Chapter 24

Answers

Silence reigned for a few moments as Harry and Ginny digested what they'd been told so far. Ginny was horrified; she knew there was a serious problem, but she had presumed that something could be done. To find out that her mother was irrevocably insane was difficult to deal with.

And that was to say nothing of what the woman had done to her father.

For now she was going to have to set it aside. It would be difficult to come to terms with, and she had no idea how she actually felt about her mother now. It wasn't looking good, though.

She took a moment to smile at Emily in thanks for her comfort. She hadn't missed that, and it was an excellent sign. Emily was comfortable with them as friends, and she wanted it to stay that way; the guardianship was just a technicality as far as they were concerned, not that they would shirk their responsibilities there.

Harry, as in tune with her as he always was, decided to spare her further effort, and took the conversation in another direction. It was obvious, however, that family was very much on his mind, not that she could blame him.

"I don't suppose you know how my godfather took my disappearance?" he asked quietly.

Ginny was surprised when Amelia was unable to suppress her humor at that. "Bit of a mixed bag, that," she chuckled.

Fortunately, that stirred Harry's sense of humor. "Oh?" he wondered.

"I honestly don't know how much you know about Black," she mentioned, "but he's never been the most responsible person out there. Your capture of Pettigrew saw him free very quickly, but of course he thought you were dead. He spent the next two weeks in the back of the Hog's Head."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Completely pissed?" he guessed.

"Completely and utterly," nodded Bones. "I don't think he'd been sober even for even a second. I tracked him down to see if he'd gotten a letter from you, mostly out of curiosity. I was hoping to learn if you were still alive at that point."

"And you thought I might have told him," he nodded.

"Exactly," she smiled. "And I'm guessing you didn't precisely because you were worried about how he would react, and that he would compromise your escape."

Ginny felt a bit of guilt creep into his consciousness at that, and gave his hand a squeeze as he answered her. "That was pretty much it," he sighed. "I kept looking for a better way, but I didn't trust him not to do something rash like he did when my parents died."

"To be fair to him," frowned Amelia, "that was actually Dumbledore's doing. He placed a compulsion on him to chase Pettigrew. Even Black doesn't know if he would have without it, and I did ask out of curiosity."

Harry shook his head in disgust.

"Anyway, he let me read your letter to him. If I'm not much mistaken, you were hoping he'd end up in America."

"You're not wrong," he nodded. "I want to get to know him. He and Remus Lupin are the only ones left who were truly close to my parents as far as I know, and Remus… He hasn't exactly made an effort."

"You know…" frowned Bones, "I think I may need to look into that. It's quite likely that Dumbledore interfered with him as well since he wanted you isolated."

"That's a good point," Ginny put in. "Looks like he was interfering with everyone and everything, and that would have been an obvious one at the time."

"You're right," nodded Harry. "Azkaban is too good for that bastard."

"You'll get no argument from me," nodded Bones. "Anyway, I clued Black in that the article was a Skeeter special, and told him there was no actual evidence of your death. He was a lot happier after that."

"What's he been up to, if you happen to know?" wondered Harry.

"Politics," smirked the Minister. "After we ran everybody out of office and into Azkaban, he put together a power block, which came as a shock to everyone who knows him. He's working with me to strip all the pureblood supremacy laws and get things fixed, and doing a shockingly good job of it. I think he wants to make the country a better place in case you come back."

"Good for him," smiled Harry. "I'll have to contact him at some point, but only if he can keep the secret. I honestly have no plans to ever go back, no offense."

"None taken," she smiled. And then– "On another note, would you mind If I ask about the graveyard? I'm guessing you threw a spanner in the works of Riddle's resurrection attempt."

Harry snorted at that. "Oh yeah," he nodded. "I got there a lot faster than they expected and hid up a tree, and then Wormtail came down from the mansion. I waited until he passed me, summoned the wands he was carrying, and stunned him in the back."

"Nice," nodded Bones approvingly.

"Of course, that was when Tom spoke up," grinned Harry. "Wormtail was carrying him, and dropped him when he fell over. He was really annoyed by that."

"Riddle was there?" breathed Amelia.

"What was left of him," nodded Harry. "I saw the snake heading his way so I hit it with a cutting curse. Something rose out of it and broke up or something, but I didn't see what. Then I went to deal with Tom."

Harry leaned back against the couch and shook his head. "He was some kind of little scaly baby thing. It was totally disgusting, and he could barely even move other than to talk. I figured he was possessing whatever it was, and it didn't look natural."

"Some kind of homunculus?" asked Bones.

"Maybe," shrugged Harry. "I remembered what happened last time I killed the person he was possessing, so I decided to vanish him. I was hoping it would take his spirit or wraith or whatever with it, and it seems like it worked."

"It actually worked?" asked Amelia, her eyes going wide.

"It seems to have," he nodded. "I didn't see the wraith, anyway. After that I trussed Pettigrew up and had one of my elves let Ginny know it was time to leave. I figured we'd never get a better chance. I stopped at Durskaban to remove all the tracking charms that bastard had on me, and then we headed for Portsmouth. I think you pretty much know the rest."

"And that ties the whole thing up all in a nice neat little bow," said Amelia in amazement. "It answers every question. That was very nicely done, Harry, and I think you did all of us a massive favor by handling Riddle the way you did. I'm not sure anything else would have worked."

Ginny blinked. "What do you mean?" she frowned.

"This isn't well known for obvious reasons," said Amelia, suddenly very serious, "but Riddle made six artifacts called Horcruxes. They each held a part of his mutilated soul to prevent him from dying. They can be used for resurrections in a number of ways."

"Wait," frowned Ginny, "does that mean he's still alive?"

"Normally he would be," frowned Amelia, "but for some reason his didn't work. Dumbledore knew where they all were, and once we got that out of him the Department of Mysteries went and collected them. They were all inert."

She could feel Harry suddenly reaching a conclusion, and probably the same one as she did. And sure enough–

"The vanishing charm," frowned Harry. "The obvious conclusion being that if the primary part of the soul is somehow removed from existence, then the fragments can't exist either."

"It's as good a theory as any," nodded the Minister, "and I think it's correct. With your permission, I'll pass it on to the Department of Mysteries for research purposes. It might help against anyone dark enough to make those things in the future."

"As long as they don't realize where it came from," frowned Ginny.

"That's easy enough," she nodded. "I'll just be theorizing myself, if you know what I mean."

"That's fine," nodded Harry, "especially with that department, but please be careful."

Amelia nodded, and Ginny watched as she shifted, her expression shifting along with her body language. She had a feeling that the woman was going to ask something that she wasn't sure they would want to answer, and might even be offended by. And sure enough–

"May I ask you another question?" she asked carefully. "I will warn you that this one is personal, and is really none of my business. I'm just very curious is all."

"You can ask," said Ginny, equally carefully, "but if it's personal then we reserve the right not to answer."

"Of course," smiled Amelia. "Honestly, I'm just curious how you ended up married. Legally speaking, it shouldn't have been possible, and yet the Americans have clearly deemed it legal. That's been confusing me since I know you didn't stop anywhere with an age floor that low."

Ginny looked at Harry even as he turned to look at her. There were no words spoken between them; just a back-and-forth rush of emotion as they felt it out. Finally, it melted into acceptance, and Ginny nodded, knowing that she would need to be the one to say.

"Definitely personal," she nodded, turning back to Amelia. "We'll tell you, but this goes nowhere else, and I want to tell my family myself."

"Of course, Ginny," smiled Amelia. "It really is just personal curiosity, though I think the head of the SIS would like to know as well if you're willing to allow that. She was very confused by it."

Ginny couldn't help but chuckle. "We'll leave that to your discretion," she shrugged. "It happened fourteen days into our cruise. I had long since fallen in love with him, and decided that I needed to get it out in the open, so we sat down to talk about it. I won't detail what was said for obvious reasons."

Amelia grinned at that, and Ginny wondered at the fact that she felt comfortable enough to actually talk openly about this. Even Emily didn't know yet, though that was obviously about to change. Already a spark of enlightenment was dawning, and Ginny was surprised when she actually spoke up.

"The middle of the d-date?" she grinned.

Ginny laughed as Harry chuckled beside her. "I'd forgotten about that," she grinned at the girl. "And yes, this is exactly what that was about."

"I take it I'm missing something there?" wondered Amelia.

"It was our first day at school here," chuckled Harry. "We met Emily and a few others, and one of them asked if we were dating."

"And that was when we realized that we'd skipped the whole process," grinned Ginny. "So of course we started snarking at each other about it because it amused us."

"I decided that we did actually have a date before we married, it was just twenty-seven days long," added Harry.

"And I countered that it could only have been fourteen days long," Ginny grinned.

"We eventually decided that it was a date that we got married in the middle of," nodded Harry.

"They're still t-trying to figure t-that one out, y-you know," smiled Emily.

"And you're not?" grinned Ginny, giving her a gentle playful shove.

"N-never denied it," she grinned back.

Ginny chuckled and turned back to Amelia. "So yeah, twenty-seven day date, and we got married on day fourteen," she smiled.

"Okay, so we've got the timing," chuckled Amelia. "Still pretty clueless on the mechanism, though."

"Well, we were having a pretty damned serious discussion about our feelings and whatnot," she said with a slightly evil grin. "And then Harry up and decides to kiss me, and I wasn't about to stop him. So, of course, we kissed."

One of Amelia's eyebrows went up; she was clearly amused by the conversation. "…and?" she prompted.

"And we woke up two days later," smirked Ginny.

Emily and Amelia both blinked a few times at that.

"W-what?" asked Emily blankly.

"What she said," nodded Amelia bemusedly. "I don't get it."

Ginny's humor faded back into the background. "We passed out," she said quietly. "That kiss… there was far more to it. It was like our magic rose up and wrapped around us. It was the most amazing thing I've ever felt in my life. And next thing we knew we were waking up two days later."

"I've never heard of anything like that," frowned Amelia.

"Neither had we," nodded Ginny. "And eventually Harry called the elves to see what they knew; turns out they'd put us to bed afterward."

"Oh my," breathed Amelia.

"Yeah, we were pretty confused," said Ginny ruefully. "Our heads were a wreck. Both of us are fairly accomplished Occlumens, but it wasn't helping at all, which was a first. And then the elves started calling me Mistress and Harry asked them why."

"What did they say?" wondered Amelia.

And Ginny almost lost it at the memory. "That answer turned out to be not so helpful," she giggled.

"Oh?" smiled Amelia.

She could tell that Harry was about to step in, and sure enough–

"Dobby," he called out.

The little elf popped in, bowed briefly to Bones out of respect, and gave Harry his full attention.

"Dobby, why do you call Ginny Mistress?"

Dobby blinked oddly at him. "Dobby already be answering this for Master," he frowned. "Dobby be calling Mistress, Mistress, because Mistress is being Mistress. Master is needing to be remembering this."

"Thank you, Dobby," smiled Harry.

"Master always be welcome," replied Dobby with a happy little bounce, and then he popped away.

"And that is why it was not helpful," grinned Ginny.

Amelia laughed hard at that. "Oh my," she gasped. "That has got to be the funniest thing I've ever heard from a House Elf!"

"Same here," grinned Ginny.

"At times I think Dobby does it on purpose," smirked Harry, "but he probably doesn't. I do honestly think he's knows it's funny, though."

Amelia shook her head. "So what did you figure out about it, if you don't me asking?"

"It's something called a Soul Bond, at least in America," said Ginny with a smile. "From what we've gathered it's very, very rare, and listed under Merlin's laws. According to the one who examined us to verify our marriage when we got here, we're married and emancipated, and any kind of interference with that is forbidden by Magic itself."

"Oh my," breathed Amelia. "I've seen that clause in Merlin's laws! It's commonly thought to be an artifact of his sense of humor!"

"Apparently not," said Harry, giving Ginny a soft smile. "From what we were told from another source, the last time it was known to have happened was back in his time."

"Amazing," breathed Amelia. "Thank you for telling me this. And for the record, it makes me want to string Albus up by that damn beard of his again. He ran you out of Britain, and while I certainly don't blame you and won't try to drag you back, that doesn't change that it's a great loss for us, and it's mostly his damn fault."

Just as she finished speaking, a growing noise was audible in the distance, and Ginny groaned. It had to be almost two in the morning! Amelia frowned and started looking around, even as Harry and Emily also both groaned in annoyance. The noise rose to a loud roar, whipped by outside, and then started to wane as it got further away.

"What was that?!" asked Amelia worriedly.

And then the boat started rocking.

It wasn't much; a hundred foot yacht doesn't react like a little speedboat might, so the action was surprisingly gentle. It was enough, though, that Amelia was suddenly on her feet with her wand out, looking around like the whole place was going to collapse around her. To Ginny, it was actually amusing for once.

"Relax, Amelia," sighed Harry. "We're not in any danger. And welcome to the San Francisco Bay."

"What was that, and what just happened?" she asked nervously, even as she slowly holstered her wand and lowered herself back into her seat.

"That was a boat going by," sighed Harry. "A high-power speedboat, to be exact. They're loud, obnoxious, and they leave one hell of a wake behind them. That's what rocked us."

Amelia blinked a few times, and then her eyes went wide. "Are you telling me that we're on a boat?" she gasped.

"Yup," grinned Ginny. "Welcome aboard the Escape Artist. It's a yacht which also happens to be our home now, though not usually in San Francisco. We're just visiting here and doing the tourist thing as part of our summer vacation."

"Next time we're finding a proper marina to stay in," grumbled Harry. "Docking here was a mistake. Too many people are idiots on this bay."

"You live on a boat," repeated Amelia, still shocked by this information.

Ginny grinned and stood up. "C'mon, we'll show you," she smiled.

Even Emily was enjoying the woman's reaction, and so it was a very amused trio who led Amelia Bones up to the flybridge at the very top of the yacht. It was a beautiful night, too. Had their conversation not involved magic, they probably would have wanted to move it outside.

Amelia looked around in awe. "This thing is huge!" she breathed. "I'm well aware of what's out there, which means I also have a vague idea as to how much something like this must cost! Merlin!"

"We might have cheated a little," noted Harry. "The hull was fine, but it was otherwise in horrible condition when we bought it a year ago, so it was really cheap for a boat this size. Then we turned Dobby and Winky loose, and they had an absolute blast fixing her up. Ginny and I put a lot of time in too, of course."

Amelia slowly shook her head. "This is amazing," she breathed.

"We're very happy with her," smiled Ginny. "We can't stay out much of course, there's too many other things to do, but being out on the open ocean is amazingly peaceful."

Amelia stared around for another few moments, before suddenly blinking and looking at them with a growing smile. "And you called her the Escape Artist?" she grinned. "How appropriate!"

Emily giggled; she was also amused now that she understood why Harry and Ginny found the name so funny.

Ginny snorted. "Actually, she came with that name," she grinned. "That's why we went ahead and bought her in the first place even though she was in bad shape. There was just no way it wasn't meant to be!"

===[~]===

A/N: And now you know where the name came from. The story started out with the name "Escape", but then the boat popped up, and I had one hell of a time naming the thing. Magical names would have been too obvious, and I would think they wouldn't do that lest they get identified and caught. This is what I settled on, and it just made great sense for the title of the story, so I changed it. =)

GinnyPotter6891: No flies in this ointment!

LtKettch: My pleasure! I do plan to write another story at some point (and/or finish my other partial), but it will all depend on my muse…

SomeGuyFawkes: I'll take door number two, please! Too bad I don't actually own a yacht. :(

Thanks for the support, folks! More coming tomorrow!