Chapter Seven – Flightless Bird

Sirius Black marched into the Great Hall ignoring James who was beside him. "This is not a good idea Padfoot" James said again.

Sirius of course ignored him. He saw Ginny sitting at the table with Marlene, Rebecca and Alice. Ginny's face lit up when she saw him "Hey" she said happily sliding down the table to make some room for him to sit down. Ignoring the other three he said to her "We need to talk".

"Can't it wait till after dinner?" she asked pointing to the food in front of her. "Now Ginny" Sirius snapped.

All four girls looked at him in surprise. Sirius Black was a ladies man, he joked, he flirted, he seduced. Not one of them had ever heard him speak in anger at a woman. Confused Ginny looked at him trying to figure out what was wrong. She looked passed him to see James standing near the entrance hall. "Okay" she muttered quietly getting up. "I'll see you later" she said to the girls.

Sirius spun on his heel and walked back towards James knowing that Ginny would follow him. At some point in time Remus had joined James and together the group left the Great Hall. "What is going on?" Ginny asked them curiously. Remus looked at her and shrugged his head; he was as clueless as she was. Sirius continued to ignore them, yet they still followed him. Suddenly stopping he opened a door and looked in, satisfied he turned to the others and motioned them in. He muttered a silence spell and closed the door, making sure that nobody could hear them.

Feeling slightly nervous Ginny looked towards James and Remus. They had taken each taken a seat at one of the desk and were eyeing Sirius. "Sirius, what is going on?" she asked him cautiously.

He looked at her without saying anything for a moment. "Who are you?" he asked her suddenly taking a step towards her.

"What" she breathed.

"You heard me. Who are you Ginny?" he said softly looking at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked carefully. Careful Ginny, she told herself.

Sirius reached into his pocket and Ginny reacted quickly pulling her wand out and holding it in front of her.

"Hey! Let's calm down now" Remus said stepping forward to place himself in the middle of the two of them.

Ignoring him Sirius pulled a gold coin out of his pocket and held it up so Ginny could see. "What is this?" he asked her, carefully watching her for a reaction.

Her eyes widened as she recognised one of her DA coins. "Where did you get that?" she asked him quietly.

"Your drawer in your dorm" he told her honestly.

Remus stepped forward and took a closer look at the coin. Confused he looked at Ginny. "Hogwarts Final Battle?" he asked her. "What does that mean?" Ginny ignored him and glared at Sirius. "What gives you the right to go through my things?" she asked him angrily.

"Answer the question Ginny. What does Hogwarts Final Battle mean?" Sirius said.

She looked at Remus helplessly. He was going to be no help, he had questions to she thought.

"Ginny. Things don't add up with you. This coin, that so called attack on your family, the way you react to the Prewitt twins, it's like you know them. My cousin Bellatrix you know her, I heard you that night. The private lessons you have with Kingsley, the meetings with Dumbledore…" he trailed off.

Ginny stared at him in horror. No! she thought. "Please don't do this" she said quietly taking a step back from Sirius.

"And your fascination with the Slytherins. It's not right, you're a Gryffindor, you should hate them" Sirius continued.

"Hate them?" Ginny said clinging onto that. "Why should I hate them just because the sorting hat put them into Slytherin?" she said.

"They are all evil Ginny" James said pipping up for the first time since entering the room.

"No they're not. Don't you get it? This hatred between Gryffindor and Slytherin is how it all starts" she cried.

"They're all Death Eaters in training" Sirius said coldly.

"No they are not" she cried rushing forward and grabbing Sirius by the elbow. "Voldermort is a Slytherin, I get that. But evil comes from other houses too. Even from Gryffindor" she said coldly thinking of Peter Pettigrew.

"The truth Ginny" Sirius said shrugging her arm off him.

She looked to be Remus and James for help but they simply stared at her. "Please don't do this" she whispered softly looking down at her hands. How do you tell somebody they have a terrible future, that they die in five years time, that they spend twelve years in Azkaban for a crime they did not commit, that they die in the Final Battle at Hogwarts. Easy, you don't.

She raised her head and looked at Sirius, tears filling her eyes.

"You want the truth Sirius? The truth is my heart is breaking every single day from that, what did you call it? That so called attack on my family. At night I have horrible nightmares. I hear their screams. I watch as they come for us and they slaughter us. I watched every single person I have ever cared about die in that battle. I see the lifeless faces of my parents and my brothers. And Harry. I see Harry's body and that feeling of utter hopelessness" she told them tears streaming down her face.

"Gideon and Fabian remind me of my twin brothers. Right down to the red hair and freckles. Bellatrix was there when they all died. She killed my Mum and one of my brothers. That's how I know her. Those lessons with Kingsley are defensive lessons. I need to learn more to kill them" she said coldly wiping away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

She stepped forward and snatched the coin out of Sirius's hand. "This is none of your business" she told him. She turned her back to him and waved her wand at the door, it flew open instantly.

"Ginny" James said hesitantly.

"No" she said shaking her head and turning back to face them. "Leave me alone" she said coldly before leaving the room.

Ginny ran. She didn't want any of them coming after her. She ignored the curious stares that she got from the students. She stopped at the top of a staircase going any further would mean heading back to the Gryffindor tower, and she wanted to avoid people. She turned left and walked quickly down a secluded hallway. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going and soon found herself in a part of the castle she was not familiar with. Opening a door she entered an empty room that had nothing in it but a large mirror covered in dust. Curious she approached the mirror and was stunned when instead of seeing the reflection of the room, she saw the Burrow. Her heart gave a leap of job when her family, Harry and Hermonie materialised right in front of her eyes.

"Mum?" she said in disbelief. And Molly Weasley smiled in return holding a hand over her heart.

A violent sob escaped from Ginny's body and she burst into tears. Sliding down to the floor she could not take her eyes off the people in the mirror. She reached up touch the glass, hoping against hope that her fingers would pass through and she would be able to touch her family. They only touched the cold glass. She watched in morbid fascination as her family cheerfully smiled and waved at her. Frozen, she could do nothing but sit there and watch them whilst silent tears streamed down her face. She didn't know how long she sat there; it could have been minutes or hours. She never wanted to leave here. Here in this room, she could again be close to her family. Here in this room she was not alone. Footsteps drew her attention away from the mirror and she turned to see Lily Evans in the doorway.

"Ginny?" Lily said incredulously as she took in the state of the younger girl. She had obviously been crying, her eyes were red and puffy and there were tear tracks all over her cheeks. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly walking softly to Ginny and kneeling down in front of her.

Looking up Ginny looked into those oh so familiar green eyes and whispered to Lily, "I want to go home" before silent tears made their way down her cheeks. "It's not fair" she sobbed.

Correctly assuming that she was upset about her family, Lily leaned over and gave her a hug. The two girls stayed like that for a moment until Ginny pulled back from Lily. Getting up Ginny took one long look in the mirror. Lily looked over her at the mirror and her eyes widened. "Do you know what this is?" Lily asked her.

Ginny simply shook her head.

"It's the Mirror of Erised. It shows you your hearts deepest desires" Lily murmured as she took a moment to look at the mirror. Blushing she turned to Ginny. "Shall we go back to the common room?"

"Well well well what do we have here?" a cold voice said interrupting them. The two girls spun round to see Severus Snape standing in the doorway.

"Severus! You scared me" Lily said chuckling quietly.

"Evans" he said nodding at her before eyeing Ginny. "You keep showing up everywhere don't you" he said sneering at Ginny and taking a step towards her. "Typical Gryffindor keeping the wolfs secret" he said coldly to her.

"Have you two met?" Lily asked curiously but Ginny ignored her. "Do you know what this mirror shows you Snivellius?" she hissed at him pointing to the mirror behind her. "Your deepest desires. Go on, take a look. I bet you'll see yourself standing right next to the your Dark Lord"

"Ginny!" Lily said horrified whilst Snape marched forward until he was standing close to the girls.

"Watch your mouth Delacour. Your just like those Marauders" he spat at her.

And suddenly she saw red. Here in front of her was somebody she could blame, somebody who had betrayed her family and friends, and somebody who had murdered innocent people. "I know what you are Severus Snape. You're a bitter, twisted man. And I know what you are going to become. An evil traitor!" she said glaring at him.

"Enough Ginny!" Lily said loudly but she was ignored.

"We trusted you. Dumbledore trusted you and you stood by and helped as they slaughtered us" Ginny yelled angrily.

Snape narrowed his eyes at Ginny in anger. He itched to grab his wand and curse the girl.

"You're a murderer" Ginny spat at him.

For an instant Snape eyed her curiously. It was crazy talk right? She couldn't possible know that he was a Death Eater and had killed people. Not possible he thought and before he could think about what he was doing, before Ginny or Lily could comprehend it, he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. Her head snapped to the side with the force of his hand and she hissed in pain as she could instantly taste blood in her mouth.

"Severus! How could you?" Lily said shocked. For a moment she stood there alternating at looking between Ginny who already had a large handprint across her face and a split and bruised lip from the ring on Snape's finger and Snape who was frozen on the spot. He immediately jumped into action and darted from the room leaving the two girls alone.

"Ginny, I – " Lily said struggling to get the words out.

Ginny closed her eyes for a moment trying to calm her emotions, it had been too much for one night. "Let's go back to the common room" she said to Lily and the two girls walked in silence.

Just as they reached the portrait hole Lily stopped Ginny. "I know its wrong of me to ask you this but please, please don't tell anybody it was Severus. It's already hard enough for him here, if James and Sirius knew they would make his life hell" she begged.

Sighing deeply Ginny attempted to smile. "He's a friend of yours right?". Harry had told her once that Lily and Snape had been friends back at Hogwarts.

Lily simply nodded, feeling to guilty to saw anything.

"Lily it's okay. I mouthed off to him, I shouldn't have done that" Ginny said as they entered the portrait hole. Luckily the common room was empty. Lily led Ginny to one of the couches and sat her down. "I'll be right back. Let me get my mediwitch handbook. It will have a spell in it to heal your face" she said and ran up the stairs.

Ginny curled up on the couch and leaned back watching the flames of the fire. She closed her eyes and listened to the crackling of the wood burning. Moments later she could feel somebody watching her and without opening her eyes she murmured "It's okay Lily, I'm sure it looks worse than it feels". Lily did not respond. A deep cough interrupted the silence and Ginny opened one eye and looked in front of her. Not Lily, she thought as she took in Sirius, Remus and James. "I don't want to talk to any of you" she muttered, still on the couch facing the fire.

"Ginny, please" Remus said softly taking a step towards her.

"Go away" she said as she faced them forgetting about her face.

The three boys let out a horrified gasp as they took in her face. Sirius was by her side in an instant gently grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at him. She was drawn in by the concern in his eyes. "Who did this to you?" he asked hoarsely.

She pulled back from him and tried to move further away from him on the couch, but he wouldn't let her go.

"Ginny" James said sternly from behind her. "Did somebody hit you?" he asked his fists clenched in anger.

"It was me" Lily said from behind them. All four of them turned to look at Lily as she pushed her way in to sit on Ginny's other side of the couch with a book in her hand.

"Lily?" James asked confused.

"It was all my fault, I was late for my patrol and I was running down the staircase, I tripped and reached out for something to hold onto and accidentally hit Ginny in the face." Lily explained as she looked down at her book trying to find the right spell.

Ginny felt Sirius next to her tug gently on her face and she again was forced to face him. "What really happened?" he asked her quietly.

"Lily just told you" she muttered as she swatted his hand away. She was still upset from earlier, at all three of them.

"Got it!" Lily said as she waved her wand at Ginny's face and said the incantation. Instantly Ginny felt her face tingle. "Pretty as a picture" Lily said closing the book and glancing nervously at James. She knew they did not believe her story.

Ginny pushed herself up off the couch and squeezed Lily's hand. "I'm going to bed" she told her ignoring the three boys standing there.

Sirius immediately followed her. "Ginny" he said quietly, almost begging. She sighed deeply and turned to face him, an unhappy look on her face.

"What Sirius? I think you said all you needed to say earlier on, don't you? I don't want to talk to you, to any of you" she said pointedly glancing at Remus and James.

"Stop it" he told her suddenly. "Don't shut me out" he said almost whispering.

Her heart broke when she saw the look on her face and she had a sudden urge to reach forward and wrap her arms around him. "You push to hard Sirius. Did you ever think that there are some things that I just don't want to talk about" she told him seriously.

"I'll be here waiting whenever you are ready to talk" he said looking deeply into her eyes. Nodding she turned around and walked upstairs not looking back.


Remus Lupin knocked on the door to the girl's dormitory. The door opened and he found himself looking into the eyes of Rebecca. Becca, he told himself. "Hi Becca" he said looking down into her warm brown eyes. He found himself thinking how pretty she looked that morning, a thought he had had many times before. He briefly looking past her into the dorm. Ginny was sitting at her desk writing on parchment.

"Can I talk to Ginny alone?" he asked her and he could of sworn that her face dropped for a moment. "Sure" she said quietly as she turned back to Ginny and waved goodbye.

"Becca wait!" Remus called suddenly causing the girl to stop and turn around in the hallway.

She raised an eyebrow at him in question and Remus awkwardly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Should I he thought to himself. Remus Lupin often found him doubting himself because of his werewolf condition. The monster within, he referred to it as. How could he possible get close to anyone, to a female, when he couldn't even trust himself.

Sighing deeply, he found himself briefly looking past Becca to Ginny. She was eyeing him curiously with an encouraging smile on her face. Almost as if she knew what he was thinking. "Do you have a date to the ball?" he asked to Becca, his cheeks turning red.

"Why Remus Lupin are you asking me to the dance?" she asked him taking a step towards him smiling.

Taking that smile as a good sign he nodded at her. "Yes. Yes I am"

"I'd love to" she replied happily before turning around and continuing down the hallway giving him and Ginny a chance to talk.

Ginny hid her smile as she saw the look on Remus's face when Becca. As he entered the room and closed the door, she quickly looked down at her desk, refusing to meet his concerned gaze. She had not had a good night. After the confrontation with Sirius, seeing her family in the Mirror of Erised and Snape slapping her she had many thoughts that had weighed on her mind. Mostly she was feeling sorry for herself. She was missing her family, her close friends, Harry. Ginny was also feeling guilty. Last night she had admitted to herself that she had feelings for Sirius Black. She felt guilty she was moving on from Harry so soon, even though they hadn't actually been dating in almost a year.

"How are you?" Remus asked gently as he grabbed a chair from the desk next to Ginny, turned it around and sat down facing her.

"Lonely" she said surprising both of them with her honesty.

Remus raised an eyebrow at her. "You missing your family?" he asked her.

"Every day".

"You know I have been told that I am a pretty good listener" he told her.

Ginny focussed all her attention on him. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied him. He didn't have the tired, worn look from the future. His hair hadn't gone grey and he wasn't constantly looking over at his shoulder at people. It was his eyes that Ginny had always loved. That year that he had been her Professor, he had helped her more than anyone knew. It was her two weekly meetings that she had with him discussing being possessed by Voldermort that had helped her overcome to horror of her first room.

"Can I trust you Remus Lupin?" she asked him pulling herself out of her memories. "Really trust you" she continued.

Remus nodded knowing that whatever secrets Ginny had to tell she was holding close to her heart.

"What I am about to tell you, you can't tell anyone" she told her sternly. "You need to promise me Remus. Not to Sirius and James and especially not to Peter".

He took in the sharp look in her eye and swallowed suddenly nervous. "I promise" he told her.

"Where do I begin?" she muttered to herself.

"At the beginning" he said smiling encouragingly at her.

And suddenly Ginny couldn't keep her mouth shut. She told him about coming from the future, the Final Battle at Hogwarts, the rise of Voldermort in the second war, the betrayal of Peter, Sirius being in Azkaban and James and Lily dying, the prophecy, the Horcruxes and Harry. She told him what she knew about the first war, about Gideon and Fabian.

Remus listened without saying a word. His mind trying to comprehend all she was telling him. "What happens to me?" he asked not sure he wanted to know the answer.

Ginny reached out a hand and gently squeezed his hand. "You were the remaining Marauder. You came to teach at Hogwarts, you taught Defence against the Dark Arts. You married a wonderful woman. She was an Auror. You both died in the Final Battle"

She did not mention Teddy.

"Wow that explains how you knew about me being a werewolf. I had a feeling that somehow you already knew"

She continued her story telling Remus about the time turner and coming back to the past. The fact that Dumbledore knew everything.

"So these things, these Horcruxes, that Vol-Voldermort has created. You have to destroy these before you can kill him?" he asked slightly confused.

Ginny nodded, eyeing him, taking in his reaction.

"Wow" he said quietly taking it all in.

Ginny reached behind her into her trunk and pulled out her beloved photo album. Silently she gave it to Remus. He opened it and flicked through the photos with interest. He paused on the first photo of Ginny and Harry and gasped. "He does look like James" he commented. "Did you love him?" Remus asked her curiously.

Ginny smiled softly as she looked at the picture. "He was my first love" she admitted.

Remus ran a hand through his hair suddenly feeling conflicted. Ginny took one look at him and knew he was thinking about keeping all of this from James and Sirius, how he was going to pretend around Peter.

"I wanted to kill Peter the first time I saw him you know" she admitted to him. "I saw him that day on the Hogwarts Express and I was so close to pulling my wand out and hexing him. It was nothing compared to seeing Snape though. I went a bit crazy at him last night. I just looked at him and all I could see was my family and he was there to blame" Ginny said.

A look of realisation came over his face. "Snape hit you?" he asked already knowing the answer. She didn't answer, she really didn't need to as Remus suddenly just knew.

"Remus listen to me. I made a promise to Charlie and to myself. I'm going to do everything I can to help destroy those horcruxes, to kill Voldermort, to ensure that my family, and Harry and my friends have a chance to live. That this times versions of them gets to live the life they deserve. I'm also doing this so you, Sirius, James and Lily have a better future. And if that means befriending Slytherins and getting hurt occasionally then I'll do it. Can you understand that?"

"I get it Ginny, I really do. I think you should tell Sirius and James though" he told her trying to persuade her.

"No!" she said scrambling to her feet. She kneeled down in front of him and grabbed both of his hands with her own. "They would not understand. How could I possible tell them of their futures? They would go off and get themselves killed trying to get to Voldermort"

"You'll have to tell them one day Ginny. Sirius, he would want to know" Remus told her. He knew there was something between Ginny and Sirius, something was brewing and he knew if they let it, it would change both their lives. They really did need each other, but at this stage he feared Sirius would be to arrogant to admit it and Ginny was not ready to let anyone in that close yet.

"One day" she agreed, hoping that day was after Voldermort had been destroyed.

"So when do we get the next Horcrux?" he asked Ginny as he stood up.

Shocked she looked up at him. "What do you mean we?" she asked cautiously.

Remus laughed at her and pulled her into a hug. "Like I'm going to let you do this by yourself" he said as he playfully ruffled her hair.

"I'm glad you asked Becca to the dance, I like her" Ginny mumbled into his chest, not wanting to pull away from his hug.

"So do I" Remus replied.

And that began the great friendship between Ginny and Remus.


Severus Snape paced back and forth in the empty Slytherin common room. Furious at himself for losing control yesterday in front of Lily and that Delacour girl. His eyes narrowed in thought when he thought of Ginny Delacour. There was something odd about her. The way she had spoken to him last night, he felt that she knew too much about him. Things he feared that he did not yet know himself. She had probably gone running back to Black and Potter, he thought. The look on Lily's face had stayed with him last night. The look of horror and disappointment on her face had shocked him to the core. You need to harden up Severus, he thought. There was no way the Dark Lord would take to kindly to know one of his Death Eaters had feelings for a Mudblood.

A tingle on his left arm alerted him to the fact that he was being contacted. He put a hand over his upper arm and quickly turned when he heard footsteps behind him. Regulus Black was hurrying down the stairs, his eyes wide and uncertain. This would be his first meeting as a Death Eater, Severus correctly assumed. The two did not say a word but simply nodded at each other and left the Slytherin common room. They were being called by their Dark Lord, and neither one wanted to be late.


** Hi all - hope you like this chapter. Please review, I love the feedback that I have been getting. If I get enough reviews I may get a another chapter out this weekend**