Ginny Weasley woke up, looked out the window of her tiny room, and sighed. She was going back to Hogwarts today. Once upon a time, she had been more excited about that than anything else. Now, she didn't want to be there at all. She wanted to be with Harry, her boyfriend...ex-boyfriend, she supposed. And Hermione, her best friend. And Ron, who was her brother, even if he could be a git sometimes. But she couldn't be with them. She had to go back to school. It wasn't fair. Three of the people she cared about most in the world had left to go on some secret quest, and not only could she not go, she couldn't even know what the quest was. She knew that they had to keep secrets in order to survive this war, but why did they have to keep those secrets from her? She was trustworthy. Not a single one of them had told her. She had known Ron wouldn't; he thought of her as his little sister too much, he would never trust her with anything. And Harry did trust her, but he was too much of a noble prick to be willing to share his burden with her. But Hermione usually did tell her things, and she had kept this secret. Granted, maybe that meant it really was something Ginny shouldn't know, but she wasn't exactly thinking rationally now, and she just wanted to know the truth.

When she went downstairs, her parents were in the kitchen, Dad sitting at the table and reading the Daily Prophet and Mum cooking breakfast. "Are you all packed, dear?" Mum asked.

"Yes, Mum, I'm all packed. But I don't want to go back."

"You have to," Dad said. "Attendance is compulsory this year. We're not risking you raising suspicion."

"What about Ron?"

"We told the school he's sick with Spattergroit," Mum said. "They believed the story, so it should be okay... oh, if he would just come home and go to school!"

"He's saving the world, Mum."

"Why does it have to be him?"

"Because he wanted to help," Ginny said. "I'd be with them if they hadn't told me I couldn't come."

"You most certainly would not!" Mum exclaimed. "While I disapprove of their choice, they are all adults and can make such choices. You are underage."

"Besides, you still have the Trace on you," Dad said. "You could get caught, and that's the last thing we want." He lowered the paper and looked her right in the eyes. "You'll be safe this year, won't you?"

"Dad, the school is being controlled by Death Eaters. What exactly do you mean by 'be safe'?"

"Just-please, Ginny. If anything happened to you-"

"Alright. I'll be safe."

She looked around her at the empty house. It had been like this since the wedding, but it really was quite strange. Bill and Fleur had moved to their new house, Charlie was back in Romania, Percy was off in London being a Ministry git, the twins had gone back to the flat above their shop, and of course, Ron was off who knew where with Harry and Hermione. "You two will be safe too, won't you?"

"Oh, there's no need to worry about us, dear," Mum said with a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

At ten o'clock, they headed out for King's Cross Station.

Ginny walked down the train, looking for a compartment. As she walked, she stumbled into someone. "Hi, Ginny," said Hannah Abbott.

"Oh... hey, Hannah." Nobody had seen Hannah since fall of last year, when she had left the school after finding out her mother had been killed. "How've you been?" That was a really stupid question.

"Well, I've been alright, I suppose." She sighed. "But I've got to repeat the sixth year, since I missed so much of last year."

"Oh. Well, then I guess we're in the same year. Maybe we'll see each other in class."

"Maybe." Hannah smiled a little bit. "Well, see you around, I guess."

"See you."

Hannah walked into a compartment with Ernie Macmillan, Terry Boot, and some people Ginny didn't recognize, and Ginny kept looking for a compartment.

"Ginny!" called a familiar and friendly voice.

"Hi, Luna," she said, smiling brightly.

"It's good to see you."

"Yeah, you too."

"I was so afraid after the wedding... I wanted to contact you, but I was afraid Death Eaters might be watching your house or something."

"No, they've left us alone, for the most part," Ginny said. "Harry, Ron, and Hermione left on their grand quest to defeat You-Know-Who, though."

"Oh. Well, come join our compartment, will you?"

"Sure." She followed Luna into a compartment that contained Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan.

"Hey, Ginny," Neville said with a smile.

"Hey." She looked at him and Seamus. "So, you two are the only Gryffindor boys in your year, then?"

"Guess so," said Neville. "We figured Ron would stay away, and obviously Harry wasn't coming."

"Yeah, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went on some secret quest to defeat You-Know-Who."

"And then Dean couldn't come back," Seamus said. "Cause of the no Muggleborns rule." His fists clenched.

"Yeah." Ginny sighed. "The school's being run by Death Eaters and there's basically nothing we can do about it."

"We can fight back," said Neville.

"How? We can't fight them. They could summon You-Know-Who himself."

"I don't mean literally fight," he said. "We can just refuse to follow their orders."

"Oh. Well, of course," Ginny said.

"At least we'll still have Professor McGonagall," said Seamus.

"Yeah."

"Dumbledore's Army will stay strong," said Luna.

Ginny smiled. "It sure will."

"Hopefully Harry and the others defeat You-Know-Who soon."

"But if they don't," said Ginny, "We'll fight for ourselves."

"Yeah, we will," said Neville. "They won't win."