He couldn’t believe his eyes but didn’t take time to question what he was seeing. He ran at top speed towards Ginny and leapt through the air upon her. He rolled with her in the grassy lawn as she continued to scream. As he looked down at their clothing that were not singed whatsoever. The fire was nowhere near them. It was still in the same location that Ginny had been standing when he had seen her. Logic prevailed and it dawned on him that they were in his father’s memory and it was impossible to get hurt in a memory. He calmed Ginny down and explained that they were safe.
He sat up and held Ginny next to him. She still looked quite shaken.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I just came to see what you wanted to eat,” Ginny told him, “Then I found this book on the floor and I saw you in it.”
“So you came in after me?”
She nodded tensely the fear still evident in her eyes.
“Shhh, it’s alright,” Harry comforted her; “We’re in my fathers’ memory.”
“Is his house on fire?”
“I don’t think so,” Harry told her while swallowing convulsively.
“Whose house is this?” she asked.
He had a hunch, but before he could share it with Ginny three masked men came running from the back of the house. Harry instantly recognized them as deatheaters and jumped up to go after them as one of the conjured the dark mark overhead.
“Harry it’s a memory, you can’t do anything to them!” Ginny cried out as she clung to him.
Against all of his better instincts he let them flee. In no time at all the front door was slammed open by James who carried a limp body in his arms. Ginny tightened her hold on him and they made their way to where James had delicately laid the body before returning into the house. His deathly pale mother lay on the ground. Her hair, the same color of the burning embers, lay spread around her like a glowing wreath. Blood oozed from the cuts on her face and neck into a thick pool eerily outlining her features. James smashed though the second story window and it was all that Harry could do to get Ginny away from the flying shreds of glass.
A frantic girl threw herself on his mother while screaming to her parents for help, but they never came. Harry looked to Ginny to confirm that she too had heard the growing sounds of an ambulance. Not soon enough, the ambulance arrived taking James, Petunia and Lily away. His mother was still unconscious when they had left. Harry took Ginny under the elbow just as he remembered Dumbledore doing with him and muttered ‘Evanesco’. The ground lurched a second before he was shot upwards and out of the Marauders Memoirs. Their feet hit the kitchen floor but Ginny sank down unable to stand. Harry sat on the ground rocking her back in forth in his arms. They let the horror of the scene they had watched sink in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It couldn’t have been a coincidence,” Harry told Ginny over the hot cup of tea she had just poured him.
“I suppose not.”
“If it was a muggle attack more houses would have been hit,” Harry continued.
Ginny nodded her agreement.
“They were after my mother; they wanted her dead!” Harry exploded in frustration slamming his fist on the table.
“Careful or the tea will spill,” Ginny warned him.
Once he had gotten a hold of himself he looked Ginny in the eyes, “Tell me what you think,” he begged.
It was obvious that she sensed his emotional turmoil; she kept wringing her hands under the table.
“What is that book Harry?”
“It’s the Marauders Memoirs,” Harry explained, “Lupin gave it to me.”
“I see,” she said, “Do you remember what my father said, about not trusting things if you can’t see where they keep their brain?”
“When did he say that?”
“The Riddle diary.”
“That’s right,” he said shaking his head, “This is not the same, it’s a collection of memories that Lupin thought I should have.”
“He wouldn’t have given it to me if it was dangerous,” Harry persisted.
“I know.”
A moment passed by in which both of them were lost in their own thoughts. Harry gave himself a mental kick. He should have realized that this would bring back the entire trauma she had lived through.
“They were definitely after her,” Ginny volunteered her opinion; “I suppose they killed your grandparents first.”
Harry hadn’t given any thought as to where his grandparents had been.
“They must have, why else would Aunt Petunia be screaming for them?”
Harry felt horrible. Had his aunt witnessed the murder of her parents? And the attempted murder of her sister? No wonder she hated magic. He would have too if he had been in her position. She had looked slightly younger than his age.
“Your mother was about my age,” she began to logic though, “What could they want with a teenage girl?”
“I don’t know.”
Ginny gave him a grim smile, “Of course we don’t exactly know what they wanted from an infant but that brought about his downfall didn’t it?”
“Only for a short while…”
“Lucky thing…your father showing up,” Ginny offered.
“He was going to her house for a tutoring session.”
“Oh.”
He took a sip of tea as Ginny asked, “Why three deatheaters?”
“What?”
“Why were there three deatheaters?” Ginny repeated holding her hands up, “Hear me out Harry. One deatheater should be enough to go into a house of muggles and…kill them. So why three?”
Harry had not considered that particular point. He supposed that it was further evidence that they were after something, or someone.
“Yes,” Ginny nodded to herself some more, “They were definitely after your mother…but why?”
Harry shrugged, “Where were the ministry wizards?”
“I noticed that as well,” Ginny looked surprised, “They should have made it long before any muggles showed up.”
Harry was perplexed, nothing about the whole scene they had witnessed added up.
“What happened to them after their parents died?” Ginny wondered aloud.
“Maybe they ended up in an orphanage,” Harry offered.
What had happened to them? Aunt Petunia discouraged any questions about the past, so he had no clue about her upbringing.
Ginny glimpsed at the Marauders Memoirs, “I’ll bet I know where we can find the answer.”
“Should we look?” Harry questioned.
“No,” Ginny told him as her eyes grew weary, “Tonight was more than enough.”
Harry silently agreed.
“What happened before this memory?” Ginny asked.
“I don’t know,” Harry admitted, “I was just flipping through.”
“There could be clues in the earlier memories,” Ginny advised him, “You should go through the memories one-by-one.”
“Right,” he replied as he ruffled his hair.
He was having a difficult time getting Aunt Petunia’s terrified face out of his mind. Seeing his mother laying deathly pale on ground shook him to his very core. He felt a strange pride in his father who had risked life and limb without a second thought. Ginny stood and walked behind him. She wrapped him up in her arms and settled her chin onto his forehead. He could not remember ever being coddled like that before.
“It’s ok,” came Ginny’s soothing voice, “Let it go…”
As her voice trailed off he found himself again staring at Mrs. Weasley’s clock. After several minutes, the arrow that read ‘Ron’ moved from traveling to school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry could not understand why Ginny’s trunk weighed so much. He definitely could not comprehend how she had managed to bring it down the stairs of the Burrow all on her own when he could just barely make it up the few train steps with it.
“Harry! Let me help you with that,” Neville told him as he grabbed the other end of the trunk and they began heaving it to the nearest compartment.
“What do you have in their?” Neville asked.
“It’s Ginny.”
“Oh,” Neville replied as though that explained everything, “Girls.”
Harry privately agreed. He didn’t see the need for all the things that Ginny had packed but with the flutter of her eyelashes she conned him into helping her pack. He sorely regretted his gullibility now as he tripped on the final step before catching himself. As Neville slid the door of the compartment open with his foot Harry caught a glimpse of Luna.
“Hello…” Luna said in a dreamy voice that surprised Neville causing him to drop the trunk on his toes.
He jumped around the compartment howling in pain and tripped over Luna’s trunk.
“Sorry,” she told him as she helped him up, “I couldn’t find anyone to help me lift it overhead.”
After they had lifted Luna’s trunk into the overhead bin and given up all hopes of getting Ginny’s trunk into the adjacent bin they went back outside of the Hogwarts Express to collect their own possessions. Once all of their pets, trunks and other items had been securely stored, Harry and Neville joined Luna and Ginny outside of the train where they were discussing slimy sickle toads. Neville shot Harry a confused look as Luna enumerated the bizarre information her father had taught her about the supposed creatures.
“You can identify a slimy sickle toad from other toads by the slime it wears on its…Ron!”
Luna spotted Ron coming off the train well before the rest of them had. Harry and Neville stifled a laugh over her timing. Slimy sickle Ron had a rather nice ring to it. Ron strode over looking more confident than Harry could ever remember.
“How’re you all getting on?” he asked them in a very Percy-ish manner.
At that, Harry and Neville couldn’t help but to laugh aloud while Ron gave them a weird look. Before anyone could respond to his inquiry a rosy-cheeked Hermione walked out of the train and headed towards them.
“Hello,” Ron whispered to her.
She blushed profusely and refusing to meet his eyes cast her eyes down to the floor while wearing a buoyant smile. Harry looked over at Ginny and raised his eyebrows while titling his head towards the pair as if to ask ‘what have those two been up to?’ Ginny put a finger to her lips signaling that he should keep quiet and mind his business. In his jovial mood at being reunited with his friends and returning to school he thought that leaving them to their own accord was going to be impossible. Ginny sensed his reluctance and glowered at him. She received an impish smile and wink from him in response.
“Ginny!”
His good mood ended.
“Ginny, I’m over here!”
Dean Thomas. What was he doing here?
Dean descended from the train waving his hands stupidly at Ginny who was smiling over his goofiness.
Ron looked nervously over at Harry, “He got McGonagall’s approval to come back on the train with us somehow.”
Harry threw Dean a dirty look wondering what lie the git had concocted that would now deprive him of Ginny’s company for the train ride.
“Hello,” Dean said as he threw his arm casually over Ginny’s shoulders, “How is everyone?”
Along with Ron, Hermione was now shooting him worried glances. Even Neville seemed to sense something was amiss. Before Harry gave into the urge to hit Dean, Ginny took off with him to catch up with some of their friends. Harry was in a surly mood as he joined Ron in saying goodbye to Mrs. Weasley and the twins. Once they had filed into their compartments Ron and Hermione went about their duties as prefects. They had been traveling only a few minutes when shouts from outside his compartment where he sat sulking caught his attention.
Neville, Luna and Harry ran into the hallway to see what all the raucous was about. Malfoy was levitating a first year in some sort of celebration.
“ENOUGH!”
Tonks came storming through the corridor before Harry could unsheathe his wand. She managed to keep the kid from falling as the distracted Malfoy turned to see who had interrupted his fun.
“HOW DARE YOU!” she thundered down on Malfoy.
“Who’re you?” he muttered as she pointed her wand directly at his throat.
“The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,” Harry responded proudly.
“Look’s like she’s off to a brilliant start,” Neville taunted Malfoy.
Harry gave him an approving look as Tonks began leading Malfoy away.
“Before I forget, Potter!” Malfoy tossed a copy of the Daily Prophet into Harry’s hands, “Bit of light reading.”
As the cocky Malfoy turned his attitude and resentment towards Tonks, Harry looked down at the headline:
Pandemonium Follows Mass Azkaban Escape