Ministry of Magic,

L ondon

Jennif er left Kingsley’s office and asked the assistant,

“Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find the ladies room?”

“Yes Ma’m, just walk down this corridor and take the first left.”

“Thank you so much,”

“No problem, Ma’m”

She made her way to the restroom and took a stall which looked empty. She removed a small mirror from her purse and looked at herself. If she wanted to avoid running into people, Ginny Weasley was familiar with, then she would have to disguise herself. She knew this would not stay a secret for long, now that she has come to London, but she was determined to keep it a secret for as long as possible. She waved her wand on herself and after a few tries, she sighed with satisfaction when she saw her reflection on the mirror. The woman in the mirror didn’t look much different. She had brown hair, grey eyes and no freckles. This should work well. She left the restroom and saw the assistant making her way downstairs carrying a box of files in her hand. She took her want out and pointed it at the box. The spell hit exactly where she wanted it to hit, making a slash in the box and all the files it contained fell down. While the assistant was bent over gathering her files, she walked closer to her, down the corridor and hid behind a pillar. Looking around, making sure no one was around she pointed her wand at the assistant and waved her wand. Her eyes instantly became unfocused and dreamy. Within a few moments, she snapped and continued with gathering her files, as if nothing had happened.

Jennifer took the lifts. Once she was out of the building, she walked over to a short man standing beside the telephone booth, just across the street. He was 5’6”, nearly bald and wore round, thick framed spectacles. He was discreetly looking everywhere, for her obviously, as she had told him to meet her there, but hadn’t told him the exact time or that she might be under disguise. She caught his eye, and he recognized her instantly despite her disguise. He started walking away, signalling her to join him. She crossed the street, caught up to him and they started walking together towards the nearest apparition point near the building.

“Polyjuice Potion would work better you know,” the man said.

“Maybe. But I don’t think it’s necessary to walk as a completely different person. I just need enough disguise to look like a normal witch. Also polyjuice would need stealing some witch’s hair who has no business being in the Ministry of Magic building,”

“You have a point there. I stand corrected,” he said making a subtle bow towards her.

“How was your meeting?” he asked.

“As well as it can be, El. Turns out, he knew me. Ginny Weasley I mean. I don’t know what I must have done for the Minister of Magic to know me personally. He is friends with my father, so maybe he met his daughter once,”

“He is friends with your father?” El asked incredulously, to which she nodded.

“So I guess by midday everyone will find out you are here? So much for keeping things secret,” he said shaking his head.

“No I don’t think that will happen. I requested him to keep our meeting secret for the time being, explaining that I needed to work off the grid for a while for Ted’s case. He gave me his word he would,”

“You think he would keep his word?”

“I’m taking a leap of faith here El. I don’t have any other choice. Couldn’t have performed a memory charm on him. He is an ex-Auror, it was very risky. This way, we have at least 2-4 days, before everyone finds out that I am here. It’s better this way,”

“What about the assistant who scheduled the meeting between you two?”

“I took care of it. Even if Kingsley finds out that I erased her memory, I don’t think he would mind. He would understand why I did it. Did you keep an eye on her while I was in the meeting?”

“Yes I did. She didn’t leave her desk the whole time you were inside. She wasn’t doing anything curious or suspicious, so rest assured your meeting with the Minister will remain a secret for the foreseeable future or let’s hope so,”

“He did say some things that interest me, maybe it would help us too,”

“What did he say?”

“He said that there have been new evidence that point to something else that might have happened ten years ago. That new evidence proved that I wasn’t actually dead but they also indicate that there is something bigger going on. Something that no one else has caught onto yet,”

“You think Samar must have caught onto it? It is definitely worth looking into, since that could be reason why he was kidnapped and later murdered,”

They had reached the apparition point and then both of them apparated. They found themselves on a cliff and Jennifer knew they had apparated at the right place when she heard the sea waves crashing against the rocks of the cliff. The view was quite breathtaking and she realized that there is no place safer in England for Sam and Murph. This place was far away from any places where muggles could be found and was well hidden, behind Scafell Pike. Very few muggles dare to trek in these peaks and the charms placed on the manor ensure that no muggle would accidently discover it. The grounds of the manor were quite huge. Sam and Murph would not get bored, there was plenty of space for them to explore. They would be quite content staying within the walls of the manor for a while. She and Elliot stood at the gate, waiting and few moments later the gate opened itself to allow them inside. They walked towards the manor, which stood atop a hill overlooking the sea. There were several flights of stairs spanning at least half a mile along the hill. They started making the climb and continued their conversation,

“The Aurors here and in America concluded that Samar’s death was an act of spite by Michael Lansky. There was no evidence pointing to anything else. If Samar was working on something he covered his tracks well,” said Jennifer.

“Too well you mean. I looked at everything that you were involved in and by you I mean Ginny Weasley. She was involved in pretty serious things for someone that young, but nothing so big as to cause a murder. It’s weird to refer to Ginny Weasley as some third person by the way when really it’s you. Can’t I just refer to her as you?”

“It’s confusing to me, since I don’t remember what I did ten years ago or before that and even though I don’t really know how I used to be, I just know I am very different than I used to be. So essentially Ginny Weasley is someone else, even though it’s my past. So let’s just continue referring  to her as a third person,”

“Alright your wish. I will get used to it eventually”,sighed El.

“Thank you for coming here El. It means a lot to me,”

“Don’t mention it. You know me. I like mysteries. But I also know that some things are destined to be mysteries. There are too many unsolved variables sometimes. Like Samar’s death. Even though I believe that Samar’s death wasn’t an act of spite, there are just not enough clues that say otherwise. We need something conclusive to work with. And so far we haven’t found any. So I am curious as to why we are here, when you swore you would never come back,”

Jennifer sighed and answered,”I didn’t come back because I wanted to keep my family safe. To keep Sam safe. Samar was killed when he was looking for me, collecting information about my past. At first I thought, that the answer to his death was in those files. That’s why I asked you to acquire her files and look into it. But when you didn’t find anything else that we didn’t already know, I thought maybe the reason he got killed, is because he was looking into Ginny Weasley in the first place. At first I thought that whoever faked my death, whoever he is, he obviously didn’t want anyone to find out. His plan was to murder me, but when I escaped he faked my death. So if he found about someone being too curious about my death, he must have thought that the best course of action is to get rid of that person,”

“It’s an interesting theory. How do you know for sure that’s the reason?”

“Because I tested it by erasing everything about my past. I wiped out all the files that has ever existed with the name Ginny Weasley on it. And here we are, four years later and no one we know has got killed, because whoever is behind my disappearance from England he probably gets a blip on his radar when someone actually gets access to Ginny Weasley’s files. If there aren’t any files, then he wouldn’t find out about anyone who tries to look up Ginny Weasley,”

Elliot was surprised at how calmly she confessed committing a crime and asked,

“Do you have any idea how many laws you broke by doing that? What if someone finds out?”

“Well people can speculate about what really happened to those files, but they won’t find any proof of it. Mrs Hudson knows what I did with those files and I told her that there might come a time when she would have to come clean about it to my family. So only people in my family would know the truth and I doubt they would sue me for wiping my own records. No one else will know,”

“Still, it was too great a risk,”

Jennifer scoffed and said,”You’re the one to talk. Your name isn’t even in the system, yet you have an apparition license, a Princeton graduation certificate and several properties spread all over the world.Oh you do not get to lecture me about breaking the law,” and laughed.

“That’s precisely the point. I am off the grid, so even if someone is fishing around, none can find me,” said El.

“Don’t worry, I covered my tracks just fine. No one will ever convict me for it, unless I confess, which is not gonna happen. So just relax,” said Jennifer exasperatedly.

Elliot grudgingly dropped the argument and kept quite.

“So what exactly are we doing here?”, Elliot asked.

Jennifer found herself zoning out and thinking about the months after Samar’s death and the months after Sameer’s death she had secretly spent, looking into Samar’s death. It didn’t give her any joy erasing her own files, but she couldn’t think of any other way. It was necessary. Samar gave her a new life in America, he gave her a sense of purpose and he gave her a reason to will. What she did, seemed like a small price to pay, considering everything he had done for her. She couldn’t just give up on him and accept the fact that his death was just a killing by a gangster, convicted by Samar. Michael’s escape to London was also something that didn’t sit right with her. After the war with Lord Voldemort, getting into London was more difficult than ever. It didn’t make sense to escape to London when he would have successfully escaped the American Ministry jurisdiction in any other less secure places. She had a disturbing thought that maybe Michael was in league with the man behind her disappearance but again she never found clues pointing to that. But in many ways that didn’t make any sense. It was just one of the gut feelings that she had. She had looked everywhere for clues. She knew Samar. When she was in Afghanistan, when she was months away at a time, they still had managed to communicate with each other through muggle postcards. They had used fake names and their postcards looked like absolutely silly love letters. But they were actually encoded with vital information about the gang that she was investigating. They used different kinds of cipher to encode their letters to each other and this is how the Auror Department had managed to solve the case. She looked for clues in the things left by Samar to her in his will, in the stuff he used when he was in London. But couldn’t find any. She was forced to admit that Samar had not left any clues for her through his will or in any stuff he had used, since it was too risky to leave clues in things that others can access or interpret easily. He would have left clues in places that he last stayed in before he disappeared. But going back to England seemed too risky, since Sameer was still so young and he needed her. So she sent Elliot, a friend she had made back in Afghanistan who was brilliant at code breaking, to look for any clues. But he couldn’t find anything. The gut feeling, the intuition that she had about the possible reason for Samar’s death has not wavered in the last four years. Most of her trusted colleagues were either dead or transferred. The Auror Department could not just spend more resources looking into this case, which looked pretty cut and dry. There just wasn’t any evidence to suggest that Samar’s death was part of some plan. After a while she had given up on the search for more clues. There just wasn’t enough evidence to help her solve his murder. She felt like the worst wife. She couldn’t find justice for her husband, for the man who gave her a new purpose, who gave her a beautiful boy, a family. She realized that the only way she could ever repay Samar for everything that he had done for her, was by raising their child and build a new life for herself. And she threw herself at it.

“When I couldn’t find anything that will give me some answers, I just gave up looking for it. Like you I started believing that some stories are destined to be mysteries. My obsession had got Samar killed. I didn’t want the same fate to fall on Sameer. And he is everything to me. It really didn’t matter anymore to me, to find out who I was. Because when I knew that I was going to have a baby, I realized I was someone’s mother, which was better than being anything else. I was content with knowing my family was alive. I had erased my own records, so I foolishly let myself believe that maybe things will finally quiet down. Everyone will be safe,” she said sadly.

“What changed that?”

“Murphy,” answered Jennifer quietly.

Elliot now got thoroughly confused now, “What has Murphy got to do with anything?”

Jennifer noticed that they were approaching the manor so she suggested taking a walk down a trail which lead to a small clearing. The walked down the trail and then sat on a rock shaped like a bench.

“About a year and half ago, I got a series of letters from a woman named Ellen Swan asking to meet me. She didn’t say much. She told enough about herself in the letters so I could check if it was legit. When it checked out, I agreed to meet her. She asked me to come visit her in a hospital in North Carolina. I went there and when I saw her, I recognized her immediately,”

“Who was she?”

“Scarlett Ellis. She was Michael Lansky’s girlfriend. Turns out she had ALS and had asked the healers to terminate her life, since she couldn’t handle living like that. But she wanted a favour from me before she passed,”

“How did she get there? I mean wasn’t she convicted?”

“Yes she was. She spent 2 years in prison, but was released on early parole,”

“So let me take a wild guess then. Murphy is her daughter and she asked you to take her in,”

“Yes,”

“Why you? She must have had other friends who would have done that for her ? And how come she has a daughter and no one knows about it?”

“Murphy is Scarlett’s and Michael’s daughter. She gave birth to Murphy years before she even met me. She had left Murphy in an orphanage shortly after she was born because she didn’t want her child to have the kind of life that she had been living, with a father like Michael Lansky. She did it right under Michael’s nose and Michael or anyone in the crime syndicate ever got the wind of it. Or so she thought,” explained Jennifer.

“What happened then?”

“She said she got mixed up in bad business trying to make a living, immediately after her release and somehow someone found out about her daughter and didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was Michael Lansky’s daughter,”

“How does someone just figure it out, out of the blue?” asked Elliot his face skeptical.

“I don’t know. She didn’t say much about it. She just gave me a brief about what happened and what she wanted from me. She said people were after her, Scarlett I mean. That they might try to get to her daughter to blackmail her or extort her. She asked me to protect her daughter by taking her in so people would stop looking for her. In exchange she said she had something that might be useful in finding out the reasons behind Samar’s death,”

“What was that?”

“After Michael Lansky escaped from prison, he purposely fled to London. It wasn’t just a random location he had chosen to disappear. He went there for a reason. She said several of her contacts in the mob were hired to follow Samar and Ted. He wanted Samar and Ted to come to London. He wanted Samar dead for some other reason and not just to get back at me,”

“Did she say what was the other reason?”

“No she didn’t say anything about that,” said Jennifer morosely.

“How did Scarlett even know all this?”

“I don’t know. When I asked her, she told me it was not important how she knew this. She just did. She told me take her word for it,”

Elliot scoffed and said,”Word of a criminal. That’s just great. So are you telling me that you came to a place, you swore would never come, on the word of a dead criminal?”

“No that’s not it. I told her I would consider taking in her daughter and left. When I first saw Murphy, I saw how much she needed help. And when I saw the way Sameer and she bonded with each other, it wasn’t such a hard decision. I decided to take her in. But I didn’t do anything with the information Scarlett gave me. Life was great, Sameer was amazing and Murphy was happier when she came home to us. It just didn’t seem worth anything to spoil all this based on the word of a woman I didn’t trust. But it was always nagging me. It wasn’t that I had a conclusive proof or anything. It’s just that Samar is ashes on the ground because of something in my past, there are people out there who are trying to keep me hidden, these people killed my husband. It ate me away. Murphy and Sam’s safety is the only reason I stayed and resisted the temptation to come back to England and get some answers. But then when I heard about what happened to Ted, I knew that once again my past has come back and started haunting me. Somehow they are behind this as well. And I decided to come back and face my fear, before anyone else got hurt because of my past,”

“But you still could have solved this case by staying there. You could have done hundred other things by staying in America and still resolve this situation. You could have found a way to get it solved like that and told Ted some reason for doing that. He wouldn’t have minded. What changed?”

“That’s what I tried at first. At first I thought that Astoria Malfoy just wanted some kind of publicity scandal to ruin Ted’s reputation. I was going through her case, trying to find some way to dismiss this case without having to leave America, when I got a call from Ted saying that he had found my family. He told my family now knew that I was very much alive and everything. But he said something else. He said that the Aurors in London, they had the man who raped me, Amycus Carrow, interrogate under the influence of Veritaserum. They also used Legilimency on him, without his knowledge to see if his memories have been tampered with,”

“And?”

“Ted said, they found out that his memories involving my escape and the reason for kidnapping me seems foggy. There are traces that suggest someone has modified his memories. But there was a flash of a memory that they got. Only a flash. It had Ginny Weasley sitting in front of a man. He was not Amycus Carrow. He was someone else,”

“And you think he was the person who faked your death and modified Amycus’s memories when you escaped. He is the person Samar was talking about. You think he was the one who helped Michael escape and kill Samar,” said Elliot completing her thought.

“Yes,” Jennifer said, grinning.

“So that’s why you came? Because you got some hazy memory from a rapist, of a man sitting in front of you?” asked Elliot incredulously.

“Look I know it’s a needle in a haystack but at least there is a haystack. And the haystack is smaller than you think. Till now we just speculated that there was someone else behind my disappearance. Now we know for sure. It’s a hazy memory but it’s way more than intuitions that I have had. Also Samar was wrong about one thing. He thought and so did we that this man wants to murder Ginny Weasley. But Amycus said that they had concocted a potion to gain control of Ginny Weasley, since she could resist the Imperius curse. So the plan wasn’t to kill Ginny Weasley. The plan was to make her do something, something specific that only she could. But it all broke loose when she escaped, so he faked her death,”

Elliot raised his eyes and said, “So that means, that this man faked Ginny’s death so he could look for Ginny Weasley, control her to do something, while the rest of the world thinks she is dead. Impressive,” and whistled.

“All this time he has been looking for me, but couldn’t find me. So when he finally did, he used Michael to draw me out. But that didn’t happen since I was pregnant. I don’t know if he knows about that, but when I didn’t show up, he decided to get me through Samar and Ted. So he kept tabs on Samar and Ted and had Michael kidnap Samar,”

“But that still doesn’t explain why Michael Lansky killed Samar,”

“Yaa I know. There is something that happened I think. He probably thought of drawing me out with Samar, but something happened and he killed Samar for it. I was practically in hiding. It was nearly impossible to get hold of me, because I was well protected being the lead witness. So he may be planned to contact the Auror Department to get hold of me. But he didn’t. Something happened. It has to be because of something that Samar found out about Ginny Weasley. Something he didn’t think Samar would find out. The reason for kidnapping me, the reason for getting control of me. They wanted me to do something. Maybe Samar found out what it was and that’s why he was killed,”

“Yes,” Elliot said slowly.

“Since kidnapping Samar didn’t work in his favour, he waited for a while. Kidnapping Samar and murdering him caught a lot of attention. He didn’t want that. So he decided to stay low for a while and then planned his next ploy to bring me back. But used a different tactic. He likes to work in the shadows. He wants someone else to do the dirty work for him. But Michael is more heavily guarded than ever. No one except those in high command know where he is guarded. And you can’t get him out just by having influence over the right people. I made sure of that, while drawing up the security wards in his prison. So getting Michael out of prison again is out of question. And he can’t have patterns in crimes that he commits, even if he is working behind shadows. He cares so much about his influence, he wouldn’t let anything tarnish that. So decided to use a tactic that wouldn’t gather as much attention as the last one did. I think he may have forced Astoria Malfoy to set up Ted for a fake rape charge. It makes more sense than Astoria seducing Ted just for publicity. This man knew I would come to Ted’s aid, if all hell broke loose. His plan is to maybe kidnap me and make it look like an accident or something. He can’t let it show that he drew me out. Kidnapping and ransoming would do exactly the opposite of that. That’s the mistake he made last time. So he sets up this investigation, which would require me to come here. If in the next few days I disappear no one would ever know why or by whom. No one would ever be able to connect that the two incidents are connected,”

“But he didn’t count on you erasing your own files. So he doesn’t know that Ted knows about your past, which led them to investigate Ginny Weasley’s death. At least for a while he won’t,”

“Yes. Which keeps us ahead of him. Even if it’s a few days,”

“But do you think it’s wise to do the exact same thing he wants you to do. If he wants you to come back, wouldn’t it be better to stay in America. Sam and Murphy aren’t safe anywhere if what you are saying is true,”

“Exactly my point. Sam and Murphy are not safe anywhere. Neither is anyone I know. Whoever this man is, he is going to stop at nothing to draw me out. He already made the first step by getting Ted into trouble. It’s his plan, but if I hadn’t come, he would have killed Ted. I couldn’t risk that. The only way to ensure Sam and Murphy’s safety is by stopping him.”

Elliot looked at Jennifer for few moments and then nodded understandingly.

“So what now?” he asked.

“We are going to do is look into Astoria and Draco Malfoy and find out what exactly this man has on them. If he loses his leverage over them, I can get his name from them. They must have some idea about him or his intermediary. We have only a couple of days to this. After that I have to get Ted into this plan. I need his help to convince the Aurors here to keep this investigation under wraps. We may need to hide Astoria and Draco to protect them, once we have the leverage we want. This man must have spies everywhere. So we can’t have anyone know that I have come back. It has to be kept secret for as long as possible,”

“Jennifer its too dangerous. The court date for the trial will be set, and then it will be out in the open that you have indeed come back.”

“Not necessarily. Right now no one knows who will be representing Ted. Soon it will be out, so we have to gain the dirt this man has on the Malfoys and stop this investigation before it even happens. Whatever the situation is, this man has to wait until after the trial to do anything otherwise it would look suspicious. He may even try to set an earlier date if he has that reach. That’s why we have to collect evidence so Kingsley and the other Aurors in the Ministry can help us,”

“You are going to trust the Aurors? And the Minister? With all this?” asked El.

“I have to. Plus don’t forget the reason Ted was sent here in the first place. Over the years he has given me a list of suspicious people in the Britain Ministry who may be working as spies for some organisation. We just have to stay clear of those. And there are a handful of Aurors that we can trust, I have their names and files too. Some of them were part of the Order of Phoenix, the secret society formed by Albus Dumbledore to oppose the Dark Lord. We can trust them at least. There are very few that we can trust, but we can count on those few. We have to. Sometimes we have to take a leap of faith and just hope for the best, El.”

“Alright. Say we investigate the Malfoys and get the dirt on them that’s being used to blackmail them. What if we still don’t actually get a name of the man behind the curtain or the intermediary,” Elliot asked.

“I don’t know. I know that Samar left clues about what he was really doing when he was looking into Ginny Weasley. We still need to look into that,” said Jennifer for what felt like the umpteeth time.

“But we have looked everywhere Jen. We haven’t found any in four years!” said El indignantly.

“I know about that alright, but we have to keep looking. It’s our only chance of ever finding out the truth. We have to start over. I know he has left me clues. Maybe it’s hidden in plain sight and I have just been too stupid to realise it’s meaning.  And four years ago, I sent you here to look for clues. But Samar must have left clues that only I could understand. At that time it seemed like a good idea to not come back but now it just seems like it was a stupid mistake. But he must have been trying to tell me something. I have to hope that,” yelled Jennifer who was almost in tears.

She got up and walked towards the edge and looked down at the water. She let the tears flow out of her eyes. She couldn’t let anyone see her like that. Not even Elliot who has become one of her most trusted friends. She knew the risk she had taken, she knew the dangers that lie ahead, but she also knew that if she kept running like she had in the last four years, she will never live in peace. She will never live in peace as long as Samar’s murderers were out there. She didn’t really didn’t care about finding more about her past, because she had made a new life for herself. But she will lose this new life too, if she didn’t stop running, she was sure of it.

She was stupid to believe that erasing her past would stop whoever was after her. But not anymore. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to her children. She needed to protect them at all costs, damn the consequences.

After sometime she surreptitiously wiped her eyes and turned to Elliot. He looked at her and spoke,

“There is another way to find out what really happened. You could try getting your memories back,”

Jennifer sighed and said, “Maybe but it’s too uncertain. We don’t when my memories will come back if they can. We can’t rely on something like that. Maybe like the healer said, they can be triggered but I won’t get all my memories that way. Memory recovery potions will not work on me, because head trauma caused the amnesia not memory charms. Besides we just don’t have enough time to work on my memories given everything else. Getting my memories isn’t the priority anymore. I don’t really care if I remember who I used to be, I know who I am now. Which is enough for me,”

“If it’s not important, then why haven’t you read the file on Ginny Weasley. You don’t care if the memories get triggered or not anymore. So there is no harm in reading your own file. You know some things but not everything. So why haven’t you read the file on Ginny Weasley? Maybe it will be useful for the case,”

“You have read it, you didn’t find anything useful. Whatever the answers are, it’s not in Ginny Weasley’s biodata. It’s somewhere else. So it’s no use for me reading those files,” she said smoothly.

Elliot knew that wasn’t the case and it didn’t exactly answer his question. He knew she was lying but didn’t say anything. If Jennifer didn’t want to share what she was really thinking, she wouldn’t, until she was ready. So he dropped the subject for now. Without saying another word Jennifer walked out of the clearing towards the manor where her children were waiting for her.

***

Harry, Ron, Hermione were sitting in Ron and Hermione’s living room sipping tea. They had just explained to the Weasley family everything that had transpired the day before. As expected there were mixed reactions, but in the end surprisingly everyone decided to forgive what Jennifer did. The women who understood Jennifer’s motives had arguments with men who thought that what she did wasn’t fair to them. In the end they realised how petty the arguments were, given the fact that someone who they had loved was coming back to them after so long. They all agreed to forgive her then. Then Ron went on to explaining how they should behave when Jennifer comes back. He explained and made it abundantly clear that under no circumstances anyone should pressurise Jennifer to gain her memories. They all agreed to it unanimously. When Ron suggested that it would be better if the few family members met her at one time, arguments broke loose. Not everyone agreed with it. It had been ten years since they had seen Ginny. They were all anxious to meet her, to make sure she was alright. After a lot of arguments it was agreed that when Jennifer comes back, only a few people would meet her first. And then she would be introduced to the rest of the family gradually. It was agreed that Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Bill, George, Harry and Hermione would meet her first.

“Do you think it’s right? Having only few of us meet her?”, asked Ron doubtfully.

“Yes. I mean she has amnesia. People with her condition should be treated with care. If too many people crowd her, she could have seizures, dizzy spells. This way there is little risk of that happening and the reunion will be smoother,” explained Hermione.

“What about you Harry? What do you think?” asked Ron.

Harry didn’t respond, he looked lost in thought. Ron snapped his fingers in front of Harry and broke him out of his daze, “Hey mate! Where are you?”

“What?” Harry asked confusedly.

“I asked what do you think about this arrangement? Of having only few of us meet her,”

“I think it’s alright. It's better that way,” he said distractedly.

“What’s wrong Harry?” asked Hermione.

“Nothing,” replied Harry automatically but one look from Hermione and he relented,”Oh I was just thinking about what would happen when I see her. What would I say? What should I say to her? Have you guys thought about that?”

“No not really. But it will come to me when I meet her. I don’t care if I say something stupid, I will just be happy to see her alive after all this time,” said Ron a sappy expression on his face.

“Yeah I haven’t either. Don’t worry about it too much Harry. It’ll be fine,” said Hermione putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah maybe. You know maybe it’s just better if I stay and wait for another day to meet her, give time for just her family the first day,” said Harry.

“Have you gone bonkers mate!”, said Ron incredulously ,”You are family. You deserve to meet her just as much the rest of us mate,”

“I know, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go,”

“Harry what are talking about? Why is it not a good idea for you to go down there?” asked Hermione.

Harry sighed and spoke tiredly,”I just don’t know if I can see her, and not think about Ginny. I mean she will see me, but her expression would be blank. Like a stranger. I just don’t think I can handle having her looking at me like that with no love in her eyes for me,”

“Mate she is going to look at every one of us like that,” Ron said.

“No not really. Because you all are her family. She will be happy to see you all. What am I? I mean you can’t really introduce me as an ex-boyfriend, so I would have to be introduced as a family friend, which is weird. I don’t think I’m ready to handle meeting her,”

“Harry you have to come. Look I know how hard this must be for you. Just because she is a different person now, doesn’t mean you lose faith. So what if she has amnesia, she can always get her memories back. And even if she doesn’t you have to give her a chance, you have to get to know her because you were once an important part of her life. And you know deep down you want to. You owe it yourself. Imagine how horrible she would feel if she found about you and her and see you being very distant. And Harry, there is still a chance for you too, despite everything that has happened between you two-”

“No!” said Harry vehemently.

“What do you mean no?” asked Hermione, confused.

“I mean, that I love Ginny. I still love her. Jennifer is very different from her even if she is Ginny. She only looks like Ginny. I just don’t think I will ever feel that way about Jennifer or any other woman..,” said Harry.

“You speak as if the there are two different women. I mean yes in many ways there are. Ginny has changed a lot, I get that. Doesn’t mean that we should talk about her like that. Doesn’t mean we have to treat her like a complete stranger. It will be weird but we have to build some relationship with her-”

“Yes exactly. It will be difficult to reconnect with her, since she doesn’t remember anything about us and any new relationship with her wouldn’t be the same,”

“Harry none of us are who we were. We have a changed a lot too over the years. You can’t blame Ginny for changing given what happened to her. It is completely natural. But from what Penny and Ted have told me about her, it doesn’t sound like she has completely changed. Maybe some important parts have changed, but essentially she is still a good person. A good friend, a loyal friend. She is still very much like the woman, Ginny would have been if none of this had happened. The only difference I see is she is much more guarded, which is important and makes all the difference. Is it really that bad Harry?”

“No I didn’t mean it that way. But I just don’t see myself developing anything romantic with her, when she has a lot of other things to think about. She is married, widowed yes but she is married. She is in love with someone else, she has two children. In a way that changes person a lot. And I am still in love with Ginny, the old Ginny. We both essentially love someone else, so I don’t think it’s possible,” said Harry sadly.

Hermione realized why Harry felt like this. Ginny had been the only one for him. But same couldn’t be said for Ginny. Sure, no one could blame Ginny for moving on since she had no memories of her past life. No one should blame her building a new life for herself. It hurt no one. No one except Harry. Ginny was someone that Harry had had all to himself before she disappeared. But that wasn’t the case anymore. She had children, that weren’t Harry’s, she was in love with someone who wasn’t Harry. It hurt him more than he let on. No matter what Penny, Ted said to them, Jennifer wasn’t that different. She had made choices to stay away from them to protect them. Maybe they weren’t as important to her, as they once were. But that didn’t mean she would treat them like strangers. She knew Jennifer would be happy to see everyone despite everything that had happened, and she would like to build a new relationship with the family she had lost. She realized that it wouldn’t take long before Harry fell in love with Jennifer too and deep down Harry knew that too. He was just scared of the possibility that Jennifer might not feel the same. And Hermione couldn’t blame for having insecurities like that. It was possible. But Harry was covering up, keeping these things from her in his typical fashion but stating some nonsensical reason for doing so. She should not be surprised. But after all these years, he deserved some happiness. If Jennifer could give him that, she would have to convince Harry to confront his fears and take that step.

“Look no one expects you to pick up where you left off with her. It’s completely unfair to both of you. But you could still be good friends. So just come and introduce yourself as your friend. You two would be working together soon, so don’t you think it’s better if you build some kind of rapport with her before working together?” asked Hermione innocently.

Harry knew what Hermione was trying to do and he was irritated to see that it was working. He couldn’t disagree with her when she used logic like that. If he did, Hermione would only continue peppering him with questions that he didn’t want to answer just yet. So for now he wisely agreed with her to shut her up.

***

She waved her wand over herself to undo the charms on her hair and eyes. Then waved it over the door, which opened instantly. She stepped into through the door. Immediately she heard a small voice from her feet and jumped. She found herself looking at a house elf standing near the door, with her hands out.

“Oh I am so terribly sorry Mistress to frighten you, I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to welcome you into your home” she said timidly, tears brimming her eyes.

“You must Trixie, then” Jennifer said who found it odd to be addressed as Mistress by a house elf she has never met, but only heard of. She had tried to set her free, by sending a letter saying so. In reply she got a rather weepy floo call begging her to never set her free. She had eventually agreed to let Trixie stay on the condition that she find some other useful work to do when Anand family wasn’t in the manor. But now that she was here, the house elf would be working in them manor effectively for her.

“Yes Mistress, it’s good to see you again in person” said the elf, making a low bow to her.

“And who might this person be Mistress?” the elf asked when Elliot joined her at the door.

“Oh this is a friend of mine, Elliot.”

“Hello Trixie,” Elliot said waving his hand at her.

“Hello Sir. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” replied Trixie.

“How have you been, Trixie?” Jennifer asked the elf, making her way into the living room.

Suddenly the elf let out a howl of shock and threw herself back on to the ground. Jennifer and Elliot both went down to their knees and tried to shake the elf and calm her down. Her wailing must have been very loud, since she heard heavy footfalls behind her and saw Alfred making his way to them.

“Trixie what’s the matter?” he asked, when he joined them to calm her down.

After about ten minutes of Alfred’s gentle probing, Trixie finally calmed down even though one could still see tears in her eyes and looked funnily happy for someone who just cried her eyes out.

“Trixie ap-ap hic apologizes for making a scene-hic. But she co-co couldn’t help hic it. My-my masters have al-hic-al always been kind to Trixie. But it’s al-al hic always good to hear it fr-from a new ma- hic master. It re hic reminds Trixie how lu- lu hic lucky she is,” she said and then started crying again.

It took another ten minutes to calm her down again, which frustrated Jennifer to know end. It also irritated her to see Alfred and Elliot barely making any effort to keep straight faces. When she finally was speaking again, Jennifer said,

“Trixie would you show Elliot to some bedroom please? He will be making regular occurrences here for the duration of our stay so see to it he gets a bedroom that he wants where he can stay if he wants to spend nights here,”

“Of course Mistress,” Trixie croaked and then gestured Elliot to follow her.

“I am so glad Samar made her stay here, instead of America. I would have gone crazy handling her. What the hell happened? What’s with all the wailing? All I did was ask her how she was?”

Alfred laughed out so loud, that his face turned red. After a couple of minutes he stopped laughing and said, “That’s exactly why she broke down. House elves are not used to such kind treatment by wizards, especially their masters. So they always tend to break down like that, when someone treats them kindly,”

She grimaced and said,”That’s ridiculous. I’m sure she has met plenty of decent wizards and witches who don’t treat her like shit,”

“Surprisingly very less than you think, Mistress,” said Alfred grinning at her fondly.

Jennifer just rolled her eyes and asked him to give her a tour of the house. The manor was bigger than she expected. She realised that she liked the smaller Brown House more than this manor for its intimacy even though in the past year it had got a little crowded. But she preferred it that way. This house seemed too big for her, too sterile. It didn’t feel like home to her. But then again she hasn’t been here for thirty mins so she can’t complaint. They entered the master bedroom where Jennifer was going to stay. All her stuff was already in the closet, courtesy of Trixie who had insisted on doing it herself the moment Alfred had entered the house. She entered the room and took in the smell that wafter around the room. Maybe she was crazy but she smelled something achingly familiar. The same fragrant that she smelled beside her pillow back at home, his scent. Samar’s scent. She had charmed his pillow to retain his scent after he had left. Even today that scent soothed her when she had nightmares. It felt like he was there here yesterday even though she knew he has been gone for four years. She looked around and sat on the bed while Alfred chatted something about the hot water, but she wasn’t paying attention. She just felt like drowning herself in the scent of the room. She fiddled with the lamp switch like a little boy did with a new toy and then she opened one of the bedside drawers. She frowned. Inside she saw a bottle of her favorite wine, Kaesler. She took it out and saw that It was empty.

“Alfred” she called out.

“Yes Mistress” he said, coming out of the bathroom.

“Why is there an empty wine bottle in this drawer?”

“I don’t know Mistress. I shall have Trixie throw it out. Which reminds me, I’ll also tell her to get some of that wine. It’s your favorite after all,”

“Hmm,” Jennifer said noncommittally ,”That’s alright Alfred. I’ll just keep this with me. But do tell Trixie to stock up the wine cabinet. There will be guests coming in and out for the next few months after all,” she kept the wine bottle back in the drawer and instantly forgot about it.

“On that case, I’ll tell her to stock up the cellar then,”

“Cellar?” asked Jennifer, raising her eyebrows.

“It’s a manor Mistress. Of course it has a cellar,” Alfred explained it to her as if to a child, grinning.

“Right, so uhh tell her to keep the kitchen stocked up all the time and make regular visits to the market to keep fresh stock of vegetables and fruits. Give her the list of all the things we are all allergic to as well,”

“Yes of course,”

She suddenly noticed that the house was eerily quiet, frowned and realised why.

“Where are the kids? I was expecting them to jump on me the moment I entered? It's really damn quiet in here,”

“The kids are exploring the grounds Mistress. Sam was really excited to see the Quidditch pitch and Murphy is with him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself,” Alfred said, smiling.

She made her way down and went outside. She called them out several times and after a few tries, she heard Murphy calling back,

“Mom we’re here, inside the greenhouse”

She made her way to the greenhouse and found them crouched over some plant that looked like it would eat anything that touched it. Sameer was just about to brush his fingers over it when she yelled, “Sam, don’t!”

Sam took his hand back just in time because the plant had lurched forward towards where his Sameer’s hand was, coiling it’s stem in thin air as if groping an invisible object. Both Murph and Sam shrieked and fell back away from the plant. Jennifer rushed towards them and went down to her knees and took them in her arms.

“What were you thinking Sam? How many times have I told you not to touch anything that looks strange, dangerous or something that might bite your arm off. Another second and it would have squeezed your arm like it was a nice juicy orange,” she snarled at Sam.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know it would bite. It looked harmless,” said Sam in a tiny voice.

“Sorry is not gonna cut it every time Sameer. How many times do I have to keep you out of situations like this huh?” she asked angrily ,”And you Murph. I thought I said to take care of him and make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. You’re his elder sister, you should have stopped him from touching that plant,”

“I’m sorry Mum, even I thought it was harmless. It didn’t seem very dangerous. And we both were curious,” Murphy said, looking down at her feet feeling quite ashamed of herself.

Jennifer sighed. She was overreacting. What would the kids know about magical plants. It’s her fault. She certainly should have expected something like this. Sam had an uncanny ability to invite trouble wherever he went because of his curiosity. And Murph was just eleven even though she was mature than other kids her age. It really wasn’t fair of her to yell at her kids that way for something that’s out of their control.

She sighed and said, “Hey I’m sorry. I was just overreacting. It’s not your fault okay? You couldn’t have known, both of you,” she raised Murphy’s chin to look at her and she said to both, “But just be careful next time you are wandering the grounds on your own. Promise me, both of you,”

Sam and Murph both nodded mutely and she said grinning,”Now come on give me a hug” .

The both hugged her and then when she let them go, Sam started talking excitingly about what they done all day.

“Did you know there is a lake here, we had lunch there today. And we found a tee house,”

“A treehouse Sam,” Murph said rolling her eyes at her little brother.

“I said that no. A tee house,” said Sam who looked quite confused.

Jennifer just chuckled and asked, “What else did you guys do? Did you fly your broom in the pitch, Sam?”

“Yes. I did. But couldn’t fly high to reach the hoops. They are soo big,” he said gesturing with his hand describing the hoops.

“They are tall, Sam. Tall is the word you use to describe the hoops,” explained Murph patiently.

“But I used big. Why can’t I say they are big?”

“Because it doesn’t mean the same as tall,” said Murph in a bossy town.

“But they are bigger than the hoops we had back at home, so I’m gonna use big,” said Sam stubbornly.

“But it’s not right,” cried Murphy.

“It is right. I don’t care, I don’t see why I should learn another word, that mean the same as the words I already know. It’s difficult to remember all words,” complained Sam.

Murph just stared her mother helplessly not knowing how to handle Sam when he was being stubborn just like now. Jennifer for her part just laughed at their antiques. Sam was a difficult student when it comes to reading, writing or learning new words. Only Jennifer had the patience to deal with it and teach him. It annoyed Alfred and Murph to no end. But it didn’t irk her at all. Sam was still very young. The fact that he was a slow learner, worried Alfred sometimes but it didn’t worry Jennifer. He was a kid, he had plenty of time to learn what he had to before he went to school.

“Okay both of you cut it. We will have this word discussion later. Now run along, Alfred is setting the table for dinner,”

Sam started running the moment she said dinner. Jennifer chuckled and realized how much like his father he was. She looked down to see Murph still walking with her, biting her lip.

“What’s wrong Murph?”

“Aren’t you worried that Sam hasn’t learned to speak properly or write, Mum? Where I used to stay, the kids his age could read and write better than Sam. What if something is wrong with him?” asked Murph worriedly.

Jennifer sighed and said, “Yes Sam is slow in learning things like this, but it’s just because he is lazy. Many kids are. You know much he loves to fly and how much he loves to paint. One look at what he paints and no one can deny that he is smart and intelligent. There is nothing wrong with him. Soon he will get over his laziness. It’s just a phase hon, nothing more. So don’t worry about it okay?”

Murphy seemed to accept her answer and nodded. The continued walking in silence towards the manor till Jennifer asked,

“So did you fly around the quidditch pitch? It’s bigger than the one we have in Brown House. I thought you would have liked it.”

“No. I was just watching Sam fly,” said Murphy.

“Honey don’t you like to fly?”

“I don’t know I have never been on a broom before. It actually scares me to think about fly so high above the ground,” Murphy shuddered.

“But that’s natural. You just have to get over and try. Once. Look if you really don’t like flying then it’s okay. But how will you know, without even trying. So just think about trying okay?”

“I will,” Murph nodded though she could see that Murph really didn’t want to try flying at all.

“Look you don’t have to if you don’t have to. But flying is really great way to expel the stress and tension you might have. It frees you in a way that I can’t explain. And frankly you need another hobby which doesn’t involve books. You read far too much for my taste,” Jennifer teased.

Murph chuckled and agreed to try flying on a broom one of these days, when Jennifer was home. Jennifer sighed and dropped the subject. She just wished that she could get Murphy to talk about what happened to her, but it was really difficult. Flying was one of the only reprieves she had when she came to America. It felt good to know that she was good at something, something that really made her happy. She wanted Murphy to feel the same. Being with them had helped her a lot, but she still needed to recover a lot. And they didn’t have enough time. She would be eleven soon and if she didn’t stop being weary of strangers, she would have a hard time in school. Jennifer just hoped that all the cases will be solved soon, so she could spend more time with her children and help them.

They had a noisy dinner like always, with Sam spending more time talking than eating and she continually telling him to do little less talking. Murphy, Elliot and Alfred just watched from sidelines and had a good laugh seeing her struggle with Sam. lt irritated her so much that she jinxed Elliot’s plate such that it made anything that was put on it, to taste bitter. No matter what counter curse Elliot used, the taste didn’t change. She knew Elliot wouldn’t want to change the plate, because that would only mean accepting defeat. So he stubbornly continued using the same plate while muttering counter curses to undo the jinx. Alfred, Murphy and Sam laughed very hard at that and by the end of the dinner Murphy was begging her to teach her more about the jinx she used. Seeing them all together, like nothing had changed, Jennifer felt home for the first time in the manor.