Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Sorry for the long waiting.

Since I started to write this fic before HBP was released, Slughorn wasn't in my first version. But as we learn in HBP Slughorn was the Potions professor during these years, so I figured I'd just make a few small changes and add Slughorn. Which is kind of sad, because I liked the Potions professor I made up... Oh well.

And I have a title! I was working on one of the coming chapters with Radiohead playing in the back ground, and when the song A Reminder started playing it just dawned on my that that song was perfect. So there it is.


The next morning she failed in her attempt to avoid Miranda. When Ginny awoke she found Miranda already dressed and waiting for her. Ginny tried to take as long as she could getting ready, maybe that would make Miranda tire and go without her. But no, Miranda was as patient as one could get, and when Ginny was done she hopped up from her bed and began talking feverishly.

After what seemed to be an eternity to Ginny they reached the Great Hall and sat down by the Gryffindor table. Miranda was still talking like crazy and Ginny politely nodded on the right places, but didn't talk very much. The Gryffindor table was filled with people and Miranda and Ginny had sat down in the only available seats, right next to a gang of boys. Apparently Miranda knew them quite well because they all said 'hello' and 'good morning' to her. They didn't say anything to Ginny, but stared at her instead.

"So, this is the new girl?" one of them said, a dark-haired boy with glasses and a lot of freckles.

"Yes, this is Ginny," said Miranda. "Ginny, this is David Gaffney. And those three there are Dennis Rooney, Christopher Clarke and Douglas Walmsley. They're all sixth years like us."

Dennis was very tall; that was obvious even though he was sitting down at the moment. He looked like someone who had grown a lot in a short period of time. In that perspective he reminded Ginny somewhat of Ron, though that was the only thing they had in common. Dennis had black hair and he had an angry look about his face, it had something to do with the shape of his eyebrows.

Christopher looked nice all the way through; he had a friendly face and a nice smile. A loveable person so to speak. He and Douglas looked a little like each other, both had light brown hair and the same slightly bent nose.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," David continued.

"Thanks," said Ginny.

"Where did you go before?"

"Oh, don't bother," Miranda cut in before Ginny could answer. "She won't tell you anyway."

"I was home-tutored," said Ginny defiantly. She didn't like Miranda's tone of voice.

Miranda was obviously annoyed by Ginny's sudden urge to tell the boys about herself, but hadn't been willing to answer her questions before, and she snorted. "And why were you home-tutored? Did your parents think you were too good for a normal school?" she asked mockingly.

"Oh, come off it, Miranda," said Christopher, which made Miranda glare at him, but he ignored her. "It's nice to meet you, Ginny. You will love Hogwarts."

He smiled genially at Ginny. Though she couldn't help but think that she would probably hate it, she smiled back at him. She only wished she could go back home.

The first class she had that morning was Charms with Professor Flitwick.

Good, thought Ginny, at least it's with someone I know. Even though he doesn't know me… yet.

When she entered the well-known classroom she noticed that they had Charms with one of the other houses, so she took another look at her schedule and found out it was Ravenclaw. Ginny sat down in the back of the room, and to her disdain Miranda sat down beside her. The Gryffindor boys all sat down two rows in front of them. Before Christopher sat down he turned his head and flashed Ginny another smile. Ginny felt her stomach turn – not by the smile itself, but she didn't want Christopher to get any ideas about her.

It wasn't that Ginny thought of herself as every boy's dream girl, it was just that she knew how the mind of boys her age worked. And this time of all wasn't very good; she didn't plan to stay here that long.

Professor Flitwick looked exactly like he did in the future, and he was just as confused. Ginny felt better now that she recognised something. Only seeing new faces had made her head a bit disoriented. She remembered how she had felt the day she started school when she was eleven, and that day she at least had had her brothers there to look after and take care of her. Now she had nobody. Her heart dropped when thinking about her brothers.

The last year had been hard for the Weasley family. They had lost one of their brothers and sons – Percy had been killed in a fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Ginny's mother had cried for days, and her father had had to be strong for both of them. All the Weasley siblings had taken the death of their brother hard, but no one as hard as Ginny. Most people didn't know, but the brother Ginny had always been closest to was Percy, and ever since Ginny was little, he had been the one she came to when she was sad or wanted to talk. Ever since Percy's death Ginny had carried an old handkerchief of Percy's with the initials P.I.W. in her pocket. So she would never forget him.

Professor Flitwick had them practice Freezing Charms the entire lesson. Ginny had always been very good at Charms and had never really had any real troubles with the subject, so she had mastered the simple charms without any effort and a lot of time to spare. So the rest of the lesson she mostly spent trying to find out exactly how far in the book they had gotten and reading through the things she had missed. It wasn't a very trying first class, she thought when Professor Flitwick let them go an hour and a half later.

She had one more class before lunch, Transfiguration, which wasn't all that trying either. The things they practised she had already done before, so she spent this time, too, reading up on the things she had missed. Professor McGonagall kept throwing her odd looks during class, but Ginny tried to ignore them as best possible.

The weather outside was beautiful this day, too, and figuring she might take a bit of fresh air before her last class, Ginny hurried with her lunch and left before any one else had even noticed her presence. The wind blew softly against her face when she opened the door in the Entrance Hall, and Ginny felt at home for the first time since she had left her time.

But the feeling didn't last long. When she was walking down by the lake she could hear a familiar voice talking loudly and excitedly from behind her. Sirius said something and a few others laughed at what probably was a joke. Ginny took a fast right turn and hid behind a tree, taking a seat on the ground and making sure they didn't see her. She didn't actually know why she hid from Sirius, Professor Lupin, James and Peter, but it seemed like a good decision at the time. It was as though they would be able to see right through her and know who she was and where she came from.

God, I'm just being paranoid. Of course they wouldn't know.

But Ginny didn't move. She stayed exactly where she was until she couldn't hear their voices anymore. And then she stayed a little longer, just in case.

Later that evening she was sitting in the common room, doing her homework. They had been told in Potions to write an essay about why you had to use spring water when making an age potion, and explaining the consequences if using any other type of water. It wasn't a difficult task Professor Slughorn had given them and Ginny finished it without problem.

Slughorn was just as he had been in her fifth year, he still favoured some students over others, and Ginny was not one of them. But that didn't really matter to Ginny; just as long as she could brew her potion in peace she was happy.

When she had finished the essay she gazed around the common room. It was filled with students, some doing their homework and some sitting in small groups talking with each other. It was nice to be left alone, Ginny thought when seeing Miranda, Sophie and Natalie sitting with some of the boys by the fireplace. Potions had been wonderful because no one had asked her a single question about other things than potion-making. Ginny had always loved Potions, even though her professor had been Snape, and she had always been excellent at it. She was the best in her family at Potions, even better than Percy who had otherwise excelled in all subjects.

A noise was heard from the portrait hole and Ginny's eyes unintentionally looked its way.

"Nice going there, Moony," said Sirius and laughed. Lupin was lying on his knees; he had apparently tripped over the threshold and fallen. With the help of the wall he pulled himself up to a standing position.

"Shut up," he muttered and punched Sirius on the arm. Sirius just sniggered.

"Where's James?" came a voice from behind Sirius and Lupin, Peter Pettigrew. "Wasn't he supposed to meet us here?"

"Dunno, probably off snogging Lily in a broom closet somewhere," said Sirius and shrugged his shoulders.

Sirius moved elegantly over to one of the couches by the fireplace and sat down. Ginny saw the girls around him stare longingly in his direction, straightening their clothes and trying to look as pretty as possible in the hope that he would look at them. But Sirius didn't seem to notice them, if so he didn't bother about it. Peter followed him and settled down beside him; opening a book he had been carrying and started reading casually. Lupin didn't move, but instead looked at Sirius and Peter and frowned disapprovingly.

"You two know that we have homework till tomorrow, right? Aren't you going to do it? Peter!"

"Wha?" Peter's head snapped up and he stared at Lupin. "Oh, er, later."

"Yeah, later," Sirius agreed and smirked. Lupin grunted and threw his arms in the air, apparently not happy with the answers.

"You really should pay more attention to the schoolwork, or else you'll just fail on your N.E.W.T.s later." And with that he turned on his heel and started to make his way over to the table where Ginny was sitting.

As he came closer Ginny finally remembered she was staring at him, and her head hastily bent down towards her papers and books again. She could feel her face turning red and she swore under her breath. He was now standing in front of her on the other side of the table, holding onto the chair.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked and made Ginny have to raise her head to answer him.

"No," she said and stretched her arms forward to pull her scattered papers from the part of the table Lupin was planning to use.

He sat down and hauled a bunch of books out from his bag which he spread over the table among with parchment and quill. He looked at the books considering which homework he would start with, and finally he picked what looked like a History of Magic book. He opened it and browsed through it until he settled on a page in the middle of it. He took a bit of parchment and started writing in very small letters.

After a few minutes Ginny once again found herself staring around the common room at nothing in particular, and when she turned a little she was shocked when she saw that Lupin was studying her. And he didn't turn away when she met his gaze, just continued to look at her. She frowned in discomfort but didn't say anything. It was Lupin who broke the silence.

"You're that new sixth year," he stated. Ginny nodded in response. "I'm Remus Lupin." He extended a hand and Ginny shook it.

"Ginny Waters." It was a strange feeling to shake hands and introduce yourself to someone you already knew, well, somewhat knew anyway.

"Where do you come from, then?" Lupin continued. Ginny sighed; she knew that question would find its way in somehow. "I'm sorry, was that a bad question?"

"No, no, it's just that it feels as though I've already gotten it five million times. It's starting to wear me out," said Ginny and laughed bitterly.

"Oh, I understand. Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry." Lupin smiled at her.

"It's OK."

"Not bad, Moony, not bad at all," said Sirius as he showed up from behind Lupin. Lupin turned his head and shot Sirius a deadly look. "Oh, I'm sorry, mate," Sirius continued without the slightest hint of regret in his voice, "did I just ruin your chances there?"

Lupin's face turned red and he avoided meeting Ginny's gaze. He cleared his throat and then said, "What did you want, Sirius?"

Sirius sat down in the chair beside Lupin and began complaining about something. Ginny stopped listening and when Lupin and Sirius had gotten deeper in their conversation she quietly gathered her things and got up from her seat. It wasn't very late yet, but Ginny figured she could just the same go to bed; she had nothing better to do anyway.