Not Forgotten

Chapter 1

"If you're going to stand there and give me that after I've been running around all day on my sore feet doing errands for you, I swear I will hex you to next week!" Ginny growled, her eyebrows furrowed together in frustrated and anger. Her cheeks tinged a slight red from the hot weather, and she felt her breath grow short from rushing here to get the parcel to this green eyed jerk. She managed to throw a very piercing glare to the person she was facing.

Harry grinned back sheepishly. "I knew you would take it this way, that's why I didn't want to tell you this early." Sometimes it just wasn't easy to deal with red heads like Ginevra Weasley. "Look Ginny, don't take it the wrong way—"

"Wrong way?" Ginny huffed, her face getting redder by the second. "Harry Potter, I have just spent my whole Saturday tending to your business affairs, and you tell me that I am fired?" She seethed, her voice getting higher word by word. She couldn't believe the nerve of this man in front of her. Sometimes it was really hard to believe that she thought herself to be in love with him.

"You're not being fired!" Harry managed to get out, his face pleading. "You'll simply be relocated to another department. Ginny, this is a great thing! You'll be able to work with amazing people!"

"I will be able to work with lunatics is what you mean!" She nearly screamed. How could he be so daft? "Being a healer in Saint Mungo's is not the way I want to spend my life! I don't want to be there." Harry was being so insensitive, why couldn't he open his eyes and see that she did not want to go to that place after being placed there after the chamber incident?

"It's only for a short time, please stop being so dramatic over it." Harry begged, his face in a tight, hesitant smile. He didn't want to mess with the Weasley temper too much, but he had to be the one to break the news to her. After the war, Harry had been regulated to the ministry (under Arthur Weasley) and now handled many aspects of the ministry, including assigning the healers to different locations. Honestly, Mungo's received so many abnormal cases that it needed the best healers in the field to take care of everything. And Ginny Weasley was one of the best around, so it made sense to put her there.

"Please, we really need you there." Harry smiled.

Ginny shot him another glare, and turned on her heels and left. This day couldn't have gotten any worse. She could have been sitting and chatting with her friends in some nice cafe! She could have gone on a date. Her thoughts stopped there. She almost laughed at herself out loud, if she wasn't so angry at the moment. Dating? She hadn't gone on such a thing in such a long time. Her work kept her busy. Seeing as she had nothing to do the rest of the day, since it was only late noon right now, she decided to chat up Luna and break the (horrible) news to her.

One hour later, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood were seen sitting at the window seat of Little Angel's Cafe chatting animatedly. They gave a laugh to something that was apparently very amusing and then proceeded talking again.

"I know, Luna, I just couldn't believe that my dream would turn out to be the place I dreaded most." Ginny sighed. "I've always wanted to be a healer and I understand that Saint Mungo's is the best place for advanced healers to go, but I've just never put two and two together. Honestly I never want to go to that place." Luna gave her a look of sympathy.

"I'm sure it'll be okay. You should try it out for a week; maybe it will be different now." Luna suggested, smiling softly.

Ginny took a sip of her coffee, and looked out the window. The streets of London were pretty dirty. There really wasn't much sun, and not much of a view. She smiled. Maybe she could make the best of it. Her stomach, on the other hand, did not agree with her. It had been churning all day, shooting pains up her spine. More than once she had felt lightheaded, but she just attributed that to the heat.

"Ginny are you all right? You look pale." Luna remarked, her crystal blue eyes inspecting Ginny's face. Her friend had always been pale, but something looked amiss.

"I'm fine." Ginny smiled. "I think I'll go home and sulk about this some more." She laughed, standing up after taking care of the bill.

Luna simply smiled, concern etched across her face for her friend. "Be concerned for your own health, Ginny. Not just that of others."

Ginny didn't answer.

Upon returning to her flat—a very small place for the money she had to pay for it—she instantly moved towards the couch. Her body suddenly weighed like a sack of potatoes for it took so much effort just to stand. And as fast and that horrid feeling came so did it go. Suddenly she was feeling fine, so she decided to brush it off as her imagination from a long day. She sighed comfortably into her couch. Her couch was a creamy yellow. It wasn't new, but the lady she bought it from as very nice and took great care of it. It was very soft and very wide, perfect for when Ginny stayed up working late and ended up falling asleep on said couch. She smiled. Her place may not be much, but it was good enough for her. The walls were not very ornate, but she had a nice carpeted floor and a very nice kitchen for her to practice her culinary skills (which, in fact, were quite good if she dared say so herself). There was one bedroom where she kept her treasure and a bathroom that she adored.

She closed her eyes, her body sprawled out on the couch.

"No! I don't want to!" Ginny screamed, a lump forming in her throat as tears threatened to cascade out of her eyes. "Please—please stop…" She started sobbing, her voice breaking.

"Shhh, it's okay." A soothing voice reached out. A hand reached out and stroked her damp, red hair. "This is what you wanted."

"No! Please…" She couldn't contain her tears. Her body shook violently as she tried feebly to shy away from his hand.

He was silent. "Soon you will understand, that everything I do… is for the greater good." His eyes were dark and clouded.

"Tom—stop this!" She pleaded with her friend, with the one she trusted. After all, in this damp and cold place, she had nothing to hold onto but that desperate hope that Tom was...

That he was…

"Why?" She whimpered slightly, her hair damp and hanging about her face in a rather unbecoming way and tears still silently flowing down her cheeks.

He looked at her, and was quiet. Here there was a beautiful angel in front of him. Tom Marvolo Riddle didn't have friends, he had pawns. But there was a tiny bit of him, a flicker at best, that wished she could truly be his 'friend'. As soon as that thought appeared, he banished it, a wicked smile playing at his lips.

Maybe he knew, but maybe he didn't believe it…

…but he was the one she loved.

"Worry doesn't fit you." He said softly, so quietly that it was barely spoken.

"Worry doesn't fit you."

Ginny woke with a start, her left leg throbbing to let her know that the circulation was—ahem, cut off rather painfully. She lifted herself up, sitting upright on the couch with her breathing ragged. Her eyes closed as she tried to calm down. Then, she opened them and scanned the room frantically—desperately. No one was there.

She clutched her wand that was sitting on the coffee table in front of her and held it close.

Still, no one was there. But the last sentence sounded so real, so tangible…

She would die before admitting to any of her friends that she still had nightmares about him. Nightmares, dreams, whatever they wanted to call it. She got up, her body still a little shaky and groggy, and proceeded to grab a towel from the closet and calm herself down with a bath.

This is what you get for living by yourself, she mused. You get paranoid with the silence because anything that's quieter than a screaming Molly Weasley is considered unbearable.

Ginny frowned. Maybe one day she would get a room mate.

xxx

It was Sunday and the birds were chirping happily outside as the sunlight streamed very cheerfully (that is, if sunlight could actually be cheerful) into the accidental gap between the curtains and onto…

Ginny Weasley's sleeping figure. Ginny Weasley's attempting to sleep figure.

A loud roar rang through her apartment and led many of the neighbors to wonder if a lion was crawling around.

To say that Ginny Weasley was not a morning person would be saying that the Dark Lord was simply a confused kitten trying to find his way home.

The great bear that was Ginny Weasley got out of bed and into her slippers (protection for her dainty feet, she mused) and made her way to the kitchen.

Ahhhhh. Coffee. My sweet, sweet, coffee. My sweet, I love you.

Her thoughts were of content as she sipped her morning coffee (three teaspoons of sugar and a lot of cream, thank you very much!). She was content. This was Sunday, the Sunday before she had to start her amazingly wonderful job tending to psychopaths. She had to rest today. She had a long journey ahead of her.

As she thought about her work, she was overcome by a huge feeling of bitterness towards Harry Potter.

It's not like that stopped being friends. It's more like—they drifted apart. Or rather, Ginny drifted apart from them. She wasn't really the socialite of the wizarding world unlike Harry Potter. They were friends still, but just… acquaintances? Family friends? There had to be some term appropriate to define the gap that was between them.

She scowled. Especially when Harry started dating models. Vivica DeFrancis, his last girlfriend, had been a bad version of Pansy. It was amazing how everyone say it but Harry, who had been desperately, hopelessly, head over heels for her.

It made Ginny want to gag. Pathetic love-induced actions like that… she shuddered as she remembered how she used to act. Never again!

Finishing her coffee, she decided to go shopping today. She was feeling fine, so she dismissed the nasty spell of yesterday as a mere fluke.

"Oh my gosh!" could be heard in Fred and George's shop as their younger sister cried indignantly at them a few hours later.

"You two…" She narrowed her eyes at them. They had pulled another prank on her (Merlin knows how she fell for it), and now her freckles had turned purple due to it. "If you don't fix this, you do not want to know what I will do you to! And worse, what Mom will do to you when she hears of this!" She seethed. Ginny wasn't a force to be messed with.

True, threatening to tell 'Mommy' wasn't exactly what she had expected to do at the age of nineteen, but… it worked. The twins immediately cast the reverse spell.

Her freckles were normal.

"Erm, Ginny," Fred hesistated.

"Your face is red—erm, that is to say… redder than it normally would be." George continued nervously.

"—When it's usually this mad." Fred added, clarifying.

No one wanted to get on Ginny's bad side. But her face was an odd shape of red as if her body was suffocating.

Ginny blinked. She didn't feel sick, maybe just a little hot from the stupid heat, but other than that, she was fine.

"Stop teasing me again." She growled, preparing to walk away from her brothers and their stupid shop.

George was about to say something, but Fred jabbed him in the chest.

Ginny walked out of the shop. Not without, of course, without stepping on George's foot with all her might.

She smiled as she heard the tell tale "OW!" vibrate through the shop.

Even if I don't know where to start,

Even if my love is tearing me apart,

I just know that you and me,

We were always meant to be.

You are the light in the dark

You are the beating in my heart

Let me hold you now

Just like days before you stopped to cry.

Ginny closed her eyes as she let the music wrap itself around her body, her blood beating in tune with the music as she just relaxed to the beat of the trance. Her fingers tapped lightly on the arm of her couch in tune with the music as she just let her body lay limp on the couch after a day of shopping.

You are my light in the dark

You are the beating in my heart

But that is not enough

Will I ever be by your side?

She sighed, the sound of the sigh not reaching her ears. She had a silence spell on her room so that the neighbors would not complain about how loud she was blasting her music. It was a teenage thing to do, she knew but… she didn't care. It made her feel so happy. So… relaxed.

It made her forget about him, usually.

I try my best to satisfy

But all you do is where we make it right

I don't know what I'm gunna do

But I'm so crazy about you

This song was so special to her. She never told any of her friends about it—not even Luna. They wouldn't understand about muggle music.

But Ginny knew that that wasn't the reason. Hermione would probably know the band, but Ginny still refused to tell her. This was because it felt like Ginny's secret. Secrets came to her like a magnet. She didn't like sharing her favorite songs or bands with anyone, because music was what she came home to after a long day of work or a sleepless night of crying.

She hummed softly to herself as the music ended. She bought a muggle music playing device just for the hell of it, and it lay in her living room.

Ginevra, my dearest.

Her eyes flew open, the silence louder than the music ever was. She moved her thumb around on the wood of her wand, comforting herself. Tom used to call her that.

She felt like she should tell Luna about what was happening lately, but, what was happening lately? "I hear voices, sometimes, in my head?" She frowned. She was going nuts. It was probably just her nerves of going to a new workplace. Not to mention, a new workplace that she hated. She signed, and her muscles relaxed.

She let out the breath that she had been holding.

xxx

"Hi, I'm Ginevra Weasley, I'm the new," Ginny's sentence was cut short by a tall, pudgy woman with a frown on her face.

"The new nurse," The woman interjected. Ginny was silent. Well Merlin, what was she to say now? 'Hello, I really hate this place, and I'm beginning to hate you'? Ginny glared at the floor.

"Well, stop wasting around." The woman said. (Wasting around? Ginny thought. What was that supposed to mean?) "I'm Madame Everett, and I am the head nurse." She said with a puff of dignity.

Honestly, she reminded Ginny of a peacock. "Julia over there will show you to your uniform and you will be given a list of patients." With that, her stubby feet in her ugly heels click clacked across the floors of St. Mungo's.

Julia was standing at the corner of the reception room, a hesitant smile on her face. She was a short girl, but then again so was Ginny. This made them relatively the same height. She had lovely brown hair that was cut short to her chin and done straight accompanied by lovely green eyes. She had a pale complexion that one would find if one stayed every day in a hospital and didn't go out. She walked towards Ginny.

"Sorry, you'll get used to her." She said meekly. "She's really not that bad once she gets used to you." She added helpfully.

"Uhm," Ginny demonstrated her wide rang of vocabulary. "Thanks."

"This way." Julia smiled. She walked with Ginny to a closet and handed Ginny her white nurse uniform, and then a clipboard with a list of information. "There's a map of the hospital there too. But if you have any questions you can ask me." Her voice was so quiet that it made Ginny sound like a roaring banshee when she talked.

"Thanks." Ginny whispered, not knowing what else to say. "Have you been here long?"

"I was orphaned here."

"Oh."

Ginny nervously held her nurse clothes in her hand as Julia smiled, waved, and walked away.

A few minutes later there was a redhead getting lost in the hospital on her first day at work. "Room… Room…" She muttered angrily, looking at the numbers on the doors as she walked down the hall way. She checked her notes for the ninth time to make sure she read right.

"Ah, here it is."

She entered the dimly lit room. The afternoon sun shone bright in the horizon but become a soft violet light as it hit the purple curtains and entered the small room.

A figure lay sleeping on the bed, his head to one side as his blonde hair was ruffled about his head in a definitely-uncombed manner. Ginny frowned and looked at the notes.

Apparently, this person was in critical condition (now stabilized) after being cursed by a loathing witch. What the spell had done, well, the ministry and healers are trying to do their best to uncover that. Ginny's job was just to make sure he didn't go back into critical condition. She frowned.

He couldn't have been any older than his mid twenties. "Haden Nott…" She frowned. Was he related to Theodore Nott? He certainly did not resemble Theodore Nott's dark features. The other Nott has dark hair and dark eyes—and while Ginny could not see this one's eyes, this one certainly did not have dark hair.

She checked the table. This is pretty good. The last hospital she was in, she had to brew all the potions by herself, even the most elementary of potions. Here at St. Mungo's, there was a line of vials on the shelves full of the everyday potions that are used to alleviate pain and minor symptoms.

Ginny was quite impressed. Just 'quite', though.

Haden always grunted and muttered in his sleep, Ginny found out. Her eyes often softened towards patients like that. It usually meant they were tormented by nightmares. Often she would give him a dreamless draught and that would be that.

Her other patients ranged from as young as five to as old as late sixties. She was busy around the clock, and she liked it that way. Being busy, taking care of people, took her mind off of how much she detested this place. She hated the white walls and was very glad that hey replaced the normally white curtains with colored ones now. It was only a slight improvement, but improvement nonetheless.

She was so tired. She was so very, very tired as she unlocked the door to her apartment after her first day at work. Oh Merlin… why did she become a Healer? She plopped down on her bed, needing something more comfortable than her couch, and just lay there. Her head pounded, her body was heavy, and she felt dizzy. Perhaps she had a nasty cold.

Ginevra, Ginevra.

There it was. That voice again.

A/N: Ohhh! Cliff hanger! What will happen next? *Does a dance* Yes, yes, I know it's been an impressive 'forever' since I've updated, and I'm probably the queen of not finishing stories, but THIS ONE HAS POTENTIAL! You don't understand how many plot bunnies attacked me. I have this story pretty much planned out (save for the details).

Review please, you must understand how happy that makes authors and how much it REALLY encourages them to update!

--- Death of Roses