As the sun began to set on the Burrow little Ginny Weasley couldn't be happier. Well, she could, but not by much. After the initial unpleasantness Luna had proven just as odd as ever - if not more so, if that was possible - but it was a good odd and she had brought things quickly back to how they'd been before and they spent the whole afternoon getting to be best friends again.
Better yet, she was staying for dinner, and maybe if she asked her mum she would let Luna spend the night. She was going out of her way to be nice to them after all. If Luna was able to stay, then perhaps she could get Tom to talk to her. He hadn't responded at all when she had introduced her to him, which she found rather odd. He had said he never had many friends but she'd think being friendlier would fix it, but that was a worry for another time.
Everything seemed to have righted itself with Luna's appearance though, not only her mum. The Ministry had let almost everyone go early today for some reason, which had her dad not only home early but so happy for the time off he was practically bouncing. Her brothers were in good spirits as well and without a word of that girl - Ginny refused to use Hermione's name - being said; they must have said all there was to say, which hopefully wasn't much, before they left their makeshift Quidditch pitch.
There was something odd going on with them though and Ginny couldn't put a finger on what it was. It wasn't the thing with Percy, though that was certainly odd as well. Ever since the guys had come back inside he had been talking to them about some Defense study group he and Penelope were starting because they doubted Lockhart's abilities in that regard. Ginny couldn't see how that could be; he was no Harry but he had plenty of books about him and his adventures and they wouldn't print it if it weren't true, no matter what Percy said yesterday.
She didn't mind the Defense thing though, especially since Harry seemed keen on it - as well he should since it was the books he'd bought that Percy had been reading all day. On the whole it seemed a backward way of doing things though. Everyone knew that Heroes had adventures and then passed their abilities on by training others, not the other way around, but Ginny supposed she could see the group preparing Harry to be the kind of Hero he was destined to be. For the life of her though she couldn't see Percy playing the mentorship role for Harry though, he'd never had anything close to an adventure at all - even Ron was better suited to be a Hero than Percy was.
'Ron, that was it, ' Ginny thought as she sat at the dinner table next to Luna.
Glancing over at Harry and her brothers she noticed that even though they were talking, they were either giving each other knowing looks or trying not to smile when they looked at Ron, so he was definitely at the center of something.
'It's probably some sort of prank, ' she thought with a smile. Ron's head had been swelling lately with all the Quidditch they've been playing and it'd be really funny to see him taken down a bit.
Whatever it was it'd hopefully wait because just as Harry's elf - which didn't seem nearly as annoying right now - put the last of dinner on the table her mother brought over the dessert she'd been working on. She couldn't believe it! She had remembered! It was a coconut covered coconut cream cake: Luna's favorite.
"There you go, Luna dear," her mum said with a pat on the girl's head. As she walked to her seat Fred spoke up.
"Hang on," he said, looking at his watch. "We're still short."
"Whatever are you talking about?" their mother asked curiously before a soft chime rang out from the living room.
'It can't be, ' Ginny thought. 'Things can't get any better than this!'
She was happily proven wrong the next instant as the floo flared and her eldest brother appeared.
"Bill!" she and her mum cried at the very same instant, though she had the presence of mind to start running over to see him while her mum came at a statelier pace.
"Hey there, Gin," he said as she hugged him about the middle and he mussed her hair. "Hey Lu-lu, thought that was you today," Bill said to Luna.
"Hello," Luna said, her finger already dipping into the frosting on the cake.
'Today? Why hadn't she told me?' Ginny wondered. 'Because it's Luna and she probably thought you knew what your own brother was doing, ' she answered herself.
"Bill, whatever brings you here?" their mother asked.
Stepping away from her brother she caught a glimpse of what he was holding behind his back before he presented it to their mother.
"I wanted to bring you this," he said as he gave her a hug and presented her with a pretty pink flower. "A mum for my mum. I also had someone very important to bring here tonight," Bill said with a smile and a wink to the guys.
'Merlin!' Ginny thought wildly. 'Bill's got himself a girlfriend! I'm getting a sister!'
The clock chimed again and Ginny was proven wrong, but for the second time she didn't care.
"Charlie!" she said as he appeared and she almost tackled him in her excitement. It wasn't a sister but a brother's always been good enough for her, especially since she hadn't seen this one since Christmas. Now it felt like Christmas all over again!
"My boys are back," her mum said as she gave Charlie a kiss on the cheek and a hug that said she wasn't going to let him go.
"I hope Bill wasn't building me up too much," he said with a grin. "I'm only here for the night," Charlie explained, "But I said he could have my room now since he's been recalled to England and needs a place to stay, I hope you don't mind."
Ginny smiled, her mum looked ecstatic, and Bill looked like he was going to hit someone.
'This is great!' she thought.
"Ah, there's pater noster," Charlie grinned as he made his way along the table to hug their dad.
"I think you made your mother's month," their father said with a grin just like Charlie's. "But we may be too many to fit in here now."
"Did you get it?" Fred asked.
"Did you bring it?" George echoed him.
"Of course I did," Charlie answered as Ginny left Bill to her mother's devices and returned to the table. "You really think I came all this way because McGonagall pestered me about this squirt?" he said gesturing to Harry with a thumb.
'Well that's uncalled for, ' she thought primly. Harry wasn't that short.
"You know," her father said with a studious look at the wall at their end of the table. "If we just…"
Drawing out a large square with his wand saw a huge section of the wall disappear opening up the room to the garden and the night sky beyond.
"There we go," their father said cheerily an instant before a swarm of cackling potato-like gnomes scurried through the new opening.
"Oh, Arthur," her mother said wearily as laughter trickled around the table.
"What?" he asked innocently. "You always said we could use a new addition when the boys got older. I'm sure they won't bother anyone," he said with a wave.
Ginny wasn't so sure about that, who knew how many of them were out there and what they ate? Luna clamped her hand to her mouth to keep herself from giggling and seemed to have a hard time staying in her chair. Looking down she saw one of the gnomes was licking Luna's bare feet and Ginny didn't know which one was stranger, the gnome for doing it or Luna for letting him do it.
The table started groaning as the plates around her shifted and she looked up to see the guys had backed away from it as it grew. A few moments later the table had been stretched several feet giving them plenty enough room for all twelve of them sit comfortably, as long as some didn't mind their end poking out of the house. The exasperated look on her mother's face was enough to know it'd all be back to normal by the time they went to bed tonight, but for now she'd let it slide.
"So Charlie," Harry said as the elf popped in chairs for the new additions and everyone found their seats as her mother plopped the little elf into his highchair. "Did you get a look at those dragons?"
Suddenly her brother had a very odd look on his face.
.....
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