Back to the Past
Description: AU. Ginny wakes up to find herself in the Gryffindor girls' dormitories - which is normal enough, except the date is 1975. Why is she here? Who had sent her here? Why does everybody insist she had been going to school with them since their first year? What role do Harry's parents and friends have in all this? But most importantly - why does she remember absolutely nothing?

Chapter One

Ginny woke up with a start. Drenched in sweat, her clothes sticking uncomfortably to her body, heaving as though she had just ran a marathon. She felt furious, she felt hatred – her mind was reeling, trying to remember what had caused her to feel this way. She had no recollection of the events prior to her wake-up, but she had a feeling that whatever happened before it was the reason she was here. As to the feelings – she had no idea what had caused them. Her mind came up absolutely blank when she tried to remember. It could have been a nightmare, she supposed.

She then stopped her furious brainstorming, her fury dissipating, and looked around. She recognized her surroundings very clearly and they gave her a false sense of security. The tapestry, the drapes, the feel of the bed she was sitting on – it was, without a doubt, the Gryffindor girls' dormitory at Hogwarts.

A smile spread across her face. How foolish it suddenly seemed to suspect some tragedy or wrongdoing of any sort when she had obviously just had a nightmare and was unbelievably tired – which is why she couldn't suddenly recall the previous night's events, and her fury and hatred must have been caused by whatever nightmare she had had. A voice in her head told her that was not so, but she chose not to listen to it – where else on Earth could she be? Her hunches had led her astray before. This must have been one of those times again, she thought. She tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but her hunch only grew stronger and would not let her rest. Eventually, irritated, she sat up and pulled the drapes of her four-poster bed aside and stepped into the room.

The silvery light of the moon that came in through the window lit up the otherwise not too spacious room. She did not even need to use her wand to create light.

At first glance, everything seemed perfectly in order. Her three roommates sleeping, snoring ever so slightly, the drapes drawn so as to block the light coming in through the window – but something didn't feel right. Should she pull the drapes of one of their beds and check who was sleeping in it? She took careful, uncertain steps towards the bed of one of her friends, wondering if she was being paranoid or if she knew something she couldn't suddenly remember that would explain why she was acting the way she was and feeling the things she was… She pulled the drapes, and found a blonde girl sleeping there. She looked familiar at first glance, like an exact replica of one of her year mates, but something wasn't quite right – before she could figure out what, she saw a shadow flitting across the room. Her heart skipped a beat – what on Earth was happening? Who was the girl sleeping in her best friend Carla's bed? Where was Carla? Where was she, Ginny?

She started taking steps towards the place where the shadow had dissipated, wanting to find out as much as possible about the unknown and inexplicable apparition. There was no one else in the room, up and about, moving, just her – everybody else was asleep unaware of the potential danger lurking right beside their beds. She had to investigate; it was much safer than going back to bed and pretending everything was alright when something was clearly amiss. She was mentally preparing herself for the encounter, and several hexes were already on the tip of her tongue. She was only waiting for the opportunity to use them.

There was nothing in the corner where she had seen the shadow disappear. Where on Earth can it be?, she wondered. Then she felt something float through her and a chill went down her spine. Her entire body felt suddenly felt frozen. She had for a moment actually thought – or rather hoped – that the shadow had been an illusion, a trick of her mind; anything other than reality. But it was there. It was real. And it was playing with her – at the realization her fury mounted. It lit up her body, it burned the ice that had seemed to freeze her down, making her unable to move, rooting her to the spot – she made her way towards the shadow angrily, her wand at the ready, and said, "Show yourself!"

She could see the fluorescent green eyes and the naughty smile of the creature; the smile froze on its face, hidden in the dark, when she saw Ginny fearlessly approaching. She marched towards it like a warrior with nothing to lose but everything to gain. She opened her mouth to hex him when the door opened with a loud bang, and the shadow and Ginny instinctively turned to look to see what the source of the unexpected noise was. She saw the faces and torsos of two boys that were at the same time reminiscent of two people she knew but at the same time, somehow, completely different – the realization shocked her and before she could turn back to deal with the shadow, she saw that it had used the opportunity to flit out the window. She was seething with rage at her own slowness and the boys' interruption.

"What was that?" the bespectacled boy asked, fixing his round glasses on the bridge of his nose. Ginny stared at him, a completely different kind of dread then before washing over her. The boy looked just like… just like… she gulped hard, dreading to imagine the implications of her current discovery. Her mind was reeling.

"Yeah, Ginny, what was that?" the other, considerably more handsome boy asked, looking straight at the redhead. The girl's eyes widened, her heart skipped a beat, and she was frozen in shock, looking at the two boys as though they were ghosts –

"Cat got your tongue?" the handsome boy asked playfully. His tone, his demeanor, the way he looked at her seemed to suggest that they had known each other since forever, and harbored close ties.

"S-Sirius?" she asked, feeling a bead of cold sweat trickle down her head. Her body felt warm in contrast.

"Yeah?" she asked when she finally got to her senses.

She did not need to ask who the other one was to know.

She felt sick. Her mind was reeling, she felt dizzy, about to drop to the floor in shock and exhaustion – where the hell was she? What the hell was happening? "Take me to Dumbledore," she said.

"What?" James Potter demanded. "Why would you ever wanna go there?"

"Could you three shut up?" a deep, irritated female voice demanded.

The three of them turned in the direction of the voice and Ginny discovered its source to be the blonde girl, the drapes of whose bad she had drawn to take a peek at her. Ginny suddenly knew why the blonde had seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time – she looked just like Romilda Vane, expect with a less prominent chin and softer, gentler features and much, much lighter hair. Her voice was as aggressive and assertive as her – she was scared to think about it – her future daughter's.

"No, sorry, we can't," James said, and Sirius sniggered. What a bunch of brats, Ginny thought irritably. Thank God Harry had never acted so immaturely. It was part of why she had – before she could finish her train of thought, however, James's impatient voice snapped her out of her reverie.

"Come on," the boy said in what Ginny considered to be a whiny, imploring tone. "Let's go to the kitchens! We're bored!"

"Go then and be bored without me," Ginny said snappishly.

"Don't be so mean," James said mockingly. Ginny felt uncomfortable. This is Harry's father, the thought registered in her brain but the fact's implications have not yet, at least not in their entirety. "You know you love us," he continued, ever so cheerfully. Ginny felt the sudden urge to strangle him – how could they be so happy when she was experiencing the greatest shock in her life?

"OK, quit whining, you git," Ginny snapped, pissed at their condescending tone of voice, or at least what she imagined to be condescending. The two boys sniggered in appreciation as though they appreciated insults more than compliments – not just when it came to others, but themselves as well.

Boys, Ginny thought, rolling her eyes. Treat them like dirt and they'll stick to the bottom of your shoe. "OK, I'll keep it down," she said, turning back to the blonde girl. The girl was just grinning at her as though she thought Ginny was some sort of great heroine for talking back to the boys. How was that some sort of big accomplishment?, Ginny wondered, shaking her head at the girl's behavior internally.

She wondered who this girl really was. What all this really was. She was still half-heartedly hoping that this was some practical joke, or a bad dream and everything could easily be fixed as soon as the one responsible for this realized his error and tried to make it right. However, in her heart of hearts, she knew that she was only setting herself up for severe disappointment, holding out for an easy way out.

"I'm coming," Ginny then said, turning back to the boys. She needed to calm down, slow down her furiously reeling mind and suppress the emotions of panic and desperation threating to take over her, and figure out what was going on. Everything was incomprehensible; instead of trying to solve the mystery, however, she opted for another strategy. Going with the flow, and hoping to have the mystery of where she was, what she was doing here, unfold along the way. She could not think of any other way to solve her current situation. She was not Hermione –

Hermione. Whom I will never see again. Whom I will never talk to again…

NO!

Enough thinking about her. I have a mission to accomplish, and that is my best bet if I want to go back to the world I came from.

She summoned all her willpower to shake away the negative emotions threatening to ruin her mission, forced a cheery, confident smile on her face and climbed under the Cloak with the three boys.

A/N: What do you think? Waiting to hear your opinions.