Disclaimer: Harry Potter unfortunately belongs to the beautiful and talented J.K. Rowling, and not me, though I sincerely wish it did.
So, to my non-existent readers, I present to you, Once Back, Twice Over, a Harry/Ginny Fanfiction, with lots of time travel, Marauders, Minnie, Snape, Lovely Lily, and, of course, our very own Lord Moldyshorts and his imminent demise! Yay!
Please read and review, as it is much appreciated, and if any of you lovely non-existent folks haven't read it yet, I very much recommend Commentarius by B.C. Daily. It's a great story and guaranteed to make you laugh.
Now, onto the story!
Ginny Weasley was known for her strength. For her boldness. For her bravery. For her loyalty. For her great Bat-Bogey Hex. But she was not known to cry.
But today, January 1st of 1998, was different than other days. It was the day the Final Battle ended. The day that everyone who had been fighting stood up and mourned for lost loved ones, and mentally thanked Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, for defeating Lord Voldemort at last, and ending his reign of terror on their land.
But Ginny was oblivious to all of this. She hunched over Fred's dead body, alone in the stillness of the barren landscape, crying bitter tears of regret and pain, thinking they had lost, and that Harry was dead.
"Ginny."
Ginny kept her head down, and didn't move until she felt a soft hand on her shoulder.
She heard Hermione murmur her name again and looked up this time, her chocolate brown eyes dull and bloodshot.
"Ginny," she started, but the red haired girl cut her off.
"Please," she gasped softly. "Don't."
That one word held all the pain and suffering she was enduring and Hermione silenced, looking on with sympathy.
They sat that way a long time, and they were not disturbed. No doubt Hermione had scared everyone away.
Finally Ginny spoke.
"It's my fault," she said, her voice cracking. Hermione sighed.
"It wasn't your fault Ginny," she said kindly. "You couldn't have known the wall would fall at that moment and on top of Fred. You're not to blame."
But Ginny shook her head.
"I didn't mean that," she rasped. "I meant-I meant-Harry!" at that one word she collapsed, sobbing into a flummoxed Hermione's arms.
"Ginny," she started. "What do you mean? Harry's-" but Ginny sat up suddenly, stopping Hermione's words in her tracks with the murderous rage in her eyes. Thankfully, it was not directed at her.
"I'm going to kill him!" she spat. "I'm going to kill that Tom Riddle!"
Hermione was unsure what was going on, but obviously sensing that her friend was emotionally unstable at that moment, she decided that telling her that Tom Riddle (a.k.a. Lord Voldyshorts) was dead might calm her down. Definitely not the brightest idea on her part.
"Ginny, Voldemort's dead," she said carefully, expecting her to calm down. What she did not expect, was for Ginny to jump to her feet and start mumbling to herself.
"I need to kill him!" she said fiercely. "If I can't do it here, then I'll do it somewhere else. Yes, I'll go back and I'll kill him!" she smiled, and it wasn't a smile of jubilation, it a smile that struck fear into the very center of Hermione's heart.
"I'll kill him!" this last promise was yelled at the sky, then, with one last look at a stunned Hermione, Ginny ran. She ran as fast as she could, into the Forbidden Forest and beyond, to who knows where, leaving Hermione kneeling on the ground next to a dead corpse, and wondering what the bloody hell had just happened.