Oldskibbereen: I'm getting there.

3/27/13

I apologize for the lack of updates on any and all of my stories. Part of it is time constraints of school, work, and family, the other part is my current obsession with Doctor Who, and reopening the Pandora's box that is the world of the X-Files. I'm going to have to either start going through the transcripts or re-watch the episodes. But thank you one and all for your patience and persistence. I'm still plugging away.

Disclaimer:I'm not cool enough to get paid to write these people. Chris Carter and J.K. Rowling could sue me, but you can't get blood from a stone.

CH 3

Though she had the option of International Portkey, Ginny had wanted to take Muggle transportation back to the States. All the Weasely children had inherited their father's fascination with Muggles, some more than others. She loved to observe them, comparing them to the wizarding world. She was often left questioning, aside from magic, where the line really fell between the two worlds. The transition, from her point of view, between magic and Muggle was subtle and seamless. For the newly introduced, the reverse might not be so. Those often left straddling the two worlds, usually muggleborns, and unusually adept wizards, had the greatest success mingling with the Muggles and blending in amongst them.

The flight also had an alternate purpose. It gave her time reconcile her thoughts and prepare for what was coming next.

Her mind drifted back to the rest of the conversation with her family.

"Harry didn't give us much choice in the matter," Hermione sighed, sipping her tea, pausing to organize her thoughts. "He never really has. It's been ingrained in him that all of his decisions need to be made alone, because if he doesn't, it endangers people or get them killed. He carries so much guilt for things that he had no control over, and blames himself for things that aren't his fault." She clasped her hands together in front of her, an expression almost like shame on her face.

Ron placed a hand over his wife's, trying to convey silent comfort for her. "After the Battle at Hogwarts, we were finally able to see the toll that everything the three of us had gone through, the damage Harry hidden from us all along. We thought it would be best to let him go, away from us, from the Wizarding World. He needed it, more than he needed anything else. We couldn't deny him that."

Hermione took back over the story. "We tracked down Kingsley, one of the few Aurors left that we still trusted. He gave Harry a new alias, a deep cover one that had been shelved in the Ministry, due to its long term presence in the Muggle society. We were only given half the information. As a way to protect the secret, two charms were cast. You'll have to talk to Kingsley for the rest."

Ginny frowned, mulling over what she'd just been told. Then coming to her decision, she nodded her head. "Ok, what do you have?"

Ron looked at his wife, who nodded, mouthing the words 'It's time,' and turned back to his sister, silently agreeing with his wife. "We have the name. In order to find him, you need to look for Fox Mulder."

Ginny rubbed her eyes, mentally checking off the pieces of her disguise that were in place, looking down at the plane ticket in her hands, trying to reabsorb herself back into the alias name listed at her fingertips. She closed her eyes, leaving Ginevra Molly Weasely behind, and becoming once again, Dana Katherine Scully.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, former Auror and retired Minister of Magic, rubbed his temples, attempting to rid himself of his headache. As long as he had been with the Ministry, he had never been interrogated, even during the year when Voldemort and his lackeys had been in power. Having escaped that fate, he still ended up on the receiving end years later by one friend in regards to another. As long as he had known the youngest Weasely, he had not seen her temper in action, especially not in his vicinity.

It wasn't like she had cursed him or threatened him. Oh no, that would have been more her brother's tactics. No, she had taken a page out of her mother's book upon entry to his office, and stared him down, waiting for the minute he broke. Molly couldn't have done it any better, and that he could say from experience.

Rarely did he see Ginny, mostly due to her undercover status in the States. She had changed little, at least not growing taller, but she had grown into herself; smart, confident, self-assured, and tough. As much as the war had affected him, he often saw the most damage in the eyes of the younger generation who had grown up with it. The loss of her brother had hurt, but it was the loss of her friend that left those staring into her eyes with shivers down their spines. The ice that had formed around her heart was there in her eyes, whether they were brown or blue.

He sighed, conceding defeat under the weight of her stare. "I had wondered how long it would take you to come see me about him," he said, resting back in his chair, his desk at his back.

Her agitation began to show, running frustrated fingers through slightly tangled follicles. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" she threw at him, starting a pacing pattern, finally releasing the nervous energy she had held together while she waited for him to speak first.

He smiled morosely. "You never asked."

That set her off. "Never asked? No, I made the bloody mistake of assuming that the people around me that I consider family would be honest with me when I go to seek out the bleeding Boy Who Lived!"

He inclined his head, acknowledging her statement. "And if you had just asked where Harry was, rather than the Boy Who Lived, you would have had an answer sooner."

Brown fire blazed beneath her eyelids. "You think I care about that, that that's the reason I've been looking for 10 bloody years! That I'm trying to haul him back here to be some sort of savior for us? If that's what you think, then you obviously don't know me as well as I thought you did! I want him to come home to his family! To Ron, and Hermione, and Teddy, and..." She trailed off, leaving the last part unsaid, as if it was a long established stopping point in an argument often repeated. "His godson is about to start Hogwarts, his best mate and sister have two kids, and he was supposed to come back when he was done, he was supposed to come home..."

"To you."

"To me."

He nodded. He knew little about their relationship, other than what he had heard from her family, but he knew that the two of them complemented each other well, especially when fighting together. He remembered the anguished look on Harry's face when he had realized he wouldn't be able to see her again, her name barely a whisper on his tongue.

That made his decision easy, the looks of matching grief in the eyes of his youngest and most tormented friends. "I don't know where he is."

"Ron said you did."

"As far as he knew, I would. I activated the alias for Harry, at least the starting point, and second phase. But his whereabouts exactly, I cannot say. I'm not the Secret Keeper."

She sighed, defeat weighing down her shoulder as she stood still before him. "Then who is?"

"The only other person who would be as fiercely protective of him as you are."

Ginny straightened up, triumph lifting her head high, a radiant smile upon her lips.

"Mum."