TBAY: The Return of the Trimaran

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 77654

It's a beautiful TBAY morning.  Gentle waves lap rhythmically 
against the shore, and a cool breeze makes the heat bearable.  
On the pier at the back of the Royal George Tavern 
(sometimes known as the Pink Flamingo), George the barman 
surveys the bay with satisfaction.  The beaches seem to have 
been cleared of the driftwood of splintered theories, and are 
pristine once again.  Even Stoned!Harry's amputated leg, 
which washed ashore a few days ago and had been causing 
quite a stink, seems to have been carried off by a passing 
seagull.  George sighs contentedly and gets on with sweeping 
the pier when he hears the unmistakable sound of oars in the 
water, followed shortly by a cheerful cry.

"George!  Over here, George!  Throw me a rope, would ya?"

"Abigail?"  George cries in astonishment, for it is indeed 
Abigail, rowing towards him in George's very own dingy, 
which he lent her right before Hurricane Jo hit.  George has 
had, in the intervening weeks, quite a few second thoughts 
about lending Abigail the boat.  She had set out in search of
 the Imperius!Arthur trimaran, which hadn't been heard from 
since the storm hit.  

"You're alive!"  He exclaims.  "I thought you were a goner when 
you didn't reappear right after the hurricane.  And the trimaran 
hasn't been spotted..."  

The words die in George's mouth as he gazes in the direction 
from which Abigail has been sailing.  The Imperius!Arthur 
trimaran looms impressively on the horizon.  Its triple canon 
gleaming in the sunlight.  In fact, the entire ship seems to gleam, 
although George notices a few patches on one of its sides.  One 
of the cabins appears to have undergone a serious renovation.

Wordlessly, George helps Abigail climb the ladder up to the pier.  
She is sunburnt, and wears a gaudy Hawaiian shirt.  Her 
many-pocketed overcoat is slung over one arm, and the other 
bears a black armband with the letters SB written on it.  Joyfully, 
she flings herself in George's arms.  

"Sweet George!"  She cries.  "I knew you were canonically sound!"

"Nah, I was just lucky."  George says with deprecating smile.  
"You should have seen that Hurricane Jo, Abigail.  The way it 
passed one theory completely untouched and devastated another 
one.  There was no rhyme or reason to it."

"Tell me about it."  Abigail replies.  "We were all of a panic on 
the trimaran.  Triple canon or not, that was one scary storm.  
But we made it."  She beams, "And with new canon!"

"Come inside and tell me all about it."  Making sure that his 
dingy is firmly tied to the pier, George guides Abigail into the 
cool, dark interior of the inn.  He gets behind the bar and pours 
Abigail a drink while she climbs a barstool.

"Well,"  She begins.  "As you well know, the Imperius!Arthur 
trimaran, home of the theory that Arthur was placed under an 
Imperius curse during the first war with Voldemort, is based 
on the irrefutable triple canon of the Unforgivable Curses 
lesson, as laid out by Elkins in message #37121."  Abigail clears 
her throat and recites:

>>I also see a certain symmetry emerging in [The Unforgivable 
Curses] chapter if we accept as our hypothesis that Ron's father 
was indeed, at one time, a victim of the Imperius Curse. Crouch 
calls on Ron to volunteer the name of the Imperius. He calls on 
Neville to volunteer the name of the Cruciatus. I feel absolutely 
certain that he was just *dying* for Harry to raise his hand, so 
that he could force him to speak the name of the Avada Kedavra. 
Alas for Crouch, though, Harry was an ignoramus, and so he 
was forced to call on Hermione instead; all the same, he *did* go 
out of his way to draw the class' attention to Harry after his 
demonstration of the curse. Crouch is just like that. He's a sadist, 
and he has some...well, let's just say some parental issues.>> 

"Elkins further suggested that Arthur's weakness to the Imperius 
curse is genetic, and may have been passed on to Ron, in support 
of which she offered Ron's prolonged reaction to the Imperius 
curse when cast by Fake!Moody, and his violent reactions to 
another kind of mind-control magic - Veelas."

"Well, I'm here to tell you that OOP offers us yet another glimpse 
of this alleged weakness of Ron's.  During the fight in the 
Department of Mysteries, all of the rescue party are injured except 
for Harry.  Neville is hit with a Jelly-Legs curse and his nose is 
broken.  Ginny suffers a broken ankle.  Hermione and Luna are 
knocked out, each by a different curse.  Ron is also incapacitated, 
but unlike every other member of the team, his incapacitation is 
mental rather than physical.  In fact, he is still capable of casting 
magic spells, and casts one that ends up causing him harm."

Abigail smiles widely.  "Don't you see?  JKR is trying to reinforce 
the perception of Ron as mentally vulnerable, and reminding us 
that when one's mind is addled, even a capable wizard can cause 
destruction to himself or others."

"Hardly something we needed a reminder of."  George points 
out as he sets out a bowl of pretzels.  "Besides, Ron's condition 
in the DoM is not a result of lack of volition - he chooses to 
summon one of the brains."

"True, but with as with the Veelas - whose magic is a far cry 
from an Imperius curse - this is a spell that prevents Ron from 
acting on his own desires and replaces them with others.  The 
fact that these desires can't be controlled, and are in fact the 
desires of some infantile version of Ron is secondary.  After all, 
there's no doubt that Ron is attracted to Fleur Delacouer - her 
controlling magic only causes him to ask her out when his own 
intelligence might tell him to do otherwise."  Abigail grabs a 
handful of pretzels.  "Anyway, I've got some more canon from 
OOP.  Do you remember Harry's trial and the full names listed 
for everyone?"

"Don't tell me."  George cuts her off.  "You think Percy was 
named for Dumbledore.  People have suggested that already, 
you know."  

"I know."  Abigail nods.  "But they haven't suggested this reason 
for it.  I believe that Dumbledore helped break the Imperius curse 
on Arthur, or testified that Arthur had been under Imperius when 
he did whatever he did.  In gratitude, Molly and Arthur named 
their next child after him."

"Percy's name is stated as Percy, not Percival."  George points out.

"And that's also been dealt with already."  Abigail replies.  "Percy 
is trying to distance himself from Dumbledore - and his father.  
He'd hardly like to remind Fudge, or anyone else who might be 
listening, just how much of a debt he and his family bear to 
Dumbledore."

George cleans glasses in silence for a few minutes.  Then he 
says, in a gentle voice, "They're nice canons, I admit, but hardly 
something to get worked up about, are they?  I mean, OOP didn't 
really change Imperius!Arthur's status as a theory."

Abigail says nothing.

"But there's another theory, isn't there?"  George insists.  "One a 
lot closer to your heart?"

"I don't know what..."  Abigail starts to say.

"Abigail,"  George says, "I saw the repairs on the trimaran."

Abigail flushes.  "It's not completely dead, you know."  She says 
defensively.

"Of course not."  George agrees quickly.

"I just had to... tweak it a little."  Abigail offers a brave smile.  
"I mean, I thought everything was over when we met all those 
Aurors, and then we saw the Auror department, and no one there 
seemed to so much as know Arthur's name!  The lynchpin of 
Auror!Arthur is that after the first Voldemort war ended the 
Auror department was disbanded.  There was no further use for 
them, and Arthur was shunted off to Misuse of Muggle Artifacts.  
But if there's an active division..."

"It does sound rather hopeless."  George says.

"Oh, but is isn't!"  Abigail answers brightly.  "All I had to do 
was make Auror!Arthur an offshoot of Imperius!Arthur.  You 
know I was always a little awkward about admitting that those 
two theories *had* to go together."

"I remember you very nearly scuttled the trimaran once 
because of that."  George answers sardonically.

"Yes, well."  Abigail smirks,  "Now it seems I have no choice in 
the matter.  If Arthur had never been placed under Imperius, 
there would be no reason for him not be an Auror to this day.  
Oh, I suppose we might say that Molly had wanted him to quit 
and take a less dangerous job, but we'd still have to explain the 
complete non-reaction the other Aurors we meet have to him.  
What I now suggest happened is that, following his Imperius 
experience, Arthur was put to pasture.  Cindy once asked me 
how I could believe that the MoM might hire as an Auror a man 
with a weakness for the Imperius curse.  Well, now I agree with 
her.  Once Arthur's weakness was discovered, he was shunted 
off to another job.  The old Aurors don't talk about him.  The 
new Aurors don't know anything about him.  He's the skeleton 
in the closet, the Auror gone sour.  And you know what else?"  
Abigail gives George an evil smile.  "I think Percy knows.  I 
think that was one of the things he threw in his father's face 
when he and Arthur had their falling out, and I think he found 
out from Fudge."

"Careful now."  George says.  "You don't want a Yellow Flag, 
do you?"

"Oh, come on, George!"  Abigail cries.  "Arthur can't hear 
Percy's name without breaking anything!  Molly bursts into 
tears whenever his name is mentioned!  There's got to be 
more to it then the fact that the Weasleys are poor!  Elkins 
herself said that Molly's rush to assure Dumbledore that 
Arthur's lack of advancement in the Ministry is due to his love 
of Muggles at the end of GoF is her attempt to forestall the 
suggestion that it was his Imperius experience that caused 
his career to stall.  What if Arthur Weasley's name is 
whispered in the corridors of power as a man who can't be 
trusted completely?  What if this is the legacy that Percy has 
been struggling against?  Isn't it entirely typical of Fudge to 
reveal this dark chapter of Arthur's past to Percy, and isn't 
Percy's horrified reaction understandable, if not excusable?"

Abigail stops to take breath.  George starts cleaning 
glasses again, but stops when he realizes that Abigail is 
collecting her things.  "Where are you going?"

"You didn't think I came back just to defend the trimaran, 
did you?"  Abigail asks.  "I've got quite a bit to do before I 
leave again.  I plan to visit quite a bit of the 'BAY before I'm 
done.  Wanna come along?"

Abigail

Imperius!Arthur and Auror!Arthur are rather self-explanatory, 
but if anyone is interested in reading more about them, you 
can do so in the following messages.

Elkins' original Imperius!Arthur manifesto: 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/37121 

and the extended version 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/40168 

And my original Auror!Arthur extrapolation: 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/37136 

and 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/37179 

And, of course, Elkins' dedication of the Imperius!Arthur trimaran 
and the sundry discussions stemming from it: 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/45290