Chapter Twenty-Seven

Remus was sipping his tea and going through the latest edition of the Daily Prophet when Ginny walked into the kitchen with Harry. Remus, though thrown off guard by the sight before him, continued to read his paper nonchalantly. "Good morning, Ginny, Harry," he said.

"You look a lot better today, Remus," Ginny commented, joining him at the table, while Harry seemed to prefer standing. "Did you need me to go to the store and get anything for you?"

Remus folded up the paper this time and stared at Ginny then at Harry. He should have suspected something like this from the beginning. Whatever they were here to tell him, Ginny already knew it was not going to go over well otherwise she wouldn't have made that offer.

"Is there something you two want to tell me?" He asked, trying hard to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He tried not to think the worst when Ginny gave Harry a look like he should say something and the teen pretended not to notice.

Sighing, Ginny turned back to Lupin and said quickly, "Harry and I have been seeing each other."

"I see," he responded, though he had already gathered that much himself.

"It's only happened in the last week," she hurried on. "It's not that we don't respect what you and Dumbledore said and your reasons for us not being involved, it's just – we can't," she finished, as if that were a good enough explanation.

"Are the effects still the same?" He asked them.

"Yes," Harry finally spoke up.

"No," Ginny said immediately after, causing Harry to look sharply at her. "Before, I could feel everyone's emotions around me, now it's just Harry's."

Remus took a long sip from his tea, carefully pondering his next question. "Are you, ah, involved the same way as before?" The embarrassment he felt in asking was nothing compared to the mortified looks that appeared on both the teen's faces. "I'll take that as a yes," he said a second later.

"So you're not upset?" Ginny said, her eyes hopeful.

"Upset? No," he replied. "To be honest, I'm surprised you stayed away from each other as long as you did," he said, letting out the tiniest of smiles.

"What happens now?" Harry asked him.

"Well," Lupin began, looking thoughtful, "Harry, we've known for quite some time you've had some sort of emotional connection with Ginny even before your relationship started. It was just never consciously returned by Ginny until recently," he said, avoiding the specific facts that would undoubtedly embarrass them all again. "Ginny's condition was similar to yours before you learned how to control your powers. But after awhile her connection with everyone else faded but remained with you. Is that correct, Ginny?"

"Yes," she answered, nodding.

"Then it's entirely possible what's happening would have happened eventually. You can't read each other's thoughts, just strong feelings or sparks of emotions. And just like Harry's powers, your link will very likely dissolve after Voldemort's defeat."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Remus," Dumbledore's voice sounded from the kitchen doorway.

"I didn't know you were stopping by, Albus," Remus said to him.

"I was on my way to Phoenix Headquarters, but thought I'd stop by here first," he explained, though he did not offer up any reason for being there. "If you don't mind my saying so, I think we've all overlooked a very important aspect of this connection between Harry and Miss Weasley."

Harry, for his part, decided to at least listen to what Dumbledore had to say. If he was suddenly changing his mind about things, it wouldn't hurt to hear him out.

Seeing that he had their attention, Dumbledore continued, "Perhaps we were all too hasty to jump to the conclusion that this connection is a bad thing. Now that Miss Weasley does not seem to be demonstrating any kind of emotional powers aside from her link with Harry, it could be used as a form of protection."

"Protection?" Harry echoed, not sure if he was going to like where Dumbledore was going with this.

"Even if Miss Weasley here is only able to sense powerful emotions such as fear and anger, it would be a useful tool for determining if you are in any sort of danger. This type of protection can work both ways, Harry. Since your mind powers are much stronger, the link you have with Miss Weasley would let you know instantly if she was in any trouble."

Ginny looked at Harry and could already see Dumbledore's words taking effect. She really wished their old Headmaster hadn't mentioned the part about the protection being two-sided. Now Harry would probably want to check on her safety whenever she was out of eyesight. She didn't plan on allowing that to happen.

"It's very important that Voldemort does not find about this. Harry already knows how deadly it can be to have someone else being able to access your mind and plant images there. Miss Weasley, you should at least learn to build up some barriers around your mind."

"You mean like Occlumency?" Ginny said.

"Similar to that, yes, but not nearly as complicated. You simply need to learn some basic techniques to keep Harry's thoughts from interfering with your own and vice versa, otherwise it could start getting uncomfortable. Harry can teach you some simple shielding techniques to keep out obtrusions and other influences."

Harry hardly considered himself qualified to teach Ginny even the most simplest of mind shielding techniques. Even more so now that there was some question as to if Voldemort was catching glimpses of his mind without him knowing it. Maybe he was going to have to see Snape after all. He needed to know if he would be putting Ginny at risk.

Dumbledore seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "Harry, I have every confidence in your abilities. You studied under one of the best Legilimens in the last century, which is part of the reason why you're so skilled at Occlumency. The other part is just natural talent, of course."

Harry supposed that counted for something if Dumbledore wasn't lecturing him about giving up Occlumency and believed in his abilities. He just wished he had as much faith in himself as Dumbledore did.

"Well, if there are no other questions, I should be off," said Dumbledore.

"Why did this happen?" Harry asked before he could leave.

"I'm sure the reason is rather obvious," Dumbeldore began, smiling. "But I do suspect you and Miss Weasley would be much happier discovering it on your own."

Dumbledore left then, leaving both Harry and Ginny confused at his cryptic statement. When Harry looked at Lupin he seemed the only one to have perfectly understood what Dumbledore had said.

Hermione stared at the items assembled on her bed, trying to decide what to bring down with her fot her first N.E.W.T. lesson with Remus. She didn't want to seem over eager, but it was kind of hard not to. She really wanted to do this. Even if there wasn't a Ministry left after the war, she wanted to be able to say she had officially completed her magical education.

Then again, she didn't know why she was making such a fuss. It wasn't as if she was going away to school, she was just going downstairs and if she needed anything she could always run back up to her room. Remus had been extremely vague with his instructions, so he probably wasn't expecting her to bring anything. Even if this wasn't a proper learning setting, Hermione did not want to be caught unprepared. In the end she decided on bringing her book bag down with her, which carried a few quills and notebooks of parchment. She hesitated before adding her wand, but if she wasn't ready to use that again, there was no point in even doing this.

Since Remus had refused to take it away from her, going on about how she needed to trust herself, it had sat at the bottom of her nightstand for weeks. She pulled it out and added it to her bag before heading downstairs.

When she was in the front hallway, she could hear voices coming from the dining room. She could make out the rough voice as Moody's and the feminine one as Tonks. She went to investigate, finding the adults locked in an intense conversation, standing around the dining room table. In addition to Moody and Tonks, Kingsley Shackabolt was there and so was Lupin.

They all stopped talking when they saw her. It was obviously private whatever they were talking about, so she backed out the room saying, "sorry, I'll come back."

"No, Hermione, stay," said Tonks, giving her a welcoming smile. "If this is about you then you should have a say," she said, turning a look on Moody who gazed back unflinchingly.

"What's this about?" She tried to ask casually. She already knew what this was about. They had found out she was going to be doing magic again and didn't think it was such a good idea and they were here to try and talk Lupin out of it. She glanced at Lupin, who appeared to be a bit agitated but that was all.

"It's about when you went missing when you were and Ron were using those charms," Tonks said to her.

"I don't understand," she said, feeling somewhat confused. "I already told you I don't remember anything before waking up in St. Mungo's."

"Have you tried?" Kingsley asked her.

"Of course I've tried," she told him. Albeit, it had only been a few times and never for more than a few minutes. She supposed it was because she was frightened about what she was going to find. If it hadn't affected her so far, she wasn't too eager to learn more.

"Alastor, we've been through this before," said Lupin, coming to her aid. "There is probably a very good reason why Hermione can't remember anything from that day. To try to force it out of her – "

"No one's going to force anything out of her, Remus," Tonks interjected. "This has to be Hermione's choice."

"What's my choice?" Hermione demanded, not appreciating being talked over as if she wasn't in the room.

"It's very possible that based on how long you were gone and where the Aurors found you, you spent that entire day in the custody of Death Eaters," Moody said to her. "That means you could have some knowledge in your mind that could be of use to the Order."

"Or you're just going to make her relive something horrible and find nothing you can use," Remus countered.

Moody's glass eye swiveled over to rest on Remus. "I thought this was Granger's choice?" Keeping his real eye on Hermione, he said, "it's possible we could find out strategic plans, new names of Death Eaters or even other cell here in Britain."

"I still don't understand what you want me to do if I can't remember anything," she said to Moody. There were no spells for finding lost memories that she knew of.

"It's still a somewhat experimental procedure," Tonks began. "It can be done at St. Mungo's. There'd be a small chance of brain damage – "

"No," Hermione said fiercely before the Auror could even finish.

Moody fixed her with a cold, piercing stare. "Are you saying that out of loyalty to Potter?"

"What does Harry have to do with this?" Lupin wanted to know.

"Moody made sure Harry got sacked as an Auror and thinks I won't help because I want to get back at him," Hermione filled him in. She might be loyal to Harry but there was a war going on and she wasn't going to be so petty as to have her reason for refusing to do that procedure as a way to get back at Moody.

Lupin's eyes were as wide as saucers. "What did you do, Alastor?"

"It's highly possible Potter is leaking information to the Dark Lord."

"I don't believe this," Lupin said, shaking his head. "Things aren't going the way we would like and the first thing you do is turn your suspicions on Harry."

"When I ran my investigation, everyone else turned up clean. That leaves Potter, who knew the exact same information and it's common knowledge You-Know-Who has been in his head before and extracted information."

"Maybe you need to run your investigation again," Lupin said calmly. "What are you going to do next? Kick him out of the Order?"

"It hasn't been decided yet if Potter's Order status should be revoked," Moody said in equally a calm voice.

Lupin's eyes narrowed. "Decided by whom? The same people who decided to remove Harry from the Ministry? Any decisions affecting members lives are supposed to be voted on by the entire Order."

"When certain members have become comprised – "

"Comprised?" Lupin cried incredulously.

"What else would you call it, Lupin?" Moody said, his own temper shining through. "You treat Potter like he's your son and the Weasley's treat him like he's one of their own. Therefore, your judgment when it comes to him is clouded and cannot be trusted."

"I take it Arthur and Molly didn't know about you making sure Harry was sacked, either?

"They know now," was Moody's gruff response.

"Are you trying to make up for the fact that you couldn't figure out Peter was the traitor last time that you're willing to pin this all on Harry?" Lupin accused.

That accusation did not sit well with Moody, who looked ready to pull out his wand and may very well have if Tonks had not stepped in.

"Mad-Eye, I think it's time to go," she said sternly.

She waited until Moody had finished staring down Lupin and was moving into the hallway before her and Kingsley followed.

"Hermione, just think about what we said," Tonks said to her before leaving. "Remus can explain the whole procedure to you, and if you still decide you don't want to do it, that's fine."

When they were gone, Lupin slumped down at the table saying, "I'm sure he doesn't even think there's anything wrong with what he did. But I never thought Tonks would go along with something like that, though…" He trailed off, staring at the far corner of the room.

"I'm sure Harry meant to tell you," Hermione said, taking a seat at the other end of the table. "It just happened yesterday. He just probably has a lot on his mind right now."

"It's all right, Hermione," Lupin assured her. "I know Harry would have said something once he was ready." He grabbed the stack of books on table near him and got up to pass them to her. "I might as well give you these," he began. "This is everything you'll need for your N.E.W.T. level studies. I think you're well past the point where I would need to teach you on a one-on-one basis. You can work at your own pace and this is your assignment list," he said, pulling out a piece of parchment from inside one of the books covers. "I'll grade your assignments and give you your tests but I think that's the extent at which you need me in a professor capacity. The ministry gives N.E.W.T. examinations in December and June. I know it's only January, but you may be pushing yourself to try and get all of this done, plus revising in time for June examinations."

"What about practical work?" She asked. She didn't want to seem too eager to practice magic but she knew the N.E.W.T. exams were just like the OWLs in that they had a theory and practical portion.

"I'm sure Ron and Harry would be willing to practice with you. They'll know all the spells because of the training they've been through. Ginny would also make a good partner, even though she's a year behind."

"What's this procedure Moody wants me to go through with?" She asked suddenly.

"It's pretty much what Tonks said," he started, pulling up a chair beside her. "It's experimental at best. It's similar to what muggles call hypnosis. I know how it sounds," he said, smiling at her reaction, "but I've read some articles about it and some of the limited success they've had. Right now, there's about a sixty percent success rate and those odds can be made even better depending on the age and health of the person it's being used on."

Hermione was skeptical to say the least. "Hypnosis is not even a standard accepted practice in the muggle world. There have been people known to have faked being under hypnosis and they haven't even been able to prove that those who said they were under it, were in fact really under the influence. It's something that's used for entertainment purposes more than anything else."

"Some Healers have taken the muggle theory behind hypnosis and altered it somewhat to achieve more reliable results."

"How?" Though she was far from a believer in hypnosis, she couldn't help but be a bit enthralled by it.

"For starters, they use Veritaserum. Only in smaller amounts and they dilute it so its affects only last about an hour. Since Veritaserum is a Ministry controlled serum, the project works under Ministry approval in order for them to legally use it. Veritaserum serves two purposes. First, because it is a truth-telling serum, they can tell right away if the subject in question is faking. Secondly, because of its truth-telling properties, it stimulates the part of the brain devoted to memory, which is how it's supposed to help the individual remember. It gets a bit dangerous because some people require more Veritaserum to stimulate lost or repressed memories. In larger doses Veritaserum can cause nerve or brain damage, and that's just one of the many reasons on a long list of why the Ministry prohibits its use."

"But it's been known to work?"

Lupin nodded. "There have been reports about people who suffered memory loss because of a spell gone wrong and were able to recover fragments of their memory but not everything. There's also those who, for one reason or other, no matter what the Veritaserum dose, could not recall anything." Lupin could already see the wheels turning in her head over it, so he said, "Hermione, before you decide anything, you need to really think about this. It's still likely that some, if not all of your memory from that day will come back to you in time. It could be something as simple as a side effect from the charm because you wore it longer than Ron. Even if you were to remember, the information retained could be useless. The point is, in order to access that information you be forced to relive some pretty horrific things – things that may have subconsciously repressed to protect yourself."

Hermione stared at the mountain of textbooks in front of her, and suddenly the idea of taking her N.E.W.T.s didn't weigh as heavily on her mind as before. Now all she could think about it was if she was finally ready to recover her lost memories and accept what she would find.

Harry was attempting to clean the disarray his house had become over the last several weeks, when green flames began to gather in the fireplace, resembling the face of Mrs. Weasley.

"Hello, Harry, dear," said the head of Mrs. Weasley. "Are you terribly busy?"

"No, not really," he answered.

"Would you mind flooing over to Remus's for a few minutes?"

He nodded saying, "sure."

Mrs. Weasley beamed. "See you shortly."

Then her head disappeared and Harry's fireplace was empty again.

When he flooed to Lupin's a minute later, the living room was empty, but Mrs. Weasley's voice called to him. "We're in the kitchen, Harry."

Harry found the kitchen. Inside both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting down and Ginny sat across from them.

"Good to see you, Harry," Mr. Weasley greeted him. "Please, have a seat."

He pulled up a chair next to Ginny, and was glad to note he was not the only one a bit puzzled by all this.

"First, Harry," Mrs. Weasley began, "Arthur and I wanted to say how sorry we are with everything that happened at the Ministry. Mad-Eye was clearly out of line – "

"Molly," Mr. Weasley gently warned, nudging his wife.

Mrs. Weasley stopped talking but the damage was already done as Harry could feel Ginny's eyes fixated on him.

"The reason we asked you both here," Arthur took over for his wife, "is because its come to our attention that you are in a relationship now – "

"Oh god," Ginny muttered.

"Ginny, language," her mother admonished.

"Dad, I think Harry and I are responsible enough that we don't need a talk."

"That's not what this is about, Ginevra."

That made Ginny halt in her protests. Her parents never called her by her full name, except those half a dozen time growing up when she and Ron had gotten themselves into mischief that rivaled even that of the twins.

"Harry, please don't misinterpret what I'm about to say," Mr. Weasley said to him. "Molly and I are very happy for you and Ginny, but we do have some concerns."

"Go on," Harry said, his throat suddenly very dry.

"We know that you can't help what's going on with You-Know-Who," Arthur started, "but Ron and Hermione have become targets of Voldemort because of how close they are to you. However, they don't yet know what Ginny means to you, so she's still relatively safe. Perhaps it would be in your best interests if you two continued to keep things between yourselves for the time being."

"When we're out in public together, nothing will have changed. We'll be careful," Harry assured the Weasley's. He wanted to keep Ginny safe as much as they did. Even more so because he had been putting their son's life in mortal danger for the last seven years.

Both her parents seemed to accept that answer, for Mr. Weasley was already moving on to his next area of concern.

"There's also some concern about these mind abilities Ginny has inherited from you. We understand that it no longer affects her contact with others but she still seems to be connected to you. It's not that we think you would intentionally put her in danger, but we need to be sure You-Know-Who will not find out about this connection you share."

"He won't," Harry promised and immediately regretted doing so. He still wasn't sure Voldemort wasn't breaking into his mind some other way. "I know I stopped Occlumency but Dumbledore feels my defenses are strong enough, and I can teach Ginny a few basic techniques to guard her thoughts as well."

"Harry, we're sorry we cornered you like this," Mrs. Weasley said a moment later. "We already knew you would never purposely endanger Ginny, we just needed a little reassurance."

"It's okay," Harry said, his voice low.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley seemed ready to leave now that Harry had assured them he wouldn't do anything that would put Ginny's life in danger. While they said their good-bye's, Harry sat there feeling awful for not being completely honest with them.

When the Weasley's were gone, he felt Ginny hit him hard in the shoulder. "What was that for?" He said, looking at her.

"Why couldn't you have been this talkative when we went to Remus? You seemed willing to say nothing then when I was trying to convince him that we shouldn't be apart and now you might as well have just told my parents we shouldn't be together," she said, furious.

"Gin, they have every right to worry about you. It's not as if I've kept your brother out of trouble in all the years I've known him."

"You didn't even let me get a word in! You just jumped right into the protector role where you're so comfortable."

"Your parents mean a lot to me, Ginny. I wasn't going to let them think I was going to be irresponsible about us."

"What happened at the Ministry?" Ginny asked abruptly.

Harry sighed. "Moody had Mackenzie sack me because he thinks I'm a liability now when it comes to Voldemort."

"When did this happen?"

"Er, yesterday," he said. "I meant to tell you but there was a lot going on."

"Do Ron and Hermione know?"

He knew that was her way of asking if he told them first. He resisted the sudden impulse to say of course, they're my best friends because that would not go over well. "Yeah, I told them."

"It's good you feel you can go to them with something so important," she said, standing.

"Ginny, I was going to tell you."

"I know you were going to. It just would have been after everyone else," she said and walked out.

HermioneBrazil: Wow… you've definitely got it right ;)