Disclaimer: You know the drill.
Chapter 9
Harry and Ginny just gaped at Alessio. Ginny couldn't help but wish Alessio was as much like Ron as he looked, Ron would never have figured anything like this out on his own.
"I'll take your expressions to mean I'm correct?" Harry slowly nodded. Ginny finally pulled herself out of her stupor enough to speak.
"How did you know?" She asked, still looking rather shocked.
"You really gave it away." Said Alessio, pointing to Harry. "Zachariah is my best friend, I've known him for years, and he loves tradition. Italian titles are a major tradition, which you so readily denounced today. The minute you said not to bother with formalities like 'Signore Butarelli' I knew you weren't the same Zachariah I've known my whole life."
"How did you know about me?" Ginny asked.
"Well, it was the fact that you didn't seem to notice anything wrong with Zachariah. Lucia has been friends with him as long as I have, and is now engaged to him, she knows him possibly better than I do." Alessio said. Then he added, "but if it weren't for that, you're so like Lucia it's positively frightening, I'd never have known."
"If Zachariah and Lucia are engaged, why was your mother telling me I needed to hurry up and find a husband?" Ginny asked, she already knew the answer, but just wanted to hear it confirmed.
"Mum and Dad don't know; they wanted to keep it a secret." Alessio responded.
"But why?" Harry asked.
"I don't even know that much, but I'm sure they have their reasons." Alessio responded. Harry and Ginny were both disappointed; this really was becoming a mystery. "Wait a minute, you guys keep asking me questions, and you're the ones that fell into my life. I should be asking the questions!" Alessio exclaimed.
"Okay, ask away." Harry said.
"First of all, how did you get here?"
"Well, we were in danger and accidentally twisted a time turner," Ginny said. Alessio looked confused, "I would have to guess they haven't been invented yet, judging by your face." Alessio nodded. Ginny continued on, "Well, we were facing a Dark Lord from our time, and we panicked, so I grabbed the time turner and twisted it just a couple times to bring us back a few hours, but we ended up here."
"So, what are your real names, where do you come from?" Alessio asked.
"My name is Ginny Weasley, and this is Harry Potter." Ginny said, "We're students in England, I'm in the sixth year and Harry's in the seventh." Ginny naturally assumed that because Hogwarts was over a thousand years old, and because it was the big British wizarding school, Alessio knew that must be where they went.
"Well, I guess you're in Lucia and Zachariah's bodies, what do you really look like?" Alessio asked.
"We're not in any other bodies, this is what we really look like." Said Ginny. Alessio looked shocked. Harry reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a picture of himself, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Charlie, Bill, and Percy scowling in the back as Bill and Charlie were holding onto his arms, forcing him into the picture. The twins were in front of Charlie, Bill and Percy, making goofy smiles and putting bunny ears on Harry and Ron. Ginny and Hermione were also in the front row, next to Harry and Ron. The picture had been taken the summer before when Harry and Hermione were staying with the Weasleys. Harry handed it to Alessio.
"Oh my goodness, you could be their twins." Alessio gasped. "Who's this? He looks just like me." Alessio said incredulously, pointing to Ron.
"That's my brother, Ron." Ginny said, "All the redheads are my brothers."
"Just one last question then. If you're here, where have my sister and best friend gone?" Alessio said looking worried.
"We have no idea." Harry said dropping his head. Alessio looked disappointed, as well as worried.
"Well thank you for telling the truth." Alessio said. "I have some thinking to do, I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." With that, Alessio handed the picture back to Harry, then got up and left. The clicking of his shoes on the wooden floor of the corridor had completely diminished, and Harry and Ginny were still silent.
"Well, I was worried he'd caught us sleeping together last night." Harry finally said, "Now I wish that was what he wanted to talk to us about."
Ginny laughed weakly. "Well, we're in a library, and a huge one at that. Maybe we can find something that could help us find out what happened to Zachariah and Lucia." She suggested.
"We looked through the books in here last night. They're all muggle books." Said Harry, sounding defeated. They sat in awkward silence again.
"So...Alessio's certainly a lot more observant than Ron, eh?" Ginny joked, trying to break the tension.
"Yeah, sure." Harry said half heartedly, looking at the picture in his hands. Ginny turned her attention to the picture as well.
"I miss Ron and Hermione too." She said, putting her hand on his back and rubbing it gently. Harry found this very soothing, and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned against his chest, and soon felt wet drops fall onto her head. "What is it, Harry?" She asked compassionately, still rubbing his back.
"I was just thinking that the time turner disappeared after we came here, what if we can't get home." Harry sobbed gravely.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. There must be another way, I'm sure of it." Ginny said, although she didn't sound very certain.
Harry sat there letting Ginny comfort him once again. He felt like she had been doing that a lot lately. He realized how helpful it actually was, she was the only one that was so helpful. She had always been there for him, and even agreed to sleep with him on an overstuffed couch when he asked her to because he was so desperate to see into a dream. Sure, she'd gotten them stuck back in the nineteenth century, but she was only doing it to save them from the Death Eaters. He couldn't believe he had only become friends with her in the last two years, and he found himself wishing he'd noticed her sooner. He found himself beginning to fall in love with her as he thought back on recent events. Harry looked down at the top of her head and smiled to himself. Ginny looked up and saw Harry smiling down at her.
"What?" She asked.
"Just thinking how glad I am that I didn't get stuck back in time alone." He replied. It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't the truth either, and Ginny knew it, she gave him a skeptical look, then pulled away from him.
"I'm going to my room." She stated then left.
"What is it with people leaving to go to their rooms today?" Harry wondered out loud to the empty library.
Ginny hurried down the corridor to her room, and flopped backwards onto the bed. She felt bad about leaving so coldly, but she had to get out of there. In the past few days, she had found herself falling in Love with Harry. Again. And now she knew, this time it wasn't unrequited love. Ginny couldn't help but feel that all she did was bring trouble for Harry. In first year, when she found Tom Riddle's diary the only reason she had felt the need to write in it was to confide in someone about her crush on Harry. Then, because of her foolishness, Harry had to face a basilisk to save her. In her third year his name had found its way into the Goblet of Fire, and somehow she had convinced herself she was responsible, no matter how many people told her it was Barty Crouch Jr. The next year, Sirius had died at the Ministry of Magic; Ginny had managed to blame this on the fact that she was there. And now, she had gotten him stuck in the eighteen hundreds. Ginny became determined to keep Harry from falling for her; she couldn't let anything else happen to him. Ginny rolled over to take a nap, only to find it had gotten very hard to fall asleep without Harry after the last few nights. She was just drifting off when she heard the door open.
"Ginny? Are you okay?" Harry whispered. Harry was worried; she had never treated him so coldly, so he had thought he should come after her. Ginny decided to pretend she was asleep. She was lying on her side, with her back to Harry. She felt him lie down next to her. He was on his side, facing her. He put his hand on her back and moved it in small circles. Ginny didn't stir at all. Harry noticed that she hadn't reacted at all. "Gin, I know you're faking." He said. Ginny groaned.
"I'm sorry I was so cold to you, but can you please just let me be alone for a while?" She pleaded.
"Sure." Harry said feeling very hurt, but he got up and left the room nonetheless. Harry headed back to his bedroom. In the corridor, he ran into Alessio, who was just coming out of his room.
"Oh, hello, Zach...Harry." Alessio said rather awkwardly. "How are you?"
"Okay I guess." He said sounding thoroughly depressed.
"What's wrong?" Alessio asked sounding suspicious.
"Ginny told me to leave her alone for a while." Harry said sounding very upset.
"Is that all? Well, everyone needs time to think by themselves occasionally." Alessio started. "Look, it's obvious that you like her, but don't worry, she likes you too." Harry blushed a bit.
"No she doesn't. She used to, but I was too stupid to notice her and now she's over me." Harry said exasperatedly.
"Trust me, she likes you, but if she's like Lucia, which she seems to be, she will never admit it." Alessio said knowingly.
"I suppose." Harry sighed, and walked the rest of the way to his room. Harry sat down on the bed and ran his hand through his hopelessly messy hair. No matter how hard he tried to tell himself this was nothing, he knew she was only going to get more distant. He didn't know how he knew, he'd always been so clueless about girls in the past, but some how Ginny's actions made sense to him, somehow he knew her well enough to know what she would do. Trying to get his mind off of Ginny, Harry decided to search the room.
He went to look through the desk first. There was a wooden box on the desktop that looked like a quill case. A mystical bird that looked like a phoenix was carved on top, along with many symbols, which meant nothing to Harry. He thought that Hermione would probably know what they meant. He began to miss Ron and Hermione again, but tried to shake off the feeling of loneliness as he opened the box. Inside the case was an eleven- inch, holly wand. Harry assumed that because of the engraving on the case, it must have a phoenix feather core.
"This can't be my wand, it got left behind when the Death Eaters came." Harry thought out loud. He gave it a wave, and it felt just like his own wand. He decided to try it out.
"Accio pillow!" He called, and the pillow flew across the room into his hand. "Now for a real test," Harry said.
"Expecto Patronum!" A beautiful silvery stag came out of the tip of the wand, and galloped around the room a few times before disappearing. "This is my wand, it has to be." Harry said to himself. "But how did it get here?" Harry didn't have any more time to ponder this, as there was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Harry shouted. Alessio opened the door and poked his head inside.
"My father wants to see you in his study. I can show you the way right now." Alessio said.
"Okay, just give me a minute." Harry replied as Alessio shut the door. Harry could hear him tapping his foot impatiently on the hardwood floor of the corridor outside. Harry hurriedly put the wand back in its case. For the first time he noticed the handle, which his hand had been covering before. There was an engraving on the handle. The words Z. Butarelli had been etched into the wood. Harry gasped just as Alessio popped in again.
"Are you coming or not?" He asked, getting a bit edgy from impatience.
"Oh, yeah." Harry said getting up. He followed Alessio through many turns in the corridors, but he would never remember any of them, as he couldn't keep his mind off that wand, Zachariah's wand.
AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! You are the best, even if all you said was two or three words, you are all THE BEST! Some shout outs!
Annika: You always review even if you have nothing really to say, you review for the sake of reviewing, that is what all fan fiction readers should strive to be like. Lol.
Dramaqueen717: Thanks for always writing reviews every chapter, please please please keep it up! Oh and, it's not wierd at all to comment on grammar and spelling, they are the basis of any story, I completely agree with you about not being able to understand people because it's so bad. Sorry I tortured you with suspense, but it had to be that way. :).
cherryblossom08: Thanks for always reviewing, and being really excited about the story when you write them. It's good to feel like someone truly can't wait to see what happens.
Nightwing 509: Wow, you are amazing, you almost always submit a review within 10 minutes of my posting a new chapter. That's just incredible. I wish I had more readers as dedicated as you are.
Rayah Papya: Thanks for leaving multiple reviews, and for being willing to tell me when you thought a chapter wasn't up to par with the rest, I need to know what the readers like and don't like. :)
I know there are more of you, but I have things to do (like see POA again...even though I've already seen it 4 times...j/k I'm not seeing it again...today). THANKS TO EVERYONE PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter 9
Harry and Ginny just gaped at Alessio. Ginny couldn't help but wish Alessio was as much like Ron as he looked, Ron would never have figured anything like this out on his own.
"I'll take your expressions to mean I'm correct?" Harry slowly nodded. Ginny finally pulled herself out of her stupor enough to speak.
"How did you know?" She asked, still looking rather shocked.
"You really gave it away." Said Alessio, pointing to Harry. "Zachariah is my best friend, I've known him for years, and he loves tradition. Italian titles are a major tradition, which you so readily denounced today. The minute you said not to bother with formalities like 'Signore Butarelli' I knew you weren't the same Zachariah I've known my whole life."
"How did you know about me?" Ginny asked.
"Well, it was the fact that you didn't seem to notice anything wrong with Zachariah. Lucia has been friends with him as long as I have, and is now engaged to him, she knows him possibly better than I do." Alessio said. Then he added, "but if it weren't for that, you're so like Lucia it's positively frightening, I'd never have known."
"If Zachariah and Lucia are engaged, why was your mother telling me I needed to hurry up and find a husband?" Ginny asked, she already knew the answer, but just wanted to hear it confirmed.
"Mum and Dad don't know; they wanted to keep it a secret." Alessio responded.
"But why?" Harry asked.
"I don't even know that much, but I'm sure they have their reasons." Alessio responded. Harry and Ginny were both disappointed; this really was becoming a mystery. "Wait a minute, you guys keep asking me questions, and you're the ones that fell into my life. I should be asking the questions!" Alessio exclaimed.
"Okay, ask away." Harry said.
"First of all, how did you get here?"
"Well, we were in danger and accidentally twisted a time turner," Ginny said. Alessio looked confused, "I would have to guess they haven't been invented yet, judging by your face." Alessio nodded. Ginny continued on, "Well, we were facing a Dark Lord from our time, and we panicked, so I grabbed the time turner and twisted it just a couple times to bring us back a few hours, but we ended up here."
"So, what are your real names, where do you come from?" Alessio asked.
"My name is Ginny Weasley, and this is Harry Potter." Ginny said, "We're students in England, I'm in the sixth year and Harry's in the seventh." Ginny naturally assumed that because Hogwarts was over a thousand years old, and because it was the big British wizarding school, Alessio knew that must be where they went.
"Well, I guess you're in Lucia and Zachariah's bodies, what do you really look like?" Alessio asked.
"We're not in any other bodies, this is what we really look like." Said Ginny. Alessio looked shocked. Harry reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a picture of himself, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Charlie, Bill, and Percy scowling in the back as Bill and Charlie were holding onto his arms, forcing him into the picture. The twins were in front of Charlie, Bill and Percy, making goofy smiles and putting bunny ears on Harry and Ron. Ginny and Hermione were also in the front row, next to Harry and Ron. The picture had been taken the summer before when Harry and Hermione were staying with the Weasleys. Harry handed it to Alessio.
"Oh my goodness, you could be their twins." Alessio gasped. "Who's this? He looks just like me." Alessio said incredulously, pointing to Ron.
"That's my brother, Ron." Ginny said, "All the redheads are my brothers."
"Just one last question then. If you're here, where have my sister and best friend gone?" Alessio said looking worried.
"We have no idea." Harry said dropping his head. Alessio looked disappointed, as well as worried.
"Well thank you for telling the truth." Alessio said. "I have some thinking to do, I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." With that, Alessio handed the picture back to Harry, then got up and left. The clicking of his shoes on the wooden floor of the corridor had completely diminished, and Harry and Ginny were still silent.
"Well, I was worried he'd caught us sleeping together last night." Harry finally said, "Now I wish that was what he wanted to talk to us about."
Ginny laughed weakly. "Well, we're in a library, and a huge one at that. Maybe we can find something that could help us find out what happened to Zachariah and Lucia." She suggested.
"We looked through the books in here last night. They're all muggle books." Said Harry, sounding defeated. They sat in awkward silence again.
"So...Alessio's certainly a lot more observant than Ron, eh?" Ginny joked, trying to break the tension.
"Yeah, sure." Harry said half heartedly, looking at the picture in his hands. Ginny turned her attention to the picture as well.
"I miss Ron and Hermione too." She said, putting her hand on his back and rubbing it gently. Harry found this very soothing, and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned against his chest, and soon felt wet drops fall onto her head. "What is it, Harry?" She asked compassionately, still rubbing his back.
"I was just thinking that the time turner disappeared after we came here, what if we can't get home." Harry sobbed gravely.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. There must be another way, I'm sure of it." Ginny said, although she didn't sound very certain.
Harry sat there letting Ginny comfort him once again. He felt like she had been doing that a lot lately. He realized how helpful it actually was, she was the only one that was so helpful. She had always been there for him, and even agreed to sleep with him on an overstuffed couch when he asked her to because he was so desperate to see into a dream. Sure, she'd gotten them stuck back in the nineteenth century, but she was only doing it to save them from the Death Eaters. He couldn't believe he had only become friends with her in the last two years, and he found himself wishing he'd noticed her sooner. He found himself beginning to fall in love with her as he thought back on recent events. Harry looked down at the top of her head and smiled to himself. Ginny looked up and saw Harry smiling down at her.
"What?" She asked.
"Just thinking how glad I am that I didn't get stuck back in time alone." He replied. It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't the truth either, and Ginny knew it, she gave him a skeptical look, then pulled away from him.
"I'm going to my room." She stated then left.
"What is it with people leaving to go to their rooms today?" Harry wondered out loud to the empty library.
Ginny hurried down the corridor to her room, and flopped backwards onto the bed. She felt bad about leaving so coldly, but she had to get out of there. In the past few days, she had found herself falling in Love with Harry. Again. And now she knew, this time it wasn't unrequited love. Ginny couldn't help but feel that all she did was bring trouble for Harry. In first year, when she found Tom Riddle's diary the only reason she had felt the need to write in it was to confide in someone about her crush on Harry. Then, because of her foolishness, Harry had to face a basilisk to save her. In her third year his name had found its way into the Goblet of Fire, and somehow she had convinced herself she was responsible, no matter how many people told her it was Barty Crouch Jr. The next year, Sirius had died at the Ministry of Magic; Ginny had managed to blame this on the fact that she was there. And now, she had gotten him stuck in the eighteen hundreds. Ginny became determined to keep Harry from falling for her; she couldn't let anything else happen to him. Ginny rolled over to take a nap, only to find it had gotten very hard to fall asleep without Harry after the last few nights. She was just drifting off when she heard the door open.
"Ginny? Are you okay?" Harry whispered. Harry was worried; she had never treated him so coldly, so he had thought he should come after her. Ginny decided to pretend she was asleep. She was lying on her side, with her back to Harry. She felt him lie down next to her. He was on his side, facing her. He put his hand on her back and moved it in small circles. Ginny didn't stir at all. Harry noticed that she hadn't reacted at all. "Gin, I know you're faking." He said. Ginny groaned.
"I'm sorry I was so cold to you, but can you please just let me be alone for a while?" She pleaded.
"Sure." Harry said feeling very hurt, but he got up and left the room nonetheless. Harry headed back to his bedroom. In the corridor, he ran into Alessio, who was just coming out of his room.
"Oh, hello, Zach...Harry." Alessio said rather awkwardly. "How are you?"
"Okay I guess." He said sounding thoroughly depressed.
"What's wrong?" Alessio asked sounding suspicious.
"Ginny told me to leave her alone for a while." Harry said sounding very upset.
"Is that all? Well, everyone needs time to think by themselves occasionally." Alessio started. "Look, it's obvious that you like her, but don't worry, she likes you too." Harry blushed a bit.
"No she doesn't. She used to, but I was too stupid to notice her and now she's over me." Harry said exasperatedly.
"Trust me, she likes you, but if she's like Lucia, which she seems to be, she will never admit it." Alessio said knowingly.
"I suppose." Harry sighed, and walked the rest of the way to his room. Harry sat down on the bed and ran his hand through his hopelessly messy hair. No matter how hard he tried to tell himself this was nothing, he knew she was only going to get more distant. He didn't know how he knew, he'd always been so clueless about girls in the past, but some how Ginny's actions made sense to him, somehow he knew her well enough to know what she would do. Trying to get his mind off of Ginny, Harry decided to search the room.
He went to look through the desk first. There was a wooden box on the desktop that looked like a quill case. A mystical bird that looked like a phoenix was carved on top, along with many symbols, which meant nothing to Harry. He thought that Hermione would probably know what they meant. He began to miss Ron and Hermione again, but tried to shake off the feeling of loneliness as he opened the box. Inside the case was an eleven- inch, holly wand. Harry assumed that because of the engraving on the case, it must have a phoenix feather core.
"This can't be my wand, it got left behind when the Death Eaters came." Harry thought out loud. He gave it a wave, and it felt just like his own wand. He decided to try it out.
"Accio pillow!" He called, and the pillow flew across the room into his hand. "Now for a real test," Harry said.
"Expecto Patronum!" A beautiful silvery stag came out of the tip of the wand, and galloped around the room a few times before disappearing. "This is my wand, it has to be." Harry said to himself. "But how did it get here?" Harry didn't have any more time to ponder this, as there was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Harry shouted. Alessio opened the door and poked his head inside.
"My father wants to see you in his study. I can show you the way right now." Alessio said.
"Okay, just give me a minute." Harry replied as Alessio shut the door. Harry could hear him tapping his foot impatiently on the hardwood floor of the corridor outside. Harry hurriedly put the wand back in its case. For the first time he noticed the handle, which his hand had been covering before. There was an engraving on the handle. The words Z. Butarelli had been etched into the wood. Harry gasped just as Alessio popped in again.
"Are you coming or not?" He asked, getting a bit edgy from impatience.
"Oh, yeah." Harry said getting up. He followed Alessio through many turns in the corridors, but he would never remember any of them, as he couldn't keep his mind off that wand, Zachariah's wand.
AN: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! You are the best, even if all you said was two or three words, you are all THE BEST! Some shout outs!
Annika: You always review even if you have nothing really to say, you review for the sake of reviewing, that is what all fan fiction readers should strive to be like. Lol.
Dramaqueen717: Thanks for always writing reviews every chapter, please please please keep it up! Oh and, it's not wierd at all to comment on grammar and spelling, they are the basis of any story, I completely agree with you about not being able to understand people because it's so bad. Sorry I tortured you with suspense, but it had to be that way. :).
cherryblossom08: Thanks for always reviewing, and being really excited about the story when you write them. It's good to feel like someone truly can't wait to see what happens.
Nightwing 509: Wow, you are amazing, you almost always submit a review within 10 minutes of my posting a new chapter. That's just incredible. I wish I had more readers as dedicated as you are.
Rayah Papya: Thanks for leaving multiple reviews, and for being willing to tell me when you thought a chapter wasn't up to par with the rest, I need to know what the readers like and don't like. :)
I know there are more of you, but I have things to do (like see POA again...even though I've already seen it 4 times...j/k I'm not seeing it again...today). THANKS TO EVERYONE PLEASE REVIEW!