Disclaimer: Not mine. Harry Potter, that is.
A/N: Another one. Woot.
Ginny and Penelope traveled around time, always on the move. In total time actually alive, Ginny turned twenty-two, and Penelope turned six, getting her magical knowledge to about mid-second Hogwarts year curriculum as taught by Ginny. Wands had been obtained from Ollivander's (for both Ginny and Penelope), made specially (at knife-point) to be undetectable by the Ministry.
On full moons, Ginny transformed with the help of the Wolfsbane Potion, stolen from apothecaries in the future. She kept up her skills at assassination and fighting, magic and everything she had learned, but just barely. To get up the level she had been before, Ginny would have to practice intensively, but the knowledge and skill was still there.
All in all, Ginny and Penelope were happy. They had a good life, money from various, prudent thieving endeavors and odd jobs, traveling not only through time but around the world. Penelope learned a lot about history.
There were no roots that the pair had to tie them down; they could leave at any time, from anywhere. Of course, they usually stayed about two weeks is one time period, catching the experiences of each thing. Ginny picked up a new spell using Legilimency that let her take knowledge of culture and the world from a person's head—just gently copying it—and place it into her own head. Both Ginny and Penelope became very good actresses.
The one down side to the footloose lifestyle was that neither Penelope nor Ginny had very many friends. So Ginny started to consider settling in one time for good.
She thought about all the possible times to stay in, and visited several of her prospects. Penelope didn't know what was going through Ginny's mind, was just happy with the life they had.
Finally Ginny decided on a random time, around 1978. That time seemed familiar, though…who was it that had lived then? Or who might have lived then? Ginny didn't remember…
But even with the memory lapse, a small house was bought and furnished. Now Ginny told Penelope of the new plan and Penelope was frankly delighted. She was eager to make friends and interact fully with other girls her own age, rather than just chatting a little bit.
The moving process was fairly quick and painless, so soon they were settled. The neighborhood was a wizarding one, since Ginny not only wanted Penelope to grow up in that environment, but because Ginny wanted to see the changes she had wrought. It was called Godric's Hollow, which again seemed very familiar to Ginny…she just couldn't put her finger on what made it so…
Oh, well, she thought. The house was nice, a lovely little cottage with a picket fence, and the neighbors were nice. There was one family who were on vacation, or something, so Ginny didn't meet them, but the other neighbors were just plain great. Best of all, they didn't comment on Ginny's white hair and choice of style. There might have been some doubt about how suitable Ginny was for guardianship of Penelope, but after a few days in Godric's Hollow those doubts were eradicated.
Penelope even made a few very good friends in the week or so after moving in. Ginny was ecstatic to see this, but was a little sad as Penelope grew farther from her.
A lot happened in those few days.
But at the end of that precious week, even more happened. The family on vacation returned.
Ginny was disturbed from her Saturday morning sleep-in by the sounds of laughing and shouting.
"What the hell?" she grumbled. "Damn, if whoever that is wakes up Penelope, she'll never get back to sleep." Ginny's white locks of hair were in utter disorder as she rose and replaced her earrings and piercings.
"Oy, Prongs!" yelled one of the voices. This sentence was the first that could be understood. "Your miniature is tearing up the pansies!"
"Harry!" shrieked a female voice.
Ginny stopped dead in her tracks.
Prongs?
Harry?
"Oh my God," she moaned and the hairbrush slipped from her suddenly numb fingers.
"Mummy?" Penelope said. She stood in the doorway of her room, thumb in her mouth and teddy bear grasped tightly. "What's wrong, Mummy?"
"Don't suck your thumb," Ginny replied absently and Penelope removed the offending appendage from her mouth.
"What's wrong, Mummy? Do we have to move again?"
"Do you want to move again?" Ginny asked her adoptive daughter.
"No," Penelope replied. "What's wrong, Mummy?"
"We aren't moving, then," Ginny said firmly. Her eyes were firmer now, no longer lost in memories and fear. "Come on. Our sleep's been interrupted, so I'll explain everything over breakfast."
"Hot oatmeal? With bananas? And croissants?" Penelope asked, effectively distracted from her worries. She looked up at Ginny with puppy-dog eyes, and Ginny relented.
"Fine, darling. Let me just get fixed up for the day."
"Yay!" Penelope squealed and went dancing out into the street once Ginny had gone into the bathroom. She walked up to the neighbors, who had just arrived, and said, "Mummy and I don't have to move again!"
"That's lovely, dear," the red-headed woman said. She looked a little confused as to who this little girl in pajamas was. "What's your name?"
"Penelope," Penelope replied. "I live there." She pointed to her house.
"That's the house that was up for sale, right James?" she asked the black-haired man who was struggling with an energetic one-year-old.
"Yeah, Lils. Though evidently not anymore," James replied. Then, addressing Penelope, "You live there?"
"With my mummy," Penelope said. She beamed. "Mummy is going to scream for me in a second. You'll see her. She's pretty."
Sure enough, a few seconds later, a shout issued out from the little house. "Penelope! Where the hell are you?"
"Out here, Mummy!" Penelope yelled back, and waved an arm. "I'm with the nice people!"
Ginny rushed out. Now she was fully made up and dressed, her white hair pulled back with several little Tolkien-elf-like braids.
"Never do that to me again, Penelope," Ginny scolded. "I told you never to leave the house without telling me where you're going, it's dangerous. Now you only get Cheerios for breakfast instead of hot cereal."
"Mummy!" Penelope whispered. "These people are nice, though, they're nice people."
"I'm not saying they're not, darling, but even here we can't rely on first impressions. Remember that, okay?"
"Mummy, the people are still here," Penelope informed Ginny, looking chastened. Ginny glanced up and was startled by the sight of seven pairs of eyes staring at her and Penelope.
"Oh my," Ginny said. "I'm really sorry, I just got worried."
"That's okay," the red-haired woman replied. "I would get worried too…" But all of them knew that none of them would get that worried, just about their child going out onto the sidewalk.
"You recently moved here?" another man butted in, trying to heal the situation.
"Oh, yeah," Ginny said. A sudden grin lit up her features, even with black-painted lips, black studded leather, white hair, and multiple piercings. It made her seem less like a worried mother and seem more like a happy teenager. That is, until you looked into her brown eyes and saw a world of grief in them, and now magnified.
"My name is Ginny Westley," she said. "Penelope Westley." She motioned to Penelope and the others nodded.
"These two" the man pointed to the red-head and her husband the black-haired man, "are Lily and James Potter, respectively. They live in this neighborhood with their little son, Harry."
Ginny's eyes misted over. It was so hard to keep control over her face—any moment now she would break down crying—
"Mummy!" Penelope shrieked suddenly. "I want breakfast!"
"I'll see you later then," Ginny mumbled to the group of people in front of her.
"Come on, Mummy," Penelope said, softer now. Penelope took Ginny's hand and carefully led her to the cottage.
"That was odd," James remarked. "Did you see how the kid was just leading her? Like it was the woman who was the child?"
"I saw it," Lily said. "In Healing classes, we're studying psychology…"
"Here we go again," whispered a very handsome man to his slightly pudgy, blond friend.
"Shut up, Sirius," Lily said without missing a beat. "…and it looked like that woman had a traumatic experience and something about us set her off on memories of that experience."
"What would set her off about us?" the golden haired man asked. "We're not intimidating…"
"Harry!" James yelled and dove off toward the errant one-year-old. That effectively destroyed the somber mood.
"We probably look like someone from the experience," Lily said quickly. "I have to help James with Harry, but we'll probably find out more about that woman."
"Yeah, probably," the pudgy one said doubtfully. He glanced at his wrist. "Oh, crap! I have work in like five minutes!"
"See you, Peter," they all chorused, and Peter Disapparated.
The now-smaller group walked into Lily and James' house, talking and laughing all the way. Ginny had been momentarily forgotten.
Meanwhile, Penelope led Ginny into the house and sat her down before climbing into her lap.
"Mummy."
"Yes, lovey?"
"What is with them?"
"I…"
"Mummy." Penelope's voice was insistent.
"Remember I told you about the bad times that I made go away by killing Tom Riddle?"
"Yes, Mummy. Are those people from the bad time?"
"Yes. But all except two were dead, and the last was in the service of Tom Riddle after betraying and basically killing the red-haired lady and her husband. The other one is really sad, but injured by the first one. And the little boy is the one who I told you about, the one who rescued me from Tom Riddle's diary."
Penelope put her hand to her mouth. Above it, her eyes were big and scared.
"But now you can make friends with them!" Penelope exclaimed. "What's bad about that, Mummy?"
"I don't know…" Ginny sighed. Her white head rested on top of Penelope's brown one. Sometimes the little girl was very, very perceptive.
"Let's stay, then," Penelope said. "There. You're going to make friends with them."
"All right," Ginny sighed. "I'll make friends with them." And then, more to herself than to Penelope, "See how their lives were meant to be lived…"
"Make me oatmeal!" Penelope interrupted happily.
"Fine, fine," Ginny said. Already she was looking more cheerful. "But afterwards you're going to start to learn how to fight, so I won't be scared when you walk out the door."
"Yay!" Penelope squealed and bounced up and down on Ginny's leather-clad knee, clapping her hands.
"Now get off me, kid," Ginny said. Penelope leapt off Ginny's lap and fetched the box of Insta-Oatmeal from a cabinet.
A/N (#2!): ROTFLMAO. Bye.
