Chapter 13

Bill kicked the door closed behind him and pulled the neatly knotted bag of Mum's leftovers out of his pocket as he walked into his kitchen. There was a post owl waiting patiently on the windowsill. Poor bird, who knew how long it had been waiting for him. He had gone straight from the bank to the cottage so he would have time to speak with Ron before dinner, and now it was well past dark. Bill opened the window, removed the scroll of parchment from the owl's leg, and offered the owl some pork chop. It hooted gratefully, drank from the faucet when Bill turned it on, and flew out into the night. He grabbed a butterbeer, twisted off the top and chucked it into the bin, and carried drink and letter into the sitting room.

Dear Mr. Weasley,

Of course I understand your family's need for privacy, and I will speak of this to no one, least of all Miss Weasley. The object you describe sounds like very dark magic; very dark, indeed, if its destruction required the use of a basilisk fang (incidentally, I am most curious as to where said basilisk fang came from. If you care to elaborate on this in any future correspondence, I assure you a most eager and attentive audience). Given your sister's symptoms, both at the time of her possession of the diary and continuing to the present, I have my suspicions as to the exact nature of the curse used, but I wish to conduct further research before revealing them.

I am sure your practical experience with dark magic will be of great benefit to Miss Weasley should you manage to convince her to accept your assistance. I am sorry to say I have no experience with sisters, but I have found chocolate to be very effective with witches in general. It is also an effective remedy for restoring a positive mood after encountering various dark creatures, and I am confident it would have similar effects for the treatment of nightmares.

I will write more once school starts and I have access to the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library.

Wishing you luck,

Remus Lupin

Bill let the parchment roll in upon itself and took another drink of butterbeer. So, Professor Lupin had a sense of humor as well as a talent for reading between the lines. He had picked up on the significance of the basilisk fang, mentioned Ginny's ″possession″ of the diary, and wanted to do research in the Restricted Section. He thought the diary was one of those too— evil so foul Bill hesitated to speak its name. He would wait and see how Ginny and Ron did in the Core, and maybe then he could give the man some useful information about two of his new students.

()()()()

Bill collected the broomsticks from his chattering brothers and passed them over the counter to Masud. He had brought the boys to open fly, and it had been fantastic. The weather was gorgeous, the pitch wasn't crowded, and he had forgotten how much fun it was to fly with all of them. Ron was old enough now that Bill and Charlie didn't have to watch his every move to make sure he didn't fall off his broomstick (or get knocked off), and while Percy didn't love playing Quidditch the way Charlie and Fred and George and Ron did, he still had a good enough arm to make a decent Chaser. The brothers had played as a team with the handful of other wizards who showed up and won 240 to 90. It had been a good game— a rare chance to compete together, instead of against each other— and now they were headed back to have dinner with Mum, Dad, and Ginny.

"How can you possibly say that? A Seeker can earn his team 150 points, but a Beater can't even score!"

Charlie and Fred were having their running "most valuable position" argument.

"George, wait a minute." Bill pulled George to the back of the group before he could move forward to join the discussion. "I heard you two have big plans."

" 'Course we do.″

"That don't include O.W.L.s."

George looked suspicious. "Is this a lecture?"

"Think of it as an interview. Tell me about your joke shop plans."

George's features shifted into a scowl. "Fred has a big mouth."

"Fred knows I don't tell tales." Especially not this one. If Fred and George pulled this off, and Mum found out Bill had advance knowledge of it . . . he just hoped he was still on another continent.

"We're going to make money at what we do best— making people laugh."

"How, exactly, do you plan to do that?"

George shrugged. "We're not sure yet. I'm thinking we start small, just a few products by mail order, and build up the capital to fund new product development."

"You have plenty of time. Why not continue with your studies as well? You and Fred are smart, George. You could do well if you tried."

"Of course we could. But why waste our energy on something useless?"

"Useless? Good marks and exam scores are not useless. Neither Charlie nor I would be doing what we love if we hadn't worked hard and earned the right to be here." Fred and Charlie were still arguing about Quidditch at the head of the group, but neither of them knew how to get back to the guest cottage from here. "Left at the corner, Charlie!"

"We're not opposed to working hard. You think it's easy to make stuff up? And make it work right, without hurting anybody? Fred and I don't want to work with dragons, or for Gringotts, or for the Ministry. We want to do something on our own, and we will have to do it on our own— we know Dad can't help us. That's not a slam against Dad," George added hastily, "it's just—"

"The way things are."

"Yeah. Besides, did you ever walk into Zonko's and ask 'Pardon me, Mr. Williams, but how many O.W.L.s did you receive?' Why should we care about our O.W.L.s if our customers won't?"

Bill experienced the familiar sense of deja- vu that was so much a part of talking with the twins. "All right, George, you've made your point. But do earn a few O.W.L.s for Mum, will you? She couldn't have expected you to be prefects, but she definitely expects you to finish school."

()()()()

″Bill, wake up! Bill! Bill, wake up!″

Bill woke with a start just as his bedroom door banged open. Moonlight revealed a tall, lanky boy at the foot of his bed.

″Ron, what the hell—?″ A disheveled Charlie appeared behind Ron, still dragging his blanket from the sofa.

Ron ignored him. ″You have to come quick,″ he said, jerking Bill's covers off the bed. ″Something's wrong with Ginny.″

″What do you mean, 'something's wrong with Ginny'?″ Bill threw his legs over the side and grabbed his trousers.

″I couldn't get her to wake up. I mean, she looks like she's awake, but she doesn't act like she's awake.″

″And you just left her?″ Charlie said.

″Mum's with her. Hurry up!″

Bill stuck both arms into sleeves. ″Go, I'm right behind you.″

Charlie followed Ron into the sitting room. Bill heard the whoosh of the Floo as Ron left the flat and Charlie's swearing as he searched for his clothes. Bill shoved both feet into trainers and grabbed his wand. Charlie was pulling a shirt over his head when Bill entered the living room. He picked up Charlie's wand from the table, tossed it to him, and both brothers Apparated into the guest cottage kitchen.

Ginny was screaming.

″No, I don't want to go! I won't go, I won't do it again, I won't!″

Bill entered Ginny's bedroom to find his entire family gathered round her bed. Mum was sitting beside her and was trying to wrap her arms around her, but Ginny was fighting, thrashing all over the bed and peeling Mum's hands off her.

″Let go, Mum. You're scaring her. Let go.″

Mum continued wrestling with Ginny, who had stopped screaming to concentrate on fighting. ″I told Ron there was no need to get you. She's just having a bad dream.″

″The hell she is.″ Bill stepped forward to prise Mum off her.

″You will not speak to your mother in that tone of voice,″ Dad said sharply.

Bill rounded on him, one outstretched arm pointing at the two witches. ″Does that look like a bad dream to you, Dad? Ginny doesn't know where she is or who any of us are! Tell Mum to back off.″ He looked round the room. ″The rest of you, except Ron, clear out.″

Charlie met his gaze, then chivvied the rest of their brothers from the room.

Dad moved to Mum and Ginny, and Bill turned to Ron.

″I think she thinks she's back at Hogwarts,″ Ron said, running his hand through his hair. It was sticking up everywhere, as if he had been doing that over and over. ″She keeps saying she won't go, she won't do it again. I think she's talking about the Chamber. She's mentioned Harry a couple of times.″

Bill had seen this once before, when a wizard who had been trapped in a tomb during an earthquake had encountered his first thunderstorm afterwards. The poor bloke had thought he was underground again and had wrecked the mess tent trying to get out. Bill had thought they were going to have to Stun him, but one of the more experienced curse breakers managed to talk him down.

″Here's what I want you to do. Talk to her, very gently. Tell her everything you're doing so you don't startle her, okay? Remind her who you are. We need to calm her down before we can do anything else.″

Mum was standing, sniffling, in Dad's embrace at the foot of the bed. Ginny was crouched in the corner, arms out, eyes darting from Bill to Ron to Mum and Dad and back again.

Ron approached the bed, being careful to stay out of arm's reach. ″Ginny? It's me, Ron. I'm just going to sit here on the bed. I'm not going to hurt you, okay? It's just Ron.″

″I don't want to go.″

″It's okay, Ginny. You don't have to go anywhere.″ Ron sat gingerly on the edge of the bed.

She focused her gaze on him, then dropped her arms. ″Ron?″

″Yeah, sis, it's me.″ Encouraged by her recognition, Ron pushed himself further back on the bed and didn't see her coming.

Ginny sprung out of the corner and flung herself on top of Ron, knocking him over. ″Don't let him take me! I don't want to go.″

Ron scraped her hair out of his face with one hand and pushed the two of them into a sitting position with the other. ″He's not here, Ginny. Harry destroyed the diary, remember? Riddle can't hurt you anymore.″

″Harry? Is Harry all right?″

″Harry is fine.″ Ron tucked her hair behind her ear, his touch awkward yet gentle.

″Ron?″

″Yeah?″

″Where are we?″

Bill shot a furious ″I told you so″ look at his parents, who looked shocked at Ginny's confusion. Mum turned her face further into Dad's shoulder, and he led her out of the room.

″We're in your room.″

Ginny frowned. ″This is not the Burrow.″

″No, your room in the cottage. We're in Egypt, with Bill, remember?″

She blinked once, twice. ″It's summer?″

″Yeah. August something, I dunno.″

″It's over?″

″Completely.″

She relaxed against Ron, and he began rubbing her back. ″Bill wants to talk to you.″

She jerked and turned, noticing Bill for the first time.

″Hi, Gin- Gin.″ Bill picked her up, sat down on the bed, and set Ginny on his lap, resuming the rubbing of her back. ″Ron, find us some chocolate. What happened, sprite?″

″We got our Hogwarts letters today. And I was thinking about last year, and what going back would be like, and—″ She shrugged, keeping her face turned down.

″Do you remember going flying with me on your birthday?″

She nodded.

″Remember what I said, about the nightmares getting worse and having flashbacks at Hogwarts if you don't do something to recover?″

She nodded again.

″Do you remember what I asked you to do?″

She hesitated for the first time, folding the skirt of her nightdress into tiny pleats. ″You want to take me into the curse breaker's training course.″

″Uh- huh. And Ron too, unless—″

"No, I want Ron there," she said immediately. Then she went still and rigid.

Bill waited, still rubbing her back in slow, soothing circles.

"There will be dark magic," she said.

"Yes."

She finally looked up at him, and Bill's gut twisted at the fear in her eyes. "You really think you can make the nightmares go away?"

"Probably not completely, but I can teach you how to deal with them. I can teach you how to recognize dark objects, how to avoid being contaminated by them, and how to have confidence in your own magic. I can help you not to be afraid of the dark, so you don't have to worry about navigating Hogwarts without lighting your wand." I can help you be Ginny again.

She jerked in surprise, eyes wide.

"I was at Hogwarts for seven years, Ginny. Those corridors get damn dark in the wintertime, even during the day."

Ron reappeared with a handful of Chocolate Frogs. He handed two to Ginny and opened one for himself.

She dropped her gaze again, fiddling with her Frog. "Do we have to tell Mum and Dad?"

Bill felt another surge of anger at his parents' ostrich approach to all of this. "Not if you don't want to."

She shook her head. "They've been so worried, and this trip is the first time I've seen Mum happy all summer. I don't want them to know I'm still—"

"You are not still possessed," Bill said firmly, "and there isn't any shame in being disturbed by what happened. I would be a lot more worried if you weren't, actually. You'll do it?"

She hesitated again, and the knot in his gut tightened to a physical pain. The contrast between the Ginny on the pitch and this Ginny right here was appalling. If he ever got the chance . . . if You- Know- Who ever came out in the open again. . . .

She looked over at Ron.

″Are you kidding? I'm dying to go!″

"I'll do it if Ron will," she said finally. "But you have to be the one to lie to Mum and Dad, okay?"

Bill pulled her into a hug. "Okay."

a/n: I know, Percy received his Hogwarts letter (at least one announcing his position as Head Boy) in mid-July, and Harry received his on his birthday, so Ginny probably received hers before mid-August, but I needed a plausible trigger for her behavior. So humor me on the timing, okay? Next week: Ron and Ginny in the Core!