Author's note: Chapter 2 for you! Thanks for reading, and please feel free to review!
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It had been nearly three weeks since Ginny had first had the dream about the mysterious girl with green eyes. In that time, there had been no less than six nights in which the very same dream had appeared during Ginny's slumber. She couldn't understand why she kept having it. It didn't really seem to hold any important information, and it always ended right after the girl said hello to Ginny. But there was just something about it, something strangely intriguing and familiar about the way the girl spoke to her. However, she tried not to think on it too terribly often as her O.W.L.s were soon approaching.
After her row with Dean, they had not spoken to each other for three days. Dean came to her on the fourth evening in the common room and apologised to her for reacting the way he had. Ginny had forgiven him, but she was still upset that he had not believed her and she was not about to let him forget it. As a result, their relationship was very strained. Ginny couldn't help but notice the way that he would look at Harry with daggers in his eyes. He no longer said anything to Ginny about it, but she could tell that he was still just as suspicious and jealous as he had been on the night in the library, if not more so.
Ginny was finding it difficult to have a comfortable conversation with Dean, and she also had developed feelings of resentment, annoyance, and dread whenever she was supposed to be spending time with him. She was beginning to think about breaking it off with him, and it seemed that Dean had picked up on this. He was trying desperately to hang on to her, he was attempting to be as chivalrous and attentive towards her as he possibly could. However instead of making her swoon, it irritated her to an astounding level.
Ginny had always been a very independent girl, she knew how to take care of herself and she didn't like it when others tried to do it for her. She had grown up with six older brothers, she was the only girl, and because of that she was tough and liked to do things on her own. So Dean's idea of romantic displays of chivalry, however well intended they might have been, fueled a burning temper inside her, that only worsened the growing rift between them.
One afternoon while Dean was walking Ginny to Charms, as they were headed down the stairs to the fourth floor, he noticed that she had a few heavy textbooks under her arm. Thinking this was a perfect opportunity to show her how much he wanted to make it up to her, to fix their relationship he smiled and said, "Ginny, why don't you let me carry your books for you."
"No, thank you Dean," Ginny said, as she rounded the corner.
"Aw, come on Gin, here let me take them from you," Dean replied, reaching down for them, but Ginny pulled them out of his reach and continued to walk. Her face was beginning to get hot, and she could feel frustration bubbling up in her stomach.
"Dean, I said no thank you."
Dean, who had not noticed the tone of irritation in her voice, grinned. He was not going to give up that easily.
"Please, m'lady, it would be my honour to carry your books to class for you," he said dipping into a bow. He reached for the books again and this time he grabbed them, Ginny however gripped them even tighter, and so he pulled hard on them. In a flash of pages the books went flying into the air and crashed to the floor, spilling the homework that Ginny had stuffed into them, everywhere.
Ginny whipped around and stood facing him, her eyes blazing with fury and her face flushed scarlet. The stupid grin that had come across Dean's face in embarrassment soon faded as she glowered at him.
"DEAN! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! NOW ALL MY HOMEWORK IS MIXED UP! I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF CARRYING MY OWN RUDDY BOOKS, YOU PRAT! I DIDN'T ASK FOR OR NEED YOUR HELP AND I MOST CERTAINLY DIDN'T WANT IT! NOW GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME BEFORE I HEX YOU!" Ginny screamed at him, several passing second-years stopped to gape at them. Dean cowered and bent down to try and help her pick up the scattered parchment. She slapped his hands away, and glared at him again.
"GO AWAY DEAN! JUST GO AWAY FROM ME!"
Dean stood up slowly, looking like a whipped puppy and walked away from her down the corridor.
As Ginny was angrily snatching up the mess on the floor, Professor McGonagall burst from her classroom, she looked up and down the corridor, when she spotted Ginny she put her hands on her hips and walked over to her in a huff.
"Miss Weasley!" McGonagall said.
Ginny looked up at the Professor towering over her and she felt her stomach sink.
"Was that your voice I heard, so rudely screaming right in front of my classroom?!"
"Yes, Professor," answered Ginny, her voice small.
"I am currently giving an exam to my third years and it is very difficult for them to concentrate when someone is shouting in the corridor! Five points from Gryffindor, and detention tonight," McGonagall scolded fiercely.
"But Professor I have Quidditch practice and the match for the House Cup is right around the corner," protested Ginny.
"Well, you should have thought of that before you lost your temper, Miss Weasley."
"You're right, I'm very sorry for disrupting your exam, Professor," sighed Ginny.
"Thank you, I appreciate your apology, but you must remember to be more considerate in the corridors. Now hurry along, you don't want to be late to your next lesson and risk anymore detentions." Ginny nodded, and with that Professor McGonagall hurried back into her classroom and closed the door behind her.
Ginny silently cursed herself and gathered the rest of her things before hurrying to Charms, to which she was very nearly late. As she took her seat, she sighed and felt another surge of anger toward Dean. She had been looking forward to practice all day, she needed a good ride on her broom, with all the studying she had to do lately, Quidditch practice was her one and only solace. She could mount her broom and rocket into the sky with nothing but the bludgers to worry about. Now instead of the carefree, wonderful paradise that was Quidditch, she had detention.
"Bollocks," she said quietly to herself as Professor Flitwick began the lesson.
Later as Ginny came out of the Charms classroom and out into the third floor corridor she heard someone calling her name. She turned to see Hermione walking toward her.
"Ginny, McGonagall told me to give this to you," said Hermione as she handed Ginny a small slip of parchment.
"Thanks," she said as she opened it up to see what her punishment for the evening was. "Detention with Slughorn," she sighed, "I suppose it could be worse."
"I guess that means you'll be missing Quidditch practice then," said Hermione trying to be sympathetic.
"Yeah, Harry's not going to be happy. I know he had something planned especially for the chasers tonight. Argh, why couldn't I have just kept my big mouth shut!" Ginny complained, as she and Hermione headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.
"I'm sure Harry, will understand. And even if he doesn't, it's not as if he's going to be angry at you for it, Ginny the World's Greatest Chaser can do no wrong in his eyes," Hermione said with a smirk.
Ginny rolled her eyes.
"What did you get detention for anyway?" Hermione asked, as they started down the marble staircase.
"I was shouting in the corridor in front of McGonagall's classroom, she was giving an exam and she was not happy that I interrupted."
"No, I imagine she was not. Why were you shouting?" Hermione inquired, her voice full of curiosity.
Ginny sighed.
"Dean set me off. He was trying to carry my books again, and this time he pulled them straight out of my arms," explained Ginny through gritted teeth.
"Oh I see," Hermione said quietly as she took a seat at the Gryffindor table.
"I know that he's just trying to be a gentleman, and attentive and whatever, but it just really gets under my skin. I'm not a child. I can open doors for myself, I like to choose my own seat, and I certainly can handle lifting a few textbooks on my own," Ginny said sitting down across from Hermione.
"Well, it could also be that you are," Hermione hesitated, "just a bit sensitive when it comes to Dean lately.
"I know I am. And it's not fair to him, but ever since that night we fought and he told me he loved me, I just feel annoyed with him all the time. And he's been really clingy, it's driving me mad!" Ginny explained as she piled boiled potatoes onto her plate.
"Well, maybe it's time to move on," Hermione replied.
"I've been thinking about that a lot lately, but I don't know. I just...we've been together quite a long time and," Ginny leaned in close and spoke in a low voice so that only Hermione could hear her, "he did tell me he loved me. I'd feel sort of guilty and a bit like a terrible person for ending it, as that's when things really started down hill."
"Well, I don't think you'd be a terrible person for it. I mean if you don't love him, then you don't love him. But if you don't even like him anymore, you need to tell him," said Hermione.
"You're right. I need a few days to think about it first, though," Ginny concluded, after taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
"Hey Hermione, hey Ginny," said a voice from behind them. Ginny turned to see Harry, sitting down next to her.
"Hello Harry, where's Ron?" Hermione asked.
"Dunno, he jumped inside a broom cupboard to avoid Lavender in the corridor on our way down here. I reckon he should be along in a minute," said Harry as he began to reach for the steak and kidney pie.
"Harry, I've got some bad news," Ginny sighed, as she slowly dropped her fork.
"Yeah?" he said turning his full attention to her.
"I got detention, and I can't be at practice tonight," she waited with bated breath, hoping he wouldn't be too upset.
"Oh no! Well, that is a bit inconvenient as I was hoping to start work on a few new plays I designed for the chasers, but we'll manage, and," Harry grinned at her, "it's not as if I'm really one to talk. We all know I'm a detention magnet, and I've missed loads of practices because of it. What're you in for?"
Ginny laughed, it was true, Harry did tend to get quite a few detentions on his own. Especially if he had been in Snape's class.
"Well I sort of screamed at someone in the corridor, right in front of McGonagall's classroom. She wasn't pleased, and now I'm due for a night in the dungeons with Slughorn," Ginny explained.
"You screamed at someone? That famous temper of your's, eh?" said Harry, clearly amused.
"Yes, unfortunately, it got the best of me," she replied blushing a little.
"Well," he said, shrugging as he took a bite of his dinner, "I bet it won't be too terrible if it's with Slughorn. He obviously likes you."
"Yeah, I guess, but I'd still rather be at practice," Ginny sighed, just then Harry's arm accidentally brushed against her own, and she felt a tingling sensation shoot up it, as her stomach did a flip. Her eyes met Harry's, and she could see him shudder, as if he had felt it too. He grinned at her, it was that silly grin again.
"I would rather have you there with me too," he said softly as he gazed into her eyes for a brief moment. Then he shook himself out of it, pointedly looked back down at his plate and quickly said, "I-I mean with us, with the team, at practice."
Ginny looked up at Hermione, she had a knowing smirk spread wide across her face as she sipped from her goblet. She looked over at Harry again, he was shoveling food into his mouth at an alarmingly fast rate. Slowly she tore her gaze away from him trying not to think about what had just happened, and began to hastily finish her own meal, she didn't want to be late for detention. When she was done, she slung her bag over her shoulder, said goodnight to Harry and Hermione, and made Harry promise to be sure to fill her in on everything she missed at practice, before heading for the dungeons.
As Ginny walked through the corridors alone, she couldn't help but think of Harry's funny little smile, there was no denying that she thought that it was very attractive. Lately she had been thinking about how attractive he was, in general, quite a lot, far more often than usual. After she had gotten over her silly little crush on him years ago, Ginny avoided thinking about Harry as much as possible. Sure, there had been those moments here and there, when she would look at him and think 'Wow! Doesn't he look dashing?' but she would just leave it at that, it wouldn't linger. Now, it was definitely lingering, her arm was still tingling where Harry's had brushed against it a few minutes earlier, and Ginny just couldn't get that darn grin out of her head!
When she reached the Potions classroom, she pushed all thoughts of Harry out of her mind, and gently knocked on the door. Barely a second later, the door swung open and Professor Slughorn pulled her inside.
"Ginny, m'dear, so good to see you! How are you?" Slughorn boomed.
"Alright, I suppose," she said, wishing now more than ever that she could be headed down to the pitch instead of in detention.
"Ah, yes, I hear you've been getting into trouble, giving some fellow a piece of your mind a bit too boldly just outside Minerva's door, eh?" the Professor said as he winked at her. She nodded sheepishly. "Well, that's just what I like about you, m'dear, your fiery spirit! It was just the reason that when I heard Minerva saying that she had given you detention, I told her I had just the job for you!"
"What am I supposed to do for you, Professor?" Ginny asked, hoping that it wasn't anything too unpleasant.
"Ah, yes. Well, you see, it appears someone has been breaking into my personal stores, not very stealthily, I might add. They've made a terrible mess, and I need you to help me sort it out, so we can discover what's missing. Because as it is, I have no idea what they took, and there are quite a few substances in my stores that could be very dangerous if put in the wrong hands, you see."
Ginny nodded, as she followed him to the back of the classroom to a large cupboard in the far right corner of the room. It was indeed a mess, whoever had been in there must have been in quite a hurry, or they were just incredibly careless and stupid. All sorts of ingredients that, from the look of it, had previously been nicely organised into neat little jars, were now dumped out on the floor, dripping down the shelves, and generally just strewn about in chaos. Ginny sighed, it was going to be a long night.
"Now, Ginny, m'dear, what I'd like you to do is mop up all of the liquid that's been spilled, while I sort out the dry ingredients, and once we've finished with that, we'll put them all into new jars. Sound simple enough?" Slughorn explained with a smile.
Ginny nodded.
"Good, good, now why don't you go put on some dragon-hide gloves, just in case, and then we'll get started."
Ginny did as she was told, grabbed a cleaning rag, and began to mop up any moisture that she found. It took ages to dry everything off, and it seemed that in some places she would have to dry it two or three times before she was successful. Slughorn chattered away as they worked, boasting mostly about former, successful students, and sometimes about the adventures he had had as a young boy.
For most of the night, Ginny didn't really follow what he was saying as she cleaned, her mind was out on the Quidditch pitch, wondering if they were having a good practice or not. But when he began to speak about Gwenog Jones, captain of the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny's favourite Quidditch team, her ears perked up.
"Professor, you know Gwenog Jones?! The Gwenog Jones?!" she spluttered in shock.
Slughorn chuckled, and puffed out his chest proudly.
"Why yes, of course, m'dear! Surely you knew that? Why she was at my Christmas party, didn't you meet her?"
"What!? She was at the Christmas party! No, I didn't know! I can't believe I didn't meet her! Gwenog Jones is brilliant, she's just, well, amazing really," Ginny said, stunned. She searched her memory furiously and tried to remember what it was that she had been doing at Slughorn's Christmas party, instead of meeting Gwenog Jones. She sighed in frustration as it came back to her, she had been snogging Dean. She cursed herself, this day had just gotten worse and worse.
"Well, from what I hear Miss Weasley, you do pretty well on the Quidditch pitch yourself," said Slughorn, as he scooped up a few broken batwings and tossed them into the bin.
"I love Quidditch," said Ginny softly. "In fact, I'm missing practice right now, it's terrible."
Slughorn chuckled again.
"Yes, I've noticed that your mind was elsewhere, as I've been babbling on and on. I'm very sorry you had to miss practice. However, to make it up to you, how about I mention your name to dear Gwenog, and see if we can't get you to meet her after all?"
Ginny's jaw dropped open, and she accidentally dropped her cleaning rag.
"Do you mean it Professor? You would really do that?"
"Yes, of course. I'll send her an owl tomorrow and see what we can put together," he replied through hearty laughs. Ginny couldn't contain herself she did a happy little jig and shrieked with joy.
"Thank you sir, thank you so much," she said as she returned to her duties, she worked with much more enthusiasm after that, maybe detention wasn't so bad after all.
The work seemed to go much faster from then on, soon it looked as though they were just about finished. Slughorn asked Ginny to go to his desk and get his master list of ingredients so they could take an inventory of everything, to find out what was missing. Ginny went over to the desk and found the list immediately, but as she glanced at the rest of the desks contents something caught her eye.
A book was lying open on his desk and on the open page there was a photograph of three people. A man with hazel eyes hidden behind glasses and untidy black hair, he had his arm around a woman with long red hair and kind emerald eyes, she was holding a very tiny baby in her arms. Ginny leaned in closer to confirm her speculations. The woman in the photograph looked identical, except perhaps a bit older, to the girl from the reoccurring dream she'd been having. Her eyes jetted down to the caption beneath, and she devoured the words.
"Lily and James Potter, with little Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, just 10 months before the historic night on which You-Know-Who vanished after his attempt to kill Harry, and Lily and James were found murdered."
Ginny read it several more times before grabbing the book and the list and hurrying back into the store cupboard.
"Ah, Ginny, m'dear, there you are. Oh I see you found my copy of Modern Magical History, it's signed by the author. She was a student of mine, you see. I had it out to look up the section on modern advancements in potion making..." Slughorn began to explain as he looked over his master list that Ginny had just handed him.
"Professor, this picture, are these people really Lily and James Potter? Harry's parents? Do you know?" she blurted out. Professor Slughorn looked down at the photograph carefully, as his eye scanned it, a sadness came over his face.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. That's dear Lily and James. Terrible shame, you know, Lily was one of my favourites. A very bright young girl, full of life, and quick as a whip. Not unlike yourself, Ginny, indeed you do remind me of Lily in many ways," Slughorn said finally with a sad smile, returning to his list.
Ginny could hardly believe what she had just discovered, she was having dreams about Lily and James Potter! She hadn't recognized them at first, but now it made sense. They did seem familiar, and the boy had looked so much like Harry and the girl had had Harry's eyes. She now recalled how everyone who knew James and Lily would always tell Harry how much he looked like his father, except that he had his mother's eyes. But why in Merlin's name was she having dreams about Lily and James Potter? Wasn't that a bit odd? After all she hadn't known what they had looked like until just now, but she had recognized them from the dream first. How was it possible that she could dream about someone so vividly, if she had never even known what they looked like in the first place?
"Well, it seems I have accounted for everything but," Professor Slughorn began, as he made a final mark on his list, "my lacewing flies, leeches, bicorn horn, knotgrass, and boomslang skin. Hmm, isn't that interesting? It appears that someone is making Polyjuice potion. Miss Weasley, we have solved the mystery of What, but now it seems that the question is Who? Ginny?"
Ginny shook herself out of her racing thoughts.
"Yes, sir?"
"Are you alright, m'dear, you look a bit peaky?"
"I'm just a bit tired," she mumbled softly.
"Ah, yes of course. Well, look at the time it's nearly midnight! I think that your detention has been well served, why don't you scamper off to bed now, Ginny m'dear, and get some well deserved rest!" Slughorn said cheerfully.
"Thank you, have a good evening sir," Ginny replied as she picked her bag up and started to the door.
"You too, dear, goodnight."
Ginny's feet carried her through the corridors, as she tried to think of an explanation for why she was having dreams about Harry's parents. She turned it over and over in her head, but there was nothing that seemed to explain it well enough, for her to understand fully. Her mind was reeling.
She was surprised when she realised that she had arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, it was well after curfew, and she had made it all the way up from the dungeons to the seventh floor without any sign of Flich, Mrs. Norris, or any prefects. She gave the Fat Lady the password and climbed through the portrait hole.
The common room was empty and the fire had almost completely died down. Ginny went straight up to her dormitory, slid into some pyjamas, and crawled into her four-poster. It wasn't until she laid her head on her pillow that she realised just how tired she was. Ginny was shocked at how quickly her mind emptied, she closed her eyes, and within seconds she was asleep.
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Ginny was out on the grounds again, in the same bright, warm sunshine, and the grass was that familiar shade of intense green. She looked out and saw the blinding reflection of the sun coming off of the Black Lake.
Instantly she knew, she was having the dream again. Her eyes darted to they couple beneath the Oak tree near the lake, she felt the curiosity inside her build. Soon she found herself directly in front of them, once again they looked at her in surprise. The boy grinned. The girl's green eyes met Ginny's and she felt the tenderness in the girl's gaze, she smiled and said,
"Hello, Ginny."
But this time, the dream did not end here, this time Ginny knew who they were, this time Ginny spoke to them.
"You're Lily and James Potter, you're Harry's parents," Ginny replied, without thinking.
Lily nodded, and she beamed at Ginny. Ginny saw triumph dance across Lily's face.
"I'm glad you figured it out, I was beginning to worry I'd only ever get to say hello to you," said Lily simply.
"Why are you here? I don't understand," Ginny asked, she was burning with curiosity. She wanted desperately to know why there were here. Why weren't they with Harry in his dreams? How did they know her name?
Lily smiled warmly again.
"You'll soon find out, Ginny, I promise. But you must be patient, don't lose hope. You'll soon understand."
