by: Yidkirkin
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
CAN THEY EVEN BE CALLED SPOILERS WITH A FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS AND A FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT
By Ginny's watch, it was ten past five in the morning when a pale Molly Weasley entered the kitchen and delivered the best news they could have heard at the time.
"He's going to be alright," She said, sounding tired but relieved. "Bill's with him now –he's sleeping. We're all going to go see him later."
Kouhei allowed himself to slump back in his chair, having not gotten any sleep the entire night for fear of being shut out again. Deep inside him Ginny had regained some of her awareness and was crying in relief, and when he had the thought that maybe now the two of them could talk through their differences together, she sent him an echo of agreement.
Sirius and Harry started to go to make breakfast, but were sidetracked when Ginny's mother tearfully hugged Harry and thanked him, and then informed Sirius that they would all probably be staying for the holidays. By the time the food was served and they had all eaten and expressed their relief, Kouhei was feeling dead on Ginny's feet –he hadn't really had to shoulder this much emotional weight alone in a while. He excused himself soon after and slunk off to the bedroom they'd occupied during the summer –and he practically collapsed on the mattress as soon as he'd closed the door.
Both of their thoughts were muted –Kouhei curled up and slipped backwards into himself, and when a calm passed through them, they did not find one or the other disembodied as Kouhei had been the last several weeks, but instead they experienced sleep like they hadn't since this whole fiasco had begun. And when they awoke a few hours later to calls for lunch and Kouhei felt himself being prodded tentatively back so Ginny could emerge, he did so easily –and found there was no wall separating them anymore. They were as they had been before Malfoy had goaded them into violence –no, they were even closer than they had been. Ginny wept in relief when she fully realized this, fully realized what she had done to them and how it had affected those around them. But she also sobbed because they were going to come back stronger from this separation, the both of them together, and that she wanted to go the same way as Kouhei did so very, very much.
When Ginny calmed down, she found her trunk had arrived from Hogwarts while they had slept, and before she went downstairs she changed out of her pyjamas and into her favourite sweater and pair of jeans, reasoning that she could take a shower when they returned from visiting her father. Lunch was a rushed affair, just a bunch of sandwiches cobbled together and served with whatever drinks could be found, but Ginny didn't mind, simply glad that she was feeling hungry again.
Everyone was ridiculous on the journey to St. Mungo's –from Fred and George's too small sweatshirts to Mad-Eye's tilted bowler hat and Tonks' bright pink hair –but it was a good kind of ridiculous, the uproariously happy kind that Ginny let herself get swept up into like she hadn't for so long. She was the only one besides Harry who didn't get caught in the ticket dispensers on the Underground, but once they were out of there she fell to the back of the group and let them lead her to the Wizarding hospital. Strangely, she couldn't feel any nervousness from Kouhei at the prospect of going back to the hospital, as if the mere fact that she had let him stay was bolstering his confidence and pushing out his fears at the same time.
The bustle of the waiting room was just as she remembered from her brief time here those few months ago, and she couldn't see that anything had changed even a bit. While her mother talked to the WelcomeWitch about where Arthur had been transferred to, Ginny looked around the room and mentally traced out the escape route they had used before, and soon they all followed her mother up the main stairs to the first floor. Down the hallway just a little ways, then through the door that read 'Dangerous Dai Llewellyn Ward: Serious Bites', and they were there.
She went in directly behind Harry and her mother and inspected the ward with a few of Kouhei's experiences informing her critical eye –and found herself not too impressed with the apparent 'finest health care centre' of magical Britain. Standards must vary greatly between floors because this room was small and dingy, with little natural light, dark wood panelled walls and a moving portrait of a wizard that would have never been allowed if this place had common sense –the thing could talk and potentially violate doctor-patient confidentiality.
"Hello!" Her father called cheerfully from his bed, propped up by pillows and reading the Daily Prophet. "Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you all later."
Ginny moved to stand beside her father's shoulder, and realized rather suddenly that he really was alright. Even now there was a bit of Kouhei that ached over the suddenness of his mother's death and the closure he had never felt –and Ginny was able to not only see her father alive, but know he was going to be alright. She felt tears spring to her eyes at the thought and relaxed into Arthur's awkward one armed hug as best she could, doing her best to not completely break down again.
A familiar sensation washed over her, and as she perched just on the edge of the mattress, her father's good arm still looped around her waist, she also felt herself moving in. Her vision doubled and then sharpened into one –but the second set of eyes weren't really hers right then –and they breathed out slowly, relearning how to let this feeling settle both inside and beside them, together.
To not be put through that hell again, the utter agony of a loved one's death, was all Kouhei ever wanted for Ginny, and as they sat there next to her very much breathing father, surrounded by family he hadn't known back in Tsuchiura –they relaxed completely and fell back into a treasured memory.
"Kouhei."
"Mm?"
Tetsuji looked up at the ceiling in deep thought, a frown upon his face as he pondered what he was about to ask. "Why did you come here tonight?"
Kouhei didn't answer for a long time, and Tetsuji almost thought the other man had fallen asleep before he shifted and sighed heavily. "I had a bad feeling about tomorrow."
Tetsuji didn't pry –he knew his brother wouldn't react well to it if he tried; instead, after a minute of shuffling Kouhei lit a cigarette and took a long drag, blowing the smoke towards the ceiling fan almost lazily.
"It was the same feeling I got right before I found out my mum had died. Right when they gave me that pitying look –I knew she was gone," Kouhei twirled a stray lock of blonde hair around his index finger and took another drag. "If something happens tomorrow, I didn't want there to be any walls separating you and I. You swore your life to me; nothing will ever go wrong between us. I'll have your back through thick or thin if only you'll do the same."
"I'll follow you wherever you lead."
Kouhei smiled and held his hand out to his brother, who grasped it just as he had the night they fought their last. "Wherever I go, then..."
"Ginny, dear... you've got to go wait outside with your brothers."
Ginny shook herself out of the memory and the sensation, blinking at her mother and letting herself get shuffled out of the room after remaining unresponsive for a minute. When the door closed behind her, she looked to Fred and George for an explanation, but they were busy rummaging in their pockets for their Extendable Ears.
She didn't feel like listening in really –that memory had been exceedingly comforting and was a much more attractive option than more Order business –but she accepted one anyway and leaned in with the others. Hers took a moment longer to find the door, her lazy movements probably the cause of the delay, but once it did she could hear the conversation just as well as the rest of them.
"Yes," her mother was saying. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this."
"Yeah, well, there's something funny about the Potter kid," Moody said gruffly. "We all know that."
"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning," Molly whispered, making Moody growl back in reply.
"Course he's worried, the boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him, that just means a risk of a security breach for our side!"
There was a flurry of movement from Ginny's left which she vaguely understood to be her siblings looking over at Harry, but she was more focused on the reaction to the ex-auror's absolutely unfounded statement from Tonks.
"Possessed? He's being possessed?" She asked in a shrill whisper, sounding disturbed. "How are we going to have meetings if he's-"
"He's not in meetings, but those boys of yours and their inventions, Molly-"
"We're not discussing this any longer!" Her mother said loudly, causing Fred to jerk away from the door and grab the Extendable Ears so quickly it felt like her ear had been yanked. They all backed away from the doors right before the adults came marching out of the ward again –serious looks on their faces as they told them they were headed back to Grimmauld and to say goodbye to Arthur.
All the way back to the Order's base, Ginny kept her eyes on Harry. He looked as if he'd just been told he was about to die and she couldn't bring herself to blame him. Her mother fussed over him the entire trip and Harry seemed overwhelmed by the attention –whether it was because he wasn't used to it or because he was in shock, Ginny couldn't tell. When they got back to Grimmauld Place he vanished from their company on her mother's orders; 'sleep' she had told him, but Ginny knew he wouldn't.
"Harry," Sometime after she had slipped away from the rest, Ginny announced her presence and leaned against the open doorway, surveying the frazzled fifteen year old as he jumped and looked at her like she was a ghost. His trunk was lying on the floor halfway to the door and he was half facing the empty picture frame on the wall, looking for all the world as if he had just had a screaming match with whoever occupied it. "I'm coming in, and you're going to listen to me."
A scowl briefly flickered over his face, just for long enough that Ginny squared her shoulders, but it passed after a second and he sat down quietly on the bed. Ginny stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, feeling a pressure in her mind that wasn't unpleasant, but rather reassuring.
"I understand how you're feeling right now. Being possessed by Voldemort is pretty dodgy, I can tell you."
Harry froze at the blunt statement, staring at the floor and then looked up at her over the tops of his glasses almost guiltily. "I forgot," he said quietly.
"Unfortunately I haven't, just put it behind me."
"I'm sorry," he said, sounding sincere. "Do you... do you think I'm being possessed?"
"Can you remember everything you've done lately? Are there any lapses in your memory, big blank periods where you don't know what you were doing?" Ginny asked, closely watching as he flickered through several emotions.
"No, I can remember," He whispered.
"Then you aren't being possessed by him," Ginny said bluntly. "When someone else possesses you forcefully, you don't remember anything that happens while they use you. I used to find myself in places and not know how I got there or what time of day it was, and I certainly didn't remember what I'd done. The only reason I started to figure it out was because I saw chicken's blood on my robes, and Tom couldn't explain that."
"But... Moody said..."
"Whatever is happening with you isn't possession, and as an Auror, Moody should know that," Ginny reiterated. "If you need proof, ask Ron what you were doing when you saw it happen. If you'd been possessed, you would've had to be out of your bed for at least the few minutes it took to attack Dad, but even then you would have had to get to where he was somehow. You're not being possessed by Voldemort, and you'll feel ace if you go to Ron and ask."
Harry still looked unsure, but that was fine; Ginny walked over and pulled the unresisting teen to his feet, and then out the door and down the hall to where Ron was waiting for him in the sitting room. Once she had done that, she closed the door behind him and made her way back up to her room for the second time that day, heaving a great sigh of relief when her back finally hit the mattress and she sunk into herself, letting her and Kouhei lie together and drag them down into another memory as their body went to sleep.
"It's morning," Kouhei observed quietly.
The other man glanced to the window, eyes tracing the rays of light peeking over the top of the nearest house. "Today's the day. Will you be able to face them wholeheartedly?"
"I must. Otherwise everything I've worked for has been for nothing," Kouhei pushed himself up and strode over to the door without preamble. "I'm going to call Yukio –want to go grab something to eat before shit hits the fan?"
"Mm," But Kouhei didn't leave just yet; he stood in the open door with his back to Tetsuji, waiting for the other to say what he needed to. "What will you do, if you succeed?"
"Keep climbing," Kouhei answered without hesitation.
"And if we fail?"
"..." Kouhei didn't miss the significance of Tetsuji's phrasing, and his shoulders visibly relaxed. "We'll leave this town and start over somewhere else. No Snake Heads, no Parko and Dangerers, no Hacchou. You and I will make our mark, one way or another."
"Kouhei-kun, your father called me today."
"Tch. You didn't tell him anything, did you Oyaji?"
The police officer frowned at the youth crouching on the steps of the small station, newly dyed hair pushed out of his eyes and his high school uniform ruffled but otherwise unmarred. "I told him how you were doing, of course, the man is only worried about you after all. But no, I didn't tell him any more than that."
"..." Kouhei frowned and fiddled with his uniform cuffs like he had the entire time Fujioka had kept an eye on him –nearly three years now. The old man wondered briefly what he would fidget with when he no longer had a fitted uniform to wear –or maybe he would have outgrown the nervous action by then. "Thanks, Oyaji."
Fujioka sighed and reached down to muss up Kouhei's hair, making the teen squawk indignantly. "You're welcome, brat. Make it up to me by staying in school?"
Kouhei grumbled and thread his fingers through his hair to get it back to how he liked it, but kept his head ducked so the old policeman couldn't see his grin. "Like hell, you old miser!" He laughed when Fujioka tried to cuff him, rolling out of the way and hopping the fence so he could laugh at the man from a safe distance.
"Kouhei, can you pass me that spatula? Thank you, sweetheart."
Kouhei sat back down at the kitchen table and watched his mother prepare the day's dinner. Tousan wouldn't be back from work for another hour, but Jinnai Satsuki was already well underway with the man's favourite dishes –Chinese style stewed pork and eggplant, and plain fried rice seasoned with turmeric. As his mother bustled away at the counter, Kouhei couldn't stop himself from asking her something that had been bugging him for a while.
"Kaasan, if you and Tousan love each other, why don't you get married?"
His mother paused only briefly in her work, her eyes seeking him out in the reflection of the mirrored tiles on the wall. "Well, Kouhei, sometimes marriage isn't what people who love each other want to do."
"Is it because of Otousan?"
Satsuki set down her knife and turned the burners on low, and then moved to stand in front of him, eye to eye. "Kouhei, I loved your Otousan and married him. He hurt me greatly when he left us, but that isn't the reason your Tousan and I aren't getting married. I love Koutaro-san more than I ever loved Seijuro, and that made me realize that you don't have to get married when you love someone. Sometimes, just being with that someone is more important than all of that. Do you understand?"
Kouhei was only ten, but he thought he might.
