The war was over. HE had prevailed. Lord Voldemort, Now the Minister of Magic. The corpses left across the battlefield consisted of about the same numbers from both sides, but in the end he was the one with more power, more experience, and more troops.

Of all her brothers, Fred and Percy were the ones whom had died; one fighting for and the other against. It was a strange sort of nightmare to watch one of her brothers, her favorite by far, throwing all matter of curses towards all that she held dear. She later wondered how he had been capable of doing that. Turning on her, her family, their friends and killing them all without an ounce of remorse.

Ginerva Molly Weasley had many choices once the war ended. She had never really been involved in the war efforts, not that she was ever allowed to, and thus neither side was really begging her to come help them. Voldemort, since he thought of her as a useless, little child and Harry because...well he thought she was a wife who should sit at home and take care of the kids. Not that they had any. Not that they ever would. Not that they would ever even get married, or if they did, they would be old and leathery and she would be too old to have kids.

Ginny wasn't a fool. She wasn't an idealist. But she did have hope. A hope that Colin, a good friend of hers, has crushed in their sixth year in hopes to keep her safe.

It was a Friday evening. Most people were sitting around in the common room talking of innocent things. To talk of war would only bring sorrow into the room and well...TGIF. No one wanted to ruin that. No one it seemed but Colin Creevy; a boy who just cared for the safety of his best friend.

"Ginny," he said after a long silence in which they were both staring into the fire. "You're my best friend and I don't want anything to happen to you when the war's over."

"What are you talkin’ about Colin? We are going to win this war and then we'll all be on the easy road for the rest of our lives."

"Ginny," he whispered, "have you ever thought about what you would do if we lost the war?"

Silence. Ginny's eyes were shining in the firelight.

"Ginny, our chances of losing are much higher than our chances of winning. Voldemort has an army of who knows what! It's huge! And Voldemort himself is still feared in the wizarding community. He's stronger than Harry, he's harnessed more power than Harry, and his supporters are quite adamant while supporting him."

"We support Harry too," she whispered. "We love him all the same. That has to count for something."

"Promise me that you will protect yourself when the time comes."

"And you Colin? What about you?"

"I'm going to move to India, find a nice girl there, get married, and live there for the rest of my life."

"And where will the money come from?"

"I'll work as a photographer. I've heard that brings in nice money over there. I'll change my name to something that makes it seem like I'm at least half Indian so that I fit in there. And now you Ginny, what will you do?"

"I'll move to the states. Maybe LA. I've heard that it's really nice there. I'll get a job teaching younger children. Live alone in an apartment. Maybe rent a house with some friends later on. I'll forget about Harry." A tear rolled down her cheek. "I may even find another guy. Get married. have children. Settle down there. And forget about the wizarding world."

"You need teaching credentials to teach."

"I better get one."

"Easily done online Gin."

"Then I better get started."

"Gin. I'm gonna miss you." He pulled her into a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Colin. You're the greatest friend I could ever have."

"And you are just as wonderful Gin."

So a year later when Voldemort started to gain an upper hand, Ginny got herself a fake ID and a drivers licence under the name of Emma Richter, a teaching job in LA, and an apartment near a school. She gathered all her muggle clothes and left, leaving her friends and family none the wiser.

She claimed to have lived in Iraq previously and lost her family in some small terrorist activity. Anyone could see that it was something she didn't enjoy talking about and left it at that.

The first year she taught fifth grade. At the end of that year, the principal suggested that she get her masters and PhD done and apply for a job at a local UC or state college. She spent the next six years teaching during the day and studying during the night.

It wasn't long after her interview that she was accepted at Long Beach. After a month or two of teaching there, she felt as though she had hit the easy road. She was receiving a healthy salary, her students were actually quite kind to her, and she had moved into a beautiful house near the school with two new friends of hers, Rachel Mott and Megan Smith, both of whom were also well liked teachers at Long Beach. She had even adopted their love of gardening.

"Emma!" It was Megan's voice ringing through the house. She came running into the room, her golden locks bouncing behind her, as Emma was correcting some essays that she was hoping to get back to the students sometime soon. "Emma, you're always in here. Come outside and help with the gardening."

"You know that I have no knack whatsoever for gardening. I can barely get anything right even if you tell me exactly what to do."

"I know; that's why you're coming outside right now and learning everything."

She dragged her outside to the front yard.

"And I really don't get why we have to do all the gardening in the front yard." Emma groaned again. She didn't enjoy messing up when others were walking by.

"Nice Megan, you actually got her outside." That was Rachel. Her head was bent over the ground digging holes to plant the tulip bulbs in.

"So...what do you want me to do?" Emma asked, thinking that the faster she got stuff done, the faster she'd get out of there.

"We are giving you two jasmine plants," Rachel's light voice drifted over her ears. "and you get to grow them, pick the flowers and do all that stuff."

"That's great. I'm gonna kill them both in the next few days." She groaned yet again.

"No you won't. We'll be watching what you're doing and there is no way that we're gonna let you kill the plants."

"Fine," she threw up her hands in defeat, "What do I do?"

Rachel and Megan just smirked at each other before giving Emma detailed instructions on what to do.

Over the next few weeks Emma grew to love her jasmine plants. She had even set up a trellis for them to grow on, so that when they finished growing, they would be perfuming the walkway that led up to the house.

Her love was so strong that when the winter chill set in, and the branches close to the ground started turning brown, she felt as though her heart was going to tear apart.

That was until Megan assured her that she had done nothing wrong and that they would become green once again in the spring.

When February rolled around, she woke up extra early every morning just to hand pick every last flower by herself.

One night when she was falling asleep, she thought of Colin and how she hoped he had found the same happiness she had.

That summer, the three of them had decided to go to New York for Independence day. They all had a great time that week. Fireworks. Late night parties with old friends of theirs. Broadway shows. The works really. Everything was going great. That was until she saw messy black hair and a very badly covered up scar at a party.

Emma had decided not to use any magic since that could easily be tracked by the ministry, and Voldemort had taken over the ministry. Any at all. That included glamour charms to alter her appearance. She had no idea that she would meet anyone she knew while she was here and immediately panicked when she saw Harry.

She went to the bar to buy herself a drink. Nothing alcoholic; she didn't want to let her tongue get loose and let something slip. Just a soda. She barely realized it when Harry slid into the seat next to her.

"It's been a while hasn't it?" He asked. Stupid, conceited prat. Blowing her cover.

"Sorry?" she said feigning confusion.

"You don't have to put that look up with me, Gin. "

Yes I do! she thought to herself.

"I'm sorry, sir. My name is Emma not...Jen or whatever you called me."

"And I'm Draco Malfoy," he said sarcastically.

"Who?"

"You know Draco Malfoy, the kid who killed Dumbledore."

"I'm really sorry sir, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Fine, how 'bout a dance then, for old times sake?"

"A dance with someone who thinks that I know them? I think not."

She left the bar to join Megan and Rachel on the dance floor.

"That guy over there has been staring at you for the last half hour," Megan whispered into her ear.

"That guy, thinks he knows me. He keeps on talking like we actually knew each other. And he's not going to leave me alone, I can clearly see."

"Come on," Rachel said, "we'll set him straight."

The three of them walked up to the bar and took a seat a certain distance away from him. Far enough so it would seem as though they were minding their own business, but close enough so that he would notice then.

Emma then ordered a bottle of gin, but, to Rachel and Megan's surprise, she didn't touch it.

When he finally walked over to them, Emma turned around and stuck the bottle of gin in his hand.

"Here sir," she stated coldly, "is your Gin. Do enjoy your dance."

"Gin," he started again. Emma kept walking. "Gin, don't do this to me. Everyone's been pushing me away. Don't you do this to me, too." Emma kept walking. "Damn it Gin, if you don't listen to me I'll..."

She turned around slowly and walked up to him. "You'll what? Call the authorities? Beat me up? Kidnap me?"

"I'll tell your mother and the rest of your family."

"You were right girl," Megan said walking up to stand next to her, "he's truly bonkers." She shot him a glare. "Come on Emma, it's OK. He's screwed in the head." She put an arm around her and lead her away.

Rachel walked up to the man, stared at him for a few seconds, and threw a fist straight into his nose, breaking it in one blow. "You're an idiot, you know. A sick idiot."

"What did I do?" he said, "I just wanted a dance with my girlfriend."

"Emma doesn't even know you, first of all. And second of all, you had to bring her family into it."

She threw another punch into his stomach. "You don't belong amongst civilized people; get lost and leave our girl alone."

She threw him a glare and stalked away.

On the other side of the bar Megan was trying to console Emma; who, at the time, was sobbing quite heavily.

"Come on Em," she said soothingly, "It's really ok."

"Sorry," Emma said after getting control of herself, "It's just I miss my family so much. it just hurts so much to remember that they're not here with me."

It was then that she heard someone whisper a stunner spell and she impulsively threw herself over Megan.

She looked over at the man who was trying to convince her that they knew each other and saw his messy, black hair turn into Lucius Malfoy's long silver hair. It was then that she saw the Death Eaters stepping out of the shadows and circling the area, unbeknownst to the others in the area.

Suddenly a green light shot out of nowhere, hitting an unaware partygoer square in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

His girlfriend screamed alerting the people around them, and dropped to her knees checking for a pulse. When she found none, she started screaming again. All around them others picked up on the situation, and Emma pulled Megan farther into their niche in the wall. The Death Eaters, realizing that their cover was gone, stepped out into the open and started killing as many people as possible in hopes that Ginny Weasley would be among one of them.

Emma looked across the expanse to where Rachel had been standing and saw that she was no longer there. She tried to leave and look for Rachel, but Megan pulled her back in.

"I'll go," she whispered, "It's obvious that they came her for you."

Emma managed to let out a, "How?" in her shock.

"I saw that guy change and shoot green light at the people. I'll go; I won't be a direct target."

Emma nodded, "Be careful."

Megan nodded and left, stooping low to keep unnoticed.

Emma sat there wishing she could turn her eyes away from the killing and torturing, but she knew that if she missed seeing Rachel, she would never forgive herself.

She sat there for approximately five minutes, but she would definitely say that they were the longest five minutes in her life.

When Megan finally returned with Rachel, Emma was seriously contemplating going to search for both of them herself.

"We've got to get out of here," Megan said.

"We can't," Emma replied, "They've got the whole place surrounded and they'd kill us the moment they saw the two of you with me."

"Rachel?" Megan asked the girl who, until now, had been strangely silent.

"Emma," she said slowly, "aren't you one of those people?"

"No," she stated slightly offended.

"Sorry, that came out wrong. Can't you do magic like they can?"

"Yes," she said slowly trying to see where this was going. She was usually no good in situations like this since her brain had the bad habit of freezing.

"Emma, can't you use some magic to get us out?" Megan caught on quickly.

"Well...I can Apparate us out, but it's going to be hard since I'll be taking two people with me instead of one and..." her mind was slowly beginning to function.

"I really don't care what the chances are; I want to get out." Megan's statement gave her some sort of confidence.

"Just hold on to me tightly."

She closed her eyes and focused on the alleyway that they had noticed before they came in.

Within moments, they arrived there and started running as far from the building as they could possibly get. Rachel finally led the way to a small abandoned shed.

"I'm sorry," Emma said, "this is all my fault."

Megan lowered her eyes, "Actually something like this could have happened ‘cause of me to."

"Why'd you say that?" Emma asked.

"I'm Muslim. It was why I never really believed your story Emma. I was in Iraq for a long time and I...actively participated in terrorist activities. And I did it of my own free will. I was young and foolish, and I wanted to join everyone else I knew and shoot guns and set bombs and do all that stuff that was just normal over there. It was really great until I started seeing my friends die. I had so much trouble deciding whether to get out. The killings gave me a high of sorts, and I'd also seen what happened to those who'd been caught while trying to leave. So when I finally got out, I wanted to forget everything; I was so ashamed of what I'd done, I wanted to become a new person. They almost caught me when I was at a supermarket in Utah. I had to move from there because of that. I haven't seen them since, and I never wanted to really get to know anyone for fear of putting them in danger. That's why I was always by myself; but you know Rachel, she wouldn't let me be until we were good friends."

"Well," Rachel began, "if we're telling tales, then I guess it would be my turn. You'll find wanted signs for me all over Mexico since I was illegally selling drugs to make money."

"That's it?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, I was just trying to make some money to go to Harvard when they caught me. I ended up going to Yale, but I'm still here. And still wanted over there. Mind you, I did learn to fight pretty well while over there. And you Emma?"

"I was on the losing side of the war in the wizarding world. It was mainly because of my family and my boyfriend that they wanted me, but...other than that, I was never really old enough to do anything. Although, if I was, I would have killed as many of them as I could."

"That's ok, now we've all got each other, and nothing is going to separate us," Megan said.

"Definitely," Rachel said, "and nothing is going to change that."

And as the three of them sat together in the old, abandoned shed, they realized that although they were all from different parts of the world, they fit together somehow. They fit together in a way that no one else could fathom. They were all fugitives.

“Emma!”

“I’m here Megan!”

“Emma what are you doing? You’re sitting in here grading essays on…” She looked over Emma’s shoulder, “…on the relationship between Hinduism and Christianity?”

“It’s actually really interesting. The kids do have a very wide variety of explanations and connections.”

“We have a new neighbor waiting outside.”

“Megan, is she out yet?” Rachel yelled.

“I’m getting there!” she yelled back.

“Just come out, you’ll thank me for it later,” Megan said.

Emma scribbled a grade onto the paper she was grading and went out to see what was going on this time.

“Emma,” Rachel said, “you’re finally out here. Good. I’d like you to meet our new neighbor, Anthony Banks.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said as she looked at a man not much older than herself. He was tall with a very pale complexion. He had brown hair that had pale blond roots, showing that it was obviously dyed. And as she looked into his blue-grey eyes, she sensed a connection that scared her.

“And you,” he replied.

“You must come over to dinner tonight,” Megan said. “It’s tradition in the little town where we come from.”

“Well then how could I refuse?” Anthony replied. “When will you be expecting me?”

“Seven should be good,” Emma said, cutting in. There was something about him that said that they weren’t on the same street by accident. He was here for one of them, and she wasn’t going to let him out of her sight if she could help it.

They all said their hasta luego’s and made there way into the house. Once they were all inside, Rachel stated her fears quite clearly.

“There is definitely something wrong with him,” Rachel said, “but I don’t care what he does as long as he doesn’t learn anything about us. And what were you two thinking by inviting him to dinner?”

“It is commonly said,” Emma explained, “that you should keep you friends close and your enemies closer.”

“Ok,” Rachel said, “but I really don’t know how I can be friendly with him.”

“You don’t have to be mushy,” Megan said. “All you need to do is pretend he’s really a friend.”

“Don’t worry,” Emma said, “you tend to do good enough –” Emma stopped in shock. “Did it occur to you that we, or the house, could be bugged?”

“To the park,” Rachel said. “I’ll drive,” she added, grabbing the keys and pushing a very shocked Megan and a scared Emma out of the door and into their Honda Civic parked in the driveway.

They turned onto the main road when Megan pointed out, “Rach, we’ve had a black sedan behind us for the last ten minutes.”

She turned into a side street and worked her way into the labyrinth.

“He’s still there,” Megan said quite calmly.

Rachel turned again, emerging onto the main road. “Let’s see if he can keep sight of us in this rush.”

“He’s having virtually no problem,” Megan said after another ten minutes.

“Any ideas Emma?” Rachel asked. All this time Emma had been huddling silently in the corner.

“Um…hit a u-turn? See if we’re not just going to the same place,” Emma replied, glancing around very quickly.

Rachel crashed her foot onto the breaks and turned the car in a 360, jolting the vehicle in the process.

“Still there,” Megan said. “What now?”

Rachel turned into another side street and worked her way into the alleyways. The sedan pulled up next to them and four big, burly men got out, each of them holding a gun.

“Get out,” the tall one said with a gruff, Arabic accent.

The three of them stepped out of the car very slowly.

“Emma,” Megan whispered, “can’t you pop us out of here?”

“I’ll…I’ll try,” she replied with a shaky voice.

“And no talking,” the man boomed. He signaled to one of the other men who came and grabbed Rachel.

“Which one is the traitor?” Megan poked Emma in the side.

Emma closed her eyes and thought of the park. The green grass swaying in the wind and the clear blue lake with all the happy families boating there. The children playing in the sand and on the playground. The couples sitting under trees and on benches.

Rachel, realizing what was happening, grabbed a hold of Emma, and when she realized the man behind them was joining them, she quickly slugged him with her firearm and held on tightly to Emma. It wasn’t until later that they realized that there was an extra someone next to them, but not with them. Someone traveling with their own magic.

The three of them landed on the edge of a forest, the unknown had slid away in another direction, and no one seemed to notice their appearance. They strolled into the center of the park and claimed a private spot under a tree. The hot April sun beat down upon their backs, causing them to shed their jackets before they began to discuss the problem at hand.

“That was all my fault,” Megan said. It was the first time they’d spoken for what must have seemed like a century.

“That’s great,” Rachel said. “From my memory, I do recall Emma saying something along the same lines.”

“It’s okay Megan,” Emma pulled her into a sisterly embrace. “That’s why we stick together like this. Something like this could have been caused by just about any of us. Don’t fret over it.”

Megan began to cry on Emma’s shoulder, and Rachel came behind her to pat her back.

“Like Emma said, it could’ve been any of us,” Rachel noted. “We should move on to the reason why we were coming here in the first place.”

Megan dried her tears and pulled herself together fairly quickly. “Right, so…Anthony. Funny guy.”

“Not so much we can do about him,” Emma replied.

“We could keep track of what he does, but that’s kinda illegal isn’t it?” Megan thought aloud.

“What’s the time?” Rachel asked arbitrarily.

“Five thirty,” Emma replied. “Why?”

“We should get going. We’ve got company for dinner if I remember correctly,” Rachel answered.

“Oh my God! I completely forgot,” Megan exclaimed.

“Might as well drop by the supermarket on the way back. We should be able to make good time if we jog the rest of the way,” Rachel said, pulling out her cell phone to double check the time.

“Let’s go,” Megan said. The three of them jogged to the market and bought everything they needed. They all had a habit of keeping most of their essential items—keys, credit cards, and so on—on their body.

The real curiosity occurred when they got home. Their Civic was standing in the driveway without any dents. It actually looked much better than it had before they left.

“Later,” Rachel had groaned over a bag full of plastic utensils.

The meal was easy enough to prepare: spinach ravioli with a mix of tofu and beans to go with it.

Anthony arrived promptly at seven, and they all sat down to eat soon enough.

“Really,” he said once the meal was over, “you ladies really outdid yourselves.”

They had all introduced themselves thoroughly during the meal, giving him the set backgrounds they had created for themselves before they had met.

“A tradition,” he continued, looking at Rachel, “in my hometown is to do something polite when someone moves in.” He let the statement hang in the air before getting up and excusing himself for the night.

The three of them went to bed wondering what he could’ve done.

***********

“No!” Emma sat up straight. She was sweating. She walked down the stairs, making sure her footsteps didn’t make any noise. She pulled her sweats tight around her legs such that they didn’t make any noise and kept her breathing shallow and soft. She grabbed her water bottle of the counter and took a couple sips.

Her dream was a strange one. She remembered that much. It was about the war. She hadn’t dreamt about the war in a really long time. She was watching the green beam of light shoot from Voldemort’s wand straight into Harry’s chest. She had never seen Harry die; she had been sitting in the Room of Requirement and had heard about it later. This was a dream she had gotten night after night for months after the war. But as she had let go of Harry, the dreams had let go of her.

But something else about the dream was bugging her. She closed her eyes and visualized the dream that had come to her and her thoughts throughout the night.

She opened her eyes slowly, finally realizing what was different about that night’s dream. She ran through her memory to make sure Harry’s eyes had never turned grey and his hair had never flashed blond.

She wondered how none of them had not noticed it before. How, specifically, she had never noticed it. The obviously dyed hair, the grey eyes, the politeness that had gotten Megan cooing from the moment she had seen him.

No longer feeling the need to be quiet, she grabbed her keys and stepped out of the house, making sure she locked it on her way out.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noted several cars parked in their neighbor’s driveway.

Images from her last encounter with Death Eaters came flooding back to her. She closed her eyes and desperately willed her brain to not shut down on her as it so often did in emergency situations. She walked up the porch and rang the doorbell.

“Emma,” Anthony said once he opened the door, “I’ve got some friends over, but do come join us.”

She nodded, “Thank you; I do believe I’ll take you up on your offer.”

He opened the door wider to allow her to come in and led her to the living room. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t dressed for the type of company her neighbor was keeping. The second thing was that she knew everyone in the room. Not one of the people in the room had bothered to change their appearance. Hermione sat next to Ron while Harry sat in a chair off to the side. That was the third thing, and it nearly made her heart stop. Harry was sitting there, alive and well, talking to Hermione and Ron. She had gotten over him a long time ago, but it was still a shock to see him.

“Hey you guys,” Anthony said, “this is Emma, our neighbor. Emma, this is Harry, Ron, and Hermione.” Emma smiled at each of them in turn and noted that none of them had bothered to cover up their names and that Anthony had said ‘our neighbor,’ meaning that they were probably living here, too. She stifled a giggle, thinking how odd it would be to be living next door to her brother.

Emma took a seat next to Harry. “So, Harry,” she said, turning to him, “what do you do here?”

“I’m hoping to open my own shop nearby. A book store,” he replied. “How ‘bout you?”

“I teach the literature course up at Long Beach.” She smirked inwardly to herself, knowing exactly why they were here. Although why they were living with Draco Malfoy would remain a mystery to her.

“Excuse me for a moment,” she said after conversing with the three of them for some time. She ran into the bathroom and pulled her cell out of her pocket. She never stepped out of the house without it. She opened it and sent a text to Rachel and Megan.

@ Anthonyz house. My family somehow living w/ him.
Cover for me @ work if I dont show. Thx. – Emma

As she walked back, she noticed the four of them discussing something seriously. She refrained from entering the room and listened in.

“I swear, that must be her.” That was Anthony’s voice. “I even saw her Disapparate earlier today.”

“That can’t be Ginny,” Ron replied. “Ginny would have kept the hair at least; she was really proud of it.”

“And,” Hermione added, “I don’t think she would have sat down next to you without showing a bit of shock. We all told her that you were dead.”

“So if she’s not Ginny Weasley, she must be a witch,” Anthony countered.

“That’s not necessarily true,” Harry said. “Any three of them could be witches.”

“I’ve seen side-along apparition with one person, but never with two,” Hermione said.

“She’d have to be a really strong witch to pull two people along.”

“Two of them could be witches, or even all three of them,” Harry said. “We need to consider all possibilities.”

“I think,” Ron said, “that we should just ask her.”

Emma felt as though this was the perfect time for her to walk in. “Ask me what?” she asked as sweetly as she could. She then stepped into the gaze of four very angry and very shocked eyes.