"I took this from the Department of Mysteries," her mum was saying frantically, pushing a strange black box into her hands. "It's the object we've been searching for to get a note back in time. Write to me; fix this." It was all she had time to say before they both had to duck, as the elder Nott has nearly spotted them. The two of them were the last Weasleys, running for their lives across the Forbidden Forest. The centaurs had helped hide them for a while, but they had just been biding time.
"I'm going to distract them." Ginny tried to stop her only remaining family member, but Mrs. Weasley was determined. They both knew their only hope was this untested device from the Department of Mysteries. Ginny took a crumpled up piece of parchment that was already written on and wrote on the back. She kept it incredibly simple. "This is your daughter; rest of family dead from Voldemort. Make sure Fudge is not elected and inform everyone you can that Voldemort comes back in June 1995. Triwizard Tournament a ruse. Dad calls you Mollywobbles." She added the last bit to prove her identity; she knew it was an old nickname.
"What do we have here?" Ginny heard a familiar werewolf say as he spotted her. In response, she did what they had discussed: she closed her eyes and pictured her mum's face and thought the year 1980 as she shoved the note into the box.
She woke up uncomfortably curled against a tree trunk, back hunched with the curve of the bark. A voice was calling, "Ginevra! Ginevra!" She woke up to see Pansy Parkinson staring down at her, with a concerned expression on her face Ginny had never seen before.
"Oh, thank Salazar. You didn't move for ages- I was half-worried you were dead!" Me too, Ginny agreed silently. It had worked! There was no Death Eater ready to kill her—or worse.
Ginny sat up, stretching out to try to work out the uncomfortable knots that had formed on her body. "You didn't think to check my pulse?" Ginny responded dryly.
Pansy rolled her eyes. "I checked your pulse. I was exaggerating, but I was worried about you. Do I want to know why you're wearing a Gryffindor tie and look like you just had a row with the giant squid?"
Ginny looked down at her red-and-gold tie and then back up at Pansy, who was wearing a set of emerald green dress robes. "Is there another tie I should be wearing?"
Pansy chuckled. "Seriously, we need to go. I'm supposed to side-along Apparate you, remember? Come." Pansy offered her hand and Ginny took it. Pansy immediately yanked her up and started dragging her toward the edge of the forest, probably to get out of the range of Hogwarts' Anti-Apparition wards.
What had changed to make me friends with Pansy Parkinson? Perhaps the Houses aren't as divided as they were in my time, Ginny thought to herself. She walked quietly behind Pansy, not wanting to draw any untoward attention to herself before she had a chance to acclimate to her new surroundings. Finally, they reached the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. Pansy didn't warn her before she felt a painful squeeze. She screamed involuntarily as she felt her chest compress. She couldn't breathe; she felt like she was in a box that was closing in around her. The sensation stopped almost as quickly as it had begun, and Ginny became aware of Pansy's bewildered expression matched by none other than Draco Malfoy. Pansy had apparated her into what appeared to be someone's bedroom. The decor was silver and white, with modern furnishings that clashed with the intricate crown molding.
"Merlin, Gin, are you alright?" Even stranger than the high pitch of Draco's voice was when he rushed over to her and embraced her in a tight hug. "Why are you screaming? What happened to you?" He let her go reluctantly and turned his attention to Pansy, his eyebrows knitting together in anger. "I ask you for one favor, and you can't even get Gin here in one piece?"
"I found Ginevra like this, Draco. It's not my fault your fiancée's idea of a prank involves some sort of grime and a Gryffindor tie." Fiancée? In reference to me? And Draco Malfoy? She would have laughed or cried at the idea just hours before, but in this strange new world, it seemed that Draco Malfoy may genuinely care about her.
Draco continued to glare at Pansy as though she hadn't said anything at all. "Will you leave us? I think you've done enough here."
After Pansy left, Draco cast Muffliato quietly and turned to her. "What's happened?"
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, not wanting to get into this discussion with her previous nemesis. "Everything's fine. Like Pansy said, I was planning a prank."
Draco didn't look at all affected by her speech. Instead, he paced and then whispered, "Tempus," showing that it was nearly a quarter to eight. "We have to be downstairs in twenty minutes," Draco muttered more to himself than Ginny. "I'm concerned you've been Confounded." He looked at her for response but Ginny didn't know what to say to that. "You didn't bring a change of clothes?"
"Er—no," Ginny replied. Draco inhaled sharply, pacing and nodding to himself. "I'll get you a pair of dress robes from my mother. You… Take a quick shower. We can't be late." With that, he left the room.
Ginny tried to remain calm and follow Draco's instructions. Later. You can think about all of this later, she kept repeating to herself like a mantra. She stepped into the bathroom. It was bright white, with a glass shower door. The room smelled like Draco. The thought came to her almost immediately, although she didn't realize before this moment she could even identify what Draco Malfoy's scent was. Still, it hit Ginny almost immediately: ink, vanilla, and some sort of musk. When she stepped into the shower, she had to steady herself against the wall. There were two shelves. One had shampoo, conditioner, and shaving cream that clearly belonged to Draco. The other… belonged to her. It didn't have any of the shampoos, conditioners, or soaps that she normally used, but they were clearly of her choosing. The shampoo was for red hair specifically, and when she opened it, it smelled of sandalwood and birch. Her favorite. Later, later, later, she repeated to herself as she quickly washed her body and hair. She stepped out of the shower quickly, wrapping herself in a deep purple towel for coverage. She cast a Drying Charm on her hair and body, and then left the bathroom. She had heard shuffling on the other side of the door, and so was unsurprised when Draco was sitting on his bed with a pair of dress robes folded neatly on his lap that were the same shade of purple as the towel she had wrapped around herself.
Draco handed her the robes and looked at her in a way that made her feel like she was under a microscope. She tightened her hold on her towel subconsciously. To her surprise, Draco started laughing, breaking the tension. "Don't worry, Gin," he said through laughter, "I'll give you the room so you can change." He went into the bathroom and closed the door, leaving her with the robes in the bedroom.
She slipped out of her towel and into the beautiful dress robes Draco had laid out. Ginny noticed there was no underwear laid out for her, but decided it would have to do for now. "You can come out now!" She shouted.
Draco opened the door to the bathroom quickly. "We're supposed to be downstairs in three minutes, and we both know how much the Dark Lord loves tardiness." Ginny felt like she had been hit by a particularly nasty curse. The Dark Lord? Ginny had nearly managed to convince herself that everything was different and that's why she was friends with Pansy and Draco because the alternative was unthinkable: that everything was the same, but she was different.
"Gin?" Draco looked at her with that strange expression again. It was almost… tender. "You're ghastly pale." He felt her forehead. "You don't feel warm. Look, if it were up to me, I would have you rest, and then figure out what happened to you, but we don't have time. Can you do a quick Glamour Charm for your makeup and hair? Then I'm just going to have you stick right by my side, alright?" Ginny nodded reluctantly, performing the Charms she had learned for the Yule Ball. Draco crossed the room and rummaged through one of his dresser drawers while she worked. He brought back a diamond-encrusted barrette. "Your favorite," he said softly as he slipped it into her hair. He kissed her on the forehead. "We'll talk later, alright, Gin?" He searched her face for some sort of confirmation.
"Of course," Ginny responded meekly, trying to steel herself for whatever awaited her beyond these white walls.