The Sleeping Princess

1- The Wish

But all of this only reminded the King the dangers of the curse that was bound to come.

"Father?" she repeated, until she saw who he was with.

"Oh!" she cried happily. "Dumbledore. It's been so long! Did you come for my birthday?"

Albus smiled at her and nodded, before he made a small bow and took her hand. "I won't be able to stay the whole night I'm afraid, princess…"

"And I've told you not to call me princess," Ginny interrupted at once. "It's Ginny… nothing else."

Albus bowed his head again. "Your pardon, Ginny," he said smiling. "But as I was saying, I will be able to stay and enjoy as much as I can. So tell me… I hear that your mother is looking for suitable suitors for you?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows at her father who grinned back.

"She's been looking," she told him. "But none of them are my type. They all treat me like I'm some fragile doll or something."

"Well," Albus said nodding as he stood up straight. "I have a feeling that you will be waiting out for the right one?"

The king shot him a warning look as Ginny said, "I plan on it. If I am to marry, it will be to someone I love with all my heart. But…" she added as she gave her father a hard look. "I don't remember asking you to tell that to everyone."

"I meant nothing of it, sweetheart," he told her. "Now is there something that you need?"

"Just that I heard the guards tell the boys that you wanted to see them," she asked. "I was just wondering what it was about."

The King and Albus looked at each other. As the day of Ginny's sixteenth birthday approached, the whole castle was in a frenzy trying to prepare of the party. They had hoped with so much going on, she wouldn't have noticed that all the prince's were asked here to discuss about what would happen should the worst come to pass.

After all these years, only the two oldest prince remembered what happened that night.

"It's just simply a matter of making sure that everything goes well for the party," Albus lied to her. "It's one of those father-son talks my dear. How about you go and find Minerva for me? I promise to tell you about it later."

She didn't look convinced, but she didn't say anything as she left. Once she was out of sight, she heard the king give out a sigh. "It hasn't been easy keeping this all secret from her all this time," he said.

"While I understand that you were just trying to protect her," Albus said to him, "I am surprised that she has no idea what had happened."

"Me and her mother been taking very careful measures all these years," he answered, rubbing his hand over his eyes. "Everyone had been forbidden to tell her anything about it, she hasn't been allowed anywhere near a spinning wheel, and the guards are always watching her… but for now… let's talk with my sons."

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Later that night, he called all six princes together and told them about the curse that Voldemort placed upon their sister… all of them but Bill and Charlie looked startled at the news.

"So that's the secret that you've been keeping all this time?" Fred asked, turning pale.

"I'm afraid so," his father sighed. "Now… we've made it all these years… if we can make it through just one more birthday then we won't have anything else to worry about. But should the worst happen, and your sister does go to sleep…" he glanced at Albus sadly before saying, "Only when her heart starts beating again will one of you awake."