Disclaimer- I don't anything Harry Potter related. Sadly. If I was J.K., I would be hopping to write the 6th book. You know I always sort of wonder whether Mrs. Jo Rowling writes fanfiction. Hmmm
She apparated into Hogsmeade the next afternoon, after a long breakfast and good bye to Tom. She promised she would visit again. He nodded and didn't watch her as she left, instead furiously rubbing a spot on the counter. She wondered why, as she had lunch in the three broomsticks, talking to Rosie and thinking about times gone past. "I remember when you used to come in here, you old drunk. Didn't realize until last year it was you." She drained a mug of ale and smiled. "What do you suppose you miss the most?" She looked far off and her eyes didn't meet Ginny's.
"My friends. And Dumbledore and Tom Fellows at the Leaky Cauldron, they were like dads at the end of it for me. My husband and child. The 70's, the quiet before the storm. My cat." She shook her head.
"Whatever happened to little Diabla?" Rosie refilled her glass with pumpkin juice and waved away the offered change. "I always liked her."
"I gave her to Peter Pettigrew." Rosie raised her eyebrows, everyone knew the truth about that, now. "He mentioned giving her to an aunt or something of the like. You remember him." The woman nodded and sighed.
"Shame, shame. Nice enough fellow. Bit stupid." She said with a smirk.
"He always was." Ginny laughed. "Everyone hates him now so much. And I do! I do! I just wish someone would remember for once that the reason he was in the Marauders is because he was a wonderful person. He was slow, sure. But he was so sweet and kind and he could always flatter you. He was funny and… and no one remembers that. It's funny. You've always hated your best friend when he does something wrong. You've always been close when he gets recognized for something. People are such odd creatures. So few of them have a true sense of loyalty." She finished her salad and sighed.
"Right enough. Now, you're depressing me. Scoot on up to the school. If you can't stay there, you can kip in the back room like you used to before you got your place. Go on. You're bothering me." She waved the worn rag that seemed an essential accessory to the kindly bartender. Ginny enjoyed the quiet walk up to the school. She paused at Hagrid's hut and knocked the door. He wasn't home. The school was so peaceful in the summer. She took off her shoes and walked through the grass, stopping to wade in the lake and greet the giant squid. Who was basically good natured she had discovered. One of her pranks had been ditching class and riding the giant squid around the lake. Not technically a prank, but fun nonetheless.
"Oh, god. I want to go home." She sighed and didn't envision the Burrow. She saw faces and good times. Events of 30 years ago. The heavy oak doors were thrown open, but she found no one in the school. Even as she wandered up to Dumbledore's office. She knew it was only a matter of time until she figured out Dumbledore's password. They were always candies, after all. Five minutes later, she wasn't so sure. "Feather Quill?" She tried and opened her mouth to go down all the candy she could remember and hadn't tried, when the gargoyle jumped aside to give her access. She stumbled up the stairs and made to knock, but stopped when she heard voices. She found a need to eavesdrop this conversation for some reason.
"I know I'm trusted by the Ministry, Pops." She heard a woman's voice. "But I don't feel comfortable tipping them off if we're not absolutely sure."
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, young lady." She heard Dumbledore admonish. She blanched, Dumbledore had a daughter?
"Don't call me young lady, I'm 47 and I've got a birthday coming soon. Ugh, that sounds awful to say. Can you believe it? I'm almost 50. Anyway, I'll do it, but I won't like it. And you could just put in an anonymous tip…"
"But they might not…" Ginny chose this time to knock. They obviously were done explaining what they were talking about and would refer to this thing only as 'it'. How boring. Dumbledore opened the door wide and then closed it quickly so he was barely fitting into the crevice.
"Miss Weasley." He whispered. "What are you doing here?" He sounded friendly, but distant.
"Oh Albus." She sighed. "I simply had to come. And please call me Ginny, or Miss Wesley. I don't particularly feel like being called Weasley right now. I don't feel like a Weasley at all." She sighed but brightened at his change of face.
"I suppose you needed someone to talk to." He said kindly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair from her face. "Naturally, well. If you'll wait a moment, I just need to say goodbye to my company." He closed the door. Ginny leaned against.
"A Miss Weasley, who prefers to be called Wesley is waiting for me and I have a feeling this appointment is rather urgent." He cleared his throat significantly.
"Oh, Pops. It's rather important, isn't it? Couldn't you tell her something different than what you told me? I know she can hear us, so I won't mention us. But please. Save her."
"I couldn't. I don't know what I'm not to say, and you certainly won't be here to dictate." He said stubbornly. The woman sighed.
"I remember this all so well. I was so foolish." She heard sniffling and sighed. This woman was a twit. Couldn't she just leave? "Yeah, well, the twins are going to come over tonight for dinner. They just celebrated their eighteenth." She sighed again.
"I know my granddaughters' birthday." Dumbledore said curtly. "Go on. I've just said I have a meeting."
"Won't you please just…?"
"No." There was silence for awhile. She walked inside and watched Dumbledore close a window.
"I didn't know you had a daughter." Ginny said as he crossed the room.
"Not many do." He motioned for her to sit. "I like to watch out for her safety. And my granddaughters. Wouldn't want to be accused of favortism."
"I never knew any Dumbledores. But of course your daughter's children would have taken her husband's name. Who are her children?"
"A year older than you. You may remember Parvati and Padma Patil." Ginny absorbed the shock quietly. No one had never mentioned.
"Hold on. Did she marry that really handsome fellow, William Patil?" Ginny remembered him. He was extremely attractive. "The twins don't really follow his looks do they?" She realized what she had said and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Not saying they're ugly."
"They follow their father's looks." He said simply.
"But…" She opened her mouth and he held up a hand.
"Enough about my daughter and the rest of my family.
"One more. I promise." Ginny winced as he rolled his eyes.
"One more."
"I didn't know you were married." She said.
"Alas, a bachelor for life. I believe. I could still find someone." He shrugged. Ginny thought of McGonagall and Dumbledore, before promptly shaking her head. Okay, never mind those thoughts. "My daughter's adopted." Dumbledore said before she could open her mouth again.
"What's her name?" Ginny smiled at him helplessly. Dumbledore was such an interesting man.
"Ah, ah. That's two questions. Breaking promises, honestly." He grinned to show her he was kidding. She grinned back but the grin quickly faded. He had kept her momentarily away from her mood, but not much could anymore.
"I miss the past so much, Albus. What ought I to do?"
"I don't know. What do you want to do?" She shrugged.
"I would miss my family if I went back. And I CAN'T go back. But I have a feeling I'll miss the Marauders if I don't go back. That I'll miss everybody. And seeing the Marauders all broken up as they are now, it's almost unbearable. How do you see such a close group of friends fall apart as they did and not go insane?" She put her head in her hands.
"I replace my insanity with rage. I don't suppose you've ever seen me angry. I've seen things, awful things. I do not wear my heart on my sleeve, only fools do that." Ginny thought back to Oliver's letter and sighed. "Neither do I lock it in my chest. I let it dictate my emotions and my actions. But I let my mind make decisions."
"Aren't most of your actions the same as decisions?" Ginny asked, confused.
"It is quite one thing to be angry and to reach out and curse someone. But my mind knows not to, so I do not strike every time I am angry."
"Maybe I've seen you angry." She said defiantly.
"No foolish prank does anything more than annoy me. At most. Generally I am amused. Go on then, you're onto me." He said dryly as Ginny laughed.
"So you're telling me to follow my heart but not let it make decisions for me. That decisions have to come from the mind and that the heart, while often true, is foolish and rash." Ginny said hesitantly.
"I have always said you were wise." Was his reply.
"I understand the moral but I still don't know what to do. D'you still think I'm wise?" Ginny asked hopefully.
"Always." He chuckled. "You have to make the decision. And the action."
"Can I stay here? To work it all out, I mean?"
"No." He said firmly, right away. Ginny frowned, feeling hurt.
"Can you tell me where Remus is then?" He nodded and she smiled. That was good at least.
* * *
Ginny apparated onto the sand and saw a solitary figure lounging on the ground, across a towel. She looked down at him, he lowered his sunglasses and looked at her.
"Lazing about at a time like this?" She whispered.
"Ginny. How are you? How's your family? What do you mean a time like this?" He smiled up at her and she sat next to him on the towel looking out to sea.
"With Voldemort as he is? I thought no one relaxed anymore." She said sarcastically. She was getting annoyed. She was his best friend after all, why didn't he acknowledge her fondly?
"That's not true. Life is surprisingly lax compared to what it was several years into Voldemort's reign first time round." He watched her and continued to look out to see.
"Yeah, Hogwarts was pretty calm back then, huh?" Ginny tried to give him a hint.
"Uh huh." He wasn't catching on. She was fed up.
"I keep showing up!" He jumped at her sudden bellow. "And I show up and I act different, I know I do. And everyone treats me like sweet little 17 year old, Ginny!" She grabbed the ring on her neck and shoved it into his face. "Recognize this, Remus? Why does no one seem to notice the changes except for me and Oliver. I'm different. I am." She said obstinately. Remus grabbed her and pulled her in for a long bone crushing hug.
"Of course you are. But you have to realize, if you had seemed knowing at some moment and we had spilled the beans we might have scared you away from your fate." He said, though his words were slightly muffled in her hair and against her shoulder. "And you've always had the tendencies to show up at the oddest of times."
"Yeah, well." She tried to sound disgruntled but instead clung to him furiously. "This would look so odd to the passerby." She giggled. He stroked her hair and rocked her from side to side.
"I've missed you." He whispered. "Everything, you're drinking, being an uncle…"
"Luna Lovegood. Did you know?" She said sadly. He nodded and laughed, finally letting her fall back and stare at him rapturously propped up on her elbow.
"How old are you, anyway, Remus?"
"46." He soaked up the sun. "An old fart. Over the hill, I'm afraid."
"What is Dumbledore's daughter's name?" She asked suddenly. A faint bell was tinkling in the back of her head and she couldn't get it to stop.
"I didn't know he had a daughter." Remus said. She was too distracted to pick up on something that was second nature to her by now. Remus was lying.
"Oh." She whispered, shrugging. "I want to go back, Remus." She suddenly looked up in her eyes. "I've been to see Dumbledore. And… and I was thinking it was impossible before. But I think, now, that I can do it."
"You're forgetting of course, that the two things you want back the most won't be there. You know that because Luna was in your year. I suppose Oliver might go back with you, but it doesn't sound like you would ask him." He said, surprising Ginny, as always, with his perceptiveness.
"I miss other things too, Remus. I miss you certainly. I miss Sirius and Wormtail and… James." She said finally. "I miss James. I miss the 70's."
"You got out just in time." Remus said.
"Everyone says that, but I would've done it, all the same. I would've lived that, I think."
"Are you sure? You don't know what time were like back then. It was bad then. Very bad. You… I don't think you'd say that if you knew."
"Well, I won't ever know, will I?" She said grumpily. "I could though. I just want help making these decisions. And you're no help! I remember you young and I remember you… well… old. And I want to grow old with you. That wasn't a marriage proposal, mind you."
"I should hope not." She punched him on the arm.
"You're just jealous." Remus rubbed his eyes and didn't answer. Ginny realized she had just hit a sensitive spot and didn't even know it. A muddy brown owl flew and landed on the towel in the narrow space between them. Ginny tried to focus on it, but found she couldn't.
"I don't know." She sighed. "I'll owl you, Remus. You should come to dinner sometime. We Wesleys." She took a deep breath and tried to continue. "We'd love to have you. The Weasleys, I mean." She stood to go, and noticed Remus ogling and the owl, looking between them like a tennis match.
"I'll see you, Ginny." He said breathlessly. Ginny shook her head.
"Fine." She started purposefully away.
"Aw, GnT. I didn't mean it that way." Only his use of her old nickname made her turn back.
"I love you, Remus. Moony." She whispered.
"I love you, Gin." He said lazily, from the sand. She squatted for a final hug, before apparating away. The owl suddenly became a tired looking woman. She often reminded the viewer of Molly Weasley in her younger days. Except she was skinny, disturbingly curvaceous. Only a few people knew that was because she would tweak with her body structure because she was an Animagus. Streaks that have previously been attractive blonde were salt n pepper silver. "How do you do that?"
"Haven't you learned by now that my Disillusionment charms are the best out there?"
"Yes." He said lying back on the towel.
"Was that me?" She whispered.
"Yes. You know it as well as I." The woman heaved a great sigh.
"Well, good luck then." She saluted the place where Ginny had previously been standing. "You'll need it."
* * *
"GONE THREE DAYS! I SUPPOSE YOU'RE LUCKY YOU DIDN'T STAY THAT ENTIRE WEEK YOU WERE SPEAKING OF!" Molly was bellowing, clattering things around the kitchen. Ginny refused to bow her head, sitting up proudly in her chair, watching her mother. "YOU WON'T TELL US WHERE YOU WERE! WON'T TELL US ANYTHING! What has gotten into you?" She crashed down into a chair, finally getting tired. She looked around defeated. "And where's the table?"
"That wasn't my fault. I won't tell you anything. I don't have to. I'm of age." Ginny said stubbornly. Molly put her head in her hands. Ginny still, loftily, refused to look at her mother. She blinked tears out of her eyes and looked at her mother, slumped as she was in the chair. "What would you have if you had to give one of us up?" She asked suddenly.
"OH, SWEET MERLIN, YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Molly seemed to be getting her second wind. "I SUPPOSE THIS IS HARRY'S DOING?YOU FOLLOW THESE URGES YOU GET AS A TEENAGER AND LOOK WHERE IT GETS YOU. LOOK!"
"I'm not pregnant. And for god's sakes lower your voice, mother." Ginny hissed. Molly looked surprised and complied. Her children never acted like this, Ginny especially. Ginny got flustered and cried, occasionally bellowing back. "Never mind." She stood up and walked to the edge of the door and leaned down to the crack. "GET A LIFE!" She pushed open the door. Hermione, Harry, Fred, George, Ron, Charlie, Bill, and Fluer Delacour, Bill's wife, were rubbing their ears furiously. All of them holding onto flesh colored pieces of strings.
"Honestly, Gin." Fred said grumpily.
"What are you using them for, anyway? You could here everything she was saying."
"We wanted to hear you." George said. "So Harry?" Harry blushed.
"I'm not pregnant!" Ginny finally sighed. "Flower over there is, however."
"How did you…? We weren't going to tell, yet." Bill sputtered. "With You- Know- Who in power as he is, we thought we should lie low…"
"Four months in, about? Your disillusionment charms are shit." She snapped and everyone watched in surprise as Ginny walked up to her room, stroking her own stomach and singing a quiet lullaby. She pulled out a few of her more attractive and fashionable, now, maternity clothes. She pulled them on, and watched the sagging folds of cloth conceal her middle, when they had so proudly displayed it before. The pants drooped and dropped off around a moment later. There was a knock on the door and she fumbled with the clothes and threw them in the trunk where she kept all her stuff of the past. She shut it quickly and pulled on her bathrobe just as Hermione opened the door.
"What has gotten into you, Ginny?" She said through gritted teeth. "We all noticed. But you wait for people to tell you things like that. You've been acting so oddly. You can tell me what's the matter. You've always been able to come to me," She opened her arms and Ginny, not wanting to appear again rude gave her a long hug.
"I can't tell you this, Hermione." She told her softly. "I can't tell anyone."
"You're not pregnant, are you?" Hermione looked suddenly thunderstruck.
"No. No, I don't suppose I could handle that at this point." Ginny said absent-mindedly.
"Why are you so sad?" Hermione whispered. "I can feel it around you." Tears were filling her eyes, Ginny stepped back, alarmed. "I think everyone thinks you're on your monthly or something. But I can feel this… misery radiating from you."
"I- I don't know what you're…"
"Ginny, what happened in the kitchen?"
* * *
She was making peace with Fluer, who sat on the counter working her way through an enormous pot of chocolate mousse. "I've craved chocolate since Day 1." She sighed miserably. "Eet goes straight to my hips." She swallowed a large spoonful.
"You're just out of the woods on morning sickness, though." Fluer nodded and shook her head.
"I do not understand how some women can say zat zey love being pregnant. I've had such a miserable time of eet. Every ailment ez mine." She pressed a hand between her breasts and sighed.
"All it looks like is you're hiding more chocolate under your robes. You're going to be one of those women who, by the end of it, looks completely normal except for the basketball protruding from her robes. Do you have any good maternity robes yet?"
"Not yet. I have been waiting. We weren't going to tell anybody…" Ginny felt a twinge of guilt.
"I really am sorry about that. I've just been in such a bad mood. Now, Madam Malkin's sells shit for maternity robes. Awful, all of them. Now Robes. That's the place that sells the best." Ginny hoped to god that they were still open. "At a reasonable price, too."
"I know ze place! And I did notice zat ze Madam Malkin was not selling attractive robes."
"They're so unflattering. You'd probably be better off with a potato sack." Ginny snorted.
"I know!" Fluer laughed as well. Suddenly she stopped. "How do you know all of zis?"
"My mum you know, all those kids." Ginny muttered.
"You were ze last." She said suspiciously.
"Never mind. Just forget about it. I'm sorry about revealing your big secret. Savvy?"
"No… no. I know nozing about zees." She gestured to her stomach. "I won't tell, but tell me everyzing you know. I need to know. I don't know about diet or anyzing. I want to take care of zis baby. Of my child." Fluer sounded so much like Ginny, pleading to the female professors that it made Ginny pause. "Savvy?" Fluer shrugged, and Ginny realized she didn't know what it meant.
"Savvy." She said. "Well, Rule number 1…"
* * *
She stared, deadened, out the window. She had been back almost a month. She had seen Oliver twice. In Diagon Alley, shopping with Odessa. He had greeted her fondly and Odessa had been sweet, if not distant. Ginny wondered why. Had they perhaps talked about her? No. He had been gone an afternoon, not a year. She didn't know. Ginny yanked on the chain of her necklace. The second time had been more painful. Working in the Leaky Cauldron was comforting and it kept her busy. She often stayed the night, or at least for dinner. Fawkes drifted lazily into her lap and she stroked his feathers. "I wish your tears could heal a broken heart, Fawkes." She whispered. "I wish your tears could bring back my husband and my daughter. Luna." She whispered it breathlessly. "I feel as if my soul has shattered and lodged every memory in the organ of my imagination like glass."
He had come in the day she had officially called it quits with Harry. Just a week ago. It seemed longer than that. He ordered a Fizzy Pumpkin Juice, shook his head and ordered a beaker of Ogden's. She had smiled at him and served it up. She waved away the money he presented her. She could tell Tom was watching them. She hoped he didn't mind. "Its alright. I do it all the time. Sometime I just mix pumpkin concentrate with carbonated water. It tastes almost exact if you squeeze about a lemon's worth of juice into it." She wiped around his glass and the little pitcher.
"Ginny." He said softly. She ignored him and went to take another woman's order, handing it over to her and smiling wider. "Gin. Please." He said a little louder. She continued to ignore him. By the time she turned to him he was practically bellowing her name every thirty seconds.
"Please sir, if you can't keep your voice down, you'll have to exit the premises." She said tersely. She didn't know why she was doing it, she was suddenly angry. He grabbed onto her arm and leaned forward as she made to walk away. She forced her face to remain impassive as she turned to look at him.
"I…"
"I broke up with Harry." Ginny suddenly interrupted.
"We were both supposed to stay as normal as possible." He said unhappily.
"Yeah, well, you were always stronger than me." She said. "My heart isn't in the future anymore. Certainly not with Harry Potter. Have you ever had a dream come true and realize it was always a nightmare?" She snapped.
"Everyday I wake up and the woman in my arms isn't one that I love."
"You and Odessa are perfect for each other." Ginny meant it, but she hated Odessa at that moment. She felt she might kill Odessa if Oliver didn't argue.
"Just because we're good looking? Or because we play Quidditch? Or because we're famous? I'd be better off dating Viktor Krum." He hissed. * Oh, I love you Oliver, I love you *
"Viktor Krum isn't good looking." *God Ginny, what that the best you could come up with? Come on girl, pull it together. Convince him not to marry her. I love him. * Oliver sighed and shook his head. "Sorry." She put her head in her hands.
"S'alright." He drained his whiskey and winced. "I think you're starting to rub off on me." He stood and offered money one last time. Ginny didn't take it. He started towards the door. She told herself to call after him. Tell him she loved him. Tell him she wanted to wake up next to him every day for the rest of her life. That they could use the Death Spinner to get Luna and live happily in the future.
"Did you ask her?" It didn't work. He turned and blushed.
"Yeah, yeah I did." He brushed his eyes and walked away. The bell tinkled quietly. Tom came behind her and set a hand on her shoulder.
"He did just what you told him to do." He whispered, ignoring the orders.
"He never listened to me before. I was hoping this time wouldn't be any different."
Ginny buried her head in her hands as Fawkes swooped through the window. She was so alone.
* * *
Week four. Her month anniversary in hell. She was starting to hate her family. No, she would always love them. But she was starting to hate them for the fact that they didn't remember the seventies. That they didn't trust her. That every time she was angry it was 'that time of the month'. They were started to hate her, too. For being moody and unpredictable. For the cutting the boy- who- lived off the family reunion roster. For not telling them everything that was wrong. When she wasn't working she went up to her room and stared out the window. She didn't eat. She barely slept, unless she was at the Leaky Cauldron. Her mother, Hermione, her brothers, her father, even Harry, came up and tried to talk to her. But she remained motionless, staring out the window. "You're going to kill yourself. Just eat something. Please." They coaxed and coddled and she never met their eyes. They remained constantly fixed outside.
Finally, one day, three visitors came that made her turn around. She was sitting, stroking Fawkes as he sang to her softly. She would miss him when she sent him back. She didn't know why she could just do it. *Great. Another thing to miss from the past.* She cried and wiped her eyes. The door creaked open. She didn't glance around. "Hey Gin." It was a voice she recognized but couldn't immediately place. It was soft, but she got the feeling it wasn't usually that way. It took her a moment as she tuned out the words and studied the tone and inflection.
"Tonks." Her voice sounded hollow and hoarse. She hadn't used it all week. She hadn't worked all week. She had owled to Tom and said that she wanted to spend it with her family. She didn't want to move.
"Gin. When was the last time you showered? When did you last eat?" That was Remus, no doubt about it. "Ginny please. Talk to me. Remember me? I miss the past, too." She slowly rotated, she shoulders cracking with the effort. Dumbledore was there too. Remus and Tonks gasped, Dumbledore merely raised his eyebrows and x-rayed her.
"I don't want any company." She turned back around.
"Well, that's the most she's talked all week." She hadn't noticed her mother.
"When did she last eat, Molly? She looks emaciated."
"She had a decent breakfast on Monday. Not since then." Remus sighed and she could hear the breath he released before he would cry.
"Tuesday was your month anniversary, wasn't it?" He said through gritted teeth.
"Month, what?"
"Molly, would you leave us?" Dumbledore spoke for the first time. The door closed and she heard Dumbledore put an imperturbable charm on the room.
"You haven't eaten in four days?" Tonks suddenly burst out. "It's Friday, Gin!"
"Ah." She croaked. Fawkes soared out the open window. She let him go.
"You've still got him?" Dumbledore whispered. "You've still got the Death Spinner?"
"I'm not going to commit murder."
"Or suicide?" That was Remus.
"I can't even stand up at this point." She admitted. Hot tears coarsed down her cheeks, burning her tear ducts and eyes.
"To go to the bathroom?" Tonks sounded curious.
"I haven't really needed to." She admitted this also, with guilt. It hurt to talk.
"Have you been drinking?" Dumbledore.
"From my wand." She let her arm flop aside to show where she had the stick of wood cradled.
"You should be dead." Tonks said with awe.
"I wish I was." She said hollowly. And she wouldn't talk to them anymore. Her voice scratched, it hurt. She didn't want to see them. They didn't understand. They left and they had dinner downstairs. She heard them. Tonks came up later.
"So, you're not using your bed. I will. See you in the morning. Please, just take care of yourself Ginny. You'd be in the last person in the world I'd want to lose. Well, at least second to last. Or maybe… well never mind. That obviously doesn't help. Just, take care." She flopped down on the pillows. Ginny waited four hours, before her head dropped forward against the glass and she slept.
She sat in a hospital bed, sleeping. It was her, but she was in someone else's eyes. Someone else's head and body. And she felt strong emotions in her. Love and remorse. Pity and protectiveness. She stood and walked purposefully somewhere. She saw a reflection for a moment in the glass before her forehead touched against the coolness of it. There was Luna, oh Luna, beautiful Luna. There was love there, too. And wanting. She wanted to hold the baby in her arms. She wanted the baby as her own. She wanted Ginny as her own. She paced back to the room and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. Please, live Ginny. Please be alright. You always say you're fine. I know you're not. What happens when one day you fall, one day you admit it, and I'm not there to hold you and love you. There was James at the door. She took him into a brotherly embrace. She looked back once at him stroking her hand. She loved James. Not her. Not me.
She woke up with a start. There were twinges of grey about the horizon. She had slept longer than in the whole week. She looked around and then flopped to the ground. It hurt. And she wasn't going to even try to walk. Tonks sighed in her seep. Ginny bit her wand between her teeth and crawled desperately towards the door, flopping down occasionally to breath and recuperate. This used to take you 30 seconds she scolded herself. You never used to refuse food. She got to the stairs and sighed. There was no other way to do this. She winced as she leaned over and let herself flop like a rag doll, all the way down. She pulled herself to the kitchen and managed to grab an orange from a basket on the counter.
It was like ambrosia. She ate it greedily, not realizing how hungry she had been. She let the juices run out of her mouth and into her hair. She finished and licked her lips. Ginny went to sleep for the second time that night.
* * *
"No, Molly. Another snack tonight. Three snacks tomorrow. One meal the day after that. Two meals and then three meals. These things have to be taken in steps. Small steps." Dumbledore waved away the teeming plate of food that her mother was presenting. Remus had discovered her on the floor and helped her clean up a little before carrying her back up to the window seat. He woke Tonks with good news. Ginny was still weak, and she hadn't seen any other member of her family but her mother. It was around noon and she was again staring out the window. Dumbledore, luckily, didn't see it as a step back and they talked quietly to her back. She was given a glass of water every half hour and instructed to finish it before the next one came up. Tonks and Remus were playing a game of Exploding Snap.
"How you feeling, Gin? You want anything? How bout we go climb Mount Everest." Tonks joked. "You certainly look up to it."
"Thank you, no." Ginny said dryly. She sat for a while longer and then voiced what she hadn't been able to say in a long time, and probably wouldn't be able to say again.
"I really am an awful mother." There was no answer. "I want to see Luna. Please?" She turned around and looked at them. "Please, may I? I'll take a shower." She gulped down her water. "I want to."
"I think so." Dumbledore said softly.
"Today?" Ginny leaned forward and fell slightly over, grabbing onto his hands. "Today, Albus?" Fawkes flew slightly forward and she grabbed onto his tail feathers as he helped steady her. "I'll do whatever you want, if I can go today."
"Tonks. Go help her shower." Dumbledore waved her away, exasperated. "She'll need to keep up her strength when we go see Miss Lovegood." Ginny, for once, restrained herself from crying and instead whooped with joy.
Tonks helped her up a few flights of stairs and into her parents bedroom, instead of the kids bathroom, as she usually used. It was a big stall shower. One you couldn't take a bath in. "Here's your practice standing."
"Thank you, Tonks. Thank you." Tonks pulled off her robes, wearing only shorts and a tank top with legend, 'HEX', a fairly famous wizarding punk band.
"Another day and you would've had to be moved to St. Mungos." Was all Tonks would say.
"My parents wouldn't do that. They like to keep these type of things quiet." Ginny unashamedly stripped down as Tonks led her into the stall. Tonks even helped her soap up a little.
"You have too little faith in your family. All they want is what's best with you. They just don't know how to do that right now." Tonks laughed as she helped Ginny spin around to wash off, bending down to hand her the shampoo. "We're fulfilling every male's fantasy out here."
"Not so." Ginny said as Tonks worked the soap through her hair.
"And why not?" Tonks helped her turn around and wash it out.
"You're clothed." Tonks laughed again. Ginny gulped in the steamy air and let Tonks direct her around the shower and get clean. Tonks wrapped her in a towel and left to go get her a brush and tooth brush and such. Ginny sat against a wall and watched as she wiggled her toes. She was going to see Luna. Tonks returned shortly and helped Ginny to do everything.
"Brush. Spit. Wash. Spit." Tonks directed, looking over her shoulder as she dragged a brush through Ginny's hair. "You like it this style?" She plucked through the feathery strands. Luckily, Ginny's hair hadn't gotten but an inch longer and maintained the style she kept it at home. She ultimately preferred it this way she decided.
"Would you style it for me?" She asked sleepily. " I don't think I can."
"I can try. I usually don't have to do my own. But I'm a woman, aren't I?" Ginny watched warily as Tonks clutched her wand purposefully and waved it. Let's see if we can't…" Ginny closed her eyes tight. She had forgotten about Tonks sometimes mediocre magical abilities. She would style her hair, but it might not turn out so well for Ginny. "FLAMBAGO!" Ginny opened her eyes. She looked good.
"That's the spell for hair styling?" Tonks nodded proudly. "Jeez."
"It's the only one I know." Tonks squeezed her shoulders. "Ready to go? Albus said we can head out whenever you want." Ginny took a last minute look in the mirror.
"Okay, I'm ready to go see my daughter."
* * *
Ginny recognized the house she had dropped Luna in all those years ago. A crup slept in a patch of sunlight and Darren Lovegood who, she hadn't realized before, she had gone to school with. He was a few years under her however. He looked at her oddly. She wondered if he remembered her from school. "We're here to see, Luna." She whispered. He looked over the crowd of four on his door stoop and opened the door with a smile.
"Welcome to ye." They all filed in. "Luna's had so many visitors this summer. Usually she don't have any." He said sadly. Ginny bit her lip, if any kid's made fun of Luna this year, she would deck 'em. The walls were covered in articles and political cartoons. She recognized what was probably every issue of the Quibbler and other wizarding tabloid in the world. The Japanese Minister of Magic from what had to be fifty years ago jeered at her from an article written in the aforementioned's language. To have grown up here. Ginny sighed. Luna had had a happy childhood. She hadn't known. Ginny would know for the rest of her life. Darren went to sit at a desk. "Follow that hallway to the end and go out the screen door. Luna and her friend are in the back." They did as he told them. Ginny held on to Tonks tightly. She was losing strength again. She clutched her bag of cheerios and carrot sticks that she had been given by her mother. She felt like a toddler. She had wanted to ask where her sippy cup was, but knew that Mum was just trying to be nice. She stopped halfway down and had a few sticks of carrot before continuing on. They pushed the screen door open and all walked out before it banged close. Luna looked up at the slap of the door. Ginny caught a look of two green eyes before they hid again. Ginny wasn't fooled. His face wasn't the only thing that gave him away.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" The two were stretched out on a blanket with lunch and books laid out around them. It looked like Luna was quizzing Harry between handfuls of crisps. She looked so much like Oliver. *I was right, though. Those are my eyes.* Harry blushed.
"Studying." He said obviously. Luna stood and looked around at the people who had just arrived with her large misty eyes.
"Harry told me you haven't been well. Moffet Malaria is going around right now. You should read the latest Quibbler for a cure. St. Mungos… well." She raised her eyebrows to tell them exactly what she thought of St. Mungos. Ginny reached forward and hugged her.
"I'll check it out." She said breathlessly. She held a confused Luna at arm's length. "How's your summer been?"
"Good. Dad's been letting me help him with the paper. I've had about a hundred visitors. Oliver Wood, you know the bloke who plays Quidditch and is dating that famous Odessa Sprout, she's actually a member of Italian Mafia, came to see me. I met Harry down Diagon a week or two ago and he's been over almost every day." That explained a lot. As the others went over to Harry, Luna leaned into Ginny as they flopped down on a pair of peeling lawn chairs. All the mistiness disappeared from her eyes and she looked like a normal teenage girl, in denim shorts and an oversized 'Save the Crumple-Horned Snorkack' T-shirt. "I think he maybe fancies me." She sighed and leaned back. "That's never happened before." She suddenly narrowed her eyes at Ginny. "You were dating him, weren't you?"
"Not anymore." Ginny said earnestly. She liked this turn of events very much.
"Why? What's wrong with him?" Ginny didn't answer for a moment. They watched as Tonks tried Harry's hair, and then Dumbledore's, she stroked her long beard as the others laughed. "Because you know that Fudge…"
"There's nothing wrong with him." Harry looked as though he was trying to change. It got raucous laughter. "You don't look very much like your parents. Do you?" She wanted Luna to say something.
"No. I don't suppose I do. It's because I was abandoned." She sounded misty again.
"So they aren't… er… weren't your real parents?" Ginny tried to sound surprised.
"Of course they're my real parents." Luna whispered. "Love's thicker than blood."
A/N. Hope everybody likes it. Review, please!
