Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR. Only the plot's mine and it's absolutely for self-serving purposes only. No profit whatsoever.

A/N: Another update is here. I thought it would be fairly easy to update once a week. Boy, was I wrong! So sorry to have made everyone who's following the story to wait. I'll try my hardest to be as punctual as possible.

Again, reviews are what keep me going. So far, there has only been a lukewarm response to this piece. I would love to hear what you think about this story. Right now, I only have a very basic outline about how I want this to go. I'm not even sure about the pairings, if any. So, if any of you have any ideas, PM me! Remember! The more, the merrier!

Chapter 4: A chance to re-do

By noon, the girls were left alone to their own devices. They were both thinking about the grueling morning they had had. They had meticulously gone through every tiny, little detail of their elaborate cover story to explain their sudden presence at Hogwarts. It was also decided that both the girls would be enrolled in Sixth-year classes considering that Ginny was actually a sixth-year in her own time and neither girl wanted to attend different years.

Hermione had also been advised to lie about her age, if it ever came up. The concept of her being older than she should be because of her time-turning escapades in her third year had intrigued both McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. Since both of them were going to be in the same year, Hermione would pretend that she was sixteen as well.

When the girls were lost to the world thinking over the implications of their advent so far into the past, the marauders had taken advantage of a free afternoon to drop in on the girls. With so much going on, Ginny had completely forgotten about her little night incident. So, when the marauders filed in, they found both the girls staring off into space, completely oblivious to their surroundings. They stood there watching the girls for a few minutes.

"So, finally woke up, eh?" Sirius was the first to break the silence, startling both the girls.

Hermione had already figured that they would have to run into the marauders at some point or another but she had not expected them to just crop up on the first day itself. Her jaw dropped and she was gaping at them. Ginny's eyes grew wide as she realized who they were. She remembered the incident that happened the night before and finally understood exactly who it was she had seen.

"I've been told that I am an absolute beauty to behold! This is just proof. Two stunning ladies stunned into silence by my ruggedly handsome looks!" Sirius announced pompously as he flopped into a chair.

James swatted him on the head and said, "Git! No one's looking at you. It's obviously my charming personality and manly grace that has them floored."

Sirius snorted. "Manly grace? Have you even looked at yourself in the mirror?"

James looked indignant. But before he could say another word, Remus cut in.

"Both of you must pardon my annoying brats of friends. They have seemingly forgotten all their manners." He glared at both James and Sirius before turning his attention towards the two girls who were still staring at all of them, gob smacked.

"Sorry about that. How are you both today?" piped in Peter.

Hermione was the first to recover. "Fine. We're both fine." She sent a look at Ginny warning her not to say anything. "Who are you all again? Dumbledore said no one would come here."

"oh how rude of us! I'm Peter Pettigrew and he is Remus Lupin. Those two idiots are James Potter and Sirius Black."

"Oye. We can introduce ourselves." said Sirius.

"Hardly in an appropriate manner, I would guess." said Remus. He smiled kindly at the girls. "Sorry for the intrusion. We were worried actually. We..found you, you see. So.." He trailed away awkwardly.

"Eh. That's alright. We are fine now. I'm Hermione Granger and this is Ginny Weasley."

"Ginny? Isn't it Ginerva then?" asked Peter.

"How do you know that?" Ginny asked suspiciously before Hermione could respond. Ginny knew about Peter's betrayal and that made her abruptly defensive.

"Oh..umm.." stammered Peter, very pink in his face.

"What else can Ginny be? Obviously a nick-name for Ginerva, right?" Sirius said without missing a beat.

"I prefer Ginny." she intoned icily, still thinking about Peter.

"She actually has a thing about her name. She hates being called Ginerva." Hermione said quickly hoping to control the situation before Ginny lets something slip about Peter.

"Speaking of names, how did you know mine exactly?" asked Remus looking at Ginny.

Now it was Ginny's turn to stutter as she tried to come up with some believable excuse. Unfortunately, she could not see a way through the mess.

"What are you talking about?" asked Hermione.

"Last night, Remus and I were here when Ginny woke up. She kind of jumped on him sobbing his name." said James.

"Oh." Even Hermione couldn't think of anything. Whatever she came up with sounded absolutely ridiculous and she didn't want to make the situation worse than it already was.

"I kind of..had a..dream" Ginny finished lamely, looking everywhere but at Remus.

They were all stunned for a moment. Then James guffawed loudly and Peter chuckled. Sirius had a calculating look in his eyes and was looking suspiciously between the two girls. Remus looked flabbergasted, mouth hanging open.

"You mean to say that you saw Remus in your dream before you even met him..and.. that is how you knew his name?" Sirius narrowed his eyes.

Ginny nodded keeping her eyes fixed on the floor.

"Well..then..uh.." Remus blushed and seemed like he didn't know what to say.

"Uh..so which house are you guys in?" asked Hermione, fishing for any topic that might distract them from the current one.

"Gryffindor" said James proudly. "Are you staying then?"

"Yes. Professor Dumbledore was kind enough to offer." said Hermione fervently hoping that they would forget about Ginny's slip-up. Unfortunately, the room descended into an awkward silence and she could practically see Sirius' mind racing, his eyes clearly conveying his suspicion.

"We are in Gryffindor too!" exclaimed Ginny and Hermione mentally face-palmed herself.

"Really? Well, that was quick." Sirius was looking at them both with a contemplative expression and it made both of them uncomfortable. Ginny fidgeted with her sheet not making eye contact with any of them.

Remus, who was more receptive than any of them tried to ease the awkwardness.

"Well then, we were just checking up on you. Welcome to Hogwarts! We'll leave you to rest then." He tried subtly dragging out both Peter and James who looked bewildered.

"Wait!" said Hermione, thinking about the best way to phrase her request. "We would really appreciate it if you do not tell anyone about our..accident when we arrived."

"Accident?" James was looking at her baffled. "Sure nothing messed with your memory?"

"Do I get Madam Pomfrey?" squeaked Peter.

"We have our memories intact, thank you very much. She was only trying to politely ask you to keep your mouth shut about what you saw." said Ginny.

"Oh..don't worry. Dumbledore already told us not to say anything." Peter spoke up.

"If you don't mind my asking, what exactly happened?" asked Sirius.

"Actually we do mind." blurted Ginny. Hermione interrupted, "It's just not something we are comfortable talking about."

"We understand. Sirius didn't mean to pry. Sorry." said Remus.

"It's alright. We are a bit tired actually." Hermione hinted hoping they would leave before things got messier.

Remus grasped it immediately and left with his friends after wishing them a speedy recovery.

"Whew! That was awkward!" said Ginny.

Hermione put up a privacy ward before saying anything. "What exactly were you thinking Ginny? You have to be more careful. Sirius already got suspicious."

"I know. I'm sorry. It was just unexpected and I messed up"

"You did. They can't know about us. It would ruin everything."
Ginny looked at her friend for a moment and then asked in a soft voice, "Ruin what exactly?"

"The future!" said Hermione, as it was the most obvious thing. "I don't know how much damage we have already done by just being here."

"I don't think that there is any more damage that can be done Hermione. Everyone's dead. It's already ruined." sighed Ginny.

"So..what are you saying? The rules are clear Ginny. We can't mess with time." Hermione was getting more and more worked up.

"Well then what? Are we getting back where we left off? We might as well kill ourselves. Besides, you said it yourself. We are stuck. Are we just going to sit around and let people die?"

"There is nothing we can do. The law.."

"Can go stuff itself! Do you think the bad guys play by the rules Hermione? Do you? We didn't plan this. But we are here. Just think about it. We have a chance to correct everything."

"No." said Hermione firmly. "You have no idea what could happen. Even Voldemort would not mess with time. What does that tell us? We could end up making a bigger mess of things."

Ginny stayed silent for a long while. "There is no bigger mess Hermione. Everyone who meant anything to us ends up dead. That is the future. No matter what, I will not sit around and let everyone I love die." She put up a hand when Hermione tried to interrupt. "No! You have to kill me if you're going to stop me. I would rather die than do nothing."

Hermione knew there was no convincing Ginny when she got like this. She could already feel a headache coming on. She pressed her hands to her temples and said in a small voice, "We could try fixing the time-turner."

Ginny looked straight into her eyes without blinking. "And go back straight into the hands of Death Eaters so they could finish their job? Why bother then? We can just kill each other right here and finish this." she spat harshly.

"Ginny…I just.."

"What Hermione? What could you possibly say? You know I'm right. The future we come from is no more. We are here. This is where we are going to be. Do you really want to sit around and watch everybody die? Again?"

Hermione was quiet for a long time. Ginny knew she was thinking and she was silent as well waiting for her friend to make a decision. An important decision that will change history as it were. She knew what she was going to do but she wanted her friend to support her as well.

"Ginny, you are right. Of course you are. I just..I'm overwhelmed, I guess. And tired. I've been planning and plotting for so long. It was supposed to go alright. We did everything right. I don't know where it went wrong. We did everything Dumbledore wanted. All his cryptic puzzles and we tried so hard. Maybe we missed something. Something vital. If we had just tried.."

"Stop, stop Mione. You can't blame yourself. We were barely kids. All of us. And we can't think like that. This is a second chance. We get to make it right. We need to."

Ginny slowly got up from her bed and slipped into Hermione's. They hugged each other hard.

"It will be different. I promise." Ginny swore.

"How?" Hermione asked in a small voice and Ginny couldn't help but think that her friend sounded so forlorn and lost at that moment.

"Don't worry about it now. Let's get better first and get out of here. Then we'll make plans. We aren't letting anyone die."

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I didn't even think about your injuries. Are you alright?"

"Mione, relax. Madam Pomfrey fixed me up. She took care of both of us."

"But,..it was Greyback, wasn't it? How..?"

"It's alright. I know. I've seen Bill go through the same thing, remember?"

"You..there's going to..it's going to scar, isn't it?"

Ginny laughed, even though it was strained. "All of us have scars Hermione. Do you think it's going to bother me at all?"

"Right. Well, I..um.."

"God, it's actually painful to watch you flounder. Look, it's fine. We are both fine. Let's concentrate on that right now, alright?"

"When did you become so put together Ginny? I don't know how you are not freaking out."

"Oh trust me, I am. But that's not going to help and I know that." Ginny became very pensive then. "A lot happened this year, or the last year we were in. Merlin! It's so confusing. But you know what I mean. There were a lot of kids who needed help at school and somehow I ended up being one of the ones who the others looked up to. When you have that kind of responsibility, you learn a lot about yourself that makes you grow up quickly. Kind of like how you grew up taking care of those two idiots." Ginny finished with a mischievous grin which had Hermione grinning as well.

Then reality came crashing down and they winced when they realized what happened to those two idiots they were talking about.

"Don't think about it, Mione. They are not even born here."

"We'll make sure they have good lives. We'll take care of them."

"We will."

The girls were emotionally drained and were in no mood to even move. They lay there, their thoughts a jumble and eventually fell asleep, still clinging to each other. And that is how Madam Pomfrey found them. She debated moving Ginny back to her bed. Then she sighed deeply and let them be.

Meanwhile, the marauders were coming up with bizarre and increasingly ludicrous explanations to the mystery in front of them. The latest visit and subsequent interaction with the two girls only added to their questions and all four of them were hooked like bloodhounds on a trail.

"A seer, Padfoot? You really think so?"

"Come on, that's the only thing that fits. She knew Moony even before she met him. Unless she's a seer, I don't see how that's possible."

"But why? I mean why in Merlin's name she would see me of all people?" asked a bewildered Remus.

"May be you become somebody important to them in the future. Or may be…Nah, that's all I got." said Peter.

"Well, whatever it is, it's bloody suspicious, isn't it? And did you see their faces? Guilty as hell. They are definitely hiding something." said Sirius.

James had been quiet until then. "May be we should stop talking about this. It's not exactly safe."

"What are you talking about?"

"Seers are very rare. Only two hundred years ago, if a seer was found, then they would be immediately taken into custody by the ministry. Now, they don't do that but they are still heavily monitored. If someone turns out to be a seer, a lot of families just bury the story. You should know Padfoot. There was a lot of rumor a few decades ago about a seer born into the Black family."

"And it was total shit. I think they spread that rumor on purpose. You know the type of crazies that runs in my family. But, how do you know so much about it anyway?"

After a little pause, James said, "It crops up in the family once a few generations on my dad's side. The last was my great-grandfather's sister. She wasn't a particularly strong one, but she possessed the sight, at least according to my dad."

"Shit Jamie, if what you said about seers was true, then you just told us a family.."

"A family secret, yes. It's not like you guys are going to tell anyone."

"We won't" said all the three together.

"I know. Anyway, some people would love to get their hands on them. I mean, what wouldn't someone like You-Know-Who give for all that knowledge? May be that's who they are running from. Think about it."

"Merlin, that actually makes sense." breathed Peter.

"But we don't know for sure.." said Sirius before he was interrupted by Remus, "And we don't need to. They already have a lot of problems to face. They don't need us to go digging into anything. So, we should just stop."

"I know. But, what the hell? They are going to be here, aren't they? May be we can be friends!" exclaimed Sirius.

James snorted.

"What? You don't think we can be friends?" whined Sirius.

"Define friends Padfoot. 'We' are your friends." said James gesturing to the three of them. "You say 'friends' and 'girls' in the same sentence, then that usually means something else."

"Just because you cannot even get a date with Evans, does not mean you can judge others. Back me up, Moony. I can be friends with girls." cried Sirius indignantly.

"Uh huh. When's the last time that happened, Padfoot?" asked Remus, trying very hard to maintain a straight face.

"Well, there was..Umm..well,..Evans! There! Evans and I are friends. She is a girl and all our interactions have only been 'friendly'. Nothing remotely questionable."

"She called you- and I quote, 'a moronic, egoistic, disgusting ass who salivates over anything that moves'. In what universe is that 'friendly'?" asked James while Peter and Remus guffawed loudly.

"You're all mean." Sirius pouted, which only set them off more and they all ended up on the floor, shaking with laughter, worries of the outside world forgotten in their moment of friendship.

A/N: Is this chapter what you guys thought it would be? Please comment, so I would know what you think. Next chapter should be up in a few days. Already started working on it. Hint: I'll be introducing a lot more of our favorite characters, so stay tuned!

On another note, there will be a new story I will be posting. I hope you guys will check it out.