Chapter 4:

As much as he wanted to, Harry couldn't find the right opportunity to truly get to know his parents. If they weren't locked inside their rooms they were having secretive discussions with Sirius and Remus. It was very clear that Harry and Ginny weren't welcome, but whilst Ginny recovered, they were stuck there.

So, he mostly studied them from a distance. He studied their mannerisms, their hobbies, and most of all, their relationship. They were so loving and close, and it made Harry realise the kind of home he could have grown up in. It was a painful feeling most of all, but Harry couldn't dwell on the past.

Two excruciatingly long days later, Ginny finally woke up. It happened all of a sudden. She jolted awake after having a bad dream, and beads of sweat dripped down her forehead. She had the strangest dream that she and Harry time traveled and were stuck in the past, and Voldemort had tried to kill them. As she looked around the room, though, she was quickly reminded that that was no dream.

There was no sign of Harry. Her eyes searched the room that she was in to see if she recognise anything in it, but nothing seemed familiar. So she got up, but not without a brief struggle. It felt like her legs were made of gelatin, as if she hadn't walked for days. She couldn't really remember what happened to lead her here, but she knew she had to find Harry first thing.

She quietly left the bedroom, and started down the hall. In the distance she could hear voices, but none of them belonged to Harry, so she kept moving. Assuming everyone else was downstairs, Ginny began opening doors. She would peek inside and look around, and then close the door right after.

One of the last doors she opened did end up being inhabited by Harry. She recognised his messy hair and round glasses resting on the side table. "Harry!" Ginny said in a hushed voice as she rushed over there to him. At first she didn't know what he was doing, but as she approached him she quickly realised that he was sleeping. And appearing to have a nightmare, just like she had.

"No…no…leave her alone…" she started shaking his shoulders, and then Harry finally shot up. "GINNY! Oh, erm, Ginny? What are you doing here?"

"You were having a bad dream, too." She said whilst taking a seat on the bed beside him. Harry reached for his glasses to be able to put them on, and that's when Ginny noticed something strange. She brushed his hair to the side and touched his forehead where his scar was, or where it used to be. "Your scar is gone!"

His eyebrows raised as he attempted to look up at his own forehead, "What?" He asked. "How can that be possible?!"

"It must have something to do with us traveling back in time," she continued, and with her hand still on his forehead. They were sitting much too closely, but neither seemed to have minded very much. Until they noticed the closeness, and then they awkwardly moved apart. "I think we should find a way to go home."

"We have to get to Hogwarts, that's where the Mirror is."

"But what if it isn't?"

"It will be." He assured her, even though he wasn't sure of it himself. "We should try to go back to sleep for now."

She sighed. "Alright, I suppose."

Harry watched her go back to the door, and then she paused. He could sense that something wasn't right with her, but he didn't know what it could be. As far as he could tell there was no danger here, even if they weren't entirely welcomed.

"Can I stay in here tonight?" She asked him. It wasn't the kind of question that he would have expected from Ginny, but he didn't want to deny her any form of comfort. There was still some guilt on his side for bringing Ginny along here, but it was completely accidental. Truth be told she wasn't entirely that upset about it either.

"Erm, sure." She just nodded her head as she walked back to the bed. Harry scooted over, not really sure what to do in his situation, and then she got in beside him. He tossed the bed cover back over them now, and then they sat there for a few moments. Neither knew what to do next.

Ginny cleared her throat loudly to distract her from her racing thoughts, and she quickly tucked herself in whilst mumbling, "Goodnight."

He removed his glasses again and set them aside with slightly shaky hands before trying, and now failing, to fall back asleep again.

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"I have a theory, you know."

Harry looked away from the window and at Ginny, who had just re-entered the bedroom. Downstairs, Remus and Sirius discussed matters with James and Lily about Harry and Ginny. Tensions had been high in the house ever since their arrival, and understandably so. He only hoped that they would find it in their hearts to accept them, and help them.

"About your scar." She said, "You're already here, in the past. That means you can't be born yet…so there was no murder. Your parents aren't dead."

It sounded wrong, but it must've been the closest thing to the truth. "I don't know." Harry replied somberly, "That could be right." Ginny looked exceptionally bright this morning. She didn't look meek or ill like she did a few days prior. It must've had to do with all the sleep she had gotten, as well as the care from Molly Weasley, who was a great healer. When Molly found out Ginny left her bed in the middle of the night she nearly threw a fit, but when she saw that Ginny was well again she let it go.

She sighed. "I wonder what they're talking about now." She had never felt so exiled before. It was clear they weren't welcome, but they had nowhere else to go. Even Harry was second guessing his choice to come here, and even the reason why. Was it right to mess with time? Was it too late?

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Probably how we're spies for Volde- I mean, You-Know-Who."

"That's just mad. We're clearly not! He wants to kill us, too." He thought they were James and Lily, and as long as they were here then the real James and Lily had nothing to worry about. In a way that was comforting for Harry, but he knew that it couldn't stay like that for long. He had to figure out some sort of a plan, and whether he liked it or not Ginny would have to be involved.

He opened his mouth to reply, but never got the chance to because Sirius appeared in the doorway. He always looked so angry, and completely unlike the Sirius Harry had come to know. "Come downstairs." He told them. It wasn't a question, but rather a command. Neither Harry nor Ginny were brave enough to challenge him on that.

They followed him down the stairs and found the others staring back at them with straight faces, but there was another. "Dumbledore!" Harry excitedly greeted him, but he quickly realised his mistake. Dumbledore stared back at him with such strange curiosity, but he didn't want to seem rude, so he greeted him back.

"Good morning, Harry. My, you bear a striking resemblance to James." As if it were the elephant in the room, Ginny started coughing. He looked at her briefly before turning his attention back to Dumbledore and the others. "I also hear you claim to be time travelers."

"Erm, well, yes."

"You say, through a mirror?"

"The Mirror of Erised, yes sir." Ginny answered this time. She took another step to stand more closely behind Harry now, and he was aware of her presence much more than he'd like to admit.

Dumbledore's interest had piqued. "There is no such mirror, I can assure you."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows again. "There has to be, I've seen it!"

"Where have you seen it?"

"At Hogwarts! In the Room of Hidden Things! It's there, I am certain of it-"

"Harry, calm down!" Ginny whispered into his ear as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He sighed.

"So they are spies?" Sirius jumped to this first, not so surprisingly. He wasn't very happy about them being here because he couldn't trust them. He couldn't trust anybody these days except the people in this room, excluding Harry and Ginny. "I knew it!"

Remus smoked his pipe across the room and studied the situation carefully, and James and Lily sat side-by-side holding each other's hands the entire time. But every now and then Lily would be caught stealing glances at Harry, and he didn't know why. He certainly hoped that she wasn't trying to "flirt" with him or anything, or else that would be weird.

"Now, now, Sirius," Dumbledore said whilst standing up. He wasn't the old man that Harry and Ginny knew him as, instead he was slightly younger and more able bodied. "Let's not jump to conclusions, I highly suspect these two are innocent. A bit strange, I will say, but not ill-willed people."

"I agree." Remus finally spoke up, "I don't think they are followers."

There was a deafening silence in the room that followed, and it was clear that Sirius felt alone in his feelings towards them. Harry felt hopeful for once, and Ginny felt more or less the same.

"We just want to help." She managed to say, thus breaking the silence.

"We know." James replied, "And we need it."

And just like that, a huge weight had been lifted from Harry and Ginny's shoulders.

But Sirius continued glaring at them from the corner of the room.

Author's Note:

apologies for the late update and not-so-great chapter, but I've been super stressed and busy this week so it's been hard to write!