living with them, ginny weasley & the marauders

five

chapter five; you probably shouldn't insult the girl you're replacing.

As Ginny walked through the corridors to Gryffindor tower, she realised she had forgotten to ask Dumbledore the most important question of all. He'd mentioned that she was in a time glitch and she hadn't even bothered to ask what time it was! Asking anyone else would be really suspicious. 'Hi, what year is it?' wouldn't exactly be the phrase to help her blend in. She eventually decided just to check the Daily Prophet, tomorrow morning.

On her way to the common room, she ran into none other than James Potter. She tried her best not to catch his attention, as she thought it would be quite awkward, but he scuttled over to her as soon as she was in sight. Damn her bright red hair.

"Hey Ginny, where are you heading?" James asked, falling into step with her.

"The Gryffindor Common Room." She said bluntly, not wanting to spark a conversation.

But James had other ideas.

"Me too. I'm going to check on my old dorm, see how the boys are going, you know?"

Ginny couldn't help herself asking.

"Old dorm?"

"Yes, I'm head boy this year. I'm sharing a dorms with Evans. I went there before, but she wasn't there." He informed her.

"Er...well...she was kind of too pre occupied yelling at me," Ginny admitted.

"Yelling at you? Why?" James asked.

He seemed too curious in the conversation to even think about why Ginny would even have a clue as to who Lily Evans was. And seeing as James hadn't picked it up, Ginny decided to go along with it.

"Don't ask me how, but she saw me kissing you," Ginny confessed.

"Well that's just - WAIT, SHE WHAT?!" James yelled.

"And now she hates you," Ginny said.

"Back to square one," He sighed.

"Whoops, I was going to break it to you gently...and it's all my fault in the first place and now you two are over and-" Ginny rambled.

"-Over? For sure?" James interrupted.

"Lily gave a vague vibe of the sort," Ginny said as they approached the portrait hole.

"Aurea Rinocerotis," James mumbled glumly to the fat lady. "I'll see you around Ginny."

And with out another word, James trudged up the stairs to the boys dormitories with his head hung. Ginny followed suit, heading up to the girls dormitories, until she found the one with the engraving '7th Years' and swung open the door. There, she was greeted by a rather unpleasant (and unexpected) sight.

"You! You did this!"

A girl with blond hair and dark brown eyes, jumped down from her four poster and pointed accusingly at Ginny. Ginny took a step back under her glare which rivalled that of both her mother and McGonagall's. Another girl with blue eyes, frizzy blond hair and freckles that covered her face, stood up and held the first girl back.

"Calm down, Marlene," she said.

Ginny didn't recognise either of them, but the name 'Marlene' certainly rung a bell. Well, she didn't recognise any of them except for Lily, who was a crumpled mess on one of the four poster beds. Another girl with glistening eyes, that matched the colour of her long brown hair was sitting cross-legged next to Lily, rubbing her back soothingly. Her and the other girl seemed a lot calmer than Marlene.

"I'm not going to calm down, Dorcas! It's her fault Lily's crying!" Marlene argued.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Ginny retorted.

"Slipped into Potter's arms, did you? Watch out, you might trip down the isle and accidentally marry him!" Marlene spat back.

"What? No!" Ginny snapped, "I'm not into him, he's not into me!"

"Then give me one good reason why you would've kissed him," Marlene challenged.

"I thought he-" Ginny began.

"-What's going on in h- Who in Merlin's name are you?"

Another girl with very dark brown hair, and piercing brown eyes (which in the light looked more like a dazzling green) had entered the dormitory room to two red faced girls in a rather loud quarrel. She stood at the door, examining the scene, and it wasn't until she closed the door, did anyone speak again.

"That's a good question, Mary. I've never seen you around, and for some reason you're in our dormitory." The girl who was comforting Lily was the one to speak.

"I'm Ginny. Ginny Granger. I'm a transfer from Beauxbatons."

"Why are we meant to believe that?" Mary asked cautiously, gripping her wand in her pocket. "Hogwarts never gets transfers."

"What's your excuse? Mummy and Daddy couldn't afford to send you there?" Marlene mocked.

"Well, I suppose you could say that," Ginny nodded solemnly.

"What do you mean?" Mary asked.

"They were killed by death eaters a couple of weeks ago, and Beauxbatons wouldn't let me back because I couldn't pay the fees," Ginny lied. Lily's head snapped up at this, and she looked at Ginny for a second.

"I don't believe y-" Marlene began.

"-Marls, give her a rest," Lily interrupted, "You can interrogate her tomorrow. Let's just get some sleep."

"Fine," Marlene huffed getting into bed, "But I will interrogate her."

"There's no doubt in my mind," Mary said. "You sleeping here tonight Lily?"

"Yeah, Potter will be in out dormitory. I don't want to run the risk of bumping into him."

"Goodnight girls," Dorcas said, getting murmured 'goodnights' in return as she flicked the light off with a swish of her wand.

And just before she turned it off, Ginny flashed Lily a grateful smile. Soon enough, the girls all lolled into a slumber, except for two of them who both lay wide awake, unknowingly looking in each other's direction and thinking about what tomorrow was about to bring for both of them.