Ginny hated the butterfly effect.
Stupid chaos theory...
Somehow, something she had done had led to Arthur Weasley not winning the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. Which meant they wouldn't go to Egypt this year… Wonderful.
This was so annoying. She had looked forward to learning more about Egyptian magic, maybe find some inspiration for how she herself would achieve immortality - having magic and not at least trying seemed stupid.
Well, now she had to wait a few more years…
That was not the worst thing. Her whole plan regarding Black and Pettigrew hinged on them going to Egypt, taking that stupid picture and Sirius Black escaping Azkaban on his own.
What should she do now?
She could somehow try to get the picture of the disgusting rat Animagus still on a Daily Prophet page, hoping a copy still got into Azkaban… But that wouldn't work. She learned her lesson.
She could also just let Sirius rot in Azkaban and kill Pettigrew in secret. Old pets died in their sleep all the time.
Or she could somehow engineer Pettigrew being caught, hoping Sirius wouldn't die in a holding cell in the Ministry, like Lucius Malfoy.
Ridiculous alternatives like breaking him out were obviously out. She wouldn't risk herself for some random old guy.
Option two was the easiest. But that would also mean that she would never have access to the Black fortune and library or the Horcrux in Grimmauld Place. Option three risked drawing Dumbledore's attention again. Maybe also the attention of some former Death Eaters.
She liked being the youngest teenage daughter of a large, loving family. As a former orphan, it was a dream she had long believed dead.
It was annoying enough that some Dark families were already gunning for Arthur's head because of his involvement in the Malfoy scandal. Ginny certainly wouldn't let anyone ruin the nice, boring life she had built for herself.
"Hello," Arthur said into the wire he had removed from a telephone. "Ginny, did you hear anything?"
Ginny was lying bored on the couch, with the other end of the wire between her fingers but nowhere near her ears.
"No, Dad," she answered - bored, annoyed and amused at the same time.
"Strange, it worked with the string telephone - that's what it was called, right pumpkin?"
"Yes, Dad," Ginny replied, burying her face in the couch cushion - old Ginny had always been embarrassed by that nickname.
She should have expected this to happen when Arthur asked her this morning to try out the string telephone - two cups connected with a rope. Because shortly afterwards he had begun to disassemble a real telephone, believing he now understood how it worked.
So now she held a telephone wire in her hands, for some reason she didn't quite understand… or wanted to understand.
"For the last time, Muggle telephones don't work like this," she restated, not knowing how to feel about this whole situation. "There is electricity pulsing through the wires that the telephone receiver translates into sound."
Ginny wasn't sure this was totally correct, but it should be close enough.
"Oh yes, eckeltricity, I forgot about that! But how would a voice become eckeltricity?" Arthur asked her, confused.
Why was she doing this again? Ah, right, she was bored, grounded and wanted to experience how it was to have a father. Unfortunately, what she had was Arthur Weasley…
"I think it's like… the sound waves of your voice compress little plates that alter the flow of electricity and create the signal for the landline."
That explanation was probably too simplified. Alexander had given a presentation in school about how telephones work, but Ginny had forgotten most of it.
"You're really smart, aren't you?" Ginny looked up from her cushion, seeing Arthur's loving gaze at her. "When you exited the Hogwarts train a few weeks ago… it was like seeing a completely different person from my cute little daughter I saw last September."
Ginny froze, but Arthur continued.
"My little pumpkin has become such a beautiful, intelligent young lady," he continued and Ginny felt her pulse slow again.
"And… do you like the old Ginny more or the new one?"
Why had she said that?! Should she just Obliviate him?
"I miss the old Ginny, but I believe you can reinvent yourself as often as you want. You will always be my little girl and I will always be proud of you."
"Dad! You're so sappy!" Ginny looked away, pretending to be embarrassed.
But did she feel touched by these words? She didn't know… Maybe having a father wasn't so bad.
Later, Ginny lay on her bed reading her mother's Witch Weekly, curious why it was so popular.
Being grounded was booooring…
She wanted to go to Diagon Alley or Muggle London. Thankfully, she had already opened a Gringotts account a few days before the concert, so at least that was done. She still had to buy a new wand, though.
At least she could check 'going to a rock concert', 'sneaking out to meet a boy' and 'getting grounded' off her teenage-girl to-do list.
The door opened and Fred came in - or was it George? She could use Legilimency to find out but was too lazy to do so. Fred (provisional nomenclature) was eating a cookie, for some reason, but said nothing else - just looking at Ginny.
"Hello?" Ginny finally asked.
"What's up."
Another bit of the cookie. So he was here to annoy Ginny?
"What are you eating?" Ginny said, deciding to play along.
"Mum made cookies."
"Oh nice!" Ginny put the boring magazine aside, deciding to get some cookies.
"This is the last one," he said in a bored voice while throwing the last piece of his cookie in his mouth.
Ginny looked at him unamused, with a dry look.
"Get out of my room," she said calmly.
He looked down at his feet and took one step back so that he was technically standing outside her room.
It was slowly getting less funny and more annoying.
"You can close the door behind you," Ginny reminded him dryly.
"Ah! That reminds me," he said, taking out his wand. And then, with a few spells, her door was separated from her doorframe and floated behind him as he left.
Despite herself, Ginny was stunned.
She had to admit she didn't expect that.
After a moment, she began laughing. It became even funnier when she heard her mother's screaming from the living room shortly after.
'Having older brothers is so annoying,' Ginny thought to herself with a small smile that nobody saw.
As a child in an orphanage, Alexander had regarded the older children as something like older siblings. But it was still a different thing, Ginny now realized.
Later they were seated at the dining room table having supper when Mrs Weasley stood up, her mood a strange mix of disappointment, elation and exasperation.
"I've got the letters from Hogwarts with your official end-of-the-year grades," she announced, silencing the table at once.
Ginny didn't know why she made such a show of this. They had been told their exam results already on the last day of the term. Ginny had ten subjects - eleven if you count Flying - and had gotten an Outstanding in all of them.
They were technically provisional grades, since you could still lodge an appeal or take a second exam if you had a good reason - illness, a curse or having been Obliviated recently, like Harper had been, mysteriously, one day before the exam.
"First, Fred and George," she said irritated, while looking at the grinning twins.
"Why did you pretend your grades were worse than they really are?" she asked, not even trying to hide her exasperation with their antics.
"But Mum!" Fred whined, "you need to lower the expectations first before surprising someone."
"We thought you would be delighted," George added.
"You told me that you failed Potions and History! I was already planning how to teach you myself over the summer!" she exclaimed angrily.
"We did fail Potions and History in a way… We failed to prank Snape, no matter how often we tried. It's as if he could read our minds… and we haven't found a prank yet that works on ghosts," Fred complained. "Do you know any spell that can transform a ghost into a giant duck, Mum?"
"You don't prank teachers!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed. Obviously, she had had enough of them and turned to Ron.
"Second, Ronald Bilius Weasley!" She looked straight at Ron, who had frozen in place while shoving a large piece of meat pie in his mouth. "Why didn't you tell me about your Troll in Potions and Dreadful in Transfiguration!? You knew Hogwarts would send a letter," Mrs Weasley continued.
Ron mumbled something impossible to understand with his mouth full that sounded suspiciously like, "I forgot to intercept that damn letter."
"We will have a word later about this! Why can't you follow the example of Ginny?" Mrs Weasley asked. "She got only Outstandings, despite taking three additional voluntary subjects!"
Ron - having swallowed the piece of meat pie by now - snorted depreciatively.
"What's that supposed to mean, young man!"
"Well, at least I don't run around with a harem of boys like she does, pretending to be a Veela or something!" Ron said.
He had complained several times already to Ginny about her being surrounded by Dean, Harry, Charlie or Alaric. He had even forbidden her from going on any more dates after she went flying with Dean - before she went to the Beltane festival with Harry.
But Ginny hadn't expected him to prattle about this to their mother. Maybe this could be fun? Family drama was certainly entertaining... So Ginny pretended to freeze like a deer in the headlights, completely surprised and shocked.
"I don't have a harem! What are you talking about?" she exclaimed, pretending to be angry.
"Oh yeah? So you didn't go on a date with Dean and who knows who else?" Ron responded triumphantly.
This revelation did seem to surprise both of their parents, even though Mrs Weasley seemed more angry at Ron while her father's facial expression seemed conflicted.
"I would agree with Ron on this one," Percy, for some reason, decided to give his own opinion. "It isn't proper or respectable for a first-year witch to already go on dates."
"If or who I date is none of your business! You wouldn't like it if I told everyone about Penelope Clearwater, would you?" Ginny snapped, 'accidentally' letting slip that Percy had got a girlfriend last year - the twins were delighted by this news, probably already planning how to annoy him.
This was so much fun.
"Enough!" Mrs Weasley stopped the heated exchange between the siblings, the food on the table long forgotten - even by Ron. "We were talking about your exam grades."
She levelled a look at Ron.
"Don't think I have forgotten your Troll in Potions and Dreadful in Transfiguration! We will have remedial lessons together for the rest of the summer. I won't allow you to fail your O.W.L.s."
"But Mum, O.W.L.s are in three years," Ron whined.
"Don't 'but Mum' me. This is final."
Ginny blinked. Had her 'boy trouble' really been dismissed that easily?
The rest of the meal was a quiet affair. Mrs Weasley probably had originally planned to also talk about Ginny's and Percy's grades, but that went out the window.
Ginny, lost in thought, did make a decision regarding the Sirius Black matter though.
She would expose the rat now, hoping that nobody managed to assassinate Black while he was in a holding cell for his retrial. There was also the possibility that nobody would really want to kill him in the first place, though Ginny wouldn't bet on that with all the Death Eaters and collaborators in the Ministry.
The easiest way was to let Pettigrew make a mistake that exposed him.
Ron's pet rat was sitting near them, nibbling on a piece of cheese. Decision made, Ginny didn't dither.
She sent two wandless compulsions at him, while everybody looked away.
The first made him feel secure, safe and untouchable. Nobody was suspecting him, Sirius was in Azkaban and nobody knew that Peter Pettigrew was alive.
The second wandless compulsion was time-delayed and would take effect that night. He would crave human food and he hadn't used his real form for a while, so he would get the idea to sneak into the kitchen and eat something from the pantry. Nobody would suspect anything, with the Weasley family being this large and he knew from past experience that usually nobody would enter the kitchen at night. In the worst-case scenario, he could Obliviate them, like he had done before.
Ginny's plan was to pretend that she found him by accident and stunned him in self-defense. She could then call her parents and let the Aurors sort out the rest. It should be a fail-safe plan, right?
Unfortunately, there was a knock on the door while she was waiting in her room for the time of the second compulsion.
It was her mother.
"Ginny, I would like to speak with you about what Ron told us at dinner," Mrs Weasley said cautiously.
Did she have to do this now? Oh well, she could always compel Pettigrew again in a few days. So she put on the mask of a rebellious teenage daughter.
"What's there to talk about? Neither Ron nor Percy have any right to question who I date. You should talk to them," Ginny said stubbornly. She was curious where this conversation would be going.
"They are just protective. One day you will think of their behaviour differently, believe me. Gideon and Fabian were like this too," she said, her voice sentimental and longing.
"Ron and Percy are not gonna die…" Ginny answered weakly. That was the correct response when your mother mentioned her dead brothers, right?
There was a beat of silence.
"So… do you also want me to never date anyone until I'm older?"
"No. I just want you to be cautious and not do something that you would regret later," Mrs Weasley explained.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny, still confrontational, asked while folding her arms. "Sure, Dean might not be the love of my life or something, but it was nice flying around with him. I don't see why first Ron and now you are making such a big deal out of it."
There was a pause where Mrs Weasley was hesitating about how to answer.
"I met your father in my second year at Hogwarts and it was love at first sight - for me at least," she began her story and Ginny decided not to interrupt her.
"We soon became close friends, even though he was a first year and I was a second year in Gryffindor. But he was so dense, never reacting like I wanted him to," her mother continued, lost in memories.
"There was another boy - Ethan Parkin. He was two years older than me and a Chaser on the Gryffindor team. He asked me on a date and I accepted, to get Arthur jealous and see me as a girl, not just a friend… During this first date I had my first kiss with Ethan, even though I was in love with Arthur."
"And did it work? Did Dad get jealous? Is that how you started dating?" Ginny asked curiously - she had never heard that story.
"That's not the point! The point is that I always regretted that my first kiss and date weren't with your father but with someone else… Also, don't tell your Dad about the kiss part. I've never told him."
So it did work… Ginny wasn't sure if this story really had the moral that her mother thought it had. She had used emotional manipulation on Arthur Weasley as a teenager. Ginny certainly wasn't the only girl who acted that way. But she let that point go - it was socially inappropriate to talk about it like that.
"I just want to experience a normal Hogwarts life as a normal girl, Mum," she began, deciding to be marginally honest, curious what the older woman's advice would be. "I'm not in love with anybody - at least I don't think I am. And I'm kind of curious what it would be like to have a boyfriend… or a girlfriend, I suppose."
"I know, sweetheart, I've been a young witch too," her mother said lovingly, stroking Ginny's cheek ignoring the girlfriend part - which was a good sign, right?
"And I'm not forbidding you anything - your dad might have a different opinion though," she continued, winking at the end. "I just don't want you to feel pressured to rush into things and I want you to know that you can always come to me if you need advice or just someone to listen, sweetheart. You know this, right?"
Ginny nodded mutely. Then she had an idea: Why not let her mother discover Pettigrew? This way she wouldn't be implicated at all.
"Can you maybe end the grounding? You don't want anyone to know about Ethan Parkin, right?" Ginny asked playfully, grinning.
"Don't push your luck, young lady!" her mother said sternly. "You are a hundred years too young to blackmail me."
"Fine," Ginny exclaimed, defeated. "Can I at least get a cookie? Fred ate the last one right in front of me to annoy me," Ginny complained.
"Of course. Come, I have hidden yours and Percy's share, so the twins and Ronald wouldn't eat them all."
As they entered the kitchen, there he was - Peter Pettigrew, in all his dirty, unwashed and repulsive glory.
For a heartbeat, no one moved. Pettigrew with his hand buried in the pantry, food already stuffed into his mouth and Mrs Weasley standing rigid, her wand raised with a Lumos flooding the kitchen with light.
Ginny was curious who would act first, her wand already in her palm, ready to act. She wanted her mother to catch Pettigrew but would act to defend her family if she had to.
"Peter?" her mother said slowly. "But you're dead. What are you doing in our kitchen?"
"No! I can't be found out! Obliviate!" Pettigrew shrieked, firing the green Memory Charm straight at Mrs Weasley and Ginny behind her.
Mrs Weasley, panicked, pulled Ginny and herself out of the way of the charm, with surprisingly agile reflexes for a woman of her stature.
"You will not harm my daughter!" she screamed, fury cracking through her voice - neither Ginny nor the old Ginny had ever seen her like this.
With a sharp flick of her wand, Pettigrew was hurled into the wall with a sickening crack, losing consciousness before he could cast another spell.
The rest of the night was a blur. The other Weasley family members were woken up, Aurors were called and then came the discovery that Peter Pettigrew was a rat Animagus - Ginny might have subtly caused the last discovery.
Ron and Percy were especially shocked about the revelation of Scrabbers' true identity. Serves them right for questioning Ginny's dating behaviour…
During all this chaos Ginny kept remembering how her mother had acted - protecting her and becoming furious when someone, even indirectly, threatened her.
'You will not harm my daughter!'
There was a warm feeling inside her as she took her mum's hand, pretending to be still distressed from what had happened.
Then Pettigrew was taken away to be interrogated under Veritaserum. That should be enough to exonerate Sirius Black, right?
Hopefully Ginny would be handsomely rewarded for all the work she did for him.
But her expectations were crushed two days later by the Daily Prophet.
'SIRIUS BLACK FOUND DEAD IN HIS CELL, JUST AS PETER PETTIGREW WAS FOUND ALIVE.'
Ginny hated the Ministry.