Gina

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Prologue: The blast from the Past

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New Orleans, June 15^th 2008

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"Gina - hey, Gina! There's a phone call for you."

"Huh?"

Gina woke up with a start, seeing one of her roommates, Jack, standing in the door.

"The phone... small black object? You talk to people; they talk back, ever heard of it?"

Gina got out of bed and wrapped the sheet around her, trying to avoid flashing to many people as she exited the bedroom and trudged down the stairs looking for the phone.

It was sitting on the hallway table where it was supposed to be, which came as a surprise seeing as her roommates always seemed to leave it in practically every other place than where it should be.

She picked it up, thinking that it was probably her friend Callie calling.

"Hello."

"Yes, hello...Uhm, I'm calling for Gina?"

"Yes, I'm Gina Weston."

"Oh, right... My name is Heather Thomas. You probably don't know me, but I'm a friend of your brother."

"..."

"Miss Weston? Are you there?"

"I'm sorry, but you must have the wrong person. I don't have a brother".

The woman gave a light laugh,

"Oh Miss Weston, unless I'm mistaken you have six - or should I call you Miss Weasley?"

Gina just stood there for a minute. She couldn't believe that they had found her. No one, except her family, knew where she was, and they wouldn't tell anyone...unless there was an emergency.

"Who are you? What do you want? Is something wrong?"

"Miss Weasley, please calm down. Everything is okay. As I told you, my name is Heather Thomas, and I'm calling as a friend of your brother Percy..."

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She felt numb. As it everything that she had spent so much time leaving behind had suddenly caught up with her and smacked her in the face.

Four years...for four years she had lived her life as Gina Weston, muggle extraordinaire. She had left behind a lot when she had broken away from the wizard world, a loving family, friends... Harry. But she had done it, made a clean break with everything that she believed to be true, in order to put the past behind her. And now it had caught up with her.

In a way she was relived - maybe it was time to face it now? But the most prominent feeling at the moment was fear, the bone numbing kind that crawls over your skin like a thousand spiders.

Four years ago, the War of Shadows had finally come to an end, leaving hundreds of broken families ripped apart by death and betrayal. A war unmatched by anything the wizard world had ever seen before. The Weasley's had been fortunate; Charlie had lost an arm in the fighting. Ron had been badly hurt in the end, but he had survived. The only person unable to go on with her life after the war ended had been little Virginia Weasley. Her sixth year had ended abruptly when the war began, and along with several of her fellow students, she had decided to leave Hogwarts in favor of auror training.

The youngest Weasley had been totally unprepared for the bloody battles and 'kill or be killed' rules she had to live with in order to survive. After three years of fighting and killing, in ways the innocent young 16 year old had never imagined when she had joined the aurors; Ginny Weasley had been nothing more than a shell of herself when the war came to an end.

Every night she had relived her horrors from the battlefield in haunting nightmares, and her family had been unable to help as they watched their sister and daughter slip into insanity.

In the end, Ginny had done the only thing she could think of to escape. She had packed her bags and ran as fast as she could, trying to outrun the horrors of her past. And when she finally couldn't run anymore, she had created a new life for herself. A life no one could ever link back to the person she had once been.

There was a world of difference between Ginny Weasley and Gina Weston. The naïve schoolgirl turned sanctioned killer by the ministry had been replaced with the woman the young Ginny had once hoped to become. Gina Weston was a sophisticated woman, surrounded by an air of mystery. The young singer had showed up outside one of New Orleans' premiere nightclubs one night asking for an audition. After she had sung for the first time a week later, she had been hired on the spot. Now, almost four years later, she was renowned as one of the best singers in the US.

She had preformed in every state, from small dark clubs to stadiums. Her special voice combined by exotic appearance had made the redhead one of the most sought after names in the industry.

But all that amounted to nothing at the moment. The Ministry of Magic needed Ginny - no, they needed Gina - to resume her duties as an auror.

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Jack was worried for his friend. Gina had received a call earlier, and now she was sitting on the living room couch, staring blankly into space. This was most definitely not ordinary behavior for the young redhead, who was norally unable to stand still for more than two seconds.

"Gina?"

She didn't even move a muscle - something was most definitely wrong. He gently turned her face towards him.

"Gina, snap out of it."

Her eyes suddenly focused in on him; he didn't have the chance to analyze all the emotions running through them like an avalanche.

"I have to go."

She suddenly got up and started moving towards the stairs.

"I'm sorry, Jack. I have to leave."

Thirty seconds later he heard her door slam shut.

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When Jack Harrison came home from work, Gina was gone. None of their other roommates had seen her leave. Most of her clothes were missing, and sitting on her desk was a short letter.

Dear Jack, Paul and Trina,

I'm sorry that I have to leave so suddenly; it came as a shock to me too, but something from my past came up, and I have to help an old friend. I called and cancelled the studio time for the new record. That gives me about two months to take care of things. Don't worry - I'll give you a call when I'm settled and know what is going on.

Love you all,

G.W

The letter was written in Gina's hand, but they all found it strange that she had signed it with her initials, as she normally signed her notes with Gina, not G.W.

Not too far away, at Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport, a young woman was boarding the continental flight to Gatwick, London.