. When they arrived at the kitchen, they found Mr. Weasley reading the newspaper at the table, and that Fred and George, two more of Ginny’s brothers (obviously, by the vivid red hair), had apparently paid the family a visit, and they were sitting at the table too, chatting about their joke shop profits. Molly Weasley was using her wand to make bacon flip in its pan. Hearing the two girls on the stairs, she turned, face beaming.
“Hermione, Ginny, dears, sit down!” Mrs. Weasley waved her free hand in the casual direction of the table. “Breakfast’s almost done!”
Hermione sat down next to Mr. Weasley, who passed her the paper he had finished reading with a smile.
“It’s all yours, Hermione, I have another paper here!”
She took it gratefully, placing it onto the table and opening it to the first page. Ginny sat next to Fred, and began to listen in on their conversation. After a few minutes, she said,
“So things are going well for you guys then? At the shop?”
Just as Mrs. Weasley was placing the plate covered in bacon sandwiches onto the table, Ron staggered down the staircase, yawning loudly and managing to say,
“Mmmmmm, Mum, is that bacon I smell?” before sitting next to his sister.
The rest of the day passed without anything interesting happening. Fred and George stayed for most of the day, and left for their shop at four o’clock. Ron practiced Quidditch by himself in the garden for several hours, and Hermione and Ginny stayed in the sitting room and chatted all day, occasionally showing each other spells.
At seven o’clock, as it was just getting dark, Mrs. Weasley called everyone in for dinner. Ginny found it delicious, as most of her mothers meals usually were. Tonight it was pork chops with gravy, cooked the magic way. It was such a large dinner that by the time everyone was finished it was past ten o’clock and moths were fluttering against the windows.
And that was when the happy family, including Hermione, heard it. A sort of scraping, scratching sound from the sitting room. Mr. Weasley heard it first. He stood up, followed by Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and lastly, Molly Weasley. When they reached the room, they realised that the noise was coming from the fire-place. Flakes of soot flew from the grate, and, rather suddenly, a black figure burst from the fire-place, startling Mrs. Weasley, who screamed.
A/N: Come on you guys! I've had loads of reads and just one review! Please, I always answer them, and this IS my first fan fic! So read and REVIEW! I want to know how I'm doing!