It had been a week, and Ginny was extremely bored. Since she was grounded, she’d been forced to stay inside with Molly all the time while her three brothers played outside and flew around on their brooms.
But it was time to go visit Olivia again, and Ginny realized that she’d be in big trouble again if she went. She needed to get Sirius’ help again so she could leave. She didn’t want to get him in trouble again, and she still had to apologize for what had happened last week.
It was Saturday, and Ginny managed to sneak away from Molly and came into the garage. Her Dad and Sirius were in there working on building Sirius’ bike together. They were already half way done. Sirius laying on the ground on his back and fiddling with something near the bottom of the half assembled bike.
Dad looked at her with his wand hovering over a part, about to cast an enchantment on it.
“Ginny? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to talk to Uncle Sirius about something. How’s the bike going? What are you enchanting?”
Sirius looked at her from the ground, “Oh? I’m still in trouble with your parents about last week, you little gremlin. Apparating off to who knows where without telling me first. C’mon, out with it. Can’t exactly have a secret with your dad listening in.”
“Well, it’s about my friend…” Ginny said, while eyeing Dad who had put down the car part, “I wanted to go visit her?”
“Olivia Roberts?” Dad said, “The one you were looking for last week?”
Ginny blinked and shot Sirius a betrayed look. The man wriggled out from underneath the bike and sat up, giving Ginny a shrug.
“Hey, I thought Arthur deserved to know. I shouldn’t have taken you to the werewolves, got too swept up in the moment after… after what happened. Not to mention you just apparated away with her out of nowhere. Where did you end up bringing her, anyway?”
Ginny was hesitant, but then glanced between her Dad and Sirius who were looking at her expectantly.
“Can you keep it a secret?” Ginny asked, “Not a normal secret, but something really serious. A lot of people could get really hurt if too many people find out about it.”
“Hurt?” Dad asked, concerned, “What are you talking about? Where did you go?”
“You both have to promise,” Ginny said, staying strong, “You can’t tell anyone else, not even Molly. Please, it's really important.”
The two men looked hesitant before Sirius nodded, “I promise, Ginny,” He said seriously, “I won’t tell anyone else unless you or your friend are in danger.”
Dad hesitated for a bit longer, before nodding too. “I won’t tell Molly,” He promised, “Now, what is it? Where did you take your friend?”
Ginny took a deep breath. She had kept the secret for what felt like forever. But with this, her secret would be out there. Maybe they wouldn’t understand everything, but… it was the only first step in revealing all the secrets that Ginny had. It was scary. But if she didn’t tell them, then she’d be trapped here and Olivia would think that Ginny had abandoned her with Balthazar. And if she could make the adults understand then maybe they could help her.
“We went… to Azkaban,” Ginny said, “The people there said they could help cure her of being a werewolf.”
Both men’s eyes widened and they shared a shocked glance at the other. “Azkaban?!” Arthur blurted out, “That billionaire mercenary company that bought it? How in the world do you know them? What are they doing contacting you?”
“They said they can help Olivia, and I believe them,” Ginny said, “She’s there and their leader is running tests on her even right now. I’ve got to go see her this weekend so she knows that I didn’t forget about her. I’m sure she’s fine, but the people there aren’t very talkative.”
Sirius frowned as he looked at her, “You seem awfully familiar with this group. How did you meet them? What are they doing asking a little girl like you for help?”
“I’m not a little girl!” Ginny protested, “I’m almost thirteen now!”
“Hmph. My point exactly,” Sirius snorted.
“Ginny, how did you meet these people?” Dad insisted, “No one knows anything about them, not even the Ministry. What do they want with you?”
“They just want to help,” Ginny said, “I’ve already been to Azkaban twice and I was fine. Even if they were bad, Fawkes could just apparate me away again. It’s perfectly safe for me to visit.”
“I don’t like it,” Dad declared, “If you’re going, then we’re going with you.”
Sirius shot Dad a surprised look, “Not that I disagree, Arthur,” He said, “But you’re not going to forbid her from going? Didn’t think you’d be excited by this business and mysterious strangers contacting her.”
Dad shook his head and smiled slightly, “Ah, I’ve seen that stubborn look on her mother far too many times. I’m sure she’d sneak out and go anyway if we tried to stop her. Best to meet these people ourselves and see what they’re really about.”
Ginny hesitated. Was she that obvious? But it would make things easier. Balthazar could explain things and make them feel comfortable much better than Ginny could. He was really good at words and explaining things in ways that made perfect sense when he was done.
“Okay,” She said, “But I have to go first. I have to warn the leader, Balthazar, about you coming. Then I’ll come back and get you two. Is that okay?”
The adults argued with Ginny about it for a few minutes, but she ended up getting her way. Dad and Sirius seemed to accept that she couldn’t just bring them uninvited even if they didn’t like that she’d have to go alone to make sure that it was okay.
“But you’re coming right back here in fifteen minutes young lady or you will be grounded for the rest of the summer!” Dad said sternly while looking worried.
“I’ll be fine, Dad. I promise.”
She tugged on her familiar bond gently and a second later Fawkes tugged back. After a few more minutes, he appeared in a ball of flame just behind her. Ginny turned around and explained what they were doing to him. He grumbled a bit at having to do two extra trips to Azkaban with extra people, but understood.
“Fifteen minutes, don’t forget,” Sirius said.
“Okay. See you guys soon. Fawkes!”
Fawkes flew up and after the flames washed over Ginny she was at Azkaban.
There was a Guard standing there at the platform, waiting. It buzzed and chittered as it stood a dozen feet away staring at her. Ginny flinched at the sudden noise.
“Sorry,” She said, “You scared me. I’m here. Can you get Balthazar and tell him to come quickly please? I don’t have a lot of time.”
The Guard buzzed and clicked again and with a flash of white light launched into the air and dashed away again through the sky.
It took five minutes for Balthazar to finally arrive in a crack of apparition just in front of her.
“Ginny. Your friend is doing well. She’s been eager for your visit all week.”
“That’s great,” Ginny said quickly, “But something’s happened. I told my Dad and Sirius about you helping Olivia. It was the only way I could come here this week and I didn’t want Olivia to think I’d forgotten about her…”
Ginny explained the full situation to Balthazar as quickly as she could as he listened intently to her words and asked a few clarifying questions. She finished and Balthazar waited in silence while wearing a thoughtful look.
“So?” Ginny asked hopefully, “Did I do the right thing? Can they come and you explain, or should I say you said no? I’ll be in big trouble with them, but you know best.”
“You’re the Queen,” Balthazar said mildly, “You could simply order me to help you.”
“I wouldn’t do that!” Ginny said, “We’re friends, right? I know you want to help Teregatt too, but if you don’t want to do something I shouldn’t just force you to do it.”
“Hm. Interesting. Do you have a story planned?”
“Story? What do you mean?”
“Did you plan to tell them the full truth? Harry Potter? Eric Smith? Teregatt?”
“Oh. Er, not really. But what else can I say?”
“A partial truth. When you first woke within the Chamber of Secrets I helped fight off your attacker, which is how we met. From there I helped you with Pettigrew’s attack, and with Olivia more recently. No need to mention Teregatt or anything else similar.”
“But what about you and the Guard? Won’t they freak out when they see none of you are human?”
“I’ll order the Guard to make themselves scarce. As for me… A botched human transfiguration generally explains away most things. I will think of something convincing for anything else. From your perspective in this story, I am simply a helpful stranger with my appearance in the Chamber of Secrets the only true lie. No need to mention Teregatt or that you are the Queen and could order me around as you please if you wished.”
“Okay. Is this wrong? To lie to them about something this important?”
“No. Lies are a tool used for good or bad both. Your family is not ready for the full truth. Even this much is a significant risk given your government’s interest in us.”
“I know. But if they know, then they can help too. And I can come here with their permission. Oh, hey, and it will explain if you have to help me if I’m in trouble! They’ll already know about you, so it would make sense that you have powerful portal magic and know if I’m in danger.”
Balthazar looked briefly surprised before nodding, “Indeed. I had not considered that angle. Perhaps this is for the best then… Very well, I will make some basic preparations for their visit. Return in two hours and I’ll be ready for them.”
“Okay, thanks for this Balthazar. I don’t mean to cause you trouble all the time whenever I come.”
“It’s more than fine, Ginny. Now go on ahead. Two hours.”
Fawkes jumped up and in a burst of flames they were back in the garage of the burrow again, the two adults staring her down.
“Two hours,” Ginny said, “Balthazar said we can visit together in two hours.”
The two adults let out twin sighs of relief.
“Balthazar?” Dad asked, “Who’s that?”
“He’s the leader of the group,” Ginny said, “He’s really magically powerful. And don’t be scared when you see him, he has some botched human transfigurations so he looks… different from most people. He’ll be the one meeting us and explaining everything to you guys.”
The two men shared another look.
“Perhaps we should clean ourselves up?” Sirius ventured, “This man does sound like a rather important fellow.”
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“Right. We’ll get right on that. Ginny, put on your best clothes and get your mother to tidy you up.”
“You can’t tell her though!” Ginny protested, “You both promised!”
Dad looked surprised for a moment as if he had forgotten before nodding, “Alright. Not until after we’ve talked with this Balthazar person. Deal?”
“Alright… fine…” Ginny mumbled, seeing that that was the best deal she was going to get. Balthazar would convince them to keep it a secret somehow…
— — —
Molly had been suspicious about all their strange behavior once the three of them emerged from the garage together. The three of them would be ‘visiting Sirius’ house’ soon, so Molly spent some time fussing over Ginny and making sure she was wearing something nice. Sirius’ house was rather comfortable and the man didn’t seem to care about things being fancy, so Ginny wasn’t sure why Molly was so convinced by that argument. But maybe because Sirius was rich, she assumed that his house would be extra formal or something?
Either way, Ginny had some cleaning spells cast on her by Molly and put on some robes that were fancier than her normal ones with little wavy strips of fabric over them. Sirius and Arthur put on some fancier clothes and cleaned up as well. Then it was time. They all suspiciously reentered the garage as Molly watched on, not looking totally convinced with their excuses. But she didn’t say anything to them as they left.
“Alright,” Ginny said, “Here we go.”
“Never thought I’d be going back to that horrible place,” Sirius said with a haunted look on his face.
“It’s gotten much better,” Ginny assured him, “Just you wait. Fawkes?”
Fawkes flew up, and in a burst of orange flame, the three of them were at Azkaban. Ginny noticed that she couldn’t see any of the Guard around, Balthazar had probably told them to hide.
She turned around and saw Dad looking around curiously. Sirius meanwhile looked stunned, glancing around to the clear skies and likely surprised by the warm, dry air around them. As well as the complete absence of Dementors around them.
“This… You’re sure this is still Azkaban?” He asked faintly, while still looking around, “Where are the Dementors?”
“I believe I can answer that,” Balthazar’s voice said as he opened a nearby door and walked out.
Both of the adults' eyes widened before they could control themselves.
“Human transfiguration…” Dad said, “That’s quite the accident you had there.”
“I should say so,” Balthazar said, sounding slightly amused by the statement, “But I have to say, I’ve grown to rather enjoy my current look. Sirius Black and Arthur Weasley, I assume? Pleasure to meet you.”
“Balthazar?” Sirius asked cautiously, “You were saying about the Dementors? I was here myself in this place for… a long time. Wherever have they gone?”
“Oh, me and my people have destroyed them. Rather unpleasant creatures to live with, as I’m sure you know.”
“Destroyed?” Arthur asked, “They’re classified as highly dangerous creatures by the Ministry. How did you manage to destroy them with just your group?”
“Me and my people are very skilled,” Balthazar replied, “We have learned magic that many others do not to help us combat them and other similar creatures. Now, let’s walk. I’m sure Ginny here is eager to see Olivia Roberts and check on her condition.”
“How is she? Did you make any progress on a cure?” Ginny asked as they started walking through the hallways of Azkaban. Sirius seemed a little shell shocked as he looked around at the dingy halls brightly lit with the light of the midday sun shining down from above.
“Somewhat,” Balthazar said, “She is fine if a little bored. She has to sit still for long periods while I perform my experiments. I believe I’ve found the root cause and the location of the alterations. Now I simply must determine what must be done to undo the alteration or render it inert.”
“That’s good, right? You’re already halfway there to a cure if you know exactly what’s causing it!”
“Not exactly,” Balthazar said, “It is a very complex curse. Technically it’s not a curse at all. It’s embedded into her magic and has warped it for its own purposes. A curse could be magically dispelled, but this disease has changed her on a fundamental level… She must be changed again on a fundamental level to revert to how she was before. And care must be taken to make sure that the disease does not simply reactivate itself and revert her back into a werewolf as soon as any changes we make are complete…”
“Are you some sort of magical researcher?” Arthur asked, “I’ve never heard anything like this discussed at the Ministry. How long have you been studying the curse? Surely you couldn’t have learned this much in the last week with Olivia Roberts?”
“I have studied many other magical curses before,” Balthazar said as they started to walk up a long set of stairs, “I am a magical researcher among other things.”
“How do you know my daughter? What’s your interest in her?” Dad asked, his tone not as hostile as Ginny had expected it to be. It seems that Balthazar’s calm manner and reveal of advanced knowledge of the werewolf curse had eased his suspicion somewhat.
“I noticed some magical anomalies at Hogwarts castle with my equipment,” Balthazar said calmly, “Imagine my surprise when I discovered a nearly comatose Ginny Weasley and an eighteen year old boy standing above her about to cast a fatal curse.”
Dad jolted, “Wait, are you saying… the Chamber of Secrets? You were there? How! No one can apparate on Hogwarts grounds!”
“I can,” Balthazar said simply, “I can do many things others can not.”
“What happened? To the boy that was about to attack her?” Sirius asked.
“I killed him. He was about to cast the lethal curse after I apparated into the chamber and I only had moments to react.”
Dad opened his mouth as if to protest but after keeping it open for a second, shut it again and didn’t say anything.
Balthazar eyed him for a moment, “I waited and investigated until Fawkes arrived and apparated the girl away back above the castle. I’ve helped your daughter and provided some mentorship in some cases after that.”
“Helped?” Dad asked cautiously, “How?”
Balthazar looked at Sirius as he spoke, “Ginny has already told you that Pettigrew is dead, Sirius. But what she didn’t say was that it was by my hand. Fawkes came to me for assistance when Pettigrew was about to overwhelm him with his magic. I dealt with the issue. In addition, when Ginny informed me about her friend and asked for help, I agreed to do so. Leading to our current situation.”
“You killed Pettigrew? Who are you?” Arthur asked, “Where have you been? I’ve never heard of somebody like you, rivaling the power of Dumbledore even. If not more from what you’ve implied. How could none of us, the Ministry, know about you?”
“I think you’ll find that most of those with great magical power like to hide themselves,” Balthazar said, “I’d rather not be hounded every hour of the day by people looking for favors or any secret knowledge I may possess. Dumbledore is somewhat of an outlier among the most powerful by staying so publicly visible for so long.”
“Wait, are you saying that there’s more people around with your level of power?” Arthur asked in disbelief, “Just in secret and in disguise scattered about?”
“Most likely,” Balthazar easily agreed, “No one knew about me for so long after all. I’m sure there are others that have seen the value of having some privacy. You hide yourselves from the non-magical population, do you not? Why wouldn’t more powerful wizards do the same to those less powerful than them for the same reasons?”
Dad and Sirius looked disturbed at Balthazar’s words and implication. Ginny wanted to ask a question but held her tongue. Was Balthazar making all of that up? Or did he really think that that was true? Because he hadn’t been hiding at all. He’d only arrived on earth in person less than a month ago.
They finished walking up the sets of stairs and walked down a hallway lined with doors on either side. Balthazar stopped after they walked for a few seconds, Sirius and Dad not speaking as they moved.
Balthazar stepped up to a door that looked identical to the rest and knocked firmly on the wooden door.
There was a short pause and then some scuffling inside before there was a clunk of a door unlocking and the door cracked open slightly.
“Balthazar?” Olivia asked as she peered through the crack in the door, “Are there people with you?”
Her eyes swept from the adults and down to Ginny.
“Oh.”
Olivia stood back and opened the door fully, revealing the bedroom beyond. It was a single cot and a table, but there were blankets stacked high on the bed. There was an odd wooden spherical enchanted object sitting on the table. There was a small window on the far wall, lighting the room along with some enchanted lights that were also in the room.
“Hi, Ginny,” Olivia said, “Has it really only been a week?”
“Yep, seven days. How’s it been? Balthazar said he’s made some progress already.”
“Yeah,” Olivia said with a quick glance at Balthazar, “I don’t understand hardly any of it. But things sound good already. I’d do this for years if it gave me a chance to get rid of a curse. But it still is boring sitting around while Balthazar runs his tests.”
“Not the worst thing to suffer through,” Balthazar said.
“No, no!” Olivia said, “I’m not complaining. Not at all. I’m still very grateful, sir. Thank you very much, really. I’ll sit still as long as you need.”
There was a short pause.
“Well, Ginny, Olivia,” Balthazar said, “How about you two catch up? I’m certain Sirius and Arthur have some more things they wish to discuss between just the three of us.”
“Okay,” Ginny said, “Fawkes, go with them? So they feel safer?”
Fawkes chirped and hopped over to Sirius and Dad from where he had been following behind this whole time, flapping his wings to hover just above the ground.
Dad opened his mouth to protest, but Ginny cut him off before he could say anything.
“If I’m in trouble I can pull on my familiar bond,” She said, “Just take him with you, Dad.”
He closed his mouth, “Fine,” He said, “But don’t hesitate if anything happens.”
“Okay.”
Ginny went into Olivia’s room and Dad, Sirius, and Balthazar walked off farther down the hallway and started talking to each other. Ginny was glad that they had seemed to accept Balthazar’s story so quickly about the human transfiguration. Apparently it was more plausible than she had thought that it would be.
“What’s that thing?” Ginny asked as she looked at the strange wooden ball with all sorts of carvings all over it.
“It’s a maze,” Olivia said, “Watch this.”
She took out her wand and tapped the base of the ball. The thing flashed with the squirming red runes for a few seconds before settling back down. Now the carvings, what Ginny recognized as the maze, had reset.
Olivia reached over and flipped it upside down. Sitting there at the bottom was a little metal ball sitting in a divot that rolled around as Olivia tilted the whole device from side to side.
“Yeah,” Olivia said as she rolled the ball to enter the maze covering the rest of the ball’s surface. There was some magic around the ball that Ginny could see that prevented it from falling off even when there was no glass or plastic in its way, “You can set it at different difficulties too. It actually gets pretty hard at the higher levels. Whenever Balthazar’s been busy, I’ve pretty much just been doing this all the time.”
“So?” Ginny asked, “Are you feeling better? Now that you know that there’s really a chance?”
Olivia put the puzzle ball back on the table carefully.
“I’m not letting myself get my hopes up,” Olivia explained as she kept avoiding Ginny’s gaze, “Not until Balthazar’s actually done it. I know it sounds so ungrateful, but… I don’t think I could take it if I got really invested and then he failed.”
“He won’t fail,” Ginny said with confidence, “You’ll see.”
Olivia looked up at Ginny, “Yeah,” She admitted, “I think so too. Thanks for bringing me here, Ginny. Even if the Teregatt Guard still freaks me out. What is Teregatt anyway? The name of the mercenary company? Balthazar wouldn’t say.”
Ginny shrugged and didn’t say anything.
“Hey, Olivia,” Ginny asked, “You’re a Hogwarts graduate and all. Do you know any cool spells you can teach me? I brought my wand with me just in case.”
Ginny reached into her robes and drew out her wand to show Olivia.
“Sure, but… the Trace? You can’t use magic, the ministry will catch you and you’ll get in trouble. They can detect magic around any Hogwarts students to track if you’re using magic over the summer or not.”
“Yeah. Azkaban’s super magical though, so it’s not like they’d be able to tell what spell was me though,” Ginny said, having already asking Balthazar about this before, “Unless you tattled on me, no one would ever know if it was us or Balthazar casting any spell we want.”
“Huh. I guess that makes sense,” Olivia said, “Never thought about it that way. My parents never let me use magic over the holidays even though we lived in a magical house. You like to go swimming with Jack and Alexa in the mornings, right? How’d you like to learn the bubble head charm? It’s pretty hard, but it’ll let you swim completely underwater and give you air the whole time. The charm goes around your head and creates a bubble of air that constantly gets refreshed so you can breathe properly.”
“Yeah! We’ve never learned anything that interesting in class. You think I can do it?”
“Of course!” Olivia said, seeming to brighten a little at the prospect of teaching Ginny the charm.
“We have plenty of time,” Olivia said, “And there’s always next week if you don’t get it this time, right?”
“Yeah. Definitely. So how does the wand movement go? What’s the incantation?”
“Alright,” Olivia said, standing and drawing her wand and pointing it at the wall, “Watch closely and I’ll show you what to do…”
By the time Sirius, Balthazar, Fawkes, and Dad returned Olivia looked like she was feeling much better. Ginny didn’t manage to successfully cast the charm, even after she cheated and let the wand move her magic instead of guiding it with her own control. But she was making good progress according to Olivia. It was a fifth year charm, so it would take a lot more work than normal to learn. It was considered one of the simpler fifth year charms and didn’t need much complex theory to actually cast it, which is why Olivia thought it was even possible that Ginny could learn to do it as someone who had only finished her first year at Hogwarts.
“Bye, Olivia. See you next week!” Ginny said, “Hope you feel better.”
“Thanks, Ginny. Remember that you can practice all the components of the charm separately without actually casting it. See you next week.”
Olivia shut the door to her room after saying polite goodbyes to everyone else, then the three adults and Ginny walked back to the lower courtyard where they had begun. They all said goodbye to Balthazar and then Fawkes flew up and apparated them all back to the garage of the burrow in a burst of orange flames.
They all stood there for a moment, the two adults having thoughtful looks on their faces.
“So, did it go well with Balthazar?” Ginny asked, “Did he convince you? Are you going to tell Molly about it?”
“Everything seemed in order from what I can tell,” Dad said slowly, “I’ll have to think about what to say to your mother. But… We’ll see. We can keep it from her for a few more weeks and see how it goes first, I suppose…”
With that, they all split off to do their own things. Fawkes was extra hungry that night from all the teleports, demanding a little extra food than normal as punishment for Ginny using him like a feathery taxi service so much recently.
Not that she planned to stop doing it, but she’d have to find a way to make him feel more appreciated so he wouldn’t think she was taking his help for granted.
Before bed, Ginny practiced the bubble head charm incantations and wand movement. She’d get it eventually. Olivia would be really impressed when she nailed the charm perfectly next week.