TIME TURNER
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A/N. I had posted a slightly different version of this chapter agess ago but couldn't continue it due to various plot glitches. But I loved the basic idea so I decided to re-write it. Enjoy. :)
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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter even though I so totally want to, blahblahdiddyblahblah.
Summary: In her desperate attempt to undo her present plight, Ginny goes back in time. Her plan would have every chance of surviving if Draco didn't do the exact same thing, with different intentions. GWDM? GWTR?
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Prologue . . Time Turner.
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30th July.
Ginny,
You'll probably get this once you're back from Diagon Alley, in return for the birthday party Mrs. Weasley has been planning to throw on my behalf. Here's the thing: I won't be coming. Neither will Ron or Hermione.
We're not sure when we'll be coming back. We're not even sure if we'll ever come back. Voldemort is becoming more and more powerful day by day, and if we don't stop him, no one will. He's already taken the lives of people I've loved and I don't want you to be next.
So please understand why we're doing this. Please understand why we have to say goodbye like this; without warning.
I'm sorry.
-Harry.
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2 months l.a.t.e.r.
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"Ginny! Are you coming or not?" Leticia asked impatiently, tugging on a strand of her glossy brown locks.
"You go ahead," Ginny said with a shrug, turning over, letting her head rest on the grassy surface of the Quidditch Pitch.
"Okay," Leticia said at once, heading towards the changing rooms, probably expecting Ginny to change her mind and join her in a matter of seconds.
Perhaps she would've done so a year ago. Yet now, what Leticia thought of her didn't matter. Leticia was getting more and more bored of Ginny day by day and that suited her fine. Leticia had clearly only liked the bubbly, popular Ginny who had gone on double-dates with her. She had no time for the dull, miserable Ginny she had become.
She fiddled with the glittery gadget around her neck as her head was momentary filled with a series of images so colourful and forbidden that she squeezed her eyes shut, almost pleading them to go away.
No, she shouldn't. She couldn't.
Mrs. Weasley had been worried sick as it is, ever since Harry, Ron and Hermione's departure. She wouldn't be able to handle another.
But what about you? How can you stand another minute of pretending everything is alright at school? Playing Ginny, the sixth-year worried about nothing but the upcoming NEWTs.
She couldn't.
Her mind traveled back to that day: the day she'd promised herself she would forget. The day when she had entered The Burrow with a neatly wrapped gift for Harry. The day when she'd painted her toe-nails and brushed her hair, when she'd dressed herself with more care than usual, only to find The Burrow painfully empty...
She remembered the way the excitement had died abruptly. The way she'd felt hurt, pain and disappointment at the same time. The way every word of that 'note' he'd left her had made pain well within her till it had become too much to bear.
He wouldn't. Not on his birthday. Not when we'd taken so much pains to--
She had blinked away tears, forcing herself not to cry. She had wiped away every trace of a tear as angrily as she could, despite the fact that she felt like her heart would burst if she didn't cry.
She felt herself crying now. Crying in the middle of the deserted Quidditch Pitch. The memory which she'd struggled so hard to repress flowed freely, just like her ready tears.
She felt every bit of the recklessness she'd fought so hard against. She felt out of control. So out of control.
She felt the weight of the glittery gadget around her neck that a common muggle would've mistaken for an unusual necklace.
No.
Why not? It all goes back to him. If he didn't exist--
"Weasley," she heard someone sneer behind her, cutting short her inner battle.
She recognised the voice instantly. She turned to face the speaker with difficulty, too proud to wipe away her tears and too scornful to look at him properly. It was none other than Draco Malfoy. There weren't enough words to sum up Draco Malfoy, but she could start with: sneak, ungrateful, pest, thankless, selfish, coward. Draco had come back to Hogwarts and was now under the protection of the Order.
However, that hadn't changed Ginny's attitude towards Draco.
It should've been Harry in his place. What had Draco ever done to deserve such a comfortable position? Of course, that would be helping to kill Professor Dumbledore and making everyone's life hell.
"Malfoy," Ginny acknowledged, her tone icy. Her grip on the chain loosened. "What brings you here?"
"None of your business, Weasley," he replied smoothly, his tone mirroring hers. Yet, she could detect an edge of nervousness. Frantic, unusual nervousness.
"Then clear out," she said, the bottled-up frustration within her rushing out.
He shot her a glare, his sneer disappearing.
"You forget," he said, raising an eyebrow. "That I have as much right to be here as you do."
He seemed to want the pitch for himself.
"Well, I was here first," she reminded him sweetly.
"Too bad," he said, with a shrug, his gray-blue eyes gleaming in the sun. "How's your mother feeling by the way, Weasley? Heard she can't stop crying."
She could feel her temper rise, her cheeks turning crimson.
"How does it feel acting like a coward, Malfoy?" Ginny demanded. "Heard the Death Eaters are after you, after you ran away from them crying."
Suddenly, every trace of emotion on Malfoy's face dissipated as his face grew whiter every second.
"Shut up," he snarled. "You'll pay for this."
Then he turned his back to her before leaving the place, his body shaking.
It was then that Ginny reacted, the anger, pity and hatred in her soul causing the frustration to increase. She caught hold of the glittery chain-like object, looking at it through her tear-stained eyes. She turned it round and round, counting the number of turns through the mild movement of her lips.
Reckless. Emotional. Impulsive.
There were many ways to explain what had pushed Ginny to act on her deepest desire. To use that glittery object that provided the only solution to the multitude of problems that summarised her life. The glittery gadget, otherwise, known as the Time Turner was her last hope.
Her only hope to get her life back.
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A/N. Hope you liked it! This takes place after the Sixth Book. R&R :}
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