Archive of Our Own

It Seemed like a Great Prank.

Chapter 1

Fred and George were early to breakfast as usual and they ate as calmly as they could while waiting eagerly for their latest prank to take effect. Of course, nobody looking at them would have noticed this, they were masters at hiding their anticipation. Those that knew them well might have noticed they were feeling upbeat about something and everyone who knew them suspected they had some sort of prank or scheme in the works, but then again, they were almost always up to something they shouldn’t be, so it wasn’t enough to make anyone watch them more closely than normal, or to feel uneasy about eating their own meals.

They’d almost accidentally managed to invent a potion which nullified magic for up to 24 hours, best of all it was flavourless and easily concealed in Pumpkin juice, tea or Coffee. George had convinced (bribed) Dobby to add it to all the drinks served at breakfast that day and were eagerly awaiting the chaos and histrionics when everyone realised their spells weren’t working.

This wasn’t their original aim when they’d invented the potion, they’d been trying to find a potion which removed glamour charms and potions to try on their DADA professor Madam Umbridge who they were almost certain was either a hag in disguise or some sort of human/amphibian hybrid. Fred had been the original test subject the week before and had been horrified to find that not only had the potion removed the glamours he’d cast on himself, those George cast on him and the hair colour change potion he’d taken, he’d also been unable to cast any magic or have any magic successfully cast on him. Nor did taking a flushing potion to try to get rid of it have any effect on him. He and George had searched desperately for a cure, or even an explanation how it had happened all day and late into the night while they argued for hours about whether they should go to Madam Pomfrey and confess their actions. In the hope she might have a cure.

Flashback

They researched frantically most of the night until they fell asleep around 4 am in their hidey-hole. Fred was the first to wake and without thinking cast a tempus spell to see if it would be possible to sneak back into the dorms, or whether they could sleep a couple more hours before waking George. It wasn’t until he was looking at the time shining in the air above him that he remembered not being able to do any magic the night before. He shook George awake excitedly.

“Wha’,” George mumbled grumpily.

“My magic is working!” Fred exclaimed.

“What! Show me!” George demanded.

“Incarcerous,” Fred said pointing his wand at his brother tying him up.

“Let me loose you berk,” George said but he was grinning in relief. “How’d you fix it?”

“I didn’t, I fell asleep like you did and when I woke up it was fine, the potion must have worn off,” Fred replied.

“So, it lasts less than a day, thank Merlin! I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to fix it,” George said as Fred cancelled the incarcerous to free his brother.

“Yeah, me too. We wouldn’t be able to be together if you were a wizard and I was a muggle. I’d have to leave Hogwarts and Mum and Dad would probably disown me once they found out it was because I willingly drank a prank potion gone wrong,” Fred said sombrely.

“Rubbish, of course we’d find a way to stay together, besides you weren’t a muggle. You could still see the castle and the charms weren’t trying to get you to leave,” George said hugging his brother.

"I don’t know if it works like that once you’re already inside the castle,” Fred said thoughtfully.

"I would have taken the potion too if it was the only way we could stay together,” George said.

"I couldn’t let you knowingly give up your magic!” Fred exclaimed in shock. He felt a little guilty listening to his brother’s claim because he didn’t think that there was anything that would entice him to permanently go back to the state he was in yesterday. Not even if it was the only way to stay with George.

“You wouldn’t have a say in it. I could bear to give up magic. I couldn’t bear to never see you again,” George said, shuddering at the thought.

They snuck down to the kitchens for a meal before falling into bed.

-o0o-

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” George asked, a few hours later after they’d both recovered from their fright and long night of desperate research.

“I think I am, Forge,” Fred agreed.

“The pranking possibilities of this could be enormous,” George said.

“It would make a very successful Wheeze,” Fred added.

“We need to try it out,” George suggested.

“Who should we try it on?” Fred asked.

“Umbitch,” they said together, smirking. “The perfect target.”

“Maybe she will turn into a toad,” Fred suggested.

“We’d be rid of her,” George said.

“Yeah, they couldn’t employ a toad to teach DADA,” Fred agreed.

"Or to work in the ministry as an undersecretary,” George smirked.

“What an embarrassment!”

“We need a large sample group to work out what’s the minimum dose we can use and to be sure it works the same for everyone, more people would buy it if we could advertise exactly how long it would last,” Fred said. “Do you think we should try the teachers table at lunch.”

“We couldn’t do it today, we’d need to brew more potion,” George said.

“Breakfast tomorrow then,” Fred suggested.

“How do you plan to get it to them?” George asked.

“It doesn’t have much taste or colour. We could put it in their tea and coffee at breakfast. They all drink that,” Fred said.

“Great idea Gred, but how do you plan to get it in there? We’d need the house elves to help,” George asked.

“They wouldn’t help us prank the professors,” Fred sighed.

George was about to agree, disheartened, when he had a thought, an elf who worked at Hogwarts but wasn’t bound to the school or one of the professors. “Dobby might,”

“Yous called for Dobby? What can Dobby be doing for the great Harry Potter’s twinses?” dobby yelled excitedly, appearing with a loud pop.

“We’re trying to plan a prank on the professors, could you help us by putting a potion in the tea and coffee pots served at the high table at breakfast?” George asked.

“Dobby coulds,” the elf agreed eagerly. “What does the prank do?”

"It makes people temporarily think that they’ve been turned into a squib and can’t do magic,” George said.

“They’ll run around like chickens with their heads cut off until their magic comes back under their control,” Fred said gleefully.

“We haven’t done a whole school prank in a while,” George said.

“We know one drop should be safe to give everyone and should only last a few hours but if we put it in the drinks, we can’t control how much people drink,” Fred said warily. “Some people drink three or four cups of tea in the morning. We don’t want to risk overdosing them.”

“Could Dobby coat a very small amount on each cup and glass, that way if someone drinks pumpkin juice and a cuppa they’d get a double dose but it should still be about the same amount you had?” George suggested.

“Dobby can do,” the small elf said nodding enthusiastically and the twins set out to brew the extra potion they would need to coat half a drop on the bottom of every cup and glass used at breakfast.

End flashback

Now they just had to wait for the panic when somebody realised that they couldn’t do magic and watch and see if anyone had been wearing glamours and changed appearance. George was really looking forward to seeing what some of the girls actually looked like without all their beauty charms and potions. Fred was looking forward more to the mass freak out that would occur when they realised nobody has access to their magic. They were both hoping that Umbitch turned into something less than human and could be run out of the school and the ministry.
Then it started. People began shouting and pointing at their friends, laughing as their appearances changed.

Chapter 2

Harry collapsed screaming as he fell unconscious. His scar burst open, bleeding profusely and a dark mist rose from it and dissipated in the air. Hardly anybody but Hermione noticed the mist though since there were so many other things going on all over the great hall, and none of them had any idea what had caused it. Albus was the only person present who would’ve known what it meant but unfortunately, he didn’t see it.

Hermione grabbed him as he slid off the seat but wasn’t able to hold up his weight and had to be rescued by Neville and Seamus who were the closest other than Ron who was too busy shoveling food into his mouth to notice his best mate’s collapse or Hermione’s predicament. Neville offered to help her carry him to the infirmary since he knew how much Harry hated being levitated.

Ginny howled in pain as all her skin, bones and muscles seemed to stretch as she suddenly grew almost 8 inches in as many seconds. Her friends watched shocked, not knowing what to do until they saw Neville carry Harry out and decided that the infirmary was probably a good idea.

At the Slytherin table Malfoy began shrieking in a high pitched voice as he suddenly shrank almost a foot and grew breasts. Daphne and Tracey were laughing at Pansy as first her face turned red in anger from their teasing and then her hair started turning red to match, stopping at the rather distinctive Weasley orange.

Elsewhere in the hall Fred noticed a couple of other students in each year level sporting Weasley red hair most of whom were still calmly eating until their friends pointed towards them and started making a fuss. Elsewhere there were commotions between several of the sixth and seventh year couple’s as boyfriends began yelling in fury as their girlfriends’ appearances changed to reveal a terrible secret.

Fred was watching Umbitch and was disappointed she didn’t turn into a toad or a hag. Her appearance didn’t change much at all actually other an ugly, hairy mole on the side of her nose than the extra wisps of hair appearing sticking out from what was now obviously a wig and her teeth suddenly looking a lot less white and even.

George, looking at the girls didn’t notice this at first, he was shocked by the change in the girls’ appearances. Some of the girls he’d normally thought of as the prettiest in the class suddenly seemed more normal looking, but the big shocker was the five or six girls who suddenly seemed several years older or younger than their classmates and those who gained a whole lot of weight, most of them only in the breasts and stomach.

Malfoy began shrieking again and burst into tears as he realised that he was the only student in the room who had been turned into a girl, drowning out the hysterical crying of Ginny Weasley who had suddenly become one of the tallest in her year level and grown a beard. She was still fairly flat-chested anyway so she didn’t immediately notice the difference in her breasts or the fit of her ‘Molly approved’ baggy granny knickers, though her bra straps were all far too tight around her chest and shoulders.

Dumbledore, who until then still looked exactly like the barmy old grandfatherly wizard who gave the impression that he knew exactly what was happening the way he always did attempted to let off a bang with his wand to get the student’s attention.

It didn’t work!

He tried again.

Still nothing!

He tried to use wandless magic to send sparks up in the air.

Instead of the usual fountain of sparks there was no reaction.

Not a single little flicker!

If anyone had been paying attention, he now looked nothing like the all-knowing genial grandfatherly persona he usually projected. His mouth hung open in shock and he was paper white with fear. His heart began to race and he had to sit down, overcome with dizziness and weak in the knees.

He was 116 years old, fit for his age and well within the life expectancy of a wizard with his power levels but incredibly old for a muggle, and at that moment he felt extremely old and frail.

Minerva, also starting to look a lot older than she normally did, watched her oldest friend in concern. She called for Madam Pomfrey who hurried over and tried to cast a diagnostic spell. Her wand didn’t seem to react at all.

She tried again and again with no result. Then pulled a pepper up potion out of her potion store and insisted that Albus drink it.

Albus eagerly drank the potion, looking forward to the feeling of heat and energy running through his body returning him to normal.

It never came!

There was no reaction at all, no heat, no feeling of the potion working its way through his body, no extra strength or energy. Nothing! The potion may as well have been the putrid dishwater it tasted like for all the good it did.

Poppy frowned as the familiar side effects of the potion, red face and steam coming out the ears failed to occur. Nothing happened, Albus looked and felt just as frail and weak as he had before drinking the potion.

"I think you need to come to the infirmary,” she said anxiously, expecting a fight. Albus always refused to give in to the need for medical care, not wanting to leave the running of his beloved school to anyone else, even Minerva who he trusted more than anyone else.

Albus nodded and got shakily to his feet.

Minerva and a young man Minerva didn’t think she’d ever seen before rose to assist, the young man taking most of the elderly wizard’s weight.

Minerva was distracted from her concern for her friend and boss for a moment, wondering who the man was and where he had come from. He was too old to be a student and she was absolutely sure she didn’t know him though she thought he looked awfully familiar, perhaps she knew his family. He had a bit of a look of the Black family about him. They were all ridiculously good looking.

Poppy recognised the wizard but it showed how rattled Poppy was that she didn’t even notice at first, that the man’s glamour charms had failed. She didn’t think that he’d noticed either, she knew there was no other circumstance that he would have been in the great hall in front of the students wearing his true appearance.
“Your glamour has failed, Severus” she warned him as they settled Albus into a bed in the private room of the infirmary.

Severus cursed and immediately pulled out his wand and tapped the bracelet holding the permanent glamour to reactivate it.

Nothing happened. “It’s not working,” he said worriedly.

Minerva looked at Severus in shock. She was about to say something about his appearance when Poppy spoke and the seriousness of the situation drove all thoughts of Severus’ attractive face out of her mind.

“Neither did my diagnostic spells or the Pepper-up potion I gave Albus,” Poppy said. “Something is really wrong.”

Minerva pulled out her wand and tried several simple spells from transfiguration to charms and minor hexes, none of them worked. She attempted to turn into her animagus form and nothing happened. She couldn’t even feel the cat lurking inside her.

"I can’t change, it feels like I’m not an animagus at all,” she said shaken.

"Is this what it feels like to be a squib?” Poppy asked horrified. She had a dangerously ill patient and her ability to help him or even to find out what was wrong had been taken away from her.

“We aren’t being affected by the muggle repelling spells on the castle, so we do have some magic in our cores,” Severus replied.

“The wards are designed to prevent muggles entering the castle. Do they work against people already inside?” Minerva asked.

Nobody could tell her, they’d never dragged a muggle parent through the wards in their memory.

“Pepper up works on squibs, not as well as on witches or wizards but Albus had no reaction to it at all,” Poppy said.

"I have a Myrrdin’s Orb I confiscated from a student in my storeroom. That will at least tell us if we have any magic left,” Severus suggested.

“You think that we’ve lost our magic?” Minerva said.

"I think it’s been taken from us somehow, and judging from the brouhaha in the great hall, I think it’s been taken from most if not all the students as well,” Severus replied.

“But how?” Minerva asked.

“Use your brain. The fact it happened in the great hall during breakfast which suggests a potion of some kind,” Severus snapped.

“Who could potion the entire school?” Poppy asked incredulously.

“The Marauders did it,” Minerva reminded her.

“You think it was the Weasley twins?” Poppy asked.

"Potter’s dogfather and his werewolf sidekick might have told Potter how to do it?” Severus growled.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he did, but Potter didn’t do this. He was one of the first to collapse. The twins might have been a reasonable suggestion if this was a prank. But to take everyone’s magic like that isn’t a prank, it’s an attack on our very way of life,” Minerva said.

“This definitely isn’t a prank, Albus isn’t likely to survive the week unless we can find a way to reverse this, he’s too old to live without magic, and his regular medication potions won’t be working either if the pepper up didn’t,” Poppy added.

“You think it was the Death Eaters? They wouldn’t have targeted their own children,” Severus replied. He’d like to have added that he was too valuable to Voldemort to be thrown away like that but he wasn’t sure it was true. The newly risen Dark Lord was too paranoid to truly trust anyone and while he didn’t think he had any real suspicion of Severus’ true loyalties, Severus who was perfectly placed to double cross him was trusted less than most.

“From what I’ve seen most of them would kill their own parents, siblings or children without hesitation if they were fighting on the opposite side of the war,” Minerva retorts scathingly.

“Killed their family members yes but not ruin their own reputations by having their children become squibs,” Severus replied.

"He may have chosen not to involve those followers with children here. Until we know how it was done it’s impossible to say how many people were involved,” Poppy said. “This could be the work of a single person.”

“The Dark Lord was counting on the children of his followers to join his ranks and bring their friends with them,” Severus replied.

“Then this could be the work of one of his followers or one of the extremists on the light side not wanting that to happen,” Minerva suggested.

They were interrupted by the sounds of distress out in the main infirmary and Poppy and Minerva went to help sort it out.

Hermione was still fussing over an unconscious Harry Potter who she’d automatically lay on his usual bed in the infirmary.

Crabbe and Goyle had brought in a still hysterical Slytherin girl none of them recognized and Ron and Dean had brought in a male teenager, also not recognizable as a student but clearly closely related to the Weasleys. Several other students had also come in, hoping for a way to reverse what they still believed was a stupid prank but these two were clearly the most disturbed by their changes.

Minerva shuddered in dread at the upcoming upheaval when these people and everyone else realised that the potion had stripped away existing glamours to reveal their true original selves instead of altering their real appearance. They’d have to be told, there was no way to reinstate glamours that detailed, and flexible enough to grow with the child, even if she did have the magic to do so and the students in question had the magic to power them going forth, and they’d have to get over it without the aid of a calming potion. Perhaps she should send for their parents to help support them. Or better yet send them home to their parents.

As she thought that she realized that it wasn’t only these students in the infirmary that would need to be sent home. The school would have to be closed, they couldn’t teach magic if none of them possessed the ability to cast any. She looked at the students pityingly, wondering how they’d be received by their families, particularly those families who had an additional child either already graduated or still too young to attend Hogwarts and who wouldn’t have been affected by whatever had taken their magic. In many families squibs tended to disappear just after the age of eleven but these children were already well known. What would become of them all.

But even these plans were dependent on the idea that those outside of Hogwarts hadn’t been affected. Severus could be wrong about it being a potion and if this was something world wide then the timing during breakfast here at the school could have been coincidental. How would they find out how widespread this was, owl-post would take too long and she would have to be very careful who they revealed the information to while they had a school full of vulnerable newly squibbed children all in one place without Dumbledore or the professors to protect them, and they couldn’t apparate and Minerva was hesitant to attempt to use the floo or a portkey. She told herself she was being foolish, she used portkeys to and from Diagon Alley with muggle parents and their newly identified muggleborn students every summer without mishap, so she’d be able to use one even if she couldn’t make her own. But first she had to deal with the students and that would be easier said than done without magic to make herself heard throughout the castle.

Chapter 3

Minerva approached her Gryffindors first. “Who is this?” she asked getting out parchment to write down the changed identity of the student. They’d never had to keep muggle records before so she wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it.

"It’s Ginny, Professor, Ginny Weasley,” Seamus said when it seemed Ron or Ginny weren’t going to speak up.

"I think she needs a calming potion, we tried a cheering charm but it didn’t seem to work,” Dean offered.

"I’m afraid the potion wont work on Miss Weasley either,” Minerva said sympathetically.

“Why not?” Ron demanded.

“For the same reason the cheering charm failed. None of the potions we’ve tried on the affected, have worked,” Minerva explained wishing she could just shove a calming potion down the throat of everyone she had to speak with, for that matter she felt like she needed one herself.

“So my charm failed because of something with Ginny?” Dean asked hopefully.

“Have you tried any other magic?” Minerva asked.

“No, I was a little afraid to when I didn't know how it would affect her. The cheering charm seemed to make her cry out,” Dean admitted.

Seamus pulled his wand out of his pocket. “Lumos,” he said firmly.

There was not even the slightest flicker.

“Have we all lost our magic?” he asked sadly.

"I’m afraid so, Finnegan,” Minerva said brusquely.

“What are we going to do?” Hermione asked from beside the still unconscious Harry.

“Head back to your dorms. The school will have to be closed, we will make arrangements to contact all your parents and schedule the Hogwarts Express for later in the week,” Minerva said firmly.

“What about Harry? Hermione asked.

"I don’t know what has done this or how widespread it is, but I don’t have time to worry about that at the moment I have a school to run. If the school closes we will have to find a safe place until he’s recovered enough to return to his relatives,” Minerva admitted.

“What happened to the Headmaster?” Hermione asked.

“Professor Dumbledore is an elderly man, without his magic he is quite frail. Madam Pomfrey wants to keep him here for observation,” Minerva said, wondering why she was explaining herself so much to the fifth year students.

“But if her potions and healing spells don’t work?” Hermione asked.

“He may need to be sent through to St Mungo’s if they’re still operational, though I don’t know what they’re going to be able to do,” Minerva replied. “Now excuse me I have things I must be seeing to.”

Hermione nodded and sat back down beside Harry’s bed. It seemed that the whole world had gone crazy and the headmaster all the hysterical students were going to take priority over Harry if she wasn’t there to insist on him being treated.

“But what about Ginny, she needs to be sent to St Mungo’s to put her to rights,” Ron protested.

“We need to speak to your parents before we can send her anywhere, Weasley, and we’ve yet to find out whether St Mungo’s is able to take the magically null, otherwise they may need to be transferred to a muggle hospital” Poppy replied joining them.

"If the spell stopped all magic working on her, does this mean this is what she was supposed to look like?” Hermione asked.

“Noo. I’m hideous! I can’t walk around looking like this!” Ginny moaned. "I don’t even sound like me.”

“How can removing magic make her look like that?” Ron demanded.

Poppy looked at the youngest Weasley, standing there much taller than she had been, slightly broader in the shoulders, flat chested and growing a beard, looking ridiculous in the badly fitting shirt and jumper and now far too short skirt and realised what the difference must be. "I’m afraid your parents must have done a ritual to turn you into a girl as a baby. You’ll need to borrow some clothes from your brother, and we’ll have to find you somewhere to sleep until we can get this sorted out,” she said gently, handing her a pair of pyjamas and ushering her towards the bathroom, since she couldn’t control the privacy spells on the patient screens.

“But you’ll be able to fix it? You can make me me again?” Ginny demanded.

"I will need to speak with your parents to find out exactly what ritual or potion they used,” Poppy prevaricated not wanting to tell the distraught teen that no, they probably would not be able to turn her back into a girl. She sent Ron to the dorm to get some casual clothing to loan his sibling.

She then approached the Slytherins and after seeing what had happened to the youngest Weasley she had no difficulty recognizing the hysterical blond girl accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle, Draco Malfoy’s constant companions, was the formerly male Malfoy. Unfortunately, that didn’t help her calm the girl down any more effectively than she had the new Weasley boy. At least he was still decently covered.

“They’d best stay here where I can keep an eye on them, they can’t go back to their dorms in any case,” Poppy said herding the still crying pair into beds, and sending their friends back to their dorms. In lieu of a calming potion that she knew would not work and at her wit’s end, she dosed both of them with strong hot tea with plenty of sugar to combat the shock and a dash of brandy.

“Why would parents do this to their children?” Poppy said as she finally got Ginny and Draco somewhat settled.

“The Malfoy family is Patriarchal and Narcissa had a very difficult pregnancy. It was recommended that she didn’t have any more children. This wasn’t her choice, I remember that she was heartbroken not to be able to have a little girl, something I understand better now than I did at the time,” Severus replied. “I’m Worried about Lucius’ reaction. I’m not sure it will be safe to send Draco home to him. Perhaps we should contact Narcissa directly.”

“I don’t know what Molly and Arthur were thinking!” Minerva said crossly.

“Perhaps they were trying to break the curse. Or perhaps Arthur realised that his wife would keep trying for a girl and they couldn’t afford any more children,” Poppy suggested.

“Or perhaps it was done after that Halloween in the hope of marrying her off to The-Boy-Who-Lived,” Severus added cynically.

“From what I saw in the great hall it’s possible that the curse was already broken, Pansy Parkinson is over a year older than Ginevra Weasley,” Minerva reminded them.

“That’s another student I’m not comfortable sending home looking like that,” Severus replied.

"Or at all, even if we could change her back the cat’s out of the bag. The entire school saw her turn into a redhead and the resemblance to the Weasley family is uncanny. There were several students that no longer looked anything like their acknowledged fathers,” Minerva said.

“We can’t play favourites. In fact, other than the muggleborn all of the children could be at risk of mistreatment by their families, but even if we keep them until the end of term it will not solve the problem,” Poppy said sadly.

“No but it would give them time to communicate with their families and find other accommodation if they aren’t welcome to return home,” Severus pointed out.

“I can’t see any family willing to take in squib children other than their own, they’re too old to be sent to muggle orphanages without endangering the statute of secrecy and the magical orphanage is already bursting at the seams with abandoned children,” Minerva said worriedly

“I think you both need to get back to your houses. There’s a few young men out there who received a nasty shock this morning. Quite a few are likely to be upset with their girlfriends that they hadn’t been told they’re expecting a child,” Poppy said.

“It will be a mess half those students in Slytherin are betrothed to other people,” Severus groaned.

“Also several of those girls are now dating someone other than the baby’s fathers from the size of their stomachs, and how long they seem to have been with their current boyfriends,” Minerva agreed. “How many of their parents know about the situation?”

“As far as I’m aware, none. Most of those babe’s would have ended up in the orphanage or as the next generation of ‘muggleborns’,” Poppy replied.

“How many of our current ‘muggleborns’ were actually born to students?” Minerva asked. “Nevermind, I don’t have time to deal with that speculation now and unless our magic comes back it won’t be an issue.”

“Some of the families that have lost heirs through this situation might be pleased to know there actually is a son or grandson out there that still has magic,” Severus replied.

“That’s if this is a localized phenomenon, we’ve yet to establish that,” Minerva said.

“We need to send someone out to check. Perhaps Hagrid could have one of the carriages prepared for some of the staff to visit Hogsmeade,” Severus suggested.

“See to the students first, we need to get them calmed down before someone does themselves harm. You will also need to announce that the treatments for allergies are no longer working and students need to avoid the foods and other things they are allergic to,” Poppy reminded them before giving each of them a list of students they needed to keep a close eye on as well as a few she wanted to admit to the infirmary for monitoring.

“Get an older student or two to carry Creevy down. Don’t let him walk down here on his own, he’s not to be put under any stress of any kind,” she said to Minerva.

“Madam Pomfrey, Harry collapsed in the great hall and has been unconscious all this time. Is there anything you can do for him?” Hermione asked, before the mediwitch could turn to calming another crying student.

Poppy came over and did what physical examinations she could. He’s breathing normally and his heartrate is fine. There’s really nothing I can do for him until he regains consciousness. If he isn’t around by the time we find out if it’s safe to send patients through to St Mungo’s I’ll send him through with the headmaster. They may be able to help but if not at least it’s something that could be treated in a muggle hospital.

“How do you know that? It had something to do with his scar, it was weeping and black smoke came out of it,” Hermione asked.

“Well, the scar might be magical but there’s nothing I can do about that at the moment and regardless of the cause for it he’s unconscious. I can’t spell water or nutrient potions into his stomach but the muggles will have a way of keeping him fed and hydrated until he wakes up, if St Mungo’s can’t help him,” Poppy said sadly.

-o0o-

“Bloody hell! I didn’t expect all this?” Fred exclaimed.

“What’s wrong with Ginny?” George asked worriedly.

“I didn’t see her? She was down the table,” Fred said.

“She grew about a foot and grew a beard!” George said.

“What would do that?” Fred asked frowning thoughtfully.

“I don’t know,” George said.

“You think she was using a glamour?” Fred asked.

“It would have to be a pretty huge glamour, would take a lot of energy to maintain,” George denied.

“She couldn’t have maintained it 24/7 like that and still been able to succeed in class,” Fred agreed.

“But what else could it be?” George asked.

“It’s like she turned into a boy,” Fred whispered, almost afraid to say it out loud.

“She can’t have,” George denied automatically.

“What else would make her grow so much taller and grow a beard? Did she still have breasts?” Fred asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t look at my sisters’ boobs!” George protested. “She was always a girl.”

“Was she? How would we know? We didn’t change her nappies as a baby. Mum could have said she was our sister and then done the ritual later,” Fred suggested.

“They took her to the hospital wing. Should we go and see if she’s okay?” George asked.

“Madam Pomfrey won’t be able to fix her until the potion wears off,” Fred reminded him.

“She won’t even be able to give her a calming draught or spell her to sleep until then,” George said anxiously.

“But what do you think happened to her? Is it our fault?” Fred said.

“Unless our potion reacted with some other potion she’d just taken or someone put in her pumpkin juice, it must be,” George said starting to panic.

“Calm down, nobody knows it was us. We need to act normal,” Fred said.

“But what would be normal in this circumstance? If we act like nothing’s wrong that would be more suspicious than panicking at this point,” George replied.

“You’re right, we should be panicking about what’s happened to our sister,” Fred agreed.

“We need to visit her and find out what happened,” George suggested.

“And not let on that we know the cause, or that we know that it’s okay, everyone’s magic will come back,” Fred reminded him.

“It’s not going to be easy to pretend to be worried convincingly,” George said.

“We don’t need to pretend. Remember when I took the potion, the appearance altering potion and the glamour charms I was wearing didn’t come back when the potion wore off,” Fred reminded him. “If Ginny was using a potion to alter her appearance then she’s going to need to take another one before she goes back to looking normal and she can’t have been taking a regular potion like Polyjuice, we would have noticed so she might not even have a dose with her.”

“There were a lot of people whose appearance changed more than I expected. I though it would be funny to see the girls without their cosmetic charms or glamours to cover acne and stuff but some people didn’t even look like themselves at all. I wouldn’t have known who they were if they weren’t sitting in the same spot,” George said.

“Yeah and Umbitch didn’t turn into a hag or a toad hybrid,” Fred said disappointedly.

“There were a lot of redheads is what I noticed,” George said.

“Why would anyone want to cover up beautiful red hair?” Fred asked.

“I think it was more than covering up hair colour. I think some of them stopped looking like themselves as well,” George suggested.

“You think that they were hiding who their father was?” Fred asked.

“I think so. Do you think that our potion could have negated a blood adoption?” George asked.

“Could it have? It’s a ritual and it’s not like any trace of a potion or anything would still be in their body,” Fred asked warily, it seemed their prank might have had some complications they didn’t expect it to.

“Do you think that the person could go back to the way they were before when the potion wears off? Magical adoption affects a person’s magical core and that should still be the same when their magic comes back,” George asked.

“Merlin, I hope so! But they could always be magically adopted again,” Fred said.

“Not all fathers will be willing to magically adopt their wife’s bastard now that everyone knows the child isn’t theirs,” George said. “Some of them might not even have known who the original father was, I don’t know what will happen.”

“At least if they’re Weasleys then they’ll know they are purebloods,” Fred replied refusing to admit that there were pureblood families who would be horrified to have their family magic tainted by blood traitors like the Weasleys.

“They can’t be Dad’s children,” George said desperately.

“Nah, Dad would never cheat on Mum,” Fred reassured him. “There are quite a few Weasleys old enough to have fathered a child at Hogwarts.”

“We noticed the people who looked like us but there might be more changed appearance who we didn’t notice because they didn’t look like Weasleys,” George said.

“Not really our problem,” Fred said blithely.

“Isn’t it though, if we caused their appearances to change and their secrets to come out?” George asked pensively.

“There’s no point worrying about them, since there’s nothing we can do about it,” Fred offered.

“We should go and try to visit Ginny,” George said.

“Would we have visited her if we didn’t know anything about the potion or would we be here with our friends freaking out about not having any magic?” Fred asked doubtfully.

“I don’t know,” George admitted. “I think if we’d seen her change like that, we’d at least ask what was going on with her.”

“Let’s try and do that then, we’ve been off on our own too long,” Fred stated getting up.

They joined their dorm mates who immediately demanded where they’d been and if they had anything to do with none of them having any magic.

“We don’t have any magic either you dolts,” Fred went on the attack.

“Do you really think we would have done this to ourselves?” George asked.

“So where have you been?” Lee Jordan asked.

“Trying to find out what’s happening,” Fred replied.

"Okay, and what have you found out?” Lee demanded.

“Our sister is in the infirmary, she’s been altered somehow by the potion,” George said appearing worried.

“The potion also removed all glamours and appearance altering spells which has caused some people some nasty surprises,” Fred said smirking.

“…and nobody can cast magic, potions don’t work on any of the students in the infirmary,” George said seriously.

“…and there seem to be too many Weasleys,” Fred finished.

“There’s no such thing as too many Weasleys,” George protested.

“Well no of course not, but it looks like there are several more Weasleys today than there were yesterday, and for some strange reason not all of them were happy about it,” Fred replied.

Chapter 4

Poppy was at her wits end trying to keep the two gender altered children in her domain and the other students who’d come in in hysterics over the change in their appearance, or the revelation of their pregnancies calm without being able to use a calming draught. She could have used a calming draught herself if one would work for her. The hot brandy tea only worked for so long and couldn’t be repeated, getting the children drunk would’ve made the situation worse. Technically they were all perfectly healthy and did not need to be in the hospital wing taking her attention away from the other students who arrive feeling quite ill, with vomiting or diarrhoea which she could also do nothing about other than offer them a basin to throw up in and show them to the bathrooms, luckily the silencing and air freshening charms on the cubicles were still working. but there really was no other place to keep them.

Poppy shooed out all the healthy students other than the Weasley boy and Malfoy girl, who couldn’t go back to the dorms while mentally one gender and physically the other. The Hogwarts visitor’s suites while empty and available, had been unused for decades and didn’t provide the supervision the two traumatized teens needed. She’s placed them at opposite ends of the infirmary, unfortunately the feud between the Weasleys and the Malfoys was too entrenched in both of them for them to provide any comfort or shared understanding to each other.

Draco had got over his initial hysterics but as soon as he had started to think more clearly he began panicking about his father’s reaction. He was the Malfoy heir but he was under no delusion that he’d be able to remain so if they were unable to turn him back into his usual male form before the extended family found out about this. The head of house would then revert to cousins in France, something he was sure his father would do anything in his power to avoid. He wondered why it had happened to him when nothing much seemed to have happened to the other students though a few looked a bit different. He questioned whether it was possible that his cousins in France were behind this. Had they used a schoolwide prank to hide having turned him into a girl so he couldn’t become the Head of House Malfoy? Maybe his parents would have another child. He wouldn’t have minded having a younger brother but not if that brother was born to take his place in the family. If he was stuck being a girl instead of the Malfoy heir would his mother still coddle him, or would she be busy with his little brother. Draco had no doubts that even if it were possible to turn him back into a boy the rumours that came out of this since the whole school had seen him turn into a girl might be enough for his cousins to contest his fitness to be the heir and if that happened he had no doubt his father would force his mother to produce another child if it was possible to do so.

Hermione was sitting quietly beside Harry getting more and more angry as the unconscious teen was ignored in favour of dealing with the other students histrionics and minor ailments. Okay she understood that they were upset and she even felt a little sorry for most of them but there was nothing seriously wrong with anyone. Harry had been unconscious for well over an hour now and Madam Pomfrey had barely glanced at him, only checking on him once at Hermione’s insistence. Hermione followed the instruction from the first aid manual she’d read over the summer was able to detect Harry’s pulse and that his heart rate was only slightly below normal and his breathing and colour remained good, he wasn’t running a temperature, his fingers were warm and he didn’t look like he was in pain but he was still totally unresponsive. No matter how tightly she gripped his shoulders or shouted in his ear. She’d cleaned up the blood and gunk still oozing slowly from Harry’s scar but to her muggle eyes it looked too much like the puss of an infection for her not to worry.

-o0o-

After visiting their common rooms and settling the student as well as they could, warning them about the food allergies, telling them that classes were cancelled today and they were not to leave the common room unless accompanied by a professor and one would be on hand after a short staff meeting to decide on a plan of action, the teachers headed back to the infirmary.

Two of the seventh years had carried a frightened Colin Creevey down the stairs and set him gently on the last empty bed in the hospital wing, looking around curiously to see what else was going on.

Madam Pomfrey gently examined Colin and explained to him that the potions shoring up his heart function had stopped working when his magic did. He wasn’t in any immediate danger but his heart was now back where it had been before he came to Hogwarts, in need of a muggle heart transplant.

“I was taken off the waiting list, I’ll have to write to Mum to make me an appointment with the specialist,” Colin said quietly. He didn’t bother to tell Madam Pomfrey that if his heart was as weak as it had been before Professor McGonagall took him to St Mungo’s before first year, it would now take a miracle to keep him alive long enough to get a new heart.

-o0o-

Severus came back with the orb, carefully carrying it in a way his skin wasn’t touching it. He passed it to Albus but the sphere remained inert.

“What does that mean?” Minerva asked anxiously.

“Even most squibs will get a flicker of a reaction,” Albus said weakly.

“So, we have no magic at all. I was going to send someone down to Hogsmeade to see if this has affected them but if it’s turned us all into muggles then they wouldn’t be able to come back and tell us what’s going on,” Minerva said, defeated.

“Should we keep the children here? How many of their parents would be able to get to Kings Cross to collect them, and they might not be able to get through the muggle repelling wards back into their houses if they do?” Poppy asked.

“We can't keep them here, we’re woefully unprepared to teach them what they need to know to live without magic,” Minerva replied.

“Has anyone checked the house elves? Do they still have their magic?” Pomona asked.

“I haven’t checked in on them but the tables cleared themselves after breakfast as they always do, and the dishes were all cleaned and put away by the time I left here to visit the kitchen. They all seemed to be their normal irritatingly overly eager selves, so I would assume so. I went back to see if I could get a sample of everything we ate and drank to try to isolate what was used to do this to see whether I could make a cure,” Severus replied.

“Well at least we’re not going to starve or freeze to death, or have to find a way to clean up after ourselves and wash our own clothes” Poppy said practically.

“That’s not the issue, the elves would have died without magic,” Filius reminded them softly. “We will need to try and find them all magical families to bond with if the school is to be closed.”

“What about you, how are you?” Minerva asked him. As a part goblin his connection to magic was very different to theirs.

"I feel that I need to begin setting my affairs in order, I’m not sure whether I have survived this far because I am part human, or if the goblin half is fine and I am in better shape than Albus because I am part goblin and we naturally live longer than humans. I am 96 years old, very old for a human muggle, but nowhere near middle aged for a goblin,” Filius said quietly. "If this is indeed worldwide, or even localized throughout Britain then there is a chance that the wizarding world is effectively bankrupt. If the full blood goblins were affected, they will have sealed the bank and retreated down into their living spaces. Like the house elves they’re magical beings unable to live without magic.”

“But why would it spare the house elves and not the goblins?” Minerva asked.

"I don’t know that it did, I’ve never heard of anything that would do that. It lends credence to Severus’ suggestion that we were dosed with a potion at breakfast,” Filius replied.

“No, it doesn’t, the elves in the castle eat the leftover food that comes down from the tables in the great hall, so they would have been dosed with any potion added to the food. If they are all still fine then it’s possibly something localized to witches and wizards and Filius’ human side is causing his health problems,” Pomona replied.

“There is no way a witch or wizard would be able to contaminate enough food to guarantee everyone was dosed without the elves’ assistance,” Filius pointed out.

“Should we be on the lookout for someone who is faking having lost their magic?” Minerva asked.

They looked at each other somberly, none of them had ever heard of something that would take magic away from human magic users only, if that was the case it could possibly be an act of war, but from whom. Voldemort wouldn’t have stripped his own magic. The goblins were capable of stealth attacks like this but unless they’d been given a huge insult they wouldn’t have done something that would disrupt their profits this way. The house elves needed magical families to serve to maintain their health, so if this was a world wide phenomenon then their lives were all in danger as well, though the ambient magic in the castle would sustain the elves at Hogwarts for some time, and none of the other races seemed capable of this sort of co-ordinated attack. Surely the muggles wouldn’t be capable of this.

“We need to check on the elves,” Minerva replied.

Unfortunately, when Minerva entered the kitchen and spoke with the elves there, Dobby was not present and neither she nor the Hogwarts elves recognized that his absence was significant. So, Dobby didn’t learn of the problems the twin’s prank was causing, otherwise the whole thing could’ve been cleared up straight away and the staff could start concentrating on dealing with the problems caused when long term glamours or possibly even magical adoptions had failed, rather than continuing to believe that the changes were permanent and running around like headless chooks trying to deal with a school full of children who would need to be told they were no longer magical.

The elves in the kitchen reassured her that none of them had become unwell or had any difficulties using magic to complete their daily tasks, and that lunch would be ready on time and could be served in the common rooms without any trouble, which was a relief and one less thing to worry about. The students would be well cared for until arrangements could be made to send home those who still had homes to go to.

She sent one into Hogsmeade to check if the witches and wizards there still had their magic, one to Gringotts to check on the health of the goblins and visit Diagon Alley and a third she sent to the magical shopping area in Paris in the hope that even if the whole of Britain was affected the rest of the world had been spared.

-o0o-

Fred and George had calmed down and were enjoying watching the students run around panicking as a result of the prank until Minerva called for a house meeting just as they were wondering when they’d be allowed out of the common room for lunch. They hadn’t been able to find out what happened to Ginny and had put it out of their minds. They were too busy trying to find out what else was going on and listening to the gossip about who was pregnant and who the fathers were and what they were going to do about it now that the fathers and everyone else knew. They did feel slightly guilty about creating trouble for some of their friends but when they heard that most of the girls had been planning on abandoning the babies into the muggle world, they figured it might be for the best that the pregnancies were revealed so the babies’ fathers could be given a choice in what happened to their children.

We are imposing a strict curfew until dinner time, the door will be sealed unless there is an emergency since the professors will all be busy contacting all your families to inform them about what has happened and that the school will be closing. Lunch and Dinner will be served here in the common room, after which time if you have a need to speak to someone from one of the other houses meetings can be arranged. Hogwarts will be closing until such time as there are enough magical children in Britain to warrant reopening. The Hogwarts Express will take you back to London tomorrow, the carriages will leave here at ten am. Please have your trunks packed and left in your rooms ready for transport down to the train before you come to breakfast.

It is possible that Hogwarts will reopen with new teaching staff to teach you all the things you need to know to live and obtain work in the muggle world, though the ministry may decide to hold those lessons in a more muggle accessible location. Your parents will be contacted with the details if that happens.

Chapter 5

As she’d addressed her Gryffindors, Minerva noticed that the Weasley twins had exchanged serious glances with each other when she mentioned closing the school and watched them carefully, they seemed far more anxious than the rest of the students with a few notable exemptions, who she vowed to talk to privately later.

“Umm professor, can we speak to you before you go?” George asked.

“Your sister is fine, she’s in the infirmary for observation and your parents will probably choose to take her home when they come this afternoon, you can choose to go with them if you like or take the train,” Minerva replied.

“Umm, it’s not about that professor,” Fred admitted. Now looking terrified that his mother and father were coming to the school.

“What is it then? I have a lot to organize before tomorrow,” Minerva said impatiently.

“Umm, it won’t be necessary to close the school,” George began.

Minerva looked at them in shock.

“Everyone will be back to normal before breakfast tomorrow,” Fred continued.

"It only lasts for a day,” George said earnestly.

“We had no idea how much trouble cancelling people’s glamours could cause,” Fred admitted honestly.

“Umm I guess we didn’t think it through properly,” George admitted.

“You did this?” Minerva asked, wanting to be clear before she lost her temper entirely. “You took our magic away.”

“Well it’s not taken away so much as you cant access it for a bit,” Fred tried to explain.

"It didn’t go anywhere,” George agreed.

“It was supposed to be a prank,” Fred said.

“We’re really sorry about all the trouble it caused,” George apologized.

“We had no idea it would do all the things it did,” Fred agreed.

“Explain!” Minerva demanded.

“We were playing around with potions and invented one that cancels all magic in a person for a length of time,” Fred began.

"It was Fred’s turn to test it and he couldn’t use any magic, nor could any magic be cast on him for the rest of the day,” George said.

“But my magic was fine when I woke up the next morning,” Fred said eagerly.

“So everything should be back to normal tomorrow,” George declared.

“Or maybe even earlier,” Fred said eagerly.

“Since everyone else got a much smaller dose than Fred did,” George explained.

“You’re coming with me,” Minerva said grimly.

“Go and get any of the potion you have left and you can explain this to Professor Snape. I want every last drop of this potion right here and right now. Do you have any idea how many lives you could have ruined with this imbecilic prank? You could have killed someone!” Minerva said harshly.

“We didn’t realise that anyone would be wearing those types of glamours,” George said.

“We just thought it would be funny to see everyone without all the cosmetic charms and to freak people out a bit,” Fred added.

They collected the potion they had left and went to meet Professor McGonagall in the staff room.

"I have some good news,” Minerva said as she entered the staff room.

"If it’s good news then why do you look so angry?” Pomona Sprout asked.

“Severus was correct, this was caused by a potion. The rest of the world hasn’t been affected and the brewers of the potion assured me that the effects were designed to be temporary, so unless they made a mistake in brewing the larger amount, it should wear off sometime before breakfast tomorrow if not sooner,” Minerva replied.

“How did you find out it was a potion? Do you have a sample of this potion and the notes about its creation?” Severus asked.

“The Weasley twins admitted that they are culpable of potioning everybody, they are bringing the sample now. You can ask them about any notes they took when they get here,” Minerva replied.

“The Weasley twins?” Pomona said faintly.

“This was a prank?” Filius asked incredulously.

“It was intended to be, they hadn’t anticipated the side effects it has had on Albus or Filius or the students on medical potions, or the types of glamours students were wearing,” Minerva admitted wearily.

"I’m going to strangle them!” Severus whispered dangerously.

“Not until you’ve got all the answers you need to make sure they’re right about it wearing off overnight, and that there were no long-term side effects,” Minerva replied, too angry to even think about trying to protect her misbehaving lion cubs.

“Did you find out how they managed to dose everyone?” Filius asked.

“Not yet, but we will,” Minerva said determinedly.

Severus reached for the orb. It now showed a weak reaction, normally indicative of a squib. He closed his eyes and sagged in relief, before handing the orb to the Gryffindor head of house.

“It looks like our magic is returning slowly, they were telling the truth,” she breathed, her relief so profound she could barely speak.

She passed it on and they all got at least some reaction.

“We would at least be able to leave the castle and return, the children should all be able to go home,”

“Let’s monitor the situation for a few hours. If everyone’s magic is returning we won’t need to send them home,” Minerva replied.

The adults couldn’t help reaching for the orb for reassurance again and again, first to prove to themselves that they still had a little magic even if they couldn’t feel it and then as time passed to see it ever so slowly growing stronger. And it was, Poppy could compare their results to what she knew of their cores from their medical records and predict that if it continued to grow at the rate it was, their magic would be back to normal before midnight.

-o0o-

Fred and George appeared in the doorway, hesitant to go in and face what they knew would be the scolding of their lives. They’d be lucky if they weren’t expelled for this. They were ready to leave the school, NEWTs didn’t matter to the two would be entrepreneurs and it just wasn’t any fun anymore with all of Umbitch’s new decrees but this definitely wasn’t the way they wanted to go out. They were relieved that she wasn’t there but facing the four heads of house and Madam Pomfrey was going to be more than bad enough.

“Where did you find the potion recipe to do this?” Severus demanded.

“We didn’t,” Fred said.

“We invented it,” George added proudly, he was proud of their work in spite of being a little ashamed of all the trouble the potion had inadvertently caused.

“How do you know it’s going to wear off and how long will it take?” Poppy asked.

“We tried it,” Fred said.

“Well Fred did, it was his turn,” George added.

“You just tried an experimental potion designed to remove your magic for a period of time and hoped it would return without long lasting effects?” Pomona asked incredulously.

"It was Fred’s turn! You’ve taken experimental potions that you had no idea what they would do before this. Did you at least try it on a rat first to make sure you’re not going to poison yourselves?” Severus roared.

“We didn’t know it would take away all Fred’s magic, we were trying to find a potion that removed all external magic cast on a person, an extreme form of the Finite spell,” George admitted.

"It took away his magic for an entire day and you didn’t tell anyone or come to me for help?” Minerva asked, shaken by what she saw as their lack of trust in the staff.

“Not an entire day, we took it after dinner so just an evening and part of the night,” Fred replied.

“Even if that was all your potion did, it could have caused serious problems. Not only have you violated the privacy of several students by removing their glamour charms in public without their consent, there are potions and long term spells designed to maintain both mental and physical health, that should never be removed in an uncontrolled setting like that. You might have killed someone! There are several people in the infirmary dangerously ill and I can do nothing to help them or keep them alive.” Poppy said frowning disapprovingly.

“You not only took a potion when you weren’t sure of the long-term effects, after a single trial you then dosed the entire school with it? There are beings out there that would die without their magic, creatures that some of the people you dosed may have in their ancestry, you had no idea how it would react with them,” Filius asked horrified.

“We didn’t think of that,” Fred admitted.

“How long were you without your magic?” Severus asked.

"We don’t know exactly,” George admitted.

"I took the potion after dinner, about half past seven,” Fred reported.

“We were up looking for a counter-potion or cure til after four,” George said.

“I think the last time I tried to cast a spell was between two and three o’clock. It didn’t work at all but when I woke up about eight, my magic was back to normal, or normal enough that I didn’t notice the difference,” Fred added.

“But we didn’t have that much potion. You would all have gotten about a tenth of the amount Fred took, maybe a fifth if you drank pumpkin juice and tea or coffee,” George said.

“So it should be wearing off any minute now,” Fred said eagerly.

"I want all your samples of the potion and your notes on its development,” Severus ordered.

“Here, Sir,” Fred said holding them out.

“We figured you’d want our notes,” George added.

"I don’t suppose that you could delay telling Mum, until Ginny’s back to normal,” Fred asked hesitantly.

“We don’t even know if we will be able to get Ginevra back to what you call ‘normal’, until your parents are able to tell us what magic your potion removed,” Poppy admitted.

“How do you know Ginny didn’t cast it herself?” Fred asked.

“Because neither you nor your parents have ever volunteered the information that your sister used to be a little brother, and permanent sex change is usually beyond the magical skill set or wish magic of an underaged child,” Poppy said snidely.

“Ginny turned into a boy?” George asked flabbergasted.

"Oh Merlin! Mum’s going to kill us,” Fred moaned.

“I think I’d prefer Mum to kill us before Ginny can,” George admitted fearfully.

"Oh shite, yes,” Fred agreed fervently.

“She’s right vicious, that one,” George said half proudly and half terrified to have her attention turned towards him.

For a short moment Minerva felt a slight twinge of sympathy for the young pair. Then she thought of the distressed students in the hospital wing whose lives had been irrevocably changed by this and hardened her heart. The two pranksters deserved everything they had coming.

“How did you get the potion to everybody in the school?” Pomona asked.

"It was in the cups and glasses on the table,” Fred admitted.

“Which made sure everyone got about the same dose no matter how many glasses of water or pumpkin juice they drank,” George explained.

“How did you get it into everyone’s glass?” Minerva demanded.

“We asked a house elf to do it for us,” George said quietly.

“None of the Hogwarts elves would have helped you do this, the safety protocols would have prevented them from potioning everyone with something this dangerous,” Filius stated.

“No, it wasn’t a Hogwarts elf,” Fred admitted.

“Please don’t punish them. They thought it was a harmless prank like turning people’s hair pink or something,” George pleaded beginning to fear that their friend would pay the price for their idiocy. Harry would kill them if Dobby was sent away because of their actions. He was another person they didn’t want to cross. Harry could be ferocious in protection or defence of his friends.

“How did you convince a private elf to break into the Hogwarts kitchen and contaminate all the glassware for breakfast without the Hogwarts elves seeing them or noticing the potion before they sent the glasses up to the great hall?” Filius asked.

“The Weasleys don’t own an elf,” Minerva stated. “Whose elf did you use?”

“We asked Dobby,” Fred admitted.

“He didn’t know it would hurt anybody,” George said.

“He was only too pleased to be helping the great Harry Potter’s friends,” Fred added.

“That doesn’t explain how he wasn’t seen by one of the Hogwarts elves,” Filius said.

“He probably was, they wouldn’t think anything of it. Dobby lives in the castle,” George said.

“He works for the Headmaster,” Fred explained.

“How would he not have known the risks?” Pomona asked.

Minerva sighed. “He’s not bound to the castle, he’s a free elf Albus lets hang around and pays to work since he saved Potter after the fiasco with the Chamber of Secrets.”

“The elf Potter stole from the Malfoys somehow?” Severus asked.

“Harry freed Dobby,” George replied.

“He didn’t steal him,” Fred protested.

“He tricked Malfoy into freeing him,” George argued.

“Potter tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing one of his house elves,” Filius asked curiously.

“That’s not important now. The issue is how we’re going to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Severus stated.

“The free elf is a hole in our security,” Minerva agreed.

“Without a bond to Hogwarts, he really wouldn’t have known he was going to harm anyone,” Filius said thoughtfully.

“He will need to be bonded if he’s to stay in the castle,” Minerva said.

“But Dobby doesn’t want to be bonded,” George said.

“He wants to be a free elf,” Fred agreed.

“He likes being paid,” George declared.

"In socks!” Fred said chuckling.

“He’s only here because nobody else would hire him,” George said worriedly.

“No, methinks he wants to be close to Harry,” Fred countered.

“Where would he go?” George asked.

“He cannot stay in the castle without a bond to it to protect the students,” Pomona said.

"It’s a hole in our protections that we just cannot afford to have,” Minerva agreed.

“Potter doesn’t get to break the rules by having an elf at his beck and call,” Severus snapped.

“Harry doesn’t ask Dobby to do anything for him,” Fred protested.

“He thinks of Dobby as a friend of his,” George said.

"It’s not being free that makes Dobby a problem though,” Fred suggested.

“Even back when he was a Malfoy elf he nearly killed Harry trying to protect him,” George agreed.

“He has a strange way of seeing the world,” Fred said nodding sagely.

“How did he do that?” Filius asked concerned. The wards should have prevented a house elf not owned by the school from interacting with the students.

“He was the one that jinxed the bludger in the Quidditch game in second year,” Fred said.

“He was trying to get Harry sent home injured before the Basilisk got him,” George explained.

“He knew Malfoy had planned to make the school too dangerous for Harry,” Fred said.

"Of course the blond git got away with it,” George growled.

“And with nearly killing our baby sister,” Fred spat.

“And nearly resurrecting Voldemort,” George said.

“Because who would believe a house elf?” Fred asked.

“And a twelve-year-old kid,” George said.

“A half-blood kid,” Fred pointed out.

“Over the great git, Lord Lucius Bloody Malfoy?” George asked sardonically.

“Can you call the elf here?” Minerva asked.

“Dobby, can you come here? Professor McGonagall wants to talk to you,” George said.

“You’se wants to talk to Dobby,” the strangely dressed elf asked eagerly.

“Hello Dobby, can you tell me how you put the potion into everybody’s cups this morning?” Minerva asked.

“Dobby just spelled a wee bit of the potion over all the glasses and cups, the way he was taught to,” Dobby said not at all guiltily because he was unaware of the problems the potion had caused.

Severus actually shuddered at the thought of what potions Lucius could’ve had the elf spell onto all the cups at dinner or one of his wife’s soirees, or worse the annual Malfoy ball.

“Dobby, the school protections should have prevented you from giving that potion to everybody. How did you get around them?” Minerva questioned.

“There was no protections to get around. Nothing tried to stop Dobby from spelling the glasses,” Dobby insisted.

"It was only a prank, it wasn’t going to cause any real harm. Why would the protective wards stop it?” Fred asked.

“Did you realise that the Headmaster is 116 years old? Muggles just don’t live that long, his magic was what was keeping him fit and active, Filius is 96 also over the average muggle life expectancy and there are students here who rely on daily medical potions to keep them alive,” Poppy said agitatedly.

"Is Dumbledore… are they…” Fred began, but for once George was too afraid to finish his sentence.

“The Headmaster and the students are in the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey had to work very hard to try to keep them alive and relieve their pain since potions do not work for them. She was preparing to transfer them to St Mungo’s but if healing spells wont work either there is nothing they can do. We shall just have to hope their magic comes back in time to save them, but your actions may kill the headmaster and several students,” Minerva said sombrely.

Fred and George paled and glanced at each other. This was the first time a prank of theirs threatened somebody’s life, and they didn’t know how to deal with that.

“Did you also realise that this could be used as a weapon against us. If the castle was attacked today, we would not be able to defend it or the students, nor would most of them be able to escape. When word of this potion gets out, and it will get out, there are already students who have written home about the loss of their magic. When You-Know-Who or one of his Death Eaters find out that it was the result of a potion every Death Eater in the country will be looking to find or steal the recipe. How many of them will think to ask their children to find the people responsible for the prank. Do you think that none of them would suspect you’re behind it. You have placed your entire family permanently in extremely grave danger.

Chapter 6

Poppy took the orb in to Albus to tell him the good news and encourage him to hold on until his magic came back. She was surprised to find that his current magical levels were about the same as hers, his magic had been so much stronger than hers was yesterday and everyone else seemed to have a similar percentage of their magical potential back again. She managed to hide her surprise and concern, and speculated that it could be because what little magic he did have available was fighting to keep his aging body alive, he was using it almost as quickly as it was regenerating. She just hoped that wouldn’t drive him into magical exhaustion and keep him unable to use much magic for weeks.

Colin Creevy wept tears of relief when he was told that his magic was coming back and that once it had he would be sent through to St Mungo’s to have his heart healed a second time at Hogwarts’ expense. Madam Pomfrey reassured him that Professor Snape would brew the necessary potions tonight and St Mungos would be ready to receive him first thing in the morning and there should be no side effects whatsoever from today’s temporary loss of his magic once the healing had been completed.

“But I’m a Gryffindor and Professor Snape really doesn’t like me,” Colin said surprised.

“You’re a child in need. Severus actually invented the potion you need and holds the patent. He would never deny it to a young person who’s recurring heart problem is not their fault,” Poppy said gently.

-o0o-

Minerva went back into the Gryffindor common room and called her house to order.

“Do not start packing, we have received confirmation that your magic should be fine by tomorrow. I would suggest you use the afternoon to study and complete the theory sections of your homework since there is no reason your essays for the coming week cannot be turned in on time. For those of you who take regular potions please be aware that they have been totally removed from your bodies and you will need to take them again. Madam Pomfrey will, be readministering the potions in order of importance, so please wait for further announcements when you should visit the infirmary and don’t all overwhelm her at once,” she announced.

Everyone began trying to question her at once and she cast a sonorous. “That is all I can tell you at this time,” she announced. “Mr Creevey should be back with you by the end of next week. Can those who have had an unexpected change other than the temporary loss of their magic please be ready to meet with me an hour before dinner to discuss your options.”

The other heads of house went and made similar announcements.

-o0o-

Molly came out of the floo already prepared to yell at whichever child had misbehaved badly enough that she and Arthur had been called to the school for an urgent meeting. She was afraid that one of them had been expelled and they would pay for frightening her like this. The fact that there was no penitent child or children in the Gryffindor head of house’s office gave her momentary pause allowing Arthur to arrive, greet Minerva politely and shepherd his wife to a seat.

“What did they do?” Molly asked in lieu of a greeting.

"I originally called you here to discuss a situation with your youngest child,” Minerva replied.

“Ginny! What did she do?” Molly asked, now hoping it was a case of pranking or fighting in the hallways. Surely, she was too young to have been behaving inappropriately with some boy on the astronomy tower.

“Ginevra was the victim of a prank potion, designed to make someone believe they’d become a squib,” Minerva began.

"Is something wrong? You can’t blame Ginny for anything she might have said or done in retaliation for such a horrible prank,” Molly declared loudly.

Minerva put her hand out to stop her friend’s rant. “I would agree but Ginevra’s behaviour is not the issue. The potion had an unfortunate side effect. It removed all existing magic from the recipients for several hours. Unfortunately, that reverted your youngest child to their natural state and appearance. The child is understandably distraught, more so because calming potions were also ineffective until the original potion wore off causing them several hours of distress,” she explained.

“Her natural state?” Arthur asked in dread.

“His base form as a wizard, I had you meet me here rather than go straight to the infirmary so you could be prepared not to distress her any further,” Minerva confirmed.

“Who saw this happen?” Molly asked.

"It occurred in the great hall at the height of breakfast so most of the school may have seen it, though the prank effected everybody in the school and your daughter was by no means the only one using magic of some sort to alter their appearance so there was a lot going on all at once so most students would have been distracted by changes in their friends sitting closer to them. Most of the students would have heard that something happened to her to change her size and voice though I’m not sure how many realised the truth of the matter,” Minerva replied wondering why this was more important to Molly than whether her daughter had suffered any other side effects or how she was.

“Has she got her magic back, is everything okay?” Arthur asked.

“Ginevra’s magic is beginning to return to its previous levels and should be back to normal sometime this evening, but physically he remains a boy,” Minerva answered gently.

“Ginny is a girl!” Molly declared.

“You may have raised the child to believe she is a girl but he is currently physically a boy, the fact that the potion negating her magic caused the change means that she was born a wizard,” Minerva stated, her patience at an end. The original spell casting had to have been done, or at least paid for by the pair in front of her and they didn’t seem the slightest bit remorseful for the trauma they’ve put their child through in their desire to have a girl.

“Can anything be done about that?” Arthur asked.

“That would depend on whether the two of you were able to repeat the magic that changed her into a girl to begin with, it will magically be much more difficult since she’s no longer an infant, since he has entered puberty their body will resist the change whether their magic is willing or not,” Minerva replied.

“Do you think we should do that?” Arthur asked, embarrassed that outsiders knew what they’d done.

"Of course we should do it as soon as possible. Ginny is a girl, she needs to look like one,” Molly insisted.

"I think you should talk to Ginevra, whichever choice the three of you make will not be easy for her. Fred, George and Ron and her friends all saw her turn into a boy, and gossip in this place being what it is everyone will know by the end of the week. Once they fully process the effects the potion had on the other students, they will all know that Ginevra was born a boy. I think it has to be Ginevra’s choice whether she attempts to change back again or learns to become accustomed to life as a wizard,” Minerva said.

“Who did this?” Molly hissed in anger.

“It was an accident, this was an unintended side effect of the potion. The perpetrators had no idea that this could happen as a result of their prank,” Minerva replied.

“You’re going to tell me who did this!” Molly demanded.

“You need to focus on helping your child,” Minerva said sternly.

"I want them expelled,” Molly insisted.

"Are you absolutely sure about that,” Minerva warned.

Arthur paled realizing that she was insinuating that one or more of their sons had been responsible for the prank that had gone so horribly wrong.

“Molly, please let us go and see Ginny, she needs our support more than you need to revenge whoever did this,” Arthur said pleadingly.

“But Arthur…”

“No Molly, our little girl is in the hospital wing likely scared to death about what is happening to her and our reaction. We need to go to her, not to waste time arguing with Minerva. Ginny needs an explanation and our reassurances that we will do everything in our power to turn her back into a girl if that’s what she wants,” Arthur said more firmly, standing and taking her arm.

-o0o-

Molly rushed in to the hospital wing as if she’d been the one insisting on getting to her child as quickly as possible and began wailing as soon as she saw the gangly redheaded boy in the bed. Arthur shook his head and cast a silencing charm over the bed as he began to try to calm his wife down before they woke up Ginny. Seeing Molly in such a state wouldn’t help his ‘daughter’ at all.

Unfortunately, the longer Ginny lay sleeping the more time Molly had to stew on what had happened to her beautiful little girl. Seeing Hermione and Harry in the infirmary and hearing that Ron and one of Harry’s other classmates had been the ones to bring her to the infirmary also set off her temper. Harry had been there in the great hall, he’d seen first hand and up close that Ginny was a boy and he had abandoned her instead of helping her to the infirmary. Even if they did manage to successfully turn her back, he probably would never want to marry her now.
“Why didn’t you and Harry help Ginny to the infirmary?” Molly snapped at Hermione.

“Harry was knocked unconscious before Ginny started screaming. Neville and I carried him to the infirmary. I didn’t even realise there was a problem with Ginny until Ron and her boyfriend Dean brought her here after us,” Hermione said.

“What’s wrong with Harry?” Arthur asked concerned.

“Madam Pomfrey doesn’t know. The potion made black smoke and gunk come out of his scar, he hasn’t regained consciousness all day,” Hermione said frowning down at the unconscious wizard.

Molly on the other hand was pleased that Harry hadn’t been conscious to see Ginny as a boy. Even if they couldn’t prevent him from hearing about it, hearing the gossip wouldn’t be as off-putting as seeing the transformation. “We should take Ginny home and start preparing the ritual so we can turn her back before she wakes up. There’s no need for her to be distressed any further,” Molly said wanting to get Ginny away from Harry before he saw her, until she’d turned back into a girl.

“No. We can’t do that, she’s not an infant. Minerva and Poppy are right, Ginny has the right to decide for herself whether she wants to be turned back,” Arthur replied. “Besides it took everything we had to give to complete the ritual last time and she’s not a baby anymore she’ll have to be an active participant or her magic will fight the change, even with her wanting to become a female I think we might need to call Bill and Charlie home to assist with the ritual.”

“Ginevra is going to need mind healing to come to terms with what has happened regardless of whether she chooses to become female again or remain a male,” Poppy warned them.

“Couldn’t we just obliviate her of the entire experience?” Molly asked.

"I wouldn’t advise it, even if you were successful in making her look just as she did before without any unwanted side-effects, obliviation in a person so young could have side effects of its own and you cannot obliviate the entire school and someone will be sure to ask her about it, and it will be more traumatic and damaging for your family relationships if she finds out about what happened again later and realizes you obliviated her memories and did not give her a choice, even if she acknowledges that she would have chosen to be turned back into a girl,” Poppy replied.

Molly flushed in anger and was ready to argue but Arthur had flushed in shame and silenced his wife by agreeing with the mediwitch.

-o0o-

Ginny woke up and immediately burst into tears when she saw she hadn’t been returned to her normal feminine body.

Molly gathered her close and held her promising to fix everything as Poppy Pomfrey watched closely to make sure her charge wasn’t coerced into a decision in any way.

“Why did this happen to me?” Ginny sobbed.

Poppy started with the good news. “Your magic is returning and should be back to its normal level within a few hours,” she said casting a spell to vanish the contents of her bladder, at least she had enough magic now to spare the two gender changed students the trauma of using the toilet.

“So, I will be back to normal soon?” Ginny said trying to smile.

"I’m afraid not, at least your magic will be back to normal but you will remain in the body you were born in unless you take steps to complete a ritual to be turned back into a female,” Poppy said gently, concerned that the child did not seem to remember her parent’s visit earlier that afternoon.

“The body I was born in? you mean I was born like this?” Ginny asked
incredulously. "I can’t have been!”

“Your parents admitted that you were born a baby boy. They used a ritual to turn you from a son into a daughter as an infant,” Minerva replied trying to sound neutral. She greatly disapproved of meddling with a child’s identity like that but it certainly wasn’t the child’s fault.

"I’m a girl, I want to be a girl,” she declared immediately.

“Your parents are willing to repeat the ritual to return you to a female form. It will be very taxing on them and will not work if you’re not one hundred percent committed to wanting the ritual to change your body regardless of the consequences,” Poppy warned her.

“How did this happen? What made me turn into a boy?” Ginny asked.

“Someone pulled a prank on the entire school, temporarily preventing magic from working for or on each person. Unfortunately, the potion had a much stronger effect than intended and included removing the effects of all magic that had been performed on you since you were a baby, negating the ritual used to turn you into a girl,” Minerva explained again.

“But I am a girl! I am a witch!” Ginny exclaimed forcefully.

“Yes of course, Ginny dear, you are a witch and we’ll fix everything as soon as we get you home,” Molly said soothingly.

“You were born a wizard. Your parents underwent a ritual to turn you into a witch,” Minerva said uncompromisingly. "It is possible that it could be repeated but there will be a cost to you and your parents.”

“You have to do it. I can’t stay like this! How much will it cost? Can you afford it?” Ginny demanded.

“Unfortunately, you mistake me. The cost is not necessarily financial. “We don’t know exactly what the cost will be, or who will be paying the price. It could be you as the target of the ritual or it could be your parents. You were a baby when the original ritual was done so any magical exhaustion would probably just have manifested in you sleeping more and being less active for a time so there’s no way to tell how badly your magic was affected last time, how long the effects lasted or how much worse it will be this time,” Poppy said. “The ritual to turn a baby wizard into a girl is not terribly difficult, though I’d wager your parents were both magically exhausted for some time afterwards. The amount of magic it will take to turn a teenage wizard into a young woman will be magically expensive, and all three of you will be limited in what magic you can cast for quite some time. It is possible you will need to take some time to recuperate and there’s no guarantee your magic will be recovered enough to take end of year exams in June,” Minerva said seriously.

“You’re not a baby this time, your parents are not going to be able to do this without your magic’s willing participation so you need to be absolutely sure that you want to be turned back into a girl before they start or you could all be seriously hurt in the backlash,” Poppy warned them.

“I am a witch,” Ginny declared.

“Actually, even before this happened you probably weren’t entirely a witch. You were physically turned into a girl but your records show that your magic was still more chaotic like wizarding magic,” Poppy replied.

“What does that mean for me?” Ginny asked apprehensively.

“For the most part it won’t change anything. It doesn’t make a difference with wanded magic and it shouldn’t affect your ability to have a magical child. The one thing it will affect is that you will have to practice ritual magic as a wizard which prevents you from practicing successfully as part of a coven but may not be enough to allow you to join a conclave either,” Poppy replied.

“She’s not a dark witch,” Molly scoffed dismissively.

“Not all coven magic is dark, in fact a lot of higher-level healing is done in a coven or conclave,” Poppy corrected her frowning disapprovingly. “The sex change spell is one such ritual spell and I’m very surprised it worked with yourself and Arthur and not a coven of at least three witches.

“So, I couldn’t become a healer?” Ginny asked.

“It would be possible if that’s where your interests lie, I wouldn’t suggest you specialise in multi-trauma healing but most routine healing should be in your wheelhouse if you have an aptitude for it, there are quite a few healers at St Mungo’s that don’t practice ritual healing,” Poppy replied.

“What happens if they can’t turn me back?” Ginny asked.

“Then you will remain a wizard. There will be no other side effects, in fact you might find that your magic will be considerably stronger in this form. It’s impossible to say how much of your magic was tied up in maintaining your female form,” Minerva said uncompromisingly.

“You mean I’d have to miss the rest of the year at Hogwarts? Will I have to repeat fourth year?” Ginny asked horrified.

"You will definitely need to take the rest of the term off, in fact it may be several months before I could recommend you performing magic at all. It is possible you could be ready for some of your OWLs by the end of next year, or you may be better off to repeat fourth year to give your magic time to recover fully,” Poppy suggested.

“Taking your OWLs as early as possible, may affect your grades and your future career prospects,” Minerva added. “You might also find that your magic would have been permanently stronger in your current form. I cannot speculate how much magic was tied up in maintaining the transformation of your entire body and whether another transformation will be as stable as the one before or whether it will require more of your magic to maintain,” Poppy said.

Ginny frowned and Molly and Arthur both looked troubled.

“I’m sure that the headmaster would agree that the extra year would be tuition free,” Minerva said reassuringly.

“Would it affect my magic that badly as well?” Arthur asked.

“You’re a mature wizard so you should recover more quickly, but you may want to consider employing a coven to perform the ritual,” Poppy said. "Or failing that having some of your son’s home to assist.”

Chapter 7

"I want whoever did this expelled!” Molly insisted. Seeing how upset Ginny was hadn’t calmed her down at all.

“The students accountable honestly didn’t mean any harm, they had no idea how many people were wearing serious glamours that the potion would affect. They just intended to give us all a fright for a couple of hours believing our magic was gone. It was irresponsible but no more than a lot of other pranks students have pulled over the years. You used to be quite the prankster yourself,” Minerva said.

"I don’t care, they ought to be expelled for causing this much trauma on an innocent witch,” Molly stated.

“Believe me I would like nothing more than to expel the miscreants, but what would happen if we did? The knowledge of this potion could be very dangerous if it gets out. “Can you imagine the effects if You-Know-Who managed to disperse this potion through the ministry before a major attack, the Aurors would be unable to respond and the results could be devastating. It could destroy our world. The Death Eaters would do almost anything to get their hands on the potion recipe, or those who invented it. If You-Know-Who learns of it and the children who invented it their entire family could be captured and tortured or killed. Expelling them will draw attention to them, and they won’t be the only one’s who suffer,” Minerva warned.

“They deserve to be punished,” Molly insisted.

“They deserve to be punished and they will be, but their family doesn’t deserve to be killed or tortured for knowledge of the potion and it’s vital to the survival of the light side that the Death Eaters do not get hold of the potion. All traces of the potion and their notes while developing it will be destroyed and everyone who knows of it will have the potion recipe obliviated from their minds. A percentage of all their future earnings will be donated to the Hogwarts trust to make up for the expenditure this has cost,” Minerva replied.

"I insist, contact their parents. They leave the castle today!” Molly demanded.

"Very well. I’ll have them pack their things and send them through the floo before dinner. I’ll update their transcripts and mail them to you in the next few days. But think very carefully, not only the twins’ lives but your entire family may depend on the school not finding out who was behind this horribly thought out prank.
I suggest you raise your war wards and stay close to home, or better yet get an international portkey from the Goblins and announce that the they have been publicly disowned and banished from Britain,” Minerva replied reluctantly. She was really concerned about sending the twins home, suspending them or even expelling them was one thing but subjecting them to Molly’s murderous rage before she had a chance to calm down on top of that was a step too far. Hopefully Arthur would be home to moderate his wife’s punishments, and that announcing that they’d been obliviated of all knowledge of the potions would be enough to protect the Weasleys from attack.

“What!?” Molly screeched, deathly pale.

"It was your sons, Fred and George, that pulled the prank on the school. I would rather not expel them or announce that they were the one’s behind the potion that caused all this, because it leaves you open to being sued for a wergild from the Malfoys and several other pureblood families, whose heirs were found to have been magically altered and are now potentially ineligible to remain heir to the family. The potion managed to reverse several blood adoptions and extensive glamour charms in ways that will have permanent effects on the student’s lives. Not to mention being turned into a muggle at his age seriously endangered Albus’ life and the health and wellbeing of several other students who rely on regular medical potions. But if you’re insisting on expulsion…” Minerva said calmly.

“You’re considering letting them off Scot free?” protested Arthur.

“No of course not, but they did not mean any true harm so we also have to be a little careful that their whole lives and your whole family’s reputations, safety and financial solvency aren’t ruined for one thoughtless prank, and I’m sure seeing their sister suffer like she did will have been upsetting for them, they were more remorseful than I’ve ever seen them,” Minerva replied. “There is also the fact that we cannot expel them without the entire school realizing that they were the one’s behind the prank. If that happens they are likely to be arrested and face charges, or potentially kidnapped by someone who wants them to recreate the potion. Are you sure you’re ready for the danger of having it become general knowledge that the twins are capable of producing a weapon that removes the magic of one’s enemies, even if it is only for a day. They will serve detention for the rest of the year but it will be assigned by several different professors a little at a time for various minor infractions, and we are going to crack down on pranking as a whole regardless of the perpetrators.”

Molly and Arthur were shaking as they agreed that this was the best course of action, and they would punish the twins severely over the summer to keep their part in this whole debacle secret.

‘Crises averted,’ Minerva thought in relief almost glad that she hadn’t had to face Molly’s wrath if her children hadn’t been the instigators of the prank and she was trying to protect someone else’s family. Though she was sure that Molly wouldn’t be the only parent demanding the culprits be expelled, she was the one Albus would take the most notice of, and the one likely to send daily howlers until she got her way.

She had a suspicion that the twins were in for a very long and difficult summer. They weren’t the only ones though and she refused to feel too sorry for them.

“Arthur, there is another matter that I need to discuss with you or your head of house,” Minerva said diffidently.

“Can’t it wait. We need to set Ginny to rights. I want her to come home with us,” Molly snapped.

“Yes of course it can wait while you come to terms with what happened to Ginevra, though it would be better dealt with sooner rather than later,” Minerva said sighing.

Arthur looked at her curiously while Molly pulled out her wand and levitated Ginny, intending to carry her through the floo with herself.

“Ginny can come home later tonight. Once she’s woken up calm and rational and been made aware of her options,” Poppy said, magically dousing the fire in the fireplace to stop the Weasley witches from leaving.

“Why can’t she come home now? Is something else wrong with her?” Molly demanded.

“Ginny deserves to be given the opportunity to decide what she wants to do free of the influence of other people,” Poppy said determinedly.

“You cannot think that we’d force something she doesn’t want on her,” Arthur asked horrified.

"I think knowing your wishes and opinions would make it much more difficult for Ginny to admit it if she doesn’t agree with your choices. What she chooses will profoundly affect the rest of her life. I want her to have the chance to make this decision for herself with all the information we can provide to her,” Minerva said calmly as she could.

“What is the other issue you want me to contact my Uncle Ross about?” Arthur asked, trying to divert the argument.

“There were several students wearing extensive glamours, or perhaps even who had been magically adopted and reverted to their natural appearance. I don’t want to jump to conclusions but several of them now bear a marked resemblance to the Weasley and/or Prewitt families,” Minerva said softly.

"I have never cheated on my wife,” Arthur exclaimed angrily.

"I wasn’t suggesting that you had, but you do have quite a few Weasley uncles or cousins who may have fathered a child they never knew about. Hopefully most of these children will be blood adopted again and it will not be an issue but we must be prepared in case one of them is disowned if their adoptive father didn’t know of the circumstances of their birth and consent to providing the blood or fluids for the adoption potions,” Minerva replied.

“How many children are we talking about?” Arthur asked faintly.

“Four who bear a resemblance to the Weasleys. I could be mistaken, misled by the shade of red hair, but it would be better for your family to be prepared,” Minerva answered.

Arthur groaned.

"It could be worse. At least your sons aren’t old enough to be implicated,” Poppy said trying to give him a little comfort.

Arthur gave a shudder at the thought, but at least that would make it a little easier to approach his uncle.

-o0o-

“Have you contacted the Malfoys, Severus?” Poppy asked.

Severus groaned.

"It must be done. Things have got better now young Malfoy has enough of his magic back to benefit from a calming potion but he’s dosed to the gills and I dare not give him any more. The child needs their mother,” Poppy replied, avoiding gender specific pronouns.

“I believe Narcissa is too self-absorbed and Lucius will be too angry that this has become public to provide any real comfort, Severus replied.

"All the same they need to be informed of the change in their child, and presented with their options. I believe that fear of his parent’s reactions is part of what is driving his panic,” Poppy declared.

"I doubt they’ll be any comfort to Draco but he’ll be safer if he’s here with us while his parents come to terms with this. I will Floo them from my office, it will be a conversation best held in private,” Severus replied, hoping that Lord Malfoy wouldn’t curse the messenger.

-o0o-

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy reacted very differently that the Weasleys. Lucius was completely unconcerned about Draco’s mental or emotional state. His only concern was whether this could be covered up so his cousins wouldn’t know he’d tried to rob them of the status of being the Malfoy Heir. If they could get Draco out of Hogwarts without being seen and repeat the ritual, then this could be hushed up and forgotten about but if word had got out that Draco was born a girl he would be ineligible to inherit no matter what they did. He needed a new heir and Narcissa wasn’t capable of bearing him one. For that matter none of his mistresses had ever born him a child either, that he knew of, though he supposed that most of them would have used contraceptive potions he’d never thought to check. It would be difficult to track them all down and make sure none of them had born a male Malfoy child he could legitimise. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure what he would do, stealing a child from one of the Scandinavian countries and blood adopting it might do but purebloods protected their children from such things and he didn’t want to taint their family line with a half blood or mudblood. Abducting or paying a impoverished pure blood woman to bear him a child and then obliviating her might be easier if he could cover up the issue of Draco being born a girl long enough for a child to be born, for that matter the girl herself could be useful to bear an heir since she would no longer be allowed out in public until a new heir was born and obliviating a wizard of a few hours here and there would be a lot simpler than abducting a pureblood witch and keeping her captive for none months in a way that didn’t put an unborn child at risk. There were ways to ensure a wizard child was born because they couldn’t risk converting the babe after birth like they’d done with Draco.

Narcissa’s thoughts ran along similar lines with a little more distaste for the idea of being forced to accept one of her husband’s bastards into her home, and probably have to put up with the bastard’s mother coming and going too since only the most shallow and mercenary women would just relinquish their child which was why she’d agreed to performing the ritual to turn her beautiful baby witch into a wizard. The thought that Lucius would kill the woman in retaliation for keeping the knowledge of a child from him didn’t even cross her mind. She hadn’t wanted to give over her daughter to the ritual initially but the healers had warned her that she wouldn’t survive another pregnancy and at least she did still have a child. She had come to love her little boy as much as she had loved her baby girl and to be honest after all this time, as much as she longed for a daughter she would rather he stayed a boy. It would be humiliating to have to admit that they’d changed the sex of their baby because she had failed in her duty to provide her husband with an heir. She wondered how Draco was coming to terms with being a young woman but at least it would get him out of the betrothal contract with the Parkinsons, or if they did insist that it be honoured it would be with their son who was a lot more tolerable than the girl had grown up to be. The alliance was a respectable one but the girl, Pansy, had a shrill whining voice that wouldn’t be out of place in a muggle street vendor. Her son was so feminine in so many of his habits that she was sure he wouldn’t be difficult to train to become a proper lady if necessary and she would be almost pleased to have a daughter again if it wasn’t for the consequences and what other people would say about it. She cringed at the thought of the gossip and innuendo she’d have to endure until her social circle got used to them having a daughter or the next scandal took place. Like her husband, the effects the change or of that gossip would have on their child, barely entered her thoughts.

-o0o-

In the Slytherin dorms Millicent Bulstrode watched with amusement as her dorm-mate Pansy Parkinson freaked out at her appearance. From a general attractiveness point of view there was no doubt that her new face was actually prettier than her normal or rather her previous features. Even the red hair was thicker and more attractive in spite of its unfortunate hue. Millicent was almost jealous about the changes though she wouldn’t want to be a Weasley. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the redheaded Pansy’s current scarlet complexion or ugly expression of horror and disbelief.
“What are you going to do?” Daphne Greengrass asked, amused. She had escaped any alteration to her appearance and remained one of the most beautiful girls in the school and the heiress to the Greengrass family. If she wasn’t also one of the nicest girls in Slytherin it would be easy for Millicent to hate her.
“What can I do. I need to write to Mother, hopefully she can fix this,” Pansy said shakily.
“Even if your mother can restore your former appearance the kneazle is out of the bag. Draco was too occupied to notice, but someone will be sure to tell him sooner or later that his betrothed now looks like a Weasley,” Tracy Davis said with some satisfaction. As a half-blood, she’d been looked down upon by some of her more well born dorm mates, and Pansy, the self-proclaimed future Lady Malfoy, had been the worst of them. But being a Davis was nothing to the embarrassment of being a Weasley, let alone one of a large number of illegitimate Weasleys.
“Let’s hope your father already knew of this or things could become very unpleasant at home,” Millicent added. Millicent’s appearance also hadn’t changed but she had seen several glamour charms she wouldn’t mind learning to make herself more attractive once she left school, or if she could learn them now everyone would think that she had reverted to a more attractive natural appearance if she could persuade her dormmates to help her and to keep quiet about it.
“She and perhaps her mother could be thrown out of the family, and I don’t think that the Weasleys will take in a pair of Slytherins,” Daphne said sombrely.
“You can’t judge all the Weasleys by the prejudices of Ron, my brother was in the same year as his brother Charlie and they were friendly. Octavius said he was a decent wizard,” Millicent said.
"I doubt that you’re Ron’s sister. There are quite a few Weasleys, even some that aren’t as poor as Ron’s family, I think, and there is a Lordship somewhere in the family. It could even be considered a step up if you’re Lord Weasley’s daughter,” Daphne said supportively.
“What about my betrothal?” Pansy asked shakily.
“Well, if you were legally adopted then Pansy Parkinson is your legal name and nothing will change. The Malfoys will have to honour the betrothal, or pay handsomely in compensation to dower you whether they want to or not,” Tracy informed her. As the daughter of a law-wizard who wanted to follow him into that profession she was better informed of the law than most.
“And if I wasn’t?” Pansy said faintly.
"I don’t know,” Daphne admitted and the others all indicated agreement that they didn’t know either.
"It might depend on the wording of the betrothal,” Millicent offered.
"I don’t even know if you still want to be betrothed to Draco. Did you see what happened to him when the potion took effect?” Tracy asked.
“No, I was facing Pansy, he was further down the table,” Daphne said frowning at having to admit she didn’t know something.
“No, he screamed like a girl and his friends hauled him out of the great hall before I could see what was happening. I assume they took him to the hospital wing,” Millicent replied. “What happened?”
"I’m not sure, He screamed and seemed to bend over in pain. I don’t know whether it was the way he was curled up but he seemed smaller somehow. Blaise ordered Crabbe and Goyle to take him to the hospital wing. Maybe we should ask him,” Tracy said.
“Maybe Pansy should stay here out of sight and write to her mother,” Daphne retorted. “She can worry about what happened to Draco and whether she wants to be betrothed to him when she gets what happened to herself sorted out and finds out if she is still betrothed or not. I doubt that her father would let her break the betrothal anyway.”
Pansy groaned. Daphne was right, she’d never admit it but her parents did not have the money to pay the compensation fee to break the betrothal. It was just as well she liked Draco because she’d be stuck marrying him even if he was a total troll. She only hoped that whatever had happened to her wasn’t seen as her family breeching the contract somehow.
Millicent whispered her plans to her friends who agreed that it was a marvelous opportunity to change her appearance so long as she could come up with a reason someone in her family might have cursed her unattractive. Daphne and Tracy immediately started looking up permanent glamour charms to try and Millicent began thinking through her relatives to find someone with a motive for wanting her to look plain that also might forgive her for blaming them. They tried out different looks but Pansy pointed out that she had to be careful to make sure she still looked like both her parents so questions about her paternity and the right to be a Bulstrode wouldn’t be asked even though Millicent wasn’t the heir. They settled on an appearance that was a prettier version of her mother’s face with her father’s hair and eye colour. She couldn’t do much about her size but out of school uniform in more fitted clothing her figure wasn’t that unattractive with a good bust support charm in place. Her roommates all swore a magical vow not to reveal that this wasn’t her natural appearance and a new attractive and more confident Millicent Bulstrode was born.

Chapter 8

Elsewhere in the castle there were some furious arguments going on between couples where glamour charms hiding a pregnancy had failed. Only one of them turned to actual violence. Before the girl’s friends could intervene, Rearden Wolstenholme, the seventh year Ravenclaw prefect smacked his girlfriend across the face hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground.

“Whose baby is it? Were you hoping to play me like a fool and fob some other man’s bastard on me as my heir?” he demanded yelling.

“No, I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m not ready to settle down and have a baby. I want a career. I was going to give it up for adoption,” his pregnant girlfriend, Jessamine sobbed.

“You don’t think that the baby’s father had a right to know before you did that?” Abigail Bryce asked her brother’s ex-girlfriend.’

"It’s not your brother’s baby either, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Jessamine replied.

“What. I’ve been mad at my brother for the way he broke up with you for months and you were cheating on him the whole time you slag?” Abigail said disgusted with her friend.

“Do you even know who the father of your baby is?” Rearden asked derisively.

“Fifty points from Ravenclaw for striking a pregnant witch and you can hand in your prefect badge. I will not have my house represented by someone who can strike a woman,” Filius Flitwick roared, his fury reminding his students that this normally mild-mannered tiny wizard was a fierce and feared competitor on the professional dueling circuit.

Rearden Wolstenholme took off his prefect badge with shaking hands, his parents would be so disappointed in him. But at least he consoled himself that he couldn’t be the father of the baby so he wouldn’t be getting married before he even finished school to a witch who he knew his parents wouldn’t approve of nor was he gullible enough to have been tricked into accepting some other wizard’s bastard child as his own. Not that he could use that argument with his mother.

-o0o-

Ginny had enough magic the next time she woke for a calming potion to work properly, calming her enough to at least listen to Minerva and Poppy outline her options before she began to freak out.

“Can I go home until they can turn me back into a girl? I don’t want anyone to see me like this,” Ginny requested.

“Yes of course you can, but you need to be aware that the change occurred in the great hall during lunch. There were a lot of other things going on at the time but you will need to be prepared for the possiblity that most of the school does or will know what happened even if they didn’t see it for themselves,” Minerva said.

“Harry will hear of it?” Ginny said heartbroken.

“Mr Potter already knows, he regained consciousness half an hour ago, while your parents were visiting and heard the whole thing,” Poppy replied. “He seemed more concerned about your well being than upset by the change.”

“He will never want to marry me now,” Ginny wailed.

“I did not know that you and Potter were seriously dating?” Minerva asked surprised. Harry’s concern had seemed more targeted at Ron’s little sister than Ginny herself and she had never seen the boy had shown any sign of returning Ginny’s crush. As a whole, teenagers were rather obvious about their first crushes and relationships and Minerva hadn’t seen any sign that Harry actually fancied anyone since Cho Chang in fourth year.

“I love him,” Ginny sobbed. “He will never look at me now. Who will want a girl who used to be a boy?”

Neither Minerva nor Poppy had any reassurances to give her. Neither had noticed any sign of particular regard for Ginny that would overcome this situation and they both knew that Harry longed for a family of his own. He would be wary of marrying anybody who might not be able to give him one. Though perhaps it was better that this had happened while they weren’t dating. Harry would have felt betrayed and would’ve had difficulty forgiving the Weasleys for hiding this if he and Ginny had been seriously involved at the time.

-o0o-

In the common room Harry sighed, his head was aching and Hermione and Ron were arguing again. ‘Anyone would think that they enjoyed arguing with each other from how often they go at it. Ginny enjoys arguing too and I hate it. I wish they’d stop, or at least I could get out of here away from them,’ he thought, wishing it was late enough that he could escape to his bed without making Hermione worry and fuss at him, then he could seal the curtains for a bit of peace and quiet, being alone would be better than putting up with this.

He began to wonder why he had developed such a crush on Ginny, why would he want to date a girl who enjoyed rows as much as she did? Why did he never notice this before?

He thought about what happened to her that day and wondered whether Madam Pomfrey would be able to change her back and was surprised to find it really didn’t matter much to him whether she could be turned back into a girl or not. He hoped they could change her back for Ginny’s sake if that’s what she wanted but he didn’t personally care, he’d feel protective of her as Ron’s little brother as he did now as Ron’s sister, maybe more so since she wouldn’t be used to being a boy. He couldn’t remember why he’d found her attractive.

He wondered about the cause of the change, the prank didn’t change anyone else into a boy, and from the arguments he’d overheard it hadn’t made any of the older girls pregnant either, they’d all already known they were pregnant, it just removed the charms they were using to hide their baby bumps. So maybe the prank had removed the magic that made Ginny look like a girl. He wondered why the Weasleys had done that to their daughter, or their youngest son. Had Ginny asked them to? Or had they wanted a daughter so badly they decided to make one when they couldn’t afford to keep having more children? Had Ginny even known she was a boy? Had Ron known?

Without saying anything to his still arguing friends, Harry took himself up to the dorm and sat in the window ledge draped in his invisibility cloak and hidden by the curtains. Since they weren’t allowed to leave the tower it was the best way to be left alone.

-o0o-

Poppy sent Ginny through the floo as soon as she had her second calming potion. Only Molly and Arthur could give their youngest child the information about exactly what they’d done to turn her into a girl and why they’d done it. Now that she’d made her decision free from her mother’s often overbearing expectations there was no reason to keep her in the infirmary and if she was to be successfully returned to her female form then the less sticky-nosed witches that saw her in the infirmary as a male the better.

-o0o-

“She says the baby isn’t yours,” Abigail told her brother anxiously.

Greyson Bryce didn’t react for a few minutes, he honestly didn’t know whether he felt relieved that he wasn’t about to be a father with the girl he’d been hoping to get back together with after she and Reardon inevitably broke up, or if he was hurt by the fact that Jessamine had to have either already been pregnant when they started dating or have cheated on him. Either way she had lied to him, hidden her pregnancy. He thought that if she had told him he would’ve forgiven her. He wondered if the baby’s father knew. Were they still here at school or was is one of last years seventh years or someone she’d met over the summer?

“Are you okay?” Abigail asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I think that I’m relieved,” Greyson said, trying to smile. “Or if I’m not feeling relieved I know I should be and I think I will be soon. She’s not the witch I thought she was. I’ll be okay soon I think.”

Abigail chuckled. “She’s not the friend I thought she was either,” she said ruefully.

“You don’t have to give up being friends for fear your friendship will hurt me,” Greyson told his sister earnestly.

“I don’t feel very friendly towards any witch who could treat my brother like that,” Abigail declared.

-o0o-

“What happened to Ginny?” Dean asked.

"I don’t think she’d want me to talk about it,” Harry said apologetically, looking at Seamus, Lavender and Parvati listening curiously. He wondered whether he should tell Dean, didn’t he have the right to know that the girl he was dating had originally been a boy? He thought that he’d want to be told if it were him dating her, but he wasn’t willing to say anything in front of two of the biggest gossips in Hogwarts.

“What happened to you last night?” Ron asked. Harry wondered whether he’d finally learned enough tact to be trying to change the subject to help keep Ginny’s secret, or if he was just being nosy.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“You went up to bed but when I went up you weren’t there. So where were you?” Ron demanded.

"I got tired of listening to you and Hermione argue,” Harry said shrugging.

Hermione looked contrite but Ron just looked angry. “Where were you?”

“Sitting in a window ledge,” Harry admitted.

“Doing what?” Ron said.

“Trying to find some peace and quiet and fresh air since we weren’t allowed to leave the tower,” Harry retorted.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, both slightly ashamed that their fight had made their friend so uncomfortable without them noticing.

-o0o-

“Why can’t you just obliviate the whole school and everything will go back to normal?” one of the pregnant witches asked whining.

“We cannot possibly obliviate that many people and removing an entire day from children whose brains are still developing could cause them permanent damage to their ability to remember things, affecting their OWL and NEWT results and their ability to obtain the career they want,” Minerva said severely.

“But our lives are ruined,” another witch whined.

“Your predicament is a result of your own actions and choices. You chose to become sexually active; you chose to be careless with your birth control potions; you chose to hide your pregnancy rather than telling your family and your baby’s father about the baby. You planned to give away not only your child but their child as well without giving them a choice. Of course, they’re going to be upset with you now that your secret has come out,” Pomona Sprout retorted.

“Ruining the lives of every student under the age of sixteen, in order to protect a few of you from the fallout of this prank just isn’t reasonable,” Minerva added practically.

“I didn’t choose this,” one of the students whose appearance had changed due to the potion. “I’m being punished here for someone else’s choices. Mum wrote back today. Dad has no idea that I wasn’t his daughter and Mum’s afraid to tell him. It could destroy their marriage.”

“No unfortunately, you are having to deal with your mother’s choices, not your own. You’re right that it isn’t fair on you but there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m sorry but we cannot recast the glamour or perform a magical adoption without blood from your father and we cannot risk obliviating anyone under sixth year. It would be even less fair to damage that many students to hide what happened to a few of you, and if it became known Hogwarts would be permanently closed for abusing children under their care,” Minerva said sympathetically.

“Bloody lot of good sorry does. I’d like to string up the person who did this from the quidditch goal posts and fire bludgers at them,”

Minerva sighed. "I’m sure you’re not the only one, this almost cost the headmaster his life.” There was a part of her that would like to do exactly that but it would probably end up costing the twin’s their lives if she let it happen.

Chapter 9

Lucius sent a house elf to collect Draco and his belongings from the infirmary, intending to hide him up in his rooms until they could complete the transformation back to a wizard. Unfortunately for Lucius and Draco, Lucius neglected to consider that the Dark Lord had insisted on being tied to the wards when he took up residence in the Manor.

Voldemort noticed the additional resident immediately and demanded an explanation. Then he insisted that Draco be brought before him immediately to be interrogated about this magic that could undo magical rituals.

Lucius and Draco told him everything they knew about the situation, how it stopped people from being able to cast magic or use potions for eight to ten hours and removed all glamours and body changing rituals. How McGonagall hadn’t been able to change into her Animagus form and how Dumbledore was dying and they were worried his magic wouldn’t return in time to save him. Even after magic came back, he was still severely ill and Madam Pomfrey had been worried.

Draco had missed most of the other things that had happened in the Great Hall as the potion had taken effect and he still didn’t know that it was a potion and not a wide acting spell, but he was able to tell them about the pregnant witches that had come into the hospital wing and how they’d been planning to have their babies adopted into the muggle world. Seeing the Dark Lord frown, he chose not to mention the staff’s speculation that some if not most of the muggleborns might actually have been babies like this adopted out into that world or that at least some of the witches and their boyfriends had been purebloods.

-o0o-

Narcissa told Draco that the potions required to turn him into a wizard as an infant wouldn’t work on a post pubescent body without serious modification and with his godfather missing, Lucius was having difficulty finding a potions master able to do this who was willing to take an oath of secrecy.

“Severus was at Hogwarts. I saw him the morning I left. What happened to him?” Draco asked anxiously.

“Severus has failed to respond to the Dark Lord’s call,” Narcissa said worriedly.

“Could what happened to me also have happened to his Dark Mark? IF the Mark is gone he cannot receive the summons,” Draco suggested.

“It is possible but I don’t know whether it would anger the Dark Lord to be told that if he hasn’t already realised that could be the problem,” Lucius replied.

“If Severus were truly loyal, one of the first things he would have done would have been to attempt to contact the Dark Lord,” Narcissa suggested.

“Do not speak of it. Do not even think of it in the Dark Lord’s presence. I can’t blame Severus for taking the opportunity to get out but he needs to disappear completely. The Dark Lord will be enraged when he realises Severus could have contacted him and didn’t,” Lucius said. Any loyalty he had felt to the Dark Lord at the time of his resurrection had been eroded away by being forced to house him, and force his family into servitude in their own homes. Extended close contact had also shown all of them what a monster the man was.

“Could we contact Severus and have him make the potion?” Draco asked eagerly.

“I will attempt to contact him when I am out next. With the Dark Lord as a member of the household and tied into the wards I cannot rely on the loyalty of the elves to keep this from him,” Lucius warned.

-o0o-

Arthur sighed when the ritual failed, it took a moment more for Ginny to realise the ritual had ended without changing her and she sobbed uncontrollably.

“What am I going to do I can’t go back to Hogwarts like this. I won’t!” she bawled.

“Shh Ginny dear. Of course, you won’t have to go back to school like this. We’ll figure it out. We will make it work next time,” Molly promised rashly.

Arthur sighed again. Ginny had made no progress in accepting that she was a wizard, she’d cast permanent fogging spells on every reflective surface in the house, refused to learn to shave, was casting the bladder and bowel emptying spells on herself rather than using the toilet even though she’d been warned how dangerous that could be if she got them wrong and had to be threatened with a dowsing in cold muddy water before she’d agreed to shower.

He didn’t know what they were going to do the power requirements for the ritual on a wizard Ginny’s age were beyond him and Molly no matter how much Ginny tried to consciously co-operate, but Ginny had refused to let her brothers or anyone else assist them in the ritual because she couldn’t bear them looking at her unclothed, and she wasn’t even going to try to adjust to her current body while Molly was making foolish promises that they could make her female again.

He never should have agreed to do this to his baby boy.

“What are we going to do?” Molly said quietly once they were alone.

“We cannot do it Molly, it takes too much power,” Arthur said sorrowfully.

“We have to. We owe it to Ginny, her life has been ruined,” Molly insisted.

"We’ve tried our best but it’s beyond the two of us. We’d need her brothers to help. I’ll write to ask them to come home,” Arthur said sighing again. He had a feeling that it would take all six of her brothers working with them to power the ritual but he doubted that Bill would be able to get back from Egypt and Charlie from Romania in the next week, and he’d have to convince Percy to help as well.

“We’ll pull Ron and the twins from school, that will give us five. That should do it,” Molly said confidently. "I’ll contact Minerva and she can send them home after classes tonight.”

"It’s going to take us more than a couple of hours to recover from this attempt and it will also take more than the three of them to join their magic, we’re going to need at least five of the boys,” Arthur countered. “Write to Bill and Charlie and we’ll bring the boys home from school when they get here.”

“But Ginny can’t wait,” Molly argued.

“Ginny is going to have to wait. We aren’t going to be able to succeed until our magic has recovered and all the boys are here to participate in the ritual. The more times we try and fail the more her magic will resist us and the less likely we are to be successful in further attempts. I’m not willing to try again without seven people casting,” Arthur said firmly.

-o0o-

“There has been one side effect to that insane prank that we haven’t spoken of. I no longer bear the Dark Mark,” Severus said.

“Yes, I wondered whether that would be the case,” Albus said placidly.

“What are we going to do. I can no longer keep spying on him if he’s unable to call me to his presence and since I didn’t immediately contact him to explain what happened once my magic returned enough to be of use to him, once he finds out that I’m still alive then my life will be forfeit,” Severus asked a little desperately.

“Were any of the students marked?” Albus asked.

“Not that I know of, I believe that I’d managed to convince him it wasn’t a good idea to have students in the castle bearing the Dark Mark. There are quite a few who are loyal to him and will be presenting themselves to be marked at the end of the year, but I’m sure none were marked before the day of the incident,” Severus replied.

“The potion is pure brilliance and would be enough to destroy the body the Dark Lord has made for himself, and break the links between him and his followers which tethered himself to this world last time,” Albus said.

“Yes, but it doesn’t work topically, we can’t just throw it at him he needs to ingest it, so I fail to see the usefulness,” Severus snapped.

"It’s a pity you no longer bear the mark, Severus,” Albus said.

"I would never survive dosing him with something like that,” Severus said horrified that Albus would think to sacrifice him that way.

Albus frowned trying to come up with a plan to get the potion into the food supply wherever Voldemort was staying. The problem was they’d have to get Voldemort to be among the first people to eat the contaminated foods.

"Is it possible to use the same method to get it to Tom as the twins used?” Harry asked.

Severus frowned at the reminder that the brat was present for this conversation.
“What?” he snapped derisively.

“Well, my friend Dobby is a free elf, but I freed him from the Malfoys after the he tried to have the school closed due to a pureblood being kidnapped and supposedly killed in the chamber of secrets, and you said that Voldemort was staying at Malfoy Manor. The Malfoys wouldn’t have even considered rewarding their home to keep out one simple house-elf. It wouldn’t really matter who else got dosed as the potion would wear off for everyone else. I mean there might be some unintended side effects but it wouldn’t kill anyone else,” Harry suggested.

“The prophesy…” Albus began.

“Wouldn’t an action by an elf paid by me to follow my instructions be considered Dobby working as by my hand?” Harry asked.

Albus looked taken aback. "I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Isn’t it worth a try?” Harry asked. "Is there any of the potion left? I could ask the twins to brew it again for me when they come to Grimmauld place. I could even ask that they let me brew it under their supervision if you think it would make a difference.”

"I could brew it for you, foolish child,” Severus said affronted.

“Yes, but wouldn’t it be better for me to do it to fulfill the prophecy?” Harry asked.

Dobby agreed that he would dose the Malfoys and their guests while the Dark Lordie was there, but he would need to get the permission of the other Malfoy elves to make sure they wouldn’t stop him. He popped away and popped back again a few minutes later, crying.

“Mulky agrees, he cannot be doing it himselfs but he will lets Dobby. The Dark Lordie feds Mulky’s brother to his snake. Mulky could hears him screams while he was being eatens,” Dobby told them, shaking with emotion that could have been grief or rage. Mulky and his brother had been long term companions of his before he was freed.

“Okay then Dobby. This is the same potion you dosed us all with at Hogwarts so it’s going to stop everyone from using their magic and if they’re wearing glamours or using magic to hide something that will be revealed. It will also remove the Dark Mark which we don’t want to do. So if you can get it only into the Dark Lordie’s cup then do that, but he must get it, and must eat or drink it before anyone else does, if you give it to anybody else because we’re not going to get another shot at this,” Harry said seriously. “You are acting as my hand in this Dobby and I will pay you whatever you ask if it's within my power to give you.”

“Do not dose my godson Draco with the potion again if he has been returned to being a wizard,” Severus said. He hadn’t been able to tweak the potion they’d used last time and suggested that Lucius employ a conclave to change the boy back in Ritual.

“Yes, please make sure Draco doesn’t eat the potion if he looks like a boy,” Harry agreed. He didn’t like the git but being turned into a girl once was more than enough trauma for anyone, he definitely didn’t deserve to have to go through it again.

“That’s what I said,” Severus grumbled.

“I’m not sure it was enough. I overheard Madam Pomfrey telling Mr and Mrs Weasley that even before she got changed into a boy her magic was still chaotic like a wizard’s magic. So if Draco’s magic still felt like a witches magic Dobby might think it was safe to give him more of the potion,” Harry tried to explain.

“I’m sure Lucius and Narcissa didn’t use the same ritual as the Weasleys,” Severus snarked, though he admitted that Harry might have been correct in needing to clarify the order to the elf.

-o0o-

The potion was a difficult one to brew but Harry carefully prepared all the ingredients under Severus’s watchful eye and added each one when Severus told him to. It turned out looking and smelling exactly as the twins’ notes described.

“Should we have someone try it?” Harry asked.

"Are you volunteering?” Severus sneered.

“Yes, someone has to. We need to know it works before we try to dose the Dorky Lordy. Cast a glamour on me or transfigure me into something then feed me the potion,” Harry replied.

“You trust me to cast on you?” Severus asked incredulously.

"If we were alone in the house, probably not but I’m going to turn back to normal as soon as the potion works and between Hermione, Dobby and the twin’s you’d be stupid to try to harm me,” Harry reminded him.

Dobby popped in when he heard his name. “You’ll not hurts The-Great-Harry-Potter-Sir.”

"It’s okay Dobby. Professor Snape is going to transfigure me to make sure the potion works,” Harry reassured him before turning to the Potions Master and grinning. “You should know that one of my favourite memories of Dobby is of him sending Lucius Malfoy flying back about 20 meters to protect me.”

Transfiguration is more your dogfather’s forte but I’ll see what I can do he said transfiguring the boy into a miniature poodle then using glamour charms to give him one of those fancy grooming looks and turn him bright pink. He conjured a mirror to humiliate the boy with his reflection then added a single drop of potion to a bowl of water which he placed on the floor. Harry drank only a single mouthful before turning back into himself lying on the floor.

Severus gestured to the completed potions vial but Dobby didn’t even look at it.

"Dobby will stay with The-Great-Harry-Potter-Sir until his magics bes back,” he declared.

Harry looked like he wanted to object but Severus agreed. “That would be wise, he’s vulnerable without it.”

“Neville asked me if this potion could do anything to help his parents,” Harry said.

“They were cursed into insanity by the cruciatus curse, I doubt that removing their magic would cure the damage,” Severus replied.

“But it wouldn’t hurt to try?” Harry asked.

“No it wouldn’t hurt them but the damage if word gets out that the knowledge of this potion still exists could destroy our world,” Severus reminded the boy.

“Neville’s parents don’t use magic, they’re not wearing glamour spells, if we gave them a little, nobody would notice their magic being missing,” Harry replied.

“But if it worked they’d question what caused the sudden improvement. The risk is too great,” Albus said sadly.

Harry looked betrayed by the old man and turned to Professor Snape. “Alice was a good friend of Lily’s, I would help her if I could,” Severus said.

“There has to be a way?” Harry insisted.

“The only way I can think of is to have the Longbottoms removed from St Mungo’s. It would be impossible to do without the Dowager Lady Longbottom’s agreement and she will not consider it. We could not tell her about the potion,” Severus said quietly.

“Neville will be seventeen at the end of July, could he have his parents moved after that?” Harry asked.

“I do not know. It would depend on whether Frank had left a living will detailing his care if he became incapacitated. I doubt he would’ve named his infant son as his caretaker, people tend to ignore the fact that small children eventually become adults and Frank probably planned to rewrite his will when his son came of age,” Severus said.

Chapter 10

Dobby popped into the kitchens at his former home and saw Mulky scurrying about trying to do the work of two elves.

“Dinner be almost ready,” Mulky said. “How you be going to get the Dark Lordie to eats when he has peoples tastings each thing checking for poisons?”

“Which be the Dark Lordie’s favourite food?” Dobby asked.

“The roast beef, buts we send it all up for hims to carve and dish out,” Mulky said, irritated at not being able to serve his family’s meals properly.

Then nobody check’s his plates. If it be his favourites he will eats it alls and the potion on the plates will soak up into the gravys and he will eats it. The-Great-Harry-Potter-Sir says it only needs be eating part of a drop,” Dobby spelled a coating of the potion onto a plate and spelled it dry so it couldn’t be seen. "As long as the Dark Lordie gets this plates we’s done it.” Dobby said setting the plate aside to help his old friend get the meal up without delay.

He waited anxiously while the soup course was eaten and cleared without incident, and they sent up the roast beef and vegetables and the gravy tureen before popping up the dinner plates.

Dobby and Mulky popped up to watch silently while the Dark Lordie watched as Lucius tasted the roast beef and gravy, Narcissa tasted the cauliflower with white sauce and green beans, and Draco the roast potatoes and pumpkin and all pronounced them worth eating. He waited a moment longer and when they all seemed fine dished himself up a large plate of meat, potatoes and gravy.

"It bes too much. Hes never eats all that,” Dobby whispered anxiously.

"It bes okay Dobby, he does eats that much. He needs to eats more than most to maintains his body, and he only needs to eats down to the bottom of the plate in one place,” Mulky whispered reassuringly.

The next few minutes passed excruciatingly slowly for the eager elves hidden out of sight while Voldemort enjoyed his dinner and the Malfoys all did their best to eat normally in front of the man who terrified them more than anyone else alive.

Eventually Dobby and Mulky could hear the scrape of the fork on the plate surface and held their breaths anxiously. The dark lordie kept eating and for a moment they feared that it hadn’t worked, but then they saw his body start to crumble.

Voldemort screamed in fury and lifted his wand to curse Lucius. “Avada Kedavra,” he roared.

Lucius closed his eyes, knowing that to dodge the spell would only result in a far more painful death, but moments passed and no spell hit him. The mark on his left arm started to burn like he was being called, but there was no feeling of need to apparate, and no where to apparate to, since he was already in the Dark Lord’s presence, it just continued to burn and a pain began deep in his chest. Accepting his punishment, Lucius opened his eyes again and the pain and burning stopped as he watched the Dark Lord disintegrate in front of him until nothing was left but a pile of crumbling old bone fragments, a decaying hand, a bloodstained chair and a puddle of potion pooling on the floor under it.

“What the hell happened?” Narcissa asked shakily.

“They’re the components of the resurrection potion. The bone of the father the hand of the servant and the blood of an enemy, someone has undone his resurrection and returned him to wraith form,” Lucius replied disbelievingly.

“No. No wraith left the body, I was watching,” Narcissa replied. She stood up and with a few quick wand movements banished the bone and the hand and cleaned up the bloodstain.

“His curse didn’t work, it’s the same as what happened to me. He lost his magic and all magic that was done on him,” Draco said.

“They think that that was a potion,” Lucius said quietly.

“Mulky, we’re done with this course. Please clear the table and serve dessert for three, take this chair away to be cleaned or have the cushion cover replaced,” Narcissa said, grateful that they hadn’t had any other guests for dinner that evening.

“Nothing happened here, the Dark Lord left the house this afternoon and was not expected to return for dinner, and we do not know where he went or what time he expected to be back. Nobody will be surprised that he didn’t confide in us,” she said very quietly but determinedly.

Downstairs in the kitchen, Mulky gleefully washed the plate the Dark Lordie had used extra well, then deliberately broke it and repaired it and washed it again, once he’d sent up the desserts. Then he and Dobby sat down and feasted on the perfectly cooked roast beef, potatoes and Mulky’s excellent gravy, knowing that the family wouldn’t want to risk eating them.

-o0o-

The residents of Grimmauld place were startled by an explosion coming from the drawing room. They hurried in to see a damaged cabinet formally full of dark knickknacks and a crazed house elf dancing for joy, grinning madly.

“What happened?” Sirius asked.

“It be destroyed, it be totally destroyed! Master Regulus’ last order be completed,” Kreacher almost sang before starting to wail. “But Kreacher not be doing it. Master Regulus will be beings disappointed in Kreacher for not being able to follow his last order.”

“What was Reggie’s last order?” Sirius asked.

“Kreacher mustn’t tell,” Kreacher replied.

“I am your master now and I order you to tell me what Reggie wanted destroyed?”

“The locket, the locket that He-Who-Musts-Nots-Bes-Named used Kreacher to hides in the cave,” Kreacher said pulling at his ears.

Severus went to the cabinet and started casting charms. “There’s no locket here but this pile of melted silver has traces of black magic and some sort of necromancy.”

“Does anybody remember what the locket looked like?” Albus asked.

“It bes big and silver with a Snake in an S shapes,” Kreacher replied.

Albus smiled. “It seems your plan has worked Harry.”

The others all exclaimed and asked how he knew but Albus refused to explain. “It is very dark magic. Magic that would be better forgotten by everyone.”

“You can’t leave it there. What was this locket and why would it’s destruction mean that Dobby has managed to give the potion to You-Know-Who?” Sirius demanded.

“It would perhaps be better to tell them something rather than letting them research it themselves,” Severus said failing to hide his own curiosity.

“Voldemort had found a way to make himself immortal. He’d used several artefacts to anchor the ritual that prevented his complete death in 1981 enabling his wraith to survive and posses others and eventually his followers to bring him back in the ritual in the cemetery in Little Hangleton. The locket Kreacher describes is an artefact rumoured to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin himself and I believe such a thing would be irresistible to Tom. The fact that it spontaneously destroyed itself at a time Dobby was trying to feed a potion that negated all magic performed on him suggests that the potion didn’t just manage to reverse the ritual in the cemetery but also the earlier rituals leading to his immortality. You and Dobby have not only killed his current body but prevented him from being able to resurrect himself again,” Albus explained. “Now I want a vow from each of you that you will not attempt to research dark immortality rituals.”

Sirius paled and gave the vow and Harry and Remus were quick to follow. Severus glared at the headmaster before unwillingly giving the vow. It irritated him not to know the entire story but Albus must have good reason not to allow them to research the details.

-o0o-

In the gardens of Malfoy Manor a large viper had writhed in agony for a moment before it’s head exploded killing it instantly.

-o0o-

Deep in the Vaults under Gringotts’ an alarm rang out regarding an explosion in one of the high security vaults. The wards immediately secured the vault employing fire suppression and locking it down. The vault owner was identified and a message sent to her demanding she never set foot in the bank again on pain of horrific death, and all her other holdings including that of her husband were confiscated to cover the fines.

-o0o-

On one of the hills outside Little Hangleton an old decrepit shack fell down to the surprise of absolutely nobody.

-o0o-

In a secret room in Hogwarts there was another small explosion and a hunk of molton metal ran down over the face of the marble bust it had been sitting on while the Diamonds scattered on the floor below. The magic of the room prevented further damage and the inhabitants of the castle were unaware of anything having happened.

-o0o-

Elsewhere across the country Death Eaters had hurried to don their hooded cloaks and masks as the Dark Mark started to burn and put their wands to their arm prepared to apparate to their lord. But no destination filled their minds.
A few of the new recruits tried to apparate anyway, some of them splinching themselves and others failing utterly as they had no destination to go to. A few of the inner circle assumed he would be at Malfoy manor and apparated into the apparition point in the ball room. Others perhaps more wisely decided that the Dark Lord was probably punishing one of his followers and would not want to be disturbed. Confused they watched the mark burn for a few more minutes before it faded away completely.
The rest of the inner circle went to look for answers at the place they knew the Dark Lord had been spending time, Malfoy Manor.

-o0o-

Dobby popped back to The-Great-Harry-Potter-Sir and said excitedly. “He be gones. Nothing but the bone and the hand and your bloods. Lucius said he be unresurrected but Dobby be watching carefully and no wraith cames out of him. His spirit bes gone.”

“Did the others eat the potion. Did you see if Lucius’ Dark Mark was gone?” Severus asked.

“No others eatses. Dobby is sorry but Dobby dids not sees the nasty marks. Dobby will go looks now,” Dobby reported popping away.
He came back a few minutes later, “Nasty Marks being gone, Potions Master Severuses,” he said.

“And you’re positive Lucius couldn’t have eaten any of the potion?” Severus demanded.

“No potions master, the potion bes on the Dark Lordie’s plates only, Mister Lucius not eats from the Dark Lordie’s plate,” Dobby assured them.

“We did it,” Harry said grinning. “He’s gone.”

“He’s gone for now. We still don’t know how he managed to survive and come back last time. You only saw the process of him getting a body of his own, there might still be another way,” Severus said more cautiously. “Or if Albus is correct and his mark disappeared completely the Death Eaters will know he’s gone for good this time, one of them may try to take his place.”

"I don’t care he’s gone and the Headmaster thinks that the ritual that prevented him from dying last time was undone as well. Will any of the Death Eaters want him to come back again?”

“None of the original inner circle but perhaps some of the new recruits have enjoyed the freedom and excitement of the death eater raids,” Severus replied.
"It’s a pity that the potion destroyed him too quickly for him to pull on his followers magic through the mark.”

“But the new recruits aren’t likely to be trusted with the knowledge of how to bring him back again,” Harry said.

Severus snorted. “None of us were trusted that much.”

“He’d be mad not to have trusted someone. Afterall, he had to wait thirteen years to be able to communicate with one of his followers to get himself resurrected last time. He won’t want to do that again,” Harry said.

“We should go and get the rest of his father’s bones to make sure that won’t work again,” Harry suggested.

"I cannot risk going with you,” Severus replied.

“You’re not going at all, Harry. It’s far too dangerous, and you still cannot use magic outside of the wards of the house and at school,” Albus declared. “I will send Alastor.”

-o0o-

The members of the inner circle who had apparated to Malfoy Manor when the mark first started to burn, looked around the darkened and empty ballroom that Voldemort had appropriated as a gathering space for them. It was clear that the Dark Lord was not expecting them there.

Thorfin Rowle arrived first and finding the space empty called for a Malfoy elf to question.

Luckily for Mulky, Thorfin didn’t know his name and the other surviving house-elf Rooney, who knew nothing about what Mulky and Dobby had done, answered the call.

“Mr Thorfin, sir. Sorry Sir. Master did not be tellings Rooney we be havings a meetings. I did not know you woulds be comings,” Rooney said covering his confusion with apologies, as the others started to arrive.

“Where is your master?” Thorfin asked.

“Theys be in the dining room eatings dinner,” Rooney said.

“Fetch Lucius,” Thorfin ordered.

"I tells my master you are alls here,” Rooney said popping away.

Thorfin looked around, the only members of the inner circle missing were Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape but Snape hadn’t turned up for the last few months. At first it was thought he’d died but those with children at Hogwarts brought back tales of some sort of magical event which removed all magic from a person and they speculated that it had affected Severus’ Dark Mark. The man was now wanted by the Dark Lord but so far he hadn’t been seen outside of Hogwarts and the anti portkey wards on the castle had been strengthened so he couldn’t be taken from inside it. It was Lucius’s absence that surprised him.

Lucius strolled into the ball room. “What are you all doing here? Our Lord isn’t here,” he asked.

“You didn’t feel the pull on your mark?” Thorfin asked.

"I felt a pull but I knew our Lord was not inside the manor and the pull didn’t push me to apparate anywhere, so I got ready and waited for instructions,” Lucius reported.

“Where is he?”

“He didn’t say and it isn’t my place to question him. He left about an hour before dinner,” Lucius replied.

“Did he say when he’d be back?”

“No, he did not, only that he would not be here for dinner. We held dinner back an hour in case he changed his mind but he did not return,” Lucius said.

“You ate without him?” a voice questioned incredulously.

“He did say not to expect him which was a pity since the elves were already preparing his favourites. The souffle wouldn’t keep and they don’t do well with stasis charms for some reason, so Narcissa ordered it served. There’s another ready to bake for our Lord if he returns not having dined,” Lucius said.

“We should go home, back to our normal routines. We don’t want him to think we were meeting behind his back,” Selwyn suggested anxiously.

“Umm, I don’t think he’s going to return,” said Rookwood, who’d arrived last.

“Why not?” Thorfin demanded.

“Haven’t you felt the difference in your magic?” Rookwood said baring an unmarked left arm.

The other’s all pushed back their sleeves and looked at them in shock, trying to hide their joy or relief.

"It’s totally gone,” Crabbe said what the others were afraid to say out loud.

“Yes, it never went away this thoroughly last time,” Goyle supported his friend.

"I think that Selwyn has the right idea. We should all return home and act like law abiding citizens while we wait and see what happens,” Avery said.

The Death Eaters nodded and turned to leave, it went unspoken that most of them were more relieved than upset about the Dark Mark’s disappearance and many of them hoped that it was a sign the Dark Lord had been vanquished from this life permanently, but none of them were prepared to say anything out loud.

Things only started to go wrong when Crabbe and Goyle attempted to apparate out. Goyle’s attempt failed completely and Crabbe splinched himself leaving his feet and lower legs behind. The two of them were magically the least powerful of the older Death Eaters.

“Grab the legs and Floo his home send his elves and family out to find him and get him to St Mungo’s,” Corbin Yaxley ordered. Goyle grabbed the legs and left through the floo.

“What happened?” Alecto Carrow asked.

"I think that the pull we felt was the Dark Lord pulling on our magic to try to keep himself alive. We’re all magically drained, can’t you feel it?” Rookwood said.

“Then why didn’t it affect their journey here?” Amycus Carrow asked.

“The journey here must have used the last of their residual magic.”

“Will our magic come back?” Amycus Carrow asked.

“I hope so. We will have to wait and see,” Rookwood said. “Use the floo to get home if you’re worried about making it. We can’t afford to have more than one of us turn up splinched this night.”

Lucius waited, keeping count as they all floo’d to their homes to make sure none of them tried to stay behind in secret. Once he was sure they were all gone he breathed a sigh of relief. His story had been accepted, whether because they believed him or were too pleased he was gone to question whether Lucius had killed him, or just too shaken by what they all hoped was only magical exhaustion and not a permanent loss of magic drained by the dark lord. It was a pity he couldn’t use the fear that such an idea would generate, particularly since he had no idea who had actually killed his former master.

Chapter 11

Harry finally found a moment to catch Dean on his own. Seamus was out on a date, Ron had gone home for some reason and Neville was in the common room with Hermione who was proofreading his essays for him.

“Hey Harry. Do you know why Ron got called home all of a sudden? Did it have anything to do with Ginny? Have you heard if she’s okay?”

“I don’t know why Ron’s gone home but he was excited about it so it probably wasn’t anything bad. He was talking about Bill and Charlie visiting,” Harry said.

“So you haven’t heard anything from Ginny?” Dean said.

“Not since her parents took her home,” Harry confirmed. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone, you know how Lavender and Parvati love to gossip. Ginny turned into a boy when the prank took away her magic. She’s gone home so her parents can perform the ritual to turn her back into a girl.”

“If the prank turned her into a boy, doesn’t that mean she really was a boy to begin with?” Dean asked.

“She believes she’s a girl, but yes, she was born a boy. From hers and Ron’s shock when she was told, I think she was turned into a girl as a baby,” Harry replied.

“She believes she’s a girl so that would be like my friend Alexa who is trans?” Dean asked. “Her parent’s helped her transition? But how did they know when she was a baby that she was a girl inside her mind?”

“It would be really cool if that was the reason, but from what I heard in the hospital wing while they thought I was asleep it wasn’t her choice. They turned her into a girl because they wanted a daughter and couldn’t have any more children,” Harry said sadly. “Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were really angry with them.”

“So she wants to be a girl, believes she’s always been a girl, I should just treat her like any other girl,” Dean concluded.

“It would be the kindest thing to do, but Madam Pomfrey was worried that her parents wouldn’t be able to turn her back into a boy,” Harry said. “That might be why Ron and the twins were called home to help with the ritual.”

“I hope they can turn her back if that’s what she wants,” Dean said.

“It is, Madam Pomfrey kept her back so she could tell her how it would affect her magic and get her to make a decision on her own without being influenced by her family,” Harry replied.

-o0o-

Charlie Weasley arrived home within a week but wasn’t able to stay for long and it took nearly two weeks for Bill to arrive from Egypt or wherever he was working these days the night before Charlie had to go back to Romania so Ron and the twins were pulled out of school on a weeknight, ostensibly for a full family dinner. Percy had also been convinced to attend the dinner but flatly refused to assist in the ritual to turn Ginny into a girl again.

"I can’t believe you did this to your own son in the first place? It’s abusive to even think about it” Percy said disdainfully.

“How much of Ginny’s magic is tied up maintaining the female form the ritual will give her?” Bill asked.

“Does Ginny even know that being a girl instead of keeping her natural form weakens her magic?” Charlie asked.

“I’m sure the magical drain is negligible. Ginny’s never had any trouble with her spell casting,” Molly said dismissively.

“But you don’t know? She was nowhere near as powerful as I was at her age, maybe she should be. Does she know that she would be magically stronger if she remained a wizard?” Bill said.

“Most OWL level spells aren’t very powerful, certainly not when compared to the magic she will need if she wants to earn a mastery, turning him back into a girl might deprive him of his choice of careers. Are you sure he understands this?” Percy said.

"I want to be a girl. I am a girl, I need my body to match,” Ginny insisted. "I don’t care how much more magic I might have like this. I’m used to the magic I had before, it was enough. I want to play professional quidditch and I can’t even fly properly like this let alone catch a quaffle and put it through the hoops.”

“Will she be able to have children as a girl?” Charlie asked.

“Yes of course,” Molly replied, as if wishful thinking could guarantee her the answer she wanted.

“She should be able to but it will be magically taxing for her. She will need to marry a powerful wizard or be under the close care of a healer throughout her pregnancy to make sure nothing goes wrong,” Arthur said.

Molly wasn’t concerned about this, of course Ginny would marry Harry and he had more than enough magic to help his wife and unborn baby.

Ginny wasn’t worried either, she wasn’t old enough to be thinking about babies, she wanted a career first and she really wouldn’t mind a good excuse to only have one or two children. She didn’t want to be a slave to her family the way her mum was.

"Okay Ginny, I will agree to help,” Bill said smiling at his youngest sibling. He had to admit that seeing her/him like this was freaking him out and he was worried about Ginny’s ability to cope if the ritual wasn’t successful.

"I’ll help too,” Charlie said.

"I will not be a party to this. It’s dark magic,” Percy declared.

“We’re in,” Fred said for himself and George.

"I’ll help, I want my little sister back, she deserves to be happy and she isn’t like this,” Ron agreed.

The ritual circle was already prepared and the boys sat down to learn their parts in the ritual. When they were sure they knew them the moon had already risen.

“That’s okay, this ritual of renewing would be better done at dawn,” Bill said.

"It’s not strictly a ritual of renewing,” Arthur said frowning.

“No but it is going to replace a preexisting ritual spell on Ginny, hopefully giving her back exactly the appearance she had before. That’s more likely at moon rise or sun rise and we’ve missed the moon,” Bill replied.

“Ritual of renewing? Is there any chance…” George began.

"Of Ginny turning back into a baby girl?” Fred finished.

Arthur looked alarmed.

“No there’s no deaging component in the ritual. It would be a one in a thousand side effect,” Bill said.

“Good thing Harry’s not here then,…” George began

“He specializes in beating impossible odds…” Fred explained.

“To make previously unheard of things happen,” they finished together.

“Or he could make something more impossible happen, like produce a girl Ginny without getting rid of the boy Ginny,” Fred suggested.

“Twin Ginnys,” George said.

"I don’t think that the world is ready for that,” Charlie said teasingly.

“Boys,” Arthur scolded mildly.

Ginny entered the ritual circle first and curled up in a ball hiding her disgusting male body. She hated the fact that her parents and brothers had to see her naked to perform the ritual. Once she was in place she called out and the others came and took their places in a ring around her, all trying to concentrate their magic on changing her into a girl while not looking at her body.

They began the ritual all doing their parts perfectly, pouring their magic into the ritual. Bill began to be concerned that they’d all exhaust themselves before it started to work. In his mind the worst case scenario would be for the spell to stall half way leaving Ginny part girl and part boy. He was about to draw back and call for them to stop when the change started, too late to turn back he poured all the magic he had into making the spell work completely.

Ginny screamed in pain. It felt like every single part of her body was burning, then it eased off a bit but the agony in her groin, lower belly and chest continued. She passed out before the end and the young girl collapsed on the ground.

Bill looked around at Ron and the twins passed out on the ground with exhaustion and his parents struggling to hold each other up. He was in the best shape of all of them so he took off his robe and draped it over his sister before picking her up to carry her inside and up to her bed. Molly came in to dress her while Bill went back out to help his brothers into the house and up to their own beds.

“That was seriously fucked up,” Charlie said exhaustedly, as he settled into his old twin bed in their shared room.

"I can’t believe Mum and Dad did that to a baby. He would have been perfectly happy being a boy if he hadn’t spent all these years believing he was a girl,” Bill said.

"I don’t understand why they did it, it would have been easier to afford another boy than to buy new things for a girl and Mum didn’t encourage her to be a girly girl. Gin was always a bit of a tomboy,” Charlie said.

“Mum didn’t like that though. Remember how she wouldn’t let Ginny learn to fly, and always wanted her to help with the baking,” Bill said.

"I always used to thank Merlin she wasn’t a girly girl always wanting new dresses and pretty bows and stuff,” Charlie said laughing.

"I’m just glad that it wasn’t you or me,” Bill said quietly.

“Do you think Ginny is going to get over this?” Charlie asked.

“I think she’s going to need to speak to a mind healer. Even though we managed to return her to the body she wants, she’s going to have memories of this week and to know she’s supposed to be a boy forever,” Bill said soberly.

“And we can’t just obliviate her, too many other people know what happened,” Charlie said.

"I wish that I could take her back to Egypt with me or pay for her to go to a different school where she could start afresh but she doesn’t have a gift for languages and Mum will never let her go off to America or Australia by herself,” Bill said.

“She could send Ron or the twins with her. I have a bit put aside if money’s the only issue,” Charlie said.

"I’ll talk to Dad, I have enough put aside to pay for it, and perhaps Mum and Dad will get a wergild from whoever did this,” Bill replied.

“Um no, it was a prank by the twins that went very badly wrong,” Charlie said, preparing to get up and hold his brother down to prevent him attacking them.

“What!” Bill yelled.

“They invented this potion which stopped a person from using their magic or having magic cast on them for several hours to a day depending on the amount. They dosed the whole school without realizing that it would undo previous magical rituals, glamours and adoptions. Apparently the whole thing was a total disaster. The professors were about to start contacting parents and close the school before the twins confessed that everyone’s magic would come back,” Charlie explained what he knew about the situation. “The professors are trying to keep it quiet because they’re worried that the twins will be targeted for retaliation or kidnapped by Death Eaters or someone who wants to use the potion.”

“A potion like that could devastate the protections of the bank. When their magic returned the Goblins would retaliate and we’d be thrown into another goblin war. Our whole world could fall to ruins,” Bill said paling.

"I hadn’t thought of that,” Charlie said. “Perhaps we should encourage Mum and Dad to send the twins overseas for the rest of their schooling whether Ginny agrees to go or not.”

“Except that if they disappeared from school now, people would suspect they’d been expelled and know they were behind the prank,” Bill said. “They need to be at Hogwarts pretending that everything is normal so they won’t be suspected.”

“Dad said we’ve a few new cousins we didn’t know about too, thanks to the potion,” Charlie said. “He’s hoping that most of them will be blood adopted back into their current families but he hasn’t heard anything definite yet. And apparently there’s speculation that quite a few ‘muggleborns’ are actually illegitimate children of students who hid their pregnancies and abandoned their children to the muggle orphanage.”

“How did they figure that? From the senior witches who planned to do that this year,” Bill answered his own question.

“What do you think will happen? Do you think it will reduce the prejudice if some of the muggleborns could actually be pureblood bastards?” Charlie asked.

“I think that Gringotts should start offering muggleborn witches and wizards the opportunity to take a lineage potion. Some of the dormant houses might actually have heirs out there somewhere,” Bill commented.

“Are you going to tell them about all this?” Charlie asked.

“They would consider it a betrayal if they find out I knew and didn’t say anything. Both about the potential risk of temporarily losing control of their magics and defences and the potential profit in having the dormant accounts reclaimed,” Bill replied.

“Some of those unclaimed accounts have Lordships and Wizengamot seats. It will cause an uproar,” Charlie said.

“An uproar that’s long overdue and will do our government a lot of good,” Bill agreed smirking with satisfaction. The twins weren’t the only Weasleys who enjoyed creating a bit of chaos.

“Any chances that one of those orphans adopted out into the muggle world could’ve been yours? Dad’s just concentrating on the kids at Hogwarts that suddenly looked like they were Weasleys. I don’t think it has occurred to him that there are more out there not currently Hogwarts age,” Charlie asked.

“No, I had a very good permanent birth control spell, and I used to make birth control potions for pocket money, I didn’t sleep with anyone I didn’t see swallow the one I gave them,” Bill replied.

“You don’t think that Dad didn’t? He knew he couldn’t really afford seven kids,” Charlie pointed out.

“Mum wouldn’t have taken the potion,” Bill replied. “What about you? Any potential for a mini Charlie out there?”

“Nah, I was too interested in spending every free moment on my cleansweep to take a ride on one of the school brooms,” Charlie said as offensively as he could.

Bill laughed sadly. “It’s okay Charlie, you don’t need to lie to me.,” ”

“You knew?” Charlie asked softly.

“You’re my brother, keeping an eye out for you was second nature. I saw it when you fell in love and it was all I could do not to beat the snot out of them when they broke your heart,” Bill admitted.

“Then why did you ask?” Charlie asked.

“Amie Diggle,” Bill replied.

“We were just friends,” Charlie said.

“You think we should ask Perce?” Bill asked.

“He wouldn’t admit it if there was, and can you really see him being that irresponsible?” Charlie replied.

-o0o-

The entire Weasley family were exhausted the next day. In fact, Ron was the only one who managed to drag himself out of bed before 10am. He was surprised to find the kitchen empty and no breakfast waiting for him and made himself a sandwich and grabbed the biscuit tin to tide him over until his mum came down to cook breakfast.

Molly arrived down to start breakfast about half an hour later to find Ron sound asleep next to the empty biscuit tin, and huffed as she started making a large cooked breakfast for them all before Charlie’s portkey left at noon.

-o0o-

Ginny woke in her own bed wearing her favourite nightie and thought for a moment that the whole ordeal had just been a nightmare. Her lower stomach ached but the ache wasn’t unfamiliar and her mother would have a potion to help with the monthly cramps. The thought comforted her until she tried to move and every muscle in her body screamed in protest. She cried out and her mother came rushing up the stairs with potions for her.

“Did it hurt me this much last time?” Ginny asked. “Did you torture your baby just to have a daughter?”

“We didn’t know it would hurt you until afterwards and no I don’t think it hurt you very much. You didn’t change size at all last time and you hadn’t reached puberty so those organs were dormant, you were unsettled but not in pain,” Molly said.

“Why Mum? Why wasn’t I good enough for you the way I was?” Ginny asked.

"Oh sweetheart, it wasn’t that. You were a beautiful baby,” Molly said stricken.

“Then why change me?” Ginny demanded.

"Your father and I wanted a girl so badly, and your birth didn’t go well. I couldn’t have another baby,” Molly said softly. “Please forgive me. You were happy before all this and we had no idea that this could happen. The ritual isn’t supposed to be reversable without a full coven and the subject’s consent.”

“So, you were just never going to tell me?” Ginny asked. “You thought that that was okay. Why me and not one of the others?”

“You were the youngest, the one without any idea of what a girl or a boy even was and your magic was the most immature,” Molly admitted.

“So, I was the easiest to change,” Ginny said bitterly. “Did you ever feel guilty about it or did you forget all about me being a boy?”

“You seemed happy being a girl,” Molly said. “You liked being the only girl, it made you feel special.”

"I still can’t believe that Mum and Dad did that to one of their children,” George said.

"If they were willing to do a ritual like that in order to have a girl then we’re lucky they didn’t try it earlier,” Fred said.

"It might have been one of us,” George said shakily.

“Personally I think Percy the prat would have made a better girl,” Fred said.

“He’s more girly than Gin most of the time already,” George agreed.

"I don’t think we should tell Gin that though,” George said after a moment’s thought.

“No right vicious she can be when she’s upset,” Fred agreed.

“You know, if they had done this to Percy, then we might never have been born at all,” George suggested.

-o0o-

The gardener elves were frightened to find half of the body of You-Knows-Who’s Snakey in a little crater out in the gardens. They were gleeful that it was dead after hearing Mulky’s story of the Dark Monsterman ordering it to eat his little brother Maldy, but they had no idea what had killed the snake or that the Dark Monsterman was dead and were worried that they would be blamed and killed for not taking better care of his Snakey. They vanished the rest of the body and concentrated on filling the hole and repairing the damaged plants around the hole, reassuring the rest of the elves that they were now safe from being eaten careful not to mention what they’d found to any witch or wizard.

-o0o-

Ron and the twins were surprised to hear that Ginny would not be returning to school with them now she was a girl again, but departed the next day without much thought to her physical or mental wellbeing. Of course, she was exhausted, they all were, if you had asked them they would have stated that she had the easier part of the ritual since she didn’t have to do anything. They didn’t realise that they were all tired because their magic had had to fight Ginny’s to make the change and she had to fight her own magic and all seven of them before her magic submitted so she would be seven times as magically exhausted.

Poppy checked the boys over and cleared them to go back to the dorms and return to classes on Monday before she floo’d the Burrow and offered to check on Ginny.

“She seems to be in a lot of pain all over,” Molly said.

“I expected that. She was in pain transforming the other way as well. It cannot be easy transforming size that far,”

“I feel tiny, have I got shorter?” Ginny asked.

Poppy cast a measurement spell. “I don’t believe so. You’re slightly taller than your measurements on record from the start of the year. You’ve just got used to being taller recently,” she replied.

“Why am I so short as a girl when I was well above average height as a boy?” Ginny asked.

“The transformation spell obviously changed who you are more than just your gender,” Poppy suggested, though she was worried that the strain of not being in her natural body had impeded her growth. ”You would have hated being so much taller than all the other girls at Hogwarts.”

“I wouldn’t have minded being taller,” Ginny protested but she had to admit that she wouldn’t have liked to be so much taller than Harry. She knew he’d be okay with her being a little taller but none of the girls she’d seen him admire were much taller than him.

Epilogue

Over the next few weeks the Death Eaters all retreated behind the wards on their homes, kept a low profile and tried to rest and consulted private healers to attempt to recover their magic.

Crabbe was in St Mungo’s they’d been able to reattach his legs but it was taking time to heal because his magical level was dangerously low when he was admitted and wasn’t recovering the way the healers had hoped it would. He was still a wizard but even once his magic had recovered as much as it ever would he was only barely capable of fifth year spells.

The private healers had all been bound to secrecy so most of the others managed to keep their decline in magic a secret but it was no secret to the former Death Eaters that they had each lost about half or more of their magical strength, and it wasn’t recovering. It was perhaps lucky for the Malfoys that this had happened, while Lucius was furious about the loss of magical power, and Draco equally furious that his father now didn’t have the power needed to turn him back into a boy even with the help of a potion, at least the loss distracted the others from the fact that the Malfoys had been the last people to see the Dark Lord alive and well and prevented the remaining Death Eaters from attacking the Malfoys.

-o0o-

After receiving an oath of secrecy, Harry told Neville about the potion and exactly what it did. He admitted that there was no way to tell how much of the curse damage affecting his parents was a result of a magical residual of the curse and whether the potion would have any affect at all. Neville reported that his parents Healers over the years had been surprised how resistant the pair were to healing potions and it was possible that even if the potion did nothing for them other than remove that resistance there might be some room for improvement.
He also admitted that his gran had been taken advantage of more than once by witches and wizards who purported to have a miracle cure and would not allow anyone to try experimental remedies on his parents.

On the thirtieth of June, Neville Longbottom came of age. He visited Gringotts and was able to claim the Head of House ring due to his father’s permanent incapacitation. He bowed his head as he put it on, it hurt that his father wasn’t fit and well and wearing the ring for another seven or eight decades and he knew his Grandmother would be upset with him for not waiting until he was old enough to take up his seat in the wizengamot at twenty-five. But putting it on now made him his parents’ Head of House and their care now depended on him. Hermione had helped him research other international magical hospitals and healing programs and had found one she thought would help. But first he had to face his grandmother and tell her he was moving his parents out of St Mungo’s.

Harry had persuaded Dumbledore to make the portkeys for him. The first to Harry’s house where Severus would meet them and administer the potion and the next later that day when their magic should have returned to a hospital in the south of Italy. It was a small place better known for the excellence of their long term nursing care than powerful or brilliant mediwizardry, where the carers spoke limited English and Hermione was surprised by his choice but it was in the town closest to where his family had a small vineyard where his parents had honeymooned nineteen years ago and the climate would do them good. He could always move them again later if the potion didn’t help the way he hoped.

Severus had warned him that this wasn’t like the magical adoptions, they couldn’t be sure there were any magical effects of the Cruciatus left for the potion to undo.

Lady Augusta Longbottom had been every bit as upset as Neville had feared she would be, and to be honest she was shocked when she wasn’t able to make him back down and see things her way.

“St Mungo’s has had almost sixteen years to heal my parents and they haven’t even made any gains in nearly a decade. I know it’s convenient for you to go and visit Dad there but they deserve more than decisions made for your convenience or mine. Even if nothing can be done for them magically, which we have no way of knowing is true, there are better places. Places where they won’t be cooped up inside the same room all day every day. Places that will help them make the most of the awareness they do still have and stimulate their senses. Go and visit them today instead of wasting your time arguing with me Gran because they’re leaving in the morning,” Neville said uncompromisingly.

At first the potion didn’t seem to have any effect but once their magic came back Severus poured a vial of the strongest nerve regeneration potion he could brew down each of their throats before the portkey took the three Longbottoms to Frank and Alice’s new temporary home. Neville had a pouch full of potions for his parents and a detailed dosing schedule to stick to.

The vineyard cottage Neville was living at was rustic but the elves that make the wine keep it clean and tidy and the food is basic but delicious. But more important than that in Neville’s eyes was the hospital. It was a converted private hotel, cheerful and homely built right on the coast with a private beach area with extensive safety charms so ambulant patients like his parents can walk out there safely at any time of the day. The room Frank and Alice were given is large and airy with French doors leading out into the garden, which is where he finds his mother every time he visits. They are already better since being moved, not a significant amount but they seem a little more aware and a lot more at peace. They were sleeping and eating better and getting more exercise. Neville was hopeful that without the remnants of the cruciatus curse still lingering in their bodies the Nerve regeneration potions would eventually work. Severus had warned him that it still might not be able to return them to sanity and that even if it brought them to a better awareness of their surroundings they may not be able to cope with the changes in the world around them since they would still have minimal awareness that time had passed since the day they were attacked. Neville was prepared to stay in Italy with them unless it proved that being confronted with an adult son instead of the baby they’d put to bed that night proved detrimental to their peace of mind.

-o0o-

After a long summer of mind healing and lessons on deportment, makeup, fashion and the manners expected of a pureblood witch. The newly christened Dianella Malfoy was almost keen to get back to school. She’d done well on her OWLs, her magic was slightly stronger than it had been before, particularly in charms though it was also a little temperamental, more easily affected by her emotional state. She hadn’t seen any of her friends over the summer except for her betrothed Pansy and was angry at them for abandoning him/her.

Padimus Parkinson had repeated the blood adoption of his stepdaughter Pansy, his older son had just given him a second grandchild so it was easy to make sure that Pansy would never be the Parkinson heir, and the child had proved useful in forming an advantageous alliance with the house of Malfoy.

Lucius and Padimus Parkinson had agreed to cancel the betrothal in return for a generous dowry to be paid on to Pansy on her future wedding day and Pansy’s support as Dianella reentered public life returning to Hogwarts for her final year.
Lucius was as eager to get out of having a daughter-in-law who was born a Weasley as Pansy was to avoid being forced to marry a girl. There was nothing wrong with witches who preferred witches though in pureblood society betrothals were always made between a witch and a wizard because their birthrate was too low to have couples opting out of attempting to reproduce. If they preferred their own sex that was what affairs were for and at least same sex affairs didn't produce bastard children. But Pansy definitely preferred wizards and if she couldn’t marry the male Malfoy heir, she had no interest in dating Dianella.

Padimus had offered his second son in place of Pansy but Lucius thought his daughter deserved to marry the heir to a family not someone who was already fourth in line to a Lordship. Padimus understood and the two men remained on good terms and the alliance originally formed by their children’s betrothal continued to flourish and provided both with new business opportunities.

Dianella preferred wizards as well and secretly always had though he had no intention of ever telling anyone that, so she was glad to be free to date who she wanted.

Her arrival on the platform caused a bit of a sensation. While most people had heard the rumour that Draco Malfoy had been turned into a girl they didn’t automatically associate the unknown sixteen year old beauty who entered the platform on her own with the former self proclaimed Prince of Slytherin. The girl was stunningly beautiful, perfectly proportioned, classy and elegant and more than one young man fell instantly in lust.

It soon became well known that the new sixth year girl in Slytherin might be one of the prettiest girls in their year but even on a good day, Dianella Malfoy had the personality of a feral hippogriff. Added to the fact that most purebloods from old families were betrothed from infancy and the fact that her schoolmates all remembered her being a boy and it seemed Lucius and Narcissa’s hope that Dianella would attract a suitable husband seemed doomed to failure, at least while the girl was at school.

Narcissa and Lucius’s attempts to produce a new Malfoy heir also failed. His magic was no longer strong enough for a ritual conception and three different private healers had confirmed that not only was Narcissa unable to carry a child but Lucius was unlikely to be able to father a child without magical intervention. Two of the healers also gave their opinion that Lucius might pass down whatever had caused his magical weakness to any child he managed to have. Therefore, after Mrs Parkinson shared Pansy’s letters about Dianella with Narcissa, Lucius gave up on a more advantageous alliance and began negotiations with a French cousin of his. He wasn’t in the direct line of succession and was happy to agree that he would marry Dianella in return for being named the next Malfoy heir. They eventually went on to have two girls before using a ritual conception to ensure the birth of a baby wizard.

-o0o-

Dean was sympathetic about what had happened to Ginny and glad for her sake as well as his own that she’d been turned back into a girl. Other than that though, he didn’t know what to think about it. The fact that Harry had been trusted to see her in the infirmary when he himself had been banned also brought home to him that his relationship with Ginny was largely superficial. Dean willingly overlooked the fact that Harry had also been injured somehow by the prank.

At first, he tried to do the right thing and overlook the fact that his girlfriend had been born and still was naturally a boy and hadn’t told him. But Ginny hadn’t returned to school and nobody would tell him whether she was still a boy or had become a girl again or when she’d be back, and she hadn’t replied to his cautiously worded letters wishing her well so it was just human nature to start flirting back when other girls showed interest in him. From there it was only a small step between flirting and developing an interest in a pretty fifth year Ravenclaw.

-o0o-

Ginny had thought that being successfully turned back into a girl would solve all her problems but she found she continued to have nightmares about waking up as a boy again and even during the day had to concentrate on not moving her hands to check that she still had breasts or didn’t have a penis in public. She tried to remind herself how much the change had hurt and that it couldn’t have occurred again without her being aware of it but it didn’t totally solve her problems. The need to constantly check gradually faded but she would have the nightmare at least a couple of times a month for the rest of her life.

She also became very self conscious about her looks, where before she found out what her parents had done, she hadn’t been overly upset about being an A cup instead of inheriting her mother’s expansive bustline, a streamlined figure was better for flying and Quidditch but after turning back into a witch she worried constantly that her breasts weren’t big enough or she looked too boyish. She was also uncomfortably aware that all the wizards at Hogwarts were aware what had happened to her and felt awkward trying to talk to them. One of her biggest fears was to be told she wasn’t enough of a real witch for them to be attracted to her.

Ginny was disappointed to find magic was more difficult for her when she returned to school than it had been before she’d been dosed with that potion and had to go through the ritual again. She was so sure that whatever drain on her magic would be the same as it had been before and be perfectly manageable. She was devastated when Madam Pomfrey informed her that according to the diagnostic tests she had recovered from her magical exhaustion and suggested that the rest of her magic was tried up in maintaining the transformation. Particularly when she couldn’t give any guarantee how long it would take for her body to settle into her new form and require less magic to maintain her female body, or even whether it would ever happen.

She had insisted on keeping her place in fifth year, thinking that being any more than one year behind Harry would make him less likely to take her seriously, but struggled to catch up with learning the spells she had missed in the previous term when she had been too exhausted most of the time to even complete all of her theory work to keep up with her grade.

Ginny tried out for the quidditch team again and was thrilled to beat out her replacement and regain the position as a chaser that she’d been selected for at the start of the year when Harry had regained his right to play and taken back the seeker spot. Unfortunately, while her ability to fly had returned in her more familiar body shape, she was unable to cope with the energy demands of learning magic and flying several times a week, and after approaching Madam Pomfrey for a pepper-up potion several times a week in order to have the energy to attend classes, or after classes to attend quidditch training she was taken from the team. The extra time to rest and to study helped but she continued to struggle to catch up with her classes and at the Ostarra break, Professor McGonagall met with her and her parents and recommended that she be dropped into the fourth year class to finish the year and sit OWLs the following year. Ginny refused and her parents reluctantly agreed to let her stay in OWL classes. It was a mistake they all regretted. In the end Ginny passed 6 OWLs, receiving an A for Herbology, Astronomy, Defense against the Dark Arts, History Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Unfortunately, the only subjects she scored well enough to continue into NEWT level was Care of Magical Creatures and History.

She wanted to stay at Hogwarts to continue those, more to remain close to Harry than out of interest in history or magical creatures to be honest, and Professors Flitwick and McGonagall offered to let her repeat the fifth year classes which Arthur insisted that she accept. At the end of sixth year she passed both OWLs but again hadn’t done well enough to continue with either subject and Professor McGonagall sadly informed her that her magical level was not high enough for her to grant an exemption. Still not allowed to play Quidditch, Ginny chose to leave school a year early and the twins gave her a job in their shop, where she worked for several years before getting a job at a teen magazine as a society reporter. Her inability to learn to apparate stopped her from getting several big stories that would have allowed her to move to a better paying position in a more mainstream publication but she found she enjoyed her work.

Ginny insisted on each of her brother’s giving an unbreakable oath never to do to any of their children what had been done to her. She still believed she was a witch and wanted to be a witch but she had to admit that that might have been because of the original ritual. All six of her brothers willingly gave their oath without hesitation, still horrified by what had been done to their baby sister.

She eventually got over her crush on Harry and started dating, eventually marrying an American Wizard. They never had any children which Molly was far more upset about than Ginny or her husband. It was enough for her to spoil her nieces and nephews, she declared that she enjoyed her job and didn’t want to have to take time off to bring up brats.

-o0o-

The twins remained subdued in Ginny’s presence and never pranked her with anything again in her entire life. They did retain their love of inventing and developing pranks but every new spell or potion was extensively tested before being unleashed on anyone. They also more carefully considered the potential harm any prank they pulled could do and their prank shop became wildly successful with not only students and children but also with parents because they were well known for never stocking any prank that could be physically, magically or even emotionally harmful to their victims.

-o0o-

Harry remained friendly and concerned with Ginny’s wellbeing when she returned to school but being tired and stressed all the time did not help her temper and she unknowingly frequently reminded him of the reasons he didn’t want to date someone like her every time she started yelling in his presence whether it was at him or not. He backed away from her friendship and towards the end of his seventh year he started dating Sallyanne Perks, a placid tempered muggleborn Hufflepuff with a quick sense of humour that never even bordered into being cruel or nasty.

Sallyanne confided in him that she’d been attending summer school to keep up with her non-magical education and planned to become an infant school teacher in the muggle world after graduation. Harry thought that was a great idea and stated that he would enjoy the anonymity of living in the muggle world, though witches and wizards seemed to calm down about his fame once he, Severus and Dobby had vanquished the Dark Lord with the twin’s potion. Though nobody knew exactly what had happened, the Death Eater raids had stopped and the British Wizarding world was at peace so they were no longer grasping onto the Boy-Who-Lived to save them again.

Harry started at the Auror Academy and excelled at the practical work but learning how biased the laws he would have to uphold were he quickly realized that it just wasn’t for him. He quit and announced his intention to travel for a while before deciding what he wanted to do next. Instead of leaving the country like he’d given the impression he planned to do he moved entirely into the muggle world near the Perks family taking odd jobs here and there while going to night school to get his GCSEs before apprenticing as a carpenter.

He finished his apprenticeship at twenty-three and proposed to Sallyanne. They married several years later and eventually had three magical children.

-o0o-

Ron and Hermione realized that without Harry present to referee between them they argued more often than not and that they really didn’t have anything else in common. Ron also dropped out of the Auror Academy and went to work in the quidditch shop, while Hermione apprenticed with an Arithmancy master and went on to teach the subject at Hogwarts once Professor Vector retired.

Ron started dating Demelza Robbins directly after she graduated Hogwarts. Demelza was drafted to play in the reserves for the Chudley Canons and eventually played in the main team for a season before falling pregnant with their first of five boys and becoming a stay at home wife and mother.

Hermione and Ron were barely talking to each other so the trio fell apart. Harry tried to keep his friendship with Ron going but they had very little in common these days. Ron was so uncomfortable in the non-magical world that he refused to visit it, and Harry avoided visiting Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and the Ministry as much as he could. Molly and Ginny also made it too awkward for Harry and Sally to visit the Burrow where Ron and Demelza continued to live while Demelza was travelling most of the time with the team. Eventually Ron and Harry lost touch sending each other greetings at Christmas and their birthdays.

-o0o-

Hermione on the other hand also lived in the muggle world while working in the magical world until she moved back to Hogwarts to teach. Even after that she was happy to meet Harry in the muggle world when she had time and had formed a firm friendship with Sally, becoming Godmother to their eldest child and spoiling her with books and trips to museums and the zoo.

Hermione obtained her Arithmancy mastery directly after Hogwarts though she continued to research whatever topic interested her and became known as one of the best educated witches in Britain in most light magic. She married a Ravenclaw several years older than they were who worked in the department of magical creature regulation who she met through her efforts to improve the lives of house elves and they eventually produced one child in her late thirties. Harry and Sally were named Godparents and their children doted on the little girl who they saw as being their only cousin.

-o0o-

Once Severus was sure that the Dark Lord would not be returning and Harry Potter had graduated thus fulfilling Severus oath to Albus, Severus quit teaching wanting to never have to obey or answer to another witch or wizard other than himself.

He opened an owl order potions business under a false name. He soon developed a reputation both for quality and utmost discretion and willingness to make some rather illegal potions and got himself some regular customers, including St Mungo’s as well as a few less reputable customers. It didn’t take too long for him to start earning enough to sell his house in Spinner’s End and buy a rundown but isolated property on a small parcel of land where he could increase his profits by growing some of his own ingredients. He was still an antisocial and rather disagreeable man but he had the autonomy he’d been craving for decades and was content with his own company and as close to happy as he believed he was capable of being.

-o0o-

Lucius couldn’t say he was happy. He tried to keep up his normal influence and to some extent he succeeded though he felt like a fraud. Cornelius Fudge and his ilk were easily led to the conclusions he wanted them to reach, occasionally with overt bribes but more often with subtle suggestions and favours. But magically he was uncomfortably aware that he no longer had the power to follow through on his intimidation. Worse he knew that a large number of his closest acquaintances knew it too. Slytherin acquaintances who wouldn’t hesitate to use the knowledge against him for their own personal gains if they thought they could get away with it.

He, who had always been supremely confident of his superiority was now aware that that superiority was false, he had the money and the heritage but his magic was weaker than most of the wizards he met. It took all his bravado to continue to act as he always had, desperately afraid that somebody would point out what a fraud he was and his sphere of influence would crumble away to nothing.

-o0o-

Narcissa on the other hand was happy. Since the Dark Lord had died in front of them the risk to her only child was now gone, and Lucius was much more easily managed. He was still keeping up appearances in public but was much less arrogant at home and his insistence of keeping everything looking normal made him simple for her to manipulate.

She’d got over the embarrassment of Draco being turned into a girl and happily doted on Dianella the way she had Draco. Better still, Dianella and her husband lived in the East wing of the manor and she was able to see her granddaughters and grandson whenever she wanted to. It had to be said that the little girls were her favourite though and she rarely went shopping anywhere without returning with something pretty for at least one of them.

The End.