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Author: jedi34 Story: Lost in Transfiguration Rating: Teens Setting: Post-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 20 Words: 39,251
A/N: I’m back from my trip. Thank you all SO MUCH for the reviews and your patience. I hope to keep the story up to standard. I hope you enjoy this…unexpected development J ~*~ Even though the doctors had told Harry to take it easy for a few days, he was up and back to work the following morning. Ginny tried to argue with him and keep him in bed. She even went as far as raiding his closet and hiding all his trousers, thinking he couldn’t go without his pants. This plan didn’t slow Harry down a bit. It turned out that Ginny and Hermione were more embarrassed by his coming to breakfast in his boxers than he was, and they quickly gave up. Harry didn’t seem to remember much from his visions, and he wasn’t happy with Hermione being in their apartment. After returning to the Burrow briefly to talk with Mrs. Weasley and Ron, Hermione had temporarily moved into the flat, much to Harry’s chagrin. He hadn’t got over her barging into his room during what Harry and Ginny had begun calling “the bedroom incident.” Since that morning, the two of them had been walking on pins and needles around each other. Hermione’s presence didn’t give them much time to discuss what happened or, to Harry’s disappointment, try for a repeat. Ginny had taken to skipping some of her easier classes. She and Hermione turned the flat into a potions laboratory the moment Harry left for work. They had made considerable progress on a counter-potion but were still struggling to get the mixture exactly right. “Damn it, Ginny,” Hermione growled after a particularly frustrating day brewing potions. “We are so close to a fix. I know it! At least I understand why the Obliviate potion is so hard to reverse.” Ginny nodded in agreement. The Obliviate potion used a person’s specific memory or memories, in a similar fashion to a Pensive, to target the magic appropriately. This made each potion unique to the intended recipient. The problem was that the counter-potion required a similar memory in order to “guide” the patient’s mind back in the right direction. Even though the memory used to construct the counter potion didn’t have to be exactly the same, it needed to be fairly close to the original in order to work. “I know what you mean, Hermione. Replicating someone else’s memory and viewpoint is virtually impossible. We know Harry better than anyone, and we still haven’t got it right.” Hermione bit her lip in anger. “At least we have the potions he didn’t take. We can keep using those to test our counter potions as we go.” Ginny knew that if they found the right memory, the counter potion would turn a deep blue when touched with a drop of the original Obliviate mixture. So far they still hadn’t got it right. Truthfully they were beginning to run out of options. Hermione began ticking off all the memories they had tried so far. “Well, we started with the memories of the memorial, and that didn’t work. I tried everything I could think of from the Horocrux hunt and all the meetings with Voldemort that I was witness to. I’m not sure, Ginny, but what if it was that final meeting in the woods? No one else was there but Hagrid. How could we replicate that?” Ginny shook her head. She was fairly sure she knew what memory had triggered Harry’s flight from the Wizarding World. She was going to be damned before she brought that up though, unless she absolutely had to. “Think, Ginny. According these notes and our estimated initial treatment, we only have a few weeks left to reverse this before it’s too late. There is one more possibility. I’m not sure how to handle that though.” Ginny looked at Hermione quizzically. “What’s that?” she asked. “The books mention a more complex form of the Obliviate potion. It takes a single memory and starting there moves through the entire mind, removing any memory that touches the original one. It’s hardly ever used because it’s so dangerous. If Harry did that, we not only need the original memory, but we also need many, many other memories—enough to constitute the bulk of the removed ones. I don’t think that type has ever been reversed. It’s hard enough to replicate a single memory.” Ginny looked at Hermione in terror. She instinctively knew that was exactly what Harry had done. She also knew the starting memory. “I think that’s what he did. I also think I know the starting memory,” Ginny said quietly, not looking at her friend. “I’m a terrible person, Hermione. I let you all think that Harry left because of what happened at the memorial, but that’s not true.” Hermione’s eyebrows began rising, and her face started turning red again. “Ginny, what did you do? Tell me now!” she demanded. Ginny turned away from her friend and started talking very quickly. “After the memorial, Harry came to my room in the Burrow. I could tell he was hurt from the afternoon, but I also could see in his eyes that he mostly understood. He wanted to talk to me, to apologise.” Ginny stopped and turned around. “Keep going, Ginny,” Hermione said. “What happened?” “I yelled at him. I blamed him for everyone dying; I accused him of ripping out my soul and told him to never come back. When he didn’t leave, I tried to hex him. He dodged and then disappeared. I’m pretty sure that’s where we should start.” Ginny held her head in shame. “Ginny Weasley,” Hermione said in a quiet, yet hard voice. “You let your entire family blame themselves for over a year about Harry leaving. You accused the person who willingly sacrificed himself to save the entire world, and don’t kid yourself, he was doing it for you. You chased away my best friend, my brother. You have no idea what he went through that year away from you. How dare you! How dare you!” She looked at Ginny with a mixture of horror and disgust. “And then you carry on with him here. Don’t tell me that if I hadn’t stopped you the other day you wouldn’t have shagged him. You were practically there as it was. I thought I knew you.” Ginny shook her head with tears pouring down her face. She wanted to deny it. She needed to tell Hermione that she was wrong. Ginny wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed harder. “I know, Hermione. Why do you think I tried so hard to find him? I love him. I love him! I do!” Ginny screamed when she saw the doubt and disbelief in Hermione’s eyes. “I hope for your sake that you can prove that to him when we get him back. I’m not sure I’ll ever trust you again. If only Harry knew now what you did to him back then…” Hermione trailed off suddenly. Ginny noticed that her eyes had gone very wide and she looked terrified. Ginny turned around and saw Harry standing in the doorway. “Oh no!” she wailed. “Ginny,” Harry said, confused, “what is she talking about? If I only knew what? Did you know me before?” Ginny glanced at Hermione, who slightly shook her head. Ginny understood. They couldn’t risk telling him anything until he had taken the first treatment. For the first time, she out and out lied to him. “No, Harry, it’s something else. I promise, I’ll tell you everything later.” Harry looked at her for a moment, unbelieving. He sighed and glanced around the room. “What’s all this then? Are you two becoming crazy chemists here?” His eyes hardened as he looked at Hermione. “And why is Ginny crying, eh, Hermione? What did you do this time?” Ginny placed her hand on his arm gently. “It’s nothing, Harry. Can you give us a moment to clean up? We can then go out to eat somewhere. It’s getting late.” He reluctantly nodded and made his way to his room. As he got to the door, the telephone began ringing. “Harry, can you get that please? I still need to talk to Hermione.” Harry nodded and picked up the cordless. He walked to his room and shut his door to give the girls some privacy. Hermione looked at Ginny again. There was little warmth in her expression. “You can hate me later, Hermione. Please just help Harry first. We need to get this cleaned up before he gets suspicious.” Hermione nodded but then hesitated. “We can check very quickly if you’re right. Pull out the memory from your perspective and put it in that last batch we brewed. It shouldn’t take long since you have a complete viewpoint of the whole incident.” Ginny quickly did as she was told. After a few seconds, Hermione took a drop of the original potion and the counter-potion and mixed them together. The colour rapidly changed, not to the expected blue, but to a dark purple. Hermione sat back on her heels and hissed. “I was right, that’s the colour of the more complex potion. He started with that memory and erased everything that had anything remotely to do with you. Everything! Me, your family, most of Hogwarts. I’m not sure how to reverse this, Ginny. You may have succeeded where the vilest of wizards failed. You may have single-handedly destroyed Harry Potter.” Ginny flinched back as if Hermione had slapped her face. She looked back at her for a moment and began to speak. Whatever she was going to say was lost as the door to Harry’s room exploded outward. ~*~ Harry had closed his door in order to give Ginny and Hermione time to finish the conversation that had got Ginny so upset. He knew that Hermione was Ginny’s friend, but he didn’t care anymore. After they were done, he was taking Hermione aside and telling her to leave Ginny alone. He heard a strange noise from the phone and remembered that he hadn’t said anything yet. “Oh, er… hello?” he said. “Hello. I am Detective John Monroe from the London Metro Police department. I’m looking for a Mr. Harry James Potter.” Harry was extremely confused. Why would the police be looking for him? “This is Harry Potter. What is all this about?” he asked. “First off, Mr. Potter, I need to ask you a question. Please answer yes or no. Are you in any danger, or are you being held against your will?” “What!” Harry exclaimed. “Of course not!” The detective on the phone chuckled. “I know you aren’t. I know that because you lived with my sister Taylor for awhile. However, they make me ask that in situations like yours.” “What do you mean like mine?” Harry asked. “About six months back, my sister sent me something that had to do with you. But before you get angry, you have to know that she was just worried about you. That came back clean, but your name moved through the system and threw up some red flags.” “Red flags? What are you talking about? Hey, wait! Taylor spied on me?” Harry was getting mad. “I’m sorry, Mr. Potter. Please calm down. She really was trying to help you, I promise. You know how Taylor is. She worries about everyone. To answer your first question: yes, red flags. It appears that there has been a Missing Persons report filed for you in the London office for over a year. The weird thing is, it was filed by the Prime Minster’s office on behalf of someone else. Whoever you used to be, you have friends in high places, Mr. Potter.” Harry sat on his bed in shock. For a moment he didn’t know what to say and was entirely speechless. Is this the day I find out who am I? Is this where I find out who I’ve been running from? he thought. “Um—Mr. Potter, are you there?” “I’m sorry, John. This is a lot to take in. Can you tell me on whose behalf the report was filed?” “I sure can, Mr. Potter, give me a second. I believe it was filed on behalf of a Mr. Arthur. Wait, that’s not right. It’s on behalf of Arthur Weasley, Mr. Arthur Weasley.” It took everything Harry had not to drop the phone. He had never met Ginny’s parents, but he had talked with her about them. He knew her father’s name was Arthur. It was too much to be a coincidence. Everything had been a lie, a massive conspiracy. He looked at the phone and realised it was shaking. Actually, it wasn’t just the phone; his entire body was shaking from sadness and anger. Anger? No, make that rage. “Mr. Potter, I have to tell the Prime Minister’s office that we’ve located you. However, it’s up to you to decide if you want us to reveal your location to them. You can choose not to. It is entirely up to you.” “Thank you, John. I would prefer you not for now. I assume I can change my mind at a later date?” “Certainly, Mr. Potter. James, I know this is a lot to handle. Give Taylor a call if you need to. Good day, sir.” Harry dropped the phone on the ground. He was lucky he didn’t own much. It took him about five minutes to have all his meagre belongings stuffed into a satchel. He looked at the satchel with irony; Ginny had given it to him last week. It was an amazing bag that could hold almost twice what it looked like it should be able to. Harry began walking toward his bedroom door thinking about what he was going to say to Ginny. As he continued thinking about the deceit and lies she had told, anger took hold of him. He became oblivious to his surroundings. He was so angry that it didn’t quite register that his door blew off its hinges when he approached it. He also somehow missed the brass candleholder on the wall droop and melt in a puddle on the floor. He stalked out of the room straight towards the lying little redheaded witch of a woman. ~*~ Ginny and Hermione jumped up when Harry’s door exploded outward. Hermione grabbed her wand from inside her bag, ready to deal with whatever came out of Harry’s room. Ginny didn’t have her wand, as she had taken to not carrying it because of fear that Harry might discover it. Neither witch was prepared for what came through the door. Harry strode though the doorway without pausing. He looked larger than normal. His face was eerily blank. Power rolled off him in waves, literally pushing objects out his way. Hermione was terrified. The only time she had ever seen that expression on Harry’s face was when he had faced Voldemort. She suddenly understood how even that Dark wizard had showed signs of fear at the end. Hermione’s only comfort was that he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at Ginny. “Ha…Harry?” Ginny managed. “This whole time you’ve been lying to me.” Harry glanced over and saw the wand in Hermione’s hand. “That memory I had. You had a stick just like that. That was true, wasn’t it? You’ve had your father looking for me. For all I know your bushy little friend here knows me too. Lying witch!” Harry screamed. “I poured my heart out to you. How I longed to know who I was and where I came from. The whole time you knew. You knew!” he raged. Harry walked up to the edge of the table. He leaned forward and the table shattered, splitting down the middle. Ginny, in a panic, jumped back and fled to the back of the room. Harry looked at her with contempt and made his way to the front door. “In my mind, you told me to leave and never come back. It looks like you get your wish.” Harry turned again and walked out the door. For a moment both girls sat in stunned silence. Suddenly Ginny cried out, “We can’t let him get away!” Ginny’s scream caused Hermione to jump into action. She raced out the door to see Harry going into the stairwell. Without thinking she raised her wand. “Stupefy!” Harry fell and rolled at the entryway to the stairs. Hermione ran and caught him before he fell down to the first floor and dragged him back into the flat. They managed to get Harry onto the couch and into a Full-Body Bind in case he woke up. They also quickly fixed most of the damage Harry’s accidental magic had done. “Hermione, that was terrifying.” Hermione nodded. “I’ve never seen accidental magic that strong. We have to try something now, or we may never get him back. I think I have a theory on how we can restore his mind,” she said. “But it could be dangerous… To you, I mean.” Ginny looked at the floor for a short moment. “I don’t care, Hermione. I’ll die for him. What do I have to do?” she asked. “The memory that started the cascade primarily involves you. That means most of the first memories erased most likely deal directly with you. We can use all your memories that you have of spending time with Harry to form the core needed to pull him back. The problem is that there is no way we can get that many memories out of you correctly. I think… I think I can bind the potion to both you and Harry so that when we give it to him, he can pull the memories directly from you.” Ginny thought for a moment. “Sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?” Hermione looked nervous. “If it doesn’t work, it could erase your memories as well or even kill you. I don’t know. It’s never been done before. There are also side-effects associated with the counter-potion, and you might be affected as well.” Ginny didn’t say anything; she just looked at her expectantly. Hermione continued, “When the memories come back, they reform themselves mostly by drawing on the emotion the memory evokes. Basically, the patient uncontrollably experiences whatever the overriding emotion is from the memory. If it’s anger, he will rage for hours; if it is sadness, he could become suicidal. Given the memory we are starting from, I have no idea how he will react. When you add the additional emotions from his other memories and the emotions from you we are adding to the potion, I have no idea what will happen. You could experience the same thing he does, just as out of control.” Ginny nodded in understanding. “I don’t care. Let’s do this.” Several hours later Ginny sprawled on the couch, drained. The process of binding her magic and memories to the potion before Harry took it was a tricky and exhausting process. She felt like she had run around Hogwarts’ boundaries for several hours. Hermione was adding the finishing touches. “Okay, Ginny. I’m ready. Are you?” Ginny nodded and prepared for whatever would happen. “Hermione, if something happens, tell everyone I’m sorry.” Hermione hugged her. “I haven’t forgiven you, but I still love you, Ginny.” She leaned over and poured the potion into Harry’s open mouth. Ginny began to feel very strange. It felt like her head was on fire and was going to explode. Harry began twisting on the sofa and moaning. Suddenly he sat up, his eyes bright, and began screaming. The pain in Ginny’s head became unbearable as thousands of memories began flashing through her mind all at once. It started with her yelling at him at the Burrow but quickly moved into other memories. Scenes of them laughing and playing, little glances she had given him. The two of them stealing kisses during the brief time they were together. It moved even farther to her memories of the times she had watched him without him knowing. Memories of how she had loved him always, even the time she had sat in History of Magic her first year and written Ginny Potter on her scroll during the entire lesson, were sucked out of her. She had no control what she shared. Dimly, in the back of her mind, she was mortified that Harry was seeing her most intimate thoughts and feelings relating to him. The pain went away as quickly as it had come. Harry sat up and blinked his eyes. “I remember. Hermione, Ginny! I remember everything.” Quite unexpectedly, Ginny felt her emotions spiralling out of control. She knew she was still linked to Harry, and she could feel what he was feeling at that moment. She had steeled herself for uncontrollable anger, sadness, and pain that she knew her actions at the Burrow had caused him. She was totally unprepared for the overriding emotion that the majority of the memories brought. Love flowed into her mind, totally blanking any other feelings. His love for her and hers for him expanded in their connected minds until Ginny thought that her heart would give out. Suddenly he was there, his mouth crushing hers with an intensity that she didn’t know existed. They pulled each other to the couch as their movements became more frantic. “Um… Harry, Ginny?” Hermione hesitantly asked. “Hey, guys, I’m still in the room… Oh Merlin!” she shouted as Harry pulled Ginny’s shirt over her head. Hermione didn’t know what do to. She ran into the other room and grabbed the other Potions book, desperately trying to find something to curb the emotional flood from the potion. She was gone from the room for under thirty seconds. When she came back, it was already too late. Harry and Ginny were on the couch, moving as one. Their bodies united as closely as their magically connected minds as they shared memories and each other. “Bloody hell,” Hermione whispered. She knew that at the moment, their conscious minds were not even aware of what was happening. She also knew that once the potion’s magic wore off, there was going to be hell to pay. Oh Merlin, what am I going to say to Ron and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley? This is all my fault, she thought as she fled to Ginny’s room and shut the door. She pulled Ginny’s pillow over her head and tried to hide as the noises from the living room increased. Please let it end soon, she thought. ~*~ Molly Weasley finished clearing the table, looking at the clock with a scowl. Things had got so far behind today. It was past eight in the evening, and the family was just now ending supper. The entire family, including Bill and Charlie, had come back to the Burrow to help George get through his birthday without Fred. He had done remarkably well, considering. The only visible change was that he was much quieter than he had been in the previous weeks. Molly scowled again with extreme anger. Her daughter and her soon-to-be daughter-in-law had promised her that they would be here today to support George. Not only had they not shown up during the day, but they missed the family meal as well. Ginny was still demanding that only Hermione come to her apartment, and surprisingly, Hermione was backing her up to Ron’s immense displeasure. Ron was also angered that his fiancé was spending an increasing amount of time at his sister’s flat and still wouldn’t tell him what was going on. Ron and Mrs. Weasley had both decided to go to Ginny’s apartment today, regardless of what both girls told them, but Mr. Weasley had intervened and put a stop to it. As she finished cleaning up, Molly launched into yet another angry diatribe aimed at her husband. “Arthur, I can’t believe you won’t let us go there. You know as well as I do that something is not right. For Ginny and Hermione to both miss today… Well, we need to find out what is happening. You know as well as I do that…” Mrs. Weasley stopped as Arthur held up his hands. “Molly, enough! This is the tenth time we’ve had this conversation tonight alone. If Hermione is not back tomorrow, I’ll go over to the flat and have a long talk with both of them. You know what Ginny’s been through these past two years; I just don’t think pushing her now is the way to go.” “But, Arthur, can’t you see? We’re losing her! She’s living with strange men. She won’t see her family. It’s like she is trying to forget where she came from and escape from what’s happened.” Mr. Weasley knew his wife was probably right. It was just difficult for him to admit to himself that his little girl had been so traumatized by the war and Harry’s subsequent disappearance. The conversation came to an abrupt halt as a loud rapping sounded from the kitchen door. “Who could be calling this late?” Mrs. Weasley wondered aloud as Arthur made his way to the door. “Kingsley! What brings you here this late? Is everything alright?” Mr. Weasley asked their visitor with concern. Kingsley brushed Arthur aside and made his way into the kitchen. “Arthur, Molly, they’ve found him. They’ve found Harry!” he shouted with excitement. “I knew you would want to be the first to know. Given the circumstances of his disappearance and your closeness to him, the Ministry was actually wondering if you would be willing to make first contact with him to see if he was alright.” Noise exploded in the kitchen. Ron had heard the exchange from the living room and had informed the entire house. Within seconds, the kitchen was full with the entire family all shouting. “SILENCE!” Arthur managed above the din. “Kingsley, start at the beginning, please.” “Do you remember the Missing Persons report the Muggle Prime Minister filed for us just in case? Well, the Muggle police found Harry. He requested that they not tell us his location, but one quick Confundus charm later and we have the address where Harry is currently staying.” Mr. Weasley took the paper in his hand gingerly with an almost tortured whisper of “Finally, they’ve found my son.” Mrs. Weasley tried to hold back a sob as she put her arms around her husband. “Arthur, we can’t go without Ginny. You know she will want to be there for this.” Ron had sneaked up and taken the paper from his father. He looked up grimly with steel in his eyes. “I don’t think that will be a problem, Mum. This address? It’s the same as Ginny’s flat in Edinburgh.” Gasps filled the kitchen, and Mr. Weasley’s face turned to an expression of concern and confusion. Ron continued in a low growl. “My sister and my fiancé have a lot of explaining to do.” Mrs. Weasley got up quickly, determination also etched on her face. “Right. Well, there is no stopping me this time. I’m going over there right now to find out what is going on.” Arthur nodded slowly. “I think it’s best if we all go.”
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