DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS BESIDES THE OC. ALL OTHERS ARE PROPERTY OF JK ROWLING'S BRILLIANT MIND AND ALL CREDIT GOES TO HER.

This story only follows key points. It skips between Ginny Weasley's POV and the OC's POV, thus the chapters are shorter than a normal novel. If you have any questions or are confused at any point, please PM me or leave a review. Also, everything is meant to be strictly Cannon except for the insertion of the OC character, thus the history of this universe stays the same... but the future may change *slightly*. Sirius Black and Dumbledore are dead. Harry, Ron and Hermione are on their quest to destroy Horcruxes. Severus Snape is Headmaster. Alecto Carrow teaches Muggle Studies and her brother, Amycus, teaches the newly reformed Dark Arts class. Any mistakes within this story are purely from my faulty memory.

"Who are you?"

She watched the young man halt his progress at the question from a stranger. His demeanor was unnaturally chilly but he seemed caught off guard by the inquiry. He narrowed his icy grey eyes in mistrust.

"Who are you?" he drawled, relishing in his own Socratic response. The porter's head snapped back in surprise. He didn't expect to receive such a response, apparently used to wizards answering with their names politely.

"You can't board the Hogwarts Express without a ticket," the porter snapped back. His bushy mustache quivered in indignation.

"What are you looking at, Ginny?" Luna asked and poked her head over Ginny's shoulder to peer through the sooty window. Ginny caught sight of her mother and father and gave them a brief wave. She received one back but she found her attention span was minimal. So many things happening… so much fear and uncertainty, and here she was distracted by a boy trying to board the Hogwarts Express and receiving flak for it. He looked extremely familiar at first glance but the more she stared, his features began to distort themselves. Suddenly he didn't look familiar at all and she couldn't understand it.

"Well he's on the train," Neville answered. He stood up to retrieve Trevor, his pet toad, from the luggage rack above their heads. Ginny nodded.

"Doesn't he look familiar?" she asked.

Neville looked over at a group of younger Slytherin's boarding the train in the adjacent compartment.

"A bit, yeah," he answered absently.

She stopped talking and curled up like a cat in her seat, thinking about how she was going to get through an entire year at Hogwarts in the midst of the madness. The train chugged forward slowly, edging away from Platform 9 ¾ and her family. Percy was at the Ministry lapping up Pius Thicknesse's every word. Fred, George and Lee were on the run. Dean Thomas had never shown up to board the train and neither had the Creevy brothers. Ron was too sick with Spattergroit to attend as far anyone knew. Only those who were on the inside understood that 'Ron' was actually an attic ghoul dressed up awkwardly in Ron's pajamas and Ron was really with Harry and Hermione taking part in a top secret mission they had received from Dumbledore before he died.

Here I am going off to school like a good little girl, she thought with a twinge of anger. Death Eaters on board the train, Dumbledore dead, Severus Snape the new Headmaster- what a huge and dangerous mess she was in.

Seamus Finnigan ducked into the compartment.

"Mind if I kip in here? Me nerves are shot. I promised me Mam to stick with friends but Dean is not here, so-"

He trailed off and rubbed at the greyish circles under his eyes. Ginny and Neville nodded. Luna placed The Quibbler to the side and watched Seamus take a seat across from her.

"What are we going to do?" Neville asked. There was a gleam of anger and defiance in his eyes, something that had recently become quite normal for the once pudgy and self-conscious boy they had all previously known him to be. It was unnerving to say the least.

"DADA of course," Luna replied matter-of-factly. Seamus looked apprehensive at the idea but Neville immediately dug deep into his pocket and pulled out several Galleon coins.

Ginny smiled for the first time in weeks.