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.
Ginny sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, no-longer bound, but still very much a prisoner. She forced herself to retreat into her mind-scape to keep the tears from welling up.
Her parents had locked her bedroom door from the outside. She was grounded. Grounded—"until you come clean, young lady,"—her mother had said. They had apologised for the legilimency and putting her through several hours of massive discomfort, but the apology had been weak and was immediately followed by another interrogation about the evil dark wizard trying to corrupt her, and how they just wanted what was best for her. As though they hadn't just tried to force the information from her by mind raping her.
She felt miserable. She wished Harry were here. He always made her feel safe, something she no longer felt in her own home.
She heard a small click, and the door creaked open.
The twin's heads peeped around the corner. They scuttled in and closed the door behind them.
She stared at them over her knees.
"Well look who it is, George."
"The mistress of mind magic herself, Fred."
The two stood to attention, and gave duel, theatrical bows with lots of extraneous hand waving."
Despite feeling terrible, she couldn't help but giggle.
"You are very impressive, Little Sister." "Indeed, oh brother of mine. The tales of your magical prowess have spread far across these lands—" "—Straight to the ears of these two humble rapscallions."
Fred shook his head. "Knocking a fully trained mind-healer out of your head, and onto the floor—" "—Striking down the defeater of You-Know-Who with accidental magic."
She managed to suppress a frown. Oh how badly she wanted to land another dozen stinging hexes on that fraud.
"—And above all, succeeding in sneaking around, learning all that, and who knows what else, without Mum and Dad finding out—"
"—Until your favourite person in the world squealed on you."
This time she did frown.
"No worries, Little Sis. You have clearly shown to have what we need—"
"—And we would like to formerly invite you to our merry band of pranksters… The Hogwarts Buccaneers."
She stared at them. "You don't care about the evil, dark-wizard corrupting your innocent baby sister?" They frowned.
"Of course we care."
"But, it would be hypocritical of us to not take your side."
"Besides, we figure the best way to protect our little sister is to make sure the trouble she gets up to—" "—Is the kind that doesn't end with her being used as potion ingredients in some hideous dark ritual."
Ginny's eyes widened. "They're not really saying that are they?" "No. But it's pretty close." She pursed her lips. "You don't expect me to betray my… err… version of the 'Hogwarts Buccaneers' do you?"
Their faces lit up.
"Betray?"
"Another prankster group?"
"Never," they declared in unison.
She smiled. Harry didn't really know much about the twins. She was sure he'd like them. But getting them on the inside of Harry's circle wouldn't be easy. Harry was the most paranoid person she'd ever met. Given what he'd gone through, she couldn't blame him.
.
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