Chapter 5:

It was late one night when Ginny overheard Remus and Sirius talking downstairs about them. Everyone else had warmed up to Harry and Ginny for the most part, or at least they didn't think they were on Voldemort's side, but Sirius still didn't trust them. He didn't even want them in the house at all, but it was everybody else against him on that, much to his annoyance.

"…you must get over that, Sirius, for your own good." Remus whispered to his friend. She smelled pipe tobacco from the inside, which was one of Remus' favorite pastimes it seemed.

"Why should I?!" Sirius' reaction was violent, and full of anger. "Have you forgotten that our own friend betrayed us? Our friend since childhood?"

"Of course not, Sirius," Remus replied with a dark chuckle, and she could practically see his expressionless face as he said it. "But we cannot change what's already happened, that's just the way it is-"

"And yet you're so keen to believe these two strangers that they have traveled back in time?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then why are you pretending like this is normal?"

Unbeknownst to Ginny, Harry had successfully sneaked upon her as she eavesdropped, and when he grabbed her she nearly screamed. His hand quickly went over her mouth to prevent that from happening, and he dragged her away from the door as well. When they were out of earshot, Harry uncovered her mouth and hastily whispered, "What are you thinking?! Are you trying to make us look like spies?"

"Of course not!" She replied with a very sarcastic eye roll, "I was just walking by and happened to overhear them talking about us."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, "What did they say?" His paranoia still hadn't really died down since coming here. He knew nobody trusted them, and he understood why. That, and the fact that Voldemort nearly killed them in an alley.

She wriggled out of his grasp and turned to face him in the hallway. It was late in the night and both had dark circles underneath their eyes from lack of sleep. Most of it stemmed from Harry's paranoia, but also Ginny's alertness. Over the years she had learned not to let her guard down so easily, and also to stand up for herself more. "What do you think they said? They don't believe us, obviously. They think we're lying about traveling back in time, and Sirius still thinks we're on Volde-"

"SHHH!"

"Sorry!"

"What was that?" They both heard Remus and Sirius coming towards the door, and their hearts started to race. The last thing they wanted was to be branded as eavesdroppers, because it wouldn't help their case at all. They backed their way into the darkest corner they could find as Remus and Sirius exited the room. Much to their surprise they weren't even looking in their direction, but rather at something else outside of the window. Then they heard a crash coming from outside, and suddenly the entire house came to life.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

The sounds coming from around them reminded them both entirely of the battle before they came here. Explosion after explosion, and their hearts beating loudly through their ears. James and Lily emerged from their bedroom with panicked expressions, and Remus whispered something to them. Then they disappeared.

"We've got to leave!" Remus told them next, "You have to disapparate, NOW!"

Ginny looked around her, and she found Harry in the corner still. He was crouched down, covering his ears, and squinting his eyes closed. "Harry, what are you doing?!" She yelled at him in a panic. "We have to leave right now! Let's go! Apparate us or-or something!" Her magic wasn't nearly as advanced as Harry's was, but

It seemed that he wasn't going to come out of his state anytime soon so Ginny had no other choice but to try and get them out of here.

"APPARATE!" She shouted, but nothing happened. "Damnit!"

A Death Eater approached them out of nowhere and grinned evilly. "You've got nowhere to run now!" Everyone was still under the impression that they were James and Lily Potter because of their similarities. It was safe to assume that if they were to get captured by this Death Eater now then they were as good as dead, and that couldn't happen. She grabbed Harry's arm roughly and disrupted his cowering state to tell him, "We're getting out of here!"

And they did. She didn't know how it happened, but they were suddenly no longer in the same place that they once were. A soon as Harry realised this he stood up and looked slightly amazed at what Ginny had done. "Did you…did you just apparate us?" Immediately after that he was pinned to a nearby tree, as they were somewhere deep in the forest, and Sirius Black held him by the collar of his shirt.

'Stop it!" Ginny begged. She tried to run up behind Sirius but was quickly captured by Remus. He was clearly going to be the mediator between Sirius and Harry here today.

"You brought them here!" Sirius accused him, "That was the safest place in the world, there's no other explanation for them being able to find us!"

The thing about Harry was that he often found it hard to keep from flying off the handle, and that wouldn't help their case of being innocent at all. Ginny was a hot head too, but she knew that it was best to bite her tongue for the time being. Besides, it wasn't like Sirius was blatantly accusing her of being a traitor. It seemed like no matter what Harry would do Sirius would always be watching him closely.

Harry removed Sirius' hands from around his neck and dropped to the ground, but he got back up instantly and reached for his wand. "If you hate me so bad, then why don't we settle it right here!" Ginny's eyes widened. She rushed to his side after Remus willingly let her go, and she stood beside him.

"What are you doing?!"

He simply ignored her though and kept glaring at Sirius, who was now raising his wand as well. "If you think I'm working for him, then why don't you go ahead and get rid of me!"

"Harry!" Ginny scolded him.

"Maybe I will!" Sirius replied. He seemed sure of himself that he could get rid of Harry, but there was some doubt deep down. Harry seemed awfully confident in his magical abilities. Part of Sirius didn't exactly feel that way, as he was all talk most of the time. Remus didn't do much but stand by and observe.

"Then do it!"

"I will!"

"Good! Go on then!"

"Fine!" The banter continued for another moment until it was clear that nothing would happen. For some reason Sirius had decided to back down, and Harry's temperature cooled considerably in the meantime. Right now they were both angry teenagers with a lot of pent up emotions, and it was sort of odd to know this version of Sirius. Harry was used to the more collected, slightly more controlled version whom acted as a father figure above all else.

After their little standoff, Sirius approached them and said, "You've given me no reason not to trust you."

After everything, this was a breath of fresh air to Harry and Ginny.

"Don't give me a reason to change my mind." He then warned, and it sent chills down Ginny's spine. Sirius turned to Remus and told him that they needed to locate James and Lily immediately. The leaves beneath their feet crunched as they walked ahead of Harry and Ginny.

Before Harry could put his wand away, Ginny snatched it from his hands. "Hey-"

"You can't go around dueling everyone!" She scolded him. "I'll hold this for now. In the meantime, why don't you think about how stupid you were being just a moment ago!"

Ginny stalked off ahead, and Harry stood there watching her. He felt like being mad, but for some reason he wasn't.

Author's Note:

I've been going through a lot of changes in my life lately, and it's been difficult to update as regularly as I would like. So, sorry for slower updates! I promise I'll keep working on this story! Thanks for all the response so far