Jamie was woken from her dream by a loud bang, Issuing from overhead. It was Fred and George testing yet another one of their new experiments, or the ghoul had stubbed his toe on the bed again. She sighed, and slammed her pillow down over her face, trying to hold on to the last dregs of sleep. Moments later, she peaked out of the side of her pillow to see her younger sister staring at her.
Ginny's mouth was pulled tight, and her eyes were already full of tears.
Jamie sighed.
"Ginny, please don't start crying right now, its too early for that."
"I don't want you to go." She said, the tears now forming little pools at the bottoms of her eyes.
Jamie looked at her younger sister, her mouth turned downwards.
"Neither do I, I promise to write EVERY day!" Jamie said childishly, hoping to put up a barrier between her and the tears that were coming.
Jamie knew she would not write every day, but at least once a week. She mentally promised herself, and her sister. Ginny had been even worst last year when she left for her first year at school. She bawled all the way to the train, and wouldn't let go of Jamie's hem; she managed to catch the train, but only just. Jamie kept her face the same, knowing that she could easily fool her sister into believing her.
Ginny looked at her with eyes as large as saucers.
"Promise?"
Jamie looked at her and smiled, her smile seemed to be the most genuine thing in the world, and even her parents could be fooled by it.
"Promise."
With that Ginny flipped out of bed, and began to scurry around the small room getting dressed and ready for breakfast.
Jamie sighed, realizing she should do the same, and lazily hauled herself out of bed, combing her hands through her long black hair. At one point, it had been the same color as all of the rest of the Weasly's, she'd seen pictures of herself with dark red hair, spilling in curls around her shoulders in a family portrait when she was four. The day after that portrait was taken, Fred and George had put off fireworks in the house, one of which ended up on her head. All of her hair was burnt beyond repair, and had to be shaved off. She remembered how furious Mom had been with the older twins, and how Fred, George and her had laughed hysterically for hours in the mirror that night, polishing her baldhead with their hands.
When the hair had grown out again, it was black as ebony. Her mother had cried when she saw Jamie coming down the stairs the next day, her hair having grown magically overnight was bouncing in loose black curls down her back. The thought of this made Jamie frown. She loved that she did not share her parent's hair after the accident. It made her different than the others. She felt as though her whole life all her mother and father wanted to do was to make her fit in, and give excuses to any reason she did not.
Shaking this thought from her head, Jamie shoved herself into muggle clothes and hauled herself down stairs for breakfast.
After a frantic breakfast that involved mom shoving toast into random family members mouths, and throw fruit haphazardly across the hall at Fred and George as they bugged Ron about the 'obvious' qualities he had that made him perfect for Slytherin. Her younger brother was white, and looked on the edge of shaking. Jamie could feel herself almost smiling as though memorized by his pain. She shook herself quickly, shying away from the feeling. She had often felt this darkness in moments where someone else was weak. She didn't want to be a bad person, it just felt right, like she should embrace the feeling. "No." she told herself. She leaned down and squeezed Ron's shoulder. Speaking quietly into his ear.
"Don't worry, I can talk to snakes, and I still ended up in Gryffindor. You're a shoe in! I think it's a Weasly curse." She said, winking at him. He looked up with her, his eyes looked as big as Ginny's had earlier this morning, but he managed a feeble smile.
Only her brothers knew about her strange ability, and they had no intention of telling her parents about it. It had helped them out many times, and many of their games when they were young revolved around her pretending to be a snake charmer, and trying to get muggles to give her money on the streets in trade for her showing them tricks she could make the snake do. Much of Fred, George, and her candy stash and fireworks had been bought that way.