Ch. 5

During the row over letting Harry in on some things it came out that Ginger attended meetings regularly and had been active at the one that just closed. "She's younger than ME!" wailed Ginny while pointing an accusing finger.

Ginger gave her a glare that made Sirius uncomfortable. "Don't point your finger at ME little missy unless your ready to put it where Ah want it." Looking about the room she addressed the junior members. "Look, Ah'm not going to argue with you that Ah'm mature enough for the responsibility, that should be obvious. But while Mickey is out on a mission Ah HAVE to be here. Ah'm your interface with The Bureau just as Uncle Arty is your interface with the Ministry."

"What's this Bureau?" Harry asked. "The Bureau of Para-Normal Research in Washington. They handle all government concerns for magic, E.S.P., yoo-foes and such. The information we get from them is just as critical. Mickey and Ah have the ears of people only three steps from the Chief and you can't ask for better than that."

"All of you seem to think information is some sort of prize you win by accomplishing something. Ah'm telling you it's a burden a wise man bears only out of necessity. This is WAR. The Order is a Para-military organization, not some sort of social club. We operate on need-to-know, and Your Don't Need to Know."

Turning on Harry she said, "And YOU going on about people trusting you. Have you been thru torture training? Do you have any way of knowing just what you CAN take? But your whole premise is flawed. Vol.. YES, AH'M GOING TO SAY IT Voldamort doesn't work that way and you know it. Heck, he doesn't even need the Impireos to get what he wants out of you. Any high school graduate can whip up a batch of Veritiserum that would have you babbling like an unweaned babe."

"And YOU, Sirius. From what Ah can glean from records and conversations with people you do indeed make decisions much as the late, lamented James Potter did." Sirius got a self-satisfied look for only a moment. "But Ah also found that most of his ideas, if taken raw, were short cuts to disaster. It was Miss Lilly's restraint that let them live as long as they did and kept Harry alive." She turned to Mrs. Weseley. "And Ah think Aunt Molly here is the prime substitute for the fine woman"

"Now one thing some of us seem to have overlooked is that asking a question is not the same as getting an answer. Asking questions is no harm to anyone. And Ah trust most of us here who have the information to answer have sense enough to know which questions TO answer."
*******
As the youngsters trooped up to bed, Ginger stopped dead at the foot of the stairs looking up as if seeing something thru the upper floors. "Mickey's here!" she said delightedly. "Ginny, can Ah borrow your wand?"

Ginny took out her wand and said doubtfully, "Well, I don't know..." But before she could say more Ginger had snatched it from her grasp and run out side.

She was standing in front of the house, but within the protective filed. She was holding the wands straight up and pulling them toward her and pushing them back out. "Steady baby, steady. More port, more port.", she called as titled the wands to the left. Pulling them back straight she said, "Steady, steady." After a minute more she said, "And CUT!" crossing the wands together.

Mickey Shultz pulled his great broom War Wagon up short and landed square in front of her. He hopped off of the hovering stick and grabbed up his baby sister for a Texas size greeting.

When they separated he unslung a hefty pair of saddlebags from his broom and followed her in. He didn't stint on greetings for the group including bear hugs for Sirius, Molly and others. Harry, Hermione and Ron he gave sedate handshakes.

Up in their room he unpacked a boatload of the finest Diagon Ally had to offer. Textbooks, potion supplies, new robes, et. Ginger was shaking with bairley-concealed impatience. "All right, all right. Enough of that stuff. Did you GET IT?"

He smiled like he was enjoying making her suffer. When he thought it no longer safe to continue he drew from an inside coat pocket a large lump of gold wrapped about a breath taking ruby.

She snatched it from his hand and held it up to the light. It was a high school ring in the classical American style, a band of gold narrow at the back of the finger slowly fading into knuckle that was the seat of the faceted stone. The circle of metal holding the stone proclaimed in huge letters, "HOGWARTS" at the top and "2011" at the bottom. The side to the wearer's left showed the head of a great-tusked boar, the side to the right had the head of a roaring lion.

"EEEEEE! Ah want it. Get another for yourself. A struggle ensued with much giggling. When Tex had had enough he sat on the bed, drug his sister across his knee, flipped up her mini and gave her solid thou affectionate paddling.

Placing the ring proudly on his finger he told the tale. "Baby, you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get this job done. Ah went all over Diagon Ally and found not one jeweler who had ever heard of high school rings. Most of them thought Ah was crazy. Finally Ah found this lil' shop right next to Flourish and Bots. It was run by a nice couple called Addlestien. They had a teen daughter named Tiffany who's job it was to point out what was gross or lame."

"Mr. Addlestien and Ah worked out the design." He said, "I think your crazy, but we can do it." His wife interrupted. "But Papa, we can't; we're out of rubies." "We'll use the big one in the drawer." "No, Papa, not that one, it's..." "Don't argue, just get it!" To me he said, "You can have it two weeks, but I think your crazy."

While Ginger tried to devour her brother she could feel that, despite his delight at seeing her, there was still an air of sadness about him.