Chapter XIII: Adjusting

A/N:

A recap of sorts: Ginny went back in time because her father getting attacked by a giant snake stressed her out. While in the time of the Marauders she meets Molly-her mother- who is pregnant with her oldest brother and helps Ginny along whenever she can. She also runs into Sirius and they find themselves mutually attracted to each other, only to get attacked by dementors at Hogsmeade. This girl cannot catch a break.

Dumbledore took a deep breath as Ginny moved to sit on her bed and Sirius moved to sit beside her.

"Miss Weasley, I'm afraid I won't be able to return you to your own time."

The room was very silent as Ginny digested this information. She was silent because she'd always known hadn't she? Known that this time she'd made a mistake too big to rectify. In the back of her mind—where she'd always pushed all her doubts and fears—she'd known. Hadn't she?

The silence stretched on and on to the point of breaking, as Ginny didn't really feel up to or obliged to saying anything at the moment. The only noise that could be heard was Lucine's quill faintly scratching in her notebook, oblivious.

"Wait a moment," came from Sirius. "Wait—just—okay. What do you mean that you can't 'return her to her own time?'"

"Mr. Black, Miss Weasley is here because of a time turner—misplaced in time."

"Well—okay—Than just use the time turner to send her back then," responded Sirius, taking the news with a remarkably little amount of incredulity.

"I'm afraid that it is not that simple Mr. Black." Dumbledore turned to Ginny. "I am truly sorry. I've gathered your friends here because…well I rather thought you would need some support at this time." He made as if to leave.

"Professor," Ginny couldn't let him leave without at least one of her questions answered

"Yes?"

"Why were there dementors in Hogsmeade? Sir."

"It seems that your being misplaced in time has created a scent for not just dementors, but any sort of magical creature—good and bad. While within the walls of Hogwarts it is sufficiently masked, but without…" He straightened his cloak, and wouldn't meet her eyes. "Of course you are welcome to stay at Hogwarts as long as you like, Miss Weasley.

"Scent?"

"Yes, a scent of sorts." Dumbledore looked more and more comfortable once he realized that Ginny was more focused on understanding her situation then blaming him. "It's a sort of aura that you have from being displaced in time. Some creatures can smell it, but it can also be detected with an certain spells."

Ginny nodded and placed a hand over her headmasters.

"Thank you, Professor," she tried to smile. "Please know that I know that you tried your best. I shouldn't have messed with that thing in the first place."

"There are certain techniques I can teach you, so that you won't be quite as detectable. Over time, you will can be almost like one who hasn't time-traveled at all."

"Thank you." Ginny felt the gathering of those rare tears. Her eyes and nose burned and she felt like being alone. "If you don't mind, I think I'd like to have some time to myself."

"Of course. I'll see you in one week after classes for your first session."

Ginny nodded her goodbye,.

"Lucine," she said next. "Thank you so much for coming, but I need to be alone just now."

Lucine got up and solemnly walked over to give Ginny a hug.

"It'll be alright."

"Thank you," Ginny replied, surprised at the physical contact. She awkwardly patted the taller girl on the back.

"No really," Lucine stepped back and gripped Ginny by the shoulders, looking into her eyes. "It will be."

"Okay," Ginny figures she had about forty-five seconds before the water-works started and she would rather no one be in the room when the tears started flowing.

Lucine smiled and left.

Ginny turned to Sirius and found him looking at her with a worried look on her face.

"Are you sure you want to be alone right now?"

"Yeah, I think it'd be best."

"Are you alright?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows, partially at Sirius's question, partially to widen her eyes so that she could keep the tears in her eyes a few seconds longer.

"Sorry," Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. "Stupid question."

"I'll be okay Sirius, I'd just really like to be by myself."

"Right." Sirius turned to go, hesitated, turned back and gave her a hug. When he pulled back, he looked as if he were about to say something, but decided against it and walked out the door.

As soon as it had closed behind him, Ginny allowed herself to cry. She found herself in an even worse situation than the last time she had done this exact thing.

Days later, Ginny was woken by the rude sound of curtains being thrust back. Even from behind her closed eyelids, she could tell that bright sunlight had flooded the room.

"Alright, enough moping," said a familiar voice. "Today's the day you're getting out of that bed.

"Molly," Ginny cracked open an eye. She could see a short figure with bright red hair partially silhouetted by the wide window behind her and directly across from Ginny. "I am ill."

"Ill?" Molly asked, moving towards her bedside "Or moping?"

"I don't see why the difference matters," Ginny answered, turning over and pulling a pillow over her head.

The pillow was snatched away just seconds later.

"That's enough of that. You've had four whole days to languish in here—"

"Do you even know what's happened—?"

"—worrying everyone to death, especially Sirius who—by the way—told me everything so yes, I do know what's happened and I still think you're being ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" Ginny said in disbelief, but before she could defend herself any further, Molly took a big and obvious sniff.

"To be blunt, you stink. Go take a shower and then put these on." Molly threw some clothes she'd been carrying at Ginny. The undershirt shirt hit her in the face.

"You know, in some countries, this is called abuse."

"Look, Ginny, I know you've been through a hard time, and it's not going to get any easier for a while. That being said, lying in bed for hours on end, not bathing, isn't helping anyone. So scooch." Molly smiled, knowing she'd won.

Feeling an acute sense of déjà vu, Ginny moved out of bed and towards the shower kept in the hospital wing as slowly and obstinately as she could, throwing dirty looks at Molly the whole way.

Once in the shower, Ginny turned the enchanted knob so that water poured out of the faucet above her head at a barely-bearable, scalding temperature. She had to admit—Molly had been on to something. It felt good to let the water wash over her and rinse off all of the grime—most of it invisible—that had accumulated over the days. She saved her hair for last, using the shampoo that rested on a shelf within the shower, lathering and rinsing it twice. Once out, she wrapped a towel around herself, and squeezed out the excess water, then ran her hands through her hair a few times because of the lack of availability of a brush.

Gazing at herself in the mirror as gathered all the hair she could into one large braid, she could see why Molly had decided to take matters into her own hands. There were purple half-moons under her eyes, her lips were chapped, and she could already count two new spots.

Why does that matter? A voice in the back of her head asked. Why does what you look like matter when you're stuck here, stuck forever—

But Ginny truncated that line of thought almost as soon as it began. Over her four days in bed, she'd been practicing the art of not thinking about certain things. She'd gotten pretty good at it, and knew that if she was going to make it through the days—and many of the days to come—she couldn't face the fact that she'd gotten herself stuck in time, possibly putting in jeopardy her own timeline—not to mention anyone else's—

All right maybe she wasn't as good at it as she'd thought.

While she pulled on the clean robes Molly had brought for her, she kept her mind strictly on the arithmancy class that she was taking and how much she loathed it.

Ginny stepped out of the door, and found Molly waiting. The older girl had her arms crossed hands on her hips, looking proud of her handiwork.

"Much better," she said, walking forward. "Much, much, better."

"Alright, alright," Ginny rolled her eyes. "I know I looked a mess before, no need to rub it in."

Molly reached out to smooth back Ginny's hair, and moved her hand down her face to cup her cheek. The look on her face was uniquely tender.

"You're going to get through this," she said firmly. "You're strong and capable."

And a small part of Ginny believed her.

"Well," Molly clapped her hands together, and was suddenly all business as before. "Let's take a walk. There's some things that you need to be caught up on."

A/N: Hey, long time no see!

Yeah, guys, I messed up. I let eleven months go by without updating and I sincerely apologize. For excuses, I present the usual suspects of school work and writer's block. However, participating in NANOWRIMO this past month has taught me that there's no excuse to write a little bit every day, and I think that'll help me keep up more with posting this in a timely fashion.

I thought of scrapping this since it's been so long, but I do have some ideas on a new direction to take it, so the feedback I receive (whether people want me to continue or just chalk it up as a failure on my part and move on) will determine whether I continue this past this point. That being said, even if no one wants me to continue, if I get suddenly re-inspired I will continue posting.

Sorry, again, and I hope you all can forgive me.