John climbed The Burrow stairs to Ginny's room.
His mum had just got back from the Dursleys. Her red cheeks and puffy eyes suggested it hadn't been a happy reunion. Apparently, his brother still lived there, and was as ignorant as ever. Hagrid had turned up earlier that morning and was taking him shopping.
His parents had been distressed by the possibility of someone called Harry manipulating Ginny. From that, he'd managed to force a confession of his brother's existence, one month earlier than in the last time-line. From there, it hadn't been much work to get things moving. Ginny was being flushed of potions, enchantments, and mind magic, and it shouldn't be too long before he had the real Ginny back.
For a moment, he'd been afraid his brother had somehow also come back in time, but that seemed not to be the case. Not that he couldn't have dealt with it if he had. Harry would've only been a fourteen year-old weakling with two years of magical education, and two years of prison, after all. But if not his brother, then who was the Harry the broomstick spoke of?
He arrived at Ginny's door and pushed it open.
The sight that greeted him made him feel ill. Ginny was rope-bound to her bed. Her face was chalk white, and a foul smelling bucket stood by the bed. Her head, previously staring up the ceiling, turned to look at the opening door.
Her eyes narrowed. "You," she all but hissed.
"Hi, Ginny," he said, not keeping eye contact. The continued venom vanished the pit of his stomach. "You don't have to worry. You'll be better soon."
"Better!" She croaked, coughed, and a stream of green liquid dribbled from her mouth; it flowed into the bucket. "There's nothing wrong with me!" She struggled on her bindings, but her attempts were weak.
"Ginny, if you're under someone else's influence then you wouldn't know it."
She stared at him. "It was you, wasn't it? You took my broomstick. That's why you stayed over last night."
"Ginny—" he began.
"You! You!" She sputtered and coughed, and more green liquid poured from her mouth. She stopped struggling and collapsed back. "Get out."
"Ginny."
"Get out!"
She flailed again, and an unseen force hit him square in the face, knocking him back and onto the floor. His face stung. Accidental magic. Ginny was getting unstable. He scrabbled backwards, out of the door, and safely around the corner, trying to ignore the continued stream of insults hurled at him.
He reached and closed the door. He trembled. What had happened that required Ginny to be tied down? It must have been something severe. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would tell him.
...
"…And then Andromeda was thrown backwards, off her chair, and slammed into the cabinet. Apparently Ginny has a fully built mind-scape." Arthur Weasley had dark circles under his eyes. "That shouldn't be possible. We've…" He shifted, and wrung his hands, "We've never taught any of our children occlumency. Couldn't afford the tutors, see? And mind-scapes are advanced."
John perched on a stool and watched the unfolding drama of the Weasley household adjusting to their only daughter cursing their names while suffering real pain and discomfort on their orders. His face was still swollen from Ginny's outburst.
Molly Weasley bustled around the kitchen, cleaning and re-cleaning pots by hand, making far more noise doing so than was necessary. Her eyes were red-shot.
Fred and George sat off to one side, bent over parchment, mostly ignoring the exchange.
Percy wasn't. "There's no way a child like Ginny could build a mind-scape — it's dark magic I tell you."
Molly wailed.
"Percy!" Arthur snapped. "It isn't necessarily dark magic. And just because you don't understand something doesn't automatically make it dark."
Percy looked affronted. "Current ministry regulation designates all new forms of magic as dark until they've been proved otherwise."
"This isn't a new form of magic. And the occlumency isn't the problem. The problem is that she's hanging around people who are influencing her, and forcing her to keep secrets."
John looked around the faces. Left unsaid was that attempting to force those secrets out of Ginny with legilimency had turned out to be a bad idea.
He felt the Weasley's pain, but just like them, knew it was necessary. Exactly how this change had happened was still a mystery, but he was determined to find out. He also needed to find out what else had changed so he could get the time-line back on course.
The door opened and he watched Andromeda Tonks walk in and take a seat.
Molly turned from the sink. "Well?"
Andromeda sighed. Her shoulders slumped forward. "The results have come back negative. There was and is nothing in her system. No potions, no enchantments, no mind-magics." She avoided catching anyone's eyes. "All your daughter's actions are completely her own."
John's mouth dried in an instant.
"In fact, far from being vulnerable to mind-magics, she seems immune to some forms, including compulsion charms."
He started to sweat.
The older Weasleys were staring at Andromeda. Their gazes resigned. Mister Weasley put his head in his hands.
"No." A steel voice rang around the kitchen, and he realised it was his own.
Andromeda turned to him; her voice was monotone. "I'm sorry, John."
"No. You must have missed something."
"We performed a complete system cleanse. Any and all forms of foreign magic residing in the human body are catalogued and cleansed. I'm sorry."
"Then there's something else then!" He screamed.
The assembled Weasleys and Tonks flinched.
He slid off the stool and stumbled his way towards the floo, ignoring the concerned calls of the adults.
It wasn't true. Something else was going on. He'd seen too much weird stuff to just accept someone's word that there were no other possibilities. Ginny was being controlled and he would save her.
....
Join my P*atreon right now and enjoy more than 60 advanced chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/Divine_Quill (Remove the *)
FREE members get up to 2 chapters for FREE.