Ginny opened her eyes and immediately knew that she was back in her body made of mud. The bone crown remained on her head, she could feel it. Balthazar was standing there looking at her calmly, and she was back in the same room as she had appeared in before.
She looked back through the door behind her that she knew would let her return to her real body.
“I would suggest not going so soon,” Balthazar said, “What is done is done.”
She looked back at him, “What do you mean? What if I’m hurt? I should go back just in case.”
“The time of danger has already passed,” Balthazar said, “Time moves strangely here relative to your world. It has already been hours at least in your world since you’ve arrived here. Your body is fine and is being treated by the healers of your world at the moment.”
“You can watch my body?” Ginny said, suddenly concerned, “Could you always do that?”
Balthazar shook his head, “Don’t you worry about propriety, I would never do such a thing. But it was only when you called for assistance that I was given the ability to see you in your world. When you return feel free to revoke this privilege.”
“What… What happened? What was that creature?” Ginny asked as she unconsciously put her hand on her chest where the armored figure’s blade had impaled the strange man that had been disguised as Ron’s rat.
“It was one of your other subjects,” Balthazar said, “A warrior who I sent to your defense. Once the hostile was incapacitated, your subject worked to capture the prisoner to determine his true intentions or if he was working with others for this attack. Despite the interference of Fate in possessing you.”
“So that man’s alive?” Ginny asked, “Didn’t that bug person stab him? He didn’t look very healthy when he went through that portal…”
“Yes, he is perfectly fine, if imprisoned. With the healing spells available to magical beings, one must be decisive in your attacks. Once he was through the portal, only a few seconds of casting by myself healed him back to almost perfect health again.”
“Where is he now? Did you figure out why he attacked me? Why he was pretending to be my brother’s pet rat?”
Balthazar shook his head, “We have not had enough time. After restraining and imprisoning the man, I came straight here to greet you. I will let you know if he gives us any useful information as soon as I know.”
“How did that soldier person come to my world? I didn’t realize that was even possible.”
“Yes, we can create portals across realities. But it is very expensive. Feel the air of this place with your magic sense.”
Ginny did so and was surprised to find that the usual magic in the air was severely depleted, at less than half of the strength it had been at the last time that she was here.
“Unfortunately, we will not be able to create such a portal again for a long time. Several of your years at least. There’s a reason you are not transferred here physically each time you come. Your current form is much cheaper to maintain for this realm.”
Ginny looked down at her arms formed of the black mud for a moment before looking back at Balthazar.
“What happened with the golden chains? Fate, you called it? They- They controlled me as soon as that soldier appeared. I could barely resist it at all… Is there anything I can do to stop it?”
Balthazar was silent and thoughtful for a few seconds before he responded, “Fate is a very powerful entity that resides in your reality. She has a very particular way that she likes things to be, and works very hard to keep them that way. She has been flexible with you since you’re a native to her world, and a child of prophecy as well. An intruder from another reality on the other hand… She will eliminate them with all her means. She can’t plan around things that she can’t control or predict. She’s one of the reasons your reality has so few visitors from other realities. Visitors that survive that is. With Fate’s meddling all the natives quickly grow hostile to any visitors and root them out and force them to leave as soon as possible.”
“If she’s so powerful then why didn’t she just blast that soldier herself?” Ginny asked, “Why did she possess me and hurt Fawkes to do it?”
“It’s quite the opposite problem, Ginny. Fate is not the only powerful entity in your universe. Any direct action by her is too important to ignore. Acting through you was the only way to make sure that anything she chooses to do isn’t immediately undone or even worse by someone else of equal power as her.”
“Can I stop her from doing it again?” Ginny asked hopefully, “I don’t want to be possessed again like that. It was horrible, and she made me tell Fawkes to put himself in danger just because she wanted to finish casting a spell.”
“There is one way… But it is dangerous.”
“What? What is it?”
“We have an artifact here that will make you invisible to entities like Fate. All of them. But it could draw negative attention. Fate is still trying to include you in her plans right now, even if she’s being rather unpleasant about it. If you put on the artifact then it’s unknown how she might react to it. If you put it on you’d have to make sure it never came off for any reason even for a second or you’d be in serious danger of Fate seeing you again and doing something drastic.”
Ginny stopped and seriously thought about it for a few seconds. But, what was really the difference in making Fate angrier with her? Fate had already almost killed her once, who knew if she would do it again if Fate wanted to? Ginny didn’t want to live wondering when she might be randomly possessed all the time.
“I’ll do it,” She decided, “What is it? Is there anything I have to do?”
Balthazar reached out and held his hand palm upwards. Ginny felt magic swirl within him and an image appeared above his palm, slowly rotating around. It was a necklace. It had large sharp claws strung along a silvered chain in a circle. At the very bottom of the necklace was a silver inset with a big red gem with a dark interior that swirled even as she looked at it through the image. She gulped slightly as she looked at it.
“How am I going to manage to keep that thing on all the time…” She wondered out loud.
Balthazar chuckled and closed his palm into a fist and the image disappeared, “Don’t worry. You can turn it invisible and activate an enchantment so you won’t be able to feel it. It will take much of the remaining energy of this place, but I can send it to your physical body once you decide to leave this place again. As soon as you see it appear, grab it, put it on, and inject some of your magic into the central red gem. And remember, never take it off even in the direst of circumstances. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Balthazar. As long as Fate can’t come in and control me again.”
“Good. Now, with all of that out of the way. I thought we could do this gradually, but it seems you are coming here more often than you are intending to. I have delved in our archives and discovered the method from which you can voluntarily leave or enter this place at will. I will attempt to teach it to you now. Just keep in mind when you come here that your body will be left unconscious in your world as it has been previously. If you wish, you can come here while you sleep in the future and even set automatic triggers to draw you back to your body. Such as certain amounts of time passing, movement nearby, and other similar things. How does that sound?”
“Sounds great!” Ginny said, “I can learn magic from you even while I sleep? How does it work?”
“Very well, first feel your crown. You must swirl your magic in certain ways to trigger it, then do the following…”
Balthazar guided her through it, drawing a large scroll from his robes and checking it occasionally before they moved on to the next step. Eventually, Ginny thought she’d figured it out mostly. But it was a little scary since she couldn’t actually do anything Balthazar was telling her about since it would actually cause her to leave this place early.
Balthazar had her repeat the steps she needed to do to come back here several times, correcting her where she made a mistake. Finally after Balthazar was satisfied that she knew what to do, he nodded firmly and rolled up the scroll and put it back in his robes. Ginny felt the urge to go towards the door out of here growing stronger even now.
“The Chains of Fate,” Ginny asked, “Can you see them? Pulling on me?”
“Yes. Hopefully for the last time after you put on the necklace.”
“Hopefully.”
“Goodbye, Ginny. Hopefully you will return soon. Remember what we discussed, make sure your body is safe before you risk coming here again.”
“Thanks, Balthazar. And thanks for saving me from that man that attacked me. I don’t know if I said it or not yet.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“It’s no problem at all, it’s my duty to protect the King- Queen. Protect the Queen.”
“Thanks either way. Okay, I’m going to do it now. Hopefully it works…”
Ginny moved her magic in the patterns Balthazar had shown her and started the steps to make her leave this place without even using the door. She went through the whole thing and pushed through the last step. Then waited. And waited.
“Baltha-” She managed to say before everything dissolved around her in an instant and she was back in her own body again.
— — —
Arthur woke to the sound of crashes and the loud cries of a bird. It took a full second for his mind to connect the bird cries to the Phoenix they had been having over for dinner for the last month. The crashes continued and he heard Ginny screaming and shouting from her room. He rolled out of bed and grabbed his wand, Molly still sitting up and looking confused besides him. He stepped out with his bare feet on the floor and burst out of the door with his wand held at the ready. He frantically tried to remember what spells he should use in battle, but in his panic couldn’t think of much besides using a stunner and shield charms.
He had never been very good at Defense against the Dark Arts in school, and he hadn’t had much cause for dueling since then. He ran towards Ginny’s room where Ginny was loudly shouting at something while an unearthly crackle hummed throughout the house. He ran forward, wand held at the ready and saw that there was a bright light shining out from under Ginny’s door. Ginny shouted again and there was an electric crackle and the smell of ozone that wafted into the hallway, and suddenly the red light from under the door winked out in an instant.
Arthur frantically pawed at the door handle, his sweaty hands slipping off of the handle as he tried to open it in a hurry. After swearing briefly, he managed to burst inside. The room was trashed, a large crater splintering the floor on one side and books and objects strewn all over the place. There was a perfectly smooth hemisphere that was removed from the wall like it had been scooped out cleanly with a spoon.
There was a massive pool of blood staining the floor closer to the bed and a discarded wand. Arthur looked around looking for the intruder, but there was no one there. They seemed to be gone.
His eyes finally focused on Ginny. Oh, Ginny. He heard Molly rushing up from behind and the rest of the boys stirring in the rest of the house. Fawkes was sitting above the body of his little girl, crying over her limp form. She was sprawled out on the bed with her eyes closed and taking shallow breaths. Her face was deathly pale, each of Fawke’s tears darkening her complexion for a moment before she started paling again.
Molly came up behind him and paused and gasped as she reached the door. Arthur turned to her.
“Stay with her, I’ll go to St. Mungo’s for the healers!”
Not waiting for her response he brushed past her and sprinted downstairs towards the fireplace, huffing and puffing as he did so. He was out of shape and could feel his heart pumping just from running for a couple seconds. He went to the fireplace downstairs and fumbled to grab a handful of the floo powder and stumbled into the fireplace, throwing it down as he did so. “St. Mungo’s!”
He stumbled out of the fireplace a second later and turned to the woman at the front desk.
“Help! I need healers, my daughter’s been attacked!”
— — —
Arthur stared at the comatose Ginny at St. Mungo’s with the sleeping phoenix sitting on her chest. It had been over two days and she still hadn’t woken up again.
“Peter Pettigrew? That’s who attacked my daughter? I thought Sirius Black killed him?” He asked Amelia Bones. She was the head of the Auror department and was personally managing the case. The Ministry considered it an attack on him, the head of a ministry department, no matter how much most looked down on his department.
“So we thought,” Amelia Bones admitted, “It was Peter’s wand, his blood left at the scene of the attack on your daughter. Our Investigators have confirmed it. He was supposed to be dead over ten years ago now, killed at the end of the war. I’ve found some irregularities with the paperwork of Sirius’ Black’s trial. There’s almost nothing written down about the facts of the case anywhere. It may be some kind of a cover up to conceal his survival.”
“But why attack us? My daughter? I don’t understand.”
Amelia cleared her throat and Arthur looked at her. She looked uncomfortable.
“What? What is it?”
“Sirius Black’s sentence. For the murder of Peter Pettigrew. It was approved by Albus Dumbledore, ranking member of the Wizemgott. Can you think of something that has changed recently in your relationship with him?”
“What? Surely you aren’t saying…”
“I’m not saying anything. But weeks after your daughter creates a familiar bond with the Phoenix, this happens? An attack from a man that Dumbledore signed off as dead ten years ago? You know how much our traditions value the sanctity of true familiar bonds. Any legal case Dumbledore has to keep the phoenix is dead in the water and he knows it. It’s already considered offensive to some that the Phoenix has been kept away from the girl for this long. Especially when bonds with such a powerful beast are so rare.”
Arthur frowned. To think he would be supported by the likes of Lucius Malfoy and the other dark pureblood families of all people. He had wrestled with the situation internally, but seeing Ginny and Fawkes together had made him decide to keep pushing. If he had to be temporary allies with the likes of Lucius Malfoy then so be it, he couldn’t imagine how devastated Ginny would be if she could never see her precious Fawkes again.
He let Amelia’s statements swirl through his mind for a moment.
“No. Dumbledore wouldn’t do that. Despite our recent differences,” He said. But the seed of doubt was planted, and Arthur kept mulling over the theory in his mind as he stood there watching the healers continue to cast spells on the comatose Ginny.
“It was just a thought. I honestly can’t come up with another plausible theory for why this would happen now or why your daughter specifically was targeted,” Amelia said, “At least one that makes sense to me. We’ll find out the truth when we talk to Sirius Black. We’re just lucky that that Phoenix came in time and fought off Pettigrew before he could do any more harm. Fought him off rather effectively given how much blood was left behind at the scene.”
Arthur looked back to watch Ginny.
“Well. I’ll let you know when we have more,” Amelia said slightly awkwardly before walking off.
— — —
Amelia’s discussion with Sirius Black was informative. They had to take a long break after the man was thrown into a violent rage after learning that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. But other than that, things went smoothly and Amelia was told the true course of events.
Peter Pettigrew was the one who was the secret keeper to the Potter’s home, not Sirius Black. The secret keeper who was the only one that could allow Voldemort to find their home on the night that they were murdered. The fidelius charm their house was under could not be found by anyone unless the secret keeper directly informed someone of its location. Everyone had thought that this person was Sirius Black, but according to him it was actually Peter Pettigrew.
Sirius Black had not been questioned after his arrest, he had never been given a trial. He had simply been thrown in Azkaban into prison to rot. For ten years. Amelia was pensive as she left the interrogation room. This case was sprawling bigger than she had ever imagined it would. Sirius Black, traitor, could be innocent? The real traitor out in the world free for this whole time unnoticed by the Ministry?
Should she consult Minister Fudge about her findings before going to the public? She could only delay for so long. There were a few leads to chase down still, but the last one was Dumbledore. There were no written records of the events that happened all those years ago, but from what they could find there had been no court date filed for anything resembling a trial for Sirius Black for his crimes.
If she went to Fudge first, he may suppress, downplay the news. He was a political animal, and would avoid any kind of controversy like the plague. Even now he was working damage control to keep the news of Peter Pettigrew’s survival suppressed.
No, she owed it to Arthur. Despite their best efforts Pettigrew had escaped clean with the Ministry completely unable to track him down or even find out where he had been for these last ten years.
She called a press conference to announce her findings without consulting Fudge first. She waited a few hours for the last of their immediate leads to be exhausted of course. But then she was done and had the papers in front of her. She walked up to the podium with all of the eager reporters and crowd of important people gathered below waiting. Fudge had tried to dissuade her from having the conference ‘so soon’, but Amelia had denied him. He was the Minister, but she had a duty to present her findings for a case as important as this.
Seeing her unwilling budge on the issue, Fudge had backed down and had been frantically scurrying around and preparing for the fallout from her announcement for the last two hours.
She took a deep breath and looked over the crowd. She saw Lucius Malfoy, the heads of most of the pureblood families scattered in the crowd towards the back. In the front was the more undisciplined press with their cameras and murmuring as they speculated on what her findings would be on the attack on Arthur Weasley’s family.
“Many of you may be wondering about my findings on the attack on Mr. Weasley and his family,” Amelia began and the murmuring crowd died down as they focused on her, “But we must begin earlier. Ten years ago, to be precise, to get a full understanding of this case. Bear with me for a while, it will be relevant to the recent attack…”
Amelia ran through her findings on Sirius Black’s trial and his claims that Peter Pettigrew was the one that betrayed Lily and James Potter to Lord Voldemort, not him. She had to stop several times as the crowd was in an uproar. Even the heads of the pureblood families were shocked and looked furious as she continued through the evidence she had gathered proving that her claims at least had some merit to them.
Finally, she had finished and began answering questions from the reporters, the heads of the pureblood families in the back shifting but unwilling to break ranks and deign to ask a question in public as if they didn’t already know something. To preserve their pristine images they so desperately worked to cultivate.
Amelia answered the reporters questions as well as she could, occasionally shutting them down if it was part of an ongoing part of the investigation. The reporters were furiously writing and sending their pages of notes flying off through the air, off to their editors almost as fast as they could write them.
But finally after long last the key question was asked.
“Madame Bones,” A woman with her hair in a tight bun and wearing thick glasses asked as she stood, “This is quite the revelation to us all. But what does this have to do with the attack on the Weasley family?”
Amelia took a deep breath, “All of what I have said so far is groundwork for what I say next so that everyone knows its importance. At the site of the attack, which left Ginny Weasley, Arthur Weasley’s daughter, in a coma… was left behind a wand and a pool of blood.”
The crowd shifted, confused by her seeming change in topic.
“These objects were tested. The blood as well as the wand were tested thoroughly, and there can be no doubt any longer…”
The crowd were on the edges of their seats, hanging on her every word.
“Peter Pettigrew is alive, and is the one who perpetrated this most recent attack.”
There was silence in the crowd for a single moment as everyone processed the revelation. Then the room exploded into a pure wave of noise, even the heads of the pureblood families now standing and shouting out questions. The final revelation breaking any thoughts for propriety any longer. With so many people knowing, there would be no suppressing the news now. If Fudge was smart he wouldn’t even try.
Amelia just hoped they would be able to capture Pettigrew before he struck again. Who knew what his true motives really were for a traitorous man like that?