Unfortunately Dad had to go to work the next day. She was banned from the garage unless he was there by Molly, so she couldn’t go there and stare at all the interesting enchantments on all the little car parts. She spent an hour or two inspecting all sorts of enchanted objects around the house and trying to guess what they did based on their magic.

She wasn’t having much luck so far, pretty much only able to tell if an enchantment was complicated or not and how degraded or old it was. The older ones about to break had bigger weak points and the fibers of magic covering them had less magic flowing through them. Or she thought that was the case from what she’d seen so far.

Molly was cleaning, but she’d often drop by and check in on Ginny and ask her what she was doing. She didn’t seem to completely believe Ginny when she told her she was looking at the enchantments, but Molly let her be after the third time Ginny explained what she was doing.

Eventually Ginny grew bored with the things in the house and made her way to the door.

“Ginny? Where are you going?” Molly asked as Ginny passed her.

“I was going outside for a walk and exploring around,” Ginny explained, “I should be safe if I stay in the big magic bubble right?”

“You mean the wards? Those are over two hundred meters from the house. You can detect them?”

“I sensed them as we were driving in,” Ginny said.

Molly nodded, holding the broom she had been sweeping the floor with steadily.

“Just make sure to stay inside the wards,” Molly said, “Just stay safe, okay Ginny?”

“Okay, Molly. Thanks!”

Ginny turned around and left through the front door.

Behind her, Molly’s grip on her broom tightened and her expression crumpled for a moment before she took a shaky breath and recovered. Ginny’s memories would come back. They would. Maybe playing outside on familiar land would be the last piece letting her little girl truly recognize her mother again.

— — —

Ginny wandered around the grounds. There was a little forest with a stand of trees on one side and some open fields and bushes on the rest. She went back to the house for some lunch, and Molly seemed a little withdrawn and didn’t talk to Ginny hardly at all. She gave her food though, so Ginny didn’t mind all that much. It still felt special to her that someone would make a meal especially for her. It was only a sandwich, but Ginny still thought it tasted extra good because Molly had made it for her. Her memories swirled as she tried to remember why that would be. But nothing came to mind, and Ginny gave up and let the memories slip back down between her fingers again.

After lunch Ginny headed outside again and walked over to the forest again. She had wandered the whole area, seeing it with her eyes and investigating the spots that had looked interesting. She already knew where everything was with her magic sense which unconstrained by the house had ballooned to cover most of the property. It only detected magic and not objects themselves, but there was enough magic in her surroundings that she got a sort of blurry mental image of everything within her magic sense.

It was getting a little late, but Ginny decided that she wanted to practice her magic. Shooting the metal tray out of Molly’s hands had only tired her out a little and she had thrown it pretty fast with her magic. But it was also pretty light so maybe those balanced out?

Ginny kept walking through the forested section and reached out a magic tendril from her hip. It was surprisingly difficult to walk and control her magic at the same time. Her magic tendril kept swaying and bucking as she lost focus and caused it to twitch. But after a few minutes of practice, she managed to extend it out and snag a leaf from the forest floor and lift it in the air. She kept walking and twirling the leaf around her like it was floating on an unnatural breeze. It was surprisingly difficult to do both at once.

After a few minutes she stopped walking as she realized her mistake. She had kept the tendril anchored to her hip the whole time! She was falling into bad habits!

She immediately drew the leaf close so it was hovering only a foot away from her hip as she stood there. She tried to shift the magic tendril across her skin freely like she had been able to by the end of Balthazar’s lessons. It felt like pulling something out of mud, with a few seconds of her willing it to shift upwards towards her ribs and the tendril being sticky and wanting to stay in place.

Finally with one last heave of her will, the tendril ripped free from its anchor point and started slowly climbing upwards up her side towards her lower ribs, the leaf being carried along with it. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. Whoa, with only a little bit of bad practice it was already so hard to get it to move! She had to really make sure to not slack in the future or breaking the habit again would be just terrible.

Deciding that her legs were getting tired, Ginny walked to the base of a tree and sat down, her legs held straight in front of her as her back rested against the rough wood.

She took in a deep breath and moved the leaf to float all over her body. She made sure to do it by shifting the anchor position of the magic tendril rather than bending or extending it from a fixed anchor point like she had been doing before.

She spent a while like that, eyes closed and listening to the sounds of nature around her as she focused on moving the leaf with her magic. She started breathing harder and her heart rate rose a bit even as she sat there as she drained her magic low. But with how light the leaf was, she knew that she still had plenty of time before she actually became exhausted practicing.

She kept going and after her legs felt rested and she was feeling good with her practice, she stood. She kept her eyes closed so she could focus on her magic as she stood there, keeping the leaf lazily drifting around her body in large loops as she slid the magic tendril’s exit point all over her skin.

She took a step and immediately lost focus and her tendril sent the leaf jetting away, causing it to break into pieces and fall to the forest floor. Ginny stood still again and dragged the tendril to her ankle and reached out her tendril to pick up a new leaf and then carried it back up to hover just over her right shoulder. She took another step and carefully moved the leaf around as she did so. She didn’t drop it this time. Another step, she didn’t drop it… Another step, still good.

And then she was slowly walking again, her eyes closed and her brow furrowed with concentration as she multitasked as she moved through the woods, avoiding roots and rocks with her blurry view of them in her magic sense as well as feeling it out slightly when she was unsure with her foot due to how slowly she was walking.

Time passed in a blur as Ginny wandered the area with her eyes closed, her breathing gradually growing heavier and her lungs beginning to burn as her magic began to run low.

“Ginny! Ginny!”

She opened her eyes and looked around. The sun was low in the sky, just the faint hint of orange tinting the horizon through the trees as the sun began to set. Ginny felt Molly standing on the front porch of the house with her magic sense. The way everyone’s magic flowed and swirled was unique, so she could usually identify people pretty easily if she observed them for long enough.

Ginny let the leaf float towards the ground still on her magic tendril and then started extending it out. She started panting and her heart beat faster as she used more and more of her magic. The leaf reached about ten meters from her before it felt like too much and Ginny released it and let the magic tendril dissolve. She took a deep breath and wiped her brow. Woof, all that practice had been so tiring! She’d have to try to take it easy and do something a bit more mindless tomorrow.

“Ginny!”

Ginny started walking back to the house, Molly’s voice was starting to grow a bit worried.

“Ginny?!”

“Fine, Molly!” Ginny called out, “I’m coming!”

The woman huffed in the distance, and after ten more seconds of walking Ginny spotted Molly with her eyes. She waved and walked towards the house. Molly looked her over with a critical eye, focusing especially on her mud stained knees and elbows as Ginny got close. Ginny blushed slightly. She had tripped a few times while she was walking with only her magic sense to guide her…

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“Come along, let’s get you cleaned up then,” Molly said kindly and ushered Ginny inside. The woman took out her wand and with a few strange words and a few motions a blast of magic came out and washed over Ginny. She yelped and jumped in surprise as the wave of magic hit her, but stopped in surprise as the magic scrubbed her down and removed all the dirt and stains from the long shorts and shirt that she was wearing.

Ginny’s head spun as the magic finished its work and then dissipated, leaving her perfectly clean skin and clothes behind. Her skin felt a little raw like it had been scrubbed rather hard for a deep clean, but other than that she felt perfectly fine. That magic was so complicated! Would she be able to do something like that with her own magic some day? She hoped so.

Dad got home and they had dinner. Ginny asked questions about his work, and he told her about his coworkers and all the unresolved cases that had piled up without him there. She hadn’t quite realized but he didn’t just work at the ministry department, but he was actually in charge of the whole thing. So even though his department seemed to not be considered that important by other people, he still was a fairly important person since he was the head of a department. Or at least that’s what Ginny figured from how he talked about it.

“So how about you, Ginny?” Dad asked, “What did you and your mother get up to today?”

“I went and explored the area around the house,” Ginny replied, “I made sure to stay within the wards like Moll- Mom told me to. She cleaned me up with a single spell, I never knew that magic could be so convenient!”

Molly sat up and her mood appeared to lift a little. “Don’t you worry Ginny, when you get your new wand I’ll teach you all sorts of useful cleaning spells. That was the scourgify charm, but there’s several cantrips that even a first year student can learn.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks, Mol-Mom.” Her excitement dampened slightly. She had sort of meant being able to do it freeform, but just learning how to do it on a wand did sound tempting. She scolded herself internally as the traitorous thought rose in her. No, Balthazar would be so disappointed in her if she cheated her studies. It would be harder at first, but he was a big scary demon. Well, intimidating. She didn’t think she was actually ever scared of him. But if he wanted to be scary he easily could be. She was sure that he had high expectations for her, she didn’t want to let him down if she could.

It would be harder at first, but Ginny decided that she’d do her best to avoid using a wand. She’d only use it as much as she had to, and use her own freeform magic for the rest.

The conversation continued, Molly now joining the conversation more and appearing to have cheered up a bit after Ginny expressed interest in learning the cleaning spells from her. Things were much more relaxed from there, an invisible tension that Ginny hadn’t even noticed before breaking and letting them all calm down a little.

— — —

The next month went much the same as that first day had gone. Ginny would wander around outside practicing her magic with the leaves. After two days of practice she was feeling good enough about her skills to try creating a second magic tendril and moving around a second leaf. The first time she did it it felt like she was breaking her brain, like patting her head and rubbing her belly at the same time, the two conflicting tendrils interfering with each other and making her jerk them wildly all over the place as they each held their respective leaves on their ends.

Eventually she had to go back to sitting down to train splitting her focus. Oddly enough she felt her magic rush up to her brain as she concentrated, her head tingling the whole time she sat there trying to control both of the magic tendrils at once. It was strange, one moment she was struggling to do hardly anything and the next moment there was a soft pop and it was easy. She could now focus on both at once. Still difficult, but no longer impossible for her.

The magic swirling in her head died down and receded back into the rest of her body. Had her magic done something to help? Maybe… She rapidly improved after that. She didn’t struggle nearly as much, and after the full month she was up to five independent tendrils at once with leaves attached to them swirling around her as she slowly walked around.

Occasionally Molly would take her on trips to the market to buy produce or to follow along as they went to London or other places for her errands to break up Ginny's routine.

It was alright, but Ginny mostly just ended up standing around and not doing much as Molly did whatever her task was or bought the items she wanted. All the other children were at the Hogwarts school so there were no children for her to play with even if she wanted to. She had asked about non-magical children, but Molly had told her it wasn’t safe to do that. Ginny wasn’t really sure why that was, but Molly hadn’t budged or explained so eventually Ginny gave up as it became apparent that she wouldn’t be getting any answers.

On the weekends they had gone on picnics and done a few other fun things as a family since Dad was not at work. It had been relaxing, practicing her magic, having Fawkes over for dinner whenever she could convince Dad and have him convince Molly for her. Mom. It was hard to think of her that way recently. Especially in the last week or so.

Ginny felt herself frown as she remembered what she had heard last Saturday. She had been just about to fall asleep when she had just barely heard intense voices arguing downstairs. Curious, she had sat up and crept into the hallway in her nightclothes to the edge of the stairs.

She ran over the memory again like it was happening again in real time in front of her.

“ —Still nothing!” Molly’s voice from out of sight downstairs said, “No matter what I do, none of her memories will come back! She’s changed so much, it’s like she is a completely different person! I—”

“Shhhhh, Ginny’s sleeping upstairs,” Dad said in a fierce whisper. Molly immediately kept speaking at a lower volume even as she continued emotionally, “Even the little things are different. The way she talks, how she walks. What dresses she likes. She used to be so rebellious and stubborn, real fierce like I was when I was her age. A little hellion. Now she’s withdrawn, staring into the clouds all the time. It’s like the life’s just been drained out of her. Staring at enchanted objects and suddenly she's one of the biggest little Ravenclaws that I’ve ever seen with all of her questions about absolutely everything.”

A short pause before Dad spoke, “That’s not fair to her. We all knew she’d been changed from what happened. She’s… different. We both know that. Everything is new to her, of course she’s a little withdrawn and curious about the world. You constantly prodding her about her memories isn’t helping anything. We have to let things happen naturally.”

“But there was something! Those first few days, she said that strange name and panicked when I took the vegetables out of the oven, so much she had a burst of accidental magic. There’s something buried under there, just waiting for the dam to break!”

“You’re seeing what you want to see!” Arthur said, sounding frustrated and audibly holding down his volume. Ginny remained frozen at the top of the stairs, listening intently to the conversation with her heart rapidly beating in her chest as she heard them argue about her.

“It’s strange. But we’ve argued about it enough," Dad continued, "We have no idea what it means, could be coincidences or a dream she had for all we know. It’s been a month, if something like her memories returning to her all at once was going to happen then it would have already.”

“You don’t know that. There’s still a chance.”

“Maybe… maybe we have to accept that the old Ginny is gone. For now. If her memories come back then that’s wonderful, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“But–”

“N-No, let me finish. The old Ginny may be gone, but the girl upstairs is still our daughter. We’ve got to treat her as her own person, not whoever she used to be. Why do you think she still has difficulty in calling you mom? It’s because you’re not getting to know the new Ginny and clinging to the old one instead that’s not… not her.”

“Arthur Weasley,” Molly said and audibly puffing up, “How dare you! With how much you’ve been doting on her recently, no wonder she likes you! You certainly never did so before her incident, too busy with her job and her brothers. You never really knew the old Ginny and you’re just guilty and making up for all that lost time now that she’s gone!”

“I— That’s not true. It’s because unlike you I’ve accepted the facts! The best mind healers in the country are unable to heal her. I was there. As far as I’m concerned. Ginny… Ginny died down in that chamber. We’ve got a new daughter to take care of, and you keep pushing and making her feel worse about herself because of something that’s out of her control!”

“No, no. I won’t hear it. Her memories will come back. She’ll be our Ginny again.”

“She is our Ginny. It’s you that isn't seeing it. We can’t hurt Ginny like this, trying to force her to be a person she isn’t, can’t be.”

“I— I— You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“Molly…”

“No, you’re wrong. She’ll be back. She will. Couch, now.”

Dad sighed, “Fine. I’ll sleep out here. Just think about it, for Ginny’s sake if not for me. You know that I’m right.”

There were heavy footsteps as the adults walked away from each other both frustrated and angry at the other. Ginny quickly crept back to her room before she could be discovered and slipped back beneath her covers. She sat there in the darkness staring at the ceiling, not feeling tired in the slightest anymore. Would everyone just be happier if she was the old Ginny again? Even Dad hadn’t denied it, just said that it was impossible for it to happen. That wasn’t the same as saying that he liked the new Ginny more than the old one.

Ginny had thought about that conversation between her parents constantly for the last week. What did her brothers think? Would they somewhat understand like Dad, or wish her to be someone else like Molly?

Today all four of her brothers would be coming home from school, their final exams done. Ginny and her parents had gone in the car and driven to the train station to wait for them to arrive. Platform nine and three quarters. It was such a strange place, her magic sense pulsing to cover the area. Yet the air of the place was absolutely thrumming with magic. More than just a normal enchantment. Sort of like how the hellish realm had felt but at a much lower concentration of magic.

Ginny waited alongside her parents as the Hogwarts express pulled into the station and students began to climb out after a few minutes. The moment of truth, to see what her brothers would think about the new her when they finally got home and they fully realized that her memories hadn’t returned…