I've been edging to get this done for years. This is the last chapter of Make it in Time and I hope you thoroughly enjoy it. I've looked back on some of the earlier chapters that are terrible and have multitudes of errors and immature ideas from when I was younger and writing this story. But it's been with me through a lot. I'm quite proud of it. I do plan on some point going through it and correcting it and enhancing it but for now I'll leave it to you to enjoy. Thanks to all!

Chapter 50: The Years Ahead

Five Years Later

"I'm nervous to meet them," Rebecca admitted. She squeezed Sirius' hand hard and he hung back from knocking on the door. "I'm not like you all, what if they don't like me because I'm not… magic?"

She gave him a look of unadulterated insecurity. Even Muggles, unaware of the goings on in the Wizarding World, were skeptical of prejudice. Sirius shook his head and gave her a warming smile. "You're magic to me," he told her and she blushed furiously. "Becca, honestly, they're going to love you. They don't care whether you're a witch or not, they just like to see me happy. And I am. And besides, Lily's sister and brother-in-law are Muggles and they tolerate them."

Becca's face fell again. "Oh, so at best they'll tolerate me," she said lamely and Sirius held up her chin.

"You listen to me. Lily's sister is fowl. You are wonderful." Becca smiled as he knocked on the door. Immediately, they heard footfalls from within the cottage of a young boy followed by a woman's voice exclaiming, "Harry, you aren't allowed to open the door by yourself!"

"It's only me Lily," Sirius called inside just as the young, speckled, mop-headed six-year-old flung the door open. He had a strange scar the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead.

"Sirius!" Harry yelled with his arms open wide and Sirius lifted his godson and swung him in a wide circle. "You know, you're about three inches taller than you were yesterday," Sirius told him when he'd set the boy down. "Stand up straight." Obediently, Harry stood his very tallest and Becca noticed he was almost on his tip toes with excitement. Sirius pretended as though he were inspecting Harry and after a long pause he proclaimed, "Four inches. Yep, four inches taller."

Harry's face lit up like a Christmas tree and he ran into the kitchen yelling, "Mum, mum, did you hear what Sirius said?"

An older, much taller version of the boy appeared before them from the hallway. He wrapped his arms around Sirius as though they hadn't seen each other in months. "He'll be a hundred feet tall by June if you keep that up."

"Give or take a few inches. James, this is Rebecca," Sirius introduced.

Becca held out her hand. "Please, call me Becca. It's nice to finally meet you. Sirius talks about you all the time."

The handsome man looked down at her hand curiously and back up to her face. "Sirius didn't tell you, did he?"

Becca, with eyes wide, glanced from James to Sirius and back again. "Tell me what?"

"How wizards greet new people. We don't greet with handshakes," James told her, looking slightly insulted.

"Oh, I'm so sor – "

"Ignore my husband," a beautiful woman with dark red hair said, taking her still outstretched hand and pulling her into a hug. Becca smiled. "I'm Lily. My husband is being infantile. Handshakes are perfectly fine, but we hug such special guests as you. Please, I've got some firewhiskey set up for us. I daresay with these jokers, we'll need it."

Lily dragged Becca behind her into the kitchen. "What's firewhiskey?"

"Better than regular whiskey, and easier on the way down," Lily replied with a smile.

"Lovely," Becca replied, accepting a glass.

Dinner was ready not long after Sirius and Becca had arrived. Lily had made roast beef with asparagus and potatoes and Becca thought it tasted wonderful.

"So Becca, what's it like being a Muggle?" James asked insensitively.

"James," Lily scolded.

"Oh it's alright. I've been dying to ask just the opposite. Sirius is the only wizard I know and he doesn't tell me much. I'm so curious!"

Lily chuckled. "Always the rebel, Sirius," she commented, touching on a different subject. "I have to say though, I'm not surprised. Your parents must be turning in their graves."

"Your parents don't like Muggles?" Becca asked, intuitively.

James, the dutiful best friend, said nothing.

"Did he ever tell you that there are some wizards and witches that are quite prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-borns? Mind you, that's not any of us. But Sirius's parents were severe in their beliefs," Lily asked.

"Must we talk about this?"

"She's got a right to know and besides, it's probably best coming from me than the rubbish you'll say."

"Do you really dislike your parents that much?"

"I loathed them," he answered her simply. He turned to Lily. "Funny you'd say all this though. A long time ago, Ginny once said that'd I end up with a Muggle just to piss off the folks six feet under."

James and Lily smiled. Becca wondered who Ginny was.

"Ginny was right even about the things she hadn't experienced then," James said wistfully.

The group remained silent for drawn out moment, and Becca realized this girl must have passed away. She'd never seen Sirius be so somber. Apparently not even over the death of his own parents.

"What happened to her?" she asked gently.

"Ginny died protecting all of us. Protecting Harry. She died in the war," James answered her.

"It was much more sacrificial than James is letting on," Sirius added quietly.

Becca nodded. Sirius had told her about The War. That the terrible weather and the many murders in the papers had been the result of The War. Most of the time, he preferred not to talk about it and she never pressed. She'd seen his scars both physically and emotionally. She knew he'd lost his brother in a similar fashion.

"Have you gone to see her?" Lily asked. "We went once but thought it might be strange since we don't know her parents."

James smiled. "Saw her outside playing with her twin brothers. She's a great flyer."

"I met her once, at the Ministry. I was talking to her dad and Molly came by with her. She called me Mr. Black," he said with a smile and a shake of his head.

Severely confused, Becca wondered if wizards and witches were reincarnated. They spoke about her as if she was growing up all over again. But before she could ask the subject was changed again and her attention was captivated by James transfiguring random objects into variously sized rubber chickens.

Six years later

"What did you say to Professor Snape?" a twelve year old, and very flabbergasted Ron Weasley asked his younger sister at dinner that evening. The entire Great Hall was buzzing. "It's all around the school. I heard he gave you thirty points throughout your first class!"

Hermione Granger scowled, slightly jealous.

"How'd you get Snape to like you?" Harry Potter asked and Ginny could've thrown up with joy. Harry Potter, the Harry Potter was actually talking to her. "Do me loads of help in Potions if he didn't bark at me every time I took a breath."

"He throws points at you like confetti," Ron complained, shoving an overloaded spoon of sweet potatoes into his already full mouth.

In complete honesty, Ginny had no idea what had happened in her first Potions lesson to earn those thirty-five points Snape had given her. Like every other first year, Ginny had walked into the dungeon classroom absolutely terrified of the man. For the majority of the summer she'd listened to her older brothers telling her terrible stories of how he treated his students, especially if they weren't in Slytherin, especially if they were in Gryffindor. He hated Gryffindors, was severely strict, nasty, and greasy. At the end of the summer Harry had come to stay with them and solidified her brothers' stories with his own testimonials, which were just as bad if not worse than her brothers'.

Professor Snape had displayed precisely the image the boys had illustrated for her. He was short with them all, barked quick directions none of them understood, and yes, was rather greasy. He was so intimidating Ginny had ducked her head away from him when he passed by her, trying to stay away from his attention.

Everything changed when he decided to call roll. Of course, her name had been last.

"Ginny Weas – Weasley?" he seemed to just barely stammer out and his eyes moved for the first time from the parchment he had read from and searched the classroom.

"I'm right here," she said, raising her hand timidly. His brows must've been sewn to his hairline he looked so bewildered upon the sight of her.

From then on he walked about the classroom instead of remaining at his desk, going passed Ginny's cauldron multiple times and asking her questions and giving her points on the potion he'd assigned them.

"Have you ever heard of the Draught of Living Death?"

Ginny shook her head, still intimidated.

"It's a very tricky potion. You'll learn it in your sixth year," he said casually before moving on.

Maybe five minutes later, as Ginny looked at her secondhand book and followed its directions, Professor Snape leaned over her shoulder and for some reason a sense of déjà vu overcame her.

"Ten points to Gryffindor."

Ginny's eyes widened, as did those of her classmates. Nearly everyone dropped what they were doing to stare at her in disbelief. That was surely an inordinate amount of points to give a first year for merely stirring her potion in the proper manner. Especially to a student in a competing house. To a Gryffindor. From a Slytherin.

She was exceedingly shocked to receive such attention from a most universally hated professor and garnered much jealousy from her friends and classmates. But without a reason as to why Snape treated her so well, nothing could be done of it, and she simply learned to accept his attentions and went on to be a wonderful potioneer, naturally because she became his only student that he did not bully.

Four years later

Remus put his hand over hers, attempting to stay as far away from her as possible. He moved his hand fluidly, making hers follow beneath his. She mimicked the curves and motions of his hand perfectly.

"Now say the incantation."

"Expecto Patronum," she said and from her wand tip exploded with astounding ferocity the silver stallion Remus was so familiar with. His heart nearly stopped.

Immediately, he broke his embrace from her. Now, it didn't seem all that long ago that their positions were flipped, that she stood behind him, held his elbow up and moved his hand along with hers. It wasn't long ago that she had her arms wrapped around him to teach him the very same spell. But he had to remind himself that she was only fifteen now. That it actually was very long ago when Ginny, his Ginny, had taught him that spell. She didn't remember the evenings they spent in the Riddle mansion, or the days when they'd come back to camp and talk for hours, momentarily forgetting, blissfully forgetting the horcruxes they were searching for. They'd spent the best years of his life together and she didn't remember.

"How could she have done that!? She left after all we've been through!" he screamed. "Didn't she love me? It's been years since she's been with Harry and a year since he's been born. She couldn't have still loved him like she loved me!" Abandoned and heartbroken, Remus fell into Sirius' armchair.

"Mate, she did love you," his friend assured him and Remus gave him an anguished disbelieving glare. "We all know she did, even James and Lily believe it, as little as they wish to admit it. It wasn't how much she loved Harry that outweighed her love for you. She did love him. But it was how much she loved you that made her want to save your…our future."

At the time, Remus had accepted this explanation painful as it was. That these words of wisdom were coming from Sirius, who had double the grief at the time, was something to be noted, but there was too much to be done for anyone to give him any recognition. Ginny was dead, Harry had killed Voldemort but was now officially a Horcrux, and Lily and James were dealing with its consequences.

Ginny flew to Harry's embrace and he kissed her in congratulations; Remus blanched. She was in love with him, he could tell by the glow in the apples of her cheeks.

"With that final success, I'm going to take leave," he said. They were all staying in Potter Manor for the Christmas holidays, the Weasley's and Granger's and Order alike. Once more, the Manor had become Headquarters for the Order.

It was after dinner that Remus was rethinking the events of that afternoon and the shock of his loss. He sat in the kitchen alone drinking tea when he heard someone knock timidly at the door.

"Come in," he said after gathering his thoughts once more.

"Good evening Professor Lupin," Hermione greeted softly, joining him at the kitchen table.

"Good evening Miss Granger. How are your studies coming along? I was just about to make some more tea. Interested?"

"Yes please," she answered sitting down in one of the seats at the table.

She took a deep breath and continued. "Sir, as you know I am quite good friends with Harry."

"There's quite a bit of evidence that would give testament to that, yes," he answered lightly.

Hermione colored a bit and gave a slight roll of her eyes at his teasing before continuing. "I was just wondering how adept your abilities are with Occlumency. You see, he had some lessons with Snape – "

"Professor Snape," Remus amended.

"Professor Snape. And well, Harry has never gotten along with Professor Snape and I think Professor Snape wasn't really the proper one to teach him. He's very…harsh." Hermione looked worried that Remus might reprimand her for speaking ill of her teacher, even though it was in the service of a friend. "But I still think he needs to learn it, even though he's refusing. Last year was a mess I know. I wonder if-"

"I can't," he answered too quickly and Hermione's brows crunched together with concern, not expecting that sort of response. He steadied himself. Being so close to Ginny today stole away his vigilance. "I mean… Professor Snape is a very gifted wizard and should not have an issue instructing Harry. But if there is an emotional detachment it can become more difficult, especially with a relationship as strained as theirs probably is. I'll talk to Sirius. Perhaps he might have a better go at it."

"Why couldn't you? Harry trusts you," she asked with reason.

Dumbledore chose Snape simply because he was the best at closing his mind. It was risky for any of them to teach him, with memories of Ginny at bay. Sharing his memories with Harry would be more detrimental than any other. "I expect that Sirius is privy to more of Harry's personal life than I am and would make the sharing of memories more relaxed," Remus answered, trying to sound honest instead of agitated.

Hermione agreed and thanked him for listening with an open mind.

He and Hermione casually continued their conversation a bit longer until she conceded that had to go and study. But before she left she said, "And sir, Harry and Ginny are two of my closest friends."

"So we've discussed, at least partially anyway," he said, mimicking his teasing tone.

"I mean simply to imply that you should not hurt them," she said pointedly and the sixteen year-old left him behind in his loneliness. She really was the brightest witch of her age.

One year later: The Battle of Hogwarts

Ginny was outside on the grounds of the castle looking over bodies, trying to find anything alive. She leaned over a young girl, younger than herself, barely old enough to wield a wand.

"I want my mum…" she whispered half-heartedly. Ginny saw a deep gash in the girl's left calf as if someone had used a gouging curse on her.

"It's alright. It's okay. We're going to get you inside," Ginny told her, trying to keep her voice from wavering too much.

"But I want to go home. I don't want to fight anymore," the girl answered feebly before falling unconscious. Ginny heard a rustle of grass and she turned but there was no one there. When she turned back to the girl Luna was beside her and helped her sit the girl up. They glanced at each other, recognizing at once the deep bleeding coming from across her abdomen. Together they hurried her into the Great Hall.

Harry walked farther toward the forest, wishing, just wishing it was he who Ginny was nursing. But steadfastly he put one foot in front of the other. He was the Horcrux. He did not speak and did not look back.

Two Aurors had seen Ginny and Luna in the field of bodies and carried the girl into the castle; Ginny followed them inside to the Great Hall. Her heart fell. The entirety of the Hall's floor was covered in bodies, injured and dead, some with families surrounding them, others left unidentified. There was a long row down one wall of the dead, still warm even, as if they were napping. She looked away and walked toward her family.

Remus watched the sixteen year old Ginny step around the injured and he could only think that she looked exactly as she had the first day he'd seen her twenty years ago. The smudges of dirt, the cuts, the half-limp, the sadness and desperation were all in the same places they'd been before. There were Aurors treating the injured, older students and Dumbledore's Army members looking for survivors amidst the quiet battlefield. Remus, with Ginny still in his peripheral, knelt over a boy bleeding from his hands. He raised his wand.

Hagrid's hut loomed out of the darkness. There was no illumination…all those visits to Hagrid's faded away, no rock cakes or illegal magical creatures.

He moved on, and now reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He stopped.

There were dementors, too many of them and he knew it would be impossible to produce a patronus at this moment. He shivered…He was walking toward his death.

Sirius leaned over an unconscious girl and whispered a few spells over her. A few paces away, Remus was doing the same to another wizard. Remus kept glancing up though, distracted but relieved. Sirius followed the path of his eyes and naturally found Ginny. Suddenly, Sirius was thrown back twenty years at the sight of Ginny Weasley popping unceremoniously from the wall just as she looked now and he knew Remus was thinking similarly. His head swung back to his friend whose eyes followed Ginny unwaveringly.

Even dirty, injured, and anguished she was still too beautiful, just as he remembered. He felt again the sorrow of death, the fear of losing her. Remus trembled. He searched the hall for Harry but found James on the opposite side of Sirius instead. Beside him was his wife and both of them looked as though they were using all their might to remain level-headed as they worked over the injured. By now, Harry was in the forest, walking to his death. Harry was somewhere, sacrificing his life for the people he loved. It pained Remus to know this while Ginny remained ignorant of her own beloved's whereabouts.

A girl with dirty blonde hair approached Ginny and she followed toward where Augusta Longbottom was nursing a boy who was shaking uncontrollably. Remus watched as, even through her own tears, she calmed the boy easily just as her mother had calmed her brothers for years. Young and damaged, Ginny wiped sweat from her forehead, smearing her own and others' blood across her cheek.

"That headcase Hagrid kept a whole bunch of stuff in here," said Dolohov, glancing over his shoulder.

"Time's nearly up. Potter's had his hour. He's not coming."

"And he was so sure he'd come!"

Harry followed the Death Eaters and it was moments before light appeared where it normally should not, deeper into the forest. He walked on ignoring every instinct he had.

Lily sat with Firenze as James magically wrapped his arms. Peter lay in the corner beside Firenze with Sirius attempting lamely to treat the gouge in his right arm. Madam Pomfrey hurried over and shoved him aside.

Remus's eyes lingered over Ginny as she rejoined her family. Hermione embraced her and Remus wanted to scream when tears sprang from her eyes. A hand fell heavy on his shoulder. Sirius. They stood now beside Peter, who sat with his back resting against the wall, watching together.

"He's in the forest now," Sirius said softly of his godson.

"Yes," Remus acknowledged. "Just as self-sacrificing as his parents."

And Ginny too, seemed to resonate between them but they were silent.

Remus watched the group of mourning redheads. Ginny stood wrapped in Hermione's embrace crying, looking over her brothers and parents, eight miraculously alive, one painfully lost. Instinctively, he took a step forward but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder again.

"You can't mate." They both looked around and found Tonks talking to Kingsley a short distance away.

Remus loved his wife, and his son, more than the whole world. It was something else entirely, something more that drew him to Ginny, always to Ginny. His eyes returned to where she had been standing but she'd gone and his eyes searched frantically to find her again.

"There," James said, coming up on Remus's left and pointing. Ginny slowly was stepping away from her parents and family. She stopped and gazed out a broken window, away from the wall and out to the grounds. They could only see the back of her. "What's she doing?"

"Harry Potter," Voldemort said very softly. "The Boy Who Lived."

Ginny clutched her wand tighter. Lily now stood with them, all of them watching her, blind to anything else.

Hagrid was struggling, Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought inexplicably of Ginny and her blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his -

Ginny's fingertips leapt to her mouth -

Voldemort raised his wand.

"Avada Kedavra."

They saw Ginny jerk as if she'd been hit in the chest with the Killing Curse. Remus leapt forward and even Lily started but Peter took hold of the hems of their robes. They half-expected her to fall to the floor, dead. But she did not fall. Her head whipped around, frantic, in stark, jerky movements, searching eyes scaling every person and for what they did not know. Remus' heart stopped. Their grips on one another grew tighter. He felt Sirius clutch his shoulder harder. Ginny's eyes found them and grew wide at the sight of the five of them together against the wall, all looking back at her. Her jaw contracted with speechlessness. Her eyes left them and darted in every direction, attempting to control, to make something out of her confusion. Her lips said something that none of them could read. Her eyes met each of theirs in turn, Remus last.

"You don't think…"

"Yes."

"She must."

"She remembers," Remus breathed as Ginny's eyes finally met his and a single prolonged tear streaked clean her dirty cheek.

She made to move toward them but was pulled in by her family once more and soon after they heard what they dreaded most to hear.

"Harry Potter is dead!"

Her head spun again and she was running. James and Lily were right after her and everyone followed.

"No!" Lily screamed.

Ginny ran forward but was caught by her father.

Voldemort and his Death Eater's approached, Harry quite visible in Hagrid's arms.

"Silence!"

The Dark Lord went through his victory speech, welcoming them to his ranks as they glared back at him. Lily poured herself to the ground, wanting to rush the vile serpent of a man. James was held back by Sirius.

And then the miraculous happened. The ground began to shake as giants and centaurs rushed the castle. Neville Longbottom swung the sword of Godric Gryffindor, killing the snake. Hagrid was screaming "HARRY! WHERE'S HARRY!?"

Ginny frantically searched as she ran back toward the castle, shooting spells every which way. The battle waged on once more and she found herself dueling with Luna and Hermione against the formidable Bellatrix Lestrange.

From afar, Remus saw the Killing Curse barely miss her. He wondered if Bellatrix even recognized the girl she nearly tortured to insanity almost twenty years ago.

And then Molly Weasley, in all her motherly power, interrupted the duel. She over powered Bellatrix and Voldemort wailed.

Harry revealed himself and screams of joy erupted throughout the hall. James and Lily could not contain their happiness. And finally, Harry defeated him. The war was over. Voldemort had been vanquished.

Ginny wondered at how many feelings she had all at once. Relief that Harry was alive. Happiness that the war was over. Grief over her brother and friends. Wonder at the destruction around her. Fear that there would another attack. Amazement at her new found memory.

The war had been won. And after all her hard work. Hardly a lifetime each but she'd lived twice and remembered it. Harry was off shaking the hands of any witch or wizard that approached him. He was there to console the bereaved and be congratulated. She would have her time with him. Perhaps even her whole life. For now, her mind was elsewhere. She looked towards her friends who were again all looking at her. Everyone thought Harry was the only hero. But they knew. And that was all that mattered.

She strode towards them, needing to speak to them. They were her peers now and it was difficult to perceive them as something else, even after years of looking up to them as parents, teachers, Aurors and adults. But they were her friends, friends from a childhood separate from this one. James and Sirius nodded to her as she approached. Remus had barely an expression until Peter kicked him and he forced a smile. They made a space for her in the middle of them all and she just wanted to stare at them with these new, knowing eyes. None of them said anything at first but merely listened to their surroundings, drinking in the sweet victory. Ginny didn't know where to start. It was all so overwhelming. She remembered losing Harry. She remembered losing Remus. There were so many pasts for her to recall and her head became clouded.

"Welcome back to the Marauders," Sirius said finally and everyone managed a laugh.

Ginny sighed with relief. "I can't believe it. We've won. We're all alive. Each of has died, at least to me, and yet we're all here. All of us."

"Because of you," Lily said tearfully.

James put an arm on her shoulder. "Is it weird seeing us as adults? It's been fascinating watching you grow up."

"You didn't have such an intricate interest in my well-being last time around, I remember. But yes, it's different…you're all so…"

"Old?" James finished.

Ginny shook her head. "Talented. Wonderful. Happy. I feel like I don't belong."

"But you do," Lily reassured her with glittering eyes. "You always will. You're our friend, my sister. Always and forever."

"Doesn't that mean Harry and I are related?" she asked with some concern and her friends laughed.

Sirius shrugged. "James is a pureblood, the Weasley's are purebloods…it's more than likely you were already related to begin with," he said with a wink at Ginny. "You're technically my cousin somewhere in there too."

"A really big and really strange family," Ginny agreed.

"Happy family," James corrected.

The one question seemed to float in the air around them. How did she remember now, how did her memories return to her after all this time?

"It was Snape. He was brilliant you know. When I returned to Spinner's End to give him the note he gave me a final potion, one that I had not asked him for. He said it was for Harry. I took my memories, all of them, into a vial and my blood as well. He completed the potion. I gave it to Harry before I died…Merlin that's strange. But I suppose it activated this evening."

"Probably when Voldemort tried to kill Harry again."

"Wondrous."

"Go find Harry," she told his parents. "There's plenty we need to do."

Sirius eyed Remus. "I'm going to go help," he excused himself, letting Ginny and Remus be alone.

"A walk?" Ginny offered.

"Of course," Remus said, stifling his delight.

Knowing now everything she'd gone through, one lifetime and a part of a new one, still didn't change anything. That she loved Remus was true; that love remained strictly in the past however, in her past life. Her current life overrode what had happened then. She loved Harry, always had and always would without question or qualifications. He was never a coward and always a champion.

Ginny found herself incapable of looking at Harry as she and Remus passed him toward the Headmaster's office. It would be inappropriate to hold his hand but Ginny's hand, of its own accord, laced itself in between Remus's fingers once they were out of view of everyone in the Great Hall. They walked slowly, cherishing this because they knew it was their last moment.

"It's like you're back from the dead. I don't even know how to explain it. Watching you grow up but knowing somehow it isn't really you. And now suddenly…" he squeezed her hand.

"You're married," she commented, feeling his wedding band between theirs hands.

"Yes. Sirius too, incredibly. To a muggle."

Ginny laughed quite openly at this and nodded. "Yes I met her over Christmas a couple years ago. Rebecca, right? And they're to have a baby soon."

He nodded.

"And Teddy?"

"He's the most incredible little thing in the world," Remus acknowledged but offered nothing else.

"Your scars got so worse," Ginny observed and Remus sighed at his own memory.

"After you were killed – Merlin, you're right. That sounds so weird – I sort of went haywire. I went underground for a year with the other wolves. It wasn't my best choice but it was what I need to handle… what had happened."

"I had to though. He is, or was, our future. He's still my future. And I love him."

"I know. He's lucky to have you."

They stopped at a window on the second floor and watched the sun rise. The castle was quiet away from the Great Hall. This would likely be the last time they could act this way undisturbed. They held hands and spoke softly of their futures, his with Teddy and Tonks, and hers with Harry.