Life in Grimmauld place was both exciting and as dull as ditchwater. On one hand Ginny found herself in the centre of things for the first time in her life, on the other she wasn't actually /involved/ in them. After a few weeks the task of tidying a house becomes boring, however many Boggarts, shrunken heads, or screaming paintings you find. So one hot morning in late July she waited until Molly's attention was fixed upon the twins, left breakfast with a hurried "I'm just popping up to my room, mum", and climbed the master staircase in the hope of finding something interesting that she didn't have to clean. The ground and first floors had both been pretty much cleaned out already; the Order was using the ground for whatever it was doing and everyone was sleeping on the first floor. The first floor landing was ruled over by a painting of Sirius' Great-Aunt, Lacerta Black, about whom very little could be remembered except that she had been a notorious child. Ginny pressed a finger to her lips, and exchanged a wink with her, before proceding up the slightly less ornate stair to the second floor. Buckets and mops propped up in the corner of the landing suggested that this was Molly's next target, and Ginny hurried down the small corridor between the Black children's old bedrooms, through the nursery and up the back stairs into the lower attic. The attic floors had originally been used as servants' quarters, but one of Sirius' ancestors had sacked most of the servants and replaced them with house-elves. Since then the lower attic appeared to have been variously used as labs, studies, and rooms for less favoured guests. Flickering light, as of a candle, flowed out of one of the rooms in front of her. With all the caution learned from fourteen years of living with five brothers she approached the room and was surprised to find it unoccupied. It was a small room between the eaves, empty except for a table and chair in one corner. On the table was a waxless candle and a bowl that Ginny soon recognised as a Pensieve that Ron had uncovered in their first days in the house. Despite being regarded by Molly as the sanest of her brood, perhaps after Percy, the same blood did flow through Ginny's veins as her brothers' and after sitting down she displayed only a moment's hesitation before carefully laying her hand on surface of the silvery liquid contained within the ornate bowl. * * * Images and emotions slipped through her mind, fighting with each other for her attention, until she fled the storm by concentrating on one memory, any memory. She was in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, dancing with a pretty young women in a close-fitting green silk dress that flowed smoothly as she span and twirled across the room. From the look on her face she was entirely lost in the excitement of the dance, and Ginny soon abandoned her natural caution and relaxed into enjoying the memory herself. Her composure was broken only by a nagging feeling that she should recognise her partner from somewhere, a feeling that only intensified when she spotted someone who could only be Remus Lupin sitting at the side of the hall watching her. The music continued for another couple of dozen bars and left the pair of them near the refreshments table. Ginny found herself collecting drinks for the two of them but, when she returned, she found her erstwhile partner in conversation with someone who looked like Harry, dressed in Ron's old dress robes. "Might I have the honour of the next dance?" "No, James, you might not. I've danced with you once already this evening and that's more than enough." "It's not as if there's anyone else here worthy to dance with you. I mean you're not going to get Snivellus asking you, are you?" "I'd much sooner dance with him than you. Now if you'll excuse me I'll see if there are any gentlemen in this hall." She turned and glided off across the dance-floor, and Ginny felt all of the joy that had been filling her pour out as the wizard she realised must be Harry's father turned to her and took the young woman's glass from her, saying: "Well, I don't know what's got up her nose. Still, maybe your cousins are looking for partners?" As James nudged her with a friendly elbow, Ginny felt the memory slip away from here and the scene shifted, with a feeling of some time passing into... * * * ...summer. Happiness is lying on the lawn outside the castle in the sun, watching life go by. James, as always fooling around with that Snitch that he'd run off with, surrounded by a small group of admirers; McGonagall reading a book and watching over the adventurous few swimming in the lake; Remus off to one side talking with a girl. Ginny was rather surprised to realise that she could hear their conversation, presumably the result of an eavesdropping charm, then more surprised to realise that the girl must be Harry's mother. "I'm afraid that I'm forever apologising to you about James' behaviour, Lily." "He doesn't deserve you apologising for him either; you could just find someone more worthy to be friends with." "He might be a bit of a prat sometimes, but you couldn't wish for a better friend. And some of the blame has to fall on us for encouraging him." "Nonsense. I don't see calm, quiet, Remus Lupin pursuading that yob to hang Severus upside down in the air for an hour, or sneak into the girls toilets." "But I don't exactly stop him either. And he's good for me: when I first came here I couldn't bring myself to talk to anyone, now..." Remus raised his hands and shrugged, leaving the end of his sentence to his listener's ears. "Well, I guess that's something, anyway." She reached over towards him, pushing his hands out of the way, and kissed him. Ginny could feel a confusion of emotions arising; her own embarrassment at watching the young couple warring with the remembered mixture of happiness and jealousy at the budding romance of friends. * * * Termtime segued into the holidays in a melange of images. Lily and Remus becoming more open about their relationship, until they spent most of the journey home on the Express in each other's arms talking quietly together, and kissing. Exasperation becoming determination as the train pulled into the station, and running across the platform into the arms of a somewhat surprised dark-haired woman. Waiting to be sure that Lily was watching, and then giving the woman in his arms a kiss she surely couldn't have expected but was quite willing to join in with. "Bella, I'm so glad to see you again!" Even though disconcerted by the body she inhabited speaking of its own, Ginny could see the surprise on Lily's face, and feel the exultation at the ploy working. * * * Casually running into the other couple in Diagon Alley, taking Bellatrix along to see James when Remus was there (and the terrible argument between her and James' parents). Joy of living and pain of rejection tempered by rejection of her. Another argument, this time with Mrs Black, words and curses echoing throughout the house. Fleeing to the bedroom. Hiding there. Waiting. Ashamed of everything. Bellatrix snuck into the room, a predatory gaze in her eyes. Ginny wanted to shiver as Bellatrix' gaze took in the state of the room, but the memory wanted only a distraction from its despondency. She opened her mouth, but the scene flickered out of immediacy and Ginny found herself back in the attic room, her hand held by another who was carefully wiping the remains of the silvery liquid from it. "So, you've been rifling through my memories, have you?" Ginny's blush was all the reply Sirius needed. "We didn't exactly come out of it well, any of us, did we? And I have more reason than most to know what my cousin is capable of, from personal experience." "Come, your mother is worried about you. I'd hate to think what she'd say if she knew you were poking your nose into other people's memories." Seeing Ginny's reaction to that, Sirius winked at her. "Which is why I'm not proposing to tell her. Were you?"