Disrupting Time

Chapter Five

Disrupting time

Learning to Cope

~*~~*~~*~

"Who's at the house?"

"It's Ginny, mum. Dimitri went back to get her."

"Oh Merlin. Where's Draco?"

"He's downstairs with her and Dimitri." There was a sudden slam next-door to his room. He shut his eyes tight as it echoed through the otherwise silent house and smiled when he heard the usual punishment being uttered in the form of locking charms. "Okay, he's downstairs with her."

She nodded pursing her lips together in thought. "Why did he say to call me?"

"I guess it's because he needs some sort of balance to keep his sanity." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well, he meant that anyway. What he really said was that you wanted me to come home."

"Why would he think that?"

"Oh, well don't be too concerned for my well being will you?" he said sardonically.

"Sebastian, you're twenty-two, I'm sure you're well being is covered by now." He smiled.

"So, what now? Do I come to you, or are you coming to me?"

"No... I'll erm, I'll come to you. Give me a few minutes. Downstairs you say?"

"Er... yeah, why?" He suddenly understood. "Mum, no. No you can't, they need... you know, time."

"And apparently Draco needs sanity." Sebastian sighed. "I'll be there in a few minutes." He nodded and their connection finished.

***

"You'll have to go back. I'll have to take you. I didn't think I'd need to go back there, ever." He continued to stare at her. "He has no idea what he's done, he's changed everything and he doesn't even know it. I guess that's my fault."

"What's your fault?"

He sighed. "I can't tell you."

"Yes you bloody well can. I have a right to know if it affects me too."

"Ginny, you have no idea how much I want to tell you this but I just can't. It's too risky."

"I can handle it."

He laughed emptily then. "No, no you can't."

She stood up then. "I don't care, I want to know why your maniac of a son brought me here and why he's so angry at me when I've never met him."

"You really want to know?"

"Yes, I do."

"He thinks you killed his mother."

"What? I haven't killed anyone! When? How?"

You died. You died right in front of me. "It's complicated to explain."

She put her hands on her hips. "Then dumb it down."

"The truth?"

"Every word."

"My - My wife died a long time ago. When she did I told myself I would never let my son know because it would hurt too much so I told him that she died in childbirth."

"What? Why would you do that?"

"I felt I had to, to protect him. But eventually he found out. He found a picture of her with him when he was two years old. I knew I had to tell him the truth about her but I lied again and that's where you come in." He fiddled with the time turner in his hands.

"What did you tell him?" She was so engrossed in the story she didn't see him turning the time turner to a particular date. He put it around his neck, she dismissed the gesture.

"That a woman killed him, a woman with a lot of power." He turned to her.

She worked it out. "Me?" she said as he put the chain around her too. He turned it over and Ginny had to close her eyes to stop herself from going dizzy all over again. When the spinning stopped and she opened her eyes, she was standing in the back garden of the burrow.

He looked around and smiled. "I haven't been here in years, perhaps I should stop by tomorrow and see how Molly's doing," he said to himself as he looked around.

"Wait a second, wait just one second. You told your lunatic son that I killed your wife?" She looked incredulous. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I didn't tell him that you killed her. I told him that Maleyna killed her. He went through my library looked her up to find when she last appeared so he wouldn't change too much history and found a picture of her so he could find her. He came back to this time and saw you. As you well know, you do bear a striking resemblance to the woman so... he took you instead." He looked down at the grass before taking out the time turner again and setting it. "I didn't mean for this to happen, Ginny, it just did. He's a good kid really and I'm sure you'll like him one day but right now he just wants to save his mother."

They stood in silence for a while. "So," she said into the dusk, "we never got back together then?"

He smiled at her. "Sometimes I wish you had stuck around for a bit longer." With that he flipped over the time turner and disappeared.

Ginny sat down on the grass outside her house. The sun had gone down and the wind had stilled, the darker it got the less she cared. She must have heard him wrong. But of course she had heard it, every word.

It didn't sound like he was lying either.

Ginny stood up and looked out towards the lake. So, they never got back together. She thought at least she would have pursued him, knocked some sense into him. Maybe she had but he shot her down again. Maybe he - of course. His son. Fourteen years old. The boy had taken her to his time in two-thousand and sixteen. She did the math in her head. It was fourteen years from her time. Why hadn't she worked it out before?

So Draco has a son, who isn't a foster-child. Why didn't he say something? She kept saying to herself as she walked back to the house. It pre-occupied her thoughts so much she didn't realise she was walking past the kitchen and past most of her family until they called her name.

They had been sitting down and standing around the kitchen table wondering where on earth she could be. They had heard that she had escaped the hospital minutes after that doctor had come to see them and were told that she shouldn't be out in the city at the moment, that the coma wasn't the only repercussion of what she had gone through. Apparently, as the doctor explained to Lesley and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley separately, based on what the Aurors said, which Lesley knew to mean the agents in Ginny's sector, there was a possession involved. A possession of a higher being even, which could have side effects if she experienced intense emotions.

When they returned to the family they were told as a group, so as not to raise alarm that the patient should not be out in her condition and returned at once. The condition of which only three people knew about, the others in the family just assumed her post comatose condition was the only thing they had to worry about. When they owled Draco to ask if he had seen her he had said she was at the burrow not two hours ago.

Two hours ago was seven hours ago.

So, the shock, therefore, when she strolled in from the garden was one to marvel at.

"Ginny! Where on Earth have you been?"

Ginny snapped her head at all of them wondering where they had come from. She turned her body toward them and they waited expecting an answer. She watched them one by one, they'd never believe her anyway. "I'm going home," she said monotonously.

"What? No! You're going straight back to the hospital," Mrs. Weasley said.

Suddenly the lights in the kitchen started flickering.

"Erm, mum, remember that thing the doctor said about intense emotion?" She looked at Fred. "I think you should lay off the yelling for a bit." She suddenly understood and looked back at her daughter.

"Sweetheart, the doctor says that you should return because it's not safe for you to be out yet. You could get hurt."

Ginny laughed bitterly. "Too late." She apparated. However, when she looked around to her destination, it was not her home.

Needless to say it was her bed. Only thing is it was the bed at the hospital.

"I wondered how long it would take you to use magic again."

It was her doctor. Ginny sighed and relented. At least she wasn't by her family, so she wouldn't have to hear them going on about it all the time.

***

"Something is going on." Draco turned around to face his son standing on the bottom step and watching him in disdain.

"Aren't you still supposed to be sulking? I thought I told you to stay in your room," he said sternly.

"Yes, you also said that she's been in your head for over fourteen years. Why is that? Is it because she killed your wife-."

"Dimitri-."

"Because," he continued as if he hadn't spoken, "you certainly seemed angrier at me for bringing her here than at her for murdering someone you loved." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his father as he leaned against the banister for support.

Draco sighed. "We'll talk about this later." He moved to walk past him.

Dimitri stepped in his way. "No." He blocked the way on both sides with his arms. "We talk about this now."

Draco rubbed his face with his hands tiredly and turned around to go into the living room. "You know, for a fourteen year old boy with no idea what he's gotten himself into, you sure have a lot of nerve." He rested his head on the back of the couch as he sat down with a heavy sigh.

"Dad," he swallowed, "I just want to know what's going on. Why is everyone acting so strange? She - Maleyna or whatever was right here in the room but it seemed like you were all protecting her instead of hating her."

"Maleyna's existence always plagued your mother's life. With her around, Ginny never had a moment's peace. There was always someone after the stone so there was always someone after her. None of us were safe. I hate her with everything I believe in."

"It didn't look like it to me. Sebastian saw her and was walking around her like he had seen a ghost." He looked at his father pointedly. "A ghost he knew and couldn't believe was there. He smiled at her and everything. He said that I had crossed a line and for once didn't want to be here when you found out."

Draco chuckled. "And he had good reason to say that."

"But why-."

"That woman you brought here is not who you think she is, Dimitri." He cradled his face in his hands.

Dimitri watched him carefully and narrowed his eyes. "What aren't you telling me?" He could sense his father's distress and moved a little closer.

Draco closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "I - I can't. It's just... too hard to go through that again."

Just then, the grate fired up and the flames turned green. Soon after, Altair stepped through. "Hello all. I hear a great ally is here and I have come to say hello and drag my son home." She smiled and watched them. After taking a better look the smile faded and she narrowed her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean, great ally?"

Altair watched her more-or-less nephew as if that were the strangest thing she had ever heard and was about to speak when Draco cut her off with a glare.

"Erm, nobody. Figure of speech, you know." She coughed and looked around. "Where's Sebastian, upstairs?" Draco nodded silently and Altair put on an uncomfortable smile. "Right, well I'll just see how he's coming then." She made like a bat out of hell.

"Who is a great ally, dad?"

"Like she said. Nobody."

"She meant that woman, didn't she? Why do you insist on keeping things from me? Don't you know by now I'll just find out anyway? Why do you keep trying to protect me-."

"Because you need it. If you knew who she was... I don't know what you'd do but I know you wouldn't be able to handle it. Hell, I can't even handle it and I'd do anything to go back there and see her again..." Dimitri watched as his father broke down in front of him. He had never seen him that way before. It was strange and yet oddly comforting. He was human after all.

"Why would you..." His thought pattern reeled round and round going through everything over and over. I'd do anything to go back and see her again... greatest ally... stay away from her, you can't handle it...you were all protecting her... Sebastian knew her, he smiled at her like she was his friend...they were hugging at the burrow... oh my god. "Oh my god." He stepped away from his father and almost tripped over the side of the couch to get away from him. "She - her - my - oh my god!"

Draco stood up knowing exactly what was going through his mind. "Dimitri, wait."

"No! You - she, she's my... oh my god!" He looked around and then came into focus with the time turner around Draco's neck. He came forward and tackled him to the ground. Surprised by this tactic, Draco fell to the floor under him. When he looked up, Dimitri was getting off of him and running to the door. By the time he got up, Dimitri had already gone.

***

[One week, four more tests and a lot of bouquets of flowers from the ministry later...]

Ginny sat in her apartment opposite both her mother and her best friend. They were having a lovely time until Ginny noticed them talking in hushed whispers and shutting up every time Ginny came into the room. She had convinced them to spill the beans but now... now she wished she had kept her curiosity radar off and her mouth shut. "I'm what?" Ginny stared at the face of her mother and then to Lesley with shock and disgust that this kind of information was coming out of her mother's mouth.

"You're-," she began to repeat.

Ginny got up from the couch at her home. "No! no, no, no, no - don't - say it." She put up a warning finger to hush them both.

"Gin - it's true," Lesley said.

"Uh, uh. No it's not. I would have to have gone through some pleasurable at least physical action which I-." She paused mid-sentence with her arms frozen mid-flail and her mouth open and suddenly her eyes opened wide. She had had some form of pleasurable and physical experience. She counted in her head. One week since the coma, one week for the coma, another week of avoiding him. She looked at Lesley in shock. Three weeks since she had slept with him, three weeks pregnant. Lesley just nodded and smiled at her.

"Sorry honey, but it's true."

She gave up and slowly felt for a chair to sit down on. "But - but I - why? Why me - why now?"

"I don't know sweetie, perhaps it was meant to be after all."

Molly watched the two of them talking and raised an eyebrow. "Would anyone mind telling me what or more likely who you are talking about?" She knew she had a pretty good idea but to hear it from Ginny's mouth would seal her suspicions and that's really all they were, suspicions.

"Nothing, mother," Ginny said a little too quickly.

"Mother? Since when did mum go out of style?"

"She got it from me," Lesley said to help Ginny out. "I always call mine mother. Habit."

"As it is," Molly said. She looked at her daughter and touched her face with her hand. "Is there anything you want me to do?" she asked.

"No mum, I'll be fine. Lesley is here." Molly smiled and got up to leave.

***

Ginny cried in exhaustion as she hung her head over the toilet bowl. Lesley, who had practically been living upstairs for the past two weeks Ginny had come back from the hospital and had woken up to the familiar hurried paces to the bathroom and therefore had known enough to have reached the toilet at record speed, waited patiently after having saved Ginny's hair before it suffered the not-so-good contents of Ginny's stomach. Again.

"Okay, not that I don't love you, cos - you know, I'm like the eighth Weasley and all but sooner or later I am not going to able to wash this smell out of my clothes." She leaned on the wall to support her weight. This angle was not a good choice.

Ginny sat back and sighed into her shaking hands. "Look at me Lesley, my eyes are always watery, my stomach feels like it's gone twelve rounds with a hippogriff. I haven't had a descent nights sleep in days and when I do get in a few minutes it always bridges on the same subject-." Lesley knew the subject of course. Most days were the same now since she wasn't going to work. Today was supposed to be her first day back since 'the incident,' they were calling it. Ginny would fall asleep and ten minutes into it she would start tossing and turning and calling out and when Lesley would wake her up she'd say the same two words, 'it's yours.' She'd never questioned it. Lesley was inquisitive at her own right but, with these mood swings, she wasn't crazy. "- My throat is on fire, I'm hungry, my breasts hurt, my knees hurt from all this kneeling - and you're complaining about the smell?"

"Okay - sorry I mentioned it."

Ginny sighed resigning from the confrontation. "Forget it. I have to go to work anyway." She rose to her knees and stretched her back.

"You're still going?"

"Well, it's my first day back and I don't want to be late do I? I want to see how Pete's doing anyway."

"Oh yeah true, he hasn't been by in a while." They both got up and went to their rooms to get ready.

A few minutes later Ginny screamed in frustration. Lesley ran into her room to find out what was wrong.

"None of the bras are comfortable anymore! They all hurt, it's useless."

"Why don't you just not wear one then?"

"I can't do that. I work in a place full of men who have probably not seen their wives in days considering the hours they work. I'll feel... uncomfortable."

Lesley rolled her eyes and left the room knowing that Ginny would still sit and stew on the thought for a while and end up with her suggestion anyway.

***

"She's my mother isn't she?" Draco heard behind him. He had received an owl from Arthur explaining that Dimitri had been staying by him and Molly and would return when he was ready. He turned and saw the nervous wreck that was watching him as if what he said next could tear him apart. It probably would. "Isn't she?" he said harder.

Draco nodded, "Yes."

Dimitri fell to his knees and Draco rushed to his side before he fell to the floor. He helped him up to sit on the sofa and felt something in his hand. It was a number of pictures he knew to be stored in the photo albums by Molly.

Pictures of Ginny.

"I can't - I can't believe it," Dimitri said between hyperventilated breaths. "I - she - oh my god." He brought his hands to his face and rubbed it profusely before sitting still and silent.

The way he sat, the collar of his shirt was open and Draco could see a silver chain and he recognized it instantly as his time turner. He knew either way, his son was going to go and see her again. He sighed because he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it. The boy was stubborn. Just like his mother. He almost laughed.

When he saw that look in his eye and saw him take out the chain from in his shirt, he didn't bother trying to stop him either.

***

"Hey, coffee man!" Ginny yelled at the familiar friend behind the counter. He turned but ignored them and their informal call once he saw who they were.

Lesley smiled. "Dean! We need coffee!" Dean didn't stop talking to the man in front of him.

"Oi! Thomas! Can we please get some coffee?" Ginny yelled again.

Lesley grinned then. "Hey, Dean, Ginny's not wearing a bra."

Ginny turned on her best friend. "Is that supposed to get his attention?" Lesley shrugged. "A kingdom for some coffee!"

"And muffins!" Lesley called.

"Blueberry!" Ginny chimed in and they both laughed.

Lesley slapped her arm. "Hello, chocolate."

Ginny slapped her back. "Huh, blueberry," Ginny said matter of factly.

Dean turned to them. "Will you hold on? I'm speaking to the owner!"

"No, I'm late!" Lesley chuckled at the other meaning those words could have had. Ginny glared at her. "Oh shut up." She looked back at Dean. He was still ignoring them. "Oh for Merlin's sake," she said throwing her arms up into the air. She began to climb. "You want cream?" Lesley held her back.

"You're kidding right?" Ginny shook off her arm and climbed over anyway. Once there she straightened out her shirt and got to making her breakfast. "You're not kidding." She noticed Ginny wasn't listening to her. "And I'm still talking." Ginny turned to her.

"You want cream or not?" She got down to the business of making her own coffee. She slid one across her to Lesley and picked out two blueberry muffins and placed them in a bag.

Dean then began to take notice. "Hey, hey Gin- you're not supposed to be back here!" Ginny stared at him before dropping coins on the counter and scrambling back over and almost kicking him in the face in the process. He looked down at the counter as they walked to the door. "Hey! What, no tip?"

Ginny laughed sardonically and turned on him. "You what a tip? Serve your customers, Dean!"

"Oh yeah? Hey Ginny, here's a tip." He pointed to his chest. "Don't go into any cold rooms." He circled his fingers around his nipples and laughed.

She opened her mouth in shock as he began to laugh and was about to retort when Lesley pushed her outside. "Hey, hey, hey! You're gonna be late remember?" She gave in and continued walking.

***

Ginny fell to the ground after the third big shock she had had in a month.

"It happened three weeks ago." Ginny's head shot up.

"Three weeks?"

"Yes, it was a Crucio. We believe it could have been another Death Eater group rebelling."

Somehow though, despite all the information that chief was spilling out to her now, she was still stuck on the 'three weeks,' comment.

"But we're doing everything in our power to bring them in, or kill them on the spot. Whichever comes first." He smiled a wry smile hoping to get her talking or showing a form of emotion. She wasn't crying, she wasn't yelling. She wasn't even speaking. "You know, we gave you a lot more time off than this. Perhaps you should go home. That girl you told about us, your friend-."

"She is - was Pete's friend too." She paused for a second. She had to refer to him in past tense now.

"Yes, well. Does she know?"

Ginny looked up at him. Lesley didn't know. She shook her head dumbly. "May I?" She pointed to the door.

"Of course..." He held it open for her. "I don't think the department she is in will let her off but, for you, I can arrange it." As she left he held the crook of her arm. "It will be alright you know, perhaps when the auction comes up you could take part, you know, take your mind off things for a while."

She nodded as she exited the room not bothering to ask what the hell he was talking about and aware of all the eyes on her. She suddenly hated all the attention. Before it had been fun because she was not who she was supposed to be but something she could mask and blame for it. This was all her, and it was her fault.

***

Lesley, being the artist that she was, also worked at the ministry from time to time as a sketch artist for witnesses to describe and 'put out' pictures of potential murderous or dangerous criminals. Ginny walked into the office and looked around and vaguely remembered directions she had once. Something about a bright corridor and plenty of pictures. She continued to peer around and noticed a corridor painted in red plagued with frames and awards.

"Well, looks as bright as a bright corridor can be," she said to herself and made her way along it to find Lesley's door. As she found the only door with Lesley's name on it, she prepared to knock when she heard bickering on the other side. She put her ear to the door, that wasn't Lesley's voice. When it stopped she knocked briefly and opened the door. A man sat on the only couch in the room, there was the usual desk and chair littered with... Merlin knows what judging from the look of it. She thought perhaps this might not be the right room even though her name was on the door. Well, there's one way to find out, she thought.

"Do I have the right room?" she asked the man on the sofa.

The man shrugged. "How would I know?" he said grumpily. It was the same voice she heard behind the door a few seconds ago.

"Oh, yeah - right. Um, is Lesley here?"

Just then a woman appeared from an adjoining room. "She's in the back." She gestured with her head to the door she just came out of. "She's fixing... something and clearing out her cupboard." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Carla, her publicist," she smiled. She gestured to the man. "This is Eric," she huffed and then gestured to Ginny. "This is Ginny, Lesley's best friend."

He made an 'oh,' with his mouth and stood up to shake her hand. "I'm her supplier."

"And my lover," Carla said bitingly.

Ginny suddenly didn't want to be in the room. "Is Lesley here or-," she said in a quiet voice.

Eric rolled his eyes and sighed. "Carla, please," he said gesturing towards Ginny to signal that his girlfriend at least have some courtesy to a guest.

"What?" she said. Neither seemed to notice Ginny was in the room.

"I can wait outside..." she tried again but to no avail. Then they both turned to her. She tried to make it look like she wasn't affected.

"We haven't really decided on our social standing." Ginny smiled uncomfortably.

"No," Eric added.

"But we're having sex three or four times a week so that part of the relationship is obviously pretty frickin' clear," she said through gritted teeth but then stopped suddenly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Ginny frowned. "Didn't mean to what?" she asked confused.

"I didn't mean to mention sex and all when you're..."

"When I'm what?" Ginny prompted.

"Not getting any," Carla relented. "With - you know - your condition and all." She gestured toward Ginny's stomach.

Eric shook his head. "Yeah that really sucks, sorry mate."

That was enough to make her want to run out of the room. "Lesley, are you here?" Ginny cried out eager to get away from them.

"I'm just getting my clothes," she yelled back.

Ginny felt relieved. "Oh that's great! Can I watch?" There was a slight pause before she answered.

"Are Carla and Eric out there?" Somehow, Ginny knew she had a smile on her face when she said that.

"Oh yeah," she said.

"Come on in."

She walked into the back preparing herself to tell her friend the bad news. She was almost in tears when her eyes landed on Lesley getting clothes out of a cupboard at the back of the room.

"Sorry it's so messy, things get hectic and sometimes I don't actually come home, you know how it is."

Ginny smiled sadly. "Yeah..."

Lesley suddenly stopped reaching for her things to take home after hearing that answer and looked at her friend. Those damn mood swings were coming again. "Ginny, don't worry it's gonna be okay we'll get through this."

Ginny looked up at her from the chair she suddenly found herself sitting in and frowned wondering if Lesley actually knew. But that was impossible wasn't it. "No, it's not gonna be okay. He's - he's-."

"Gone, yes I know but maybe he will come back."

"NO Lesley! Not him. Pete!"

"Pete's gone? Where?" she asked.

Ginny screwed up her face and cried. "He's dead." She bent over so her head was by her knees and cried. Lesley just stood there processing what Ginny had just said.

"Dead?" she said distantly. For what seemed like hours she stood there until her legs couldn't take the weight anymore. She sat down on the nearest thing she could find, which was the floor. Suddenly tears leaked out of her eyes and she covered her mouth to try and stay quiet. "Why?" she managed. "Why him?"

Ginny nodded with her head in her lap. "It's all my fault."

This made Lesley frown. "What, how?" she said.

"The stupid assignment we had to do, I fell in love. I left him unguarded."

"That wasn't your fault, Ginny-."

"Three weeks!" she interrupted standing up. "Three weeks ago I was having sex!" she yelled through her sobs. "I was having sex with the love of my life while one of my best friends was getting cruciod! If it isn't my fault it sure as hell feels like it, Lesley!" She sobbed hopelessly again and sat back down.

"Ginny, at least you were doing something -." Ginny looked at her. "-Someone then," she said and got a small smile in return. "I was doing nothing and the last thing I remember of Pete was yelling at him. I could have been with him, I could have helped-."

"Or gotten killed in the process." Ginny sniffed. Then she chuckled a little. "Where would that leave me? Who would hold up my hair when I vomit?" she said looking over to the table next to her. The flyer for the auction Chief was talking about upstairs was lying on top of it and she frowned at it.

Then Lesley joined her in her laughing. When they both stopped the room became silent.

"This is going to be a hard one to get over."

Ginny nodded. "Tell me about it."

"So what do we do, mourn?" Lesley said emptily.

"Over Pete? Nah, if he was here he'd probably Crucio us for that. I say we sit at home and mope until his funeral, go home and mope some more," she said picking up the flyer, "then we go to this thing to take our minds off of it, I go home with whoever bids on me, I vomit on him the next morning and then we meet back at home."

Lesley nodded through the plan. "Then what do we do, that only sets us for this week. Are we gonna mope some more?"

Ginny shook her head. "Then we start to put our lives back together, I plan on telling a certain someone some news and then... then we'll see."

Lesley smiled sadly and nodded again. "It just might work."

"Get the rest of your things, we're going home to start phase one." She stood up to help out and collected all the clothes she needed to take home. When they were all done they went out to the apparition bay and went home to find Ginny's apartment in a mess.

"Oh Merlin's arse, what now?" As she finished her words. A young man came through to her living room. A young man she knew full well.

Draco's lunatic son.