What's in a Name?

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.Summary: Sick of being constantly known as a Weasley's little sister, Ginny moves to America to start a new life for herself. After two years, she's perfectly happy...but then her past comes back to bite her in the arse. Harry/Ginny

Rating: PG-13 for language.

Disclaimer: Okay seriously. Does no one grasp the concept that I don't own Harry Potter? It's kinda easy. Really easy. Really really easy. Really, really really easy.

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Chapter Three: Painful Present

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"Live each day as your last. Just one day, it might be." -- Unknown

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Ginny woke up the next morning from a dream that included Harry and several hundred girls in bridesmaid dresses chasing him through the streets of San Francisco. She shook her head to the thought, remembering a conversation that she and Harry had shared during one of the many times that Ron and Hermione had disappeared to who knows where, and Harry wasn't keen on walking in on them like he did one time in the boy's dormitory when they were snogging heavily on Ron's bed.

"Most girls are just interested in dating, 'Harry Potter -- The Boy-Who-Lived'" He had said seriously in front of the Gryffindor fire.

Ginny had giggled. Remembering how she had been one of those girls.

Harry smiled. "Laugh if you want. It's true. It'll be the day that Malfoy wears a tiara and a tooth fairy costume that I find a girl that wants to date Harry Potter. Just the teenage boy..."

Ginny yawned and stretched and realized she had woken up before her alarm clock had gone off. She must have gone to sleep early last night. She pushed herself out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen where Phoebe was already making breakfast that smelled delicious. "Hmmm..." Ginny hummed. "That smells..."

"Heavenly?" Pheobe asked. "Divine? Blissful?"

"Fantastic." Ginny finished, sitting down. "What are your plans for today, Phoebes?"

"Since I don't have classes on Tuesdays...Woe is me!" Phoebe struck a dramatic pose, and handed Ginny a plate full of scrambled eggs, on the runny side, just the way Ginny loved them, two pieces of toast with rosemary cooked in, and a cup of hot coffee. "I shall have to stay home and pine away for you until the work day ends."

"Or, you could go get a job, huh?" Ginny said. "Get your parents to stop paying for this flat."

"Hey, watch it, Reggie." Phoebe threw a biscuit at Ginny, which she caught and started lathering jam on it. "Actually, I thought I might go to Prescott Street and get a job at Magical Misfits. You know, that new robes shop?" Prescott Street was almost the same as Diagon Alley in Britian. Ginny hated to admitt that she did miss Diagon Alley, but Prescott was always fun.

"That sounds excellent." Ginny said through a mouthful of jam and biscuit.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting." Phoebe said. "Yeah, I know the new manager. He says that I can work part time while I finish my schooling."

"Well aren't you just something?" Ginny started on her eggs, pouring ketchup on the plate next to them.

Ginny walked up to her office building, a very non-descript thing, as not to attract attention from wondering Muggles. She walked into the building, a cheery decorated office building, there were a couple toys on the floor and sometimes Ginny would spot a small child playing with one of the toys. She smiled serenely and kept walking along. Up ahead, she spotted a woman with a long blonde ponytail, holding a child on her hip. "Amy!" Ginny called out, and ran to catch up to the woman named Amy.

Amy turned around, showing the face of a woman that seemed a little too young to be doing this sort of work, but her dark brown eyes had a serious calm to them and determination. The boy on her hip had a mop of light sandy colored hair and deep blue eyes that was taking in everything with the strange confused look that Ginny had seen too many times. His thumb on his right hand was in his mouth. "Hi, Reggie." Amy said breathlessly. "This is Skylar Hopkins." She looked pointedly at the boy in her arms.

"I know, we've met." Ginny said kindly, looking into Skylar's eyes. "Do you remember me, Skylar?" She asked in a soothing voice she had managed to get down after years of practice playing Peace-Keeper for the Weasley family gatherings.

Skylar nodded fervidly. "Yous said that you would get me safe." He said clearly.

Ginny felt her eyes well up with tears. "Yes, I did." She touched a lock of Skylar's hair. She looked up at Amy, who looked a little frazzled. "Take care of him, okay?" She asked Amy.

"No problem, Reggie." Amy said, re-adjusting Skylar's weight on her hip. "I've got to get him to Child Care Services on the fourth floor, before they can get him to a new home. I'll talk to you later."

Ginny continued to her office and saw Ryan on the outside of her office at his desk, writing something down on a piece of parchment. He looked up as he saw her approaching. "Ah, you're here. You just missed Brooks again. He seemed edgy that you start on the Smith case today."

Ginny shook her head. "Hopkins has been worked out with Amy and I got my two other ones done yesterday, so no problem on that. Do you have my..." Her question was cut off as he held out a stack of sheets with court assignments on them. "None for you, though." Ryan said. "You can check through it, if you don't believe me."

"You're a perfectionist." Ginny said, taking the sheets of parchment and looking through them.

"Not everyone can be as perfect as me, sweetie." Ryan said.

"Oh don't flatter yourself, Ryan." Ginny said, looking up and moving to go into her office. "Oh, just no more Mindsweeper on my laptop, okay, Ryan? I don't want Brooks to get mad at you again and seizing my laptop."

"Yes, Mother." Ryan scowled at her. "Oh, by the way, here's your paper, with your favorite celebrity." He handed her The Bay Enterprise. Ryan winked.

"Shove off." Ginny said, unblushingly. "But thank you." She said and then walked into her office.

Opening the newspaper, she looked onto Harry Potter's smiling face. He looked nervously at the camera, like he always did when he had his picture taken. Opening the newspaper further, she started to read the article that went with the picture.

The Boy-That-Lived Now A Man

Harry James Potter, the Boy-That-Lived is finally a man! His 21st birthday was celerbrated two days ago on July 31st. Instead of the outrageous party that was said to be in the works by his two good friends, Mister Fred and George Weaslely, the co-creators of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, the popular chain of joke shops, was only a rumor. Potter had a small intimate party with his adoptive family, the Weasleys. Arthur Weasley, The Head of Misue of Muggle Artifacts Office, declined to comment on what happened during the party. Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley's fiance was also present at the party. A lawyer for the Wizengamot and a soon-to-be mother, said, "It was a lovely party, just family and friends. Harry's been famous his entire life. He needed just to be with people he cared about for his 21st birthday."

Despite the throngs of teenage witches that have Harry Potter posters hanging on the ceiling of their rooms at Hogwarts, and the hordes of grown-women that are plotting deviously to marry the handsome wizard, Potter has not been linked to any female companions since Camden Nettle, the Beater for the Caerphilly Catapults, who he was introduced to by Weasley of the Chudley Cannons.

When questioned on his future after he finished his Auror training last May, he responded, "I've already gotten my first assignment, and I will be following up on it. Now if you'll excuse me..."

Ginny smiled and put the newspaper down. Harry was on assignment. The man she saw yesterday couldn't have been him, then. She turned to pick up her case folder that she had placed on the corner of her desk the previous day. She sat down and opened it up. A picture of a nine-year-old girl looked out at her from the first page. She blinked mornfully up at Ginny through long thick eyelashes. Her eyes were a warm brown, almost honey colored. Her hair was limp and messy at the same time, and looked like she hadn't brushed it in a while. Ginny looked at the information packet about the girl. Avalon Smith was nine years old, her mother and father were both magical, but her mother had died when she was two. There had been reports by neighbors that Avalon was soft-spoken, and often had bruising around her neck and arms. When questioned, she had been terrified so much that she had just run back into her house.

Ginny felt herself getting angry. This was good. When she got angry, she tended to get things down faster.

Ginny walked up to a normal-looking house. It was a little larger than most of the houses in San Francisco and it was painted a light blue, almost white. The porch had a couple toys on it. Ginny shivered at the sight. Though they were in a position that looked like they had been recently played with, they looked brand-new out of the box. "Props." Ginny muttered to herself, disgusted. She walked around the toys to knock on the door.

Soft footsteps came to the door and Ginny heard a lock turning and the door opened a crack. A honey eye stared out. "Yes'm?" A shy-bred girl said softly.

"Hi there." Ginny said kindly, smiling. "Are you Avalon?"

"Yes'm." The girl repeated and opened the door a little wider, looking nervous. She was skinnier than in the picture, not helping that fact was the baggy clothes she was wearing.

"Avy, who is it?" A sharp voice came out of the shadows and a man with thining brown hair, an inch or two over six foot came strolling into Ginny's line of vision.

"I don't know, Papa." Avalon's voice went meek.

"Hello." The man said, bringing Avalon closer to him, and Ginny saw Avalon's body go rigid with fear. "Who are you?"

"My name is Reggie Evans." Ginny said, holding out a hand. "I'm with Magical Child Services. We've had several complaints, and I'm here just to check."

The man shook her hand and Ginny noticed his hands shook slightly. "I'm Richard Smith. Won't you come in?"

Ginny nodded and walked in. It was a nice house, beautifully finished. "Magical Child Services, then?" Mr. Smith said, a chuckle creeping its way into his throat. "Have they been saying I've been abusing Avy, again?"

"Again?" Ginny asked, following him into what looked like the kitchen. "There have been previous complaints?"

"Yes, of course." Mr. Smith laughed slightly. Ginny noticed he was holding onto Avalon's hand quite tightly. The girl looked back at Ginny, hope filling her drained eyes. "There's always some crazy old lady down the street that doesn't realize that Avy here is quite the tomboy and gets into tumbles often. That's where she gets the bruises from."

For a tomboy, she's rather quiet. Ginny thought. Avalon's face was concentrating hard on the hardwood floor. Mr. Smith smiled a sickening smile and opened another doorway. "This way."

Ginny only got a half-second look at the dark doorway before Mr. Smith pulled out his wand and started to shout something, but Avalon screamed, "No! Papa! Not again!"

"Shut up you stupid girl!" Mr. Smith yelled and smacked her with the back of his hand, and she crumpled to the floor. Mr. Smith looked back at Ginny, who had already gotten her wand out, but he yelled a hex at her.

Ginny dogded the spell, it wasn't properly aimed, and aimed her own wand at Mr. Smith.

"Crucio!" Mr. Smith yelled before Ginny could say a word.

"Caidoz!" An unknown voice yelled and Mr. Smith's curse blasted into pieces inches from Ginny's face. Mr. Smith swore loudly and grabbed Avalon's prone body off the floor and Apperated out.

Ginny shouted several curse words, furious beyond words and spun around. A tall young man stood there, messy black hair, wand clasped tightly in his right hand. No glasses adorned his long nose, making his stunning bottle green eyes stand out more than usual, and a lightning bolt scar was on his forehead.

Harry Potter was looking just as livid as Ginny felt.

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Author's Note: YESSSSS!! Finally got Chapter Three done. Sorry it took about three months to get it out, but I had major writer's block, oh, you don't care do you?

To those that have mentioned the Regina/Virginia/Ginerva stuff: Yes, Rowling has confirmed that Ginny's real name is gasp Ginerva. She has it on her site, so sigh I'm definately wrong about that. But as it is crucial to the story's plot line, I'm keeping her fake name as Reggie. And I'm too lazy to go back and change it. Doesn't matter too much anywyas.