The few weeks left of the summer holidays passed uneventfully. Ginny had started to work part time at her brother’s joke shop in London, and Harry had a summer job at the Apothecary joint to St Mungo’s. His working tasks were simple and consisted mostly in preparing ingredients, but it enabled him to learn how an apothecary was organized. Despite the unpleasant interruption by the Hatches, Snape and he had managed to finish with Mrs Weasley’s book which was coming out in print just in time for the start of term at Hogwarts.

Ginny and Harry, Ron and Hermione had moved in at Grimmauld Place since all of them would work or study in London. Both Hermione and Harry felt that they had already abused of Ginny’s and Ron’s parents’ hospitality for the summer. Mr and Mrs Weasley did not see it like that of course. They never seemed to mind having their grown-up children and their boy-friends and girl-friends over at the Burrow.  

Living by themselves in a big house was new and exciting, but also demanded some coordination and co-operation between the four of them. Harry did not want to misemploy his house-elf, the old Kreacher, and had therefore agreed with his friends to share some house hold tasks between themselves. Harry would often cook, while the others had cleaning and shopping on their list. Kreacher, nowadays, was docile and devoted, but was very close to being offended by his master’s meddling with the household. Harry spoke to him mildly and artfully, but with respect, and managed to convince the traditional house-elf that this was simply the modern ways of wizards close to the millennium shift and that he must let them have their way.

Hermione was about to enter the program of magical law, but was already, before actually starting her studies, making herself a name in the newspapers. Other than the fact that she had helped out last year to defend Snape against various accusations from during the time he acted as double spy for Dumbledore and Voldemort, which had earned her some attention in the Daily Prophet, she was since the beginning of the summer engaged in a growing debate dealing with the field of Obliviate spells in the Magical world.

Hermione had Obliviated her own parents, who were Muggles, two years ago, before joining Harry in the search for the Horcruxes. It was done in all well-meaning to protect her parents from falling victims to Voldemort’s persecutions. Her parents had moved to Australia with no trace of a memory of having ever had a daughter. When the war was over, Hermione had naturally been keen to undo the Obliviate spells and have her parents back, but it had proven to be easier said than done.

Other than the questionable ethics in not letting people decide over their own memories and make their own choices in life, it had become apparent that Obliviate spells were sometimes associated with serious side effects. In the case of Hermione’s mother, it seemed to have enhanced symptoms of dementia that initially resembled Alzheimer’s disease, but which after an investigation at St Mungo’s had been found to be indeed due to the subjection to Obliviate. Alzheimer’s disease had increased in the Muggle population the last decades and the debate now was whether this might have been caused by the widespread use of Obliviate spells on Muggles who accidentally witnessed magic; spells which were performed by the officials of the Ministry of Magic itself, for the purpose of maintaining the Statue of Secrecy agreed upon in the magical world. Muggles were less tolerant to magic than wizards and witches, so the Obliviate spells normally used were so weak that nobody in the magical world had dreamed of the possibility of their impairing the health of the Muggles.

The debate had run high on the pages of the Daily Prophet all summer and continued with unflagging force at the beginning of the autumn. There were those, like Hermione, who rose the alarm and demanded a change of Ministry policy, and there were those on the other side who played down the significance of the data and pooh-poohed their opponents – why, obliviating Muggles was a practice going centuries back, there was no harm done and if there was, it was necessary anyway, because what was the alternative?

***

One evening a few weeks after the beginning of term, Ron, Hermione and Harry were in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, preparing tea for a visitor they knew was coming.

Ginny was not at home; she was out with her quidditch team after practice and had let them know that she would be late. Being late, for Ginny, meant coming home in the small hours of the morning.

The other three were rather done in after a couple of weeks full of new routines and demanding studies at their respective program. Harry went through intense training of anatomy along with organ-specific magical content studies at St Mungo’s, alternating with basic patient communication training, which was conducted at the Emergency Hall. It was a place where it was bound to happen a lot of unpredictable things all day long, and Harry’s head was often so full of images when he returned home that they would replay like a movie all evening and colour his dreams during the nights.

Ron was in the middle of an intense recapitulation of protective spells and incantations which were necessary before being allowed on the Aurors training premises. Besides, they were mercilessly worked out by their Physical educator Auror, a wizard by name Walter whom Mrs Steadfast had brought with her from the US. The reward for their efforts, in five weeks’ time, would be to start the proper combat training, although Ron at times almost doubted it was worth it.

Harry only made two or three appearances a week at the Aurors’ office. He studied extra in the evenings and would have to take the same test as the others before being allowed to move on to the real Auror training. He already mastered protective spells without fault, but was a bit nervous about the physical. He worked out with Ginny regularly at her Quidditch arena. It was a way to spend time together because otherwise they had very different schedules, Harry rising early, Ginny coming home late.

The magical law program was impossibly crammed with theoretical studies. Hermione had always loved books, but compared to her years at Hogwarts she now surrounded herself with at least ten times as many heaps of books as she used to do.

“I wonder what Neville wants to see us about,” said Hermione. “He wasn’t very specific in his letter. But it’ll be nice to meet him again. It’s been three months since we said good-bye at The Three Broomsticks that last night at Hogwarts.”

“Maybe he wants to ask some advice of you, Hermione,” said Harry. “Although, he specifically wrote that he would be pleased to see us all.”

“Neville took that summer herbology class, you know” said Ron. “He’s been abroad to South America – in Peru and other countries. It’ll be exciting to hear about it.”  

The others agreed. Harry left to meet up with Neville and bring him through the Fidelius charm at Grimmauld Place. They still maintained high security measures. Mrs Steadfast had recently come back from her vacation and had insisted on rigorous precautions, particularly after hearing about the attack at Spinner’s End.

They small talked, drank tea and laughed together, telling Neville about their vacation in Le Grand Eclat in France.

“It sounds so luxurious and sociable!” Neville exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Ron conceded. “I’m not sure that Mum and Dad felt at ease all the time, but they adjusted for Bill’s sake – and, hey, they can only be themselves, right?”

“I felt a bit out of place, too,” Harry confessed. “Not so much when we were all together, because then we only had to follow Fleur and her family’s lead, but another time when I went alone to meet with a distant relative of my father’s, one of his great aunts to be precise. I remember feeling particularly daft at the time. She practically lived in a small palace.”

“You never told us much about that meeting,” Ron pointed out. “Was it that bad?”

“There wasn’t much to tell. I was received with a minimum of civility. I could tell that she didn’t like me from start. I don’t know why. I had a few words with a second cousin of James’ later, but nothing really came out of it.” Harry turned his head and clammed up. The encounters had not met his expectations. There wasn’t much he wanted to tell, really.   

Herminone finally asked Neville if there was something in particular that he had wanted to talk to them about. Neville grew serious and put his cup down.

“When I came home last week-end, I spent two days catching up on British news in the Daily Prophet. It was almost impossible to get hold of a magical British newspaper where I was in the mountains of Chile and Peru,” he began.

“Okay,” said Hermione, frowning, “…and what did you find of interest?”

“Well, your own letters to the Editor to start with, Hermione, in June, and then all the contributions you wrote together with others during the summer – that’s to say your joint calls for abolishing the Obliviate practice on Muggles, and the various retorts to them, up to today. It’s an interesting debate.”

“I didn’t know to start with that there already existed an organization who fought against the use of Oblivates,” Hermione explained. “When I wrote those letters to the press, I thought that I was all alone, but these other people contacted me. They’re lawyers, healers and various people who have in one way or another been made conscious of the possible side effects of Obliviates, or who simply react to the unethical dimension of overruling people’s own will, which is a good enough cause.” Hermione was getting excited.

“Well, I wanted to tell you something… and maybe get you interested in attacking the matter from a different angle,” said Neville, also looking eager. The three friends scrutinized him with interest. “Countries on several continents actually picked up on the debate in Great Britain. So was the case in South America,” Neville went on. “The newspaper that I read in Chile cited the Daily Prophet, but of course I didn’t know at the time that it was you who was behind it all, Hermione… I got interested in those articles because of… but first let me tell you what they wrote. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the political history of Chile?”

Ron shook his head and made a grimace, and Harry too pulled a wry face. It was nothing they remembered from Professor Binns’ classes.

“For a long time – considerably longer than for us with Voldemort – Chile had an authoritarian regime who abducted their own people - those who protested against the regime - and tortured them. Sometimes these people simply disappeared and never came back, sometimes they would resurface at various medical institutions with symptoms of delirium and psychosis,” Neville explained. Hermione drew a shuddering breath.

“Why do lunatics need to pop up everywhere and impose themselves on innocent people?” Ron growled darkly. Harry only clenched his jaws.

“Several decades have past, but it’s still a national trauma,” said Neville. “And the debate that rose in response to the British one about the Obliviate spells was slightly different, because apparently the regime – in the case of Chile, the Muggle regime and the magical one happened to be the same, and the same treatment was carried out on both populations - the regime systematically subjected their victims to forceful Obliviatings after their torture sessions. The debate now is about those Obliviatings causing psychiatric disease, not only among Muggles, but in magical people as well. Muggles might be more prone to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, but wizards and witches seem to develop more of psychotic or catatonic symptoms, there were even reports of shut-in syndromes.”

“What’s that?” Hermione wanted to know.

“It’s a condition where the person seems completely shut off from reality and cannot communicate with the exterior, but where he or she in reality actually takes in more of the world than can be detected. They’re shut up within themselves,” Harry explained. “Something like that, right?” he asked Neville to confirm.

“You’d know better than me, Harry, but that’s what I’ve understood as well, reading about it,” said Neville.

“I only just started as a healer student,” Harry muttered. “We haven’t studied those things yet. But why do you…” It dawned on him as he posed the question and he reddened a bit. “Your parents…?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yes,” Neville answered in a collected tone and met Harry’s eyes briefly. His gaze said that he understood that Harry fully comprehended the tragedy of Neville’s parents who had been nursed at St Mungo’s for nearly twenty years since they were tortured with the Cruciatus curse by Death Eaters. “The problem in the magical community…” Neville continued, “if it’s okay with you to leave the Muggle side of the problem for a while, Hermione, because you’ve got that discussion going pretty successfully already, and I think there might be a mutual benefice in bringing this up as well?”

“Of course,” said Hermione. “I see what you mean, but explain a bit more to us, please.”

“In the magical community, Oblivate spells are used as treatment, they’re claimed to be a cure even, in the hospitals. It’s regarded as a merciful treatment when something horrible has happened to a person who needs to forget. But I’m afraid… What if… What if it only makes people worse? Or if it replaces one problem with another?”

Harry looked at him seriously. He had had the same thoughts already. He did not like Obliviatings at all.

“Well, Mr Lockhart certainly went nuts when that Obliviate spell rebounded on him in the Chamber of Secrets in our second year at Hogwarts,” said Ron.

“Healers will argue that it was an augmented effect of the spell in that specific case, because of the broken wand it was performed with – it was classified as spell damage,“ said Harry. “Some healers mean that a well-dosed Obliviate is a good treatment.” He hesitated. “We haven’t talked about it lately, but you already know that I think that Ginny suffers some side effects from that Obliviating that she took last spring.”

“That was after you were attacked in Paris, right?” asked Neville.

“Yes,” said Harry. “Ginny watched me kill the attacker. It was a horrible experience, claustrophobic… we were shut up…”

“Ginny’s not here…” said Ron.

“But we must speak of it sometime,” said Harry, sounding a bit desperate. “I meant to deal with it this summer, but Ginny’s so good at avoiding it, at making things happen and keeping us busy all the time. But you know that somehow she got mixed up after that Obliviating and that she actually…” Harry’s voice wavered a little, “…that she actually believes that I somehow killed Fred during the battle at Hogwarts. She mixed his killing up with the Avada kedavra I did on that lunatic in Paris!”

“Ginny’s not here to defend herself,” Ron said again. Harry shot him a dark gaze. Sometimes Ron’s simple principles could not meet up with the complexity of the situation.

”I’m not accusing her of anything,” Harry retorted. “And you know that if she were here, she wouldn’t stay in the room to carry through the discussion. She would rage, dismiss it and leave at once. You know that!”

”She consented to take the treatment, Harry,” Hermione said with regret in her voice.

“But she’s altered! She’s even more impatient than before. She’s restless, and there’s a constant anxiety lurking under the surface. She rushes everything, she…”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” Hermione interrupted with a glance at Ron who pressed his lips together. Ginny was his little sister and he was torn between his loyalty to a family member and to Harry. “She consented to the treatment…” Hermione repeated. Harry closed his eyes and tried to push the frustration with his friends away. It was not their fault.

“I’m sorry I was carried away,” he said to Neville when he opened his eyes. “I’m worried about Ginny. But we were talking about your parents.” Neville looked at him with sympathy.

“My parents were too ill to give their consent to any treatment. My grand-mother authorized the treatment at the time. They’ve received multiple Obliviatings over the years.” Neville drew a deep breath. “I think that they might be locked-in,” he said. “I’d like to undo the Obliviatings and see if they could come back, become more lucid.”

A strange feeling rose in Harry. He sympathized so strongly with Neville that his heart made a couple of painful jolts. To have your parents back… He did not dare say anything. Hermione spoke instead.

“I think you’re right, it’s time to question the use of Obliviate spells on magical people as well,” she said to Neville. “Do you want to join our campaign group? What does your grand-mother say?” Neville pulled a wry face.

“It’s a sensitive subject with her. She authorized the treatment, after all. It will be difficult for her to consider the possibility of having deteriorated their condition instead of helping them. And I realize it’s a great risk to take. I can’t appear in the public debate just now. I need to work on grand-mother in private and to discuss matters with my parents’ healers at St Mungo’s. But it would facilitate my chances of convincing them if there was a public debate and more voices to question these kind of procedures.”

Harry looked thoughtfully at Neville. His friend had made it all out, had he not? Harry was impressed. Snape would say that Neville let his Slytherin side play to his advantage. Snape had advocated that Harry too try to be more Slytherin, if only for self-preservation purposes. Harry seldom seemed to satisfy Snape on that account, however.

“I’ll try to help you, Neville,” Hermione said decisively. “Our group have already talked about bringing the Obliviate treatments into the debate. Now is perhaps the time.”

“Thank you so much, Hermione! I hoped that you would help,” Neville said, shifting suddenly from the almost handsome and confident young man he had become, to the insecure child they remembered him as. He looked vulnerable and in need of friends. Harry suddenly shuddered.

“I hope that I’ll never have to suffer an Obliviate,” he said forcefully, ignoring that within only a couple of weeks, he would learn that he had already been subjected to the memory charm twice before in his life.