It was nearing December, snow was piling up on the soft grass, and Ginny felt lighter than she had in years.
It was the middle of the day, there were hours before she had any classes to get to, it was snowing and the sun was shining in beams through the white, puffy clouds that drifted across the sky. The air was crisp and cool. She took a deep, contented breath, watching the air around her mouth fog up with her sigh.
She hadn't felt this good in a long time. This weightless. She hadn't realised just how much being alone with her secrets had weighed her down, how much it had piled up on her small shoulders until she had spilled those beans and Tom had not only accepted her but asked to help, to come with her, and suddenly...
She had hope. She was full of it, in fact. Bursting with it.
The boy in question was several paces away, piling up snow into yet another lumpy snowman. He kept animating them. The first one bowed. The second tipped its top hat to passerby. The third one lifted its whole head.
She grinned at him. He was so good with his magic, it came to him like breath now. She had taught him a good foundation, and he had taken that and ran with it. It made her feel oddly proud, even if most of it was a combination of their actual Professors and sheer natural talent.
He grinned back at her, though he was far enough away that all she could really see was a flash of teeth.
A group of loud, boisterous Gryffindors made their way onto the Quidditch Pitch, passing Tom and his small squadron of polite snowmen, and they giggled. One of them stopped and said something to Tom.
A small part of Ginny was wary, the years of isolation and bullying had instilled that instinct pretty deeply, but Tom didn't seem angry or upset.
She kept her eye on him anyway.
The group made their way nearer to her, to the most open part of the field.
The same red-haired boy came over to her.
"We're gonna have a snowball fight. Want to join us?" he asked. His face was flushed from the cold, the ruddiness seeming more stark than it was from the freckles dusting his nose and cheeks.
She smiled, feeling bright and at ease. "Yeah, I'd love to."
She followed the boy over to the rest of the group.
"I'm Septimus, by the way. Septimus Weasley."
Ginny stuttered in her tracks, trying to collect herself quickly. It wouldn't do to have a weird reaction to a boy introducing himself. But, it was hard not to. This was her grandfather. Her own grandfather was the same age as her. Now that she was looking, it was easy to tell, he had her hair, her freckles, her eyes.
"I'm Ginny," she said, hoping her pause wasn't too long.
It didn't seem to be. Septimus just flashed her an open smile and kept walking.
"Guys, this is Ginny, she wants to join the snowball fight," Septimus said.
A chorus of four greetings followed.
"Ginny, this is Norman, Gilbert, Louise, Claude, and Enid." Septimus introduced, gesturing to each in turn.
"Hey Ginny!" Enid said. Ginny hadn't noticed her amongst the group at first. She waved and smiled at her.
"Oh. We're one short for proper teams," said Gilbert.
"But seven's a lucky number," said Claude.
"Lucky for which team though?" Louise piped in.
"It doesn't matter," Septimus broke in, "We're playing just for fun, right?"
Snow crashed into the side of his head.
Norman grinned playfully, another snowball already in his hands, "Its not unfair if it's a free for all."
Septimus grinned back savagely, scooping up some snow of his own. And then the game began in earnest.
At first it was simply throwing snowballs, with everyone laughing and screaming and getting covered in snow. Then the others started to properly dodge and run, tactics got involved, and then magic.
After a while the game spread out as they ran in every direction across the field. Ginny drew closer to Tom's snowmen. He had finished making them, and now had eight slightly misshapen moving snowmen. Each only did one kind of movement each, but it was still impressive. He was standing behind them, watching the game.
"Hey Tom," she said lowly, ducking to hide behind the waving snowman.
There was snow in his hair, and he was watching her a little strangely. He turned away so he was watching her out the corner of his eye.
"Hey Ginny," he said, loud enough so she could hear but quietly enough that the others couldn't.
"Wanna help me out?"
He hesitated.
"Come on, Tom, you're already covered in snow."
A snowball flew over her head. Tom ducked away from it.
"Please? You're the cleverest one here, you could outshine all these people."
Tom turned and looked at her, eyes narrowed and gleaming. She was sure he knew exactly what she was doing. It didn't matter.
"Fine."
He ducked down and gathered a whole pile of snow into one lump. Hidden behind the snowmen as they were, it could have looked like he was tying his shoelace.
Another snowball whirled overhead.
He stood again, and hovered the snow behind him, positioning so it was hidden behind his back. He walked forward, out of cover, and then dropped, casting a charm as he went down so that all the snow pelted forwards at once.
She heard a thump and laughter as her attacker was knocked down. She grabbed a snowball and raced forwards to Tom, helping him up. He grinned at her, he himself giggling.
The boy who Tom knocked down pushed himself to his feet, mouth wide and beaming.
"Guess we're not short that extra anymore," Gilbert said, looking far too cheerful for someone covered in snow. He threw another snowball at Tom and then ran.
Tom and Ginny looked at each other, then chased after him, laughing all the while.
A few days later, it got far too cold to be playing outside. Instead, Ginny took the opportunity to catch up on some homework. She had grabbed Tom and dragged him to the library, (although once he had learned where they were going, it was more him dragging her to the library).
They were hardly getting any homework actually done, rather, Tom was neglecting his homework in favour of a rather thick novel, and Ginny was alternately leaning over his shoulder to read with him and animating little cartoons on her parchment.
The library, while entertaining enough and the ideal place to do homework if one wasn't procrastinating, was a place that made conversation other than whispers impossible.
Ginny was just tweaking the animation on her truly terrible flying pig drawing when someone stomped into the library.
"Hey, where are the books on Illyrian Maggots?" an imperious voice demanded. Ginny's head snapped up to look, she recognised that haughty drawl. It sounded like Malfoy.
"Young man, you will be quiet when in the Library, do you understand?"
"Do you understand what I asked you?" the boy shot back. He had shoulder length, slicked back platinum hair. He looked ridiculous.
"10 points from Slytherin. Ask again nicely and quietly."
The boy grumbled. "Fine. Where are the books on Illyrian Maggots, please?"
"Start with the letter 'I' and find it yourself."
"Are you joking? My father-"
"Your father has already graduated Hogwarts, Mr Malfoy, it is you that needs to do the assignment."
The boy, Malfoy, he really was a Malfoy, gaped like a fish. Ginny's eyes were as wide as saucers as she watched him stomp off. Even Draco had never mouthed off to a staff member like that. Holy hell.
"Do you know him?" Tom asked.
"No, but I know someone related to him. Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin bully in my year. He's a right prick too. I'm not sure if this is his father or grandfather, although I'm having a hard time imagining that Lucius was ever that disrespectful."
Tom sat back in his chair. "You know people from the future. You know who these people will become."
"I suppose so, yeah."
"We can change the world like this. Who's going to be the Minister of Magic? Who's going to be a teacher? Will I-"
"Tom, stop. I can't tell you. Its enough even me knowing, it's enough taking you with me to the future, I can't risk it. Time travel gets dangerous, and I really don't know how it's all working."
"Do you think things will be changing just by you being here and telling me things?" Tom asked, quietly.
"Possibly. That's how Time Turners work, from what my Dad and Hermione told me."
Tom nodded, his face solemn but his eyes oddly sharp.
"Alright. Don't tell me about the future. Who is now in Hogwarts that you know from the future?"
Ginny nodded, that she should be able to do without consequence. "The red haired boy we had a snowball fight with? That's my grandfather," she whispered.
Tom's eyes boggled. "Wow. That has to be weird."
"It is, yes. I haven't met anyone else yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout were here."
"What did they teach?"
"Transfiguration and Herbology, respectively. I don't really want to say anything else, but they're both nice, even if McGonagall is a bit stern."
She couldn't really think of anyone else. Hagrid maybe? She didn't know how old he was. She didn't know how old a lot of people were. There were her schoolmates grandparents, her teachers, possibly some members of the Ministry of Magic, but whether they would be attending now, or had earlier, or would later, she couldn't say.
Who else was important that might be here? Minister Fudge might be too young. Oh- What about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? She had no idea how old Voldemort was. He had to be pretty old, he was very powerful and had a lot of followers, no matter how stupid Ginny thought people would have to be to follow him. He had to have time to gather that kind of influence.
Which meant he might be here, even now. She didn't even know his real name. He was a symbol of terror and hate, not a man. Did he even have a name?
Would she even recognise him, if she saw him?
She wouldn't. He was a weird snake-man in her time, without even any human physical features to recognise him by. But he wasn't born like that. Whoever the man was before he became Voldemort, he could be anyone. Any age. Any face.
He could be attending school right now, looking like just another child or teenager learning about magic.
She suppressed a shiver.
"Ginny?" Tom asked, "Are you okay?"
Ginny snapped her head up to look at him, startled out of her thoughts. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Tom eyed her, but didn't say anything.
She smiled at him, "Just had an unsettling thought is all."
His jaw clenched, fractionally, but he smiled and nodded and touched her hand.
"I demand to see the Headmaster!" Malfoy shouted, stomping his way back towards the librarian.
Tom looked over at Malfoy with a look of such disbelief and disgust that Ginny collapsed into a fit of helpless giggles.
Tom rolled his eyes at her, trying and failing to hide his own smile.
