Disclaimer: This J.K. Rowling’s world. Thank you for letting my mind wander…
Part One: Ginny
It was a dark and rainy day when Ginny Weasley found herself staring out the window of the Burrow. The scene outside her window was quite depressing. The trees seemed to cry when the rain drops rolled off of the leaves as the wind blew away their tears. They were looking for comfort where none could be found and the yearning was growing stronger with each passing minute. Ginny felt a lonely tear escape from the prison of her own eyes, but she quickly brushed it aside like the wind had with the trees.
Recently she had found herself to be in a depressing mood which was unusual. Typically Ginny was the life of the party and no one could bring her down. No one except a certain dark haired man who wears glasses, that is. Ginny couldn’t understand Harry lately. He was distant and quiet, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. He was just different somehow. She missed the old Harry and wished that he would come back from wherever went. Ginny found herself wondering if it was her fault and if she was the reason for all of the changes in him.
They hadn’t gotten back together in a relationship yet, but Ginny was so sure at the end of the school year that as soon as Harry returned to the Burrow, he would realize his mistake. So far all Ginny was living on was just a hopeless dream about a stubborn man who was not going to change his mind anytime soon. To Ginny it seemed that all her life she was trying to pursue an unreal reality to be with Harry. But Harry had been at the Burrow for nearly five days now and he still hadn’t said anything about their relationship or given her any hints. Ginny sighed deeply.
When she heard her mother call her down for breakfast, she quickly put her hair up into a messy ponytail and hurried downstairs. When she got to the kitchen, she saw Harry and Ron sitting at the far end of the table having a heated debate about Quidditch. Mrs. Weasley was cooking. Ginny took a seat next to Ron. Her mother brought over some pancakes and Ginny thanked her. Ginny, however, just poked at them for a while. She wasn’t feeling very hungry at the moment.
Ginny glanced at Harry. He was laughing with Ron as if nothing had ever happened between them. She knew that she was overacting, but how could he just sit there and act like he doesn’t care? Ginny scowled, took a bite of her pancake, and then stood up abruptly. She stomped past Ron and stopped briefly behind Harry.
She bent down and in his ear she whispered, “I hate you.” Harry looked up, but it was too late. Ginny had already stormed out of the room. Harry thought about chasing after her, but soon pushed that idea away from his thoughts.
Ginny had lied, of course. Hate was a strong word and she knew in her heart that she could not possibly feel this way about Harry, but her anger had gotten the better of her. She ran outside where it was still misting out, but she didn’t care. Then she kept running down a small path into the woods. Although she didn’t know where she was going, she didn’t stop either. The trees blurred past her as she ran, but she was fully aware of the distance that she was putting between her and Harry. Ginny was soon out of breath and so she slowed a bit to a fast walk. Looking up to the sky, she observed that the clouds weren’t going to clear anytime soon. Great, just my luck, she thought.
She was still on the path, but she had gone farther than she had ever gone before on this particular trail. Looking behind her, she could no longer see the Burrow. She kept moving through the muddy forest. She continually told herself to keep going and not to stop. Ginny needed to get as far away from Harry as she could. Again she was running, but this time she was brushing away the tears that were pouring down her red cheeks also. Then she saw a clearing up ahead of her. She slowed her pace to walk. Breathing heavily, Ginny put her hands to her face and wiped away the last of her tears. Crying isn’t going to solve much, she told herself firmly.
The rain had become stronger now and Ginny began to feel cold and lonely. She walked to the clearing, sat on a rock, and hugged herself for warmth. It had only been about a half an hour, but to Ginny it felt like an entire week had passed. She put her head down to her knees and briefly considered returning to the Burrow, but the Burrow was the last place where she wanted to go. And so she stayed on her rock listening to the wind and shivering in the cold for ten more minutes. As she ran through everything in her head, she began to lose hope in Harry and in their relationship. Most of all, she began to lose faith in herself. She understood that Harry thought that she’d be in danger if they allowed their relationship to continue, but if he loved her wouldn’t he show some signs of depression? Wouldn’t he show some signs of being unhappy at least?
Then again, Ginny really hadn’t shown any signs either when she was with other people. That morning had been the first time that she showed any kind of anger toward Harry and although she hadn’t been herself lately, most people would have just blamed that on worry due to the recent war.
Suddenly, Ginny had the strange feeling that she wasn’t alone anymore in her little clearing. Anxiously, she looked up from her knees and gazed around at the scene before her. Oddly enough, there was a small building that was just to the right of her rock. She gasped in shock. She definitely did not notice that structure when she had entered the clearing. Had she been too upset to notice it? She didn’t know.
Cautiously, she stood up and walked over to the front door where she saw a sign that read:
The Green Dragon Pub
Where the Lost Come to Be Found
Ginny was taken completely by surprise. It seemed like a pretty poor location to build a pub. She wondered how many customers the pub actually received and her curiosity led her inside the little tavern. It was warm and welcoming inside. She was right, there weren’t many people, but there were a few. She closed the door behind her and looked around. There were a few tables set up and a couch was in front of a fireplace on the far wall. The top of a set of stairs disappeared to the second floor of the building and Ginny could see a small counter on the left wall. There was a man behind the counter. He smiled as she approached as if he expected her arrival.
The man was old and had short gray hair. His eyes were a dull green, but they were warm like any benevolent old man’s eyes. He was medium height but Ginny noticed that he was holding a cane for support. She forced a smile as she walked up to the counter. She opened her mouth to speak, but the old man beat her to it.
“Welcome to the Green Dragon, Miss. My name’s Blenkinsop Waterbut and I am the owner of this modest pub. You look cold, why don’t you go warm up by the fire and I’ll bring you some hot cocoa,” Mr. Waterbut suggested. Ginny frowned.
“I don’t have any money,” she replied stiffly. Mr. Waterbut looked insulted as she said this and he shook his head.
“I won’t accept your money, Miss. That’s not why I run the Green Dragon. Your teeth are chattering so loud that you must be freezing. Now please, I’ll explain everything once you can actually hear a word that I’m saying,” said Mr. Waterbut in a kind, but serious tone. Ginny lingered for a while more and then she reluctantly headed toward the fireplace where she knelt down in front of it trying to warm herself.
Ginny looked around not quite understanding what she was seeing. There was a young boy sitting not far away from her who was dressed in shorts and a tank top. Ginny knew that it was summertime, but it was a very cool summer day in England. The boy must be extremely cold. Still, Ginny couldn’t understand this place. She moved herself over to the couch and looked up just in time to see Mr. Waterbut walking toward her.
“Here you go, Miss. I even added some marshmallows for you. Now, I do believe that you have some questions?” he asked as he handed the cocoa over to her. Ginny lifted the mug up to her mouth and tasted a little. The flavor was delicious. Then she directed her attention to Mr. Waterbut.
“Of course, I have some questions. Where am I?” she quickly inquired. Mr. Waterbut smiled as if this was his favorite question to answer.
“Ah, of course. You are anywhere you want to be, but you aren’t nowhere. Oh, yes, you definitely somewhere, yet where you are is entirely up to you. Does that answer your question?”
“Um, no, not really. I don’t follow. How can I be somewhere but be anywhere at the same time?” Ginny asked incredulously. Mr. Waterbut’s eyes twinkled knowingly.
“Now, Miss, I’m afraid you’ll have to figure that one out for yourself. I’m not supposed to give away all of my secrets. I have a question for you now,” the old man said. Ginny’s eyes narrowed when she heard his answer to her question but she didn’t push the matter.
“Okay, shoot,” she replied.
“Who are you?” Mr. Waterbut asked.
“Oh! Sorry. My name is Ginny. It’s a pleasure meeting you.” She held out her hand for a handshake but Mr. Waterbut just stared at it as if he didn’t know what she was doing. Ginny pulled her hand away quickly and blushed although she didn’t know why she was turning red”he was the one who didn’t shake her hand. Mr. Waterbut raised an eyebrow.
“So Ginny, you have a problem,” Mr. Waterbut stated bluntly. Ginny looked up from her lap and wondered how he knew about her current situation.
“How di”” she opened her mouth to say but Mr. Waterbut put his hand up to stop her.
“No, I won’t tell you that either. Now, your problem, you should talk about it,” he suggested. Ginny crossed her arms and glared at the man.
“Why should I tell you about my problem if you won’t tell me how you knew about it or even where I am?” Ginny fired back. Mr. Waterbut shrugged and he seemed to be looking beyond Ginny. In truth, he looked incredibly bored.
“I think that you have a lot of thinking to do, Ginny. If I were you, I’d take a step back and learn first that everybody has secrets and there’s nothing that you can do about that. Then consider that I’m only trying to help you and next you should think about the reason why you were sitting on a rock and crying in the pouring rain in the first place. Figure it out. If you need me, I’ll be at the counter. Feel free to talk to some of the other guests. One of them is just as stubborn as you are,” Mr. Waterbut said as he walked away from her.
Ginny pouted in complaint and she felt even more frustrated than she had when she walked into the pub. In fact, she had a good mind to just walk out of there in that moment, but she stayed and reluctantly sipped her hot chocolate. Ginny looked around again. The strange boy was still sitting there looking extremely irritated and Ginny had a hunch that he was the person that Mr. Waterbut was talking about. In the corner was an older lady who was quietly sobbing to herself and holding what looked like a picture. On the floor in front of the counter was a little girl who was playing with some toys and hugging a doll fiercely. There was two middle aged men sitting in the middle of the room having a heated discussion, but Ginny couldn’t hear what the subject was.
Ginny didn’t know what to do, but her curiosity got the best of her again and so she stayed in the little pub wondering about the things that Mr. Waterbut told her. She couldn’t take being alone anymore so she decided to talk to someone, but not Mr. Waterbut. She considered her options and glided over to the boy’s table.
“Can I sit down?” she asked him. He looked up surprised but nodded his head slightly. She sat across the table from him and he studied her. She noticed that he had light brown hair and dark brown eyes. His skin was a bit pale, but his cheeks were red probably from sunburn. He didn’t say anything to her so they sat in a very awkward silence.
Ginny put her hands together and rubbed them because they were still very cold. The boy looked at her and she saw his eyes narrow in confusion. Ginny stopped because she felt like she was doing something wrong, but then she couldn’t take it anymore so she continued again. The boy sighed.
“Hi, I’m Craig,” he said and then he held out his hand. Ginny shook it and introduced herself.
“Ginny. I like that name,” he stated. Ginny smiled and blushed a little.
“So, I’m very confused,” she remarked. Craig nodded his head in agreement.
“Yeah, me, too. The old man won’t tell me anything so I gave up,” he muttered softly so that Mr. Waterbut couldn’t hear him.
“He won’t say anything to me either. So how did you find this place? Do you live nearby?” she asked.
“I live close enough. I was walking down the beach further than I usually go and suddenly this sign just pops out of nowhere. I had never noticed a building there so I investigated. And now here I am,” Craig explained. Now Ginny was more confounded. There were no beaches that she knew of near her house and Craig’s accent was not even British.
“I don’t understand. What beach are you talking about?” she queried.
“Um, West Dennis Beach. Did you hit your head or something and forget where you are?”
“Where the hell is West Dennis Beach? There’s no beach near where I’m from,” Ginny said.
“It’s on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Wow, you really have no clue where you are. I get why you’re confused now,” he stated matter-of-factly. Ginny’s jaw dropped. It wasn’t possible, was it? How could she be in the United States and England at the same time?
“No, it’s not that. My house is near the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. I live in England. There’s no way that I’m in Massachusetts,” she told him. Craig just stared at her in disbelief and then the two sat in silence again, both thinking very hard.
“You have got to be kidding. I don’t believe you,” Craig replied. Ginny shook her head and he sighed.
“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Nothing makes sense. That old man isn’t talking unless we tell him what our ‘problem’ is and I can’t stand it! He’s making more problems for us. This is insane!” Craig exclaimed. Ginny had the sudden urge to ask Craig what his problem was, but she didn’t want to upset him so she kept her mouth shut during his rant. Craig noticed her silence all of a sudden so he stopped complaining and said apologized to her.
“No, don’t be. Believe me, I feel the same way. Confusion seems to be my main emotion these days. I’m used to it, I guess,” she mumbled. Craig smiled reassuringly.
“Join the club,” he responded.
“So, America, huh? Do you like it there?” Ginny changed the subject; she was fed up with feeling sorry for herself.
“Yeah, I like it. It’s okay, I guess. I mean, well, I don’t like living where I am, but the country’s good. I’m lucky to live there. I’m going to move someday, though. The Cape isn’t really where I want to settle down. I’m looking for a little bit more…excitement. Do you know what I mean? Probably not, not many people do,” he said.
“I know what you mean. Everyone keeps telling me that ‘you’re too young to do this’ and ‘that’s too dangerous’ and ‘no, don’t do that.’ I’m so sick of it all. And if Ha”” she stopped abruptly. She almost told Craig that if Harry would just stop being stupid then everything would be better. Craig looked at her with an odd expression and then she whispered, “Never mind.”
Ginny spotted Mr. Waterbut eying the two of them and she looked away quickly. She thought about how weird her situation was. She was sitting in a pub which was somehow in more than one location at the same time. She was talking to a complete stranger whom she had met only about fifteen minutes ago. And she was avoiding the owner of the pub that she could leave at any time. It was a mystery to her why she stayed.
“Why don’t you leave?” she asked Craig. She seemed to have awakened him from his thoughts as he was startled by her question. He shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know. It feels like this is where I should be right now. I don’t really have anything to look forward to going back to at home. What about you?” he inquired.
“I have that same feeling. I don’t feel like going home either,” Ginny replied. Craig shot her a glance of understanding and then he looked down at his hands. Ginny started to play absentmindedly with the table cloth. She studied her new acquaintance not really knowing what to think about him. He seemed nice enough, but something was out of place and Ginny didn’t know what that something was. She thought hard and continued to come back to the same question, Why was he here?
Ginny noticed that Craig was holding something in his hands. She tried unsuccessfully to see what it was. So she sat in her chair and continued to think about the possible reasons that he could be here. He seemed perfectly fine apart from being a little tense, but other than that she couldn’t see anything wrong. His brown eyes showed no emotion and face showed no sorrow. In fact, he looked curious and not at all bothered like he said that he was. Ginny couldn’t help feeling a bit uneasy as she sat across from him. Maybe it was because she didn’t know too much about him or maybe it was because she didn’t know where she was. Either way, she needed answers.
“Craig…” she began, but stopped short to collect her thoughts. Craig looked up questioningly.
“What?” he said dully. Ginny unfolded her hands and put faced them up toward the ceiling as if hoping for the words to come from the sky. It didn’t seem as if they were going to so she rolled her eyes trying to figure out how to ask him. She wasn’t aware of it but she unexpectedly blurted out the question and it didn’t sound very sincere.
“What’s your problem?”
“My problem? You’re the one who randomly comes over to strangers and starts talking to them. I don’t believe that I’m the one with the problem at this table,” he spat. Ginny realized that she had unintentionally offended him.
“Sorry, I meant why are you here? Did you read the sign on your way in? It said ‘Where the Lost Come to Be Found.’ And then Mr. Waterbut asked us both to tell him about our problems. I apologize, I shouldn’t have asked,” Ginny muttered. Craig closed his eyes for a minute as if he was trying not to listen. Ginny made a move to get up and leave the table.
“No, wait. I think you’re right,” whispered Craig suddenly. Ginny sat back down.
“So, you’ll tell me?” she pushed the matter. Craig swallowed hard and he seemed to be fighting with himself. Ginny was patient and she waited knowing that if he told her that it would soon be her turn to share. Craig sighed.
“It’s…complicated. It’ll take a while to tell the story,” he said reluctant voice. Ginny looked at her new friend with sympathy and she understood that his tale would be hard to tell.
“I’ve got time,” she replied and smiled reassuringly. And in that moment for the first time, Ginny saw the once hiding emotions start to show on Craig’s stone face.