Heroes with Wands

Chapter 3

Ginny

"Why does Ron treat me like a baby?" I grumbled to Hermione. She would probably know. If she were alowd to, she would bunk with Harry and Ron at Hogwarts. She knew everything about them. "He pushes me out of the way when you and Harry stroll on in."

I was painting my nails, Hermione reading a book (no surprises there) while Ron and Harry were off with Fred and George somewhere, probably at their stupid joke shop. I wiggled my bubblegum-pink toes and smiled.

"Oh, you know him," Hermione said. "He's always so grumpy. He doesn't get enough sleep. Ginny, he does that to me too, when he's really tired."

I doubted being bloody tired had anything to do with Ron treating me like a baby, but I didn't say anything. I stifled a little laugh, though, and Hermione gazed up at me from her book.

"What?" she said. "I'm serious. Have you noticed the bags under his eyes? He hardly sleeps at night because he's so worried about You-Know-Who and everything. You were with us at the Ministry...."

"But I wasn't needed," I muttered. "I get that you three are in this by yourselves, and you and Ron are Harry's best friends, which rather makes you You-Know-Who's targets as well--,"

"Ginny. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," I said, taking a break from my rambling, "I want to help you guys. All of us, Luna, Neville--but Ron won't even let me say hi to Harry for more than thirty seconds. It's like he thinks You-Know-Who will come along and blast me for touching Harry."

Hermione put down her, How to Train A Blast-Ended Skwert novel and looked at me. "You really want to know why Ron pushes you away from Harry?" I nodded.

She closed her book and sat cross-legged next to me on my bed. "Ginny, your his little sister. First of all, when you want to join in fighting You-Know-Who, he's scared something will happen to you."

That, for some reason, really angered me. "Oh, rubbish!" I snapped. "Hasn't he ever thought that I was scared for him when he goes out fighting evil? When I heard he almost died going after the Sorcerer's Stone, I was bloody terrified! When I was in the Chamber of Secrets, I didn't want him going after me with Harry because he's my brother and I couldn't lose him!"

"I know," Hermione said calmly. That girl always knew how to handle my outbursts and anger fits. I pulled on my straight red hair and listened to her. "But you're younger than he is--,"

"By a bloody year!"

"--and he's worried about you," she finished. "Second? He doesn't want you and Harry, you know, together. He sees you hug him and he gets all big-overly-protective-brother-mode."

I was so confused. "What?"

Hermione sighed. "Ginny, he's just being protective. He doesn't want his best friend and his little sister hooking up. Understand?" I shrugged.

I acted like I didn't get it, but I did. Ron was just being protective. But he didn't need to ruin everything for me. I came back from the Ministry perfectly fine, didn't I?

And he really doesn't need to get all up in my love life. I put away my nail polish and looked out my window at the Burrow. All of the sudden, four boys appeared outside. "They're home, Hermione."

"Cheers," she teased. "I'm so excited. I get to tell them all the fun of training a Blast-Ended Skwert."

"Then they can go blather to Hagrid about how smart they think they are," I said, and we both laughed.

We left down the stairs to greet them. Mum and Dad were planning to take us all out for dinner someplace in the Wizarding World, some old place their parents took them to. I thought it was only because Mum didn't have anything to cook us.