Disclaimer: You know the drill
Chapter 7
Ginny awoke to find the sun shining into her room through a large window. She had been so frazzled the first time she saw it, she hadn't taken the chance to look around. She first noticed the wall covering; it was a loud, colorful floral pattern, which hurt her eyes to look at. She was lying in a canopy bed, with a bedspread of gold brocade, the wood frame was a dark cherry, and the canopy was white silk. She noticed oil lamps on both the bedside table, and the small desk across the room, next to the closet door. All the woodwork in the room was cherry. It would have been beautiful, Ginny thought, if only the walls were more neutral. Ginny stepped off of the bed and onto the small gold rug on the hardwood floor. She was going to have a better look around the room when the door opened. The same redheaded woman she'd seen before came in.
"Oh good, you're up, Lucia."
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Ginny inquired.
"What an ordeal you must have been through, not even remembering your own mother!" Ginny looked at the woman, thinking she didn't look old enough to be her mother, but remembered hearing Hermione go on about how women used to have children very young. She then realized that Lucia could be expected to have children very soon.
"So, mum," Ginny started deciding to play along, pretending that she was Lucia.
"Don't call me 'mum,' my name is Maria." The woman interrupted her blue eyes flashing dangerously, as though it was an insult.
"Ok, Maria, shall I be having children of my own soon?" Ginny finished.
"You should already be a mother, but you haven't found a man yet; your father is ready to disown you for that, so you had better be concentrating on finding a husband, I don't care what kind of out-of-your- mind state you may be in!" Ginny was very confused at this comment. She could have sworn Lucia was engaged to Zachariah. In fact, she was sure of it.
"So where's Harry?" She blurted out without thinking.
"Harry?" Maria asked.
"You know, untidy black hair, green eyes, glasses?" Ginny asked again.
"Oh you mean your brother's friend, Zachariah?" Maria asked, looking very confused. Ginny's ears perked up at the name Zachariah.
"Yes, that's who I mean." Ginny said self-assuredly.
"He's in your brother's room resting, he was out as long as you where." Maria said, "Oh, but he's fine." She added upon seeing Ginny's distressed look. "In fact I'll take you to him, your brother will want to see that you're awake." She finished. Maria led Ginny down a long, dim corridor, lit only by a few oil lamps. The corridor had walls with red and gold flowered covering, which reminded Ginny of Gryffindor Tower. The hallway had a hardwood floor just like her bedroom; she assumed the entire house had hardwood floors. Maria opened an exquisite door, carved with leaves and spiraling vines on the left side of the corridor. Ginny walked in and Maria bid her goodbye as she turned back toward the other end of the corridor. Upon walking into the room, Ginny saw Harry lying in a bed with a bedspread of deep green brocade, shade that almost matched his eyes. She looked around the room. It was exactly like hers, only with green rugs instead of gold, with gold and cream striped walls rather than the garish multicolored flowers on her walls, and the bed had no canopy. It was clearly a man's room. That's when her eyes settled on a young man who was identical to Ron. Ginny thought he must be Lucia's brother.
"Ron?" She asked without thinking.
"What? It's me, Alessio. You know, your big brother?" He asked looking worried.
"I'm sorry, I didn't even remember my own mother when I woke up." Ginny said. "I suppose we have five other brothers?" Ginny asked sarcastically figuring with all the similarities so far, Lucia probably had brothers just like hers. Alessio looked at her weirdly.
"Er...no." He replied. "We have two sisters though, Theresa and Rosalia."
"Sisters? I have sisters!" Ginny said a bit too excitedly. Harry stirred a bit in Alessio's bed and started to wake up.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone." Alessio said, winking at her as he started to leave.
"Alessio! Wait!" Ginny cried. "What year is it?"
"It's 1887." He said stopped in the doorway, looking at her like she was mad.
"And...where are we?"
"You silly girl, we're in Roma, the greatest city on Earth!" Alessio replied making a grand gesture with his arms. 'He may look like Ron, but he sure doesn't act like him,' Ginny thought as Alessio turned around and left. Ginny hurried to sit on the bed next to Harry.
"Harry?" She asked
"Ginny?" He answered with a question.
"Yes, it's me." She said.
"What happened?" He asked holding his hand to his head as though he had an awful headache. Ginny told him about the time turner.
"Then how did Ron end up here?" Harry asked
"He didn't. That's Lucia's brother, Alessio, but it's frightening how much he looks like Ron isn't it?" Ginny said wide-eyed. Upon hearing the name Lucia, Harry's face twisted into an expression of utter disbelief.
"It certainly is. I was wondering why no one seemed to wonder who I was. I guess they must think I'm Zachariah. Ginny, how many times did you twist that thing?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Only two or three times, I swear, I was only trying to send us back a couple of hours, and we end up in 1887!" Ginny said frantically.
"Well, if you only twisted it a couple times, yet we ended up over a century back in time, there must be some reason we came to this time. I mean think about it, we have dreams about a couple, we twist a time turner two or three times, and end up over a hundred years back, and land right into the lives we've dreamt about! It's just too strange to be a coincidence." Harry said, his eyes narrowed. Ginny knew what he was thinking from those eyes.
"You think this has something to do with Tom?" She asked, grimacing.
"I think it just might." Harry started, "But it'll be almost impossible to find out for sure."
"Well, after the business with the diary, we know he has no qualms about meddling with time." Ginny said beginning to sound worried.
"You're absolutely right." Harry said looking as though he was deep in thought.
"The only thing I wonder about," Ginny started, "Is where the real Zachariah and Lucia are." Ginny said looking very distressed.
"I hadn't even thought of that, but you're right. Everyone thinks we are them, and the real Zachariah and Lucia have just...disappeared." Harry said in amazement.
"There is something extremely odd going on." Ginny sighed, flopping back on the bed, lying next to Harry.
They lay there in silence for about an hour, deep in thought, before Ginny remembered something. "Harry? In the dream, weren't Zachariah and Lucia engaged?" Ginny asked.
"Yes." He replied with certainty.
"Are you sure?" She asked again, trying to prod deeper into his memory.
"I'm positive." He said firmly. "Look!" He said picking up her left hand and holding it in front of her face so that she could see the small, diamond engagement ring on her third finger. Ginny gasped.
"I come back in time, Lucia's gone, everyone thinks I'm her, and I've got her engagement ring on! This is too weird!" Ginny said skeptically.
"My thoughts exactly." Harry agreed.
"Do you know what the strangest part is though?" Ginny asked, "Maria says that I'm still single, and I had better hurry up and find a husband before my father disowns me." Harry looked a little confused so she said, "In this time period, women are supposed to already be mothers by my age."
"But if Lucia's family is so eager to have her married, why wouldn't she tell them that she's engaged to Zachariah?" Harry pondered.
"I don't know, but there must be a reason, and it must be a big one." Ginny said seriously. Harry and Ginny heard the doorknob turn, and then Alessio poked his head in the door.
"Hey, Lucia, mum says it's time for dinner. She says Zachariah is welcome to join us if he wants." Alessio said. They got off the bed and followed Alessio through the long corridor, staying a bit behind him.
"The strange thing is Alessio seems to know and he's okay with it." Ginny whispered to Harry.
"You're right, I guess it would be hard for Zachariah to keep something like that from his best friend though...I mean I get the idea that Zachariah is Alessio's best friend." Harry whispered back. The three of them arrived at a pair of ornately carved wooden doors, which Alessio opened to reveal an elegant dining room. A large cherry table was in the center of the room; it was adorned with candelabras and a white silk tablecloth. There were various portraits of the family hanging on the walls in simple, yet elegant gold frames, and a large multilayered, decorative chandelier with candles hung above the table. Servants ran about the room busily carrying dishes to and from the table.
Harry and Ginny then looked around at the people seated at the table. There was Maria at one head of the table, and at the other head was a short, stocky man with thick, black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. He looked about the same age as Maria. Ginny assumed this was Lucia's father. At one side of the table sat two identical twin girls, they looked about nineteen years old, and had thick, curly black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. She assumed these two must be Theresa and Rosalia. They looked very much like their father, while Lucia and Alessio looked like their mother with pale skin and red hair. Alessio had neglected to tell her they were twins. When she saw them switching the sugar and salt bowls under the table, she was immediately reminded of Fred and George. Across from the twins, Alessio sat with an open seat on either side of him. Ginny took the one closest to Maria, and Harry took the one closest to Lucia's father.
"Good evening, father." Ginny said as she sat down.
"When will you learn, girl!" Her father barked, "You will not call me father, you may call me Signore, or Signore Garibaldi, but never father."
"Don't mind Dad," Alessio whispered to Ginny. "He's still bitter because he grew up being called Alfredo, so now he's picky about his name." Ginny giggled quietly, covering her mouth with her hand. Then she turned more serious.
"I wish I could remember everyone." Ginny said, still trying to make everyone believe she was Lucia.
"Who is this boy?" Signore Garibaldi grunted, pointing at Harry.
"Signore, this is my friend Zachariah, he's been here for dinner before." Alessio spoke up.
"Zachariah who?"
"Zachariah Butarelli." Alessio responded. Signore Garibaldi gasped lightly at the name Butarelli as though he knew something about that lineage, but recovered quickly.
"Well, he's Italian so I suppose he's welcome here." Signore Garibaldi grunted again. Ginny and Harry were slightly taken aback. They both began thinking that based on this man's comment, perhaps the problem he would have with a marriage to Zachariah was some form of prejudice. The family finished their meal without conversation, and everyone headed up to bed for the night.
AN: I worked hard on this chapter, and I think it's my favorite so far, I really like it. I hope you all like it too. I would as always appreciate kind reviews of any kind (constructive criticism counts as kind, of course) and I may hunt you down and kill you if you flame (or...not). Anyway, I would like to see if anyone can figure out why Mr. Garibaldi wouldn't want Lucia to marry Zachariah, so if anyone has a guest please put it in your review. Thanks for reading!
On a different note, I found a fun parallel between Voldemort and Hitler that I thought people on this site would be obsessed enough with Harry Potter to care about: Voldemort hates muggles/muggle borns and tries to kill all that aren't pureblooded wizards, yet his father was a muggle, he is not pureblooded himself. Hitler hated and tried to kill all Jews, Hitler's mother was Jewish, making Hitler half Jewish. Fascinating, I know.
Chapter 7
Ginny awoke to find the sun shining into her room through a large window. She had been so frazzled the first time she saw it, she hadn't taken the chance to look around. She first noticed the wall covering; it was a loud, colorful floral pattern, which hurt her eyes to look at. She was lying in a canopy bed, with a bedspread of gold brocade, the wood frame was a dark cherry, and the canopy was white silk. She noticed oil lamps on both the bedside table, and the small desk across the room, next to the closet door. All the woodwork in the room was cherry. It would have been beautiful, Ginny thought, if only the walls were more neutral. Ginny stepped off of the bed and onto the small gold rug on the hardwood floor. She was going to have a better look around the room when the door opened. The same redheaded woman she'd seen before came in.
"Oh good, you're up, Lucia."
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Ginny inquired.
"What an ordeal you must have been through, not even remembering your own mother!" Ginny looked at the woman, thinking she didn't look old enough to be her mother, but remembered hearing Hermione go on about how women used to have children very young. She then realized that Lucia could be expected to have children very soon.
"So, mum," Ginny started deciding to play along, pretending that she was Lucia.
"Don't call me 'mum,' my name is Maria." The woman interrupted her blue eyes flashing dangerously, as though it was an insult.
"Ok, Maria, shall I be having children of my own soon?" Ginny finished.
"You should already be a mother, but you haven't found a man yet; your father is ready to disown you for that, so you had better be concentrating on finding a husband, I don't care what kind of out-of-your- mind state you may be in!" Ginny was very confused at this comment. She could have sworn Lucia was engaged to Zachariah. In fact, she was sure of it.
"So where's Harry?" She blurted out without thinking.
"Harry?" Maria asked.
"You know, untidy black hair, green eyes, glasses?" Ginny asked again.
"Oh you mean your brother's friend, Zachariah?" Maria asked, looking very confused. Ginny's ears perked up at the name Zachariah.
"Yes, that's who I mean." Ginny said self-assuredly.
"He's in your brother's room resting, he was out as long as you where." Maria said, "Oh, but he's fine." She added upon seeing Ginny's distressed look. "In fact I'll take you to him, your brother will want to see that you're awake." She finished. Maria led Ginny down a long, dim corridor, lit only by a few oil lamps. The corridor had walls with red and gold flowered covering, which reminded Ginny of Gryffindor Tower. The hallway had a hardwood floor just like her bedroom; she assumed the entire house had hardwood floors. Maria opened an exquisite door, carved with leaves and spiraling vines on the left side of the corridor. Ginny walked in and Maria bid her goodbye as she turned back toward the other end of the corridor. Upon walking into the room, Ginny saw Harry lying in a bed with a bedspread of deep green brocade, shade that almost matched his eyes. She looked around the room. It was exactly like hers, only with green rugs instead of gold, with gold and cream striped walls rather than the garish multicolored flowers on her walls, and the bed had no canopy. It was clearly a man's room. That's when her eyes settled on a young man who was identical to Ron. Ginny thought he must be Lucia's brother.
"Ron?" She asked without thinking.
"What? It's me, Alessio. You know, your big brother?" He asked looking worried.
"I'm sorry, I didn't even remember my own mother when I woke up." Ginny said. "I suppose we have five other brothers?" Ginny asked sarcastically figuring with all the similarities so far, Lucia probably had brothers just like hers. Alessio looked at her weirdly.
"Er...no." He replied. "We have two sisters though, Theresa and Rosalia."
"Sisters? I have sisters!" Ginny said a bit too excitedly. Harry stirred a bit in Alessio's bed and started to wake up.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone." Alessio said, winking at her as he started to leave.
"Alessio! Wait!" Ginny cried. "What year is it?"
"It's 1887." He said stopped in the doorway, looking at her like she was mad.
"And...where are we?"
"You silly girl, we're in Roma, the greatest city on Earth!" Alessio replied making a grand gesture with his arms. 'He may look like Ron, but he sure doesn't act like him,' Ginny thought as Alessio turned around and left. Ginny hurried to sit on the bed next to Harry.
"Harry?" She asked
"Ginny?" He answered with a question.
"Yes, it's me." She said.
"What happened?" He asked holding his hand to his head as though he had an awful headache. Ginny told him about the time turner.
"Then how did Ron end up here?" Harry asked
"He didn't. That's Lucia's brother, Alessio, but it's frightening how much he looks like Ron isn't it?" Ginny said wide-eyed. Upon hearing the name Lucia, Harry's face twisted into an expression of utter disbelief.
"It certainly is. I was wondering why no one seemed to wonder who I was. I guess they must think I'm Zachariah. Ginny, how many times did you twist that thing?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Only two or three times, I swear, I was only trying to send us back a couple of hours, and we end up in 1887!" Ginny said frantically.
"Well, if you only twisted it a couple times, yet we ended up over a century back in time, there must be some reason we came to this time. I mean think about it, we have dreams about a couple, we twist a time turner two or three times, and end up over a hundred years back, and land right into the lives we've dreamt about! It's just too strange to be a coincidence." Harry said, his eyes narrowed. Ginny knew what he was thinking from those eyes.
"You think this has something to do with Tom?" She asked, grimacing.
"I think it just might." Harry started, "But it'll be almost impossible to find out for sure."
"Well, after the business with the diary, we know he has no qualms about meddling with time." Ginny said beginning to sound worried.
"You're absolutely right." Harry said looking as though he was deep in thought.
"The only thing I wonder about," Ginny started, "Is where the real Zachariah and Lucia are." Ginny said looking very distressed.
"I hadn't even thought of that, but you're right. Everyone thinks we are them, and the real Zachariah and Lucia have just...disappeared." Harry said in amazement.
"There is something extremely odd going on." Ginny sighed, flopping back on the bed, lying next to Harry.
They lay there in silence for about an hour, deep in thought, before Ginny remembered something. "Harry? In the dream, weren't Zachariah and Lucia engaged?" Ginny asked.
"Yes." He replied with certainty.
"Are you sure?" She asked again, trying to prod deeper into his memory.
"I'm positive." He said firmly. "Look!" He said picking up her left hand and holding it in front of her face so that she could see the small, diamond engagement ring on her third finger. Ginny gasped.
"I come back in time, Lucia's gone, everyone thinks I'm her, and I've got her engagement ring on! This is too weird!" Ginny said skeptically.
"My thoughts exactly." Harry agreed.
"Do you know what the strangest part is though?" Ginny asked, "Maria says that I'm still single, and I had better hurry up and find a husband before my father disowns me." Harry looked a little confused so she said, "In this time period, women are supposed to already be mothers by my age."
"But if Lucia's family is so eager to have her married, why wouldn't she tell them that she's engaged to Zachariah?" Harry pondered.
"I don't know, but there must be a reason, and it must be a big one." Ginny said seriously. Harry and Ginny heard the doorknob turn, and then Alessio poked his head in the door.
"Hey, Lucia, mum says it's time for dinner. She says Zachariah is welcome to join us if he wants." Alessio said. They got off the bed and followed Alessio through the long corridor, staying a bit behind him.
"The strange thing is Alessio seems to know and he's okay with it." Ginny whispered to Harry.
"You're right, I guess it would be hard for Zachariah to keep something like that from his best friend though...I mean I get the idea that Zachariah is Alessio's best friend." Harry whispered back. The three of them arrived at a pair of ornately carved wooden doors, which Alessio opened to reveal an elegant dining room. A large cherry table was in the center of the room; it was adorned with candelabras and a white silk tablecloth. There were various portraits of the family hanging on the walls in simple, yet elegant gold frames, and a large multilayered, decorative chandelier with candles hung above the table. Servants ran about the room busily carrying dishes to and from the table.
Harry and Ginny then looked around at the people seated at the table. There was Maria at one head of the table, and at the other head was a short, stocky man with thick, black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. He looked about the same age as Maria. Ginny assumed this was Lucia's father. At one side of the table sat two identical twin girls, they looked about nineteen years old, and had thick, curly black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. She assumed these two must be Theresa and Rosalia. They looked very much like their father, while Lucia and Alessio looked like their mother with pale skin and red hair. Alessio had neglected to tell her they were twins. When she saw them switching the sugar and salt bowls under the table, she was immediately reminded of Fred and George. Across from the twins, Alessio sat with an open seat on either side of him. Ginny took the one closest to Maria, and Harry took the one closest to Lucia's father.
"Good evening, father." Ginny said as she sat down.
"When will you learn, girl!" Her father barked, "You will not call me father, you may call me Signore, or Signore Garibaldi, but never father."
"Don't mind Dad," Alessio whispered to Ginny. "He's still bitter because he grew up being called Alfredo, so now he's picky about his name." Ginny giggled quietly, covering her mouth with her hand. Then she turned more serious.
"I wish I could remember everyone." Ginny said, still trying to make everyone believe she was Lucia.
"Who is this boy?" Signore Garibaldi grunted, pointing at Harry.
"Signore, this is my friend Zachariah, he's been here for dinner before." Alessio spoke up.
"Zachariah who?"
"Zachariah Butarelli." Alessio responded. Signore Garibaldi gasped lightly at the name Butarelli as though he knew something about that lineage, but recovered quickly.
"Well, he's Italian so I suppose he's welcome here." Signore Garibaldi grunted again. Ginny and Harry were slightly taken aback. They both began thinking that based on this man's comment, perhaps the problem he would have with a marriage to Zachariah was some form of prejudice. The family finished their meal without conversation, and everyone headed up to bed for the night.
AN: I worked hard on this chapter, and I think it's my favorite so far, I really like it. I hope you all like it too. I would as always appreciate kind reviews of any kind (constructive criticism counts as kind, of course) and I may hunt you down and kill you if you flame (or...not). Anyway, I would like to see if anyone can figure out why Mr. Garibaldi wouldn't want Lucia to marry Zachariah, so if anyone has a guest please put it in your review. Thanks for reading!
On a different note, I found a fun parallel between Voldemort and Hitler that I thought people on this site would be obsessed enough with Harry Potter to care about: Voldemort hates muggles/muggle borns and tries to kill all that aren't pureblooded wizards, yet his father was a muggle, he is not pureblooded himself. Hitler hated and tried to kill all Jews, Hitler's mother was Jewish, making Hitler half Jewish. Fascinating, I know.