The Journey of a Lifetime

Disclaimer: This story contains ideas created by J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.

Full summary: Voldemort has won the war, and Harry Potter is dead. There is no hope left for the wizarding world at all, except to acquiesce to Voldemort's rule. Only one hope remains, and that is to change history. Ginny Weasley is selected to travel back in time to when Voldemort was only a teenager, and attempt to prevent him from turning into the much feared Lord Voldemort. Will she succeed, or will a certain young man attempt to stop her? GW/TR. Takes place in Ginny's sixth year, and in Harry Potter's seventh. Rated M to just be safe, and for possible future mature themes. HBP and DH have never occurred, though there will be spoilers from those books.

Prologue:

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort's shriek of the Killing Curse rang in everyone's ears. A blast of shimmering green light erupted from his wand and hit Harry Potter directly in the chest.

There was absolute silence from the Order and Death Eaters alike. Time had suddenly frozen, and nothing could be heard except the slight rustling of the breeze in the solitary tree nearby. A dull thump sounded as Harry's lifeless body hit the ground, his glasses askew and his face contorted in a look of absolute horror. His usually bright emerald eyes were open and dull, staring off in the distance, unmoving.

Then, countless popping sounds were heard as all of the members of the Order of the Phoenix Apparated off the battlefield. Their only hope to destroy Voldemort once and for all, Harry, the prophesized one, was dead. Their last hope was gone. They had lost the war, and now the world would become a slave to Voldemort's malice.

The Death Eaters cheered as one man removed his mask, revealing long silver-blonde hair, gray eyes, and pointed features. He muttered a curse to bind all the wounded members of the Order who hadn't been able to escape, so that they could be used for later torture to expose the location of the Order's headquarters. Then, he turned, walked a few paces toward the lifeless boy wonder, and knelt at the feet of his lord, Voldemort.

"I have bound all surviving members of the resistance, my lord," he muttered, keeping his head bent, and his eyes directed toward the ground.

"Rise, Lucius," Voldemort told him in his soft, yet demanding voice that could give almost anyone goose bumps. Lucius rose to his feet slowly, but still did not look his master directly in the eye. "You have done well," Voldemort continued. "I put you in charge of the survivors. Do as you please with them, but you must extract some valuable information." Lucius bowed and retreated, knowing that he would be having a great deal of fun using his infamous techniques to extract information from the leftover scum.

Voldemort kicked Harry's body out of his way as he slowly prowled over the battlefield. There was still so much to be done before he was in complete control. All the members of the resistance had to be found and neutralized, and the many Muggles had to be made painfully aware of magic. Hogwarts also had to be turned into a school of the Dark Arts, and all the Mudbloods had to be kicked out or, even better, killed. He was thinking about keeping the Gryffindors, at a dear friend's request. She was his only weakness now that Harry was gone.

A slim, pale hand with painted red nails rested on his shoulder as he turned around to look at a beautiful woman. She looked to be no more than seventeen years old, but she had a gleam in her deep brown eyes that showed knowledge far beyond her years. She had thick, blood-red hair that cascaded down her back in rippling waves, and wore a long, black gown with red trimming that gave her the look of a powerful, yet cruel queen that could rule her country simply through will.

Her eyes evenly met Voldemort's glowing red ones. She opened her full, red lips to show pearly white teeth as she voiced a statement that seemed to freeze time itself. Her voice was smooth, yet cold, and could send a shiver down anyone's spine. "Tom," she said to Voldemort, "the time is approaching quickly. It should be happening soon."

0o0

As the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix Apparated back into headquarters, chaos ensued. The main cause of the fuss was a sixteen-year-old girl who was bawling her eyes out.

"Harry!" she wailed, her dark brown eyes clouded and puffy from crying. She had been at the battlefield for only a short time, running around and healing wounded allies, and had seen Harry Potter fall. "Harry! Come back!"

An elderly woman with her red-brown hair pulled back into a tight bun tried to comfort the crying girl, but it was no use. Her face was weary, and there were many lines under her eyes, accompanying the dark purple-black circles that showed because of an obvious lack of sleep. "Shush, Ginevra," she whispered softly, trying to soothe the girl. "Dear, it will be all right."

"No, it won't!" The girl, Ginevra, wailed. "I loved him so much! And he was our– our only hope!" She stumbled over her words, and then broke down into more sobs which shook her body. Harry Potter had been her first serious boyfriend. They had been dating for almost a year, and Harry was the only boyfriend of whom Ginevra's overprotective older brother, Ron, had approved. Ron had been killed in the war a few days ago, though, while running an important errand. He had been caught, to say the least, and he had been killed after several days of painful torture in what was believed to be the Malfoy Manor dungeons.

Ginevra, more commonly called Ginny, wiped her eyes with the left sleeve of her dirty, second-hand robes. "Professor McGonagall," she sniffled, trying hard not to break out into more sobs, "Is there any– any hope left?"

McGonagall stiffened visibly, pursed her lips, and then, as if deciding not to answer the question for fear of upsetting the teenager, sighed and left the room. She was going to get the poor girl a sleeping potion. She reentered the room a few short minutes later with a rather battered golden goblet full of a steaming, pale green liquid. "Drink this, dear." She said, forcing the goblet to Ginny's trembling lips.

Ginny drank it greedily, after she gained enough control of her mouth to not slosh the liquid over herself. It tasted slightly sweet, and felt like honey sliding down her throat. When she had finished, McGonagall slowly led her up to her bedroom, and helped her lay down on the small bed. Ginny closed her eyes tightly and buried herself under the blankets, though even more tears squeezed themselves out of her shut eyelids, and her body still shook with silent, racking sobs. Eventually, her body stilled, and she fell into a restive, yet dreamless sleep.

McGonagall sighed, a single tear trickling down her cheek as she quietly left the room. She quickly wiped it away, for she couldn't let herself show any signs of weakness. She had a lot of work to do, and knew that she would be awake until the early morning hours once again. She was put in charge of the Order of the Phoenix two months ago, as well as made its Secret-Keeper, after Albus Dumbledore's downfall at the hands of a unified Voldemort and Draco Malfoy. It had been a very sad time, but everyone had tried to move on as best as they could. At that time, they had still had hope, for Harry had been alive and the death of Voldemort had been possible. She wasn't intending to tell Ginny that there was no hope left, even if it was the truth. Only Harry could kill Voldemort, and only Voldemort could kill Harry. That was what the prophecy had stated, and prophecies were very rarely wrong.

McGonagall entered into her private office, one that used to belong to the greatest wizard of all time: Albus Dumbledore, and took a seat at the wooden desk in the corner. She extracted a piece of parchment from the top drawer, along with an almost empty bottle of ink and a quill. She pushed her cracked spectacles up the bridge of her nose and peered down at the parchment, trying to decide what options they had left, if any. Options A, B, and C were already scratched off, and D was now improbable. E and F were all that remained, and F, surrender, was out of the question. Her weary eyes focused on E. No matter how much she hated this choice, they really had no options left. She sighed softly and rubbed her eyes before she swept out of the office to find Hermione Granger. She had something important to discuss with the bright young woman.

0o0

Ginny awoke the next morning exactly where she had fallen asleep at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Glancing at the wall clock, she saw that it was almost noon. She had really overslept, she realized with a soft pang of annoyance, just before the events of yesterday came flooding back to her. Harry was dead. A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill, but she held them back, knowing that today was a new day and she had to do all she could to make this day much more profitable than yesterday had been.

She slowly got out of bed and threw the blankets back into some semblance of tidiness, the whole while trying to avoid looking over at the window, where a picture of herself and Harry stood; it had been taken slightly over four months ago. Back then, she hadn't had to worry about anything other than what to wear the next day, or whether she had gotten an Outstanding or an Excellent on her Charms exam. She slowly ran a brush through her long red locks, and then proceeded to open the door and slip out of the room.

She made her way slowly down the winding staircase, subconsciously wondering where everyone was. Her silent questions were answered, however, when she noticed that the thick oak door that led to the conference room was closed tightly. She wasn't a fully qualified member of the Order yet, so she was not allowed inside. She quickly rummaged through her pockets until her fingers came into contact with one of Fred and George's Extendable Ears. She put it up to her ear, crossing her fingers that her mother had forgotten to charm the door to prevent eavesdroppers. Letting the other end of the ear maneuver toward the door, she could hear faint voices. With a surge of triumph at the door being so under protected, she maneuvered the ear underneath the door and listened to the conversation ensuing inside.

The first thing she heard was Severus Snape's voice addressing the crowd. "It is the only way! We have lost the war, there is no one left to kill the Dark Lord! Potter was our last chance, the prophecy said that! We can either all try and fail, or see if this will work! I will never surrender, and if any of you even consider it, I will see to it that you don't live to carry out the act!" He was shouting, obviously losing the little bit of patience he had. Knowing her Potions professor, Ginny realized that he would never give up, being as stubborn as he was, and that he might, in fact, even go through with his promise to kill people.

Remus Lupin could now be heard, his voice much more calm, although there was a strong undercurrent of anger. "I doubt you need to start threatening people, Severus. If it is the only way, however, then who will we send? We are all over the Hogwarts age! Even if I were at the appropriate age to go to Hogwarts as a student, I doubt he would accept me, considering my," a slight cough punctured his words, "furry little problem."

Slight chuckles from the others showed that not everyone was so intent on this plan, and that many knew dear Remus had been bitten by Fenrir Greyback, a notorious werewolf, in his youth.

"It would be dangerous!" piped in Molly Weasley, Ginny's mother. "We cannot risk anyone's life, and we need all the help we can get here, in the present!"

"It is the only way!" Snape roared. To say that he was angry was an understatement. "What else will we do? Just sit and let The Dark Lord destroy the world as we know it? No one can kill him! However, his former self could be killed! No one needs to try to change him, just kill him!"

"And how will killing him affect everything today?" Charlie Weasley, Ginny's second-eldest brother said, raising his voice to bring himself into the heated argument. "Lily and James Potter, the Longbottoms, the Malfoys, the Blacks, Harry himself, and countless more families will be changed! Can we risk changing all those families? Yes, I would absolutely love having all those who died alive again, but who knows what would happen if we meddle in time that much? Time-Turners are carefully regulated, and everyone knows that they are dangerous," he finished, slowing his words to accent 'dangerous'.

Rubeus Hagrid spoke up next, stomping his right foot and making the room vibrate to show his resolve. "I support Snape's idea, but I don' condone killin' 'im. Jus' get 'im expelled somehow, or never give 'im the chance to attend Hogwarts. I would be able to finish my education!"

Lupin directed his comments at Hagrid now. The undercurrent of anger in his voice, so easily apparent the last time he spoke, had subsided, though that may have been since he was addressing a friend, not a childhood enemy. "If you finish your education, then you may not have become the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and have met Harry, Ron and Hermione… Can't you see how much doing anything at all will change everything about not only You-Know-Who, but everyone else in the world?"

Hermione's soft voice interrupted everyone as she brought herself to her feet, bringing all conversation and arguments to a halt. "Everyone, just think for a moment. I'm not saying that I support one idea or the other, but going back in time to change anything will have a drastic effect on anyone who ever met the person, in this case, probably the whole planet. Just changing Tom Riddle's outlook on life when he was a child will change everyone he ever spoke to. Killing him will drastically change everything even more than we need. If we all do agree to this, then how far back in time will we go? How long will we meddle in everything? Who will we change? If we all really want to do this in some way, then we should know that even setting foot back in time could, and most likely will, have an unfathomable effect. It may not even work. But if this is the only way possible, if it's the only way we can do anything, then I support taking the chance. I also support letting the selected person do as they see fit. If they want to kill him, so be it. If they want to try and change him, so be it. If they just want to interfere with his plans, so be it. So now, we will take a vote and end these rants that have brought us nowhere. Raise your hands if you support time travel."

McGonagall smiled softly to herself. Hermione definitely put a stop to any argument that had gone before. She knew that she could, and that was why she had selected one of her best former students to put plan E into discussion. She hadn't realized that Hermione could have done it so efficiently, and that made her even more proud. She hadn't even had to say one word at all throughout the heated discussions. Glancing around at the hands slowly being raised, she added hers.

Finally, the majority of hands were raised. Hermione nodded softly, her brilliant eyes scanning over the crowd to rest on her old Transfiguration professor, to whom she gave only the slightest of nods before looking back at the whole crowd, and continuing her speech. "Then we will be sending someone back in time to try to change history. What year and who we will send need to decided upon at this moment. Tom Riddle can't be too old, or he will already have his ideas carved in stone, and it will be impossible to change him. He also can't be too young or he will not associate with anyone we send, and even if he does, there will not be much of an impact. I propose some time during his fifth, or sixth year at Hogwarts. Sixth would be better, since the person we send will not be there during the time that the Chamber of Secrets was first opened. The selected person will not be in as much danger that way, either. So I propose one year after the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Tom Riddle's sixth year at Hogwarts. Does anyone have any objections?"

The remaining members of the Order were silent, glancing at their fellows out of the corners of their eyes and trying to see if anyone at all would object to what had been proposed. No one did, of course, since Hermione had taken pieces of everyone's ideas and put them all together into what would make almost anyone happy.

Hermione nodded finally after exchanging another glance with Minerva McGonagall, this one slightly worried. "Then we will have to send someone who could pass as a Hogwarts sixth year," she murmured, almost to herself. She knew who she had to propose, and had to compose herself before she could utter the words that would forever change that young girl's destiny. "I would go myself, but I am Muggle-born, so he wouldn't associate with me at all. We need either a half-blood or a pureblood student who could pass as a sixth year." She paused for a brief moment, her breath catching softly in her throat. "There is only one person I can think of. That person is Ginny Weasley. Does anyone object?"

Ginny gasped outside the door and tried to barge in, though it was locked. Instead, she started pounding on it with two fists, shouting, "I object!" repeatedly, as loudly as she could. After a bit of scuffling around inside, the door opened a crack, then fully, and showed Hermione standing directly on the other side.

Seeing the very face of someone who used to be her friend, Ginny seethed. "How could you even consider sending me without my even being there?" Ginny tried to shout, although her voice ended up coming out weak and tearful.

Hermione sighed softly, gazing at the younger girl. "Ginny," she said to her friend, "just think for a minute. You know Tom Riddle better than all of us because of your encounter with his diary, so you would know how to get close to him. You also fit the exact age we need, and are a pureblood." Not seeing any visible reaction from Ginny yet, Hermione tried a slightly different tactic. "You could also see Harry again, and meet your ancestors, see your grandfather Michael, see Dumbledore! Ginny, it would be a wonderful experience! It's our only option, now. Ginny, please!"

Ginny hesitated slightly, not failing to notice all the pleading faces behind Hermione in the doorway. "All right," she whispered softly, something inside her breaking open. "All right, I'll do it. I will." She was horribly afraid of Tom, due to her near-death experience with him when she was only eleven, but at the same time she desperately wanted to see him. He had continually told her how much he loved her, and a small eleven-year-old part of her wanted that same lavish attention from the handsome, brilliant young man.

Wiping away tears that she hadn't realized had started to fall; Ginny steeled her gaze and lifted her chin high. "When do I leave?"

0o0

To be continued…

Next chapter: Breaking vases and familiar faces.

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter. I had it posted up two years ago, but I deleted it recently and reposted, with a lot of editing. Two years of English class can do a lot for a person's writing style and language. I almost even used a bunch of my vocabulary words, but decided not to since people probably wouldn't know what they meant, lol. Well, leave a review please to let me know what you think. All reviewers get a thank you message in the next chapter. By the way, if you followed this fic the first time around then say so!