Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it, blah blah blah.
A/N – I know some, possibly most of you were hoping for this a bit sooner, and I apologise for that, but I had some big news in the week, and well, writing took a back seat. But enough of my drabble.
A Second Chance
As Harry entered the kitchen of number 4 Privet Drive, he was greeting by his very irate uncle, having a go at him for not having breakfast ready.
'Hmm a quick confundus charm and all will be fine' Harry thought to himself, and then sighed internally, 'not yet'.
"Yes Uncle Vernon, I'll have breakfast ready in a couple of minutes." Harry said with the most emotionless voice he could manage. It was a tone his uncle was used to.
"Well it's about bloody time boy." Vernon said with his usual demeanour towards Harry.
After the Dursley's had had breakfast and Harry had been given his customary slice of burnt toast, it was time for school. Of course Harry had no intention of actually going but he had to go through the motions.
When Vernon dropped them off, Harry quickly hit Dudley with a confundus charm, "When you get home you will tell your parents I have been in school all day." Dudley repeated the sentence back to Harry with his eyes unfocused. Harry left Dudley there and quickly moved into the school to find his teacher and do the same to him.
20 Minutes later Harry was leaving the school grounds, he found a quiet spot in the local park, cast a notice-me-not charm, and set to work finishing the translation.
About half an hour later, Harry sat back up, and looked down at the piece of parchment in front of him "The power of time is gifted to only those of light and love."
Harry sat there thinking about what that meant. The part about 'of light' would be the reason why none of the captured dark witches and wizards could have used it. But as for the part about love, that had Harry confused.
Most of those involved in the raid, were in love with girlfriends, or wives. Ron who was most defiantly in love with his wife, had handled this thing, and nothing happened.
"Hmm" Harry muttered to himself, and then it hit him "Ginny". 'The two of us combined must have triggered the thing" Harry thought.
Whilst Harry was thinking about the kiss that was responsible for bringing them here, a stray thought struck him, there was a place in the wizarding world that dealt with Time and Love, maybe he could find out some more answers there.
With that thought Harry packed up his stuff, dropped the charm, and made himself invisible, then flashed into the circular entrance room of the Department of Mysteries.
"Show me the Time Chamber" Harry said out loud to the room. A door to his left opened, very quietly and carefully, Harry made his way into the Time Chamber.
'Gin is going to kill me when I get out of here' Harry thought as he continued deeper into the long room, trying to find anything that resembled a bookcase or an office that might hold some information.
After several hours and five close encounters with unspeakable's, two of which were a bit too close for comfort, Harry thought that maybe it was time to call it quits.
He still had over an hour to wait before meeting up with Ginny again, so he decided to stick around a bit more.
After another half an hour of finding nothing, Harry began to make his way back to the circular room, on his way he past a large cabinet full of differently shaped hour glasses, Harry went over for a closer look.
Unfortunately none of them were a match to one that had sent him here, 'well I guess we are stuck here then' Harry grimly thought to himself. 'If we are stuck here then a time-turner could be very useful'. Harry quickly looked round to make sure there was no one about, then opened the cupboard and picked one out, which looked exactly like the one Hermione had during third year.
With his newly acquired time-tuner on its chain securely around his neck, Harry made his way out of the Time Chamber quickly and stealthily. Once in the circular chamber he flashed himself to the orchard at The Burrow.
Arriving at The Burrow, Harry saw Ginny waiting for him in one of the deepest parts of the orchard, he flashed behind her, and she quickly jumped up, and hugged him. When she let him go several minutes later Harry thought she had tried to hug the life out of him.
After Harry recovered his breath, and put up some privacy charms, he whispered to her "Hey" he said it whilst looking down into her eyes.
Ginny looked back up at him, "Hey. I missed you."
Harry laughed, "I could tell." Ginny playfully slapped him on the arm at that.
"It was so frustrating having to act the innocent little girl again, having to deal with Mum and Ron. Oh god Ron, I don't remember him being this bad before, but I guess he must have been, it took 7 years of Hermione to finally sort him out."
Harry tried very hard to not burst out laughing, honestly he did try very hard, but he just couldn't hold it in any longer, and promptly collapsed on the floor in hysterics. After trying to glower at him unsuccessfully for a few seconds, Ginny quickly joined him.
"You are not the only one who has had to act the innocent little child today, I was back to being Harry Potter the house-elf, when I got back this morning." Harry said in a tone that made Ginny sit up instantly, scoot closer to him, and wrap her arms around him.
"I'm sorry Harry, I know how awful your life there was, and now having to relive it, I'm sorry." She laughed once without emotion "Here's me complaining about dealing with Ron and Mum whilst you get treated like a Malfoy house-elf, I'm sorry Harry." Ginny said with her throat starting to close up.
Harry seeing that Ginny was near tears, quickly wrapped his arms around her returning the hug, and said "It's alright Gin. I'll be alright. We'll be alright." Ginny looked up at him, and stared straight into his eyes.
After what felt like hours, of looking into each other's eyes, but what was in reality only a few seconds, the two of them sighed and shifted into a more comfortable position. Harry was leaning against a tree with Ginny lying down on the ground her head in his lap.
"So what have you been up to since you left, I know you had to make breakfast, but I'm guessing you didn't go to Muggle School?" Ginny said smirking at the last part. Harry looked down at her and smiled.
"No I didn't go to Muggle School, I went to the park." Harry said with the hint of a smile playing at his lips. Ginny looked up at him, with a questioning glance and said "What?"
"I went to the park." Harry said trying to maintain a straight face.
"You went to the park!" Ginny said in a tone that if it came from Mrs Weasley, would have all the men quivering in fear. The effect was somewhat diminished when coming from Ginny.
Harry, hearing the undercurrent in her voice, and seeing the look in her eyes, stopped trying to hold back his laughter, and for the second time in as many minutes dissolved into hysterics.
"I'm sorry Gin, but I couldn't resist." Harry looked down at her, and seeing that she was still a bit mad him, said the one thing that could get through to her, "Gin, I love you." The words had the desired effect as she quickly jumped up and sat in his lap. She was about to kiss him, but Harry held up 2 of his fingers and put them against her lips, "Not yet, we are too young for anything other than one on the cheek or a hug."
Ginny was taken aback by his statement, after a few seconds had past, she opened her mouth to reply but, Harry seeing that she was about to argue, quickly interjected, "Ginny you are at the moment only 9 years old, I am only 10, it is not right, I know mentally and emotionally we are far beyond those years, but these are the bodies we are stuck with, which means, nothing beyond what we have done already today can happen for a couple of years at least. I'm sorry."
Ginny, managed to blink back the tears, his speech at given her, but he had seen them, and reached up to cradle her head in his hands. She deliberately wasn't looking at him, so he said, "Gin, please look at me."
Ginny hearing the love, and pain in his voice looked up at him, smiling internally, Harry said "I love you Ginny Potter" she couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips when he used her name.
He continued to stare her in the eyes, she wondered if he was using legilimency on him, but she quickly crushed that thought, Harry had sworn that he would never do that to her. Deep down she knew he was right; they were too young to do anything other than hug and the odd kiss on the check.
Ginny sighed, and then said staring back into his eyes, "I love you Harry Potter, and I agree with you." She paused, thinking about how she was going to say the next thing, "I know it will be several years before we can even think about it but, I want you to know now, I will not be waiting till our wedding night." Ginny said with a look that had no place on a 9 year old girl.
Harry blushed at the memories of their wedding night, and smiled back at her, "Ok. It is going to be many years, but ok."
Smiling back at him, she kissed him on the cheek and hugged him, as he hugged her back she said "I think I could get used to having to do this all the time." Harry pulled back and kissed her on the cheek and said "Yes I think I could as well."
After Ginny had moved back to lying down, Harry carried on with his tale of the morning. "I finished the translation" Ginny looked up at him sharply, and he said "the power of time is gifted to only those of light and love."
Ginny looked thoughtful for a minute and then gasped, "The kiss in your office, this is my fault..." she descended into sobs, Harry quickly scooped her up, and whispered in her ear, "No its not. Like it says we have been given a gift, The Gift of Time, and I for one fully intend to use it." Harry said the last part with a cold determination that Ginny had not heard since the early days of his career in the Auror's.
She managed to control her sobs and leaned back to look at the cold determination in his eyes, the look of a seasoned, (and much to Harry's annoyance) decorated war hero looked extremely out of place on a skinny, scrawny 10 year old boy with old clothes that were several sizes too big.
She said "You're going to stop the War?"
Harry nodded slowly, and looked at her, "Yes, I am."
A/N – The next chapter is going to be very heavy on dialogue, so please bear with me if it takes me a while to get up.