--Beyond the Grave--
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise isn't mine – god bless JK!!!
Beta Reader: Sir Darlon – big thanks I couldn't do this without you!
Chapter 14 – Beyond the Grave
Reminder: There was no time to ponder on fate, no time to lose myself in my thoughts, I had finally found my goal in death and I would stop at nothing to achieve it.
Harry was miserable, I was murdered, and now… Now, there would be hell to pay!
--Something to Believe In --
I found myself sitting on the windowsill of the astronomy tower again, I had come to think of it as my windowsill. But this time I wasn't going to get lost in thought, this time I was there for a reason, perhaps something here, something could remind me of the occurrences of that night. You heard about psychics all the time touching things and getting flashes of a vision. Perhaps by returning to the scene of the crime I would be able to touch something and get a flash of memory.
Ok so it was a long shot but it was my only lead.
I touched bricks I the floor the walls, but nowhere was I getting any sort of sense, any idea of what happened that night, nothing in that room stirred up memories, not even the iron leading in the glass window, or the catch where it opened.
I saw the futility in my plan and stopped touching things, instead flopping down on the broad stone windowsill with my legs hanging over the sides of the tower and my elbows resting on my knees.
I don't know how long I sat there, staring at the point where I must have hit the ground below, but as I sat there I started to have a niggling doubt. A doubt that I was pushed from the tower, had I even been up here at all?
I couldn't place the source of these feelings, but with almost certainty I realised I probably had never been up this tower, I had never fallen, I had never been pushed, and I almost certainly didn't jump.
I materialised on the ground below, and momentarily looked up at the tower ascertaining the exact spot where I should have landed; satisfied I bent and touched the ground at my feet. And finally realised what had caused the doubt the certainty.
There were no bloodstains.
Perhaps they could have been wiped away with a scourgifying charm, I thought momentarily, but then was reminded of the time Ron had fallen down the steps at the burrow and cut his lip.
We were only young at the time but I remember as clear as day how mum preformed spell after spell upon the stone and the blood wouldn't shift. Eventually she had looked it up in Household cleaning spells, and she had found out that while blood won't go away with the first spell, if you scourgify the stone every day for two weeks the stain would eventually fade away.
So that led me to one conclusion, I had either been dead for over two weeks before I became what I am now, or more believably, I had never been pushed.
It occurred to me that whoever it was who had killed me threw me at the bottom of the tower to make it look like an accident, make it look like I had jumped, like I had ended my own life.
Once again I was overcome with questions, If I hadn't jumped and I hadn't fallen from the tower, who was it that put me there, where was I when I died, dammit if I could only remember, as long as I was here trying to work it out the person who killed me was still out there, and they could kill anybody, maybe I was just the first victim to die.
I came to realise that the only way I could work this out was with help, it was time to find Cedric, it was time to find any other ghosts of people murdered, and it was time for us all to fight back.
-----------------------------------------------
I decided my first goal would be to find Cedric, I hadn't seen him since I had lost all connection with the world around me, and that was quite some time ago, and that was how I found myself standing at the door to his house, in shock.
Shock because the homely house I had known as a child had gone to tatters, they had always had a nice whitewash house with a picket fence and a tidy garden, now it looked more like the burrow. Plants had grown wild and taken over the neat lawns and the building itself had fallen into disrepair.
I hesitated on the doorstep wondering if it would be safe to go in, worried that Cedric might think of it as some sort of invasion of his privacy.
I decided to go in, after all he had come to the burrow to find me, back when I died, it seemed like I had been dead practically forever now, and I could fine myself forgetting the simplest things, things like the taste of strawberries and ice cream, things like the feeling of the sun on my face and the cool wetness of water.
I found myself missing the feeling of fresh green grass on my feet and waking up every summer holiday to a freshly cooked breakfast and a rowdy family.
When I was younger I found it difficult being the only girl and the youngest in a family full of boys, I had often wished to be an only child, with no brothers to mess up my hair and tease me, now I realised that was what I missed most of all… I had often wished to lose my brothers, to get some peace in my life, and now that I was alone at last, all I wanted was to have them back.
The door banging in front of me brought me back to reality, and I was surprised to see Mr Diggory stood on the porch. Surprised because I had always known Mr Diggory to be a man who took pride in his appearance, but now he looked almost as bad as the house, he hadn't shaved in at least a week and his shirt was crumpled, I was almost certain that had I been able to smell he would have reeked of alcohol, judging by his eyes and his unsteadiness on his feet.
A wave of pity for Cedric overcame me, I had watched my family pulling together to grieve over my death, his it appeared had never got over it. Poor Cedric having to watch his family fall apart like this, no wonder he couldn't put up with me spacing out on him as well.
I stepped passed Mr Diggory and passed through the door, stopping tentatively in the hallway "Cedric?" I called in a low voice, "you here?
Don't ask me why I was bothering to be quiet, its not like they could hear me after all, but perhaps it was from habit, and old habits die hard. Maybe it was because of the house itself, I'm still not completely certain even now, but I just didn't want to say anything loud in that place.
I felt uncomfortable, and I was unsure Cedric would have wanted me to be here, would have wanted me to see his father looking like that, but I had to find him, because I needed his help. He had already told me that he had spoken to others, people who had died unnaturally, people out there who maybe like me were just looking for they're killer.
After all Voldemort, funny how I'm not afraid to say his name now that I'm dead had had countless victims over the past years, god I realised abruptly, I might even find Harry's parents, after all they had been betrayed and murdered too hadn't they.
Feeling a
little more confident I stepped on the first stair, "Cedric?" I called again,
looking up for any sight of him. Thankfully he appeared on the top stair,
"Ginny" he said uncertainly
I nodded, and he hurried down to my side..
"what are, what are you doing here?" he stuttered,
Understanding his cause for concern I made light of the situation, "Thought I'd drop by just say hi, not very often you see old friends"
He grinned at me briefly and looked around as if he had only just become aware of his surroundings,
"how bout we go somewhere a little less dismal" he grinned, and I smiled too relieved that he wasn't angry at me for coming here, and seeing this.
"Hogwarts?" I asked?
"Hogwarts" he agreed and we both apparated.
------------------------------------------
A few hours later I was done explaining, we had chosen to sit beneath the tree by the lake realising that there was unlikely to be anyone else there due to the rain that was currently obscuring Hogwarts. Of course rain didn't affect us so we could sit in it as long as we liked, and not even have to worry about catching a cold, seems that being on another astral plane did have some advantages after all.
"sounds like you've been busy" announced Cedric,
I nodded dumbly, and sat hugging my knees whilst I watched the rain dapple across the surface of the lake causing hundred of little ripples, and somehow creating a low hazy mist just above the water. I had never realised until that moment how beautiful the rain was, how it made everything glisten and look shiny and new. My life had bee spent hiding from the rain, running indoors at the first drop, not wanting to get wet.
Now sat beneath the tree the rain was a wonderful thing, perhaps because it was a thing I would never feel again.
I let out a deep sigh as I watched the giant squid tentatively raise a tentacle in the air, I grinned because it reminded me of myself, stepping into a pool or pond. It reminded me of the way I would hesitantly dip in one toe before making my move, or often changing my mind altogether. The squid had obviously made the latter choice because the tentacle was withdrawn very quickly, and not being able to help myself I chuckled at its cowardice.
"what's so funny?" asked Cedric, I grinned and explained about the squid, but I guess it was one of those things you had to see to believe because Cedric looked at me like I had gone crazy.
"So anyway, where will we start?" he asked,
"I think we should find some more of our sort, there's more out there, perhaps even Harry's parents, or Sirius .. I'm sure one of them would help me.
"Who's Sirius?"
"Harry's godfather" I replied, if anyone wanted to help Harry it would be him.
Cedric nodded taking it all in.
"So where should we start?" I asked Cedric
"our kind seem to frequent the place they died most of all, that or their home."
I grinned, anyone who had heard of Harry Potter knew that it all happened in his parents home in Godrics Hollow, and if what Cedric said was true that would be where we would find his parents.
Only one true question remained, where was Godrics Hollow?
[Author Notes – hope you like it, if you did please review – Thanks for the review Darlon!! :D – Slivermoonluna]