146DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own anything Harry Potter affiliated. If I did, I would be sending this off to a publisher...not posting it online.
A/N: This is the sequel to 'A TWISTED SENSE OF FATE.' I suggest you read that first, since the plot line of this story revolves around that story.
CHAPTER ONE: SIXTEEN YEARS LATER
"HARRY!" Ginny yelled, "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
Harry just laughed at his wife as he came walking down the stairs, floating two trunks behind him. Through the years, she had told him that more times than he could count. Always said the same way, via a scream. "Stop your yelling Gin," Harry said, "We've got plenty of time." As he came to the front hall, he shrunk the trunks into a smaller size, and carried them the rest of the way.
"We told my parents that we would be at the burrow at noon," she opened the front door in front of him and followed him out side onto the front lawn.
"And we'll be there, on time if not early."
Ginny couldn't help but smile at her husband as he finished packing the car. "All these years, and still the optimist. How on earth do you do it?"
"Easy," he said, getting as close as possible, "I learned not to worry, something that you shouldn't be doing," he hinted, placing a hand on her very pregnant stomach. "And, I married the purest source of good in the known universe." Harry leaned in and kissed her.
"Ewww," echoed from behind them.
"Dad, that's gross!" James said, walking out the front door.
"Yeah," Maggie said, following him, "could you at least keep it indoors, you know, away from the public." Raising a hand, and waving it forward, she closed the door behind her.
"Margaret Lillian Potter!" Ginny yelled.
"It was the wind!" she said, defending herself, but dropped the act when she received a nasty glare from her mother.
'You're in for it now Mags,' James thought.
'Shut it.'
"What have I told you about using your magic?"
"Sorry mum, it just comes natural. I turn around and reach back towards the door knob, thinking about closing it, and it just happens," Maggie pleaded.
Ginny just shook her head, placing one hand on her stomach and the other on her temple. "You have better control of your magic than that, and if you didn't want to use your magic, you wouldn't have."
Maggie was desperate for an out from the lecture. "James was going to do it if I didn't!"
"I was not!"
'You were too!' she thought, smirking, 'Both you and I know it.'
"So maybe I was," he responded out loud, "but I didn't actually do it."
"You two really scare me sometimes," Harry said, loading into the car. "Try to keep the telepathy to a minimum-"
"Especially at school," Ginny sighed as she waved them to hurry up, "the less trouble you get into, the better."
"I don't get why our abilities have to be such a secret," James said, getting into the back seat, "It's not like people aren't going to know who we are."
Maggie got in next to him and closed the door (by hand), "Everyone who has read any of the current volumes of the 'History of Magic' books will know about us. Not to mention that they'll recognize us as Weasley children. And if they know that we're Weasleys, then it only takes a little math-"
"Or an owl to their parents-" James interjected.
"To figure out that we are your children, Margaret and James Potter, the 'noted witch and wizard holding the powers of the magic of the mind,'" Maggie said, quoting one of the books that held their names.
"'Magic of the Mind.' I hate that phrase." Harry said, "They couldn't have just called it Telepathy and Telekinesis? Or maybe Wandless Magic?"
"You're telling us!" the twins said in unison.
"But it's better than being called the 'boy who lived,'" James joked.
"Or the 'good girl of magic,'" Maggie laughed, but then continued. "That was an internationally released book, one that sold millions of copies. The only people at school who won't know anything about us will be the muggle-borns."
"But they've probably read it too!" James said. "It was on the suggested reading list for first years, with a recommendation to the chapter concerning Voldemort."
"Fine," Ginny said, "You win, do what you want. What would I know about anything? Hmm?" she looked at them through the rear view mirror. "I'm just your mother."
'Who sounds like her own mother,' Harry thought to himself.
"Mum," James said, rolling his eyes, "Please don't try to make us feel guilty. We can't help who we are or what we can do-"
"We are who we are," Maggie said, snapping her fingers, "Unless you want us to be something else."
"No, of course not," Ginny sighed, turning around, "I just want you to be- MAGGIE!"
Harry almost swerved the car into the opposite lane when Ginny screamed, but was able to keep it in the left lane. Taking a look at what she saw, he started laughing, "Cute Maggie, real cute."
"How can you find this funny? This is not funny!"
"Ginny relax, it was just a bit of magic. Nothing that can't be undone," he said, glancing at his daughter, "right?"
With another snap of her fingers, both her and James were changed back to their normal images from the sixteen year-old versions of their parents. 'Why do you always have to involve me in your plans to give mum a heart attack?' James thought to his sister.
"Because what fun would it be if I did it alone?" she asked him.
Harry just rolled his eyes, "I don't want to know the other side of that conversation."
James laughed at his dad's comment, but sent a serious message to his sister. 'Just try not to send her into an early labor.'
"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" Ginny said. "Students aren't supposed to have the ability to transfigure themselves or their siblings. Not without a wand, or a charm, or years of training from the Ministry of Magic!"
"But Mum, we've had years of training from the Ministry of Magic. Ever since we were school age we've been with them. I don't get why after all of these years we're going to Hogwarts at all," James said, raising his hand to retrieve a book from his shrunken trunk. Enlarging it, and continuing from where he left off last, he continued to talk. "We have greater magically abilities than most of the teachers and members of the Ministry of Magic."
"Ugh!" Maggie groaned, "Not that one again James!"
"I haven't finished it yet," he replied, continuing to read.
"But it just says the same things over and over again!"
"I haven't finished it yet Maggie, and I'm not going to just stop halfway through a book."
"What book are you two bickering over?" Harry asked.
"This trash book that he's reading even though it's the most horrible thing ever written!"
"A little more specific please? Like a title," he said.
"Dad, James is reading the book that fraud Trelawney released last month, 'Understanding Why.' I can't stand it! She repeats herself every chapter. She should have just called it 'The Thesaurus of Divination.' Would have sold more copies," Maggie ranted.
"Just because you don't like the book doesn't mean that your brother can't read it," Ginny said, point to the next turn, just to make sure Harry didn't miss it.
"But him reading it means that I'm reading it!"
"Oh," Ginny muttered, "I forgot about that."
"Hey," James said looking up from the book, "I don't complain when you read the books that Uncle Fred and Uncle George send you, so you shouldn't complain about the books that my godparents send me!"
"The books I get aren't trash!"
"Wait a second," Harry interrupted, "Hermione sent you that book?"
"Yes, last week," James said, returning to his reading.
"But Hermione couldn't stand Trelawney- she walked out of her class during our third year," Harry said, confused. "Why would she send you that book?"
James gave a short laugh, "The letter said that I would find it amusing. I think she called it 'a test of my- my-'"
"She called it 'a test of your abilities to determine between the truth, and magical bullshit.'"
"Maggie!" Ginny exclaimed, absolutely shocked, "Watch your language!"
"Don't tell me, tell Aunt Hermione! That's a direct quote from her letter to James."
"You read his letter?"
"Think about that question again mum, before you ask me for an answer."
"Right-" Ginny said, mentally hitting herself. "Oh, we're here!"
"How's my baby girl doing?" Arthur asked as Ginny entered the house.
"Feeling older everyday."
"And definitely getting larger by the day as well!" he laughed.
"You're telling me!" Ginny laughed, "I can't wait until this one decides to come out!"
"Harry! Ginny!" Hermione yelled, coming around the corner, "I'm so glad you could make it."
"Wouldn't miss this party for the world," Harry said, setting down the last of the trunks he was carrying.
"Not like you actually had a choice," Ron commented, "Mum would have disemboweled you if you didn't show up."
"So true," Ginny said.
"Can I give you a hug, or are you going to pop?" he joked.
"Ron! Don't-" Hermione started.
"Talk about your sister like she's a balloon," Ron finished. "I know, but it just seems so fitting."
"What would be fitting," Molly said, "is if everyone didn't stand in the front hall as if they weren't raised better."
"Sorry mum," everyone said, walking into the kitchen.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, sitting down, "Where is everyone else? Where are the twins?"
"The rest of the family is out in the yard, setting up tables and chairs, and doing whatnot," Molly answered.
"The twins went out back the second the car stopped," Harry said. "Mentions something about the garden."
"Ugh!" she moaned, "I wish they wouldn't use their powers. If only we had normally weird children."
"Well, maybe you'll get lucky," Ron said, "and this one will be weird."
"If we're lucky," Harry said.
"Let's just be happy that they are finally going to be at Hogwarts, where they don't have to be watched every second," Molly said, handing Ginny a large glass of pumpkin juice, a bottle of Tabasco and a bowl of popcorn.
"No, now they'll have to be watched every millisecond," Harry said, wincing at what Ginny was eating, "but at least we won't have to do it."
"I wouldn't get so excited yet," Arthur said as he entered the room from outside.
"Please don't finish any thought that is going through your head dad," Ginny pleaded.
"Sorry Gin, but the reason for this little get together was to fill you in."
"Just don't say the words 're-assigned' and 'Hogwarts' in the same sentence," Harry begged.
"I can't do that," Arthur said.
"It's easy Dad," Ginny said, "Just don't finish your sentance."
"This wasn't just my decision," he answered, "it was the Council's decision."
"Well I hate the Council," Ginny spat.
"Either way, I have to reassign the three of you to Hogwarts."
"Three of us?" Ron asked. "Dad, please tell me you're joking!"
"Sorry Ron, but there's a new threat that the Council feels might harm the twins while they are at school-," Arthur responded seriously, cutting off his sentence. "Either way, there are open positions that need to be filled at the school, and Dumbledore requested the three of you specifically."
"Is this why you're sending them to Hogwarts in the first place," Harry asked, "to protect them?"
"Yes," Arthur said.
"Dad, can you at least tell us what threat that the Council has come up with this time?" Ginny asked.
"You'd all better sit down," he said.
"I am sitting," she said.
"Voldemort is back."
"What!" Maggie yelled.
"What are you doing in here?" Arthur asked. "I thought I told you to stay outside with your cousins."
"You did," she said floating herself a glass of juice, "but you only tell us that when you want to talk to my parents about what the Council has decided to do with James and me next."
"How do you always know what we're talking about?" Ginny asked her daughter.
"Easy mum," James said, coming out from around the corner, holding a set of Extendable Ears.
"Fred and George," Ron said, "we should have suspected it."
"I'm surprised you didn't," Maggie said. "From what we were told, the six of you used them many times. When they gave them to us they mentioned something about always knowing what was being decided about our lives. They said that you used to hate being left in the dark dad."
"That's not fair," Harry said. "Those were different times, it was a different threat."
"Seems like it's still the same threat, only now it's a different target," Ginny said, heaving a sigh. "They're right. All this time we've been trying to protect them from the possibility that Voldemort might come back, and all this time they could have be watching their own backs."
"Ginny, please don't tell me that you agree with them sneaking around," Harry said.
"How else were they supposed to find anything out?" Ginny asked. "We did it when we were their age. It seems only fitting that they do it now."
"But what we did was naive and childish!"
"Harry," Ginny yelled, "they are children, and they are going to be childish."
"But we've learned from our mistakes!" he yelled back.
"Only because we've lived them. They aren't going to learn the lesson if they don't make the mistake. All they'll know is that it is wrong, and that it should be done," Ginny responded. "Besides, they're almost adults now. I think it's time we stop worrying about protecting them so that they can protect themselves."
"We're still in the room," Maggie said nervously. "You know that, right?"
"Of course we do," Molly said, trying to break the hostility, "And since you're still here I'd like to know how much the two of you already know."
"The short version? We know that the Ministry's Council is the one behind all of the rules and regulations and training. But we also know they were the ones who didn't want us going to Hogwarts," James answered.
"And we know that the only reason that we are permitted to openly use our magic is to build our skills, in case we may need them," Maggie said. "Personally, I think they're studying us more than they are training us."
"Maggie-" Ginny started, but was interrupted by James.
"What we want to know, is how you were planning on protecting us against Voldemort, without us finding out, and what three aurors are going to do at a school," James finished.
"They," Arthur said, "are going to be your teachers."