The one where Ginny meets the Death Curse
'Lily, it's him,' James said, mouth suddenly dry, 'I'm so sorry I didn't believe you. I am so sorry.'
'Somehow I didn't want to be right.' Ginny told him, putting her arms around her first husband.
'What can we do? He is in our house, our home. Oh my gods! Harry!' He struggled in the embrace that was now holding him back from charging headfirst into the other room.
'Calm yourself, James.' She whispered. 'You-Know-Who is right in the living room.' He nearly escaped her grasp, but she held on tight. 'Sirius' blanket was not just a normal everyday blanket. It was chock full of spells. He will be hidden.'
'Great, so I am risking my son's life on a blanket!' He hissed back, but he did not leap to the rescue.
'Don't pout.'
He sighed. 'Lils, it feels like I don't know you any more. You are always distant and tonight has just been one crazy thing after another. Who are you? Are you even my wife any more?'
In spite of the tense situation they were in, Ginny had to fight hard not to smile. 'I'm sorry James. You are going through the same things I am and it must be affecting you. You never did lose your optimism.'
He let his fingers brush against her cheek before stopping. 'I think he missed Harry.'
They both heard his feet stamping up the stairs and took it as their signal to leave the kitchen. Ginny flew straight to the crib holding Harry, after checking the pile of untidy books for glowing eyes. James grabbed the sword Lily had given him their first Christmas together, perhaps out of the strength it gave him, perhaps because of the faint chance he could reflect a hex with the shiny surface.
'Oh Harry,' Ginny muttered, stroking the dark hair covering the babe's head. 'Remember your mother and your father.' She leant down, kissed her son softly on the forehead, and then stood squarely again.
'We have to get out of here.' James told her.
'There won't be time for that!'
'You're right...again!' He worried his lower lip with his teeth before straightening his spine and pulling out his wand. 'Lily, take Harry and go!' Her eyes flashed and James stopped her outcries. 'It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off--,'
Ginny shook her head, tears wetting her cheeks. James pointed to the door but they did not escape, as he wanted. The entire room went dark as a high pitched laugh filled the air, making their hair stand on head.
On numerous occasions in James' short career as an Auror-in-Training, he had heard tales from older, wiser, well-seasoned Aurors and their dealings with Dark Wizards. Obviously, the students all wanted to hear all about the confrontations with Death Eaters and even Voldemort himself. Any Auror, who had gone into the "lair of You-Know-Who himself" or to a "dark revel where I barely survived" said that no matter what he was laughing at, Voldemort had a cold, high laugh. It was so distinctive that many newspapers printed warnings about it.
Ginny paled to the point of looking like a ghost as Voldemort walked down the stairs. Power and darkness seemed to cling to him in the same way blot clots. James had to remember to tell himself to stand up tall and meet his enemy, rather than falling to his knees as his body so badly wanted.
'Avada Kedavra.' Voldemort said casually, as if he was saying nothing more important than "I'll have the chocolate cake."
She screamed, making the baby wake and start to cry. Voldemort stood in front of her and she knew she was dead. After all, had she not already seen all of this through Lily's eyes?
Lily had seen as Voldemort walked down the stairs. She had looked on as James died, inwardly screaming until her head hurt. Ginny was screaming too, there was too much screaming going on for her liking. Even the baby, her baby, was crying out.
Now, she watched on as the Dark Lord prepared to kill Ginny. If she could not witness her own death, how on earth would she be able to go through with it?
Ginny felt the searing pain suffuse her. Darkness and void overtook her vision and somewhere distant she felt her body hit the floor. There was such freedom now, she felt giddy with it. She was no longer of the earthly plane.
Many years and miles away from that fateful curse, the person who was now Ginny awoke. The man who was now Remus was looking at her, a funny look on his face. They both looked exactly the same as the last time they had seen each other, down to the faint wrinkles just beginning to show around their eyes. She sat up, her heart pounding.
'I just had an awful dream.' Her words were said carefully, testing each word on her lips and tongue.
'That's odd. I had a wonderful dream. Except for the part where I died.' The-man-who-was-once-Remus told her, rubbing his temples. 'It was about me finding out we were soul mates. Strange.'
'Yes strange,' The-woman-who-was-once-Ginny said, nestling into his chest, 'as we both think we are soul mates.'
'Correction. Know.' He smiled. 'Now, what was your dream?'
'I was married to Marty and we had a son, but he was really our son. Then some evil wizard killed Marty and then moved on to me.'
'Do you think we are weird. You know, dreaming about death and all?'
'Not at all.'
Lily sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. It was tattered, just like everything else in her life. Her husband was dead, her son was going to Muggles with altered memories, Sirius would go to jail, Remus would fall into a pit of despair...this was not how her life was supposed to be going.
Her bare feet stumbled on another stone and she cursed bitterly. That was what happened when you spent your time with friends like hers. She burst into tears again. Lily wanted her friends back. She wanted her husband back!
'My dear, you are nearly there.'
Lily raised her tear filled eyes to the person who was putting such a comforting hand on her shoulder. 'Who are you?'
'I am a friend. You are close.'
'Close to what? I don't want to go on.' Lily whined.
'Lily, see, it's just around the corner. Ask them if you can use their Floo. Now, go.' With one final push, the woman left.
Lily knocked on the door. After a moment of muffled swear words and a screech from a cat, a man opened the door. 'Hello.'
'Hello. May I please use your Floo?'
It must have been how pathetic Lily looked with her usually glowing hair hanging in lank strands, her face covered in ash and tears and the way her lower lip was still trembling as she said it. The man nodded and let her in. 'You know how to use it, of course?'
'Yes, I do. Thank you so much.' She grasped a handful of the powder and stood in the fireplace. 'Moony's House.'
She had snuck out of the hearth in his lounge, barely noticing the smudges she left behind her. After trying to find the elusive werewolf, she had sighed exasperatedly and started back to the fireplace. He stood in the room, his back towards her.
'Remus?'
He spun around quickly.
She was aware of how ragged she looked and how his gaze seemed to be piercing through her. None of that mattered, Lily found out, as he hugged her tightly as if trying to decide if she was real or not. They were both going to find it very hard to leave.
Author's Note: This is...odd. This is the end and I want to thank everybody who has helped me, who has read this and enjoyed this. I want to thank Luke, Sir Crig, numerous people who didn't mind that my eyes went out of focus when I was thinking about plots. I want to thank everything that has given me inspriration. There is just so much to say and I just can't say it. I should have like seven pages just thanking things, making comments...I just can't. If you are feeling sad about that, sorry. Soo...now I have a shitload of other stuff to write. I am sorry I didn't thank individual reviewers this time but I've finished.
I should have a celebration or something. Bring out the champagne. You're all invited. I'll get drunk and make out with all the wrong characters (i.e Ginny will bitch slap me) you guys will eat me out of house and home and set fire to my toilet. All in all, it sounds good. Thank you to all those people who have given this story a brief glance, been sucked in and read to the end. I love you guys!
Order of what I'm writing:
1. Remus Backstory (will write good Alexia story as well).
2. James Alternate ending
3. Ginny sitting (A new idea I have but I think it may be a little crap. Will write it anyway.
4. Anything else I said I would write.
Thank you again!