I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, searching for the battle that raged just outside of the room of requirements. The castle was nothing like that one that I'd spent nearly 6 years in. The paintings that usually adorned the walls with witches and wizards alike hung empty if they were still hanging at all. Small fires had sprung up in the halls where spells had missed their intended targets and on the floor laid the bodies of those who were unlucky enough to be hit. No one I'd seen yet was conscious.
Constant vigilance. I thought to myself, almost laughing at the advice a Death Eater in disguise once imparted upon an impressionable third year me. That advise soon came in handy as I rounded the corner that would lead to the Headmaster's Office. There stood Snape, the slimy old murderous git, looking around desperately. I took advantage of his distraction.
"Reducto!" I shouted thinking it would hit him squarely in the chest, I was not prepared for the lightning fast shield charm he threw up. My spell bounced off of the shield easily and boomeranged back toward me. I jumped out of the way just in time, but not quick enough to escape the falling rocks that fell from the ceiling. They hit me hard and knocked me to the ground. I spat out the blood in my mouth and felt a warm stream of blood dripping from a fresh wound on my head.
"Ginny, you stupid girl," Snape said as he ran over toward me. He reached over to grab my hand.
"Get away from me." My wand was nearly a foot away, and my head was fuzzy, but growing up sixteen years in a house full of brothers taught me one thing, and that was how to throw a punch.
"Shit," I heard Snape say as my fist made a connection with his jaw. "Hold still," I lashed out again, this time hitting him square in the nose, but I felt a bone in my hand pop. The sharp pain that followed proved that I was sporting a fresh break. "ENOUGH! Petrificus Totalus." and my body was bound.
"Severus?" A voice down the hall called.
"What do you want Lestrange?" As he stood to turn around I felt a chill come over me and I quickly realized that I had been disillusioned. What the fuck is going on?
"Thought I heard people down here?" Rodolphus Lestrange spoke again, his voice sent shivers down my spine. I remembered him from the Department of Mysteries. The things he did would give Severus Snape himself nightmares.
"It wouldn't be the first time you've heard things now would it?"
"I could have sworn-" Just then a crashing came from below us, I felt the floor tremble and a scream cry out.
"That'll be your cue, Lestrange. On your way." Snape said almost smoothly, but in the back of his voice, there was something there. Could it be fear? No, Snape would never fear.
"I think I'll wait here. See what you're up to."
"If the Dark Lord had not ordered me here do you think I would not be down there fighting alongside you. I do not need supervision, Lestrange. I have proved my loyalty." Snape snapped at the sadistic man down the hall. Another burst of shouting was heard from below.
"The Dark Lord puts his trust in the wrong person." There was a rustling as Lestrange came close. I could feel his boots standing on my hair, but I dare not make a sound. Snape was one thing, but Rodolphus Lestrange was a beast I dare not attempt to battle.
"You dare question the Dark Lord Lestrange?"
"I-"
"Get the hell out of here. Prove your loyalty to him, not to me you coward." I heard a small scuffle as one of the men stormed away and then another chill came over me. "Smart girl, staying quiet."
I looked up at my former professor, still unable to move, and gave him a withering glare that served to say Go fuck yourself.
"We haven't much time," Snape said, more to himself than to me. I heard him pick up my wand, i cursed myself for ever letting go of it, and he levitated me behind him. "Albus," the gargoyle lept to the side and a spiraling staircase appeared which Snape climbed. When we reached the top Snape laid me on a couch near the fireplace. Still unable to move my head I used my peripheral vision to look around me, the office looked the same as it had when I snuck in earlier this year. Only this time, Snape was standing by Dumbledore's portrait speaking in hushed whispers. "It is time sir, he is fearing for the snake's life, just as you said. We have to do it now, if we don't it will all be for nothing."
"If you wish for her to cooperate, maybe you remove the spell, Severus. I find women are much more agreeable when not being held captive." The portrait responded I could hear laughter in his voice.
"Sir, there is no time for a fight. She must go soon."
"She will not fight you. Am I right Miss. Weasley?" The portrait addressed me directly.
Still bound I managed a "Humph."
"That is sufficient enough, go ahead Severus." After a moment I felt the feeling return back to my fingers, I wiggled them, then slowly the rest of my body followed suit. I started to jump up, but then I felt an unseen force preventing me from doing so.
"Remove the spell, Snape." I fought against it, to no avail, and likely looked a right git as I did so.
"Miss. Weasley, please relax. We're all old friends here." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"I will not relax in the presence of a murderer!" I fought harder this time and managed to almost stand.
"MISS WEASLEY YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!" The booming voice of the late Albus Dumbledore sounded over me as I fell back onto the couch.
"Fine." I said, "But only because I have no wand."
"You are just as I remember, Ginevra." His eyes twinkled again. "I have a mission for you, what I intend to be the last mission the Order of the Phoenix will ever undertake. I'm afraid you must accept before I tell you the details."
My heart swelled at the idea of helping the Order I'd been forbidden to be a part of since my fourth year. Finally, I would be useful to Harry and my family. "I accept"
"Severus," Dumbledore said.
"Do you know what Potter is hunting?" Snape said.
"And so what if I do?" I spat at him.
"We haven't the time, Ginny, please," Snape spoke as if he knew me as if there was a camaraderie between us which there wasn't. "He's hunting Horcruxes." my face flushed with confusion, "When he rose to power, the Dark Lord split his soul into many pieces and hid them in mundane objects. It makes him difficult to kill."
My face flushed with confusion, why would Snape want to kill Voldemort? Hadn't he murdered one of the most powerful wizards of our age in the Dark Lord's name less than a year ago? What game was this? "I don't believe you," I replied.
"He put them into an old family ring, the diadem of Ravenclaw, an old diary." Snape began.
"A diary?" I asked. My mind was reeling, "Like the one from-"
"The very same," Snape responded. He moved toward me quickly and I almost jumped away but he held out a letter. "Open it."
I turned the envelope over in my hands. It bore the telltale signs of age. The edges were frayed, corners rumpled, and it was stained. On it was my name Ginevra Weasley the handwriting was my own. How is this possible? I thought to myself. I didn't move to open it.
"Ginny please, there is no time." There it was again, my enemy speaking as if he was my friend.
"Why do you call me that? You don't know me." I asked. Below us, a thundering crash was heard and everyone in the room, even those on the wall, jumped.
"I did," Snape replied.
"How?" Snape stared down at the letter in my hands. Finally, my curiosity won and I opened it.
Ginny,
There is so much I wish to say, so much I wish to tell you, but there isn't the time. Trust Severus, he would never let anyone harm you. Do not let your fear of the future affect your present. Let yourself be happy, it will happen. Change what you must, but remember the consequences of your choices.
Good luck, it will all turn out fine in the end.
Ginny
October 11, 1981
"How is this possible?" I asked, gaping at the letter in my hand.
"You were there Ginny, my seventh year. You were my friend, and their's." Snape's eyes flashed with darkness for only a second. "Take this." He handed me a small drawstring bag, black. "It will keep you comfortable."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"There is a book that resides somewhere in Hogwarts, with a leather binding that whispers with dark magic." Dumbledore began, "A young woman by the name of Ginevra Cole fell into my office in the afternoon of September 15, 1977, covered in blood and soot. She told me that the book held the secret to defeating the Dark Lord."
"That was me?"
"Yes." Dumbledore smiled.
"Time travel?"
"How else?" Snape snapped.
"So all you want me to do is tell you about a book?" I was baffled, committing an extreme amount of time travel all for one small conversation seemed silly, stupid even.
"You'll find that there is much to do, many choices to make." Dumbledore smiled, "And it will not be easy to find this book. It will take time, you cannot let me forget Ginny. The book has a way of evading capture from those who wish to destroy it. You must ensure that I find it."
"Won't I forget about it then?" I asked, immediately finding the hole in the story.
"It seems that you will not. Now you must go, there isn't any time." Dumbledore said.
"You'll take this," Snape hurriedly handed me the bag, my wand, and a roll of parchment. "Give the note to Albus when you arrive. Tell him everything."
"Okay." I still couldn't wrap my head around it at all.
"The quill on my desk will leave in one minutes time. Touch it, and do not let go for dear life. The spell is called tempus itinerantur, do not forget that Ginny. Are you listening?"
"Tempus Itinerantur, I got it." I jerked my hands away from his quickly, the letter may have said to trust him, but it never said to touch him.
"Find me there Ginny. Save me from him. I fear without you I would have been-" He doubled over in extreme pain clutching his forearm. "Please, Ginny. Don't forget."
"I won't." I looked at the man who had turned my favorite place in the world into a living hell and did not see him standing before me. I only saw a boy crippled by pain and fear. He walked forward and clutched me tightly against his chest.
"Do not leave me to him, Ginny, I beg you." He whispered quietly. He pressed a kiss to my head and stepped away quickly. He chest covered in my blood, it was smeared on his face. "The Dark Lord Calls." He turned to apparate away and stopped quickly, "I will never say it again for I was a foolish boy. But thank you." With a pop, he was gone.
"What the fuck?"
"Miss. Weasley!" Dumbledore shouted just as the quill on Snape's desk started to glow. "Do not forget."
"Goodbye sir," I grabbed the quill. The room began to spin and I felt as if my insides might burst. I clutched everything Snape had given me tightly afraid that it would slip away. My head began to pound, and I felt my lungs constrict. The pounding in my head made my wound pump more blood, and for a second I felt as if I would fall unconscious. I wouldn't let that happen. I fought to keep my eyes open, forced myself to breathe the tiniest breaths, and just when I felt that I would give in to the darkness everything stopped and I fell hard onto the stone floor of the headmaster's office.
"Oh good heavens," I heard a familiar voice say.
With the only strength I had in me, I pulled my head up from the floor to see a pair of twinkling blue eyes that offered me the greatest comfort during the darkest times in my life. "You're alive," I managed to whisper before the world went very dark.