Giving up all hopes of falling asleep, Ginny jumped down from her bed, her small feet meeting the wooden floor with an almost inaudible thud. She bunched her fist around her favourite blanket, the one that her brother Bill promised would keep all monsters away, and wrapped it around herself.

Ginny opened the door of her room and ran to her brother Charlie's room. The rustling of the blanket somehow muffled the dull patter of her tiny feet.

Charlie's room being the closest to her room, she reached his door in under a minute, thanks to the short distance and her rapid pace, the latter of which she owed to her non-existent fear of ghosts. On reaching his doorstep, she slowly turned the door knob and peered inside the darkroom, squinting her eyes trying to spot Charlie.

Charlie, being a light sleeper, woke up when the door creeked open.

"Gin-Gin, is that you?" His wobbly voice, doused in sleep, called out.

Taking his question as an invitation, Ginny ran to his bed and settled beside him. Sleep was rapidly deserting Charlie as he moved to accommodate his little sister. It was a good thing he loved the little bugger.

"What happened, Gin? Couldn't sleep??"

Ginny looked up at her brother, and the feeble light that slipped into the room through the open door fell on her tiny face.

Now Charlie was not a softie in any way. Infact, he despised any association with the sentimentalities that teen boys always looked down upon. He loved his family and his brothers. He troubled his big brother Bill, made fun of Percy, played along with Fred and George, looked out for Ron, all normal things that a normal teenage boy would do with his siblings! But with Ginny, he was different. Maybe it was the massive age difference between them, but he absolutely mothered the little girl. There are few things he wouldn't do for her.

So, when Ginny looked at him and asked, "Charlie, tell me a story please... I can't sleep!" there was but one answer to that as far as Charlie was concerned.

" Story? Ah, let's see! What story do you want to hear today? Tale of three brothers?"

"No!" Ginny was quick to reject. " I've heard that one many, many times. I can even recite the story word for word." Charlie highly doubted that but conceded nonetheless.

"Bibbity..."

"No!!" She was quicker this time, not even letting him complete. "I've heard all those stories in that book! And for many times too. Tell me a new one, please!!"

Charlie was stumped, he was battling sleep and he definitely didn't want to fabricate a story for her now. More often than not, his stories featured dragons and dragon stories do not put kids to sleep, everyone knows that! He racked his brain for a story that doesn't involve dragons or hippogriffs or anything even mildly exciting.

And his mind supplied him with one story! A story that is interesting, important but definitely not exciting for a three-almost-four year old! Atleast, so he hoped! The story of the Boy-Who-Lived. Poor Charlie didn't know then that this story would stay with his little sister way too much, for way too long!

"Ok, so here comes the story! Now, settle down and close your eyes." He pulled the blanket over her tiny figure and began the story while caressing her hair, hoping to put her to sleep soon.

"Once there was a very bad wizard. He was so evil and scary that people didn't even dare to say his name..."

"What's his name?" Ginny's eyes were open.

"Gin, you are supposed to keep your eyes closed! And no questions when I'm telling the story." Charlie chided without much heat.

"Like I said, people were too scared to say his name and hence they said "You-Know-Who" instead of his name..."

" But I don't know who..." Charlie's glare shut her up.

" And slowly, You-Know-Who became his name. His followers called him the Dark Lord. And truly he was the darkest, evilest wizard in all word. He killed people, tortured them and no one was safe. There was no wizard who could kill him or even defeat him..."

" Even Dumbleydoor?" Gin asked, unable to stay quiet.

"His name's Dumbledore, Gin-Gin." Charlie gently corrected, giving up all hopes of shutting her up. " And how do you know that Dumbledore is in this story?"

"But he is here, right? Then how can he not be there in the story? And Dumble-dore is the most powerful wizard in the world, is he not? Then how can he not be there?"

Ginny put forth her logic, which didn't make much sense to Charlie. But he was not going to get into the specifics of how a story is different from reality now. Partly because the story is real and mostly, he just wanted to tell the story and put her to sleep quickly.

" Yeah, even Dumbledore couldn't kill him! Now back to the story. One day, You-Know-Who we t to the Potters' house. The Potters, James and Lily, were very good people who fought against You-Know-Who. So he went after them. He went to their house and he killed them..."

"No, I don't like this story! You said the Potters' were good people. In good stories, good people don't die. Bad people die. But You-Know-Who is not dying, Potters die! This is a bad story, really yucky story. Tell me a good story!"

" But atleast hear the full the story Gin! I promise this is a good story..."

"Hmph..."

Charlie took that as a yes and continued, "So, where was I? Ah, yes! You-Know-Who went to the Potters' house. James and Lily Potter fought with You-Know-Who very bravely. But You-Know-Who won at last and he killed both the Potters. After killing them, he saw a crib in their house. And in that that crib, was a small baby..."

"Who was he?" Ginny asked interestedly, forgetting her earlier displeasure with the story.

"His name was Harry. He was James and Lily's baby boy. Now, You-Know-Who wanted to kill that baby too, he was James and Lily's son after all. And You-Know-Who hated his enemies and he lived killing. So he looked at baby and shot a killing curse at the baby..."

Ginny gasped. Truly, how truly evil was that evil man!

Charlie continued, now fully involved in the story. His voice dipped as he proceeded, " But, the most wonderful thing happened next! The killing curse did not kill baby Harry!!"

Ginny's eyes widened and mouth opened, and she wanted to know what happened next. So she didn't interrupt her brother.

" Instead, the killing curse killed You-Know-Who! The bad wizard who killed people for fun, who was so so powerful, was killed by a tiny baby! And on that day, You-Know-Who vanished! People were all happy, they celebrated the defeat of the dark, evil wizard. And from that day on, baby Harry Potter was known as the Boy-Who-Lived!"

Charlie concluded the story with a strangely wise expression on his face. Ginny was looking at him in wonder.

"Baby Harry killed the big villain? So the baby is the hero?"

"Ah, not exactly killed. He was just a baby, how could he say the killing curse?"

"Then, how did You-Know-Who die? And who is the hero?"

"Harry is the hero, of course! Maybe he had some super power and that's how he defeated the villain. Heroes have super powers!!"

Ginny nodded. That is true. Heroes do have superpowers.

"What happened after that?"

"That's the end of the story Gin! Hero defeated the villain. Villain died. And everyone loved happily ever after. The End!"

"But what happened to Baby Harry? His parents died remember? Did they come back after Harry win?"

"People don't come back from death, Gin!" Charlie exclaimed in exasperation.

"But, in the Tale of Three Brothers..."

"Yeah, but the sister didn't come back truly, did she. It was just the ghost of the sister. And in any case, Harry's parents didn't come back. They are dead."

" So Harry doesn't have parents then? That's bad. That's not nice. Who takes care of him then? Who feeds him, plays with him, tells him stories, combs his hair and everything? Does he have brothers?" Ginny asked, for living without her parents was unimaginable for her. She couldn't even imagine how anyone can live without parents!

"No, he doesn't have brothers..." Charlie fumbled, not really sure about that part of the story of the Boy-Who-Lived. "Maybe his relatives, his uncle and aunt take care of him..."

Ginny got a mental image herself living with Auntie Muriel. Muriel feeding her instead of her mother, running after her in the gardens instead of her father, telling her stories instead of her brothers! No, that was awful. She couldn't see Muriel doing any of that or herself being happy with Muriel doing all of that!

"That's awful! Aunts and Uncles are awful. Babies should live with their parents! Baby Harry is living with his Aunt Muriel!"

Charlie laughed but stopped himself in a second, seeing the tragic expression on his sister's face.

"On Gin, don't feel sad! I'm sure Baby Harry hasa very nice Aunt, someone as nice as Mom, and he is perfectly happy living with her. Not all aunts are as awful as our Aunt Muriel, you know?"

But Ginny was not convinced. It's strange how stubborn kids can be when they fix their minds on something. In this case, Ginny fixed her mind on the fact that, Baby Harry living with an Aunt is bad. More than bad.

" No, aunts are bad! Aunt Muriel is bad. He won't be happy there..." Ginny paused as something struck her mind. " Charlie, can we bring him here? Mom is so much better than Aunt Muriel. She is so good. And he can play with all of us here. I'll share my toys with Baby Harry. I'll not trouble him even. Can we please bring him here, please?"

Charlie roared with laughter at her request. And it did nothing to discourage Ginny. She only got louder to make herself heard over Charlie's boisterous laughter.

A loud thud came from the room next door, Bill's! The light coming in from the doorway became brighter and soon frazzled figures of Molly and Arthur Weasley appeared on the door step.

"Charlie, what in heavens... Ginny, what are you doing here?"

Ginny jumped down from the bed and ran to her father, who picked her up in one smooth motion. "Daddy, can we bring Baby Harry here?" Ginny shot the question without any preamble, confusing her parents.

"Uh... Ginny couldn't sleep. So she asked me tell her a story. I told her the story of the Boy-Who-Lived. Now she's worried because Baby Harry's parents are dead and he has to live with Awful Aunt Muriel!" Charlie surmised.

Arthur was still confused and Molly was simply thankful that no one was hurt. After all, with a housefull of children, it is a real possibility. And in the dead of the night, and in sleepy haze, all they could say was, "It's so late! Go to sleep!"

And as everyone knows, once Molly Weasley sets her mind on something, she stops not till it's done! Within mere minutes Charlie was tucked in his bed. And Ginny was settled between her parents in their room. Her tiredness won over curiosity and good will, as she drifted off to sleep without much protest.

And relieved of her tiredness, she would begin her pursuit anew the next day. Her family would hear nothing but a barrage of questions about Baby Harry for the next few days. Like I said earlier, Poor Charlie has no clue about the monster that he unleashed by telling the story of the Boy-Who-Lived to his sister, Ginny Weasley. One can even say, he steered the course of destiny that day.

**********

Hello Potterheads!

I thank you all for giving this story a chance. And I hope I didn't disappoint. Please tell me what you of this story. I would love to hear from you.

Until next time.