On Saturday, Ginny and Hermione met for Hermione's introduction to practical mind magic. They found an empty classroom away from the flow of foot traffic–a simple matter on weekends.

Hermione said, "Before we start, I feel I should explain a few things."

"Okay…"

"The first is about that 'Hogwarts Menagerie' tradition. I owe you an apology. I didn't mean to insult your brothers. What you described isn't for me, but it's not my place to judge another culture, as long as everything is consensual."

"I wasn't offended. I don't even know if any of them ever went through with it. The most I ever overheard was Charlie asking Bill for advice on an offer he got."

"Do I even want to hear the advice?"

Ginny shrugged. "It was fairly dull. He told Charlie to do what would make him happy, both in the moment and looking back later, and to make sure the girl felt the same."

"That sounds like good advice."

"Yeah, Bill's cool. He's the oldest, so he sometimes seems like a third parent, the one you go to for advice when you don't want to get yelled at. I mean, dad almost never yells, but he has this disappointed look he gives you when you screw up, which is somehow worse. Bill helped me make sense of things when we visited him this summer. I was afraid if I told my parents any more, they might pull me out of school."

"I'm glad you had someone to talk to."

"Thanks. I should explain too. I was trying to shock you a little with the whole Menagerie thing. To be honest, I don't think it's that common, and those who do it probably get most of the way there without trying."

Hermione gave her a skeptical look. "I'm not sure how you'd stumble into it by accident."

"It's the numbers. There aren't enough people in your own house close enough in age to date. Hogwarts is too small. You can double your options if you're not picky about gender, but either way, most people wind up dating across several houses over the course of seven years."

"You've thought about this a lot."

"Nah, everyone who grows up in the wizarding world knows this. There aren't enough of us in general, and the number of potential partners gets even smaller after you leave school. Everybody at least thinks about trying to find a good match before they leave here."

"I suppose the Muggle world isn't so different. My mother stuck with school because she was serious about becoming a dentist, but I heard some of her friends joking one time about how they went to University to get their M-R-S degree. Of course, after they left, mum made sure to tell me she expected more from me. Looking at it like that, maybe the ethical norms aren't so different here after all."

Ginny grinned. "You think you might stick around then?"

"I'm not about to run away because people are doing things I don't approve of, as long as it's not harming anyone. If I got scared off that easy, I'd have gone home after my first week here."

"I'm glad you didn't. And I wasn't offended or expecting an apology, but thanks."

Hermione nodded. "The other thing I wanted to clear up was the way I reacted when you mentioned Riddle. I had what seemed like good reasons at the time, but I feel I owe you an explanation."

"I didn't expect you to react the way you did, but I don't blame you, given everything."

"I'd still like to explain."

Ginny motioned for her to go ahead.

Hermione said, "Part of it came from feeling alone and vulnerable, because of the way you ambushed me."

"I intended you to feel startled and mildly embarrassed, but not threatened. Sorry."

"I know you didn't mean to. Finding out about Legilimency and the rest was always going to be disturbing for me, no matter how I found out, and I think I imagined it to be even worse than the reality. I'm still not comfortable with all this, but the unknown is always more scary."

"If it helps, for anything bad magic can do, there's usually a way to protect yourself–which is what we're going to learn."

"It does help, but there's more."

"Okay."

"The other part of why I panicked was finding out what happened to you was different than I imagined. I was picturing it more as Riddle taking control of your body and pushing your mind out of the way."

"It did feel like that, towards the end."

"That's horrible enough, but him being able to touch your mind seems worse than putting you to sleep or whatever while he took over. Even Quirrell spoke to Voldemort out loud, rather than in his mind. When you told me about Legilimency, and Riddle using it on you for so long, it made me worry about lasting effects."

"I worry about the same thing," Ginny admitted in a small voice.

"Are you okay talking about this?"

"No, but I guess I should. Maybe it'll help. As long as it's just between us. I'm not ready for everyone to know."

"I won't share anything which isn't mine to tell."

"Good. It's nice to talk to someone who gets that part of it. I told Harry about the bad things Riddle made me see, but I glossed over a lot of what came before. Riddle manipulating and controlling and tormenting me was bad enough. He's done that to lots of people. Willingly letting him in is a whole different matter."

"You didn't know who he was."

"A lot of people wouldn't see much difference, if it ever got out."

"Maybe people who don't know you. Surely not your family, or Harry. I don't think you realize the lengths Harry would go to for you."

"I know, but I don't want him to. He was already awkward around me when we all met up at the Leaky Cauldron, because of how intense things got between us last spring. We agreed to try to keep things light for a while."

"He's a teenage boy. Of course he's awkward sometimes."

"It won't make things less awkward if he knows I could read his mind if I wanted."

"Not if he learns to protect himself."

"We'll tell Harry and Ron soon, I promise. I just don't want Harry to think of me as the girl who has a new issue every time he talks to her. And I'm tired of Ron and the rest of my family looking at me all concerned. My brothers who were here last year are the worst. They feel guilty over not noticing anything wrong. Even Ron, despite everything he did to save me. Talking to Bill was easier, because he wasn't here when it happened."

"It's not a bad thing to have people who care about you."

Ginny blew out a breath, and ran her hand over her face. "I guess I'm not explaining this right. I'm grateful to the people who helped me deal with what happened, but I'm trying to move on. I can't spend the rest of my life with people thinking of me as broken."

"Alright. I don't believe anyone thinks that, but I won't repeat any of this, and we'll wait to talk to Ron and Harry about Occlumency until you and I get a good start on it. Speaking of which…"

"There's one other thing first, while we're on the subject of Riddle's influence over me. I need you to watch me."

"Watch you?"

"Watch to make sure I don't start acting like I'm not myself again, and stop me if I do. Please, there's no one else I can ask. It has to be someone who's around me enough to notice, but Ron will always see me as his little sister, and Harry would hold back if it came to a fight. You showed me I can trust you to strike if you see a threat."

"Now that I know more, I don't think you're a threat. We would have seen some sign by now. I'm sorry for making you feel that way."

"I'm not so sure. What if Riddle's powers go so far beyond what anyone else can do that the rules don't apply to him? What if he did things to my mind even I don't know about?"

Hermione considered this argument, then shook her head. "No. If Riddle were some unstoppable force with no limitations, we'd have no hope of beating him. I refuse to believe that. You can't live your life thinking that way."

"Wanting the world to give you a fair chance doesn't make it so."

"It's more than what I want. Harry has beaten Riddle, more than once."

"Yes, and someday, with our help, he'll beat him once and for all. Until then, if you believe what you're saying, you should have no problem with promising me this. If nothing goes wrong, it's a promise you'll never have to keep."

"Very well, then. I promise, if only to set your mind at ease."

"It does. Thank you. Now I just need you to agree to share your Time-Turner, and we'll be all set."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You haven't convinced me Professor Dumbledore intends me to use it for anything other than classes. He wasn't even the one who gave it to me. Professor McGonagall did, and she had to write a bunch of letters to the Ministry to get permission. And she made it clear I'm not to use it for anything else."

"Letters wouldn't do much to budge that lot at the Ministry. Someone with serious influence had to push through the approval. My guess is Dumbledore made it happen, but he wanted some degree of deniability. Involving McGonagall gives him a little, even though most people know she's his cat's-paw."

Ginny paused expectantly. "Get it? Because she's a cat Animagus? Do Muggles not have that expression? It means–"

"I know what it means. I admit using the Time-Turner to get myself out of a bad situation the other morning was… educational. I'll consider it."

"Good."

"Only for Occlumency practice or extra studying though," Hermione warned.

"That's a start."

"It won't do much more anyway. It's sometimes said the three types of temporal manipulation are ineffective, trivial and catastrophic. The chances of succeeding at doing anything major are slim. If you try, you'll likely either find you can't travel backwards at all, or if you do, things will go horribly wrong."

"How do you improve your chances? Hypothetically."

"You'd need to arrange things just so on your first time through. You'd have to know when and where to create opportunities for your later self to intervene without anyone observing, or have someone set those opportunities up for you. But if trouble happened on a known schedule, you could avoid it without needing time travel."

"Maybe Dumbledore is counting on being able to rig things to give you a chance to do something he can't do himself. For some political reason, maybe?"

"Managing that level of complexity sounds far-fetched, even for a wizard as great as Dumbledore. I wouldn't want to attempt it."

"But if Dumbledore asked you to fix something, you'd do it, right?"

"Of course, though it wouldn't be accurate to say I was fixing anything. I would merely be ensuring history had always happened in a certain desired way. This is all hypothetical anyway."

"For now."

When they at last got to work on Occlumency, their first step was to choose a training method. Hermione hadn't found any books teaching the skill in the Hogwarts library, but she had found descriptions of the two main schools of thought: a slower, gentler path versus a more sink-or-swim approach.

Proponents of the latter held that a student could best make rapid progress in Occlumency by enduring repeated, invasive Legilimency attacks, until they learned to repel such attacks out of sheer desperation.

Reading between the lines, Hermione thought this sounded like hazing, as each generation of instructors passed on the trauma of their own learning experiences. Ginny surprised her by mentioning Riddle had taken the gentler approach.

"He was still pretending to be my friend at that point," Ginny explained. "I don't see how you could do it the other way and stay friends with someone. Or keep up the appearance, in his case."

From that perspective, their choice was easy. The two witches agreed Hermione's need to learn Occlumency wasn't pressing enough to justify the unpleasantness of the more intrusive approach.

In keeping with this, Ginny didn't attempt to use Legilimency on Hermione during their first session. Instead, she led her through mental exercises Hermione could begin practicing on her own.

This came as a relief to Hermione. Despite her assurances she didn't consider Ginny to be a threat, she felt uncomfortable with the prospect of anyone probing her mind.

~*~

The following week, Harry went to his first Patronus lesson with Professor Lupin. Ginny, Hermione, and Ron accompanied him.

Naturally, Hermione mastered the wand motions and incantation by the end of their first lesson. When Lupin told her all he could do from there was help guide her to the right emotional state to cast the charm, she decided further lessons would not be a worthwhile use of her time. Getting in touch with her feelings scarcely seemed like proper magic at all.

When Ron heard this, he declared, "If even Hermione isn't going to do extra homework, I'm certainly not."

That left Ginny, and there was no way she was leaving Harry alone with any Defense teacher, even if her friends had trouble seeing the mild-mannered Lupin as a potential threat.

When Harry and Ginny arrived for their second Patronus lesson, Lupin said, "Ginny, I understand why learning the Patronus Charm is important to Harry, but in your case–"

"I thought we settled this," she interrupted. "I may be young, but I'm willing to work extra hard."

"And I will continue to teach you the Patronus Charm if you wish, but I would like to offer another option which may be of greater relevance to your own magical development."

"Oh. Okay. Sorry for the interruption."

"Apology accepted. The headmaster informed me of your affinity for fire magic, in case it should become an issue in class. And I saw it in action myself, on the train."

"Affinity. That's one way of putting it. It would be nice if my affinity accepted I'm the one in charge."

He gave her a sympathetic smile. "I believe I can help you gain greater control, in hopes of avoiding further incidents such as the one in Egypt this summer."

"People know about that?"

"There's no need for embarrassment. Despite what many believe, accidental magic is not limited to young children. No sudden transition occurs in the way your magic expresses itself, either when you turn eleven, or when you get your wand, or at any other milestone."

"I blew up my aunt this summer," Harry reminded her. "And I'm a year older than you."

She smiled at his reassurance.

"Having said that," Lupin went on, "everyone concerned with your well-being would feel better knowing you were exploring this area of magic with proper supervision."

"I'm dying to explore fire magic more soon, but the Dementors are at Hogwarts now. Is there a fire spell to hurt them?"

"As you discovered on the train, spells other than the Patronus might deter a single Dementor, but are difficult to maintain. What's more, if other Dementors witness you attacking one of their number, they will become more aggressive. You may hold the one in front of you at bay, for a time, but you will be vulnerable to any others surrounding you."

"I take it that's a no."

"It is. Do not attack Dementors with fire. I still think learning to work with fire would be of greater benefit to you, but the choice is yours."

Seeing her conflicted look, Harry told her, "I'm the one with the strongest reaction to Dementors, so I'm the one who needs to learn to fight them. You need this. Take the opportunity."

She asked Lupin, "Can you tell me more about the other option?"

"We will begin with basic fire spells. I expect you to master those in short order, given what I saw on the train. Might I ask where you learned that spell, by the way?"

"When I was in Egypt, I flipped through my brother's books."

"He didn't help you practice the spell?"

Ginny widened her eyes. "You mean do magic outside of school? That's not allowed."

"Of course." He looked skeptical, but didn't press the issue. "At any rate, once we have established a basis in the fundamentals, we will move on to spells which involve a finer degree of control, such as directing, shaping and animating the fire you produce."

"I wouldn't be interfering with Harry's lessons?"

"Quite the contrary. Emotion is key to many forms of magic, perhaps nowhere more so than with fire magic or the Patronus Charm. I intend to teach you both greater awareness of emotional states, the ability to generate particular states at will, and the relationship between these states and your magic. Seeing how these principles apply to two different forms of magic should help clarify matters for both of you."

"In that case, I'd like to learn more about fire. Thank you."

Lupin nodded. "Very good."

She gave him a suspicious look. "Did you plan this from the start, when you agreed to let me come to Harry's lessons?"

He smiled, and said, "Let's begin."

~*~

As the first trip to Hogsmeade approached, it became a popular topic of conversation among the eager third-years. When Ron pressed Harry one evening on why he wasn't showing more interest, Harry admitted he hadn't managed to get his permission slip signed.

"Ask McGonagall," Ron suggested.

"It's not a big deal," Harry insisted. "Ginny can't go anyway, so you and Hermione can go, and Ginny and I will keep each other company here."

From her usual place next to Harry on the couch, Ginny asked, "Do you mind if I take a look at the form?"

He had to rummage around in his bag to find it, but eventually drew it out and handed it to her.

"What was your aunt's name again?"

He grimaced. It felt like sacrilege to speak her name at Hogwarts, but he said, "Petunia Dursley. Why?"

Ginny picked up a quill from the table, and signed the form with a flourish. "There you go, all set. Have fun."

"Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry looked down at the form, then at Ginny. "You don't want to hang out with me?"

"Of course I do! But I don't ever want to be your consolation prize." She lay back on the couch and brought her legs up to drape them over Harry's. "I want you to always see me as a special treat you can't get enough of," she said, giving him a grin he couldn't help mirroring with one of his own. "Speaking of which, I expect to be amply supplied with treats from Honeydukes when you get back."

"What are you going to do while we're gone?"

"Oh, pine away hopelessly for you, I expect."

"Funny, but I meant what I said. It's not a big deal if I don't go."

"Of course it's a big deal!" Ron objected.

"For once, my brother is right. You're going."

"Alright. Thanks," Harry said, indicating the signed form.

"I don't know about this," Hermione said. "If McGonagall finds out…"

"Good thing there's no way for that to happen," Ron told her. "Seeing as how friends don't rat each other out."

Hermione gave him a brief glare, but then relented. "Fine. She won't hear it from me. But with Sirius Black out there–"

"Oh, relax," Ron scoffed. "With everyone looking for him, he's not going to show his face in Hogsmeade in the middle of the day."

Ginny frowned. "I didn't think about Black."

"Not you too," he said. "Whose side are you on?"

"Harry's. All the way, no matter what. That's my point."

"If Dumbledore thought there was any danger, he wouldn't let anyone go, now would he?"

Ginny didn't look convinced, but Hermione said, "That's true."

Ron gaped at her.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"You're agreeing with me?"

"You made a reasonable argument. The headmaster must be confident Black isn't going to be there, or he would have canceled the visit altogether."

And so, for better or worse, the matter was decided.