living with them, ginny weasley & the marauders

one

chapter one; a blur of colours and an evil little baby who'd stolen her wand.

Ginny Weasley felt her eye lids droop closed as she sat at a circular dinner table, next to Hermione and Ron, listening to another one of Harry's speeches. She knew that she was meant to be being a supportive girlfriend, but after you've heard almost the same speech about 40 times, it naturally becomes quite boring.

So here she sat, with half shut eyes as Harry recited another speech. She couldn't blame him though. She knew that he didn't like coming to these events either. She knew Harry hated the attention more than anyone, yet he was the one to constantly be receiving it. But over the years, Ginny supposed that he had just learned to put up with it. He never complained either. He was very independent and hated burdening others with his problems, thoughts or worries. And that was just one of the many reasons why Ginny admired and loved him so much.

In here trance, Ginny hadn't noticed that Harry had finished his speech until she was snapped back into reality by the polyphonic of applause and whistles. She forced herself to give Harry an encouraging smile as he walked off the stage and back down to where she was sitting. However, Ginny noticed that her smile wasn't the only artificial one. Harry's too, was completely fake. It seemed real enough for the crowd to buy, but Ginny, Hermione and Ron knew better than to believe it. The three gave each other a knowing look before Hermione was tactful enough to drag Ron over to another table so that Ginny could talk to Harry.

"Harry, what's wrong?" She asked kindly.

"What makes you think there's something wrong?" Harry laughed half-heartedly, stabbing hid fork into his steak.

"Harry, I'm not blind," Ginny said, more sternly, forcefully lowering his arm which he was trying to eat with. "There's something wrong. And you're going to tell me...or I'm going to tell mum."

"I don't want to talk about it, Ginny," Harry told her, "We've talked about it before, but it just keeps eating away at the back of my mind, that's all."

"Okay," Ginny agreed, "Just remember that I'll always be here for you Harry. So will Ron and Hermione. We're all suffering together, and we're all going to get through this together. Nobody knows when, or how, but we will. I promise we will, and I'll be by your side the whole time."

Ginny knew that Harry was processing what she just said. She was quite proud of it, to be honest. It was inspirational, somewhat like Dumbledore; though she knew she could never rise to his level. She didn't want to be exactly that, but she wanted to be able to help everyone who was suffering with her. She knew what it felt like. The pain. The sorrow. The loss.

She'd loss countless friends in the battle. Both old and young, they all still held a place in Ginny's heart. Especially one of them. But she preferred not to dwell on that exact person for too long, for it had taken her a long time to come to terms with this certain loss. Not to mention, how hard her family took it, especially George. Fred had not been forgotten. No, he could never be. His spirit lived on. He was dearly missed. But they all knew that he wouldn't have wanted them to waste their time together mourning over him. He would want them to embrace the time that they had together, as he watched over them. She didn't want to forget Fred, but she knew she needed to move on.

Ginny's eyes were brimmed with tears, and she noticed that Harry's were too. They must've been thinking about the same thing. However, before Harry had a chance to reply to Ginny, Mrs Weasley came waddling over to the couple with a request.

"Ginny, dear, could you please go help Andromeda change Teddy? He keeps causing mischief, and she needs some assistance," she said.

"Sure," Ginny replied, wiping the tears she hadn't realised had dripped down her cheeks, "I'll talk to you later, Harry."

And without a backwards glance, Ginny set off to the bathrooms to go help Andromeda. When she got there, she saw a naked wriggling baby boy, who seemed rather desperate to escape his grandmother's clutches. As he wriggled more, his hair was colour began changing more rapidly. Andromeda finally noticed Ginny's presence in the room, and looked at her with sympathy. Ginny was baffled by the look. She didn't know why she was being looked at like that, but she hated it anyway. She appreciated it, but hated it. It made her feel weak.

"Ginny," Andromeda acknowledged, "You've been crying."

"How'd you know?" Ginny chuckled.

"Well, sweetie, it isn't exactly hard to notice when a girl as stunning as yourself has mascara running down her cheeks," she smiled.

Ginny looked in the mirror and laughed at her reflection. She looked like some sort of sparkling emo vampire. It was honestly a horrific sight. Her eyes were like a panda's and the mascara had dripped like blood all the way down to her chin. As Ginny began removing it with her wand, Andromeda let out an exasperated sigh.

"I left the wipes in my handbag," She grumbled.

"Are you a witch or not?" Ginny laughed "Accio W-"

"Ginny, I'd rather you didn't. I have a rather unpleasant guest at my table, and the longer it takes me to clean Teddy up, the longer I get to stay away from him. I'll just go and get the wipes myself," Andromeda explained.

"Alright," Ginny agreed, setting her wand down on the table as Andromeda walked out.

Ginny looked back into the mirror at her eyes that were still tear stained. Even if they didn't have tears in them, you could tell they were cold, as if they were experiencing loss. Ginny looked straight at herself when a gold glint around her neck caught her attention.

A time turner hung freely from around her neck. Ginny had had it since the beginning of her third year, which was when Fred and George had given it to her. As much as she would have loved to (especially after the battle), she knew she couldn't use it, for one simple twist could change the fabric of time. It wouldn't have worked anyway because if she did it, she would've been there the first time round, which means everything would still be the same. That was how time travel worked, right?

But since Fred had died, even if she wasn't allowed to use it, she still carried it with her, because she felt like it was a piece of Fred. He had given it to her and it was a way of taking Fred with her everywhere she went. It sounded stupid, but it was special to Ginny.

A sudden purple spark inches away from her face brought Ginny out of her thoughts. Her immediate thought was that it was an attack; she'd gotten used to that reaction in recent times. But then she realised that the spark was in fact emitting from her wand - which was in the hands of Teddy.

"Teddy! Give that back! That's dangerous!" Ginny yelled, helplessly swatting her hands around to get her wand back from the adorable yet frustrating squirming little baby.

Teddy just giggled, and waved the wand around, shooting out more pretty colours. Well, they weren't exactly pretty to Ginny. All she saw was a blur of colours and an evil little baby who'd stolen her wand. Teddy said something (you know, in the way baby's say things) which sounded like absolute gobbledygook to Ginny. She grabbed her wand back from Teddy just as Andromeda walked outside the doorframe.

"Ginny, I-"

Whatever Andromeda said next, Ginny never found out. Whatever it was that Teddy had said, must've meant something. Whatever it was that was happening, was making Ginny feel dizzier than apparating or flooing. But whatever it was that happened next, was what made everything black.