A/N: Hello and welcome to, the newly re-edited, first chapter of my first work... I'll be working on the rest of the chapters as I have the time.

The little red-headed girl ran down the stairs headed for the kitchen where she could already hear her mother cooking breakfast for her and her brothers. She was always the first to rise each morning, cherishing the rare occasion that she got to spend time with the only other girl in the house, her mother. Pretty soon the rest of the kids, the four older brothers that still lived at home, would be crowded around the kitchen table and hogging all the food.

"'Morning Mum..." she said as she entered the kitchen while inhaling the smell of the bacon cooking on the stove. The slightly plump, red-headed woman at the stove, turned to smile at her only daughter as she casually waved the wand in her hand to flip the bacon.

"Good morning, Ginny dear... excited to go see Luna today?" her mother asked. Ginny grinned from ear to ear. Luna lived not too far away and had become Ginny's best friend ever since Luna's mother had died just before she'd turned nine. The whole Weasley clan had attended the funeral and the two girls had hit it off immediately. Luna's father, while a bit odd, deeply cared for his daughter and was only too happy when she and the little red-headed girl became friends.

"I can't wait, but I thought I'd try to grab a big breakfast before I go over… Luna's dad can't really cook." It was funny Ginny thought that, even with something as big as her eleventh birthday coming up; she seemed to be so much more excited about what the birthday meant. In one month it would be her turn to finally ride the Hogwarts Express and get to see for herself just how much truth there was to all the stories her brothers had told her for as long as she could remember. This summer the youngest Weasley boy, Ron, had kept them all entertained with tales of his adventures with his two best friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. For the first time her brother had something to boast about that his five older brothers could not. While it was true that Fred, George and Percy had also met Harry during the last year. Ron had actually become Harry's friend, and to hear him tell it, the only reason Harry had managed to get to Lord Voldemort to defeat him at the end of the last school year. Personally, listening to Ron tell the story for the hundredth time just yesterday, Ginny thought that, though it was true Ron had certainly helped by doing just about the only thing he was any good at by defeating Professor McGonagall's giant wizard's chess set and getting a pretty good bump on the head when he sacrificed himself to win the chess game, she couldn't help but think;"If he was so good at chess he wouldn't have gotten into that position in the first place." She shook her head slightly. No, she thought the main reason that Harry was able to get so far was another thing that Ginny was really looking forward to, not only getting to meet the clever Hermione, but finding out just how much truth there was to Ron's version of events.

Ginny glanced at the time. It was early yet and she wasn't heading over to Luna's for a couple of hours. She smiled to herself. Getting up early had other advantages, like getting to sneak out on her brother's brooms before they finally got their lazy behinds out of bed. When she was on a broom all her worries and loneliness just seemed to fade away. The Burrow, her family's home, was in the middle of the countryside without another soul for miles. Luna's was the only house that was close and even that was just a bit too far to walk to and from in a day. Each year she would fly just a little higher always keeping the house in sight but not so high that she might be seen flying by one of those big flying things Muggles use to travel great distances.

Her mother looked at her then, noticing the faraway look in her eyes and the small grin on her face, "Ginny? You going to try and get in a little flying before your brother's get up?" Her mother seemed to know her too well, causing her to grin shyly at her mother when she nodded. She knew her mother wasn't happy about her one and only daughter flying every day, but she didn't really understand why. "Well, okay, then. Be careful and be back and cleaned up by nine. I'll send the usual warning sign if one of your brothers actually drags themselves that way before then."

"Thanks Mum," Molly smiled and shook her head slightly as she turned her attention to the pancakes that were starting to pour themselves into the pan. It wasn't that Molly minded Ginny flying, or worried that she might hurt herself, it wasn't even the small chance that she'd be seen flying. No, as real as those fears were, she was more worried her daughter was becoming something of a tomboy and she wasn't sure what, if anything, she should do about it. It was bound to happen, she reasoned, what with six boys in the house.

She watched as the pancakes flipped themselves and turned to look at Ginny. She sat at the table reading a second-hand copy of the first year potions book. Her long red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked almost exactly like Molly had at the same age… well, except for the clothes that was, and the ponytail of course. Kids these days preferred Muggle clothing over robes. Except for when they had to, of course, like during the school year and formal events. Ginny was dressed in a faded pair of denim jeans and Holyhead Harpies t-shirt they had given her last Christmas. They didn't have much, the Weasley's, but they did the best they could with seven kids and one income. Admittedly, it had gotten easier when the two eldest, Bill and Charlie, had graduated and gone off to have successful careers of their own. They might not have much, but when they could, they tried to do something special for their kids.

Last fall had been hard on Ginny, being the only kid in the house was lonely enough without the fact that Luna and her father had gone off looking for something that probably didn't exist. They had taken Ginny to Diagon Alley for a late lunch before picking up the boys from the train at Christmas to try to cheer her up a little when Arthur, Ginny's dad, had spotted the t-shirt in a booth set up outside the broom store. He whispered to Molly his intentions and while she distracted Ginny, ran off to find out the price. It hadn't been too expensive and he knew that it would surely make Ginny smile when she unwrapped it Christmas morning. Ginny's parents knew that her greatest ambition was to play for the all-witch Quidditch team, but they were also glad to see her reading her brother's old textbooks whenever possible. Ginny had only just taken to wearing the ponytail after asking Molly, yet again, if she could cut it short.

"No," Molly thought with a smile to herself as she turned to the, now ready, pancakes and placed them on the on a plate; "Ginny is already too much of a boy to look like one too." Maybe in a couple of years when she found out if what she suspected was true, she'd let her cut her hair, but for now she wanted to try keep her looking like her "little girl" for as long as she could.

Ginny put the book aside as the plate landed in front of her. She looked up to catch a slightly sad smile on her mother's face before she turned back to the cooking. Ginny thanked her Mum and started eating her breakfast. She had finished in no time and headed out the door towards the old outhouse they used to store the brooms, Molly watching from the kitchen as Ginny expertly mounted the newest broom in the cupboard and soared off into the sky.