Leaky Cauldron
Chapter One
Virginia 'Ginny' Weasley sighed as she walked along the sidewalk of a muggle street on a cold September afternoon with a grocery bag in hand. The weather was harsh, the wind howling in the distance. She pulled her coat closer to her as she kept up a quick pace. It was the start of a very bad day, as she had just been fired from her job waiting tables for nearly a year. In the past years, she was always having trouble finding work. She would go from job to job and now she had to do it once again. But, she always looked on the bright side.
She looked down to her hand. A diamond ring was shimmering on her finger. She smiled to herself as she thought of her fiancé, Mark. He was an average guy who owned his own book shop. Ginny had met him when she got a job stocking books. But, she eventually had to 'be let go' from her job because they ended up doing certain innocent things behind certain bookshelves.
She was fine though, as she continued to see Mark. They're relationship had been going for three years and he had finally popped the question. She was ecstatic and excited for the wedding to come. Although she wished her family would be able to make it. To be honest, she never really took any effort in going back to her family. She had left her past life behind, to start a new life. It was tough, but she was strong.
Ginny lived in an apartment by herself. She planned to move in with her soon-to-be husband in the very near future. Until then, they both had keys to each other's places. Ginny planned to surprise Mark with dinner, as she knew he would be working today. So, she visited the local marketplace after her bad day at work and she was up at his apartment. She entered and shut the door with a bang, a nasty habit she had, and locked it.
She heard someone mutter "shit" and she questionably looked up. She was sure Mark was at work today. She heard the rustling of sheets and she walked toward his bedroom. There she found the source, her fiancé and some sluttish (well, Ginny thought so) woman were on the bed, completely lacking clothes.
Ginny blushed deeply as she put her hand over her mouth trying to prevent her to say something she would regret or bursting into tears.
"Ginny…" He began, "This isn't…I mean…"
She shook her head as she backed away and turned to leave. She quickly fled from the scene and went to her own apartment. She dropped the bag of groceries onto the floor and shut her door. She immediately went to her bed and fell against it, bursting into tears.
What just happened there? She thought to herself. They were the perfect couple. Okay, maybe they weren't the perfect couple, but everyone has flaws. She did notice that they had been getting at each other's throats the past days, but she didn't think he would do something that would drastically change there future together. He would do something like that…
The red head wiped the tears from her eyes, telling herself it was stupid to cry. She stared down at the silver ring on her finger and slipped it off and held it in her hand. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, needing to clear her mind. She opened her eyes and for a minute she just stared at the ring lying in the palm of her hand. That one ring had once caused her nothing but bliss. She frowned and threw the ring across the room. It hit the wall and fell onto the floor.
She laid down onto the floor and put her head in her hands. She heard a knock on the door. She knew it had to be Mark and she didn't want to talk to him. The knocking continued.
She sat up, but did not move. "Mark, I don't want to talk to you! Go away!" She yelled. The knocking continued. She knew he had a key and he was trying to be polite by not barging in, but he would come in anyway. She got up and answered the door. But, it wasn't her deliberately cheating fiancé.
"Oh, Mr. Stuart!" Ginny said surprised, a red tint coming to her cheeks. Mr. Stuart was her landlord and that wasn't a good thing…
"Ms. Weasley." He greeted her. "…are you okay?"
"Oh yes!" She assured him, "It's just been a really bad day. But, is there something you need?"
"Well, I don't want to continue on
with you're bad day…but…" He said hesitated and continued, "You do realize that
you haven't been paying your rent."
Ginny nervously looked at him, "Yes, I know…It's just that I've been having trouble with finding a job and I don't have any family to borrow money from…"
"What happened to your job at the book store?" He asked.
"Well," She said, "I got laid off…"
"The café? The School? The Club? The Library? The Restaurant?" He listed questioningly. She looked at him with a sheepish smile. The man sighed, "I'm sorry…but I have to evict you…"
"No!" She began to yell, before catching herself. "I mean…please…Mr. Stuart…"
He shook his head, "I'm sorry…I can't let you stay here. You do have a fiancé, why don't you move in with him already?"
Ginny thought about this for a moment, not wanting to burst into tears. He didn't need to know anything about her personal life, "Yeah…alright."
"Do you think you'll be out in a week?" He questioned
Ginny stared at him in disbelief before nodding, "Probably sooner…" She muttered. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, apologized once again, and left.
She shut the door and leaned against it, slowly sliding down until she reached the floor. She wrapped her arms around her knees and quietly sobbed. This was it. There was nothing left for her here. It was time she went back to the place she left a long time ago. The former Gryffindor had fled from the wizarding world when she was eighteen. Maybe it made her a coward, but she would admit that. She didn't want to stay in a place like that.
She had enough of magic. At a young age, the first time she saw a Hogwarts letter, she decided she was definitely going to go and follow in her family's footsteps as a witch. She had waited for so long and finally got her letter. So she excitedly attended her first year at Hogwarts: The school of witchcraft and wizardry. And as the year progressed, she had become cast down by Tom Riddle. And that's when it began, her fear of magic or at least her fear of dark magic. She had always thought that magic would be there to protect her and make things easier, but instead it began to destroy the young Weasley's life.
So, she planned to leave. Not at first, but that was because she didn't know what to expect. The war began in her sixth year and she was terrified. She had stayed another year to graduate and had planned to become a healer to help out more. By the middle of her seventh year, she had excelled very much in magic healing. She was on her way to be part of the Order of the Phoenix. At the end of her seventh year, she was already tending to their army's wounds.
That's when it happened. Before, there weren't many injuries. There would be a few cuts and bruises and broken bones, nothing that would bother her. And then, they had brought in someone too familiar to her: Neville Longbottom. She shook as she saw him coming in. His arm was nearly ripped off. Blood was everywhere and seemed to soak his clothes. He was gasping for breath and Ginny had froze. A few people began to yell at her, but she couldn't move. She fell to the floor and started to have a nervous breakdown. A different healer came to help him as she sat helplessly staring.
He had died later that night from too much blood loss.
Ginny couldn't stop crying. Neville was as close to her as a brother and he was always there for her. And when the time came, she couldn't do what mattered most. People comforted her, telling her it wasn't her fault. She knew it was though. She blamed herself. Ginny was the best skilled healer at their camp and she had froze.
The healers were taught not only to be skillfully ready, but emotionally ready as well and Ginny failed to do that. That was when she decided she had enough with magic. She knew that she used her magic to heal and help people, but what was the use when there was magic that caused destruction? It was a violent cycle of hurting and healing. And she had enough.
So, she came to the muggle world and planned to begin a better life. At first, it was fine. She had a hard time adjusting to the new lifestyle, but she eventually got used to the idea of not using magic. Things were so new to her and being close to her father made her thoroughly enjoy discovering all the different muggle inventions. So, in the first four years of her new life, she made it an adventure. She went from job to job, home to home, and boyfriend to boyfriend. She was worry free, but she wanted to eventually settle down.
That's when Mark came into the picture. The brown haired, green eyed, man reminded her very much of someone from her distant past. She liked that he was very romantic, but he sometimes seemed to be distant. They became good friend and then turned into lovers. Soon, he had asked her to marry her. That was just a few months ago and now she was back to the world of being single.
For all these years, she had considered this her life. But, she never felt completely comfortable with it. And now all of this happened: being fired, breaking things off with her fiancé and getting evicted from her apartment. Maybe it was a sign, she thought. Maybe fate was telling her that she belonged to the wizarding world. It was a place she couldn't escape.
She stood up and walked to her nightstand and opened the drawer. She rummaged through all the junk before she found what she was looking for. It was a medium sized box, holding something she hid away for a very long time. She opened the box and held the contents. She held in her hand a wand, ten and a half inches made of maple with unicorn tail hair.
She fled from the war, from the darkness of magic, from her life. Now it was time she went back. She didn't know anything of what was too come. She would think the war was over, but she never knew. She wondered if anything had changed. What was her family doing? She wondered, how about Harry or Hermione? What become of the dimension she hid from?
There was only one way to find out. Without a second thought, she apparated to the place she once called home, the burrow.
***
Ginny stared at it for a while, not wanting to really believe it. She looked at the place that kept all of her memories, or at least what was left of it.
"Ma'am?" A man came up to her, "Can I help you?"
"Yeah…I was just wondering…what happened to this place?"
"Got burned down during the war, no one has paid the money to rebuild it. So here it is, the old Burrow, home of one of the famous wizarding families, the Weasley's." He told her.
"What happen to them?" She asked, "The family…the Weasleys…"
"Well, I don't think any of them got out of the fire in time…but there are too many to count, so a few may still be alive." He answered.
"Oh, alright…thank you sir." She tried to keep her voice steady as possible. Before she left she asked him one more question, "Is there any place I can stay?"
"The Leaky Cauldron is open." He told her. She thanked him one more time before she left. Ginny would leave to go to Gringotts and then get a room at the Leaky Cauldron. She wondered if her family was alive, even one of her brothers would do. It didn't matter who, she just needed to see a friendly face.
***
The former Slytherin had downed his 17th drink when he saw her come in. He had been in this bar for as long as he remembered and this was a new face. And yet, it wasn't. Through his blurred vision, he made out the red hair and muggle clothes. She had ordered a drink and went to sit down at a table dangerously close to him, that's when he got a better look at her. He searched his mind for why that girl looked so familiar. She looked down at her drink in a cheerless way and suddenly he had a slight idea.
He poured himself another drink as he thought of who she was. The red head had to be one of the Weasleys…there only daughter…Gina? No…that wasn't it. It was the one who no one knew where she had gone during the war. Ginger? Nope, that wasn't it either.
He swore under his breath. What did he care? She was just a stupid muggle lover who ruined his life. Well, her and the rest of the world as well. As long as she didn't look at him, talk to him, or know that he sat at the table in back left of the Leaky Cauldron bar, then there would be no problem at all. As long as no one had anything to do with him, then there would be no problem at all. If no one knew he existed, then no one would care and no one would hate him as well.
It was strange how being drunk would supposedly make you less aware, but for Draco that wasn't the case. He would be able to spot a snitch a mile away even if he was drunk. This was a skill him perfected during his days at the bar. It was just something to past time on, but in this case it was pretty helpful. His eyes wandered to a different table, one in the back right corner of the pub. Two men were drinking silently to themselves. Again, a strange feeling came upon him.
A man leaned against his chair. All Draco could make out was his hair that was black and messy. He didn't recognize the man. The other man gave off a different aura, and Draco had no problem telling who his was. The red-head had to be a Weasley. One of the twins? He wondered where the other might be. Again, he could care less about there names but it was ironic how there were two Weasleys in the same room, yet they looked as if they didn't know each other.
The pub door opened and a silence entered. In a second, hushed whispers filled the room. From where Draco was, he could see a black haired man and a brunette.
"It's Harry Potter!" Someone shouted. A few people began talking loudly. Draco's temper was being pushed. Suddenly a loud breaking noise silenced the room once again.
He looked toward the table where the petite muggle looking red-head sat. Her drink lay spilt on the floor, she seemed like she wasn't paying attention to it. Rather, her attention was drawn toward the two who had just entered. A blank look was on her face.
Everyone turned to look at her. Draco looked toward the corner, the two were standing with looks of shock on there faces. Harry and who appeared to be Hermione began to walk toward her.
****
Disclamer: Leaky Cauldron is based on a fictional series by J.K Rowling. The characters or themes that you have seen in the Harry Potter books do not belong to me.
Author's notes at the end of the third chapter. Please review every chapter! I'll love you forever!!!
- Gin