Disclaimer: not mine… I will not repeat this every chapter
This is a reboot. I strongly suggest rereading if you're returning from reading this long ago (last update was 2009 so that's probably all of you). Those of you who are new… thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoy my rewrite. I consider it much improved thanks to my dedicated reviewers. You poked the holes my friends and instead of trying to remove the water bucket by bucket, I figured I'd patch the holes before sailing on.
Take care!
When the war was lost by the order, when Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore were killed, when all hope seemed lost, they did not give up, because Ginevra Maria Weasley had a plan. With a candle in hand and a heart full of a dark infatuation, she would venture back and change everything, because nothing she did could make the future any worse than it was.
"Last chance," Severus Snape muttered gruffly, staring down at the petite young girl, but Ginny Weasley tilted her head back, holding his gaze fiercely. She had never been one to back down from a challenge. They'd said there was no hope. Their options had run so thin that they'd retreated to Black Manor. There was no way that they'd survive in this world much longer. It was difficult to get food and water in with so many eyes around London. A secret keeper didn't protect you when you wandered outside protection of home's walls.
"I showed you," she whispered. "You know I can do this. He won't trust you." Snape nodded, stepping out of her way.
Ginny took her place in the center of an ancient pentagram drawn in the gloomy sitting room. Against the walls old pieces of rickety furniture had been stacked and a dusty old rug was rolled up in the corner leaving the faded, termite-infested wood beneath her bare feet. Candles floated around the room as well, casting a dim light on the already dim circumstances.
The red-haired beauty closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath. She could already taste the dark magic in the cool, damp air. This was an ancient ritual, not used for thousands of years, since long before Hogwarts began. The Black Family had existed back even then and their library contained all the tools imaginable for the darkest sorcery possible. They were using one of the darkest this night.
Every color present was meant to stand for something and while Ginny had understood before in logical terms, she could feel it now, feel the meaning of each piece. The pentagram was in the center of a dark black sitting room, flowing with the black energy which symbolized power, evil, and mystery. Ginny wore green robes to symbolize growth and harmony. The orange trimmings on her robes were to signify joy, creativity, and success. Her hair was covered in a blue bandana standing for depth, stability, trust, truth, and confidence. She stayed very still as Remus stepped forward, holding a small container. He carefully touched his finger to the yellow paint they'd made and traced symbols upon her face to stand for joy, happiness, and energy. For every color, there was a meaning and for every color there was a weight upon Ginny's shoulders.
Ginny set the candle in the center and walked to her fellow order members, taking in each face. Some were crying, others as stoic and unaffected as Severus Snape. "Do it," she ordered Snape, stopping in front of him once more. He raised a shaking fist and punched her right side of her face, smearing the yellow markings of joy and happiness, then the nose, her blood spilling over the yellow symbol for energy.
Snape was the only one of them strong enough to do something so horrible and even he had tears in his eyes, not that he would ever let them fall. There couldn't be a trace of magic, not an ounce detectable. She had to be abused the normal way… the muggle way. Once Ginny's face was significantly battered and bruised, and her green robes for growth and harmony were as torn as the world around them, he stopped. There was a sadness in his eyes as Ginny stumbled backwards.
Ginny hadn't uttered a single protest as this entire mess was her idea. She and Hermione had figured it all out. Ginny had volunteered and then she'd been chosen from those who had. She had to be strong because this was her journey, one she could not fail. Being strong didn't mean being invincible though. It hurt… it hurt a lot and there were tears of pain also ruining the yellow symbols on her face, not just the blood from her nose.
To appeal to the young orphan who was significantly misused as a child Ginny, knowing him well through his diary, had to become what he was. She was going to be the embodiment of how broken and bruised he'd felt inside. She might not know everything about him, but there had been things in that darkness, things she had seen that he hadn't wanted her to see. She needed to be strong and use every ounce of cunning she had to do this.
In that moment, Ginny herself symbolized their times, joy and harmony ripped apart, power and greed taking over. She was already an orphan. All she needed was a clear show of her abuse. She took the knife from Hermione and looked at it carefully. She used a quick stroke to cut her cheek then shrugged the robes away from her neck before cutting herself on her right shoulder very near to her neck. She grimaced against the pain, as she pulled the robes up to cover that. Snape had given her a numbing potion that would keep most of the agony at bay.
"When you get there, if you get the right time, exit the alley where you should appear. He'll be in the Leaky Cauldron, having a meeting with me about some of the monsters I have raised. Tom may not have been a good guy afterwards, but he was Head Boy back then. Everyone loved him and he was nice even to people like me," Hagrid said. Ginny nodded, tightly. She opened the front of her robes to reveal the era-appropriate sleeping gown that went down to her mid-calves.
"Go to Dumbledore. He's the transfiguration professor. Go the second you can. He'll provide for you. I jus' know he will," Hagrid said tearfully, as Ginny put the knife on the left side of her stomach and drew it quickly across, cutting the nightdress as she sliced deeply into her skin, before stabbing it into her stomach and sharply pulling it out. It clattered to the ground, blood spattering everywhere. She stumbled to the center of the pentagram, bringing the last color in spades.
The last color was red, to symbolize war, power, strength, determination, and most importantly… love. Love was the most powerful form of magic in the world and she was carrying the love of all her lost friends and family members. She carried the love of everyone in this room. Love did not move dark magic though. Blood was the debt to be paid and this spell required a lot of it.
As the blood spilled over her fingers, Ginny dropped to her knees, the candle before her. She placed a handprint of blood on the opposite side of the candle, facing outwards. She then put one on each side, slightly behind her, forming an almost perfect equilateral triangle between the three bloody hands within the pentagram
Hermione, Hagrid, Bill, Snape, and Remus took their positions on each point of the pentagon. They all joined hands around her. She picked up the candle and lit it with a whispered word, grateful for the numbing potion as she stared nauseously down at all the blood… her blood. Everyone around her bowed their heads and began to chant.
Ginny bent her head low, holding the candle above her head as it glowed, coughing blood that rose to her mouth, the pain started to edge in so the magic must already be forcing out the potion. Soon it was so mind-numbing that all she could do was hold the candle shakily above her… the only light left in the room as all the other candles blew out. Ginny closed her eyes, hoping it would work, begging it to work.
Everything suddenly went black and the wind swirled around Ginny, until she felt her knees scrape on hard ground as she moved even slightly. There was no longer a candle in her hands, no longer anyone around her, and worst off there was no longer a potion keeping the pain of her injuries from her mind. There was nothing… only pain, pain, determination… and blood, a lot of blood. She had to get to the Leaky Cauldron… she had to and now it really was a matter of life or death.
BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK
Ginny fought the pain hard, struggling to her feet, looking around her. The people walking around her were just a blur. She shrugged off the robes, and muttered a wand-less incinerating charm Snape had spent three agonizing weeks teaching her. Ginny had had to leave her wand in her own time as part of her story that they had broken her wand and destroyed her books when they found out she was studying on her own. Just in case, Hermione had actually snapped her wand in half. That had been horrible, but she could most definitely accurately describe that moment if anyone asked.
She stumbled as she took the first step and fell to the ground. She continued though, dragging herself, very dizzy and light-headed, toward the end of the alley. She made it to the sidewalk before falling to her knees again. She stayed close to the shadows as people walked briskly past her.
A man tried to stop and help her but she pushed him away frantically, forcing herself to her feet, hoping none of the muggles saw how bad she was bleeding and their morals kicked in. She saw the door, looming wonderfully ahead of her, and she stumbled towards it.
Once she put her hand on the door, the people who had been looking at her looked around confused. They couldn't see her. She tried to get up, to reach the handle, but she couldn't. It was so far away. She was beginning to lose consciousness. She pleaded with the door, in a slightly-mad voice. "Please please just open," she begged.
As if in answer to her prayer, the door swung open, a man's laughing voice stopping short at the sight of her. She was grabbed by two sets of strong arms and drawn into the room a few feet. She tried to get up as she felt the bustle about her as people came to her aid. She tried pushing herself up with her arms, but fell back tiredly to the ground, her strength spent. It wouldn't do for her to die before she could change anything, except of course raise Tom's disgust for muggles, like he needed any more than that.
Voices, there were voices all around her, hushed and confused, but no one touched her. No one came close. All there was was confusion… confusion and fear. Suddenly a voice rose above all the others and commanded them all to move, a voice that was painfully familiar. She felt herself lifted up and looked blearily up at the face of her rescuer, amazed at who she saw. So Hagrid was accurate and the spell even more… shockingly-so. That was unexpected. She couldn't focus on being surprised though or anything else.
"Is she a witch?" another voice asked.
"Of course she is you dolt, why else would she have been clawing at the door instead of getting herself to a hospital," the eloquent, yet terribly annoyed voice said. She felt a hard surface beneath her as she was laid down upon it, her head supported by a large, gentle hand.
"Who did this to you?" the voice said, softly in her ear.
"They-they did," Ginny forced out weakly, trying to keep her story straight with her pain only swirling with pain.
"Were they muggles?" he continued. "Was it a spell or a knife?" he pressed.
"Knife… muggles," she uttered, before fading into darkness.
Thank you for reading. Read on as I have uploaded all the re-written chapters from the original story and one more.