"Merlin's Beard it is early", Percy Weasley snarled as he met Headmaster Longbottom in the main hallway of the Ministry. It was Sunday morning, and deserted except for the blonde-haired receptionist that seemed to be always there, and always slightly underperforming.

"Sir, he was interfering with a healer and we was instructed to stop him," the guard said. "He demanded to see you, and well, we brought him here."

"And you thought it was fine to call me in?" Percy said to the receptionist, who just shrugged and pretended to look for something important to do.

"Neville, what is this?" Percy asked. "You know that we are supposed to wipe muggle memories, and it is not a topic for discussion. Ministerial Decree 10145-b is very clear in that muggles shall have no knowledge of the wizarding world."

"Ah, yes, one of your famous Ministerial Decrees," Neville started.

"Get in here," Percy said as he grabbed Neville and pulled him into the office adjacent to the reception area. Neville smiled as he was pulled in. He slammed the door behind them and said, "I won't have you usurping my authority! You may be headmaster, but that gives you no right…"

"Actually Minister, it does. As the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I have sole authority over the students," Neville said.

"Students?" Percy said. "This muggle is not one of your students, headmaster."

"Actually, Minister, she is on her way to Hogwarts now, and I intend to register her," Neville said confidently.

"Just as I suspected," Percy said. "That's why I sent my personal inquisitorial squad to Hogsmeade to stop your professor from obstructing justice. They should be apprehending them just about now, correct? I mean, that is the obvious jumping off point to get to Hogwarts."

"Run!" Pansy shouted to Sam as she saw the men come out of the alley. Hogsmeade was starting to wake up, but there was no one to offer them shelter. There was about a kilometer of open ground between the edge of Hogsmeade and the start of the Hogwarts grounds. She knew that if she didn't stop the men, there would be no chance for Sam to make it.

Green bolts of light erupted behind Sam's feet and Pansy knew they could have stunned Sam if they wanted to. She shouted "Stupefy!" and one of the three men froze. The edge of the house she was hiding behind erupted in a shower of splinters and she knew that she was in trouble. By sheer luck, she pointed her wand around the corner and a silent "Expelliarmus" disarmed the heavy-set one of the three.

More green bolts of light ripped the branch from the tree as Sam rounded the corner out of the village. Pansy thought she was fast enough, but there was no way that she would be able to escape without drastic action. Pansy stepped out from where she was hiding, and sent another Expelliarmus spell at the final attacker, but he brushed it away like it was nothing. She noticed something familiar about the man, but she couldn't tell who he was, his head was covered by the hood of his jacket. He sent a curse at her so quickly, she had no time to react. In times like these, she wished she'd had the battle training of someone in Dumbledore's Army, and she wondered who this mysterious man was. She fell to the ground and as she felt the ropes surrounding her, binding her arms and gagging her mouth, she recognized the spell, Incarcerous. She was defeated. Her only thought though was whether Sam had escaped or not.

"Well, Pansy Parkinson, I do declare," the man said as he pushed the hood off of his head.

She recognized the voice and the long flaming red hair. Ron Weasley. Now she was starting to be frightened. Ron had descended into near maddening drunkenness since his divorce from Hermione, and the final, public, falling out with his old friend Harry. There was nothing left for Ron to lose, and Pansy was worried what he was actually capable of.

"Weasley, we're supposed to get the girl," the heavy-set thug said reproachfully.

Pansy saw that he had regained his wand and had revived his companion. The two men stared dimwittedly at Ron, waiting for their next instruction. Pansy could tell Ron was drunk, but not so much that he couldn't give instructions.

"Then go get her," Ron said exasperatedly. "I'll deal with this one." He leered at Pansy. "She owes me." As the two men ran after Sam, Ron reached his hand up under Pansy's chin and tilted her head back to get a good long look at her neck. "You've aged well, Pans," Ron said, caressing her cheek with his grubby hand. He waved his wand at her again, and a new rope appeared around her neck, tightening slightly as other ropes around her chest released. Another pass, and the front of her coat and white blouse were opened, exposing ample cleavage. "Very well, indeed."

Ron moved his hand slowly down her neck, and ran his fingers over her chest. Pansy started to panic, remembering a particularly awful time when she was in an arranged engagement to Marcus Flint. He was supposed to save her family's fortune if she just went through with it. Marcus was horrible, and she used every charm she could to hide the bruises and black eyes he gave her. Ron was treating her the same, complete with the confining Incarcerous spell. When she finally cracked and used the Cruciatus curse to get Marcus off her, it took the rest of her family's money to keep her out of Azkaban. If her parents had been alive, she was sure they would have died of shame. She could tell no one, was sure that Marcus never mentioned it, and spent the rest of her time sequestered at Hogwarts. The only one that knew, or that took her in was Neville. Now she had no one to save her. Ron was about to pull her blouse back with his dirty fingers when suddenly he slumped over, motionless.

"We'll have none of that," Hannah Abbott-Longbottom said. She was in her dressing gown, holding a young daughter with one hand and her wand in the other. "None of that at all. Finite Incantatem!" With that, the ropes released, and Pansy did up her garments. "All right?" Hannah asked.

"Thank you" Pansy said, and she uncharacteristically hugged Hannah. Hannah was taken aback at first, but then embraced and patted Pansy on the back.

"You are safe now, Pansy" Hannah said. "Do you want to come inside?"

Pansy remembered Sam and shook off the waves of PTSD that had started to consume her. "No, I have someone to save," and with that she ran up the hill towards Hogwarts. As she turned the corner near the Shrieking Shack, she saw the two men ahead, stopped in their tracks, but couldn't tell why. She held her wand at the ready as she approached them. "Don't move," she said as she held them at bay. As she got closer, she saw a crackling blue barrier of light had appeared at precisely the point where Hogwarts began. The men couldn't cross it. As she backed across the barrier, she told them "Go pick up your disgusting boss and crawl back into the hole you came from." She shot a bolt into the ground in front of them and they took off running.

"That was brilliant," Sam said as she stepped from behind a tree. "I new something magic was going on when I crossed that patch of ground and that wall of electricity came up. What is it?"

Pansy understood one of Albus Dumbledore's charms that he'd put on the castle so long ago. "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it," Pansy repeated. "One of the greatest wizards of all put a charm on Hogwarts. That's what saved us. Now let's get you inside and I'll go back for your father."