Breaking the rules

Ginny scrambled to cover them both with the cloak as the world began spinning around them. Gripping her wand tightly, Ginny glanced at her watch again. "We\'re too late!" She whispered anxiously.



"Nonsense. Get Ready...shield charm..." Ron muttered, facing the spot where Fred and Percy\'s familiar forms were coming into focus.



"You\'re joking, Perce! You\'re actually joking  I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were –" Fred\'s voice reached them as the spinning stopped. 



"Protego!" Ron and Ginny screamed in unison just as the wall behind their brothers exploded. She and Ron were both thrown clear, and quickly scrambled to their feet, watching anxiously as their past selves, Hermione, Harry, George and Percy all slowly crawled out from under the rubble.



"We were too late," Ginny moaned.



"No...look!" Ron whispered ecstatically, pointing. 



"Fred?" George was digging through the rubble for his twin, but unlike the first time around, a bloodied hand was reaching for him from under the wall.



"Ugh...George? I think I broke my...everything..." Fred\'s muffled voice came from the pile of shattered rock. "Who cast that shield? I owe you a drink,"



"It was Ron," Percy said, patting past Ron on the back.



"No it wasn\'t," Past Ron shook his head confusedly. 



"I thought I heard Ginny..." Harry mumbled, glancing at past Ginny, but then shifting his gaze to the spot where Ron & Ginny were huddled under his cloak.



Ginny glanced down and noticed her foot was sticking out from other her cloak. Pulling it back, she looked back at Harry and he nodded slightly in their direction. "You know, some things are maybe better left unquestioned. What matters is everyone is alright," he turned back to where George was gently pulling Fred from under the wall.



"Speak for yourself, Harry," Fred was frighteningly pale, and blood covered the right side of his face; but he was alive and Ginny had to fight the urge to throw herself at him.



Ron clearly had the same problem, because he suddenly embraced her tightly and did a wiggly sort of victory dance that threatened to displace the cloak, "We did it! We did it!" He murmured over and over, tears of joy flowing down his cheeks. 



"That was way too close!" Ginny whispered back, trying to slow her breathing and brushing her own tears from her eyes. They watched ecstatically as everyone drifted downstairs, with George and Percy supporting Fred between them.



"What do we do now?" Ginny asked, pulling the cloak off once they were alone. "We have no idea where Dolohov will be for hours yet."



"I don\'t know," Ron shrugged, "Harry, \'Mione and I are off to the shrieking shack after Voldemort. That\'s where he killed Snape. We could try to save the greasy git..." he looked less than thrilled with the idea, but Ginny had to agree from what he\'d told her that the professor\'s death had been really unfair.



"But how?" Ginny asked. "If You Know Who doesn\'t think he\'s got control of the wand, he might use a different one. Harry might not win,"



"We let the snake bite him, wait for him and Harry to leave, then try giving him a bezoar and blood replenishing potion?" Ron shrugged. "I really don\'t think he was completely dead when we left him, " he admitted guiltily.



Ginny frowned at this news, but nodded, having no better plan. "Let\'s go by the infirmary...we might need some other supplies before this is over..."



"Too bad we didn\'t have more time before we came here. St Mungo\'s had everything we might need," Ron sighed as they began to make their way to the infirmary. 



"It didn\'t have Fred," Ginny reminded him with a grin. Squealing quietly, she did another small victory dance and Ron chuckled. "Are we always going to remember that he really died?" He asked thoughtfully. "I don\'t want to remember how that felt."



"I don\'t know," Ginny shrugged. "Hermione & Harry seem to remember seeing all the stuff that they actually did when they went back to save Sirius, but who knows what really happened before that,"



"But...coming back was Kingsley\'s idea, because of Harry\'s dying. If Harry doesn\'t get hurt, he\'ll never send us back, and if we don\'t ever come back, we won\'t stop Dolohov, and Harry will die," Ron frowned worriedly. "Is this even going to work?"



"But we are back. We\'re changing things. Once everything has changed, there\'s no reason to go back. Otherwise we\'d be stuck coming back over and over forever." Ginny mused. "It worked for Harry and Hermione, it will work for us."



"If you say so," Ron chuckled, "I should\'ve thought of that. This whole thing is already giving me a headache,"



Ginny bit her lip, "It\'s confusing but I don\'t think Kingsley would have sent us back if he didn\'t think it could work," she shrugged uncertainly as they finally reached the infirmary. Pulling the cloak back over them, they slipped inside, but found the room deserted. A large section of the outside wall was completely gone and they could see giants moving around at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. 



"Bloody hell...we\'ll never find anything in this mess!" Ron wailed.



Ginny frowned as she felt a strange shift in her mind, "We have to hurry. Mum and I are on our way up here to get stuff for Fred!" She rubbed her head as her memories seemed to swirl dizzyingly. Then she blinked. "My memories just changed!"



"Huh?" Ron glanced up at her from the remains of an overturned cabinet.



"I can remember what my past self is doing right now. It\'s different now, because Fred\'s alive. Mum and I are coming to get healing supplies for him." Ginny rubbed her head. "This is giving me a headache..."



"Here," Ron grinned and handed her a bottle of pain potion before tossing a few other bottles into Hermione\'s bag. "At least now we know that just because we still remember Harry dying it doesn\'t mean we won\'t save him. We just haven\'t saved him yet," As he finished speaking, he held up a bezoar and smiled triumphantly, "Got it! Let\'s get out of here!"



Throwing the cloak back over them, Ginny dragged him to the door and they slipped back into the hallway, nearly running into their mother and herself. She had to bite back a laugh at the suspicious expression on her own face before her mother dragged her into the infirmary. "That was close...I heard our footsteps," she sighed with relief, remembering her fears that a Death Eater was lurking near the infirmary. 



"We\'ve gotta be more careful," Ron agreed, grabbing her hand, "C\'mon!"



As they ran downstairs and across the grounds to the Whomping Willow, Ginny giggled as she remembered her own confusion when Fred, groggy from pain potions kept insisting she had been the one that saved him. 



"Shhh!" Ron hushed her as they crawled through the tunnel. "I\'m not sure we\'ve left yet."



Sure enough, they heard shuffling footsteps up ahead. Flattening themselves against the side of the tunnel, they held their breath as past Ron, Hermione and Harry shuffled by under the past version of the cloak. She wondered briefly about the implications of two of the same Deathly Hallow being in the same place at the same time and felt her headache increasing. "I think we\'d better make sure this cloak doesn\'t touch that one if we run into you guys again," she suggested worriedly. 



"Good idea," Ron whispered. Pushing on a few boards, he lead her through a trapdoor and into a dark room, pulling off the cloak, "He\'s over here," Ron whispered, "Lumos,"



In the dim light from Ron\'s wand, she saw Snape lying in a huge pool of blood. "I think we\'re too late," she sighed. The professor looked completely lifeless. 



"Let\'s just try..." Ron suggested. "Can\'t hurt,"



Nodding, Ginny cast a cleansing charm and cleared the blood from the older wizard\'s face and neck, wincing at the sight of the ragged snake bite. "Give him the bezoar while I try to close this up," she murmured. "Um...Vulnera Sanentur," She muttered hoping she\'d remembered Draco\'s healing spell correctly. She sighed with relief when the wound finally closed over. 



Meanwhile, Ron had managed to shove a bezoar in Snape\'s mouth, and he now began rubbing the newly healed flesh on his throat, forcing him to swallow it. Snape moaned and Ginny smiled hopefully. Ron grinned and pulled a bottle of blood replenisher out of his pocket. Uncorking it, he poured the entire contents down Snape\'s throat. They waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. 



"Try another," Ginny suggested.



Ron quickly obeyed, then sat back on his heels with an expectant look on his face. Several minutes passed and they both began to grow nervous. "We have to leave soon to get back in time for the last battle," Ron muttered anxiously, waving his wand at Snape, " Rennervate!"



The black haired wizard\'s body immediately jerked and he began coughing weakly. Ginny quickly conjured a glass of water and held it to his lips, "Here, Professor..." she murmured gently. 



Snape took a few small sips, then gingerly rubbed his throat. Glancing at Ron, Snape squinted, then asked, "You came back?"



Ron winked at Ginny, "You could say that. Look...I think you\'re gonna live, but here\'s another bezoar in case you need it, and more blood replenisher. Here\'s a couple of pain potions, too..." he said, lining up several small bottles as he spoke. "You know who needs to think you\'re dead until at least 5:30, so you have to stay here. We\'ll send someone for you once it\'s safe,"



"Excuse me?" Snape raised an eyebrow incredulously. 



"Harry\'s gonna kill Snakeface at about 5:30, and you need to stay here until then. Don\'t force us to body bind you," GInny sighed impatiently. "Please...we\'ll explain everything later, I promise, but now we\'ve got to go find someone before it\'s too late,"



"Messing with time, are we?" Snape smirked, glancing pointedly at the time turner, which was still around Ginny\'s neck, "Careful...the Ministry doesn\'t approve of that sort of thing..."



"We were sent by the new Minister himself," Ron smirked proudly.



"He sent you? Is everyone competent dead?" Snape asked, eyebrows raised in mock horror.



Ginny realized, to her amazement, that he was actually joking with them and smiled, "Shut up and take it easy till it\'s safe for you to come out. We\'ve gotta go save Draco now,"



"We\'re saving him too?" Ron asked incredulously. 



"Did you think we\'d just let Dolohov kill him before we stop him?" Ginny asked, equally incredulously. 



"I guess not," Ron muttered. 



"You heard how upset his mother was about his death," Ginny scolded. "She saved Harry. We can\'t let that happen to them."



"Plotting to save little Draco? Am I dreaming? Am I dead? Is this hell? I would be surrounded by Weasleys..." Snape smirked. When they both frowned at him, his smirk changed to a faint smile and he made a shooing gesture at them, "Go. I\'ll stay here until I am summoned or hell freezes over, whichever comes first. Perhaps I\'ll conjure some bonbons and do a little light reading..."



Ginny exchanged a confused look with Ron, then shrugged, "Let\'s go, we don\'t have time to deal with his mental issues right now,"



"Clearly almost dying has not agreed with him," Ron nodded agreeably as they walked back to the trapdoor. As they hurried through the tunnel, they heard Snape giggling behind them. "What the hell is in those potions?" Ron mumbled, shuddering. 



"I don\'t know but I hope it wears off! That was just creepy!" Ginny muttered.