Ginny jumped. "Harry!" she said in a fierce whisper. "How did you get in?"
"C'mon, I'll show you." Harry grabbed her hand and led her to a space between two trees on the far side of the orchard.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Harry? What am I looking at? There's nothing here."
He grinned. "Oh yes, ahem… 'The secret passage into the Burrow is located between the two most northern trees in the orchard.'"
Ginny processed his words and was shocked as a trapdoor appeared in the ground.
"What was that? How did you?" she spluttered.
"That was a fidelius charm," Harry said. "It preserves a secret, and only the secret keeper can reveal the secret. I'm the secret keeper. C'mon." He opened the trap door and descended the stairs beneath.
Ginny hesitated, then followed. "But where did the secret passage come from?" she asked as they made their way along. "I've never seen it before."
"I built it," Harry said. "There are ways to get around tight, interwoven perimeter wards like the Burrow has, but doing it without anyone noticing either takes hours to do it once, or leaves very obvious signs of a permanent entrance. Creating an underground passageway, hidden by a fidelius, lets me create a permanent way without anyone being any the wiser, and only the secret keeper, and those who posses the secret, — i.e. you — can use it. Ah! Here we are." He stopped in a small room hollowed out of the earth.
Ginny could see runestones lining the walls, floor, and ceiling. A wooden walkway elevated the path they were walking on above the stones.
"The runestones trick the ward system into thinking they are the next ward stone in the system, and that the system is still complete, when, in fact, there is now a hole," Harry said. "It's called a man in the middle attack. It's often pretty useless, because most warded systems have area wards as well as perimeter wards, but the Burrow doesn't."
Ginny bit her lip. She didn't want to imagine the trouble she'd be in if her parents ever found out about this. "And only we can use it?"
"Yes. Only you and me. C'mon."
They crept down the passage until they came out of another trapdoor. Ginny looked around and found herself in the middle of a small copse. "Hey, I know where this is. We're training here?"
"Nope, we've a little way yet." Harry reached into his pocket and drew something out. "Here," he said, handing her what looked like a tiny broomstick. "The activation phrase is 'Harry's awesome broomstick.'"
Ginny inspected the tiny broomstick and grinned. It looked like a nimbus 1700. She'd only ridden one of these once, for two minutes. John had let her have a go on her birthday before Ron had glared daggers at John and he'd asked it back.
"Say it," Harry urged.
"Harry's awesome broomstick."
The tiny broomstick expanded into a full adult version, and, laughing, she swung her leg over the shaft.
"Hold it!"
She looked at him.
Harry brought out a wand and tapped her on the head. She felt like an egg had been cracked over her. "What the?"
"Disillusionment. We'll blend into the background, which in the night-sky makes us damn near invisible."
"Wow… ah… Harry, how do you have a wand?"
"Later," he said, pulling out his own broom.
They both shot into the sky, Harry occasionally calling out to guide her. Flying while almost invisible was thrilling, but also disconcerting. She felt like a bird, swooping and curving around the sky on this incredible broom, but, at the same time, she didn't know exactly where Harry was, and couldn't shake the feeling she was going to crash into him.
After twenty minutes of the most enthralling flying she'd ever had, they touched down in the clearing of a wood. A small waterfall splashed and flowed to one side.
Harry faded into view before dispelling her. He then started waving his wand in patterns causing several bluebell flame lanterns to appear from nowhere. They floated upwards, hanging themselves on nearby branches, casting a soft, blue light on everything. It was beautiful.
"Muggle repelling wards," he said, by way of explanation. "So, what do you think?"
"It's a very nice place. Having a picnic here during the day would be nice." She walked over to the stream, squatted down, and dipped her hand in, testing the water. "So, what are we going to learn?"
"How are your occlumency studies going?"
She stood back up and shuffled her feet. "What's occlumency?"
Harry looked shocked. It was the first time she'd ever seen him surprised. "Oh wow… that… actually explains so much."
"Explains what?" she asked, getting agitated. "What's occlumency?"
"It's the magic of the human mind. All pureblood houses that I've encountered teach their children occlumency, because, without it, anyone trained in legilimency can pull family secrets straight from your head… or any other secret for that matter. It also gives those who study it better concentration, memory, and skill acquisition."
Ginny was aghast as the implications sank in. She'd never heard her parents so much as mention such a practise to her, or any of her brothers.
"You mean, people read our minds?"
"Well… you might have some latitude. A lot of wizards might assume your family practises occlumency, and so don't try to probe you. It's considered a large faux pas to be caught using legilimency on someone with the defences to detect intrusion. But anyone who knows you don't practise it…"
"Why isn't using legilimency illegal?"
"Because the noble houses, most of which are pureblood, learn occlumency, but the muggleborns—and to a lesser extant non noble halfbloods—either don't know to, can't, or decide it's not worth it. This gives the noble houses, and other traditional houses, a massive advantage over everyone else, and they mostly control the law, so why should they outlaw it?"
Ginny thought about it. It made sense. It wasn't right, but it made sense. "So I need to learn this?"
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