AUTHORS' NOTE: This story was written about three years ago, before Half-Blood Prince was released. The two of us (this story was co-written) took turns writing sections, so the breaks you see are where we switched authors. This story was supposed to be serious when we wrote it (in the beginning, at least), but please feel free to find the humor we discovered upon rereading recently.
Vivid red locks fell dramatically to the dusty floor as the scissors snapped together for the last time. Accomplishing her mission, Ginny Weasley swept up her leftover hair and put it in a wastebasket. She swung her head. It was a very refreshing feeling. Smiling, for reasons of her own, she opened the door and quietly slipped out.
She entered the hallway and heard the sudden outburst of doorbell. It echoed slowly through the house and finally reached the portrait of Sirius's mum. She began to scream as she always did.
"Damn," Ginny thought to herself. She tiptoed down the hall. As she passed the picture, she paused for a moment, contemplating her knifing it, but decided against it. Ginny turned around in the hallway as she felt someone tap her shoulder.
"Hello," said the familiar voice of her long-term (but secret) crush the incomparable Harry Potter. Ginny smiled.
"Nice, er, haircut," he said over the sound of Sirius's mum's screaming.
"Thanks," said Ginny slightly flirtatiously. "I did it myself; just now…don't know what Mum'll think, though."
Harry grinned. "Don't worry, I'm sure she won't notice," he said sarcastically.
"Is anyone going to answer the door, and perhaps stop that incessant noise?" Ginny sighed.
"Er, we might as well…"Harry said slowly. He and Ginny walked the rest of the length of the hall and took the stairs by storm. Ginny pulled open the door breathlessly.
Harry stared for a moment at the figure in the doorway. It was a woman that looked slightly younger than Sirius or Lupin. She had incredibly straight black hair and icy blue eyes that had eyeliner running down her cheeks, as if she had just cried for very hard, though her face looked strangely pale and not red at all. She was wearing muggle camouflage pants and a black lacy tank top. She let out a low sob and walked moved inside Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.
Emma Welling ran her hands over the familiar walls. She had some very interesting memories here, most involving furiously (that is sort of a joke on my part, but just sort of) snogging, but a couple had been just hysterically laughing to a joke that wasn't originally very funny.
It almost made her smile. Almost.
"Er…"
Ginny and Harry exchanged glances and watched her as she turned to them. "I need to talk to Tonks," she said with another sob.
"Er, she's up a couple floors, in the drawing room," said Harry, still confused.
The woman turned without another word to them and climbed the stairs.
"What was that?" Ginny asked Harry, as puzzled as he was.
"I guess it was probably someone for the Order," he said hesitantly.
Ginny looked at him. "Yes, but they don't normally come in sobbing, do they?"
Emma entered the drawing room without knocking and immediately regretted it. Remus snorted and Tonks pulled away from him suddenly. She unwrapped her arms from around his neck. She blushed a deep scarlet that clashed horribly with hot pink hair. Emma was suddenly reminded of another couple…..
She sputtered for a moment, trying to come up with an appropriate thing to say. Tonks said something softly to Remus and walked over to Emma. She hugged her unexpectedly.
"I'm really sorry," she said.
"She needs a vacation," said Harry solemnly.
Ginny looked at him. He looked back.
She burst out laughing.
A few minutes of side-splitting laughter later (for every time Ginny and Harry looked at each other, they burst out laughing), Ginny shook her head. "Still wonder what was up with her, though."
Tonks continued to hug Emma, and finally she let go.
"Do….Do you want to talk?" she said cautiously.
"N-No. Maybe tomorrow. I'll be in one of the guest rooms," Emma said looking down. She quickly exited the room and almost ran down the hall to a room, passing the hysterically laughing Ginny and Harry. She locked the door and collapsed onto the bed. Emma stayed like that for a moment and she might have even drifted asleep, but when she got up she had made her decision.
Emma brought the blade of the silver dagger that had a small snake carved into the handle. She brought it sharply down across her wrists. She called out in pain as the blood began to flow toward her fingers, still curved over the knife's hilt. The room swirled before her eyes, and she felt herself pass out.
Emma found herself in the Gryffindor common room, though it was strangely empty. She was sitting in one of the red overstuffed love-seats. She saw a figure emerge from the stairs of boy's dormitory. She smiled and found herself crying again. It was the familiar figure of the only man she had ever loved: Sirius Black.
He walked slowly over to her and sat down on the love-seat. His hair was clean and he was smiling at her.
"I've been expecting this. You always have been very emotional and rather irrational, like me. This isn't what you want. You do have to know that. It's not as bad as you would think, dying that is, and just it's not the right choice. You've got more to live for," he said putting his arm around her shoulder.
"I think I always knew that, it's just that, well, seeing you here and everything….." she trailed off. Sirius leaned forward and took Emma's hands into his hands. She went slowly forward and……and…..and……….
"I think she's waking up," said a voice as Emma slowly opened her eyes to the face of Harry Potter. She was slightly disoriented as to where she was, but she realized quickly it was St. Mungo's. Tonks came running over to her.
"Emma, how are you? Do you feel alright? We heard you yelling, so we came to see what was going on and that was how we found you. It really scared everyone, but I'd have to say that I wasn't surprised. The worst part of course was that you just happened to use one of the enchanted knives that keep going attacking you after you've dropped it. Luckily we got you here fast enough and you'll be fine. I was really worried," Tonks said very, very fast. Emma smiled slightly. She hadn't really been listening, but reliving the last moment with Sirius in her head.
"Uh huh," she said nodding her head distractedly.
A few awkward minutes passed in the hospital room in which Harry really had no idea what was going on. He listened to everyone talking about "the good old days."
Harry found his mind wandering. Ron and Hermione were up in the tea room with Ginny. Maybe he'd go get them…
"I'm going to go to the tea room," he said. Apparently he'd interrupted someone, but he didn't really care. He pulled the door open and exited.
Arriving in the lounge, he noticed Ginny sitting on a couch reading the Daily Prophet. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen.
"Hey," he said, sitting next to Ginny. "Where're Hermione and Ron? I thought they were up here…?"
Ginny smirked. "They're in an empty room out there somewhere, I dunno," she said. "Might not want to go look for them."
Harry blinked. Ginny giggled.
Harry noticed there was no one else in the lounge. Odd, he thought. He looked over at Ginny, and somehow they were considerably closer. "Er…"
Ginny turned slightly pink. She stared at the ceiling.
What happened next neither of them could explain. Harry put his arm around her neck and pulled her close. Before he knew what was going on, they were kissing.
