The Story of Ginny

Chapter 13- Hogwarts Express

"BOYS GET UP! THE GUARD WILL BE HERE IN 45 MINUTES!" Mum shouted up the stairs to Fred, George, Ron, and Harry. Either she didn't care about waking Mrs. Black or she hoped her screaming would help wake the boys. "Get going! Mum is going to have a cow!" I mentally yelled at Harry feeling him slowly start to wake and mill about his and Ron's room.

Sirius ran through the house, closing curtains and restoring relative order to Grimmauld Place before entering the kitchen. "Molly, I understand you're in a hurry but do we really need to suffer through my mother because of it?" he complained as he plucked the full kettle from its place on the counter and set it over the fire to boil. "Anything to wake the boys, I suppose, Sirius." I chuckled, laying dishes out for breakfast.

Hermione walked in the room, running some sort of Muggle potion through her hair, I think she called it a curl serum. Her mum had bought it for her in France and insisted that she try it to tame her frizzy hair. "Ginny, you have a bag ready for the Hogwarts Express that's separate from your trunk already, right?", "Yea, I put my rucksack on my bed and my trunk close-ish to the door for Fred and George to bring downstairs." I replied as I laid the forks next to each dish.

"Oh, I must have missed it on your bed. I wanted to make sure you'd have your school robes ready to go... you know, being Prefect and all, I shouldn't miss anything so early." she said, causing my eyes to roll so hard I was shocked that my head didn't fall off my shoulders. "Hermione, you haven't even had a meeting yet. You can be chill about it at least until we're actually on the train."

Mum seemed not to be able to hear our conversation over all of her nervous rustling about in the kitchen. "Oh, those boys have got to be up by now, right?" she said, tossing the eggs. "I think I hear them moving about." I said and Sirius jumped up and hurried out of the room, "I'll just go up and check for you, shall I?" I think we agreed that it was of vital importance to avoid more yelling from either of our mothers. "I swear to Merlin, if she wakes up Mrs. Black again, I'm blaming you personally, Harry Potter." "I'm up! Blame your brothers! They won't budge!" came his harried reply. "Hermione, why don't you go up and help Sirius check on the progress of the boys?" I told her with a pointed look, hoping she guessed Harry had indicated needing help. Fortunately, she bounced up much in the same way as Sirius only moments before and hurried out of the room.

Five minutes later, we were all seated around the breakfast table, our trunks ready for the members of the guard and rucksacks nearby for us to rush out and grab. "So, what will be going on here once all the children have left?" George asked, looking at Sirius. He probably was the better person to go after to get more information on the Order's activities.

"Well, Dumbledore sent me an owl saying he had an urgent matter to discuss with me as soon as you all left but wouldn't give me more information on it. Said it's something he feels that only Remus and I can help with." Sirius told us all, this vague information seemed to suit Mum's nerves as I heard her let out a deep breath when he had finished speaking. "For me, I will be cleaning up the rest of the bedrooms and finishing the laundry before heading to the Burrow for a few days to take care of things at our home." she said, pointedly changing the topic from the Order. "Are you all excited for your feast tonight? And to meet your new professors?" she added cheerily. Together, we chorused unenthusiastic "yes's" recognizing that we could get no more information from her or Sirius.

.

As is the Weasley tradition, we arrived at Platform 9 3/4 with only 3 minutes to spare. Fortunately, all of the adults helping us to arrive safely made a much quicker time of getting our trunks onto the train and our goodbyes were much more peaceful than they usually were.

Aboard the train, we looked around for an empty compartment before deciding to sit with Neville and Luna. Harry slid open the door and held it for me to enter and then looked at Hermione to enter next, "Oh, actually," she said, awkwardly, "Ron and I have to go to the front compartment for our Prefects meeting. We'll see you after lunch though?", "Uh, sure, yea... sorry I forgot. See you." Harry said and stepped into the compartment, we waved to the pair of them and turned to greet our friends.