A/N: OMFG. I have so many reviews! Sorry I was away, I was on army camp, it was brilliant. THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER. I'm trying to anti-cliché it, but as you probably tell from the title, it didn't work. Anyway. I love the suggestions for the titles, people! I'm going to list the titles at the bottom, and then you have to vote on it. I'll post an author's note as one final chapter, telling you which I've decided on. Thanks so much! I love you all.
MUST LISTEN TO: Make A Memory by Bon Jovi. Makes it so much better.
Disclaimer: Get the idea into your head. I don't own it. Now move on.
The Letter P
Chapter Seventy: P is for Pathetically Clichéd
Ginny picked it up and turned it on herself. She reached under her clothes and pulled out the Time-Turner, warm around her neck. She had no idea how many times to turn it. "Please," she whispered to it, and then spun the dial. Around and around the circles twirled, slowing… stopping. Then she pointed the wand at herself. "Portughhhh!" she tried to cast the spell, but smog was filling her lungs and she couldn't speak without coughing.
Oh God. This was it, wasn't it? She was going to die. She was going to be asphyxiated. She'd never see any of her friends again. No! I'm not giving up now! "PORTUS!" Nothing happened. Then light flashed, and the last of the Weasleys disappeared.
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Colours swirled. Darkness was choking her. She couldn't see-
Had she died? Was this it? Had she passed out and perished from the flames? Had that burst of light, in fact, been the white tunnel? She hadn't seen her life run before her eyes. She was glad of that. Sixteen out of seventeen years of her life held images that she didn't want to see a re-run of. It was so cliché, anyway.
Then suddenly she was falling…
"And the House Cup goes to… RAVENCLAW!"
Cheers and applause and screaming rang out, and then Ginny hit the Hufflepuff table. She broke it, sprayed food everywhere, and, after a brief pause where everyone worked out what had happened, chaos ensued.
"What the devil is going on?"
Ginny sat up, rubbing her head. "Hm?" she blinked around her.
The Hufflepuffs were clinging to each other desperately, terror vivid in their eyes. She didn't blame them. She was dripping wet, covered in ash, now splattered with cake, and had just fallen from the sky.
"Er." She peeled a slice of cake from her clothes and dropped it on the table. Everyone was staring. This wasn't right.
She looked sideways at the Slytherin table. There was no-one there that she recognized. Crap. She looked at the Gryffindor table, and panicked, because there were people that she did recognize.
A very young-looking Lily Evans, eyes wide. James Potter, high-fiving a short-haired Sirius Black.
Again, she repeated in her head, crap.
She cleared her throat awkwardly. "This isn't 1959, is it?"
"No."
"1975?"
"1973, actually."
"Okay."
Take two. She sighed. Please let me get it right this time, she prayed silently in her head. She spun the Time-Turner around her neck, apologized profoundly to everyone who was watching her, and then disappeared.
xxx
"That's the homework, then, due for Friday, and-"
Falling… falling… and there was a loud CRASH as she landed on something hard and painful. Screams rang out around her.
"Don't panic, don't panic!" yelped a familiar voice. "No need to worry… what the hell do you think that you're doing?"
Ginny looked up, blinking soot out of her eyelashes. "Um."
Looking around, she saw that she had landed, quite unceremoniously, on top of a row of desks in the Potions classroom. She'd broken two desks and had up-ended five more. A livid Professor Slughorn was towering over her, and numerous third-years were staring at her in horror and fear.
"What's going on? Explain yourse– Miss Peregrine?"
"Er." She clumsily got off of the desk and brushed some dirt from the floral dress that she was still wearing. "Apparation practice, sir. Sorry. I must have over-shot the Great Hall. Sorry."
"Where have you been?" Slughorn demanded.
Her heart sank. Had she gone too far? Was she years and years ahead of Tom's time? Had he already graduated? Had she should have graduated?
"I… went on a quick trip. Family stuff," she lied. Not bothering to try and be sneaky about it, she turned to look at the blackboard. There, written in chalk, in the top right-hand corner, was the date…
Wednesday, May 29th – 1959
Relief sank her shoulders down, easing tension. It was okay. She was in the right place. A month and a half late, admittedly. But it'd do.
"I'm sorry, Professor, sir, for interrupting your lesson. I'll let you get on with it now," she said humbly, and then rushed out of the classroom.
There was smut on her face and dirt in her hair; people, just coming out of the ending classes, were staring as she ran through the corridors, in a filthy pink dress, covered in dust – and iced cake. She siphoned off the worst of the mess with her wand, and then tucked it back into her belt.
Wednesday. That meant that she would have just had Charms with macho Professor Alcippe. And that meant that he would have had Arithmancy.
She was already heading in the direction of the Charms classroom, but she spun on her heel and ran up the stairs towards the Arithmancy classroom. Her heart was thumping in her ears and her throat was extremely dry. There were vast crowds of other students to push through as they all escaped from their last classes. She peered over their heads, leaping into the air to see past them (she furiously cursed her shortness as she did so), searching frantically for a tall, dark-haired person who she'd come to recognise anywhere.
THERE!
He was just emerging from the Arithmancy class, a hundred yards away or so. He was one of the last to leave. His face was blank and careful, as it always had been before she'd tried her new attempt at getting through to him – being nice. And look where that had got her. His head was ducked slightly, and his eyes, even from this distance, were visibly cold and tight.
Ginny slowed down. "Tom!" she yelled.
The Head Boy froze solid, halfway down the corridor. He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on the wall, where they'd been passing over before she'd shouted for him.
"Tom!"
Very slowly, he turned.
His eyes landed on her and noticeably widened. His mouth fell slightly open.
And then she ran to him.
She'd been telling herself before this happened, don't be pathetically clichéd, don't do that running-through-the-meadows thing, walk calmly, don't be pathetically clichéd, WALK, don't be pathetically-
And she ran anyway.
The crowds weren't miraculously parting like they were supposed to. Instead, they were all being very annoying and standing still, watching with surprise and mild interest and Ginny struggled through the mass of students.
Faster – faster – faster –
Her legs were burning, but she couldn't get there fast enough-
In one fluid movement, she was in front of him and she threw her arms around his neck and he took hold of her and she kissed him with everything she had.
Rational thoughts left her head as he caught her and lifted her so that he didn't have to bend, his arms strong around her waist, a hand at the small of her back, and they were pressed together, crushed together, tangled together, standing blissfully in the dead centre of the corridor, getting in everyone's way but not caring at all.
Then oxygen was a problem and she pulled away, only tightening her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder, hugging him so desperately that tears came to her eyes.
"What are you – why-" he stammered. He lightly set her feet back on the floor. "I don't – you said – the letter – it-"
"I know, I know, and I'm so sorry, but I'm here now and I'm never going to leave…" Her voice cracked. She was perfectly aware of many people watching, but she hugged him so tightly that she was probably going to kill him, closing her eyes and breathing in that familiar smell of ink and sandalwood.
"GINNY!"
The sound of Grace's raucous scream dragged her away from her hidden alter-reality where she was with Tom. She turned her face and saw an ecstatic Grace and a stunned Alden at the other end of the hall. She grinned. She was back.
As Grace began to sprint the length of the hallway, Ginny thought of something, and turned back to look up at Tom, her expression deadly serious. "Tom?"
He nodded. He didn't seem able to speak.
"I was just wondering…" she already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from him. From his lips, before they were snarled by evil and blurred by Horcruxes. She had to say it quickly, before Grace caught up ("WAH!" yelped Grace, her well-known I'm-falling-over-onto-my-face shout. That gave Ginny more time.) "Are you… are you in love with me?"
Tom froze. Ginny could hear, pressed against him, his heart-beat skip three beats, and then hammer doubly faster. He swallowed, and pushed his face into her untidy red hair, kissing the top of her head and holding her tight. "I – I-" he was rapidly turning red. He said the next words very fast, in his usual nervous ramble: "I – I think so." His voice was strained. He swallowed. "Yes. Yes, I honestly think so."
She sighed with relief, burying her face in his shoulder and swaying gently in his arms. "Good," she murmured. "Because otherwise telling you that I love you too could have been really awkward."
He laughed nervously. "What?"
She smiled, her heart swelling until it to break the bars of her ribcage. "You heard what I said."
Tom Riddle, Heir of Slytherin, ex-Lord-Voldemort-to-be, held her tightly in his arms, as if he never wanted to let her go. "Yes…" he mumbled, very quietly, and for once, Ginny thought that he was totally, blissfully unaware of the people around them, staring incredulously. She could hear the smile in his voice. "I did."
Then she was wrenched away from his by her best friends – getting past, in such a short space of time, her beloved Hermione and Luna. They'd never be replaced, not even by Grace and Alden, but she could move on now – and wrapped in the hug to mother all bear hugs.
Slight pain moved up through her hand as she twisted away, but Tom still held on. In Grace and Alden's arms, she turned her face to him, looked in surprise at his long fingers coiled around her thin wrist. She could feel her heartbeat throb through her veins under his hand; so could he.
Swiftly, he ducked his head to her hand and softly pressed his lips against the inside of her wrist. And though she couldn't hear him over the babbling din around her, she could feel him whisper 'I love you' against her skin. Then he let go.
She bit her lip, watching him through her fringe, Grace's tearful chatter tuned down to minimum volume for now. The corner of his lips pulled up into a dizzy half-smile, transforming his face. His eyes glowed with a thousand nights, a million stars, shaming any astrology that dared shine. Then he wheeled away, leaving her to the wrath of Alden Philips and Grace Hartwin.
"Ginny," Grace sobbed. "Ginny, you're – but – you – and – you're – I – Ginny – you – Ginny…"
Alden said nothing, but held her tightly, a little shorter than she was, but a comfortable height for her to hug him.
With a snap of realisation, Ginny remembered her final vision, in the water of her aguamenti charm with dear old Professor Vander, spraying across the room spectacularly and showing the future.
Running, as fast as she could, throwing her arms around someone's neck, and kissing them as hard as she could.
She had understood the meaning of that scene in the instant she'd watched it. Ginevra Aiobheann Peregrine had been due to fall in love. And she had. And she'd never been happier.
THE END
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A/N: IT'S FINALLY FINISHED! I love you all so much, I have so many reviews. Yes, there IS going to be a sequel. It's after the summer, so Tom's now longer at school, and Ginny still is, and it's mainly fixed on their relationship and problems. Like, he's really insecure about losing her, and he's not going to see her all year. But that's the least of their problems…
Okay, voting time! This story is going to be a trilogy, so these are the ideas that I have, either made up by me, or, mostly, supplied by reviewers. (1) means it's the title for the Letter P, and (2) is the sequel, (3) is the third one, blah blah blah. Here we go.
1. Rewind 2. Press Play 3. Fast Forward
1. Chasing History 2. Pursuing Romance 3. Following Happiness
1. Looking Back 2. Looking On 3. Looking Forwards
1. Backfire
2. The Worst Plan
But for those last two, if you vote for that one, then you have to supply names for the second and third fics, which has to be related to the first title.
Thank you! Please leave your votes in your reviews, and I'll post an author's note telling you what I've chosen!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.
Heart,
Me xxxx