I have never seen parish records, so I don't really knew what type of information they have on them. Also, I have never been to England, so the stuff about 'Newcastle-Upon-Tyne' might be a bit fictional, and I'm not sure that 'Ottery St Catchpole' is even a real place.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Harry Potter and any related characters or situations. These belong to J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury Books. Sorry to disappoint you all.
The Final Time
Chapter One-
Dreaming
The girl looked strange. It wasn't her chestnut-coloured hair, or her big brown eyes. They were normal. At first Ginny thought that it was only because she was wearing funny clothes, and was probably a Muggle. Who else wore such odd clothes?
But then Ginny realised it wasn't it. This girl had an extremely wide skirt, and huge, puffy sleeves attached to a heavily embroidered dress. She was wearing a ruff, and her face was heavily powdered. Even Muggles didn't wear this stuff.
The blonde-haired man standing opposite her was dressed just as strangely, in hose, doublet and cape.
But what shocked Ginny the most was that the man was holding a sword and had pinned the girl up against a wall. Ginny couldn't hear anything of what they were saying, but she got the distinct impression that the man was threatening the girl. His teeth were bared in a snarl, his grey eyes were flashing, and the girl looked like she was screaming.
It all happened suddenly. The girl had said something to the man, his face had contorted in fury, and he brought his sword up.
The next second the girl slumped to the ground, and her severed head was rolling on the floor.
The man wrinkled his nose in disgust at the blood that now stained his clothes. He clapped his hands smartly, and another person rushed to side within a matter of minutes.
Ginny thought that this person was a servant, or slave. His clothes were of the worst quality, and he had a sickly air around him. When he had reached the man's side, he sunk to his knees in a low bow.
The man flicked his fingers, and the servant looked for the first time towards the body of the girl. He uttered a kind of silent scream of horror. The man slapped him hard on the cheek, and the servant reeled backwards before hastily getting up and, taking hold of the body, dragged it away down the passage.
The head was still lying on the floor, the girl's mouth fixed in a permanent shriek, her eyes wide with terror. The man smirked, his face filled with loathing still.
Suddenly he sneered, and kicked the head as hard as he could, making it lift off into the air, like the soccer ball from a Muggle game Ginny had once seen.
Ginny screamed.
"Sweetheart, what is it? What's the matter?" Mrs Weasley's worried voice entered Ginny's subconscious.
Ginny gasped, sitting up in bed. "The girl Mum! He killed the girl!"
Mrs Weasley frowned, stroking Ginny's forehead in a worried way. "It was only a nightmare, darling."
Ginny knew what was going through her mother's mind. She's too old for nightmares, she sixteen for God's sake, children are meant to have grown out of them by now.
"It wasn't a nightmare, Mum, I know that it happened, it was so real!"
Mrs Weasley murmured soothingly, "Just calm down, dear. It was a dream. It did not happen; it will never happen." She sighed. "Go back to sleep, it's two o'clock in the morning."
Getting up off the bed, Mrs Weasley tucked Ginny carefully into bed, and pecking her on the cheek lightly, extinguished the lights with her wand.
"Goodnight, honey."
"'Night, Mum."
Ginny huddled further into the covers. She couldn't get the image of the Muggle girl out of her mind. She seemed so sweet and innocent, and Ginny wondered what she had done to anger the man so.
Closing her eyes, Ginny tried to get to sleep, but the girl's head persisted on showing on the back of her eyelids.
Tomorrow, she decided, I'm going to find out about that Elizabethan girl, and the man, and with this promise to herself, she dropped off to sleep.
~~~~~~
Ginny was woken the next morning by a huge crash from upstairs, and the inevitable yells of 'FRED!!!' and 'GEORGE!!!'
Poking her head out the door, Ginny watched as first Fred, then George, sprinted as fast as they could down the stairs.
She grinned. The twins had graduated from Hogwarts a few years ago, but they still lived at home, and still terrorised the rest of the family.
Mrs Weasley had obviously intercepted the twins, because her loud yells drifted up to Ginny's room.
"What do you think they did now?" Ron's voice said in her ear.
Ginny jumped. "Bloody hell, Ron, you gave me a fright!"
Ron just grinned. "Have a good sleep after your nightmare, Gin?"
Seeing her shocked look he explained, "I heard you scream."
"Oh, y-yes." Ginny faltered. Somehow, she didn't really want to tell Ron about her dream.
Changing the subject, Ginny asked, "Do you know if there's a library around here? I need to do some research for my homework," Ginny lied.
"Homework? But Gin, there's still four week left of the holidays!" Ron looked surprised.
Ginny rolled her eyes. Ron was a seventh year. Surely he knew better than to leave homework to the last minute?
"What type of homework is it?"
"Ummm . . . " Ginny thought quickly, "Muggle Studies."
Ron thought for a minute. "There's a Muggle library in Ottery St Catchpole," he said, naming the village they lived near. "And, if there's nothing there, you could always go to the library in Diagon Alley."
Ginny didn't think that anything relating to the Muggles she dreamed of would be in Diagon Alley, but she nodded anyway. "Thanks, Ron. I'll just get changed and then I'll come down to breakfast."
"Sure." Ron said as he bounded down to the kitchen.
~~~~~~
Mr Weasley had insisted on taking Ginny down to the library. "I've never been in here before," he told her excitedly.
They were standing in front of the machines that Mr Weasley called 'computers'. Ginny looked at them helplessly. She had no idea on how to use them, and even what they were for.
Suddenly, a tap on her arm made her turn around to face the friendly countenance of a librarian.
"Hello, miss, sir," the woman said brightly. "Do you need any help?"
Ginny nodded. "We don't know how to use the computers," she explained.
"Oh, them," the librarian said airily, "They're easy to use. Just type in the keyword or subject of what you're looking for, and the screen will come up with a list of titles. Click on a title and it will give you a bit of a summary and the call number."
"Oh." Was all Ginny could manage to say.
"Come to me if you need anymore help," the librarian said as she walked off.
Mr Weasley sighed. I suppose I'd better be off then," he said rather sadly.
"Okay Dad," Ginny gave him a quick hug, "I'll walk home when I'm finished."
Patting her on the shoulder, Mr Weasley walked out the door and back to the Weasley's house.
Ginny watched him leave, then sat down opposite a computer, and typed in 'Elizabethan England'.
Words on the screen came up, '24 entries found'.
Ginny began the long task of searching for her dream people. She knew it would be hard, as she didn't know where they lived, and she wasn't exactly sure they came from the Elizabethan era either.
After about an hour, Ginny realised that it was going to be almost impossible to find those people. She groaned.
"Excuse me, miss, but are you alright?" The friendly librarian was back again.
"Yeah," Ginny replied, "I just can't find what I'm looking for, that's all."
"Let me help," the woman smiled again, "what is it that you're trying to find out?"
Ginny sighed, "Well, I came across a picture of this girl and a man from the Elizabethan times, and I was wondering who they were," she invented.
The librarian frowned. "You're probably better looking for them in the parish records," she said at last. "I'll show them to you. They're only photocopies of the originals, but it doesn't matter."
Beckoning Ginny to follow her, the Librarian opened a door to reveal another room. "I'm Mary, by the way, Mary Jenkins."
"I'm Ginny Weasley," Ginny introduced herself.
"Well, Ginny, I'm afraid you'll have to look through the records from the 1600's yourself. My shift ends in five minutes, but there'll be other people here that can help you."
Mary led her to a small section near the back. "These are our records from the Elizabethan era. Good luck," she smiled, and closed the door.
Ginny pulled the nearest pieces of paper towards her. After scanning them briefly, she realised what a job she'd let herself in for. She didn't even know the people's names or how old they were.
Ginny thought hard. Judging by the clothes both of them wore they were pretty wealthy. That ruled out lots of the records immediately.
~~~~~~
Ginny had spent an hour looking through the records and she still hadn't found anything. Packing the records away, something on the ground caught her eye. One of the records must have slipped to the ground, she thought as she picked it up. Glancing at it, Ginny felt her blood run cold.
Virginia Weasley [it read]
Born 13 November 1556, Ottery St Catchpole, England
Died 6 June 1571, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England"Virginia Weasley," her lips shaped the words. Her eyes drifted down to the rest of the document. Her eyes popped out of her head.
Married Wilfred Malfoy 1571She thought back to her dream. The man had the blonde hair and grey eyes characteristic to the Malfoy family. And the girl had the same brown eyes that Ginny had.
Looked like Ginny had found her dream people.
The Virginia from Elizabethan times was only fifteen years old when she'd married Malfoy, and the same age when he had killed her. Ginny wondered how long they'd been married for. A few weeks, she guessed roughly. Poor thing.
But why would their records be in a Muggle library, not a wizarding one? Or were they Muggles?
Looking furtively around, Ginny stuffed the record in to her bag, and walked casually out of the room. Waving goodbye to the new librarian who was on duty, she walked out of the building, down the road, and back home to 'The Burrow'.
~~~~~~
That night at tea Ginny decided to ask her mother about something. "Mum," she began, "was I named after anybody?"
Mrs Weasley looked surprised. "You were actually. Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering," Ginny said, and then pressed on, "who?"
Mrs Weasley smiled. "Your father's aunt, who was named after her aunt, who was named after her aunt and so forth. It's quite a tradition to call a girl 'Virginia' after an aunt."
Ginny smiled weakly. "But why not after a mother, or a grandmother?"
"You'll have to ask your father about that one, dear," Mrs Weasley said. "I honestly don't know."
There must be a reason, thought Ginny, that every generation a girl seems to be called 'Virginia 'Weasley' at some point in their lives. Maybe 'Virginia' means something.
Or maybe, another voice in her mind said, they want to be reminded about something . . .
~~~~~~
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