Disclaimer: I am NOT JKR just in case you didn't know.

'We seem to have got ourselves into a right mess...'

'Yeah…but how are we going to get out of it?'

TO UNDERSTAND

Chapter 5: Keeping secrets.

I walked swiftly out of the common room and back through the stone wall, looking back at it quickly to make sure I could find it again. I hurried through the entrance hall and up the first flight of stairs, leading to the grand staircase.

I've got to apologise to Ginny. I've got to try and explain a bit better about why the idea struck me in the first place. I've got to try and make her understand. She's angry with me and really she's all I've got now that we're stuck here (well, apart from Snape…) .We need to stick together or we'll never get out of this place! She'll need my help anyway as she's coming into 7th year. She'll have skipped a whole year of school because of me...

She doesn't deserve to be kept in the dark all the time! All she's ever done for me is her best. Even after I took her into the Department of Mysteries and nearly got her killed! I got Sirius killed that night, full stop…No. Bellatrix killed Sirius full stop and that's what I'm going to try and change…

How am I going to change them though? Snape was right. For the Slytherins, it is no longer a childish school feud, but a way of life. I bet Voldemort has already got plenty of supporters under his wing. All brainwashed by power and the idea that their ignorant pureblooded beliefs, may finally be taken into account...It's probably only a matter of time before he starts to recruit a younger generation...

All the 7th years will be leaving next July; they've got 9 months before they're set loose on the real world. Beyond the boundaries of a teacher telling you: right from wrong, good from evil or Muggleborn from Pureblood…

'Harry?'

I stopped swiftly and stared ahead. It was Ginny standing 5 metres away from me biting her lip.

'I was just coming to find you.' she said slowly

'Me too.' I replied.

We looked at the floor before both speaking,

'Look I'm-'

'I came to say-'

We both laughed nervously.

'I'm sorry.' We said at the same time and eventually I looked at her face.

'I didn't mean to upset you Ginny. I should have told you what I was planning…It was a thrill of the moment idea and I should have talked it through. I wasn't thinking…'

She smiled and walked a bit closer.

'I'm sorry I yelled at you Harry and you don't just do things to look the hero. You've obviously done this for a reason otherwise you wouldn't have done it and…I should have seen that. I … I was just angry.'

We both looked at each other again before taking two steps forward and hugging each other tight. I closed my eyes as the familiar smell of her hair filled my head and all the worries of the day seemed to disappear slightly.

'I'm sorry Harry.'

'I'm sorry too Gin.'

'But what are we going to do?'

I let go of her slowly and bit my lip.

'I have no idea.'

She frowned worriedly and tugged at a strand of blonde hair.

'We seem to have got ourselves into a right mess...'

'Yeah…but how are we going to get out of it?'

'We'll just have to wait it out like we said originally.'

'But how long will that take?'

'I don't know…'

We fell silent and I slid down against the wall and sat down.

'The Order will be going frantic trying to find us...' I said sadly and Ginny gasped.

'Oh my God! The Order! I'd forgotten about them completely! They'll be going mad! We'll be in so much trouble!'

'We're in enough trouble as it is…'

'How are we going to tell them what's happened?'

'Tell them what's happened? It's impossible. They're worrying about us 22 years in the future…'

'Well we're going to have to try and get contact some how! They'll think we've been killed or…or run off somewhere!'

She began pacing back and forth as I just sat there in silence. Here she was trying to figure out the situation while all I'm able to do is sit there like a useless lump. Come on Harry Potter. You've got yourself into this mess; you try and get yourself out…

'I know!' she said suddenly. 'We'll write a letter explaining about all this and send it to the owl-post office. Then we'll attach a note to it saying that it's not to be delivered till August 15th 1997! They'll be able to read it the day after we left! They'll read it tomorrow, after us only being missing a day!'

I thought it back in my mind and seemed to understand… She's a genius!

'Okay. We'll do that. When do you want to write it?'

'Well technically we've got 22 years to write it but I say we do it tomorrow.'

'By Jove I think she's got it!' I said jokingly and Ginny smiled before sitting down beside me.

'We're going to have to stick together from now on Harry…I mean when you're not with the Slytherins… You're the only bit of 1997 I've got left.'

'I guess so. Weird isn't it?'

'Yep…really weird… So, have you met any Slytherins yet?'

I stared at my feet. How was she going to react?

'Um…Yeah…I've been walking around with Snape…' I said quietly

'With Snape?!?' she screeched. 'How can you even stand him?!? How can you walk around with the man who killed Dumbledore?!? The traitor?!?'

'He's not a traitor yet…' I said slowly. 'He's just a 17 year old boy who's a bit of a loner.'

'Is that what you keep telling yourself whenever you want to kill him?'

I stared at my feet… She was right

'You've got to try and understand Ginny. I'm going to try and stop him from joining the deatheaters. It's already certain that he's got no friends… If I could just give him a bit of support then maybe he'll have the strength to say no when the time comes...'

'Not all people are as set in their ways against you-know-who as you are Harry!' She said sharply. 'These people agree with what he is saying. They want to join him as they want to support those views…Maybe you need to understand that.'

'Yeah, well I'm not that sure… It seems to me that a lot of stereotypical Slytherin views are enforced by tradition. Gryffindors support muggleborns. Slytherins are purebloods and hate muggleborns…Even if you're a Halfblood! It's how it's always been and people aren't bothered enough to change it.'

'And you're the one to do it are you?' she said scathingly and suddenly I felt angry.

'Well now I'm in Slytherin, I'm not exactly going to sit there and listen to all the 'pureblood', 'mudblood' crap am I ?!'

She stayed silent and the atmosphere turned cold.

'Let's just change the subject shall we?' she snapped.

'Okay.' I said and my temper calmed down.

'I met your mum today.' She said casually.

A strange feeling erupted in my stomach. She met Lily, she met my mother?

'She kind of rescued me outside the fat lady and told me the password. She's been showing me around up until now…'

'Oh. What's she like?'

She smiled beside me and relaxed a bit more.

'She's really, really nice. She chatted away to me and made me feel right at home, really welcomed me to Hogwarts you know? She showed me my dorm and I met Alice Smith and Marlene McKinnon, the other girls that I'm going to share a dorm with. You can really tell the resemblance between Neville and Alice though, that'll definitely take some getting used to. God that girl made me laugh… Marlene's really shy but she gave me this big smile when Lily introduced us and gave me a biscuit that her mum had made.'

She seemed to have had a much better time of 1975 than I'd had so far…

'Have… Have you met my dad or Sirius yet?' I asked

'Oh yes, the famous Marauders!' she laughed 'I haven't met them yet but Lily went off on a tangent about them, ranting for England! She doesn't half hate them…'

'Really?' I said worriedly and she seemed to catch my expression.

'Oh don't worry!' she said quickly 'I'm sure her and your dad will get together somehow…Remus said it was their 7th year didn't he?'

'Yeah he did.'

'Then we'll just have to watch them and see what happens…'

'Have you…Have you mentioned me yet?'

She winced guiltily.

'No, not yet, the conversation never got round to family…Have you mentioned me to Snape?'

'Yep.'

'What did he say to that?'

'That it was social suicide to have a sister in Gryffindor…'

Ginny laughed

'Ah. Well I guess that makes sense…'

We both fell silent till I voiced something that had been niggling at me.

'Um Ginny…'

'Yeah?'

'I've been thinking… What are you going to do about learning 7th year things? You haven't gone through 6th year yet!'

She smiled beside me as I frowned.

'Oh that's easy' she said happily. 'Dad told me once that the 7th year curriculum before Voldemort was defeated the first time is practically the same as the 6th year curriculum in our own time. A lot of people were afraid to express new findings and magical discoveries when Voldemort was in power so when he was defeated loads of new revelations came out in the open and were then added to the school syllabus. I'll be learning all the stuff I should be learning if I was in 6th year back in 1997 now in 1975. So it's okay, I'll be able to understand it all perfectly and you'll have the big advantage of having done it all before…'

Oh… Well you learn something knew everyday I suppose…Or maybe not...I grimaced slightly. Oh great I'll have to do 6th year ALL over again! Well maybe I'll understand potions this time round…

Ginny yawned softly beside me and I checked my watch surprised.

'God, it's already half past 9 Gin! I think we better get back to our dorms…'

None of us moved and neither of us wanted to…

'Ginny?' I whispered eventually.

'Hmm?' she murmured lazily, with her eyes half shut and I hesitated.

'Are you still angry with me for…for going into Slytherin?'

She paused.

'Not really Harry just…just confused I guess...'

'Confused? Confused about what?'

She stood up and stretched before turning and looking at me sadly.

'I'm confused about how you could explain so much to me Harry…. give me reasons for so many things that I don't understand but…You just don't want to tell me...'

My jaw gaped. That was not what I'd expected. Was she talking about the prophecy? Did she want to know about the Horcruxes? She shouldn't even know what a Horcrux is…

'Ginny…I…' I stuttered, honestly not knowing what to say.

'There's always been more to you than meets the eye Harry Potter.' She said slowly. 'But I just wish that you'd tell me what that was exactly…'

She walked off, leaving me on the floor with my mouth still hanging open.

'More to you than meets the eye…?' I said out loud. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Does she know more than I thought? Just how many things has she heard from my conversations with Ron and Hermione…? We put impermeable charms on the door but… the bathroom's only next door… She couldn't have heard from there surely…?

I began to walk back to my dormitory slowly...Thinking...

Does she really want answers? Answers about Voldemort and…and why me Ron and Hermione were going to pack up our bags tomorrow to go to god-only-knows where… I can't tell her that… I can't ….Dumbledore told me not to tell anyone apart from Ron and Hermione… Though he also said to trust my friends and Ginny is definitely my friend… She's about the only one I've got now that we're in this mess…I'm going to have to tell her…About the prophecy at least!... Maybe not the Horcruxes… She'll want to come to find them if I tell her about those and I am definitely, DEFINITELY not letting her do that…I'm not risking her life when this is my task to carry out…My burden…

I crossed the Slytherin common room and up into the boy's dormitory where yet again there was no-one there. Snape's drapes (A/N: lmao...) were still drawn across their owner's bed and the other occupants were no-where to be seen. I noticed that a trunk had been added to the bottom of my bed and I flipped it open. There were clean Slytherin uniforms folded neatly inside and a set of thin green pyjamas placed on top. I pulled them on and slipped under the new covers on my bed.

So I'm going to tell Ginny one of my secrets…? A secret that Dumbledore was willing to die to pursue... Drink that horrific potion to get a hold of… Disfigure his hand grotesquely to destroy… Well I won't tell her that secret. She doesn't need to know that secret…

I pulled my covers closer up to my neck and opened my eyes staring at the canopy above my head.

I'll tell her my other secret… About how my old Divination teacher predicted something 18 years ago and it efficiently destroyed my life… Will destroy my life, one way or another…The reason why Voldemort came after me as I lay in my cot only 1 year old… Why he murdered my parents and destroyed my home… Why he tried to kill me and in the same movement created his greatest enemy…An obsessive, consistent, Voldemort-hating machine…Me.

I moved around trying to get comfy as Snape snuffled around in the bed next to me making more noise than I thought possible…

I'll have to tell her about how my life will probably be finished on the end of Voldemort's wand….How that the only person who can kill Him is me and standing between me and his murder is 4 nearly impossible obstacles….One that's with some random called RAB, another that I don't even know where the hell is, another that stays by Voldemort constantly and can bite and another that I don't even know what it looks like! ... So Ginny Weasley… Still want to go near me knowing that I'll be lucky just to reach the age of 18…? Are those the answers that you were looking for..? And now that you realise how shit my life actually is do you understand why I do the things I do…? At least if I have a crack at breaking down the deatheaters now it'll be less work for me later…

I rolled over one more time and brought my knees right under my chin, wrapping my arms tightly around my legs.

'Will you understand then Ginny Weasley …?' I said into the dark and closed my eyes to try and get some much needed rest.

For tomorrow I'll be diving into the snake pit. Literally head first.

Hey! I've decided to post this one up for Becky as she apparently liked the other 4! In the next chapter the story will really get in motion and it'll be the beginning of what I've dubbed 'Part One'. Chapter 6 is going to be in GINNY'S POINT OF VIEW!! So please don't be confused. Though I hope that MOST of this story will be from Harry's POV. Yes so the next 2 chapters are the ones where the main story line will start and the Marauders and Lily and the rest of Slytherins will make a definate appearance! So read ahead for PART 1 DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!

Thanks for reading ! PLEASE REVIEW, AS IT ONLY TAKES A FEW SECONDS AND I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT!

Ellie...