Ouroboros 1
by Faith Accompli

Disclaimer: All characters from the books belong to Rowling, Boyd's one of my own.
Author's Notes: um, those of you who critiqued on Molly's characterisation? It's a valid point if the story was written from a purely objective person's perspective. But it's from Ginny's. Of course, well-spotted those of you who realised that. :)
Thank you t'all my reviewers, you are most kind and your words and thoughts are appreciated.
(Angelike Riddle - 'ouroboros' is the snake that devours its own tail.)
Her father took the news stoically in contrast to her mother's irrational arguments and fit of tears, signing the papers without a word when her mother thrust them at him with an order to sign. Her mother had then run away to lock herself in her bedroom, and her father quickly followed the sobbing woman, handing the papers to Bill in passing. From the look on her father's face, though, he would have given the papers to Lord Voldemort if the Slytherin had been there in Bill's placeher father really wasn't anywhere so near concerned about where she was going and what she was doing as he was with her mother's emotional state.

That was fair enough, of course, her parents doted on each other to a degree that she and Percy had found quite disgusting at the advanced age of two and seven respectively, but for some reason she wasn't nearly as hurt by her father's lack of concern for her as she should have been.

Well, if her mother and father didn't care to have her around, it was really no skin off her nose. They'd not wanted her in the first placeshe hadn't been their accident, not like Ron was, but they'd wanted another boy. They hadn't said as much to her, but she had asked and Percy had explained after a week of ceaseless begging, nagging and pleading, and it fit nicely with their treatment of her.

She'd been a good baby, not sickly and awake at all hours of the day and night, so she'd been the forgotten baby. Percy had taken over looking after her when he'd noticed the neglect. Poor Percy...he'd only been five, and he'd turned his back on his beloved school, on all his books, all so he could keep her happy, keep her well-fed. Keep the twins from murdering her accidentally as they experimented with the question of 'do babies bounce if you drop them from a high enough window?'

If Percy hadn't wanted her, on the other hand, if Percy had told her to leave, that would have hurt her. But Percy had wanted her, and Percy supported her desire to go to Egypt. Hell, Percy thought it was a brilliant idea, and Bill hadn't put up much of a fight at all.

Speaking of which, she should go and tell Percy that their father had signed the forms, she was practically free. And so she slipped away with another hug for her oldest brother, her wonderful brother who was helping her escape from Hogwarts and England and Harry bloody Potter the walking disaster.

As she flitted out of the room, she heard Ron's voice raise behind her, "What just happened?"

.

"I didn't want her to go!"

The shout arrested her progress as she was tiptoeing past her parents' door on her way to Percy's room. If she knew her brother, he would be packing his little library up in preparation for the move to Penelope's...their mother had claimed Percy wasn't moving out, but if she knew her brother it would have only firmed his resolve more, now that he'd made up his mind.

Poor boy was probably desperate for sex too, after all; their mother had kept him housebound as much as she possibly could ever since the school year had ended and he'd started his two weeks compulsory compassionate leave in light of his boss dying.

Of course, she'd done her part for the cause when the three of them had been shopping, when their mother had decided that her presence would keep Percy from misbehaving with 'that naughty Clearwater girl'.

Yes, she'd winked at Penny and casually pushed her brother into the ladies' toilets with the girl, pulling the door closed again and going off to look for socks. They'd returned some time later, considerably more relaxed, and she'd only smirked knowingly.

"Then why did you sign the papers?" her father's voice cried, real anger in his tone. "If you hadn't signed them, I wouldn't have signed them!"

She should go on to Percy's room. Eavesdroppers never met a pleasant end...

"Because she made me so angry! She doesn't care that we're her parents and that we love her, all she cares about is herself"

Yeah, right. She was staying to hear this one.

There was a loud crash, as if something had been thrown or knocked over inside the bedroom, and her father's voice was heard again. "Can't you get Percy to talk sense into her? She listens to him more than she listens to me."

Of course she listened to Percy, Percy listened to her. Percy had her best interests at heart instead of his own.

"No! Percy's all for it! And he's moving in with that Ravenclaw girl, he's going to stay at her house as of today! He doesn't want to be here any more than Ginny does, and small wonder when Penelope's family is rich, when Penelope's family has two house-elves and a house that she's not ashamed to have people over at"

Money wasn't anything to be ashamed of, in her book, but her parents had come to take wealth as a sign of pure evil after the birth of the twins, when it became obvious that at the rate they were breeding they would never be even solvent, let alone well-off.

And yet they never asked where Potter got all his money, and she knew the boy had it. Stacks of it, even, buried in Gringotts. He bloody well could've offered to share a little of it when he was staying over, even if her mother and father wouldn't have taken it...hell, he could at least have popped down to the supermarket with Ron and helped them stock up, instead of just cheerfully eating his way through every plateful of food that her mother forced on him.

"There's nothing wrong with our house! It's a little cluttered and worn around the edges, but it suits our family very well. It's not my fault the Ministry doesn't pay me enoughif I took bribes then I'm sure we could live in the lap of luxury that you seem to want, but do you want me to dirty myself that much?"

It'd have been a nice start, and might have gotten her some new school shoes before the old ones had soles worn so thin that she couldn't walk outside in winter without risking frostbite. But her father had hit the right note, she knew her mother was going to cave any moment and gush with support for his strong moral fortitude...

"No, of course not, dear,"

Dead on.

"I know it's difficult being the only straight man at the Ministry, I do. And I would never want you to take a bribe, but I don't think financial woes are the source of our problem with Ginny."

Impressiveher mother actually admitted to having a problem.

"It's not your fault she doesn't understand, Molly," her father said quietly, soothingly.

When next her mother spoke, the woman's voice was muffled and just a little choked, as though her face was pressed to something, "I love her, I just don't understand her! She wants to go away and she hasn't really talked to me...not ever, not once in her entire life. I don't know how to make her talk to me..."

If she had been stupid, she would have called out for her mother to try not talking so bloody much herself, but she refrained with effort.

"She hasn't emotionally connected with anyone since her first year, you know that. It's not your fault if she shuts you out just as much as everyone else."

"It's not that, Arthur, she hasn't 'emotionally connected' with anyone new. She and Percy are thick as thieves, Bill and Charlie adore her and she seems to love them well enough, but she doesn't love me. Or you."

Perhaps her mother wasn't as deeply stupid as she'd originally thought. It was true, she didn't love her mother or father. She hadn't bothered investing time, emotion and effort into cultivating dead wood, and she didn't need to waste her time with people who were already dead and simply too stupid to realise it.

Molly Weasley had missed the mark ever so slightly, though. She had made a friend or two since her first year at Hogwarts. If she was going to be strictly accurate, she'd made two, and her mother disapproved of both of them thoroughly. Penny and Em were nice girls, though. Nice to her.

And that was all that mattered. There was nothing else of interest to be learned, she judged by the increased weeping from the bedroom, so she carried on in search of her brother.

.

"Mum's sobbing her heart out on Dad's shoulder," she announced as she entered Percy's room, going to the desk on which Hermes perched to scratch the owl behind his neck. "She just doesn't understand why I don't love her."

"Complete and utter neglect until you were eight years old and a half-arsed attempt at noticing you were alive at ten wasn't enough reason for her?" her brother answered in a tone that dripped enough irony to soak the carpet as he stacked an armload of books and papers into the cardboard box that rested on his bed.

"You know Mum, 'too little, too late' doesn't really enter into her head," she claimed a corner of his bed and sat with her legs tucked beneath her, examining each new work that went into the box. "She didn't really try that hard, though, after Ron went to Hogwarts. Too busy owling him every ten minutes to ask more about famous Harry Potter, and then all caught up in sending love from afar in the form of Christmas and Easter gifts."

"Those bloody sweaters..." Percy shook his head in sorrow for what she had gone through, but a hint of mirth showed through his expression. "And you're now going to be officially on the list of people who don't ever have to wear their sweaters. She'll send yours to Egypt just like she sends Bill's, and you can conveniently forget to pack it every time you come back for family gatherings."

"Don't think I want to attend another one of those, though," she grinned up at him, well aware that she was a spoiled little brat and that he didn't care in the slightest, because she could get away with murder.

Ron had actually said one time that Percy would turn his family over to the Dementors in a heartbeat if it gave him a chance of promotion, but that was a dirty lie. He'd only turn Ron, Fred, George and their parents over. Bill and Charlie weren't in the country most of the time, and he'd never dream of turning her over.

He'd forgiven her for her part in Penelope's petrification without her even having to babble past the first 'I'm sorry', she could do no bloody wrong. She sure as hell didn't need her mother's love, not when she had someone else who had loved her all along and actually cared. "I'll just stop by with you and Penny if I'm back in the country. You're much more fun, and don't try to keep the wine out of my reach."

"You're not an annoying drunk," Percy smiled at her, a little shamefaced. She'd said nothing more than truth, he didn't try to keep the wine away from her, but he usually didn't want to mention it when they'd attained sobriety again. Stiff upper lip! "Ready to go, then?"

"Almost. There's a lot of stuff that I didn't pack, but it has no emotional significance and no monetary worth, so I'm discarding it." That...summed up more of her life than she would be comfortable with if she was in any way a normal, sane teenage girl. But no, she had never been normal or sane, even in her pre-Riddle era. "Ready to go when you are. D'you know if Bill's coming with us now or if he's going to stick it out here a few more days?"

"He's coming with us. Big brother understands that running away is the better part of valour when Mum's in one of her moods. Anyway, we need to go into the Ministry to file your papers, and then maybe a quick trip to Hogwarts so you can say goodbye-and-fuck-you once we've got your records for the new school."

.

They Apparated to Penelope's before their parents had emerged from the bedroom, she in Bill's arms because she couldn't yet and Bill had sneakily mastered the art of Apparating with company, the three of them landing neatly on the doorstep of a large Tudor house that sprawled across neatly-mown lawns.

The refined opulence would have been enough to make her seethe with envy and break at least half a dozen of the diamond-paned windows if it hadn't been Penelope's, if it had belonged to anyone she deemed less worthy than her of having pretty things, but Penny was essentially familynear enough to, she was Percy's girl, which really ranked the Ravenclaw as more family than her own mother...to her mind, at any rate.

Percy put down their suitcases carefully on the polished stone and moved forward to grasp the beak of the heavy bronze doorknocker, but before he could crash it down again to announce their presence, the thick double-doors were flung open.

A man who had to be at least forty with dark curly hair pulled back into a queue stood there, friendly brown-black eyes raking over Ginny and Bill once before he waved extravagantly for them to proceed into the antechamber beyond. "Percy, come in! This must be Virginia and your brother...?"

"Bill," her oldest brother filled in, shaking hands with Penelope's father whilst she bobbed a quick curtsy in greeting before sitting on her suitcase.

"The infamous older brother," Mr. Clearwater smirked, throwing an arm around Percy's shoulders in affectionate greeting. "How's my prospective son-in-law then? You've broken the news to your family, I take it, that you're finally going to make an honest woman of my little girl"

"Dad, stop tormenting him!" Penelope chastised her father, as she landed lightly on her feet after a rushed descent down the polished balustrade to save them, pulling Percy away to kiss him passionately in greeting. "Hi, GinnyBill," the brunette acknowledged them after the most important matter had been taken care of, smacking her father affectionately about the head before shaking hands with Bill and hugging her, a wicked grin appearing. "Ginny, you wicked thing, are you running away from home?"

"Of course," she answered with a little smile. "I'm off to Egypt in a few days, actuallyif I'd known about Percy's plans I mightn't have badgered Bill into taking me on, but it's probably all for the best that I run far away, you know?"

"Definitely. I can understand the reasoning behind your choice." Penelope had heard most of the story of her first year; she'd apologised profusely when the girl had awoken, and her babbled and confused tale of RiddleVoldemortand how he'd been controlling her had spilled out.

Penelope had patted her on the back and given her tissues, promised not to tell anyone, and from then they had got on remarkably well, to the extent that she'd wander around with the Ravenclaw in her second year when Potter and Ron were ignoring her existence and Percy was busy running around doing Head Boy stuff. She'd even been privileged enough to see the inside of the Ravenclaw common room.

Living with Penelope and Percy wouldn't have sucked at all, but now...well, now she was going far away where Voldemort couldn't touch her, and she would have only been at home in the holidays anyway. Now Percy and Penny would just have to come to Egypt and visit her instead.

"So how long will your brother and sister be staying, Percy?" Mr. Clearwater inquired of her brother, yanking a bellpull to summon one of the house elves.

"I don't want to impose" Bill started, waving a hand to indicate toward the nearest town. "I was going to stay at a hotel, maybe take Ginny with me if it's too much an inconvenience for you to have her"

"Don't be ridiculous," Penelope's father ignored her brother's protests, pointing imperiously at the house elf that scurried in in response to the summons. "Flit, take Percy's suitcase to my daughter's roomand two rooms for his siblings, at once."

"May as well not bother arguing with Dad," Penelope commented, patting Bill's shoulder sympathetically. "We've got eight bedrooms, he loves stuffing them with people and lording over us all at dinner. But it's not all bad, if he begins to be too obnoxious we can just fling peas and mash at him."

Penelope's dad wasn't too bad. Crazyno, people with money were eccentricbut all right. He did insist that they all take tea with him before they be allowed to leave with Penelope, but she had no great objections to that before she went to face the Ministry about her change of guardianship.

Three cups of tea, two scones and a trip to the bathroom later, she, her brothers and Penny were in front of the fireplace with the poor Ravenclaw trying to explain exactly why Mr. Clearwater shouldn't march into the Ministry with them to kick people around. Physical violence was supposed to be a Ravenclaw's last resort, not a Ravenclaw's first, and the last thing they needed was to be booted out before the paperwork was filed.

Mr. Clearwater evidently didn't believe a word they said, but he gave in reluctantly, stalking away upstairs only to pause halfway up the first flight and call back, "If you're not back in time for dinner I'm eating it all and you'll go hungry!"

"We'll be back in time, Dad. Go blow yourself up or something," his daughter called back, throwing half a jar of floo-powder in the fireplace. "The Ministry" Penny slipped through the flames to disappear, and Percy pushed her in next.

.

They piled out of the public-use fireplace into the foyer of the Ministry's central department not too much the filthierthe house elves at the Clearwater estate kept their fireplace spotless, and the Ministry didn't bother to have their fireplace litonly for Penny to smack directly into Draco Malfoy who was loitering about as if he wanted people to walk into him.

"Watch where you're going, Mudpuddle," Malfoy sneered, his gaze falling on her and her brothers before returning to Penelope. "You shouldn't associate with them, you know, I hear poverty's catching."

"Naff off, blondie," Penny sneered back with a good thousand years of Ravenclaw disdain in her voice and glance. "We might not be quite so rich as you, or quite so inbred as you, but really we're in no danger of going bankrupt in the next two hundred years. Sorry to disappoint, tell your dad he's still not getting our house on the Cote d'Azur."

"I'll pass on the message." Malfoy pulled a face at her as she peeked out around Penny's shoulder, and she flicked him a two-finger salute in response.

"That's a good lad, then." Smirking happily, Penelope reached back to grab her hand and towed her toward the door that opened into the heart of the Ministry, waving for Percy and Bill to catch up. "Honestly, Malfoys. Can't live with 'em, someone's bound to investigate shallow graves..."

"Is it wise to antagonise them?" Bill questioned as they navigated their way through a mess of old witches holding forth in an opinionated manner on the subject of Voldemort's return.

"Fuck, no. Doesn't stop me, though." Penny led them with only slightly-erring accuracy in the direction of the Department of Young Witches and Wizards, only to frown in annoyance when the waiting-room turned out to be devoid of all life, including that of the clerk who should have been there waiting to help them. "Bugger." Ducking out again, the dark-haired girl paused at the door to issue a command of "You lot stay here, I'll find someone to sort this out."

"How come you're not handling this?" she asked Percy quietly as she took a seat. There had to be a valid reason, because after all, her brother wasn't incompetent.

"I don't have any pull with this side of the Ministry. It's better that Penny handles it, Social Development are still annoyed with me for slaughtering them at pool," Percy explained casually, taking the seat next to her whilst Bill wandered on to adorn some of the moving posters with a black fountain-pen that he had found on the clerk's desk.

Percy was right, she was sure. Coming from outside the room she could hear Penny's distinctive alto tones increasing in volume, although they changed from a random string of expletives to something a lot more friendly. Evidently Penny had found someone who might actually be helpful. "Oi, Shannon! Give us a hand with something?"

Whoever Shannon was she seemed inclined to help, for shadowing Penelope when she returned was a bespectacled brunette that Ginny vaguely remembered seeing around school the previous years. The girl took one look around the room and frowned, walking quickly over to the clerical desk and leaning over it to rummage in the papers left on top in such a state of disarray that any further meddling could only make it tidier.

"Right," Shannon said in a soft voice with her accent blurring the word slightly, picking up the heavy appointments book and leafing through it to find the current day, pulling an Everlasting Ink quill out of her long plait. "Name?"

"Weasley," Penelope interjected before Ginny or her brothers could answer, and nodded in satisfaction when the Scottish girl edited the book to give them an appointment. "Well, that's half donenow what?"

"Why, now I go find Bryant Dunstan and hit him over the head with this book here." Waving the heavy tome with a maniacal gleam in her grey eyes, Shannon smiled happily at them and set off on a mission of destruction through the closed double-doors that led further into the Ministry.

"Ravenclaws are the most interesting people," Ginny observed quietly, and Percy snickered at her before he nodded in agreement.

"Of course they are. I wouldn't love one otherwise," Percy used the lead-in to claim a kiss from Penelope, and they began entertaining each other while they waited for the wheels of the court to be set in motion.

"So, Bill," she started when her oldest brother took a seat to wait, having finished his vandalism for the moment. "Tell me more about Egypt, you know I didn't get to see that much of it last time."

"Wrapped in cotton wool as you were," he agreed, not complaining when she took over three chairs and stretched out with her feet on his lap. "For a start, it's hot as fuck there."

.

Shannon returned with a man who looked to be in his early twenties, a man who looked very much the worse for wear as he was kicked in the ankle repeatedly by the short Scottish girl and scolded for, from what Ginny could hear, "Pissin' off for a fuckin' tea break when some people have to work a lot bloody harder and all you've got to do is man a bloody desk, how difficult is that?"

The haranguing stopped when Shannon realised she had herded the recalcitrant clerk nearly all the way back to his desk, and she cleared her throat before she addressed Penelope with a "If you're nearly finished checking for tonsillitis, I've found th' guy who's to rush your paperwork through."

"Mmmthanks, ShannonBill, give the paper-pusher your papers," Penelope slid off Percy's lap gracefully, stalking over to the desk to stand over Dunstan and make sure he did what he was ordered to.

Ginny lifted her feet and sat up in concession to Bill's obvious need to rise in order to hand over the custody application forms, but didn't bother taking a more active part in the proceedings until her presence was required. She was just the minor being shuffled from one person's care to another's, and they hadn't even landed up in front of the magistrate yet. Her role remained spectator for the moment, and she really quite liked it that way.

"Look, this is no good," Durstan complained as he scanned over the forms. "We need her parents in here as well for the court to decide"

"Bollocks you do," Shannon cut him off, leaning over to stab with a carefully-manicured nail at a notation on the third page. "It's intrafamily, not inter, the parents have already signed. Quit being such a nancy-boy and just push it through, you whinging little maggot"

"Nice phrasing," Penelope complimented, a little grin on her face as she watched Bryant quail beneath the glare of the younger girl. "Haven't seen you let rip like that since firstie Gryffs spilled milk on your homework."

"Whoever said there was no use crying over it had never spilled it on any of my work. Bryant, you're very slow with those, you know your job isn't to decide each case. You've verified that there's a case, now just be a good boy and take them into the magistrate."

"Boyd, I find it increasingly difficult to do my job with you standing over like some little dictatordon't hit me again! Christ, I'm going, I'm going" Grumbling all the while, the man nonetheless did stomp out the door from which he'd emerged, papers in hand.

"Sorry about that," Shannon murmured, dusting her hands off on her hips and smoothing out her robes. "Good help is so hard to find, you know. Anyway, I must get back to workI'm pushing for reassignment, and so must appear as competent as I can. Penny, just come and find me if Bryant is much more of a pissant, although I think the mere threat of my return should straighten him out. Bye, Weasleys."

Not with a bang nor a whimper the Ravenclaw girl scurried away quickly, leaving them alone once more to wait. It wasn't, however, a very long wait; Bryant returned almost immediately with an expression of mild annoyance and his hands free of their paperwork, to indicate that they should follow him.

"You're lucky," he muttered to Percy and Bill as they hurried through the grey marble and wood hallways to an ornately-carved door. "Magistrate's kindly agreed to see you, even though there's usually a three-week wait on these things."

The magistrate wasn't at all like the hired flunky that had led them in, to her surprise. No, instead the magistrate was a tiny witch with white hair who had to be at least a hundred and thirty, who looked upon her with a spark of interest and a kind smile. "Virginia Weasleyyou want to go and live with your brother instead of with your parents?"

"Yes," she answered decisively, putting as much enthusiasm as she could muster into her reply.

The witch began writing something that she couldn't see from her disadvantage point, directing the next question elsewhere. "William Weasleyyou accept responsibility for her?"

Bill didn't hesitate, proving his sincerity to her with his response and the smile he gave her. "Yes."

"Percy Weasley, you'll take over Virginia's care if William should be rendered incapable of caring for her before she attains her majority?"

"In an instant."

"You know," the magistrate-witch's eyes sparkled a moment as she shook her head, pointing a finger at Ginny as she continued, "the customary response is a flat yes or no, but I'll accept that. Done. Virginia, come up here and claim your new papers."

She went up with a new spring in her step, not even flinching when the old witch patted her shoulder as she received four copies of her custody order. This had turned out a lot easier than she'd anticipated. The magistrate had practically handed everything she wanted to her on a shiny silver platter, and it was now too late for her mother to change her mind about it without facing a custody battle royal. All really was well, now. Away from her mother, away from Hogwarts, away from Voldemort...she had it made.

"Now, drop one off at the records desk on your way out, William, you put a copy in a safe placesuch as a safe, for examplesend one to your parents, and Virginia, you keep yours safe too," the crone nodded in satisfaction at a job well done and waved a hand toward the door. "Be off with you. Enjoy your new arrangement."

.

"One last stop," Percy commented cheerfully to her as they made their way outside the Ministry and into the murk and glitter of Diagon Alley, pulling her out of the way before a pair of overgrown Gryffindor second-years could step on her. "Hogwarts. Have you anything pithy to say to Dumbledore as you take your leave?"

Percy was advising her to be sarky to authority figures? How times changed...of course, the moment she had her school records in her hot little hands and Bill had formally withdrawn her from Hogwarts, Dumbledore ceased to be an authority figurefor her, at least.

Bill had mentioned on their way out about the tense relations between Sheta Oasis and Hogwarts, due in no small part to Dumbledore's roughshod approach to interacting with other schools, and had assured her that very little she had done in Scotland would matter to her new teachers. She wasn't evil, she wasn't stupid, and she could pay attention in classthat would make her more than acceptable.

"I'm thinking," she answered with a little shrug. "Would 'Loathed my time here, fuck you very much' be a bit naff?"

"Sounds perfectly acceptable to me," Penny chimed in, scribbling down a note of the lunch appointment she'd made with Shannon Boyd for the following Monday before she tucked her notebook and pen away, linking arms with Percy to stroll down the street and take up as much of the path as possible. "Add something about him being decrepit, that'll get to him. I overheard Malfoy tell 'im that a while back, and it annoyed the fuck out of him."

Still mulling over all the pretty possibilities of rude things to say in her head, Ginny squeaked in surprise when Bill pulled her off the street and into one of the little alcoves left by a shop that had burned to the ground, scooping her up into his arms and Apparating her away. "You might want to add," he commented as they arrived a metre away from the school gates, "something nasty about their poor standards and complete inability to dispense proper psychiatric help. Kick 'em while they're down."

"Sounds good," she answered as he put her down and Percy and Penny arrived a moment later. "Oh, d'you think I should throw in something about the disturbing tendency of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers being either evil, incompetent, or both?"

"Toss it in," Penny said with authority, kicking the gates open and strolling onto Hogwarts property with nary a care for the reception they were likely to get when the nature of their call became known. "Really, a good half the teachers there are blindingly incompetent. Say what you will about Snape's dubious past and Slytherin nature, but at least the man can teach. Our Ravenclaw teachers and the bint in the Astronomy tower are fair decent too, but I learned more about Transfiguration from watching Dad at home than I learned from McGonagall."

"Not in-depth enough?" she asked as she wandered up the drive with her hand tucked into the crook of Bill's elbow, suddenly struck by a moment of fear.

What if Dumbledore refused to let her go? He shouldn't have any reason for it beyond being an arse, but a niggling little hint of premonition told her that this step wouldn't be as easy as the last, not with the way Dumbledore actedit was the condescending nature of the man that hinted at her escape not being the problem-free thing she'd envisioned.

His problem was that he thought he knew better than everyone else.

"Not in-depth enough. Also, too much time spent on telling us how to feel something and not enough telling us how to do something."

"Feel the hedgehog," Percy added in a mocking falsetto, his expression schooled into a prim look that really was an awful lot like McGonagall's. "Be one with the hedgehog."

"Just what everyone wants, to identify with and perform disgusting acts on small mammals."

"Thanks, Bill, Percy," Penny grumbled, nose wrinkled in a disgust probably not unlike that which Ginny herself felt. "I'm so glad I didn't bother with silly trifles such as breakfast this morning."

"Starting to wish I hadn't," she mumbled under her breath as she gazed up the stairs at the heavy doors which lay closed now, holidays being what they were. "Really starting to wish..."

"Don't worry, Gin," Bill had overheard her, and took a moment to hug her, a reassuring gesture that had more effect than it would've a day before. She was so close to being away, and Bill supported her, he wouldn't let some old wrinkled fart of a wizard have any further say in her fate.

While they had their touchy-feely sob story time, Penelope had skipped up to bash on the door with one fist and yell out for them to open up, the perfect picture of a refined and delicate young lady...who'd spent her entire time at school behind the broomsheds, trading in quick gropes or snogs for cigarettes.

"Well, that's charming," she giggled, a little more of the tension fading away. If all else failed, Penny could kick Dumbledore in the head for her and she could run like hell.

"Of course," Penny answered with an expression that wouldn't have looked off on a Malfoy, the superior smirk one that also fit her surprisingly well. "I am always charming. And graceful and demure, too."

"Your dad didn't believe that when we staggered in at four in the morning, pissed out of our skulls," Percy pointed out, joining his girlfriend on the top step as one door swung slowly open. "Of course, throwing up on his slippers mightn't have been the best way of convincing him that you were the very personification of ladylike behaviour."

"Details, details. Oi, elf, nip off and get Dumbledore or McGonagall. Someone nominally in authority over this mess," Penny commanded, stalking inside and ignoring the way the house elf looked set to go into a fit. They followed the Ravenclaw girl with about the same concern for the house elf, and made themselves at home on the heavily carved seats that lined one side of the hall. "This year'd be nice."

Waving its hands frantically, eyes spinning in its head, the house elf couldn't bring itself to do more than nod before it disappeared with a pop.

.

Dumbledore saw her first as he rounded the corner, his garish red and gold robes and his white-bearded self appearing out of a little side-hallway instead of coming down the main stairs where he'd have seen her last, and his twinkling eyes were twinkling at her as he opened his mouth to greet her. "Ginny! And Billyour mother sent you to remind me about the charms I have to place on the Burrow? I haven't forgotten..."

"Not exactly," she started trying to explain, rising from her seat and clasping her hands behind her back so he couldn't see her nails digging into her skin. "You see, I"

"You came of your own volition? You are looking forward to young Harry's visit, I can tell," he smiled at her even as he ignored her attempts to speak up for herself, interrupting the start of her explanation. "Don't wor"

"Actually, Professor, we've come to collect Ginny's school records. She's coming to live with me," Bill interrupted him, looking down at the old wizard and putting a supportive arm around her. Penelope and Percy began to pay attention to something that wasn't each other, and stood up to flank them. "Since she'll be starting at Sheta Oasis in...let's see, around mid-August...it would be very helpful if we could just take them with us now."

Bill's words got through to the old git's brain as her own hadn't, and Dumbledore looked genuinely shocked for a moment before a carefully-composed expression slipped into place. "This does seem to be a very arbitrary decision, Bill," Dumbledore began slowly, effectively ignoring her yet again in favour of condescending to her brother. "I spoke with your mother only three days ago, she mentioned nothing of Ginny being withdrawn from Hogwarts in favour of a school run by people who are...well, they're hardly English."

"Egypt is much healthier than the British Isles, and it makes us feel better about Ginny's safety," Percy said with a raised eyebrow. "Not English, in this situation, is infinitely better than English."

"Regardless of your feelings in the matter, Percy, Bill, I'm afraid I can't allow you to withdraw Ginny from Hogwarts. Only your mother and father have that authority, and as I don't see them here..." the old wizard paused for dramatic effect, glancing around deliberately to see if her parents were hiding behind a curtain or beneath a chair, but he paused a moment too long.

"As it happens, I also have this." Bill pulled his copy of the custody order out of his coat pocket, and smirked. "I'm Ginny's sole legal guardian as of, oh, fifteen minutes ago?"

"Closer to twenty-five if we go from the time the good magistrate signed the forms, instead of from when you filed a copy with Records," Penny added helpfully, buffing her fingernails on her skirt.

"I could contest this, have her made a ward of the school," Dumbledore murmured thoughtfully, his words making Ginny's heart drop to somewhere around her knees. "It's hardly in Virginia's best interests that she change schools this far into her education, and I have quite serious concerns about her mental health given the ordeal of her first year..."

"Before you consider any such action," Percy sprung to her defence, obviously eager to get a few choice words in on that account himself, "I'd suggest you look at the signature on that certificate. Brunhilde Wildsmith approved Bill's petition, and I'm sure you're not unaware of the power she has. I doubt she'd be thrilled to hear all about your concerns, and as for Ginny's first year...why on earth do you think we'd want her to continue here?"

"Hogwarts is the finest wizarding school in Europe!" Dumbledore protested, trying not to lose the jovial look as he realised she was still watching him. "Ginny, your mother and father only wanted the best for you when they sent you here, surely you don't want to go? You would be leaving behind dozens of friends, your second home, and Harry"

"Oh, bugger off!" she snapped in response at last, shocked at herself as the words broke free. "Will everyone stop telling me what bloody Potter means to me? You're all full of shit, and I hate it here at Hogwarts, I don't have 'dozens' of friends, this place has never been home to me, it's simply where I've been forced to exist, I have horrible memories every time I turn a corner, Mum and Dad only sent me here because it was as close as they could get to free," she was gasping for breath by the time she paused a moment, and Bill's advice flitted through her mind again, spurring on one last comment, "And you worry about my mental health? There, there, kid, so you've been possessed by evil for a year and nearly died, but have a cup of hot chocolate and it's all better...I don't bloody think so."

"Very well," Dumbledore's face was thunderous as he looked on her, shocked and surprised that she had absolutely no intent of falling for one of his lines and accepting that his way was the one true way, "As you are obviously judgement-impaired," he stated as he returned the certificate to Bill, "I will have no choice but to give you copies of Virginia's school record, and hope that she comes to her senses before it's too late."

"How gracious, how kind" she bit her lip before she could continue, before she could provoke Dumbledore into changing his mind. "Thank you, Professor Dumbledore. It is very good of you to attend to this matter with such promptness."

"I didn't mean today," Dumbledore stated blankly, waiting for her to tell him that there was no rush, or even worse, that he might as well not bother then, she would be happy to stay on at Hogwarts.

"Which is why I appreciate it so very much," she smiled guilelessly at him. "We all appreciate it, truly."

He returned her smile, the twinkle returning to his eyes as he gestured toward the stairs. "In which case, Virginia, why don't you accompany me to collect your file? We'll amend the school register to certify that you're no longer in attendance, if you're quite sure you won't be back in September..."

She couldn't. She couldn't go up there with him alone, she didn't trust him. Most students did, most were reasonably sure that he only had their best interests at heart, but she didn't believe it. She knew there were magics that could be placed on a personcompulsions, coercions, they weren't banned like the Unforgiveables because they weren't curses, but a controlling spell woven around someone's mind...trapping them in the cage of another's thoughts until they accepted those thoughts, dreams, aspirations as their own...

She wasn't going to be alone with him for a moment. For all the wrongs Riddle had done her, he'd taught her a thing or two whether it was by accident or design, and he'd known that Dumbledore could coerce like no one's business...Dumbledore couldn't have done it to Tom, the young dark lord had force of mind enough to resist, but she didn't...

"You don't need Ginny's signature for the register," Penny spoke up, walking casually into her line of vision and blocking Dumbledore's gaze from resting on her, freeing her to think properly. "I'll go with you, I can carry papers just as well as she canand if you have any of her medical records I'll take those too. Might be a bit heavy for Gin," Penny was lying quite blatantly, for the Ravenclaw was no stronger than she was, and her first impulse was to say that no, Penelope couldn't go, but it was obviously a calculated tactical move on Penny's part, if Penny had suspicions similar to hers.

Penelope was the only one who was safe. Ginny couldn't go, she'd be bespelled into never wanting to leave in an instant. Bill might be bespelled almost as easily as she would be, to turn her over, and Percy was the nominated default guardian if anything happened to Bill. Dumbledore could fuck with Percy's mind and then arrange a little accident for Bill, she was sure he had no compunctions over the immorality of the act because the ends justified the means, and Dumbledore seemed to want her to remain...not for her own sake, oh no, but for Potter's.

She'd had a crush on the boy when she was ten, and her parents...and now Dumbledore...seemed to think it was true romance, or at least something that would keep Potter from flying off the rails with all the pressure that the poor baby was under. She was still dead sure she was right before, they would be better off shacking him up with Ron.

No, Penny was safe. Penny couldn't be spelled to make Ginny stay, Penny had no legal authority over her and for all Dumbledore knew, any advice Penelope gave her was insignificant. The look on Dumbledore's face proved her reasoning was sound, and the tone he began to speak in only confirmed it. "Penelope, I couldn't ask you to do such a thingit's Ginny's choice to switch schools, so it should be Ginny's job to see it through."

"Oh, you didn't ask me. I volunteered, so don't worry about it. Let's dash off and get them now, then we'll be gone and well out of your hair," Penelope paused, glancing back at her to receive a tremulous grin of thanks, and nodded with resolve. "Gone forever. Won't that be nice?"

Dumbledore didn't respond to that one, tottering off up the stairs without a backwards glance as though he assumed sheor Pennyor maybe he didn't care who any morewould follow, grumbling under his breath all the while. Penny beamed at them and bounded off after Dumbledore, and Bill just raised an eyebrow at Percy. "Your girl is an...interesting one."

She sighed in relief, the feeling of impending doom had lifted at last and now she truly felt carefree, without a worry in the world. Oh, there was the new school, there was half a dozen new languages to learn, she'd have to adapt, but she could do that.

Her mother and father hadn't been able to stop her, the magistrate Wildsmith had been kindly, understanding, and perfectly willing to help her escape a bad situation, and as for the last stumbling-block, Dumbledore... well, for someone supposedly one of the most respected wizards in England, the senile old fool still hadn't been able to stop her. Not with Percy, Penny and Bill on her side. Ward of the school? Hah.

Penny returned only twenty minutes later without Dumbledore, a red card folder in one hand and a slip of parchment in the other, the latter of which she handed over to Ginny at once before foisting the folder off on Bill. "Told the old fart we'd let ourselves out, 'cos we didn't want to disturb him any further," Penelope filled them in while they walked briskly down the stairs and out into the afternoon sunlight, past the house-elf that shook its tiny fists at their departing backs.

"No wonder he was trying to con you into staying," the ebony-haired girl added in an aside to Ginny as they rounded the lake, heading directly for the gates to Apparate back to the Clearwater estate. "I heard all about Potter's fancy of Cho this past year, and her grandmother disenrolled her from Hogwarts yesterday. She's off to China where it's safe, and poor Dumbledore's trying desperately to keep anyone around who can keep Potter from giving up and just dying instead of fighting the good fight."

"Hah, really?" She always had thought Chang had good sense, though. Sense enough to decline Potter's invitation to the ball, and now sense enough to run the fuck away herself.

"'Course. Saw her name and reason down in the book myself when Dumbledore reluctantly pulled you out, after trying to convince me that it would be wonderful if I conned Percy into making you stay. Heard about the crush through the unofficial Ravenclaw alumni network."

"You lot really, really like to keep tabs on things, don't you?"

"We're Ravenclaws. We're all about the acquisition of knowledgeand the shiny objects."

She let the conversation lapse at that point, as they made it out the gates, and sighed as Bill picked her up. The stress of her day was uncoiling and dissipating at last, leaving her with a nervous headache like those she'd started to suffer from after her first year at Hogwartsand she'd hoped those were a thing of the past. Still, it wasn't as bad as those had been, and a rest should sort her out. Yes, later she still had so many things to do, people to write to and shopping to do, Bill had as much as said she would need new clothes for Egypt, but for now...sleep.

Clasping her arms around Bill's neck and resting her head on his shoulder, she began to nap.