Going Back- Hermione, Ginny and the Marauders

Chapter 12- The Effects of a War

Ginny's POV:

It was already time to leave Hogwarts. It broke my heart a little, seeing the school so bright and filled with life. Though it was nice going to Hogwarts after the war, we could all feel the death and loss etched across the entire school.

Nothing about war is easy. It is wrong, unfair. All of the students currently walking through the school had no clue what was going to come. Because nobody think it could be themselves.

No child thinks they can get cancer, no school thinks it will actually be their family that is murdered by death eaters.

Before the war, students had a perpetual feeling of complete immortality, because when you're a kid, you should be thinking about if you may die tomorrow. But after the war, everything was different. The time we spent making up our year, the students walked through the halls with a trepidation, and an emptiness in their eyes.

The candles that lit the rooms seemed dimmer, the days darker and the weeks more dreadful than before. Of course, people were slowly regaining the happiness, but the grief had weighed on the school like nothing else ever had. Even though the school seemed to constantly be under attack, the pain from the war was like nothing they had ever felt before.

Being sent back to a time before any recent war was a relief, but also a curse. Being able to see happiness flow through the students' veins. But knowing they would soon feel the same grief, the same loss. I know what it's like.

Everyone in the war lost somebody. A mother, a father. A friend or an enemy. A sister, or a brother...

It isn't something people can be strong through, or get over. It is something that people grieve for the rest of their lives. Maybe it lessens a little more every day, or maybe it gets worse.

I will never forget my past, the war, my family. But I believe I was taken back for a reason, to change the future. I know it may sound selfish, but a part of me wants to go back. I know if I stay, my mother won't know me, and maybe she will have another daughter, and my brothers won't be my brothers, but if I can save even one innocent life, it's worth it.

I owe it to them, to George.

I looked at the dormitory surrounding me, the red and gold. I smiled, remembering my bedroom in the Burrow.

"Ginny, Dear!" Mum yelled from the kitchen, "The letters have arrived! One with your name!"

I bolted out of my bedroom, and ran to the kitchen, "Is it true, Mummy? Am I going to Hogwarts?!" I jumped up and down.

"Jeez, Ginny, quiet down a bit, will ya?" Ron asked me, food falling out of his mouth. I sneered at him.

"Morning, Sis!" The twins chorused.

"Morning!" I smiled, looking at my favorite brothers. Then I noticed a head of raven hair.

"Hello," he said, "I'm Harry!"

'Harry Potter! Oh goodness how did I not see it before! The scar, how did I not see it!' I was frozen. I panicked and ran back upstairs.

I sat on my bed, my stomach turning. 'How could I not realize that? How can I show my face down there again?"

Though I may create a better future, I really don't want to have to let go of my past. I could feel hot tears run down my cheek, my throat clenching. Trying to repress a sob. I let it out. Pressing my face into my pillow, I thought of everything I would be losing. These are sacrifices I need to make. In a way, I'm sacrificing my life, but unlike others, I get another one.

Technically, everyone in this timeline was getting another one, but Hermione and I were the only ones with the privilege, and the curse, of remembering our previous one.

I kept on crying into the pillow, until I felt a shake on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around to see Hermione sitting next to me.

She looked at my red cheeks and frowned, "I know, it isn't fair," She said. You could hear her heart being pulled into a bottomless pit. Her voice was strained and her eyes were dark, "but you're not being selfish for wanting to go back. I miss it too."

She looked down and her shoulders shook. I stared at the ceiling. This is how it's gonna be.

"It's going to be hard seeing them. When they don't even know me. They won't remember I'm their daughter," I croaked.

For a minute, Hermione was silent, "You know, Ginny, before I went to hunt the horcruxes, I had to obliviate my parents. My entire existence was just wiped from their memories," She paused for a minute, "I didn't ever get over it. Even now, losing them was one of the hardest things. And then we lost our world. Literally. Everyone. And we will never get any of them back, they're not going to be the same." Hermione laid right down next to me. she put her head on my shoulder and cried. "It may as well have been a nightmare, a beautiful, horrible, wonderful nightmare." She whispered. I wrapped my arm around her, and I sobbed into her head.

After a couple minutes we just laid there quietly, not wanting to move. In a way, I felt like I needed to stay by Hermione. She was all I had left, and I couldn't bare to lose her too.

Hermione lifted her head from my shoulder and looked at me. Suddenly I couldn't breathe. I felt my heart pound in my ears. I was blacking out for the first time.

A magnetic force pulled me to her lips, it was strong, something I would normally resist, but I didn't want to. She was as in it as me, I was lost somewhere in my heart that I'd never been in before.

I could feel fairies swarming through my stomach. A feeling, a blissful anxiety, filled me. I felt like I was at home.

Was it seconds? Minutes? Years? I could not tell you, but when we heard footsteps nearing the door, I fell off the bed. I jumped up and picked up the first thing I could find on my nightstand, a hairbrush. I began aggressively combing through my ginger hair.

Lily walked in, "Are you guys coming? We've got to head to the train soon."

"Okay, let me quickly pack my stuff," I said. Not that it took more than a wave of a wand. Dumbledore had given me the essential items, and I had only been able to transfigure a few normal outfits.

I looked over to Hermione. She had packed her few belongings as well. We both levitated them, and brought them down to the common room, where we waited for the boys.

They came down. James said, "Well boys, you ready for your last summer vacation?"

"I think I am, Prongs!" Sirius said, then he winked at Hermione. She awkwardly smiled and I wanted to let out a scream for some reason.

"Let's go home," Sirius said.

We all walked out of the common room. I looked at the Portrait of the Fat Lady, feeling changed.

Well this is going to be one hell of an interesting summer...

A/N: Okay so this chapter has gayness in it, and I am going to be sensitive to people uncomfy with it. To you folks, please go rot to death or get the hell off of my story. Also I don't know what people ship, and the ships are going to change because I want to give y'all emotional whiplash hehe. But this chapter is gonna confuse the hell out of Ginny and Hermione. I will be updating a lot more often because now I have my schedule kind of down, I can make more time to write. Also I know that Hermione and Ginny are a pair that not a lot of people ship but I like to ship characters based off of the fanfic. ie if Ron is a cheater and there is dramione then I ship blinny and stuff and if there's drarry I usually like pansmione etc etc you get the gist. Leave a comment and a vote!