Chapter 62: A Family's Betrayal
Harry cracked his way to Devon, nightmare scenarios playing out in his mind. He arrived in Ottery St. Catchpole, took out his trunk, un-shrunk it, and descended into its depths. He grabbed the invisibility cloak, and a poly-juice. He swiped a strand of Ginny's hair, dropped it in the vial, and shook. The potion turned green.
He faced the trunk's full-length mirror and hesitated. He'd never actually used poly-juice to turn into a girl before. Oh, well. Harry drank. His hair lengthened, turned red. He shrunk. His slight musculature vanished. His lower internals re-arranged themselves. He squirmed. It felt weird.
His clothes shrunk with him, but didn't change style. He flashed a look in the mirror. His clothes now looked wrong; they gave too many clues. Making a split decision, and cursing his lack of foresight every second, Harry stripped off his clothes and slipped on one of Daphne's dresses, re-sizing it with a wave of his wand. He inspected himself again. Yes. Better.
Harry then whipped the invisibility cloak around him, ascended the trunk, re-shrunk it, and scowled, only then realising that his dress had no pockets, and he didn't have the time to do anything about it.
With no time to use the tunnel, he apparated to the Burrow's perimeter wards, and then cloaked straight through them, wand in one hand, trunk in the other.
He crouched under the kitchen window and listened.
"—Dragons can wait. Family comes first."
"If Ginny's not being magically influenced is it our business?"
"Of course it is! Just because it's not magic doesn't mean it can't harm her."
"But using magic to force her… it's wrong. It's a massive violation of trust. We should limit ourselves to keeping her away from him."
Harry had heard enough. He flew up to the upper windows and peeked into them. Eventually he found the one holding Ginny, stretched out on a small bed. The whole room was pink.
He rapped at the window.
Ginny's head shot up. She leapt off the bed, ran to the window, and looked around, but obviously couldn't see him. She opened the window, allowing him to fly past her, brushing against her as he did.
"Harry?" Her voice trembled.
Harry whipped the cloak off himself and cast a privacy spell.
Ginny's eyes widened at the sight of her doppelgänger.
"Yes, It's me, but you don't know that."
Ginny hesitated, and then took a deep breath. "The secret passage into the Burrow is located between the two most northern trees in the orchard."
He beamed.
"Harry!" Ginny leapt, wrapped her arms around him, and clung to him like a limpet. "Thank Merlin you came. Oh, it was horrible, and I'm so, so sorry I didn't alert you sooner." Every word leaked from her through sobs and sniffs. "I woke up and…"
Sixty seconds of condensed summary later, Harry's eyes were ablaze, and his gut burned. It all smacked far too similar to his own situation. How dare Ginny's own family treat her like that?
Ginny lowered her eyes. Occasionally they flickered back up to his, chocolate meeting worried chocolate. "You're… you're not angry with me, are you?"
Harry snapped out of his furious staring match with the wall. His features relaxed. "With you? Of course not, Ginny. You made a judgement call that turned out to be inaccurate, that's all. We both did. And you did a brilliant job holding on for as long as you have."
She shifted her embrace. Her trembling abated.
"Neither of us thought they'd actually consider using veritaserum."
Ginny stood back and looked straight into his eyes. Her red hair fell over her face, just like his did. She raked it behind her ear.
He blew on his, but it just fell back on his face.
"I want the necklace," she muttered.
Harry nodded, un-shrunk the trunk, grabbed the silver lighting-bolt pendant, and a pack of veritaserum antidote sweets.
"Here." He proffered them.
She took them, put the necklace on, and tucked it under her shirt. The magic caught.
"Eat two sweets a day, morning and night."
"Yes, Harry." She popped one into her mouth.
"If you lose them, or they get taken, or they put you in solitary confinement, or you run out, let me know, and I'll take control. I'll be able to resist through my noble house ring."
Ginny nodded her understanding, taking deep, calming breaths. Then smiled impishly, eyes turning playful through the tears. "Nice dress, Harry."
He rubbed the back of his head. "Er, yeah, it's one of Daphne's."
Ginny frowned. Then sighed. "This is the last time we're going to see each other for a whole year isn't it?"
"You're not going to see off your brothers?"
"I doubt they'll let me now. I don't even know how long it'll be until I'll be able to visit Luna again."
"Well, we can see each other if you want."
Ginny tilted her head, her eyes questioning.
He tapped the pendant.
Her eyes widened in understanding.
"How would you like to go sightseeing in dreamland?"
Ginny grinned. "That would be cool."
"Okay, then."
A creak came from the hallway.
They both froze. Their gazes locked on the bedroom door.
"You need to go," Ginny whispered fiercely.
"Yes."
He reached for his trunk, and felt a pulse of magic shoot through the room. He felt the privacy charm fail.
He froze.
"Got him!" A voice yelled.
His eyes widened. Oh fuck.
"Got him? What did you do!" another, older voice screamed.
Ginny looked around, frantic. "What's going on?"
"We trapped him with a containment ward!"
He dashed to the window, and smashed the glass. He reached out, and pushed his magic into the ward.
"You trapped him in there with your sister! You idiots!"
The ward threw him backwards, onto his side, and across the floor. Pain shot through him. His skin scrapped off leaving raw streaks down his thigh.
"Bill! Go floo the aurors! Now!"
Harry scrambled to his feet. Ginny's body was so much weaker than his own.
"No!" Ginny shouted.
Aurors? That would be game over. He started to sweat.
"Be quiet, Ginny! You're in enough trouble already!"
His breathing quickened.
"No! You're being horrible!"
His heart pounded. He couldn't think of a way out. Panic gripped his soul.
"Ginny! Who's in there with you?"
His nostrils flared, desperately trying to suck in enough oxygen to feed his rapidly overloading system.
"No! I'm not telling you! If you don't let us out now! I'll… I'll…"
Images flashed through his head of Azkaban. Of being trapped. Of being helpless. The walls seemed to close in on him. No. No! His magic flared.
"Holy Shit!"
He could feel it running through him like an out of control storm. Pouring out of him, like a flash flood.
"Harry!"
His nerves lit up like fire, the very air in his lungs whirled around. The world turned green. Voices filtered through, but were indistinct and distant.
"The ward!"
"Do something, Bill!"
"I'm trying!"
His whole body was coiling like a spring, tension upon tension building to an unstoppable crescendo. His back curved forward.
"Your wand, Harry!"
....
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