Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter. The only stuff I own is the stuff not found in the books.
Chapter 2: Ghosts
"Is she ever going to come down Mum?" Ron asked Mrs. Weasley earnestly at dinner one evening.
"Ronald! She's just found out that the one she loved is dead. How would you handle this?" Molly stood up and walked out leaving everyone to think. Everyone was still staring at Ron to find out exactly how he would handle it.
"Well, I guess the first thing I would do is find out everything I needed to know then find more than that, never giving up." He looked at Hermione then walked out of the house. They watched him walk down the road to the broom shed. He exited and never looked back.
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"What're you doing here?" A grumbly voice stated as he looked at the boy standing before him.
"I heard about the wedding, and after what happened, I just couldn't stay. I decided to be with, um, family? Please let me stay." The boy replied. "Only a couple of people know I'm here. I couldn't face the others anymore. I need solitude. This is where I knew I could get it."
"Um… Sure you can stay. I, uh, I'll go get your old room ready…"
"Vernon, who was that?" A shrill voice called from the kitchen.
"Petunia darling, it was Harry. He's come back…"
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The air was always clearer the higher you got. Less of everything: smoke, fog, pollution, brothers who come home after 5 months and tell you your boyfriend is dead. Ginny had been flying around the skies for many days. When she got hungry, she would land in an alley, find a place to sleep then find food and go back up. She started thinking about how much she was going to miss him. How she was going to miss her family.
You see, Ginny had decided that she was leaving. Magic just did not suit her anymore. When Harry, Ron and Hermione left to do whatever they had gone to do, Hogwarts closed. There was no use in sending the students back. Many wouldn't return anyways. Parent's fear, student's fear, everyone wanting to be together as long as possible. So missing school would not be a problem.
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Ginny got up one morning and decided that it was time to do something. She walked out of the alley, deciding to come back later for her broom and Harry's invisibility cloak she'd gotten from Hermione. Ginny kept her wand with her though hidden. She was of course in a Muggle town right now. 'Where am I?' she wondered as she walked down the road. Before she left, Ginny stopped by Gringotts and exchanged some of the little money she had, to British, Muggle money. She had enough to rent an apartment for a couple of months. While the trio was off on their expedition, she'd taken up a job at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes to make a little extra money. Since students were out of school, the profit was more than she'd expected. Now she realized how Fred and George… She couldn't think about them now. She had to stay on task. Find a job, find a place to stay, and eat something.
Ginny walked down the street looking in shop windows until she saw it, a sign on a door to a café that said, "Now Hiring. Need Waitresses". She looked in and the inside reminded her of her mum's kitchen. She walked in and ten minutes later walked out with a job.
"Oh and Lily!" Her new boss called from behind, "You start tomorrow. Be here at nine!" Ginny just smiled and kept walking.
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SEVEN YEARS LATER
"I love you." Tim told his beautiful wife as he walked out. His first wife died six and a half years ago, and six months later, new baby in stow, Tim found a new love and married her. He loved Lily just as much as he loved his own daughter from his first marriage, Kaylee. He knew that Lily was hurt from her previous relationship; her boyfriend had died when he was on a trip with some friends. He had comforted her, given her a job, and then eventually married her. She was no longer the waitress at Hannah's, but the wife and stepmother he loved and provided for. The next day was Kaylee's first day of school here in Surrey.
THE NEXT DAY
Ginny walked hand in hand with Kaylee up the school's front steps. She walked in the classroom and was astounded at the number of children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that came with the children to their first day. As soon as they got in there, Kaylee, very outgoing Kaylee, ran in the room and started making friends immediately.
"Lil, I think she's going to be all right." Tim said as he turned with Ginny and walked out of the door.
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NINE MONTHS LATER
Ginny, Tim and Kaylee made their way up the steps to the school for Kaylee's End-Of-School program put on by each class. This year's theme was Summer Snow, with a slide show of pictures from the previous winter.
"Mum! Dad! I want you to meet my friends!" Kaylee said as she pulled them to the front of the auditorium. After lot's of "sorry's" and "excuse me's" the family finally made it to the front. Tim was fascinated to learn that his daughter had made so many new friends, but he had never met them. He worked a lot and was usually home very late and up very early.
"Dad, you see that girl over there? The one in the orange jumper? That's Lilianne D. She's always picking on me but I don't care because I just pick back." Kaylee said with a triumphant smile. "She said that she learned all her stuff from her dad, but some stuff is just weird. I mean, she told me she wanted me to get hurt so while I was standing there, I was all of a sudden on the ground. That's the day I came home and my skirt was all torn up and my knees all bruised. Mummy, why are you so pale?" Kaylee looked at her mother with a confused look on her face.
"Lil? Are you okay?" Tim asked his wife as he realized as well that she was paler than usual. "Do you need to sit down?"
"No, no. I'm fine. I just feel like I've felt a ghost present. I'm fine." Ginny walked over to a row of seats not taken by anyone else. She sat down and looked as if she was in deep thought.
"I wish I knew what was going on in that girl's head. Whenever someone mentions certain things, she cringes and goes pale. I'm her husband! She should be able to talk to me!" Were just a few things that were going inside Tim's head. Tim walked over to Ginny and put his arm around her as if saying, I'll always protect you. He noticed she flinched when he did that and so he backed off.
"Lily, what's going on? You can tell me this."
"It's nothing. I'm good now. I just needed to clear my head. I think I'm going to have a talk with that girl's mother now." Ginny looked determined, a look Tim always found disturbing. She knew what she wanted and no one was going to get in the way. Ginny walked over to the girl and asked her if she knew where her mum was. Lilianne pointed in the direction of the back of the auditorium, where a rather large man and his wife stood next to him, in a rather unflattering dress. Ginny waltzed over there and they looked confounded as to why someone would come to talk to them, especially someone that they didn't know.
"And your name would be?" The man asked Ginny.
"My name is Lily Heralds. Do you see that little girl over there? That is my daughter and apparently, your daughter, a one Lilianne has been picking on her. I don't like that one bit." Ginny said triumphantly.
"Hold it right there! Now, why do you think that this is only one sided? How do we know that your daughter didn't pick back?" The man said.
"Well that's easy. Can you answer me this question just for clarification? Has anyone in your family ever gone to school at, well, at a school called Hogwarts?" Ginny said and walked back over to her family as she noted the scared look in the man's eyes and the clear confusion in his wife's eyes. Soon you could hear over all the talking the man call his daughter and as she listened in, he asked her to go get her uncle. Ginny watched as the young girl walked out of the room and soon came back. By this time Ginny was having an animated conversation with her daughter when the other family came over.
"Now Mrs. Heralds. That question you asked me. I can say a couple of things, but my anger management class has told me to keep from exerting anger on others, give examples of you answer. So, here. My cousin and his mother went there. Of course my parents never had to go there and neither did any of my grandparents. Now I would like you to meet my cousin. Maybe he can answer a few questions for you." The man stepped aside to reveal his cousin. The other man was skinnier than the first, with messy jet-black hair, circular black glasses, emerald green eyes, and an unforgettable scar just above his eye.
"Harry?" Ginny said as she stared into this once-thought lost face.
"Do I know you from some-? Oh my. Ginny?" Ginny and Harry stood facing each other for what seemed like eternity when a voice from behind cried out,
"Lily, honey. Who's Ginny?"
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Coming up: "No! Tim! Don't leave me!"
A/N: Thanks for the 1 review! Just to know that someone read it made me smile. You brightened my day considering I was already having a bad day (got left at home with no way to get to church. Not a good experience by the way). Your review made me finish my homework so I could work on this! Now, I'm done. I have some more stuff in my mind right now but it is terribly late and I need to go to bed. Happy Halloween everyone!