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Hadrian and Tim left the Weasleys, hurried back to Longbottom manor where they explained the situation to Neville, had the elves pop the children back to Washington while they portkeyed to Hawaii. Arthur had wanted to free Ginny as soon as they'd gone but Hermione with foresight had hidden his wand and prevented it.
"We promised Hadrian that we'd give him an hour to get his family to safety," she insisted, using Harry's new name to drive home that he was no longer the forgiving boy that Arthur remembered.
An hour after Hadrian and Tim had left Ron and Hermione's, Ron again released the silencing charm he'd put back on Ginny when she wouldn't stop ranting. "Last chance Ginny, make the vow or be committed to the hospital until the mind healers pronounce you sane," Ron offered.
"Personally, I think you'd be better off going to the hospital and letting them find a way to get you past these delusions," Hermione had sniffed. Tim had been right she thought, not forcing her to receive healing was a form of familial abuse.
"I don't care what you think Bitch," Ginny snarled.
"Don't talk to my wife that way," Ron yelled back.
"Calm down Ron. After the way she's behaved these last four years I don't care about her opinion of me. Nobody sensible takes her seriously anyway," Hermione had said placatingly.
"What do you mean that nobody sensible takes Ginny seriously?" Arthur asked upset.
"Surely you must have heard her reputation. The way she rants about waiting for Harry to come back and marry her after the public rows she had before he left and the way he's declared that he never will date her again. And how half the country knows he's married and has registered his daughter as the Potter heir. Everyone knows she's delusional," Hermione said bluntly, feeling the time for softening the blow and letting Arthur live in his land of denial was long past. Charitably she didn't mention Ginny's reputation for drunken scenes or shagging anyone who offered, while still claiming to be faithful to Harry.
"Where are you going to take her?" Arthur asked.
"St Mungo's Asylum for now. I'll research and we can move her if I find some place with better treatment options," Hermione said.
"You can't put me in the asylum," Ginny screeched.
"We can't let you go, you're planning to kill Harry's husband and daughter," Ron countered.
"They've left the country by now, surely they're safe enough," Arthur begged.
"You want us to break our word to Harry?" Ron said. "Not going to happen!"
"Go home Arthur, we can do this without you," Hermione said. "Either Ginny goes to the hospital for mind healing or I go straight to Robbards and tell him Harry agreed to let him press charges against her."
Arthur shook his head sadly and left. Hermione sprang into action. "We need to leave now before he brings Molly here," she told her husband urgently.
"We can't take her to St Mungo's, Mum and Dad will have her out of there before morning," Ron replied.
"You're right," Hermione grabbed hold of Ginny, chair and all. "Forest of Dean," she told her husband before apparating away.
The two witches landed exactly at the site Ron had found her and Harry after abandoning during the hunt for the horcruxes. Ron arrived about fifty meters away yelling for them.
"This way Ron," Hermione yelled back. She walked towards him as she called, giving them an opportunity to talk out of Ginny's hearing.
"What are we doing here?" Ron asked.
"This is the only place I could think of quickly that your parents wouldn't know how to find," Hermione replied. "It gives us a chance to work out what we're going to do because you're right. There's no point putting Ginny in St Mungo's if Molly knows she's there, Molly will just get her released and she'll be free to go after Harry's family. The best mind healers in the English speaking world are in America but I'm not willing to have her so close to Harry unless she takes the vow. So she's going to make that vow before she leaves here even if I have to terrorise her into doing it. I've had enough of her bullshite!"
Ron sighed resignedly. "Okay, let's get this over with," he agreed.
"Play along," Hermione warned her husband.
"Let me go," Ginny screeched.
Hermione walked up and pointed her wand at her sister-in-law. "Make the vow," she said in a deadly serious tone.
Ginny shrank back in fear but still wouldn't vow.
"Nobody knows where you are. I could transfigure you into a tree and leave you here. Nobody would ever find you. Your mother's clock would tell her that you were still alive and not in danger but even if she thought to look here, she wouldn't think to look for a tree," Hermione said.
"What are you doing?" Ron hissed in fear.
"Making sure my brother and his family is safe," Hermione retorted. "Make a choice Ginny, a tree or the vow?"
"Harry is mine," Ginny said defiantly.
"Right tree it is," Hermione said determinedly, preparing to cast the spell. She transfigured Ginny into a tree.
"Wow it looks so much like all the other trees. You're right, nobody will ever find her here," Hermione said.
"You can't leave her like that Hermione," Ron protested.
Hermione transfigured Ginny back again. "Okay now you know what it feels like to be a tree, do you want to reconsider and make the vow?"
Ginny lay on the ground sobbing still tied to the chair which had fallen on it's side during the transition from tree to girl and chair. "Please.."
"Vow on your life and your magic that you won't harm Hadrian's husband Tim or their children or anyone else he considers his family," Hermione ordered wanting to make very sure the vow also protected her former godson.
"Please Ron…"
"You have ten minutes to make the vow before I turn you into a tree for the night," Hermione said.
"Please Ron. You can order her not to do this," Ginny begged.
"Make the vow Ginny," Ron said. He wasn't prepared to leave his sister as a tree but he didn't want to argue with Hermione in front of Ginny, he understood that the vow needed to be made. They couldn't trust Molly to leave her daughter in the hospital long enough to cure her delusions and there weren't that many places they could hide her.
"Ron you can't do this, you have to stop her," Ginny said now seriously frightened.
"She's my wife Ginny, hasn't Mum taught you anything, Weasley wives do whatever they want and damn the consequences. Hermione's being taking lessons in crazy from you and Mum. I can't stop her. I don't want her ranting like that at me," Ron said imitating Arthur's way of calming down his children when they felt their mother had gone too far.
Ginny's eyes widened in genuine terror.
"Oak trees live for more than 120 years Ginny, that's an awfully long time to be a tree," Hermione said almost conversationally.
Ginny paled even further.
"Five minutes," Hermione said looking at her watch… "Four,"
"I'll vow I'll vow," Ginny said hurriedly. "Give me back my wand and I'll vow."
Hermione thought for a moment then tightening the ropes tying down the rest of her body and casting unbreakable charms on them she ensured Ginny couldn't point the wand at either of them or herself and handed it over. "Vow now or I'll stun you disarm you and you'll wake up as a tree," she said fiercely.
"I vow on my magic not to harm Harry Potter or his children," Ginny said shakily.
Ron heaved a sigh of relief but Hermione dug her wand into Ginny's neck. "Vow on your magic and your life not to harm Tim, or their family." she demanded, not willing to give in an inch.
"I vow on my magic and my life not to harm Harry Potter's husband and family," Ginny sobbed,
"Now let me go."
"Not so fast Ginny, you still need a mind healer to help you get over this obsession. It's for your own good," Hermione said disarming the younger witch, and casting a sleep spell.
"How do we get her to America?" Ron asked.
"I have no idea. I don't even know that America is the right place to send her. Perhaps we should ask Kingsley for help," Hermione suggested. "Or Apparate to Aberforth's and Floo through to St Mungo's and explain the situation. They could tell us how to get her into a treatment facility out of the country or maybe the goblins could help, it's a pity Bill doesn't work for them still."
"I'll go to St Mungo's and ask," Ron said. "I don't think we should involve Kingsley. Involuntary human transfiguration is illegal."
He met with the mind healing department explaining what was going on with his sister and the problem of his mother not wanting her to have treatment for some reason. He explained how his father was prepared to sign guardianship of Ginny over to him and Hermione to ensure she got the best care possible.
"We can admit her here and once we have the guardianship paperwork then we will be able to deny all other visitors including her mother," the healer said reassuringly. "I cannot recommend sending her overseas at this point, there is a lot of cultural differences outside of Europe that she would struggle with." The healer was a year or two older than Ron and had heard of some of Ginny's exploits so had a very good idea what they would be dealing with.
"I'll go get her," Ron said.
"Oh, I should tell you that we extracted a vow from her not to harm Harry, or his husband and family. Hermione threatened her into it. She thought if Tim was killed Harry would come back to her," Ron said sheepishly.
"She had plans to kill them herself?" the healer asked carefully.
"Hermione thought so," Ron replied. "Ginny really believed Harry was hers and his family were in the way."
"I see, your sister will be in good hands here," the healer promised.
"I'll bring her in now then," Ron agreed.
He apparated back to where Hermione and Ginny were and found that Ginny was sleeping. "I cast a sleep spell on her. I don't think she slept the whole time we had her tied up."
"The healers at St Mungo's said to bring her in. They said that it would be better for her to be treated here since some of what's wrong with her is probably trauma from the war, and that once they have the paperwork for next of kin they can keep Mum from even visiting her if they need to," Ron said.
"Okay then let's go," Hermione said.
"You're not going to untie her?" Ron asked sceptically.
"No, I can't be sure she isn't faking. She's desperate Ron," Hermione said.
Ron sighed and nodded. They apparated back to the hospital and went through the process of checking her in.
"It's hospital policy that patients have no contact with the outside world for the first 72 hours, for uninterrupted evaluation. We will start with a full scan for potions and behavioural modification spells, and then evaluate her mental state. Go home and get some rest yourselves. This process isn't easy for the families and loved ones." the healer's apprentice told them sympathetically.
Hermione nodded. "There's something else that Ron probably didn't tell you that I think the healers need to know. Ginny was possessed by a shade of Voldemort when she was eleven. We're not really sure for how long but for at least an hour or two five or six times and possibly for days or weeks at a time, Harry saved her life and destroyed the shade turning her school girl crush into a conviction that they were meant to be together, that he was her knight who came to save her."
"She's never been quite the same, we all wrote it off as she was growing up and hit puberty. Looking back she probably needed mind healing back then but my mum doesn't believe in it," Ron added.
The healer shuddered. "Possessed by you-know-who himself, what a nightmare. Why on earth didn't her parents bring her in for healing after that?"
"Mum doesn't believe in it," Ron said shamedly.
We will get her sorted out," she promised unwisely.
-o0o-
"We should send the memory to Harry and Tim so that they know they're safe," Hermione said when they woke up next morning. They'd gone home and closed the wards to everybody. They'd pinged multiple times but then Hermione had simply disconnected the alerts for anything less than an attack.
"Send mine, I know it needed to be done but I really don't want to remember how you forced my sister to make that vow," Ron said hurriedly. He took his wand and Hermione walked him through the process of extracting the memory.
Hermione took the memory vial to Neville figuring that if anyone had a safe way to transfer something to Harry he would and she couldn't take it to the ministry. She wasn't sure how many laws she'd broken to get Ginny to make that vow.
Neville insisted on watching the memory before he agreed to send it to Harry and put it in his family pensive. He came back out laughing his arse off. "You are terrifying Hermione, I'm glad you're not my enemy."
"You'll send it to Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah I'll have some other things to send him after the meeting tomorrow," Neville agreed.
"Please don't tell people about this, I know what I did was illegal and I don't want Molly to hear about what I did to her precious baby girl. She's going to have enough problems with the fact we're not going to let her take Ginny out of the asylum."
"Harry told me that Ginny had to choose between going to the asylum or making the vow. You're going to send her anyway?" Neville asked.
"We've already had her admitted, she needs mind healing, even after being forced to make the vow she was ranting about her Harry coming back to her," Hermione said sighing. "Ron's gone with Arthur to have him sign official custody of Ginny over to him, so Molly can't just bully him into bringing her home. In all honesty she should have seen someone years ago."
"You're probably right about that. The Ginny Weasley we've known since the end of the war was nothing like the Ginny we went to school with," Neville said guiltily.
"Don't feel guilty none of us were able to help her until we convinced her parents she needed it. Harry had to threaten to have her sent to Azkaban before Arthur would agree and even then he knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto that conviction once Molly started to kick up a fuss," Hermione said tiredly. "Ginny has caused enough trouble, don't let her affect you now too."
-o0o-
"Molly, Harry compared Ginny's influence on his children to Voldemort's influence on his childhood and he was right. The risk of her harming his children was keeping him away from England. I can count on one hand the number of British witches and wizards who had met his daughter before the Longbottom Christening and even then they only came after Neville agreed to engage the manor's war wards for them and the children spent their entire visit behind the wards. Harry wasn't even willing to let Teddy come and visit me," Hermione said.
"Ginny is sick Mum, her obsession with Harry isn't healthy and it's ruining her life. We've sent her to get the help she needs to get well and hopefully have a happy life. You can't tell me that you don't want her to become well and happy," Ron said.
"She'll be happy when Harry comes back to her," Molly said. "What if he comes looking for her and can't find her? Or hears that she's in the asylum and decides she's too crazy to be the mother of his children? The stigma of being committed will follow her for the rest of her life."
"Molly, you know Harry is married, very happily married with a child of his own, he isn't coming back to Ginny, and given Ginny's history of potioning him the Aurors would take him into protective custody and have him tested for mind altering potions. They would arrest Ginny for abusing him with potions if he ever showed the slightest interest in her again," Hermione replied. "They know how much he loves his husband, Kingsley attended his wedding and heard the vows. He isn't capable of wanting to cheat on his husband with Ginny or anyone else in his life, let alone divorcing him for her."
"But…"
"No but's Molly, Harry was here last night. He heard what Ginny had to say and told her very bluntly that he loved his husband and would never come home to live in England because of the bigotry in the British wizarding world. He told her that he was not at all attracted to women without love potions and he didn't even like Ginny as a person and still she persisted in her delusion that he was about to turn around and see that she was everything he wanted," Arthur said sadly.
"But Harry and Ginny were meant to be together," Molly protested loudly.
"Ron and Hermione are right, she has lost touch with reality and needs help. You should have seen her last night. If she wasn't restrained she would have cursed Tim badly, I could understand why Harry and Hermione both believed she would kill his husband and children, they wouldn't be safe near her."
"We need to get her out of there. We can look after her at home. She will never have a normal life if everyone believes she is mad," Molly said determinedly getting up and preparing to be taken to collect her daughter.
"We can't give her the help she needs. And as for her reputation, apparently you and I were the only ones who didn't already think Ginny was delusional in her obsession with Harry. I doubt being committed to the asylum could do much further harm."
-o0o-
"Tim, you've got to see this," Hadrian said laughing.
"What is it?" Tim said smiling at his husband's amusement.
"Neville sent me a memory of Hermione finally forcing Ginny to make that vow not to harm us," Hadrian said.
"Okay, it's great that she convinced Ginny but why is it funny?" Tim asked confused.
"Hermione went totally loco on her and scared her into it, Ron played along perfectly acting like a cross between being freaked out by his wife and willing to let her do whatever she wants," Hadrian explained.
They watched the memory, Harry laughing again, but Tim who'd grown up without knowing about magic and even now was only exposed to the benign spells Hadrian used for healing and convenience was more horrified than amused. "You could really transfigure someone into a tree?" he asked.
"Yes easily, I generally transfigure Death Eaters into wooden chess pieces to transport them back to England. It's the safest way to make sure they can't escape, and anyone examining the set would expect the pieces to have traces of magic from the enchantments normally on them. I do knock them out first though so they're totally unaware of what I'm doing," Hadrian replied.
"But Ginny knew? Isn't that cruel and illegal?" Tim asked.
"I don't know what Ginny would have felt being a tree or how self-aware she would've been but she obviously was aware enough to know what had happened. And yes, permanently transfiguring a human is definitely illegal. It was an idle threat though. I doubt Hermione has the power to make the transfiguration last more than a couple of weeks at most," Hadrian said reassuringly.
"You have permission to turn people into chess pieces? And the chess pieces you send to England, they're turned back into people when they get there? No harm comes to them?" Tim asked.
"Don't feel sorry for the 'chess pieces I send to England, they are all both terrorists and mass murderers, I have permission to take every possible precaution to prevent their escape and they'd be more comfortable being unconscious and transfigured than travelling all the way to England with their hands cuffed behind their back and to their feet and gagged in case they have a spell they can do without a hand gesture. Of course, they're turned back into wizards for their trial as soon as they arrive but most of them receive the death penalty and there's no court of appeals when it comes to wizards. If they're sentenced to death then they'd probably be dead before I arrived home from the trial, and so far all of them have been" Hadrian said bluntly.
Tim shivered. "What if they're innocent. People are found innocent when newer evidence comes forward."
"That's not possible with a magical trial. Veritaserum forces people to tell the exact truth, and there's no reason for any of them to confess to crimes they didn't commit even if the potion let them. The rest of the trial is pretty much a formality once the accused has testified," Hadrian said soothingly.
Tim nodded understandingly, Hadrian wasn't torturing his prisoners and it would be much more difficult to transport someone that could apparate and portkey. But what Hermione did was different. "Your friend Hermione is scary, why would she think it was okay to turn her sister-in-law into a tree?"
"Hermione has always had a bit of a problem with forcing people to do what she wants. I had hoped her marriage would've cured her of that. She now knows exactly how it feels," Hadrian said.
"What else has she done?" Tim asked curiously.
"Well she did it for their protection but during the war her parents refused to leave the country without her. As her parents they would've been targeted by the death eaters and Hermione knew I would need her help to defeat him so she locked away all their memories of her, made them think they'd never had a daughter and had been planning to emigrate to Australia. She took them to Australia set them up with a house and a business, forged all the necessary paperwork and left them there. She went back after the war and unblocked their memories and they acknowledged she meant well but they've had a difficult time forgiving her and they don't really trust any witch or wizard anymore," Hadrian said. "And at Hogwarts she kept trying to free the house elves. She saw them as slaves and wouldn't listen when people tried to explain the symbiotic relationship to her. In her defence some wizards do treat their elves very badly and her first experience with an elf was one who had been badly abused. But she wasn't just trying to convince them to want freedom, she was trying to trick them into accidentally freeing themselves. Luckily she didn't have the power to do it."
"They are terrible things to do. And turning her into tree may look funny, particularly since she's been a threat to you for so long but Ginny was clearly terrified. I know she's your friends Hades. Still I think I'd rather not be alone with her, or to leave the children alone with her either. I can't trust her," Tim said quietly.
"Okay," Hadrian said agreeably not in the least upset by this. "I am grateful she helped with Ginny this week but I still can't help but remember that she didn't stand up and call her a liar when she claimed to have been pregnant after I ended our engagement and didn't do anything to stop the entire Weasley family from abusing me. And the way she ignored Teddy while Andi was alive. She and Ron are my friends but I'd choose you and our family over them every time, no matter what and I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone with her after seeing that either. I have faith that she wouldn't deliberately harm me but I'm a little worried that she could easily convince herself that something is in my best interests and act on it without talking to me first."
A/N: Thank you to Firehedgehog, ArielSakura, Gottahavemyncis, BCgurlie, xDarklightx, buterflypuss, knuckles 8, Rainbow2007, Vladimir Mithrander, CatGirl04, jayswing96, Fyreheart, luramos, The Wandmaker, Silvermane1, daithi4377, sandipi, DarkRavie, Kilare T'suna, Tetractys, charm13insomnia, crystaldove, mithrilandtj, Village-Mystic, Rori Potter, kimbarn30, acherongoddess, Melikalilly, DS2010, Kourtney Uzu Yato, TruGemini, KEZZ 1, lisicarmela, Gime'SS, lilly-flower15, Fallow54 (Guest), mayawene, serenityselena, Moirah (Guest), starie78, delia cerrano, Serpent91, Harriverse, Locket1, mooneysfate and all those who followed and favourited for your support.
