===*Racing Time*===

(A/N) Okay I know it been a while since I last posted a chapter for you but I only just found time when my parents weren't home. That's right I'm punished. I'm not even supposed to be online right now but what they don't know won't hurt me right? I won't be able to post again for about another 3 weeks. I'm sorry but it isn't really my choice. At least in that time I'll have a lot written and I'll have loads of posts for you when I get back. Promise! Oh yeah and I wanted to say that I'm sorry for making Ron and Hermione sound weird. I didn't mean for Hermione to sound abusive or controlling, I just wanted for her to sound kind of bossy, you know Hermione-ish. Sorry if I sounded brutal. So put me on your Author alert list and keep on the look out. I'll be back soon enough. Until then keep up with the awesome reviews! Until next time…

~Love from Lizzie

(Disclaimer) Yeaaaah that's right. I'm JK Rowling. You're so smart to have figured that out all on your own. Good for you...**cough**freak**cough**...

Chapter 3: A Handful of Parchment Envelopes

A loud, yet muffled, roar was coming from the den across the hall from the kitchen. Hermione and Ginny both glanced at each other with bewildered stares from the corner of their eyes and stared back down at the floor again. They quickly made their way into the kitchen as Mrs. Weasley's screams could be hear becoming louder and louder with each step they took.

They practically threw themselves through the door and slammed the door behind themselves to unexpected laughter. Ron and Harry were both thrown over in laughter and tears could be seen in the corners of their eyes.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked with her hands on her hips.

Ginny slowly walked over and sat at the nearest end of the table and filled up her bowl full of cereal and milk. She made the best of her efforts not to look at Harry and it seemed like he was doing the exact opposite. it took just about all of her strength not to look up and ask him, "Just what exactly is your problem", but thankfully she didn't. She kept her head down and followed the circles swimming in the milky whiteness feeling awkwardly aware of his staring eyes.

"You should have been here it was so hilarious!" Ron laughed wiping away a few stray tears with the back of his hand. "Bill was just in here and he's just told Mum that he's proposed to Fleur."

Hermione's eyebrows knitted together and she looked deeply confused. "But I don't understand. Why was she screaming like that in the den? I wouldn't have though she would have taken it so badly. I thought she had finally taken a liking to Fleur."

"Yeah sure, she likes Fleur fine now. After she realized Bill wasn't just in it for her looks she began to get warmer towards her fine, but that's not it."

Hermione nodded her head for him to continue and he took a gulp of pumpkin juice.

"Well..." Hermione asked impatiently.

"Hold your horses, woman! I'm trying to catch my breath." Ron said waving his hands for her to stop. Hermione looked appalled.

"Woman?! Well Inever-"

"Well Mum took it fine and dandy at first. She said the usual congratulations, cried a few polite tears of happiness, so on and so forth." Ron interrupted not noticing the look on Hermione's face what-so-ever. She crossed her arms and sighed in obvious defeat as Ron continued, "But then Bill decided to tell her exactly when he was planning on hosting the wedding."

"What's so bad about the date of the wedding that she'll yell at him like that?" Hermione asked, eyeing him skeptically. Ron shrugged casually and looked down at his food with and obvious smirk across his lips.

"Oh not that much, really. Just that they'll be getting married in a week." He began to snicker loudly as Ginny choked on her next bite of food and Hermione's mouth dropped in shock.

"WHAT?!" they both shouted in unison and Ron began to laugh uncontrollably.

"But I don't get it." Ginny said still wide-eyed in astonishment and disbelief. "How are they ever going to organize it so fast?"

To their great surprise, Harry, who had been silently eating for the entire conversation, looked up from his own bowl of cereal and answered her, "Oh, well, Fleur's mum and dad had already known about it and planned on organizing it to begin with. It was just Bill who was too afraid to tell anyone." As realization of everyone's staring faces finally settled into Harry's brain he looked down at his bowl once more and spoke no more. Hermione cleared her throat and took a sip of her own pumpkin juice.

"So, um, why so soon?" she asked politely trying to make conversation once more. Ron snorted into his glass and elbowed Harry in the ribs.

"I think we all know the answer to that, right Harry?" Ron grinned wiggling his eyebrows up and down. Harry grinned politely and then lowered his head once more over his plate. He looked like a vulture or a starving dog trying to protect his food from everyone around himself. Hermione huffed in disapproval and rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, Ron, is that all you ever think about?" she asked shaking her head in embarrassment.

"No, babe. That's just the most of it." He said seriously then bursted out laughing once more. Hermione rolled her eyes and buried her face in her hands.

"Ron you really need to get a life. It that what's mainly on your mind you need to find something more resourceful."

"Who says it isn't?"

"I do, it's sickening and disgusting and if your dating me I expect you realize that you won't be coming close to any of your so said "fantasies" anytime soon. At least not until we're married."

"Married?! Who said anything about marriage?"

"Oh Ron don't be so silly. I wasn't saying that we should be married any time soon, I was only saying..."

Their quarrelling continued on and it was soon drained completely from Ginny's ears by thoughts and worries. Harry green eyes showed visibly over his bowl of cereal and milk and Ginny couldn't help but stare longingly into them. She had grown so accustomed to it over the past couple of months she hadn't even realized she actually was. She would be so much happier if he'd be with her right now, holding her in his arms, maybe whispering sweet nothings in her ear just to see her smile. She could almost feel his warm breath against her skin right then and there but then she realized it was only the heater from Kreacher's old room.

Harry looked up from his food and his and Ginny's eyes met for a brief second before Ginny looked away blushing with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Harry shook his head and picked up the parchment envelopes off the table Mrs. Weasley had thrown down before she had stormed off after Bill, not that long before. Scanning through them he could see they were addressed to Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and himself. He threw them each to their owner, glancing swiftly at Ginny to see if she'd catch his eye once more, and tore open his own.

Ginny ripped open her Hogwarts letter and quickly glanced over the supply list and introductory letter quickly before throwing them back down once more and taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

Ron and Hermione had both stopped chattering at the speed of light and instead both of them, along with Harry, had begun to scan their own letters frantically. Hermione and Harry were the first to groan in resentment.

"I'm wanted for Healer studies in ten days! That's next Monday! Bill said I was going to be serving in his wedding so how am I going to pick out a dress, go to the wedding, and attend Healer studies all in one week. It's too stressful."

"How did you know Bill wanted you to serve in his wedding if Mrs. Weasley only just found out?" Harry asked thickly.

"Harry, he told us all last January! He told you too! You're also serving in it! Don't you remember at all?" Hermione said looking a little concerned for his sanity.

"Oh yeah..." He said blushing.

"Well I've got Auror training coming up too. They don't say when but when do they ever. They let you know the day before and it up to you weither or not if you have time or not. To them its either you show up or you don't and fail. So I feel alot more stressed than you right now I'm sure. After all I don't know when I could be asked to go, it may even be on the day of the wedding and then I might not be able to make it at all." He said all very quickly trying to change the subject.

Hermione glanced over at Ron who had remained quiet the entire time and she, along with Harry and Ginny, could quite clearly see his mouth hanging open in shock at the letter in his hand.

"Ron? Ron, are you alright?" Hermione asked rubbing his back. Ron closed his mouth and placed his fork back on his plate.

He looked at them seriously in turn and then told them with out the slightest smile, "I'm not going into Auror training." Hermione lowered her face sadly and placed her head on his shoulder.

"Ron, it will be okay. You'll find a better job, something you're better at. You just wasn't meant to be an Auror, you'll find something better next time."

A smile extended on Ron's face blind to Hermione's eyes. "I already did." He declared in a whisper.

Hermione looked at him skeptically. "Y-y-you did?"

"I'm Keeper for the Chudley Cannons." he whispered his smile growing with every word he said. Hermione looked at him with wide eyes and her own smile spread across her face until she was absolutely squealing with delight. "Oh my gosh! Ron, you made the team you made the team!" she yelled as loudly as her voice enabled her too in such a high pitched voice.

"I made the team!" he yelled in response. he stood up and scooped her in his arms twirling her around as you would see couples in old fashioned Muggle movies do.

Ginny looked up smiling awkwardly as they interlocked in a passionate kiss. "Good job, Ron." she managed to whisper with out cracking while still holding back tears and the huge lump in her throat. She stood up silently and as swiftly as a ghost glided out of the room as tears broke the barrier in her startling brown eyes.

Harry managed to get a glimpse of her face before she disappeared out the door. He too stood from his won chair feeling terribly guilty, patted Ron on the back and muttered undoubtedly some form of congratulation, even if it was unrecognizable, and disappeared from the room. He could hear Hermione call his name as he reached the stairs but he decided not to turn back. He didn't want to bother them any more. They were happy and just because he was upset about something didn't mean they had to be too. They had their own life and he didn't want to make theirs any harder just because of his own problems.

It was his problem. It was his own and no one else's. Why was it that it was always him? Ron used to envy him over all his "popularity" and "fame", and he'd told himself over and over again about how happy he would be to trade places with him. He was sure if Ron could see the hell the so called "fame" caused him, he wouldn't give it a second glance. But of course Ron had no idea. No one did, not even Ginny.

"Ginny..." he sighed as he sat down in a corner of the library room. If only she could understand what he was trying to do everything would be alright again. If only she could accept that what he did was for her own good, he'd be better now. Why did it have to be this way? Why did it always have to be him? Why couldn't it have been someone else? Any one else?

Harry felt too frustrated at being himself any longer to bare it and instead of doing something irrational flicked on the television set Mr. Weasley had been fonding over a couple of days before. "The weather today is quite rainy and there might even be a chance of a thunderstorm by the looks of this cold front moving in from the North." the weather man said grinning ear to ear. If only it was always that easy to talk about something bad. It almost seemed as if the news reporters were always smiling even if they were reporting the end of human life as we knew it. Maybe he should become a news reporter. Maybe they could teach him to be a little happier than he was now. He could see himself now, Harry Potter, the Famous Muggle Newscaster. Yeah that would work out just perfectly. He'd probably run out screaming his head off the first day if he had to smile that much. But then again since things were already bad, how could they get any worse.

If only he could have seen the future, of what was to come, maybe he would have cherished the time he had then. Of his silly ideas, his wonderful memories of Ginny, his foolish worries about Auror training. But what was to come would be much more terrible than he ever would have expected. He was expecting something to happen surely, but what would happen had never once crossed his mind. The most he was worried about was what was going to happen to Ginny. Would she be alright? Will Voldemort leave her alone now that he had broken up with her. It was as close to not loving her as he could get because he could never stop completely. Hopefully time would be on his side.

What he didn't know was that in fact he'd be racing it for the finish line. He would have to defeat Time in order for everything to be right again. And everyone one knows that if you're going to race time, you're going to need a head start or you're going to lose along with everyone else. Maybe if Harry would have known what was too come he would have made it to the starting line by now, but he didn't even have on his running shoes.


Ginny ran upstairs and began to throw all her weight onto the bookcase next to her bed pushing with all her might. She gave one final push and moved over to the small circular cabinet door in the wall that with held her journal and the silver serpent. She pulled out her journal and began to feel along the bottom it for the serpent, but she couldn't seem to feel it. She glanced inside squinting around for it. The dim light shown on the snake making it glitter but curiously underneath, it was dark brown and not steel gray as the rest of the bottom. She touched it and surprised herself when she felt cold leather. She jerked her hand back and peered inside once more. By a thin strip of light she could only just made out a long leather book on the steel bottom. She reached back far into her mind and could slightly remember seeing it there the first time she had found the cabinet, but she had been to distracted by the silver serpent to pay any more attention to it. She slowly placed her journal down on the nearest shelf and grabbed both objects out in one quick swipe.

Without taking her eyes away from the strangely cold book, Ginny sat down on her bed and gazed intently at the cover. You could tell by the look on her face that there was something that surprised her. In large and loopy golden letters at the very top of the cover was written the name that sounded so very familiar to her ears, Regulus Black.


(A/N) PLEASE R&R!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

(Thankies)

~VoicezWithin-Yeah it DEFINITLY different than Lean on Me. I was getting kind of scared I was going to do something wrong cuz I'm not used to writing this sort of fic. I'm enjoying it though and I think it turned out better than I would have expected it to. I love the mystery of the fic. I love mystery stories and I though it would be fun to include it in one of my fics and it sounded the best in my adventure one. I'm glad you liked the R/H scene. Some people thought it sounded like Hermione was being abusive and such. I dunno maybe it did. Thanks again

~DarkFlower 2113- Well I guess that was a compliment but I still don't know if it was actually good if you would have loved it no matter what. LOL. Thanks again. Keep reviewing and keep up with What about me.

~xzaire- well I wouldn't necessarily say she'd the one wearing the pants but she does like to take charge of things so I figured she'd probably do that in their relationship also. She's a very take-charge type of person. Oh and you were right about finding out about who the serpent belongs to, but you still don't understand it fully do you. Well I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

~RussellGrl15- Wow. The first thing I noticed was that your review was the longest. Thanks for that. I really appreciate it. Thank you for making the comment about my writing improving. I'm glad about that. I don't make long paragraphs boring either. Another good sign. I noticed you said that the serpent was very sketchy, but that's really how I wanted it to be. I want it to be mysterious and strange and keeps you guessing. Oh and about the whole Hermione and Ron slap thing. Well I don't think I made it very clear and I'm sorry but Ron was very shocked at first and was about to blow up when Hermione explained herself. Does that sound about right. Uh I can't ever get things right when I write them. I have this clear image in my head of what I'm talking about but sometimes I can't seem to get it down on paper. Thanks again for the awesome review. I need more like yours.

~serpent- Sorry I guess you're going to have to keep guessing about the riddle until next post, but at least you know who it belongs to now right. Well I guess it really doesn't answer much but that's not the point...

~CM- Well actually she doesn't need to be protected from everyone in this fic. She is a very powerful person and I know that. I love Ginny and I respect her. And I think that Harry was doing it for her own good. After all isn't that what Voldemort is after, to kill Harry. Well what better way to lure him there than to take the one he loves most(AKA Ginny) He just didn't want that to happen to her so he decided not to be with her anymore so that she might not be the main target anymore.( even though he still loves her like crazy) Get it? Maybe I just confused you...

~SarcasmSage- Thanks. I really wanted to try something different this time and I got this. It should turn out okay. Comment more next time please. I need to know what you don't like also. It would definitely help and I might be able to improve it. I can take the pain. Give me your best shot!...Not too hard though. hehe.

~cristen- Yes I do feel very special. I'm very glad you sad more than you usually did. I'm so proud of you. Hehe. Anywho the reason Ron was being so "brainless" as you called it was because he was being spastic about Ginny's well being. After all he does care about his sister a lot and he's had experience with suicide with the whole Hermione thing in the last fic. I promise not to make him seem so clueless next time though alright. Thanks again for the extra long review. Try to do it more often. **hint hint**