Ginny's eyes slowly opened as she felt something move on top of her.
"Well now, that was mildly painful" A groggy voice said
Ginny stared up at Luna, "What the Bloody Hell happened?"
"I don't know", Luna replied as she picked herself up off Ginny, "I got hit with a trunk, slammed into you and that's the last thing I remember".
"Merlin's Beard. I am going to kick that idiot Creevey from one end of the earth to the other", Ginny raged. "As Head Boy he's supposed to know better then to levitate his trunk on the train."
Ginny looked around her for Colin but the Gryffindor wasn't there. In fact the compartment was completely empty except for the two of them.
"I'm not sure", Luna replied, "But Ginny we're not moving anymore. Do you think we were out long enough to make it to Hogwarts?"
Ginny startled at the news and ran quickly to the compartment window. Ginny's eyes went wide with horror and shock as she looked out over the platform.
"Um Ginny?" Luna said, "What are we doing back here?"
Ginny shook her head in disbelief, "It's worse then you think Luna, look over there."
Luna followed the line of Ginny's finger to a young couple with flaming red hair standing by a first year already in his robes. The father was proudly taking a picture while the mother was desperately trying to wrangle the rest of her brood together. The other two boys ran around the platform while 2 young babies lay sleeping in the pram by the father's side.
"That's your MUM and DAD!" Luna exclaimed her eyes as wide as saucers.
"Yeah it's Bill's first year at Hogwarts. All of us have a picture kind of like it".
"Oh Merlin! We're back in time!" Luna replied. "What the Hell are we going to do now?"
"How did this happen?" Ginny moaned.
Ginny sat down heavily on the bench facing the window. She put her head in her hands, her mind racing a mile a minute. Luna was pacing back and forth muttering to herself. Ginny's head hurt, she didn't know what to do. This was the strangest thing to happen to her since her first year at Hogwarts. She could only hope this turned out better then that did.
Luna's foot kicked something across the floor and she bent to pick up the odd hourglass that her mother had made. It was covered in a milky white substance. Luna looked down at her necklace and found that the ball she had taken to running her fingers over had broken.
"I think it has something to do with these." She held up the objects for Ginny to see. "We should keep them safe in case we need them." Luna wrapped the objects up in a scarf she pulled from her bag and placed them carefully inside.
Ginny pulled herself together and started talking whilst she thought.
"Dumbledore will know what to do, so we need to stay on the train. We need to come up with a story so we don't mess up the bleeding past. We have one robe apiece and no clothes...Dumbledore will probably fix that. We need to hide our house stuff... Say we're transfer students from America or something".
Luna's eyes lit up, "We can be sisters...Fraternal twins to explain why we look different. We need names."
Ginny's eyes sparkled as she began to get into the planning. "Callahan is an old family name which almost died out but it will work. We should keep our names as close to what they are so we do not make too many mistakes".
"What about Lunara for me and Ginnae for you, That way we can continue to call each other what we are used to." Luna suggested.
"Lunara and Ginnae Callahan sound good. Transfers from... Not America... How about that all girls school in Greece... Moirae Academy" Ginny said.
"Well since you are no longer Head Girl we should probably find a new compartment to sit in."
"Good Point, We should hit the bathroom first so we can do a couple of things so we don't get messed up."
Luna gathered her things up and followed Ginny back down the hall to see if they could find an empty compartment.
They found a compartment with only one other person in it and he was so engrossed in his book he didn't even look up when they entered and got settled in. They both relaxed as the train began to fill with voices. Friends coming together after a long summer, talks of beaches, vacations and Quidditch Cups filled the hallway beyond their compartment door.
Luna's eyes closed on her tears as she thought about her father. While she knew they would get home someday, she also knew she would miss the letters he sent every other day. She would miss Harry and Ron and Hermione who had promised to come and visit on their first Hogsmeade Trip. She pulled her legs up and put her head to her knees and let herself drift off to sleep.
Ginny watched her friend sleep as she got a book out of her bag and propped herself up in her favorite reading position. Her head down and her knees up, the book and her knees hiding her from view. She opened her book and laughed softly to herself as she read the inscriptions on the inside cover.
'To My Best Friend and soon to be Sister Ginny, for Old Times' Sake',
Love always,
Hermione.
"Blimey Wormtail! Watch where you put that thing!" He yelled rubbing his shin.
"Sorry Padfoot..." The smaller boy said as he readjusted his trunk.
Sirius ran his hand thru his think hair, a habit he had picked up from watching his best friend Prongs. They boarded the train to Hogwarts after stowing their trunks and Sirius headed straight for their usual compartment while Peter went to go find James. Sirius opened the door and there was Moony already deeply engrossed in the book of the moment.
"Moony! How was the summer? Prongs and I missed your company!", Sirius laughed.
Moony looked up from his book his blue gray eyes sparkling with humor, "I don't know how you missed me Padfoot; I spent the first half of the summer listening to Prongs bemoan the fact that Lily won't date him and you trying to convince him to give up before I went on vacation with my parents. You both probably didn't even realize I was gone until two or three days after the fact."
"Oh that hurts Moony, really it does! Of course we noticed you were gone. Your books were missing from the room."
They were so involved in their usual bickering that they were completely oblivious to the fact that there were others in the compartment with them. Ginny smiled to herself, nothing had really seemed to change much, and the two of them were still just like this, happy to spend all day baiting each other and laughing about it. She glanced up every so often watching the young Sirius. He is gorgeous, she thought to herself, he's always been attractive but seeing him so free and happy without a care, the way his eyes light up when he laughs... Oh Merlin, I have to stop thinking like that she told herself firmly and tried to pay attention to her book.
Suddenly the compartment door opened and a tall girl with red hair and blazing green eyes strode into the space pulling a young man with messy black hair and dark eyes behind her.
"Remus, I am returning THIS" Shaking the boy's arm for emphasis, "TO you. He is absolutely useless to me at the moment."
Sirius burst out laughing, "What did you do Prongs? Evans looks really ticked off. I mean even more then usual."
"I'm innocent! I swear!"
"Alright Lily, what did James do now?" Remus asked mildly.
"HE," She shook him again, "managed to create some kind of candy that made one of the first years start puking uncontrollably!"
Peter's soft voice came from behind Lily where he was hiding, "I found the wrapper. It says Puking Pastille on it and is stamped with something I can't make out."
"ANY WAY, We can't get the boy to stop and Potter won't tell me what he did." Lily continued ranting, her voice only faltering when a sharp intake of breath from the corner of the car drew everyone's eyes.
"Damn it", Ginny exclaimed as she reached into her bag and drew out the other end of the sweet which had come apart and fallen into the depths of her bag.
"Give the boy this and he'll be fine", She handed the orange square to Lily.
"Thanks," Lily said as she accepted the candy. "Then it really wasn't Potter's fault?".
"What's going on?", A sleepy voice said from the other corner.
Ginny sighed. "No I suppose it was mine by default, it must have fallen out of my bag."
Luna raised her head only to find her gaze caught by Remus Lupin's; his blue-grey eyes alight with curiosity.
"Gin? Did the boys stick something in your bag before we left home?" Luna asked.
"Yeah one of their 'make you sick candy'..." She turned to the other occupants of the train. "Our brothers are a bit..." Her voice trailed as she searched for the right word.
"Off", Luna supplied, laughing to herself.
Sirius reached his hand toward Ginny, which she took gracefully. "I'm Sirius Black; this shaggy haired fellow is James Potter. The Bookworm is Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew is in the corner there and that..." He pointed at the back of the tall girl leaving the compartment "is our Head Girl Lily Evans. And you are?" His eyes seemed to be memorizing her face. Ginny blushed.
Luna smiled at Remus. "I'm Lunara and that's my sister Ginnae Callahan. We're transfer students from Moirae Academy in our 7th year."
Lily walked back into the room with a smile on her face. "It worked instantly", she said, "What was that?"
Luna glanced at Ginny and answered, "It was the other half of the candy. Our brothers came up with them to get them out of classes; they are lazy unless it comes to figuring out ways to get out of class."
"Well thanks for the help. I'm sorry I didn't stick around for your names"
Remus's quiet voice broke in, "Lily this is Lunara and Ginnae they're going to be in our year with us."
The train came to a halt and Lily grabbed James's arm again.
"Come on Potter we need to get going", she said in a rush as she tried to hurry him out the door
"You know Evans, you keep manhandling me like this and I'm going to think you like me." He said with a slight wistful tone to his voice.
"BAH! Don't make me hex you Potter... See you guys at the Feast", she tossed back as she rushed them from the room.
"She does you know", Luna's dreamy voice cut into the sudden silence.
"She does what?" Remus asked her.
"She likes him, a lot. She's just afraid to show it. And she thinks he's a pompous ass most of the time."
"Come on let's go see the school", Ginny cut in before Remus could comment.
They left the train together in a group and let the boys show them to the carriages. Their eyes were slightly misty as they looked over the Thestrals who pulled the carriages.
"Who was it?" Remus's voice interrupted their reverie, "I know you can see them, I can see it in your eyes."
Luna answered, "A friend", she said softly, "a good friend", and with that she got into the carriage and they headed towards the Castle.