A red pickup braked to a halt at the end of Privet Drive, the man inside leaned out of the open window and pressed the horn the loud noise blaring through the quiet of the easy summer morning. He caught the attention of the teenager previously sitting lost in his thoughts on the garden wall of Number Four Privet Drive, the boy jerked where he sat and looked up towards the car, recognising the vehicle he jumped off the low wall and walked towards it.

The man in the car leaned across the dashboard and pushed the passenger door open as the teenager got closer, the boy grabbed the handle of the open door and swung himself up onto the seat next to the driver, closing the door behind him as the car started to drive off.

"Morning Harry" the man said. "Ready for a day's work."

" Yep Luke, sure am" Harry said in reply. "What's on the cards for today?"

"We're starting a new project, a local client wants us to landscape the grounds surrounding their office," Luke told him, as he carefully navigated through the deserted morning streets. The older man was in his early forties, yet he still looked strong and capable, toughened by the manual work involved in his job. He took a side look at the young assistant he had found for the summer, he was pleased with the changes he saw in the teenager he had taken under his wing.

At the start of the summer he had been working a job, replanting the turf outside Number Two Privet Drive for the homeowner when he spotted the small pale boy toiling away in the front garden of the neighbouring house. It took him three days to finish the job, and everyday he watched Harry work in the next door garden, cutting the grass, painting the fence and tending the plants. He was impressed with the boy's work ethic having never seen someone his age work so hard before, unfortunately he had also witnessed the boy's relatives and their treatment of their nephew had left much to be desired in his opinion.

On the last day of replanting the turf for number two, he settled down to have lunch, sitting on the tailgate of his work pickup, enjoying the bottle of chilled water in the hot summer sun and unwrapping his sandwich. He watched the boy still working in the heat of the day and made a decision, grabbing a second bottle of water he walked over to the boy and offered him a drink. In the following conversation, Luke broached the subject of working for him over the summer, what it would entail, the rate of pay and then finally very delicately Luke discussed with the boy he now knew to be called Harry how to sell it to the Dursley's.

Harry seemed up for it, and so at the end of the day Luke knocked on the door to number four, and talked to the big beefy man who answered it. He exaggerated the back breaking nature of the work he needed Harry for and offered to pay Harry's Uncle a small amount of cash for the use of the boy, Vernon quickly agreed not knowing the money was only a small part of the total that Harry would be earning.

After that, every morning Luke would pick up Harry from outside Privet Drive and drive them to their current job, and over the course of several weeks the two developed an easy friendship and comradely between the two of them. Luke discovered Harry was an equally quick learner as he was a hard worker, he picked up all the skills that Luke taught him very fast, and seemed to be a natural for working with his hands.

They didn't talk much about their personal lives, just the easy chat of men concentrating on their work, Luke was well aware that not everything was alright with Harry's home life but knew enough to know that trying to talk about it to Harry would only make him defensive and liable to vanish. So he kept quiet and focussed on teaching the boy what useful wisdom he could.

He also made it a priority to help with Harry's physical appearance, the boy was nothing more than skin and bone, an unhealthily pale complexion and wearing what looked like baggy rags and torn trainers. The second day that Harry worked for him, after they had finished working he had driven Harry to a builders yard and bought him some sturdy work jeans and work boots that actually fitted. Harry tried to refuse but Luke insisted on it, finally telling Harry it was a matter of safety and that he could pay him back when he earned the money. A couple of days after that, in their lunch break Luke dropped Harry off at a shopping centre along with his first earnings and told him not to come back until he had clothes which fit him.

For fattening the boy up, he left it to his wife, who after she had tracked him down at lunch one day to deliver a packed lunch, had taken one look at Harry and immediately started to make and bring a second much larger lunch every day to the both of them. When he had got back home, Gwen had given him the third degree on why Harry looked so unhealthily skinny, he told her what he knew and after that he noticed regular packages of home made cakes and pies started to appear his car with notes on them to let Harry take them home with him.

Harry had been working for him for nearly two months by now and the changes in the boy were astounding as well as heart warming to Luke, Harry sat in the car seat next to him, staring out at the passing town, fingers lightly tapping on his knee in time with the beat of the song on the radio, he wore scuffed but good, leather working boots, clean blue jeans that actually fit him and a new white t shirt that actually stretched over his now wider shoulders.

That was another positive thing, Harry had shot up in height and actually put some muscle on his his newly lanky frame, he had in truth had to go buy new clothes already since he had started to work for Luke he had grown so much. That coupled with his now tanned skin, meant that Harry looked immeasurably better that he had at the start of the summer. Luke had even noticed the teenage daughter of their last client taking an appreciative look at Harry while he had been carrying bags of cement up the garden.

Luke smiled as he made the last few turns towards their new work site, "he had made the right decision," he thought to himself.

"And when Harry left at the end of the summer to go back to the boarding school he had told him about, he would be left with the satisfaction of having done the right thing and having his faith rewarded." He chuckled to himself as with a crunch of gravel he pulled the car up to their destination.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

Harry stretched as he jumped down from the tall passenger seat and took in the location where they would be working now, he waited until Luke had gotten out of the car as well, before walking around to boot of the pick up and started to unload the tools they would need. Luke walked off to find the owner of the building so that he could know exactly what they needed to do to start working. Harry was careful as he lifted the different tools out of the back of the pick up, some of the machines were heavy and he had become a little bit clumsy recently, Luke had told him it was due to his recent growth spurt, and maybe it was, but it was dam annoying. He had already broken a customers paving stone by tripping while carrying some bricks and he had also accidentally hammered his own thumb once.

Yes, the clumsiness part of it was irritating but Harry was otherwise ecstatic about the recent changes in his body. Always before and especially at Hogwarts he had been skinny and short for his age, god last year most of the first years had been taller than him and that included the girls. But now he wouldn't be the shortest boy in his year, he didn't know exactly how much taller he had grown but he knew that it was quite a bit, maybe a bit quickly but he was just glad that he had finally grown.

He had also stopped being so extremely skinny, he hadn't noticed it as it happened, just that after about a month of working with Luke he had gone for a shower at the end of the day, glad to wash off the dust and sweat that clung to him and caught sight of himself in the bathroom mirror, shocked he stared at the accumulation of the slow changes he hadn't noticed happening. He had muscles! They weren't huge, but they were definitely there, his arms weren't like twigs anymore but had a solidness to them, the same with his shoulders. Also now you weren't able to pick out every one of his ribs anymore but instead he saw a beginning of a six pack and some broad chest muscles had formed. He wasn't vain, but he couldn't help but look at himself, for so long he had considered himself to be somehow physically deficient thanks to the Dursleys, and now it was hard for him to consider himself as looking normal.

He finished emptying the pick up just as Luke came walking back to the car in company with another man, the man wore a suit and shiny black leather shoes and Harry noticed the glint of an what looked like a very expensive watch shining out from just under the man's suit sleeve.

"Steve this is Harry, he's my assistant this summer and he's a harder worker than you'll find anywhere else," Luke said, introducing them. "Harry this is Steven Oswald, he owns this business, and is also an old friend." He finished.

Steve leaned forward offering his hand to Harry to shake, "Hello Harry, I hope this old slave master hasn't been cracking the whip too hard," he joked, smiling at Harry.

"No, it's been great to work for Luke," he rushed to answer, smiling back.

"Good, though I already knew that Luke's a great guy. When we were in school together I have to admit I was a bit of a nerd and Luke here," he clapped Luke on the back, "saved my bacon more than once when it came to bigger kids." Steve said. "So rest assured that your in safe hands."

"Well, apart from stroking my ego, let's get the show on the road," said Luke. "Let's take a tour of the grounds and you can point out to me what you want changed and we can discuss what we could do, Harry start measuring out the width and length of the area so we can know what kind of units we're talking about." With that him and Steve started to walk around the border already deep in conversation.

Harry decided that he liked Steve, he was obviously an important man, yet he didn't talk down to Harry like he had expected, instead he had treated him like an equal, like an adult, though he was a friend of Luke's so he probably wasn't going to be a jerk anyway. This thought made him consider how much me appreciated being treated as an actual person by Luke and other people. Already this summer was turning out to the best time he had ever spent living at Privet Drive.

While he had spent the previous summer and all of his life before that being treated like a second class person, like he was dirt under the Dursley's shoes, he was only now beginning to understand how wrong it had been, before he had been blinded by the routine and normality of the abuse. But this summer he seemed to have a greater understanding of what and why the Dursley's acted the way they did, altogether he had had several epiphanies so far this summer, like how people reacted to you on how you dressed and presented yourself. He now saw that half of the problems he had before in Little Whinging was not the fault of the Dursleys directly but that the shabby way he dressed and how he was repressed emotionally led people to believe the lies that the Dursleys's spread.

He also now understood that being dressed well, not only impacted on what other people thought of you, but it also affected how you thought of yourself, until Luke had forced him to buy new clothes the only items of clothes he owned which had fitted him had been his school uniform, and they hardly counted. As soon as he walked out of the store, in new and well fitting clothes he had felt such a surge of self confidence, it was unbelievable. It was a joy to have shoes and socks without holes, to wear a new pair of jeans without them needing to be belted shut almost twice around his waist, to own clean, stain free t-shirts.

He had also tanned, in the long days spent working in the beautiful summer sunshine, his skin had turned a nice golden colour, he thought that it was probably him having an incredibly poor diet before that kept him so pale as well as the cupboard. After these last two months Harry felt like a new person and some would say he looked like a new person too. He had also come to the realisation that it wasn't only the people of Little Whinging that had started to believe the lies of the Dursley's, with a kind of mild horror he had become aware that he had started to believe the vile vitriol that all three of the Dursley's spewed. That he was stupid and weak, that he was unlovable and unlikeable, that he was an ugly freak and everyone knew it, these thoughts had been like shackles and it had only been during this summer that he began to believe differently.

He started to measure out the grounds, staking the end of the tape measure into the grass at one end of the office's drive, he began to roll out the tape, walking backwards slowly so as to avoid any obstacles, as he unravelled the measuring tape he enjoyed the light breeze blowing across the companies grounds, it cooled him off as the sun had started properly rise by now, it was promising to be a truly hot day. When he had reached the opposite end of the grounds he stopped and marked off the distance on a small notebook he kept on him for details like this, he lifted his head up and looked back at the beginning of the tape thirty three meters and…he looked back down at the notebook…..25 centimetres away and smiled as he saw it in perfect clarity.

This was another thing he was grateful for this summer, it had been a massive revelation when on the first morning he was back from Hogwarts he had woken up with apparently perfect vision, he had no need for glasses anymore and could see even further than he ever could with them. He didn't know how or why his vision had changed but he was still glad, he had never liked his glasses, the taunting of the Dursley's and other children had seen to that, plus the ugly, broken and fixed with tape look of them just lent to his shabby appearance. Now with his fixed vision he could pick out details he had never noticed before, he didn't have to slightly squint to read anymore and everything was just clearer. When he had nervously asked Luke if he had ever heard of someone's eyesight fixing itself, Luke had told him that when teenagers grew that sometimes their prescription changed and that it could sometimes fix short sightedness. This did reassure Harry but he didn't tell Luke that his eyesight had changed overnight as that would just be unbelievable to anyone unfamiliar with magic, he just put the difference down to him being a wizard and left it at that.

He really owed Luke and his wife Gwen a lot, he felt almost pathetically grateful for the chances they had given him and the kindness they had shown. It was only due to Luke asking him if he'd like a job that had kept him away from the Dursley's for most of the summer, it had also allowed him to buy his own new clothes and the food he had gotten had been very good for him he knew. They had also treated him like he was worth something, like an adult, and yet had offered themselves as people he could talk to if he had a question or dilemma. It had been an eye opening experience for Harry and he in turn had flourished.

His thoughts slowed down and he concentrated on finishing measuring the grounds that they would be working on, he finished the last section just as Luke came striding back towards him this time without Steve accompanying him.

"So Harry, what do we have to work with?" Luke asked, and in response Harry simply handed over the notebook with the measurement in.

"Hmm…..right I've talked with Steve and I've got a rough plan of what we have to do, the first job will be for us to remove the existing plant cover here, you start on that and I'll mark out the plans on the ground." He directed Harry.

Harry got to work, cutting through the hedge, piling up the vegetation into the wheelbarrow and then wheeling it away to the dumpster on the property, the work was repetitive and slightly boring, yet Harry enjoyed the physical activity and the bright sunshine felt good on his back as he sliced through the plant life. As he laboured he let his thoughts drift to what else he had been doing this summer.

Unlike last year where he had not heard form his friends at all and he'd been lost in vivid nightmares of being forget, his old insecurities from when he'd been the loneliest child in primary school, scorned and ridiculed by nearly everyone else and if a kid attempted to make friends with him despite this then Dudley and his gang would soon chase them off. When he started Hogwarts in his first year, it wasn't the magic that he had been most amazed and delighted by but that people genuinely wanted to be his friend. Upon returning to the dreary atmosphere of Privet Drive his old fears had re-emerged, maybe he didn't actually have any friends that Ron and Hermione had been pretending to be friend all last year and were now laughing at him behind his back. When Dobby had told him that he had hid his letters from him, Harry had been equal parts angry, relieved and ashamed of himself for doubting his friends.

Well that had not happened this summer, Hedwig had been well exercised flying between the Burrow, North London and Little Whinging. Ever since the first day back from Hogwarts, the three of them had been in contact, Hedwig flying on an almost constant loop between their houses with Errol making the odd appearance. They had talked about the events of last year some more as well as the normal everyday things they had gotten up to during the summer, Harry knew that Hermione and her parents were planning on taking a holiday to France in the next couple of days, that she had been enjoying the weather by reading in the local park. And that she had become vastly irritated with an older girl who lived next door to her house and seemingly kept playing loud music whenever Hermione had been trying to relax in her garden.

Ron too was enjoying the weather, and while he wrote in rather less detail or volume than Hermione, his letters did seem to contain the same sense of holiday fun, of flying and playing quidditch with the twins, of swimming in the local river and of joining Fred and George in walking down to the nearby muggle village and of the pranks the twins had tried to play on the other unsuspecting teenagers there. His letters though did seem to be absent one crucial detail and that was in the many letters that he had sent Harry in the last few weeks there had not been one mention of Ginny, or the ordeal that she had been put through. While this might not have been obvious to a casual observer so filled with fun the letters were, Harry had been thinking of Ginny throughout the summer so her absence from Ron's letters was glaring to him. He hadn't been obsessing over her just that every now and then, at least once a day his thoughts casually moved to her and what she had gone through in the Chamber, well it had shook him up and he wondered how she was managing.

He had written back to both Ron and Hermione, his letters filled to bursting with happiness over how he had a new job, how it had got him away from the Dursleys most of the day, and how great it was to be able to buy clothes for himself. In fact he probably bored his friends as he crammed his letters with extremely specific details of what he worked on that day, the tools he had needed and skills he had learnt. But they had borne it with good humour and hadn't said a thing about it, so their letters continued to flow between the three of them and Harry hadn't felt isolated even once so far this summer.

But unknown to the other two their had been a third person that Harry had been keeping in contact with this summer. After a week of Ron not mentioning Ginny in any of his letters and since Harry's flat out question of "Was she alright?" had been flatly ignored, he had gotten a little bit concerned and deciding that it was worth the anger of Ron if he found out had owled Ginny directly.

Her answering reply had reached him a day later, in it he had found out that Hedwig had managed to go directly to her bedroom window at night and none of her family had seen her, which had been a good thing as Ginny's letter had told him that in an apparent attempt to keep her safe her parents and older brothers were scanning any mail that was sent to her. Ginny explained that while she knew they did this out of a need to protect her and perhaps a slight sense of guilt that she found it stifling and was overjoyed that Hedwig had found a way to get to her in private. Her letter then cautiously asked if it would be ok if they continued to write to each other through Hedwig on the sly as she was going out of her mind cooped up at the Burrow. Harry eagerly agreed and so began their summer correspondence with letters passing between them every two to three days.

Ginny had been even more open to him and talkative in her letters than she had been during their last few conversations at Hogwarts after the ordeal in the Chamber. Harry could almost feel Ginny's frustration, anger and her slight feelings of bewilderment as her family seemed to close up around her in an effort to prevent any further situations similar to the Chamber and the Diary. While Ginny appreciated their concern and in some ways still needed it, the overall effect achieved was that she felt smothered and oppressed.

She told Harry through her letters what she had been doing since the summer started or how little she had been allowed to do. Harry replied in kind, describing what he had been doing during the summer then when they'd exhausted the topic of what they had been up to they started to write about their thoughts and feelings, Harry learnt about the Weasley family dynamics beyond what he'd already known and how Ginny fitted in to it. He told her about his previous isolation and some of his fears about living up to being the boy who lived. Through these written communications Harry felt that Ginny had progressed past the point of being an acquaintance known as Ron's little sister and had become a close friend in her own right.

He had sent off the latest letter to Ginny last night with Hedwig, it was filled with his current thoughts on how she could reassure her family that she was doing ok and his opinions on the up coming Harpies vs Puddlemere quidditch game that to be played soon, Ginny espoused the qualities of the Harpies as the all woman side were her chosen team, while Harry favoured Puddlemere chances.

Harry carried on working at clearing the under bush a subconscious smile on his face as he thought of Ginny and his friends, he let his hands carry on working without almost no conscious control. At some point Luke had finished marking out the plan for the new garden and had joined Harry in the initial clearing of the ground cover. The two men worked on in silent companionship, the smell of flowering plants strong and the sun shining down on them. Harry found it to be strangely peaceful letting the work almost lull him into a meditative trance.

After they had cleared all of the plant life they had needed too they started on to the next part of the job, digging the ditch needed for a decorative water feature. Again the work was monotonous and tough but Harry's back and arm muscles had gotten used to labour like this over the last two months and he made light work of handling the spade and moving the soft soil around.

As the sounds of the spades slicing into the ground and the whispery rustle of the soil trickling back into the hole carried on, Harry thought on the last thing that had changed for him this summer. It had only been two weeks ago when he had discovered it, he had been heating himself some soup on the gas fired stove after coming back from a day's work. The Dursley's were all watching TV in the front room and Harry could hear the muffled canned laughter from the sitcom the three of them were viewing. He had been buttering up a slice of bread to have with his soup, and hadn't heard Dudley come up behind during an advert break, the bigger boy had shoved Harry roughly aside as Dudley made his way over to the fridge. Harry half fell to one side, scrambling desperately for balance and as he did so he flung his left hand out to try and grab something. His hand slammed down onto the stove, upsetting and pushing the saucepan of soup over and fell directly over the naked flame of the gas burner.

For a couple of long seconds Harry didn't do anything just leaned against the oven and glared up at Dudley who was busy with his head in the fridge trying to find yet more food to eat. It was only the slow feeling a warm tickling sensation against his palm that made him look over at the stove, when he saw his hand flat on top of the hot flame he yelped and jumped away, instinctually cradling the hand in question close in to his chest. Yet when he examined his palm and fingers he found that there wasn't a single burn mark anywhere, he didn't understand, his hand had been resting on an open flame for over a quarter of a minute but there wasn't a hint of seared flesh.

This state of affairs had left Harry massively confused, this had to be a case of magic protecting him, yet Harry was sure that even accidental magic couldn't have saved him like this. When he had been seven years old Aunt Petunia had set him start cooking the meals for the Dursleys and in the first week Dudley had decided that this would be a great method of causing Harry more pain. With spiteful intent he had waited until Harry was reaching into the oven to withdraw a casserole then had jumped forward and jogged Harry's elbow so that his right hand had slammed into the heated grill and inner wall of the hot oven. This had resulted in a horribly blistered hand and he had received only the barest measure of care and sympathy from Aunt Petunia before being shut into his cupboard to cry silently in pain. After a long night of agony Harry had slipped into a troubled sleep, but then when Harry was awoken by his Aunt the next morning the burn had miraculously vanished, at the time he had been baffled and at a loss, he no knew that it had been his magic healing him subconsciously when he had really needed it.

But why he now seemed to be impervious to heat and flame he didn't know, it didn't seem to have anything to do with his accidental magic, he hadn't felt the inner surge he associated with his internal magic. It had taken him nearly an entire fortnight to see if he could replicate it on purpose and so last night he he had stolen a candle from downstairs and sneaked up to his bedroom along with a pack of matches. He placed and then lit the candle on his desk and then gingerly approached it. The light coming off the candle was flickering in the dark room, illuminating the shadows in the corners. Harry leaned in and felt the heat of the flame on his face as stared for long minutes at the burning wick as he tried to muster up the courage to press his hand to hot flame. When he he had worked himself up to it he awoke his fearlessness and in one sure movement shifted his hand to rest directly above the candle ready at a moments notice to snatch it back.

He felt that same tickling warmth on his palm but apart from this slight sensation he didn't feel any pain at all, he twisted his hand moving it from side to side now trying to gain a reaction but nothing he did felt any different. More confident now he grabbed the candle in his other hand and started to slowly move the flame up his arm progressing from his wrist, along his forearm and up to his elbow yet he still didn't feel a reaction. Next he tried his other hand in the flame but this produced identical results, running out of ideas Harry took of his sock and actually placed the candle on the floor and lifted his naked foot over it, the sensitive skin of his sole over the flame should have left him screaming in agony but again he felt almost nothing.

He leant down and snuffed out the candle with his two bare fingers once more without causing a blister and stood up giving in to the idea that for whatever reason he was now apparently fire proof. Harry threw himself down onto his bed in frustration, while he could consider being impervious to burns could be useful in the future being who he was and how often he found himself in life or death situations yet another thing that set him apart form normal wizards and witches was something that he didn't need or want. It was bad enough being the only magical person to ever survive the Death Curse, and he for one did not want to add claims of being fire proof to that. He was sure that it would be taken out of context and exaggerated until people would think he was totally invulnerable and the added attention was an irritant that he wanted to avoid.

Because of this worry he hadn't written to any of his friends about this new discovery, Harry by his upbringing was a secretive and private individual at the best of times and he knew that neither Ron or Hermione shared these traits, Ron would invariably reveal the secrets in a temper driven shouting match probably against Malfoy in an effort to one up him, while Hermione had the best of intentions but her need to research all aspects of a puzzle would reveal this enigma as surely as a raging Ron would.

He didn't know what Ginny would do if he told her, for some reason he had half considered the idea of telling her just to hear someone else's opinion, maybe wizards and witches who grew up in the magical world heard about issues like this all the time. And the idea of telling her was strangely appealing he knew that she would keep the secret better than anyone else, he had figured out from her letters that privacy was important to her being as she was surrounded by her large family. But he held back, he didn't want one of few new friends to think he was a freak that he was weird even for the magical world, this fear kept him certain that for now it was better to keep it to himself and only if it became a problem would he go for anyone else for help.

Harry kept on working his hands moving nearly independent of his mind as he allowed his thoughts to go through all that had happened to him recently, it had been a very different summer so far. He stabbed his spade into the ground and winced as it struck a large rock, the vibrations tingling up his hands unpleasantly. The sharp noise and sensation knocked him out of the daydream he had been in and he looked around, the sun was almost directly overhead and the heat was making him sweat through his t-shirt.

He looked around rubbing the back of his hand over his forehead wiping the perspiration away, he spotted Luke standing next to his pick up his upper body leaning into the cabin. Harry climbed out of the shallow pit they had just dug and one handedly thrust his spade deep into the pile of loose earth that had formed during their excavation. He left it standing there and walked over to the pick up, as he neared the car Luke turned around two large brown paper bags held in his fist, he handed one to Harry and the two of them made their way to rear of the pick up, the tailgate was down and they both sat down on it and opened their respective lunches.

Taking a couple of mouthfuls of the ham and cheese sandwich contained within and then a long swig of the bottle of water next to him Harry was left with a sense of near euphoria, feeling the stretch and burn of his well used muscles, the air tasted sweet in his lungs. Harry was happy, it was summer he was living with the Dursley's and unbelievably he was happy.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

At that same moment Ginny was not enjoying her lunch quite as much as Harry was, she along with four of her brothers were sitting around the Burrow's dinner table tucking into the onion tart their mother had just freshly made. She sat hunched over her plate her eyes never leaving her lunch, she didn't want to raise her eyes and see the looks her family were giving her.

The Burrow was enjoying the same sun that Harry was currently working under and it shone bright sunbeams through the kitchen windows, illuminating the room's cheery atmosphere with a golden light. The air smelt of freshly baked pastry and cooked sweet onion alongside the scent of freshly cut grass that drifted in through an open window. But no matter how friendly and inviting the surroundings were the atmosphere in the kitchen was stilted and tense.

It was driving her crazy the way they tip toed around her, she wasn't some fragile doll that needed twenty four hour protection. She had made a mistake and been taken advantage of she knew that now, she accepted it and had made her peace with it. Yes she had been foolish and slightly naive, yes she should have known better and reported her fears the moment she had been suspicious but she had only been a young girl and hadn't been expecting to ever meet such a dark object.

"Tom had been an evil bastard," she thought savagely, "And if Harry hadn't already done it then she would have gladly stabbed his diary half a hundred times." She remembered the way he had emerged from the inky depths of the black book and the pure sense of malevolence that he exuded and the despair she felt that it her fault that he had been released. Hearing Harry tell that it wasn't her fault had also made a difference, she knew that her mistakes would follow her around for the rest of her life and she did have a reason to feel guilty but if other people held her blameless then why should she feel like she deserved a penance.

It had been an ordeal that she had survived and now she could get her life back on track, but it did not help that her family were so dam careful and insecure around her. In a way she actually thought it was a bit strange that she felt so recovered from her trauma, realistically she knew that she should have had mental scars that lasted the rest of her life from these events. While she would never forget, the experiences just didn't seem to have left much damage and she in point of fact felt like a more stable person thanks to the incident.

"Why couldn't they treat her like they used to?" she thought. "Why can't the twins tease and joke with her like they had done last summer, why can't Ron annoy her like he always had, was it possible for Percy to leave her alone like before instead of following her around like an over protective guard dog. And most of all she wanted her parents both of them to look her in the eye and smile without the constant presence of guilt and fear that she saw in their gaze." She brooded on these thoughts as they chased each other around her head.

Her mother finished putting away the loose dishes that she had left out and sat down at the table before cutting a piece of tart for herself.

"So boy's what are your plans for this afternoon, now you've finished your morning chores?" she asked as reached for the serving knife.

"Mitchdutch…." Ron tried to talk through a mouthful of tart only succeeding in spraying crumbs across the table, he tried to again but started to choke and reached for the glass of pumpkin juice at his plate side while Mrs Weasley scolded him.

"Quidditch" he tried again after swallowing the juice. "Me and the twins are going to play quidditch outside." The twins nodding along with him.

"Well have fun dears." Said Mrs Weasley, "but do remember to to keep flying below the trees, I do not want a repeat of the time when I had memory wipe the muggle letter man." She reminded them.

"The Postman, Mum," Ginny tried to correct her.

"Of course dear," Mrs Weasley said absently, then carried on. "What about you Percy?" She asked.

"I'm not sure Mother," he replied. "I may be in my room studying, I wasn't too happy about my History of Magic exam last year and I think I need to study more."

"Well if you want to dear but I'm sure that you did fine, my smart boy." Mrs Weasley said fondly. Percy blushed and tried to ignore the antics of the twins who were busying making faces behind their mothers back at him.

Mrs Weasley seemed happy with the replies she had gotten and fell silent while pulling the pitcher of juice closer to her so that she could fill her glass. Ginny glanced up, not surprised that her Mum hadn't asked about her plans, ever since they had returned to the Burrow after they had left Hogwarts she didn't seem to want Ginny to have any independent plans, happy to have her under her eye at all possible times.

Determined to start making things different, Ginny piped up from her seat, "I'm going to take a walk around the orchard, while the weather is good." As soon as she had finished speaking the sounds of clinking cutlery coming from around the table stopped. All four of her brothers stopped what they were doing and looked at her before quickly pretending they hadn't and looked towards their mother. Mrs Weasley had stopped eating at the same time as her brothers and Ginny saw the flash of panic in her eyes before she obviously controlled herself and spoke up.

"I'm sorry dear, but I need your help in the kitchen with me this afternoon," she tried to smile pleasantly at Ginny.

"Doing what?" Ginny pushed.

"Well I was planning….I mean I think…" Mrs Weasley clearly struggled to think of an excuse for keeping Ginny indoors. "I'm going to need you help with preparing a cake for your father, he works so hard for us." She invented.

"Cool! What kind of cake?" Ron asked excitedly, the fact that the cake had been fictitious up until a moment ago passing over his head.

"Never you mind Ron Weasley!" Retorted their mother flustered, and with that the conversation dissolved back into silence.

Ginny sulked in her seat, yet again she would be forced to help her mother in some chore that decidedly did not need her help. It wasn't that she didn't want to help her mother out, she did her chores along with the boys every morning, but always before she had been finished in an hour or two and been able to go outside and play or read a book. Now her mother seemed determined that at every possible moment that Ginny would be helping or assisting her in some chore or other.

Like for instance, yesterday they had spent three hours polishing the fancy china that Ginny had never remembered using all in an effort to find tasks so that Mrs Weasley could keep an eye on her. Ginny sighed deeply into her tart, her family meant well but if they didn't stop soon then she would be driven mad.

The main problem was the differences in the way that her family and Ginny thought of herself. Before she had left for Hogwarts and entered into the control of Tom, Ginny had thought that it would be a changing point for her family to start thinking of her as a person who able to start looking after herself rather than of still being a little girl who needed protecting.

Instead it had seemed to have been reversed, her parents were even more restrictive, her brothers even more guarded and the family as a whole kept her insulated and shielded. It was made worse by the fact that while due to the events in the Chamber her family had regressed in their perception of her the same circumstances had propelled her to think less like a child and more like an adult than she had ever believed possible.

When she looked back at how she had acted last summer she inwardly groaned in shame, she had acted like such a stupid little girl. It was amazing that Harry treated her as normally as he did considering the way she had behaved around him, he must have thought her a some kind of strange squeaking girl since that was all he saw of her. The things she had been thinking about back then were even more embarrassing, she remembered the daydreams about the boy who lived and princess he would save, with her playing a starring role. The pretend dates that she had planned out and the childish ideas she had about being Harry Potter's girlfriend.

If she could meet herself from last summer then she would be sorely tempted to give herself a slap she had been such a naive stupid little girl she raged in her own mind. But then the new more level headed version of her re-emerged and she calmed down somewhat, yes she had been a naive little girl but then again she hadn't had any reason not to be naive, instead she had been indulged in her childish notions and sheltered from the dangers of the wider world.

Now she felt aged beyond her years, as if the trials and tribulations that she had undergone had somehow matured her thinking processes. She now saw things from an adult's point of view, was able to grasp concepts that she wasn't able to understand before, and realise finally that the world wasn't a fairy tale and that bad events happen to good people. That good things didn't happen to people automatically but you had to fight for them, struggle tooth and nail for joy and what you wanted. She was also much more cautious, more wary of other people and had become downright suspicious in her outlook.

This was her payment and recompense from the events of last year culminating in the Chamber. The mental changes that were a gift and a curse, for as they had given her insight and vigilance they had also stripped her of the veil of childhood delusions and plunged her head first into full grown responsibilities.

So here she was with a personality and mental fortitude of a much older individual than any girl her age ought to yet was surrounded by people who tried to treat her as some helpless and gullible baby.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

"Now you see you have to fold in the flour a little bit at a time to mix the ingredients properly and get the best results." Mrs Weasley told Ginny as the two woman stood at the kitchen counter.

"Maybe I can take over and make the next one Mum?" Ginny asked in an effort to try anything to be interested.

"Not until you've watched me make another one Ginny," said Mrs Weasley brushing the flour off her hands.

"I'll never learn at this rate," she groused.

"Don't take that tone with me Ginny," her mother barked at her. "Until I'm happy and know that you've been listening to what I've been saying then you won't be wasting ingredients when you learn."

Ginny settled down, leaning heavily against the slate counter. While she could have lost her temper and flared up at the injustice she was under she didn't and held her tongue.

"She's only protective because you scared her." She repeated the thought like a mantra in her mind, over and over in an effort to hold her anger and bitterness in.

"Are you feeling ok about what we talked about last month?" Mrs Weasley asked her daughter. "Do you have any more questions, are you able to use the supplies we bought last month?"

"I'm fine Mum, if I have any questions I will come ask you," Ginny said, very eager to get off this topic.

Around a month ago and about an equal time period into the summer Ginny had woken up in the morning in her bed to find blood on her thighs and on her sheets. She knew enough to be well aware of what had happened but she wasn't ready for the visceral emotions that the sight evoked in her. She had quickly jumped in the shower and then after stripped her bed of its sheets and took them to her mother. Mrs Weasley had been calm and collected, she smoothy took the sheets from Ginny and placed them safely to one side. She had then made both of them a cup of tea and sat Ginny down for a long talk.

It had been a weekend and she a had taken Arthur aside and told him to go and take the boys out for the day. Mr Weasley has read between the lines and quickly agreed, with speed he had urged the boys up and out of the house for a day trip to Diagon Alley and then a quidditch game afterwards. The long conversation between mother and daughter had taken up most of the morning and had covered the full range of puberty, how her period affected her and what she had to do about it, the changes in her body that she could expect and the way that people especially boys would change to her view in the next through years.

Mrs Weasley was thorough and patient and the conversation reminded Ginny of all the reasons why she loved her mother. She had had a few questions and her Mum had been understanding and calm about answering them. Ginny had been embarrassed about some of the issues but realised that she needed to know these things and it was important to understand her body.

Then after they had lunch together they had both gone down to the local muggle town and Mum and her had spent some time in the local pharmacy buying the supplies that Ginny now needed. When they had gotten back to the Burrow Mrs Weasley had quickly and dispassionately explained to her how they were used and left it to her with a final reminder that she was available at any time if she needed questions answered.

Ginny had quickly and nearly silently absorbed all the information given to her by her mother and then at the end of their trip into the local muggle town disappeared back upstairs to her room. She sat gingerly on the edge of her bed and felt the ache deep inside her abdomen with a kind of wary detachment. While she wasn't happy that she had this to look forward to every month she was also excited that it showed that she was getting older and becoming a woman and even hoped that this meant that her mother might start treating her as older now.

Ginny crouched on the floor watching the sponge rise in the oven, with a groan for her knees that were sore from kneeling on the stone floor she rose. She had really had her hopes raised that things would work out after that but things hadn't worked out and her mother continued to treat as a child.

"Are you sure you don't have any questions, any worries you might want to share Ginny?" her mother asked again. "Your starting your cycle a bit early, I only started when I was thirteen but it's still within reason."

Ginny really didn't want have comparisons made on this subject and quickly tried to change the subject. "I'm sure Mum…..urrh what flavour of jam will we use for for the filling?" She said.

"Oh, I don't know perhaps we can use some of last of the raspberry jam we made up last year." Mrs Weasley stated absently. "But then again we're running out of it so maybe that can be our task for tomorrow and make some more," she said more confidently.

She couldn't believe it, already her mother had trapped her for all of tomorrow. As she stood there breathing deeply in frustration she felt the two thin straps on her shoulders stretch and was again reminded of something else that had changed this summer. There had been other adjustments so far this summer, along with her period starting she had noticed other more external changes in her body. It hadn't been a week into the summer when she had stepped out of the shower and caught sight of her profile in the bathroom mirror, she stared caught unaware by the way her body looked in the reflection. She hesitantly hopped on the balls of her feet and was rewarded with the faintest sensation of movement on her chest.

After that she felt extremely aware and conscious of every shift and motion of her form and was increasingly nervous of wearing some of her clothes that she had previously liked. Awkwardly she had gone to her mother and asked that she could be taken to get some some bras, her mother and her had gone to Diagon Alley and bought several pairs while she had been shown the correct way to wear them.

She had also noticed that she had grown taller as well, always before she had been a very petite tiny thing small for her age and shorter than her contemporaries, this had become different recently and her taller stature had resulted in a several new wardrobe items. Ron had been his usual jealous self and had thrown a minor temper tantrum when she had returned from Diagon Alley with assorted items of new clothing, when that had gotten him nowhere he had sulked for the following week.

"It's not like it's my fault that Ron and the other boys are able to wear the hand me downs of each other. It's not like I could wear his clothes is it?" she asked herself internally. "If he wanted to Ron could wear my clothes if he cares that much." She snorted imaging Ron dressed up in one of her skirts and finding humour in her own thoughts.

With a loud clatter the brother in question trampled into the kitchen followed quickly by Fred and George, the three of them chatting between them about their latest quidditch game, Ginny overheard Ron complaining how the twins had supposedly cheated and the last goal shouldn't have counted. Her three brothers rushed to collect glasses and fill them from the water tap before gulping down the liquid, it was a hot day outside and the flying had obviously built up a large thirst in them.

"I hope you listened to what I said before about flying low boys," Mrs Weasley admonished them.

"Course," Fred said between heavy breaths. "Can't have Gryffindor's prime beaters banned from flying can we," George finished for him.

"I'll be playing for Gryffindor soon too," Ron interrupted them. "Then it'll be me and Harry winning the Quidditch Cup," he said dreamily.

"I think that Ginny would be playing for Gryffindor before you do," George said trying to get a rise out of Ron.

He achieved his aim as with a roar Ron leapt at him, shouting for him to take it back. Mrs Weasley eventually separated them, using a wooden spoon as an effective weapon along with her tongue.

"Boy's stop it," she cried whacking at them with her culinary version of a club.

"George apologise to your brother right away," she scolded one brother. "And Ron I'm sure that you'll play for Gryffindor one day," she reassured another.

Ginny had also felt insulted by what George had said, while her brothers didn't know that she flew she thought that she was pretty good even if she did say so herself. She hadn't told anyone else but she did share with Ron the dream of playing quidditch for Gryffindor and she did not like anyone else rubbishing the idea even if they didn't know about it.

"I've got just as much chance to play for Gryffindor as Ron," she told Fred and George. "And before you say anything about me being a girl I'll remind you that Angelina, Alicia and Katie will soon hear whatever you tell me," she said smugly as the twins had looked about to speak and then suddenly shut their mouths looking nervous.

"Well it's nice to see out sister still has her claws," Fred teased with her and over the shushing noise their mother was making, Ginny heard George say, "Maybe she needs us to remind her that trying to get one over on us can be dangerous." He said looking pleased.

Later Ginny didn't know what caused her to say what she said next, maybe it was the joy she had felt at the fact that the twins were finally teasing her like they had always done so before. She had missed the cut and thrust of their battles of wit between her and them that had always been a hallmark of the relationship that she had with them. All of her brothers had known to fear her, they had recognised the cunning and tactics she had used in the eternal war of the Weasley family politics as inspired. Her parents had always thought of her as some sweet innocent a view she had purposefully cultivated, her brothers especially Ron and the twins had known the truth, that she gave out as good as she got.

"Well maybe this year you won't try and sneak a look at my diary," she joked and instantly knew that she shouldn't have said anything. The smiles left the faces of the twins as they observed her with concern. Her mum turned to face her with a stricken look in her eyes and Ron dropped the glass of water he was holding into the sink, the loud crash echoing in the now silent kitchen.

The atmosphere turned ashen and the tension racketed up in the room, then before anyone could say anything else Mrs Weasley bustled over to the kitchen sink, making exclamations about his clumsiness on the way. The twins slowly moved away from where they had been leaning on the counter and trudged upstairs to their room. Ron almost ran outside again only pausing to mutter hasty apologies to his mother about dropping the glass on his way out.

Ginny watched all of this horrified at how a simple sentence from her could have had such an affect. Filled with frustration and despair at normality ever returning Ginny followed the twins upstairs to seek solace in her bedroom.

Upon reaching the floor which her bedroom lay on she opened the door painted in a bright blue and stepped inside turning quickly to close it, she leaned her forehead against the cool wood and breathed in deeply trying to control the impulse to cry.

But before she could take more than a couple of breaths she heard a rustling noise coming from somewhere behind her, with a whirl she turned on the spot. Hedwig sat perched on her dresser looking at her with her deep yellow eyes, Ginny hurried over to the owl and began stroking her feathers as she rushed to untie the letter attached to one of her legs, Hedwig chirped blissfully as she enjoyed the petting that Ginny was giving her. Holding the letter in one hand and urging Hedwig to climb onto the other Ginny made her way over to her bed, leaning against the headboard she arched her knees. The snowy owl flapped from her wrist to rest on her raised knee where she could survey the room and still be in reach of Ginny's caressing hand.

"Good girl, your such a clever owl to come up here aren't you," she said smiling at the feathered familiar.

She used her fingernail to slit open the envelope and pulled out the piece of parchment inside, she unfolded the various creases and spread out the parchment across her legs and began to read.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

The thumping sound of her brothers on the stairs woke Ginny out of the thoughts she had been lost in, she glanced at the bedside clock on the table near her and saw that it was near dinner time and that the smells wafting up past her door had probably drawn her brothers downstairs to the table.

She decided that she was hungry enough to join them and got up off the bed, Hedwig who it seemed had fallen asleep on her knee, gave her an angry glare and a yawn as she flapped up of her leg before flying over to perch on the windowsill. Walking over to join the bird at the window she stuck her head out into the cool air of the summer evening, enjoying the breeze against her skin.

"I don't have a reply yet to Harry Hedwig, you can probably fly back to him ok girl," she talked to the owl. Hedwig blinked at her before with a twist of her head she leapt out into the summer night her white plumage turning her into a floating ghostly figure. "Fly safe," she shouted after the disappearing bird.

Stomach rumbling she strode over the door and hurried downstairs to join everyone at the dinner table her thoughts filled with the words that Harry had written to her, laughing at the jokes he had included about the quidditch teams they were discussing and somber thinking about the ways that Harry had tried to reassure her concerning her family. It had been brilliant to write to Harry like she had been and also a massive relief to have anyone that she could talk about these topics to.

Coming down the final steps of the staircase she walked out into the kitchen and tried to ignore the noticeable drop in conversation that occurred when she entered the room. Sitting down at her usual seat she began to parcel out the dishes set in the middle of the table to their respective places, the smell of the roasting chicken in the oven making her mouth water.

There was a whooshing noise from the fireplace and then her father was there, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a one of the largest smiles she had ever seen on his face.

"Hello Weasleys!" he announced to the room.

"Hello dear," Mrs Weasley bustled over to take his coat and briefcase, "how was your day?"

"Fantastic Molly," he replied handing over his things then surprised Mrs Weasley with a long kiss on the lips right there in the kitchen.

"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley slapped her husbands chest as she blushed, berating her husband over the noise of all their children complaining and pretending to vomit.

"What?" he asked unrepentant. "Can't a man kiss his gorgeous wife in his house?"

Mrs Weasley didn't reply but blushed even more heavily and went to put her husbands belongings away. Mr Weasley then went to take a seat at the table greeting each of his children in turn.

Once he had talked to each of them and Mrs Weasley had brought over dinner, followed by Mr Weasley's compliments on how good everything looked, they settled down to eat, but before anyone could try the first mouthful despite Ron's best efforts, Mr Weasley raised his hand up for a pause and silence.

"I've got some good, truly excellent news to share with you Weasleys today," he said. "Today at work I was approached by some gentlemen from the Daily Prophet," he had to stop to silence the questions already.

"These gentlemen had come to tell me that I was the successful winner of the Daily Prophet Galleon Grand Prize Draw," this time he had to stop as the sound exploded from around the table, everyone akin different questions over the top of one another, only Ginny remaining still though a huge smile had appeared on her face.

Speaking over everyone he carried on. "This means that we will have around seven hundred galleons to spend this summer and I was thinking on paying for a family holiday to Egypt to visit Bill and treat everyone to a break." This time the noise was deafening but the overall sense of joy and ecstatic happiness was obvious.

Ginny leaned back in her chair and let the sense of euphoria carry her away, maybe the rest of the summer wouldn't be so terrible.

A.N

Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful reviews.

I'm still looking for a Beta if anyone is interested.