by: Yidkirkin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

SPOILERS SPOIL THINGS

Two days, a lot of angry internal arguing and a number of exhausting magical tests later, Ginny was released from St. Mungo's and into the custody of her oldest brother. Bill had taken the day off from work, and was picking her up from the children's ward around lunchtime in order to apparate them back to the Burrow and then onto Grimmauld Place. Ginny, in all honesty, could barely remember what apparition entailed –and was thusly a little nervous about travelling that way –but she wasn't about to mention that to anyone.

As she waited for Bill to finish filling out her release forms, Ginny took her time stretching her stiff body and ignoring Kouhei's negative urges as she had started to get used to doing. Much as she was inclined to agree, it wouldn't really do them any good to smash Healer Darcy's skull in when any of the adults around could easily subdue her before she did much damage. Besides, that would only lead to a longer stay in the hospital, this time in the, as Kouhei called it, 'mental ward'.

Better she waited until she really wanted to go postal.

Once she was finished stretching and had thoroughly inspected the entire room for anything she may have forgotten, Ginny paused to try and centre herself. After pulling on the same jumper and too-small shoes she had made her escape in and pocketing her wand, Ginny exited the room and came upon Bill just as he was finishing his last signature. When he saw her he smiled cautiously and stood up, motioning for her to walk beside him down the hall.

"Just need to hand these in, then you're free, Gin'. Feeling alright?" Ginny kept her eyes to the floor and nodded shallowly, lying through her teeth bitterly because while she may have been alright physically, she knew that she was heading towards the point where her mental state was anything but.

"Just fine, thank you." Bill's smile gained an amused tilt to it; had he caught on to her dislike of the hospital so quickly? He opened the door to the small staff room a minute later and handed the papers to a tired looking Healer Cornwall.

"Here you go, all filled out. Ginny, why don't you thank the healers for the two years they looked after you?" Ginny felt a twinge of something dark rearing up inside her chest, outraged at Bill; that he would dare put her in this position, that he would presume to give him orders as if he were his superior, his senpai, but Ginny quickly quashed it. This was not the time to exercise Kouhei's need for respect; this was the time to play the dutiful sister and not fuck herself over. Bending at the waist in the barest semblance of a bow, Ginny murmured a quiet thanks to Healer Cornwall but excluded the annoyance; she was acutely aware of Bill's surprised look directed at the top of her head.

Taking into account her self-preservation, nudged into existence briefly when she had been released from Tom's possession and roaring to life with the appearance of Kouhei, Ginny was far more inclined to try and get along with Bill than she might have been for her other brothers. Bill had left home for Egypt when she had turned seven and this was her first time seeing him since then. It was hard for her to reconcile the plucky, eager teenager she remembered with the long-haired, muscular and so very adult Bill that was now saying his own farewells to the mediwitches. She hadn't grown up with him before he had left either; Ginny had been born just before Bill's first year of Hogwarts and as such she had only seen him during vacations.

So Ginny didn't know how to deal with him; she didn't know his limits, didn't know his triggers or what to avoid saying to him, in essence she was flying blind.

Kouhei was quickly becoming her saving grace in situations like this.

Despite the fairly alarming rise in her temper and inclination for violence since gaining Kouhei's companionship, Ginny was more than glad for him at the moment. For the few minutes that Bill spoke with her before she had been freed from the hospital bed, Kouhei had taken point, his memories of his seniors in high school and the one or two men he had respected in another fashion had filtered into her own mind with startling clarity. What came with that knowledge was an unfortunate sense of irritation; as Kouhei had long surpassed those men and hadn't been treated like an underclassman in an even longer time. Even so, every word, every bow, every deference and greeting and underhanded manipulation, and especially every double cross Kouhei had encouraged was practically her own when she needed it. She didn't have to flounder at the idea of Bill being an unfamiliar family member, an adult who could easily expose her if he was so inclined, because Kouhei already knew how to avoid that.

So when Bill turned back to her and looked ready to speak, Kouhei straightened her back and plastered a smile on her face in preparation; for what, she couldn't be sure.

"Let's?" he asked.

"Please." Bill laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders, something Kouhei was going to take as an easy was out of this place. He couldn't wait to leave; not only had his hatred of hospitals not been dampened by his apparent death, but in the last two days Healer Darcy had not proven herself any less capable of infuriating Kouhei with ease.

By the time he realized that Bill had already brought them to the top of the hospital's main staircase, Kouhei was feeling tense even as relief coursed through him at the thought of vacating the premises. Hospitals and their staff really didn't agree with him, and Ginny too had been feeling ill from the sterile smells and headache inducing lime green accents of St. Mungo's. Bill swiftly descended the stairs and so Kouhei was going to let himself be pulled along for the ride, his sense of dignity be damned.

Once they reached the exit to the waiting room, Kouhei shrugged Ginny's brother's arm off of her back and jumped through the barrier with relish. The bustle of the lobby had managed to make whatever instincts of Kouhei's that were left go on high alert; snippets of knife attacks and garbled half thoughts about a lack of security still flitting through her mind even minutes after he retreated once more.

"Ginny, are you sure you're alright?" Bill asked worriedly, noticing that her skin had paled marginally after they had left the hospital. Really, it was only paranoia, Ginny reasoned silently to herself, but she knew the sweat on her brow was more than just nerves. "You look clammy..."

"Just chuffed," she grumbled, trying her best to not give anything else away. "I'm not good in crowds. I'll be fine once we get to the Burrow."

Bill looked sceptical, but then he placed a hand lightly on her shoulder. "If you say so. Come on then."

The pair walked further down the street, Bill keeping her close to his side again, and then they turned down an alleyway partially obscured by a large garbage bin. Bill offered Ginny a reassuring smile before he spun on the spot, sending the both of them into a dark, suffocating tunnel.

For a few seconds, Ginny felt as if she were being squeezed through a very tight tube, and tried to will away both her panic at the foreign sensation as well as Kouhei's. It was her first time apparating, since side-along was dangerous for kids under a certain age, but although she knew Bill could be trusted with this she still had an awful feeling of terror rising into her throat. Don't be a coward, she heard faintly, even as her lungs opened up again and her knees gave out briefly. You've faced... worse...

They allowed themselves a moment, leaning against Bill so they could regain their balance, before Ginny took a deep breath and moved away from her brother. "We best be quick about it," Bill said, waving his wand in order to unlock the simpler of the Burrow's wards. "Mum wants you at headquarters before dinner. Want me to get your trunk for you? Dad said it's in the attic."

"If you don't mind," Bill smiled and opened the door for her, absentmindedly kicking away a Gnome that had ventured too close. Ginny followed her brother up the stairs but stopped at her bedroom door, waiting until Bill had ascended another floor to enter the room.

Her bedroom was exactly the same as she had left it, right down to the now clean yellow sheets that her mother had found her dying on. The only thing that had changed was Ginny herself; she couldn't deny it any longer, she wasn't even remotely the same as she had been when she had fallen into her coma. Ginny sat down on the nearest corner of her bed and cradled her stomach with her hands, directly over her and Kouhei's scars. She was still so tired, waking up two years out of sync with her surroundings, with all these new thoughts and emotions and expectations floating through her. Was this really some sort of reincarnation as Kouhei's beliefs suggested? Ginny had been raised mostly nonreligious (though she did celebrate Christmas), so she had never even thought about issues like this before. If it wasn't reincarnation, was it some sort of side effect of her possession? Had someone else possessed her during her coma, and upon coming out of it had been unable to leave?

"This is so fucked up. What the hell am I even doing?"she muttered, wanting to scream.

Breaking out of St. Mungo's and beating up some teenagers out of some weird residual need to prove herself? Playing younger sister to Bill and the rest of her family from an impulse to veil her actions from prying eyes? Beating herself up over perfectly normal fears and worries because Kouhei was a tough gangster and she was just a weak, pathetic witch? Crying in her bedroom because she couldn't for the life of her remember what she had been like before Tom had possessed her?!-

By the time that Bill placed her trunk in the doorway, Kouhei had forced her body to calm down and had wiped away any remnants of her tears. Bill watched her throw the trunk onto the middle of her bed and then told her he would be waiting for her in the kitchen, and whatever the reason, they were glad for the solitude at the moment.

Ginny wasn't entirely sure what the accommodations would be like at Grimmauld Place, so she had looked through her room with the intention of taking as little as she could manage; after all, it wasn't as if she had a bottomless trunk, she had space constraints to consider. In the end, besides clothes, she packed about ten of her personal books, all her first year text books, her writing supplies and stationary, a ring her grandmother had left her, all of the money she had kept stashed away in her closet, and the portable radio she had received for her entrance into Hogwarts. She gave one last look around before she was satisfied, and then she dragged her trunk down the stairs and into the living room, where she found Bill reading the newspaper.

"That didn't take too long," he commented, folding the paper away and drawing his wand. Ginny shrugged noncommittally, holding her hand out so that she could take her now shrunken trunk from her brother. "You gonna be good with getting there by apparition again?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay." Ginny said, trying to ignore the nervous fluttering in her stomach. "It just takes a little getting used to. Don't worry." If she had had the choice, then Ginny would much rather get to Grimmauld Place by other means, but that wasn't feasible in this situation. So, with Kouhei nagging at her to 'man up' and Bill holding out his elbow expectantly, Ginny swallowed any anxiety she might have been feeling and wound her arm with her brother's. It was only a split second later that they were on their way, and Ginny was very happy with herself for not collapsing as soon as they arrived in London.

"Okay, now just think about that paper I showed you this morning." Bill prompted, and Ginny did so. Almost immediately a door appeared in between the two houses they were facing, and then came along two dirty grey walls and a few sooty windows that looked almost as if they had been carved into the house instead of built in. Ginny's jaw dropped of its own accord as a cobblestone walkway snaked its way from the doorstep to her feet, with two strips of crab grass infested sod unfurling along with it, ending with a wrought iron gate identical to its neighbours.

Bill smiled at her reaction, but Ginny wasn't impressed by the display, far from it. Instead, all she could think was, 'Fucking shit, more of this magic nonsense,' which resulted in an awkward outward pause, as she debated whether to agree with Kouhei or to ruminate on how messed up it was that she even needed to be making this decision. Bill brought her back to reality, making an impatient sound in the back of his throat and using his free hand to gently push her forward.

Ginny went up the path first, taking only the briefest of moments to look up at the roof of the houses to see an extremely old owl perch hanging from the left corner. The door in front of her was also old, painted black with a silver number twelve bolted next to the door knocker and several scratches prominently placed near the door handle. Bill reached his wand over her head and tapped the wood once, and following a number of loud metallic clicks the door slowly creaked open; Ginny nearly laughed when Kouhei gave her an image of Teru freaking out at a similar scene from a horror movie they had watched.

Ginny stepped inside quickly, keeping in mind the brief warning Bill had given her along with the address of the base, and looked around the dimly lit hallway while the light from the outside allowed it. The walls were covered by dark wood paneling until they abruptly switched to peeling wallpaper about six feet in, the same point that Ginny started to see hanging portraits as well. A glittering, dusty chandelier hung overhead and there was a snake themed candelabrum on a table nearby; Ginny was disgusted to see the troll leg umbrella stand that Bill had offhandedly mentioned sitting directly underneath it.

"I've gotta go Gin, but tell Mum I locked up the Burrow, alright? Kitchen's right down those stairs; I'll see you next time there's a meeting," Bill gave her hair a rough tussle and then he was gone again, leaving Ginny standing alone in the middle of a dark and quiet parlour. Ginny fiddled for a moment with the edge of her jumper, hesitating on descending into the kitchen.

The decision on when to reveal her presence was made for her when her mother unexpectedly exited the room, saw her and practically shrieked in surprise. Ginny barely had enough time to greet Molly before the witch bundled her up in a hug and began fussing over her, moving her away from the parlour and down the stairs where the rest of her family already sat.

"Ginny!" A chorus of voices yelled as soon as she entered the room, and Kouhei flooded forward, tensed, before he registered that the majority of the yelling was from Ginny's brothers. Hermione was also there, to her surprise, and Ginny really had to wonder just how much her father had left out of the explanation he had given her in her hospital room.

All of the Weasley's managed to hug her at least once before Kouhei was able to sit down, and even then he had Hermione to contend with; the older girl had mellowed out a little since Ginny had first met her but was still an intensely curious person, and she certainly hadn't gotten any less talkative. Had Kouhei been completely focused on the older girl he probably would have been itching to harshly bring her down a peg, but as it was he had others to pay attention to. Kouhei was soon introduced to Sirius Black, the host and owner of the entire house, and after he got over the fact that Sirius wasn't quite what he was used to from ex-convicts, Kouhei found that he enjoyed his company immensely. He reminded them of Parko –or at least, he had Parko's sense of humour –and unlike everyone else Sirius actually seemed to be treating her like she was an adult. It was a refreshing difference from her brothers' subconscious 'little sister' treatment and her mother's well intentioned but frustrating coddling.

Not much was said about her prolonged absence, but Ginny could feel that it was probably a subject either one or both of her parents had outright banned from conversation for tonight. She hoped that this wouldn't become a recurring situation –although it would be at least common what with the Order not telling them anything. But that didn't bother the youngest Weasley too much since she wasn't all that invested in what the Order did beyond that her parents were members.

Overall, Kouhei was able to deal with an hour's worth of talking, attention, constant questions, and subtle avoidances, before he caved in to his weaknesses and asked to be shown where Ginny would be sleeping. She dutifully followed Hermione upstairs to where they would be sharing a room, but it was only once she was lying in bed that she allowed her mind to drift back to what she had touched upon back in her room at the Burrow.

Kouhei, after he had deserted his friends to enter the Snake Heads, hadn't had anyone to watch his back until Testuji had come along. Those six or so months, as lonely and difficult as they had been, had taught the Japanese teenager much and had also forced him to do a lot of growing up; even if in some areas he was still like a brat. You couldn't survive on your own without gaining some semblance of maturity and independence, and as such Kouhei had a more developed mentality than others his age did.

Ginny, being the youngest girl of a wizarding family, was underdeveloped in those same areas. She had no street smarts, no concept of money beyond saving it, and with the magical community being as insular and old fashioned as it was she really had no experiences with any other walk of life than a magical one. She would have been content, before her coma, to have gone through an education at Hogwarts, move away from home once she graduated, and someday meet a nice man she might want to marry. She wouldn't have had to think about getting out of hospitals, or checking her surroundings for the glints of a knife, or how to talk with someone who treated her like a fourteen year old when Kouhei's first inclination was to drop the gloves and bash their brains out. She wouldn't have had to manipulate conversations, or have back up plans that included a back stabbing, or have had to suffocate her fury to utilize later on.

Now she didn't know what she wanted from her life; truth be told, that scared her more than two missing years ever could.