PROLOGUE

Saturday, July 31st , 1999 or Sunday, July 26th, 1192, depending entirely on your perspective. Somewhere or other in England.

All of the hands on the Weasley clock were pointed to "Traveling" save one. It was a rare moment of isolation for the girl standing alone in the kitchen. The mid-afternoon sun was pouring through the windows, bathing everything including herself in a golden light, giving her hair the deep-red appearance of a fine jewel. Behind her, there was a sight that most people in England, and indeed the world, would call strange. Sponges were happily scouring pots and pans in the sink of their own accord, a broom and dustpan were performing an elaborate dance of cleaning unfettered by human hands, and on a corner chair, knitting needles flashed and winked in the light as they furiously wove a violet-colored baby blanket all on their own. To be sure these sights would seem strange to most, but to Ginny Weasley, daughter of a witch and wizard and a witch in her own right, there was nothing out of the ordinary about kitchen appliances performing tasks sans human participation.

Since coming back from her 7th and final year at Hogwarts a little over a month ago, the Burrow had been a veritable beehive of non-stop activity, from which these few minutes alone were a rare respite. Ginny's father, Arthur Weasley, now significantly more senior in the Ministry of Magic than he had been before the War, was constantly bringing officials around the house, sending her mother Molly into frantic frenzies of cleaning and cooking.

Ginny's oldest brother Bill and his wife Fleur were frequently popping by with the baby, or else the Weasleys were making impromptu visits to Shell Cottage to visit the second Weasley girl to be born into the family in at least six generations (the first being Ginny herself). Ginny's niece Victoire was now almost exactly two months old, an adorable little cherub with a short sleek of silver hair so fine it was almost transparent, courtesy of her part-Veela mother. Charlie was still with his dragons in Romania, but due to Molly's unrelenting insistence, he came around to dinner once a week. Percy and George dropped in from London fairly often as well, Percy perhaps out of a lingering sense of guilt; George, perhaps out of loneliness.

Fred, of course, would never be coming home again.

Ron was now a junior Auror (although he occasionally helped George out in the shop now and again), and was constantly visiting home. And, since they were finally officially together, this usually meant seeing Hermione as well. Ginny thoroughly enjoyed these visits. Since Hermione chose to make up her final year, she finished her 7th year at Hogwarts the same time Ginny did, and the two had grown much closer. And then of course there was Harry...

Harry Potter was a junior Auror like Ron. The pair of them had taken Minister Shacklebolt up on his offer to allow anyone who fought in Battle of Hogwarts to directly enter the Auror's Office without needing N.E.W.T.S, which meant that both Harry and Ron had waived their last year at Hogwarts in favor of joining the Ministry of Magic. Some might have thought it an odd choice for someone who had spent the previous year as the Ministry's Undesirable Number One, but Ginny knew that Harry was determined not to return to school. She understood that he couldn't bear the thought of Hogwarts without Professor Dumbledore.

Harry had also been a guest at the Burrow over the last year, of course, though not as often as Ron, and never without him. His visits had been a little awkward for Ginny, though she cherished them. She had always assumed that, with the War over, she and Harry would automatically pick up where they had left off before he had prematurely departed school with Ron and Hermione two summers ago. But so far, that hadn't happened, at least not over this past year. Although they had sent owls back and forth while Ginny was at Hogwarts, and she had seen him multiple times at the Burrow during the holidays, their relationship wasn't quite back to where it was right before the final battle at Hogwarts. It felt like...like they had forgotten how to be around each other a bit. Or maybe, Ginny reflected, it was that so much had happened, that neither really knew how to begin again, because it felt rather like brushing aside everything that had taken place with Voldemort and the Final Battle. Neither one of them was quite ready for that. So much had happened that Ginny and Harry had somehow managed to avoid talking about the details of their possible future together. For an entire year. But Ginny had resolved to be patient. Clingy just wasn't her style. After all, she hadn't even flinched when Harry told her they had to break up and that he was leaving Hogwarts to fight Voldemort. She told him once that she had never given up on him, not really. She certainly didn't intend to start now, so Ginny was fully prepared to trust that, given time, everything would work out the way it was meant to. "Meant to" of course meaning that she had Harry would be together…eventually.

Still thinking about Harry, Ginny grabbed a tiny object from the kitchen table, her hand closing in a fist around a small circle of cool grey stone about the size of a Golden Snitch. She had agonized for months about what to get him for his birthday, having missed giving him a present for two years running. The first time, Ginny didn't give Harry a gift because she knew he couldn't carry anything around with him while he was on the run with Hermione and Ron (although to be fair, she had given him one hell of an epic snog before sending him off, so maybe that counted). The second time, last year, was during the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, as it was now known. The Wizarding World had still been in turmoil, rounding up the last few of Voldemort's very desperate followers. And then, of course, there had been Fred's funeral...

But this year, Ginny had been determined to give Harry a fantastic present, to make up for the previous two. She had been looking for ages - searching for that perfect something that combined both form and function. Something that would be dead useful to an auror, amazingly fascinating and rare, and would remind him of her every time he looked at it. Something heart wrenchingly personal...something extraordinary that one would only give to that special person in your life.

Unfortunately, she suspected that the gift she currently had in her hand was no such thing. Oh, it was a clever bit of magic, quite impressive actually. It was a portable Pensieve, identical to the one Professor Dumbledore had in his office save for the fact that it folded down into a compact and perfect tiny sphere of smooth grey stone, the only one of its kind. Professor Flitwick and Headmistress McGonagall had graciously assisted her in making it. And it would undoubtedly be useful to Harry, examining memories on the job, or even if he needed to clear his head. But it lacked that personal element she had so desperately wanted to give. I'll just have to add that bit myself when I see Harry, she thought to herself. She and Harry had had virtually no physical contact in the last year, save for a chaste peck on the cheek at Christmas. But she fully intended to give him Epic Snog 2.0 this year. Heat flooded her insides as the thought filled her with a combination of excitement and nerves.

But time was wasting. Everyone had already left to go to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place for the birthday party, and she'd have to get going, otherwise she'd be late. With one hand, Ginny raised the small stone sphere up on her open palm, and gave her wand a flourish with the other, muttering "Includo." A small, pale green box materialized around the Pensieve, topped with a bright pink bow. Ginny's forehead creased as she looked down at the garish pink with a wrinkled nose. "Definitely not," she said aloud, prodding the bow with the tip of her wand, causing it to turn a succession of colors until it finally darkened to a forest green.

Satisfied with her work, Ginny took one last look around the Burrow before twirling on the spot, her mind picturing the dark exterior of Harry's house. In the whirl of disapparating, she couldn't hear the booming noise that accompanied her departure, like the supersonic shattering of a thousand pieces of crystal.

Author's Note: I own nothing, obviously, though I dearly wish I did. A lot of the info in this story, such as the timeline of events in the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, Victoire's birth, the skipping of the last year of Hogwarts for Harry and Ron etc, have been gleaned from interviews with JKR. Harry and Ginny are "taking a break" during this time, because I feel like it would be unrealistic for two 18 year olds (or, to be more specific, since this story starts on Harry's 19th birthday, still a few weeks before Ginny's birthday, a 19 year old and a 17 year old) to just pick up exactly where they left off immediately following the events at Hogwarts. To my mind, that would completely minimalize the trauma and horror surrounding the events in DH, it makes more sense for there to have been a breather period somewhere before Harry and Ginny resumed their relationship. In my mind, it's during this time that Ginny briefly pursues her professional career as a Quidditch player, and would allow her to focus whole-heartedly on that before settling down. Ginny has never struck me as someone who does things by half-measures, and the Ginny in my story reflects that (I hope).

This story will at some point have a pairing (I think). I say I think, because it has to happen naturally as I write. This will either be Guy or Alan (leaning towards the former, because I have some great potential scenes in mind involving Guy, Marian's death and the Pensieve, but we'll see how it goes). Given the history between Ginny and Harry, it would be unrealistic for her to instantly fall for anyone else, in any time period. She would have to believe 1) that she is never getting home; and 2) sufficient time will have to pass for her to even contemplate another relationship. Once these two criteria have been met, she can start looking at characters differently, but not before then. And I'm not sure if the romance will ever get past the acknowledgement in Ginny's mind that there could be something there, even if she never acts on it. But there will be plenty for Ginny to do, because I am actually planning on a rather complex plot that has nothing to do with romance.

A note about the dates. Ginny is on her way to Harry's for a birthday party on Saturday, July 31st, 1999, the year after the Battle of Hogwarts. I wanted her to go backwards in time to the equivalent day in 1192, but for accuracy (as accurate as a story about a time-traveling witch can be, anyway) the date had to be converted from the Gregorian calender to the Julian calender to do so. I used a handy little online conversion tool to convert the dates.